Oh Skippy...!

While zip-lining yesterday, Skippy must have watched the boys toilet paper their playroom...so he had a little fun himself. 

 Whatever are we to do with this mischievous elf on the shelf? 

Hunter and JP thought this was HILARIOUS!

16 Weeks Already!

How far along? 16 weeks

Baby is the size of? An Avocado...yes, I know, I spelled it wrong on the board...Pregnancy brain?

Baby's heart rate? 

Maternity clothes? None yet! I can still wear my regular jeans! 

Stretch marks? No new ones

Sleep? I want to sleep all the time, but I've been sleeping a solid 9 hours at night

Movement? None yet - Hopefully soon!

Symptoms? Cramping around my sides and lower belly

Food cravings? None really...though I've been chowing down oranges left and right. I did that with Hunter too...

Anything make you queasy or sick? I still gag quite a bit brushing my teeth....
SCH News? No news I suppose is good news when it comes to my hemorrhage. No bleed or spotting for about a month! Yay! But I still have to have ultrasounds every two weeks until its gone...

Moment of the week? Tomorrow is Perry's last day at Wal-Mart! Hooray!

Looking forward to? My next ultrasound on December 14th

Skippy the Elf

About a week and a half ago, Skippy, our Elf on the Shelf, arrived on our doorstep for the first year. 

 *Thanks for ringing the doorbell Aunt Kim!*

Although the boys were a little hesitant to bring him inside, they eventually did. JP was more interested than Hunter was but it didn't take him took long to perk up! We read the book and named our elf Skippy. He'll be popping up all over the house in different spots each day. Every night, once the boys go to sleep, Skippy flies back to the North Pole to report what he saw during the day - also how Santa knows who is naughty or nice : )

 This is the only time the boys we allowed to touch Skippy. As the book says, he looses all of his magical powers if anyone touches him. But JP was so sweet and treated him like is own little baby. For the rest of the day, Skippy sat on top of the TV. 

The boys have really enjoyed waking up each morning to go find Skippy. Normally the Elf on the Shelf is supposed to be a bit naughty, but for the most part, ours has been pretty mellow. Maybe he's just testing the waters to see what he can get away with? He's been spotted sitting on the curtain rod, holding an ornament on the Christmas tree, reading a book in the China cabinet, sitting in the candy dish, hanging upside down from the cupboard, snooping in the stocking hanging on the wall, playing with Hunter's train, swinging on the light fixture... Yesterday, he found himself on the curtain rod again, but hanging upside down.

This morning he was found zip-lining from the curtain rod to the closet door. Looks like he was having some fun before the boys woke up, because has another zip-line trail to our bedroom door from the closet, and another one from our bedroom to the playroom... Silly Skippy! 

What has your elf been up to?

My Little Super Heroes

Recently my boys have become very interest in super heroes  Hunter is in love with Spiderman and JP has been enjoying his "fireman", know to us as Ironman. A few months ago, when I was completely addicted to Pinterest, I found these super cute tutorials on how to create super hero masks. You can find my Pinterest boards here. But here is the link to make the masks yourself! There is also how-to's on Princess crowns as well! 

I don't sew very often because it usually turns out horrible whenever my boys are around. It doesn't help that they *love* to cut and will cut anything they see! Ergh! Luckily the masks made it to the end! The templates I printed, however, did not...thank goodness they are re-printable! 

These are my little super heroes that have been running crazy around the house all day, the Hulk and Batman. Hunter initially wanted to be Spiderman, but I didn't have any red thread and really didn't want to take the boys to the store just for that. You can't really tell, but Hunter's left eye is still bruised, though its getting a lot better, it definitely had been a lot worse. I might make them each another for their stockings....

Hunter Is At It Again!

Yesterday Grandma and I were planning on taking my boys downtown for the Parade of Lights but we cancelled for two reasons. One) It was pouring rain when we initially planned to go. Two) By the time it was nice out, my boys were *so* crabby. I made the executive decision that the boys needed to stay home and take a nap.

Did they take a nap? No. After about forty-five minutes of putting them back into their beds, I closed the door on their room and opted to have "mommy time" on the couch. Then Hunter started screaming about 5 minutes later. From what I've gathered, between today's stories and yesterday's stories, he was playing soccer in his room and fell onto his bed base. Or he was jumping on his bed and fell off onto the frame. He didn't really bleed, just hit it super hard.

By the time I got down to the basement, it was already blue, and I knew it was going to be nice and swollen today. And I was right. I told Perry what happened, but I had a bandage on it yesterday so he didn't understand the extent of the wound until Hunter woke up this morning.

 Hunter and JP and daddy brought me lunch today at work, so of course I had to stop by Hunter's side to check out his eye first hand! Nice and purple when it's closed!

 By the time I arrived home work, he was just jibber jabbering about how purple his eye was and that "it hurts" as he jabs it with his fingers. No wonder it hurts!

And then there is JP who is just glad it didn't happen to him!

Baby Announcement Birthday Board

About two months ago, we told our families we were expecting baby #3 to arrive near the end of May. Because this is will be our last child, we wanted to tell our families in a special way. The way I chose to tell my mom and dad was by means of the birthday board. I've seen quite a few of them on Pinterest and thought they were super cute!

Overall it was pretty simple to make, just time consuming! I bought the round discs at Michael's, along with the hooks to hang them to each other. The wood came from our scrap pile in the garage. Perry willingly agreed to cut it and sand it for me. I spent a couple days spray painting the board, and painting all the discs. I wish I wouldn't have chose white! Those ones needed about a hundred coats of paint it seemed!

For the words on the board, I downloaded a couple fonts I liked, then blew them up on my computer and printed them out. Then I painstakingly cut them all out, and fixed some that the boys ripped... then traced them onto the board to paint. 

I sent pictures of my progress to my sisters in hopes they would see the "Dustin #3" written on one of the discs, but they didn't. When I finally completed the board, Robin noticed it, but only because her birthday was hanging right above it! 

Baby Update

After about 2 weeks of uncertainty, I finally went in to the doctor this morning. All is well! I've lost some weight though, probably due to all the worrying I've been doing! But the baby is growing at its normal pace. 

We spoke briefly about the hemorrhage too of course. During my emergency room visit on the 16th, the doctor said the hemorrhage is larger, which to everyone, including my doctor, took it as the hemorrhage has gotten bigger. In our chat today, I asked her what the severity of my case was, so she compared the numbers. On my Oct 28th visit, it measured approximately 6cm x 4cm x 2cm, which is considerably large. During my last visit on the 16th, it measured 3cm x 2cm x 1cm, which is still considered a large hemorrhage, but what he failed to tell us was that it had actually gotten smaller! From what my doctor and I gathered, when he said "the hemorrhage is larger" he was comparing it to what they normally see, instead of comparing it to mine. Boo to emergency room doctors!

Here's the ultrasound from the 11th when I went in to checked due to spotting over the weekend. On the left you can see the baby and in the right corner you can see the hemorrhage, the big black mass. This was when it was near its largest size.

During my ultrasound today, they checked and measured the hemorrhage again. Most ultrasound techs won't tell me what they find, but this one did! She showed me where exactly the hemorrhage was and explained what she saw. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it, but the majority of where it was is now a grey color instead of the black that it used to be, which shows that it is resolving itself and shrinking in size. Both the doctor and ultrasound tech think the hemorrhage should be fully or mostly resolved by my next appointment which is scheduled for the end of December. Hooray!!

Despite how helpful the ultrasound tech was at explaining what was on the screen, she still sent me home with a nice picture of my baby's butt and legs, and one of the hands and abdomen. They usually give you one with a face...