Sunday School Christmas Party...and the Gift That Kept on Giving

Last weekend we traveled over to Grace & Morgan's for the Sunday School Christmas Party. (We had the camera but forget to get it out until we were preparing to leave, so sorry for those who didn't get pictured.) This year, instead of doing a party for those in the class and gift exchange, Erin suggested taking a more service oriented approach. So, one group put together care packages for the military missions, while another group traveled to a nearby nursing home to sing carols to the residents. Andy chose to do the care packages, and I went with the nursing home group. Then, we all returned to Grace & Morgan's for hot chocolate and dessert. It was a wonderful party...with one exception. Through the following week many of us came down with some sort of stomach bug, and I'm wondering if perhaps one of the kids who attended may have shared a little too much. In our house, Andy got it Saturday night. This left me to sort of fill in for him in Sunday School the next morning. He already had his lesson prepared, so it wasn't too difficult. But I greatly appreciated everyone stepping up and participating to help me :). Andy was out of commission Sunday and Monday. Despite our best effort with hand sanitizer, Lysol and trying to avoid each other, I came home from work mid-day Monday, and stayed home Tuesday as well. Thankfully, though, God protected me and our little buddy, as I didn't have it nearly as badly as Andy or as some of the others that I talked to later in the week. By Wednesday, Andy and I were both back to normal.

While I wasn't sure earlier in the week, I was able to go do my "sugar test" for gestational diabetes on Thursday morning and attend my doctor's appointment. Everything went well, and, thankfully, I passed the test without complication. We are officially in our third trimester, so I will be going back to the doctor's office every two weeks until my final month, when appointments will be weekly. My stomach is also beginning to show that we're in the home stretch...no pun intended :). Our baby boy is now about 10 inches long and weighs around 2.3 pounds. So that begs the question, if he has to go from 2.3 pounds to 6-8 pounds, how big can my stomach get? :) Thankfully, from what I hear, it's not proportional, but if other mother's comments are any indication, I may be asking this for the next 13 weeks.

This week, we'll be staying in Lexington for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then heading to Owensboro on Christmas night to spend time with Andy's family, including his aunt Georgina and uncle Roger who will be in from Northern Virginia. We're definitely looking forward to time with family and a few days off of work, as we've both been VERY busy, especially with missing time our illnesses this week.

Christmas Pics

So we took a few minutes out this morning to take some pictures in front of the tree for fun and for the Christmas cards. Emma was too funny. We called her to come for the pictures; she froze; then she ran into her cage. We finally caught up to her to get one picture with the three of us. Then we headed to church, out to eat with Eric & Joni Beth, and to Baby's R Us. I then went to the UK game with my dad, and Andy headed off to his deacon's meeting. We finished up with the children's Christmas program at church...which was very cute. Another busy day, but it was all fun.

Ultrasound Pictures

We have had two ultrasounds in the last several weeks. On October 23rd, we found out we were having a baby boy. They were able to measure his body and brain, check for movement (which there was lots of since I had a half a diet coke about an hour before I went!), and check a host of other things, all of which showed to be normal. Here are two pictures from that ultrasounds, one of the bottom of his foot and one clearly showing that it is in fact a boy. With the position he was in as well as since we were only at 19 weeks along at that point, we were not able to see his face (as it was pressed against my back out of sight of the ultrasound machine) or see each individual heart chamber. So, they scheduled us to come back for another ultrasound at the next visit.

On November 25th, we went back for another doctor's appointment and ultrasound to finish the mid-pregnancy check. Here are several pictures from that one. In the first picture, you can see the profile of his face and chest, and you can see his little arm raised over his head. (Apparently, he likes to sleep like his Grammy :). In the second picture, you can again see his facial profile and chest, and it looks like he's blowing a little bubble. In the third and fourth pictures, the ultrasound machine is looking down at his face. The dark spots are his eyes, and you can see the shape of his head around those. These are certainly the hardest to make out. Finally, we were glad to see (after painting the room blue and receiving many baby boy clothes) that it's still clearly a little boy.

Thanksgiving...etc.

Well, we have lots to report as we've again been very busy over the last couple of weeks. We've picked up most of our nursery furniture, the dresser and the bookcase, both of which we found on sale a the Baby's Room and matched the crib. We may pick up a glider or other chair, but other than that, we're mostly done.










Second, we traveled to Owensboro for Thanksgiving. Andy and Denny were bummed that Thanksgiving fell after the end of gun season for deer, but they went after some ducks instead. You can see them here in their hunting gear. We also spent quality time with Andy's parents, Eric & Joni Beth, both grandmothers, and Andy's aunt, uncle and cousins from Georgia. It was a great time squeezed into a few days. Unfortunately we didn't get any group pics with our family, but we did have fun with everyone.

We headed back Saturday morning so I could go to Shannon's family baby shower that afternoon. It was such a great time to catch up with all the Glancy and Sloan families, and it was fun to celebrate Baby George as well. Here are pictures of Shannon's counsins, Stacey and Sarah, her mother-in-law, Maureen, with her nephew, Benjamin, and a group shot of the Sloan girls, Stella, auntie Ruth and aunt Linda. She also promised to post the picture of us together on facebook when my camera battery went out :)