Hallmark Coupon

Hallmark just released a new printable coupon. Just go here to print a $5 off your total purchase coupon at Hallmark Gold Crown. This coupon is valid all the way through December 24th.
Might come in handy for some free cards : )

Prego Update

<

Well, as usual, I've been meaning to post this pics for a little bit, but better late than never. We go in for our 20-week ultrasound tomorrow and we're very excited to get a sneak peek at this little one, and hopefully a hint on whether or not we should be trading in the new big girl bed we found Aubrey for bunk beds! : )

Steve's still pretty sure it's a girl, although my parents and sister think it's a boy. I've got no clue whatsoever! I keep going back and forth, although my odds aren't that bad, I do have a 50/50 chance of being right! : )

Steve has to go into work this morning at 2:00 AM though to run some tests between the night and 3rd shifts, so I'll probably have to be prodding him awake during the ultrasound at 3:30. We have our OB appt. right after that, and then the plan is to go out for a celebratory dinner. More like I just love any excuse to eat at a yummy restaurant. The problem will be deciding where to go. I've been "for sure" about where to go about 3-4 times already, and I'm still changing my mind! ( PS...If it sounds like I'm thinking a lot about this, I am! We don't get to go out to eat very often so I want to make it count! : )

19 weeks

Aubrey kept wanting a turn having her picture taken too. You can see her in the bottom of some of the pics. She was getting a little jealous and wanted to say "cheese" too! This isn't her real "cheese" smile though, this is us asking her to show us her teeth. It produces a much nicer smile : )

She looks like such a big girl in these pics! I think it's the way I'm holding her.

At this angle I don't look like I have a belly at all!

Oh yeah, here it is. 20 weeks!

I swear though that in the few days since this picture was taken I have really popped out, at least it feels that way. Steve even noticed when he came home yesterday. Guess that little baby is having a growth spurt, which is good because I have yet to have any weight gain from my first visit and we're halfway done, but I don't think that will be the case tomorrow! : ) And if not, I'm pretty sure Thanksgiving will take care of that...

Speaking of cravings, I've had an interesting diet as of late. With Aubrey I was really into Fish fillets at McD's ( gross...I know), and cookie dough blizzards from Dairy Queen. With this one I have eaten enough pink grapefruit to rival you Floridians, and been going through quite a few cartons of cottage cheese. You just never know! : )

Well, it has been a good week so far. Aubrey has been great and I've actually been able to get a lot done around the house. I have another 17p shot tomorrow morning ( ugh ), but other than that it looks like a promising day! By the way, thanks for the advice on the injections.

The progesterone shots weren't nearly as bad as I was worried about. I have an awesome home care nurse who is VERY good. She's been doing this a long time and was very gentle. It does take a long time for the oil to be pushed in and that's uncomfortable but not unbearable. Most of the pain comes about 10-20 min. AFTER the shot, which is wierd. It mainly felt like someone had punched me a lot in my hip and then down my leg, just for good measure :) A heat pad for a couple of days helped nicely though and by day 3 I didn't notice the soreness much at all.

I do get a little bonus though: they listen to to the baby's heartbeat with a doppler every time I get my shot so that's a nice little treat! Something to look forward to at least.

I'm also excited for Thanksgiving on Thursday and this year I'm making my specialties: deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce (in the can of course! How else?) We'll be going over to my Mom and Dad's and my brother Jason and his wife will be coming too. We're using the 12 lb. turkey Steve got from work last year. ( Yes, it's been in my freezer all year...no, I do not often attempt cooking 12lb. turkey's for routine dinners!) I'm hungry already!

Steve will be off the day after and I'll be doing some visiting teaching, and then we plan on setting up our Christmas tree and other decorations. I always look forward to doing that. We bought a new pre-lit tree last year at the end of the season so I'm excited to put it up. The only problem is, it's going to take quite a bit more ornaments than our former "charlie brown style" apartment tree...but I know somebody who cuts out a pretty mean snowflake if we get desperate (Steve).

Steve working hard putting up our lights last weekend. It was a beautiful fall day and was forecast to be much nicer than Black Friday so I had him go ahead and get to it. : ) Aubrey loved seeing him up there and it was all I could do to keep her off the ladder too! She actually let me put on her coat and we played outside while daddy strung the lights.

Let's not and say we did, ok?

So, it's waaayyy too late for me to be up but I've been thinking about my first progesterone injection on Thursday. I have to say I'm very nervous and I've really got to stop reading stuff about the shots on the internet or I'm pretty sure the home care nurse isn't going to make it past the doorstep.

For those of you who don't know, because Miss Aubrey decided to grace us with her presence at 35 weeks last time ( with a thwarted escape attempt at 25 weeks), I am now the unwilling recipient of a large injection of progesterone hormones ( to prevent preterm labor) on a weekly basis until I'm term. Fun stuff.

The worst part is that they sent the medicine and needles to my house! Like I really need to be staring those in the face while I try to psych myself up to do this. I'm not typically this big of a wimp, but over the years I have become progressively more "sensitive" you might say, to needles.

It seems that all the research says that it is a safe drug and has proven to be effective, but I'm still not wholly convinced that I'm in need of it. I have so little history to base it on though and I know they're just trying to be safe. So here comes 18 weeks of shots and hopefully a good outcome.

The problem is that it is one of those situations where if I have a healthy birth they'll say it was because of the progesterone ( whether or not it truly was), thus condemning me to progesterone usage in all my future pregnancies. Of course if I don't take it, and I do have pre term labor again, they'll attribute that to me not taking the progesterone. It's kind of a blind thing, but I guess we're just doing it. I'm still on the fence but they start tomorrow so... here we go!

Aubrey's 2nd Birthday!

We've been super busy around here as always, so I'll be catching up the next couple of posts with events from the last little while.

Here are some pics of Aubrey's second birthday. I can't believe she already turned 2! We just had a small family party with a Minnie Mouse theme ( Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is her favorite right now). We had a great time and she got plenty of cake, presents, and candle-blowing.

She has been singing happy birthday to herself and blowing out every decorative candle she can find since about 3 months prior to her birthday. She was very ready for this birthday party to say the least! : ) Here are some (ok, a lot ) of pictures from her special day...

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

Minnie Mouse window drawings ( the green squiggles are Aubrey's addition)

She adored her Minnie cake! We bought the decal separately and put it on ourselves. It was a hit!

Making a wish!

So excited to blow her candles out....again.

Opening presents

New baby doll that she absolutely LOVED! ( Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Redd!)

Sneaking into the presents

"Helping" daddy wrap her gifts

Steve enjoying some Papa Murphy's Pizza

Aubrey, Elmo, and Uncle Jason

Now she's got the hang of ripping those presents open! Christmas should be interesting... : )

"Faux" makeup I made her so she can be just like mommy ( and stop sticking her fingers in mommy's makeup)

I cleaned and emptied out dollar store makeup containers and filled them up with fun nail polish colors for a safe alternative to using mommy's makeup. It was really fun and she loved having it all in her own little makeup bag : )

16 weeks

I went in today for my 16 week OB appointment. All went well. I was glad to be able to hear the heartbeat again. She found it right away ( last time it took 2 different people and a lot of time) and we even heard some movement.

Speaking of movement, I actually felt this little one move on Sunday! I was sitting still during Ward Council ( probably the most I sit still all day ). It is definitely earlier than I felt with Aubrey, but I guess I knew what I was feeling this time around, and let's face it, my stomach muscles may be a "bit" more relaxed : ) . It sure feels good to have that little bit of reassurance though that there really is something in there. I always feel like this is such a hard stage because I am a natural worrier and I don't have the reassurance of a growing belly or of movement yet. But, it looks like I'm moving into that stage so I'm excited.

My belly has definitely decided to pop the last couple of days. As Steve said yesterday, "Where did that come from?" It really has blossomed out of nowhere it seems. I was starting to wonder when I was going to show because I'd heard it was earlier with the second. I went to church with a noticeable baby bump though, and I was definitely getting some looks. I'm just waiting for the news to spread : )

I'm not sure how to tell my YW. Maybe I'll just slip it into our opening exercise announcements, although I think my belly will make it's own announcement for me soon enough : )

P.S. Please ignore my haggard look in the picture, it was late but I wanted to post one. I haven't documented much of this pregnancy so I thought I better get started, and I also wait until the end of the day when Aubrey is in bed, so the "rose" has rubbed off a little by that time! : )

Home Sweet Home

I know...you can't hardly believe it. I'm actually posting pics of our house! So let's just all pretend that we just moved in, ok? Enjoy the long-awaited pictures ( although some of you have seen it by now ).

I also didn't take pics of the master bath and Aubrey's room...oops! But I do have videos I'll upload that take you more on a tour. Sorry about so many pics, but I guess if you're going to wait a year to do it, you might as well go all out, right?! Also, I'm not the best photographer so bear with me. : )

Oh, and I made the pics small so they all would fit, but just click on them to enlarge them.

701 NW Eagle Lane... ( ps. this is pre-landscaping the flowerbed)

The back of the house. We've got stain to do that deck, if we ever get around to it! : )

WELCOME!!

The Living Room

Recognize the couches Kim and Emily?

Our gas fireplace (actually very cozy in the winter and fun for Christmas time)

Dining Room

Kitchen/Breakfast Bar

This is a view from by the laundry room door. It leads out to a pantry and the 2-car garage. Both of which I forgot to take pics of...

Hallway off the living room into the bedrooms. To the right is the Master, down the hall is Aubrey's room and then the office, and on the left is the second bath.

Our master bedroom...a little sparse right now.

The office...believe it or not, this is clean!

My little work station

The stairs from the front foyer down to the basement. Yes, the baby gate actually was written up to be included in the sale! Funny, huh?

Basement...It doesn't look like much but we have BIG plans. The ceilings are tall so it feels very open.

Our makeshift play area, storage room, and "home gym"

There's a bit alcove to the right that we have all our storage in. Someday it will be a room.

October MIA

So, you may have been asking yourself, "Did Kristen fall off the edge of the earth?" Not quite, but I have definitely been down and out. The month of October? I don't know what has happened to it, there's been no enjoying the fall leaves, no pumpkin patch trips. The last day I remember not being sick is Aubrey's birthday! ( October 3rd!!)

Morning sickness all the sudden decided to triple it's efforts in my 13th week ( knowing full well that I am supposed to be ending all that business by that time). I could literally not get off the couch because of the extreme nausea. I didn't leave the house for 6 days. Steve has been traveling a lot for work and was in Vegas for the the first half of the week so that didn't help. I was so sick I had to have my dad come over to help with Aubrey most days and Steve even had to come home from work later in the week to help out.

My OB called in medication for me to try but it just gave me all the side effects without the help, so she pulled out the big guns and gave me Zofran (anti-nausea medicine they give to chemo patients). She said if that didn't help the next step was hospitalization to get some fluids into me and to monitor my weight loss more closely. Thankfully, the Zofran did the trick and I felt human for about 2 days before I got sick again.

Yes, the consensus is that I have H1N1. Fun stuff, and I passed it on to Aubrey and Steve. Once again I've been down and out and after about 6 days of trying to convince myself it was just a chest cold, I decided to call my doctor and they put me on Tamiflu. Steve's still in the contagious stage so he's stayed home the last few days, although he hasn't felt that terrible yet. The first day he was just home to help with Aubrey and I, and then he started having symptoms himself. He went to the urgent care today and is on Tamiflu as well.

Poor little Aubrey spiked a temperature of 104.2 ( it was still going up but she wouldn't let me keep it in there any longer), and we were going to take her in but it was after hours and our pediatricians urgent care said they were booked solid. It took them 4 hours to even call us back to talk to us about bringing her in. Luckily, she made it through and after a rough 24 hours her fever broke and she has been soooo much better. It was completely an answer to prayer. It is so much harder to have your little be so sick. I hate seeing her like that. So, she just has a cough now and has been more irritable, but otherwise is her busy two-year old self.

Anyway, that's where we've been and where we are! I basically have been house bound for the month of October and this being sick thing is really getting old. Hopefully, just by the fact that I'm able to sit up long enough to write this post, I am on the up and up. ; ) Church callings, work, and toddlers don't stop for sickness, that's for sure! So, I'm left with a wreck of a house, a piled up to-do list, and a hefty dose of prescriptions, but hopefully we're coming to the end of it all : ) So, how has your October been?