Thanksgiving week recap and Christmas tree pics

Last week was quite the busy week, but it ended with a five day weekend, which is always a nice thing!

Taylor was diagnosed with croup last Sunday, and didn't get over her fevers that would come and go, until Wednesday, so she didn't go to daycare at all before the holiday break. Sickness = no appetite, but we would find random things, like red peppers or blackberries, that she would be interested in munching on every once and a while...such a tired looking little girl...

Monday morning she stayed with dada while he was able to work from home, and had lots of down time that included a number of her favorite episodes of Little Einsteins (this was a picture Ryan sent me to show his "office" for that morning)....Taylor LOVES Little Einsteins!

Taylor was feeling better mid-week and helped me with some preparations for Thanksgiving treats for Thursday. I would unwrap the Hershey kisses, and she would place one on the center of each pretzel, never even attempting to try one! Such a good little helper :)

We did a noon meal with Ryan's whole family, then headed down to BC for another meal later that day. Bring on the turkey!!  I think this is the most people we have had at my family's Thanksgiving in many years!

Friday, Taylor got her first Christmas present from grandma and grandpa Slagh - a little early - a lights and sounds Nativity scene...so much fun!

Thanksgiving weekend also means putting up the Christmas tree!! It was beautiful, warm weather, and we found the perfect tree for our little house. :o)

The only challenge left was to get a picture of Taylor by the tree...she was a little less easy to capture this year :o)

Back to work tomorrow (only a four day week for me - no school today!), and I will miss spending mornings with this little one, but it was a great long weekend!

IT'S A.....

GIRL!!! 

Taylor is going to have a little sister! :o)

We've known since Monday, and took advantage of the holiday to tell family the news about #2!

Telling Ryan's family out at dinner - we took off our coats at the same time to show our shirts and share the news...

 (Ryan's shirt says "Little Lady #2", and mine says, "It's a girl!")

Telling my family - Taylor gave Bapa and Mem an early Christmas present... :o)
(After wrapping the gift - showing a little attitude :))

Opening the gift with a surprise hint inside... :o)

Here is a kind of blurry profile picture of our new little one...love the little nose

The ultrasound and appointment went really, really well. Bottom line: everything looks perfect! Still on track for our April 17 due date, and she is measuring in the 44th percentile. The heartbeat was around 150bpm. Our little girl was very cooperative and we got all the pictures and measurements needed, and she obviously was also accommodating when the tech went to check out if it was a boy or girl! The tech actually said that she was 100% sure about the gender when she looked. We didn't find out right away, and had the surprise put in a sealed envelope that was labeled "the secret". We did not wait long, however, and opened it up in the parking lot afterward when it was just the two of us in the car.

Another girl...oh my... :) I never had a sister and am excited for Taylor to be able to have this type of relationship that I never experienced. I always liked having a little brother (he's not so little anymore, but he will always be my little brother to me!), and Ryan also is accustomed to THREE younger brothers, so this multiple-girl thing is new for both of us!


Bottom line, we are thrilled that everything looks great, and pray that the next 21 (or so) weeks go just as well!!

Playing catch-up!

On Thursday, I meant to do a little 21 month old Taylor post.

On Friday, I meant to do a Christmas decorating post.

And today, I was going to post a few highlights about this year's Holiday Open House fun from last night.

But all three will have to happen today. :o)  Back up to Thursday...

Taylor turned 21 months on Thursday. Last year at this time she was just getting used to having more mobility with her new crawling skills. Now she is a running, chattering, rambunctious little person that keeps us moving all the time! Shapes, letters and numbers are quite intriguing to her, and she can chime in with a few letters while we sing the ABC's. The letter "y" is her favorite, and one she readily recognizes, too.
For her 21 month picture, I have to include this one of Taylor with one of her new aunts (Taylor had only uncles until this past month, and then both my brother and Ryan's brother got married - yay for more family!! :o)). Here is a picture of Taylor with her aunt Liz.  Liz was babysitting Taylor and when I got home she had put this little shirt on her. Too cute. :o) 

Moving on to Friday, we decided to take advantage of dry conditions and warmer temps to put up our outdoor Christmas lights.

But first, the mass had to untangled from last year. I think Taylor was thinking that we would never get this mess figured out. :o)

From the moment I plugged in the first strand to test them out, Taylor was hooked. She said "oh, wow!" over and over, and kept coming over to me to give big hugs as if she wanted to thank me for all the pretty lights. :o)

No pictures from the outside yet, we won't turn them on consistently until after Thanksgiving (and we have a few strands that need to be replaced - apparently it is too much to ask to have Christmas lights work for more than one year at a time.)  

Fast forward to last night - our yearly stroll downtown for the Holiday Open House! As always, it was packed with people, and there were carolers, lots of free treats and goodies, lots of familiar faces, chestnuts roasting, and a few sightings of Santa and Mrs. Claus. We took very few pictures, and most didn't really turn out (it is so dark outside!), but here are a few....

Seeing Santa and the Mrs. (and I feel like I look 38 wks pregnant, not 18 :o))

Taylor watching the carolers - she stood in one spot and watched them sing 4 songs in a row, clapping with the crowd and asking for "more" between each song.

Taylor had started to develop a cough, so we put her right to bed after we got home, and were woken up at 2am by hoarse crying/coughing and a very warm little lady. Immediately after determining she had a high temp, she showed us just how yucky she was feeling by getting sick all over me. After we got her cleaned up and changed, she was completely trashed and slept through until morning. She woke up not sounding much better and with no appetite, so we went to urgent care and were in and out in a half hour with a croup diagnosis and an oral steroid (that will last a week, so hopefully she will be like new well before Thanksgiving!).

Waiting in the urgent care room, and yes, this picture is black and white to help hide my tired mommy appearance... :o)

That's it, we are all caught up. :o) Big week ahead with the holidays, and lots of family fun...here's hoping for a healthy week!!

A weekend we won't soon forget

My little brother got married this weekend. Aw. :)

And we will probably never forget this weekend road trip/wedding celebration - the good and the bad. :)

We traveled down to Ohio, our first time traveling out of Michigan with Taylor, on Friday, and got settled into our hotel that would be our home for two days. This was also Taylor's first time staying at a hotel. That first night, she was quick to show us her talent of being able to climb out of the pack 'n' play, and Saturday morning she was up at 5:30am. We figure Taylor must have just been excited about the wedding day!

We took advantage of the pool in the morning before all the festivities began.

A funny picture of the rest of us, but I think Taylor's little blue eyes look so cute in this photo!

Walking around in Grandma mem's shoes

Dressed and ready to head to the church later that afternoon, we started the trek from the hotel. The 8 mile drive took us over 25 minutes - with heavy traffic, an AMAZING number of stoplights, lots of braking and turns, we finally pulled into the lot, and just as we pulled into a parking space, we heard a sound no one wants to hear 20 minutes before a wedding. The drive proved to be too much, and Taylor got carsick ALL over herself in her carseat.

Oh. my. goodness.

My first instinct was to feel horrible that Taylor didn't feel well, but then I started to think - we are going to miss my brother's wedding. But we moved quickly, and I am so thankful for my mom who was calm and helpful, the wedding planner at the church who stepped in, and after a wash down in the bathroom and a change into a clean fleece and wrapped in a snowman blanket, we made it to the ceremony. My emotions were running pretty high at this point, and when we finally had a chance to take a breather in our seats, I looked at Ryan and started to cry. Then my brother walked out, looking all dapper in his tux, enter more emotions. :o) It was a beautiful service, though, and Jen (the GORGEOUS bride) looked amazing. Loved, loved, LOVED her dress. (No pics from the ceremony itself, focusing on more important things than the camera. :o))

After the service, Taylor burned some energy (clearly feeling better) by running across the pews...in just her diaper. Ha!

And for the professional family pictures right after the service? We wrapped her in a white church tablecloth - kind of reminded me of Jesus being swaddled in cloth... all we could do was laugh about the situation, and just acknowledge that it would be part of the wedding story. I'm going to have to see if anyone else captured this, because she was definitely cute (as always) but a sight to be seen. ha! :)

After a quick stop at Target, and a scrub down of the carseat, we were dressed and ready to party! The reception was fun - a full-on celebration for sure!!! Great food, music, dancing, and speeches (my brother surprised everyone with a speech for Jen - a genuine, emotional, heartfelt speech that was so touching and sweet - enter more tears, this time from many people sitting in that ballroom).
A few pictures of the reception

Pic with the bride and groom

Had to include this because not only is my grandpa being his usual silly self, but you can see the tasty cake in the background

First dance - LOVE that dress!

Dancing with Mem and Bapa

Being silly on the floor

She would NOT look at the camera :-P

Most of our table

With a wonderful, long time family friend

The next morning, getting some breakfast, visiting with the groom, before hitting the road...

It was a long, but fun road trip/weekend!! (And a special thank you to the Marriot hotel were we stayed for having laundry facilities so our drive home was with clean and fresh-smelling clothes and carseat. :)).