Will the day ever come?

At 3 days past due, I have gone crazy just like I said I would:) I am okay, but I am so ready to meet this little person and get on with our lives. I won't go into how miserable I feel and all my complaints, but I am so ready to have this baby. I am scheduled to be induced on Tuesday the 16th. But last night I was so desperate, I called my doctor at his house and asked if he could do it today. Well long story short, his colleague is on call this weekend, and they don't induce each other's patients, so I have to wait until Tuesday unless I can get things going. I think I will be spending all day at the mall walking while David studies for finals. Wish us luck. We are so excited to welcome a new little spirit into our family and can't wait. Keep us in your prayers and we will keep you posted.

39 weeks and FINALS!

David has kindly asked that I wait until after finals are over to have the baby. Then I kindly informed him that the baby WILL NOT wait until then. I think if I go past my due date I will go crazy! I am so ready to have this baby. I just have to time it so I don't need to go to the hospital when he is in the middle of one of his 12 finals. I will see what I can do. If only these things could be planned. I would look into getting induced, but that is the last thing I want to go through again. Since I want to go natural, I dread the thought of pitocin, it really is pretty wicked stuff. So we will just hope that the baby has some compassion on me and comes pretty soon. Here is a picture at 39 weeks to amuse you. I look and feel so huge, everyday I wake up hoping that it is the big day.Here is Isabel studying with Daddy. She will just sit there while he reads to her and she points out anything in his notes that catches her attention.

As you can see, she was a little bored by what he was looking at, so she tried to find something a little more fun. (good luck with that Isabel) We wish you the best David and know you will do great on your finals. Can't wait till they are over and we can enjoy the baby and Christmas together as a family. Thanks for always working so hard for the family, you are the best!

No baby yet!

Well, we are 9 days and counting, but no signs of the baby yet. I have been having TONS of B.H. contractions, but nothing that makes me stop and think, even though they are kinda uncomfortable. We are approaching a time that is a bit tricky for David. He has finals that start on Friday and go for a week and a half, and then he is done by the 18th. Now I don't think I can wait that long to have the baby. Plus I don't want to have it that close to Christmas, I would like to be back on my feet a bit before then. So the perfect time would be to have the baby at the end of this week so I don't have it during finals. Of course the baby has no clue when is a good time, so I am sure it will be interesting to see what happens these next few weeks.

I love being pregnant, but I think I am ready to meet this little peanut. I now get heartburn everyday and the baby is really low, but still kicking me in the ribs all day long, as well as getting the hiccups right as I am dozing off to sleep. It is getting lots harder to hold Isabel on my lap, carry her around and change her diaper. I think she is even getting annoyed that my belly is in the way cause she is always poking it and hitting it when its in her way. I am swelling up and I am now getting carpal tunnel (so much better than getting it at 6 months like I did with Isabel). I can't tie my shoes or hardly even put socks on for that matter. I may just bundle us up this week and start walking the hill by our house and see if that does anything. Maybe some spicy Chinese food will help (I ate that the day before my water broke with Isabel), I am even reading up on accupressure (not accupuncture) and contemplating that, which just makes David laugh cause he doesn't really believe all that much in "alternative" medicine. But I say whatever does the trick makes me a happy woman!

Everyday Isabel is turning more and more into a little girl. It is so fun to watch her learn and mimmick us. She is picking up lots of new words. Of course to the untrained ear, it would sound like gibberish, but we are so proud she is trying. Some new words she has picked up lately are:
happy, thank-you, okay, lights, tree, santa, elk (she learned 'deer' a while ago, and now David is working on distinguishing between the two-silly Daddy!), juice, and hat. We can't wait to see how she adjusts to this new baby (David thinks its a girl, and I am leaning towards a boy) and continues to grow and bring us so much happiness.

Sewing projects

I figured out how to sew nursing covers and I love to make them. I have done a few for some friends for their baby showers and I finally made one for me! I am really excited because Isabel would never let anything be covering her when she nursed. So hopefully with this baby, I can start out with using it and then I can nurse other places (i.e. at church in the mother's lounge, in the car) without worrying about being overexposed. Let's just hope that this baby will let me use it!
One of my good friend out here, Carissa, is an AMAZING quilter, and I have been bitten by the quilting bug. I must say that I am no where near her level, but it is still so much fun. It is so fun to pick out fabric, get it laid out and see the finished project. I wish it didn't take so long to quilt, but that makes you appreciate it more, right? I made a very beginners quilt for David last year (the bronco quilt for him to snuggle with on the couch), but it is pretty silly to see how I quilted it. Well this year for Christmas, I wanted to make Isabel a nice quilt that she could use for lots and lots of years (visions of her taking it off to college and telling her roommates how her wonderful mom made it for her long ago were floating in my head). So I got this cute fabric in Utah when I was there this summer. I figured if I started on it in July, hopefully I could be finished before Christmas.
Well I finished well before Christmas (the end of September I think) and this is what it looks like. I think it turned out great for being my first quilt with squares and borders. Isabel was around for the whole process, which I would never be able to do again because she will remember things like this if I did it next year. But she helped me cut the fabric out, sew and iron all the pieces and pin the backing, doing the actual quilting and helping me sew the binding around the edge. I guess she earned this blanket with all her hard work:)
So when I started doing the quilting, I started on one section to see how it was looking. I showed David to see what he thought (fishing for compliments, I know!) He said, Wow! You are doing it really close together. I saw what he meant. I sewed it so close and packed it in there. I thought I would be good with 2 spools of thread, but I ended up using 4 1/2 and it took me FOREVER! But I like how it looks and I know next time to space it out a little more.

Here is a shot of the back and you can see how much stitching I did, man it was exhausting!


Well after I got done with that, I thought, oh no, I want the baby to have a cute homemade quilt too. So I started on this boy one (can you guess what I think it is). I love the colors. The picture doesn't show the real colors very well, but it was bright, primary boy colors. I had lots of fun with this one. The quilting went much quicker because and I didn't sew so close together.

The red bandana fabric and green with dark green splashes are my favorite fabrics

I backed this one with a really soft, fuzzy orange fabric that I love. Isabel kept wanting to feel the back of it and wanting to snuggle in it when it was all done

So I have a blanket for Isabel and a blanket for our baby if it is a boy. Then I started thinking, well what if its a girl, she needs a blanket of her own. So I started a girl blanket! (I know, if we knew the gender I wouldn't have to put in all this work) But it is so fun and the blanket we don't use can be saved for the next baby! I am about halfway done sewing the top of the girl one, so I don't know if I will finish before i have the baby (2 1/2 weeks and counting), but it is great to wish. I'll post a pic when it gets finished. I have a habit of starting projects and then not finishing them, so I am proud of myself for finishing these so fast. Thanks Carissa for getting me hooked!

Old Whitey!

David shot his first Nebraska whitetail deer! He was so excited because he got it with his bow, and I am proud of him for "bringing home the meat!" We are excited to try it. There is a lady in our ward that he thought might enjoy some of the meat, so he gave half the deer to her (she was so appreciative of it, I know their family really needed it, David is so good to think of others!) He was really sore from dragging the deer out of the woods and it was raining pretty good that day. Luckily, one of his friends came to help him clean the deer and skin it. They made a little lean-to on our patio with a tarp and skinned it in the rain while we watched from the warmth of the home. Thanks for not making me help you out David and good job on the hunt. Isabel was so excited to see what Daddy brought home, and she was running around the house going bazerk and kept saying "dee" and pointing at our deer on the wall. She was pretty mad when I wouldn't let her go outside and help David. She is definitely turning into Daddy's little girl.

Here's the hunter-in-training peering out from the window, dying to get in on the action!

(too lazy to flip the picture)

Now the rifle hunt starts this weekend and he is even more excited for that, thinking he can find a "monster" to shoot.

Here's little dove looking cute as ever in her pigtails. We decided to get rid of the binky yesterday, and so far it has gone pretty good. She cried for about 15 minutes before naptimes, took shorter naps though! Bedtime was bad cause she cried on and off (mostly on) for almost half an hour. But no crying fits in the middle of the night, she woke a few times and fussed, but then went back to sleep. Let's hope that things just get better from here and don't go downhill!

Halloween...Finally!

I know these are long overdue, but at least I have posted them before Thanksgiving, right?

We were outside on the 30th. Those few days, the weather was perfect! 75 degrees and sunny with no wind. So this is us outside playing in the crunchy leaves. Isabel thinks its so funny to stop on leaves and get them to crunch!

The day before Halloween we had a witches brew with the other Junior RDEP wives. It was so fun. Lots of yummy food, games for the kids and great times with friends!

What a cute witch, huh?

We carved our pumpkin on Thursday night. Isabel was grossed out by the process, which was in total contrast to last year, when she was chewing on the pumpkin guts! She wouldn't touch the stuff or help dig out the insides. What a girl!

She did want to help David with the carving part, what a pro!

What a cheeseball. Notice she is holding the striker, can we say pyro?

And I sometimes wonder where Isabel gets her goofiness:) I think David did a self portrait with the pumpkin, talk about a looker;)

Isabel was looking at us cause I kept getting after David for making funny faces while trying to take this picture. So after about 5 or 6 tries, he finally looked normal, but Isabel was waiting for me to chew David out again. Me and my two kids!

Isabel was an elephant for halloween. We thought we wanted a nice warm costume since it was so cold last year, but she was sweating this year. Poor thing.

Here's a nice backside shot of David's two elephants!

Happy little family.

Isabel was tugging at her ears and trunk cause she couldn't see very well with them in her face. I don't think she thought it was as cute as we did, but she was a great sport.

David came home from school last week and told me to hurry outside for the sunset. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was beautiful.

I got this thermos to send some hot chocolate with David when he went hunting last weekend. Isabel entertained herself while I made dinner and she was being so silly. She always finds the most random things entertaining.

Caramel Apples and More!

We had lots of fun making caramel apples together on Wednesday night. Isabel can say apple pretty good and was having fun trying to put the sticks in them. She supervised to make sure we got all the apples covered.

Oh man, were they yummy! I think it was the first caramel apple I have ever had (I know, I am deprived!), and it was so good, and juicy, and sticky and messy!

Here is her little Halloween outfit. She wore it on Thursday because we went to a "Witches Brew" at a friends house, so I got her all festive looking.

These pictures were taken last Monday when Isabel was playing Mommy. She is so cute with little dolls. She wraps them up in blankets and puts them in the doll bassinett to go ni-ni and gives them lots of kisses (see pic below) I think she will adjust pretty good to this new baby, I will just have to watch her really close to make sure she isn't too hands on!

Trick or treating at the Dental School

Every year at Halloween, the CWDA (Creighton Women's Dental Alliance-a club where all the girls associated with dental school get together for fun activities and parties all the time) puts together a little trick or treat adventure at the dental school. We get all the kids dressed up in their costumes and head to the dental school. Then we meet the daddy's there and they take us around the clinic and school to go trick or treating to all the staff and professors their. It is fun to see the school and let the Dad's show off their cute kiddos to all the people they work with. Isabel was a little monkey and I don't think she was too happy. She wouldn't do anything but make her serious face and wouldn't wave at anyone. After a while though, she did get the hang of taking candy from the people and putting it in her bag. Of course, her favorite thing she got that she would not let go of was a cute little toothbrush. She is definitely the daughter of a future dentist! As soon as we were done, we took off her costume and then had lunch in the cafeteria there. That is when she decided to show her personality and be a little more lively. Oh well, I can't fault her for being shy, she is such a sweetie!

Flowers for Daddy - Oct. 20th

Last week, I was using our grill to cook some dinner and Isabel was playing with our flowers. She loves flowers and if she spots any, she starts making a sniffing noise, like she is trying to smell the flowers. That is how she says flowers right now, cute huh? (at least I think so). So to keep her distracted and happy while I finished grilling, I picked a few for her and she wandered around our lawn smelling them. Daddy came home from school and she was so excited to show him what she had been up to. I thought these pics were pretty cute.

Our cute neighbors made this adorable Halloween scene in their flower bed. Isabel loves the pumpkins, but she wasn't too happy sitting on the bale of hay. Can't say that I blame her, kinda pokey!