Christmas Dresses

My friend, Tamara, sent the girls ornaments for Christmas, and Abby refused to leave hers at home. Somehow, Barbie made it into every picture at church this year:)

Sound Spelling by Jenna

I love watching Jenna learn. She has learned so much in just six months of Kindergarten and it's so exciting to watch her learn to read and spell. The other day, she gave me this card. Apparently, they've been working on sound spelling in their classroom. They sound words out and write them how they sound. Of course, her teacher shows her the book spelling too, but here's what she gave me. I'll translate:)

Page 1: Love Mommy--I think she's trying to tell me she loves me:)

Page 2: I love you mommy. I hope that you have . . .

Page 3: a good day

Page 4: and you are so beautiful.

How cute is that? I am not sure who she's looking at lately because I feel like one nauseous, big, cranky pregnant lady these days. I'll take the compliment though!

I've Been Taken Over By An Alien

I thought that with my other two pregnancies, and I don't know why I expected anything different. But I am not myself and there is an alien that is controlling so many things at this point.

I have fully accepted that I am not the best pregnant chick. I love all the parts of being pregnant that don't include nausea, cankles, painful breasts, heartburn, and in my case, too many kidney stones. If I could get rid of some of those, I'd be such a great pregnant lady. But I'm not.

Here's my deal with the nausea. Everything is repulsive to me these days. Everything. Thin Mints sat in my pantry for weeks. I can't even look at Totino's Pizza Rolls without thinking about throwing up, and Pizza Hut Pizza usually doesn't taste good to me. How can this be? But a pregnant girl has to eat, and here's the problem. I force myself to eat whatever looks kinda good at the time. Lately, that's been applesauce, Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers, chocolate milk, Triscuits, and Pop Tarts--the brown sugar kind. I know, not enough nutrition, but I try there too. I make myself eat carrots and salad and even bananas. It's just really hard. I carry around ginger ale and always have crackers. They have saved me often.

Tonight, I had a glimpse of what eating could be like if this nausea ever goes away. Nate had the leftover Pizza Hut cheese pan pizza (which is my favorite) and it smelled so, so good. I asked him if I could have his last piece, which included a part of the crust. I swear, when I put that food in my mouth, I thought I had tasted a little piece of heaven. It tasted so good to me that I cannot adequately put into words how good it was. I'm hoping this returns, because I really miss enjoying food!

A New York Blizzard

I had absolutely no idea that the snow was going to get this crazy today. I knew we were getting a bunch of snow Thursday, but had no idea that it would be a blizzard!

One of the things I loved as a kid was to wake up and turn the TV on to see if my school had a snow day. I would patiently watch the ticker at the bottom of the screen for the "M's" for Mt. Lebanon. If our district's name showed up, it was one of the best feelings in the world! No school, back to sleep, and a lazy day in front of the TV. I did the same thing today, switched on the TV and saw that school was cancelled for Jenna. I had that same excited feeling as I went back to sleep for two more hours.

As the day went on, however, I realized that parents probably aren't as excited about snow days as kids are. We were cooped up in the house because it was too windy to spend much time outside. So it was me and the girls cooped up all day. I did let them go out for about 20 minutes because they have been so excited for snow. Enjoy the pictures!

Yep, you see that right. The snow is up to Jenna's knees in the picture above.

This last picture has a story behind it. A pretty funny one, actually. Nate left the house this morning with no boots. I bought boots for the girls and for myself, but Nate didn't get around to buying his quite yet. I laughed at him as he left the house today with no boots and a blizzard outside! He decided to go to Kohl's to find some boots and got caught in horrible weather. It was dark by the time he left the store and had such a hard time seeing and driving that he parked the car in the church parking lot and walked home (which is about a two minute walk). So here's what he looked like when he walked in the door . . . covered in snow (apprently he fell down once . . ha ha), new boots, new clothes he bought in the Kohl's bag, and his computer bag covered in snow. So, so funny!

I'm thankful that he made it home safely. Going to Kohl's probably wasn't the smartest idea, but at least he has boots now!

We'll see what tomorrow has in store. When Nate walked home he said the snow was up to his knees--so a few feet of snow on the ground. We are supposed to get 6 to 9 more inches tonight. Welcome to Western New York:)

A Few Funnies

I was talking to my friend, Tamara, last night and was telling her all these funny things that have happened and thought that I should share.



The fish saga: I am most likely disqualified for mother of the year, because I left Jenna's fish, Alison, in San Jose. I was prepared to travel cross country with her. I had her in her travel container and had her food and necessary supplies ready. I put the fish and all her stuff in the kitchen cabinet so the movers wouldn't pack her:) And that's where she stayed.

So we told Jenna that we would have the fish "mailed" to us. I went out to the pet store and bought what I thought was the perfect look a like fish. I was quite proud of myself, actually! The new fish totally got past Abby, but when Jenna came home, she said, "But Mommy, Alison didn't have a fin on top of her in San Jose!" AHHHH--I had to think fast. I said, "Really? Maybe she grew it on the way out here? She's getting older, you know!" Jenna totally bought it and in the end, the fish saga ended happily:)

Our first social outing at the church: We arrived here in NY and then Nate left the next morning to go to a PLI conference. He didn't want to leave me here with a house full of boxes and two kids, but I insisted that he go and I even bought his plane ticket behind his back so he had to go. That Saturday night, the youth group was hosting a spaghetti dinner, so I took the kids. This very nice gentleman came up and introduced himself to me. Here's how the conversation went:

Man: Hi, I'm Steve, welcome to Orchard Park!
Me: Hi, we're happy to be here!
Abby: My momma has a baby in her tummy!

Abby then proceeds to rub this man's belly and says, "And you must have a baby in your tummy too because you have a big tummy!"

I wanted to find a hole and hide in it.

Nice first impression, huh?

The underwear incident: We were hanging around after church a few Sundays ago talking to some members. The girls were talking to some other little girls from the church. Apparently, they were talking about what characters they had on their underwear. :) Nice. Instead of just talking, Abby decided to pull her underwear down and show the other little girls. Awesome. While I was standing there talking, someone shouted, "Oh my goodness . . .she's got her underwear down!" I so knew it was Abby! Yep. Another great first impression.

Maybe they'll realize that pastor's kids are normal too:) Maybe normal isn't the right word . . . yeah, it's not about being normal. They're just getting a nice dose of Abby:)