Whew!!!

The month of December was so hectic for us! It kind of went by in a blur. The weekend after Thanksgiving my entire family (minus one sister) came out to help celebrate Gavin's 4th birthday. Yes, that's right - my baby boy is four years old! We had fun exploring the city - well as much exploring you can do when it's freezing out and you have four kids under four to tote around.

Right after my family left I came down with the worst cold I have ever had in my life. I do not remember ever feeling that badly before. Of course, my sickness had to linger into the weekend. Ryan's brother Jason, his wife Katie and their son Will came out for a visit. Even though I was sick, we had a fun time with them. We celebrated an early Christmas, went downtown for a bit, drove out to Ryan's grandparents for a visit and pretty much just hung out. We were so sad when it was time for them to leave!

After Jas and Kate left we had a quiet week before Christmas. All of our shopping was done and we didn't really have much to plan for. It was just going to be us this year. We went to church on Christmas Eve and then came home and stayed home for the next few days. It was wonderful. It was a great time for us to relax as a family and spend time playing with Gavin and all of his new toys! I look at it as the calm before the storm - the "storm" being baby coming.

I am at 36 weeks now and am counting down the days. I've been very busy the last week or so cleaning like crazy and cooking and freezing meals. My sciatica is FINALLY gone - that was rough - so I feel more like myself again. I am trekking out to the Dr.'s every week now, which is super annoying.

Well, I guess I am just rambling. I will try and be better about keeping up with this thing! I hate to say it, but facebook is so much easier! But I love my google reader and keeping up with everyone blogs! I am sure I will be posting like crazy once the baby is born!

Hope you all had a great 2008! I am so looking forward to what 2009 brings our family!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving came and went so quickly! I can hardly believe it is over with already. Ryan's parents came to stay with us over the weekend. We had a wonderful time. I made my first Thanksgiving dinner. I have to say, it was a lot of work but TONS of fun. I really enjoyed doing it. I learned a lot - the most important thing being: never make that much food for five people again. I went a little bit overboard. I guess I just got a little too excited about it all.

After we stuffed ourselves that night we got to open our Christmas presents from Ryan's parents. We aren't going to be able to be with them this year and they wanted to see us open our gifts! I am a huge kid when it comes to opening gifts I was so excited. I think I tore into mine just as fast as Gavin did! My in laws are so generous and give us so much! We loved everything and had fun opening them up. Gavin got a double dose b/c he got to open his Birthday gifts too!

Friday morning Ryan's mom and I woke up at 5:30 to go shopping. It's the first time I've ever gone shopping on black Friday. I am pretty sure I'd do it again. We didn't have that bad of an experience. We just went to Target and got some deals and came home.

Friday night we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for their "Zoo Lights". It was relatively warm (well, it's alwasy hot to me these days), so it was really nice. The lights were fun and we got to see some animals and Gavin even got a cookie.

Saturday we headed downtown in the a.m. and went to Navy Pier. They Christmas decorations are so festive. I love it! We only spent an hour or so there and then we headed out to Ryan's aunts house for another Thanksgiving feast. There was food and family galore! We always have with with Ryan's cousins and aunts and uncles.

Sunday was the sad day. It was time for Grandma and Grandpa to leave. We headed out to church the same time that they left to go home. Gavin didn't know quite what was going on. When we got to church he looked around and said, "Where's Grandma Sue?" I guess he thougth they were meeting us there!

Overall it was a great Thanksgiving. I was missing my family a lot, but I am taking comfort in the fact that they are all pulling in tomorrow for a nice long weekend visit. I've almost recouped from last weekend and now I get to turn around and do it all over again! It's worth it, though! I love being with our family.

We hope your Thanksgiving was as good as ours!

Baby News:

I just thought I'd give a Charlotte update - I had a dr.'s appointment today and everything looks good. We are at 31 weeks and a few days. Every keeps asking me if I am "sure they got the due date right." I just make big babies! The dr. told me the second one usually increases by a lb. I am not sure if I can handle a 9lb. 12oz. baby! We grow 'em big!