It's been a while...

Quick update...

Kellen still loves HIS Tatum...

Tatum is smiling, laughing, rolling over (lots) from tummy to back and almost making it from back to front, and it batting at and grabbing objects now.

Kellen started his swimming lessons on Tuesday, and is doing great so far...he didn't want to go under the water on the first day, but did it right off the bat yesterday (yay!) - he's so excited about these lessons!

Grandma and Grandpa Gerren came in for the day this past weekend for an early birthday celebration for Grandma Gerren...Kellen just LOVED helping to plan for her birthday party...he really got into it. We went and watched Shrek the Third (again...we saw it opening weekend, too) and Kellen had just as much fun the 2nd time around...Only this time he was cracking up the theatre with his comments.

We also got to visit with Jen & James Westling this weekend while they were visiting from New York...and it really seemed like Kellen and James remembered each other. We determined that GattiTown is just TOO much for the kiddos...so McDonald's playground was the alternative playdate area.

This upcoming weekend is a big one for us...Matt's 20 year high school reunion...(ok, pick yourselves off the ground now and stop laughing). There are activities Friday night, Saturday during the day, and then a semi-formal event Saturday night...MawMaw and Paw Paw get to watch the kids while we go to the various activities, so it should be a lot of fun. Matt's really excited about it.

That's all for now!

Bumbo seat

Ok, so apparently there is this *relatively* new thing called a bumbo seat for kiddos...I got one for Tatum today and she just LOVES it...and so do I! It's WONDERFUL! I can actually have her sitting up next to us...and don't have to worry about her rubbing a bald spot on her head (which I am trying so terribly hard to avoid)...

She had a good time in this seat this evening...She talked to us, smiled, and even squealed! It was her loudest non-crying sound yet (other than her loud burbs...but I won't count those)...And she officially found her hand today. Wow!!

Monday:

Kellen had a playdate with his friend Jake, who is 3 days older than him. They are two of a kind! If you didn't know better, you would think they were related...they have the same coloring, hair color, complexion, etc..and both LOVE the same things...Cars, Buzz Lightyear...you know, the normal stuff. This is both good and bad...as you can well imagine. During this playdate, we had several "issues" about sharing, but all-in-all, they had a great time. We stayed for dinner and he actually ate his dinner for a popcicle treat, which I knew that he would end up not wanting, but that's ok because it got him to eat his dinner. It ended up being a really late night. We got over to their house at a little before 3:15 and left shortly before 9...yes, 9 PM. He was exhausted! I actually had to go into his room the next morning and wake him up to get him ready for school. But he just had so much fun!

And today Julie came to visit Tatum and I...It was SO good to catch up with her! I feel like I haven't talked with her in ages...We'll have to schedule some trips to visit her this summer when Joshua makes his appearance...

He wanted to share

Kellen went to a birthday party yesterday with a Curious George theme. In the party favor bag was, among other things, a small, stuffed-animal monkey. For obvious reasons, Kellen named him George, and has been trying to take his shirt of him ever since - unsuccessfully, I might add. Anyway, he did already have a monkey that he called George, but it was a bright pink monkey with velcro hands...so he decided that he wanted to be a really good big brother and share his toy with his little sister.

This is the sight that I see when I walk into the living room to check on Tatum. Mind you...I didn't tell him to do this nor did I know that he actually had done this until afterwards.

When I asked him if he had done this, his reply to me was, "I wanted to share my monkey with Tatum, Mommy."

Now how can you argue with that?

Oh and by the way...the swing was actually moving when he managed to do this...

Well, I didn't get everything on my to-do list done, but then again, there was entirely too many things on that list...I did; however, take both of the kids with me grocery shopping...then back out to get the correct size of aluminum pans for freezing, then cooked a double back of a penne casserole; a double batch of a pizza pasta casserole; a double bactch (and then some) of lasagna; and a double batch (which actually makes at least 5 dinners with leftovers) of cheesy chicken spaghetti. I have completely rearranged my freezer, and officially have no room left for anything of any size...expressed milk I can still manage to fit in there, but not much else (and I've somehow got to find space for that extra pot roast...hmmm). I emptied the dishwasher, and have re-loaded it...will run it right before I go to bed. Both kids have been fed, put to bed, and are asleep...and I've even managed to keep some laundry going during the day. Now..if only I can get it folded and put away... Maybe I'll get the rest of the to-do list done after lunch tomorrow...

This may not be much to some of you...but I just feel like I've really gotten some things done today!

Such a big girl!

Well...she is certainly thriving!...


Tatum had her 2 month well check-up today and she's weighing in at 11 lbs 13 oz (75%). She's already 22 3/4 inches long (75%) and had a 39 cm head circumference (50%). I actually thought that she would hit the 12 lb mark on this one, so I wasn't off by much! No wonder my back is bothering me when I lug her around for too long!



Just look at all of those rolls!!!

Sleeping through the night

Ok..

*Sunday night she slept from ~ 9:45 until 2:30, then went back to sleep and I had to wake her up to eat

*Monday night she slept from ~ 9:45 until 4:20, then went back to sleep and I had to wake her up to eat

*Last night she slept from ~ 9:45 until ~ 5:30...which, in my book, and for all intents and purposes, is ALL NIGHT LONG!

Whoo hoo!

Now, the real question is will she keep this up? Kellen was doing this at her age...so I'm hopeful...

And here she is...2 months old..

Frogs, frogs and more frogs

Although I had such great intentions of doing all these fun things during my maternity leave, many of them never materialized...So...MawMaw and I decided to take the kids to the Frog Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science this afternoon. As in we decided when I was pulling into daycare at lunch to pick up Tatum for the day to take her home to feed her *grin* So instead of getting just her, I grabbed 'em both (luckily, Kellen hadn't fallen asleep yet), made it to the house, grabbed a quick sandwich, fed Tatum, changed clothes ('cause I did actually work today - another half day, which feels really odd by the way) and headed out to Conroe to pick up MawMaw. Got her and off we went. I made a deal with Kellen for him to nap on the way to Conroe, and he did (amazing how deals and seeing cool stuff works as incentives).

It wasn't quite as interesting to him as I thought it would be.....(Note: for those of you who don't know, frogs and the color green are just about Kellen's favorite things in the whole wide world...and have been since FOREVER). However, these frogs were in habitats as natural as possible, and some of them were quite small, so he got somewhat frustrated trying to actually see some of them. Overall, he did have a great time though!

Here is us entering the exhibit
Frogs...
More frogs...
Monkeying around with MawMawOutside the museum
AND...to top it all off...we ended up leaving the musuem about 5 minutes after 5. We were really concerned about the 5 o'clock traffic, and did hit a little bit on 59; however...we ended up making it back to Conroe and were sitting in the restaurant ordering our drinks shortly after 6. Yes, ladies and gentlemen...we made it from downtown Houston to Conroe at 5 PM in just under an hour...and I wasn't speeding, either!


So today was my 2nd day back to work and Tatum's 1st day at daycare. I guess she did ok...with me deciding to take them to the museum I just rushed in to get the kids in such a hurry that I really didn't have time to talk with her teachers about her day! Kellen did thoroughly enjoy helping me drop her off at school this morning, though...He felt like such a big boy walking into the baby room with me to drop her off! He was so excited, especially when he realized that when he's playing outside he can look into her classroom door!

The ground was closer than we thought

Ok...I bought my Grand Am in 2000 (it's a 1997)...and I just love that car! It truly has been a great car for me, and I had been determined to drive it until it could be driven no longer...just drive it on into the ground. I just thought that the ground was further away than what it actually was.

Let me explain...Last week, I got in the car to take Kellen to school and the wheel groaned at me...I called Matt, who was on his way back from work, who told me just to go home and that he would check on it when he got there. When he did, it looked like it was low on power steering fluid, so he put some in it - we thought that there might be a leak, but he continued to check that fluid level and it didn't go back down, so we thought that we were in the clear. A few hours later, I went to get into my car to run some errands only to see a river of unidentified fluids flowing out from underneath my car down my driveway. *sigh* After we made the decision that I shouldn't drive the vehicle anywhere (duh), we flip-flopped between taking it to someone here in town or back to Conroe to have Matt's mechanic look at it. We opted for the latter, thinking that it might be a repeat of a problem that we had fixed in January, which could mean that it was still covered.

So, on Tuesday, we fill up all of the fluids and drive both vehicles to Conroe. Matt's driving the Grand Am (just in case) and I have the kids in the truck. We make it to the shop about 10 minutes after they close - stinker - but Matt had already called them and left instructions about what was going wrong. We expected to hear something on Wednesday, but no. Thursday morning the shop calls asking what they're supposed to do with the car...communication break-down obviously. So, we explain the situation and they say they'll look at it...Well - they didn't get a chance to look at it until late on Thursday, and when they called it wasn't good news.

They had found two things wrong with it...1) the intact manifold and 2) the heater coil. Ok, #1 = ~ $500 and #2 = ~$400, so we have a couple of options. We can fork over the money and fix it, or fix the intact manifold and bypass the heater coil (like you really need a heater in Texas in the summer anyway, right) for the tune of the cost of the intact manifold + ~ $5.00. Or, another option is that we could just "patch it" and look for another vehicle and trade it in. So we're really thinking about the options here, and decide to patch it to give us some more time to think about what we want to do. We had already been contemplating getting me another vehicle, and these circumstances just moved up the time table for those discussions. Anyway, we called them on Friday morning and let them know to patch it, and they tell us that they don't think they can get to it until Monday. However, they called late on Friday afternoon and did have it ready. Much to my chagrin, when I went to pick it up, I was told that...

wait for it....
.
.
.
.
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they found something else wrong while they were patching...the power steering pump (if I remember correctly) had gone out and that would cost between $400 - 600 to fix. With this additional information, we're really leaning toward selling it and getting another vehicle. I point-blank asked the mechanic his opinion on this. His response, "Get rid of that car as quickly as possible."

Well I guess that settles that. Commence with vehicle searching.

We had already decided that we would be looking for a minivan...a used minivan, so I spent the next few days doing searches online. I finally found what I thought was "the car" at CarMax in Houston. It was a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan and met all of our criteria...less than 30K miles, captain's seats in the middle row, third row of seating, etc. In fact, I had made a list of my "must haves" and my "would likes" - this one met ALL of the must have's and several of the would likes. Matt really wanted a vehicle with the stow-n-go - well, I did too, but it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but I couldn't tell from the online listing if this one had it or not. We made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon to go and look at it. Come to find out, it did have the stow-n-go system, and he and I both really liked it. We had driven down there over the weekend, but didn't see it on the lot. We found out that it was a recent addition to the lot, it had been delivered after we had visited, and had only been on the lot for a few days. Lucky us! Well, it of course wasn't luck...God was really looking out for us on this one. Everything fell into place for us buying this minivan...it worked out beautifully and was a total God-thing.

So, this whole ordeal took place while we were in Conroe for what we thought would be a quick visit to MawMaw and PawPaw's house. Bless their hearts...Anyway, all of this to say that we are now the proud owners of this lovely 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's hard to believe that I'm officially a minivan mom.

However, while we were there, we did take Kellen and Tatum to a kids fest thing on Saturday...and once we got Kellen started on the games and activities, he had a BLAST! They had water activities (which I didn't know about, so we ended up just letting him get into those with his shorts on....), art activities, a kiddo train ride, etc. It was so much fun! Unfortunately for me, I didn't think to put any sunscreen on, and am reaping the effects of the very nasty sunburn that ensued because of it...my shoulders and neck are now peeling, and I'm not sure if my arms will peel or not. We thought to put sunscreen on Kellen, and I even made Matt put some on his freshly shaven head, but none on me...What was I thinking?

Bath Time
I'm trying to figure out the best way to bathe two kiddos - effectiveness, effiiency, fun. I've tried to bathe them separately, which of course works, but Wednesday while giving Kellen a bath I decided to put a very fussy Tatum in the tub with him. The result: Tatum calmed down, enjoyed her bath, and Kellen LOVED having her in the bath with him! Other result: this method is VERY HARD on my back, because of course I have to hold her the entire time (the infant tub is quite a bit too large to fit in the tub with Kellen in there - it doesn't even fit on top of the tub securely). I can't wait for a certain bath item that was recently ordered online to come in...I certainly hope that it helps!

Anyway, Tatum just loves being in the water! As soon as her feet and legs touch the water, her face lights up and she starts smiling. I think I may have a water baby on my hands here!

Are you kidding me?

So, my car was leaking some sort of fluid yesterday, so we decided to take it in today...I get home from taking Kellen to school this morning, then am about to go run just a few errands before Matt and I go to drop the car off, and I come outside to a river of undetermined fluid running from my car. *Sigh*

This weekend was fun...we went to the Maroon and White game, and had so much fun!! BUT...we had to bundle up BIG TIME...It was so cold...And I'm not talking chilly shorts and short-sleeve weather...I'm talking layers with sweatshirts and blankets to cover up over weather. In April? Well, I guess in Texas you never know, right?

Kellen and Matt sure had fun playing on the field afterwards...


And Miss Tatum was very well behaved (of course, she has her days and nights mixed up...so she slept the entire time!)

Well, we'll see what's wrong with me car and hopefully it will be something simple (read: inexpensive)...I'll keep you all posted!

Relief possibly on its way

Well, as some of you may know...I have frequent migraines and was on a prevention medication prior to getting pregnant. When we were planning to TTC, I had to come off of that medication before doing so. Luckily, my body went into a self-preservation mode during pregnancy and I only had 3-4 migraines during that time, but now my body is revolting and trying to make up for lost time . For the past 2-3 weeks, I've been having to take acute medication ~ 5 days a week for my headaches *arg*. So, I finally called the dr about making an appointment to discuss getting back on the medication, but he doesn't have any openings this week or next . I left my info with the receptionist and the nurse just called me back...expained what was going on to her and she's going to talk with the dr about just calling in a prescription for me for a low dose of the meds to see 1) how the low dose impacts my milk supply and 2) whether I can deal with a low dose and if it helps with the frequency of my headaches. I'm SO hoping that the dr will just call in the meds so that I can get started on them!

Oh my...how time flies!

Ok...so it's been a little while since I've posted...and here are the quick updates...

Tatum was born on Saturday, March 3rd at 9:02 AM weighing in at 6 pounds 8.8 ounces and was 19 inches long. My ultrasound that week showed low levels of amniotic fluid, so the dr made the call at my appointment that Friday that we were havin' a baby...

It's been a little over a month now, and Kellen is loving life as a big brother. However, he's acting out a little bit at school, which I understand...that's completely normal. Arg. He LOVES his little sister...and still calls her HIS Tatum.

It's been a whirlwind month...and here's one of my favorite pictures of Tatum, compliments of her Uncle Michael...

Hmm...that's all for now...I hear someone that needs her mommy...

Goodness gracious

Where have I been? It's been ages since I've posted...so here are some quick updates

*have 5 weeks and 1 day *officially* left until Tatum is due to make her arrival
*we begin fetal activity monitoring tomorrow (once weekly ultrasounds and twice weekly nonstress test) - Why, you may ask? Just to double check that she doesn't have either of the cord issues that Kellen had (wrapped around neck AND the knot in the cord)
*I'm way behind on getting stuff done around the house, but oh well...
*Matt should be setting up the crib, changing table, etc. this week
*I'm still searching for the *perfect* coming home from the hospital outfit for Tatum - but so far, no luck yet
*Kellen is still SUPER excited about his little sister - he talks about how he'll teach her this or that, how he'll help mommy and daddy take care of her, and how he'll even share his toys with her...the big ones, because he doesn't want her to put the small ones in her mouth and swallow them...(Isn't that just adorable!)

You may remember me posting information about Matt's friend Tom and his battle with cancer. Well, his fight is now over. We attended his funeral a few weeks ago. I'm glad that he's not suffering anymore, but just cannot begin to imagine how hard things are and will be for his wife and daughter. Please keep them in your prayers...

Happy 2007

Ok...so I'm a little late here...but better late than never, right?

I have the day off today, Kellen went to MawMaw and PawPaw's and Matt's at work. Perfect recipe for resting, right? HA! Fat chance...I got up with them this morning and have been working ever since. What is with me? Oh wait...it's called nesting...and since we don't have a room for the nursery - the entire house is where I'm focusing my energy.

Let's see...so far today I've:
1) emptied the dishwasher so that Matt could reload and run it before he left;
2) cleaned out the vacuum cleaner;
3) vacuumed all of the carpets in the house;
4) cleaned out the pantry - every shelf, trashed old & expired food, cleaned each of the shelves, and reorganized it;
5) cleaned under the kitchen sink, getting rid of some the misc. cleaning supplies and various other oddities located there;
6) just put in my 4th load of laundry;
7) cleaned both bathroom toilets (remainder of the bathroom is to come);
8) braved the cold and swept leaves, etc. off of the front porch

Oh, and the only things that I've done so far that were actually on my to-do list were the laundry, dishes, and the pantry.

Still on the docket for me to work on...
1) sweep & mop the kitchen (contemplating getting a good scrub going here...rather than the swiffer - but we'll just have to wait and see);
2) go through the tupperware cabinet, make sure there are matching lids/bottoms, & purge some;
3) go through the green trunk in our bedroom - who knows what we've been storing in that thing...just bedding if I remember correctly;
4) dust (my least favorite cleaning task of ALL times);
5) clean all of the mirrors in the house;
6) finish cleaning both bathrooms;
7) get all of the trash ready for tomorrow's trash pick-up;
8) vacuum the futon

Oh, and I would like to actually rest sometime today, too...maybe give myself a facial and manicure????? We'll just see how much I'm actually able to accomplish...So far, I'm feeling pretty good about what I've gotten done so far, and it's not even 11 AM!

Whoo hoo!

Whew!

What a whirlwind holiday! We had the Gerren's over for lunch on Christmas Eve. Other than me forgetting to make the stuffing, everything turned out wonderfully! We were able to get a family picture, which is great, too. I don't know when the last time was that we were all together...Then we were on to Matt's Uncle Randy and Aunt Laurie's house...Christmas Eve there and then back to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's for Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning. Needless to say, Kellen had a BLAST, and was relatively well-behaved considering his lack of sleep. Later that day, we drove down to Houston to visit Matt's moms side of the family. Lots of food, games and naps took place there...and all-in-all, everyone had a great time.

We made it back home on Tuesday night, had a day home to recoup, then headed out again on Thursday morning for the Stephenville area...We were heading out to some friends of ours for a Holiday Bowl party. Gotta' love them Aggies! Highlight of the game - the first quarter - at least by the end of that we were tied...*sigh* Back here yesterday afternoon (lucikly making it through all of the horrible weather that was going on around here yesterday - whew! I was SO glad that Matt was driving!!)....today's just been a lazy day...the weather is still gloomy - dark, rainy, you know...the kind of weather you DON'T want to get out in, so Kellen has just been playing very nicely around here and we've been letting him watch some of the many DVD's he got over Christmas.

When I get a chance to download the pictures we took over the break, I'll try to upload them.

I'm not ready yet!

We're having Christmas lunch here at the house tomorrow with the Gerren's, and I just don't feel ready! Virtually all of the shopping is done, but I still have a few things to wrap - but despite working on the house for the last couple of days, I still have things on the "to-do" list that I just can't seem to get done.

It doesn't help that Tatum has decided to use the last couple of days and my internal organs to experiment with her strength, either. Wow! She's really moving and kicking! It's wearing me out...I told Kellen that he needed to tell his sister to knock it off...he told me he wouldn't say that to her because it was mean and he didn't want to be mean to his sister. Oh man...If only I could have recorded that for posterity.

Getting there!

Well, I passed my gestational diabetes 1-hr test today. Yay! For some reason, I was a little anxious about that one this go-round. All things are progressing well with Tatum...3 more months!

Getting ready

With Christmas a week away, it's a shame how much we still have to do to get ready around here! Yikes! Fortunately, I should get most of my Christmas letters in the mail tomorrow, and we'll just keep going from there.

Where did December go?....Where did this year go?

I guess he solved that issue with his recent comment

I'll preface this little story by saying that DH and I had been contemplating not putting up a Christmas tree or many decorations since we're trying to declutter and get our place ready to sell.

I pick Kellen up from school today, and today was the day that all the kids hung their handmade ornaments on the school Christmas tree. Kellen excitedly hangs up his green star, then we set off to come home. In the car, he tells me, "It's Merry Christmas at school, but not at home." A little surpised, I asked him why does he think that. His response, "There is a Christmas tree at school, but not one at our house."

Well that solved that debate. I believe we'll be getting the Christmas tree sometime this weekend.

**** Sweet big brother moment ****
Tatum was(is) really kicking this afternoon, so I asked Kellen if he wanted to feel her kick. He did, so he had his hand on my belly while she was kicking - with this really excited look on his face. Then he turned to me and said, "She's kicking because she's ready to come out of your tummy!"

While this was happening, I had my t-shirt pulled up over my belly...when he was finished feeling her kick, I started to pull my shirt back down and he told me to wait. He said that she needed a blanket to cover her up - then proceeded to go and get one of his blankets and "tuck-in" his sister - and my belly. Just adorable!!

And so it starts...

Kellen asked me this evening how the baby would get out of my tummy.

I thought I would have a little while longer (i.e. until he was OLDER) before I would begin having those kinds of conversations.... Anyway, we talked for a little while about it and at one point in time, he asked if the baby was going to break me when it came out. (It'll feel like it, buddy!) I think that I was able to explain it in a way that he understands, because after we were almost through talking, I asked him if he was scared that the baby would hurt mommy when it came out and he answered no.

Whew!

He was so cute about it! The innocence with his questions and his reactions to my reponses...just priceless!

Rough day

I'll make this a short post...but it's been a rough day. We had to put Bailey down today, and neither Matt nor I are doing very well with that. Then Matt lost his phone - *sigh* Just not a great day.

Matt had a talk with Kellen on the way home from school about Bailey and that he wouldn't be at our house anymore. He and I had talked about what each of us thought we should say to him, so Matt incorporated both of our thoughts into his talk. So, before bedtime, this is my conversation with Kellen:

Mommy: Kellen, do you want to talk about Bailey?

Kellen: Not right now. I don't want to talk about it.

Mommy: Ok, but I want to make sure you know that it's ok to be sad because Bailey isn't here.

Kellen: I'm not sad.

Mommy: You're not sad?

Kellen: No, Bailey is with Jesus. But Mommy and Daddy are sad, but not Kellen.

Mommy at this point in time is choking back tears. He's handling it so well...Too bad Mommy and Daddy aren't.

Updates...

Ok, it's been WAY too long since I've posted anything on here. I would like to say that I've been sitting around eating bon bons and getting massages and pedicures, but alas...no such luck - well, 1 pedicure to speak of, actually..

Let's see...to back up and try to recap...

Halloween...Kellen had a GREAT time as Buzz Lightyear.

The weekend prior to Halloween, Matt, Maw Maw and Paw Paw took him to an event at the MSC hosted by MSC Hospitality, and he had a blast. They had TONS of games to play, cookies to decorate, cupcakes, etc. He flirted with the girls and "pow powed" everyone with his Buzz Lightyear laser.

He was just adorable! (And really well behaved, too!)

He also experienced his first ever Aggie football game when we took him to watch A&M at Baylor stadium. Despite having virtually NO nap all day long, and thinking he was going to just sleep through the entire thing, he ended up coming alive during the second half and really getting into it! He just loves his Aggies! We went to a tailgate before the game, and he just had a great time playing with the rocks in the parking lot (surprise, surprise). This is a picture taken right at kick-off...

This is during the latter part of the game where he REALLY was getting into it...He was so adorable to watch!That particular weekend was REALLY full, as he had a birthday party to attend on Sunday...and it was a costume party! Yet another opportunity for him to become Buzz Lightyear...Incredible Pizza is really that...incredible! He had a blast playing the games and doing some of the little rides, and thotoughly enjoyed himself.

Then on Halloween day, his class had a party - costume of course. We didn't let him wear Buzz to school all day, but changed him into it right before the party. He was being quite the little camera ham...posing in various ways and asking me to take his picture. After the school party, we went to the mall and trick-or-treated at the mall (the ENTIRE mall) and ran into a "Bulls-eye" and another "Buzz Lightyear", then he was ready to go, only to tell me in the car that he wanted to go somewhere else. So, we went to sorority row and trick-or-treated at sorority row, where we ran into a "Woody" - he just loved it! Too bad the poor kid that was dressed up like Woody was shy...I think Kellen intimidated him a little bit! We were there for a little while when he tells me that he's through, go back to the car and, you guessed it! he wanted to go someplace else. So, we went to a local Halloween party/community carnival and he just HAD to play every single game there! He wore me out!!

We've also taken down the toddler bed and have switched Kellen to a real big-boy bed. It's a captains bed with drawers, etc., and he just loves it! Maw Maw bought him some Cars sheets, which of course were a HUGE hit.

Thanksgiving was good...We went to Minerva for the Gerren/Dyer Thanksgiving get-together and had a good time there. On Friday, we drove to Conroe to hang out with the Hapes, including Brenna, and watched the A&M vs tu game. Oh my goodness! I think I'm still in shock that we won that game! WHOOP! Stayed there until Saturday night, then came on back home.

Last Thursday, we took Kellen to the Veggie Tales Live Christmas show here in town, and he had a really good time. The weather had turned pretty cold, and the wind had really kicked up, so I'll have to include my "attack by the wind" story that resulted in a bumped noggin' and (not too bad) of a black eye later.

Whew!...In other news, we had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and found out that we're having a little girl. At the ultrasound, she measured 1 pound 3 ounces, which is larger than my book (you know, the week-by-week pregnancy books that estimate/generalize everything) indicate for the number of weeks at that time. We decided to find out because Kellen was SO adamant that this was a girl that if it turned out to be a boy, we figured that we would need some additional "adjustment" time for him to deal with it. When we told him it was a girl, it didn't faze him. My guess is that in his mind, he was thinking, 'duh...that's what I've been saying for months now.'

As of today, I'm 25 weeks. 3 1/2 more months to go! This pregnancy has just FLOWN by so far! I can't believe it! She's getting really active (surprise), and her movements are getting stronger. Matt and I have been doing the name game, and I think that we've settled on Tatum Elizabeth. She'll be here before we know it!