gaylord ICE exhibit

on the 29th we had the opportunity to join the childers family, my parents and my brother for a trip to grapevine, tx to the gaylord ICE exhibit. the exhibit is here every year, but matt and i have never had a chance to go, so when shari invited us along and matt and i both happened to be off work, we jumped at the chance to take in the spectacular ice sculptures and winter fun!

this year's exhibit was themed "a charlie brown christmas", so we were able to see all the peanuts characters come to life through ice while walking around in a tent they keep at 9 degrees! don't worry, they were kind enough to provide us with parkas to keep us warm in there (it was in the upper 50's outside that day!). we also were able to enjoy the other beautiful holiday decorations set up around the gaylord hotel/resort and spend some quality time with the aforementioned family members. after the gaylord exhibit we enjoyed dinner at fuzzy's tacos before heading home to enjoy our warm houses!

for more information and history on gaylord ICE, check out their website that gives all the details about the who, why and how they make this awesome exhibit.

gaylord ICE

27 weeks!

again, not too much to report this week in the area of our pregnancy. we are trucking along, continuing to gain weight and getting ready for our next OB visit on january 4th. our little man is becoming more active all the time, and it's become more noticeable, too, as he continues to gain weight and lose space in there! people at work can actually see him moving around sometimes which is a fun experience for both me and them!

the only problem we ran into this past week was a small stomach bug i caught that lasted almost exactly 24 hours...starting on 12/24 (around 3 am) and ending on the morning of christmas (around 4am). fortunately, besides one really horrible episode of vomiting and a general not-feeling-well type of feeling there were no other symptoms and i was still able to participate in the christmas fun (although i didn't get to eat any of the tex-mex christmas dinner with everyone!). check out the previous post for christmas pics. the maternity quiz and belly pics are below!

How far along? 27 weeks

Weight gain/loss: ~ 13 lbs. total

Maternity clothes? Yes!

Stretch marks? Notta one (thank you to my mom’s genes)

Sleep? No problems…I’ve always loved to sleep, though!

Best moment this week? People at work telling me I’m “all belly!”

Food cravings: none currently

Gender: little boy!

Belly button in or out? In for now

What I miss? Ziegen Bock beer, chuy’s frozen margaritas

What I'm looking forward to: starting our Bradley Method child birthing classes

Weekly wisdom: I am growing a person, and I am part of a miracle today!

Milestones: end of trimester #2!

christmas 2010

our last christmas without a little king -- it's crazy to think that this time next year we will celebrating the holidays with a little one in tow! this year was busier than most, even though we couldn't make the trip out of state to visit family in ohio. we did enjoy a mini ohio christmas when we got to open our care packages full of christmas gifts from matt's family just before the holiday (thanks, everyone!!!). but between my crazy work schedule and prenatal appointments there was very little time to sit back, relax and enjoy the festivities surrounding christmas. matt and i ended up doing *all* our christmas shopping on december 23rd (not recommended). this was successful in that we got all the gifts we were looking for, but painful for someone used to being on a night schedule, who's not used to dealing with traffic, and who is now pregnant and requires food on a much more frequent basis. fortunately, i have a wonderfully amazing and supportive husband, who helped to keep me calm and fed :)

the actual celebrations were limited for us this year, since i was scheduled to work christmas night which meant that we couldn't celebrate with family that day. we celebrated with my immediate family on christmas eve and enjoyed the christmas service, dinner, gift opening and scavenger hunts for the kids that have come to be just as much a part of christmas tradition in our family as "a charlie brown christmas."

our house all decked-out for the holidays :)

christmas 2010

26 weeks

here are some 26 week pics and the maternity quiz. unfortunately, i don't have anything new or exciting to report. fortunately, that also means that everything is continuing to go well!

How far along? 26 weeks

Weight gain/loss: ~ 12 lbs. total

Maternity clothes? Yes! And in time for cookie fests and the holiday season!

Stretch marks? Notta one

Sleep? Stuffy nose this week made it more difficult than normal

Best moment this week? People at work telling me I’m “all belly!”

Food cravings: sweets!

Gender: little boy!

Belly button in or out? In for now

What I miss? Ziegen Bock beer, chuy’s frozen margaritas

What I'm looking forward to: our next appointment (but not the glucose tolerance test!)

Weekly wisdom: eating healthy, sleeping and not stressing out are good for baby and me

Milestones: 6.5 months, baby!

cookie fest 2010

despite everyone's *very* busy schedules, we did get a chance to schedule our annual cookie fest this year! on wednesday night the kings, the millers, the proctors and the childers gathered at the miller household to bake 6 batches of sugar cookies, m&m cookies and snickerdoodles to decorate and enjoy after a pizza dinner. this year the kids got to help with a lot of the decorating and required less supervision, which made it a little more fun and a little less stressful! they also got to enjoy watching "a garfield christmas" -- a true christmas classic! it was lots of fun, and very tiring! i always forget how much of a true mess it makes to bake that many cookies! so glad we were able to sneak it in this year, among all the busy work/school/custody/holiday/etc. schedules! happy holidays everyone, hope you are enjoying the season, too!!

liv, ben, alex, jonah and alia decorating with m&m's

cookie fest 2010

my parents' house all decked out for the holidays...so pretty!

week 25

our baby is now roughly the size of an eggplant! translation: between 13.6 and 14.8 inches, weighing between 1.5 - 2.2 lbs.

a big week for everyone in the family! our little man continues to get bigger and so does my belly! in all the talk about the vacation last week, i didn't get to mention that our 24 week appointment went great. all our measurements are perfect and our little man's heartbeat is still strong. my blood pressure and weight gain are still healthy too! next visit i will have to do my glucose tolerance test to rule out gestational diabetes (ick!) and then after that we will start going every 2 weeks instead of every 4! my, how time flies! around that same time we will also start childbirth classes, so i guess any hope of things "slowing down" after the holidays is out the window for this little king family!

lexi jumped in on this pic...guess she's feeling a little left out lately!

in other news, my husband also needs some time in the spotlight. his indoor soccer team won the championship in their league. whoo hoo! congrats to the team, and to my hubby, who is still convinced that our son can start learning soccer before he can crawl....

my soccer champion

showing off his winner's water bottle and soccer bag

and here's the weekly maternity quiz:

How far along? 25 weeks

Weight gain/loss: ~ 10 lbs. total

Maternity clothes? Yes! And oh, so comfy!

Stretch marks? Notta one

Sleep? Definitely on my sides now, for the first time it’s really hard for me to lay on my back!

Best moment this week? Gaining weight and not feeling guilty about it

Food cravings: Nothing specific right now.

Gender: little boy!

Belly button in or out? In for now

What I miss? Ziegen Bock beer, chuy’s frozen margaritas

What I'm looking forward to: our next appointment

Weekly wisdom: this time next year we’ll have a 9 month old! Enjoy this time now!

Milestones: we got to celebrate our anniversary and babymoon!

the best christmas pageant ever

today, we got the chance to watch our niece and nephews in a christmas play. alex, alia and ben had all secured parts in the plano children's theater production of "the best christmas pageant ever." the play chronicles the tales of a group of siblings known for their rowdy, wild behavior who end up getting parts in the church christmas play and, much to the surprise of everyone, end up putting on the best (not the worst) christmas play ever!

all three kids did an awesome job with their parts, remembering their lines and acting out their individual characters perfectly. we are so glad we were able to see the play. great job alex, alia and ben!!!

childers' play

babymoon & anniversary trip

in complete contradiction to our usual approach to things, matt and i decided that we would spend some "reckless" money and take an actual vacation trip this year for our three year anniversary. we also decided that now would be a good time since this time next year we will have a little one running around, so this trip could also serve as a "babymoon" (a chance to get away one last time before kids enter the picture). while it's true we've done lots of traveling over the past three years -- i'm extremely skilled at packing an entire week's worth of clothes for both of us into a carry on suitcase and know exactly which liquids we can and can't expect to pack -- all of our trips since our honeymoon have been to and from texas and ohio to visit family. while this is always wonderful, and always a nice break from work, it's not what one would call a true vacation.

so before my travel was restricted (read: not allowed to travel in the 3rd trimester, and then we'll have a newborn!), we decided to take just a few days to enjoy some true couple time -- away from work, laundry, grocery shopping, schedules and even our little lexi. we decided to take a trip down to austin since i had never been and it was within driving distance, which meant we wouldn't use up all of our vacation time getting to the destination.

we booked a stay at the hyatt lost pines resort, located in lost pines, tx (about 26 miles SE of austin). we arrived on sunday and left thursday morning (okay, it wasn't totally "reckless" spending, we got the last night free and tried to see what other discounts we could get...you know us!). for the most part, it was just a lot of being lazy: sleeping when we wanted, eating when we wanted, ordering room service when we didn't want to go out and just taking long walks around through the treed areas. the days broke down like this:

sunday: lunch at subway, arrive at the resort around 4:30pm, watch the cowboys game while eating kolaches and take a nap, grab some dinner via room service, sleep some more

monday: sleep in (tell housekeeping to come back x 2), walk around the gorgeous grounds, enjoy shiner bock queso (does it get more texan?!) at the bar, more walking around being lazy, dinner at the bar while watching monday night football, more being lazy in the room

tuesday: sleep in again, breakfast via room service, drive to austin to see the capitol, 6th street, the giant christmas tree and enjoy dinner at chuy's, stop at an H-E-B grocery store for snacks for our hotel room, watch the law & order SVU marathon on TV

wednesday: sleep in (no surprise, right?), lunch at the firewheel cafe, off to the spa to enjoy a mommy massage and some daddy sauna/spa time, dinner via room service, play cards and be generally lazy again

thursday: leave for home and work that night :(

all in all, it was a *wonderful* trip, and although it probably wasn't practical in any way, matt and i both agree that it was totally worth-while and well-deserved. the little get-away was great and gave us a chance to relax, enjoy our time together and continue to prepare for our little baby boy on the way!

special thanks to my mom who watched the house/mail for us and for shari who agreed to watch lexi at the last minute and made our trip possible!

babymoon/anniversary trip 2010

and for those who are following, here's my weekly maternity quiz:

How far along? 24 weeks

Weight gain/loss: ~ 8 lbs. total

Maternity clothes? Yes! And oh, so comfy!

Stretch marks? Notta one

Sleep? Pretty much whenever I can! I miss being able to sleep on my tummy, though.

Best moment this week? Hitting the 6 month mark!

Food cravings: Nothing specific right now.

Gender: little boy!

Belly button in or out? In for now

What I miss? Ziegen Bock beer, chuy’s frozen margaritas

What I'm looking forward to: seeing how our pictures turned out last week (the first ones that attempt to showcase our little bump!)

Weekly wisdom: Enjoying every day, I’m part of a miracle!

Milestones: baby is 24 weeks, which makes him a viable baby for the NICU (although I really hope that he decides to enjoy being in-utero for a while longer!)

three years ago today...

...we became a Mr. & Mrs.!

the last 3 years have had many ups and downs : a lot more moving than we'd anticipated, job changes, arguments and compromises, lots of football watching, spending and saving and, now, a baby on the way just to mix it up a bit when we thought we were starting to "figure it out!" ;)

it's been a crazy ride, but it's been worth every minute!

happy anniversary to my wonderful husband, who strives to live up to our vows every day, in every way. i love you, honey!