Winter has arrived

Well, winter is officially upon us I believe.  Mark and I were a bit shocked the other morning to wake up to a world of white.  It reminded me of when I was a kid and it snowed.  So exciting!  I think what made it more exciting for me this time was that I completely wasn't expecting it.  I hadn't looked at the forecast and it was definitely not snowing when we went to bed.  There was a pretty thick layer on the ground in the morning, like a couple of cm, which just made it seem that much more amazing.  I knew it wasn't going to melt right away.  

I'm not sure how I feel about it being winter.  It has most certainly brought on the Christmas decorating itch for me, and Christmas music has come on in our house too.  I don't really enjoy how much more work it is to go outside though and the driving is not so fun either.  I played outside with Adalyn in the snow today for the first time this winter and she LOVED it.  I'm so glad, because last winter she didn't really want to have anything to do with it.  Today she told me she liked walking in the snow.  :)  Last year she didn't want to go near any snow.  I showed her how she could eat the snow and the look on her face was priceless!!  I wish I could have captured that moment on a picture.  It was one of pure delight!  

I've been working on a few DIY Christmas decorations this year.  I'm pretty excited about them.  I've never really decorated much for Christmas because I haven't really wanted to spend money on decorations that you only have up for one month of the year.  We are hosting Mark's extended family for part of the Christmas gathering this year though so I thought maybe I should do a little bit more than normal.  I'll try to put up a picture when I'm done!  

I am trying to get better at letting Adalyn be involved in crafty, hands on sorts of things.  I am always hesitant to do 'fun' dirty things with her because it makes more work for me and I don't always feel like I need more work. haha  There are already so many messes to clean up.  I don't like messes very much!  Today Mark really encouraged me to have her join in my paper mache project.  It was messy, but she loved it!  One other thing I have done recently is let her play with flour while I am baking.  It keeps her occupied for a long time and it's some thing different to do.

 She has really been developing an imagination lately which has been so fun to watch.  Her dolls and stuffed animals are her little friends and she takes care of them so well.  She can spend a lot of time giving them tea parties, feeding them supper, reading them books, changing their diapers, or teaching them to use the potty, putting them to bed, comforting them when they cry, taking them shopping, ect....  It's not uncommon for her to be in her room by herself these days playing with her dolls.  What a wonderful development!!  Up till now she has always needed to play close to where I am.  She didn't necessarily need me, but she followed me every where.  

Taking a picture with her pretend camera.  She came up with this all on her own!

Birthday party!

 
I wish I had more pictures or better ones, but I haven't had my camera out much the last month or two.

I finally asked Mark to take another pregnancy picture for me.  This is only the third or fourth one so far this pregnancy and I'm already 34 weeks!  

 

We got to see the baby again this week!  Apparently I am measuring 3 weeks behind so they just wanted to make sure that the baby was growing properly and that all was well.  We had to go into the city for a fetal assessment.  It was so much better than the ultrasound at our local hospital.  Mark was able to come in for the entire appointment and I could actually see the baby comfortably without craning my neck around awkwardly.  The technician was very friendly and we were done very quickly too.  All was well and she figured it must just be the way I'm carrying, my tall torso leaves lots of space for baby to hide.  I suspected as much.  :)  Baby was estimated to be about 5 lbs already!  She figured this baby would be around the same size as Adalyn was when she was born.  8lbs6oz.  Anticipation for this new baby and labour and delivery is building!  Only one month till term, though I have a feeling it will be late again.  Adalyn was 1 week late and I'm expecting the same with this one.  I think this time I would rather have it be 1 week late then 1 week early.  My due date is December 30, so one week early would make it right before Christmas.