Sad Day On The Farm

It is a very sad day on the farm today as the cows are being sold. This morning was Harry's last morning milking. Bryce, our landlord, has decided to sell the cows and just put hefers up at our place. This morning Harry and I were talking and it has been 91 years with milking cows on the farm. As much as it will be nice for Harry to not have to worry about milking in the morning, it is still bittersweet to see them go.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone. I know that I talked to many of you yesterday. But to those loved ones that we did not get around to, we hope that you had a wonderful holiday.

Thanks to Mother Nature, we will be celebrating Santa & gifts tomorrow...on Harry's day off. Unfortunately, Harry's job has kept him away most of the waking hours. I say waking hours but really who is up at 3 AM and doesn't go to bed until 10 PM, 4 days in a row with battling snow, sleet, ice, rain during the day. So instead of keeping Elly up past her bedtime and/or waking her up at the crack of dawn, we decided to postpone Christmas a couple of days. Santa is coming tonight and we are very excited.

Elly & I have been hanging out in the house since Wednesday afternoon when I got home from work. We are ready for a break from the four walls but with my little incident of falling, Harry won't let me out of the house. I guess I don't blame him for being a little on the cautious side.
Especially with me falling again the other day in the house...I am banned from climbing (pretty much put me in a bubble until this kiddo comes out). I am much more clumsy then I was with Elly. Don't worry, didn't fall on my belly this time and I felt Liza kick right away. I have been monitoring her movements very closely every since. I think she kicked at me in her protest that she is tired of her momma being an airhead!

Elly has asked every day to bake cookies. Yesterday she asked to make an apple pie. I think her daddy is sneaking into her room at night and giving her subliminal messages. So it is on our list of things to do but not sure when it will happen. With all the goodies in the house and they ask for an apple pie! But other things we have made so far is...

• 3 batches of Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
• 2 batches Chocolate Gooey Cookies
• 2 batches of Peanut Butter Balls
• 1 batch Peanut Butter Fudge for Grama, on the list of "to-do's" for today

This is not to mention all the cookies that we made on our Christmas Baking Day with Grama, Aunt Jen, Maddie, Auntie Laurie, Elly, myself with the samplers - Uncle Todd, Mikaila, Reece, Nay Nay, Elly & Maddie. I don't think we will go hungry anytime soon.

Christmas With Lisa

Last Friday night Lisa came out to have our Christmas. Elly was so excited to be able to FINALLY open some gifts. Of course, my battery on my camera was going dead. **Note to self - buy another battery!**

I think that mommy was more excited over this sweater, but really can you blame me! It is gorgeous!

Little Mermaid plate, bowl & fork set...what more could a girl ask for?


Oh that's right...a mermaid jammie dress to go with it! Elly wore this from Friday night until Sunday night, only taking it off long enough to go to town a couple of times.

Lisa bought Liza diapers...Elly, being the big helper that she is, opened Liza's gift for her. She was very excited for Liza to get them. But of course Elly informed us "Liza wear these after she is born!"

Pretty styling kiddo we have!

32 Weeks

Monday Harry, Elly and myself went to our doctor's appointment in the afternoon. Elly was not too happy that she had to get up so early and go to Lori's first but she got over it very quickly and had a great day playing with her friends. Going to see Dr. Nancy was very uneventful. We measured right on, baby's heart rate was 140-150 which is right on and we figured out that the baby's head is down and most of her is on my left side with bottom up in my ribs. No wonder I am getting all the kicking on the left side. But of course, even though it sounds like she is all good to go for a natural birth, Dr. Nancy is not convinced that she will stay that way. She has lots of room still in there to move. Therefore, C-section is still on its way. That scheduling will come in January. So basically the count-down has begun...only 7 more weeks to go!

Elly's Mustache

One would think this is a milk mustache and we were going to campaign for the "Got Milk" commercial...but nope this is Elly's Ready Whip Coffee Mustache. Every morning Elly has to have her coffee with mommy. Vanilla creamer, a tad bit of coffee for color and flavor and LOTS of Ready Whip on top. Most days she has it in her sippy so that she can be in the living room but on this morning she had it in her tea cup that she calls her "Grandmother cup". It is called this because the cup and saucer were suppose to be a birthday gift to Grandmother but Elly hocked it instead. But at least she thinks of Grandmother each time she uses it. As you can tell, she loves her coffee!

Clumsy

Yesterday, Elly and I went to a baby shower for our friend Darby up in Melrose. Was nice to get out of the house and have something to do. It has been so blasting cold out with the wind that I haven't let Elly out besides running to the truck and back.

When we got home Elly was sleeping and when I went to put her down she woke up and was crying that she wanted mommy. Well I still had everything in the truck and needed/wanted to get everything carried in while the energy was still there. I should have just left it. Before I new it I was laying face first in the snow....right on Liza. A very scary feeling. So I got myself and everything back in the house to a screaming kiddo. For the next hour I tried everything I could think of to get Liza to move...the glass of water on the belly to see the water move, drinking cold fluids to get her awake, pushing on her. Anything and everything but nothing was working. After an hour I started to get worried and therefore started making preparations to go in and be checked out. Of course, Harry was in Blair at this time and I could not get ahold of him. I called our friend Jane who lives 10 minutes away and asked her to take us in. I finally got ahold of Harry by calling the plant and asking them to have him call me right away. Harry was meeting us at the hospital. We about all met at the same time and Jane took Elly back home with her while they checked me out.

The good news was that Liza was sounding great. Of course, once we got in there then she started moving around. It is like when your vehicle is making noise, so you take it in to be checked out and then the noise is no longer there. Well same thing, she started moving and kicking at the monitors the minute we got in there and got hooked up. Then the bad news came (don't worry, nothing with Liza), we had to stay there for 4 hours and be monitored. Ok I know that sounds bad, but when they tell you that you have to stay on the monitors until 10:51 PM and all you can think about is that your husband needs to get up at 4, it makes you think that they could let you go after 2 hours. Plus, with the monitors on you can't exactly get comfortable otherwise you loose the heartbeat.

At 10:45 the resident came back in and said that all was fine. Liza was looking good and the blood test came back negative. Oh yeah, forgot that part, they took blood to see if there was any of the baby's blood in my blood stream. Had there been, then they would have had to do other tests to make sure she was fine. But all was fine. So he said that they would take me off the monitors exactly at 10:51 just to say they went by the protocol and we were on our way.

Harry still had to get fuel in the milk truck, yes I got to go home in the milk truck. So by the time we got home and settled it was midnight. After I get this wrote then I am off to pick up Elly and then to work.

I am very sore today but thanking my lucky stars that my clumsiness did not effect Liza more then irritation and a little time on the monitors.

What Is Christmas?

I started reading a book to Elly last night and thought to myself...wow this is not just for kids. This is a great lesson for adults too, when we so wrapped up in buying just the right present for your children. Sometimes we forget the real meaning of Christmas. So I thought I would share with you the story.

What Is Christmas?

Written by Michelle Medlock Adams

Just what is Christmas, anyway?

Why do we celebrate?

Why is December 25 a very special date?

Is it about the Christmas tree,

with all the twinkling lights?

Is it about the Christmas cards,

the ones my mommy writes?

Is it about the mistletoe,

where mommy and daddy kiss?

Is it about the Christmas play,

the one we never miss?

Is Christmas about Christmas gifts?

I love them so very much.

Is Christmas about Santa Claus?

His beard is fun to touch.

Is Christmas about candy canes?

I think they taste quite nice.

Is Christmas about Santa's list?

They say he checks it twice.

Or maybe it's about the food!

Mom's Christmas cookies rule!

Or maybe it's about the snow.

White Christmases are cool.

Is it about the Christmas songs,

the ones we sing each year?

Is it about the Christmas elves

and Santa's eight reindeer?

No, that's not what Christmas is about!

All of these things are really nice,

and superduper fun.

But Christmas is much more than that -

It's all about God's son.

God sent his son, Jesus the Christ,

from heaven up above.

He came to earth to save the world -

God's greatest gift of love.

So, Christmas is the Lord's birthday

The day he came to earth.

Forever we will celebrate

His very special birth!

Okay, now I get it.

Santa Claus and Christmas trees

and presents are okay,

But Jesus is the real reason

we have a Christmas day!

Have a wonderful Christmas holiday with your family and friends. And remember to keep Christ in Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday started off as pretty little snow flakes floating down from the sky. What a wonderful thing. By this morning, what a difference...blowing and against the windows it sounds like rain pelting the windows. Not so pretty anymore.

Yesterday, Harry should usually get home around 6:30 PM from Blair. He finally got in the house at 10:20 PM after getting home, plowing and fixing the garage so that some of Jerod's truck parts didn't get ruined. Then he was up at 3 AM to go milk the cows, plow again and then leave on the route. Who knows how long it will take him today to get done. We have been doing a lot of praying today that he is safe. We are thankful that today is my usual day off and no where to go.

Elly of course is excited about making a Frosty now that we have enough snow. I think she will have to wait until the wind dies down and is not so harsh when you walk outside.

The picture above is from this morning in our front yard. Wow and the snow just keeps coming!

Congratulations!

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to our friends Nick & Sam! They got engaged last Wednesday. Of course Nick made Sam wait until Saturday to tell me but it was worth it. Because then we could talk wedding all day long while shopping. They will be tying the knot in July 2010 and they asked Harry to be a groomsman....wow what fun 2010 will be!

Christmas Is Coming!

Oh how Christmas is right around the corner. We have been doing a lot of preparing these last couple of days. From Christmas concerts to decorating.

Elly and daddy built a great big tower with her blocks!

On Thursday Elly, Mommy, Grama & Papa ventured over to the Iowa-Grant Elementary School to watch Maddie perform in her 4K Christmas Program. She did a great job!

Today we went to get our Christmas tree at Snowy Ridge Christmas Tree Farm. It is not too farm from our house and it has become a wonderful family tradition. Elly & Daddy look very short compared to the tree.

Elly had a hard time walking through the field while being a human marshmallow. But that didn't stop her from picking out the tree...I want a baby tree...no I want a big tree...no a baby tree...as you can see we had a little bit of a hard time deciding. In the end, we choose this one.

Elly & Daddy dragging the tree back to the farm...or daddy dragging the tree back carrying Elly. :)

Thanksgiving

Saturday Elly & I went to the Shireman Thanksgiving, hosted by Mark & Rachel. We had a great time with spending time with family and good food. Sunday, we had our family Thanksgiving Feast at our house with Papa, Grama, Big Papa, Big Grama, Uncle Nick, Aunt Jen, Maddie and ourselves all in attendance. With help from all we had a great time getting the food on the table and sitting and reminiscing over family history.

Uncle Nick, Papa & Daddy carving the turkey and making gravy. Yes, the girls had no idea how to make the gravy and Uncle Nick came to our rescue.

While cleaning up Big Papa read to the girls.

And Big Grama gave lots of hugs.

It was a wonderful night with family and friends.

Pink Glove Dance

I received this YouTube video in regards to Breast Cancer Awareness. It is awesome to see how the hospital staff took a couple of minutes out of their busy schedules to have fun and show their support. Click Here to watch the video.

Sickness

Well I am at home today, not sure if it is the acid reflux or flu. Either way I am not doing the greatest. Bless Harry's heart, he called my dad and had him drive today so that he could stay at home and help out with me and with watching Elly. If I had to go with my gut feeling, then I would have to say that it is just the acid reflux that is giving me a run for my money. Just from having it when I was pregnant with Elly and it seems similar but I could be wrong. I got the H1N1 vaccination so I shouldn't get that. But you never know. So while they are out running errands to give mommy some quiet time, I had better go take advantage of it.