Last Night out as a Family of 3

We had planned to go out to dinner Tuesday night since it would be our last night together, just the three of us, before the baby was born. But, since the snow is supposed to be so bad, we decided to go out tonight (Monday). We headed to Cheesecake Factory. Unfortunately, however, Kyri didn't enjoy the meal as much as we did. She fell asleep in the car on the way there (at 5:30) and never woke up again the whole night! I will say that it was a pretty relaxing meal, though. She never moved from this position throughout all of dinner...

We did prop her up for a family photo right before we left, though. She still didn't open her eyes. The tables around us must have thought we were nuts. We couldn't stop laughing! I just hope our next little one is as good of a sleeper as Kyri!

For those of you who can remember back to December of 2008, there was also a huge snow storm on the Tuesday night before I delivered Kyri. I can't believe it's happening again!

A busy week!

This past week was a stressful one for me. I put in some late hours in my classroom trying to get everything in order and planned out before I go on leave for 3 months. I have a wonderful maternity substitute, so I know my students are in good hands! It is so hard to believe that this week is finally here. 12 weeks off!! We get to finally meet our new little girl in just three short days! I got to thinking that I don't have many pictures of myself pregnant, so I made Kyle take this picture of me last night so we can remember what I looked like with the "baby bump"!

Here are the girls playing pretend at Grandma's house. Aubs takes after her handy dad, and Kyri obviously gets her baking skills from her mom! (Hahahhaaaa!)

I'm a little behind with this post. We went over to Brian and Leslie Boston's last weekend for the Bears vs. Packers game. Although the game was disappointing, we had a lot of fun with good friends and family!

Some of the little Bears Fans (Tatum, Mia, Reese, and Kyri)

Mia and Her Puppy

Ethan and Sophia entertaining us before the game

Cheering on the team!

Future Golduster?

Flying with Uncle B

Some Very Sad Bears Fans after a Tough Game

Cheerleader in Training!!

Today some of my third graders participated in a cheerleading competition, so Kyri and I met "Auntie Chrissy" at the competition to cheer them on. Kyri loved seeing all the girls dancing and clapped and yelled every time the crowd did. She was so cute cheering! Here are a couple pics Chris took of our future cheerleader!

New Baby Update

I had an ultrasound today to check the position and weight of the baby. The Dr. said everything looks good...right amount of fluids, placenta is in a good position (whatever that means) and the baby is head down. I didn't think that mattered much since I'm having a C section, but the Dr. said it made it easier for them when the baby is that way. So, that's a good thing! He confirmed that it is still a girl. : ) And she is weighing in at 7 lbs. right now! I still have two weeks to go, so it looks like this little girl will be bigger than her big sister. Because there's not much room in there right now, we didn't get a great ultrasound picture to post. All of them that the doc printed are hard to make out which body parts are which. While we were watching, we did get to see her opening and closing her eyes. I also made him roll the magic wand over the spot right below my right rib to see what has been jabbing me so much. Her heel! The Dr. says she has a good amount of hair and very chubby cheeks! Sounds like someone else I know! Can't wait to meet this little one and see who she looks like! 2 MORE WEEKS!

Baby's Room, Willowbrook Wildlife Haven, and Dinner with the Coulters

We're ready! Today we finished putting together all of the furniture for the new baby. Just 2 1/2 weeks until my scheduled date. It's hard to believe that we will no longer be a family of three, but we can't wait to meet our new addition!

Kyle and his helper putting together the furniture. She was cheering on her daddy with pom pons and a crown.

The finished product.

(It looks a lot like Kyri's room...we switched her old bedding and accessories over to this room. Kyri's room is now jungle themed.)

Earlier in the day we visited Willowbrook Wildlife Haven to see some animals. It's a place where injured animals are brought for rehabilitation.

This picture is for Grandma Nancy...Kyri loved watching this snake slither around his cage!

She brought her new binoculars to do some bird watching.

Reading in a cool treehouse

Later, we went over to Dan and Gina's for dinner. Kyri and Cooper had a lot of fun playing together. It was so cute to see them interact and be social. They're growing up so fast! When we were getting them into their pajamas, we just had to take these embarrassing pictures which they will hate us for when they're older!

This is just a bonus picture from earlier in the week. Cindy Lou Who!

Second Week of Christmas Break

This past week of break has been a lot of fun! Kyle and I started off the week by going downtown for our anniversary. We went to The Chopping Block to take a pasta cooking class. Being the noncooker that I am, I felt a little overwhelmed. The atmosphere was really neat, though, and we had a lot of fun meeting the other people in the class. We'll see if we can use our new skills to try something on our own!

Then from Tuesday through Thursday, we went to our lake house with our friends The Riebes. Kyri loved playing with their daughter, Emily. On Wednesday, the dads went skiing while the girls went shopping in Galena. After we got back to the house that night, Kyri and Emily got to do some sledding in the front yard.

Bundling up for the cold weather

Jake was nice enough to pull the girls all around.

Emily taught Kyri how to make snow angels!

Sledding down our "huge" snow drift.

After we got back from the lake, Kyle and I took Kyri to Brookfield Zoo Thursday night to see the holiday lights and the active night animals! She had sooo much fun. It was neat to see all the nocturnal animals that we don't normally see during the day.

Friday morning, Kyri got to go see her first movie in a theater! Grandma Nancy, Grandma B, and I took her to see Tangled. We were a little worried about taking a 2 year-old to the theater, but she sat through it, glued to the screen, eating her goldfish like a big girl. It was so cute to see her get so into the movie.

Friday night we went to Uncle B's and Auntie Kay's house for New Year's Eve. The girls started out the evening with a Mickey appetizer.

Then Kay and Bryan showed us all the cupcakes they had baked. It turned into a cupcake decorating party! Kay got a bunch of supplies and books about making creative cupcakes for her birthday and Christmas, so we decided to give them a try.

Deciding where to start.

Kay in deep concentration.

Kyri and Aubry entertained us while we decorated!

Some of the finished products.

After our masterpieces were complete, the party moved into the family room for some Wii competition.

We tried to make it to midnight, but Kyri threw in the towel around 11:00.

On New Year's Day my family always gets together at my parents' house to celebrate all of the December and January birthdays in my family. We have a pajama party and everyone brings food to have a big brunch buffet. This year was another success, except that my dad was sick on his birthday and couldn't get out of bed. We still had a great party anyway!

Kyri playing in the tent that Santa brought to Grandma's house.

Aunt Sherry in the tent with Kyri

After partying so late the night before, Kyri and Kyle took a little nap in the tent.

Uncle Steve and Kyri giggling in the tent

Tackle Uncle Steve time!

Aubs wearing a New Year's crown backwards!

Since Kyri's one of the December birthdays, Grandma got her a new Rapunzel doll.

Aubry helped the others open their presents.

Kyri got a cupcake and put a pretzel in it as a pretend candle. She want around asking everyone to make a wish and blow out the candle.

Sitting with Aunt Susie to eat her cupcake.

Finally, Kyri snuggled with Uncle B as we watched old home movies of the family. It was a lot of fun to see how much we've all changed!

To end our busy week, we left my parents' and went to Mary and Vic's house for dinner. We hadn't seen them in so long, and it was great to catch up. Here are Kyri and Sofia watching a movie all comfy in their chairs.

This is little, or should I say big, Victorio. Can't believe he'll already be 8 months old this week!

I wish our break didn't have to end, but we definitely had tons of fun these past two weeks. I loved spending so much time with my family and friends. Kyle and I both agreed this was a great Christmas break!