You know what that means... this next week it will be only 17 weeks until our little princess joins our family. Sadly, she is back to not having a name again. I thought we were totally set on Caroline Ann... I guess I just didn't love it enough.
Overall it has been a pretty uneventful couple weeks on the pregnancy front. It seems to just be slipping by so fast!
I have one more appointment with my midwife, and then sometime in February we will talk to her backup OB/GYN who has signed on for my cesarean.
Courtney and I took a couple funny Belly pictures on Christmas... I thought I would share...
This is the ONLY one I like of myself... and I am not even LOOKING or posing... LOL
Christmas was eventful to say the least this year. Christmas eve was filled with a visit from Auntie Liz who brought the boys what seems to be their favorite toy... a big Mickey Mouse fire house and fire truck that goes along with it. Nothing better than Mickey and fire stuff. We are "working on" the sharing concept. LOL
Of course Camden wanted to stay up all night long, and sleep on the couch to try and catch Santa which made the job of the real Santa much harder, although we successfully got it all done... around 2am! Thank Gosh for alarm clocks!
This was first thing Christmas morning.... I love that picture of Ben, he was still just waking up, and so happy to be awake. Unlike Camden, he is happy in the morning. Oh, and the first words out of Camden's mouth... "SANTA CAME! Look he brought presents! All those presents!!!"
Ben wanted to eat Camden's new Car's underwear... LOL
And of course the dollar bin Dinosaurs were a bigger hit than the $150 remote controlled robot Dinosaur... Story of my life! At least I got a good deal on it! LOL
That right there... is the aftermath in our living room, although I am sure some out there had living rooms way worse than ours.
One thing I was kind of bummed out about was the choice Will and & made months ago not to exchanged any gifts between the two of us. I think he was kind of bummed out about it too while the kids were ripping through their presents. I feel a mini Mommy and Daddy Christmas coming up in January. LOL! Although the look on the faces of the boys was priceless. Every gift was new excitement and smiles. My heart melted over and over again, as I continued to hold back the tears. Hormones + Pregnancy + Christmas = Giant sappy Danielle. Hey... it happens.
Then for the afternoon we packed up the troops and headed to my parents house till late. Just like we always so on Christmas. I love spending the holidays with my family, and extended family.
We made Grandma open hers first...
Can we tell Will hates pictures?
The future of our Fire Department... LOL Can you sense a theme with the kids presents again this year?
Just some of the food Mom made... The ham was delish, as was everything she made, including the cookies I dove into that I should have passed on... Oh well, it is Christmas.. I can't watch the sugar every day... But I am certainly getting back into my diet to help prevent "gestational diabetes" again...
Ben was ready for bed! LOL
I actually like this picture, although Will wasn't too happy with it.
My fat face... lol
I LOVE this picture of Ben and Grandpa!
Overall Christmas was an amazing day, just like it is every year with the family. My cousin Courtney and my self took some hysterical belly pictures (my 20 week pictures although today I am 21 weeks) I will post them later on in the week once I have recovered fully from Christmas. Good thing we are getting hit with a blizzard because I need an excuse to bum around the house, and nap with the kids for the next couple days. I honestly feel like I could sleep for an entire day after yesterday!
After missing an opportunity to go to The Fantasy of Lights on Saturday night, and then again on Sunday, Monday we were on a mission, which apparently screwed up the Fire Department's surprise delivery at our house scheduled for that night (whole other story!)
We started the night off on a mission to hit up Modern Pizza in New Haven at the suggestion of friends. We had been to Pepe's before, and wanted to give the other famous pizza place a try. We pull up in front, and they are closed! Apparently everyone forgot to tell us they aren't open on Monday. Doh!
So we made our way over to Pepe's. The line wasn't that bad, although these punk kids tried to get in front of us, which is when I spoke up in my best cranky pregnant woman tone with "I am pregnant, and hungry, DON'T CUT IN LINE!"
We were sat at table #20 only two tabled over from where Camden, Will, and I sat the day we got married at the New Haven City Hall while my parents were on vacation. LOL Certainly brought back memories.
Will ordered this giant pizza, I guess a large is way bigger than he expected. (Leftovers for lunch at work for a week!) He got cheese, roasted red peppers (which Ben enjoyed) bacon and mushroom. Needless to say... that is what a $30 pizza looks like if you have never seen one before!
Ben really enjoyed the pizza, while Camden wanted no part of our family outing. He just sat in the corner of the booth, had maybe a half slice of pizza and drank his juice. At least he wasn't climbing under the table, or on his father.
I enjoyed a small Pepperoni pizza and it was sooooo good. I never get pepperoni because Will hates it, and 9 times out of 10 I am sharing with the kids.
We packed the kids up in the car and started to head down Wooster Street towards the highway... and there it was. A little Italian bakery... and it was still OPEN! I ran in and got all kinds of delish goodies. Chocolate dipped cheesecake for will, an eclair and canoli for myself, even though I shouldn't be eating them... and a couple small things for the boys. HEAVEN!
Once we were done there, we headed over to the Fantasy of lights.
Again you can kind of tell how uninterested Camden was at first as we were driving in the tunnel of lights. "Can we go back the other way??" Meaning... home!
I took a ton of videos, but this year, we were pretty disappointed. I felt bad because I had been insisting on going since they opened, and Will had never been... some of the lights were out, displays were missing lights, heck a couple of them had entire figures out.
It certainly wasn't what it used to be 5 years ago the last time we went.
I have been going back and forth on telling everyone the name of our little girl before she is born, or just waiting till she is born and announcing it then. I am also probably the most impatient person on planet earth, so keeping it in feels like it is eating me alive! I figured as a Christmas present to all of our friends and family, I would let you in on the little secret. By the way... isn't she so cute? Haha! I am hoping she has Camden's nose, and Ben's bright blue eyes. I want her to be cuddly like Camden is, and quiet like Benjamin. They have so much to teach her, and I am so blessed to have three amazing children.
Without any further waiting... Wait... What? Neil Diamond? What does he have to do with anything?
Sweeeeeet Caroline... Ann Elwood!
Our little girl will be Caroline Ann Elwood after much debate, searching for the right name, Will and I going back and forth, and of course input from our loving family and friends.
For short, we will be calling her Carly, although I haven't finalized the way I want to spell her nickname yet. Carly, Carley, Carlee... Who knows... I got another 5ish months to figure it out!
Every year the fire department drives through our neighborhood and Santa throws popcorn balls to the kids... The first year we caught it on video as I ran outside in my bare feet (in the snow)
That was 2008... This year Daddy was on the fire truck helping out...
Please don't mind the Earth Quake taking place with the camera, I was trying to keep my toddler from running out into the road to actually GET to the fire truck he typically plays on!
Today was the second Echo Hose childrens Christmas party we have gone to since Will joined a month before Benjamin was born. The kids had a blast, and they always put together such a fun day. There was breakfast, and then a magician that the kids were totally memorized by. Then of course like always Santa came and handed out all the gifts for the children. It was a blast!
Of course like always I was the volunteer camera lady, but I only posted pictures of my own kids here... haha
How cute was Ben? He wanted to sit on the presents (He is sitting on Camden's there) I tried to get Camden to sit and take a picture with him but he was way too interested in the firemen and everything else going on.
The tree and all the presents for the children...
Daddy getting ready all over again... That is baby Brady he is too cute! I also made sure to get in my Brady time before he went down for a nice nap in the middle of the party.
Ok how cute is she? Apparently she has been "playing" at the Christmas party for... a while? She had such a good time watching all the kids open their presents.
Daddy also enjoyed the Magician with the kids...
And then Santa came... This year he is on a slight diet... LOL (Our typical Santa had a cold)
Then came the presents... Ben was called first...
And Daddy helped him get started... He was a pro from then on out, although he was ready to knock out for a nap.
Then it was Camden's turn... and I think the box for his toy was actually BIGGER than he is... Thankfully Daddy helped him, I don't think he could have carried that.
Which when he opened... was a HUGE fire station with trucks, helicopters... and all kinds of things for me to step on at 3am when I am stumbling to the bathroom with one eye open...
It is truly amazing to have this great "second family"... even better is the fact that all the kids for the most part will be going to the same school and be in the same grades, except for a couple kids that are 7 and up right now... They can look out for our youngsters...
Although, I feel slightly bad for the teachers when they all get there considering they are ALL boys, and ONE girl... LOL
Yes, that's me! The one with the shopping problem. In the past week, yes... ONE week since we found out the baby is a girl, I have placed my order for the following...
A print to frame...
A headband that will probably be the size of her newborn head...
Another super cute headband...
Vinyl Wall Art for her room...
And her crib...
Oh, we also picked out the paint color... Chocolate Cheesecake... sounds really yummy huh? Yeah... so I figure we have a couple months to get it altogether... but I have certainly had fun shopping!
I have been meaning to put this video up... Camden has become very... temperamental lately and decided he had no interest in the Happy Birthday song this year....
As far back as I can remember, when Christmas would come I would anxiously wait and ask my Dad when the Carl J. Frano Christmas special would be scheduled for on our local public radio station WPKN. One year he surprised me and called in requesting one of my all time favorites for "Little Danielle" and it is one of my favorite Christmas memories. Even better is he has it saved on TAPE... YES TAPE!
This morning he called me up and told me to put it on, and of course I called the radio station up to see if they could play one of my Christmas favorites for my kids...
It totally came full circle as I danced around the living room with Camden singing "Santa does the Mambo"
Tonight I got to bathe Ben. Just me and him, hanging out in the bathroom and it reminded me what it is like to only have one child just for a little bit. We had fun, and he was being so cute I had to go grab the camera to make a G rated little video...
Sunday we had a small family get together to celebrate Camden's third birthday. This year we had a hard time putting together a "party" because of our friends and family having a lot of previous commitment's so we just thought we would make it small. Next year we are going to start planning in October to avoid that! LOL
We had dinner, and cake at my parents house, where Camden got some really cool presents! From Grandma and Grandpa he got two talking dinosaurs who are part of the show Dinosaur train. He has not left them alone yet!
Uncle Al, one of my father's motorcycle buddies who we have adopted got Camden an awesome Mustang GT remote control car. MAN is that thing FAST! Last year he got him a remote control Jeep Rubicon and the year before a electric motorcycled. Al loves Camden, can ya tell?
Uncle Danny, the brother I adopted years ago got Camden a motorcycle that does wheelies. Certainly a theme right?
Overall we had a lot of fun. I am glad all the family was 100% healthy and feeling better after the 24 hour bug we had hit this week.
Now onto the next holiday... Christmas, then New Years, and things can start to calm down enough for me to pull apart the spare bedroom, and start working on little princess's nursery. As I will call her till she has a name. LOL
By the way, tonight Will had to run to Walmart for dog food, and when he came home he got his little girl a mini stocking that says "Princess" on it. I started crying. "A little stocking for my princess" is what he said. He is already wrapped around her finger!
Will and I always insisted that we would name our daughter Liberty Ann, and had Camden, or Benjamin been a girl, we would currently have a Liberty in our family. When we found out on Thursday that we are having a girl, Liberty got scrapped.
Her middle name will still be Ann, it is a family name. My middle name, my mothers, my grandmother's name, and Will's oldest sister's middle name. Not to mention growing up my best friend and I always called ourselves members of the "Ann club" because both of us had the same middle name as did our mothers... Longer story that really is necessary today. LOL
So now we are back to the drawing board for names... although we have a couple down we like already...
Addison Ann Georgia Ann (Family names) Madeline Ann Dorothy Ann (Family names) Delilah Ann (Not sure how Will feels about this one)
I really love Addison, and Madeline although they have become incredibly popular in the recent years. Everyone is voting for Georgia, and I think if we do use a family name Dorothy is going to be it. Will's grandmother was such an amazing woman, loving and everything we would want to name a little girl after. Plus, the older names are really starting to make a comeback!
I am so torn. I really want to use Liberty... and I don't want to be thinking about baby names. I thought we were all set if we had a daughter, and I feel like we are all the way back at square one. Luckily today marks 19 weeks of pregnancy for me, meaning this little girl will be here in exactly 20 weeks.
Sounds like a long time, but I KNOW it is going to FLY by!
Edit : After some further research, we have added...
Jocelyn Ann Kendall Ann Layla Ann Nora Ann Audrey Ann
Tomorrow Camden turns 3 years old... Time truly flies, and he has turned into such an interesting, intelligent, bright, and kind boy. A character for sure with a hysterical personality!
I put together his 3rd birthday video the other night, while crying my eyes out... oh hormones!
I know a lot of our friends and family already know what we are having due to my website, and that funky little invention called Facebook... My phone was lit up like a Christmas tree from 2pm until just a little while ago.
It was a very emotional day for us. First we learned we were expecting a very healthy baby. Everything looked awesome. Heart, kidneys, stomach, size, brain, growth... all right where they should be. I was relieved that the great ultrasound tech (that also was the one we had when we found out what Ben was 2 years ago) was friendly and nice... There is nothing worse than a mean, or rude ultrasound tech, especially for such a special occasion for your family.
She knew we were very anxiously awaiting the gender by the time the last couple minutes rolled around. She calculated all the measurements, to make sure baby was on point, while she encouraged me to "wake" the baby up to get a nice shot. I jiggled #3 around a little bit, and played the poking game that has been a favorite with all 3 children, especially since I can feel #3 poking back now.
She looked around, scanned, scanned, and I told Will to get our video camera ready to catch the big moment. She looked at us, and asked if we were ready and turned the monitor closer to us....
Congratulations... and she let me see for myself, and call it out... A GIRL!
I think I can get some kind of movie award for my reaction too!
Yesterday Ben started to spit out the word Baby... We have been showing him dolls, and my belly letting him know, yes there is a baby in there. Camden has also been a great big brother in teaching him the ropes of pregnancy and babies, although Ben doesn't seem all that interested. LOL
This morning before I dove into my hellish pile of laundry, I got Ben on camera for a couple minutes, and he finally said baby on video so I am no longer looking like a liar!
We have TWO days left until our BIG ultrasound when we find out the gender of our newest little addition.
I put up a small poll on my blog website, but I am going to include it here also so our friends and family can add their votes! Right now it is split right down the middle...
I haven't updated in about a week. This past week has been slightly insane for the family. Lots of things to get done, I have been cooking every night (GASP! I know, shocking!) and we had to prepare for the Festival of the Trees that Echo Hose puts on annually now. We donated two trees this year, and helped with Set up, and the Festival. Lots of fun, and we raised over $1300 for the Fire Department!
Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree. Thankfully it has lasted with the wrath of our children. I thought it was going to be touch and go at first, but we managed to lay down some ground rules, and it is all smooth sailing now. We also got an advent calendar to count down till Christmas. Camden picked out a Toy Story one. That is his new kick.
After we put the tree up, he wanted to be a clown and take pictures with no pants on in front of it. I told him to smile, and he smiled, and posed... he is my little cheese ball. You can totally tell he is my kid, because rewind 22 years ago, and this is a pose I would have been striking in front of a Christmas tree.
I have also started teaching myself how to cook better. I can cook probably 10 things pretty well, but I need to expand. It is boring, and the same things are certainly getting old when we are trying to cut back and not go out to eat. Last weekend I started this project, and I started with a couple recipes from The Pioneer Woman. She rocks... Above is her Ranch Style Chicken. It was amazing and I will be making it again!
Then there was the Festival of Trees on Saturday. One of the firemen dressed up like Santa, and Camden was so not interested in having anything to do with him. We only got him to sit on his lap after he pulled his beard down, and showed him that it was actually one of our good friends. Once he gave him the candy cane, we were golden. I am afraid of bringing him to see the "real" Santa in the mall now. I think he has Santa Phobia... Ben on the other hand wanted to climb all over him and play. He is a Santa champ.
Although we couldn't get him to actually sit still long enough to get a picture of him with the Fireman Santa. Maybe tonight at the Christmas Tree lighting I can accomplish that. Crossing my fingers!
On another note, this THURSDAY we find out what our newest addition to the family is. I am starting to think like everyone else, and say a third boy. Whatever... It's not like we can put it back or exchange it for another right? Either way, we are hoping for a very healthy little one. Thursday night, or sometime Friday I will post the results.
I was also able to accomplish some of my Christmas shopping. I got my mothers gift ordered, Dad's gift is picked out, Will's Christmas present is reserved, I just have to put the remainder of the deposit on it this week, I got Camden's birthday gifts bought, just need to wrap them... PHEW! Like I said, it was a BUSY week!
Next week will bring the last of the shopping I have to do for his birthday on Saturday... WOW! He is going to be 3! I cannot believe where time has gone!
This was first thing Christmas morning.... I love that picture of Ben, he was still just waking up, and so happy to be awake. Unlike Camden, he is happy in the morning. Oh, and the first words out of Camden's mouth... "SANTA CAME! Look he brought presents! All those presents!!!"
Ben wanted to eat Camden's new Car's underwear... LOL
And of course the dollar bin Dinosaurs were a bigger hit than the $150 remote controlled robot Dinosaur... Story of my life! At least I got a good deal on it! LOL
We made Grandma open hers first...
Can we tell Will hates pictures?
The future of our Fire Department... LOL Can you sense a theme with the kids presents again this year?
I actually like this picture, although Will wasn't too happy with it.
My fat face... lol
I LOVE this picture of Ben and Grandpa!
Ok how cute is she? Apparently she has been "playing" at the Christmas party for... a while? She had such a good time watching all the kids open their presents.
Daddy also enjoyed the Magician with the kids...
And Daddy helped him get started... He was a pro from then on out, although he was ready to knock out for a nap.
Then it was Camden's turn... and I think the box for his toy was actually BIGGER than he is... Thankfully Daddy helped him, I don't think he could have carried that.
Which when he opened... was a HUGE fire station with trucks, helicopters... and all kinds of things for me to step on at 3am when I am stumbling to the bathroom with one eye open...
A headband that will probably be the size of her newborn head...
Another super cute headband...
Vinyl Wall Art for her room...
And her crib...
After we put the tree up, he wanted to be a clown and take pictures with no pants on in front of it. I told him to smile, and he smiled, and posed... he is my little cheese ball. You can totally tell he is my kid, because rewind 22 years ago, and this is a pose I would have been striking in front of a Christmas tree.
I have also started teaching myself how to cook better. I can cook probably 10 things pretty well, but I need to expand. It is boring, and the same things are certainly getting old when we are trying to cut back and not go out to eat. Last weekend I started this project, and I started with a couple recipes from The Pioneer Woman. She rocks... Above is her Ranch Style Chicken. It was amazing and I will be making it again!
Although we couldn't get him to actually sit still long enough to get a picture of him with the Fireman Santa. Maybe tonight at the Christmas Tree lighting I can accomplish that. Crossing my fingers!