Thanksgiving 2011

This was our first Thanksgiving in Austin, and the Jacksons (Levi's parents - Joe and Melba) came to celebrate with us.

Levi and I cheated when it came to cooking, because I had to work the holiday (though it was nothing like working through the holidays in Residency, thank goodness!). So the Honeybaked Ham store made our meal for us! It was yummy - sweet turkey, creamy green bean casserole, whipped mashed potatoes, and to-die-for sweet potatoe souffle! I did make dessert - pumpkin cream cheese rolls and blackberry cobbler. I think we all ate more than enough food - as to be expected on Thanksgiving!

We had to take a post-meal walk, and of course, ended up at the playground by our house...

On Friday, Levi, Joe, Melba, and Olivia went to the park. It looks like they had fun!

On Saturday we all went downtown. It was sprinkling a bit, but for those of us who have been living through a drought all summer, it was a welcome relief!

Fun times!

*~*~*

One more picture, because it's just beautiful and I can't resist. Thank you to Levi, who made it happen!

such a lovely, lovely girl!



Baby Update

We are now 17 weeks along with Baby J#2! (I'd meant to post last week, at 16 weeks/4 months, but kept forgetting).

Things are going very well! According to BabyCenter, the baby is currently about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. I definitely feel little kicks daily - usually in the mornings and early evenings. Olivia is funny, too, because she will put her hand on my belly and then jerk it away very quickly and say, "OH! the baby got me!" :) I can't wait for the movements to be strong enough for her to feel,
too.

In about 3 weeks we'll have our Anatomy Scan ultrasound, where they check for birth defects, etc, and make sure the baby is growing well. Olivia will be going to that one, which should be fun...and we'll find out if Baby J#2 is a boy or a girl! Anyone have a guess yet? Post it in the comments if you do!


I have a few pictures to share, though I confess they are a little old...

12 weeks along - I love that you can see the whole baby in the picture!

On the left is 12weeks along with Olivia, on the right is 14weeks along this time. Big difference! Oh, and Olivia is the blur at the bottom of the picture. :) Funny. I seem to have the exact same haircut, too!

Finally, though it may seem a little redundant, I do have another, more "baby-centric" blog. It's actually the same blog I used to chronicle my pregnancy with Olivia, I just reopened it. The link is http://my-twiglet.livejournal.com/ if you want to check it out or follow it. I (try to) make weekly updates about how the baby is growing and developing, including a picture of the week. I'll post occasional updates like this here, but the bulk of the info will be there. :)

Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!

This was really one of the first years that Olivia knew what Halloween actually was...she had a Fall Festival at preschool where she got to wear her costume, and went trick or treating through the neighborhood instead of at a random Trunk-or-Treat. :)

We made Halloween-themed sugar cookies, and also got to decorate pumpkins together - me with a knife, her with a paintbrush, and Daddy with a camera. :)

(see picture at the top to see our final pumpkin creation!)

She was very cute about the whole costume thing - she'd been saying for a long time that she wanted to be Belle for Halloween, which is exactly what she was last year...

(Olivia, Halloween 2010)

But when we got to the store and I held up several different princess costumes, she zeroed in on Rapunzel. Which isn't suprising, given the number of times we've watched Tangled in the past few months...

Levi even found her a long blonde wig, which she wore for just long enough to take pictures...

Raise your hand if you understand why she's holding a skillet! :) hee hee.

We told her that she could be the Rapunzel-after-she-got-her-hair-cut-off when she didn't wear the wig...I'm not sure she cared either way.

She was really good about going up to houses and knocking...but she wouldn't say Trick or Treat! She'd just stand there, smiling. She did say "thank you" at least. :)

I took her around one part of the block, and then Levi took her around the other part (we didn't want to leave our house unattended during Trick-or-Treating time). With Levi going to the door along with her, she would actually say Trick-or-Treat. I think she had a lot of fun! We did, too.