Baby Hannah's 3-D Ultrasound Pictures

Today, we had to drive Steve's car to my 7:15am ultrasound appointment because we didn't think we could make it there in our car. There was a LOT of snow outside and we would have probably gotten stuck. Steve's car has special snow-studded tires.

Baby Hannah is supposed to be about 3.75 pounds right now, but the ultrasound computer is estimating her weight at 5.5 pounds! I am a little worried because I don't want to have a 10 pound baby in February! She's not supposed to be 5.5 pounds for another month.

Today is Christmas Eve, so we are going to have Chrismas dinner at Brian's mom's house tonight.

Heidi went sledding today.

Heidi went sledding today here at Grandma Sylvia's house. Brian took some pictures, but I can't put them on here because we can't download pictures from our camera right now... and our memory stick doesn't fit in the memory stick usb thing that Sylvia and Steve have here at their house, so you will just have to imagine it. I had some pretty pictures of the snow, too!

Yesterday, Brian and I went to a couple of stores and when we got back to the house, it took about 20 minutes for us to finally get parked in the drive way because we were stuck in the snow. We got stuck in the snow at Fred Meyer yesterday, too... and some guy saw that we were stuck and came to help push us out of the snow.

Sore Hips: Tendons?

My hips have been bothering me this past week, especially when I am trying to sleep at night. It seems like if I lay on one side too long, my hip on that side starts getting kind of sore, so I switch sides until that hip starts to hurt too. The soreness usually goes away a little while after I get out of bed in the morning and walk around a while, but today... my hips are still sore. Is it because my tendons are softening in preparation for childbirth?? Or am I just getting old?

Snow: Church is Cancelled

The snow that we got last week still hadn't all melted and the roads were still kind of covered with packed down snow & ice. Then last night, it snowed some more, so church was cancelled today. It's pretty and white outside! I think it has at least warmed up to 21 degrees! It had been a lot colder. With the wind chill, it had gotten down to where it felt like it was 1 degree outside. Brian's dad hasn't been getting any mail up at his house because they haven't been able to deliver it up there. Sears supposedly overnighted a package to me (Heidi's 3-year pictures) over a week ago, but that hasn't been delivered either... because they haven't been able to deliver it. Brian says that he's never seen the weather this bad here in Bellingham before. He says that when it snows, it usually melts... but it just hasn't really been melting here.

Snow

It's 17 degrees outside here in Bellingham, WA right now. With the wind chill, I'm sure that it feels like it's MUCH colder!

Last night, I went to a church play with Brian's mom (while Brian and Steve stayed home with Heidi). Before we had left for the play, we started to see a few snow flurries, but nothing much.

At the intermission of the play, I got up to walk around and get some water and took a peek outside to see how the snow was doing... and the ground was starting to turn a little white, but it still wasn't snowing very hard.

By the end of the play, they made an announcement about a particular road that we should probably try to avoid because of the snow cover. I guess in that last half of the play, the snow really started coming down a lot faster. The roads were Completely Covered!

After the play was over, we tried to drive over to Bob and Karen's house to get some pictures (Heidi's 3-year pictures from Sears) that were supposed to arrive that day by a FedEx truck, but we didn't make it up to their house. I was a little nervous about going up the STEEP hill to their house anyway, but we didn't even make it that far... We saw about 4 car accidents and a few tow trucks on our way over to Bob and Karen's house... and the road was blocked off one way that we tried to go... and another way we tried to go, we sat through 2 or 3 green lights and the traffic just wasn't moving, so we had to turn around that way too. I think there had been another accident, so we just weren't moving. We tried going different ways to get up to their house, but we just gave up eventually and went back to Sylvia's house. The drive home was a little scary, too, because sometimes the snow was blowing so hard right into the windshield that it made it difficult to see the road. We eventually made it back to the house, though. :) ... and Brian had JUST put Heidi to bed! I think that's the first time he's ever put her to bed! I think I am the only person who has ever put her down to sleep. I was glad she went down for him! She'll have to go down to bed for someone else when I go into the hospital to have the baby.

Brian drove over to Bob and Karen's house today (Sunday) to try to get the pictures, but they weren't there. Instead, he saw a FedEx truck sitting at the bottom of the road. I guess it broke down or something... probably yesterday... so our pictures are probably sitting on that truck.

Anyway, we don't have the pictures, but I am really glad that they weren't sitting out in the snow all of last night!

Today was also Grandpa George's birthday, so Heidi and I called to wish him a Happy Birthday. He turned 57 today. Heidi even sang the Happy Birthday song for him.

Getting A Christmas Tree

Saturday, we (Heidi, Brian, Grandma Sylvia, Grandpa Steve, and I) drove to a tree farm to find the perfect Christmas tree. We ended up choosing a really pretty, full Douglas Fir tree that might be about 7 feet tall. I had never been to pick out a real tree before. Although it was kind of cold and really windy outside that day, it was kind of fun getting to pick a tree out. Brian and Steve cut it down. It didn't take that long to find the perfect one.

Brian and Steve tied the tree to the top of the car and we then went into a small building next to the tree farm to get some free treats that they had for the customers. They had hot chocolate, hot apple cider, homemade cookies, oranges, and candy canes for people to enjoy. There was also a Christmasy trainset with a Christmas village to see.

After filling up on the free treats, we went back to Grandma Sylvia's house to decorate the tree. Heidi enjoyed helping to put the ornaments on the tree. I think her favorite ornament was the Cinderella ornament that belongs to Brian's little sister Stacey.

I wish I had my camera to take some pictures, but I left it over at Grandpa Bob's house after we got back from our trip to Alabama. Sylvia got some, so I will try to put one or two on here when they email them out.

Grandpa George Reads to Heidi

Tonight before bed, Grandpa George read T'was The Night Before Christmas to Heidi. Here's a picture!

Visit With Santa

Yesterday (Saturday), Grandpa George and I took Heidi to see Santa Claus at the PX. She got to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas, and of course, she told him that she wanted a "pink strawberry shortcake doll." She tells me that she wants one every day. She was pretty excited when he gave her two little candy canes after her visit with him. I took some pictures, but most of them turned out kind of blurry. She's wearing a dress that Grandma Holly gave her on her birthday.

Last night, she woke up crying and threw up several times, but seems to be fine today.

Heidi's Story

Tonight at bedtime, we read a book called Little Mommy (a cute, older Golden book story) about a little girl who is a mommy to her three dollies. After I read to her, Heidi wanted to tell me a story. I thought she did a pretty good job. She kind of combined a couple of stories and added a little twist to it. Here's her story, as best as I can remember the way that she told it to me tonight: "Once upon a time," Goldilocks ran away and went into a house and went to sleep. When the bears came home and found her, she ran away. When she was running, a wolf caught her and ate her up. Then, the grandma got the wolf and took some scissors and cut open his tummy... and "out cracked Goldilocks from out of his tummy."

Princess Heidi

Heidi likes to lay on the ground and pretend that a mean witch locked her in her room and made her go to sleep. She usually lays down on the ground with her eyes closed and waits for her prince to come and give her "true love's kiss" (just like in Sleeping Beauty). Above, you can a picture of her acting out the sleeping princess role.

This evening, she's been saying that her name is not just Heidi, but instead, her name is Princess Heidi Blum. This is kind of unusual. When I normally tell her that her name is Heidi Elizabeth Blum, she usually says "No, I Not Blum!" She usually acts as though she has been offended and insists that her name is not "Blum."

Grandma Holly was the prince for a while this evening, but then it was Grandpa George's turn and they danced (as seen in another picture above).

Visit With Aaron and Andrea

Pictured Above: Heidi (age 3), Austin (age 4), & Audrey (age 7)

We drove down to Florida this week to visit Aaron and Andrea (we spent Tuesday & Wednesday there). I enjoyed the sunshine on the drive down there. It was a nice change from the gray skies in Washington. Heidi enjoyed visiting and playing with Audrey and Austin (her cousins) while we were there.

Aaron is building an outdoor shed that looks more like a small house. It's pretty elaborate for a shed. It's going to look really good when it is completed. Andrea seems to be keeping busy with the kids and decorating for Christmas. Audrey is growing up. I guess she is growing out of the princess stage and moving into the preteen stage a little (she's going to be 8 in February, I think). She's also a really great reader! I heard her reading aloud one night to her mom (for homework) and she reads really well for her age! She even did accents for the leprechauns in the book she was reading. Austin (who turned 4 this past November) is a normal boy. Heidi says he has a lot of boy toys (cars, ramps, superhero things, etc). That's what she told Grandma Holly and Grandpa George when we got back to their house. While we were there, Andrea asked Austin if she could take a picture of him with Heidi, he said something like "No, she's too (pretty or cute, can't remember which he used)." I thought it was kind of funny that he would say that.

Heidi played with Audrey and some of her more girlie toys, but she did also play with Austin and some of his boy toys, too. She had fun and I don't think she really wanted to leave. She doesn't get to play with other kids much anymore. Overall, it was a fun visit!