T'was the Night Before Christmas...

We had a busy night the night before Christmas... things started off with a get together at our good friend Linda's house and then we headed to church for the 6:30 candlelight service. After church, we went home and put our reindeer food out on the lawn, Santa's cookies and milk out and hurried off to bed...

Here we are getting ready to put out the reindeer food:


Eddie


Ryan


Kevin


Eddie sound asleep


Kevin and Ryan trying to fall asleep so Santa will come


Kevin working on sleeping


Ryan pretending to sleep


The Gingerbread House we made

Make a Joyful Noise

As promised, here are the videos of the kids singing at church:

Matthew Begats (This is the song that I mentioned was really hard for Eddie to learn... yes, this really is his group although you can't see him - sorry the picture is out of focus but at least you can still hear it).


My God is so Big


Joy to the World

Baby

Here's the picture I promised of baby! It's pretty blurry but hopefully you can still make it out. I hope to have some more pictures after my level 2 ultrasound on 1/24.

Hi everyone!!!

Merry Christmas!

How 'bout them pajamas!!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Sorry I haven't had time to post pictures yet but I will soon! We had a great Christmas... We had a special Christmas service on Sunday - the kids sang and it was very cute. Each group sang two songs... Eddie did one song that was particularly hard to learn (even for me!) It was very cute though. It was an extra long service because of the singing and they honored two missionaries... after the kids finished their singing, they went into their Sunday school classes and the pastor gave a nice sermon... I will post some pictures (and video!) of the kids singing! On Christmas Eve, we went to the candlelight service at church. It was the first time the kids stayed in the sanctuary the whole time - there wasn't a sermon per se but a special presentation and singing... at the end, we all held our little candles for "Silent Night"... I think the kids really enjoyed it. We had our work cut out for us when we got home though - had to sprinkle the lawn for the reindeer, set out our letter for Santa plus his cookies and milk, we tracked Santa on the Internet and scrambled into bed... Christmas Day was really fun - the kids got lots of goodies. We had a visit from Ed's sister and her husband and Ed's Mom... it was a good time. I will post pictures soon but wanted to say a quick hello! A special thanks to our friend Darlene from bloggerland for the cute stuffed animals - the kids loved them!! I will post a picture! TTFN!!

Christmas Cards Should be in the Mail by Friday!

"I'm really not this flaky usually"... I hear myself saying that a lot lately... maybe I actually AM flaky after all! At any rate, I sit here at almost 1:00 am writing (or typing out I should say) my Christmas card labels... with any luck, I'll pick up the cards tomorrow at Walmart, put the labels on them and get them in the mail by Friday! I know I shouldn't be up this late but I really would like to get them in the mail by Friday so they at least have a chance of arriving before Christmas (even if by one day). I'm setting myself up for failure tomorrow... we have a busy morning and then I have a ton of shopping to do while Kevin and Ryan are at school tomorrow but just realized I won't be able to do because they have Christmas parties... and I have to work tomorrow night! I will be SO tired by the time the night is over tomorrow... maybe I'll have to finish the labels tomorrow! I promise, next year - I will have them done early!!!

Thanks for all the comments!

Thanks for all the comments lately! I love getting comments! I hope to have some pictures of #4 up soon for you all to see. Thanks for reading my blog!!!

Appointment Update

Hi everyone! I had my appointment today... and got to see the baby! Everything looked great... he or she is measuring a few days ahead of schedule and had a heart rate of 151. Well, I thought the level II ultrasound was today but I was mistaken. They do level II ultrasounds as part of the screening but not until 18 weeks (as I've had done before). The part that they do earlier is what I had done today and it was a short ultrasound by a specialized technician who can look at the nuchal fold. They are looking for the thickness of the baby's neck to try and see if they baby has Down's Syndrome. They can't tell you yes or no but they will try to estimate your odds. The test is totally based on how cooperative the baby is because they need to get to a certain spot on the neck. To give you an idea of size, they want it to measure between 1 and 3 mm. Our baby was *not* cooperative and was actually laying on it's head so the tech could not get a good look at it. That was fine by me, I enjoyed looking at the baby! They did blood work today and I will have more blood work done in 3 weeks. January 24th is the day of the big level II ultrasound. The actual scan takes one hour plus any other counseling, talking to the doctor or blood work... It was so unlike me but when the tech was starting the ultrasound, I said "Now, I know you probably can't tell yet but we are not finding out the sex so please don't let me see"... That's so NOT me!!! She said it would be too small for me to be able to tell but that she would never say anyway!!! She gave me some pictures but they are kind of blurry. The pictures I have from 2 weeks ago are clearer so I'll try to put one up tomorrow! Good night!!!!

4 Year Old Pictures

I took Kevin and Ryan to Kiddie Kandids (at Babies R Us) for their 4 year pictures. They have a birthday club... you are able to get one free picture per year so that's just what we did!

Ryan


Kevin

Level 2 Ultrasound on Monday!

I am having a level 2 ultrasound on Monday. I will be 13 weeks. They do them earlier now... When I was pregnant with Eddie, I think I had a level 2 ultrasound at around 19 weeks. When I was at my first prenatal appointment, they offered me what they call "first trimester" screening. It includes the controversial AFP test and the level 2 ultrasound among other thing. I think they call it a quad screen (?) these days. I was sort of taken aback when she asked me about it because I hadn't heard of it before (not as first trimester screening anyway)... and I couldn't believe what they said next... they actually said that they offer it earlier these days to give the mother options, you know in case I wanted an early termination? Well, that won't be happening but I will be glad to take a peek at the little guy or gal. I imagine it's too early to find out the sex but we will not be finding out until the baby is born! In the past, I've always found out but this time, I will be relishing the wait and the surprise. I will try to scan in my pictures from Monday and let the little one say hello to everyone here on the blog!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like .... WINTER!!!

We are getting hit with a big snow storm right now... the snow started at 12:30 and is still going on. Preschool was canceled and the elementary school let out at 1:20. The snow is coming down fast and furious. I'm so glad I was able to get out this morning and buy snow pants and boots for the kids; they are having a great time out there! We went shopping after Kevin had speech this morning. I called the school to say I was running late and they said "School has been canceled Mrs. McGurn". I hate it when they call me that - they make me feel so OLD!!

Here are some pictures of the kids outside:

Is it a 50/50?

I always thought that when a woman had a baby, there was a 50% chance the baby would be a boy and a 50% chance the baby would be a girl... However, people are telling me that the more you have of one sex, the more likely you are to have another one of that sex... and each time you have a child of the same sex, the odds change making it no longer a 50/50. This makes no sense to me. Why wouldn't it be a 50/50 every time? We'll be happy either way and are excited to be surprised on the big day.... but if you can explain this to me, I'd be very interested in understanding the logistics!

Party of Six

We are excited to announce that our family is expanding by two feet... We are expecting baby #4 on June 23rd! I will be 12 weeks along tomorrow (Monday) and everything is going well. Eddie, Kevin and Ryan are very excited and love talking to the baby... they have picked out a few good names but we will not be finding out the baby's gender so we have plenty of time to think about it....

Who knows how to post a link in their Blogger Blog

and why can't I figure it out??? I click on the link icon and enter the address but it never comes out as a link - just a bunch of coding.

Does anyone have the html coding for posting 4 pictures in a cube? I've done it before but the pics always come out so huge.

Any ideas?

THANKS!

Good night!!!

Lately we have been finding Kevin and Ryan sleeping in Kevin's bed... who can blame them when it's so cold out there!!!

Lock Down Drill

The other day we received an automated message from the elementary school as we often do regarding various announcments, etc. I wasn't expecting this one though! The prinicipal said as part of the safety policy at school, the children participated in two fire drills so far this year as well as one lock down drill. The lock down drill happened that day and she was letting us know so we wouldn't be alarmed if our child mentioned it. Well, Eddie hadn't mentioned it so the next day I asked him if anything unusual or different happened at school. His answer was "We had art class". I asked "Did you do anything else different like a drill?"... and he replied "Oh yeah, the lock down drill"... he said it very casually like everyone does them. I asked what the lock down drill was for. He replied "Just incase there are any bad guys at school... you stop doing your work, turn the lights out and hide in the corner farthest from the door". I asked why they had to hide in the corner and he said that way when the "bad guy" looks in the window, he won't see you. Doesn't that just send chills down your spine? I guess in a way it's good so that if anything *did* happen, the children would be "prepared" and not panic but that's some scary stuff!! Anyone up for homeschooling?

We're Out of Here!

Tomorrow morning we are heading to PA for Thanksgiving!! We'll drive down tomorrow and drive home Monday. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Three Cheers for Eddie

Last night was Eddie's parent teacher conference and I'm happy to report it went really well! The teacher said he's doing great. He scores really well on his math and spelling tests; getting all 100's so far. She said he loves to learn and is very helpful in class. The kids sit in groups of 4 desks which she rotates periodically. She said Eddie gets along with everyone he sits with and is doing well learning to socialize. He loves to participate in class. We were very excited to hear all of this. First grade can be hard transition to a full day of school but, so far, he seems to be doing well. Eddie was just assigned his first "research project" and is very excited to work on it. They each chose a wild animal and Eddie chose the flying lizard. Does anyone know what the flying lizard's predator is? We haven't been able to find an answer... we just ordered 5 books on lizards from the library. One source said snakes and other lizards but I think I need a better source!! Congrats to Eddie! Keep up the good work!

Happy Early Elf Greetings

Check it out - this is really cool!

I don't know why I can't figure out how to insert links so you'll have to cut n paste - sorry!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9556979343

What's for Dinner?

Have any good plans for dinner tonight? Made anything really good lately? Have ideas you want to share?

A Day OFF!

Today is a Veteran's Day and the kids have off school! I would be working tonight but I don't work Mondays anymore soooo... a full day off! We have a busy day. We will be leaving shortly to go to the Children's Museum in Easton. We have a pass but haven't been in a long time because we don't enough time in the morning before Kevin and Ryan go to school and we don't have enough time after Eddie gets out before I have to get ready for work! Today they have special holiday hours and open at 9:00 so we are heading out! They have a special area dedicated to FETCH with Ruff Ruffman - one of Eddie's favorite shows and today they will have special FETCH activities so we are VERY excited about that! After the museum, we'll be dropping Eddie off at a birthday party and after the birthday party, we'll be meeting up with friends of ours at a different children's "museum" in Weymouth (it's more like a big playroom)... then home for dinner and tonight I have a Cub Scout leader meeting... so not much of a "day off" per se but we are happy to be off anyway! I'll post pictures later if Ruff happens to make an appearance at the museum! Enjoy your day ~ and let's say thanks to our Veterans.