The waiting game...

Charlotte is due February 24th, so we are just playing the waiting game around here... When I went to the doctor last week they said everything looked great and I am dilated 3 cm already. I feel pretty good, in fact I feel much better than I did when I was pregnant with Anabelle. Maybe my body is just used to being pregnant, I don't know. Because I still feel so good, I keep thinking that Charlotte is going to be late. But, since there is no way to know when she's coming, I am just trying to relax and enjoy the last few days of being pregnant.

I have been trying to spend as much time with Anabelle as possible, since I know that once I go into labor I will be apart from her for a while and then obviously I will also have Charlotte to care for so my attention will be divided. While I think that having a sibling is a wonderful gift and I know that Anabelle will love her sister, there is a part of me that thinks - these are the last days where Anabelle will have our undivided attention and have us all to herself. So I am feeling a little sentimental and sappy and want to cuddle with her all day.

Here's what we have been up to this week:

My Mom fed us lots of yummy food.

Anabelle did some painting at her easel.

Lego building with Daddy. I think Daddy has more fun than Anabelle :)

Surprise!

This post is way overdue.... I should have posted these pictures last month, but somehow it just didn't get done. So I figured I would share them now. On January 19th, John's oldest brother Mike and family, who live in Houston, flew in to spend the weekend in Chicago. The occasion was their father's 60th birthday. John along with his siblings planned to take their dad to see the Blackhawk's game on Friday and then the following day we hosted a surprise birthday party at our house.

It was fun to have Mike, Mary and their 4 children spend the weekend at our place. Anabelle is always thrilled to spend time with her cousins and this time was no different. She definitely wore them out and wanted to play every minute! Being from Houston, they are used to warmer weather and although our Winter has been VERY mild, of course that weekend we had to dip down to the single digits and get hit with the biggest snow storm of the season. While it was an inconvenience for travel, the kids loved the snow! I was sure to get lots of pictures of them having a ball.

Giana 10, Donte 16, Taylor 12, Dominick 7

Snow fight!

Snow angels

Anabelle loved being pulled around in her sled, and with so many cousins there was always someone willing to do it.

The kids decided to build a small hill.

Here is Giana pushing Anabelle down the little hill on a garbage can lid, with lots of laughing. Finally it was so dark, we had to drag them all inside for dinner. They were a lot of fun to watch!

John has 4 siblings; Mike, Joe, Zac and Abby. The boys planned to take their dad to the game on Friday night, and despite the snowstorm everyone made it down town and they had a great night. Although he knew about the game, John's Dad Mike didn't know that his son Mike was going to be in town, so that was a great surprise for him. The boys all had fun and the Blackhawk's even won-yay!

Joe, John, Zac, Mike, Dad

The next day we had 6 of John's Dad's siblings over, along with all of his children, and grandchildren. He was very surprised and we had a fun night, eating and celebrating. It was nice to have everyone together, it doesn't happen often enough.

Looking at old photos.

Cake!

A rare whole family photo.

All of Mike's kids; Mike 36, John 32, Abby 17, Zac 24, Joe 26

Mike, Mary, and kids.

Not the best picture of me, but Anabelle looks so darn cute I had to put it in.

Mike and his wife Pat with 6 of his siblings

Donna, Mary, Kay, Dennis, Mike, Denise, Maureen and Pat

Happy 60th Birthday Mike!!

Our Valentine's Day

My sweetheart got me some beautiful roses for Valentine's Day... he is such a good husband :)

Last night I went to craft night with my friends with the idea to whip up a little purse/tote bag for Anabelle for Valentine's Day. I brought along some scrap fabric that I had hanging around and with some help from my fellow crafters, I was able to sew this cute bag for Miss Belle. I used an old pair of jeans and some pink gingham fabric for the heart pocket and lining. It was my first experience with lining something and it was kinda a pain in the butt. Not sure that I'll be doing that again! The end result is somewhat close to what I envisioned, but cute none-the-less.

Before I went to bed I stuck the goodies that we got for Anabelle in her bag, waiting to be opened in the morning. A Winnie the Pooh book and stuffed animal and some play dough.

Here she is in the morning, checking out her goodies.

Lately, she has been becoming more interested in Winnie the Pooh, which is a nice break from Blues Clues.

While I cooked breakfast, Anabelle played with her new play dough.

Heart shaped pancakes with red sprinkle sugar and sausage-Yum!

Then we decided to go out to the mall for a little shopping and to visit with Grandma. Here she is packing up her new purse to take to the mall.

The rest of the day was spent taking a nap, playing, and having dinner with Daddy. After dinner, we decided to take a special trip to Colonial Cafe for ice cream sundaes. Anabelle was a big fan of her brownie sundae.

We had a great day, hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day too!

All Aboard!

Almost every morning Anabelle and I drive John to the train station. It's nice that Anabelle gets to see Daddy in the morning and we get a few minutes to chat before he is off to work and we start our day. A couple of months ago Anabelle became much more interested in the actual train, each day after Daddy gets out of the car we have to sit and watch the "choo-choo". We talk about the doors, all the people getting on, people who are late and run to get on the train, the conductor who waits by the doors, and then once the doors close and the train is moving, we have to wait and see the big blue engine at the end. I have been wanting to take Anabelle on a train ride for a while and it just seemed to always be a busy time. Well now that we have stopped planning things and are playing the waiting game for Charlotte, we have some free time for fun things like train rides.

My Mom and I decided to take a short trip to Downers Grove, just a 10 minute train ride from Naperville. They have a nice down town area, where we could walk around a little bit and then have a snack. They used to have a train themed restaurant called 2Toots, but they recently closed and moved to Glen Ellyn. It is a very popular and fun place to take kids, so we will have to go there some other time. While in Downers Grove we went to a diner called Kristina's, it was very good, we had hot chocolate and stuffed french toast-yum! We also walked around a fun toy store called My Favorite Toy Store, a really neat place that we will have to go back to the next time we need some toys. We had a great trip!

In Naperville, waiting for the train to come.

Here's my ticket!

Looking out the window.

Wow! We are going fast, look at all of those places outside.

Time to get off the train.

What a fun trip!

Anablelle had such a great time, that we will have to take a longer trip when the weather gets warmer. I would love to take her down town to meet Daddy for lunch some day.

Ok Charlotte, your room is ready... you can come out now

I finally finished Charlotte's room, yay! Prior to becoming a nursery, this room was our guest room. It was already painted this aqua color when we moved in, and after thinking for a while about what color I wanted to repaint it for Charlotte, I decided I actually liked the aqua and was gonna stick with it. Since the corner cabinet and rocking chair were cream colored, I decided to stick with that color and add in some pale pink to bring in some girly-ness. Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I think it looks very sweet and simple for our little girl. Here is the tour...

View from the door.

The crib is the same one that Anabelle used, it is still in pretty good shape with the exception of some marks from Miss Anabelle chewing on the rails. Gotta love teething babies :) I am working on a solution to cover them up.

For now the bassinet is being stored in here, but once Charlotte arrives, it will be moved into our bedroom for a few weeks. I had the hardest time finding simple valances for the windows in this room, so I finally broke down and sewed some of my own. They are very plain, so I may add some detail if I can find a light pink trim that I like, but for now they do the trick.

Eventually the memo board over the changing table will hold photos of family and friends holding baby Charlotte.

We got the glider when Anabelle was born, and I love it! So glad it fits in Charlotte's room too.

I made the plaques hanging over the crib out of a thin canvas covered in scrapbook paper and then hung with ribbon. I plan to have Charlotte's hand and foot prints added to them as well as a family photo from her birth day.

I also used some extra scrapbook paper and ribbon to update this frame we had. Here is baby Charlotte hanging out in the womb.

And of course a girl has to have a stocked closet. Here are all the newborn size clothes, cleaned and waiting for little miss to arrive.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, hopefully our little baby will make her debut soon and be able to enjoy it too!