Thanksgiving Update

Briella did quite well in the van, she was happier when I was in the seat next to her or when she had a snack in each hand.

She learned how to use the remote while at my parent's house. She also found the buttons on the TV and really cracked herself up with these new skills.

One of the highlights of mom's new kitchen is a special cupboard that has a shelf to pull out with her mixer mounted on it. Very handy. Anyway, while the mixer was being used the cupboard was free (well, mostly, Briella just emptied out a few things left) and found a little place to play!

Nap time 'fun'

Briella has been off and on taking morning naps. I have been trying to figure out what works so that I don't have a really crabby girl around 4-5 when I'm trying to get dinner together. So the last two days she has taken a morning nap and I wake her up after about an hour and then put her down around 2-2:30. Yesterday she was awake for quite awhile before actually being quiet, so I assume she did get some sleep . . . but who knows. Today she was mosly quiet for 30 mintues and then I heard what seemed to be cheers of joy and laughter. It was quiet again a minute later, but I decided to check anyway . . . this is what I found:

Recently she has been pulling up her shirt a lot and patting her belly, but evidently she can take it all the way off when she wants to. Interesting.

Computer issues continue

We are still having computer issues, I am able to get online, but we do not have Windows installed, yet. So I have not written or sent a letter with my Christmas pictures . . . the pictures are enveloped, stamped, labelled, but in a box.

I keep thinking that I am catching up with my Bible reading, but then I realize that it is December 12 and I am running out of days in 2008. As of today I have 21 books to read, however many of them are quite short, but that leaves me a book a day including Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelations. But, I press on, enjoying the reading.

I have pictures to post, but will have to do that later. We leave in a week for Kansas City!

Thanksgiving

We have made it back from Iowa, but our computer died while we were away :( I am at my sisters and decided to do a quick update. I couldn't handle another day without checking my email, blog, bank account, library due dates, etc. . . .
On the trip to IA we stopped at a friends house outside of Des Moines, it was wonderful to get a night of sleep and to break up the trip. It was great to catch up with Brenda and meet her fiance, too!! We got to see lots of people in IA, but not everyone . . . it always goes by so fast! It was wonderful to have Thanksgiving with my mom's family, there were almost 60 of us at Grandpa and Grandma's and enough food for at least 20 more. We also had fun seeing mom and dad's new house in Hull, even though I was forced to take home my 'junk' that I had left stored at their house from highschool and college. I felt old realizing that after my freshman year at Dordt my friends and I wrote real letters since email wasn't a big thing yet--strange. I even found the bathroom log that my roomies and I kept sophmore year. It is just like it sounds, a pad of paper kept near the toilet so you can log the days happenings or thoughts while . . . yeah you can figure it out. It was so funny to skim through the funny things we wrote.
We travelled home on Monday and had really nice weather until we passed Chicago. We had seen a few cars in the ditches along the way, but after Chicago we saw huge flashing lights and a helicopter landed on the interestate, followed by miles of back up. After that we saw several fresh accidents and Stephan slowed down. The trip took a little longer due to the weather, but we were happy to be safely home and sleeping in our own bed!!
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

24 weeks

It is hard to beleive that I'm 24 weeks along already, it is going so much faster this time :) I feel about twice as big as I look, scary.

Due Date Change

My due date has officially changed to March 14 . . . I am still over half way and feeling very good!
Recently I was trying to download our pictures from the camera to order prints so that I can attempt to catch up on scrapbooking before March . . . but the computer could not read the disc in the camera or the disc in the printer. SO, I was very frustrated and panicky, but we found free software on line that recovered our pictures for us! YEAH! I was so happy that we didn't lose months worth of pictures. Now I have 100's of pictures to put into scrapbooks, but at least I don't have 100's of memories with not printed proof :)
We are planning to head to Iowa for Thanksgiving with the Buys side of the family. Since MI has already seen some snow, we are hoping for clear roads while travelling!! I'm also hoping my parents will have their Internet working by then so that I can update from there with a couple of pictures.

Fun this week

Briella had fun with all the stuffed animals and dolls under her tunnel today. She was giddy with excitement, but I couldn't capture it with the camera. (After 10 failed shots this is the best one!)

She continues to walk more and more, since I can't get videos to work, I tried to get a picture of her walking. She is more and more confident and seems to enjoy it, too. She still crawls if she is in a hurry (like to catch up with me if I leave room, or to find Stephan when he gets home from work), and if she is carrying heavy things (usually books) she prefers to 'walk' on her knees to bring me the book.

Stephan took advantage of the 70 degree weather to get ride of the foot of leaves in our front yard. Today it was slightly breezy, but it appeared to be raining leaves at our place. I was surprised the scratchiness didn't bother Briella . . . (14 months old today)!