Pumpkin Parade and Random Pics

A week ago Saturday Layla and I went to Zeeland's Pumpkin Parade with Mike, Em and Gavin. Joe stayed home to work on our basement--hopefully I'll have a post on that in the next couple of months that it's finished! We're about ready for drywall--so we're getting there!

Em and Gavin...

Layla and me...

Layla and me again...we were lucky it barely rained! It was a little chilly, but overall a nice fall day. The sun was out a little before the parade and then came out again after it was done. Layla loved the marching bands and enjoyed bopping to the music. She got a little ansy at the end of the parade as I think she would have liked to join right in, but overall she really liked it!

Layla was supposed to wear matching purple Halloween socks but right before we were going to leave I couldn't find one of them anywhere! I shouldn't have laid them out ahead of time. She found it back when we got home--she had put it in one of her dresser drawers. She likes to put things away, but doesn't always put them in the right place! Very frustrating when I can't find things!

I thought this was cute sibling love. Today she was holding on to his back half so hard that he started moving and was dragging her behind:-). I don't think he appreciated that! She loves to give him kisses--but sometimes too many! The open mouth kisses are the main problem:-).

Here's my largo 23 week pic...and yes, that is a spill on my stomach:-).

I got Layla this ugly old Loving Family motorhome at a garage sale the other day thinking it'd be good to keep in the trailer, but she loves to zoom it around the house. I bought her some dolls to put in it too that she liked for a bit b/c they have fake hair (like Barbie), but she prefers to put her Dolly and her blankie in it instead and take them for rides. She definitely loves her blankies and Dolly. I store her Mickeys and Minnes in her Minnie grocery cart and every day she empties all the Mickeys and Minnies out and puts Dolly and some blankies in it and pushes thosee around. I think I need to find a new spot to store her Mickeys and Minnies as I'm sick of picking them up! I'm getting less and less motivated to pick up her toys and it's getting more and more uncomfortable to bend over!

Joe has been helping with the vacuuming now and Layla thinks it's fun to copy him:-)...

Layla loves to take my slippers and tries to walk in them. They're a little big:) so I put her slippers on the other day and she was quite happy. I think her and Elv were waiting for Joe to come in the door Saturday morning, that's why they're looking at the door...

Layla and I are both fighting nasty colds. We're now in the stuffy nose/bad cough stage. This was after she woke up from her nap today. It's a little hard to see, but she's sitting in her little chair all snuggled up (and don't mind the laundry piled up in the background--I've been super unmotivated to fold laundry especially with this cold and my back has been sore and I still have "morning" sickness--I know I'm being a complainer:D). She's been really needy the past few days. I also just noticed she finally got her 3rd tooth on the bottom, so that may have been part of her issue too. She now has 3 on the top center, 1 top molar, and 3 on the bottom middle. So she's still getting them in a weird order, hopefully eventually they all come in:-). I tried last week to get her to drop her morning nap, but then she got sick so that didn't work well. And while she's been sick she's had her pipe a lot, so hopefully it's not an issue to drop that again once she's feeling better (aside from sleeping and car rides)!

22 Week Update

I've been having quite a few stomach tightening/braxton hicks contractions this week so I called the doctor this morning and they had me come in. I hate to be paranoid, but when I had that with Layla I thought it wasn't a big deal and it turned out I was dilated to 1.5. Better safe than sorry, right? He checked me this morning and thankfully my cervix it still closed as it should be. I went on bedrest with Layla at 28 weeks, so I'm very thankful that nothing is going on now since I'm only 22 weeks--it is far too early for RV to come out! He did mention I should start to take it easy by avoiding certain activities around 24 weeks (a week from this coming Sunday) just to be precautious. It did turn out that I most likely have the early stages of a urinary track infection which I had when I went on bedrest with Layla too and which can lead to preterm labor and could also be causing some of my stomach cramping. So I am on an antibiotic to help clear that up. Also, when I was in a couple of weeks ago they did a culture to look for certain bacteria that is linked with women that go into preterm labor (about 1/3 of women that go into preterm labor have this bacteria--we don't know if I did last time or not) and my cultures all came back negative. So that's a good thing--it obviously doesn't mean that I won't for sure go into preterm labor nor does it mean that it won't show up in the weeks to come, but it's good for now that they didn't find it. Oh, and RV's heart beat was 153.

Race for the Cure

Saturday, Layla and I walked in the Race for the Cure with my cousin, Mandi, and Lindsey and Jonathan. We should have maybe called it Pace for the Cure. I'll explain why:-). I had my 21 week appointment on Friday (which for my record the heartbeat was 159--Layla was 148 at 21 weeks so I guess he's not obeying that boys are supposed to have lower heartbeats rule) and I aske my doctor if I could do the race totally thinking he'd say it wasn't a problem. He said he couldn't really answer that without checking me. He was going to wait until my next appointment in 4 weeks but he ended up checking me and I am not dilated at all--obviously good news at this point in pregnancy. He then said I could do the walk but to take it slow. I decided to still do the race and thought I would then just take it easy the rest of the day--however part of me did think that if something was to wrong with the baby soon I'd never forgive myself if I thought the race had something to do with it. Well, we walked around the booths and such for a bit and then ended up at the way back of the line. Then all of a sudden tons of people all started going the opposite direction of the "normal" racers. Someone then told us that they were doing the 1 mile community walk. With Lindsey and I both pregnant and Lindsey having to get going soon after the race ended, we decided that sounded like a better idea. So we slowly walked behind all the others with strollers and the slow walkers. It ended up working out good though. If I ever walk in it pregnant again, I'll probably opt for that again:-). It was a fun morning and I'm glad to have been able to do the walk again --this year in memory of my mom. Thanks to Mandi and Lindsey for walking with me! I really appreciate it!

Not a great pic of Lay, but I was trying to get her "I race in memory of my grammy" sign. She is wearing Gavin's race shirt from last year...

Lindsey, Jonathan, Layla, me...also kind of my 21 week pic (and Lindsey's 15 weeks) :-) It might be hard to see here, but I am getting HUGE for only being 21 weeks!

Mandi, Layla, me

Layla and me...

Layla slept pretty much the whole ride home so I decided to just quick change (since I had to go back to Hamilton anyway to drop my cousin off) and then bring her to her flu shot clinic. I was planning to go between 1-3 (they had it 8-12 and then 1-3). There was quite a line when we got there and after waiting for a bit someone came out and said that they were about out of the vaccine. She said they were hoping to get to all of us in line but those after us probably wouldn't be able to get it until they get more in in October. It was probably only about 11am or a little after. After waiting in line a bit longer, thankfully Layla got one. I didn't want to stand in line that whole time for nothing! I got my flu shot at my appointment on Friday. I'm not sure if the flu shot really works, I know it just protects against certain strains, but since they really recommend it for pregnant people and kids, I figured why not? It can't hurt!

And this pic is really just for my own memory. I bought this bathing suit at Gymboree on sale in maybe July and Layla never got to wear it this summer. The bottom is still a little big (it's 6-12 months so I thought it'd fit) but it'd work--she just hasn't gone swimming in awhile--so I thought I'd just try it on her after her bath on Saturday so I could at least see her wear it once:-). I'm really excited to have a boy, but it is a little sad now when I put her clothes away that I really like (and especially if she hardly got to wear them) knowing that I might not ever have another little girl to wear them. I guess if we don't have another girl, we'll probably have some little friend to share them with:-).

Ludington

This past weekend we took our last camping trip of the year to Ludington State Park. It's a beautiful huge park that with only being there for a long weekend it felt like I barely got to see any of it! Guess we'll just have to go back some day:-).

Thursday night us, Heukers and Konings headed up and then Friday night Lucas' joined us. Here is the whole campin' group before heading home on Sunday (unfortunately we didn't think to get one while Jim and Julie were up):
Jill, Brad & Ella, Alden, Curt & Jamie, Joe, Elv, me and Layla, Darrell, Jonathan & Lindsey

We got there around 6pm Thursday night so that we could set up and eat supper before Layla had to go to bed. Thankfully Layla did good again this trip with sticking to her normal night time and nap schedule. She still takes a morning nap and afternoon nap. One of these days we'll drop her morning one, she just doesn't seem quite ready yet. I'm afraid if we do that that her afternoon nap will only be an hour--momma needs more of a break than just one hour a day! :-)

Joe and Layla setting up...

Friday night while Jamie was unpacking their stuff Jill and I decided it'd be cute to put Alden's hair in a pony just like the girls'. He does have nice thick hair, so it worked quite well:-).


For some reason we couldn't get Jonathan's hair to fit in a pony so we tried to get him to wear a headband but he didn't want to keep it on. We might as well do this stuff before they know better:-).

It was slightly hard to get them to all smile nice for the pic:-)...

Making and eating pizza...

The guys + Layla watching the pizza cook over the fire...

Layla and Ella in their matching ponies drinking their matching waters earlier in the day...

More pizza eatin',,,

Enjoying her camping chair...

Our campsite...

Heukers' site (on the right) and Konings' site on the left. Curt and Jamie's tent was on the other side of Konings' camper. We had nice sites--they were bigger than a lot of them and really only had one other campsite surrounding us.

"Do you think we can scale this fence??"

"Let's both make a funny face!"

When we went camping in August we realized how annoying it was with 1 year olds toddling around by a fire, so this time Darrell put chicken wire up around it--definitely made it easier to keep them away from the fire. Although Alden did have one close call leaning on the fence and nearly touching the inside of the fire pit! Thankfully he didn't get burned!!

And Layla got ditched for a boy...she looks upset:-(.

Layla, Jonathan and Ella before Alden arrived...

Elvis and Ella sharing a moment...

We brought the cars again as we did when we went in August...definitely worth taking along!

Joe and Elv having father son bonding...

Ella enjoyed pushing Layla in the car for a bit...

And then she realized that wasn't fair and wanted to switch spots:-)...

Mommy and Layla...(don't mind Layla's socks with shorts--she didn't want dirty feet:D)

Saturday afternoon a friend from Calvin happened to get married in Ludington. I think they only planned the wedding about 6 weeks prior and we booked our campsites a couple of months ago so it was quite a coincidence! Heukers and us only went to the reception as the kids were both napping during the wedding (and already being tired out from a big weekend outdoors probably wouldn't have been a good combination with no afternoon nap!). We didn't know if it'd be best to leave Elv in the trailer or in Darrell's truck with their two dogs and decided to leave him in the truck so that he'd be close by and not be upsetting people at the campground with his barking while we were gone. Thankfully there was music at the reception so you only heard Elv's constant barking when you walked away from the music:-). Otherwise we wouldn't have claimed him as ours:-). I seriously think he barked the entire time. He's a good dog, he just has seperation issues and gets mad when he's left alone. Kaya and Mickey (Heuker's dogs) were in their crate next to him and quiet as can be the whole time--we had been hoping it'd help Elv to have friends next to him but no such luck! Spoiled little boy!

Jim and Julie also came to the wedding and then hung out at the campground with us afterwards. Here's Julie reading to the kids, proof that her and Jim will make great parents--not that we didn't know that before:-). Julie is due really close to Lindsey in March. We can't wait for the three new additions to join our friends this winter!!

The lovely bride and groom, Kishon and Johnny...

Since we missed the wedding, we didn't actually see Johnny and Kishon's little girl, Ava, ride in the wagon, but I thought I'd post this since I didn't have a pic of her with Johnny and Kishon.

Heukers...

Throwers...

Konings...

Lucas'...

Us...

Layla and Jonathan had fun after they ate wandering around. It worked great that the wedding was outside and that there was stuff for them to play on! Layla wondered over to the bride and groom during their first dance and was dancing to the music on the sidelines. Too bad I missed a picture of that. I was too lazy to get off my chair:-).

Again with the laziness, this probably would have been much cuter close up, but I didn't feel like going over there:-).

When we got back from the wedding we celebrated Ella's first birthday!!!! She'll be one on October 3. She wasn't super happy at first as she didn't really nap the entire trip, but once she tried the cupcakes, she realized how yummy chocolate is and changed her mood quickly:-).

We had a great weekend with perfect camping weather (no rain, not too hot but not cold) and I can't wait to go again next summer! I'm sure it'll be different with a baby, but at least he won't be moving yet!! And hopefully Layla will better understand "stay away from the road" (one time we found her wandering down the road by herself!! It's scary how quick they can wander off!!).

Dancing Queen

So this is super short, but every time I pull out the camera, she stops dancing. She LOVES to dance and does it often when she hears music, just not for the camera:-). She had been playing with her beauty salon and came over quickly when I turned music on--that's why she has her curling iron in her hand:-).