OSU basketball

Ben attended his 1st OSU basketball game. And what a game he got to see... who knew the Cowboys could knock off the #2 team?!  I had gotten free tickets from work and honestly I needed a night to get in bed by 8, so John thankfully took Ben with him and let me have a night of resting. Apparently Ben had the time of his life - cheering, clapping and yelling O-S-U with everyone.  We have read many books on OSU, so he is fully aware of Pistol Pete, GO POKES, O-S-U, etc.  He has been requesting to watch basketball at night when he goes to bed, so I knew he'd love a life action game.  When they were getting ready to leave I asked Ben - "you know who will be there?" and Ben says "Nate?!" (his uncle)... no silly, not what I was going for...Pistol Pete.  He then asked where the dutch star was (name of my parents RV), poor guy was so confused, he thought he was going up for a tailgate :) 

Break for cheez-it time

Come on Cowboys, don't let me down

Ben and Daddy game night

25 weeks

Past the half way mark and.....
~ Natalee is a big time mover, way more than I remember with Ben
~ Feeling pretty good. Have to take a pepcid morning and night or else my throat is in a burning hell
~ Natalee feels really low
~ As before, we love cream cheese. This phase is plain cream cheese with cinnanmon bagels. Delicious!
~ Most active at night.  Dad got to see and feel you having a party at 23 weeks. I was sick as a dog and the Robitussin got the party started for you.
~ At 23 weeks u/s,  you weighed in at 1.1 lbs and measured 100% healthy and right on track for May 1st due date. Doctor scared us while looking at you, he kept zooming in on your heart and just watching it.  His exact words were "this is a textbook scan and what us doctors dream of, this is too fun"... Apparently you have quite the amazing heart!

Photo Shoot ~ Winter 2011

One of my BFF's, Lindsay McDaniel,took our family pictures.... in November. Late post, I know :) Lindsay did a FANTASTIC job!! She is quite the talented photographer and I highly recommend her! I can't decide which pictures to print off - too many to choose from. With the help of Skittles, bribery can go a long way for a 3 yr old while getting pictures :)

christmas swimming

That's right... Ben went "swimming"...in the deep end too!! He got a kick out of being in the "pool" and had a hay day playing on the dirt mountain.  After 20 years of begging for my parents to put in a pool, all it took was giving them a grandson :)   It will be perfect timing... I'll have the baby, go on maternity leave and be soaking up the rays all summer. We all can't wait!!! There are many more pictures from Xmas, along with pictures from Thanksgiving at Seaworld... if I could just the energy to blog more :)

A much needed mess

Since I layed my eyes on our current home, I immediately envisioned a much brighter kitchen.  I knew exactly what needed to be done and mistakenly decided that around Xmas would be a good time for some remodeling.  Our house STINKS to all nastiness, the fumes are unbearable.  There is a film of dust. On everything. We've taken up residence at Noni and Papa's house.   Below was the state of the project a week ago.  Hopefully the painting it will be completed by tomorrow.... really HOPING :)  Then the hardwoods will be installed. I am so happy we did this now and not a month before baby is due. I can't wait to make the den a cozy hang out off the kitchen and get my blue walls back in action.  No matter how hard I try to find other wall colors, I can't stay away from the blues.  Once it's all complete, I post more pictures!

DEN - BEFORE

DEN - in the midst of it all

Kitchen - BEFORE

Kitchen in chaos

Santa's Wonderland

To keep up tradition, we went to see Santa at Bass Pro for the 4th year in a row. As I've mentioned before, Ben has never met a stranger, including a man with a beard dressed in red velvet and white fur.  As we were waiting in line, Ben was on daddy's shoulders, yelling "Hi Santa" over the line of people.  Then he became very concerned, an elf was stuck in Santa's workshop! I mean, who was going to save him mommy?? Ben was extremely concerned about this and upon the intially meeting of Santa, Ben kept looking up at this stuck elf.  While waiting in line, Ben found Roger the racoon. Ben met Roger last year and Santa delivered Roger on Xmas morning last year.  He loves his raccon.  I do too, he is super soft and perfect size to snuggle.  We didn't take the entire Bass Pro tour as usual... it's too much energy that I don't have these days :)  Next year, we'll have 2 kiddos on Santa's lap!!

ROGER!!! We told him it was Roger's family who lived at Bass Pro when he saw the bin full of them



If you look carefully you can see the Elf half way out the window at the top of the house in the background



Santa: "What do you want for Xmas"
Ben: "CANDY CANE"

Love these next pictures of Santa's facial expressions to what Ben wanted....

We crusied through the land of wasteful spending... I mean CHK campus to see the beautiful lights... really out did themselves this year, putting lights on the 5 construction cranes. I mean is that necessary Mr. McClendon?!

Pretty in Pink!

It's official... Ben is having a SISTER! As if the 3 previous ultrasounds weren't enough, I finally believe the doctors now.  For sure a girl, as apparent from the first picture below :)  It's been quite the long road and I can't even explain how thankful, happy, relieved and excited I am for this baby girl!