35 Weeks

Well, here I am at 35 weeks. I feel big and uncoordinated but luckily I still have ankles and the heat is not bothering me too much. We have been for swims the past two days which have felt wonderful. I had to pull out my bikini in order to swim...no, no photos were taken! We have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow, a regular check up...excited to see what the baby is up to and to meet our new son or daughter.

Lucy at 23 months going on 16

Happy Christmas Eve

It is about 4:30pm on Christmas Eve. All the presents are wrapped, the tree is up, one stocking hangs on the wall (we have no fireplace) as Lucy tore down the other two! None of the presents are under the tree but we shall place them there after Lucy goes to sleep.

Lucy and Vaughan are at the pool and I am at home kicking about. Vaughan and I both had our last day of work yesterday and I already feel relaxed and settled into holiday and vacation mode. I will have a week and a half off from work. I will go back on the 5th. Vaughan will go back on the 12th. Our office does not officially open until the 12th but I am going back a week early as I have things to do before I go on maternity leave and I want to start my maternity one week earlier now, on 15 January. So, only two more weeks of work left once I start back!

Tonight we are off to Allison's house for a BBQ. The weather is not cooperating, it is raining and grey, but no matter, it will still be good fun.

Tomorrow we will open some gifts here and then head off to Anne's for the day at 10:30am. We will be there along with Julia, Matt and the kids and then Allison's family, including her parents who have just moved here from the US, will join us. The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow so it should be a lovely day.

All my best to our friends and family around the globe. Hope you are enjoying the holidays with family and friends.

Love and happiness,

Jen

34 weeks

Here I am at 34 weeks. The bump appears to be growing. The baby is very active, lots of kicks and punches. Not too much acid reflux this time around. I think that is because the head is down this time around. Not long now!

Christmas Cookies!

Yesterday, Ethan, Gabe and Granny Annie came over to help with the third annual decorating of Christmas cookies. Silver candy balls ended up everywhere, as was to be expected.

Our work Chirstmas functiion

Each year the firm has a Christmas BBQ for families...no, not a "holiday or festive season" party, not even a "summer break" party...there are no PC rules followed in New Zealand - everyone wishes everyone a Merry or Happy Christmas.

It was a hot day but we had fun and Lucy avoided a sunburn. She loved the jumpy castle and didn't even mind when Santa didn't have a gift for her. : ( (Made the momma sad.) They rounded up another gift for her, her lovely wings!

Summer Fun

The weather has cooled off a bit this week but the past two weekends have been gorgeous! Our grass adds a whole new outdoor "room" to the house and Lucy loves playing outside.

33 weeks...but who's counting?

7 weeks to go and no more than 8 weeks. Because I had a c-section the first time around my doctor will only let me go over my due date of 3 February by 7 days. I need to catch up on my sleep so I can be rested for labor and being the mother of two children - crazy! I will have a week and a half-off over Christmas, then work the first two full weeks of January. My hope is to be finished with work 15 January so I have at least a week or two to sleep, rest, clean and get ready for baby.

32 weeks

8 more weeks to go. Please note the Chirstmas tree in the background and that I am in shorts...it's been in the 80s the past two days.

Stray Cat

Tonight Vaughan noticed a stray cat on our nightly walk. The poor cat is very weak and under-nourished. Vaughan has been feeding it tonight and is now showing it is bedroom for the night, the garage. He is going to take it to vet tomorrow morning to see what can be done to help. Could be Lucy's first pet....

Thanksgiving 2008

Allison and I

Content mum
Pauline and Martin

Ian and Jane

Vicki, Vaughan, Pauline, Allison, Sophia and Ruby

Allison and Ruby

Lou Lou and Vaughan

Matt and Margot

Thanksgiving spread

The backyard....avec grass! Julia and Matt in the background...

Phyl and I - Vaughan's Grandmother

Carving the turkeys cooked on the weber

Pauline and Anne

The kids fooling around, Lucy bouncing a ball off Ethan's ("Efan") head!

Lucy getting ready for our guests.

We had a lovely day for Thanksgiving, it was quite warm with a nice breeze. We had just the right amount of food and drink and a relaxing and yummy afternoon was had by all!

31 weeks

Here I am last weekend at 31 weeks. It is now Friday so I am just about at 32 weeks. I had an appt on Wed with the doctor who informs me that this baby has a large head - which means through ultrasound the baby has the average size head of a 35 week old baby. He said quote, "So...um...did I mention anything about the head last time? Well, um...it's big." Who know if what it will mean in the end but he predicted at the end of my visit a 9lb baby. Let us hope he is a bit off. : )

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We, the Harrisons, shall celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow (Saturday) with a late lunch, early dinner starting at 2:00pm with family and our friends Allison, Mike Ruby and Soren (although Mike is opening a bike shop tomorrow so he may be a bit late.) There will be a group of about 15 adults and 10 kids. Should be heaps of fun. We will cook two turkeys on the Weber and enjoy nibbles stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (or orange kumara if you are kiwi) asparagus, green salad, corn bread stuffing, pecan slice and some lovely little individual pumpkin pies made by Anne. I think that is all of it. Oh, Anne is also making some orange cranberry sauce as well! I made "Chex mix" for the occasion - but sadly, they no longer sell the cereal I used to get in place of Chex, which is called Shreddies...so I had to use Cheerios! Didn't turn out too bad but not quite the same.

We should have lovely weather for the day, if not a bit hot. I can't believe I am going to say this but I hope the wind picks up a bit!

I hope everyone out there in blog land has a lovely weekend and if you celebrate Thanksgiving, a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

All my best. XXOO Jen

Photos from Cousin Ray's 40th Birthday

Jack cleaning Ray up after he caught an eel by hand in the local stream.

Vaughan and the girls!

Lucy loves swinging almost as much as she loves Gabe!

I snuck in a photo.

"Running! Running!" Is what Lucy yells when she is RUNNING!

I tried to get them to all look up at me and smile but they couldn't do it, too bright and Lucy wouldn't have a bar of it!

Lucy, Gabe and Ethan

Swarming ducks!

Great Grandma Phyl with Margot.

Julia and the kids!