Tick Tock

I'm 33 weeks pregnant today. The big event is getting so close. I'm feeling excited, nervous, scared, and a little overwhelmed of being a mommy of three.

Two weeks ago we went in for another ultrasound and got to see our little guy again. Although we weren't able to get a clear 3-D picture of him, we were able to see him in 4-D. While we were watching him, he gave us a huge smile. It was really sweet. Even the ultrasound tech loved it.

I love those chubby cheeks

32 weeks prego

(Please excuse the lack of make-up, outfit and all around whiteness. I was on the way to the gym.)

Today is Rick's 35th birthday!! Happy Birthday Rick. I can't wait to go on a date tonight.

Last Week of 2009

The last week of 2009 was great. My mom drove up to visit us and surprise the kids. It was so great to have her here. She really enjoyed the snow, sub freezing temperatures, and even asked to shovel our driveway. The only explanation for her craziness is, that she was heading back to sunny Georgia and wanted to get the full experience of living in the arctic Midwest.

I realized sometime that week that I didn't know how many weeks pregnant I was. Scary! From the moment I started feeling better (around week 14-15), I feel like life has been on fast forward. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas just flew by. Since then I have gone back and counted how many weeks I was to discover, I was in my 3rd trimester! This is a good and bad thing. Good because I will get to see our sweet baby soon and bad because I have a lot of things I want to get done before that sweet one arrives. Anyone have any boy name suggestions?

I have been feeling pretty good other than feeling more tired than usual. I'm also feeling bigger than I did with the other kids.

Probably one of the reasons I feel bigger, is that Rick and I went to Table 52 on a date night, while we had grandma here. Art Smith is the owner (Oprah's old personal chef) and he was also on Top Chef Masters this season. The restaurant is small, really pretty, in downtown Chicago and serves southern food. Well, there aren't a lot of opportunities for southern food in Chicago, so I was excited. It did not disappoint. This is what I had for dinner.

Appetizer - shrimp and cheese grits

Pecan encrusted catfish, with collard greens, cheese grits & a hush puppy

with a side of maple syrup sweet potatoes.

Rick had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and we shared the sweet potatoes.

Can't get more southern than that!

While we were eating Rick said "I'm surprised Oprah wasn't bigger than she was, if she ate like this everyday."

It was delicious!! I am still thinking about it, can you tell?

The other fun thing we did the last week of the year was we went to another Globe Trotter game. I'm starting to think that we're Globetrotter groupies because we have been 3 times in less than a year. Rick's company is a sponsor so we get free tickets. We love going (especially Ben) but this time was different. This time we had backstage passes. This time I was more excited than Ben. The reason was that I got to meet Flight Time and Big Easy!!!

Here is the back story:

I love to travel and thankfully so does Rick. Since we have been married we have been able to go to some really fun places. In the past few years though most vacations have revolved around babies births, kids schedules and family vacations. Let's be honest, with 2.5 children, I'm a few years from being able to travel the world, so I live vicariously though the contestants on Amazing Race. Last season on the Amazing Race, two Globetrotter players, Flight Time and Big Easy, were racing around the world only to get fourth place. I still don't like those brothers that sold them out.

They were both so nice and funny, which is exactly how they were on the show. Anyway, it was fun to meet them and the game was great. I kind of wanted Phil to come out, cue Amazing Race music, and say "Rick and Susan....long dramatic pause........you are team number 1!
Here is our group picture together. I know I'm short, but good grief. I even had heels on!!

Thanks to mom, Chris, Aidan and Mia for coming with us.

A Good Excuse

O.K. I've got a good excuse. It's not from a lack of things going on with our family. In fact, it is just the opposite. We are expecting a new little one in our family in the spring! We couldn't be happier and feel more blessed. I'm sixteen weeks along and we find out what we are having in just a few weeks.
Like the other pregnancies, the first few months were incredibly hard (I'm very thankful for Zofran), but I'm feeling more human again. Over the last few months, I have been doing the bare minimum, which included feeding and dressing the kids, and getting Ben to school. Everything else, didn't get done or my poor husband was stuck with it. You know when your kids are praying for you to get better, you have hit rock bottom. You also know that when you come downstairs from getting dressed for church, and your entire family in unison comments on how pretty you look because you haven't put makeup on in two weeks, that you look rough.

Enough excuses, I am going to try and catch up on the last 60 days as soon as I can.