New Year's Eve and Christmas Part 4

The end of our Christmas break we had the Barton family come "over" to spend New Year's Eve weekend with us.

We celebrated with a lasagna dinner, then played Wii games and talked and wore our party hats to count down to 2011.

Alison, Kevin, Bill, me, Carissa, Scott, Michelle, Mom B., Dad B.

Saturday morning we woke up and had "Christmas".

Cinnamon got a Steelers jersey from Michelle! Just what she needed!!
Michelle opening our present - Vera! :)
Chloe opening her doctor's kit

We were spoiled again this year with lots of wonderful things!! :)

After presents and lunch, the boys went shooting and the girls had pedicures!

The Winter Classic hockey game was played on Saturday evening, and Scott and Carissa and Daisy came over (with all their Bruins gear on) to watch Pgh. vs Wash.

Sunday morning we took a family photo before heading to church.

We had a great time visiting with all our family this Christmas season. We are looking forward to more visiting when Baby H arrives!!

Christmas-paloza part 2 and 3

Here's our Christmas Card photo - after about 10 tries to get it right... :)

Christmas part 2 started Christmas morning. Bill and I haven't been at our own house on Christmas morning since the first year we were married. We were looking forward to opening presents under our own tree. :)

Here's some shots of the stocking gifts:

Bill surprised me by getting me this jewelry box. We had talked about it a while ago, but decided not to spend too much money on each other for Christmas this year because of some other big purchases in our future (sliding glass doors for our living room...) BUT, I came down the steps Christmas morning and there it was!!! He said he found a "super sale" and couldn't resist. Merry Christmas to me! :)

Around 1:30 we drove down to have Christmas dinner with the Davis family. They have been our "foster family" for events and holidays that we don't make the trip to Pittsburgh. We are so glad to have Christian friends to celebrate with, and they are only a short drive away!

Here's cutie pie Daisy
The Davis family!

John, Tom, John

Alice, Carissa, Scott, Daisy, Courtney

Granny, Grandad, Grandma, Josh

Christmas part 3 began when Bill's parents arrived Wednesday evening to spend some time with us. They took us out to dinner on Wednesday evening and then we played some games. Thursday morning was "Christmas".

Here's me with my gift from Christine - new cookie sheets and some "accessories". Just what I wanted!!

This is Bill loving his Mole t-shirt from Mom and Dad.

Mom and Dad H got me a cupcake maker (with a special thing for putting fillings inside). I thought I had a picture of me with it... but I don't. I'm excited to figure out how to use it and start making some cupcakes!

Here is Bill with his gift from John. He's excited to have a fishing pole to keep in the car. :)

We had a good time visiting with Bill's mom and dad on Thursday - we went out to shop for some accessories for their new iTouch and enjoyed playing with Cinnamon (they spoil her rotten!!!) :)

Christmas part 4 and New Year's Eve will be posted in a few days!

Christmas is coming...

Because we're staying home for Christmas this year, our families are being gracious enough to travel to us and include Bill and I.

I've dubed it "Christmas-paloza" in honor of Michelle,

and because it's an extended celebration. :)

On the 17th my mom and grandma arrived to spend the weekend visiting. Friday night we put up our tree and decorated it. This is quite the turn-around as we traditionally helped my grandma put her tree together, and this year, she helped us! :)

Saturday morning was "Christmas". Bill and I opened gifts from Mom-mom R, Uncle Paul and Aunt Sandy. As you can tell, Bill was excited! :)

I mean, who doesn't want Bucky-balls for Christmas?

I was also very excited to recieve a requested sweatshirt - lined, hooded, zip-up. :)

Another shot of Bill with a new mug to annoy co-workers and students alike! :)

A new robe for me! :)

A highlight of the morning actually ended up being the last gift. Mom-mom kept telling me to make sure I had the camera ready. We opened it and Uncle Paul and Sandy had sent Cinnamon a little treat, and a little outfit. We put it on her right away and started snapping pictures. She's very patient with us, as we were all laughing at her!! :)

This year she is one of Santa's little helpers!

Christmas-paloza part one was a success - we enjoyed good company and a relaxing weekend.

This evening we are part of our church's Christmas play - can you guess who Bill and I will be playing? Tomorrow morning we'll open stockings and gifts, and then we were invited to share Christmas dinner with some good friends of ours. We'll be missing our families, but can't wait to visit with them when Christmas-paloza 2010 continues next weekend!! :)

Dropped or not?

Here's the end of 8 months ~ does it look like I "dropped"? A lot of people think I have!...

Family Baby Shower

Over Thanksgiving, both sides of my family came together to celebrate Baby Hoffman and his quickly approaching arrival. We had a lot of fun - playing games, designing quilt squares, and enjoying food and cake. Here are a few pictures of everyone hard at work making their square.

Right before everyone left, we got this picture of me with the Grandmas! :)

It was a fun time and we were very blessed with everyone's generous gifts!

Thanksgiving

We traveled to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving this year. We didn't go last year because we had just moved into our house - doesn't seem like a year has past, but it has!

We enjoyed lunch at my Grandma Barton's house...

and dinner with my Grandma Ritter.

We stayed with Bill's parents, and also got to visit with his Grandma Hoffman, but I didn't get any pictures of us with them. :(

We stayed through Sunday because both sides of our family threw a baby shower for us. More on that later...

End of Seven Months

I've reached 31 weeks, which marks the end of month seven! Here's what to expect for the next few weeks ~ into month 8:

Baby Hoffman will gain about 1/2 a pound a week, weighing about 5 1/2 pounds, measuring as long as 20 inches by week 25

brain development - practicing swallowing, sucking, breathing and kicking

antibodies developing in his immune system

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to one cool dancing Dad :)

Baby Room Progress!

Here is what it looked like when I was cleaning and moving stuff out: (yikes!)

I taped the edges, and Bill reminded me to take one last shot of the "old" paint before the new stuff went on.


Ta-Da! The new paint is more yellow then the last, but not a huge change.

This shows the new paint and the put together crib from Mom and Dad B. :)

Curtains are still in progress, but should be done soon!

Halloweenie

Halloween trick-or-treating was tonight for Penn Township. Bill dressed as a "mad scientist", I had a pumpkin belly, and Cinnamon was a "Halloweenie" We sat out on the porch and passed out candy to a lot of trick-or-treaters! Michelle was visiting for a few days, and before she left she took some pictures of us!

Happy Halloween!

End of Month 6 = end of 2nd trimester

Here you go! The picture you've been waiting for!

Next week I'll be into month 7 - which is crazy to think about, but it's true!

Not much new to report since last time. Doctor's appointment went well last week... next week is the glucose blood test (do I have diabeties??) and then I'll start going to the doctor's every two weeks instead of every four weeks.

The baby has been doing a lot of kicking around lately - especially in the morning and evening!

Here's what the book has to say about week 27:

Your baby graduates onto a new growth chart this week. No longer will he be measured crown to rump, but rather from head to two. And this week that head-to-toe length is a ful 15 inches (more than a foot long)! Your baby's weight is creeping up the charts as well, coming in at just over 2 pounds this week. And here's an interesting fetal factoid: Your baby has more taste budes now than he will have at birth (and beyond).

By next week baby will be blinking, in addition to coughing, hiccupping and taking practice breaths.

Look who's here!

Our friend Carissa had her baby on Tuesday October 12, 2010

Daisy Louise Patterson was 7 lbs, 20 in.

These pictures are from our visit on Friday.

Everyone is doing well!

Staying Warm

Cinnamon needed to stay warm on her morning walks.

So we got her a sweater. (!!!!! hehehe, she's just so cute!!!)

She likes it. :)

Still hard to believe we have a dog that needs help staying warm, but we love her anyway!