Baby Mac #3

It's about time that this excting news officially hit the blog!  Baby Mac #3 is doing great and will make his or her arrival around Easter!  I'm 20 weeks today!!!!!!  Halfway there....this first half seemed to go by quickly and I'm sure the next few weeks over the holidays will fly by too.  March might be the slowest month without any big school breaks/holidays this year!  Just like with the girls we are going to drive everyone crazy and wait to see if the baby is a boy or girl!  It might be difficult because I get an ultrasound at every appointment!  It's awesome to see the baby every month, but so so so hard to keep my willpower in check!  My next appt is in a week!   We are already preparing ourselves for another girl...we are SURROUNDED by three girl families. Four of Hailey's school friends in Germany are from 3 girl families and we know quite a few back in the States in addition to countless 2 girl families!  Another girl would be easy but of course we would be pleasantly surprised with a boy!  Hailey wants a boy (for Leevi's sake!  Too cute!) and Kailee ONLY wants a girl (A cute little tidbit from Kai:  she said, "I want to have a little sister that's just like me!)  :)   The girls have objected to all the name possibilities that we've discussed and want to name a girl Emma or Gracie and don't really talk much about the possibility of a boy!  :)  Hailey has been able to feel the baby kick but we are anxiously awaiting the bigger movements!!!!!   I'm feeling great and everything seems to be going just as smoothly as with the girls!  My mild morning sickness stopped around 10 weeks and I got my energy back around 14 wks.  I pray that things continue on this course and we'll be holding our new blessing in our arms before we know it! 

Ultrasound pic at 13 weeks

20 week belly pic!  Halfway there!!!!!

I feel like I can eat dinner and my belly grows an inch!!!!

I'm definitely not attempting these pics again without Leevi's help!  We were setting the timer and it took FOREVER to get a decent one! 

More attempts....I like the first one where Hailey's sign is backwards and Kailee's is upside down!  :) 

 

Gotta end with a silly pic!

Hailey wanted a belly pic too!!!!  Her baby is under there! 

And a few pictures of a typical German labor room.  I haven't gotten the tour yet at my hospital so we'll see how it compares to the ones below.  I remember my neighbor saying that they gave her a rope to hold onto when she had her 1st child in Germany 6 years ago!  Thankfully, this isn't my first!!!  Our hospital is only 9 minutes from our house so if this baby decides to be competitive with Kailee's labor we should hopefully have enough time to get there!!!! 

That looks enticing!  There was a similar tub like this for Kailee which I didn't get a chance to use because she came too fast....let's hope I can try it out this time!  :) 

Purple Unicorn Monkeys

Our soccer season wrapped up at the beginning of November and we rented a room at the bowling alley for our end-of-the-season party.  We passed out trophies, ate pizza and cake, and danced the night away!   We had a great season this Fall and I really enjoyed coaching this group of kiddos! 

Hailey getting her trophy and me getting my coach's gift

Dance party with a disco ball and flashing lights! 

Hailey, Hailey, Hailey

Hailey had a really busy week a few weeks ago (and I've been really busy and just now am getting around to this post!)  She had her first school project and in "Hailey-fashion" refused all help/suggestions!  :)  I read her the project sheet and she did a great job!!  On Halloween they weren't allowed to dress up at her school but they did have a school wide Hat Parade.  The assignment was to make or decorate a hat with a WORD.  Hailey choose "little" and went to town.  The only suggestion she accepted from me was how to fold the tape to stick on her drawings verses long strips across the top of the illustrations.  :)  I thought it turned out pretty cute! 

Lining up for the parade outside....the bottom left pic is with her BF, Talia, who also chose the word "little" coincidentally! 

A few days later she had a Spanish school performance....


This is the entire school!!!  I love it!  It's like we are sending her to a private school!  :) Her class is down to only 16 kids and at least one if not two more are leaving at the Christmas break!  With two teachers (and a parent helper in the class everyday for 1 1/2 hrs during reading group/center time) it's A-W-E-S-O-M-E! 

I cringe looking at her outfit....it was GAME day and in addition to her jersey she wanted to wear her shorts but it was too cold so this is what she opted for.  :) 

Later that night we had one of our last soccer games of the season.  Hailey scored THREE goals and had an awesome chase-down-from-behind-break-away defensive save!  :)   We put a pretty bad beating on the other team and it's so hard to take the drive out of 5 year olds and tell them to stop scoring!  Before the last quarter I had a pep talk with the kids who were playing and told them to try and take it easy because the other team probably felt really sad.  I didnt say anything about "letting" them score, but Leevi caught it once on film where Hailey is totally in position and doesn't do anything....she even let out a little cheer for the other team when they got their first goal.  I didn't realize how obvious it was until Hailey asked me on the ride home if I was proud of her for letting them get a goal.  :)  We had a really fun season....more to post about that as soon as I can catch up!

If you listen closely to the video you and hear Leevi mumbling things like "no mercy...run it up...double digits...lookin for scholarships here"  :) 

  

I don't think there are any action clips in this video but it sums up how much fun we had during the season!  :)  We did have a pretty talented team this year but it will make for an interesting Spring Season when most of these guys move up to the next age bracket!  

On Thursday she had Awanas and earned her Hang Glider Emblem, her Pilot Wings and two Jewels!  She was so proud of herself (we were too!!!!!!)   We are really happy that she enjoys going to Awanas!    

Now that soccer has wrapped up until the Spring we aren't quite so busy!  And there have been lots of breaks from school in November which is nice but at the same time eats up my free time to get things done (i.e. update the blog!!!)  Leevi has travelled to Norway, Poland, Croatia, Kansas, Virginia, and Spain over the past two months!  Talk about the Army Adventure!   The extra money seems to make it worth our while but we definitely eat him up while he's here!!!!!!  We are looking forward to our family vacation to Paris over Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Christmas Card Photoshoot

Last Friday the girls had off from school so I took them to the Hardenberg castle in Bad Durkheim about half an hour away for a photoshoot for our Christmas card.  It ended up not being the castle I thought I was going to but I LOVED it!  It's by far my favorite castle I've seen as of yet (in ruins or not).  It was MASSIVE!!!!  We had a little trouble at first trying to figure out how to get up to the castle and after a bit of driving we decided to just park and follow the walking trail.  I was worried that I'd bitten off more than I could chew since Leevi wasn't with me!  I should have taken a picture of how far we had to walk up yet the girls did great.  I was amazed at how many levels the castle had...we walked up, explored the grounds, and then would climb the next flight of steps and find a whole new level!  Once we finally reached the top there was still a tower that we could have climbed with a sprialling staircase but I was able to convince Hailey that we really didn't need to go up (for fear that I'd be carrying Kai UP or DOWN!) 

 

I don't really want to spoil what our Christmas card for this year looks like, but some of these pictures that I didn't use on the card were too cool or cute to not be on the blog. 

 

How most of the shoot went.....

Um, seriously Hailey?!?!!  :)  Her "glamour pose" on the left and her "laughing at herself pose" on the right

Along the tree line of the top left photo is another castle (maybe the one I was originally trying to get to)...I wonder if long ago they were friends or enemies

Kai was pouting in the top right photo because I screamed at her, scared her, went hysterical told her to stop climbing that window!  I was too scared to go over afterward to see how far down the drop was!  Ughh! 

 

Overall the adventure was fun and I got a few decent pictures.  One that I LOVE and others that are do-able for this years' card!  :)  You'll just have to wait and see.........

Fall Fest and Trick or Treating

On Friday evening before Halloween, the community hosted a Fall Festival for the kids.  Many organizations on post (FRG's, PTA, Girl/Boy Scouts, Chapel etc) set up booths and FUN, FUN, FUN for the kiddos.  Everything was free including dinner which I'm always amazed at and the weather was absolutely perfect! 

Ariel and Strawberry Shortcake

Saturday was our community Trick or Treating night since Monday was a school night.  The Fall Fest was organized because they didn't know what to expect for Trick or Treating.  Since our community is rapidly dying, most families went to Heidelberg for Trick or Treating.  I didn't feel like driving or messing with the crowds on Patrick Henry Village so we decided to stay home and see who turned up in our neighborhood.  Because most of Benjamin Franklin Village consists of stairwell living, everyone comes to our Grant Circle neighborhood for the Trick or Treating in years past.  Last year we were at almost full capacity with housing and the streets were packed!  It was a lot of fun.  This year we probably have 1/3 of the families left if not less, so you are looking at less than 30 families to pass out candy!  The 10 or so families that stuck around to pass out candy had plenty to go around to the 50 or so trick or treaters who came.  Our girls still had a lot of fun and had no complaints (probably from lack of T or T experience!)  :) 

Jump!

We walked the neighborhood with the Dozier girls

Once we lit our pumpkins on Saturday they seemed to mold pretty quickly.  I was inside doing housework while Leevi and the girls were outside doing yardwork and I looked out the window when I heard a bunch of squeals!  Leevi allowed them to smash our pumpkins and they of course had a blast (followed by a clean up!)



 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween at the Preschool

Kailee had a fun filled week leading up to Halloween.  Her class is so small (8 kids total) and they are able to do a lot more hands on things that most larger classes of 3/4 yr olds wouldn't be able to manage.  Most days there are only 5 or 6 because it seems that someone is always traveling or sick.  We love Ms. Kitty and all that she is doing with our little ones!  We had a community wide Fall Fest on Friday and then Trick or Treated on Saturday (more posts to come on that!) so the week prior to all of that fun the preschool kids got to carve pumpkins, bake pumpkin pie, and paint pumpkins!  

One of her latest poses!  Seriously....why can't she just stand there and please her Momma!  :) 

Around the class