Raisin Filled Cookies

Over Christmas Mark and I went to TN. It was such a great time! We got see Mark's Grandparents in Virginia and all of our neices and nephews. Let me say the 2 year old and 3 year old are just wildmen! They are so cute and fun, but they never stop for 1 second.

Mark's dad and I made these wonderful cookies called Raisin Filled Cookies. Pops can I give the recipe out? If you like raisins you'll love these cookies. I add the recipe if Pops says its OK. I'm not sure if it's a family recipe or not.

On our way home from TN Mark and I stopped in Michigan City to do Christmas on 12/29. It was fun. Christmas was at my brother's house and we had Prime Rib and Lobster tails for dinner. That was Greg's present to everyone. I think it was an AWESOME present since I love Prime Rib and Lobster tail.

I might also say I do not think being pregnant during the holidays is the the brightest thing. I ate so much and I couldn't help it. Over all Christmas was wonderful.

First Scrapbooking Pages

For Christmas I asked for scrapbooking tools and supply to start scrapbooking. I got what I asked for, so tonight I put together two pages of my cats. I think they turned out great for my first time. I'm sure there are rules and proper ways to put the pages together, but I thinking using my imagination worked just fine. :) Here are a few pictures of my first pages. Next scapbooking projects are the ultrasound pictures and my pregnancy pictures. I may need to think these out a little bit more. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas

Mark and I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! We are in Tennessee and it's absolutely beautiful out about 45 degrees :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love

Mark and Beth

25 Weeks

Yesterday we for our level two ultrasound. Doctor has confirmed that the baby does have a hole in his upper chambers or ASD. Its a smaller hole so that is a plus and the baby will not need any surgery right away. On January 2, 2008 we go and she a Pediatric Cardiologist to see what our game plan will be once the little guy arrives. Doctor said the little guy weighs 1 LBS and 13 OZ. All I know he is a kicker :) We received a few ultrasound pictures. Doctor gave me blackmail picture of him. I'm sure he'll appreciate that when he is older :) Hope you enjoy them.

To Uncle Butch

Aunt Bernie make sure Uncle Butch sees these pictures of my little Maine Coon. My Aunt and Uncle have a Maine Coon named Buster. I told them I would get a few pictures of mine Maine Coon Annie. She is very pretty and as you can tell from the pictures she is a Princess!

By the way Uncle Butch, it is 245 miles from your house to my house. :)

Love ya,

Sissy

Christmas Cookies

This weekend I went to my Aunt Bernie's house to make Christmas Cookies. We made traditional cut out sugar cookies. We also watched the the movie The Notebook. I still cry while watching this movie, even though I have seen it quite a few times. On Sunday morning we went to church and out to breakfast with my Aunt's friend Mary Ann. It was such a great time. I hope my Aunt and I can do it again. Maybe next time we can not slave over cookies :) Aunt Bernie remember it was FUN and it's about the TOGETHERNESS :) Here are a few pictures of our hard work.

Budget

Mark and I have put ourselves on a budget. We figure we might as well get use to living on a budget prior to the baby arriving. Here are some of the things we have done.

1. Cut coupons on the items we use, which I like cutting coupons. If a manufacturer wants to give 25 cents I'm all for it.
2. Move money into our savings account prior to spending
3. Use our pig points from Piggy Wiggly. We have received up to 54 cents off a gallon of gas. You can get up to 15 gallons at the reduced priced. We figured at least once a month we can get savings on gas.
4. Make dinner menu prior to going to the grocery store and sticking to the list.
5. Buy generics and compare prices between grocery stores.
6. Only buy things that are on sale, is the item a want or a need.
7. Make dinner at least 3 nights a week, left overs for the other evenings.
8. Only go out to dinner once a week
9. Make coffee in the morning, do not stop at the gas station or buy coffee from work.
10. Reduced the heat in the house from 73 to 70. I can use a blanket if I am cold.

No we are not in any money crisis's, but we thought we should start getting used to living a little tighter and not be such compulsive shoppers. Some of the above items are very easy to do, but others are harder to do. I have a hard time asking myself if it is a want or a need. I have gone for so long without worrying about anyone else, that I just bought something if I wanted to. Target and Kohl's are my weakness.

Only time will tell if I can stick to these rules, but some of it has become a game for me. The Pig Points! I love to see how much I save between Pig points, coupons, and stores sales. Last weekend I saved $21.00 and the week before that I saved $14.00.

Mark thinks I'm crazy and out of control with the whole coupon/Pig points, but then I show him my savings and he just smiles.

Christmas at the Lawson's

Mark and I decorated and put up our Christmas Tree last weekend. Here are some pictures that I thought I would share with everyone. I actually figured out how to do self portraits on my new digital camera. :) Of course Boo and Sly enjoy sleeping under the tree.

I hope you enjoy!

Baby's Nursery

Mark and I bought the baby's crib. I was struggling with spending anywhere between $500 to $1,000 on a nursery set for the baby. Everybody was telling me to buy a convertible bed, one that converts from a crib to a toddler bed, then a full bed. Just for the crib is was $700. I was like are you crazy!!!! I didn't understand what I would do, if another baby came along in 2 years. I converted the crib to a toddler bed and now I have to buy another crib. Then a course I would want the dresser to go with the new crib, so pretty I would buy a new nursery. I didn't like that idea. Also, the side doesn't go down on the convertible crib, I really disliked that part. Do not get me wrong they are beautiful beds, but not for me. Plus I know myself in 2 years I'm going to want to buy a new toddler bedroom set. I love my baby, but for real, this baby will not know if the crib came from the speciality shop or Wal*Mart. Not sure if you are aware, but I am not a Wal*Mart fan. Just remember I work for Kimberly-Clark and I see a lot of things happen that the everyday consumer just does not realizes happens. So, Mark finally convinced me to go to Wal*Mart. Guess what? they had a Nursery in a Box set. The set included a crib, a changing table, and dresser. It was only $199.99. I was very skeptical of the set, but we bought it. My rational is after 2 years the baby will most likely be moving to a toddler bed. All I need to hold up is the crib. It will be nice if all 3 pieces hold up, but its the crib that is most important. Well, to my surprise they turned out very nice. They are sturdy and I like them. I'm very impressed. Now the test will come when little guy gets here and becomes mobile. I have included a few pictures for everyone to see the nursery set.

Spoiled or just loved?

For awhile now I have been telling Mark that I would like to have a new digital camera. I told him with the baby coming that a new camera would be nice so we can send our family nice clear pictures. There is nothing wrong with the digital camera we have, but I wanted a 8.0 megapixal. Last Monday we were off and Target had a 8.0 Canon digital camera on sale, plus you got a $30.00 gift card. I told Mark about it and I looked it up on consumer report to see the ranking. The ranking was very good! Well, guess who got the digital camera -- ME!!! I'm not sure if I am spoiled or just loved, but either way I love my new camera very much! It can video tape and do panoramic pictures, and it has a settings on it for fireworks, snowing, and pets and kids. Don't worry I have figured out how to reduce the pixels and have nice clear pictures without sending 1MB emails. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mark and I are headed to Indiana to see my family. I heard that it has snowed in Indiana and Mark can not wait to see it.

Love,

Beth

Daycare

Today Mark and I took off work to look at daycare facilities. Today was overwhelming and I'm not sure why I thought it wouldn't be. After seeing the different daycare facilities, this maybe one of the harder decisions to make as a new parent. We went to 4 different facilities. Three were referred to us the other one we found by driving around. I really liked 2 out of the 4, 1 was fine, and the other was a NO! Mark liked all 4 facilities. The two I liked the most are close to work so I can come by at lunch to breastfeed and that meant a lot to me. Plus one of the daycare facilities has 2 RN on staff at all time. This also meant a lot to me as RN's are trained medical professions that have knowledge about illness. All four daycare center cost about the same. One gave a Kimberly-Clark discount, which was nice to hear. Now we just need to make our pro and con list to make a decision. I personally have the one I want picked out. :)

Its a boy!!!!

We went yesterday for our 20 week ultrasound and the baby is a boy!!! We are so happy we cant wait for him to arrive in March. He loves his hands by his face as if he was thinking away.

The ultrasound is just an amazing thing. We got see his kidneys, heart, stomach (which was very full), his lips, fingers, toes and his spinal cord. It was so neat. I wished I could get an ultrasound everyday just so I can see him. :)

Here are some pitcures of the little guy!!!

Update

Last night when I got home from work the doctor's office called and told me that I needed to reschedule my ultrasound due to my doctor having a surgery on Monday 11/19. I was all bummed out and thought I would have to wait another week to find out the sex of the baby. This morning I called the doctor's office and they rescheduled for Friday 11/16 at 130pm. I'm so excited. Make sure you read our blog on Friday for the news.

Cool Blog...

My sister-in-law Susie sent Mark and I this blog about a month ago. I looked at and though it was pretty cool, then yesterday as I was cleaning out my email inbox I came across it again, so I though I would share it. If you have children, grandchildren, nephews, or nieces you need to look at this blog daily. It provides sales on children clothing, shoes, books, and many other things. It provides details such as.,when the sale will take place, the Internet sale code, and there is a shipping cost. I haven't participated in any of the sales yet, so I'm not sure how accurate it is, but in my eyes if you can save a buck its worth checking out.

http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/

Wisconsin Fish Fry's! :)

Last night Mark and I went out for fish with our friends Mandy and Ronell. In Wisconsin everywhere you go on Fridays there is a fish Fry. Its not a healthy dinner at all. All the fish is deep fried, served with melted butter and sides are french fries and potato salad. I'm pretty sure last nights dinner was great for my heart and baby. Just Kidding!!! In honesty Friday Fish Fry's are really tastee! Mandy and Ronell took us to a hole in the wall which means the fish is even better. Inside the bar, and it was a bar, were deer heads and Elk heads hanging on the walls. I'm not against hunting, but I am a softy for animals. While I sat there and sipped my O'douls I finally got over the animals heads on the wall. I said to Mandy I hope I don't see a dead deer here. Of course she convinces me that won't happen and I believed her. Dinner was over and we were leaving, I looked to my right and saw about 8 guys hang around the tailgate of a pick up truck. I thought to myself how odd that these guys are drinking outside by the tailgate of a pick up truck, they should go in to the bar and drink. Then I saw it..... the poor little deer, ok it was a buck and according to Mandy and nice size buck! Then I saw a sign that said deer and turkey tagging. Again I thought to myself, tagging animals at a bar...very odd to me.

Here is the moral of the story, only in Wisconsin can you go to a bar, have great fried fish, laugh with your friends and see a dead deer in a pick up truck. :)

Doctor's Appointment Update

Today we went to the doctors. I have gained another 5 lbs, so far its a total of 10 lbs for 18 weeks. Doctor is happy about that. My blood pressure is still low, but she is not worried about it and the baby's heart beat was a 155. Our next appointment is November 19th. That's when we have the big Ultrasound. We can't wait!!!


FYI Aunt Bernie -
Doctor does not believe in inducing unless medically needed. She said that she believes in letting me go on my own as long as it is not pass 42 weeks :) That made me feel better.

Love ya!!!

Family Visit

This past weekend was a great. Mark's sister Sherri and brother-in-law Travis came up to visit us. We had a great time, I think my favorite part was watching Mark and Travis yelling at the T.V. because UT was screwing up. Mark enjoys watching UT and its better when he has someone else to watch with b/c I'm always saying its just a game. It hates when I say that. They were like 2 little boys. I guess guys never really grow up.

We went shopping :) I love to shop especially with another girl. Mark is normally my shopping buddy, which is great, but he always says everything looks great. Mark's sister is a lot of fun to shop with. I helped her pick out matching PJs for her children. I hope they like them. I bought a red purse from Christopher Banks and I LOVE it! I've never shopped at that store before; it has nice clothing.

We did the typical driving around, went to Green Bay to see where the Packers play, and went out to dinner. Overall, it was a nice time.

It's amazing I'm live, according to recalls

I just read in People's Magazine last night that infant cold medicines have been pulled off the shelves, because according to the findings it does nothing for the child and it is more harm than good. I sat back and said to Mark how in the world did we make it!!

Our parents gave us baby aspirin
Our parents had lead paint in the house
Our parents eat things during pregnancy that is an issue now
Our parents put us on our bellies to sleep
Our parents let us ride bikes without helmets

I do have a question "What is our government doing?" They have laws, rules, and agencies for these types items or meds. Are they not enforcing them the standards?

About me :)

Just wanted to let everyone know how I am doing. I'm 16 weeks along and still feeling great. I'm not as tired as I use to be. I'm glad about that b/c I can now get things done around the house. I did have some troubles with my crohn's disease, so I had to take few days off from work and rest. I'm doing better now, but the doctor is a little worried because I'm still very tender where the colon and small intestine met. Pretty much this means I'm still have a flare up. Now I'm on a soft foods diet only. The doctor says the baby is not under any stress, but I'm still little concern. Besides the drama with my crohn's I'm doing fine. I no longer can fit into my own pants :). I do have a little baby bump. Mark calls is baby Jackson, because he is so sure its a boy. My gut says its a boy, but you never know.