Sammy's 3rd Birthday

Samantha had decided a few months ago that she wanted a Princess Cake like the one we see at the grocery store every week. So this chose the theme for this year's birthday gathering! Samantha loves the Little Mermaid but I didn't think she was old enough to be wearing shells so I "convinced' her that she wanted to dress up like Belle for her party! And Belle has brown hair so I have always favored her a bit.

My Mom started the adventure about 2 weeks ago of creating the perfect Belle dress for Samantha.

I decided I could handle the cake. 2 years ago I had made a small princess cake for my niece Brooke for her birthday so I thought I can handle the bigger version. I had always heard you could make it in the Pampered Chef Large Batter Bowl. Andy helped me mix the cake and Amy and I watched it bubble over in the oven--Cause Andy and I decided one cake mix didn't look like enough....

Then I had the task of decorating the Princess Cake.

It ended up pretty good but there is a lot of frosting holding that skirt together! As I realized the doll was much taller then the cake I tried putting her in at an angle...and the cake started to split. Sammy loved it and that is all that matters.

We decided to have just a small family gathering and Cousin Brooke and 'cousin' Charlotte joined Sammy dressing up as Princesses.

We made a craft....

And the girls danced to Princess Songs....

Cake time!

Opened presents...

She loves flounder!

And Sammy has already been outside playing in her new playhouse. Yes Andy built it already and let her go out in the 20 degree weather to play in it.

Samantha was practicing being a big sister trying to get Garrett not to cry by rocking him. I realized also that she was trying to feed him the pretend cake from her new my little pony..

Pregnancy Fun...

I had been a little worn out this week with Andy traveling for work. Sammy was a pretty good for me until Wednesday when she had a complete meltdown at Subway while I was trying to order food for her birthday party. This was quiet difficult for me when I really am not supposed to be carrying her all that much. It was a classic kicking and screaming throwing herself on the ground and giving Mommy the hand. She finally calmed down in the car ride home but I made sure she told Daddy what she had done when we got home and poor Andy had just gotten home from his trip... she looked at me and said I just want to say sorry for fits... I wouldn't budge and I made her tell Andy. She put her head down and told him. It was hard--I was so tired and cranky.

Anyway Friday morning Andy had to travel again so when I got up he was already gone and I felt horrible. I knew I had to go to work but Sammy had been running a slight fever Thursday afternoon and I just wanted to stay home. My left leg was really swollen and hurting me pretty bad. I have had swelling on and off for a while and I thought maybe I just needed some water. That didn't help. When I got to work the pain wouldn't stop and I decided to call the doctor. I got an appointment that afternoon. I went home from work about 1 and tried to elevate my leg while I worked from home. I got to the doctor and she was surprised to see me and when I started telling her my symptoms she was very concerned about blood clots so she immediately tried getting me in at the hospital for a leg scan. After 3 Adventist hospitals couldn't take me I finally got a 9 PM appointment at the Edwards Hospital Outpatient facility in Plainfield. She thought it was possibly just my varicose veins irritating me but especially with me being pregnant she had to rule out clots. So the rest of the evening was a little emotional. I had had such a bad week at work and was single parenting it pretty much all week that I was so emotional.. I broke down crying about 5 times on Friday--even once at work.
Well the facility in Plainfield is amazing. It was very nice and the people were great. When the ultrasound leg scan started it made a loud sound and the baby kicked me so hard! They did not find a clot so now we are going with just varicose vein issues. I am so thrilled by the fact that I will have to wear those torture champer compression hose. My doctor was saying that the problems may get worse as I progress in my pregnancy...and that I had some time to go...Another chapter in the I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect pregnancy story...
And on top of it all I had no time all week to do anything really for Sam's party so I over did it on Saturday and was so sore last night and I think I am coming down with a cold.....
On a good note we had a great party for Sammy --I will post that later today.
Also the baby has been MOVING so much! We watched my whole belly move today!

Cousin Lexi's Dress Up 3rd Birthday Party 3.1.08

Lexi and Samantha are only 11 days apart and we celebrated with Lexi on her birthday with a fun Dress Up party! The girls loved dressing up and doing their nails. Lexi is a girly girl!

Auntie Amy came home for a week so she got to be at the party too!

Brooke and Lexi painting their nails.

My Princess was more interested in Uncle Brian's Fishies of course...

Mommy painting Sammy's toes.

While eating cake and ice cream Sammy dropped some ice cream on herself and was yelling cold! I cleaned up her chest and mouth but she kept saying it is cold. I kept telling her I cleaned it up but then I realized she had a HUGE glop of chocolate ice cream at the waistband of her dress and in her diaper!

PRESENTS!

Cousins in their matching Cinderella Jammies!

Just some pictures...

Sammy and her new piano from Auntie Janice & Uncle Brian

Reading her Sale papers with Mommy while she ate some lunch.

Craziness as Usual

I haven't posted in a while.. we are doing well.
I have really popped out forward now. Not just outward. : ) A few people at work just are "noticing"??? One girl said "I thought maybe you just gained a little winter weight"... HA. And all of you that have gained 2 or 6 pounds at 15-16 weeks. Ha... I wish! I think I am up to 22 pounds already at 24 weeks. YIKES. But I am actually gaining slower than I did with Samantha.
I will probably take belly picture soon. I am not so into them this time. I have been definitely getting the crazy emotions lately. I cry at everything. I am emotional anyway and you add the hormones to it and there it goes... I also decided to stop teaching dance so I am sad about that. But I know its for the best....

Samantha has gotten "kicked" by her baby sister and was so cute. Her eyes got huge the first time it happened and now she asks to feel her all the time. On Sunday she was sitting on my lap and said she wanted her baby sister to kick her in the back--which she did. This was a cute idea until right before bedtime Samantha very calmly was talking to my belly and then tried to kick her baby sister back....

We took Sammy to the Chicago Autoshow and she still LOVES VW beattles. She calls them Cute Cars and for the last 3 or 4 months she tells us when and what color the cute car is that she sees. She had a great time with my Dad getting in and out of LOTS of cars and telling everyone to put on their seatbelt! And yes we were looking at our options for a bigger car. I am not thinking my 2 door Alero is going to be any fun with 2 kids in car seats. Andy still refuses to look at minivans. : )
My Dad is obviously the car nut and a few weeks ago I had to call him cause while we were driving home one afternoon Sammy spotted a cute car and then started asking me what EVERY car was that we drove by. My dad loved it!

My cousin Kelly had her 4th baby on Valentine's Day--in a big hurry! Garrett Lee Herst was 8.5 pounds and looks almost exactly like his brothers. She was only in labor about 45 mins.

We have been doing a lot work around the house. We updated the kitchen. Next (once we get out of this tundra weather) we are getting new siding and a roof due to damamge and so I decided to have them do a new front door as well. That project got put on delay when I realized the door they were putting in already was the wrong color. So now we have a half finished front door... I am not good with work in process and I feel like the house is a disaster of dust and piles of stuff that has been moved from one room to another. Next is Sammy's new big girl room. We have already gone from her wanting Nemo to her wanting a Princess or Ariel Room so who knows what we will do?

BEFORE

AFTER

Sammy loved the boxes from the new appliances and even understands that we got a new front door and now always wants to go in it instead of through the garage.

I love catching up with everyone on their blogs! Becky I hope you are feeling okay after your fender bender. THAT IS NOT FUN!

We had an OK Valentine's Day. Andy and I 'celebrated' early by going out on one of the iciest nights that week to a Bulls Game to watch Ryan Bowen from Iowa play for the Hornets. It was fun--and I got to eat stadium food and ice cream! But the weather made me a bit nervous being on the roads. On Valentine's Day we had the cotractors out on two projects so it was a bit stressful. Sammy had a great day with her friends at daycare. She loved her balloons, bears, and candy from Nana and Papa!!! My Mom came back from South Carolina so Sammy got to see her Grandma after 6 weeks of being gone. And she got a Flounder and Ariel Card that she loves.
...My Roses from Andy : )



Well this is a book now so I should be going.

Update at 21 weeks...

I had my Ultrasound today and we found out it is a girl! The tech said everything looks good and the due date is still the same (June 9). The Heart Rate was 142-145. She did say my placenta is low. I am not totally sure what that means yet but I have read a few things that say it may just lead to a C-Section. The C-Section is pretty much scheduled already so that wouldn't be a problem. It might explain why my tailbone has been killing me! At my last appointment on Thursday I measured right on at 20.5 so I hope all is OK.
When we found out it was another girl I was just relieved to know one way or the other. I had figured it might be another girl with how big my rear end has gotten and how sick I was at the beginning. Andy was a little disappointed and is scared to be so out-numbered! I do feel bad that he won't have a boy to carry on the Anderson name and do Scouts with and all that stuff he did with his Dad but he said he is excited to get involved with whatever the girls do! Andy said "oh..2 boyfriends..."

We won't have to repaint the nursery and hopefully most of Sammy's clothes will work!
Sammy was with us and she got a little bored during the U/S but she actually seems excited to have a sister. She even waved at the baby on the screen. It was cute!
She had originally said it was a boy and we had to name him Fido but for the last 2-3 weeks she has said it is a princess sister. She was right.
She was more excited about talking to my belly tonight so that was cute.
My belly has expanded quiet a bit this week but I am not up for a belly picture to be posted...

The tech gave us actual x-ray looking films so they didn't scan very well. But here it is. Baby Girl Anderson #2!



Wow 2 girls... 2 weddings... : )

Gladiator Ready

This is just a little funny story about Sammy. I have no pictures but video would have been great. Last night Andy had the TV on in the background while he was playing picnic with Sam in the family room and American Gladiators came on. Well Sammy and Andy ended up enthralled in the show. Next thing I know I hear Andy yelling Sam you can not kick Daddy in the head. She is laying across him--up on his neck practically. So I mentioned we may not want to let her watch anymore. She then yelled, "Tackle Daddy"....Well it continued. Sammy would say "awe" every time it went to commercial and she was so excited when it would come back on. Andy let her stay in the family room with him to watch it until 8 pm. We try to get her in bed at 8 usually... So we finally got her to head upstairs after the show. As she started up the stairs she said something about "the pyramid" and then laid down, went limp, and proceeded to slide back down the 3 stairs she had climbed... Then she got to the bathroom to get her vitamin and her teeth brushed and Daddy asked her to go get the wash cloth to wash her face. She looked up at him and said tell me go. Andy said On your marks get set go... she didn't move. She then looked up at Andy and said, "Say Gladiator Ready." So for the next 30 min we played Gladiator get past the Mommy to get to her room and everything we wanted her to do had to be proceeded with "Gladiator Ready." OH BOY! And this is my princess!