Happy Holiday Happenings

Here it is, December 28th. Another Christmas has already come and gone! And just think, next Christmas will be SO DIFFERENT from any other Christmas we've had together. Wow......Connor will be about 9 months old, so where he might not be all into Santa yet, he will still be aware of the chaos known as Christmas. How exciting! :) Here is a recap of our Happy Holiday Happenings:

December 20th was our annual Christmas party, and OH what a success it was. We collected SO MANY items for KARMA, the local clothes closet benefiting children from birth to 5 years. It was an amazing act of selflessness, and we are blessed to have such generous friends. Thanks to all of you! Below are some pictures of the donations we collected:

Here is a picture of the donation box the morning after the party

We laid it all out and sorted it into categories

All packed up and ready to go!

After we dropped it off with the president of the Western Arkansas Childcare Provider's Association, she separated the donations into 7 bags and sent them to Lincoln, Quality, Head Start, Sandbox, Adrian's Creative School, Bost and Children's Paradise. Thanks again to all our friends and family, you are all Angels.

December 24th, Christmas Eve, is always spent at the Birch household. We had quite a crowd this year; Mom, Dad, Justin, me, Drew, Melissa, Grandmother, Uncle Bob, Trish, Brent, Uncle Steve, and Clare....oh, and Melissa's new Jack Russell Terrier, Layla. Whew! Ever since I was little, we've always had a tradition of opening our presents on Christmas Eve night. It's a lot of fun, but a little chaotic at times. 12 people in one room (well sorta'....we have to use the entry way as an extension to the living room); presents making their way from under the tree to their rightful owners; wrapping paper, tissue, and bows flying through the air; people holding up gifts asking, "who is this one from?".....it's insane over there! But when it's all said and done, it's always a blessing to know that we have family, friends, food, and a warm place to celebrate Christmas. Mom and Dad got us a great gift this year; a digital HD Camcorder! It is definitely something that will be coming in handy in the very near future. We have 3 months to learn how to use it....hopefully that will be a sufficient amount of time. :)

We have had a running joke in our family since the days that Drew attended Euper Lane Elementary. (He is now 20, so that's been quite a while). I can't remember the whole story, but he came home one day talking about some kid in class with "School Cheese" on his shirt (ya' know, the kind of saucy, nacho cheese that gets under your fingernails and all over your clothes?) I am not sure why at the time we found the term "School Cheese" so hilarious....we just did. So from that point on, our family has made random references to "School Cheese." Dad and I decided that we would get Drew some "School Cheese" for Christmas as a gag gift. I went to the store and bought the industrial sized can of Jalapeno Nacho Cheese, used my Microsoft Word Art skills and created a new label to put over the word "Jalapeno." The end result was priceless. (By the way, this is just one of those "you had to be there" moments,so if you aren't laughing like I am, I totally understand.)

December 25th, Christmas Day, was spent at the Scarlet household this year. We stuffed our faces FULL of turkey, beef roast, pork roast, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes and green beans, and some of that cranberry sauce from a can (I ate a TON of cranberry sauce, that stuff is GOOD!). After we were good and miserable, it was time to open presents! I came out of the kitchen and on the dining room table was my first gift: Christmas Birdhouse! LOL!! Terry, Justin's dad, has been making bird houses. It's his latest hobby. Last time we were over there, I told him he needed to make a Christmas birdhouse, equipped with decorations and all! Well, sure enough, he did, and now I am the proud owner of this Griswold style bird mansion! And, NO, you CAN'T have it! :)

Justin handmade Karen a "Go Hogs Go" sign to hang in Baby Connor's room at her house. She also got a Garmin navigation system, but by the looks on her face, you can definitely tell which gift was her favorite. I love it :)

After Terry and I opened our presents, it was time for Justin to go on the Christmas Present Hunt of a lifetime! Karen had one gift for him under the tree, and in it was a pair of headlight guards for the jeep, and a set of rules for the rest of the game :) He had 8 presents hidden in various places in the house, and when he found one, he had to bring it back to the living room to open it. He said this was one of the most fun Christmas' ever. Here are some pics:

After leaving the Scarlet's, we went back to my parent's house to get our stockings! I have always loved stocking stuffers. This time around, it was only immediate family, and mom was in her PJ's. Can't say I blame her...I would have put mine on if I would have known that was the dress code! Mom made lasagna, but we were both so full from lunch, that we had to take ours home. We enjoyed Christmas with our loved ones, and we can't wait to celebrate next year with our little extension to the family!

December 26th, the day after Christmas, my friends and I had a girls lunch at Cheddar's. We exchanged gifts and went shopping afterwards. I don't get out much with the girls, so this was a TON of fun!! Thanks to Stephanie for putting it all together :) Great idea!! We have decided to make a yearly tradition of it. Here are a few pics:

Clockwise: Stephanie, me, Crystal, and Stacey

Crystal LOVES her Hogs!

Stacey won't forget her name anymore when she's putting on her make-up!

This bag will definitely come in Handy! Thanks, Steph!

Nope, that's not cleavage. Kind of looks like it at first glance though.....

Steph will be warm and fuzzy in her new cashmere wrap from Crystal!

Steph and I think Stacey was trying to tell us something...lol!

December 28th, 2008. I leave you with 2 more fun Holiday pictures! The first one is a picture of me with most of the gifts I received from my friends. Crystal got me the warm and cozy scarf and hat, Stacey made the delicious candy in the red tub and gave me the Berry Kiss body wash, and Steph gave me the awesome razorback bag. I couldn't help myself...I'm a dork, I know. :) The second one is how Abbey fell asleep with her head on top of Rosco's head after a long and exhausting Christmas.....aren't they just the sweetest things :) HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

It's the most WONDERFUL tiiiiiiiiime of the year!

WOW! Christmas is sneaking up FAST! We have been SO busy getting ready for the Holiday's, and I have been bad about updating our blog. I hope Santa doesn't find out! :)

IN THE SPIRIT OF GOING GREEN, I decided to recycle our Pier One bags into gift bags! Below is a picture of my wonderful creations! Time consuming, yes......fun, ABSOLUTELY! Mom says my maternal side is kicking in. :)

OH CHRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE! Check out our Christmas decorations! We have a 7 ft tree, and when we put it in the urn, it becomes 10 feet tall! It touches the ceiling! We have another tree that has all of our family ornaments on it, but I don't have a picture of it (yet...). So all together, we have 3 trees in the house. The third tree is on the mantle and is done in Butterflies. Weird, maybe, but I love it! CONNOR is doing well at 25 weeks! Last Wednesday we went to the doctor for our 24 week check-up. Because of the disaster with the ultrasound pictures on our last visit, we were given another ultrasound at this visit. Connor was playing with his feet most of the time during the ultrasound. It sure was cute :) We were just in awe.... :) As of now, he is breech, meaning his head is not pointing in the downward position, and if I were to have him today, he would come out butt first. There is plenty of time for him to turn around, so no worries. :) I showed the ultrasound tech where I was feeling all of his little kicks on my right side, and she told me that his feet were on my left, and it was his HEAD that is on my right. So he is in there headbutting me?!!? Leave it to little boys :) I'm ok with it for now, but if he is headbutting me in 5 years, we are going to have to sit down and have a little conversation. :) Here is my latest picture with Connor on December 13th. Justin and I (and Connor) were headed out to a couple of Christmas parties where we ended up having a really great time. Also, I took a cheesy self picture of Justin and me because we didn't have anyone else here to take our picture in front of our tree :)
Connor also received his FIRST Christmas card and gift in the mail from his Great Grandpa Ed. It was so very sweet, and it was really cool to see something addressed to "Connor James Scarlet." We are just getting so close to his arrival, and seeing something addressed to our sweet son just makes it all the more real. Thank you, Grandpa. We sure love you! :)

THE CHRISTMAS PARTY is Saturday, so I must get to work on getting everything ready! I am off work until January 5th, and am looking forward to some much needed time with friends and family. Justin has a couple of vacation days in there between now and the first of the year, so we will have some nice time alone together as well.....we realize those days of alone time are running out, but we wouldn't change anything for the world.....just gonna' enjoy it while we can :) Hopefully I will be able to blog again soon, but if not, Merry Christmas! We love you all!

....cause I'd miss you baby, and I don't want to miss a thing...

Corny title, I know....haha! Connor sure is an active little boy! Here it is, 11:08pm, and I don't want to fall asleep just yet because I am just enjoying feeling my little guy kick and move. I just think it's the sweetest thing. I'm so in love :)

As far as Christmas decorating, Justin and I have accomplished a lot in the last week. Justin has all the lights up on the house, and we are almost finished decorating the big tree in the living room. We still have one more tree to do; our family tree. I just love reminiscing as we hang all the different ornaments we have collected over the years. It's so much fun!

This weekend is our last free weekend before the Christmas Chaos begins!! We have 2 Christmas parties to attend on December 13th, and we are throwing our big Christmas Bash the following weekend on the 20th. This year at our party, we are taking donations for a local Clothes Closet for kids from birth to 5 years old. Right now in Fort Smith, there is no place for parents to get help for their children when they are in need of clothing. The Western Arkansas Childcare Providers Association has started this Clothes Closet and named it KARMA; Kids Affected Reaping Moral Alliance. We hope the party will be as successful as last year's when we took donations for a local Elementary school. Below is a picture of everything we collected last year! I still can't believe it! The response was incredibly heartwarming. Ya know, it's amazing what people can do when they come together to help others....I love it.

I think I am going to lay down.....Connor is STILL going at it....I think he has the hiccups or something! Sweet Dreams~

Black Friday, Baby, and Belly

BLACK FRIDAY!!! Ya know, I just really don't get it.....completely stuffing yourself stupid, passing out from being SO full, and then getting up at the crack of dawn to stand in line, fight crowds, and escape several bouts of death from being run over in parking lots by all the crazy "I GOTTA GET TO THAT SALE" drivers? To each their own, but it's just not for me. Justin and I went and had a cup of coffee this morning, and then we drove by all the parking lots in utter amazement. The lots were so full that many people just made up their own parking spots. Around 10am, we stopped in at Michael's. The parking lot didn't look too full, so we thought we would go in and see if we could find a good deal on some entry way Christmas trees. As we were walking in, some crazy ass lady decides she doesn't want to wait in the line of traffic, so she pulls out around the cars and guns it. I swear she was doing atleast 30. I was so close to her car that I wanted to kick it! UGH! Anyway, from that point on, I knew we were doomed! We were officially caught in the middle of Black Friday! Michael's didn't have a good deal on the trees, so as we were walking away, some other crazy lady chases me down the aisle to tell me that Kohls has a MUCH better deal on the trees. Nice gesture, but still a little weird. After Michael's, we went to K-Mart. Mom said she got her trees there for $20 bucks. We walked in the front doors of K-Mart with atleast 30 other people. It was like someone opened up the flood gates! Well, no deal there either, so we thought we'd give Kohls a try.....we saw the line of cars in the parking lot, and decided that we were NOT going to have any part of that! So our mini Black Friday adventure was over (thank God!), but we still had fun together acting like we were really hardcore Black Friday shoppers. :)

CONNOR is doing well. He really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner last night, and is looking forward to the leftovers today....oh wait, maybe that's me :) I took my OWN tupperware to Mom and Dad's last night so that I could claim some of the leftover turkey and sides. That was the best idea ever! Instead of Dad searching through the cabinets for tupperware and matching lids, then me having to wash them and decide which are theirs and which are mine, I just made it easy for everyone and brought all my own. 7 pieces to be exact! I filled up every single one of them too, AND brought home a paper plate with 3 pieces of pie! I racked up on leftovers!!! Check out the stroller we picked out! Don't you just LOVE it! Grandma Karen bought it for Connor. THANK YOU! I put it together all by myself! I told Justin I wanted to put it together, so he came in with a beer and a couple of tools. He said he needed an assembly beer, and he was SURE we would need the tools to put it together (Man stuff, ya know?). I said, "I bet you don't....I bet it all snaps together!" And sure enough, no tools necessary :) I had that thing snapped together in about 20 minutes. Justin called me "Mommy Mechanic" for the rest of the day

Here are a couple of prints I picked up for the nursery at the Holiday Market. I just love them! We are not going to go all out on Monkey's, but I thought a few would be really fun.

WE hope you all had a very good Thanksgiving, and enjoyed your time with family and friends. We are thankful for each and every one of you and the special something that you have brought to our lives.

THE HOGS are playing their final game today against LSU, so let's hope they can pull off a miracle! GO HOGS!

I can't wait until our little man gets to wear this. Isn't it sweet?

THE BELLY is getting big for sure! Here is a picture of Connor at 22 Weeks! A lot of people (including myself) thought I was having a girl because I was "carrying high." Boy were we wrong! :)

Connor James Scarlet.....has a nice ring to it, don't ya think?

Well, here it is....Monday. Justin and I started back to work today after a much needed week off. The best part about it is that we only have to work 3 days this week! What a way to slowly ease back into work. :)

So 2 days after the fiasco of trying to laminate the ultrasound pics, I was in a customer's office telling the sad, sad story of the lost ultrasound images. I was going on and on about how devastated Justin was, and how were were both so disappointed that we lost the pictures. About that time, the ultrasound tech from the office perked up and said, "You lost your images?! I would love to make you some more!" I got really emotional and overwhelmed with total and complete happiness! I kept asking her, "Are you sure? Is it ok??" She assured me that everything was ok, and that she LOVES to see babies since all she sees anymore is prostates....HAHA! She is the ultrasound tech in a urology office. She used to work in the hospital, so she did babies all the time and she really misses it. We were in the exam room for a good 30 minutes or so, just watching him and trying to get the perfect pictures. To be honest, she gave us much better images than the tech in my OB's office! When we were done, I gave her the biggest hug and told her how very much I appreciated her doing this for us, and that Justin would be THRILLED! And he was! It was so sweet to see the look on his face when he saw that we had new pictures of Baby Scarlet, who's name is now officially Connor James Scarlet. Below are some of the pictures of our sweet baby Connor.

Here he is yawning....he was worn out from taking so many pictures.

Here is a very clear picture of his "Boyness." There is no denying that he is a little boy!

I just love this picture of his little feet! Aren't they just precious?

Here is a picture of Connor's little face. He is smiling!

We accomplished a lot on our week off! Monday we registered at Target. I forgot how much work it is to register for stuff! Last time we did it was over 3 years ago when we were getting married! I thought we would just go knock it out in 45 minutes or so.....I was way off! It was 2 hours later before we left. Tuesday we spent the WHOLE day shopping in Tulsa! Macy's was having the best sale EVER, so we did lots of Christmas shopping and picked up a few things for little Connor. We also did a little shopping and registering at Babies R Us. Wednesday, Justin and his dad put together the crib. It it the most beautiful crib I have ever seen! I will get pictures up real soon. Thursday and Friday I went shopping at the Holiday Market here in Fort Smith. I picked up a couple of really cute monkey prints for the nursery. Justin and his mom worked on getting the carpet clean in the baby's room. Boy, was it NASTY! It's amazing what you can pull out of your carpet with a steam cleaner....WOW! We haven't used that room much since we moved in, so it needed a little TLC. Saturday, I put together Connor's stroller and safe seat. Justin called me "Mommy Mechanic." Really, it was all snap together, so it wasn't hard at all. Oh, and Justin put the Christmas tree up! YAY! I love having the tree up.....there's just something so peaceful about a Christmas tree. We have also chosen the bedding, so I will be getting that ordered this week for sure. Things are coming right along, and we are loving every single minute of it. Connor is really active these days. He is starting to kick a lot, and I am starting to feel it ALL the time! I usually feel him at night....particularly around midnight, and again at 5am. I believe he is preparing me for his sleeping schedule. Looks like he might be a morning person, guess that means I will have to become one :)

We are looking forward to spending time with our families this week, and I am looking forward to spending Thanksgiving pregnant. Seconds without a second thought....that's my kind of Turkey Day! We are very thankful for our family and friends who offer so much love and support to us on a daily basis. We are so very blessed to have each of you in our lives, and we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. God Bless

Yep, that's right! This morning we found out that we are expecting a bouncing baby BOY! He was not shy at ALL in showing us his little manhood....haha! I could have SWORN he was a girl (and so did everyone else, for that matter!), but we are more than thrilled that a little boy is on his way! After our appointment, Justin wanted to take the ultrasound pictures to Kinko's to get them laminated. I thought that sounded like a great idea, so off we went. When he came back out, he looked really sad and confused. Neither one of us had any clue that the heat from laminating the pictures would completely wipe out the images. We immediately went back to the clinic to see if they could print us some more, but the ultrasound tech had a full schedule and was unable to help us out. However, when we go back in 4 weeks, we get to have ANOTHER ultrasound so that we can get some more pictures! So even though we didn't end up with any still images today, we still ended up with a DVD of the ultrasound, AND we get to have another one in 4 weeks. At first, we were both really disappointed about the pictures, but it's ok....Baby Boy Scarlet is one healthy little dude and that's all that matters! He weighs 13 ounces (almost a full pound, which is 16 ounces) and everything looks normal. His little heart was beating a quick 146 beats per minute....now, that COULD be because I had a cup of coffee this morning to make sure he was awake for his photoshoot :) Now for the fun part....the shopping and picking out his name! We are really leaning toward Brady James for now. We have a few other first names in mind, but Brady seems to be the one that we keep coming back to, and that everyone really likes. It was so wild to see him on the TV this morning. There are days that I still can't believe there is a little person growing inside of me. This is just one more thing that proves that God DOES exist! Thank you all for your support and your prayers. This sure is an amazing blessing, and we are so thankful to have people like you to share it with. Below is a picture of Justin and I at the Arkansas/ Ole Miss tailgate.

Happy Halloween!!

I just love Halloween! It ranks right up there with Christmas as my favorite holiday. This year, we had around 150 trick-or-treaters! It was INSANE! We just love all the kiddos in their costumes. We had a couple of friends join us to hand out candy, and thank goodness they were here! Had they not been here, we would have run out of candy and had to close up shop early! That would have been terrible!! Baby Scarlet and I decided to dress up for Halloween :) Below are some pictures from Halloween night!




Baby Scarlet and I dressed up as skeletons for Halloween!

Our dear friends and neighbors, the Hossley's

Can I get a Doublestack with cheese, and a couple of Frosty's? (one for me and one for the baby, of course!)

Kyle (the alien from Hawaii), and Andrea the Witch

My husband (Wendy), and Rastafarian Richard

Yesterday we went to the last Razorback game in Fayetteville this season, and MAN, was it HOT! I was a walking, talking sauna!! Thankfully the clouds came by and covered up that nasty sun! From the time I got up in the morning, until about mid-game, I felt a lot of movement from the baby. I kept telling Justin that it felt like "sparkles." Don't ask me WHERE I came up with that....I guess I wanted to say something different from "bubbles" or "flutters" :) But it was really cool. I know the movements will just get stronger and more consistent from here on out. We are so very excited that we are one week and one day away from finding out the sex of Baby Scarlet! We will keep you all posted!!