sparkles and sprinkles

We're still waiting on baby brother, but I'm not in any hurry yet. Here's some more of Elle's baby countdown activities:

"baby" food:
One day we made "baby" food for lunch. We at baby pigs-n-blankets, or piglets, (slice crescent roll dough and wrap around little smokies), baby carrots, baby bags of chips, and baby pies (I found little graham cracker crusts and filled them with cherry pie filling, baked them for 5 minutes and topped with whipped cream.). Aunt Michelle, Uncle Dennis, and her cousins Derek and Ruby got to enjoy this with us when they came for a visit.

big sis shirt:
Elle now has a new "big sis" shirt that I found from Carter's since her head outgrew her other shirt we had gotten her when we were announcing the pregnancy. This is the only shot I could find of her shirt.


big girl pedis:
Elle and I went and got our toes painted. She picked out Going Gonzo blue (her color of choice lately) and I got Gettin' Miss Piggy With It red (both from the OPI Muppets collection. Our toes are so pretty I hate that we have to wear shoes! Elle really enjoyed the whole process and was so good. They painted her toes first so they would have plenty of time to dry before she had to put her shoes on and then she was fascinated by the pedi process. She loves her sparkly toes!


big sister sprinkle:
I threw Elle a "sprinkle" and invited some friends and her unofficial big sisters here at OSSM. It was basically a party to sprinkle cookies and play before a new baby comes and we can't do that as often. I think the big girls had more fun than the little girls!




I made these signs for guests to write whether they were a big sister, little sister, both, or singleton.

christmas and baby countdown

This year I wanted to be extra diligent about getting ready for Christmas right after Thanksgiving just in case I didn't feel like doing it after the baby comes. I adapted a few things into Elle's baby countdown as well.

Last Friday we decided to try and watch the OKC Christmas boat parade. We headed over a little before start time, but really waited too long and go stuck in traffic when the fireworks went off. We decided to head over the Lincoln bridge instead of trying to park near the boathouse and tower. We parked in the boat launch area and actually had an awesome view of the fireworks and could watch the boats line up before the parade. This worked out really well with Elle because it's hard to see what's on the boats anyway and then shortly after the start of the parade it started raining so we were able to get out there quickly.


Then last Saturday we went to get our Christmas tree. Last year was our first year to have a real tree since we've been married. Chris was like a little kid again and we ended up with a 9 footer! We went to Coffee Creek Tree farm last year, but because of the rain and time we decided to try Sorghum Mill Tree Farm in Edmond, which was a little bit closer. Grammy and Grandad stopped by for a little bit and were able to join us. Overall, I think Sorghum Mill has a better selection of trees. We only ended up with a 7/8 footer this year.


helping Daddy cut the tree

Elle enjoyed watching them shake the tree before we took it home

enjoying the yummy free cookies, candy canes, hot cocoa, and cider

That night we got out the ornaments and lights. As part of Elle's countdown I had her put baby brother's first ornament on the tree.


Mops was impressed!


The next day we put up the stockings as part of the countdown as well. Seems so funny to see 4 up there this year!

be careful little ears what you hear

Elle loves to play Just Dance on the Wii and Chris is so awesome to dance right along with her! This is one of Elle's favorites and apparently she has her own lyrics.


media literacy plug: How often do you really listen to or analyze the music you're listening to? How comfortable are you singing those lyrics or having other people hear you listening to that song?

smile baby!

Just a few of my favorite maternity photos. Photos done by Courtney Waugh Photography

zoo babies

As part of Elle's baby countdown I wanted to take her to the zoo and look for all the baby animals. I love our zoo because right now it's a perfect spot to find several. Black Friday was a really good day to go and Chris even took advantage of the state holiday to go with us. The weather was decent enough and we saw some great animal action.

Wait that's not a baby! But a pygmy hippo is close right?

The zoo had 4 tiger cubs born in July and they are on display now. This was our first chance to see them. They were so playful and we even watched a couple of them nurse.


We also caught the end of the elephant show, which was great to get an up-close view of Malee the baby elephant. She was pretty playful too. While we were there one of the keepers said elephants are pregnant for 22 months! I'm so thankful we don't have gestation periods in common with elephants!


The zoo also has a toddler and baby chimp. The baby just wanted to hang onto one of the adult's backs, but we did notice this time that it only has one hand. Anyone know the story behind this? The other young chimp put on a show playing with another adult and entertained us for a good while.

I just had to share this cute photo of Elle and her Daddy.

I'm not sure if there are other babies at the zoo, but those were the main ones we sought out. It was a really fun activity and will be precious memories because it could be our last as a family of 3!

more baby countdown

We're less than a week away from the due date! How did that happen? I'm trying not to hyperventilate when I think of all the things I still want to do. Here are some more of Elle's baby countdown activities:

car wash/detail and install car seat:
I really want the car to be a little more dog hair and cheerio free when we bring baby brother home and before I put another car seat in the back. So Elle and I headed to the car wash and got the "Shrock Box" all spiffy. Since we never do this I thought Elle would be pretty intrigued by the whole process. She loved watching them vacuum the car and then watching through the glass when they drove the car through the big washer. We now have a clean and cozy backseat with two car seats! I thought about taking Elle to the fire station and have them shuffle Elle's car seat and install the new one, since they supposedly do that, but I thought Chris would be offended so he did it himself.

pack a diaper bag:
When we were going through the baby stuff I found a couple of pacifiers that work with "heavy baby" so she plays with them and has a box of other doll clothes and blankets. Since Elle was going to a sibling class and needed to take her baby I thought she might like a diaper bag to put all her stuff in. I bought a couple of cheap bottles and made a little bag since I couldn't find a cheap one that I thought she could manage. I had already made some play wipes and diapers so we added those to the bag. I got the wipes tutorial from here and I made my own diaper template and used the leftover flannel and some velcro. I emptied a travel bottle of baby powder. Then we packed a diaper bag for baby brother.


Elle's sibling class:
We're delivering at Saint Anthony's, but they don't offer a sibling class. Fortunately, OU offers one and allowed Elle to enroll even though she's younger than the minimum age and we're not delivering there. The class was 2 hours on a Saturday and cost $10. She had to take her baby and a picture of her as a newborn. The teacher was really friendly and the activities kept Elle interested the whole time. She had 4 other kids in the class and the mom's and dad's could attend as well. She watched a video on being a super sibling, practiced putting a diaper on her baby and swaddling her, made baby brother a special onesie for his birthday, started a handprint certificate that we can add his handprint to later, ate cupcakes to celebrate, and then toured a room where she got her own doctor's hat, gloves, and mask (she loves these!). Overall, I highly recommend the class!





special present for baby brother:
We also wrapped up the onesie Elle made at her class and I took her to Babies R Us to pick out a new blanket just like Elle's to give to brother. If you know Elle you know how special her blanket is to her so I thought this would be a gift she wouldn't mind sharing.

thank you notes:
Elle and I worked on thank you notes for gifts she got at the shower etc. She really liked playing with stamps and stamp pads and picking out the stickers and paper. This also went along great with Thanksgiving coming up!

tt: turkeys, native americans, and thanksgiving

Here's some of the things we did for school leading up to Thanksgiving.
We made turkeys out of oreo cookies, whoppers, candy corn, twist'n'pull twizzlers, and pretzel sticks

Then "turkey and dressing".

I thought this picture of the girls was so cute! they were sitting in the same chair and didn't even notice because they were so busy with their markers!

Fall recycled crayons with cousins!

indian corn with cocoa puffs and honey kix cereal

We made headbands and lined up the 10 Native Americans with the right number.

Plymouth rock cookies that didn't turn out at all like they were supposed to, but the girls still ate them!

The girls loved making thumb and fingerprint turkeys, then they just wanted paper to make as many prints as they could