Hope You Have High-Speed...

...'cause I'm back and I brought a ton o' pictures to boot! My oh my what a crazy few days it has been. Okay, so you remember that I got my sister from the airport Tuesday night, right? No snow falling at all. Nada. I didn't know a blizzard was coming. That night I noticed more than ankle swelling...it was creeping up my calves. Eek! I had a minor freak out, of course, I'm still me after all...but I went to sleep and woke up with it all better again. Back to the minor ankle swelling. It must've been from either all the crap I've been eating (holiday goodies, ya know?) or it could also have been due to all the sitting/standing/waiting/driving I had to do getting my sis from the airport. Jason thinks (jokingly, of course) that it's just a reaction to the airport in general--flying is what did it to me the last time I was pregnant. Anyway...

My sis got here safely, the swelling went away overnight, Jason gets up and drives to work the next day. No snow on the ground. We knew it was supposed to snow but that's about it. We prepared by Jason putting on some long johns under his pants. I even told him, "Sorry you can't take the car today (the 4WD) because we've got plans." Ha!!!! We were expecting my mom and other sis to drive up to visit but she had to turn around and go home due to "blizzard-like conditions". Whatever, Moosie. :) I flipped on the news finally...wouldn't you know it: it WAS a blizzard! Once I got how serious it really was and how bad it was supposed to get I called Jason basically begging him to leave work early. Everywhere was closing at noon that day all around the state. Y'all read the part about it taking him 3+ hours to get home. It was nerve-wracking...good thing Easton, Auntie Jess, and I were all napping. Otherwise I would've been crazy. We were snowed in. No going anywhere.

Instead, Auntie Jessica (who Easton has dubbed "Dess") decided to assemble some of her gifts. She had Easton help her put them under the tree. Then she handed him a gift bag by the handles to put under the tree. Silly goose hung it on the tree like an ornament.

Oh goodness, I laughed so hard. He did it with the other one she handed him too. Hee hee! Hilarious. We left 'em that way. What else did we do? Drank milk. Here is Eastie getting it out of the "fridgie" himself like he likes to do:

And playing in a box that some gifts came in...I started singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and so he took it upon himself to go get a paddle: his popper toy. Resourceful.


Also that day my OB's office called saying, "We're closing early today we don't know if we'll be open tomorrow so call us and check before you come". My "Monday" appointment was supposed to be Thursday. Ugh...I told them, "Yeah, even if you are open" (which I seriously doubted because the snow was expected to continue till noon that day) Okay, so, "Even if you are open I'm not going to make the drive--can we reschedule now?" And they were in a hurry to get off the phone so she just said, "Well, there's not going to be anything this week and probably nothing the next week either. Call in the morning. Bye!" See? I've told you how lovely (not) the office staff is there. Poo faces. Oh well. Kindermusik also called to cancel on us. No biggie.

Well, indeed the OB and everywhere else was closed on Thursday. Jason didn't even attempt to go to work although he did manage to do quite a bit of "work" from home with emails and phone calls and such. Once the snow stopped he also had quite a bit o' shoveling to do and we wanted to take Easton out to play. Here he is all bundled up for his first blizzard:

Fresh from his nap he's wearing some fleece footie jammies under his hopefully waterproof Broncos jogging suit and his coat and tennis shoes. Creative, but it worked. And his first foray into the blizzard of '06:

The amazing thing is that we "had" to let him play in the driveway there because the snow wasn't as deep. Jason had already shoveled that part once to get his truck up the driveway (remember?) so as deep as it is, it was worse elsewhere...we might've lost him! ;) We had at least two feet of snow! Okay, so here he is posing with Mommy:

And wearing quite the crazy expression as he tastes snow for the first time:

Cute li'l snow bunny:

Is that the baby bathtub in the background? Yes, yes it is. Or a "sled" as we like to call it now:

A "winning" shot:

Jason is already looking forward to about 10 years from now when "the boys" are old enough to do the shoveling for us:

Our front porch...

Wowsers! Hope there's no forgotten Christmas packages hiding under there.

Eastie's first snow angel. The crazy thing is, he did this all on his own. We didn't tell him to try it or even to lay down at all:

Jason thinks it looks more like a "snow Jesus":

Giving Daddy a hand:


Easton had a blast in the snow. He didn't want to stop. But the sun was starting to go down and I was getting cold, not to mention Jason needed us out of the way to actually do some work so E and I headed inside for a shower and then he demonstrated one of his favorite tricks: hanging from the bars on our bed but lifting up his feet. He can totally do it without laying on the bed...like at Gymsters where there's just a "high" bar...he'll get up there, hang on, and lift his feet up to the bar on his own. Stud:


Anyway, I was starting to feel pretty bad for poor Aunt Jess who was stuck inside with us for so long. We're not the most exciting people to you "outsiders" although we like us. Plus, my mom hadn't gotten to see her yet and she was scheduled to leave today (Friday). News reports were making it sound like she'd be stuck here till the 26th because it would take that long to evacuate all the stranded travelers out at DIA. However, the airport re-opened at noon today and so far so good...she's in line for security as I speak/type whatever...haven't heard from her lately though.

So, back to earlier today...Easton was nice to us and slept in till 8. Jason decided yesterday not to bother with work today either. Aside from some minor "from home" tasks. We had breakfast and snuggled on the couch watching some of E's "holiday specials":

And Gramoo and Lauren were finally able to make it up to see Aunt Jess today. They brought Easton a festive holiday book that lights up. Of course that was a big hit:

They're in a camping chair because we don't have enough chairs around our table for everyone. Especially now that Easton's in a booster seat instead of a high chair. Oh well. After sitting around the table for a bit we moved to open some presents with "Dess". Here is our little Santa Baby delivering packages to their rightful owners:

He's such a sweetie-poo--I brought down a couple of packages and put them under the tree but I told him they were for Auntie Jessica and he decided at that point to pick up each one of the 3 and bring them right to her. Awwww. Both Easton and Dess were very excited for Easton's present, a Thomas train set!



He loves it and was very patient while we (Daddy mostly) got it all set up for him. It even makes steam! Very cool! He played with it nearly all the rest of the day except for when we made him take breaks...and when I made him take his short nap. Here's one of his silly and frequently used expressions, he found a small piece of train:

I made out pretty well gift-wise too:

Jessica is way cooler and trendier than I am so I wanted her to get me some new sunglasses. I like 'em! But, then she also spoiled me with the new earrings you see in my lobes. They're classic silver hoops...much smaller than she or Lauren would wear but "cool" nonetheless. Jessica described them as "modest for motherhood". Perfect for me! The new purse is from her too! I'm going to be the most stylish preggo at Kindermusik next time! Yay me! And thanks to Auntie Jesh! Jason got a gift card to his favorite restaurant: PF Changs. Yum! I'm glad he likes to take me along to redeem it! Oh, and word is she's on her plane now...yay for her!

So, the OBs office was open today and I was able to reschedule my "28 week appointment" for January 3rd...when I'll be 31 weeks and 4 days. Super. This is some really great "high risk" care I'm getting, eh? I did ask to speak with a nurse because, while the actual doctor's visits don't do much for me: weigh, check BP, measure my uterus with a tape measure and then ask if I have questions, I did want to check on some other "issues" so I asked the nurse to simply order my labs so I could do them now. They don't know I'm possibly beginning some symptoms (till I told the nurse today). Plus, they were going to repeat my 24 hour urine at 28 weeks anyway. I wasn't sure about them repeating my PIH panel but I got her to order that too. Just for case. (I say that wrong on purpose).

Now that the roads are finally passable we're planning for me to get those labs drawn tomorrow (Saturday) morning and to pick up my jug for the pee party then too. I'll plan to take the jug back up to the 'spital on Christmas Eve. Festive!! With Easton's pregnancy we turned one in on Christmas Day. Hopefully things are still looking good but the nurse agreed that we want to keep a close eye on things. She is very smart. If anything is amiss I know the on-call doc will call...even on Christmas. I just don't want to take any chances. I think things are fine, my BP is still nice and low when I've checked it...but then again it was like that last time too. Till the bitter end.

Jason needs to do a bit of holiday shopping tomorrow and I need to pick up some things from the grocery store for my own contribution to Christmas dinner. Glad the snow is over...that's all I have to say about that! It's fun, but I felt bad for my sister being holed up here with us, unsure when she might get home. It all worked out okay, though! Okay, that is more than enough but I had days to catch up on here peeps, and a lot of material to work through. But, now I'm done so until next time....