A Baby Mackenzie Update

Mackenzie is definitely getting bigger, which in turn means that I am getting bigger! She is becoming MUCH more active and at night we like to just watch her move in my tummy. Who knew how entertaining it could be?!?! I have a feeling she is going to be moving more and more as she gets bigger and starts to run out of space. I don't know where I get my long torso from, but thank you! I think she has enough room for now. 

Our doctor's appointments are getting ready to become more frequent as we move into the third trimester. I go next week for the glucose test. I hear it's not that bad as long as you don't fail and have to do the second test which is 3 hours long! Yikes! I like my sugar and carbs, but I hope everything will be okay. If not, then we will deal with it. My weight gain over Thanksgiving and Christmas has not been friendly, but at least this year I can blame it on being pregnant. What's my excuse for the previous 24 years?!? As long as baby is healthy, then Craig and I are happy! Dr. Collins says everything is "Just Perfect!" every time we see her, so I have to trust that. The belly is indeed getting bigger! 

Week 25 belly!

Week 26 belly on Christmas Eve!  No Bowser this week :(

The Holiday Break and Festivities

Well, needless to say a lot has happened since I lasted updated. Christmas has now come and gone and we are awaiting the new year. I cannot believe that 2012 is a few days away. On New Year's Eve we will officially be t-minus 3 months until our angel arrives! That is CRAZY!!!! Time is flying by very quickly. I have a feeling that she is going to be here before we know it. 

This break was definitely different for me because I did have not a full two weeks off of work. To those who never have that time off- I do apologize, BUT for those of us who are used to a FULL two weeks- it's really stinky. Oh well... as we all keep saying at school: MAY 31st! That's super early for our district to let out for the summer. The other reason the break was different and special is because Granny and PaPa came into town with my aunt and uncles! We have not all spent Christmas together in years. It was really fun to have everyone at my mom and dad's for the holiday. We love spending as much time with them as possible. I sure wish they would move up to Dallas (hint, hint PAPA!!!). I've tried to convince them to move here for the last couple of years without any luck. Now I try to use being close to Mackenzie as the ultimate trump card, and I'm still failing miserably!

Craig and I stay on the move during the holidays since both of our families live within 20 minutes of our house. (I have a feeling that we will be even more thankful for that fact when Mackenzie gets here!) We spend Christmas Eve with Craig's family. This year we were at his uncle's house in Coppell. The whole family comes over and we had a REALLY good dinner this year. I'm not sure if it's because of the pregnancy that I thought it was so good, or that I liked everything that was offered? Either way, it was delicious! After we left his uncle's, we went to his mom's to open gifts with our nieces and his siblings. It's always fun to see how excited Addi and Brookie get about Santa Claus coming to town. We kept a close eye on his travels during the night until they left. We stayed the night at his mom's house with his brother Brad and wife, Kelly. We have done it before, but wanted to do it one last time before we need to be at our house Christmas morning for Santa! Craig's mom made a huge and yummy breakfast for us in the morning. We came home for about an hour and made a quick change before heading to my family's house for Christmas #2. Christmas is always special because the family gets together, but this year was even more wonderful because of my grandparents being in town. Our niece, Emma, and nephew, Eamonn, are so much fun to be around and a ball of energy! You really have to be on your toes around the two of them. Dinner at my mom's was delicious as well. We do a lot of eating and hanging out! I love it! We opened gifts with the family and everyone watches the kids. After watching the two of them, I decided that kids open gifts in one of two ways. First, they open everything as fast as they can and then have NO IDEA what they got. OR- they take forever to open their gifts because they want to play with each one as they open it. It's very interesting! By the time Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were over, we were exhausted! 

 

Craig, Bowser, and I have done a lot of sleeping since the holidays trying to catch up. Craig is very busy back at work. He has many plans for the new year and ScrewAttack. I can't wait to see them all in action. He works hard and has worked hard for a long time. I can't wait to see all of the hard work pay off in some way, shape, or form. With everything he does, he keeps our growing family at the forefront. I think I picked a pretty good one! (He does too!) 


Happy New Year!!! 2012, Here we come!

A Productive Weekend

Saturday was a busy day full of projects. The company delivering the nursery furniture said they would be to our house close to 11:00 am, but failed to show up until 1:00 pm. I wonder why they even bother to quote you times when they fail to meet them. Hmm? The good thing is that all of the furniture got here and it was in good shape. They sure do pack it up really well! We have a lot of trash sitting out on driveway. It's a good thing big trash goes out on Mondays. They had a little trouble getting some of the furniture up and around the stairs. I think they probably would have charged us more if they knew what a tight turn it would be. Oh well! It was WELL worth the money to have it delivered. Craig had to help with one of the pieces, so just imagine if we had to do it ourselves?!?! We (or maybe just me) decided that we should get everything set up instead of letting it sit in boxes for the next few weeks. The two dressers came put together, so all we had to do was take them out of the box. The crib needed to be put together though. That was a pretty painless process. We worked together and get it all up and arranged. It took us a while to decide how we wanted everything to go in the room. There is a good chance that we will change our minds over the next 3 months! We definitely have time to make changes! 

Week 24 belly bump in front of Mackenzie's crib.

After all of the furniture was in place, we went over to Denise's house for her Christmas Open House. This was the third year for her to do this, and I love going over there. She makes the best (and easy) Crockpot meatballs. I'm a little embarrassed to say how many I ate... So I won't! It is always fun to see family and watch the kids play. Once we left there, we (or just me again) decided to go to the Galleria to do some Christmas shopping. Our nieces, Addi and Brookie, love the American Girl dolls and have asked Santa for new ones this year. We needed to be prepared just in case he decided they have been good enough to receive one. That store is an experience in and of itself! I don't think anything could have prepared Craig for what was in store inside. I had no idea how big that place was either. It is HUGE!!! and it was packed at 8:30pm. I have a feeling that we have trips like this in our future with Mackenzie. They have so many clothes and accessories downstairs to choose from, and then upstairs they have a hair salon, a Bistro, and party rooms! In the salon, you can get your doll's hair done, or ears pierced, or get a facial!!! It's unbelievable!! We really had no idea. Then as we were walking back to our car through the mall, it seemed as if every other little girl had an American Girl doll or someone was carrying a bag from that store. Craziness! 

Sunday, was a little more low key but still busy. Craig helped his dad break down a party that he decorated for on Saturday. I ran some errands and went to school to get some work done. Craig came home and is playing the new Zelda game! He is obsessed right now! I am going to grade some papers. It's not a mystery who will be having more fun. 

We are excited to go to the doctor again on Monday to see how Miss Mackenzie is growing. Hopefully, we will get another video of her heartbeat. 

Mackenzie's Room and a Growing Belly

The nursery has certainly started to look more like a baby room over the last week. Craig and I have been painting with the help of Craig's mom. Every time I paint, I forget how miserable it is to tape everything off. I guess it's a good thing I don't paint too much. The furniture is being delivered today and we are going to try and arrange it how we think we want it. Everything is subject to change at this point. 

Here are some pictures of the nursery before her furniture gets here. 

              

            

Now we are just waiting on the three pieces of furniture to be delivered. I sure hope the room is big enough to hold all of it. If it's not... too late now! We are getting even more excited because it feels like she is that much closer to being here with us! Kind of scary, but we can handle it!

Now for the growing belly!

Week 22

Week 23, in front of the Christmas tree at the Adolphus after the parade.

Week 23 in Mackenzie's room.

Coming soon... Mackenzie's room with furniture and we are officially at 24 weeks!

And Her Name Is...

Husband Craig has officially taken over this blog and now it's time to go CRAZY!  I asked Kristen where the updates were tonight and she said she hasn't had time to update lately.  I guess being pregnant sure does take up a lot of time.


This past weekend I started painting our kiddo's room.  Hey, speaking of the kiddo, did you know we have picked out her name?  *insert drum roll*


.......


Mackenzie Grace Skistimas


Lovely, right?  One of the reasons I like the name so much is because I can see the name really sounding good when I'm yelling.  "MACKENZIE GRACE!"  Hopefully I won't ever have any reason to yell as she'll without a doubt be an angel.  We're just a couple weeks out of Christmas (yes, just like Skistimas) and while one last trip to Disney World before Mack comes it was ultimately vetoed as we wanted to make sure we enjoyed our last Christmas (yes, really, like Skistimas) as just Craig and Kristen with our family.


It's certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas. See you next week.... HOPEFULLY with a tummy picture.