Our Family Baby Shower

Jim's sister and brother-in-law threw us a baby shower this past weekend. We had fun getting together with the family, and they were so generous with lots of gifts for the baby. We had a delicious dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, salad, and rolls. After dinner, we played the diaper game. There were 13 diapers, and each had some kind of baby food or melted candy bar in it. We had to try to figure out what was in each diaper and write down our guesses. I was actually the winner with 8 correct guesses! Here is Jim trying to figure out one of the diapers.

Some of the family.

We got so many nice gifts! Here is a little pair of sunglasses. Drew didn't care too much about most of the gifts, but he thought those were very interesting.

One of the gifts we were very excited about was a rock and play sleeper. I've heard good things about how well babies sleep in them, and I am really hoping that our baby will sleep well in hers!

Here we are with Jim's sister, Sharon, and her husband, Larry. They are always so helpful and generous, and we truly appreciate them very much. They spoiled us at the shower!

Here are the gifts we received. We got several cute outfits for the baby and several packs of diapers.

We also got some new bottles (since they have to be BPA free now), some bibs and burp cloths, some cute baskets with pink gingham liners, a baby book, a diaper stacker, some wipes, pacifiers, headbands, a swaddling blanket, a Babies 'R Us gift card, and a diaper and wipe clutch for the diaper bag. The little monkey was a gift from our niece, Lilly, who just turned three. She had one just like it, and it was her favorite, so she got one for our baby.

We also got sunglasses and a little coat.

Another very nice gift we received was a pretty, girly travel system. Drew's infant car seat expires in December, and we had planned to use it for the new baby, but Drew's stroller was a hand-me-down, and we were planning to replace it. The stroller we had registered for was discontinued, so Jim's sister called from Babies 'R Us to see if we would mind if she bought us this travel system instead. Jim put everything together last night, and we love it!

We really hadn't expected a shower this time, and we were overwhelmed by the generosity of our family. We are feeling much more prepared for our little girl's arrival now, and we are looking forward to meeting her three weeks from today!

Some New Baby Pictures

I have gotten a few new 3D baby girl pictures in the past couple of weeks. They are kind of blurry, and she has a tendency to keep her hands up near her face, but here are the pictures.
The first two were taken about two weeks ago. You can see her little nose and lips here, and her little hand is covering her eyes. Here's another picture - mostly of the bottom half of her face.

This last picture is from last week. Jim came with me, and we didn't get a clear view of her face at all. In this picture, you can see her covering her face with her crossed arms (over to the right). She was really uncooperative! :)

The last two ultrasounds have been to check fluid levels (which have been good), and I will be having a growth ultrasound this week where they will do a full scan and give us an updated weight and size estimate. I am looking forward to finding out how big she is!

We are so thankful that things are continuing to progress well, and we are praying that baby and I will remain healthy. We are down to less than a month until we get to meet this little girl! We have a little baby shower this weekend with Jim's family, and we are trying to use these last weeks to prepare as well as we can for the changes that are ahead of us.

What We've Been Up To

We have had a great several weeks since Christmas - getting back to our new "normal" routine.
Jim is back to work, and he has actually been pretty busy, which is unusual for January. We have hardly had any snow this winter, and this past week or so, we have had temps in the 40's and 50's, so the golf course has been very busy.
Drew is back to school two mornings a week. He truly loves school, and I am so thankful that he does. He is also enjoying playing with all his Christmas gifts, and he and Jim love playing the Wii together. I've been working hard to get our house and our family ready for baby's arrival. I've been gathering things we will need, mostly at thrift stores. I've found so many cute girl clothes and several things for her nursery. I've also been washing up some of our own baby things in preparation for this new baby. This week, I washed Drew's old car seat and put it all back together. Drew let me use a George to help make sure the straps were put in correctly.

I've enjoyed getting back to couponing and CVS shopping. I'm trying to restock the house a little bit. I've also been doing a little bit of freezer cooking to give us some meals for after the baby gets here. So far, I've made two bags of Stuffed Shells, a Stromboli, and a Pizza Dough. I am planning to make several more freezer meals in the next few weeks.
I have also been scrapbooking a little bit this past week. Let's Scrap is having a January challenge to make a layout of each day of the month (LOAD). I thought this would be a fun way to get caught up a little bit before the baby comes, even if I don't actually accomplish 31 pages. I'm at 6 so far, and here they are:

These pictures are from this Halloween. Drew had so much fun being Buzz.

These pictures are from Drew's first field trip - to the apple orchard.

This was a quick and easy page about our pumpkin carving this year.

This last page is about a trip that Drew, my sister, Nora, and I took to Yogurt Mountain this past summer. Drew loved picking his own toppings!

That is pretty much what we've been doing lately. I have another ultrasound/doctor appointment this week, and I am planning to blog some recent ultrasound photos next week.

A Visit With Family and a Real Hudson Hornet

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in South Carolina, and on our way home, we detoured through Nashville, TN to visit Jim's Uncle Paul, Aunt Ruby, cousin Sandy, and her husband David. We spent a couple of hours at their house.
Here is Drew with Uncle Paul and Aunt Ruby. Drew enjoyed playing with his cars and the dog while the adults talked. Here he is with David and the dog.

Jim with his aunt and uncle.

Drew with Sandy and the dog. He really liked that little dog!

Uncle Paul was a race car driver when he was young, and then he was a Hudson mechanic for many years. He has owned several old cars, and his current car is a Hudson Hornet. He took us down to his basement garage to see it.

Uncle Paul has had a few strokes, so if he has to go far at all now, he uses his scooter. He gave Drew a little ride around the garage.

His garage walls are covered with old pictures and memorabilia from his work with cars throughout the years. He has won several awards for his different cars, and he has been on the cover of a car magazine with one of them too. It would take hours to see all his stuff. He pointed out a few things to us while we were there.

Drew had a great time looking at all the things in the garage and talking to Uncle Paul. They share an interest in cars! Uncle Paul gave Drew a little Hudson Hornet from the Cars movie, and Drew thought that was great. :)

Because of his health, Uncle Paul cannot drive anymore, and it is hard on him to have that Hudson Hornet in his garage and not be able to drive it. We really enjoyed our visit, and we hope to back again on another trip south.

Thanksgiving in South Carolina

We spent Thanksgiving in South Carolina this year. By Thanksgiving Break, I had been teaching for a few weeks, and I was pretty exhausted. We had already planned our trip to South Carolina before I was asked to sub, and since Jim had already gotten the time off from work, we decided to take the trip as planned. We were with my family for about five days, and it was so nice to see them and to relax.
We ate Thanksgiving dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's house. We went over early so the food could all be finished up there, and so the men could watch the Lions' game. Nora had gotten some Thanksgiving window clings for Drew to play with, and he had fun making a turkey on the front door. The men watching football (and Dad on his ipad).

Drew kept us entertained in the kitchen.

The food was delicious! Nora and Mom made everything, and it was so good!

Nora's pretty table.

Drew was excited to drink his lemonade from a straw.

Our hosts, the newlyweds.

Drew, as he often does, got too excited to eat, and we urged him to try a few bites of everything. Drew used to have an overactive gag reflex, but he had been doing great with that for quite a while. However, one of his bites of green bean casserole had a texture that he didn't like. He gagged on it and threw up at the table. It was quite an unpleasant ending to our meal! Drew ended up taking a nap on a spare bed in some of Nora's clothes, and he seemed to feel much better when he woke up. This was the aftermath of the gagging incident.

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew spent Thanksgiving at the beach with her family, but they were back our last night in town, and they came over for dinner that night. We set up my camera on a tripod after dinner and took a family picture. We haven't gotten a family picture in a long time since our nephew, Ryan, was being born during Nora and Topher's wedding. It was nice to get a picture of everyone.

We had a great time in South Carolina, and we were sad to leave. The next time we are there, the Hawkins family will be a family of four!

A Very Nice Christmas

The Hawkins family is still alive and well! We have had such a busy last month or so, and blogging was (obviously) way down on the priority list. We've made it through Christmas, two sets of house guests, my long-term subbing job, and several more weeks of pregnancy since I last blogged. I am getting back to a normal routine now, so I thought that I would try to catch up on my blog a little bit.
Our first set of Christmas guests was my parents. They arrived the weekend before Christmas, and we had a great week with them. I was still teaching while they were here, so they took one of my teaching days and made a day trip to see some relatives in Ohio. During the other half day that I taught, my dad had a guy day with Drew, and my mom went to school with me to help me with my class Christmas party and to help me get all of my things out of the classroom. That afternoon, I had an ultrasound and doctor appointment, and my mom went with me to see the ultrasound.
Baby is still measuring in agreement with the new due date, so we have a c-section scheduled for Valentine's Day! Because of the discrepancies between the early and later ultrasounds, I will have to have an amnio the day before the scheduled c-section to check baby's lung development. If everything looks good there, we will go ahead with the scheduled date. If not, my c-section will be pushed back a bit.
While they were here, my dad painted the baby's room a very pale green. It looks so pretty, and I was quite thankful not to have to do the painting myself. Their last evening here, we watched "Polar Express," had cookies and hot chocolate, and opened gifts.

Our next Christmas celebration was with Jim's side of the family at his sister and brother-in-law's house. We tried to get a group picture of all the children, but Drew kept covering his face.

Drew (and all of us, really) got spoiled, as usual.

One of Drew's favorite gifts was a Cars 2 race track. He couldn't wait to get home and set it up. He and Jim have been having fun racing with it.

On Christmas morning, our little family opened gifts together.

Drew had a bad cough and runny nose, so he and Jim stayed home from church that morning, while I went to work in the toddler nursery. Since Jim was home, he took over some of the household duties, including baking the ham! He found a recipe for a glaze on-line, and he made it. It was delicious!

Drew used his festive straw at lunch.

Jim's mom came for lunch, and we had a little gift exchange with her. She got our family a Wii for Christmas, and Drew has become obsessed with the Wii. He has a sports game and a Cars 2 game. He loves to drive in the Cars game (even though he is terrible at it!), and he really enjoys the sports, too - especially the bowling. Jim and I can rarely beat him at bowling!

My sister and brother-in-law arrived Christmas afternoon (our second set of house guests), and we had a great few days with them. While they were here, Nora drew and painted a tree on the baby's wall. We love how it turned out! We plan to hang some shelves on three of the branches.

Topher, Jim, and Drew played a lot of Wii. We also did some thrift store and Christmas clearance shopping and went to the Little Caesar's Bowl game while they were here.

Now that all the Christmas excitement is over, we are getting back to normal at our house. We are working hard to get ready for baby's arrival, and this week marks the beginning of twice-weekly doctor appointments for me. Between Drew's school schedule, my doctor appointments, and work at home, we are keeping busy!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas, and I am looking forward to posting a few other little updates and projects in the next few weeks!