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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas weekend!! I was up at 6 this morning and the kids up at 7. After reading Santa's letter to the kiddos and checking out the cookie crumbs he left, we dug right into the presents.....leaving that special little envelope for last. ;) 


As promised, I wanted to take a few minutes on this beautiful Christmas day to share with all of you the long awaited surprise that was inside that envelope!!

So without further adieu.....
 

IT'S A BOY!!!!!


Just like this Mama thought! I was right with Anthony and Molly and my Mama's intuition hasn't failed me yet! Best Christmas gift ever was hiding in that envelope.

<3 Timothy Thomas Hauck <3

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Anthony's Kiddo Gathering

Anthony's party with a few of his classmates this past Sunday went great! Everyone showed up round abouts 3 and the kids ran straight to Anthony's bedroom. Only one friend didn't show up, so I'd say the gathering was a great success! The other moms and I chatted for a long while in the livingroom before getting up to snack. It was almost difficult getting the kids out of the room to come eat a snack, they didn't want to stop playing! haha! 

I made a Velveeta cheese dip, whipped jello, meat-cheese-and cracker tray, veggies and dip, little pigs in a blanket, and cookies. Everything was a hit and got rave reviews...especially the jello and cookies. YUM!

After forcing the kids to come out and have a snack, we got everyone bundled up to visit the horse. That got them excited!! We went down to see Nik then spent a good while letting the kids run a muck in the yard before everyone left. Anthony was so sad to see his friends leave. :( And one of the gals was even crying because she didn't want to go, lol. But I talked to all the moms and everyone loved the place and we agreed to try and make some play dates. Success!!

After everyone left, Sam and I went on a 20 minute clean up whirlwind then collapsed on the couch to realx. Phewww! Kid gatherings are hard work!


Today Sammy got off work early and zipped home to pick the kids up before heading to the airport to pick up Grandma Hauck! I stayed home to enjoy some quiet time and finish picking up the house. When they get home from the airport and grocery shopping we will quickly be on our way to town to meet one of my gal pals and her family for dinner at my favorite local restaurant. Hooray! Hopefully we aren't late, lol. 

Anyway, Grandma Hauck will be here for Christmas and staying with us until January 3rd. The kids are very excited about this! So if I'm lacking in the blog department for a little bit, it's because between Sammy having time off and having Grandma here, I *might* not be able to find the time to hop on. Regardless, I do PROMISE to get on and scream to the world if Baby is a boy or girl after finding out Christmas morning. ;)

With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Our Polar Express Adventure!

The Polar Express train ride was AWESOME!! We got to the ticket counter and one of the ladies actually escorted us to our special seats in the upper dome on the last train car after stopping for a photo with the conductor. It was like being on the VIP list, haha! We got to our seats and settled in...only having 3 seats was no big deal at all because the seats we had were large and the kids wanted to sit on their Papa's lap anyway, so they took turns. And turns out we had a table after all even though the lady said we wouldn't. I'd say we had the best seats on the train....in the front of the train car! :)The kids had a good time looking out the window watching the train cars behind us.

We started rolling and the conductor came and punched both the kids' golden tickets. An "M" for Molly and an "A" for Anthony! The kids thought their tickets were the coolest things! Then we got our hot chocolate and cookies delivered by the cooks. YUM! The hot chocolate wasn't actually hot...which was a good thing. It was warm so the kids were able to drink it. The cookie was molasses and delicious. 

After everyone was settled down with their cocoa and cookies, the Polar Express book was read over the load speaker while the cooks walked up and down the train isle with the book so we could all look at the photos. Once we reached our turn around which we were told was the "North Pole" (hahaha....it was a small town with lots of Christmas lights and decorations up!) Santa and some elves got on! The elves came to visit first and while Anthony was fine with it, Mols was shy. Then Santa showed up!!! He went and visited each kiddo and gave them a bell. Anthony loved it, Mols wanted nothing to do with him, haha!

After our visit with Santa we just hung out and enjoyed the ride back to the station. Christmas music was played the the cooks ran up and down the train isle singing songs and getting the kids to jingle their bells from Santa. It was really sweet to watch my babies have fun. They loved the whole experience and Sammy and I did too!


After our train ride we headed over to a local pizza joint. That place was BUSY! 3 different birthday parties going on and it seemed as if everyone else on the train had the same pizza dinner idea that we did. But we didn't have to wait long, we snagged a table as people were leaving and just waited for the gal to come clean it for us. We got a pizza, wings, a few drinks and a trip to the salad/fruit bar for Mama. It was a delicious special dinner ending to a great train adventure! 


With love,
Mama Hauck

Big Girl Bed

We were going to wait until Christmas to give Molly her new big girl bed, but I simply couldn't wait! Sammy picked up a single sized bed and mattress from Ikea and I couldn't resist getting it all set up right away! Merry Christmas Mols! :)

Besides, having her new bed set up has allowed me to arrange her room for how I want it when Baby comes. And it feels good to be proactive and actually do something to prepare for Baby. There is still MUCH work to be done for Baby, most of it having to wait until we find out if it's a boy or girl....but that wait will end on Sunday morning! Then I can go buy baby bedding and get the crib set up and such. Hooray!

Mols loves her new bed and we are thrilled!


With love,
Mama Hauck

Monday, December 19, 2011

ULTRASOUND PICS!!! ;)

Today was the glorious day I got to see my baby. :) Last time I had an ultrasound was 9 weeks ago at 9 weeks 1 day. I am now 18 weeks 1 day and needless to say the baby is much bigger and much more beautiful this time 'round. 

I posted a belly photo on Facebook and asked people to start making predictions on boy or girl. It's fun to see what other people think. I still think it's a boy and Sam still thinks it's a girl. We shall find out Christmas morning!!

The ultrasound was FANTASTIC! We love the tech who did it and she was nice and took her time. Baby was VERY active and danced on screen for us; causing me much pain with a full bladder and laying flat on my back with an ultrasound probe pressed against my belly, lol. And because Baby was so active, it made getting some of the measurements and shots a little difficult. We managed to get them all though. Sam and the kids were there with me and everyone ohhh'd and ahhh'd at the baby on the screen. It was an incredibly sweet moment.

Baby had a strong heart beat of 143 and all measurements were spot on. The tech gave us no reason to be fearful of anything and told us our baby looked wonderful. It'll be the radiation department that interprets the ultrasound results though and then calls my midwife. She will call me and give me the results, but I'm confident Baby is well. I had the tech turn the screen from us when she was looking for the gender. It was soooo hard not to look!! I wanted to so badly. She wrote the gender down on a piece of paper and stuck it in our envelope and sealed that sucker up. I placed it back on our Christmas tree the second we got home, not to be touched till Christmas morning!

And now on to the photos!

18 weeks 1 day belly.

Baby foot! Looks like Baby will have Papa's feet, lol. 

Baby hand giving us a thumbs up! LOL!! Love this photo.

Baby legs!

The classic creepy skeleton photo. Baby looking right at us. :)

The sweetest photo of them all, the profile shot. <3

With love,
Mama Hauck

Friday, December 16, 2011

Guess What Tomorrow Is!?

THE POLAR EXPRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The family and I will be boarding our Polar Express train at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon for a kick-ass Christmasy adventure filled with cookies, hot chocolate, stories, decorations and Santa! You want to know what makes it all even sweeter? 

Earlier in the week I received a phone call from the train station. The lady told me there was a computer glitch and my seats had been overbooked on accident. She said I could either switch to a different day or take a refund. I told her this was unacceptable and I was very displeased. We couldn't go on any other day and there was no way we were NOT going. She then began to tell me they have 3 seats specifically set aside for problems like this and we were welcome to have them....even though there would be 4 of us. So Molly would have to sit on her Papa's lap. And there wasn't a table for these 3 seats (pfff, no big deal to me). BUT the seats were in the snazzy Upper Dome, which would be an upgrade from our lower dome seats. AND she was still going to refund me my money for the hassle of it all.

Upgraded seats for free? WIN!!!!

After our train ride we will be stopping at the local pizza joint for a fun pizza dinner. Then it's off to the grocery store because Sunday Anthony is having a special winter party! 

Living out where we do, it's hard for anyone to make and keep friends. Anthony's always bummed out because he wants his friends from school to come over and play and it never happens. It breaks my heart. :( He really needs time with friends. In an effort to help the other kids' parents know of our plight and Anthony's need and desire to work on and maintain his friendships, I wrote a letter and made party invites for the 6 kids in his class he talks about daily. I'm happy to say that all the kiddos (plus a few more) will be able to make it! Anthony is beyond excited and I'm super stoked for him. It'll be nice to have his friends over and be able to chat with the parents a bit more and let everyone know that yes, we live way out yonder, but we're awesome and the drive is worth it!! ;)

So another exhausting weekend ahead....I'm yawning just thinking about all the house cleaning and party prep I've got to do, lol. I've already made cookies and I've got plans to make a cheese dip and pigs in a blanket as well as some other simple snacks. Today is Anthony's last day of school for about 2 weeks or so and I'm really looking forward that. 

Have a good weekend!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Oh, and here's a few belly pics @ 17 weeks. :)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Preschool Christmas Program

Anthony's preschool Christmas program was last night and it was absolutely adorable!!! My only complaint: we had seats in the back and I could hardly see!! Grrr. AND I was sitting behind some tall guy that kept moving blocking by view even more. I was so angry, you know....with my crazy pregnant hormones and all, I probably would have cussed out load had we not been in a church. ;)

Anthony didn't do the song movements, but he did sing. He looked cute and was super sweet up there with all his class mates and definitely made me proud!!


Do you see this photo below? I call this "Triple Trouble." Apparently these three are bff's. From what I hear, the three do everything together at school and the little gal is seen holding both boys' hands at times. Anthony talks about his "girlfriend" all the time and even has a little photo of her that she gave him. LOL I've talked to the other Mamas in jest about the three of them and we all agree it's adorable and laugh about it when we pick them up from preschool. All the kiddos are just so dang sweet. Ahhh, young love. ;)


When the kids were all done singing, the teacher had a special surprise for them. SANTA! Most of the kids were a bit scared so they wouldn't sit on his lap, lol, and Anthony was no exception. I managed to bulldoze my way to the front of the crowd to get a few photos of Anthony on his teacher's lap with Santa. Afterwards he told Sam that that wasn't the real Santa, just a guy in a costume because Santa only comes on Christmas Eve! HAHA


Once the program was done, the kids were allowed to run around and play. It's great watching Anthony hang out with his buds and watch them all interact. We then headed out to the other room where there was a huge table filled with juice, cookies and cupcakes. Now that's my kind of Christmas program!!! 


I love being a Mama and watching my babies grow. :)

With love,
Mama Hauck

"Making Me Money?"


Molly: "Where's my Papa?"

Mama: "He's at work today."

Molly: "Oh, making me money?"

Mama: "Yup, hahahaha, making you money."


LOL!! Silly gal. 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I Can Hardly Wait

On Monday the 19th at 3 pm, less than a week from today, I go in for my ultrasound!! I'm so excited! I'm planning to have the ultrasound tech write the gender down and stick it in the envelope you see below so Sammy and I can open it on Christmas and find out then. That'll be a GREAT Christmas gift. :) I'm hoping I can stick it out and not break down and have the tech tell me while I'm there! I want to leave the ultrasound with a sealed envelope and stick it on my Christmas tree. :)


Wish me luck (and much patience!)! Hopefully Baby will cooperate and not make it hard for the tech to find out, lol. 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Monday, December 12, 2011

Busy Weekend

I'm been failing in the photo department a lot recently. I don't have any photos to share of my outrageously busy weekend and wish I did because I got dressed up 2 days in a row and looked super hot! ;) 

My weekends was EXHAUSTING. I'm in desperate need of a pillow.

Friday Sammy and I attended a friend's wedding. It was a nice ceremony and we sat next to a really sweet couple during the dinner that we chatted with. Saturday we got together with people from Sam's work (for a little work gathering type thing) and saw The Nutcracker ballet. It was pretty good.....I was just worn out from the night before and not feeling the best (it didn't help that my heels were absolutely killing me!!!) so I didn't enjoy my time out as much as I had hoped. After the ballet we all headed to the casino where one of the buffet rooms was reserved for us and everyone chowed down on a nice buffet dinner. I was bummed we had to jet out early....no gambling for us! We had to rush back home to make it to the Christmas party our neighbors were having for everyone who lives on our road. We stopped by the house and picked my mom and the kids up and headed to the party. We had a good time, though I was all too happy to head home and go to bed. Sunday I tried to relax, but there was a lot of house stuff to do and I spent a lot of time working on our Christmas cards.

It was definitely an eventful weekend and I'm feeling it today. :( And unfortunately my mom had to head out this morning so I don't have the help anymore. Boo! I hope the kids let me nap today, lol.

A bit of good news! I most definitely feel the baby kick and move around every day now, multiple times a day. I'll feel a good dozen or so jabs along with general moving, stretching, and acrobatics. I can even press on my belly where I feel the baby is and the baby will kick back or try to squirm away. It's fun and one of the best feelings in the world! :) It's been nice to feel this baby far earlier than I did Anthony and Molly. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My VS Loot

Holy Moly am I exhausted. Yesterday was a glorious, but long, day.

I went to the mall. ;)

My mom and I loaded up the kids and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Portland to go to one of their malls so I could spend my Victoria's Secret winnings. Whoop!

My loot:
2 zip up PINK sweatshirts - one pink, one red......$100.00
5 pairs of undies......$26.00
1 multi-way bra.....$50.00
1 cosmetic bag.....$12.00
2 sparkly high shine lip glosses.....$12.00
5 body mists of different scents.....$30.00
1 black long sleeved lace shirt (for after baby cause there's no way I'm fitting in it now!).....$39.50

I also got my mom an item........$50.00
And my BF in NY a few items.......$45.00

And with shipping (for the online bought items) & taxes, plus the $125.00 roundabouts Sammy had spent, my card is now at 0!

PHEW! 

I also went to Motherhood Maternity and was pleasantly surprised when I tried on some pants and they fit. I'm currently having to use a hair tie around my pants button to help pro-long my wearing my normal jeans, haha! Maternity clothing is expensive, and outrageously huge....for me. Even at my biggest, a lot of maternity clothing just hangs on me and looks awful. I typically just buy a size or two up in normal clothing. But alas! I found some comfortable maternity pants! Of course they are petite extra-smalls, lol, but they actually fit! Hooray! I got a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of nice black dress pants. They both have the annoying spandex type band that goes all the way up your belly giving you "extra support" that I hate....but I'll deal. I also got two nursing bras and a pretty nursing cover. It was nice to get a few needed items that I normally would have had to buy online and run the risk of not fitting or liking. 

The kids were pretty well behaved through all of this and after spending so much time in just those two stores, we hit up just a few others real quick then made a pit stop at Cinnabon before heading out. If I hadn't had the kids and if I hadn't been exhausted and if I hadn't become poor after shopping at Motherhood Maternity, I would've stayed at the mall ALL day. I never get to go.

Today I'm just relaxing. I should probably be sleeping while Mols is napping and my mom and Anthony are out working with the horse. Sammy comes home tomorrow then our busy whirlwind of a weekend begins Friday evening. *sigh* Wedding, Nutcracker play, and road Christmas party. I wonder how I'll find the energy.

With love,
Mama Hauck

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Decorating the Tree! And a Major WIN!

Yesterday Sam and Anthony went off and got our Christmas tree while Mols, my mom, and myself went grocery shopping. I was also able to find a dress for a wedding Sam and I are going to at the end of the month and a pretty flowy tube top shirt (that I'm wearing in the photos below) for me to wear to a wedding Sam and I are going to next Friday. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to find anything nice for the weddings seeing as my belly is growing, but I pretty much scored by not only finding a few cute items, but getting them at a huge sale price and winding up getting a scarf for free. WIN!

Speaking of winning, I got the world's best gift if you're a gal. Last month I ordered stuff from Victoria's Secret. When my package arrived, a rewards card was inside too. This rewards card could have a $10, 50, 100, or 500 dollar amount. You couldn't use the card until Dec. 2nd and you wouldn't know the card amount until checkout. My Christmas wish list this year was made up with a few things from VS, so I gave Sam the rewards card thinking the $10 I'm sure the card was worth would help him out a bit. Little did we know when he went and punched in the rewards card number at checkout, it showed the card was worth $500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He called to tell me and I about freaked. It's so nice to be a winner. ;) So now I have about $350 to spend at VS (because Sam used the rest to buy my Christmas gifts for me, lol......meaning he got them for free with MY card......so he STILL needs to get me something for Christmas....right!?) before the card expires on the 21st. 

WHOOP!

Anyway, back to the tree decorating. We got home from shopping and the boys had already gotten the tree up with it's lights. We broke out the boxes of decorations and got to work. The kids had a blast and it was fun for Sam and I to watch them have so much fun. When we were done, we had my mom take a few photos for us so I can make and order Christmas photo cards.

Does everyone else have their trees up yet?


A few family photos!


And some of Sam and I too.


With love,
Mama Hauck

P.S. Like my hair? I got a few inches cut off and my highlights redone. :)