Christmas, New Year's, & BIG News! -crazy long post!

The Christmas celebration started for us on the 16th at the Wilson home. Rowan, Addie Sue, and Sydney had a blast playing Ring-Around-the-Rosie.

The "We All Fall DOWN!" part is everyone's favorite!

Aunt Debbie got them a gingerbread house to decorate. We thought it would be good to make this an annual event & see how skilled they become over the years. As you can see, Sydney was quite diligent in decorating her side.She did try a few bites of candy, but I was surprised she didn't eat more.This was our attempt to get all 3 girls by the house for a keepsake moment, not so good!
Next we flew to Florida to have Christmas w/ my Dad & family. It was GREAT having family around to play with Sydney while we did other things-things we never get to do like....sleep in while Papa reads her books, get dressed in peace, have a cup of coffee in the morning, wrap gifts w/out them being unwrapped in the process, let someone else change her diapers. You know, the simple things in life you forget about when you have a 23 month old!Christmas Eve

There is a great park almost in their back yard. We made a few trips just to get out of the house & enjoy the weather.
Papa & Sydney tried to make a snowman out of sand.We went to the beach for a few Hallmark moments before the sun went down. Its not as cold as it looks. Its always windy on the beach, so that makes it a good 10 degrees cooler. And, Sydney LOVES this hat & wears it inside & out, no matter what the weather. We called this orange shovel her Ducky Foot.

There were a few tears when we had to leave. Sydney didn't want to stop playing with her bucket. It was a deal all week long! "Where's bucket?" and "(sad face) My bucket!" and "(holding hands outward) I want to hold bucket." I'm sure the fact that she was sleep deprived didn't play any roll in that (wink).

A perfect sunset on Christmas Eve.Papa reading everyone the Night Before Christmas.

Its a new tradition of ours that we all open PJ's on Christmas Eve. We decided this after we saw how ratty we looked in our pictures from last year. Sydney inherited Jeff's lazy eye habit of looking sleepy in pictures, or closing her eyes entirely, so we only have this head shot picture. Not so much of our new PJ's, but a happy family nonetheless.

Christmas Day

Sydney getting into her stocking.

She found chocolate, and LOTS of it!!!! (from Mommy's stocking). Unfortunately, so did Abby(dog) and she got a little sick on the rug. Apparently this is her annual Christmas tradition!I wore Sydney's necklaces, and she wore the stickers from Daddy's new jeans! (notice her eating more chocolate)And, as if she hadn't had enough sugar yet......we decorated a Gingerbread Christmas Tree from Uncle Jamie!She was less into decorating this time & more into eating the candy. Maybe her breakfast of chocolate w/ chocolate on top wet her appetite for the day!Ta-da! The finished product (minus a dozen little sugar balls that Syd ate, and 6 oz of icing that she licked off)!Everyone's set for Christmas Dinner!This was a common scene while we were in Florida. This rocking chair was just her size, and she'd snuggle in w/ Ducky & sing him ni-night songs.Dad got me a new "little" camera to replace my one that broke 2 months ago. This is the first shot I took on it.In Sydney's eyes, there are multiple things that make Papa & Dally's house better than hers. This is one at the top of the list. She can open & close most of the doors on her own (they don't stick as hard as ours do). She must have gone in & out for 90 minutes. It was great self-entertainment!My friend Gia (back from good ole' Ferry Pass Middle School) came over w/ her family for a visit. We catch up annually, so we had lots of chatting to do.Zoe, Gia's daughter, was a BIG hit w/ Sydney. She even woke up the next morning asking for her! "Where my Zoe?" "Where Zoe at?"

Another AM hit, while mom & dad lazed around the house.....Papa & Dally putting together her oversized animal puzzle.

We went to Sabrina & Allen's new house (well, new to us anyway) for dinner, and Sydney got to play with Graci. I forgot to take pictures, so as we were leaving, I snapped this quick one~at least they're beside each other...proves we were there.We went to NAS again, but didn't take nearly as many picts this time (the CF card on my new "little" camera was getting full). Just as before, Syd loved the airplanes & loved "driving" them.We're big into doing our "traditional" things. This was lunch at the Fish House. We didn't get to sit in the room w/ the huge fish tanks, so this time we took pictures outside w/ a view of the boats in the background. Sydney was being a goof-ball & wouldn't hold still for the shot.Home Sweet Home
We got home on the night of the 28th, about 3 hours later then we planned. Syd's nap was cut short by our afternoon flight time, and she ever quite got back to sleep. So, this little booger was parting like a rock star at 10pm at KCI. She finally fell asleep in the car at 10:30, and I didn't even bother to put her in PJ's once we were home. But, I did for the sake of Christmas pictures the next morning.
Another tradition, started last year, is that Sydney gets her own ornament for the tree. These will be her's to take with her when she's all grown up & gets a place of her own (sniffle, sniffle). This year's ornament was a little, silver, piggy bank.The piano was a big hit, for all of us. It has a microphone attached & we all rock out to twinkle twinkle, or Ally Bally, or ABC's.Snow boots! She wore these until nap time, over top of her footie pj's!St Louis
We did Christmas on the 29th. If you're counting, this was Sydney's 3rd Christmas Day & by now she's starting to expect presents every single morning! She got spill proof paints & brushes to go w/ her new easel.Trevor helped me open my gifts. He wanted to make sure I knew how to do it, just right, incase I hadn't had enough years of experience.Trevor was very good at sharing his new Sit N' Spin with both Sydney & Drew. He was busy with his drum, so it worked out well. It was such a hit, that Syd has one coming for her Birthday! (shhhh, don't tell her)Sydney's new "bitickle"from Aunt Meghan.This is what we found Sydney doing as we were getting ready one morning. She's got my hat on, the baggage claim stickers from our FL flight, and tape long enough to be belted around her a few times. Playing w/ Trevor & the new talking bear.We go to breakfast in our PJ's. Jeff and I started it here, years ago, when we'd to go IHOP hung-over. We don't have so many hung-over mornings anymore, but we do like to laze around in our PJ's until mid-day. So this means, if you go out to breakfast, then you do it in your PJ's! The habit has carried over to the Kirkwood family as well. Notice Syd wearing boots over footie pj's again, classy!
This is the only picture we got of Drew. I'm going to say that this is because most of the action happened while she was napping or in her highchair. She'll be walking any day now, so I'm sure our next visit will have lots of Drew play time.

Peanut

We keep forgetting to take belly pictures, so we snapped this quick one over New Years. I believe I'm 16 weeks in the picture. I'd just gotten out of bed, so I cropped my head out of the shot. Also, we're only taking side-view shots this time since I'm not fond of my hernia scar. I really do look pregnant, but my bladder & stomach were empty this morning so I just look "thick" and not so much "with child".

And the big news is.......PEANUT IS A BOY!!!!!!!

I had an ultrasound on the 2nd, and he was quite cooperative. He showed us the family jewels several times. Jeff figured it out before she officially told us, but I was almost too scared to make a guess. It was the neatest thing to see him going crazy & wiggling around the whole time we were in there. The first thing we saw were his feet, and they were the cutest darn things I've ever seen! If I ever had a doubt that I could love another child as much as I love Sydney, those doubts are gone. We're thrilled as can be!!!! Now we get to experience the best of both worlds.

Doc was thinking of moving my due date to June 5th, because he measured a little big for 17 weeks. I'm sticking w/ June 12th, since they told me Syd was big too (not big enough to change the date), and she was just the right size for me. And, I don't want to get my hopes up, since I probably won't go into labor on my own this time either.

I'm feeling him move pretty regularly now. Jeff hasn't felt it yet, but it took until like 21 weeks before he could really feel Sydney kicking. Everytime I feel him move, I think....."oh, no! I think this boy is going to be crazy!!!". That was the feed back we got from our sonographer & my doc has mentioned it twice because he's moving so fast they can hardly track him down for measurements & heartrate. YIKES!