Sorry for the lack of posts...

our computer will no longer charge, so it has a date with best buy geek squad. writing blog posts on your phone is a tad hard, so i'm just throwing a little warning out there to those of you who have asked me where i've been...my posts will be few and far betwen for a few weeks i'm sure :( i'll try to post when i do get the chance randomly though! if you don't hear from me, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

6 month appt and hang cheeks

I had my 6 month appointment yesterday (better late than never, right?). Things are going well. I slowed my weight gain down (thankfully!) and my blood pressure is normal. When the OB measured my belly, she did say "whoa, you really grew since last time!" Yeah, duh, don't you think I would know that of all people?! She also asked me if I've been feeling the baby move each day, to which I replied yes! She definitely moves WAY more than Ryder ever did. So while we were on the topic of the moving baby, I asked if it was normal to feel like the baby was kicking me "down there" ....BOTH front and back side. She asked me to describe it a little more, which I did and I will spare you the details (you're welcome). She said that means the baby most likely flipped and she is breech now. She asked me if I am feeling very sharp pains yet down my crotch or in my....butt (for lack of better words), but it's not painful, just uncomfortable. She said to not be alarmed, but as the baby gets bigger, I will feel that the weird and uncomfortable "butt kicks" will be more painful and sharp. Super duper, can't wait. Other than that, everything looks great like I said and I'll go back in at 28 weeks and do the dreaded glucose testing....blah.

On another note, I was playing with Ryder today and I noticed that one of the pictures I took of him he still had his "hang cheeks" that I love so much. When he was younger, his cheeks literally hung lower than his chin/jaw bone and I LOVED it. I haven't seen it in awhile, but I noticed the picture I took of him playing today when he was looking down at his toy....he still has the chubbs mcgee thing going on! It's kind of hard to tell in this picture. I should have made the picture bigger so you could see it, but I'm too lazy to go back and edit it/fix this post!

Have a great rest of the week!

Winter Fun

This morning started off with our first driveway shoveling session. We bundled Ryder up (and mom and dad!) and headed outside. It's so funny putting Ryder's boots on because he thinks he can't walk for a few seconds before he realizes that...ahhh yes, he really can walk with these giant 'moon boots' on :) He LOVES walking through the snow and kicking it so it flies up. He also discovered how fun it is to hit the branches of the pine trees and watch the snow fly into the air. One thing he discovered he didn't like was falling face first into the snow and getting his first white-wash! He fell and looked up at us with a completely white face/head and just started screaming. hahaha it was quite the sight to see, I picked him up, dusted him off and started to head inside (assuming he was done with being outside)...but he actually wanted to stay outside and go back into the snow! Isn't this the look of a brave boy?!? I think so ;)


Then I had my 4th annual Haskins' cookie decorating/santa exchange day at our place. There were 12 of us girls who all showed up (the group just keeps getting bigger! Which is way better than getting smaller) We ate a lot of food, decorated some amazing looking cookies--just ask me, I was probably the best cookie decorator out there (wink wink), and had a good time with friends. Here's the group shot infront of the tree (minus Jennie H because she went home sick)

6 month Belly Picture/Christmas is coming!!

The first picture below is a picture of when I was pregnant with Ryder at six months and the second picture is me pregnant this time around at six months. (seriously...I CANNOT believe I'm already six months along this week!)

It's starting to get harder to get up and down off the floor with Ryder/pick him up etc. And it's only going one way.....harder! But one good thing about my growing belly? It makes a good pillow to read books on :)

As I've mentioned before, I LOVE Christmas! I was so excited to put the tree up and have Ryder get to see the lights and decorations for the first time (last year doesn't count because he was too young). It was really fun, he was so freaking adorable as he "helped" decorate the tree. He helped "stretch" the lights out before we put them on the tree:


And then he realized that it would be more fun if he continued to put non-christmas decorations in the tree. Here he's putting a toy in the tree...

And here he decided to put a kitchen towel in the tree. The tree has only been up ONE day so far, so I'll be curious to see what other "decorations" he puts in the tree over the next month!

And I had a wonderful day (thank you MOM for watching Ryder!!!) finishing up my Christmas shopping with my girlfriend, Jenna. Yes, you read that right...it's December 1st and I'm D.O.N.E. with all my shopping :) And, because I'm a crazy psycho lady I also managed to wrap them all and get them under the tree after Ryder went to bed tonight!!!!!!! (this makes me insanely happy)

But it's good to have all the Christmas stuff up because Sunday is the 4th annual cookie decorating/gift exchange girls day at the Haskins' household!! Can't wait!

I need to stop watching Criminal Minds

It's one of those shows that sucks you in...most of them are disturbing, but you can't help but watch anyways. Kinda like a fat person on a bike. You don't want to look, but you just have to look! Anyways, last night's episode kept me awake for quite some time. The episode was about an adorable little blonde curly haired girl who was abducted by a man, kept in captivity for 7 years before she finally committed suicide when she found out she was pregnant with this man's baby at age 15. I know, really super uplifting. Regardless, I watched it anyways and now wished I wouldn't have. I laid awake thinking about how we will now be having some adorable blonde little girl and then I stated thinking...I couldn't imagine anything like that ever happening...and so on and so forth. Anyways, that got me to thinking about how Joe and I need to take ourselves out of the phone book so we're unlisted. And how once our little girl comes, I should probably stop doing this blog thing because anyone can read this. Literally anyone....which I never really thought about before. At least with my Facebook page, I have it totally private and secured. So as my mind is spinning out of control, and my little girl was kicking the crap out of me like she always enjoys doing at night now, I thought...settle down...you have MANY years ahead of you to be a worrier about your kids...no sense in aging myself with panic before she even gets here....

On a happier note: Christmas is coming!!!!!!!! It is my most favorite time of the year because I LOOOOOVE buying and giving gifts. Joe makes fun of me when he sees how pumped I get when I go into my word document and cross someone off of my list. I love starting early and am proud to say I have 6 of 14 people completely done and I have ideas for most of the others already!!!!!!! woo hooo. I'm a dork. I even have a couple wrapped already:

We also finished getting our Christmas lights up on our house too. We turned them on tonight and brought Ryder into the sitting room and looked out at the lights before bed. He totally was going crazy over them, it was so cute! He was pointing and going, "ooooh". Whenever we'd be in the living room and then say, "Do you want to go look at the Christmas lights??" he would be off like a flash of light back to check them out. It's so fun to see him get into it. But it does make me a little nervous for when we put up our tree....that might be hard to keep him away from!!

5 month belly pic comparison

Although these pictures might look fairly even, I think it's the angle the picture was taken at this time that makes it look that way because I am definitely bigger now than I was at this point last time. Either way, I said I would keep people posted on belly pictures. The first picture is of me pregnant with Ryder and the second picture is of me this time with our little girl!

We also wasted no time (and by "we" I really actually mean me...) on getting the bedding. I picked up the bedding today, picked out the furniture last night online that will most likely be ordered after I post this, and I've been in contact with the same girls who did Ryder's nursery. They said I just need to pick out the bedding and the furniture and they will take care of the rest. I'm so excited I could tinkle in my pants because they did such a good job on Ryder's room, I can't wait to see what they have in store for this nursery :)

And we found out we're having a.....

GIRL!!!!

She was very shy and we almost weren't able to see the sex today, but she finally gave up when I flipped on my side and moved her around a little bit. She also hid her face the whole time as well, so we couldn't get a good look at her face either. She is shy I guess! Obviously it would have been wonderful to have another boy, but we are soooo excited to be having a little girl!! Our little Haskins family is complete :) I'm also happy to report that everything else looked great at the ultrasound: she has all four limbs and the heart, kidneys, and spine all look normal. I'm measuring right on my due date. Things are good!!

I know many people have already seen these Halloween pictures on my facebook page, but for those of you who aren't on facebook that check out my blog here is Ryder as a State Trooper. I have concluded that seeing a little person in an adult/man outfit is pretty much the funniest thing in the whole world :) See for youself:

He loved when the door bell would ring when trick or treaters came to the door. He'd get up from whatever he was playing with and run over to see who was there. He wouldn't get too close, of course, but he just had to see what was going on! Our neighbors came over with their little girl who is three months younger than Ryder. She is one serious spitfire! She was bouncing off the walls and running around, throwing her body all over the place...all the while Ryder just stared at her with the biggest eyes in awe. She loves giving kisses and hugs and she kept coming over to Ryder and trying to get him to sit still so she could smother him with some lovin'. At first Ryder was NOT having it, but as he warmed up to her, he ended up liking it. In fact, she cornered him at one point and they were hugging and she was trying to plant a big fat kiss on him and after she ran away Ryder turned to Joe and me with a big goofy grin on his face and did the sign language sign for "more". Seriously the funniest thing ever. Total boy, all the way!

Well, I better get going so I can go check out girl bedding!!!!!!!!!!!