Jackson McCabe???

Tomorrow I will officially be 29 weeks along. It's hard to imagine that in 11 weeks or less we will have a new little one around here. I feel like it still hasn't hit me. I mean I'm going thru the motions...picking out a new car seat, researching baby books, planning the layout of the new nursery, but I still can't actually believe that I'm going to be cuddling a newborn again very shortly. I've been struggling a lot lately with what to name this munchkin. All of the other kids had names very early on and we never struggled as much as we are with this one. A couple weeks ago I posted on facebook asking for name suggestions. I got a pretty overwhelming list of names. Some crazy and completely not our taste and others that hit the "Hmmmmm I might like that" button. This sparked a pretty in depth talk with Burt over what this little guy's name should be. Up until that point we would just randomly throw a name out there and one of us would either say "Yea, that sounds ok" or "Noooooooooo". We briefly tried out Shane. I tried referring to him by name for almost a week but by the end of the week I just couldn't picture us having a Shane so it was tossed. After the talk we both had a pretty decent sized name list.

MY LIST
Jacob
Joseph
Kyle
Joshua
Logan
Colton
Colin
Jackson
Landon
Ryan
Owen
Noah
Domenick
Shane

BURT'S LIST
Jayden
Logan
Noah
Carter
Colin
Jackson
Nolan
Mason
Evan
Owen
Joel
Kyle
Joseph

For now the winner is Jackson. We both really like that name and all the nicknames that go along with it. Jack, Jax, and if we go with a J name like Joseph as a middle name we could also call him JJ. We're going to stick with it for awhile and see if it really sticks. We both feel like it's really growing on us. Abby and Nathan aren't really big fans of it. Luckily for us they don't have to be in "love" with it like Burt and I do. They'll have their chance at the name game one day when I'm ready to be a grandmom. For now we go with Jackson Joseph McCabe.

Thanksgiving 2011

Our countdown to Thanksgiving turkey has been completely plucked!

My handsome helper setting the table

Our thankful leaves

Thanksgiving this year was one of the most peaceful yet. I don't know what made it especially peaceful but everyone had a really nice day. As the day usually starts Abby and Nathan helped me prepare the turkey. Tom, as we so lovingly name him every year, was in the oven by 9:15. Then I had Abby peeling sweet potatoes and Nathan opening our new silverware and setting the table. All the while Alexa wandered around aimlessly making messes. The boys played video games off and on throughout the day. Abby took a nap on the couch and I relaxed and enjoyed a hot shower. What more could I ask for? Dinner was ready around 5:15. This year we added a new tradition to the mix and took turns reading what each one of us was thankful for from the leaves we had been filling out each night throughout the month of November. It was a great reminder of what Thanksgiving is really supposed to be about. The leaves provided us with things to talk and laugh about and even slowed down our eating so that we could really enjoy everything, including each others company.

November 7th- 25 weeks

Another midwives appointment under my belt and everything is well. My blood pressure was perfect at 112/80. My weight, in my book, is great. I filled them in on everything the perinatologists told me at my last ultrasound and we talked about my upcoming colposcopy. And yes, it is that time again...time for the glucose test. I was given my yummy orange flat soda and the directions to follow for my next appointment. We had a quick listen to baby boy McCabe's heartbeat and we were on our way!

Picture Catch Up

BUBBLES!

Still very obsessed with her toes

A little fun at the park on voting day

Alexa refuses to be fed. She, apparently, has decided she's a big girl now.

Our daughter needs no toys for Christmas. Just a few empty boxes & containers!

October 31st- Halloween

So again here I go with back tracking my posts. I swear I think about updating here all the time and just never take the 5 or 10 minutes to do so. I think in part it has to do with the half a keyboard I have to work with here. I'm missing letters "a" "s" "x" and the backspace key. All very important considering one of my main topics here is a little someone named Alexa.

So onto way more interesting things...Halloween started off with a bang. Literally! I had planned to head out trick or treating around 5:45 so we'd have plenty of time to meet up with our friend Linda and her rugrats. Around 4:45 I got a call from Burt. "I just got in an accident. I hit a lady's car. I totally zoned out and started to go on a red light." My 1st thoughts were for this lady (I already knew Burt was okay). She had an 8 or 9 year old child in the car. They called the police and the woman's car was towed. She said that they felt fine and all was well. I then started worrying about the inevitable phone call Burt had to make to his boss to let him know the work truck was involved in an accident. It went as I expected. Now all I had to do was wait for Burt to come home. So we waited...and waited..and waited. Finally around 6:00 he was backing into the driveway and we were on our way. The kids made out like bandits as usual. Alexa loved running from house to house. She'd do 1 house to the big kids 3 houses. By time she was 3 houses behind I'd pick her up and we'd catch up to everyone else. By the 2nd house she had the hang of this trick or treating stuff. She'd reach right into the bowls of candy and help herself. I couldn't get her to say thank you buy she did a whole lot of waving and saying "Bye Bye!" By 7:45 everyone was wiped and we piled into the car to head home. At home the big kids dove into their candy. Abby's OCD kicked in and she actually organized her candy by name. Alexa helped herself to a lolly and yelled anytime anyone came close to taking it away. Boy was this year different from last and next year will again be totally different. I can't even imagine that we'll also have an 8 month old along for the fun!

2010 vs. 2011 Pumpkin Carving

2010- 4 months

2011- 16 months

Linvilla. Again.

For the 3rd time this year we made a trip to Linvilla Orchards. The 1st trip was for the usual feeding the animals, pumpkin pictures, and general fall fun. The 2nd time was to do a little shopping for some fresh fruits and veggies. The 3rd time was to pick up our pumpkins. Usually we pick up a few pumpkins at Produce Junction to carve. This year waiting until the last minute proved to be the wrong idea. Slacker! Produce Junction only had itty bitty pumpkins. Luckily for us Linvilla had "All the pumpkins you can carry for $19.99". So after watching a few guys attempt to do it and learning some of their tricks we loaded Burt's pockets up with little pumpkins. Stuffed a few small pumpkins down his shirt and carefully stacked the big ones in his arms. All he had to do was walk from one tent to another and wa-lah! 19 pumpkins for $19.99. Not a bad deal!