We are very thankful this year for the blessings that God has given us. We are thankful for the things we have learned from our challenges this year. And mostly we are thankful that God is with us through both!

We will spend the Thanksgiving afternoon and evening with good food and family. Uncle Philip, Aunt Jen, Caleb, and Nathaniel are visiting for the holiday. We will eat at Grammy and Granddaddy’s house and have lots of fun playing together! Julia might just watch and take it all in, but most likely she will just nap for the evening.

Today was our morning movie day for the girls. While it seemed to take us forever to get out of the house, we managed to make it to the movie theater on time. We had to bundle up extra because it was literally freezing outside. Emily was willing to wear her hat (thanks Granddaddy for giving her a love of hats!) and scarf, but unwilling to wear her gloves. Wearing them outside has not been interesting, while she loves to wear the gloves around the house to play.

Julia slept through most of the movie with the exception of waking up for a bottle. I noticed that if you go to an active movie that a baby’s cry isn’t going to be heard over the music and dialog of the movie. It worked out really well.

Emily was simply wonderful today. We tried popcorn last month and Emily was really disinterested in it. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning and decided that I would get a popcorn and a drink. I figured that Emily would try a few and then end up becoming disinterested like last month. I was wrong. She tried it and helped me eat half of the bag. Then she took the bag from me, sat it on her lap, and munched most of the movie. Emily sat for the whole movie either on her booster seat or on my lap and watched the movie. She was such a big girl! The whole event was quite relaxing for me. Imagine that – going out into public with two little ones and being relaxed! It has been a good day!

Today was our 38 week checkup for the baby. Everything still looks good. The doctor’s estimation of the weight of the baby today is 6 lbs. It appears that she is on the same track as Emily in size. Because I will not be able to see my doctor next week for my visit, we went ahead and discussed having an induction. While I want to wait for the baby to come on her own, it is wise to plan ahead. We have an induction scheduled for October 21st as a backup plan in case the baby doesn’t come ‘on-time’. We are trusting God to work out all the little details surrounding taking care of the baby and Emily. He does such a good job whether or not I am practicing my trust in Him to provide. It just seems that God was with us today to work out some simple details of our day and it is a good reminder of His sufficient provision.

We had a surprise today when we went to our appointment. Granddaddy came to the appointment with us to watch Emily in the waiting room. When we arrived we found our friend Ashley in the waiting room. She was having a test and had to wait for a while in the waiting room. She hung out with Granddaddy and Emily while they waited for Mommy’s appointment. We are so grateful for the people that God has put in Emily’s life that love her. Today was just another reminder of that! It will be such a joy to see God do the same for the new baby.

We were blessed with an ultrasound at 37 weeks with our newest baby. It was such a joy to get a ‘sneak preview’ and see her just a few weeks before her arrival. She wanted some things to remain a surprise and took a nap. She wouldn’t turn and show us her face so we will just have to wait a little longer to see her face. Other than our inability to see her face everything else on the ultrasound was great. She is practicing using her lungs, her heartbeat is good, the amount of fluid for her to swim in is good, her size was appropriate, and the blood flow from me to her was great. Our special surprise was that we were able to see her hair. That is something that I would never imagine that we would be able to see on an ultrasound. Her sister had a head full of hair when she came out, and it appears that this one will too. Her size measured at 6 lbs 7 oz (+/- 1 lb).

I’m on the weekly schedule of visits to the doctor to check on me and the baby’s situation. The visit before last, we found out that the baby had dropped and that I am dilated 1 cm. This past week, we found out that I have been a little hard on people around me. I did come home and apologize to Daddy for being moody. To verify the size of the baby the doctor has scheduled me for an ultrasound at my next visit. We are very excited to get to see her again before she arrives later this month!

(33 weeks) With this weeks checkup Mommy got the word that the baby has dropped and has her head in the birth canal and set for delivery. I asked if there was any chance that she would turn and the doctor said that she wouldn’t move out of that position now. I now know that all movement around my bellybutton is her feet kicking me. We are still 6 weeks yet to go in this pregnancy which seems like a long time to spend in this position. It is a good thing that being upside down is not a problem for babies. I can definitely feel a difference in this position and am having more trouble bending and picking up objects (including Emily). I should be watching what I am doing anyway and this is just a good reminder to do so. I know that in a week or so, I will be adjusted to the minor discomfort that this change has brought, but until then my evenings have become very unproductive with a tired back.