Holiday Times

Well, the holidays are over and we're back in Georgia. We had such wonderful times with all of our family and friends. Living away definitely makes you value and cherish everything you get to do together. I made it to Starbucks three times with my mom, sisters, or sister-in-law. :) I did not take near as many pictures as I usually do, mostly because I got very wrapped up in just visiting. Here are some pictures below.

Also, I know everyone wants to hear how the baby progress is going. I'm 39 weeks on Wednesday! It's an exciting time, but also a pretty uncomfortable one. Baby really dropped about 2 weeks ago, and a few nights a week I just cannot sleep long I am hurting so bad. There is no good way to brace the weight of my stomach that I've found, with materials or pillows or whatever. Baths are soothing on the muscle aches at least. Baby Girl seems content in there, but we are finally, finally ready for her arrival. Hunting season ends on the 15th here, which I'd like her to come after so that Jonathan gets every day he can to hunt, and so that the car can get a deep clean from all the boots, stands, mud, guns, corn, you name it that have been mucking it up so bad these past months! :)

I did have about 11 hours of contractions on Friday, that I precisely timed & wrote down for about 2-3 hours. They came between 4-7 minutes apart, but no more than 25-35 seconds long. They were painful, but not terribly so. I could smile between them (rather than needing to be prepared for the next one), and they did not take my entire concentration to get through. We'd hoped it would turn out to be more, but by the next morning when they'd subsided, I re-read the emotional map of labor and other parts of the Bradley book, and was confident my body was actively working on getting the baby here, but had decided to wait some more. I definitely stayed at the 1st emotional signpost (excitement) and so it was pretty empowering/good for Jonathan and me to re-read this all after the fact and know what to anticipate, and understand what we'd gone through. Pretty exciting. Since I desire to labor at home and go to the hospital later (to avoid time-pressure by staff and potential unnecessary medical intervention), there wasn't even a question of leaving the house yet, so it felt good and in control.

Anyway, more later after my appointment today. And I want to post my now-completed birth plan for your viewing pleasure. :) But now to pictures!

Granddaddy at the Christmas table! He was pretty happy!

Daddy donned an apron and did dishes! It was too hilarious seeing him like that not to snap a photo!

Stuart and Carter got into a cool whip fight... It was... memorable. Mom was pretty upset at first, but once everything was cleaned up, she laughed. She is amazing!

Daddy and Mom

Daddy and Carter

Shiona Marie - what a little pixie!!! She loooooooooved opening presents! She opened anything in sight!

Crystal and Noah

Mary and Mom

This Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa spent the night with us all at the Wilsons. It was super fun having Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning/breakfast with them!

Here's a photo Carter took & edited of Karen and me over Thanksiving. We are 20 weeks apart, so I was 32 weeks, she was 12. It's exciting to know these cousins will be so close in age.

I'm Still Here!

This is to let you guys know I am still around! The last 3 weeks in NC have beeen soooo crazy! Starting with the 5-day prep up to my sister-in-law's wedding... Seriously, I hadn't made a wedding cake in 4 years, and a whole lot of work goes into that! I made 3 small trial-run cakes and iced them, to check out my white cake recipe. It was a good thing too, because one was moist and delicious and the other two were dry and crumbly! The icing is the same I always use, so I was of course thrilled with how that looks and tastes. But I spent Thursday evening, all of Friday (ALL), and Saturday morning on this cake! I'll post pictures in my next entry, which I'll do before the week's up!

Then, I had 4 days where my family was out of town, that I spend visiting my in-laws, my brother & his new wife, and my sister with her husband and 2 girls. I actualy stayed with them (Seth & Karen) those 3 nights. I had eaaaarly mornings and laaaate nights. I took over my sister's Sunday school class, and I visited with my grandfather, which was so wonderful. All the visiting around was pretty perfect, getting quality time with each. Karen's girls are so cute about my being pregnant, especially Shiona is. They love my stomach, and I'll tell them things about what the baby is doing and that she can hear and respond to outside noise/stimulation (like a nudge) and they loved talking to my stomach, and Shiona would kiss it randomly all the time! It was very precious. And I guess they found out they'll have their own new little sibling come this June. :)

Anyway, what do you think all that husting and bustling and working full time got me? Yeah, sick! I get sick maybe once a year! Jonathan & I stay really healthy (Praise God). So I hated when I started coming down with it. I tired to take it easy Wednesday, but Thursday went to the NC State Fair that evening, and boy I paid for it. I could hardly enjoy it & came home early. The next day? Fever, chills, achiness, headache, bleh. I slept almost all Friday, ate only a bowl of soup, but felt like I was drinking all the time. Saturday was the day I'd planned on leaving for GA. No way I could do that. I couldn't keep the fever away without tylenol anyway. So Saturday was the same thing, sleep and soup and lots of liquids... I made it up for a few hours at a time that day, so figured if I progressed, Sunday should be ok. Dad had actually insisted my youngest brother Noah go back with me home (Dad was concerned about car trouble), and he bought Noah a one-way ticket back on Tuesday. So, Sunday morning I was better. Noah and I made the drive back, with altering drivers every 2 hours or so. Even though there was no car touble, Dad really heard God on getting that squared away, because I couldn't have done that drive alone. Just those 3-4 I took brought my fever back (it was low-grade, always, btw).

I wanted to get back for my dr's appointment today, which had already been rescheduled/pushed out by 5 days! My sickess really had me worrying about the baby, especially since I've had a LOT of pain and tightness in my absomen lately (as in, I can't walk upright at times, and grab my stomach often just to help ease the pain). So I made it in, and everything with her looked fine, although I had only gained 1 lb in almost 5 weeks (I know I lost it being sick) and was dehydrated, and some other things. Leftovers from being sick. I check back in a week so see how things look.

So that's where I've been! I'm not even unpacked yet, and barely have the energy to do anything like that yet, but slowly over the next few days I expect to return to normal and get all caught up... which will mean pictures! I also have a post from October 13th that I never finished writing, because that was exactly one year from when we lost our first child. I have SO much to say on that, and won't let it pass unnoticed. But that'll be for a little later too. I'm catching up on your blogs, so if I haven't commented in a few weeks, you know why!

Travels & Pics!

Back home now! What a trip! Marvelous, fun, enjoyable, and so worth it! I've got some pictures to capture some highlights!

I left Tuesday morning at 5:05 and had a terrific drive down. Listened to a MP3 disc Jonathan burned for me AND C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce (twice) - awesome! Met Daddy for lunch at Cracker Barrell outside of Charlotte, and arrived at Seth & Karen's around 4 after a stop at my parents'. After giving the girls' their birthday presents it started to storm. Katrina excitedly looks at me and says, "Oh goodie! We get to make cookies!" Apparently Karen always makes chocoalte chip cookies with Katrina when it storms - what a sweet tradition! So I made chocolate chocolate-chip with her. We had steaks Seth cooked, squash casserole, and broccoli. Shiona had a really scary apple-choking inicdent, and Crystal stayed for dinner. Unfortunately, she went to take my car home & it wouldn't stay started! :( Thank God it got me there safely. We got it towed Wednesday morn & fixed at the dealership that day, they said it wasn't a big problem. (It did act up on my drive back, 3 hrs from home - not sure it was fixed!)

Wednesday morning Suzanne, Crystal & I headed to the Howells to see Susi & Violet. Violet is a beautful baby, especially in purple. So adorable! It was SO GOOD to see Susi - I hadn't since her wedding in June '05! The Howell girls all visited with us and it was just like old times! They had us for lunch and we had this magnificent venison chili with homemade bread and salad from their garden. I've never had a meal I wouldn't want to recreate at the Howells (which I did this Saturday, actually!)! Yum! They served us hot tea, although it was sad I didn't think ahead of time to make scones or something to make it an official "tea party."

Susi took me to get the car & I headed back to my parents' house for the Mexican meal Aunt Tammy was fixing for the Graydons, Dienstfreis, Robinsons, and O'Malleys (brave women!): Chicken & Beef Fajitas, Enchiladas, Fiesta Rice, and I made Strawberry & Original Margaritas. Aunt Tammy had even bought Mexican cookies & soda. So good! Seeing Christen & Michelle was so much fun! We had a blast!!! I think the only differences in us now are we're more mature! :)

Thursday morning a bunch of us Graydons went into Danville together. I took the girls out to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch & we pigged out on wings, potato skins, and mozzarella sticks! So good - they'd never been. We then got Noah from lessons & went to STARBUCKS! Yes, my 1st time in the Danville one. Not too shabby! Mary then left for work & we went to buy stuff from her. :) Well, I did. Then I visited with the O'Malleys the rest of the afternoon.

That night I took Christen, Michelle & Stephanie (their younger sister) to Danville to meet up with Karen & her girls. We bought more stuff from Mary at Lancome, met the family for dinner, Karen treated us to Starbucks, and we girls saw a late showing of Oceans 13 (lame). We bought tons of popcorn and candy and were throwing it at each other in the theatre. If these 3 boys hadn't been present, we'd have had the theatre to ourselves!!! I think we stayed up til 2 trying to delay our goodbyes. :(

Then, I haded home the next morning. I stopped in Charlotte to visit Jeanie & Alathea, who is just such a fun little cutie! I brought us all Starbucks (even though Alathea likes chai lattes, Jeanie keeps her orders limited to chocoate milk! *grin*) Rebecca stopped by for a while to chat, and I left after a 3 hour visit & some yummy lunch! I had so much fun and was SO GLAD I stopped by to see them! Jeanie makes such a natural mom, she just really enjoys Alathea. I turned my camera's display out so Alathea could see herself & she LOVED making faces and sticking her tongue out....

Thanksgiving

Here are a few Thanksgiving pictures. I didn't get as good or as many as I wished. Sorry no posts in a while. Crystal's here and I'm not spending a minute more on the computer than necessary!

Also, the move is approaching very quicky, one way or another. No orders yet, so nothing offically can be set up (packers,movers). Jonathan graduates from Navigator school next Friday and I pin his wings on! He'll officially be an Air Force flyer! That's our last day in San Antonio, unofficially.

This was Katrina asking Stuart, "Where's Haley?" They've been courting for a year now, so I guess she's gotten used to if you see one, you see the other! It was cute!


This was me with sweet little 5-month old Shiona. A beautiful baby, with the sweetest most gentle little temperment!


My wonderful Mom and Dad


This was suppose to be a picture of everybody, but Dad & Mom are missing, as are Uncle Lee & Dillon, Katrina, and of course, me, taking the picture. I've got to get more pushy about people being there for pictures, and taking multiple ones (as you see this one was bad)!

Shiona Marie Robinson

On Saturday evening, May 20, 2006, at 9:17pm, God brought forth a new life into our lives! My precious sister Karen gave birth to a little 8 lb, 8 oz girl, 20.4 inches long. Seth was with her the whole time and little Katrina was with grandma. The little girl will be called Shiona, which means "God is gracious", as that is something they saw evidenced throughout the birth and afterward. She resembles her big sister a lot now, and Katrina is especially excited to have a new baby in the house.

Rejoice with us and congratulate Seth & Karen on this wonderful event!!!