Deck the Halls!

Okay, so here are some pics of the girls putting up some Christmas decorations. Caitlyn had been begging me since the beginning of November to put up decorations. Folks around the base have been putting things up since the first weekend in November, and an unusually high number compared to last year! It was very odd, to say the least, to have to do the decorating without Bear. He was always the one to get out all the boxes, assemble our dinky tree, and put the lights on the house outside. But we accomplished everything we hoped to. The girls had so much fun decorating the tree! They took turns picking out ornaments and tried very hard to put them on the tree by themselves. I think Caitlyn was most excited about the deer, and Allison was just thrilled to find the two small boxes from the deer that I tried to put away so they wouldn't get demolished...yeah, that didn't work. Both boxes are now in the trash, in pieces! But hey, they were so much fun while they lasted! And now that the tree is up, my ornament supply has slowly been diminishing. Thank goodness I didn't let the girls put up any of the good glass ones, but curious fingers still find ways to get in trouble. That and I think Roscoe likes to chew on the tree...he's so goofy!

Today was another baby appointment. Everything is going well. We are 16 weeks along, and so far I have gained one whole entire pound! Woohoo! The heart rate was at 150, which is less than it was last time, but still well within a normal range. Allison was dancing to the heartbeat on the doppler...she's always good for a laugh! I ended up spending more time at the hospital than I anticipated because I forgot about the labs that needed to be done (triple screen to rule out down syndrome, spina bifida...and a cystic fibrosis screen), and I had to go to radiology to try and schedule our ultrasound (yes, it's the one where you can find out the sex if you want to...we still aren't sure we want to know early though). I have started to feel some movement already which is always a very exciting thing. I can't wait to see how the girls will react to being able to feel the baby move in my belly!

A couple things occurred while I was trying to leave that I found rather humorous. First, I was introduced to a new Soldier by an NCO who knows I'm not in the Army anymore as SGT Thomas. That made me kind of chuckle as I saw this PFC stand a little taller and look nervous about what I was going to say to him after being called SGT. But then I ran into an old co-worker who actually called me skinny! I just sort of burst out laughing at that one...skinny has never been in my vocabulary, especially during pregnancy! If nothing else, it gave me something to smile about!

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for our family!