Let the Countdown begin....

I love, love, love this time of year and you can blame it on all of the "Fontana Forced Family Fun" that I hated as a teenager. The holidays were full of traditions that I find myself doing now that I am an adult! (Thanks Mom and Dad).

Adam and I worked hard this weekend preparing for the Christmas season - now if it would only snow about 9 inches... even though I had a 5 day weekend, I can always go for a snow day! Any teacher would agree! HeeHeeHee

Here's a picture of Clark Griswald, I mean Adam, putting up our festive Christmas lights!

The finished product - every year we add a little bit more. We just might add more as the month goes on... Adam is always full of ideas!

Decorating the tree, not to mention a glimpse of the 23 week bump. Reality sets in as my 3rd trimester is creeping upon us. I think this time of year will make our pregnancy fly by! Is it normal to be excited and completely terrified at the same time!?!?!

Thanksgiving... Round 2!

Adam and I traveled to Richland Center on Thanksgiving Day to spend time with my family. We met for turkey dinner at Grandma Shirley's house and as usual, we all ate our share! Unfortunately, I was too involved in conversation with my Aunts and Cousins (and Adam was too involved with football) to take pictures.... sometimes I'm really good at bringing out the old camera and other times I completely forget! Oh well. Our time together was great - it was so nice to see everyone and get caught up!

In addition to our Thanksgiving Fun, Adam and I continued our own Geurts Family Tradition that we started last year... the Christmas tree find! We headed to Schaller's Tree Farm (in Richland Center) where we ventured off, saw in hand, to pick out the perfect tree. Gravel too loves this tradition, of course we can't ever leave him behind.

We looked and looked for the perfect one.... and then, as if a golden beam shined down upon it, we see it. PERFECTION! Not too big. Not too small. Full and very green!

And then the fun begins!

Notice how efficient I am with my camera now... just as the heavy work starts! What are husbands for - mine might just be the toughest one around too!

First, Adam saws it down... apparently it had an abnormally large trunk!

Then, Adam and Gravel drag it back to the truck!

Happy Thanksgiving... Round 1

Adam and I went to DePere last weekend to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with his family. It was so great to see everyone! We spent most of the morning preparing for over 20 guests, which meant A LOT of potato peeling for me! The food was super yummy and we had a great time catching up with everyone! We were also very excited to hear the news that Chad (Adam's cousin) and his wife Randi are expecting their first baby next summer! The holidays will sure be fun next year!

We were also able to go to the Packer game on Sunday with Adam's parents. We had tons of fun and even tried our hands at the Lambeau Leap! I tried to get my enormous body up on that mat, but failed miserably... I realized too that I DO NOT need to provide you with a 22 week picture after seeing how massive I looked here. Do you think it could be the big, green sweater? Look out Mom, I told you I'd be as large as a Christmas tree this Christmas - and you just laughed. All I need is some brown pants, a string of lights and a star headband!

One last slice of excitement to top off a great weekend was when I realized the Badger Marching Band had taken a trip to Lambeau for the game. You can never have too much fun with little groups of trumpet players joining you in the stands for a quick rendition of "On Wisconsin" AND a fifth quarter celebration to boot. Aaaahhh.... memories. When did I get so old?

Sharing the NEWS has been so much fun!

Adam and I spent most of last weekend calling friends and family to let them know that Baby is officially a boy. I started the day Saturday with my Mom. We went shopping for Baby and I received one of the best gifts I've ever gotten. It was a poem entitled "My Baby Boy and Me". The poem was given to my Mom almost 23 years ago from her sister Dawn (Aunt Dawnie). Dawn had written the poem for her when my brother Tony was born. My Mom tried to explain a mother's bond with her little boy... we both teared up in the car and decided we needed to keep shopping before things got worse! We're both a little emotional these days...

We also got a wonderful gift from Grandma and Grandpa Geurts on Saturday... "It's a Boy" cookies - does Debbie know me or what?!?! We ate them up in one day!

Gravel thought this was a great gift too. We're not sure if he gets it that he's going to have a brother in 4 months, but he knew something special was happening. He's always ready to celebrate!

Of course we couldn't resist giving him a bite! We all thought they were mighty delicious!

I also had a ton of fun telling my first graders that a little boy is responsible for my growing belly. I had to leave them early on Friday to get to my appointment, so I promised to surprise them with cookies on Monday - blue if we found out we were having a boy and pink if it was a girl. Of course when they arrived today they wanted their cookies!

We started with a little survey... "Who is growing in Mrs. Geurts' belly - a boy baby or a

girl baby?"

As you can see, I had a rather high boy vote. I should tell you that I have 11 boys in my class and 6 girls - one of which was absent today, so you can imagine who voted for who! HAHA!

As I showed them the container of cookies I had made, a loud shriek could be heard from miles around followed by many "Woohoos" and "We Wons!" from my boys... of course, they made it into a competition. I asked them what they had won and their response was, "boys are always right!" Us girls just giggled and I gave them their cookies last, "haha boys", we said!

The excitement lasted all day! Here they all stand with blue frosted and sprinkled sugar cookies in their hands.

Mmmmm! Tasty!

It's a Boy!

So, it's official... the Baby that has been growing for the last few months is a healthy baby boy! I am realizing that I am quickly becoming out-numbered in this family! All kidding aside though, Adam and I couldn't be happier! We're pleased to report that all looked well on the ultrasound too - all major organs accounted for, 2 arms and 2 legs, a visible brain (always important), and apparently a rather distinctive baby penis, which I couldn't see all that well, but Adam saw for certain! We couldn't be more excited with the news and Adam has already planned to buy him a 4-wheeler and build him some jumps in his parents' back yard... Oh God, what have I gotten myself into? I asked if maybe he could just play the trumpet and join Glee Club... Adam had no response, just a look of disgust. Look out folks... Adam officially has a son!

A Gift for Daddy...

So Baby and I have been talking and decided Daddy needed something speical... just for him! We are feeling a little guilty that he's not as involved as the two of us - he can't feel him/her moving and kicking inside my tummy and he hasn't even heard the heart beating yet. We thought and thought and came up with the most precious gift of all - a Build-A-Bear. Now this just isn't any Build-A-Bear... no ma'am, not for this Daddy to be! Our Build-A-Bear is complete with an actual sound recording of our Baby's heart beating!

I took the recording device to my doctor appointment on Wednesday, recorded the heart beat while my doctor listened along (she thought it was the coolest idea ever) and then drove to Build-A-Bear workshop to pick out my bear, place the recording device in the paw, and stuff!

Now, whenever Adam is feeling like listening to his Baby, he can grab the bear and squeeze it's paw! It's pretty cool and worked great! Adam was thrilled! He listened to it over and over again... notice how he's holding it too - he's a natural!

20 Weeks... We're Half-Way There!

Here I am at 20 weeks! I can't believe we're half-way there; time has started to fly by! The 20 week mark also means another week of doctor appointments. On Wednesday, I'll meet with Dr. Scladzien where we'll do the norm - weight gain (ugh), blood pressure, fetal heart rate, etc. I've been writing a list of questions to ask this time - my 4 month appointment lasted all of 15 minutes... even though I consider myself fairly well-read in regards to this pregnancy, I still think it's important to ask lots of questions. :) The thing is, being pregnant has been so easy thus far, I don't have many things to discuss. Now that things are speeding up and feeling A LOT more real, my questions are becoming more frequent, so I'm looking forward to seeing my doctor again. I always need a little piece of mind to get through the next month.

So, that's Wednesday... Friday is where it's at, and let me tell you, it cannot come quick enough. Adam and I are excited for our 20 week ultrasound where we'll find out how Baby is growing/developing AND if he/she cooperates, we'll find out if our little bundle is a boy or a girl! The suspense is killing me! I won't sleep a wink Thursday, I'm just sure of it! As always, we'll keep you posted... whether you want to know or not! (hehehe)

To make the excitement even more intense, I was finally able to 'drag' Adam to 2 baby stores today, where he was surprisingly really into picking out possible bedding for Baby! We've actaully narrowed it down to a definite choice for each (boy and girl). I know I won't be able to wait much longer before I start buying things, especially once we find out what we're having. This pregnancy thing gets more fun each day!

Happy Halloween!

Adam and I traveled up north to DePere this weekend to help Kayla move into her beautiful new home and to celebrate a family wedding. The wedding was on Halloween, so it was a costume party! I must admit... it's been a while since I've dressed up. My days of making 'naughty' costumes to tromp around State Street in are surely over. I've traded those days in for a large, potato-sack-like outfit that allows me to stuff my face with yummy chicken and potatoes.

Adam and I found this hilarious 'plug and outlet' couples number online & were happy to find it at a local Halloween shop. It was rather bland, so both of us tried to jazz it up a bit!

I added some glitter (always a necessity for Halloween), shock bolts, leggings, and gold gloves. Adam, on other hand, was REALLY inspired; you can tell if you know Adam at all - he rarely gets overly excited about much of anything and NEVER wants to draw attention to himself.

Adam's costume was merely a plug (to-be-inserted into my outlet of course... hehehe), but Adam was determined to be a lamp. His Dad and him worked hard on the Wal-Mart lamp shade we purchased. The lamp shade was actually hot-glued to a red hard hat (you never know what you'll find in Andy Geurts' garage)! He then glued two small flashlights inside the lamp so he could light up when he was "plugged in"! He completed the look with a black long underwear set and Hallween socks from Auntie Tina! I can honestly say I've never been more proud of his bravery! I could tell he was extremely uncomfortable (he did need 5 beers upon arrival before he was comfortable greeting anyone)...but he did it!

Stay tuned for more costumes that were captured on Halloween Night...