I'm Dreaming of a...

 You guessed it - A White Christmas! It hasn't happened in 128 years... The last white Christmas in Atlanta was in 1882! It was extra special for lots of reasons...

1. We were there to experience it.
2. It was Claire's first snow!
3. It was also Duke's first snow.  And...
4. As obvious as it is - It was a White Christmas!!!

That is something that people dream of (at least that's what the song says). The kids saw the first flakes begin to fall earlier in the day and the excitement began. Although those first flakes melted as soon as they reached the ground, the excitement did anything but melt. By the time we finished our Christmas dinner and opened presents there was a nice blanket of snow on the ground. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so I will save you from reading a few extra thousand of those and I will just share some of the photos from our snowy Christmas fun!

Claire checking out the first snowflakes (even though it was more slush, than flake)

Audrey enjoyed the snow... although her nose turned quite pink! :)

Claire's 1st Snow!

Rolling a snowball for her tabletop snowman!

Just one more on top will make it PERFECT!

See!  It's perfect! :)

Duke really enjoyed trying to catch the snowballs that the girls tossed up!

Audrey's Snow Angel

 

Dad and the girls working on the tabletop snowman

Downtown Melbourne Christmas Parade

This year we were able to experience the Christmas parade in a whole new way... We were actually in the parade!  Our friends invited us to join them on their float, which was actually a boat!  It was so much fun.  Audrey and Claire LOVED every moment!  We rode in the boat while Brock and some of the other adults walked along side the boat passing out candy.  The parade was at night so the boat looked amazing decked out in lights and garland.  We waved and shouted "Merry Christmas!" to the crowd.  Sometimes the float would have to stop to navigate the turns and the flow of the parade.  When this would happen Claire would instruct me to "just keep waving" and not to say Merry Christmas again because we had "already told this group"...  When we would start moving again, she would tell me it was okay to start saying Merry Christmas again.  It was so cute and also very hard not to laugh because she was so very serious about it all.  At the end of the parade, Audrey and Claire had fun modeling the "Sold" sign that hung on the boat during the parade.  A few photos from the night are below... Enjoy!

Santa's Helpers on the boat 

 Brock and Eddie getting ready to hand out candy

Audrey modeling the "Sold" sign

Claire modeling the "Sold" sign



Our friends took some more photos that I will add to this post when I get them...

24 weeks

So here is a photo that Audrey took of my ever-growing belly at 24 weeks... I am a little behind in getting this posted because we are now at 25 weeks but it's been crazy around my house (more on that later).  I went for my checkup on Monday and got a great report.  Baby #3 is right on schedule and my weight is still progressing right on track - only 9 pounds thus far - but I am sure that will change as she starts adding lots of cuddly fat to her little body.  She has been kicking and rolling around a lot lately.  Everyone - being the immediate family - has been able to feel her movements.  Even Duke got in on the action last night... He was snuggled next to me with his body next to the belly.  Baby kicked and Duke jumped!  It was very funny!  She has also found my sciatic nerve or at least found a position to hang out that presses on it... While the discomfort is not a constant issue, it does catch me off guard at the intensity, albeit a short spurt of intensity.  I have added a number of stretches and exercises to my daily routine that will hopefully help alleviate most of the discomfort.  I don't remember having this issue with my previous pregnancies, but the doctor did tell me that subsequent pregnancies tend to carry lower and that may cause more pressure to be placed on the area around the sciatic nerve.  All in all, the pregnancy is still going very well... While I can no longer see my toes, I am able to move around very easily and my energy level seems to be getting better each day, which is a very good thing since the holidays are upon us and my schedule seems to be getting crazier by the day.  We are going for our 4-D ultrasound tomorrow afternoon so I will try to post new photos soon!