Snow much fun today

Savannah had her first snow day ever today!
We had heard before bed that Ames schools were cancelled today, but it was after girly had gone to bed. At 6:45am she came running into our room to tell Travis he probably didn't have to work because there was sooo much snow outside. It was really fun to tell her that none o us had to go anywhere! By 7:30am she had all her snow gear on and was out the door. After over an hour she told me "I don't live in the house anymore, I live in the snow"

Come on Charlie!

So here we are, 39 1/2 weeks down the road of pregnancy.  For some reason I had totally convinced myself the entire time that our new brother would come sometime between 37 and 38 weeks.  It was just more convenient.  And since we already know what we're in for (in terms of labor and having an infant around) we might as well jump right into it!  You can imagine the feelings I may have had at my appointment last week when Ms Doctor told me she's thinking more like the end of NEXT week!  Patience.  Patience.  Here's what I would tell me if I wasn't me: "God has a time for this, and who knows what might go wrong or be harder if things were to happen in YOUR time instead of His.  He knows and will control the day and time and way that this will happen".  Right. I'm so right.

Also, everyone around us knows I think because we are Travis and Wendy and we have no secrets about our own lives, we decided back in August that we were going to name our kiddo Charlie Baylor Pierce.  My maiden name is Charlson - and my dad has some friends that have called him Charlie (or Chuck) since high school.  We liked that name and it means a little somethin somethin to us so there it is.  Other popular references to our son to be's name include : Charlie the Magical Unicorn, Charlie bit my finger, and Charles in Charge.  Which are all okay.  But just know - we're writing it down and double stamping it as CHARLIE - not Charles.  Baylor has nothing to do with the school.  Travis just liked it and since I had pretty much demanded that Savannah's middle name be Sue, he got to chose this one's middle name.

I'll just keep working away here - I've cleaned the entire house in preparation at least 15 times now.  Not that I'm nesting, I just don't want to come home from the hospital to a dirty house.

Savannah is doing great also.  The other day she made these two statements within two minutes of each other: "I want Charlie to come out now.  Come on baby Charlie!" and "Momma, I never want Charlie to be born because I like it just me and you".  I'm sure that will represent her feelings about him for the next 20 years.

To make this even more interesting, I'll include some pictures of her.  Everyone likes pictures of Savannah :)

E Z Eating

Momma has been tired a lot so Savannah and I have been eating out a lot. I didn't realize how much until I saw that I had several recent pictures of savannah eating out on my camera roll. Whoops!

Pretty much Anything cooked at our house these days is either in the crock pot or the microwave. What can I say? It's that time....

Just waiting now

I had my 38 week Dr appointment today. That means we're two weeks (or less) from having this kiddo! There have been lots of mixed emotions around here lately. Excitement for our new family shape. Nervousness about all the changes. Anxiety about being ready, the birth and all. Thankfulness that we made it this far... Really, the emotions are mostly from the girls. Travis is just pumped to have a son on the way. We have pretty much everything we know of that we need. His room is getting there. And I have about 7 meals in the freezer waiting to go. So lets get this show on the road already!

Lately

Here's just some pictures from my phone.  

Savannah has been having fun scrolling through the Christmas / Holiday isles at the stores.  She's in the mood for Christmas.  Shopping with her (especially during week day mornings) is pretty fun because we both just kind of space off into the isles and look at all the pretty things.  Of course, sometimes she gets going on a project while I shop - like this one - hanging candy cans on each other. 

I took a bath at a friends house the other day.  I remembered that they had a great big tub with Jacuzzi jets in it so I just went ahead and asked.  It was so warm, and so relaxing!  Needless to say, I'm going back.  :)  It's a little weird, and humbling to beg to use someone else's bathtub, but well worth it at this point in pregnancy.  Fortunately for them, they live on the other side of Ames and the 15 minute drive is enough to keep me from coming back every single day.  

Our friends that moved to Des Moines earlier this year bought a new house, so while Savannah had some time off of school last week, she and I went to visit them.  They have a daughter that's 2 1/2.  Savannah loves playing playing with her!  

Just watching TV at home.  It's whatever. 

Our annual Escape22 Fall retreat was a couple weekends ago.  I wasn't sure how'd i'd weather it this year being so big and tired and uncomfortable, but one way I managed was by driving myself around camp everywhere.  Which also meant fitting as many girls in my car as I could all weekend.  You can't see them all, but if we include the two babies that are inside my and Samantha's bodies in this picture, there are 14 people crammed into my car.  It was only a 4 minute drive. 

Sawyer

Savannah and I have been spending some extra time at Travis' school, Sawyer Elementary, lately. 

Last week a bunch of the teachers he works with blessed us (and another one of their pregnant co-workers) with a little baby shower.  

They were so generous and they even thought to make sure that Savannah got some gifts as well.  I can't believe how many people love this baby so much already.  

Here's Mr Pierce at work.  To get an idea of how big his "room" is - I'm standing in the middle of the room taking a picture, and you can see the walls on the sides of the room.  

One of Travis' students wanted to read a book to Savannah.  We made arrangements and went in at a time when she could come in.  They had cheese balls and juice together.  It was really fun.  This is the other end of Travis' room.  :)  Needless to say, we're glad he took the job in Ames for several reasons, but the easy access that our family has to each other now can't be replaced.  

Events of last weekish or more

I found a bunch of pictures on my phone - I think mostly pictures that I took to text to people.  But they describe some life events so I'm sharin them. 

I lost one of the diamonds from my engagement ring.  Tomorrow we celebrate 10 strong years of being married.  Luckily it's not hugely expensive to get it replaced so we'll probably do that sometime.  Still a little sad.  

Savannah has been sleeping in our bed about an hour every morning.  Sometimes (much) more, sometimes less.  I don't love it - but at the same time I'm really trying to cherish every moment we have left with our only child.  

I had a flat tire a couple weeks ago - did I post this already?  I just thought it was funny that I got three fully capable men to come to my rescue.  The cold weather and the 8 month old child in my stomach probably helped. 

Did we mention that Travis got a motorcycle?  A lady who he works with just stopped by one night and randomly dropped it off for him!  He's pretty pumped. 

And then a whole bunch of woman that I love had a surprise baby shower for us.  And THEY gave us a motorcycle too!  (complements of LeeAnn Farner)  It was a really fun time.  And we super appreciate all the love and gifts.  We may just be ready for another baby after all ...well....idk about that. 

Heart jar celebration

When the kids at Savannah's school do something kind or good or right, they get hearts for their heart jar.  Once the jar is full they get to have a celebration!  Savannah's class has had two celebrations now - and the entire school and one big celebration.  

The class voted for what theme they wanted this time and since Halloween was right around the corner, they had a costume celebration.  Out comes BATGIRL again!

Parents were invited to this one, so I got to go and take part in the party. 

Here is Savannah getting wrapped in toilet paper by her friend.  She was having a pretty good time with it - I just didn't get a good picture of them. 

Here they are all singing silly songs. 

And eating silly smile snacks. 

They also bowled with pumpkins, and they even got to open up a special pumpkin that was covered in glitter and full of candy!  Savannah said it was a party pumpkin.  This is just one of the many things we love about Savannah's school and her teachers.  She's doing great there!

Dont Make Me Sing

This is seriously one of my favorite SNL skits ever.  Did you know that it's hard to find SNL skits on youtube?  I had to go to straight to NBC for this one.




We've all been there.... come on.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na batgirl

I just realized that I haven't posted our Halloween pictures yet.

We had tons of fun Trick or Treating in the morning on Main Street.  The older these kids get the crazier it gets!

Savannah made this "ghost" on our tree.  Some of our neighbors put out Halloween decorations - guess she wanted to be part of the fun. 

Travis let Savannah "fly" by riding in the car with her head out the sun roof.  She thought it was a little scary, but she also was laughing the entire time.  We drove slow and it was mostly in the alley.  

Here's Savannah with part of her score - busted. 

In the evening we went Trick or Treating with some other friends.  Its more fun for Savannah to go with other kids that run to the doors with her.  

Of course you always have to run with you Trick or Treat. 

This is one of our neighbor's houses.  They had a special bag just for Savannah with her name on it and everything! They kinda go all out!

And the funnest part - Savannah has dressed up at batgirl at home at least 4 out of the last 5 days!  

Minneapolis is our Bro

I think that most couples have their city.  Or at least their place.  You know, the one that is their go to - the place where they know what's up - where they always feel good about going to.  Some of our friends really like going to Kansas City, some of them like Chicago.  For my parents I think it's probably Okaboji.  To each his own.  But we are Minneapolis people.  Always have been!  Before Savannah was born we would head up there a couple times a year for shows and to shop.  It's been a while, so Travis and I decided to spend a couple days there to celebrate our upcoming 10 year anniversary.  We considered planning some new activities this time, but as it came closer to our trip we decided that we probably always just do the same things up there because those are the things we like.

We stayed at a Courtyard Hotel that I found online.  I used our credit card points to pay for it so even though it was only $65 a night, it was actually FREE!  It was one of the nicest cheap end hotels I've ever stayed at for sure.  And I realized as we were passing hotels on the way there that Travis knows what company owns every hotel out there.  I guess it's a hidden talent he has.  Marriot owns Courtyards I guess.  His years of touring with Spoken gave him some valuable life experience :)

We took it pretty easy.  Went to bed early Friday night, after we watched King of Queens for an hour.  Saturday we ate breakfast at IHop, shopped around Uptown, ate lunch at Global Market, got 15 minute massages at the Mall.  Then we went back to our Hotel to watch the OU game.  We got some chips and salsa and beer - and since the Dish wasn't working in our room we ended up taking it all down to the lobby to watch it on the TV down there.  It wasn't very classy.  Whateves - it's not like we care.  Sunday we did a flash through at IKEA in just under two hours - that includes eating a 99 cent breakfast and eating lunch.  I feel pretty accomplished in that.
Here's the few pictures I took:

Generational

Thought I'd post a couple of the more meaningful pictures I took when we were in Oregon.  Not that I'm a great photographer or anything like that - age is such a strange thing when you think about it. 

Four generations of Norwegians.  You could probably tell that without my telling you though. 

Portland highlights

Savannah and I and my Dad are back from our trip out East now.  It has taken a couple of days, but we may be starting to catch up on our rest.  There is something to be said about the weariness of A.Traveling while 7 months pregnant and B. Traveling with a 4 year old that doesn't adjust to time travel (you might call it time zones).  Savannah woke up almost every day we were there around 4:30am (which was 6:30am Iowa time) and we were up late most nights.  With our flights being a little later on the way home we didn't actually get to bed until 12:45am (Tuesday morning) and guess who was up and ready to go by 7am!? Savannah went to school yesterday and everything!

She didn't have school today so we got to sleep in a little and i'm crossing my fingers hoping for a long nap!  

Here's a few highlights from our days: 

Spending quality time with Grandma Mary.  Savannah really enjoyed her back yard as well.   We got some good solid time in with our family out there that we don't get to see too often.  The last time I was out there was at least 8 years ago.  

My aunts bought her a princess dress from the Disney store.  I had told her that we couldn't afford one and she was great about picking out some little rings instead of a dress.  After we bought the rings my aunts to Savannah that THEY were getting her one.  The first picture is right when she found out - the second one is her in the dress. 

Here's some shots of the trip home.  Savannah did great traveling.  It was a really long day, but she did awesome about keeping things moving along and having a great attitude.  She was so excited.  She talked and sang almost the ENTIRE time!  Better than screaming and whining I guess!  

A little out of oder but whateves - 

We went into downtown Portland one day for lunch and ate at this place that was 13 stories up.  Good thing we love heights! :) 

Lil trip to Oregon #1

Yesterday we flew out to Portland with my Dad to visit his family. We left our house at 4:30am, and after only 6 hours of total travel we arrived. Our seats were a little split up on the plane and Savannah wanted to ride by my dad the whole time so I sat alone and they played. I can say, I normally love flying, but I wasn't prepared for how much more cramped I would feel at 7 months pregnant!

We spent the day with my aunts and Grandma who took us to a cool little park to feed squirrels. That was kind of a thrill!

Ames High future cheerleader

Since this was a while ago and I still haven't written a real post, I thought I should at least post the pictures from Savannah's experience at the Ames High cheer clinic. It was really fun for her- and fun for us to watch her 10 minute performance!