SiX MoNtHs!!

This week I am 24 weeks or 6 months pregnant already!! Where is the time going??

As you may have guessed from the picture, Ava is now about the size of an ear of corn! We thought that was fitting, as we are in Iowa this week at my parents house, home of many fields of corn. She is almost 12 inches long and she gained approximately 4 ounces last week. Judging from the number on the scale at my visit on Friday, one of us has gained a lot more than a few ounces :) She is definitely growing and I am continuing to feel her move more and more. I've figured out when she's awake and when she's sleeping and so far we seem to have our schedules in sync! But I am holding to that loosely because I am sure when she makes her little debut in April, she will be like most newborns who are completely confused by day and night. Oh well. At least she's letting me sleep right now! I am hoping she will get really active this week so my family can feel her move too. Speaking of family, we are all home, for the first time since the wedding in June and we are ready for a great week together! Getting here was another story however...

It is a winter wonderland in Iowa right now, there is so much snow on the ground, over 12" in many places. Travis and I came down on Sunday afternoon, after carefully watching the online reports from the DOT, and Stacie and Jesse were supposed to fly in from North Carolina, but we got a call from them in the morning, after they found out that all flights into Iowa were cancelled. Major bummer. They were able to get a flight yesterday, but had to add a leg through Atlanta, just to make that happen. We got a text saying they were on their first flight ok, and then the next call we got was not so great. Poor Jesse had a bad toothache, which required some vicodin, and he spent the morning throwing up on the plane, on each leg of the flight, from Raleigh to Atlanta to Cincinatti to Cedar Rapids. You can imagine how much fun they were having at each point! Stacie had to get him from gate to gate and manage all their bags and poor Jesse was in growing agony. They finally landed yesterday afternoon and my Dad and sister went to pick them up. Because it's the holidays and because it was already a horrible 24 hours, the next piece of news was just par for the course. In the shuffle of all the flights, they lost their luggage, with all their clothes and all their gifts. We have yet to see them show up at our door, but they were promised by 2:00 this afternoon, so we'll see. Also upon landing, my Dad had to take Jesse straight to the dentist for an emergency appointment to see what the problem was. Unfortunately for him, the problem is requiring a root canal and the first appointment he can get is on New Year's Eve. Merry Christmas!!! He is out of pain for now and has a temporary "fix" until then, but needless to say, it was not a great 24 hours for Stacie and Jesse and we are all very, very glad to have them here!!

My Mom and I decided to make sugar cookies yesterday, while we waited for updates from the travelers :) I was happily in my jammies for most of the day!!

Last night, my sisters Jennie, Stacie and I, along with our "surrogate sister" Cady, decorated them. We realized we forgot to pick up some cute sprinkles, so we had to work with what we could find :)

I think they ended up pretty cute anyway! As you can see we were working with a red, green and blue palatte...sort of Christmasy ??? Anyway, we are all heading to Des Moines today for some shopping and to see Triple Espresso tonight. I'll take lots of pictures and update tomorrow. Hope you are having a blessed week! Merry Christmas!!