34 Weeks (And a Few Other Updates)

Today, I am 34 weeks pregnant. It's so crazy for me to think that I still have 6 weeks to go. I know that's not very long at all in many ways (especially when I think about all we still have to do between now and then), but at the same time, I'm really starting to feel like I could go into labor at any moment, so it's hard to picture lasting 42 more days. We'll just see how things go from here on out. It's going to be a very busy few weeks between now and my due date. Here are just a few things on my calendar between now and then:

Today (Nov. 27th) - Dad's birthday (we celebrated yesterday with cake and ice cream)
Sunday, Dec. 4th - Hollis's 1st birthday party (read more about Hollis in one of my earlier posts here)
Monday, Dec. 5th - Mom's birthday; check-up with Dr. Dupre
Saturday, Dec. 10th - Candace's wedding
Sunday, Dec. 11th - my baby shower; Christmas party with Jordan's Home Depot co-workers
Tuesday, Dec. 13th - check-up at health department
Saturday, Dec. 17th - our Sunday school class Christmas party; get maternity/family Christmas/Rylee's 18-month pictures taken
Thursday, Dec. 22nd - Rylee's 18-month check-up with her pediatrician
Sunday, Dec. 25th - Christmas
Sunday, Jan. 1st - New Year's Day; earliest date for induction (unless an emergency comes up)
Friday, Jan. 6th - Jordan's birthday; latest date for induction
Sunday, Jan. 8th - my actual due date (but Ryan will already be here!)

I'm sure I'm probably forgetting a few things, and I know other things will come up between now and then as well (including more doctor check-ups, of course), but that sounds busy enough, right? At some point in there (probably around December 23rd), my daddy will also be coming up from Florida to spend Christmas with us like he did last year, and he'll stay until after Ryan is born. Jordan and I also plan to take Rylee to go see Santa Claus at Bass Pro Shop sometime soon. I'm anxious to see how she will react to him. She did so great with him last year, but then again, she was only 6 months old. I have a feeling she won't be so fond of him this year, especially when we try to sit her in his lap and step away to get a picture. She might surprise us, though... we'll just have to wait and see. So anyway, it will definitely be interesting to see if I can actually "survive" all of this busyness without going into labor. Here is what my ever-growing belly looks like tonight:

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get tired of looking at pictures of my belly - I'm ready to see the baby! Won't be too much longer now!
Before I close, I wanted to include a few pictures from Thanksgiving this past Thursday and mention one or two other quick updates as well. First of all, Jordan, Rylee, and I traveled down to Brundidge on Thursday morning to celebrate Thanksgiving with a bunch of my dad's side of the family. We had a nice time visiting with everyone and enjoyed feasting on lots of yummy food. After we visited for a few hours there, we went to Jordan's dad's house to visit with him, Jordan's twin sister, and her two boys for a few hours and have their leftover Thanksgiving food for dinner. Needless to say, we ate a lot of turkey and ham that day. When we got home from visiting with them, I realized I had not taken any pictures at all during the day, but I still want to try to document these holidays with Rylee, so I had Jordan snap a few pictures of Rylee and me, and then I took a picture of her with him. They are not at all "Thanksgiving festive" (we're standing by our front door), and of course I didn't feel like putting on make-up that day, so I look rather rough, but I reckon they're better than nothing. Here they are:

I had originally intended to do a special Thanksgiving post with these pictures and a list of things I'm most thankful for, but I haven't had time to do it yet, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post them now. As for what I'm thankful for, the "usual" things still stand. I'm thankful for my Heavenly Father, and everything else I have to be thankful for comes from Him. I'm thankful for my husband, our daughter, our son on the way, our families, our friends, our church family, our home, our vehicles, my husband's jobs... I'm thankful for EVERYTHING we have. When I think about how often we take all we have for granted, it makes me sick. It's hard to fathom the conditions that so many people live in... it's hard to imagine all of the things that so many people live without that we feel are necessities. We are blessed beyond measure, and I am trying my best every day to live in a more "aware" state of thankfulness. I don't want to take my blessings for granted or get to a point where I feel I "deserve" anything I have. This year, I have also tried to be especially thankful for the "little" things in life... after all, they always seem to turn out to be the most precious things in the end. For example, I'm not just thankful for Rylee... I'm thankful for the way she'll randomly walk up to me and say "Hi, Mommy!" and hug my leg. I'm not just thankful for my husband... I'm thankful for the way he'll look at me every now and then and tell me I am his joy. These are not material things that can be taken away from me... these are precious moments that I can hold in my heart for the rest of my life. I am so thankful for those things.
Anyway, I can't believe Thanksgiving is over and we're now full-swing into Christmas season. Jordan put our Christmas tree and stockings up on Friday evening, and he put the train around the bottom of the tree tonight, but I'm still not done putting all the ornaments on the tree yet. I plan to post a few pictures of our Christmas decorations when we get everything done.
I also still plan to post "before" and "after" pictures of Ryan's room when we get it done. Jordan did a bit more painting on Friday, but he still has some final touch-ups to do. Hopefully he'll get it all completely done sometime this week so we can get the furniture moved back into place and get everything ready. I am so excited about it.
Anyway, I think that's about it for this post. Until next time...