Almost 38 weeks

This is Amy updating the status for Lana.

Lana is at the end of her 37th week. She will start her 38th week on Tuesday.

Yesterday Lana was contracting about every 10-11 minutes. Today she called me at 12:30 pm and said that I might want to come down here, since she was contracting about every 7 minutes. When we got here she was actually contracting closer to every 4 minutes. About 4:00 we called the Dr. and decided that we would go to the hospital and have her checked.

We got to the hospital about 5pm. Lana was checked and about 1 cm. The Dr. told her to go home and relax. Lana was really hoping that she would leave with her baby, but the time will come.


Here is her most recent belly picture.

Keeping Busy

With less than three weeks to go before my due date, I am anxiously looking forward to getting my big Christmas present (our little girl). One of my friends mentioned that it helps to keep busy because if you stay at home and only think about wanting to have the baby, it will seem like it will never happen! So thanks to family and GE we are trying to keep busy so my mind is occupied a little.

Last weekend Matt and I went to Harrisonburg and had Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Cookie day (a Kiser tradition) all in one weekend. This was because this is the last trip that we are going to make before Grace is born, so all the holidays needed to be fit in.

Yesterday we went to the Hotel Roanoke (which is always amazing around Christmas time with the many, many Christmas trees that the local businesses decorate for the hotel) for the GE Christmas dinner. It is always fun to meet for the first time, and see again some of the people that Matt works with. This was my third time going to this party and I must say that it gets more enjoyable each time, maybe because I get to know some of the people better over the year.

Pending a trip to the hospital....

Thursday we are going to go and assemble little red wagons and trikes for children in need. That was a very fun event last year with very yummy pizza afterward. We will see how much I will be able to help, I might just be there to hand the tools to the individuals who are doing the real work.

Saturday will be a early morning because we are planning on going to a warehouse and helping with Christmas baskets which are actually very large boxes that are filled with food and toys and other items that local businesses donate. These are filled then delivered to local needy families. Last year we added in a toy train and also some body spray. I wonder what station we will be able to get this year...hopefully something toward the end (so I do not have to bend over too much to help it all fit in) and also not too heavy. This was a great event last year because 1. they had great donuts to eat... and 2. we took our radio and had Christmas music to dance around to while we waited for the boxes to be carted around.

This is only the plan for this week, next week we have infant CPR among many other things. I really am trying to keep myself busy while at the same time not too over booked so that I get exhausted.

(But honestly I have to admit that I hope that I do not make it to half of these events, because I want to meet this little girl...and soon!)

My favorite time of year

It is now my favorite time of year. Christmas? Nope!

Advent!

I know it is kind of odd but it is true that at times when my teachers would ask what was my favorite holiday other kids would answer halloween, thanksgiving, Christmas, or even their birthdays, but I remember answering Advent. I am not sure why I like it so much. Maybe it is because:

1. The anticipation to Chrismas...
2. We get to eat by candlelight...
3. Or maybe it was the only time of the year that mom and dad would let me handle matches :)

Well, who knows why I like it so much, but I do. And now thanks to my father-in-law and mother-in-law we have a beautiful advent wreath.

This was my first attempt at decorating the wreath. I think it looks pretty good for a first year try. We have been enjoying this advent wreath and the sayings that go along with it that Matt grew up saying each time the candles were lit.

This is a tradition that I really look forward to passing along to our little girl when she finally decides to arrive.

Happy Chicken-Day!

Greetings All,

I have once again absconded with my wife's blog to bring you Turkey Day Greetings! In our case, Chicken Day Greetings. Last Thursday marked Lana and My second thanksgiving together. I always have to count. Our first Thanksgiving was spent hours apart - I barely knew her then. That was two years ago. Last Turkey Day, We were able to host our first Turkey Day with our respective parents - and a very un-cooperative Turducken.

This year was a new one. We have so much to be thankful for, and so many thanks to give. We are thankful for our soon-to-be newborn baby, this house, our friends and family, Generous Electric, and each other!

Life is Good!

Anyway, you are probably wondering why we celebrated "Chicken Day", instead of with the traditional turkey or ham. Well, we plain just didn't wanna. We had talked about making a turkey, but we were both enjoying our four-day weekend together, and just didn't think spending hours basting an unwilling bird sounded like much fun.

We had recently found a taste-alike recipe for KFC's 11 herb and spices chicken. In hindsight, it wasn't a taste-alike, but it was darn tootin' tasty. Ours had fourteen herbs and spices, and smelled wonderful. Who would have thought about putting brown sugar in a chicken breading? Anyway, we prepared the chicken pieces 'n parts in an "Alton Brown"-inspired manner. Cut the chicken into nugget-sized pieces, allow to air-dry to a sticky goodness, coat with the fourteen herb and spices, some egg, and good ole breadcrumbs. Shallow-fry in 350-degree F peanut oil, and cook to a golden brown. Labor intensive, but very yummy.

Served on the side was a quickly whipped up batch of homemade creamed peas, and fresh candied Yams - straight from the can (and modified a lil-bit).

And, of course, we had a dessert. More on that later...

Lana worked on decorating the table while I supervised the last of the creamed peas, and we had Thanksgiving.

We finally sat down, still somewhat exhausted, but very thankful. Dinner was good, very filling - and we had enough for the typical Turk- err - Chicken-Day Leftovers. And then there was Dessert. It was also fabulous. Lana and I seem to have a tradition of never leaving a recipe well enough alone.

We had some apples to spare. We quickly agreed to some kind of apple thing for dessert. Lana is well known - at least around here - for some amazing pie crusts. So we made one of those, but instead of her typical apple pie filling that she makes, topped with a crumbly oatmeal topping. This time, we used an apple-turnover filling that I had, topped with another pie crust (with sugar and cinnamon, of course). The pie was amazing. A little wet, but very good.

Chicken-Day was amazing, and we had fun making it amazing.

Happy Chicken-Day Everyone!
-Matt

Let the nesting begin!

Friday was my last day at work, so here I am at home...with nothing to do but nest and get ready for baby.

So watch out master bathroom, you are the first one on my list. Then I will try to take a room or half a room each day or so and do some really good cleaning that has been needing to be done for a long time.

We will see how this goes :)

35 weeks...

...and counting!

A new look

This is Amy. Lana has asked me to submit this post for her. The new look is NOT that she has had the baby! Maybe another time it will be.

Lana woke up this morning with her long, thick, beautiful hair. I went to Mom and Dad's to visit and was commenting on this. Then we started talk about how it may be easier for her to have short hair when the baby comes. Before we knew it, we were out the door to get her hair cut!

This is the long, thick hair I mentioned.

(Davene, if you look closely in the mirror, you can see Jeff)

The hairdresser was amazed at the amount of hair Lana had.

She had to find larger bands for Lana's hair!

This is the braid they cut off. The hairdresser said she had never seen

one that thick before. Lana's hair was long enough to give to Locks of Love.This is Lana's "new do" from the front--very cute!

and from the back. I think Lana will find this very easy to take care of.

I think Lana will find that she appreciate the shorter hair when her baby comes!