Christmas 2008!

Well we had a wonderful Christmas for 2008. We began the day at Nan's (Pete's Nan) where we've been staying for the last couple of weeks. We made her a delicious breakfast and had some lovely quality time with her... special memories.

We then made our way to my family home, for the traditional Buma Christmas day doings. We sit around eating yummy food opening presents, but we're only allowed to open one at a time and everyone has to watch each present be open. It is a looooooong process, took over 2 hours this year!! I love doing it that way, it's so much fun, and I have to say one of my favourite things about Christmas is watching people open what I got them - sometimes I think I enjoy that more than opening my own!

So after that, we had our delicious lunch. This year's theme was "International Salads" and Mum outdid herself. It was beautiful! Then for our yummy desserts, and then we sat around for a bit playing with our pressies and just hanging out. After that, my brothers and sisters, Pete and I went to the beach for a bit, and then Pete and I headed over to the in-laws, where we did it all again!

It was such a lovely day, and I can't believe that next year our bubby will be nearly 1!!! It will be a whole different type of Christmas, that's for sure. Although bubby had a few presents under the tree already this year, lol.

Okay. Some pictures!!!


Breakfast with Nan: creamy mango yoghurt with fresh mango and sliced pannettone. Mmmmm. And a lovely picture of Peter and his Nan, which, by the way, is going straight to the photo wall!

Peter and I in our Christmas gear ... Bubby's first Christmas photo :P

The snack table... this is what we nibble on while we open presents.... mmmmmm

Pete's Christmas present from me! If you can't see it properly, it says, "Dad's Bible". It's a really cool bible with lots of extra parts about being a Godly father, with lots of examples and devotionals etc.

My awesome present from Pete! It's a handbag he had made with a photo that I took (one of my very famous flower photos) printed on it! It's SO cool.

I think Jack was just as excited by this present as Pete!!!

My family opening various presents: Alexie with her Gorgeous perfume from the parents, Jordan with his new rug for his room (we gave him an unofficial room refurb for Christmas, with lots of new things to upgrade his room from little boy to teen), Bethanie with her picnic gear for her and Lockey's new picnic set from us, Lockey with his new headlights for his car, Papa with his new smell from Uncle Dennis - it's called Million and came in a box that looks like a gold bullion, and Mum with her Tina Arena CD from Pete, which she thought was going to be shoes !!

Our gorgeous table

My bubby from the top view (that or Pete was just trying to look down my top!)

Pete's hot new look. That keyring was his bonbon prize!

The FOOD!!! Entree was a salad of prawns and strawberries with lime, pineapple and honey dressing. YUM. Salads included recipes from Mexico, Germany, Greece, USA and many more. Oh so good. And we had cold ham off the bone and turkey roast. Dessert was my christmas ice-cream pudding (how good did it look finished!) and mum's delicious chocolate swirl baked cheesecake.

My sister-in-law to be, Lisa and I comparing bumps. I think I win.

The day that Jordan grew a tail and other stories...

No, seriously, he did! Look:

And this is our Christmas tree. With a star on top. And with LOTS of christmas presents underneath. We nearly had to take the bottom row of branches off!!!

And this is my yummy christmas pudding in the making. Rocky road ice-cream pudding. Ingredients: Ice-cream, cherry ripe, turkish delight, marshmellows, choccie biscuits, frozen raspberries, coconut. Tomorrow, when I turn it out of the dish, I will top it with Ice Magic, and take another photo of it.
About to pour my delicious mixture into Nan's christmas pudding steamer. Not so much a steamer for today though!!

37 week appointment

Blood Pressure: 123/82
Heart rate: 140bpm
Bubby is still head down, I actually don't think there's enough room in there to turn up the other way even if bub tried it!

And, ladies and gentlemen, the "fundus has dropped". Whilst I'm not sure how much I like my child being referred to as Fundus (although could be a cool bump nickname??) it is good news.

I know I posted a belly shot yesterday, but Pete took another one in the afternoon and I cannot believe the difference a few hours made to the shape of my tum!
What do you think???

36 weeks, 4 days

Ikea: or why shopping till you drop is not a good idea when you're 8 months pregnant

On Thursday, Pete and I and my family, and my family's youth pastor, Michelle tripped down to Ikea for the day. We left at some ridiculous hour (6.30am) and were home at about 7.30pm (!!!!!!)

We got to Ikea at about 8.30, only to find that they don't open till 9.30 on weekdays! We were meeting some other friends there for breakfast too. So we popped next door and moseyed around the shops near Spotlight for an hour, and were back to Ikea waiting for the doors to open when it was time. Breakfast was SO good (probably because we were starving by then).

Then we shopped. And shopped. My parents are starting to renovate their kitchen, so were intrigued by all the little display rooms, and we looked at every single one. That's my favourite way to do Ikea so it suited me! We finished off most of our christmas shopping, and I had a great time, even though I was waddling like a duck and suffering through painful braxton hicks for a lot of the day!

We left Ikea at around 2 or 3pm, I can't really remember, and then we went over to the Hyperdrome - at least I think that's what it's called. Some big shopping centre in any case. We ate some (late) lunch, and then hit more shops. We left there around 5.45pm.

So we had done all our christmas shopping, plus some last minute things for bubby. We were all totally exhausted by the end of the day, but that and the aching legs the next day were totally worth it.

Our Christmas shopping...

Mum & Alexie being silly sausages :P

Leaving Ikea. I think Jordan was hungry

Mich and Bethanie

My sore, sad, slightly swollen and sorry feet

My gorgeous husband :) Feeling triumphant after a day's successful spending

Papa & Mich

36 week appointment

All is good :)

Blood pressure a little higher than normal: 130/93, but the doctor didn't seem to concerned.
Heart rate was 144, and was very cute, as when the doc found it with the doppler it was very loud, but bub obviously didn't like being poked around, and rolled over very abruptly.
Bub is still head down, and I'm guessing things will stay that way for the duration now, thank the Lord!

My bloods (which I had taken yesterday) came back good, although with a slightly elevated white blood cell count. My doc said this is nothing to worry about, and is reasonably normal at this stage of pregnancy.

And that was pretty much the appointment! I have one more appointment next week with this doctor in Noosa, then we're back home to Toowoomba next Friday (boxing day), and I have an appointment at the antenatal clinic Monday week. It's meant to be my 36 week appointment but will be nearly 38 weeks, lol.

Anyway, all is still going well, becoming slightly less comfortable and getting over the braxton hicks, but doc told me today that from how the baby is positioned he's pretty sure we've got at least another week snug in my tummy!

Baby Shower

I had such a lovely day yesterday. Mum and my sisters did such a great job at organising everything , and I felt very spoilt.

Everyone started arriving at around 2pm, and Peter and "the boys" (ie my brother, and any other boyfriend or husband whose better half was at my party) went off to play golf and go to the beach, which Pete had always wanted to do as his own 'baby shower'.

We had set up what will be bub's bassinet (was also used by my Nanna's sisters, my mum and her siblings, and me and my siblings) and put out gifts that people who weren't able to make my shower had given me in the last few weeks.

Our mountain of gifts, and my cool heirloom bassinet

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, my sisters got everyone drinks and caught up with each other. Then it was time for food! The table was full of all sorts of goodies, from blue and pink cupcakes, to meringues, a fruit platter, and my friend Michelle's incredibly delicious 4 layer dip (of which I ate at least 1/4 of the tray on my own!!! - the baby loves it :P ). My mum had concoccted the yummiest drink: lemonade, cranberry juice and frozen raspberries... mmmmmm. Once we had stuffed ourselves full we rolled back into the lounge to begin the games.

Each of us had to pick a little tag out of a bag, and there were a number of different little pictures (bibs, bottles, rattles etc) and you had to find the people who had the same tag as you to form teams. The games were as follows:

1) Each person had to write a baby-related problem and solution. These were then put into two separate bags, and I had to randomly choose one from each bag and read them out. Of course, they were all mixed up and we had some very funny combinations.

For example:

Problem: Pete begins to feel unloved and second best...
Solution: Have spare clothes not only for baby but for you!!! And a huge packet of wet ones.

Problem: Bright yellow poo leaks out of bub's nappy and all over baby and you...
Solution: Give baby to Grandma.

Mum's gorgeous god-daughter Kelsie(4) took this game very seriously. She helped me read out her problems and solutions.

2) The lemonade sippy-cup scull. 1 person from each team raced to finish their sippy cup first. It was very funny, and Michelle won by miles, and then did the most massive burp ever, lol. So ladylike.

Michelle, victorious!

3) The dummy spit. 1 person from each team had a dummy which they had to spit. The person who got the furtherest won! My mum participated in that one, but didn't win lol.

Mum about to spit the dummy

4) 2 people from each team had to play, one was the feeder and one was the taster. There were 4 different baby foods, and the tasters had to guess what was being fed to them. I think the flavours ended up being caramel custard, pumpkin and sweet corn, banana custard and beef and veg. Not many people guessed right, and lots of funny faces were pulled. I have been told that I must make my own baby food when the time comes, as it would be cruel to feed that to a baby.

Clearly this one tasted very yummy!

My Nanna liked the sweet ones...

After that I opened the mountain of presents people had brought. It was incredible and I was very blessed. I really don't think I have that much left to buy at all. We were even given a beautiful really good quality lambskin, which we had really wanted but weren't sure we could afford. And one of those baby play mat/gyms.... too cute. Most of what we got was very practical and so appreciated.

Bubby will be wearing this shirt A LOT!

It was such a lovely afternoon, I really enjoyed spending time with friends. It made me want to go home and finish off bubby's room! I tell you what, the cupboard in there is going to be totally bursting at the seams once we get all of this stuff in there! I can't believe that it's only 4 and a half weeks until we'll be meeting our little one. I so can't wait.

Hooly Dooly look at my tummy!!!

I can no longer see my toes, and couldn't see the scales at my last doctor's visit (ha not that that bothers me too much I'd rather not know!). Someone said to me last night that I'm bigger every time they see me (once a week or so), to which I replied, "I'm bigger every time I wake up!!!".
I got Pete to do a belly shot today, because I'm feeling big and heavy. I was shocked at the difference between my last and this one!!!

What do you think?

Savy Party

Last night, my mum, sisters and I went to the Savy (the ladies group at my family's church) Christmas break up party. It was a "Mystery Tour".

We met at the church at 5.15pm and boarded a bus which took us to the Noosa River and onto the Catalina for a cruise! My second in 2 weeks.. noice! I took my shoes off before getting on and off the boat this time.. wasn't risking anything.

It was so lovely, we spend the first half on the bottom deck eating nibblies and drinking our complimentary lemon lime and bitters, and then ventured up to the top deck to take in the 'vista'. It was gorgeous.. a lovely time of the evening and yesterday was much cooler than it has been so it was lovely weather too.

Here are a few shots I took of the beautiful Noosa River:


After the cruise we went back to the church, which was set up so beautifully for dinner. We had a delicious meal of salads, ham and turkey, and a selection of beautiful desserts. My family was the entertainment for the night, and we sang our hearts out. It was great!

The girls at church did such an awesome job and we all felt very spoiled and flash. It was a wonderful night.

Christmas Time!!!

On Saturday we *finally* got to put up a Christmas tree! Pete and I didn't get to do ours this year because we left Toowoomba at the end of October and Pete said that October is too early to do the tree. Grinch!!! So anyway, we had to wait, because in the Buma house we aren't allowed to start Christmas till after Mum's birthday (December 3).

So on Saturday night, we threw on a Christmas Carol CD, and got decorating...

(Clockwise from top right) Jordan stringing the christmas card pegs, Papa tries to make the star stay, while Jordan and Lockey watch, A candid shot of Alexie and Peter decorating the tree (not), Papa and Jordan posing.

Pretty Christmas bits... oh and Jack, who contentedly watched on the entire time (when we weren't harrassing him trying to take photos that is!)

Our centre piece... my brainwave the family christmas tree. I made these name baubles last year (to replace the apples we've had since I can remember), and they usually go on the tree, but they're kind of lost there. So this year, I bought this cool tree from Ikea, wrapped some pretty LED lights around it, and hung our name baubles from it. We've lost Tess (the other doggy) though :( I'm not quite sure where she's gone, so I'll have to make her another one. We're also going to make a 'baby bump' one that can be used whenever someone in the family is pregnant!

I've just realised that I don't have a proper picture of the finished tree... I'll get back to you!

Ankle Update

God is so good :) Thank you to everyone for their prayers!!

My ankle is *so* much better. I couldn't hack the crutches - you think pregnancy makes you clumsy, try it with crutches! So I started using it earlier than recommended. The first few days were not so comfortable, but I was okay so long as I spent part (read most) of the day with my feet UP!

I'm walking fine on it now... it's still painful at certain angles and the top of my foot feels really bruised, but I'm certainly on the mend.

Baby Checkup

All good :)
My blood pressure was a little higher than last week, but still good at 130/83. Bub's heartbeat is still sitting on 140bpm, and bubby is still sitting head down (but I could have told you that anyway!!!). Apparently there is still room for bub to grow upwards - but I beg to differ (lol)!!!

I'm feeling very sore today from sitting in one position sewing all day yesterday (will post a pic of what I made later). My hips and back are paying for it today so I'm going to spend today with my feet up! Thank the Lord for air conditioning by the way... the heat is totally sucking!

This week's funny

Thanks mum!