27 Weeks

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday. We missed being with family, but we had a great time spending it with friends in a different part of Japan. Our trip started out hilarious. We rented an 8 passenger van, yet only 3 people (husbands) could fit in it due to all the food and luggage. The girls did not hear the end of it all weekend long! Granted, we were traveling with an 18-month and 4-month old, so they required quite a bit of stuff. AND we did not go without anyone's favorite Thanksgiving dish. The girls (and baby Charlie) were able to take the train, which only took an hour and a half (opposed to 3 hours by car). The girls took a fun taxi ride to the rent house trying to communicate in horrible Japanese. We had to call in a reinforcement, so thankful for Tom the American guy that is the caretaker of the house. Once we made it to the house, the bug murdering began! There were these spider like cricket things that jumped all over the place. We found out that Emily DOES NOT like bugs and makes all kinds of funny noises when they are around. Beth was a total champ and gets the award for most bugs killed! She was not going to allow them to get on her daughter, Amanda! What a good momma! Here are a few pics of our weekend:

John and I walking to the apple orchard

Miss Amanda on the way to the apple orchard. Please note the little thing hanging from her jeans...it's a cowbell. We were told there were bears in the area, and the locals were wearing this, so we opted for Amanda to walk with it on since she made the most noise!

Beth and Emily going to work on the Turkey (great job, ladies!).

Cayce trying to entertain Charlie but not doing a great job, so Emily came to the rescue. (Please disregard the lack of make-up...yikes!)

Crazy Mike (Beth's husband and Amanda's dad) carving the turkey. Also, that cranberry sauce is amazing, and I will be making it at Christmas.

Emily and John working on the mashed potatoes!

No one is sure what I am doing, but this is just to show our food spread! I think about 3 or 4 things haven't hit the buffet yet. We had A LOT of food!

Amanda was ready to eat!

The ladies!

A friendly game of Loaded Questions while we eat dessert. This game is hilarious! If you play with my dad, however, be pre-warned that his every answer will be "shart". Love you, Daddy! :-)

Charlie in his Turkey Day bib...too cute!

Amanda and Charlie are now ready for Christmas after their 1st Thanksgiving celebration!

As you can see we had a great time! Now, we are all ready to go back to the States to spend Christmas and New Year's with family. Currently, I'm thankful that my child travels pretty light. Well, at least in the luggage department. I'm starting to feel like I have a huge rock tied to my waist. Miss Elliott (I keep calling her this even though I know there is a female rapper that does not have such a clean mouth on her with a similar name. She will be nothing like Missy Elliott, I promise!) is practicing her kickboxing skills on a pretty regular basis. She's also camped out on my bladder, which is not so fabulous! I have to get up 2-3 times a night, which I'm guessing is a preparation tool for when she arrives. We did learn from our Thanksgiving trip that we will never sleep again or have an actual vacation with kids! I know it will be worth it, but look out grandmas...we'll be recruiting you as soon as possible for a little getaway! :-)

So, I had a prenatal check up today, and all is still well! I had to do the diabetes screening where you drink this super sweet stuff and then get bloodwork done an hour later. Let's pray those results come out okay. If not, I have to go back in for a 3 hour test and drink all kinds of nasty stuff. I also got my flu shot, which I have to go back and get another one b/c I didn't get one last year. I guess they've changed the vaccine. I'm supposed to go back in 2-4 weeks, which is a problem since I'll be in the US. The nurse said I could get it when I come back. Oh, well! I was cleared to travel from my doc as well. I leave next week, December 8th! I cannot wait to see family and friends (as well as eat Mexican food and shop at Target). Please say a prayer for my flight next week. I know it will be uncomfortable, but I pray it will be less uncomfortable than I am imagining.

On that note, I will leave you with something that is very precious to us...

A 4-D pic of Elliott June! It's a little scary, but also really sweet.