Here in the Braam household, we like to have ALL of our celebrations smooshed into a fun-filled two months. Yes, all birthdays, anniversaries, and the best holidays happen at this time of year. Here's the low-down.

October 31- Halloween! (Eva's going to be a fairy/princess/angel this year. That is, if she keeps her wings on)

November 1- Nich's birthday (Happy 23 babe!) Also, Jen comes to visit!

November 2- My Mom's birthday

November 5- Not an actual celebration, but it should be...ULTRASOUND day!

November 15- 20 weeks pregnant (Halfway done my last pregnancy, woohoo)

November 20- Nich and I's 3rd Anniversary

November 22- American Thanksgiving (aka the real Thanksgiving)

December 9- Eva's 2nd birthday

December 10- My 26th birthday

December 12- Nich's Mom's birthday

December 25- Christmas

December 27- Christi's birthday

December 31- New Year's Eve. Also the day that Nich's accident drops off his truck insurance. Yes, 3 years later, my friends, and finally no more surcharge. That is cause for some major celebration.

Hey, speaking of cars, we're buying (God-willing) a brand spankin' new car this week. It's a Nissan Sentra 2.0S Luxury Edition. Why the Luxury Edition?

Why not the Luxury Edition? Its got a trip-computer with an on-dash screen, bluetooth, steering wheel controls for stereo/phone/cruise, power everything and (Nich's favourite) alloy wheels. So, we actually don't need all those things, it's just they only had the Luxury Edition on their lot, and instead of bringing in a non-luxury from another lot, they gave it to us for the same (actually better) price.

Yay!

Wanna see a picture?

That's the car, except ours is "Blueberry" colour. We should be getting it on Wednesday, maybe Tuesday. So exciting!

Eva's sick. So am I. We've been doing lots of this.



Snacking and cuddling under blankets on the couch, watching movies.

Finally starting to feel a bit better today. But not "real blog post" better. Some day soon I promise..

Every time we sit down for dinner, and when we tuck Eva in at night, we say prayers together. Just recently, Eva has taken great interest in this. And, now every time we sit down for breakfast, lunch, snack, etc. She calls out "PRAY!" and reaches out her hand for me to hold.

She's sure keeping in me in line!

And since we hold hands during our meal prayers, after I tuck her in at night, she reaches out her hand for me to hold while I say goodnight prayers.

So precious this girl of mine. She sure makes me smile.

Let's start with a classic moment caught on film. Eva is not a kissy, cuddly girl. Ever since she was a baby, she hasn't liked to be rocked, or held tight. Kissed or snuggled. Nope.

She is Miss Independent.

That's why I love this picture so much. As usual, I am showering her with snuggles and kisses. And she's not digging it.

Anyway, can I just say I LOVE BEING PREGNANT. You might want to remind me of that in a few months when I'm moaning about how hard the third trimester is. But, I have to tell you. This second trimester thing is my best friend. Starting yesterday, I've started to feel the flutters, pushes and teeny kicks. I love it. So. Much.

And, just because BiteTheRabbit requested it. Here's a belly shot. Fifteen weeks, baby. And I really don't look too different. This pregnancy is so unlike last time. I feel like I popped out fast (7 weeks!), and now everything is just trying to catch up.



Oh, and will someone please tell me to start doing my hair and makeup again? I am getting so lazy. Ponytail and lipgloss. Every Day. It's bad.

Just playing around with a new look for the bloggy blog.

I am 15 weeks pregnant today! I can't believe how fast this is going. I like to be super prepared, and I've already got a dresser drawer full of preemie/newborn size (i have small babies) yellow outfits. Last time I bought a preemie outfit, everyone told me I was nuts. But, my insticts were right, it was the only thing that fit her for the first few weeks. I had to waddle to the store to buy more teeny sleepers on my 2nd day home. It was lame. This time I plan to be prepared. I will not be leaving the house. If we start to starve, I will order in Chinese (and bonus, Eva actually eats Chinese food, can you believe it?)

Some more exciting baby prepared-ness news. Nich bought me a Phil & Teds stroller on Ebay!! Eeeeeeeeee.

It comes with the doubles seat, and was barely used by its previous owners. I'm excited to see it! It's arriving at my brother's down south next week (Thanks bro!).

So, there's really no pregnancy news. I'm feeling great. And I've started to get some more sleep! Second trimester is great like that.

I love slippers. Just ask my friend, Darin, who repaired my oversized, fluffy Moose slippers on numerous occasions back in the college years.

Now that I'm supposed to be all grown up and stuff, I have more mature, boring slippers. And, that is the best thing about having a kid. I can buy the oversized, pink fluffy princess slippers for my daughter!

She loves them. At first, she wasn't a fan, cuz they are so cushy and big, they're hard to walk in. But, then, whenever I put them on her, I called her a "Pretty Princess" and emphasized how CUTE she was, and now she's sold.

And I'm happy. Because, I can't get a hat on her head to save my life. But, at least she wears slippers.

She's so sweet. Today she said "two, three, four" which I'm sure was a complete fluke, but still incredibly cute! She also learned to Roar like a lion. And for evening entertainment, Nich and I will ask Eva what a Lion says, over and over, just to hear her "roar".

So, I think that's about it going on here. I'm going to call and make my ultrasound appointment now. Weeeeeeeeeeee.

Thanks for all your thoughts and advice. We made a decision to not go with a doula. We haven't fully decided what else to do yet, but that's a start. More news to come.

I realized that I leave a lot of my previous posts kind of unconcluded. So, here is a little update on:

-Eva's eating
-My new camera
-Tantrums
-Folding fitted sheets
-My work

Eva's eating (or lack thereof)- Well, she eats better. But, she still doesn't eat eat. Breakfast and Lunch are usually a thumbs up. Only because for those meals I give her Eva-approved foods. Such as Cereal, French Toast, Peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, or the newly added Elbow Macoroni Noodles with NOTHING on them except butter. Dinner on the other hand, we're being strict, because this picky eater business needs to get dealt with. She gets what we're eating- and most of the time, it goes untouched. Which is fine. I've decided to no longer care. I just compensate with a healthy snack later in the night.

My new camera- I still LoVe it. It still takes amazing pictures. And great video. And I still use it all the time (except not lately, because Eva's grumpiness has taken over my life). Which brings me to...

Tantrums- Ohhhh, the tantrums! Enough with the tantrums! I thought I was over being publicly embarassed by them. But today, she pulled a full-fledged, on-the-ground, kicking and screaming tantrum in the middle of the ROAD, in a PUDDLE, in the grocery store parking lot. All because I would not buy her Skittles.

Folding fitted sheets- Martha Stewart would be disappointed. I am not taking the extra 15 seconds to do it right. Because, well, as much as I would love my linen closet to look perfect, it is very far away. And, so, I give up.

My work- Show Suite cleaning is over! Boo hoo. I've been doing it once a week for a year and a half. And it's SO weird to have my Friday mornings free now. The building Nich is working on still needs suites cleaned here and there, so I do that once in awhile. But, other than that, cleaning is done.
I'm still doing the books for a couple small businesses. Which is fun because, well, spreadsheets and paperwork are a good time. For me, anyway, but I may be weird.

Ok, I think I've covered the updates. Anything I forgot?