Abel party!

Fun times at the Abel Family Christmas Party again! We love getting together with our family at this time of year! The ugly sweater contest was awesome, as always, and Danny was the winner this year.. He had snowflakes, a snowman and lights! We played games, ate yummy mexican food and open gifts from Grandma and Grandpa---they are always too generous!!

baby boy's debut pictures!

........We're having a............

Well, as you know we were planning on keeping the gender of our baby a mystery. We went to our ultrasound on Thursday, Dec. 8th, and the first thing we told the doctor (Jay Thomas) was that we do not want to know what we are having, so to keep it a secret. He did a great job! He put our DVD in to record the ultrasound and started on everything. He would pause the DVD recording and tell us to "look away" if he needed to go near the gender area and was doing a great job at saying "baby" instead of He or She. But at one point he said "Uh oh, I forgot to pause your DVD on that part. Guess you can't watch it until after the baby is here, I'm so sorry!" He felt pretty bad, but we were still okay with it. We thought we'd be able to stay strong!

Baby would not cooperate!! We tried to get a good picture of the face and profile. Nope. Baby crossed the arms and hands over the face the whole time we were trying. Baby kept burrowing into my spine, so we could not get any good pictures. All the flips, kicks, and moves made it difficult for the doctor to get all the measurements he needed, but he finally did succeed with that. Baby is as healthy as can be! Every measurement was perfect and there are no concerns at all. Our due date remains sometime between April 21-April 24...we'll take anytime baby wants to come to our world healthy! Towards the end he kept having to tell us "look away" or "close your eyes" and it was even surprising the doctor how much baby was trying to show off what were are having! Baby was spread eagle most of the time---it seems THAT is the ONLY thing the baby wanted us to look at during the ultrasound! He said that at one point the baby seemed to be pointing at the crotch! He said we had one last chance to look---since it was already on our DVD anyway. Ryan looked at me during one point and mouthed: "Do you wanna find out?" with this sweet little excited look on his face that seemed to hope I was going to say Yes. He looked like he couldn't stand it anymore. So at the end when the doc said it was our last chance, we caved!! We really feel like the baby wanted us to know....because we thought we were having a girl the whole time..and he wanted to announce "I AM A BOY!!"
We decided to make it a little fun to announce our little surprise to the families! The next day I baked a cake that was blue, and covered in white frosting with yellow and green sprinkles with the words "It's A...." on the top in green. We went over to my parents' house to let Preslee cut into the cake (we didn't tell Pres or Cash either) to show everyone what we are having. Meg came over, too! (Brit couldn't *sad face* but we sent her a pic) Preslee cut the cake open and to EVERYONE'S SHOCK, the cake was BLUE!!

"IT'S A BOY! What? IT'S A BOY??!!!???"
YEP! We were shocked too! Preslee and Cash didn't really react for a while. Preslee set the knife down and looked a little upset when she said "I wanted a girl! I already have 2 brothers." but she soon warmed up to the idea of a boy and said she is happy too! Cash told us "I'm just happy for him to be healthy"....the perfect little answer. We sent pictures to Jack, too!

Next we headed over for Family Night at the Burrastons. It was at Nate and Audrey's house because we were doing Brendon's birthday. So we decided not to do cake for them--since we were at a bday party anyway! We got a little onsie that says "I'm the little brother" and wrapped it in Christmas! We told his Mom at the end of the evening that we wanted her to open the gift because it's something she would need BEFORE Christmas and we didn't want her to not be able to use it. She opened the onsie and shocked everyone that we found out!

All in all, we are excited to know that this little baby is a boy. We are happy to be able to plan, and buy, and buy some more! [Mom is too! (And not just yellow!)] So even though baby spoiled our plans at having this be a surprise, we are as happy as can be that we know. Baby Boy Burraston is on his way, and we couldn't be more excited!!

Sending love to you all!!

ULTRASOUND TOMORROW!

SO EXCITED!!!!!

20 weeks! HALF WAY!

WEEK 20: About the size of a CANTALOUPE, Baby weighs about 10.2 ounces and measures about 6.5 inches. She's still got a lot of growing to do though. Can you believe you're halfway done?

HOLY COW! Half way there! I am so happy to be at the midway point...we're that much closer to meeting this little babe. I'm happy to see that the fruit this week got significantly bigger (I think they're wrong on the Mango for week 19--unless they're talking about monster mangos!), it makes a lot more sense to me to have a belly like this with a fruit like that inside:)
Baby has been kicking like crazy the last couple of days, and I even feel like (s)he is doing flips. Sleeping is getting more and more uncomfortable [wishing I had a tempurpedic bed!] but Ryan is so good at rubbing my back for me when I'm achy. Other than usual aches and pains, though, this pregnancy has been a breeze. Our ultrasound is this week!! We get to see our little baby's sweet face and watch him/her move around! I am so excited about that. We are still holding strong that we will not be finding out the gender of Baby Burraston until [s]he is born. I feel a little more anxious about that this time around, and a little unprepared since we have nothing but a cradle and crib, but babies are fine as long as they have diapers, onsies, milk and love, right?! So this baby will be set:)

**SNOWFLAKE FUN**

Preslee's countdown chain that she made at school tells her something to do every time she rips one off. One of the days told us to make snowflakes! So...we went to town! We used up all the construction paper in the house and turned our back doors into a winter wonderland. I love that the kids get so creative with their ideas and its an instant result for the to be happy with. Our door has never looked prettier!

BLOGGER!! Grr.

I'm currently having a dislike/sorta like relationship with Blogger. I had to find a back way to be able to post anything (saving them as drafts and then publishing the draft later on) and it won't allow me to edit once I do! Grr...I wanted to add more to the Festival of Trees post! Insert the below to our Festival of Trees post as well::

SNOOPY--We loved the Snoopy Tree! It was covered from top to bottom with Snoopy dolls and had a huge display with all the Charlie Brown characters ice skating. So fun!!

The kids picked out a few of their favorite trees to get pictures by. Preslee loved the Barbie ones and the really brightly colored ones. Cash loved the cowboy ones, and the Super Hero Tree!

We had so much fun as a family that night. It is a new tradition for us, starting last year when Ryan took me there on our first date (okay, its our second date ever--but our first date was 2 years before!). He knew that I *love* Christmas trees and Christmas lights, so he took me there. It was a perfect date and we thought we should start sharing the experience with the kids.

FESTIVAL OF TREES! [2011]

In our advent countdown the kids opened up a message that said we were going to the Festival of Trees! It was the last night for the festival and it was busy as ever. The kids had fun picking out trees that they really liked, though! And the gingerbread houses were awesome! We went to Sizzler afterwards (we were all starving), which most of the festival must have done, because we had to wait for a table! :S It was so fun to go out and spend that time as a family, though! And there was only a little complaing about being tired, having to walk, being starving and begging Ryan to carry to the car.....he carried the kids instead. *wink*
I love our nights our together as a family!!

Week 19! 'Your baby's the size of a mango! At about 6.0 inches long and weighing in at about 8.5 ounces, she's getting there! Developing a protective coating over her skin, called vernix caseosa. It's greasy and white and you may see some of it at her birth. Working on her five senses. Nerve cells for her sense of taste, hearing, sight and smell are developing in her brain.

Baby is getting big.....her/his house is getting even bigger!! It seems like we went down in fruit size this week (Doesn't a sweet potato seem bigger?) But it's fun anyway. I love feeling this little mango kick and flip around in there, and I cannot wait to see that chubby little face! One week away from being half way there, and I'm getting impatient! I want this baby in our arms:)

Still no cravings in particular. Thank heavens the dirt craving that I had with my other 2 has not kicked in quite yet (hoping it never does this time, nothing worse that a craving that you can't satisfy!) Heartburn has started, but not too badly. I take a few tums and it tames it down enough. Ryan has been super sweet with me being extra emotional and moody, and has been my hero in buying me a whole bunch of clothes that fit on a day when I was feeling like a whale in anything I put on. Best husband ever. xoxo