Another Thanksgiving Celebration

We were fortunate to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year while in Saudi.  We did the traditional "stuff" on Thursday, but continued the Feast on Friday with a group of people who we love and adore and "see on a regular basis every Friday morning" (which is our Sunday's).  This Friday was our turn to host so in the pictures, you'll see a glimpse of our house.  

Everyone brought LOTS of good food and we set the house up so that everyone could eat together at one big table.  I tried making things festive, or as much as I could with what we have.  Brooks did a great job helping keep things organized and eventually had to take care of everything.  I know he was grateful for all the help from the ladies-- seeing as how after 3 contractions in less then 45 minutes, I was sent straight to our room to lay down for the remainder of the day.  

It's moments like Friday when we really appreciate the friends we've made here and realize how we're all in the same situation.  Everyone wants to be there for one another, since we are ALL away from our family and loved ones back home.  Friday was a great day of fellowship, good food, and fun times.  The kids all had a blast-- they ate on the back porch, played games in the yard, and goofed off a ton.  Gavin LOVES being with all the big kids and thinks he's just like them.  

 

 

Hope you and your family had a blessed Thanksgiving and are continuously reminded of all the many blessings we have in our lives to be thankful for!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  We celebrated our first official holiday here in Saudi and even though we weren't with family, we still enjoyed our day and made some special memories.   

Our day started with us making our traditional Saturday morning (which is now our Thursday mornings) Puff Balls.  Brooks and I have a long standing joke about how things can never be easy for us-- and making Puff Balls was no exception.  We didn't have enough of the oil we needed to use our fryer so we had to make them in a pot on the stove.  Apparently, the oil got way too hot so our first batch burnt, bad. But, we persevered, made a few changes and started over.  We had a very successful 2nd attempt at the Puff Balls and they were delicious!  

Brooks was busy Thanksgiving morning making his grandmother's homemade rolls, so we set up Gavin's jumper for him to have some fun!!  He LOVES this jumpy house!!!  Thanks Captain and Kimmie!

For our Thanksgiving meal, we went to our neighbor's house and celebrated with a big feast!  There were lots of kids there so Gavin got to play and goof off.  He had a blast!  He even got to eat at the big kid table, all by himself!  After working for two days on his grandmother's rolls-- they turned out delicious!  Brooks was so excited and I was so proud of him.  I think they were a big hit at dinner, too.  After dinner, all the guys watched Avatar and the ladies hung out talking outside.  We ate lots of food and were pretty stuffed after dinner.  Brooks was exhausted and needed to relax a little. It was a great day of celebrating things we're thankful for.  

MANicure

I wanted to brag on my hubby since this is Thanksgiving week and I'm so thankful for having him in my life-- for many reasons, not just this one!!!

We moved to Saudi in August.

In September, I clipped and painted my own toe nails.

I haven't touched them since thanks to my growing belly, which has made it more difficult to bend down and stay down for long periods of time.  They were pretty bad.  I'm not ashamed to admit it-- I've never really been one to care about my nails.  However, my sweet husband finally realized how bad my toe nails were and he offered to give me a MANicure-- or pedicure I should say.  He clipped my toe nails AND painted them. I'm thinking he did a pretty good job!  Thanks babe for helping to make me feel pretty!!

Labor Signs and Setting up the Nursery

Guess what?!?!

My body has been showing signs of "preterm" labor. 

It's so hard for me to even call it preterm labor when I'm this far along, but I understand that Miles is NOT full term yet and we'd like to keep it that way.  Brooks and I have had a few eventful, late nights with me having contractions (think every 20 minutes, for 5 hours, and with a pain that I'd rate a 2).  We've been concerned that I could go into labor and we're doing our best to pay attention to my body so we're getting things ready and taking precautions.    

We went to my doctors appointment yesterday (Monday) and it went well.  I'm not dilating any, which was a HUGE relief.  However, doctors here don't stop labor once a woman is passed 34 weeks.  I will be 34 weeks on Thursday.  My doctor didn't see the need to give me the injection that can stop contractions, prescribe medication (which I took while on bed rest with Gavin), nor did he feel it was necessary to get the steroid shot to support Mile's lung development.  Now, don't get me wrong, you might be reading that and thinking.... seriously?!?  That's horrible.  However, Brooks and I are comforted with the fact that my body has made it this far along.  I'm officially "taking it easy", not lifting Gavin or other things, laying down at least several hours during the day (when I can), and I'm going on "pelvic rest", which I've semi- already been doing.  When I was pregnant with Gavin, our goal was to make it to 36 weeks-- we were comforted by that, hopeful that was far along for him, and so we're praying and believing my body will make it 2 more weeks.  We'd love to make it even longer, but that is our goal right now!!  Please be praying that my body can handle Miles for 2 more weeks and that we don't have any more "eventful" nights.    

I told you in my last post that we started getting things ready for Miles to be welcomed into the world.  Here are some pictures of us doing just that.  It's fun to see the crib set up again, even though it hasn't been that long since we had it up.  I asked Gavin if that was his bed and he told me no.  Hmmm--- could it be possible that he already forgot he use to sleep in a crib?  Gavin was so excited to help Brooks and I set up Miles crib and he keeps walking into the room saying, "Miles night night".  It's fun to watch him make the connection that baby Miles is coming!  

 

 

 

32 weeks belly, 33 weeks pregnant

I'm happy to say that we've made it past 32 weeks!  Not that there was anything making us think we wouldn't make it to this point, however, 32 weeks was a HUGE milestone for us while pregnant with Gavin and for some reason, I felt like we made an accomplishment getting here with Miles.  This pregnancy has been great thus far with Miles!  Besides me feeling huge and tired often (thanks to a cute, fun, active 2 year old) I have NO complaints!!!  I'm enjoying being mobile and am thankful that my body has kept up this long!!

It's really starting to sink in that in less then 7 weeks (yes, you read that correctly) we will be meeting our baby boy!  It's odd to think about what life will be like having another baby around, our family growing to 4 people, and it won't just be us and Gavin anymore.  Brooks and I are soaking up this time with Gavin and we're having a lot of fun with him.  We've been praying over him the last few weeks that he will be prepared to welcome a new addition to our family, that he will love and adore Miles, not be jealous of him, and basically accept him!!  I'm anxious to see how Gavin will handle Miles being here, but I'm sure just like with every other new situation, Gavin will amaze us!!

I keep telling Brooks how this pregnancy has been so different, mentally, and I guess it's from being distracted with Gavin, or there's not that "new- ness" of the first pregnancy.  Normally, by now we would have been overly prepared to welcome our baby, and this go around, hmmm... let's see here--- we don't have a crib set up, the pack and play, car seat, and bottles, are still packed up in the top of a closet from when we first got here... OOPS--- I wrote this post a few days ago and last night Brooks and Gavin set up Miles crib, we took down any and all necessities and I've actually started packing a hospital bag!  I can say that a few weeks ago I washed and folded all of the baby clothes we had for Gavin and then Brooks put together a dresser for Miles room, so at least that is done.  I don't know, for whatever reason, we just haven't been in a hurry.  However, all of that has changed after last week.  We came home from our Bahrain trip and I spent several hours experiencing some intense pain (normally, I would have used the word severe to describe the pain, but since I've experienced labor before and was trying to compare this pain to that pain, I don't feel that word is sufficient).  Anyways, I basically thought I was going into labor, I kept trying to time the pain to see how long the contractions were lasting and how far apart they were from one another, but the pain never stopped and started- it was just constant.  I started feeling nauseated and weak, which worried me that my body was getting "ready", so I decided to do the only thing I knew--- I went to bed!!  HAHA I figured, well, if the pain doesn't stop and it gets worse, it will wake me up in the middle of the night and then we'll have to do something!  hmmm-- probably not the best idea, but I woke up the next morning around 8am feeling just fine.

That evening has prompted Brooks and I to get on the ball regarding some logistics for us if I was to go into labor.  First things first, we can't drive here, nor do we have our own vehicle, there fore anytime we need to go somewhere, we have to call the transportation hot line, wait 15-30 minutes for a vehicle to come pick us up and then take us where we need to go.  Yea, that's not going to work for me if I'm in labor!!  So, we're coordinating with our transportation and our head of security (CIA representative) on setting up some kind of system where there is a driver/vehicle near by at all times, one at Brooks' plant for easy access for him so someone can get to us and get to us fast!  The other thing we have to coordinate is where Gavin will go, who he will go with, based on when I was to go into labor.  We have several friends here who have graciously offered to keep Gavin for us, however 2 out of the 3 will be going on vacations in between now and Mile's birth.  Plus, did I mention MY PARENTS ARE COMING TO SAUDI TO VISIT AND BE HERE FOR MILES BIRTH!!!  We're hoping and praying that Miles hasn't come before they get here, but still, they will be here for Christmas and we're super excited about that!!!  There are other logistics and scenarios we're working through in order to get us to the hospital, which is over an hour away, as fast as we can!!  We're just praying for God's favor in this situation and that EVERYTHING works out accordingly-- besides I've learned my lesson before I'm not in control!!

I have a doctor's appointment today, which is a really good thing and I'll explain why later once we can get in touch with our parents first, so I'm hoping to come home with an ultrasound picture of Miles and some hopeful news!  Stay tuned!

Party and a Cake

One of our neighbors turned 40 this past week and his wife threw him a big 40th party bash to celebrate!

We've been friends with the Richter's before we got here-- Brooks and Shannon went to China together back in January for work and Rhonda is a cake decorator and Twilight fan-- needless to say we have a few things in common.  Life over here has been busy for everyone, so Rhonda found herself not having a lot of time to make a big cake for her hubby's party so she asked me if I would make something.  Shannon LOVES to fish and goes out to our beach everyday when he gets off of work to have some man time-- fishing!  Rhonda found a few images online of cakes that she liked and here is what the end result was.  I had to seek help from a talented and capable engineer who has a background in art to create the fish head and tail.  I'm not good at sculpting and having to consider angles and proportions and all those things... Brooks was a huge help-- he designed the fish, sculpted the fish, decorated the fish, and painted the fish!!  There is no way I could have done that without him.  Thanks babe for your help!  Just to give you an idea of how "into" making the fish Brooks was--- I had given him several pictures of this cake idea, all of which he explained to me how and why the physics of the fish's position in the cake was incorrect and how a fish's body doesn't move in certain ways.  Needless to say, he was very particular and adamant about the location of the fish's tail based on the position that the head was in.  None of that mattered to me, but I REALLY am grateful that he wouldn't let me make an incorrect cake!   It makes me happy to see his willingness and desire, cake after cake, to  help me and be apart of my hobby!!!  This cake was all chocolate with an oreo filling-- Shannon's favorites!!  

 

 

Enough about the cake.. the party was a blast!!  There were a lot of fun people there and we shared some great laughs!  When people turn 40 they sure do get some "interesting" gifts.  They were pretty funny and the best part about them was they were random and from Saudi.  One of Shannon's gifts, a motorized Camel that sings, got a lot of use.... Gavin took a major liking to it and played with it a majority of the evening.  I don't think Shannon saw it after he opened it.  This party made me miss home-- there was gumbo and etoufee'- yummy!!  We got to visit with great friends and made some fun memories.  There were tons of kids there for Gavin to play with so he was very entertained.  The guys hung out while the girls chit chatted.  One more memory to keep with us from Saudi!!  Did I mention they asked everyone to come wearing black!  We all dressed up for the most part and felt like we should have been taking a family portrait!!  Happy 40th Birthday Shannon!!

   

 

A sneak peek....

We took a mini vacation this past weekend for three days and went to Bahrain to get away.  Eid is being celebrated right now, which is a huge holiday here so we took advantage of "the freedoms" in Bahrain and went to restaurants, shopped, and had some family fun time.  I don't have much time to blog right now, but I wanted to give a little sneak peak of what the three of us got to enjoy on our "vacation". I promise more pictures to come!!  

I wanted bacon.. enough said!  

Gavin had a ball at the indoor water park we went to.  Just wait until you see what all he got to do!

Even Brooks got to have some fun on a few of the rides.

Latest Cake

Brooks and I have met a sweet, young couple through some mutual friends who live here (they are from the states and both teach at the International school all of our kids go to) and the wife is having a baby   boy who is due a week after I am.  We've had many opportunities to hang out with this couple and have enjoyed getting to know them.  The school was throwing her a baby shower so I was asked to make a cake for it.  The baby's room has a car's theme, hence the car on the cake.  The colors go along with the bedding and the saying was requested by the ladies throwing the shower.  It turned out cute and I was told was a big hit.  

It's Never too Early, Right?!?!?!

This weekend we decided to put up our Christmas decorations and start celebrating a little early.  Brooks and I love the Christmas Season and since we won't be around normal "festivities" in town and seeing all the "hoopla" at stores, we thought we'd surround ourselves in our home with red and green!!    Several of our friends started putting their decorations up since they will be gone during the month of December (they wanted to enjoy them while they could) so we got inspired!!  We figured, if Miles was to come early, then our Christmas stuff would already be out and ready!!  We were so excited to put our decorations up... we turned on Christmas music, put the movie Home Alone on, and searched for our Christmas containers.  One problem-- only one container got here.  Not because the others were taken, but I messed up.  Somehow, I only had 1 box put in our sea shipment, which just so happened to have all of our Christmas tree ornaments and decor.  Thankfully, our Christmas tree made it though (some friends of ours got taken) so we had what we needed to make it all pretty.  I'm a little sad though-- we don't have stockings, a tree topper, or any other Christmas decorations to display around the house.    

Gavin loved helping mommy and daddy set up the tree.  He was a HUGE helper-- bringing us ornaments, stringing the lights, and even attempted to hang some ornaments.  The tree turned out cute, even the little angel ornament we put on top to "make" a tree topper. We're talking about making a trip to Bahrain where I'm hoping to find some more Christmas decorations to put around the house.  I've gone to a few Bizarre's, which are market style shopping trips with vendors and some of them are selling Christmas decorations- I've bought a few things, but not a lot.  If we can't find other decorations, that's okay... we'll make due... besides Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, not all the "red and green"  everywhere.   However, we are grateful to have a little bit of home with us and we've enjoyed sitting in the living room at night, with all the lights off, staring at our lit tree.  Gavin has continued with his tradition from last year and always acknowledging the tree by saying, "oooohhhhhh!"
It's also feeling a little like Christmas around here for us with the weather.  It's actually been in the 70's lately and we've had a cool breeze.  The other day we had breakfast outside on the back porch and we were all in sweatshirts and pants.  Now, all we need is to find some candy canes, peppermint mocha creamer, and maybe a Christmas tree farm for us to cut down our annual Christmas tree?!?!  Hey, a girl can wish can't she!??!

Trick or Treat--- Saudi Style

This past Sunday, I didn't know it was Halloween.  Gavin and I stayed home all day in our pajama's and did NOTHING!!  Brooks came home from work early, sick, running a high fever and went straight to bed.  I forgot to take out the chicken to thaw out to make dinner and I'm pretty sure Gavin and I ate breakfast and lunch sitting on the couch watching Disney movies.  

When Gavin went down for his afternoon nap, so did I--- I mean, whatelse was I going to do?  Then, within 10 minutes of him waking up and him wearing underwear ONLY, our doorbell rang.  There were 4 kids standing in costumes saying Trick or Treat.  Woooppps...

I immediately grabbed Gavin's Buzz Lightyear costume, threw it on him, brushed his hair, brushed my teeth, exchanged my slippers for flip flops, grabbed a "stay cool bag" from our laundry closet for Gavin to use as his trick or treat pumpkin (didn't have anything for him to use and I forgot about that necessity) and we ran out the door.  I think I told Brooks we were leaving, not sure though.

Needless to say.... Gavin was able to trick or treat-- Saudi style and had a lot of fun.  All of our neighbors have young kids who Gavin adores and after a few minutes of looking them up and down and trying to decide if he wanted to be a part of all the madness, he was game once one of the moms gave him candy!!  He was all about it from that moment on.  Gavin had a blast, walked from villa to villa and attempted to say Trick or Treat.  He was able to tell the people thank you.  I think his favorite part of the night were the houses that left a light on and put a bowl of candy on the back porch.  After the 3rd villa like that, he realized he could grab more then one piece of candy-- how clever is that and he's only 2?!?! I'm glad that I had us go because for a few minutes during the spur of the moment realization that it was Halloween, I actually considered us just staying home.  We made some more memories and were sad that Brooks didn't get to join us, but I took lots of pictures for him!!