23 weeks 3 days

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with family and friends and got plenty of turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy! We had a WONDERFUL time at the coast! Our house was a little (and I mean LITTLE!) cottage with ocean views. Jensen loved it - especially because she got to sleep with Mommy while Daddy was sent to the couch - and the dogs were in heaven with so many walks and all the fresh air. It took us a bit to get there - the roads are very icy when it's 17 degrees. But we made it and had a great time.

Jensen had a great time and was able to make sand castles on the beach on Thanksgiving day. She says it was her favorite part :) We did some shopping and went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory but mostly we just hung out as a family. Jensen and Marc enjoyed the hot tub a number of times (and Mommy enjoyed quiet reading time) and we all watched movies, ate too much, and rested. Yay for holidays!

Harper is getting bigger every day (now and ear of corn and 1.5 lbs). Thank goodness I can calculate that into my total weight gain. This holiday week sure did sneak up on me. I guess it's back to soups and salads until Christmas! Ha ha! Oh well - it was worth it. Bruce's candy shop is amazing! If I can't have wine -chocolate will have to do. So she's moving and grooving all over the place. Jensen has started talking to her and I think within the next couple of weeks Marc and Jensen should be able to feel her. We'll see but right now I've felt her a couple of times from the outside. She's a strong little one - just like her big sister.

As you can guess Christmas has exploded here at the Goodell house. We got our two (yes TWO!) Christmas trees on Saturday when we got home. A word to the wise...when you see a tree growing in the tree farm and say "It's kind of full but I'm sure it will be fine" do NOT believe yourself. It is FULL and FULL and FULLER! OMG! The tree in our bonus room is HUGE...I put on the EIGHT strands of lights I used last year on our tree up there and it only got the first third. There are close to 1400 freaking lights on the damn thing. I blew fuses, had a few breakdowns, and multiple trips to Target but it now looks great. Good thing we're having a house full of people this Christmas or else I think I would have given up! Jensen loves it - she got to help decorate it and since it's the family tree she got to do what she wanted. We have some very overloaded branches and interesting ornament placement so it's very unique! We also put lights up outside for the first time and that was the coolest thing ever to a 2.5 year old. Plus she can see them from her bedroom window which is the cat's meow apparently.

Needless to say, with our very busy schedules for December I will do my best to keep you all updated. I have an OB appointment on Friday to see how Harper is doing and will update after that. We're going on the Polar Express on Saturday night in Hood River and cannot wait! It's going to be so fun...we watched the movie as a family last Friday and Jensen loved it. She was very worried about the choo choo the entire time. She's LOVING Christmas and is going to be so fun this year. I can't wait!

Until next time...here's what I am starting to look like. I can't believe I'm going to get bigger! LOL