So, where did we last leave this little family website...ah yes, contractions. Not to worry. All is back to normal. Contractions yet but not to the frequency they were last Tuesday. I must have been dehydrated or something. And I hit 30 weeks yesterday. That's a pretty big milestone for me because the chances for the baby are pretty good now. Only 7 weeks until I'm officially full term!

Since it's been almost a week, I have so much to tell you! (And record here for my baby's babybook, scrapbooking and general journal keeping. Heh.) OK, so, first - Thanksgiving. We had a lovely one. It was busy with three stops to make but that is just how it goes on some holidays. First thing in the morning Kris met up with his brother so they could run the Turkey Trot in downtown Minneapolis. It was a nice morning for a run, I hear. Annika and I had a casual morning, cuddling in bed late, getting ready together in mommy's bathroom complete with make up for both and then we meandered down to Nana and Papa's house, arriving just before Daddy and Uncle Dusty did. Great timing we had. (Oh, and about that make-up thing - Annika is hilarious and insists that she wear make up too like Mommy so after I'm done with each step I "put" some on her. I blow off the eye shadow brush and then brush her lids, I close the eyeliner and swipe her lids, I turn the powder pad over and brush her face, etc. Then she takes my deodorant and swipes her underarms and we tell each other how pretty we are.) Dinner at Nana and Papa's house was delicious. And, because I have some of the best in-laws around (and I'm not just saying that because they are reading this site right now - Hi Nana and Papa!) they made me a turkey. They had planned on having Swedish meatballs and Lutefisk but Kris told them (shame on him!) that I was disappointed that I wasn't going to get any turkey on Thanksgiving seeing as how this was our only "big" meal of the day. So they went out and purchased and prepared a turkey with dressing just for me. How sweet is that! It was very yummy too. Annika loved all the fixings and even had her first taste of Lutefisk. And she ate a bunch of meatballs along with jello and green bean casserole. What she loved most though was Nana's pumpkin pie. We cut her a small piece which she devoured and then asked for seconds. She ate almost her whole second (small) piece too! After dinner she ran around like a crazy girl, dancing with her toys in the living room, until it was time to go. Thankfully the turkey (along with the turned up heat in the truck, her pacifier and a blanket) did it's trick and she slept almost the whole way to Grandpa Dan and Marcia's house. Once there though, with a whole new audience, Annika turns on the charm and entertains us some more. There are balls to be played with and uncles to be jumped on (lucky Mathias!) and Grandpa's to be snuggled with and Annika is loving it all. We snack on yummy treats and watch some football while reading all the sales ads for the next day. Kris and I start formulating our game plan. Before we know it, it's time to pack up again and head over to Gramme's house. What? A whole new audience for Annika! She is loved all the attention and was busy the whole night loving up to Gramme. She also has to play with all the "toys" (Reba the dog's toys along with 3 wooden dolls that Gramme has). Annika stayed there overnight that night and was not concerned in the least when Kris and I got up to leave. She knew she was headed upstairs to go to bed with Gramme so she was just fine.

The next morning Kris and I got up fairly early (7:15 - not 5am like some stores were opening at!) and headed off to do some shopping. The big thing I wanted to get done that morning was toy shopping for Annika and Baby Boy. That was the one bit of shopping that I couldn't do with Annika. Kris and I headed to a bunch of different stores (Best Buy, Target, Macy's, Toys 'R Us, etc.) and got a bunch of gifts bought. I am officially all done shopping for Annika and Baby Boy! I didn't end up getting Annika that play kitchen like I had thought. I ended up finding her a bunch of smaller toys instead. I would still like to get her one but it's just not in the budget right now. I've got my eye on this one though for in the future. Kris and I both liked it when we saw it at the store this weekend. She's going to love what we got her though and I can't wait for Christmas so she can open them all!

Saturday was the big holiday decorating day for us. We set up our tree and decorated the rest of the house. One thing was confirmed (again) for me. I have way too many Christmas decorations! I may have to start going through what I have and cutting back a little. I just love Christmas decorations though! I've seen dozens and dozens of cute things in the stores this year again that I want so badly. Must.Not.Buy.Christmas.Decorations! Just a little note to myself there on that one. The house looks nice though and today I'm going to pick up our wreath and garland that we ordered from a fundraiser for the outside. I'm hoping Kris can get that put up tomorrow so the outside of the house is decorated too. Saturday night Dusty came over and we watched some movies together. Annika was so excited to see him and put on a good show. She was singing at the top of her lungs while riding her horse and playing with her toys. Dusty couldn't stop laughing at how silly she was being. After Annika went to bed that night I pulled out all the gifts we've purchased and wrapped them all. I didn't like how bare our tree looked! Now it's filled with presents under it.

We finished the long weekend yesterday by taking things easier at home. The only real excitement of the day was after church we stopped and got Annika's hair cut for the first time! Annika's always had this swath of hair on top of her head that is longer than the sides. And she has a pretty dominant cowlick so her hair naturally parts on one side of her head. It looked like the girl had a bad combover. The back was also a little uneven. I didn't want her curls cut off in back though so we compromised. We evened out the top and sides and trimmed the back. Her hair is no longer in her eyes and she still has some curls. Overall it's cute but I warned Kris that we won't be getting another hair cut for a long time. I want Annika's hair to grow and be long(ish) with no bangs and that there is going to be a weird in between stage when it's in her eyes and not long enough to tuck behind her ears. That will be the barrette stage and if she won't wear a barrette to keep her hair out of her eyes, then she (and we) are just going to have to deal with moving it out of her eyes for a while. He agreed (because I think that's how he wants her hair too). Annika was so good during her hair cut too. She sat in the big chair all by herself and looked in the mirror and watched the stylist. She was a little wide-eyed for the first part but once she figured out that this doesn't hurt at all, then she started to get fidgety at the end. She was pretty excited too with the sucker she got as we were leaving. Of course I was busy the whole time snapping pictures. I'll try to get those posted Wednesday evening.

The rest of the day was spent resting and watching football. Kris managed to tape and paint three coats in the baby's room too. We're leaving the wall color the green that it is and adding two accent strips around the room in coordinating colors. Kris got one of those stripes done yesterday but it took three coats to completely cover! I'm hoping he can do the second stripe Wednesday and then we can finally move the furniture into place and I can really get started on getting the room finished. I have clothes and blankets and little, itty bitty socks to wash and put away in dressers and artwork to hang on the walls and, well, nesting to do!