It has been pretty quiet around here the last week or so….not too much new to report. We are all feeling better and hoping to stay healthy for awhile now. I had my first sinus infection ever this last week and I am hoping it is my last…it was terrible. I thought the left side of my face was going to explode, but after a few days of antibiotics, I am feeling much better. I had my 29 week baby checkup today and everything was good. I had to do my 1-hour glucose tolerance test to screen for gestational diabetes, but there was nothing too it. It seems the baby is positioned head-down which is great and I will now be going to appointments every 2 weeks….boy has time gone fast!

Potty training is still moving full steam ahead and other than at night, Anya is trained. We might have problems getting her to stay dry at night….she usually sleeps for at least 10 hours at night….even I can’t hold it that long! But, we are definitely glad it is going so well and also happy to have that crossed off our list of “to-do’s”!

We had been doing a pretty good job of avoiding all the cold/cough/crud that seems to be going around until this weekend…and now we have all 3 been hit! Jason developed the stomach flu, I have a miserable head cold and Anya has a head cold and a double ear infection…..YIKES! However, Jason recovered pretty much in 24 hours and you would never know Anya is sick by the way she rounds around like a wild animal and is as silly as ever. So, at least we are on the mend quickly. Hopefully by the weekend we will all be 100% again!

This last weekend we were up in Forest City for Noah’s 5th birthday. Zachary and Noah also had a wrestling match on Sunday that we went to, so it was double the excitement. Both boys did a great job wrestling and it was a lot of fun watching them. Here are a few pictures of the wrestling excitement.

This weekend we didn’t have any out of town plans and or other commitments to keep us busy, so we used the days to get some honey-do jobs done around the house. Our biggest accomplishment was our new stuffed animal storage unit. I had recently been noticing that our house has been over taken with stuffed animals and such, so I began doing some research on the internet for the best way to store these toys that would get them up off the floor but still keep them accessible so Anya could play with them when she wanted to. I had originally thought about using a “pet net”, but didn’t really like that option because it kept everything too high up to easily get too. Eventually I ran across something called The Toy Tree and I thought it was a great concept–so I showed it to Jason and we decided he could build me one that was even better. So, after a few hours of work (Jason in the garage with his saw and Anya and I in the house rounding up all her animals), we had ourselves our own toy tree. It works great and looks great in her room—take a look at it here! Also, in Anya’s room we finally got her curtain rod hung and her curtains up…it looks so cute!

Jason also worked hard installing new shelving in our storage room downstairs to give us some more much needed storage space. While he was doing that Anya was helping me clean out the bedroom that is going to be the nursery. We got a lot accomplished and the room is mostly cleared out. Our next step is to get it painted and then it will be smooth sailing from there on.

Our last project of the weekend was getting Anya’s new table put together that she got for Christmas from Papa Jim & G’ma Barb. Again, she was a big help with the assembly and thought she was quite important when we said it was table just for her!

Other than these little projects, we watched ALOT of football, made homemade cinnamon rolls, went to church, did laundry and just hung out and had fun as a family. It was a great couple of days! Here are a few more pictures of our weekend accomplishments.

Today was Anya’s first full day without wearing a pull-up at all….and she managed to stay dry the whole day! She has been staying mostly dry for quite a few weeks now, but I was still nervous to take the plunge and send her out and about with only undies on…but her great teachers at daycare suggested that they thought she was ready, so we tried it. I am anxious to see how this weekend goes and hope she can continue to do so well going potty. Jason & I are so proud of her and you can tell she really thinks she is a big girl when she sits on the potty….I just can’t believe she is big enough to be potty trained. Where did my baby go? She is still wet in the mornings when she wakes up, so I guess that will be out next hurdle to get over before we get another one in diapers come April!

Speaking of the baby, I had my 25 week appointment this morning and all is well with the punk(in). We got the great news that everything they saw on the ultrasound looked great. My measurements are all right on track and I have gained 12 pounds to this point in the pregnancy. I am starting to “feel” a little more pregnant lately being slightly less agile than normal and short of breath after going up the stairs too quickly, but for the most part I still feel great. The little aches and pains are soon forgotten when I feel the punk tossin’ and turnin’ in there…makes me smile every time!

Well, our 2007 Christmas celebrations are finally over and we had another great weekend celebrating with Jason’s family. We headed down to Winfield Friday night and had Christmas with Jason’s parents and sister, Joni. Anya again got more toys than she knows what to do with and even an indoor tent–which we all took our turn playing in with her! Saturday night Jeryl had the whole McArtor bunch over for supper and it was fun seeing all Jason’s aunts and uncles and cousins. Anya had a great time running around with Allie and loved all the attention she got for the older cousins! Today we headed to Washington to have Christmas with the Millers at Jason’s grandma’s house. It was another fun day of hanging out with family and watching Anya run around with the big kids. She was one tuckered out little girl–she fell asleep on the way home and went straight to bed when we got home. I think we are all looking forward to a good nights sleep!

Here are more Christmas pictures from our weekend down south.

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope that everyone said goodbye to a good 2007 and is excited for an even better 2008. We definitely had a fun year–most of the entertainment provided by Miss Anya. She really turned into quite the little girl this year and it has been so fun to watch her grow a little more independent each day. We can only imagine what she has in store for us in 08′!

To celebrate the New Year, we had a few people over….Chad & Jodi, Ben & Jacquie and Brad, Steph & Jaxson. It was a really fun night filled with lots of eating, catching up for the girls and Wii play for the boys. Anya tried her hardest to ring in the new year, but finally cashed out at 11:45pm–whew!

Here are a few pictures of our fun. I hope everyone had a great New Years and HAPPY 2008!