The Case of the Missing Monitor

Chris has been watching The First 48.  It's a reality show on A&E that follows detectives for 48 hours after a serious crime has been committed. The odds of finding who did it dramatically drops after 48 hours.  

I started thinking about that show when Chris and I noticed that Caroline's monitor was missing Christmas night.

Fact #1: Christmas morning Chris picked the monitor up to watch for Caroline to get up so we could video her looking at Santa presents.

Fact #2: He left the monitor on his side of the bed until around 3pm when the battery started to die when he promptly put it back on the base on my side.

Fact #3: Christmas night the monitor turned up missing with the base laying on the floor! 

Both Chris and I were out of it all day so we tried to retrace steps, pulled the bed apart, looked in really obscure parts of our house- thinking we were crazy. 

The reason I was  nervous not having the monitor was Caroline had woken up two nights in a row with bad dreams.  She has been dealing with scary monkeys in her room & her daddy has been having to go into her room and De-monkey it late at night. So Thursday night we slept on the couch just incase she woke up- ridiculous I know.

    Friday when I was feeling better I cleaned the whole house from top to bottom.  Chris got a new trash can for Christmas {I know..... being an adult is fun!} So I threw the old trash can away with the bag and all right into the dumpster.  Still no monitor..... I couldn't believe we lost such an expensive item.  Late Friday night we were sitting on the couch and I suddenly realized I had a tissue bag trash sack hanging off my night stand on Christmas day that I filled up and threw away in the old kitchen trash can.  Chris and I rushed out to the freezing cold alley where- thank goodness- the old trash can was on top of all the Christmas trash.  Inside we found my Kleenex trash sack and the monitor was inside!!! We felt like we had won something huge and celebrated right there in the alley! 

So we solved the crime within the first 48 hours and disinfected the monitor! I was so happy!!!

Here is a picture from tonight-

 Chris was brushing up on his swaddling skills for baby Ali. Caroline was a willing participate and requested to be placed on the couch in her new snuggle blanket.  Thanks Aunt Kelley for the blanket! 

Week 35

I'm wearing one of my new shirts from Jacee!

35 weeks! Around 18 in &  5 lb.  {Honeydew Melon}

Heartbeat at Last Appointment: 157

Gender:  Sweet Little Girl

Names:  Ali Noel Prather

Symptoms: I have had tons of Braxton Hicks contractions and I'm moving a little slower then normal. I had to go to Labor and Delivery on Christmas Eve morning {nothing serious} just to check out baby and make sure she was ok after all the sickness.  She was great- I got to see Ali's little hiccups and lots of movement.  UMC was not busy so I was able to peak in and see the new Family Birthing Center.  I left with a bronchitis and flu diagnosis..... Boo! This was not the time I wanted to be passing tests!

Best Moments of the Week: Christmas was different this year.  Mainly because Chris and I were laid up in bed Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  We were out of commission for almost 3 days.  Thank goodness for Nana and Papaw taking great care of Caroline.

On Friday we were both finally feeling better.   

 Caroline and I put together her new book shelf and got a chance to play with all her new toys. 

On Saturday we got to see Lolly & Granddad. Usually we make the trip to see them on Christmas day but I was banned from traveling so we made plans for them to come up later.

For Christmas my parents brought firewood.  Caroline backed her truck up and helped haul a few loads.   

 Aunt Dacee bought Caroline a Doc McStuffins Doctor's kit. 

 Giving Lolly a shot- then she used the pretend scissors to give her a hair cut.

Lolly and Granddad gave her a huge box of legos.  This has made for a very tall tower!

Look at the concentration..... She has that tongue out to help her place that last block on. She also puts her tongue out when she rides her bike, colors with markers and breaks eggs when we are baking..... Pure concentration!

Merry Christmas

Despite her parent's being sick Caroline managed to have a great Christmas! Santa came early this morning and brought her a purple truck and a Disney princess suitcase.  At first she wasn't sure if the truck was for her.  Her daddy had to convince her to sit in it then we couldn't get her out of it.  She opened all her presents in the truck. 

The Falco family sent her Minnie Mouse ears from their visit to Disney.   She wore them around proudly and even had her daddy wearing them.

The Hendricks gave Caroline an art easel and she immediately created 2 master pieces. After opening all her presents she watched Sleeping Beauty from her truck -drive in movie style. Nana and Papaw were amazing and took Caroline for the afternoon while Chris and I rested. Being sick on Christmas is not recommended!

 After a good long nap Chris and I took her out to an empty parking lot were she did donuts.

Christmas through her eyes was magical.

Week 34

34 weeks! Around 17.75 in &  4.5 lb.  {cantaloupe}

Heartbeat at Last Appointment: 155

Gender:  Sweet Little Girl

Names:  Ali Noel Prather

Caroline got to go to my appointment yesterday and did great! We downloaded 4 new Daniel Tiger episodes on the IPad so she would have something to do.  Daniel Tiger is one of her favorite shows and Daniel Tiger's mom just had a new baby. (Good timing! and Daniel Tiger covers all good topics about bringing home a new baby!)

Making herself comfortable in the waiting room. 

We got to hear the baby's heartbeat and Dr. Phillips went over the growth scan results.  Ali is measuring in the 48% in weight and all the results looked great!

After my doctor's appointment we went to Cowboy Chicken- Caroline's new favorite restaurant.  

Maternity Clothes: Yes! 2 weeks of casual jeans and yoga pants is great.

Sleep: Not great- I have to wake up every few hours. 

Movement: Lots of movement 

Food Cravings/aversions:  Gingerbread Cookies!
Today we read The Gingerbread Man.  One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making gingerbread cookies.  Aunt Jacee came over to help decorate. My mom's gingerbread recipe is the best!

Caroline and Jacee picked out the cookie cutters.  Not only was there regular cutters like a snowman, candy cane and a Christmas tree but Caroline picked out an elephant and Jacee picked out the state of Texas.

Caroline LOVES the sprinkles

Jacee's pan VS Caroline's Pan

Tea party

"More tea please"

Caroline showed Jacee how she can change diapers

Caroline's new favorite game she calls "tumble".

How to play tumble:

 1. Caroline hides under pillows on the couch

2. She pops up to scare her daddy

3. He pretends to be scared 

4. He rolls her over the couch onto a pallet

5.  She laughs uncontrollably

6. She helps him up

7. Repeat 1-6 -20X

Christmas Break

We officially started Christmas break at 1:00pm on Friday. We have 2 weeks of playing and hanging out. Friday after school we brought daddy a tea at work and Caroline helped him staple post-it notes. 

Friday Night we went to look at Christmas lights.  We were going to wear PJs to go look at lights but Caroline wanted to wear her HSU sweatshirt so she could be in her words "cozie".  Daddy brought us a hot chocolates and we drove around the neighborhood looking at all the great displays.

It was just magical to her!  Everything was "look over there daddy!!" "Mommy a reindeer! I LOVE REINDEER his name is Sven!!" She is really big into giving everyone and every animal a name.  So as we were driving around she was naming all the animals.  She kept saying she didn't want to see a tiger.... I'm not sure why she thinks a tiger belongs in Christmas.

Sunday school project this week

Speaking of naming weird random things: We have been reading through the Christmas story every morning.  Caroline really wanted to know what the wise men names were.  So I asked her what she thought there names were:  She told me their names were Pickle, Scar and Jake.  

She has really gotten into wrapping Christmas presents. We spend Saturday morning wrapping the rest of our Christmas presents.  I let her use the extra paper and wrap her daddy's present all on her own. 

Also on Saturday morning we had her Mid-season show case at Little Gym.

Dondi sent this picture Saturday morning. Little Jaden being raised right! 

Olaf pancakes for dinner.

Lolly came for a quick visit Sunday afternoon

Snuggling before bed.