fun with [con]fractions!

 Thanks for the calls and emails of those who are checking in on us.  I haven't updated in a few days because (thankfully!) there isn't much news to report.  #4 is still cooking - and still nameless.  I'm 33 weeks now and had a negative fibronectin test Thursday, which means it's very likely I'll still be pregnant for at least the next 2 weeks.  Amazing to me, considering I was told at 30 weeks that I could deliver within 48 hours.  Thank God, and thank you all for the prayers. 

In the meantime, I keep having contractions, usually about every 10-15 minutes.  I think we're all sick of the word contraction around here.  We've even made up different words for them.  Kellen calls them "confractions" - a name he devised (not surprisingly) while we were doing math one day.  Elliott calls them "tractions," as in, when I can't do something she's asked me to do, "Mommy, you need to stop you tractions?"  "You tractions", not "your." And she asks in the sweetest little concerned voice.  Heartbreaking. 

So my tree isn't up like apparently everyone else's in the whole wide world, and we may put up only one this year instead of three like we usually do, but I'm still here and #4 is staying put.  We have even more to be thankful for this year than usual!

day after thanksgiving

we have a tradition in our house: on the day after thanksgiving we always get up really early and go shopping. my mom and her dad have been going every year for as long as i can remember, and i started going along when i was 5. (wyatt isn't a morning person, and doesn't like to go when we do. usually he and dad come and meet us later in the morning). this year, me and mom and pepaw left our house at 5:50 to go to the mall (you can almost see the time on the clock in the picture). we bought a few things, but the shopping part is not really why we go - it's just a tradition!

you'd think i'd be too tired to do anything else that day, but we went down to market square that afternoon to the tree lighting ceremony. our uncle eric and aunt ali came too, and brought gavin and nolen with them. gavin had fun playing with us in krutch park.
there was a fireworks ceremony and the lights came on everywhere downtown - there were SOOO many. it was really neat.
we also made candles that smell really good.
i put a bunch of different scents in mine - my favorite was cookie dough.

we got to hear a few christmas stories...

and make christmas cookies with mrs. claus!

it was a really fun evening, and the perfect way to end a really big day!

~kellen

Thanksgiving (finally)

we went to our mamaw and papaw's (daddy's mom and dad's) house for thanksgiving. we had a lot of fun, and there were a LOT of people there. our grammy and pepaw (mommy's mom and dad) were there, and so were mamaw and papaw camper, mamaw ball, uncle john and aunt gina, uncle ronnie and aunt billie, uncle eric and aunt ali, and a bunch of daddy's cousins. we had a full house!

there were tables full of people in the kitchen!

mamaw camper (daddy's dad's mom) and mamaw ball (daddy's mom's mom) couldn't even fit in the kitchen. they ate in one of the family rooms on tv trays!!

it was just the kind of big family holiday that thanksgiving should be!

~wyatt