Day 34 - 30 wks, 2 day - Time sure does fly when your on bed rest...

**Long post alert***

Some days seem to drag...but others just fly, and the last 3 or 4 have just FLOWN by!!!  First, I can't believe I am 30 weeks!!! I think I skipped over Monday all together because it did not dawn on me that I was 30 weeks until I started this post.  Since Monday morning, this house has been Christmas Central for the Coates/Grant family.  Joey, Liam, and Papa went to the farm Saturday evening so my Mom came over and stayed with me for the weekend.  My Mom loves to bake and during the holiday season she turns into Betty Crocker on steroids normally making 6-7 different kinds of cookies as well as breads and pies.  It's crazy but she LOVES doing it!!!  My plan this year was to be a part of the cookie part so I could learn all her secrets.  Instead, I got to stay on the couch and listen to her bake and smell the yummy goodness as the smell of Christmas cookies filled my house =)

One of my favorite cookie traditions is cookie painting.  We have been doing it as long as I can remember, and I learned that the cookie recipe was actually my Grandma Grant's =)  It's pretty much just a plain, not too sweet, sugar cookie that once cooled gets painted with colored powdered sugar frosting.  My Mom says that she used to make these when my Dad was in dental school. She, my Dad and my uncles would paint them then and on Monday we passed the tradition onto Liam =)  He and Joey got home in time for Liam to help Mimimi (my Mom) make the cookies and then he got to paint them.

Helping Mimimi make the icing...
of course it has to be blue =)

Mommie paining and Liam tracing his hand with the icing...lol

...Notice what color he is using???  All his cookies

were blue, "Boo, like my eyes." as he calls it =)

Liam's first painted Christmas cookies: he did the blue bell

and blue tree.  He and Mommy did the snowman

and small tree together.

Just the start of the Christmas cookie craze!
There used to be more of the jelly filled ones...but...
um...someone ate them ;-)

The newest addition to the cooking line-up, Almond Biscotties =)



Monday evening, Liam went to spend the night with Mimimi and Joey and I wrapped Liam's gifts =)  I have not been able to be a part of the majority of the Christmas shopping this year, so it was nice that I was able to be a part of it even if it was only the wrapping.  I didn't last that long though...Cortlandt really is low because I started to feel pressure just from sitting after wrapping 6 or 7 gifts...so I went back to the couch and left the rest of the wrapping for Joey.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a crazy day...well for Joey that it.  He was off and decided that he would put Liam's new bed together.  Well that then led to doing everything else that needed to be done in Liam's room and then it carried over into the stuff that needed to be done for the guest room.  Needless to say, Joey worked from like 10:00 am to around 7:30 pm.  He was crazy determined to get all of it done and man does it look good!!!

Joey's Dad made this for Liam's first room.
The airplanes are actually an extra bumper that
matched Liam's crib bedding.

The bed is from Papa and Nana for Christmas

My Mom found a full sized quilt/sheet set that matched Liam's old crib bedding =)  Liam LOVES airplanes and I was so happy to that she
found the set since PB Kids does not make it anymore.

This desk used to be in Joey's old room when he was a kiddo.

Joey made these airplanes when he was a kid.  They used to hang in his bedroom.  A fun tradition to carry on from one airplane lover to another =)

The best part was that Liam was with Mimimi, so he had no idea that he would be coming home to a new room.  Needless to say, Liam was thrilled with it!!!  When he first walked in, you could tell he didn't know what to look at first. The one thing he is still talking about are the airplanes!  His favorite is a big bomber.  He said "goodnight" to it last night and "goodmorinng" to it this morning.  He then preceded to remind Joey and me that "That one is my favorite plane, it's a bomber!"

Climbing his bunk bed for the first time!

I asked Liam who fixed up his room and he pointed to Daddy
and said "My Daddy did it!!!"

Just a cute picture =)

Looking at his airplanes

Pointing to his favorite, the bomber!

Liam took this picture of his favorite airplane...
Think he did a pretty good job =)

Here is a picture of the start of our guest bedroom...

The wall color is a light gray but looks more on the blue side when there is blue in the room.  For right now we are using our old bedding, so the room is grey/black/white with some yellow.  You can't tell, but the sheets are yellow.  My goal is to design the room around the wedding quilt that my Step-Mom and Grandma made for Joey and I.  It has a white background with different shade of blue on it.  So eventually I want the room to be blue/white/gray with pops of yellow and orange.  I'm on the hunt for a yellow pillow or two for the bed that can be used now and also later when the room is the way I really want it to be.  The night stands will be painted white and then distressed, for a shabby chik look.  I think it looks pretty good for being thrown together with a hodgpodg of furniture and bedding =)

Well I better end this post before it becomes a novel =)

HUGS to you all!!!

Thank you for all the continued thoughts and prayers!

3 days until Christmas!!!!

~Charlotte