Another busy one! (I’m pretty sure I’ve said that for the past eight months!) We are officially into the ninth month and it definitely feels like it! Right around the middle of Week 36, I said to Shane (something along the lines of…) “all things considered, pregnancy has been pretty easy!” Around that time, it started to get difficult to get out of bed, off the couch, out of a chair…in other words, shut up Alison! 😂 I’m still feeling ok for the most part…I usually start the day with a contraction (and last night had a particularly painful one) but I think that’s just from getting dehydrated overnight. Still unpleasant but it’s definitely not actual labor. I’m sure I’ll be wishing for it sometime but today I need this baby to stay in!

Shane wrapped up his last weekend of work for the calendar year – I’m not sure who’s happier but I know we are both relieved! So now it’s all hands on deck to make sure we are ready (or ready as we can be!) for this baby! Monday and Tuesday were busy busy at school, getting ready for Thanksgiving break and Wednesday was a LOVELY morning of pampering! Aunt Tonia arranged for the ladies of the family to have mani/pedis (and breakfast with Daddy who had to miss the pampering for work – boo) and OMG it was amazing. Next pregnancy, I’m going more often – I don’t care whose pregnancy it is! 😂😂😂

I’ve been feeling so badly that Grammy Ronda hasn’t been able to feel Eugene move yet so I tried to record his hiccups – and got some other movements as a bonus! Enjoy my alien son below!

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We spent the day at Emily and Chris’ house with so much family and so much love! We haven’t had Grammy Ronda here for Thanksgiving for as long as I’ve been around so that was extra special. We also had the added bonus of our cousin Matt being here with us – and frankly I’m still getting used to Grandma Elaine being here so it was just one big extra special day! We missed Dad…and tried really hard not to dwell on it too much. Regardless of how insanely difficult 2017 has been, we always have something (or lots of somethings!) to be thankful for.

And finally, today we had our annual Black Friday breakfast at the Harley Diner. It’s a twenty-six year old tradition in our family and we certainly weren’t going to let it end. We tried to focus on the twenty-five breakfasts we did have with Dad, not the one we missed.

It’s getting close!!! Eugene is about 21 inches long and 7 pounds – and the size of a winter melon, whatever that is! Holy moly!