Visiting Sisters, Pigeon Forge, Halloween and Miss Claire!

We have been quite busy lately. Three weekends ago we went to visit my sister in Boone, NC, then two weekends ago we went to Pigeon Forge, TN for some good outlet shopping and some Fall fun and last weekend we went to Atlanta,GA and this past weekend we got to meet Miss Claire, my sister's newborn baby. So... I have a lot to write about.

Our first trip was to my sister's in Boone. We had a lot of fun! We relaxed, we shopped, we watched Addison climb up and down her steps, we went to my sister's baby shower at her work, and we relaxed some more. I lost my camera on the trip but thankfully I found it. Someone turned it in at TJ Max and my sister went and picked it up for me. God is good and faithful. Next trip was to Pigeon Forge, TN. Aunt Aunt Kim went with us. We are cherishing every moment with her since she is getting ready to move to Virginia Beach. Her husband Don will be finishing Navy Officer school this coming week and they are being stationed in Virginia Beach. We are going to miss them greatly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We went outlet shopping and ate some good food and candy on this trip. Kim was a big help with the girls.

Last weekend, the girls and I went with Josh's mom and dad to see aunt Jenny (Josh's sister) in Atlanta, GA. She was putting on a Fall Festival at Alpharetta Parks and Rec on Saturday. Addison dressed up as Elmo, her favorite character. She doesn't know any other characters. She got to know who Elmo was because I was at a yard sale and she saw this singing Elmo stuffed animal on a table and she pointed to it. I asked the lady how much it was and she said it was a $1.00. So I decided to get it for her because it would keep her entertained while I kept looking through all of the girl clothes. I didn't even know who it was. I thought it was some type of character off a cartoon but wasn't sure who it was. Someone told me it was Elmo so I referred to it as Elmo and she then quickly started calling it El--Mo. She now loves Elmo and picks him out everywhere. We were at Wal-Mart a while back and she saw Elmo on the toothpaste tubes and she kept repeating Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!! So then when we went to the beach back in September Linda picked up some DVDs we could watch in the car on the way to the beach and one of them was an Elmo video. She loved it! She would point to the roof of the car and say "Elmo." But we had to turn in back into the library when we got back. So when she would point to the DVD player in the car and say "Elmo" we had to tell her we didn't have the video any longer. Well as you can guess we went to the store and got her an Elmo video. So now she has two of them and she gets to watch them once or twice a week. Her aunt Jenny knew she loved Elmo so she bought her an Elmo costume to wear on Halloween. I think she was the hit of the Fall Festival for all of the children. All the children would walk by her and say "Elmo!" One child said, "Is that the real Elmo?" Addison ran around watching other kids and she got her face painted for the first time. She was really exhausted after the event. She loved getting to see her aunt Jenny! Kaitlyn loved having other people hold her other than just her mommy. She slept real good while we were there. Saturday afternoon Josh's mom and dad kept both girls while Jenny and I did some shopping. And of course we shopped for the girls. Daddy was glad to see his girls when we got home. We were home for an hour and then back out for a cookout at our friends Jennifer and Chad McCall, who are expecting. Addison had a lot of fun chasing their cat.

And then our last trip was back to Amanda's. She called me around 8:00 am and left a message. She called from Ted's phone so I thought maybe this is it! Maybe she is going into labor!! I listened to her message and she said she was at the hospital waiting to see the doctor and that her contractions were 5 minutes a part. I was so nervous, excited, jumpy!!!! I told her I would get my stuff together and get there as quick as I could. It takes at least 2 1/2 hours to get to her. So I packed Kaitlyn's stuff to go with me. I packed Addison's stuff to stay at the Simpson's. I had to pack my clothes. Of course I had washed the car seat cover the night before for Kaitlyn. So I had to go downstairs get the cover. It was still damp but I couldn't put it in the dryer I didn't have time. My hands were shaking a little as I tried to figure out how to put that cover back on the car seat. I then had to make sure I had enough bottles, pump bottles, diaper bag packed, play mat for Kaitlyn, sufficient diapers for both... I was asking myself, "Why didn't I already have some of this stuff together beforehand??" I was also saying to myself, "Please let me get there in time before she delivers!! I also had to call my family members and update them and then call the Simpson's to let them know I was coming to drop off Addison. We finally all got in the car and I headed to the Simpson's to take Addison. When we got there I had to nurse Kaitlyn before we could get on the road then I had to stop at Babies R Us on the way because Amanda had asked me to pick up the car mirrors because she couldn't find a good one anywhere in Boone. I called her to get the update and she still hadn't been seen by the doctor. So we got started on our trip to Boone. She called about 15 minutes later and said the doctor had sent her home that she had not dilated any her contractions were slowing down. I could tell she was really disappointed so I told her we were already on the road and that I could come visit her anyways since I didn't have any plans and the Simpson's had Addison. I told her we could just hangout. She said, "Well I can't go into work still having these contractions." She didn't object to me coming so I decided I would go ahead and continue the trip. We made it there around 2:30 pm. Amanda was still having contractions but they were about 10 minutes apart. The doctor had told her to come back in if they were under 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. We hung out at her house. She gave Kaitlyn a bottle which didn't go very well. She has decided that she hates the bottle so we are having to work on that. It took Amanda an hour to get her to drink 4 ounces. Around 4:30 we noticed her contractions seemed a little closer together so we decided to start timing them. They were at 3 and 4 minutes apart so we started our hour clock. Amanda started cleaning her house instead of walking the neighborhood and I guess it worked because an hour passed by and they were still under 5 minutes. Ted came upstairs and we told him we think this is it and that we should be heading to the hospital very soon. Amanda kept saying, "I don't see how people just sit at home having this pain. How long is this going to continue on for?" I knew it was a good sign that they had never stopped. We got our stuff together. We did remember to get Kaitlyn who was upstairs sleeping :) I was a little nervous about what we were going to do with Kaitlyn b/c Amanda had called the hospital and they said n children under 18 could come in the hospital except for siblings. Well we had a plan that the family members could take turns keeping Kaitlyn in the car. But no family members were there yet because they were all at least 2 1/2 hours away and we had told them not to come earlier because the doctor had sent Amanda home. So I followed them to the hospital. We were going quite fast. I decided I would just take Kaitlyn into the hospital and just see if anyone said anything. They got her into a room quickly so we met her there. No one ever said anything to me about Kaitlyn being there. Praise the Lord! Amanda was at three centimeters when the nurse checked her so she had progressed from a two to a three so they kept her there. She progressed completely on her own and had Miss Claire at 12:02 am on October 30th. Miss Claire is beautiful!!!! Once my grandparents had gotten there around 9:00 pm we took Kaitlyn to there hotel room and laid her down for the night. Papa Bill stayed at the hotel with her so it worked out perfectly. My grandmother and I got back to the hotel around 2:30 am. I stayed in Boone Thursday and Friday night. I had to get back home on Saturday to get Addison ready for Halloween.

I got to the Simpson's around 3:00 pm to get Addison. It was so good to see her!! The first thing she said was "Sissy?" It was so sweet. I got home and had to sew Addison's wings onto her lady bug outfit. She was a lady bug at the trunk or treat we went to and then we changed her into her Elmo costume for trick or treating around the neighborhood. Addison loved going up to the people at the trunk or treat. She got the hang of it real quick. She couldn't say "Trick or Treat" She just stuck her Elmo bucket out and watched the people put candy in her bucket. When we went around to the neighbors' houses she tried to go into each of their houses. I thought that was cute. She had three suckers and a few pieces of chocolate so needless to say by the time we got to the Simpson's to eat supper she was quite wired! She was turning in circles and running around. This was the first time I had ever seen sweets affect her. Kaitlyn had a little orange Halloween outfit on that Claire let her borrow because it was too big for her. I think she also had fun watching people but not as much fun as Addison. Well I think I have wrote enough. Our next trip is tomorrow to Atlantic Beach, NC. This is a 7 1/2 hour trip. We are staying at an ocean front hotel and it is for Josh's work. We are just along for the ride.