Christmas Video

Here's a video from Christmas morning. It was longer but for some reason only half of it came together when I 'published' whatever. I don't feel like trying to figure it out or do it over and I'm sure the 6+ minutes gives a good enough protrayal of our day. Laughing at our Rylee girl calling every piece of food "apple", pointing to herself when asked "who is spoiled?", giggling over her new 'shake and go' car and other general Christmas Merriement.

Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas this year.  We got to spend lots of time together as a family and relax.

We had fun cooking our 'big meals' together and I have particularly been enjoying not cooking all week and eating said leftovers :)

 We had Prime Rib Christmas Eve, and a Turkey on Christmas day. YUM!

After dinner on Christmas Eve we went on a drive to look at lights.  There is a little town inside SA that has a lot of Christmas lights.  This year was their 53rd annual contest.  As you drive by the firestation, firefighters hand out maps indicating the category winners, runners up and honorable mentions.  It was pretty good, some of course over the top: My favorite category was "best mailbox" (I can't make this stuff up) I'll tell you what, they deserved to win.

 Christmas Day we slept in as long as Rylee let us.  She woke up fairly upset because she wanted to watch a 'show'  . . . . . little did she know we had other plans.  After she finally calmed down and we let her run to the living room it was straight to the presents!

She dug into her stocking a bit while Michael cooked breakfast and then we headed off to church.  She fell asleep on the way home so nap time it was.

 Michael and I decided to see what Santa left in our stockings.  I had one gift: a puzzle.  We spent the rest of nap time putting the 550 piece puzzle together {the major frustration of the day was finally figuring out one piece was a duplicate- grr}, flipping it over to find the first clue that sent me on a treasure hunt for my gifts.  Rylee woke up just in time to help me unwrap.

 Rylee loved opening the presents.  And by presents, I mean all of them.  I opened one and she got quite upset.  This may be a problem two Christmases from now when the baby is her age - ah well.

She finally made it to the 'big kahoona' of the day: Her Play Kitchen!!

 We took a present break to have dinner then got back in our {new} PJ's and finished up.  It was about 7:30 by the time we were done. I loved every second.

At my {last!} Dr appointment this week the nurse asked how our Christmas was and if I was happy it was over.  I said it was great and no! I'm always a little sad when its over - she was surprised and maybe I really am the only one who feels this way, but I wish it could last longer.

Maternity Pictures

My most fabulous friend took Maternity Pictures for me this week.  I'm so glad she did!  I kindof love them.

I shared them on facebook, but since some of my favorite people don't have FB accounts (ie: my Mom - and I make her read my blog) I thought I'd share them here as well.

 will it be Pink, or will it be Blue?

I'm excited to make this stage a memory - though slightly terrified at what that means.

13 days.

Books

We adopted a Christmas tradition this year:  The book advent.  We wrap a bunch of Christmas/Winter books and Rylee gets to unwrap a present every day until Christmas, then we read the story and go to bed :)

I think its safe to say we've all had a bit of fun with it.  Rylee has been scolded a time or two for trying (ok and succeeding) to open presents early and without her Daddy.  Maybe she didn't inherit the love of surprises gene.

While we do have a few books that fit the criteria, we certainly don't have 25.  Enter public library.  Yes, some don't hold her attention quite as well as others but we're finding some great books to someday add to our collection.

Our favorite 'new find' would probably be "Are You Grumpy Santa?"  Its a cute little story about how even Santa can have a bad day and how he 'gets over it'.  This is by far the book we've read most often over the past few weeks.  Its really fun for me to see Rylee remember the pages and 'read' the book to herself.  I've been trying to get her on camera for a while and yesterday I finally did! (though she is even more dramatic when I'm not videotaping :) )  She recognized the pages where Santa says "ouch" and "HO-HO-HO"  I think its too funny.

Friday Favorite: A new 'do

I love getting my hair cut.

The price of a cut is substantially more in Texas, so I don't get it done as often as I'd like.

I wish I could get it cut once a month.

Its hard to believe I used to have long hair.  Like middle of my back long hair.  Once I chopped it(nearly 2 feet, about 2 years into college) except for the breif moment I 'grew it out for the wedding' (which you know, was about shoulder length) I've never gone back.  Actually, if I can put my hair in a pig tails (let alone a single pony-tail) it is too long and I start itching for a cut.  Get it it off my neck!!

I put it off for far too long, but this was the week.

I even went to a new gal.  So far so good . . . . though I'm debating going shorter in the bangs. . . . hmmmm . . . still thinking. . . . .

Random. Decorating. and Santa!!

In case you've been dying to know, we had a great Thanksgiving.  Ate fried turkey for the first time and it was YUMMY!!

And yes, I'm "one of those" that decorates for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving.  Much to Michael's dismay. The more time I get to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells the BETTER!  The good man he is he obliged my request (demand?) of getting the decor down, likely because I threatened I'd do it myself when he was gone anyway and did he really want a 8 month prego lady climbing up and down a ladder with boxes in tow? didn't think so.  I keep telling him the sooner he accepts Thanksgiving as a part of Christmas the better. . . . . its the entire holiday season and its fantastic. Furthermore, I like shopping and relaxing the weekend of Thanksgiving - with all the work and decorating done.

Its possibly the hormones but I was a bit more emotional than usual as I set up the decor this year.  There's quite a bit of sentiment in the few Christmas decorations I have.  Many from my Grandmothers (who both passed away this year).  I can admit a few tears were shed.

I was about 3/4 the way through decorating and the thought came to mind "hmm, I wonder how long this will all be up? . . . . . maybe I should have called and asked my Mom if she minded packing the Christmas stuff up BEFORE I put it all out"  you know, since I'll be busy not sleeping after the first of the year.

I got tired and decided it was ok if we waited a few days to put the ornaments on the tree.  Rylee was the perfect helper and handed me the "special ornaments" to place on the trees.  So far she's been pretty good and leaving it enough alone.  There are a couple bells within her reach, which is a good thing because I always know when she's fiddling. One day we'll get a real tree, and by 'real' I mean a normal size, the decor trees have worked well enough and it seems I've always rather the money be spent elsewhere.

 Rylee is the sweetest.  She loves giving the baby hugs and kisses. She has quite the eye for babies in public too.  I seriously can't wait to see her become a sister.  She's learning to say "boy" and "girl" we often ask her which she thinks the baby is. . . . this morning she had her shoulders shrugged and chattered her gibberish for a full minute without stopping.  Oh how I wish I understood what she was saying.

 I can't even tell you how excited I am to be home for Christmas.  Its the best part about being pregnant right now. I have to stay put. Dr orders. :)  This will be our 6th Christmas together but still a first for our family.  Let me tell you I will try my hardest to make it the best Christmas ever!!

Because this is the first we'll be home, Michael put lights on the house.  Simple, but I love it.  Rylee does too.  We've gone on a couple walks to look at other lights in the neighborhood (I think its a little easier for her to see from the stroller vs carseat) and she gasps, oohs and ahhs its so fun.  We also adopted a book reading tradition.  We wrapped a bunch of christmas books (most of which we checked out from the library) and she gets to open and read one each night.  The first night she went straight for the next present - quick learner. Its been really fun!

 I do think the little people nativity may just save the life of my ceramic/glass ones.  She's only reached for the ceramic sheep once and was easily directed to her own nativity and sheep that she could play with.  Worth every penny.  I didn't expect the ocd's to come out this early.  She has quite the routine (especially when it comes to getting OUT of bed. . . . sometimes I get really annoyed) and loves lining things up.
exhibit A:

 We got to see Santa twice last weekend, and didn't have to wait in line either time.  It was great.  The first we went to an "Old-Fashioned Christmas" in a neighboring town - they had a bunch of booths and a tree and santa was hanging out.  It was dark and I forgot the camera, but we did snap a few phone pics, but the next day our HOA hosted Santa in the office.  Again, no line.  It was awesome.  Rylee says "SSS-nnnTA" (though not to him) and she's being trained to answer "what do you want for Christmas?" with "books" and "shoes".  She loved pointing to Santa but was a little hesitant when it came to touching him or letting him hold her so I stayed close.   When you think about it, it really is quite creepy - I can't blame her hesitance.

Merry Christmas!!

Friday Favorite: A Healthy Pregnancy

I'll be honest, I complain about pregnancy a lot.

I don't particularly love this condition.  Sure it has its fantastic moments but for the most part it pretty much sucks.  I'm actually quite jealous of those crazies out there that love pregnancy and 'never felt better'.  I actually thought (you know, the first time around) that it might be the same for me. Its not, and I feel a little betrayed.

I try to sort of stay positive and keep my complaints to Michael as much as possible because, well, its his fault.  But don't be surprised when you ask me 'how I'm feeling' if I tell you the truth.  No verbal filter is part of "pregnancy-brain".

That being said I am very grateful.

Grateful to have come this far.

Grateful to conceive drug-free.

Grateful to feel the baby move. (though I'm more grateful for this during the day)

Grateful for Michael's excitement.

Grateful for everyone elses excitement.

I am so excited to see Rylee as a sister. . . . .

There are so many that have it much, much worse, and I am grateful.

I'm grateful Michael goes along (and even enjoys) the 'surprise' of it all.

From day one Michael said "girl". It took me about 7+ months to even be able to verbalize what I 'thought' the gender is - it lasted about a week and I was right back to flip-floppping. I want a girl *slightly* (like 2.4 %) more just because they'd be close in age and I cried as I boxed up all of Rylee's favorite clothes (and shoes) that no longer fit her. But having one of each right off the bat would be pretty great too.

Still my favorite thing when people ask "what I'm having" is to say "a baby" or "a human".  I get some great looks.

And another thing - coming up with names is a million times harder this time around.  I sortof feel more pressure, and we (michael and I) don't really care for each others #1 choices.  It'll come, it may be a good thing we have 2 extra days in the hospital to finalize it though!

While on the subject of gratitude remember how when I was pregnant with Rylee we took a picture every week of that pregnancy?  And remember how I posted the last half-ish of the pictures on our blog sidebar (not within posts so I could view them forever)?  Then remember how our computer crashed just after she was born and the last 4 months of 'new' data aka the maternity pictures were lost (as our external cyber hard drive subscription had lapsed)?  Remember how I was devastated?  And how since all that hard work was 'useless' I didn't even atempt to take that many pictures with this pregnancy?  WELL. . . . low and behold Michael's gmail account had those pictures saved all along!  He found them first on his phone a while back (of all places) then figured out how to get them via the computer.  I was overjoyed.  Then felt a smidge of guilt as maybe I would have taken more pictures this pregnancy had I known. Ah well, I have a tentative photo-shoot set up and some fun things in mind so not all is lost.  

Anyway, after we went through the photos the other day Michael was comparing my baby bump to bump.  Thought I'd share.  I think I look the same.  Michael doesn't . . . . what do you think? boy/girl? high/low?

Grow baby, Grow!  I'll love up on you soon enough -just not before New Year's mmm-kay??