Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Catching Up a Bit

Whew! It has been a busy Christmas season for us this year! Here's a little picture recap of the last few weeks.
 We broke tradition this year and set up our tree before Thanksgiving. In the past, we have always done it the day after, but now that we live closer to family, we tend to do a little more traveling that weekend. I love having Christmas decor up, so setting it up early seemed like a better option than waiting until later. This was Ben's first year to help put the ornaments on the tree. Needles to say, all of them were pretty much in one place. :-) He had a great time though.
 We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving with Matt's family and got to see not only his parents, grandma and aunt, but also his brother and sister-in-law as well as his sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. This was really the first time the three kiddos actually played together. I don't know if I would go so far as to say they always played well, but it was still fun to see. I think they will keep having more fun together as they get older.
 While we were at Matt's family's house, we were blessed to have a baby shower thrown for us by my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. It was a beautiful shower with fun decor and super yummy food. We enjoyed getting to see more of Matt's family and they showered us with some great gifts!

 Last year, I had this great idea for starting a Christmas countdown calendar complete with fun activities and treats to count down the 25 days until Christmas. I also wanted to start a Jesse Tree. I think one big idea is enough for one year, so last year, we just did the Jesse Tree. We use a tiny tree that I purchased at Hobby Lobby and little ornaments that I cut from stiff felt. We start the Sunday after Thanksgiving and go all the way up until Christmas. The devotions are simple and it's a great way to see how God had a plan for our salvation from before He even created the world. You can find these free devotions, as well as templates for the ornaments here. This year, we are continuing the tradition of the Jesse Tree, but I added a Christmas countdown calendar in as well. It's kept me pretty busy, but it's been really fun and I'm hoping to keep up the tradition. The above picture is one of the things that was on our calendar. We made these as teacher gifts - dipped marshmallows on sticks, hot chocolate packets, and candy cane kisses. Super fun and super easy. Other things we've done for our calendar are homemade ornaments (total fail of a project, but fun to do), reading books while cuddled under blankets, making cookies, making paper snowflakes, making a paper chain in Christmas colors, and attending a few fun things around town.
 One of the events we attended last weekend was called Clabber Girl Country Christmas. My sister works are this awesome bakery and coffee shop downtown and they had all kinds of fun things for kids. Each of them cost a little money, so we let Ben choose two. He went for getting a gingerbread cookie with his name on it and making a paper elf.
 And lastly, my belly has most definitely popped in the last few weeks! I cannot believe it, but we are into the third trimester now. I feel like time is going to fly over the next 10 1/2 or so weeks. I'm still feeling pretty good overall. The belly is starting to make me change the way I do a few things, but I've been so blessed so far with a great pregnancy. I had my glucose tolerance test last week and since we are in the middle of Christmas goodie season, I was super nervous that I wouldn't pass and would miss out on lots of yummy stuff. Then when I went into the lab, the lady asked me if I was fasting. My doctor hadn't told me to fast, so not only was I not fasting, but I had been extra hungry that morning and had already eaten twice. She told me she'd probably see me back for the three hour test. I drank that grossly sweet drink and praise the Lord I passed the test! Pretty sure I've gained 5 pounds since then from all the Christmas goodies I've consumed since then. Yikes! :-) We started our childbirth classes last week. I'm not super thrilled about them, but hopefully they will get better and more informative over the next few weeks. I have a friend who loaned me a great book that Matt and I have been reading together that has been super informative (it's also been freaking me out as we get closer to delivery time), so I'm not too worried about the childbirth classes being as basic as they seem to be. I've also been attending a weekly prenatal yoga class and I love it! Last week my balance had definitely changed a bit and I kept falling out of poses, but the strengthening and stretching we do during the class is great as I continue to gain weight and prepare for labor.