Pregnancy quiz: 34 weeks

How far along: 34 weeks. But remember, my doc still considers me 35 weeks, even though my bump is measuring a touch small.

Sleep: Starting to hurt more and more. Falling asleep sucks, staying asleep sucks and things ache by morning.

Weight Gain/Loss: Is slow. I hope to gain more and have a nice healthy fat baby, but my Doc warned me that Baby Girl will likely be smaller than James was.

Movement: Kick kick kick, right now.

Size of Baby: 19" and almost 5 lbs!

Pregnancy Symptoms: Umm, everything.

Food Cravings: Fresh fruit. I can not get enough.

What I miss: Being able to get comfortable in bed. I'm tired, I'm grumpy and I'm not comfortable. Yuck.

What I am looking forward to: Oh my! New Years Eve tomorrow night (E and I are staying in), New Year's Day we are driving up to Midway and January is already fun of fun activities.

Weekly Wisdom: There are limited weekends before Baby Girl arrives (after this weekend, like only 4 more to go!). E and I are making a list of what we still "must do" with one kiddo and without a newborn. Oh my! The list is longer than the 4 weekends can hold. Excited though.

Best moment this week: This has been the best week ever. I love having E home. He's made a big yummy breakfast every day and he got a Wok for Christmas, so he's made dinner almost every night. Spoiled doesn't even cover it.

Milestones: On Monday I'll be ONE month away from my "official" due date February 2nd. I'm still planning on the due date of February 10th, but that is quite exciting.

Photo above, taken today.

Winter Header

Today I was inspired to take new header photos. However, Utah is seriously lacking in the snow department. Last year's winter header was glorious, James and I in the park with our sled and feet and feet of fresh show. This year we've hardly got any, and nothing has stuck around. In fact, today was so mild, none of us wore coats. Weird weird weird.

For my header I changed some of these into black and white, trying to give it a more winter feel, but I'll leave them color for this post. We really did have a nice time walking around in the park. Mild temperatures and no coats? I'm not about to complain.

Somebody else was quite happy about being out as well.
Oh his eyes. And his out of control nap hair. I love this little boy, every fiber of his being.
E brought his camera as well. He told James to look at him and say "cheese". Glad I was on the sidelines.
Rockin' my baby bump and lifting 30 lbs over my head. Yep, I'm super Mama.

Cedar trees are so pretty. I love that something so simple can make me so happy.
And speaking of simple things making you happy. Look what happened to be at the park. A mixer!
Waving as it goes by.
Oh wow! That was awesome!
Dada and son.
Hope you like the new header.

More Christmas activities

I kinda love that Christmas lasts an entire month. Forget just Christmas day and eve, we start celebrating right after Thanksgiving and are just finishing up. That means one more final Christmas post. I hope you are not tired of all things Christmas by now. This will be my last Christmas post until next year, promise.
Last week before the big holiday we had E's family's traditional cookie day. This differs from my family's cookie day in the fact that it is mostly a sugar cookie decorating party. Connie had purchased these "weird glasses" that made the Christmas lights on the tree look distorted. James loved the glasses and still talks about "weird glasses". I was thrilled to find that if I put my camera up the the glasses, I could easily take a photo of the effect, as demonstrated above.
This year's cookie decorating party started with dinner (pizza and salad) and ended with decorating at least six dozen sugar cookies.
Every year it is a family event. Chelsea and Joe make all the cookies earlier in the day, and they are ready and waiting when we arrive. Yea, it's awesome.
Connie was around for lots of kissing on this boy.
Last year on cookie day James tasted his very first cookie. This year on cookie day James actually got to decorate. He asked for "spice" (sprinkles) and went to town with his little frosted cookie.
More...
A few more...
Completed masterpiece! Only took an entire jar of red sprinkles and a few green ones for the top.
Visiting Temple Square is another, very classic, Salt Lake City pre-Christmas activity. It is one E and I haven't done for a few years, but used to be tradition in early years of our dating. James has never been to Temple Square, being that we are not LDS, but we were excited to see the lights and take the train downtown.
We parked within the free zone hoping James would like the train as much as we though he might.
Once inside we easily found enough seats for our family.
And to say he liked it would be an understatement.
Seriously. Highlight of this kid's life. Later, we went to dinner and got chatting with another family with a toddler. I mentioned the fact that we went on the train and James chimed into the conversation saying "love it!". So sweet. Also, isn't his reflection in this photo beyond perfect?
We arrived a little before the lights were turned on, but that was ok. It gave us a chance to look around the beautiful grounds and all the fountains (fallfalls). See E and James at the top of the photo?
Dusk at Temple Square.
Once 5:00 hit, the lights all turned on. James stopped what he was doing and clapped. So sweet, I tell you.
The reflection pool really is awesome.

In all the years I've been visiting Temple Square to see the lights, I've never come at sunset. Why? No idea, it made it amazing!

Merry Christmas! Until next year!

Christmas Day

Merry merry Christmas! It might be two days past the holiday, but I have yet to blog Christmas photos and even a couple of Christmas activities. By the end of this, I'll be in a true Christmas coma.

Christmas morning was so memorable. James is getting to the age where he understands presents. Santa is still a little beyond him, but he knew what it meant to have a new toy. First thing I did on Christmas morning was turned on the tree and grabbed my video camera. I wanted to have a video of James walking down the hall and into the living room. I wanted to see his face when he saw his new slide. I didn't catch his face (darn it) but I do have video proof of how thrilled he was to receive a "big slide!". I just love this video. :)

Once the video camera was put away and we rode the slide a few more times, we moved onto our stockings. I love taking a photo of James with his stocking every year, but my favorite stocking photo ever will always be his first.

James was thrilled with this light up spinning toy that Santa found at the mall.
And he loved this noise maker too. It is so fun trying to find little presents to tuck in the stocking. Growing up, stockings were almost better than the big presents. Little gifts mixed in with fruit and candy. Also, James got a sucker (lollipop) in his stocking. It was the only thing he asked for this year, and was beyond thrilled to see it. All the rest of the Christmas morning photos have that blasted sucker in his hand.
Each year Santa brings at least one toy and one book. I love this tradition and want to keep it until he's an adult. This year's book of choose? A digger book, of course. As soon as he laid eyes on it he said "read, read, read!".
So Dada and kiddo sat down for some Christmas morning reading about diggers.
Throughout the morning he'd go back to the slide periodically to ride down "fast".

E asked for only one thing, a new watch. It is Swiss made and somehow really good (?). He was in heaven.
And I only asked for one thing as well: a day at the spa before Baby Girl gets here. I was specific with my request, however. I wanted E to join me (because the spa is more fun with those you love) so it had to include a babysitter for this little man.
He stepped it up and decided to have an entire "Japanese Relaxation Day" where we will spa and go to a Japanese dinner. To tie the theme together he got me a beautiful wood cut Japanese advent card. I was a very happy girl.
At ten we joined E's siblings at E's family's house. The present pile was enormous and everything looked and felt so festive.
Connie is known for her stockings. They are beyond description. Amazing. James was thrilled with all the little goodies in his stocking and began to eat raisins first thing.
E's siblings. His brother David, brother-in-law Joe, and sister Chelsea.
And his parents. Everyone opened present after present.
New coat for me (can't zip it up yet, let's hope it fits once the baby is here!).
Enjoying the long wonderful Christmas morning.
Happy kiddo.
Soon it was time to sit down for brunch. Connie made the traditional hash brown casserole and we had fruit, yogurt, and croissants to accompany it. So yummy.
Back at home we all enjoyed a long nap, and then more sliding, of course.


My dad and his girlfriend came over late in the afternoon. We chatted, exchanged gifts, played with James (who by now was feeling quite grumpy) and pretty much enjoyed all that Christmas day had to offer.
At dinnertime we decided to brave the grumpy toddler (too much sugar, not enough sleep?) and head back to E's family's house for dinner. We've never had Christmas dinner with E's family, it has always been with mine. It was such a nice change, however.
James decided to cheer up (mostly) and eat dinner, join Mama and Dada on the couch for snuggles, and be wonderful and sweet. We stayed until his bedtime, sleepily packed up our boy, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and headed home with full bellies.
Merry Christmas.

Although it is now two days post holiday, I'm still living it up. E is home from work the entire week, and I'm not sure what I like more, Christmas day, or the week after. Today we spent a lazy morning at home and are meeting some family for a pool date this afternoon. Perfect.