Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm SO excited about Christmas this year. I hope everyone has a great day with loved ones and good food. For those who celebrate Christmas for its true meaning, I hope you feel the love of our Savior today and remember Him.

As for our plans, first we're going to have our traditional Christmas breakfast of crescent rolls baked with cream cheese and chocolate chips inside. Yum. So easy, but SO good! It's one of John's family's traditions and I have absolutely no objection to continuing it! LOL, in fact, I first heard about this tradition from John's youngest brother when we made magic bars on our first date - and his brother invited me over for Christmas so I could try it!! That was an awkward moment - the only one I had the entire date - and mainly because I wasn't sure how I should respond to it. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "hmm, maybe, we'll see" or something like that. I didn't want to say "NO" because, um, I like John and didn't want to be rude. But I also didn't want to be all eager like "yeah, I totally want to come because I'm majorly in love with your brother even though this is our first date" kind of thing. Ironically, we ended up getting married just 4 days before Christmas that year - so I wound up being there as part of the family!

Oh, and we had an awesome anniversary:D Everything went according to plan except for the watching a movie part - and several delays made everything take longer. It was just too late by the time we got dinner and everything. That, and neither of us really felt like watching a movie anyway. And John had to work the next day. But we did have a nice, yummy, and romantic steak dinner by candlelight followed by some relaxing cuddle time.

Aaaanyway. Back to our Christmas plans. While we wait for breakfast to cook, we plan to read the scriptural account of Jesus' birth and talk about what Christmas is REALLY about. Then we'll eat and move on to stockings and presents. Maybe it sounds mean keeping a kid from her presents right away, but I know that if we do presents first, she won't listen to the story. She'll want to play with her toys instead. I don't know how much she'll actually listen at 2 anyway. But I DID print out some cute Christmas pictures from our church's website for her to color while we read - shepherds, Mary and baby Jesus, wisemen, etc.

I'm excited to watch Emma open her presents:) Especially now that she's old enough to get what's going on. We keep talking to her about Christmas and everything and when we mention presents, she smiles and whispers presents with anticipation in her eyes. It's so cute. I think she'll love what she's getting:) I wrapped the vast majority of them (Mom sent her presents unwrapped because she knows I LOVE wrapping presents) so I know what most of them are, but there are a few things under the tree that I'm clueless about. Should be fun! LOL, I'm more excited to see Emma's mystery gifts than my own! But I only have a few presents under the tree and I know what most of them are anyway.

After presents, we'll just hang out and eventually start on Christmas dinner. Really, it all depends on what time we get up and started and such. And how long everything takes. Things always take longer than we expect them to. But we're going to Nathan and Jessica (John's sister)'s for Christmas dinner around 5 PM. We have a few gifts for them, too. We're all in similar financial situations, so we agreed to do really inexpensive gifts. Jessica made their gifts for us and we shopped at the Dollar Tree. I think they'll like what we got them, though:) TOTALLY perfect for them. Especially Nathan's:D

As for food, I'm making a roast. Yes, at 38.5 weeks pregnant. But really, it'll mostly cook itself in the crock pot anyway. Super easy. We'll also have mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, pies, etc. Don't worry, John and I aren't doing ALL the cooking! We've split things up evenly:)

And we'll play it by ear from there. We'll probably hang out with them over there for awhile and just enjoy being together and such. It'll be nice and relaxing. Maybe we'll go drive around and look at Christmas lights afterwards, since that's one of the activities I really wanted to do that we just haven't had time for yet. Though really, it depends on how late it is and how tired/grouchy Emma is by the time we leave. After Emma goes to bed, John and I might watch a movie. Again, it depends on how late it is and how tired John is since he has to work the next morning. Ah, the joys of retail jobs.

Oh, and once again, I'm almost a week late in posting about my last OB appointment. I have another on Monday unless I go into labor before then. Anyway, everything looked great. I gained 3 lbs since the previous week, but my OB said it's probably all just water weight at this point. I've still only gained 17 lbs total, so I can't really complain. I look and feel like a blimp, though! I'm definitely looking forward to no more swelling! I'd like to be able to wear my wedding ring again, thanks. I've been wearing a pretty green and silver Celtic ring I bought in Dublin back in 2004. It works, but it's just not the same. Anyway. I got checked at my appointment and it wasn't that bad. I guess I'm just haunted by the pre-epidural checking while in active labor from last time. As of Monday, I am 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Of course, that could mean anything! We'll find out more this coming Monday - or sooner if labor hits between now and then. His head is low, but I'm still pretty high. For those of you who want those TMI details LOL!

I have a sweet story to share. We have been incredibly blessed this holiday season by the generosity of others. Not just this holiday season, though - our friends and family are incredibly supportive ALL the time. But more on that later. I have a specific story I want to tell first. On Monday night (our anniversary), while we were baking sugar cookies for family home evening, there was a knock at the door. I got to the door pretty quickly, but no one was there. I looked down and saw a big bag with 4 full stockings in it! Each stocking has one of our names on it - including one for our baby who isn't even here yet! They're STUFFED to the brim. We have NO idea who left them, other than the fact that they know what we're naming our son - so clearly it's someone who knows us well enough for that. I don't know exactly what's in them yet; John said we should wait till Christmas. But I can see some of what's poking out the top and John got a DVD, I got some slippers (which I needed anyway - my old ones are totally shot), and it looks like both kids got some clothes and toys. We just feel SO blessed and thankful that someone thought of us and went to all the effort to do this for us. Isn't that just so sweet of them? And the fact that they gave them to us on our anniversary just added to the specialness of the day:D

Another awesome story: we got a package from Val (geniaBeana Scraps - I'm on her CT) FULL of little girl clothes and shoes in the sizes we need, and some little boy clothes, too! Kimi (recently retired Kimi's Kreations and very close friend) made me a Mei Tai baby carrier and sent it along with some cute baby boy clothes, too. Man, these girls are the best! I love my friends:) Thanks for being awesome!

Speaking of friends, my friend Vicki tagged me! I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. LOL, I'm going to cheat and re-use my thankful list from Thanksgiving;) Hey, it's not cheating if it's my own work, right? And I put a lot of thought into making it in the first place. But I'll add some details to each one. I wanted to write more then anyway, but it wouldn't fit on the page without looking cluttered. Here's the page I posted for Thanksgiving, followed by a more detailed version of the list in text form:


Credits:
Autumnal - geniaBeana Scraps
Wordart - Elegant Wordart

10 Things That Make Me Happy:

1. My faith and religion. I would not be who I am without this; I would not have the wonderful life I have if it weren't for what I believe. It is my faith and my attempts to follow my Savior that bring TRUE happiness to my life.

2. My sweet, loving, and supportive husband. I am SO blessed to be married to John. He is such a sweetheart. He makes me laugh and he always shows me how much he loves me. Being with him truly makes me happy.

3. Our beautiful little girl and our little boy on the way. Children are SUCH an amazing blessing. They definitely have their challenges, but every good thing in life does. Emma always makes me smile and laugh, just by being her cute self. I know our son will bring the same kind of joy to my life - once he finally listens to the eviction notice I wrote him! But in all seriousness, I know that he will add just as much happiness to my life as Emma does.

4. Loving, supportive, and generous friends and family. I am SO grateful for the love and support of our friends and family! Many of them have gone above and beyond to help us out when we needed it most. I only hope I can do the same for them.

5. The freedoms of our country. I love living in a country where I have the freedom to say, think, or believe what I want. The fact that I have all these rights makes me happy.

6. A warm, comfortable home. It is so nice to have a warm, cozy place to come home to - especially at this time of year when it's SO cold outside!

7. Food on the table. Who DOESN'T love food? Having food in my fridge and in my cabinets is such a simple thing, but such a blessing! I have to remind myself that there are others who don't have this simple luxury.

8. Clothing to wear. See above. Again, a simple thing, but so many people in this world don't have this. I'm abundantly blessed in this department - despite the fact that the vast majority of my wardrobe currently doesn't fit!

9. Good health. I know I complain a lot about the various discomforts of pregnancy, but I am SO happy and grateful that my baby and I are both perfectly healthy. The fact that I can even GET pregnant is a wonderful blessing - one that I need to keep in mind more often. I know many women struggle with infertility or miscarriages and I am grateful I have never had to experience that pain. We've also managed to stay relatively sick-free this cold and flu season so far - let's hope it continues that way!

10. Modern conveniences. You know, things like electricity, indoor plumbing, forced air heating, AC (well, in the car at least - that's the only place we have it), home appliances (fridge, stove, oven, washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave, Kitchen Aide mixer, etc), computers, Photoshop CS4, internet, cell phones...basic "necessities" in our modern age. LOVE THEM. They make me happy:) And I'm hopelessly addicted to them.

And now I'm supposed to tag others. So many of my friends have already done this and I can't keep track of who has and who hasn't. Plus, I don't even know who I know in real life reads my blog here anyway! Sooo...instead of tagging specific people, I'm going to tag...YOU. Yes, you read that right - you. But here's the catch - you have to comment with a link to your blog so I can see YOUR list:)

Which reminds me. I added word verification to decrease spam comments. Sorry if that annoys you, but I don't really want the spam! Evil spammers...bleh. Anyway. It's 6 AM, I haven't gone to bed yet, and I still need to shower and make peppermint bark (with MILK chocolate because white chocolate is NOT chocolate). Hm, should prove to be an interesting day! But it'll be good because it's Christmas! I'll MAKE it be good - I've been looking forward to Christmas for too long to be a grouch!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Anniversary, Christmas Excitement, and Template 56

Happy anniversary to us!! John and I have now been married for 3 wonderful years. We've had our ups and downs (mostly ups), of course, but we've pulled through all our trials triumphantly - and as such, are stronger together than ever before. It's strange to think it's already been 3 years. And yet, at the same time, I feel like we've known each other forever. Maybe that's because I know we will:)

We've been having some challenges that test our patience lately, such as a teething 2 year old, the last few weeks of pregnancy, and finals week and its accompanying stress. But the semester is now officially OVER. Hallelujah!! Can I just say how grateful I am that I'M done with school? Because I can't even imagine the stress we'd have right now if we were both taking classes. Heh, there's a reason things happen the way they do. I wouldn't have been able to cope with the stress of being in school and a mom at the same time. The women who do both at the same time amaze me.

Anyway, total tangent. Since it's our anniversary, I want to share a little bit about how wonderful my sweet husband is. Warning: this will get sappy;) Words can't encompass his goodness. He isn't perfect, and sometimes his faults and shortcomings drive me crazy (I'm sure mine are MUCH more irritating though!), but he truly is the sweetest man I've ever known. He is ALWAYS willing to help, even when he has tons of other things he needs to do. He helps me with cooking, cleaning, and child care. Yes, he even changes diapers - more often than I do these days! He does the dishes, takes out the garbage, and cleans out the fridge - my 3 LEAST favorite chores - so that I don't have to. He loves me and treats me so much better than I feel I deserve.

Here's a recent example of just how awesome he is. Saturday night, John was asked to go help someone in need. While he was gone, I started giving Emma a bath. It was all fun and games...until she pooped in the tub. Ew. I pulled her out, drained the water, then thought, "now what?" We were home alone. I couldn't exactly stick her back in the tub until the poop got all cleaned up. But she needed to be scrubbed down cuz, ew, she'd been sitting in her own poop. I grabbed a clean wash cloth, got it wet and soapy, and started to wash her off with it. It was then that John came home. He got all the poop out of the tub and helped me hose Emma down with the shower head over the tub (nobody got in the tub, of course! Ew!). John dried her off and got her dressed while I filled the tub with a bleach and water solution to soak. Then, after we let it soak awhile, John scrubbed the tub and bath toys down. I was going to do it, but he didn't want me to be around all the chemicals:) LOL, now I'm glad I didn't clean the tub a few days back when I cleaned the rest of the bathroom! It would have been pointless!

John is sweet, kind, and loving. He always does little things for me, like leave cute little love notes on the bathroom mirror or rub my back or feet. He is very supportive and understanding. He is never upset about the house not being perfectly clean or dinner not being on the table when he gets home. He doesn't have unrealistic expectations for me. He understands that being a mom is hard work and constantly thanks me for what I do (even though 90% of the time I feel like I don't do all that much).

John is THE best daddy in the whole world! He plays with Emma, cuddles her, and still has patience with her when I don't. Emma just ADORES him. Other children are automatically drawn to him, too. Yeah, he's THAT guy that every child just loves and wants to play with. He loves kids, too. At church activities, every time I turn around he's holding SOMEone's kid!

But most importantly, John is spiritual and faithful. He truly lives his beliefs. This, and his kindness, are what attracted me to him. And really, his kindness is BECAUSE he lives what he believes. I am grateful to know that I can call on him to bless our family in times of need because of the way he lives his life. I try to live the same way, but I think he does it better;) He is a great example to me of how to be Christlike. He makes me want to be a better person. I am SO grateful I married John. He truly is the best man for me:D

As for our anniversary plans, John works during the day. He gets off at 2, but I have an OB appointment at 4:10. 38 weeks! Woohoo! They want to check for dilation, so that's not going to be particularly enjoyable. I want to know, yes, but it's just SO uncomfortable! Then, we'll all go to the library to look at the current books and movies selection. We have family home evening every Monday night, so we're going to do some fun things for that. The current plan is to make and decorate sugar cookies. Then, after Emma goes to bed, John and I will have a nice romantic steak dinner by candlelight with sparkling cider. Yum. I haven't entirely decided how I'm going to marinate the steak yet, though. Hmm. Any suggestions? Then we'll relax, probably watch Harry Potter 6 - our joint gift to each other this year since money is so tight - and then go to bed. Should be fun! I hope it works out as well in real life as it does in my head! Our anniversary last year was rather anti-climatic. We were snowed in at my parents' house...it was kind of depressing. So hopefully this year will be MUCH better!

Of course, our plans could always be changed by this little thing called LABOR...but that'd be ok with me!! I don't think it's very likely, though. But you never know. Our hospital makes a steak dinner for the parents after a baby is born, so either way, we're gettin' steak! And their food is actually decent, too;)

In other news, I am getting SO excited for Christmas this year! I love Christmas!! I've been planning for it since early October. Since I'm due so close to Christmas, we clearly aren't traveling anywhere this year. But that's actually what I wanted this year, anyway - even before we discovered we were having a baby. Last year was SO stressful when we traveled home and spent most of our vacation snowed in at my parents' house where we ALL had major cabin fever. I like that this year we'll get to have a nice, quiet Christmas with just our little family, followed by a yummy dinner with Nathan and Jessica. I'm really looking forward to it:)

Another thing that makes this year so fun for me is that Emma is now old enough to get what's going on. It's been SO fun picking out what to get her for Christmas! And decorating is always fun, too. Emma LOVES the Christmas tree and other decorations. And then there's all the wonderful music. But, of course, the most important thing is teaching her what Christmas is really about. I love that she's getting it - to some degree at least.

We haven't done any of our holiday baking yet. Mainly that's because I was majorly slacking about going to the store. That, and our kitchen is a disaster area. It's getting better, though. We're going to make sugar cookies, peppermint bark (but with milk chocolate instead of white chocolate), and, of course, FUDGE. The Christmas season is not complete if it doesn't include fudge!

It's really fun to get to play Santa Claus this year. This is the first time I get to stuff the stockings and all that fun stuff. And I've ALWAYS loved wrapping presents. As a child, Mom would put me to work wrapping gifts because I love it so much. It's fun. LOL, she frequently had me wrap my OWN presents! At least the clothing packaged up in department store gift boxes - or the ones I picked out myself. I just love making presents look pretty. I like to use pretty wrapping paper and bows and ribbons and everything. It's just so much fun!

Anyway. All our presents are wrapped and under the tree - and Emma has been surprisingly good about leaving them alone. Our tree has been up since just before Thanksgiving (I know, I know...we were so impatient to get it up, though!). We have lots of other decorations up, like 2 nativities, stockings, block letters that spell JOY, a gingerbread house we put together, a couple of little houses and figures, and a few other random things. It's been so fun! Oh, and I made some cute snowflakes and snowmen for our front window. We'll leave them up all winter since we'll have snow until March or April.

Anyway, I'm excited. It'll be so fun to see everyone's reactions to their gifts! I have 2 gifts under the tree, and I know what both of them are because I picked them out (LOL, I even wrapped one of them). The only surprise gift I'll be getting is from Nathan and Jessica (as far as I know). But that's ok - I like getting gifts I actually want/pick out best anyway! It's more fun to get things for everyone else.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a Christmas card. Well, as cute as that one is, I decided I wanted to do another one instead! I wanted something more traditional and classic. Bright colors are fun and all, but I'm more into the traditional shades of red and green. So I made this card and letter instead and emailed it to friends and family:



Close up of the card pages:







Credits:
Holiday Sugar Cookies blog train; portions by: geniaBeana Scraps, Shelleyrae Designs, Trish H Designs, Wimpychompers Creations, Wyld Web Designs, Color with Caryn, Bon Scrapatit Designs, Jennifer Fox Designs, and KimB Designs.

Didn't it turn out so cute? I'm happy with it, anyway:) The hardest part was getting semi-decent pics of Emma. That kid is SO hard to photograph! She always wants to see the camera. She LOVES seeing pictures of herself on it. But...how can I TAKE them if she's always coming around to look at them?! Gyah. Either that, or she's making funny faces or looking in the opposite direction. I have SO many back-of-the-head shots it's not even funny. Oh, and of course, when I finally DO get a pic with a cute expression, she either has food all over her face, red eye, or the lighting is horrible. Usually all 3...*sigh* Or worse - totally out of focus. But sometimes the basic shot itself is so cute I have to use it anyway. I want a digital SLR so bad. But that's not gonna happen for a VERY long time, so I'll have to make do with what I've got.

Anyway, today's template is based off the 2nd half of the card. Simple, but effective. Template 56 is a 12x12 template in PSD format. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

*sigh* And Emma's awake again. I went to use the bathroom a bit ago and, while there, heard knocking. Sure enough, Emma was knocking on her bedroom door. It's the middle of the night. She should be sleeping! John's watching her for a bit so I can finish this post (I was almost done anyway). Time to go help him put her back to bed! Hopefully you're all sleeping better than we are!!