Merry Christmas! 2011

We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family the weekend before Christmas. We had our 2nd annual soup and sandwich dinner, with a story read by Aunt Lorie, and gift exchange.

This is our nephew Duncan's first Christmas with us. He got to be the first to open a gift.
My mom and princess Rylie. She thinks a "pretty princess" dress is a must when there's music to dance to.
My mom got Jordan a Jessie doll!
The next pictures are from Christmas with Justin's side of the family. Every year, we go to his sister Stacie's house and spend the night Christmas Eve. We are spoiled with ribs and shrimp for dinner, and then open presents from each other in the evening. Then Santa (over)fills the stockings after the kids go to bed.

Jordan and Rylie got a lot of doll house accessories this year.
Rylie is "helping" her older cousin Jake open his present. Rylie was a bit attached to both Jake and Luke...they are great older cousins that loved on her well! One time she was looking for Jake, but was saying Luke. We said, "There's Luke, right beside you." She looked up and said, "Where's the other Luke?" The boys look more alike than their sisters that are twins do:)

Justin, his sister, and niece Hope all cuddled up with the girls Christmas morning. Hope and Madison are also GREAT older cousins that take care of Jordan and Rylie very well.

With only about 6 hours of sleep the night before, the girls were all tuckered out by the time they got home. It's almost 4:00 right now, and they're STILL asleep. Notice their beloved toy story dolls. Justin's mom got Rylie the Woody doll, so now they each have one.

Hair Stylist

Jordan did my hair "so pretty" the other day! (I can't believe I'm posting these pictures!)

Rylie is Silly

Rylie is pretending to have a baby in her tummy in the first video. So FUNNY! For just a little while, if you asked her where her baby brother was, she would lift up her shirt and say "in here" and point to her belly button.

The second video is of Rylie playing with a roly poly she found. She carried it everywhere, put it in her purse, carried it in her lunch box. What a fun little girl:)

8 Months

I totally skipped my 7 month belly picture and update, so here's my 8 month shot. Today, I am 36 weeks, 3 days. Just a few short weeks, and we'll be meeting our first son. We are still not totally committed to a name (well, I am, but Justin is not yet!)

At 8 months...

...there is no problem gaining weight! I think I've gained at least 30 lbs, and it's everywhere! I can even feel it in my face, and can feel it especially when I talk--it's weird.

...our little guy moves quite a bit. Sometimes it's painful, but most of the time it's just cool.

...I think this is the biggest my belly has gotten in all my pregnancies.

...I have a lot of braxton hicks contractions. I start to feel them coming on by the change in my breathing and my face getting flushed before I actually feel it in my belly.

...I'm getting used to being up all night! I've been sleeping on the couch since month 7, propped up with tons of pillows, but never comfortable. On top of just plain not sleeping well, I have to go to the bathroom all the time too:) So, I take a nap pretty much everyday!

...the reality that we are having a baby soon is starting to sink in. I think I've been in somewhat of denial about it:)

...we've been beyond blessed by several friends and Justin's coworkers who have provided all things "boy" that we might need, especially clothes! Now, he won't have to come home from the hospital in a pink outfit:)

...Jordan still tells everyone she sees, even family who she's told multiple times, that she's going to have a baby brother and he's in mommy's tummy. She is still VERY excited about it!

Gymnastics

Here are a few pictures of Jordan doing gymnastics. She does gymnastics once a weak for an hour at the Y. These were taken the day before Thanksgiving, when daddy got to come and watch. The only thing she could talk about in the days leading up to this class was that daddy was going to be there and she couldn't wait:)

The girls are learning to get onto the balance beam by pushing themselves up and swinging one leg over.
More balance beam work.
Flipping over the bars. I think Jordan is best at the bars. Yesterday, she was *this* close to flipping herself over without any help.

DIY Christmas Gifts

So, I've been busy working on some Christmas projects. Here are two of them. There are others, but I can't post them because the people they are for actually might read this blog:) The first picture shows the project that is on it's way to becoming a magnetic bulletin board for a pre-teen girl. I made a couple of others (that I can't show) using paint, scrapbook paper, and mod podge on top of a sheet of flashing cut to fit the picture frame. I learned that fabric, like the one in the picture, is SO much easier, and will not be as problematic as the other two have proved to be.

This next picture is a gift for Justin's mom. I found the frame at a garage sale, bought some chicken coup wire, painted the wire, and stapled it to the back of the frame.
Then I made some cute little clothespins to hold pictures, cards, notes, etc. to the wire. I hope she likes it:)

The rest of our morning

Hot chocolate to warm us up...

Working on Christmas tree decorations. I don't know about other moms, but I get a little stressed when we do crafts at our house. It's really that I just don't like the mess. And glue + glitter = big mess! However, I know that crafts are so much fun for the girls, so I deal with it:)
Our strips of paper drying so that after naps we can make a paper chain and hang it on the tree. The girls LOVED doing this. Thanks, Mom, for the hole punches...they were a big hit!

Our first snow fall of the season

The girls were SUPER excited about the first snow fall of the season! Jordan was getting Rylie dressed and telling her all about making snow ice cream, snowmen, and snow forts. Too bad there was not enough snow for all those things...especially the snow ice cream...that sounded pretty good! But, the girls made do with just eating the little bit of snow they could. It took us quite awhile to get out the door. I was a bit pessimistic about the whole thing...thinking, "It's taking us an hour to get ready to go outside, but how much you want to bet you girls won't last five minutes?" Well, they proved me wrong. We were out there nearly an hour. It was ME that couldn't last and finally had to coax the girls inside with the promise of hot chocolate:) I made some "from scratch" and it was pretty delicious!

Cute Girls

These pictures were taken this summer and I ran across them when I was looking for the picture of Justin and the girls while updating the blog design to match the season. They were so cute, I just had to post them! Rylie, Fallyn, and Jordan. Can you tell they're related? :-)