Christmas Morning

Jake's face coming down the stairs is always one of my favorite pictures to capture. The look of excitement is one to remember forever. I also love that at 4 years old he still comes down the stairs with his blankies tucked under his arm.

 Seeing his most requested toy...Mobigo...This year Jake told everyone, including Santa that he wanted a mobigo with games & batteries. Well, both his requests were fulfilled. And they are by far his most favorite things he received from Santa.

 Showing Daddy his new real tball bat

 Jason opened another playstation controller so he can finally have 2. Jake was explaining to him that now they could both play games and Jake would use the new red one while Jason used the old black one.

 Looking in our stockings...sometimes you just have to post not so great pictures of yourself to have prove that I was really there Christmas morning :)

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas Eve through pictures

Cookies

We had two cookie decorating parties this year. One with all the cousins(well...not the babies)& another with sweet friends.

Decorating with your cousins takes lots of concentration. I love these traditions we have built into our celebrations. 

When we decorated with our friends it was all snowman themed. The kids decorated cookies to look like melted snowmen. Along with having snowmen donuts for a snack. Thank you Vickie for a super fun snowman party.

Christmas Fun

I am sure there will be another post with a few more of our Christmas activities, but wanted to share these pictures for now.

One of our friends put together a ginger bread nativity making play date. It was so much fun to make these adorable nativities. I loved watching Jake concentrate so hard on making each piece of his nativity.

And then it wouldn't be Christmas without a trip to see Santa. This year we had my sister's baby Wyatt to add to Caleb & Jake's Christmas picture. We all can't believe next Christmas there will be a little Lily sitting with Santa too. This was seriously the best smile we could get on Jake's face. Yea...he doesn't do well when you tell him to smile. Oh well...hopefully next year he will have a better smile.

Lily's Room...finished

Here are pictures of Lily's finished room. However, I would like to do a little more on the wall with her name...I have a few ideas. And after taking these pictures it looks a little plain on that side of the room.

 Looking in from the door

 The guest "book" from her baby shower...each guest placed their finger print on the tree

Lit Up

As in years past my parents come over every year to help(really my stepDad does it all) put up our Christmas lights on the outside of the house.

This year Jake was into helping. And was even out on the roof helping too. But just like his Daddy he has a small fear of heights.

Paint...part 1

Finally in just a few days I will be posting pictures of Lily's finished room. But I decided instead of all one post I should do it in a couple. I guess I could have shared this post a month ago, but alas here is part 1 of getting Lily's room ready. (disclaimer:I know babies don't need elaborately decorated rooms, but I love doing it & wanted to decorate the room just for her).

Lily's room used to be our "office"...where the computer was. Along with the room that anything that didn't have a place went into that room. It was extra storage for us...and 9 times out of 10 was a HUGE disaster. Oh and we used to have a snake in the room too. Right after we found out Lily would be on her way Jason found someone to take the snake(thank goodness)!

So we cleaned out her room and then picked out a pink for the walls. Painting was the next step to getting it ready. Jake was so excited to be able to help paint the pink walls.

I had been searching the internet for girl room ideas and saw several rooms with trees. After we picked out her bedding I knew a tree would look great in Lily's room. Thank goodness for a wonderful high school friends who also happens to be an amazing artist(or really good at anything creative). I showed her a couple pictures of what I liked and away she went. Sketching a tree on the wall free hand and then painting it. Thank you Marisa...if you want something painted on your wall let me know & I will pass her along your way.

Just about the time the tree was finished we got the call that some of her furniture was in.

I love how curvy & girly her bed is!! And hopefully when she is a teenager her big dresser will make up for the fact that she has the room with a tiny closet. Jake's room has a closet that could almost count as a whole other bedroom.

Stay tuned part 2 the finished room will be up a little later this week.

32 weeks

I am now 8 months pregnant. I really can't believe how close we are to meeting our little Lily Kate.

My c-section is scheduled for January 23rd. I am still holding out that she will come on her own & I will have a chance at a vbac. Because of my previous c-section my doctor's office won't induce & they won't let me go to my due date. Which leaves everything up to Lily to be ready to come on her own. I am a little more ok with the c-section now. However, it is still not my ideal way to welcome our baby girl. I want a vbac so that my baby can be handed directly to me when she comes out. Not just shown to me all wrapped up as her & her Daddy leave the operating room. The recovery from a vaginal delivery is so much easier than a c-section. I really wonder about taking care of a baby & Jake after a c-section. I know Jason will be here to help & of course my parents & Jason's parents are going to be able to help too.

Sorry about this months pictures...we are still using our half broken camera & of course this is the best picture we could get today.

I have my next doctors appointment on December 12th with another ultrasound. At my last appointment she was breech...I think she might still be that way. I still feel all her movement in the same spot as before...so I am thinking she hasn't turned. But I could be wrong. Starting with my appointment on the 12th I will then be going to the doctor twice a week until she is born. Monday's will be an ultrasound & then on Thursday I go back for an NST. This is all because of my gestational diabetes. I had the same thing with Jake. At the end they want to keep a closer watch that she is not getting too big.

Holy heart burn...I have the worst heart burn of my life. It has been bad throughout my pregnancy, but now it is pretty much an all day thing. But it is the small inconveniences to having a baby.

Everything else is going great! Trying to take it all in before it is all over. I missed Jake being in my belly after he was born & I am sure I will miss having Lily all to myself too once she is here. 

O' Christmas Tree

This weekend we decorated our Christmas tree...I love our tree! It is us on a tree.

Sometimes I think I want a Martha Stewart theme tree. With beautiful matching balls & spiral ribbon wrapping through the tree. Everything else in the house would coordinate with our tree & everyone would comment on how beautiful it was. Because really isn't that the only purpose of a Martha Stewart tree...beauty?

As we decorated our tree this weekend our family of 3, with 4 year old helping hands putting all his ornaments in one spot together on the tree. Belly swollen, 8 months pregnant with our new baby girl. I knew that we would always have our Christmas tree. Full of memories & fun. Not everything perfect or in the "right" spot. This tree is us & just looking at each ornament brought back every memory from that year.

We have the little house..."New Home" 2002...which was also the same year Jason proposed to me. How special that we spent our first Christmas in our new house and he put a gourgeous ring on my finger and asked me to be his wife forever.

The other ornaments throughout the years that we started collecting together.

The 25 classic cars that cover our tree(for our 1st Christmas were really all we had on our tree). Jason's mom started buying him the Hallmark classic car collection when he was a little boy. And every year as soon as Christmas ornaments are out she gets him his new car for the year.

The one from Jake's 1st Christmas...to celebrate our tiny 2 month old little boy who changed our world the day he was born.

And then there are the others...Some my mom buys when she sees one I might like & some we buy when we see them at the store. And every year along with Jason's car my mother-in-law picks out an ornament for me & gets Jake a new ornament (or 2).

So when you come to my house and see our beautiful tree full of memories...I hope you will see the life that has been lived through the ornaments on our tree. The blessings we have experienced over the years are all displayed on that tree.