A Very Merry Christmas

This whole month has been full of Christmas parties, good food, lights at Temple Square, and a Jon Schmidt piano concert. It was a great holiday season. We had a nice Christmas Day full of family, food, and relaxation. On Christmas Eve we opened gifts with Mitch's family and had dinner. On Christmas morning Mitch and I opened our gifts to each other and I made German pancakes (Mitch had never had them before. He liked them). Then we made the rounds to grandparents and my parents. I was so glad the weather was great for driving and we were able to see everyone so it turned out nice! It's so much easier when the weather cooperates.

We were definitely spoiled this year. I gave Mitch some new running shoes, a U of U hoodie, and the 2nd Transformers movie. He gave me some pieces to my nativity scene, the game Scrabble (which I just beat him at!), and some super cool Fairy Tale books for me and Baby. He knows me so well. Mitch also got a nice tool chest for the garage, a racing car jack that he thinks is super cool because it's blue and silver like his car, some more DVDs, some work clothes, another U of U hoodie (he wore them both this weekend and loves them both), and some gift cards. I also got a sewing machine that I am so excited to use, lots of cute shoes, pjs, gift cards (here I come Barnes and Noble!), Skookie pans to bake giant, gooey cookies, which we used last night with Kevin and Nicole and we all agreed that they were amazing, an awesome scarf, a much needed new wallet, and a few other trinkets. It was lovely. We are so spoiled.

The best part was the gift we gave ourselves. While we were in London we bought a 2010 London calendar to give ourselves for Christmas. Sort of dorky, I know. We wrapped it about 3 weeks ago and wrote "To: Us, From: Us" on the package. We completely forgot about it after that. On Christmas morning we were opening gifts and Mitch said, "Oh, here's one to us, from us." And I said, "Mitch, what did you do?," thinking he had bought us something that I didn't know about. Needless to say we were both genuinely surprised when we opened the gift and realized we had completely forgot about the calendar. Ha, ha. It was pretty funny.

And unborn Baby even got a few gifts of her own. She got two shirts that say, "I want a pony" (thanks Nicole and Katie!) and one other shirt with a horse on it (thanks Gma and Gpa Bott!). So cute. Every little girl needs a pony ... Too bad Mitch is allergic to hay!!! Maybe she can convince her Grandpa Miles to have a horse (or two) again. Or she might just have to take horse riding lessons for a few summers and have that suffice. Anyways, she is spoiled already and she's not even here yet. I can only imagine what her Christmas will be like next year ...

I love Christmas time. It was three years ago on Christmas when Mitch proposed to me. That was such a great day, second only to our wedding day. I'm so glad we've been able to spend the last 3 Christmases together. I am also thankful for this time to reflect on the birth of our Savior and what that means to me. I have so much to be grateful for! Merry Christmas!!!

Half Way There

She'll be here before we know it; we only have 3.5 months left! I can't believe how fast it's going by. We had a doctor's appointment last week and the baby is doing great. The doctor did say she's "a tad small," but he didn't seem too concerned. Hopefully she'll catch up in the next couple of weeks. I did ask him about my bloody noses. According to him, it's perfectly normal to have 2 bloody noses a day. Good to know I'm normal. I just wish they'd stop. I've been trying vaseline the last couple of days. It seems to help some, but my nose still bleeds at least once a day. Other than that, I feel great. I really can't complain. Mitch is a great help and is always trying to make me more comfortable. He's so sweet.

The baby kicks a lot more now and Mitch has felt her move a few times. It's pretty cute how excited he gets when he feels her move. We're both really excited, I just hope the second half goes by as fast as the first. We still need to get a crib. Mitch said he'll make that his Christmas break project since he has time off work after Christmas. I want to get a crib that we can paint so it will match the furniture. And by that, I mean, "one that Mitch can paint," since I wouldn't be much help in that department. Ha,ha. Plus, it will turn out way better if Mitch does it because he's such a perfectionist.

I think the only one who won't be ready for baby is Harvey. Pretty sure he'll freak out when he no longer gets 100% of our love and affection. Poor kitty. He's so social and LOVES attention so this change will be hard for him. Hopefully he and baby can be friends. We'll find out soon enough ... for now I just wish he'd stay out of the Christmas tree!!!

I'm Alive and Well

I've never been a fan of Kenny Chesney. I just don't care for most of his music. But I LOVE his song "I'm Alive." I think it has a lot of meaning. I'm probably going to make it my own personal theme song. I don't know for sure what that means, but I think it means I'll try to remember this song on a rough day. Like a day when Seasonal Affective Disorder is in full swing (which thanks to my light lamp and treadmill hasn't been bad at all yet this winter). Anyways, give it a listen ...

And here are the lyrics:

So damn easy to say that life's so hard
Everybody's got their share of battle scars
As for me I'd like to thank my lucky stars that
I'm alive and well

It'd be easy to add up all the pain
And all the dreams you've sat and watch go up in flames
Dwell on the wreckage as it smolders in the rain
But not me... I'm alive

And today you know that's good enough for me
Breathing in and out's a blessing can't you see
Today's the first day of the rest of my life
And I'm alive and well
I'm alive and well

Stars are dancin' on the water here tonight
It's good for the soul when there's not a soul in sight
This motor's caught its wind and brought me back to life
Now I'm alive and well

And today you know that's good enough for me
Breathing in and out's a blessing can't you see
Today's the first day of the rest of my life
Now I'm alive and well
Yeah I'm alive and well

Merry Christmas From Harvey

Now you know why our tree looks so disheveled.

I'm Spoiled

It was my birthday and we literally celebrated the entire weekend. I was definitely spoiled by Mitch and our families. They are all so kind.

Friday night Mitch's parents had us over for dinner and cake and ice cream. Kathy made a delicious red velvet cake that was decorated with a little baby on top. It was really cute. We also painted these Christmas tree ornaments that look like sugar cookies. They turned out really cute. Thanks Kevin, Kathy, and Katie for the fun night and for the gifts!
Saturday we slept in, went to the gym, and ran some errands. Then Mitch surprised me and took me to dinner at one of my all-time favorite places: The Lion House Pantry. So yummy. I swear I could eat 5 rolls in one sitting. It was great. Of course we went and saw the lights at Temple Square afterwards. They are really cool this year. I've gone to see the lights every year for my birthday since I was 16. It's sort of my tradition you could say. Except last year. Last year it was always snowing and I didn't want to go in the snow. But this year we made it out and we weren't disappointed. They had some really cool nativity scenes and these super cool bags with lights in them.

The bags have words cut out of them in different languages. The Cambodian ones were all upside down. Mitch thought that was super funny. But I'm sure no one even knows it's upside down besides him and a handful of other people who actually speak Cambodian... anyways, they were really neat to see. They also a nativity scene floating in the reflection pool, which is really pretty. I love nativity scenes. I want to collect them.

It was a nice night and Mitch always makes it fun. Since I already knew what I was getting for my birthday (the coat I picked out in Europe), Mitch had me go on a treasure hunt to find it. He had clues hid all over the house. The problem was that Harvey found one of the clues before I did and hid it under the couch. We couldn't find it anywhere. We finally realized he probably put it under the couch. Yup. And guess what else we found under there? Oh, about a dozen Christmas tree ornaments! What a stinker. And we thought he wasn't knocking anything off the tree! Well, it gave us a good laugh anyways. And I eventually did make to the end of the treasure hunt and found my coat, mittens, and scarf. And, I can actually button my coat up despite the baby belly. Not for much longer, but I'll have it for next year. :) Thanks, Mitch for the great presents! And, he also made me pancakes for breakfast. He seriously makes the fluffiest pancakes. They look like they should be on a pancake ad. I don't know how he does it.

Sunday night my fam came over and we celebrated mine and Jordan's birthdays. His birthday is two days after mine. It was fun to have everyone over. Thanks everyone for coming and for the birthday gifts! We got Jordan this duck hunting game that has a remote controlled duck and a laser gun. It's pretty sweet and they had a good time with it. Here we are, the birthday kids, me and my handsome brother:

Then, on Monday at work my fabulous coworkers had lunch, balloons, and cake for me. Yeah, I work with some great people. They even gave me some Colorescience lipstick. (LOVE Colorescience!)

Monday night Mitch and I went to the Jazz game. Okay, this wasn't really a birthday celebration, but it was SO exciting nontheless. They played the Spurs and it was the craziest game I've ever been to (never mind that I've only ever been to 6 Jazz games in my life). It was a nail biter. There was this lady behind us who was SO mad at the Jazz, particularly Boozer. I wanted to turn around and say, "If you don't like how they're playing, then YOU go down there and do it!" Jeez, don't you think they're trying their hardest lady? And they won, so calm down! It was pretty funny, but irritating at the same time. I'm so glad they won, especially considering that the refs made some horrible and completely unfair calls. Or didn't make calls when they totally should have. It was really fun to be there. I love it when the entire crowd is on its feet, yelling at the top of their lungs. It's great.

Well, 26 feels the same as 25. And I really don't feel any older than I did at 19. Is that weird? I had a great birthday weekend though and felt very loved. Thanks everyone also for your phone calls, emails, and thoughtfulness!