Nothing like Christmas at HOME

We went to the "Lights at Greenlake" this year where they line the pathway around the lake with candles.  It was fun to walk around and sing Christmas songs.  Leah and Shay came as well.  It was fun to see people who had Christmas light necklaces and who decorated baby strollers.  We took advantage of the free hot cocoa too!

I took the twins to see the huge gingerbread houses at the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Seattle.  Second annual tradition :)

My favorite little reindeer

Desmond makes my heart melt!

We made a sweet gingerbread house at Leah and Shay's house.  We really implemented a 'modern' style if you can notice.  We like to call it the Love Nest because of the heart shaped window :)

This is random, but I wanted to add it because I spent a long time on this little art project for the baby's room.  I hope she likes it!

It snowed about a week before Christmas! The girls took advantage of the small amount of snow and made a pretty sweet snowman.

Brady painted my toenails, because it hurts to bend over.  It was a dream come true!

I wanted to make a special Christmas treat with the girls, so I decided to buy a bunch of doughnuts, frosting and candy.  This is what we created!  Doughnut Christmas trees.  Boy, they were delicious :)

Last year, we got our Christmas tree at a tree lot in Wedgwood.  That was the first time I'd ever gone to a place where the tree was already cut.  To be honest, it was a little disappointing.  So, this year I convinced Brady to drive to North Bend and cut a tree down ourselves!  Brady had never cut a Christmas tree down himself so it was a fun experience for both of us.  Look how excited he is in these pics!

That night, we went out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant.  It was mediocre but it was fun to go on a date :)

Christmas with my family was great.  I loved being home and spending it with my family.  My parents' house was full for most of the week.  Jared and Jane were in town from Indiana, Ann and Adam were staying there from Utah, and Leah and Shay were there as well.  It made for a huge slumber party every night!  We played lots of ping pong and other games.  It was also just sweet to sit and talk and spend time together.  I was pretty rusty at the beginning of the week with my ping pong skills, but towards the end I started getting back into my groove.  I'm still better than Brady and that's all that really matters :)

On Christmas Eve, it's our family's tradition to act out the Nativity scene.  Brady hadn't participated in many years because with his family, there are enough kids for them to do all the parts.  But with my family, it's all adults because a lot of my siblings do their own thing on Christmas Eve.  I was so excited to be a legit Mary with a real baby bump!  Brady did a pretty good job at Joseph as well.  Colin was our donkey of course.  I put all of my weight on him when he was carrying me into Bethlehem and he about died.  hehe

I love my parents' Christmas tree and the angel. Brings back so many fond memories :)

I was happy to spend my Christmas with Orejon especially.  What a good boy.

Des knows how to smile for the camera :)

Christmas day was sweet.  When all of the family got there, we each opened our gifts from the gift exchange.  Adam had Brady and so we went in together on a bike trainer for Brady.  It was a total surprise because each time Brady told me he wanted a trainer, I would say that it's too expensive and that I'd have no idea what kind of trainer to get.  He was really happy with it and it made me feel good.  He's already started working out with it... Shedding Lbs. left and right!

Tracy had me for the gift exchange and made me the most amazing advent calendar.  I am still so happy and excited about it.  That was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid, and now we'll be able to do the same with our family!  It's such a good focus on the Savior as well, because each day, you add a part of the nativity scene.  I remember fighting over who got to put baby Jesus up on Christmas Eve because it was the most special one.

It's kind of crazy to think that next Christmas we are going to have a 10 month old baby!  She probably won't understand much, but it'll be fun to have her with us and to start our own traditions as a little family.

On the 26th, we drove out to White Pass to spend the night with Jared, Jane, Shay, Leah and Emily and to go sledding the next day.  The snow wasn't the best, but the company was.  Leslie and Bart and their kids came too.  We broke half of our sleds on the icy snow, but we still made some sweet sledding trains!

Brady hurt his ankle while sledding... poor guy

Cool pose, Brades

Yeah this is gross... he found some moss so his first instinct is to make it look like hair.

I think Indy went down the sledding hill the most out of everyone!  She had a really good time

We spent New Years Eve with the Coppin Family.  We played Telestrations, which is now one of my favorite games. They prepared a ton of Sushi and Asian foods... I partook of some of it :)  Brady was in heaven though because he only gets sushi on his birthday since I don't really like it.

"Uncle Brady is my favorite!"

Random... but studly

The first picture of 2014!  We're pretty excited for our new adventures this year.

Update on baby news: Everything is going pretty well.  I'm getting bigger and bigger... good thing that's how it's supposed to work!  The baby is on track for growth and I'm doing pretty good.  I stopped running after 28 weeks because of sharp pains in my sides, but I've been trying to walk and I went swimming once (haha) hopefully I'll go a few more times.  It's been hard for me to not be able to exercise like I used to.  I'll be able to soon enough though!  I am almost 34 weeks pregnant.  I've had some nerve pain in my lower back the past month or so, but it has subsided a bit.  Nothing to complain about really... just the fact that putting on shoes or tights or really anything on my lower half is almost impossible.  I try to get Brady to help me as much as I can :)

I've been feeling kind of sad lately about stretch marks that are appearing on my tummy, but Brady read me an article the other day about a woman who before she was pregnant was told to never have kids because they ruin your body.  After she had her first baby, she had gained and lost 50 pounds but her perspective on her body image was amazing.  She basically talked about the beauty and power that comes with growing a baby and how only women can do that.  It really is a miracle and my little girl and I are growing together.  I really liked this quote from the article, "My body is full of life. My body is powerful. My body made me a mother." I was grateful that Brady found that article because it was exactly what I needed to hear.  I shouldn't be ashamed of my stretch marks, because they remind me and will always remind me of this special time of being pregnant and bonding with my baby.  Here's a link to the whole article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865593385/Babies-ruin-bodies.html

34 Weeks!