With saving money in mind, I decided to put my nice camera to good use and try to take some maternity pictures at home. Obviously, I knew that they wouldn’t look as good as if I went to a professional photographer, but I was hoping I could edit them to make them look halfway decent. Hopefully this baby doesn’t come before we get a second try, because otherwise we will be stuck with these.
I know the belly is what we want in the picture, but apparently Andrew was willing to sacrifice the top of my head instead of backing up a few steps.
I figured that maybe Andrew could zoom in on the belly while I was on the phone with my mother. Instead I got a full body shot with an excited Ralph running through.
Yes, the fetus and I are so large now that we tower over the tree in this artsy shot by Andrew. Next stop, climbing a skyscraper in a pregnant rage over not being able to find French Toast Crunch in stores yet.
On New Years Eve six years ago, I had my New Year’s kiss with a cute boy. I never thought that I would end up marrying him and now I’m even having a baby with him.
This is the first photo we have together from that night. It isn’t the best picture but, at the time, we didn’t realize this would be a picture we would look back on fondly. Eight days later, we were officially dating. Having our anniversary practically on New Year’s Day means that it is easy for us to look back at each year and what we have accomplished.
Christmas Eve was spent with my family at my house. It was nice to not have to travel. But all of the workaholics in my family worked a half day. Somehow the morning started with my brother being missing, but not really. He wasn’t around when my sister went to pick him up for work that morning and he wasn’t answering his phone. Now, my brother has a tendency towards bad luck, so we spent the morning in a half panic until Molly spotted him on the job site a few hours later.
Of course, our familial concern only made Mason crabby. So when he showed up with his contribution of burrito flavored beef jerky, he was angry that we cared so much to bombard his phone with messages and even go so far as to Facebook his roommate (who we haven’t met) to make sure he wasn’t dead.
But besides Molly spending her work day mentally planning Mason’s funeral and thinking about what to say in the eulogy she would give, the day was pretty laid back.
Andrew, my mom, the dogs, and I spent the morning playing cards.
Then we waited for everyone to arrive. It was a very odd holiday because there was no snow on the ground, our grandparents were traveling, and we didn’t give any gifts because we had decided to spend the weekend at Mystic Lake a few weeks ago. So we watched Christmas specials, stuffed ourselves with food, and played 13 rounds of Mexican Train.
Then, it was time for the traditional ugly Christmas sweater family picture. This year we didn’t have anyone to take the picture for us, so once again we resorted to the self timer.
This year, my family decided to take a small vacation together instead of buying gifts. We were sick of trying to figure out what everyone wanted. It was hard to find something my dad would actually like that was made in America, something techy for Andrew, and finding anything that my sister would actually like and not just feel obligated to keep.
So after trying to plan several trips that were out of our price range, we settled on spending a weekend at Mystic Lake Casino. None of us are gamblers, except my brother Mason who is extraordinarily lucky when it comes to things like bingo, so this vacation was a bit strange to plan. We may have been dazzled by the off-brand holiday cirque show they had playing in their showroom this season.
Check-in was Friday. Andrew and I were able to get on the road fairly soon after work, despite me deciding to make a mug of tea and a cheese quesadilla for the road as Andrew was starting the car. We checked in, brought our luggage up to the room and the hijinks commenced. My sister brought Andrew an ugly Christmas sweater to wear later in the evening. He tried it on while my mom was out of the room and this may have happened:
Yes we are immature and changed my mom’s background to this wonderful picture of her son-in-law. We thought it was hilarious; she was slightly amused.
I have had a great time looking through old Christmas pictures, so I figured I’d share a couple.
The first Christmas that Andrew and I were dating there was a huge snowstorm, so we didn’t even get to spend it together. Instead, me and my teenage siblings made snowmen in the front yard. It was obviously hard work.
I just wanted to show that I have a super cool sister.
This morning, I was honored at a baby shower that was being thrown in the toddler room where I work. It was a morning filled with delicious food (including cupcakes), very thoughtful gifts, and a fun time for the toddlers. There was enough seating for stuffed animals to sit with the children, very sweet words of advice exchanged, and a lot of toddlers running around with their pals.
My mother in law made me a beautiful quilt with Berenstain Bear fabric and even included the book “The Berenstain Bears and the Week at Grandmas.” I remember loving these books when I was little and I am so excited to share it with the baby.
My sister was able to come and she even spent Saturday night along with my mom at my house, which made for a fun girls night.
As a pregnant lady, I can do what I want.
Like cut a brownie out of the middle of the pan because that’s the part I like the best.
My boys like to spend quality time together.
In the meantime I struggled with the SD card reader and tried to get pictures for a different post about our weekend events. But today, technology is smarter than me so that will have to wait.
Thanksgiving is almost over for us this year. (We have one more Friendsgiving tonight to attend and more leftovers to eat this weekend.) I’m excited for the Christmas season to start, but this year I want everything to slow down because as soon as the holidays are over, the baby will be here.
But right now, I’d just like to talk about the differences between my family’s Thanksgiving and Andrew’s family Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving #1 happened on Thursday and involved us getting up at 6am to drive down and see my family. My family get-togethers are loud, raucous, and generally not predictable. This year wasn’t too crazy, but it still involved 5 dogs (one was shut into the only bathroom in the house so anytime someone wanted to use it, they had to be careful not to let the dog out), a fight over car maintenance, and an in-depth conversation about nose hair trimming. I’m sure Andrew is still disappointed he missed out on last year.
Today, Ralph took one of his nightmare trips to the groomer. He shakes the entire ride over and acts like we are driving him to his death. But we always request the same groomer (Lisa) because she knows how to handle our little furry monster. According to Lisa, he likes her enough to give her kisses while she trims his face. So his experience must not be that horrible.
I wish Ralph liked the groomer a little more because his breed needs a trim often or he starts to look like a pile of fur. Here is what he looked like this morning:
He could hardly see and his giant ears are were full of tangles. When he put his head down, he didn’t even look like a dog, just a pile of fluff. Don’t get me wrong, he is incredibly cute like this. But he really needs to be able to see obstacles in his path. So after a trip to the doggy spa, we have a tired, but handsome puppy.
I’m just glad to have my baby home. It is so strange to not have him jingle-jangling around the house. And Andrew was the one to drive him to the groomers, so I’m the good guy Ralph will still cuddle with afterwards.