Meet My Little Baby

I went to my first doctor's appointment yesterday and had an ultrasound to find out how big the baby was. I am pleased to announce that I am already 12 weeks along! Yeah! I was thinking maybe 10 at the most. The baby is about 10cm crown to rump and weighs just over an ounce. I was not planning to feel so touched by seeing the baby, but it was amazing! Already, everything looks formed and like a baby.

My due date is August 6. Another late summer baby, but oh well. I'm hoping the time will go fast. Well, there you go. Baby #3 is well on the way. In just 8 weeks, we can find out the gender and be half-way done. Pretty exciting stuff.

Christmas Catch-up

Christmas Eve: We enjoyed a really nice Christmas Eve at my parents house. We ate yummy festive appetizers and enjoyed a great night of singing and performances. My Aunt Judy came this year and favored us with her incredible violin playing. She is amazing and can play any song on the spot without music. All the grand kids picked different parts for the nativity and they did an amazing job! We also did a talent show and many of the grand kid shared their talents with us. Adelyn danced with some of the other three-year olds for her talent.

Four angels and a stray sheep.

Most of the grand kids, all dressed up and ready for the performance of the Nativity. My dad is the narrator every year and reads the story directly from Luke 2.

Mary, Joseph, the Baby Jesus, two Wisemen, one shepherd, and a sheep.

The boys . . . just hangin' out. Preston wasn't really interested in dressing up for the nativity this year. Instead, he played with my Mom's "Car City" the whole time. He loves playing with "car cars."

Later that Night:

Our house just after Santa came. Adelyn was having a difficult time deciding how Santa was going to manage getting into our house without a chimney. I assured her that Santa is magic and would find another special way in. It looks like he made it. But how he got the barbecue in the house, I have no idea. :)

Christmas Morning: Preston is an early riser; Adelyn, not so much. Fortunately, Preston is still young enough that he had no idea what all the fuss was about and had no problem waiting until Adelyn woke up to open presents.

We (I mean Santa, of course) filled stockings this year for the first time. It was so fun to look for special little stocking stuffers for everyone and follow my parent's tradition of putting a big orange in each stocking (along with all the other candy). I love this picture of Adelyn discovering all the little treasures in her stocking.

Ryan with his stocking. Christmas is not Christmas without Ryan's summer sausage. Fortunately for Ryan, Santa did not forget.

Preston, opening another present. He was so fun and excited this year.

Addie's new Christmas dress. She loves it and has wanted to wear it every Sunday since.

Christmas Day: We spent Christmas Day with Ryan's family. We had fruit crepes and sausage for breakfast, opened gifts, and then enjoyed Christmas Dinner later in the day. We had such a nice time.

More "car cars!" Preston couldn't be happier.

A Christmas smile for the camera.

Ryan has wanted this game forever! Great job to his Mom for thinking of it.

December was a really special month. We tried to keep things more slow and simple, and focus more on teaching our kids about the true meaning and purpose of Christmas. Although most of the pictures are of the material side of Christmas, some of our favorite times this year were reading spiritual Christmas stories together as a family, singing Christmas carols, and delivering little neighbor gifts as a family. Kids make all of the holidays so much fun!

Gotta Get Something Off My Chest

So, guess what? I am pregnant!! Can you believe it?! I still can't and I've known since 2:30am on Christmas morning. (I know! That's a really strange time to take a pregnancy test, but the instructions said "the first void of the day." And guess what time pregnant women "void"...) Child #3!!! Yep! And I am only a meager 25 years old. I teased my mom that I'm right on schedule to have 10 children, just like her. Except I probably won't (ha! I mean definitely won't) because I don't possess her level of patience/endurance/faith/(insanity :), etc.

But we are all very excited to welcome another little one into our family. Ryan and I were both shocked, but feel so blessed and know the timing will be perfect. Adelyn is SURE that the baby is a girl or twins (she wants to name them Runner?? and Jumper??--thank goodness this family is not a democracy). Preston is still clueless, but LOVES babies and is so precious and gentle with them. I still can't get over the fact that Preston is not a baby anymore--he's getting to be so big! Ahhh! My family is growing so fast!! I cannot believe it!

Anyway, so hopefully this announcement will help explain the "tired" post on December 3, and the fact that I STILL haven't even posted a single picture from Christmas, and may not get around to it for at least another month. Because guess what I do ALL day and ALL night? I SLEEP. I am SOOOOO incredibly exhausted lately. It is completely ridiculous! I fall asleep everywhere and want to sleep constantly. I do the absolute bare minimum around the house (and it is definitely taking its toll). I guess I still go to work from time to time too (actually far too often over Christmas break). But anyway, I really do hope this tiredness thing goes away soon because this is SO not like me. I'll post more details and such later. But for now, I think I'll go to bed. :)