December | 14 months | Christmas | 37 weeks

I am in a constant state of catching up on this blog!  I realized yesterday while doing my yearly wrap up that I haven't written about Christmas or hardly anything we did in December- fail. 

We were busy! From going to see Santa to celebrating Emily's second Christmas, December 2012 was a great month for us.

The local library had a Gingerbread Man story time event and Emily loved it!  She sat and listened to a story about the Gingerbread man, went on a 'hunt' for the gingerbread man and got to do her first craft project.  I was worried it might be a little over her head but she did great and had so much fun (and so did I).

Emily turned 14 months on Christmas- time needs to slow down already!  She is so smart and her personality makes me laugh every single day.  She is very opinionated and feisty- this hasn't changed since the minute she was born.  She is saying a few more words and figuring out puzzles.  The things she comes up with while we are playing amazes me every day.  She has recently started experimenting with running (fast walking), walking backwards, and jumping.  She still loves her books and music and is always dancing.  I could go on and on, this is just such a fun age!

Right before Christmas we got a special surprise package from Kelly and Blakely, Emily was in HEAVEN!  There was a drum, instruments and a Minnie Mouse stuffed animal inside.  She is in love with Minnie, she seriously won't leave her anywhere.  Thank you so much K & B, we love you!

On Christmas Eve we went to church with Steve's parents.  Church always reminds me of my mom, and Christmas service with the beautiful songs and Christmas decorations is even harder.  At the end of the service everyone sang Silent Night and I was holding Emily and the gratitude I felt was overwhelming.  I started crying and couldn't hold it back.  I let the tears fall and Emily looked at me, touched my face, gave me a hug and then poked me in the eye.  Ah, my daughter, she knows how to make me smile.

We had Emily's second Christmas at our house.  Steve and I got Emily up that morning and spent some time just the three of us checking out the wrapped presents under the Christmas tree (and taking a million pictures).  Of course Emily had no idea what was going on but it was still fun to watch her check out all her gifts.  Steve's parents came over for breakfast and then we opened presents.  Emily wasn't really into the unwrapping but she really liked everything that came out of the boxes.  It was a perfect day all around.

 

The day after Christmas we got our first big snow of the year.  Steve and Grandpa came home from work and we took Emily out in the snow....she was not a huge fan.  We couldn't help but laugh at how cute she was in her little snow suit, adorable!!

 

 

I'm officially full term with baby boy and he can come any time now!  I've had quite a bit of hip and pelvic pain in the past few weeks and running around after/picking up a babytoddler is not getting any easier the bigger my belly gets.  Our midwife sent us for a non-stress test last week because I wasn't feeling as much movement and thankfully everything was fine.  It was reassuring to hear his little heart beating for 20 minutes.