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Busy, busy and wonderful has the last week been! I did fail to take a single picture over the last week however.  I really need to get better about that.   Especially with this baby girl on the way.

Last weekend was filled with many Christmas celebrations and it even snowed most of the day on Christmas Eve.  Both of our sisters live out of town, but came back for Christmas, so it was really fun to see them.  I always feel a bit spoiled after Christmas, but we just have really wonderful families that are so kind to us.  My mom did save me by taking a few pictures while we were at her house on Saturday.

33 week belly shot with my sis...

This was one of my favorite presents.  If you can't tell (which is highly likely based on this picture) it is a little snow-leopard print one-piece outfit for our little girl.  It it warm and cuddly and has a hood with little ears.  Her coming home outfit I hope!

Bright and early on Tuesday morning we headed out to Faithwalkers, a conference that our association of churches has every year.  Knowing that I would be over 7 months pregnant this year, I wasn't sure about going.  I thought I would be really uncomfortable and unable to really pay attention to many of the speakers, but I am so glad that we went.  I can't really imagine better preparation for parenthood and other than being a little more tired and needing to take more walking breaks I felt pretty darn good throughout the week.  It was so refreshing to remember that what is really important is our relationship with God that created us and knows us and desires for us to seek to know and follow him.  So simple, but so hard to live out on a consistent basis I know.  I don't know if this is a really a new year's resolution, but I really want to focus on connecting with God in a real way through prayer and reading His word and making prayers much more fervent.  I know that everything else that I want to see in my life will flow out of that. 

Happy 2011 in a few hours!!

Our Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas Eve!  My office is closed today, so I am home cooking, cleaning, wrapping, apparently updating the blog, and potentially working out if I can find some motivation :)
Every year Adam and I pick a night to celebrate Christmas for just our little family and last night was our night.  I saw a recipe that I thought looked really good a while ago on Iowa Girl Eats blog: Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast with Wild Rice Stuffing.  We also made a cranberry chutney to go with it and an easy romaine/mandarin orange/dried cranberry/etc. salad.  The recipe was slightly more ambitious than I usually attempt, but it was actually quite easy.  I don't know if this is a pregnancy craving or not, but lately anything with sour cream I am big fan of, so there was much sampling of the ride mixture going on in the kitchen last night :)

Cooking Together...

The spread...

After dinner we exchanged presents.  We had a spending limit this year since we have a new member of the family to be preparing for.  I got Adam a DVD of "the Mysterious Islands".  It combines two of his favorite things: animals + biblical truth.  I do believe he liked it, because we also watched it last night, but I ended up feeling a little lame with my gift, because he was so thoughtful!   I got a cute little newborn outfit for our little girl (that he picked out by himself), a picture frame for a new family picture of the three of us, a high school musical ornament, a CD I have been wanting and a letter.  Adam has started a tradition of writing me a letter each Christmas, which is honestly probably my favorite thing to receive.
It was a wonderful, relaxing night.   I am just thankful that I have such a wonderful man to start building a family with.  Next year there will be three of us in our little family!  Maybe even a fourth on the way - ha...I'm totally not sure about that :)

Okay....now I am off to pray that my sister is able to get here safely tonight!!  It needs to stop snowing :(

More Baby Shower Pictures and 31 Week Update!!

I failed at taking any pictures of my own at my shower, but I just got some more pictures from my friend Allison.  So for my own memory keeping and your viewing pleasure :)  more pictures!!!

Here is a belly shot of me at the shower.  I was 30 weeks along.

 Here is a picture of the "fire" aka a video of a crackling fire.  How fun!

Everyone chatting and eating yummy food

More friends chatting.  Notice my friend Julie in the red cardigan.  She had her baby yesterday!!!

I just love this owl pillow.  I registered for it, so I guess that is obvious, but I was very excited about it :)

 The tray of baby necessities....one of the games we played at the shower was to try to remember everything on the tray.

And a little update for my 31st week.  I saw this little survey on another blog and I thought it would be fun to fill out for the next few weeks until she arrives!


How Far Along: 31 Weeks

Maternity Clothes: I did find one pre-pregnancy shirt that still fits me this week.  Other than that all maternity clothes other than sweatpants and Adam's t-shirts to lounge around home in.

Gender: Sweet baby girl

Movement: I have been feeling her more and more lately.  I am supposed to start doing kick counts, but have failed at that so far.  Mostly, I just try to make sure that I can feel her being active everyday.

Sleep: I'm sleeping very well this week, but....I think it's mostly because I am starting to be exhausted all of the time again

What I miss:  Okay...this sounds really vain and probably is, but my CLOTHES!!  I really miss having more than a couple options of what to wear everyday.

Cravings: I have been craving everything orange flavored lately.  I bought a big bag of oranges to eat, had an amazing orange flavored dark chocolate at work, I bought orange/cranberry muffin mix to make, and I have been enjoying orange flavored teas at various coffee shops.  Ha.  

Symptoms: I am starting to swell.  I was really hoping this wouldn't happen to me :(  My ring is getting a bit tight and my shoes are noticeably tighter especially towards the end of the day.  Other than that...normal stuff.  My back hurts if I am on my feet for a long period of time.  Really though I think I have it pretty good.

Best Moment this week: I am pretty sure that Adam and I agreed on two different baby girl names today.  That is serious progress!

Baby shower!!

Last Saturday little girl H and I had our first baby shower and it was so much fun!!  I think that this was actually only the second baby shower that I have ever been to, but I am sure that is going to be changing going forward :)  It was such a great time though.  I really felt so blessed from everyone and their kindness to us.  We were given SO many cute, cute outfits that I can't wait to dress her up in as well as many other things that we needed and helped to feel a little more prepared.
My friend Allison hosted at her house and her house was the talk of the shower!!  It was so christmas-y and wonderful.  I think that she is just a great decorator and such a great friend too.

Here is one of the cute baby girl outfits we got.  Adam normally does not approve of Hawkeye clothes in colors other than black and gold, but he says that an exception can be made for the baby clothes :)