December 2012

Current Weather:  72 degrees and partly cloudy
Current Gas Price: $3.17 per gallon
Total Cockroach Count:  7

Hello Family! We hope you are having a wonderful new year so far! We certainly are! We have been getting back into the swing of things this past week.  Wes began a new block (PEDS) on Thursday so he's having to adjust to a busier schedule and I'm having to get used to walking as much as I usually do at work with a bigger belly!  This past week was very exhausting and it made me slightly nervous about the "physical strain" of just walking up and down the hallways all day...especially in a few months!

*Haha, side note, but this past week most of my students asked if I was pregnant after noticing my belly and one of my groups of second graders wanted to touch my belly.  So after letting them each put a hand on my belly one of them said, "oh wow, I can feel it moving!" and then they all started saying, "me too!" Haha, it made me laugh because as of now I still have NOT felt it move so there is no way that they could have felt it moving...but it was so sweet!

We had a great time with all of you over the Christmas holiday.  As always, we love spending time with all of you and miss seeing you more often! Here is a look at our December:

Us before a friend's Christmas party! We attended several parties this Christmas...they were all very fun! I think its such an exciting time of year that its worth celebrating many times :)

Just grabbing a quick ultrasound before the party!  This is the ultrasound that we used in our  Christmas letter...baby was 13 weeks then! Here's another look at it :) 

We were both surprised to see how long its legs had grown! Only three weeks earlier  they were just little paddle-like things sticking out of its body! Craziness...

My belly was already big enough that my belly button ring was showing under my shirt so it was time to say goodbye to it! I've had that thing for over 10 years and it honestly felt really weird to not have it there! Haha, even though I didn't even notice it anymore, or pay any attention to it, it was kind of sad to get rid of it! 

Adam Walters was visiting the south for vacation and he stayed with Brandt Weininger in Greenville for a while.   They both drove to Greenwood to visit Wesley! It was so nice to see them and we appreciated them coming down our way :)

Early Christmas present from Wesley...a pregnancy pillow! This is called a  "Snoogle" and although it's pretty crazy looking it really has helped me sleep better and also to stay on my side! Thanks Wes! 

Wesley had to work all day (and all night) on Christmas day so I was so happy that Mom and Libby came to spend Christmas with me again this year! It was great to see them and get a little"girl time" between Wesley's shifts!  Here are some pictures from their visit:

Making Christmas cookies! I was rather intimidated with making the cookies from scratch as I had had a bad experience with sugar cookie dough a few years prior (and because I can't seem to get the hang of rolling dough) but this recipe was really easy and they turned out delicious! 

Our lovely cookies! We brought a plate of them over to the hospital for Wesley and the other residents working  on Christmas day!

Wes and I decided to tackle our first Christmas ham this year and it turned out awesome! Wesley was the real hero of the day because I (of course) bought the wrong type of ham AND didn't read the directions on the recipe all the way through so we had to improvise but Wesley handled it like a champ and it was delicious! We used the left over ham to bring ham sandwiches to the residents and make bean soup later that week! 

I am SOOOO behind on my scrapbook for 2012 so Mom and Libby  each made several pages for me! Thanks so much gals! I owe you big time :) 

I bought Wes "Ticket to Ride - Europe" for Christmas so we played  it one night! It was a lot of fun!   Mom bought me that pink bathrobe for Christmas and I wore it most of the week! Haha, while all of them were dressed in normal clothes I was rocking the sweatpants and bathrobe all week! Luckily, I received some maternity pants from Dana, Dad & Lynn, so I'm more comfortable now :) 

I bought a box of 10 holiday puzzles several months ago and Wes and I have been slowly putting them together.   We still had a few that we had not done so we spent an evening putting a couple together!  

After a great week with Mom and Libs we headed up to Ohio for Christmas with the Haldermans, Dad & Lynn, and John & Kim! Mom was a beast on the drive up and ended up driving the entire way! She made the drive very easy on us which was really nice! Thanks Mom! 

Here are some pictures from the Christmas/New Year holiday:

Halderman clan in front of the tree! 

We spent some time taking family photos in the snow as this was the first time that everyone was able to be together  in a while! Haha, it was rather chilly but we got some great pictures! 

After talking about it for several months we finally loaded Dana's piano into the truck  and took it to Toledo (well, everyone besides Wes and I took it to Toledo).  It was quite an adventure but they handled it like master movers!

*Don't worry, I didn't help with the loading of the piano! 

Sporting our "growing bellies'" at 16 weeks! 

Brannon Christmas/New Years celebration! 

Again, it was so great seeing all of you! We've had an exciting beginning to our new year but we'll have to tell you all about that in the January post! Our next doctor's appointment is on January 21st so we should know our baby's gender then! We'll give y'all a call and let you know! We can't wait...then I'll feel like we can finally get moving on the nursery and basically everything...because we haven't done very much :) 

Love you!