Christmas 2009

Since I am too pregnant to fly, Jake and I spent Christmas this year in DC. We had a fabulous holiday together. The weather even cooperated and gave us a fabulous snow storm (which is rare for this area) to make it a white Christmas week.


This year my mom gave me a new ornament (my siblings and I get a new ornament every year) that made me even more excited for Paige to come! The little penguin in the middle swings back and forth.



It was strange not to be in Colorado with all our families, but we still kept some of the traditions going. We had great food starting with a big dinner on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day (like my mom usually does), complete with a beautiful ham. I also put out bowls of candy like Jake's mom does and we had chips and queso (I even have the same crockpot that Jake's mom puts her queso in!).

On Christmas day we slept in, then went and saw Sherlock Holmes. It was a pretty good action movie; Jake liked it a lot and I thought it was alright. Our typical reactions to an action movie.

We bought presents for each other (as usual Jake did a really great job shopping for me), wrapped them and put them under the tree. Then we had a fun time opening them with each other.


It was a really fantastic holiday!

Winter Break

This winter break was fantastic! It was so great to have Jake around without having to worry about work or studying. We hung out relaxing a lot and threw in some fun adventures. Here's some of what we did:

Jake played some video games. The universe was a little bit out of whack, because Jake was really cold for most of it and I was really hot (usually it's the other way around. I'm always the cold one. Thank you, Paige for keeping me warm). One evening Jake was so cold he pulled out his winter gear to wear while playing.


We worked on a few puzzles (I LOVE doing puzzles!). Here's a picture of one of them completed:


We also ate a lot of food. For one meal I made green eggs and ham:
(Justine, please notice that even when the eggs are green the cheese goes on AFTER cooking!)

We ordered a pizza one evening using Dominos' online ordering. We ordered a specialty pizza and then removed the toppings from half of it to make it plain cheese (or so we thought). What showed up was the pizza pictured below. Half specialty, half plain crust. Fortunately, we called Dominos and they sent us a new pizza.


We also ventured downtown a couple of times and visited some of the museums. We saw the International Spy Museum (we got really discounted tickets). It was cool, but not really worth paying full price for it.

Then we stopped by the Air and Space Museum to see the new exhibit they recently opened. This exhibit includes an interactive that I helped test as part of my work with Oberg Research. We spent a few minutes playing with it and other cool interactives in the exhibit.


Later in the week we went to the US Holocaust Museum with the Fowles. This museum does a really good job in portraying the horror of the holocaust. Depressing museum, but fun day out with the Fowles. I didn't take any pictures that day, which is unfortunate because Alex (their 5 month old) is ADORABLE.

By the end of break Jake had grown an impressive beard. He shaved all but the mustache off and we took pictures of it that he calls "a tribute to his dad." After the pictures he shaved the mustache off (at my request).

Overall, it was a FANTASTIC break and we had such a great time together.

32 Weeks and a Penguin Friend

I'm now 32 1/2 weeks pregnant, and it's going really well. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable, but everyone keeps telling me it's only going to get worse and worse. Awesome. But she's already completely worth it. Here's a picture of me at 32 weeks:


I had a doctor's appointment this morning and everything looks great. We just have to wait another two months and then we'll have our little girl here!


In anticipation of the coming baby and the dryer winter weather we've added a new friend to our house:

It's a penguin humidifier! We haven't gone so far as to name it, but it definitely does make our nights significantly more comfortable.

Lunch and Gingerbread Men

While our husbands were busy with their finals (poor boys!) I got together with some of my ward friends for lunch and gingerbread men decorating. Michelle and Emily made a delicious meal

(me, Eve and Alex, Christen and Henry, Abby, Gabbi, and Emily)

and then we decorated gingerbread men. Here's a picture of me with one of my creations:

The gingerbread men were delicious (because Emily is an amazing cook!), so much so that I ended up eating them before I even got home.

Our Life Lately

I've severely neglected updating our blog these past few weeks, because things have been pretty busy.

I'm still working for Oberg Research (which I still love!) plus I picked up another job tutoring two elementary students twice a week. Jake has been busy finishing up the semester and is currently in the middle of his finals. Unfortunately, right as the finals period was starting he came down with a really nasty cold. He had a fever which finally broke at 6:45 the morning of his first final, and he has been coughing and miserable ever since. He's a trooper though, so he's been pushing his way through it. I'm proud of him for sticking it out!

We have managed to have a little bit of fun in the past few weeks. Our apartment is decorated for Christmas and it looks great. Here is a picture of our tree:


On the wall next to the tree there is a string with pieces of paper pinned to it. This was my attempt at making Jake's two weeks of finals a little more bearable. I wrote him a note (a really cheesy rhyming note) and wrapped up enough little presents for each day of the finals period. Every day he gets a little encouraging note and gets to pick a present to open. I also got a bigger present that he'll get to open once he's finished with his last final next Thursday.

Also, Jake's birthday was last week. Since it fell in the middle of finals (awesome, right?) we couldn't do much for it, but I did make him a meal I knew he'd love:

Hot wings and celery. It wasn't quite Willy's Wings, but it still made him happy.

Holly and Bryan's Wedding

A few weeks ago, I went out to Utah for Holly and Bryan's wedding. It was fun to spend a few days with my family.

Holly and Bryan got married in the Draper, UT temple.


I ended up not sewing Holly's dress like I had planned (we reduced everyone's stress levels by having her buy it), but I did do her hair.

Before:
After (ok, not the best after shot, but I forgot to take a better one):


Jake wasn't able to come out with me. Sad! Law school finals started the next week, so we figured it would be best for him to stay and work instead of coming out. We missed him though!

Me with my siblings outside the temple:


Holly and her bridesmaids at the reception:


Congratulations, Holly and Bryan!

Bryan and Holly

Congratulations, Bryan and Holly! Two and a half more weeks...


Photo courtesy of BraunInvitations.com