only another 364 days left until next christmas.i hope everyone had a wonderful christmas. craig and i surely did. we spent lots of quality time with family and friends and made some great memories! we especially appreciated all of the extra love and support that our loved ones gave to us this season. craig and i are incredibly blessed.

the friday before christmas, craig and i were invited to a white elephant gift exchange. i made these little cupcakes to share with everyone. i had to laugh, because at one point i saw a wife bat one of these puppies out of her husband's hands while whispering "i think you have had enough." that made me feel good because a. they were good enough for someone to come back for seconds and b. because i am not the only nag-for-a-wife out there.

this is what craig and i came home with after the party. dont even ask what that doll is. i have no idea. and that color wheel is a bunch of different flavored teas. exactly what we needed.

me and craig. i leave the house thinking my hair looks pretty, but then in pictures is looks like a rat box. who knows.

belly shot. i know, i know i am carrying the baby low. insert old wives tale prediction here.

our christmas tree on christmas eve.

louis was just waiting for santa to come and bring the rest of his gifts.

craig's parents gave us a baby swing for christmas. this is craig putting it together. my mom told craig to get used to it, because he would be doing this for the next eighteen years. craig and i are very grateful for our family's generosity.

this is a pathetic representation of the white christmas we enjoyed. at around noon, (during our drive to the local mcdonalds for lunch) on christmas day, it started snowing. snowing at all, let alone on christmas day, is very rare for seattle so it was such a treat.

usually, the day after christmas i get very depressed. i hate cleaning up christmas decorations and not being able to listen to festive music 24 hours a day. however, this year is different. i am so excited about the baby coming in about 6 weeks that i dont have time to be depressed. now that the holidays are over, i am going to get into full baby-mode. what a fantastic way to cure a christmas hangover.

more christmas festivitieswe finally got around to getting our christmas tree. my dad asked the tree farm guy if we could get a discount because it was so late in the month! this is craig and grace in front of the little trailer. we are 100 percent class, all the way.

my auntie megan and me. we found the best trees in the lot!

for the second year in a row, my family got tickets to A Christmas Carol in downtown seattle. this year, we went to a fancy restaurant beforehand. (we probably will not be doing that again. i think the severs we about to kill us for having the kids running around everywhere.)

my mom and anna at icon grill.

right next to the street lamp in the background, you can sorta make out the space needle. it was so cold outside that we basically ran from the restaurant to the theater!

last week, my office had our annual holiday party. before we all headed out to celebrate, i made everyone gather around the holiday tree to take a picture. no one was very happy with me about the photoshoot, but too bad! i needed it for my blog!

louis takes it upon himself to be the christmas tree guard. throughout the day, one can find him perched on any of the three chairs in the living room, staring at the lights.

this is about as close as we got to taking a family christmas portrait this year. next year, i (hopefully) wont be in pajamas and craig will be holding our other child.

louis with his grandma. they have such a love-hate relationship.

today was my cousin, sam's, birthday. he turned 14 years old. my other cousin, adam, flew into town to surprise sam (adam is his favorite person in the world). sam had a fun filled day of krispy kremes, pizza, green ice cream, and plenty of alice in wonderland. honestly, what more could a guy want?

i think we have enough family traditions for about 20 families
but i wouldnt have it any other way. i love my family and all of our yearly traditions. each year, my auntie megan bakes up some homemade gingerbread houses. i know it is a lot of work for her to make them, but well worth it! i was in charge of getting the candy to decorate the houses. i cannot tell you how hard it was for the kids to see all the candy set out like this. you would think they hadnt eaten in five years.

craig stopped by to wish me luck. he had to study for finals, so he wasnt able to be sous chef this year. that was ok though, because i am pretty much a micro-manager when it comes to my gingerbread houses.

from left to right: my house, anna & tucker's (the icky teenagers) house, eli's house (which won the award for the best one!), and grace & emma's house.

unlike last year, louis was very uncooperative with his gingerbread house photo shoot. he just wanted to stand next to his christmas tree. he brushes his teeth on that thing. no kidding. he just gnaws on it all day long. craig (always being the little dentist) has decided that it is because louis is cleaning his teeth with the branches.

my finished product. my mom says that i dont use enough color on my gingerbread houses. and to that, i say, "i am who i am." and i am a minimalist. with everything in my life: my wardrobe, my home decor, and even my gingerbread houses, i always go with simple and monochromatic. boring? no, classic! so there.

baby. new quilt. father "louis" christmas. utah trip. right before i left for utah last week, philips called me in to be an OB model again. the baby slept the entire time again, and snuggled up in my tummy again. however, the baby seemed a lot bigger this time around and the features were more defined.

do the pictures look like a "boy" or a "girl"? i cannot tell. but i LOVE the chubby pursed lips.

i finished my second quilt! this is my new christmas quilt. i didnt follow a pattern, i just had the idea in my head and ran with it.

this quilt is significantly smaller than my halloween one but just as comfy!

those little circles are called yo-yos. i had to make each one and then hand-applique them to the white squares. it was incredibly time consuming!

i started wrapping some presents tonight. i went downstairs to take cookies out of the oven and when i came back upstairs i had a new little elf helping me out.

he adores ribbons and bows. it is his feminine side.

i just got back from a great trip in utah. my mom and i went for the weekend, and we had a ton of fun. this is my grandma and me dipping into our chocolate-peanut butter shake.

one of our favorite places to eat in provo is the italian place. they serve yummy steak sandwiches. we make sure to drop in every time we are in town.

one morning, i went downstairs and found my mom looking like this. i thought she had burned herself with my flat iron, but was in too much shock from the third degree burns to know what had happened. it turned out that she had gotten into my makeup and got a little excited about my blush.

people watching at the byu bookstore. we bought ourselves some bookstore fudge and snacked on it while watching the coming and goings of the busy lunch hour. bless our little traditions.

this was at the provo malt shop, before i knew what was about to happen........

on our way up to SLC, we ran into this! a HUGE snow storm. needless to say, we had to cancel our shopping plans and just head back to my grandma's house. at first, we were a little bummed about the change of plans, but we ended up spending the evening wrapping presents and baking goodies. it was so relaxing! i had a great time spending time with my mom and grandparents. i cherish these memories, especially because i know how busy my life is about to get!

it's absolutely snowing in seattlehelping to usher in the month of december, was a ton of snow! we woke up this morning to a beautiful white landscape. a surprise snow storm is the best. now i really feel like wintertime is here and i can get into full christmas mode.

louis could not wait to get out into the powdery stuff. he was shaking from being so cold, but he still didnt want to come inside. i love his little tracks.

this is my parents' front yard. one would think that because craig and i went to college in rexburg, idaho we wouldnt get excited about a little snow, but that someone would be dead wrong! happy wintertime everyone.

if you arent into grey's anatomy that much, you might not quite get everything in this video. however, i think the guys are pretty funny (i was laughing out loud at my desk) and it is worth the four minutes. thanks, best friend, for your help on this. GREY-JA VU.

*after getting home last night, and running up to craig to see what he thought of the video.... i realized that maybe it was just me. he looked at me like i was a compelte crazy person. then i made him watch it with me and i pointed out the parts i thought were funny. ok, so maybe it is one of things where "you had to be there" ("there" being inside my head). but c'mon, brother and sister making out? that at least qualifies as nasty-funny.*

thanksgiving 2007
here are the boys, doing what they do best on thanksgiving....... waiting to be served! well, yet another holiday has come and gone. we enjoyed a great thanksgiving this year. lots of family and even more scrumptious food!

these are my two cousins, anna (15) and grace (6). we are the only girls in the extended family, so we must always stick together.

um. this is what i deal with on a daily basis. however, on thanksgiving they were kind enough to press pause on guitar hero long enough to help peel potatoes or take out the trash.

following tradition, we all piled in the car and headed to the movies! we saw Enchanted after thanksgiving dinner. it was a really cute movie. and somehow, after all the food we had eaten, we were still begging for popcorn and sour patch kids. unbelievable.

louis. period.

the day after thanksgiving was spent fighting the crowds at belle-square and putting up the christmas lights.

here is the latest belly shot.

happy thanksgiving
for all of those negative nancys out there, who say Thanksgiving has just become a hallmark- holiday, i say "who cares?" no matter what the reason, celebrating a day with family and friends and "giving thanks" to the stuff the make our lives a little better, cant hurt. so i thought that i would use my new-age journal to list a couple things i am thankful for.

1. i am thankful for my husband. craig is my best friend. he always supports me. however, he is also there when i need a little "guidance" (the nice way to say that he tells me when i am being annoying/irreverent during sacrament/petty.... ). i love craig so much. he works so hard to make our little family happy. i honestly get excited to think that i get to raise my children with him and spend forever with eachother.

2. i am thankful for my family. i am extremely close to my family. even my extended family. i wouldnt have it any other way. my three aunts are my best friends and my grandma, "mom", is incredibly special to me. i love both of my brothers very much. i have loved seeing them get more and more attached to craig over the years. my mom and dad are two of the most unselfish people i know. and because i think this life is about serving others and being completely unselfish, they are my heroes.

3. i am thankful for my health. i have been around a lot of sickness in my life. my best friend, and cousin, died from a rare cancer when he was 20. i have a fair share of loved ones with special needs. for these reasons, i have come to appreciate what a blessing (not a right) health is. i pray each day to remember how lucky i am that i have two legs and a beating heart.

4. i am thankful for food. i am grateful that we dont have to hunt for meat and pick berries to survive. we just go into a well-stocked grocery store and pick whatever we feel like. if i randomly feel like a handful of good & plentys (and yes, they ARE what i survive on, ok?) i just go to safeway, and pick up a bag. what a blessing that is.

5. i am thankful for my faith. i was blessed to be born into a family with a strong testimony of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. but i like to think that, had i not been "born" into mormonism, i still would have chosen it. living the principles of my faith has made me a better person. when you strip away all the crap of "should i believe" or "should i not believe", how can one argue with a religion that has made me a happier and more well-rounded person?

*ok, so i promised myself i would get through this entire exercise without mentioning the "L" word, but i have never been one for self-imposed rules so....... i am very thankful for LOUIS! i love you, muffin!*

some crap from the gap

thanks to my amazing cousin, dani, i did a little damage at gap this past weekend. (however, "damage" is in the eye of the beholder.... and i got all three things, pictured above, for only $70!, which isnt that much damage, right?) dani works at the gap in arizona and was kind enough to send me a coupon for 30% off anything in the store. i havent been inside a gap for a very long time, but i figured that such a great discount was worth the occasion! and much to my surprise, i found a TON of great stuff. i feel so lucky that i am pregnant right now, when empire waists and volume is in! thanks dani, you really made my weekend merry and bright!