Christmas 2009

These pictures are all out of order so my apologies. The first two pictures are from Christmas morning at Joey's mom's house. We got up and headed over at around 9 AM and enjoyed a wonderful morning with his mom, brother and sister. We opened and exchanged presents, ate a delicious breakfast and enjoyed being together for Christmas. After that we headed home to freshen up and meet back up to watch Avatar at the theater. It was a good movie though not quite as good as I was expecting it to be after all the hype I had heard about it but, it was still fun to enjoy the tradition of eating junk food and watching a flick on Christmas day together. Oh, and the best part was that Joey's sister Jess was able to feel the baby kick a couple of times during the movie. That made my day:). After the movie we headed back to Joey's mama's house for a DELICIOUS dinner of prime rib, green bean casserole, rolls and twice baked potatoes. It was soooo yummy! After we all hung out and watched TV and stuffed ourselves even more with pumpkin pie and chocolate cake thanks to Grandma and Granddad:). It was a wonderful day to say the least and can I just say how happy I am that Joey's mama and sister live out here now! It is such a blessing to have them close by and to be able to spend the holidays with them and with Joey's grandparents. Joey and I both are so thankful for that:).

The other pictures below are from Christmas Eve. Joey and I are going to have our own Christmas day festivities on Christmas Eve. It's fun to spread the cheer around for two full days so I am really excited about beginning this tradition with our kids in the future. We were surprised to receive an unexpected package on the doorstep on Christmas Eve with Jammies that my Grandma had gotten us and my Aunt had kindly sent. I was SOOOO excited to see that I had new jammies to wear to bed and it made it feel like I was somehow a part of my family even though they were a countryside away in California. Thank you Grammy for the jammies!! Christmas eve morning we woke up late...one of the benefits of not having any kiddos yet but that will change next year so don't worry:). We opened our presents to each other as well as the presents that were mailed to us from my sister and her hubby and my dad and mom. It was so fun to have surprises from our family and again it almost made it feel as if they were with us:). We had a pretty lazy day after that of napping and then heading out for our churches Christmas eve service that was really wonderful and then eating after at Chili's together. Joey and I both have been talking a lot about how we really want to start some new traditions once our kids are old enough that really give Jesus the glory and recognition that he deserves during this holiday. We want our kids to know that Jesus is the most important thing to us not just at Christmas but, all year long. He gave us the ultimate gift by being born among us, dying for our sins and rising again so we can be with him in Heaven someday. It was fun thinking up some fun age appropriate activities and traditions we can take part in with our kids in the future to celebrate baby Jesus!! It will be such a blast!! Oh, and if any of you have any fun suggestions for us please share. The more ideas the merrier:). Can't believe that next year we will have a 9 month old with us during this time of year:). YEAH!!!

The last picture is of my 26 week belly. I will be posting a 27 week belly shot here in a few days. All is pretty ordinary with the pregnancy these days. I feel pretty good during the day aside from fatigue which I have gotten pretty used to. Nights are tough because I am very crampy and achey and no position seems to give my lower back relief which is probably why I am so tired all day since I don't sleep much at all:). It's okay though because I welcome it as a way to get a wee bit prepared for my sleepless nights with a newborn. I have noticed that my appetite has literally tripled in the past week or so. I'm hungry all the time and I crave sweets way too often. lol. Trying not to get too carried away:).

Joey and I got a great deal on a glider via Craigslist a few days ago. It's white wood with pink fabric and looks absolutely adorable in the nursery!! Thanks Grandma Martinez for helping us afford the glider!! I couldn't find Joey anywhere one night and finally I noticed the dark outline of him resting in the glider in the nursery with the light off. It was so cute to see how happy he is in our baby girl's room and boy is he excited for her arrival!! He also took down the stock light in her room and hung a white ceiling fan yesterday. The nursery is a little over half way done. We just need to find a nice used white changing dresser, a book shelf and a couple other little things and then we will post pictures:). Probably in another month or so. Hang in there!! We are also in the process of pinning down a middle name for our little munchkin. The first name is finalized though and we are both so happy with it:). That's about all for now:). HAPPY NEW YEAR ALMOST!!! :)