December Happenings

December has been such a fun month at our house. Honestly, it has been really nice having my last month of pregnancy during December because it is flying by. Here are some things that have kept us busy. 

 The Primary Presidency and YW Presidency were in charge of the Ward Christmas party. My assignment was to do all the decorations. We lined the tables with white butcher paper so the kids could draw during the down time. Then I made the center pieces with sticks from my back yard. I spray painted them grey and added glitter swirls and ribbon. I thought it turned out great. The kids (and lost of adults) loved the drawing part too. 

 This is my first attempt at a "selfie." Is that even how you spell it? I am 37ish weeks here. Right now I am currently 38.5 weeks and the baby can come anytime. At 36 weeks she was breech. Right before and after Thanksgiving I went to the Chiropractor and she loosed up my hips. Between that and prayer we were blessed to not have to have the doctor try to physically flip her which can bring quite a few complications on. Currently she is measuring bigger than Claire was at this point so if she doesn't come by Dec 20th they will be inducing me so we can avoid the same complications we had with Claire and hopefully avoid a c-section. I didn't have to have a c-section with Claire but we are just praying it will all work out. 

 In the mean time I have been baking and cleaning up a storm. I made lots of batches of homemade cinnamon rolls for Shaun's co-workers, our neighbors and ward friends. Claire loved putting the bows on top. 

 We have loved playing with the little people nativity. Claire and I even built her train tracks leading up to it so we could go visit baby Jesus. 

 We've had a few snow storms lately that have been so much fun to play in. Claire loves to make "footprints" in the snow and gets so mad when we have to come inside. 

 On December 14th I put on my first piano recital. I have five students (one couldn't come because of the snow storm raging outside.) It was quite eventful, to say the least. The boy on the left, Paul, played first. Then the next boy Sean started on his song. Sean's 3-year-old little brother who was sitting in the audience started throwing up everywhere. Sean kept playing the piano like nothing was happening. His dad was filming and gramdma was trying to catch the puke. After Sean finished he brother threw up a few more times. We stopped the recital, cleaned it all up and then let Sean play again. So glad it was at the church and not at my house! 

 It has been a lot of fun to watch Claire mimic things. My sister sent us something in the mail and packed it with this pink pad. Claire instantly called it her yoga mat and here she is demonstrating her moves. 

 She's actually pretty good! She has also loved singing Christmas songs. She has memorized all of Jingle Bells and sings random lines from Silent Night, When Joseph went to Bethlehem, etc. I love that she is such a song bird. If she is singing you know she is happy nad having a great day. 

Last, but definitely not least we had a big problem with mice this year. When my Friend Jill came to visit she confirmed my suspicion that something was living in our basement drop ceiling. That something was mice. It took about a month+ to clean them out. They must have been making quite the nest because we caught 19 mice and a leg. After the first week of traps Shaun figured out they were climbing up our AC unit cord and getting in that way. He sealed it up and then we kept setting traps. Thankfully I never saw them, they only stayed in the ceiling. But Shaun was so good to set the traps, catch them and take care of it. I think we even caught 4 in one day. YIKES! I don't think I will be able to watch this movie for a long time. And it's a good think we don't own a gun. I might have reacted just like the lady and shot the entire ceiling down. Not really, but we were extremely surprised to catch that many. We are pretty sure there is still one mice out there in the woods limping around missing a leg.  

 

Tomorrow is our caroling night and after that our schedule is wide open...ready for this baby girl to make her appearance. :) 

Visitors

At the beginning of November my former roommate and her son, Damin, came for a weekend visit. It's hard to believe these two are only 6 weeks apart. Damin is significantly taller than Claire and almost twice her weight. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures. But we enjoyed some Wooster fun and also checking out the Amish markets. Yum!  

Jill and I at the airport. It was freezing. Hard to believe it has been over 10 years since we were roommates. BYU-I didn't know what hit them when we showed up. :)  

------------------THANKSGIVING---------------------  

Claire "watching" daddy cooking in the kitchen 

 It started off with a bang with a big snow storm. My sister and her family had to stay over night half way to our house because the roads were so bad. But they arrived Thursday morning in time to enjoy the parade! 

 Cousin time 

Lately, when Claire gets nervous or afraid she partly covers her eyes but still looking...

The Rubbermaid store...our inside playland  

Trying to get all three kids to smile...impossible I think  

 My sister found these darling outfits at Sams club. Clair's is an owl and Daphne a reindeer. They are too cute for words! Thanks Auntie! 

Shaun and Brett fixing the sliding glass door. Thankfully they got it working again.  

 Cute Daphne sporting her new curly bows I made for her. 

 One night we went to the next city over for their Downtown Winter fest. Santa came, they had a major firework show and We took the kids to the Elf magic show at the library. It was freezing and Brett & Collin slipped on the ice. :( 

Daphne sharing her sour patch kids. After the initial sour shock claire loved them. :) 

The kids (and adults) were a little cooped up on Thanksgiving afternoon so we all went walking in the snow. Claire couldn't have been happier wearing her snow boots and making footprints.  

 Claire also found a new little fort...Collins hot wheels box. Silly girl! 

 We had some fun making homemade glitter globes. 

 Shaun was quite the chef, as usual, and made an amazing meal. Seleta and I were on dish duty. No complaints here. :) 

Uncle Brett and Claire. You can see the parade on the TV in the background. We had a really great weekend and sure love having the Talbots within driving distance from us!