Thinking Red, Green and...Pink

It's funny. I didn't think I sounded too sad about not going to SL for Christmas to be with our families this year, but more than one person has patted my back and said, "Was it as bad as you were thinking it would be on your blog?" I just have to laugh. It was great, and what else is great is that I have supportive friends and fam that actually take time to read this blog.

The holidays came and went! We had Elyse (Harland's sister) and Grant and their family for Thanksgiving...here's me cooking up a feast in my tiny kitchen. You can almost catch a glimpse of the giant stomach covered demurely in a cute apron (made for me by my dear friend Erin). It dawned on me yesterday that I don't have many pregnancy pictures of me to show our little gal someday, so I'll have to get on that. Just five more weeks...

Here's a cute picture of the boys with their darling cousins, Eliza and Audrey Hunter...

As for Christmas, we had a great time. I wanted to make it extra special, so every day, we pulled out a drawer from our wooden advent calendar and read a scripture as well as followed the instructions I had written out: one day it said something bigger, like "make and deliver Christmas treats," "go see Santa" or "go ice skating." Other days, it was something small, like "play a board game and drink hot chocolate" or "make snowflakes". Regardless of what we did, the boys LOVED it, and I cherished having done it. I know they will never forget it, and I plan on doing it every year. Every day was almost like Christmas itself, the way they would run in our room first thing in the morning to find out what we got to do that day. It was a little hard to have Harland gone or sleeping during the day right before and after Christmas, but atleast he was home on Christmas eve and Christmas day, even if he had to work the night in between (harder for him than me!)

Making Gingerbread houses at the Woodwards (Henry and Cannon with Miles Kerr)

You gotta love the program at our Baptist preschool...Happy Birthday Jesus!

We spent Christmas eve ice skating and eating a yummy (if I do say so myself) Christmas eve dinner. Then after we did our family stuff, the boys went to bed in our room and thus began the two hour time crunch to get a bunk bed put together before Harland had to leave for work. It's a wonder the boys stayed asleep. They're still astonished that Santa built an entire bunkbed in one night. I'm astonished myself.

Excited about riding the DC metro

Henry loved Great Wolf Lodge




We took off right before New Year's to play in Washington D.C for a couple days and then head down to Williamsburg, VA, where we stayed at this crazy giant hotel that has a full-on 80,000 sq-ft water park inside. We're talking serious waterslides that meander in and out of the waterpark walls. It was quite a sight. I had to spend part of the first day playing journalist because they're building one of these lodges here in Charlotte and I'm writing a story about it for Charlotte Parent. But the rest of the time, we just played and met up with the Jensen family for our last day. That night we had dinner with them and the McCormicks. Good times!

Now, I'm finally feeling like things are settling back down. This week, I finished the stressed and sweated-over 1,800 word article about a hidden garden for an actual glossy magazine that pays decently well for a change--very exciting--and now it's time to come to terms with the fact that baby #3 is close at hand. I haven't done anything to get ready, except pick out some fabric last September that my mom is sewing into a crib skirt and glider cover for us. She's getting around to it this week, and I can't wait to see it. Here's a swatch of the fabric:

I really can't wait to have another little female in the household! We're 99% sure on the name Elizabeth. I know, I know, big shocker for those of you who know me at all. I practically made Harland sign a pre-nup with only one term on it before we got married: that our first daughter's name would be my middle name and my grandma's name...not to mention the name that I gave every baby doll, Barbie, and myself (whenever my friend and I played "teenagers" --which we did from 4th grade until we practically WERE teenagers. That's kind of embarassing.)

(A recent baby shower with the 3rd year residents...at Erin Geunter's home. Check out that diaper cake--she's amazing!)

Well, I'm guessing the next time I update this blog, there will be some tiny baby pictures plastering it. Wish us luck in the ensuing weeks--as I get BIGGER and BIGGER and less and less mobile, as Harland ventures up and down our attic ladder carrying boxes with baby gear, and finally, that exciting day when we drive to Harland's 2nd home up at Carolina's Medical Center and welcome our first little girl. Yay!