It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year! I know how easy it is to get caught up in the stress and pressure of the season, but this year has been really stress free for me. I did most of my shopping online, we decorated when we got home from LA on December 1st, its just been really easy this year. We are staying in Texas for Christmas this year, I will be 35 weeks at that time, and we are going to stay put just in case Avery decides to act up. I am excited about our first Christmas with our little family. We plan on going to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church, and just starting our own little traditions. The great thing is that our parents have been able to come out for a Christmas visit. Josh's parents are coming in this Friday, so we will be able to spend some time with them. My mom came in this weekend, so we got to do our Christmas at that time. We did Christmas baking and candy making, we listened to Christmas music non-stop and watched all the cute/cheesy Christmas movies on TV. It was a great visit!

Here are some pictures of the goodies we made. White chocolate covered Oreos:

Decorated sugar cookies:My Maw-Maw's Ranch crackers...yum!This is called Puppy Food, it's chocolate and peanut-butter covered Chex mix coated in powdered sugar...so good!And my favorite...Buck-Eye balls: peanut-butter and powdered sugar dipped in chocolate:Josh went to a Christmas party, and of course had to wear his cheesy Christmas sweater.Here are some pictures by the tree:My mom and Josh being goofy!

Like I said, Josh's parents and little sister are coming in on Friday, so we have a fun weekend planned with them. I will post pictures after that visit too. Merry Christmas!!! and remember the birth of Jesus is the real reason we are celebrating, don't lose focus of the true meaning of the season!

Baby Shower!

While we were in town for the Thanksgiving holiday Josh's wonderful mom and sister threw us a baby shower. It was absolutely perfect! The theme was "tickled pink" and everything was pink and polka dotted just like Avery's room. Here are Josh and I at the cake table.

Josh's mom's friend, Ms. Vicki, made the cake. It was absolutely beautiful and delicious too!

Here is a picture of the cake tableMs. Aleta ordered the CUTEST sugar cookies. They were little pink onesies with brown polka dots and the letter A on them; and the other ones had Avery's initials monogrammed on them.And of course there was TONS of food. Here is a picture of the spread:Everyone mingling and eatingHere are some of the guests in the living room, waiting for us to start opening presents. My (bigger) little brother Jake came!Before we started opening presents, Ms. Aleta had Josh dress up like a baby, he had a diaper, big pacifier and bottle...it was too funny!When he sat down, Jen and Jody's son Mitch wanted to feed him the bottle!We got so many gifts! We are so truly blessed to have such great family and friends that take such good care of us.

I am not going to post all of the presents we opened, but here are a few of my favorites. This is a handmade quilt sewn by Mrs. Patricia. She is so talented and has made one for all of her daughters when they had a baby, I got one too! I have kind of been an honorary daughter since Chelsea and I became best friends in second grade.

Here is another handmade blanket from Mrs. Janet Killen, it is so soft and cuddly.

Ms. Aleta got Avery her first pair of shoes! The poor child had a closet full of cothes with no shoes. They are little black, patent leather ones that will match perfectly with her valentine's day outfit.She also got her the cutest little sailor outfit...I can't wait till she is big enough to fit into it.

This is one of the beautiful gown's Ms. Aleta got for her too.

Besides A LOT of clothes, we also got Avery's high chair, pack and play, boppys, bumbo seat, tummy time mat, jumper gym, and plenty of gift cards to get the other little stuff we need. Again I say we are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family.

Thanksgiving 2009

Josh and I had a great Thanksgiving. We were able to go home for a week and spend some time with our family. Summer is growing up so much, she is absolutely beautiful! Josh got a new buddy. Cole absolutely loved him! Every time he would see Josh or hear him talk he wanted Josh to pick him up or play with him.

While we were in town, Jen Weems had a baby "sprinkle." It's not their first baby, so we just got together for dinner at Olive Garden and we got a couple of things for their new baby girl Audrey Avery! Here is the happy momma with big sister Jenna:

Sherri and me

Cristin and Ms. Savanna...she is the sweetest, most well behaved baby:

Ms. Susan and Mitch

Jen and I are about two weeks apart, so we had to take a belly picture!

The night of Thanksgiving we went to Darus and Jamie's house to hang out. Heidi and Rocky were there, along with Chase and Trey. It was really nice to see all of our friends again. Here are the girls:

And the boys...playing cards

While we were in town we also had our baby shower...that will be in its own post. We also spent Thanksgiving at Josh's grandma's...Josh took pictures of that on our camcorder, so I will try to post those whenever he uploads them to the computer. It was a really nice and relaxing visit. We got to spend some good, quality time with Josh's family. We CANNOT wait to move back to Louisiana so we can be close to our family and friends again.

29 weeks!

On Thursday I made 29 weeks. This pregnancy is really flying by! I am definitely starting to feel the discomforts of pregnancy. I keep telling Josh I think I am running out of room, but I know she has a lot more growing to do! These are some pictures we took before our Dr.'s appointment on Thursday.

My Dr.'s appointment went well. I have gained 6 pounds so far. Avery weighs 2.84 pounds. She is head down, which explains why I feel like I can't breath sometimes! She was shy at the beginning of the ultrasound with her hands in front of her face, but then she moved and we got some good pictures. I love this picture, it looks like she is smiling. Here is her cute little face. It definitely looks like she has her daddy's big lips and nose!

This is a profile shot, you can also see her little hand on the side of her face:

She looks like she is blowing kisses in this picture!

Josh is in Chicago this weekend for a certification seminar. I have spent the weekend starting my Christmas shopping and getting everything ready to go into Louisiana for Thanksgiving and the baby shower! We are so excited to get home and spend time with the family. We haven't had a Thanksgiving in LA since we moved out to Texas. We will be leaving when I get off work Tuesday morning and stay for a week! I will definitely post after our holiday with lots of pictures!

Halloween and Date Night!

Sorry its been so long since I updated! We had our 2nd annual Halloween Party two weeks ago. A bunch of my friends from work and Josh's friends from school came to the house to party. We had a really good turn out and people didn't get too crazy this year. Poor Avery is going to kill us when she sees these pictures when she is older! Josh and I dressed up like white trash! Josh rocked the mullet, cut off jean shorts, cut off flannel shirt, nasty teeth, tattoos...it was hilarious. He stayed in character too most of the night, talking about nascar racing and Jesus in a thick country accent. I found these HORRIBLE spandex tight pants from Wal Mart (the scary thing is people actually wear them!) I had a flannel shirt with only one button done, over my big belly. I had a box of cigarettes in my pockets, carried around a 40oz beer bottle (full of water), tattoos, and a black eye because I didn't get Josh's beer fast enough. We had a great time!

But like I said poor Avery is going to think we are crazy when she sees these pictures.

Here are some of Josh's friends from school...

And here is Josh flaunting his "short shorts" with my work girls...

Halloween night I had to work, but we all brought a bunch of food and dressed up in cat ears and tails. It was really cute, I work with a great group of ladies! I am really going to miss them when we move back to Louisiana.

Last Friday night Josh and I had a date night. We went out to eat at Pappadeaux's, they have the best seafood we have been able to find since we have been in Texas. The bad thing is that the one that was close to us got destroyed in hurricane Ike, so my baby drove all the way into Houston to take me out to eat :) After we ate we went to a nice bar/club close to the house to listen to a band play. It was really nice, I keep reminding Josh that soon it will be a lot more difficult to just pick up and go out with the new baby. But we are definately ready for it!

And here are the 27 week belly pictures...

From the front, its hard to tell I am pregnant. Not from the side though! .

Thank God, no stretch marks so far! I have been buttering up with cocoa butter since I found out I was pregnant. Its so funny how the shape of my belly changes day to day. Like in these pictures my belly seems so much more pointy and poking out than it does right now! I know it has to do with uterus growing and her position, its just funny to see the changes in pictures.

Josh went to Dallas this weekend for the last part of his board exams. His first test was Friday, he said it wasn't too bad, and the last part is Sunday. Once that is done he just has to take one more test to get his Louisiana license and he will be done! He just has to finish up all of his adjustments at the clinic, and he is making good progress with that. I am so proud of him, April 2010 graduation here we come!

Our next doctors appointment is this week, on Thursday. I am interested to see how big she is, it feels like I haven't been growing as much lately, but I am sure it is just because she is stretching out higher in my torso. I have been feeling great, just a little worn out after working 12 hours. I still plan on working for as long as I can, so I just rest and recouperate on my days off.

We have a busy two weeks coming up, Josh goes to Chicago next weekend for a certification class in a chiropractic technique. Then we get to go home for Thanksgiving! and the baby shower! We are so excited and are definately ready to spend some quality time with the family. So if I don't update before the holiday, I will definately put up all the pictures from Thanksgiving and the baby shower.