30 weeks

Here I am at 30 weeks pregnant with baby brother...

This was actually taken a couple weeks ago and I'm now 32 weeks along. Only 2 months to go!

good bye

My parents recently bought a house in Utah, so they'll be moving sometime in the near-ish future. We almost certainly won't be going back to Missouri while they're still living there, so when we left this time, we were saying good bye to the house I lived in my whole life. Sad.

one of the first pictures my dad took of the house way back in 1984

and the last picture I took of the house the afternoon before we left

Their new house will certainly be nicer and bigger than this one, but it's so much farther away that we won't get to go as often. Plus it doesn't have any memories or history yet. I'm glad Jamie's gotten to visit there so much in the last 3 1/2 years and I hope he'll remember, but I am sad that baby #2 will never get to know that house.

Good bye, house! I will miss you.

Jamie's first movie!

Jamie got to experience the movie theatre for the first time while we were in Missouri! We went to see Walking with Dinosaurs. It was not a very good movie but Jamie likes dinosaurs and I think he had fun. He did have a hard time sitting in one seat and kind of bounced from lap to lap but otherwise did great. 

New Year's Eve

We had a fun New Year's Eve, apart from the fact that most of the people at my house had succumbed to the plague by that point. Yuck. But otherwise it was a great night. We actually had two celebrations, one for the kids earlier in the night and one actually at midnight long after they were in bed asleep. Lots of treats, lots of games, and lots of silliness combined for a fun evening!

the kids having a yummy treat

Aunt Sarah brought sparklers!

poppers--Jamie held his the wrong way and it popped in his hand so nothing flew out. Oh well, maybe next time!

warming up by the fire

sparkling grape juice at "midnight" -- Jamie didn't even want to try it, which is unusual for him. But he was happy to toast with plain water.

cheesecake!

treats courtesy of myself and Sarah

MarioKart

Johnny, before he left to go home early because he was sick and tired :(

the real midnight celebration

did I mention the silliness??

Happy New Year!

trains

The day after Christmas, we got out all of Jamie's new trains and train tracks and set them up, and he played with them for TWO AND A HALF HOURS straight. No breaks at all and he only stopped in the end because it was time for dinner. He has never played with anything else for as long! Such a good present choice; I'm glad he thought of it :)

 
 
 

Christmas break fun

Just some random fun from the holidays...

movie night! We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

cousins being entertained by the iPad

story time with Aunt Sarah (and Uncle Mark and Uncle Nate)

playing the piano and singing silly songs with Uncle Benj

The Woehlks' Christmas party! Jamie and Anthony got the same police dress-up for Christmas and had too much fun running around arresting everybody.

Jamie locking up Grammy

Jamie and Quinn -- and Thomas :)

story time with Grandma

more silliness with Uncle Benj

love these faces :)

Greg came to visit and brought Jamie a Christmas gift in the same box he's been using for several years now.

playing Bang! Jamie actually loved helping me play. I let him choose who we would put in jail and who we would shoot and he had a ball. He was disappointed we were never the sheriff, but being a bad guy was fun too :)

me and Greg!

Jamie and Adriana reading stories

Uncle Johnny being attacked by little girls.

making a hat with Grandma

cousins!

more stories

Jamie made these nun-chuks with Uncle Benj because Michelangelo is his favorite Ninja Turtle. He is still using them and wants to play Ninja Turtles every day!

playing Johnny's old Crossfire game with Grandpa

one last dress-up: Jamie the astronaut! He has been having SO MUCH FUN with all his dress-ups!

and finally, a few shots of Jamie destroying his gingerbread house just before we left...

Christmas Day

Every year as Jamie gets older, holidays get more fun. Thomas and I were the first ones up on Christmas morning, and we knew Jamie had woken up once we heard him singing "Jingle Bells" from his bed. He was so excited to go find out what Santa had brought, and when he discovered his trains, all he wanted to do was play. Forget the stocking and all the other presents. He was all about the train! We did eventually get him to open some other things but it took a lot of persuading.

 

We had a great morning opening presents, eating a yummy breakfast, and playing with our new things (especially Jamie's!). Emily joined us via skype for breakfast, which was nice, though not as nice as it'll be when we can all be together again! Jamie continued to be distracted by the train until he opened some new dress-ups, at which point he became a police officer and no one was safe from handcuffs from that moment on! Thomas and I got spoiled rotten with our gifts. We spent the whole morning at Thomas's house, had a delicious Christmas lunch, and got to say hello to some visiting friends before we went back to my house.

hello Emily!

what a stinker

Santa brought a little something for baby brother too.

watch out, it's Officer James!

Daddy getting handcuffed :)

some of my favorite gifts... an Ergobaby carrier...

and a new Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag! Like I said, we got so spoiled!

I made Jamie a tool belt and got him some kid-size safety goggles.

Sir James the fierce

eating bûche and visiting with friends

 At my house, Jamie lost no time arresting his uncles and grandparents. He also put his tool belt and safety goggles to good use with Grandpa, and after all the kids had some quiet time, it was time for round 2 of present opening. Since we weren't there in the morning, we had them save all the presents to/from us to open together later on. Opening presents at my house is chaotic because there are so many people and so many kids who can have a hard time sitting still and waiting their turn. We got so many more great presents! We are lucky to have such generous families :)

 

 
 
 

One of my family's Christmas traditions is that we make homemade pizza for dinner on Christmas. Jamie and I shared a pizza. His half was loaded with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, pineapple, olives, and enough garlic salt that other people were leery of eating it. He loved it and ate at least 3 pieces (he originally told me he wanted 5 but I don't think even he could manage that after all the other food we'd been eating all day!). I am always grateful I have such a good eater!

 
 

After the kids were in bed, we spent the rest of Christmas night playing games and spending time with family. It was another wonderful holiday!