Christmas in pictures

We had a fantastic Christmas Eve and Christmas and today as well. It really was the best holiday season we've had since we had kids. I just loved it. Here's some shots of how the days went.

His stocking treats were no match for him. Gone so fast.

She got a giant Elsa doll that is nearly as tall as her and she carries it everywhere.

Favorite gift by far, the toolset his cousin gave him. He had some sort of tool in his hand the entire day, generally the hammer, and was very bugged whenever his siblings wanted to play with them, as they thought they were super cool too.

She loved the several stuffed animals she received.

After he cheeseball grinned for this he grabbed the camera to see how he looked. They learn so young!

Playing hungry, hungry hippos

We had a Christmas miracle! It stopped raining for the entire day until the evening, for the first time since Monday. Much joy occurred on the new trampoline because of this.

Trying out the trampoline as a napping location.

She was going for the serious look, but really she was in heaven.

She doesn't know it, but this is the last hurrah for this toy box. I built it when Spencer was under a year old and we just don't have room for it anymore. It was an excellent spot to watch Aladdin today.

A shot from Christmas Eve dinner. We always do a simple dinner patterned after the Last Supper. We sit on a blanket on the floor and have crackers and cheese and sausage and juice and read the Christmas story and sing a few songs. This year we started it off with a video from LDS.org portraying the Last Supper and the kids just loved it. It's a fun tradition.

We have this awesome full-size New Testament with pictures that I received as a gift I think at my bridal shower. It's pretty fun to read the Christmas story from it. 

More hammer love.

See? Never without it.

I have so many shots of them jumping, generally in different sets of clothes each time, which is amusing since it's all in the last two days.

Talk about blackmail shot. Spencer jumping in his underwear and butterfly wings. Also, Aaron is totally capable of climbing on and off of the trampoline, but it's terrifying to watch and I'm so not comfortable letting him do it by himself yet. He figured out the zipper on the net basically on the first try. Nothing stops this kid.

things are coming together

This week has been a lovely culmination of lots of prep work from many other weeks. I finally was able to meet with the midwife that I'm going to use for this pregnancy. She's fantastic. I spent almost two hours there, which was crazy, but we just chatted and got to know each other, and it was lovely. Her office is in her house, so it's very low key and I like that.

Spencer's Nativity

Grandma sent outfits. They're adorable as always

We finally closed out the saga of the fender bender we had back in October with a reimbursement check for the full amount of our rental car, which was nearly $1500, so that was a pretty huge deal. It's always nice to have the next semester's tuition money reappear in the account. As a side note, despite the fact that Fall semester at Clemson is already over and Spring semester starts in a few weeks, we actually can't pay for Spring tuition. It doesn't matter how many times we experience this phenomenon, the slowness with which the university gets their transactions put through for every aspect of student life still blows my mind. They are so slow pokey.

Spencer's Three King

Spencer had his Christmas program at preschool yesterday and it was just darling. My friend is the music teacher there and she did a phenomenal job, as did the teachers and the kids themselves. This pregnancy has made me super prone to getting teary-eyed, or maybe it's just motherhood in general, but it was super touching to watch him sing and know all the hand motions and just obviously be there enjoying himself. You spend so much time these first five years with your babies and see every aspect of their growth, and then suddenly you send them off to let others teach them and help them develop, and seeing the success and growth happen there is incredible. He loves his preschool, we love it, and I really feel blessed to have him there. I have tons of videos, but they're full of the other kids as well, so I think it's better not to post them here. Suffice it to say they were all adorable.

Three kids in the cupboard

Naptime in the cupboard

And now we are just in the countdown to Christmas. The kids are so excited. This year is just the best yet for the magical part of Christmas coming together, and I'm relishing it. So here's to an excellent week and a fantastic holiday.

Aaron may have died and gone to heaven when I let him stand in the big part of the cart.

It's good to be on the other side of this week

Wow, this has been a stressful week. I had insurance reimbursement complications I dealt with. Also, without going into tons of details on here, I had my intended prenatal care provider fall through for some very frustrating reasons. I had to start a search for a new one, which was very frustrating as my area of South Carolina is particularly underserved by midwives, which is my preferred method of prenatal care.

But after some very frustrating days where I heard lots of we still need this paperwork or we're not sure about this, please give us more information, I just heard yesterday that we will indeed be reimbursed for the biggest rental car bill ever, which is great news. Once the check arrives, this two-month long car repair saga will finally end and that will be a relief.

Also, after another couple days of multiple discoveries that we live too far away to get service from such and such care provider, or that I just don't trust them for my care, or that I can't afford them, I finally found a new midwife that I can work with, that I can afford, and surprise! I am going to do a home birth. Should be exciting. I'm both excited and nervous, but we'll have all contingencies in place and mostly I'm just so excited to not have to go anywhere when I'm actually in labor next June. That sounds like heaven. Oh the stories I have of driving an hour during transition and things like that. Not this time.

So here we are on another wild ride for this last pregnancy. Don't quote me on that in a few years if it changes, but for now we think this is our last baby. I'm relishing, or at least not hating, every moment trying to soak it in as this phase of life closes. It's both an exhilarating feeling and of course there is a twinge of sadness. When is that not the case? I seem to be coming out of the crazy I-feel-horrible-all-the-time phase, which is wonderful. I'll take it. It's been a rough six weeks. Here's hoping it really is the case.

It's very nice to have food taste normal again and not be nauseous all the time. I mowed the lawn yesterday, as our lawn mower broke two months ago and it was a total forest out there and I wanted it trimmed for the winter one more time. So I borrowed a mower from a friend, and I felt like a totally normal human being while doing it. No extra exhaustion. No weird twinges. Just normal work. That hasn't been the case in ages and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Pregnancy symptoms last long enough that you start to forget that you've ever felt okay and can function like a normal human being without requiring multiple naps a day. Aaron's pregnancy was pretty hard, so even when I got out of the first trimester, it didn't get easier. I'm endlessly grateful that it appears this pregnancy will be a bit easier than that. This first trimester has been hard, but I found some treatments that helped and I've made it through. I'm 12 weeks today, so not quite out of the first trimester, but close. Feeling good again is awesome. I'll take it for as long as it lasts.

What do you blog about when you're just hanging on for the ride?

I try to blog once a week, but I have put it off for days and days because I just haven't had the oomph to sit down and type. There's a few reasons for that. My eyes are very light sensitive this pregnancy, particularly to computer light, so I spend as little time as I can on the computer, which is unfortunately still a lot of time. It seems to trigger the migraines, so that's not nice at all. Also, my kids go a little crazy when I sit at my computer, so that's another reason to avoid it during the day, but then at night the headaches are more prevalent, so yeah, I'm just not prioritizing computer time.

Anyway, aside from that this really has been a lovely few weeks. Thanksgiving was delightful. We had some friends over we just love and it was low key and casual with lots of tasty food that we munched on the whole next week because Bill was working extra so it was mostly me enjoying the leftovers. No complaints on my part. Pregnancy makes me a bit sensitive to food, but the Thanksgiving food all tasted great to me, which was miraculous and super enjoyable.

So far December has been lovely. I thought last year Spencer got into the Christmas season, but this year is much better and Genevieve is old enough too, so we're really getting into that magical phase with kids where Christmas is an incredible experience. He is all excited about what Santa is going to bring him and he's a huge fan of our December the 1st countdown to Christmas. He tells me all the time about how Jesus was born in a stable and other details he's learning.

We started a new tradition this year after I found a really nice product on a blog I follow. It's called 25 days of Christ and it is a kit of Christmas ornaments, wooden, one for each day of the month of December up to Christmas. Each day includes a scripture, a short movie from the LDS website, and a quote from a church leader. You can paint the ornaments if you like or leave them naked wood, which is what I did this year, and it's the kind of program you can do year after year. I totally love it and the kids are really getting into it. We do it each night before bed and they can't wait every night. The kit was totally reasonable in price as well. They sold out for this year, but if you're interested, the website is 25daysofchrist.com.

I'm hoping to go see a live nativity this weekend. We'll be watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, but sans kids because it doesn't start until their bedtime. So I keep looking for opportunities for them to experience the spiritual part of Christmas and so far there have been some good times. This really is my favorite time of year.