Merry Christmas Friends

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

I leave you with this song that I think TRULY describes Christmas very well: 

May the Joy of Christ's Birth, Death, and Resurrection fill you with HOPE this Christmas!

Today you'll find me

barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.  Ok, only really 2 of those three! =P (I hate to be barefoot.) Today I'm trying to get most of my Christmas baking done.  So far the white chocolate covered pretzels are in the fridge to set and peppermint has been crushed for a few different projects including:

These peppermint marshmallow hot chocolate stirrers, except I don't have sticks OOPS!

Funny, I sent my husband to the store for candy canes, and he came home with a 2 lb candy CANE it was huge. Thankfully, I could just bang it on the table to get it into small enough pieces to put in the blender :). 

and I'm making a variation of these:

Which I'm hoping will turn out well.  

I'm also making some brownie trees, white chocolate gingerbread cookies, and some eggless cookie dough so that I can eat it! 

What are you baking up this Christmas season???

Oh and of course there will be some coconut creations ;). 

Reminiscing of Christmas Past

When Sarah of Yes, Teacher shared about some of her Christmas traditions as an MK in France, it made me think of some of our old Christmas traditions with my family.

When we (my sisters and I) were growing up, my grandparents always spent Christmas Eve at our house. It was so special to go wake up my grandpa at 5 in the morning and snuggle with him until my parents woke up, just staring at the tree.  My mom always had a very adult tree upstairs, it was mostly covered in blown glass ornaments/very breakable ornaments and covered in white lights, white garland, and white beads.  I always loved to admire that tree.

Even though we don't plan to do "Santa" with our kids, as a child we did celebrate Santa coming. My grandpa would "go to the mall" on Christmas Eve, which meant he went to the basement to get dressed up like Santa, then would come and knock on the upstairs door and give us a quarter. He did this for everyone in the neighborhood. One year, I asked my mom, "Mom why is Santa wearing Pap's glasses?" I was about 4 so I don't remember her answer, but I think the cat might have been out of the bag then ;).  He also made one of our neighbors so afraid she locked herself in the bedroom on Christmas Eve.  Oops!  He totally didn't mean to scare her.  He was the greatest pap ever!  We'd also usually eat pizza from my mom's favorite pizza shop that evening. 

On Christmas morning, we had gifts from my parents under the tree upstairs. Then we would eat some breakfast (usually some nut roll, date roll, and other sugary goodness) and then open the presents "from Santa" under the tree downstairs (aka gifts from my grandparents.) Then our parents would finish up lunch while we played/put away our new gifts. 

(I realize now the tree always looked so much more majestic when I wasn't allowed to touch anything).

At lunch our aunt and uncle would come, we'd all sit down to eat lunch.  Afterwards, we'd open up our stockings and gifts from them after lunch. It was a very special time. 

Normally our tree had more decorations but I don't know why we didn't that year.  This was my last gift from my grandpa.  He passed on the following October.  He was the best paper catcher/thrower awayer ever! ;)

my sister loves beagles so she got some beagles that year

Then we'd head to my dad's parent's house after all the dishes were done and put away.  We'd eat some dinner down there, exchange gifts, and then head to our neighbor's house.  They would offer us the most delicious assortment of cookies.  There's one I have no idea what it's called but it has chickpeas in it and it's soooooo amazing (perhaps because I grew up on it).  

I'm not sure what our new traditions will be as we start our own little family. I sure do miss though being able to wake up on Christmas morning (even in high school) at 5 am and snuggle with my grandpa. Those were the days! I'm sure though we'll start focusing our family traditions around Christ after our little one gets here.  He truly is the reason for this Season. 

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. - Luke 2:11

For to us a child is born, 
   to us a son is given, 
   and the government will be on his shoulders. 
And he will be called 
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
Of the increase of his government and peace 
   there will be no end. 
He will reign on David’s throne 
   and over his kingdom, 
establishing and upholding it 
   with justice and righteousness 
   from that time on and forever. 
The zeal of the LORD Almighty 
   will accomplish this. - Isaiah 9:6-7

What are some of your Christmas Traditions??? How have they changed since being married?

Not here, but there

Today you'll find me over at Jana's blog doing a post on some holiday baking (which I've yet to start)! EEK!  I need to get some eggs pronto! ;)  I  really can't wait to make these:

Source

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If you are interested in guest posting for me while I take a little break in January, please shoot me an email mrsawood 08 at gmail dot com. 

Looking for posts on: 

First time mommyhood tips

DIY Tutorials

Faith

Make-up Tutorials (cough Lanie cough)

or if you have something different you'd like to post on, please share it with me ;)

Cold Hands Warm Hearts

When I saw that Ilene and Sandy were hosting a Cold Hands Warm Hearts swap, I had to participate. I love gloves!  I'll let you in on a little secret.  In high school gym class, I'd wear gloves because it was so cold.  Yep, I was a nerd. 

I was so excited to be paired up with the beautiful Katie, of The Bright Life.  She's so awesome.  I love reading her blog.  She's inventive, creative, talented, and best of all, she's a believer!  I've been super encouraged by reading her new advent series.  You should totally check it out!

When I received my package I was so grateful!  Katie just picked things that fit my personality so well. I wish that I would have taken better pictures, but have been lacking the motivation/ability to take a lot lately (with hubby working).  These don't do justice for the beautiful gifts I've received.  

Sweet, sweet Katie, sent me that beautiful little card, explaining all of the gifts that she had sent.  (I wish I would have thought to do that). That little bundle of lace includes buttons that I can use to make more things for my shop.  So excited to use them! 

Oh, and the lace, that's the sweetest part to me.  It's left over from Katie's wedding gown that her mom MADE for her.  So precious!!!

She gave me those lovely brown gloves on the left (which I had to break out when the furnace was accidentally turned off in our apartment).  I LOVE the gloves and booties for our little one.  Katie also gave us those beautiful cards :). 

And also included were these beautiful prints of Scripture verses.  I absolutely love them.  I just haven't had a chance to get frames for them yet, but I will!!! I think I may need to hang them in my "craft room." 

If you like the prints that you see, be sure to check out more of Katie's design work in her shop!

Isn't Katie the best??? Thanks so much again Katie for being a great partner and thanks Sandy and Ilene for hosting!

Be Our Guest Part 2

Calling all readers, calling all readers, it's your chance to SHINE!

As I mentioned yesterday in my post, I'm hoping to be blogging through my due date, however, I would love to have some guest posts lined up for that time after the baby comes, when I will TRY to do a few posts but would much rather have you meet each other (as in other readers) than have you hear the ramblings of a zombie mom new mom. 

We'll be looking like this only 1 bajillion 10x worse. 

Now the question remains, what would you post about?

Good Question! 

There are a few ideas I have in mind, but am very open to suggestions. 

I would love posts on:

Faith

DIY projects

Mommy Tips

How you deal with the "Winter Blahs"

Photography tips

Make-up/Hair Tips

Winter Recipes

Would you be willing to partner with me?  I would hope to have the posts by January 10th.  I would just love to keep the blog up even while we adjust to a family of three. 

If you are interested in guest posting please email me at mrsawood08 at gmail dot com. 

Thanks everyone!!!

It's the Little Things: Midwives, reorganizing, and picking names (maybe)

It has been quite a while since I've linked up with Lindsay for a Little Things post and I still have been terrible at taking photos.  However, I do have some little things that I'm very thankful for this week. 

1. We went to our midwife appointment this week and baby is still head down and tends to be on the left side. Which is apparently a good thing. :) We absolutely LOVE our midwife.  She is just super wonderful.  So knowledgeable, caring, and a woman of faith.  LOVE LOVE LOVE HER. 

Anyway, I had borrowed the book Natural Childbirth: The Bradley Way from her.  I'm so thankful that I did.  It was probably one of the best books to prepare me for childbirth/help me to learn better how to take care of myself during the rest of this pregnancy.  I recommend it to anyone who is pregnant/trying to get pregnant. 

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I also read parts of Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss and hope to get that book soon.  I was just AMAZED at how well some of his homeopathic remedies worked.  It also had a list of laxative foods/foods that constipate you, which is amazing to have right now.  Right, pregnant friends?

2. Also this week I took Tuesday and reorganized the closet in the bathroom.  It may not sound like an all day ordeal, but:

1. I have a belly that makes bending, reaching, stretching, climbing difficult. 

2. We had a box of tools that had spilled on the floor and nails were everywhere.

3. I also took time to sweep and mop the kitchen and bathroom floors. 

4. I could only work for so long before my left hip would start hurting again. Boo!

But praise God it was done by the time my husband got home from work.  YAY! One thing off the checklist before baby gets here.

3. And that leads me to the last thing I'm very thankful for this week.  We MAY have decided on names. Maybe. I like the names we've picked out and I think our boys name might be set, but Aaron wants to look at the name book some more. So we'll see.  I hope we stick with the boys name that we have. I love it.  For a girl we only have a possible first name picked out right now. I also love that.  I have a possible middle name in my head, but I think he'll reject it so I'm waiting for a while to tell him. 

Source

So that's what I'm thankful for this week.  What about you?

Be Our Guest

Hello Everyone!!! 

I hope that you are all doing well. I'm sorry to have been out of the loop for so long on blogging, but I think that I will be back enough to at least finish out this month.  I am hoping to still blog until baby is born (or almost born) but am just not sure exactly when that will be.  Supposedly in 44 more days but we'll see. 

Have you gotten into the Christmas Spirit yet?  Are you like me and have been playing Christmas music since November 1st the day after Thanksgiving?  I love Thanksgiving and truthfully, as much as I love Christmas, Thanksgiving is up there pretty high as well.  We'll say they're tied for my favorite.  

I'm hoping to make these for some gifts
via Pinterest

We live in a small apartment with no real room for a large tree, I tried that once and it just took up half the living room and now our couch is larger than it was back then.  So we just have a small three foot tree, but it suits us just fine.  I put it up about a week ago and just love sitting and looking at the pretty lights. :) 

Someday I will make these as well. So pretty!
via Pinterest

I also have 2 nativity sets displayed in our living room.  I love them both.  They are a great reminder that Jesus is the reason we celebrate!  I can't wait until next year and we can talk to our little one about Jesus and share about His birth using our nativity sets.  

More than all the decorations though, Christmas is about Christ and His Birth and why He had to come to Earth.  So if you've made it this far into my ramblings, GREAT and thank you!  

via Pinterest

What does Christmas mean to you??? 

I would love to have some guest posts this month on what Christmas means to you, some traditions you follow, and how you celebrate Christ through this season.  

If you are interested, PLEASE shoot me an email at mrsawood08 at gmail dot com.  I would love to hear from you. 

Making the Switch

Last week sometime, I read an amazing post by Alissa of Rags to Stitches Boutique called Why I Choose Storenvy. I'm SO Glad I read this post. 

I know I don't have a huge customer base for my shop at all really.  I'm ok with that for now.  I'll probably have to slow down a bit anyway.  However, I was getting a little frustrated with just all the tiny costs that add up with Etsy.  They're all really little costs, but for us at this time, they add up.  Then I read this post and was like WOAH! 

(Right now they have special categories to help you shop for Christmas items on the front page.  This particular one is one of Alissa's products.)

Basically there are no fees on Storenvy for listing items, no fees when you sell an item, you only have to pay the PayPal fee, which I would have to do anyway. 

So I decided to make the switch to Storenvy for Toaster's  Transformations.  I'm still in the process of transferring all of my items over, so they will still be available on Etsy until probably after Christmas.  

One of my favorite things those is that you get to customize your storefront.  So fun, even though I know very little about design. 

This is my new banner for the shop.  You read that right, you can take 20% off until December 15th. (The last day I will be shipping before Christmas.) 

So what do you think? Like the new shop?

Blogger Fail

Hello Everyone!!!

I had every intention of doing a wonderful Thanksgiving post on all the things I was thankful for and take pictures while we were visiting my family.  Unfortunately that never happened.  I've been a bad blogger and been gone for almost a month. YIKES!

In that time, I've been trying to get the apartment ready for baby.  We are for the time being in a little one bedroom apartment, so making room for baby is going to be challenging but it'll be OK! :)  I can't wait to rearrange our bedroom so that we can set up baby's crib.  We got the crib at a yard sale and it's AWESOME and we got the bedding as well.  It's super cute.

Yay I found a picture of it.  Or, the closest thing I can find to it.  I'm pretty sure this is it though :) :).  YAY!

I also worked on sending out my Cold Hands, Warm Heart package.  I'll be writing a post about that soon!!! I need to get motivated to take pictures :/.  

I'm hoping to do maternity photos soon as well.  I can't believe we're 33 weeks and that means we only have 7 weeks to go. Can't wait to see our midwife on Wednesday and hear our baby's heartbeat again. 

Aaron has been working VERY hard so lately the pattern of my day has been:

Get up at 5:30 or 6 with him. Make breakfast, pack a lunch, get his tea or coffee ready.  

At 7 or 7:30 go back to sleep.

Sleep until I wake up. 

Do some things that need to be done: dishes, cleaning, checking the website so he can have more subbing.

Eat lunch.

More monotonous stuffs.

Start making dinner.

Eat Dinner with Aaron.

Send him off to work.

Do whatever until he gets home.

Chat and pray for about an hour.

Go to bed around midnight. 

Please be praying with us that Aaron gets a good paying Full Time job soon.  Preferably teaching, but we'll do whatever God wants. 

Speaking of monotonous stuff, I need to clean up from dinner!  Hope you've all been doing well. 

There is going to be an announcement tomorrow :). Stay tuned!

When you get four pregnant ladies together

You get a line-up:

 Sky (16 weeks), Phanango (22 weeks), Sandy (24 weeks) and me (30 weeks)

Phanango and Sandy were both visiting with their husbands.  It was so nice to just take a walk with everyone and then chat with the girls. 

Hehe and our friends Sally and Justin came over with their little one (who's not so little any more!!! He's a big 2 year old).  After we got done taking all of these photos.  The little man decided to use our friend's phone to take photos of me, but I had to be standing against the wall.  I played a long for a little while but then was just too tired of standing. 

What a fun weekend! :) 

Love, 
Amanda

P.S. Did you check out these new clutches? Elegant Pine and Classy Pine

They are one of a kind (and aren't made yet so can be changed slightly if needed).  I mailed some out for a charity raffle and really liked them so decided I'd be able to make one of each for the shop if anyone is interested. 

P.P.S. I still need to right a Duggar post.  I've been so encouraged by them lately!

P.P.P.S.  We start up youth group tomorrow.  If you could be praying God would have His way there we'd GREATLY appreciate it! 

Tickle me Coconut

Sometime in the last month, my husband and I were watching an Iron Chef America.  It happened to be Battle Coconut.  

Oh no, so many problems with this. 

1. I already have an intense love of coconut.

2. I'm pregnant and tend to be easily convinced I need certain foods.  Not really cravings, but more of an I see it and now want it kind of deal. 

3. My mouth watered the entire show.

4. I think I said I want it about every 30 seconds. 

That brings me to the last few weeks.  My husband decided that we NEEDED to have some coconut in our lives.  Seriously, he stocked up!

Oh praise God for my hubby!

So I got on Pinterest and found some wonderful recipes.

Here are the ones that tickled our fancy the last few weeks.

Most amazing coconut macaroons ever. And so simple!

And then we had Coconut Chicken (next time I'm leaving out the condensed milk, too sweet (which is normally impossible for me)). 

And lastly, I made these tasty little buggers

Oatmeal Coconut Chewies

I messed up (SHHHH) and only used 1/2 c. butter, but they still turned out well. =D 

And I didn't feel as guilty when I'd eat like 6 (ok, I only felt half as guilty). 

Can I use the excuse I'm eating for two?

So that's what's been tickling our fancy lately.  

How about you?

Linking up with Sarah!

My first Award

Remember how I talked about Sarah of Yes, Teacher Crafts???

She's adorable and super sweet.  And she gave me an award! 

Rules of the award: To share seven things about yourself and award seven more bloggers this award. Be sure to let them know you awarded them so they can pass it on!


Here we go, seven random things:


1. I danced for 10 years of my life. My senior year of high school I danced 24 hours a week.  I also had to take tests for our ballet method we practiced. I'd get excellent in style, musicality, and theory; however, I'd barely pass the actual dancing part =P!

It don't mean thing if it ain't got that swing! Do wa do wa do wa do wah! etc!

2. I love coconut.  We had these for dinner last night, although, I didn't have bread crumbs so I used ritz crackers, and next time I would not use condensed milk.  They were slightly too sweet. 

3. I very much admire the Duggars.  You know, soon to be 20 Kids and Counting.  They have an amazing faith and are a great example of what a Christian family can look like. LOVE. (More on that later though)

4. I was not a Christian until February of my freshman year of college (Thanks to my friends Sally and Robin!) so almost 7 years.  I remember packing  my little Bible from VBS thinking, "I may need that." HA God is awesome! 

Photo: Kat Ritenour Photography

Robin is in the bottom left, and Sally is the only one in Plum :)

5. Growing up the only "vegetables" I ate were corn and potatoes.  Yes, I know now those don't count as vegetables.  I eat a lot more now, however, only if they are cooked. Veggies raw just are GROSS. Oh and so is lettuce.

6. I could survive on pierogies (and probably chicken fingers). 

7.  I worked in retail once for 3 months.  Least favorite job ever!  I wouldn't do that again (at least at the same store). 

And now, to pass it on to seven other lovely bloggers:

Karen at Celebrate Life

Caroline at Good Times Never Seem Sew Good

Erika at Rouge and Whimsy

Laura at Along for the Ride

Kelly at The Pretty Bee

Melanie at With Love from Lanie

Jana from Giggles, Glitz & Glam

Feel free to leave me some random comments about yourself too! I'm off to make some pierogies.

 No, I'm not kidding.

But I am also going to make a fruit smoothie to make it "healthier" =D. 

Yes, Teacher

I'm over here today.  Hosting a giveaway on Sarah's blog.  

I've just recently started following Sarah's blog and I just love it. 

She has two weekly posts that I just love:

Missionary Kid Mondays

Tickle Me Tuesdays. 

If you haven't  checked out her blog yet, you should do so it's adorable. 

You can find out how Bob Barker turned her parents into missionaries!

Oh and did I mention she has an adorable shop as well?  All beautiful things handstamped.

Like these Adorable Charlie Brown Christmas tree cards.

or this turkey:

Oh and you get a chance to win $20 shop credit to Toaster's Transformations.  So you should go head over there ;). 

Sweetest Birthday EVER!!!

Saturday after our baby shower, Aaron and I took the baby shower gifts home, unloaded them and then he told me to get changed into clothes appropriate for hiking.  So I changed into some jeans and a hoodie.

Then we went to Presque Isle, "the Peninisula" for a beautiful walk at sunset.  We've been trying to get more exercise, I love seeing the sunset, and it was a beautiful November evening. 

 Yup we live here.  So gorgeous!!!

Well this photo turned out not so great, but we have to leave the park by dusk so we didn't have a ton of time to take one.  But it was so nice taking a walk and talking about our marriage and things that are going well/what we can improve upon.  It's so great to take those times to reflect. 

Then we came home, and since we had an hour or so to kill, Aaron and I spent some time in prayer, which was awesome.  

Next, Aaron informed me it was time to get dressed up, we're going to a fancy dinner. 

So I got back into my dress from the baby shower, and ironed his outfit for him. 

We got in the car, and I had to have my eyes closed the entire time, well, this frustrates him because even though my eyes are closed, my sense of direction is still on so I usually know where I am anyway :). 

However, he did do some tricky maneuvers that had me a bit confused. 

He parked, got something out of the trunk, went inside, and then came back out to get me. 

WAITING IS TORTURE, not my favorite, but usually it's worth it. 

So when he let me out of the car I knew where we were:

Chick-Fil-A

I was THRILLED!!! I love Chick-Fil-A. They're a Christian company with great food, and even more amazing sweet tea! What's not to love???

Anyway we walked in the doors and Aaron told me to go to the right, we had a booth all set up for us. 

If you look closely, there's a sign that says, "RESERVED: Wood."  Aaron took in the candles, but Chick-Fil-A provided the rest.  

So incredibly sweet. 

And then, the manager came over to take our order.  He asked if we'd like to start off with salad.  If you know me, you know I don't DO salad.  Lettuce is super gross. I've tried eating it, I just hate it.  

Aaron MADE me order a salad with ranch dressing.  Gag me with a spoon please! I hate ranch dressing. 

Then the manager appeared with our salads:

My sweet, sweet husband, got his salad (on the left), and purchased my salad (on the right).  I LOVE calla lilies!  They are my FAVORITE flower.  He said he got me one because we didn't have live callas for our wedding.  What a thoughtful man I've married.  SOOOOOOO BLESSED!

Then, our server, Frank, came back and offered an appetizer to me and got our drinks.  I, of course, got sweet tea, and Aaron got lemonade.  I also got a super tasty fruit and yogurt cup! YUM YUM!

The flowers on the left, from Chick-Fil-A, the flowers on the right from Aaron and our drinks.  I think it just puts the night into perspective.  It was sooo incredibly funny, but really special and sweet at the same time.  Perfect for our marriage.  

Next came our entrees, 

Aaron enjoyed a spicy chicken sandwich and some waffle fries, while I enjoyed some yummy chicken nuggets and waffle fries.  Yes, you see that correctly, Chick-Fil-A served us on real plates, bowls and with real silverware!  They are AWESOME!

The problem with having others use your camera is that sometimes, you don't get great photos HOWEVER, I still love this photo because it was such a special night!

Our "server" came back to take our dessert order.  I was stuffed and couldn't even eat the rest of my chicken so I asked if we could get dessert to go.  Aaron ordered us a brownie to go. 

BUT THEN

Our server came out with THIS!!!

 Why yes, that is an absolutely delicious DQ Ice Cream cake!!!

I had to have a slice, they gave me ICE CREAM CAKE!!! Yummy ice cream, creamy whipped topping, and crunchy, fudgy, cookie center.  

And this is when I had to hold back tears.

Are you ready for this?

When Aaron called to set this up earlier in the week, the manager thought it was a great idea. 

And then said, that the entire night was on the house.

Chick-Fil-A provided a FANTASTIC night for us, free of charge.

For those of you who don't know, we have been struggling lately financially as Aaron continues to work two part time jobs.  He hadn't planned on them offering to pay for the entire thing.  However, they just did.  

Coincidence??? 

I think not!

I think that we serve an AWESOME GOD Who provides for us EVERYDAY in amazing ways. 

I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my birthday.  And God provided it for us.  The people at Chick-Fil-A didn't know our financial situation, they were just being servants of Christ.  

That's why I love Chick-Fil-A!  They show the love of Christ so well!

As we ate our slices of ice cream cake, I told Aaron I wanted to bless them, for blessing us.  So we got several paper plates from the staff, and cut the cake to serve the staff and try to feed as many of the guests as we could.  Sure, we could have taken the cake home with us, but we'd rather serve others!  It's the least we could do after God had blessed us so much.  The staff had been so incredibly kind the entire night, and I could tell THEY were excited for us as well.  It was just so incredible!

Then after that we decided we needed to be just a little silly:

Because well, it's us, and it's what we do! =D

This was by far, the best birthday I've ever had.  

God is so incredibly GOOD!

Providing not only for our needs, but also for some of our wants.  

My husband planned a great night, but GOD made it come into fruition. 

To God be the Glory!

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What was your best birthday? Do you have a most memorable birthday?

*Even though this doesn't fit normal Tickle Me Tuesday posts, I'm linking up with Sarah,

Because this date certainly tickled me!*

Baby Shower #1

This past weekend was filled with lots of fun and excitement and busy!  But, that's life.  I'm not entirely convinced that life ever slows down.

***Warning: I'm terrible at taking photos so all of the photos sprinkled throughout are actually from the baby shower.  You have been warned.  You may proceed.***

Friday night, we went to my mom-in-love's for dinner and some board games for my birthday.  It was wonderful, she made 3 different soups and a casserole that I really love and got us some ice cream cake! YUM YUM!  Then when Courtney got home, we played some Boggle and Settlers of Catan.  I love both of those games, so they did a great job picking out what to play that night!  Courtney's only complaint about the game is that we were done playing (at 1:15 am or so).  (I had to be up by 8 so I knew it was time to get ready for bed, or else I MAY have played another).  Aaron got the bed ready for us and then we snuggled with a little precious Conner puppy, who is really not that little anymore as he's going to be 6 soon.  

Me and Mom Wood

Courtney and Me

la sigh, I remember when I first met Conner he bit my ear as a wee lil corgi puppy.  

Then on Saturday, after we found Aaron's wallet, it was off to breakfast with my former roommates.  We went to Perkins and had a very nice breakfast.  My card from Meg was hilarious (she knows I love chocolate), I also received Persuasion, a Jane Austen based film, and Bonhoeffer (which I can't wait to read).  It was so nice to just get to see all of them again.  :) 

Sally, Me, Meg, Liz

Then we went home, got ready and had lunch with my parents and sister, Kristin.  We went to a local Italian restaurant and it was soooooooo tasty!

Kristin and I

Mom and Me (I tickled her to get a pseudo real smile HEHEHEHE)

Daddy and Me

Then it was finally time for the baby shower.  (Are you tired yet?)

We played some games: Name that nursery rhyme, guess the circumference of Amanda's tummy and Baby Bingo.

Then we, well, I, opened gifts.  Apparently I was too fast as my sister got very few "OK" pictures.

This little bear is super cute. He plays peek-a-boo with baby and raises his arms/blanket to cover his face! ADORABLE!

And this little rocking chair has been in our family for 4 generations.  It was my grandma's, then mom's, then mine, and now baby's!

Hopefully in the spring though we can give it a fresh coat of paint and a new cushion! :) 

Daddy, Me and Baby makes three!

And then daddy showed up to help us load up gifts. 

It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon! 

Surrounded by people that love us and care about us and our wee one on the way! 

How did you spend your Saturday???

I've got more to come as Aaron planned a special date for me Saturday night ;). 

P.S. 

Don't forget you can still get FREE SHIPPING until November 10th, with the code: BIRTHDAYSHIPPING.