Winda is Growing...

Here I am at 26 1/2 weeks. I have definitely gotten a bit bigger than the last picture we took about 7 weeks ago. This picture is already out of date though, because I swear I grow bigger every day! (Just ask Ben--he'll confirm it.) Ben is such a sweet husband. He never makes me feel unattractive or anything but cute. He's very good at pampering me and making sure I'm not doing too much. He's already so proud of our little boy because he's such a strong little kicker! My boys are going to be funny together. I can't wait.

Christmas Break

We survived making Christmas cookies!

Unfortunately, we failed on taking pictures over Christmas. We took our camera to Salt Lake, but every time we wanted/needed it, we didn't have it! So frustrating! Despite the lack of pictures, Christmas was just awesome this year. We got to spend 2 full weeks in Salt Lake doing tons of things with the Johnsons and the Christensens. While we were there we had a lot of late nights and early mornings, and we kept thinking that this is one of the last times we'll really be able to do that sort of thing because our little boy will dictate how our lives go as soon as he comes! We did homemade gifts with the McMullins, Christmas cookies, pageant, sealings, a bowl party, Christmas Eve with the Johnsons, Christmas morning with the Christensens, Christmas day open house with the Johnsons, New Year's Eve party with the Johnsons, took a trip to Richfield to take Grandma Chris home, and had a baby shower. Phew! It was a busy vacation. I hope I didn't leave anything out. Poor Ben got sick as a dog with the flu on Christmas Eve morning and couldn't go to the movie and Chinese food with the Johnsons. He recovered enough to do sibling gifts that night though. Luckily, I escaped unharmed. We had so much fun over Christmas, and everyone was so generous and gave us so many gifts! Even little Emerson got tons of things and he's not even close to being here yet! We were sad to leave and get back into the regular routine of daily life with work and school, but our little apartment in Logan isn't so bad, either. :)

"Christmas Morning"

Figure 1

Yes, the use of quotations here is warranted. Why? Because it wasn't really Christmas morning. (Please see Scott's blog, link to the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotations for more background. Thank you.) This is a picture of our Christmas morning, which really took place at about 9:00 p.m. on December 19th. This is a 3-year strong tradition for our little family, because we're always in Salt Lake with our families for the actual event (which we love!). This is when we give our presents to each other and we have a random dinner--we just have a little bit of everything that sounds good. This year we weren't really feeling the random thing I guess because we're just getting older and can't handle the smorgasbord of foods that don't necessarily agree with each other. (Just call me Grandma Draper ;)) So we had chicken and mashed potatoes...yum.
I was delightfully surprised with all of Ben's thoughtful gifts to me. I would name them, but I'm worried I would leave something out and then he would think I didn't love whatever it was. One of the things I gave Ben was a pair of homemade pajama pants. It seems like no matter what pattern you have, what fabric you have, and whether you make them in sewing class or at home, they always turn out looking tenty. Equipped with this knowledge and prior experience, I altered the pattern a little to make the fit more flattering. The first pair was horrible, and I messed up so you couldn't tell the back from the front--not even when you put them on. They just felt wrong and uncomfortable no matter which way they were on. (I have to admit, I didn't follow the pattern the first time exactly...silly me.) The second turned out great! (See Figure 1 of Ben modeling new firetruck jammies) He said he's never been so happy because he thought he would never get to wear pajamas with firetrucks on them after he turned 4 years old. I'm glad I could make his wildest dreams come true. :) The second pair got thrown away, because I couldn't even bear to think of someone at DI picking them up.