Christmas 2012 - Part 1

We are spending this Christmas in Sammamish, WA this year with the Lambert family. Our 7th Christmas together! We are both super excited about the holiday break this year because it's extra long for both of us - almost three weeks. We don't start school again until January 7th. There are some benefits of the student life :)

Before leaving for Seattle, I was able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert with my sister, mom, and aunt. It was so, so good!

The day we arrived, we went down to Seattle to see Elf, the musical, at the theatre. We both love the movie and thought the stage production was well done. At intermission we found Santa hanging out in the lobby!

Over the weekend we went up to the cabin. I LOVE all the snow - it just makes it feel like Christmas.

Dave and I made a snowman up at the cabin. All the rocks are buried 10 feet under so for the face and buttons we had to use scraps from the kitchen. He has grapes for eyes, a pickle nose, and pepperoni buttons that Jobe was particularly fond of!

We went down to Seattle again to see the lights and the gingerbread house display at the Sheraton hotel. This year the theme was Disney and they were all so neat! My favorite was probably King Triton's palace.

On Christmas Eve we went to the botanical gardens to see the lights. I can't imagine the work it must take to put up all those lights!

In lieu of a cake...

It was Dave's birthday this weekend and instead of a birthday cake, I made him some homemade macaroni. Dave was more than happy with the switch, but still wanted to blow out a candle so we stuck one in, sang real quick, and then took it out before it melted into the dish. It doesn't look that appetizing in the picture, but trust me, it was delicious. Mmmm!

25 Weeks

I decided it was time for a proper belly shot, even though it feels a bit weird taking pictures like this. I've reached the point where people no longer feel hesitant to ask if I'm expecting, because I'm definitely showing! I am, however, in an awkward stage where nothing really "fits". My regular clothes are too small, but the maternity stuff is too big. I'm sure I will grow into it (and then out of it) real soon!

Me and baby girl at 25 weeks

According to the baby websites she's the size of a rutabaga, but having never seen a rutabaga, I have no idea what to think of that. Is a rutabaga a scary size? It doesn't sound like the most petite of produce, but still a long ways off from watermelon (phew!) I feel her moving around all the time, and she is most active at night when I want to sleep - I hope this is not a sign of things to come...

Thanksgiving 2012

For Thanksgiving this year we went out to eat and it was wonderful! Rather than have someone host a dinner, my grandma treated the family members in town to dinner at the Country Club. Thank you Grandma Mimi! The food at the club was yummy and it was so nice to just leave all the dishes on the table once we were done.

There was also an amazing dessert table with about 30 options. I filled my plate with key lime pie, caramel cake, pecan delight, eclairs, chocolate mouse, chocolate creme puffs, chocolate covered raspberries, and raspberry jello - I ate until I could eat no more.

Dave and I have so much to be thankful for. We are grateful for all the blessings in our lives and are excited to see what this next year will bring!

Happy Birthday... to Me!

Yesterday I turned 27. I always love birthdays, but it's hard to believe how fast time flies by. Was I really only 20 when we got married? We started dating right right around my 20th birthday (he cooked me a steak on his roommate's George Foreman), and now look at us 7 birthdays later!

 While I was at work Dave made me my favorite cupcakes - funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting. Mmmm!

For my birthday dinner we went out to eat at Tucanos. My entire meal consisted of meat and lemonade - stomach space is at a premium for me right now and I didn't want to waste any room on side dishes!

Baby + Tucanos = Big Bump!

I feel like I grew a couple sizes after dinner tonight. I'm a little worried that nothing will fit after Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow!

Welcome Winter

The last couple weeks have been pretty low key. We spent our time at home, and I found plenty of opportunities to take naps, drink hot chocolate, read, and start my Christmas shopping.

A big storm blew through Utah two weeks ago and we got about 10 inches of snow over three days. The storm taught me that Toms make horrible snow shoes, we haven't put an ice scraper in our car yet, and covered parking is awesome!

Despite the snow, we decided to drive down to Provo for Gifts of the Heart, a free clothing exchange for student families (there are some benefits of being eternal students!). I think our little girl should be set for the first few months of life. I can't wait until she's here!

After the exchange we stopped at my sister's apartment and Dave helped Anne build a "snowsman"

He helped her get the eyes and nose in, but she did the rest by herself :)

Since there was quite a bit of snow, they decided to make quite a few snowmen. It started out with a daddy, a mommy, and a baby and then Dave just kept adding babies until he couldn't make them any smaller.

While they played, I got to hold this little guy who wasn't all that thrilled with his makeshift snowsuit - I think he was a little overwhelmed by all the white. It was so pretty!

After the snow melted, a bunch of tumbleweeds blew into our complex. Dave gathered the ones by our building after we got home from church - I think there must be a tumbleweed breeding ground nearby...

Shooting Guns in Saratoga Springs

On Saturday we went up to the hills of Saratoga Springs to shoot some guns with my sister's boyfriend's family. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out of our apartment for awhile and enjoy the outdoors!

I spent most of my time operating a skeet launcher they found at the thrift store while the boys shot the guns. At one point there were 7 boys on the line - 6 with shotguns and one with a rifle - and I had to work pretty fast to keep the targets flying!

The shot guns we were using were a little heavier than I was used to. I have only ever shot a 20 gauge, and these were 12s, but I still managed to get a good hit on one skeet. Dave took awhile to find his rhythym, but once he did he was able to hit several targets in a row.

I was also proud of my mother for shooting a gun for the first time! She was a little worried about the recoil, but I was glad she tried it anyway.

Our future is looking...

PINK!

On Friday we had the big ultrasound and found out Baby Howe is a girl. We are both thrilled, although Dave is already preparing himself for the teenage years. We could see her moving around a lot during the ultrasound, but I still haven't felt any kicking. I'm guessing it's not going to stay that way for long!

Our little girl at 21 weeks - and yes that is our baby even though the name at the top is Suzanne Jones. The tech had it set up wrong. She's measuring 20 weeks 6 days, so right on schedule!

Howe Pumpkin 2012

I normally like to get creative with our pumpkin, but this year I've really only had one thing on my mind...

Only 2 more days 'til we find out!!

Deseret Dairy

Dave and I are not able to participate in a lot of our ward events due to work/school/travel, so when the sign up sheet went around looking for volunteers to help at the Deseret Dairy, we put our names down.

Since we were working the evening shift, our job was clean up. Dave and I were put in charge of mopping up all the chocolate dust in the room where they make pudding and hot chocolate. It wasn't the most exciting job, but at least the room smelled really good.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but Dave's face is covered in water. When he went to rinse out our mop buckets, he had the high pressure hose turned the wrong direction and sprayed himself directly in the face. He was pretty startled, but I found it quite funny.

The best part was the "payment" we received for our services. Did you know the Deseret Dairy is the supplier for the BYU Creamery? We left with four bottles of chocolate milk and two pounds of cheese. Yum!