What? A new post????

Ok, so I know I haven't written anything in about a month! I'm sorry, readers! We had my family here for Christmas; my sister was here until the 5th of January and we were really busy the whole time. Then I was really sick until about two days ago (coughing a lot and such), so it's been rough! Anyway, we had a great Christmas and hope all of you did, too.

I actually didn't take a whole lot of pictures during Christmas...too much was going on! My sister Abby is a great seamstress and she sewed up a storm while she was here. She made the baby's crib bedding, Amelia's flower girl dress for our friend's wedding, and bustled the friend's wedding dress. They all turned out great! I still have a couple things to finish for the baby's room before I post pictures, so stay tuned for that. However, I do have pictures of Amelia's new room, which Abby and I did most of. It is indeed VERY pink but Amelia loves it and I think it turned out really cute. See pictures below!

On the baby front, things are going well. He is still moving quite a bit and growing well! I have my next appointment on the 29th and then I'll go every week following. I think from this point on they'll check my progress to see how things are coming along. I don't anticipate delivering before my scheduled c-section (Feb. 19th) since it's scheduled at 39 weeks, but who knows? I'm not counting on going early! We still haven't decided on a name, so we'll have to do that soon. It's hard to believe we only have four weeks left. Time has really flown with this one!

One last note: Amelia has discovered the knock-knock joke. Her jokes go something like this:

(Amelia) "Knock knock."

(Mom) "Who's there?"

(Amelia) "Rice."

(Mom) "Rice who?"

(Amelia--long pause as she looks around the room)..."Table!"

Then she will repeat the joke with "Orange....zipper!" or some such randomness. Three year-olds do have some crazy sense of humor! So, hopefully now that I'm on the mend I'll be better about keeping this up-to-date. I'll have lots of pictures to share in the coming weeks, for sure.

Baby Jobe's birthday...

...will be Tuesday, February 19, unless he decides to come earlier! I just scheduled my C-section this morning. They'll start the surgery at 8:30, so shortly thereafter we'll have our little boy! Several people have asked if we've decided on a name yet, and the answer is....sort of. We have a name we both like, but there are still a couple others that could be contenders. We probably won't decide for sure until he's born, and unfortunately for everyone else, you won't find out until then anyway (we like to keep it a secret!). Everything with baby is going well. I heard his strong, steady heartbeat this morning and so far I'm still feeling pretty good other than some occasional lower back pain. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers! These last 9 weeks are going to fly!

Christmas Pictures

We just took our annual Christmas card picture, and came out with several really good ones. I wanted to get my big belly in the picture so little baby Jobe could be recognized! We didn't end up going with either one of these but I thought they were worth posting. :-)

This one cracks me up because we were telling Amelia to kiss the baby, and it ended up looking like Bryan and I were squashing her in between our tummies!

Happy Jobes!

Holiday Tag

Welcome to the Holiday edition of getting to know your friends.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely wrapping paper; I usually get several different prints so I can wrap each family member's gifts in his/her own paper. This makes it much easier to find everyone's gifts.
2. Real tree or artificial? We have two artificial ones, although I really like the smell of a real one.
3. When do you put up the tree? Never, ever until after Thanksgiving. This year we put it up the day after.
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually the first week in January.
5. Do you like eggnog? Oh yes...the light kind.
6. What about Fruitcake? Not really, but I like Billie Haske's fruitcake cookies!
7. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm...I'm not sure. I guess that means I liked everything!
8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a Willow Tree Angel one. I really like it!
9. Hardest person to buy for? My dad and Bryan's parents.
10. Easiest person to buy for? My sister
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Well this one wasn't really the worst, but it was funny: One year when Cabbage Patch Kids were all the rage, I really wanted one. We went to see the mall Santa and when it was my turn, he asked me if I wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid. For some reason, it embarrassed (maybe annoyed?) me that he knew what I wanted, so I said, "no, I just want a big doll." So I got a big doll, and was duly disappointed. Moral of the story: if Santa guesses right, go with it.
12. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail them.
13. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story, although I love most all Christmas movies.
14. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually not until after Thanksgiving, and I get stressed out about it. But...this year I am already all done! Hooray!
15. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Hmmm...probably, although I can't remember for sure.
16. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? sausage cheese balls, gumdrop cookies
17. Clear lights or colored on the tree? clear lights on the "pretty" tree upstairs, multicolored ones on the "family" tree downstairs
18. Favorite Christmas song? too hard to pick! I am fond of Michael Buble's Christmas CD, Manheim Steamroller's CDs, and, of course, the Smith Family Singers Christmas CDs. Oh yeah.
19. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Usually we travel either on Christmas or Thanksgiving. This year we stayed for T'giving and we're staying for Christmas, but my family is coming up for Christmas.
20. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? yes
21. Angel on the tree top or a star? Upstairs, lots of bows and stuff; downstairs, a star
22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.
23. What is the one present you want most this year? This year, nothing in particular is sticking out to me.
24. Most annoying thing about this time of year? How early places start putting out Christmas stuff...before Halloween. Seriously, people.
25. What I love most about Christmas? It's cheesy, but the Christmas spirit everyone has, and just the festive atmosphere about it all

Happy Birthday, Amelia!

This week, Amelia turned three years old. I can hardly believe I have a child that old...time really does fly! I've come to the conclusion, though, that in the future I need to associate Halloween with Amelia's birthday, because by the time it's over, her birthday is only two weeks away! This led to me being a slacker this year, losing track of time and forgetting to plan a party in advance. Unfortunately for her, Thanksgiving is the week after her birthday, so we can't really do a party the week after, so if she has a party this year, it'll be in December. Yikes! I haven't made a cake for her yet, but I will...that way I won't feel so bad. Fortunately, she's still so small, she doesn't really get the concept of timing, so I'm sure a birthday celebration at any time of the year will be fine with her. :-) Below are some pictures from our birthday celebration (we had some friends out with us to Red Robin) and various presents. Not pictured are a set of instruments (triangle, bells, and tambourine) which she loves, from the Parkers, several cards, and a couple of movies (Cinderella from the Hortons and a princess movie from Mom and Dad). She had quite the haul!

Amelia with Cranky, from Aunt Abby
the new Thomas umbrella (from Mom and Dad)
The bicycle (from Grandma and Grandpa)
Strawberry Shortcake (from Uncle Kent, Aunt Cara, Derek and Austin)
Matching outfits for Amelia and Bitty Baby (from Nana and Pops)
everyone at Red Robin sings to Amelia
a Snow White dress (fromthe Perrys)
the Dora big sister house (from Matt and Jessica)
having a tea party (from Mom and Dad)

Amelia and her tri-colored friend...

Here's a short photo slideshow documenting Amelia and Fletcher's relationship to this point. We've got some great pictures over the last 3 years, so we thought it would be good to put them together in some way...enjoy! (it's about 6 minutes long and has music)

Trunk-or-Treat and Halloween

Our church's annual Trunk-or-Treat party was Sunday night, and this year our Life Group decided to go dressed as Star Wars characters. It was pretty cool...we had Star Wars music playing, and Yoda had fog coming out from him! Amelia really had fun at Trunk-or-Treat, especially when we found the other little princesses.

Our Life Group

Bryan as Darth Maul and our friend Matt as Chewbacca

Me as Padme Amidala right after she's had Luke and Leia (the two dolls)

Amy Jo as a Jedi and Lance as Yoda (our preacher and his wife!)

Amelia as Cinderella

Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Amelia with her friend Caleb, dressed as Mike Hart (Go Blue!)

Amelia poses with her Cinderella doll

Amelia ventures down our sidewalk to trick-or-treat (Daddy was right behind her!)