The Countdown is On

I finally just added the widget to my sidebar of my pregnancy countdown.

It's obvious, from my lack of posts, that I have been a slacker blogger for this whole past year. I'm not making any promises for next year, but I hope to make it more of a priority.



So, anyway, my pregnancy is soon coming to an end, and really it wont' be any too soon for me. I just hit my 36 week mark, but compared to my other 4 pregnancies I feel like I am at 40 weeks. My belly is huge, my hands and feet are swelling like crazy and I lack motivation to do much, partly due to trying to keep the swelling down, the more active I am the more swollen I am, but if I sit to rest, I don't want to get up.

Thankfully my children have been great helpers lately. The boys are on dish duty and do a great job keeping the kitchen from mountains of dirty dishes. Charlie is learning to do a great job mopping the floors.  Friday we had a "clean the house" day and I made them badges to wear that held their chore cards so they could move their cards to the back of the badge as they finished.

example of badges we used

clips attached to the badges

They probably loved the badges so much because it is a new thing, we've never used them before, but it was great because the badges clipped to their shirt and on the back of the card that said the job I listed the steps of what was expected for that job to be complete.

For instance Tom was in charge of cleaning the patio. the steps were, pick up garbage, put the big toys in the garage, put the small toys in the toy bin, line up the bikes and toys with wheels.

Tom did a fabulous job and the patio looked great. The chore badges were very helpful in keeping the kids on task. I didn't have picture cards for the girls, so they just came and asked me what theirs said and then ran off to do it and came back to ask about the next one.

One thing I have been enjoying lately is sewing. So far the baby has a couple blankets and burp clothes, my next project is to make a nursing cover. Not knowing the gender of the baby has made it harder in choosing fabrics and such, but I found some fabulous fabrics that i made the rag quilt with.

The other children have benefited from my sewing marathon. They each got a new apron, which actually the boys helped make their own. And I made the girls towel wraps for Christmas which are great for them to wear after baths or after swimming.

Mostly I'm trying to keep myself distracted from wanting to have this pregnancy over now, and rather just enjoy these last few weeks before our lives are changed forever with the addition of a new little one. One thing I have to look forward to is my sister Susan coming to spent some time with us, before and after the baby is born. She will be here in two weeks and stay for almost a month.

Wonderful Christmas

Going to see the lights at the Fletcher Farm

We had a very nice Christmas day on Sunday.

Tom got his Christmas miracle. Jeremy was scheduled to work on Sunday and Tom was hoping that dad would get home early and be his Christmas miracle and what do you know Jeremy was home by 8:30am and never did get called back into work.

Since Jeremy wasn't going to be home for the kids to get to open their gifts early in the morning they must have figured there was nothing to wake up for, not one of them was awake before 7:30 am - that was my Christmas miracle, getting to sleep in.

We got up and made a pancake breakfast and daddy showed up just in time to eat with us. We then opened a couple of gifts and then got ready and went to church.

After church, which was only one hour, Sacrament meeting, rather than all three hours of meeting, we opened more gifts. The gift Jeremy was most excited to give was his gift to the girls.

He figured what little girl wouldn't love their own pink bb gun. Becca was indeed very excited, Lydia wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with it.

This is the only picture we took on Christmas, all the rest are videos.

We were invited to our neighbors house (the Wetterlings) for Christmas dinner and had a wonderful feast with them.

Later we came home to Skype with the grandparents, first my family and then Jeremy's family.



Being 8 months pregnant I can't say I feel very motivated to do much lately, I'm big and tired. My wonderful husband had Monday off and he helped clean and get all the Christmas decorations down and put away, it was so nice to not have to do that myself. We usually don't take it down the day after Christmas, but that was when he was available to help and I was very glad to have his help.

Videos you must watch

We love Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson at our house and the Piano Guys are doing a great job making videos that are awesome to watch.

Here are a few favorites:

Carol of the Bells (one of my favorite Christmas songs)





Here is a video from a recent concert - I would love to go to their concert

"Where are you Christmas" - with Jon's daughter singing




This next one is very fun to watch - a favorite of my boys, spin off of Star Wars, and a neat side note, a friend of Jeremy (from high school - Ali Morris) made the costumes.

Cello Wars




This one is Tom's favorite and we bought the single and he listens to it over and over and over.

Michael Meets Mozart



The most awesome thing about watching these guys, beyond their talent, is watching the joy they experience as they play their music, I love listening to their songs, but I also love watching them, it inspires me to want to improve my talents and take joy in what I do.

Merry Christmas