We’ve done a lot of this…

And this…

And this…

 All in preparation for a Christmas that came a bit early to my house, resulting in this…

(P.S. Thank you SO much for all the nutcracker hat suggestions!! I ended up just buying the fabric and making it myself so we had it in time!!)

 🙂 Can’t wait to keep on celebrating with the family this week!

I’m praying for you, dear friend. May this Christmas be a time to remember the precious Baby who was born so many years ago and the wonderful gift He is! This year has been a hard year for so many. Lots of prayers and love to you.

So this poor second baby has had like four pictures documenting his time in the womb. I think I took a picture every week or at least every other week with Nathan.

Hopefully this doesn’t continue to be the case after he’s born.

He’s making up for it in ultrasound pictures. We had two ultrasounds with Nathan. We’ve already had six with this boy and it’s not looking to slow down. There’s a slight issue with my placenta, so we’re having to monitor him and his growth rate. He’s already WAAAAAY different than Nathan. While Nathan tried ninja-chopping his way out through my belly button, this little guy is very content to just lay in there and occasionally kick just when I’m about to lose my mind with worry over him. He has occasional moments of craziness, but for the most part, he’s pretty calm.

I’m curious if it will translate to outside the womb. 😉

And… we finally took a picture!! 26 weeks and counting!

I have been packing on the weight this time around. Some of that has to be due to me 1) not working out except for once this whole pregnancy (the time I do have, I usually want to spend sleeping. Or eating. Or getting writing done) and 2) craving all kinds of sweets. With Nathan, I was way more about the fruit. 😉

Christmastime is definitely here!! We’ve been in the middle of advent stuff, Freddy Frinkle the Elf stuff, buying gifts for family and friends and then returning said gifts when our family and friends end up already having them. Ah, Christmastime!

As far as our advent activities go, we’ve done a lot!! We made reindeer fingerprint Christmas cards. Someone was more than happy to get his hands in the paint. 😉

We went out for frozen yogurt and looked at the fun decorations in the mall. Nathan yelled down from the second floor to Santa: “I WILL SEE YOU ON SUNDAY, SANTA! AND I DECIDED I DON’T WANT A SKATEBOARD!!”

We saw Santa (a different one). And yes, Nathan was quick to remind him that he actually didn’t want the skateboard.

Now he wants a sled and a Nutcracker Hat.

Oh for the days of him wanting the simple, easy-trip-to-Walmart skateboard. My poor mom and I have been scouring Amazon and every store we can think of for a week now. Apparently, Nutcracker hats aren’t the newest, hottest toy.

Just in case you were wondering.

We went to look at Christmas lights and stopped for Starbucks along the way (because y’all, we know how to do this properly).

And holy cow, did we see the mother of all Christmas lights!

Love Nathan’s expression when we got him out of the car for a closer look. Ha! And to top it all off, there was a…

Nutcracker. Nathan was in heaven. HEAVEN.

I came in this Saturday and found Jon resting on the floor after his workout and I guess this is called fair game for an underwear-clad toddler. Goose.

And I have to brag. He drew a picture and I asked him to try and write his name on the back. He disappeared into his room and when he came back out, this is what he had done all on his own. LOVE it. I was so proud of him!

How are you guys getting ready for Christmas??

P.S. Don’t forget my new novella, Merry and Bright, is now available on Kindle!! 🙂

Now available on Amazon Kindle and Kindle apps!! Download Merry and Bright right here!!

Don’t have a Kindle?? The app is completely FREE – you can find out more how to get it on my e-novella page. 🙂

And the winner of the free copy is Sharon Martin!! I will send you an email to confirm! Thank you to everyone who entered!

Have a merry day!! 🙂

Merry and Bright is releasing this coming Monday on a Kindle or Kindle app near you!!

I’m so excited to introduce you guys to Kelly! Want more info on the e-novella?? Check out the E-Novella page on my website!!

In the meantime, who is up for a little contest while we wait??

Leave a comment with your favorite Christmas tradition to be entered to win! Or, if you want twice the chance of winning, you can tweet about the novella as well. I’ll draw the winner Monday morning. 🙂 And to my international friends, this contest is available for you guys as well! Yay!

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Merry Christmas, friends!!

We’ve been cramming as much Christmas into our lives as possible lately! This past weekend, we went for the first time to a Christmas parade they have every year here and oh. my. goodness. It was COLD. And very long – there were I think over 100 different cars, trucks, bands, etc in the parade.

Gammy and Pops came with us. Can you tell we’re all freezing? 🙂

Spider-Man made an appearance and that was pretty much the highlight of Nathan’s night. I have no idea how he’s gotten so into the superheroes, but he knows them all. And I guarantee I don’t sit down to snuggle and whisper sweet nothings about Spider-Man in his ear. 😉 After dinner, Mom and Dad were so kind to treat us to a warm dinner – I think I finally stopped shivering about halfway through it. 🙂 Thank you guys!!

A new visitor was sent to our house this weekend from my wonderful grandmother – the Elf on the Shelf! We had to pose with him for pictures before we instilled the no touching rule. Why does Nathan look seventeen in this picture?!

The next morning, we found Freddy Frinkle (yep. That’s his name) reading to all of Nathan’s Little People. 😉 Nathan was thrilled!

Saturday, we were out running errands and ran into Walmart for a few things. Nathan can spot Santa like he’s the only thing in color in a black and white world. So we HAD to go talk to him. He talked nonstop for about ten minutes before we finally convinced him to let Santa’s ears have a rest. 😉

And yesterday we spent some time working on Christmas cards for Nathan’s BSF teachers. We absolutely ADORE them – they are so good with him!

Also – this week is the last week of my special on the autographed Paige series in my bookstore! Be sure to check it out!

So begins the evenings of Christmas movies, hot chocolate and cookies!! What are your must watch movies for the season??!

It’s snowing, the Christmas tree lights are on, Nathan is doing his rest time, I just had one, okay, three homemade chocolate chip cookies and neither I nor my son have gotten out of our jammies all day (yes, even when friends came to visit. There are only a handful of people in the world who I would allow to see me and my house like this. I love that friend a lot). It’s the most perfect recipe for writing and all I want to do is sleep. 😉 I totally took the 18ish hours a day I slept when I was pregnant with Nathan for granted.

We’ve started our advent calendar! I love this magical time of year. 🙂

Couple of questions for my mom friends out there:

* Did any of you use a pregnancy support band that you really liked? I’ve been having a LOT more round ligament pain this time around and I imagine a big part of it is the constant moving around chasing a busy three year old plus my abs aren’t what they used to be (a c-section will do that, I’ve heard). I’ve been looking up reviews on Blanqi bands – anyone tried those and liked them?

* Another newish (at least since Nathan was born) thing I’ve found is the Solly Wrap – I would love to hear if some of you have tried it and liked it! It seems like a good alternative to the Moby Wrap (which I LOVED but got super hot and bulky). Let me know if you’ve tried it and what your thoughts were!!

And because my little Nathan bean is just constant chatter, here’s what he’s been saying lately:

– One of his shoes came off in the car right before we pulled into the Walmart parking lot. He looked at me and said, “Oh no, Mama! I’m going to have to hop in the store!”

– Anytime he needs a day to just chill with me on the couch watching movies he always tells me that he might have a “feel-ten” (fever) or a “tummy-hick” (tummy-ache).

– “God must take old people’s hair. I bet He keeps it in His heart.” Or his other favorite, “Old people don’t have hair because they went out into the really, really, really SUPER strong wind and it blowed it all away!” (No idea where this fascination with baldness comes from. He’s also seriously worried about losing his teeth someday when he gets old.)

– He came out of his room from rest time and said, “Can I have a little snack and a cup of coffee?” He drank the whole cup. (Decaf, of course.)

– My newest favorite conversation EVER:
  Nathan: “I love you soooooo, soo, SO much, Mama.”
  Me: “I love you sooo, soo much too, baby.”
  Nathan: “Actually, I just love you ALL the much.”

And last, but not least…

– We left his Little People nativity set at Gammy and Pops’ house on accident one day (which was a terribly sad morning the next day when we saw it was missing. That thing is a prized toy here!) so Nathan decided that he and I would just have to be the Little People guys.
   Nathan: “I will be Joseph and you can be Mary.”
   Me: “Um. Okay.”
   Nathan: “So. We are married?”
   Me: “I guess so!”
   Nathan: “Oh good. Well, now that we are married, I guess we can get a sheep or sumpin!”

😉

Oh goodness. We have been CRAZY busy lately. I’ve been trying to get a novella out for Christmas and so when I’m not writing, I’ve been running around so much that the second I sit down for something like blogging, I just fight sleep the whole time. 😉

What we’ve been up to:

We drove to Flagstaff last Wednesday to meet Jon’s family halfway for Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone – and often with the adults until past one in the morning. I think I’m still catching up on sleep. 😉 Such a wonderful holiday in such a beautiful getaway house!!

Little bean on the car ride up and back – he did SO good! He even slept for a little bit on the way back (he fell asleep right when Jon and I both had to go to the bathroom, of course. Isn’t that always how it works?? 😉 )

Cousins in the snow.

This boy could LIVE in the snow! Ha! And his daddy and aunt and uncle were so kind to drag him around and start his sled going and help him make snowballs.

While we were there, my favorite boy celebrated his 29th birthday! Love this man. God blessed me way beyond I could have imagined with him.

Yesterday we spent the day playing with friends and doing never ending laundry.

And making cinnamon rolls. He had to wear his chef hat at first and then decided that he was actually more like a fireman when we were pounding out the dough. 😉

Today, we had another checkup on our littlest man – Baby Boy has been kicking up a STORM in there lately – it is SO fun!!! Love seeing my stomach jiggle from his constant moves and feeling him pretty much every time I sit down! I have a small issue with my placenta, so we’re just watching him and doing extra ultrasounds to make sure he’s still getting all the nutrition he needs. He’s measuring about five days ahead already though – so he appears to be growing just fine! Such a blessing! I’ll be 25 weeks along on Saturday so I’ll do a baby update with a new picture then. 🙂

So much happening! I feel like we are careening headfirst into everything! How was your Thanksgivings?? 🙂

I will never take for granted my right index finger again! 😉 Splint is finally off and it’s almost healed. So thankful!

As for what else has been happening…

I’ve been making lists like crazy for the holidays and Nathan has decided this must be the new thing to do. He told me the other night he was going to draw a picture of Daddy holding Nathan on the list instead of writing.

Love this. 🙂 My favorite part is that his name is now spelled NAHTAN. 😉

We got to FaceTime in to some dear, dear friends’ gender reveal!! SO excited for Jen, Greg, big brother Noah and precious baby girl coming soon!!!

The weather man was predicting snow all weekend and when Saturday came and went without anything except freezing temperatures, we had a sad boy on our hand. So, we did the next best thing. Christmas shopping and lunch and ice cream at CFA!

Apparently the anticipation was too much. Jon found this when he went to check on a super quiet Nathan later that day. 😉 I loved it though. I went in to wake him up, he fell over against me still totally conked out, so I just scooted around and held him in his tiny chair for the next twenty or so minutes while he slept. I can’t even remember the last time I got to hold him that long! Precious moments while baby brother kicked at him continuously. 😉

And then… Sunday morning dawned and…

SNOW!! (Kind of!! Ha!) Note that both boys were still in their jammies. Nathan was in our room at the CRACK OF DAWN yelling about it having snowed, he ran out and came back in less than twenty seconds later with his hat on and holding his coat. What can we say? He comes by it naturally. 😉 So he got to play for a few minutes before breakfast in his jammies.

He did not quite understand that I put the towel on the floor to gather snow boots and such. 😉

After the fastest breakfast of all time and a forced change into actual snow clothes (it stinks having a mom who cares about you sometimes!), it was time for more snow play in our barely-snowed-in yard. 😉

The boys scraped up enough snow for a tiny little snowman…

Oh how I love this shot!! Someone ADORES their daddy with all his heart.

Ta-da!! He lasted about two hours. 😉

Caught this little evil grin right before he nailed me with a snowball while I was sacrificing myself in the frigid air – in my bathrobe!! – to get some of these pictures. Oh that boy.

I am LOVING this season. It’s so busy and crazy and hectic but I love, love, love finally settling down at the end of a very long day in front of this:

FOUR stockings, friends. I can’t get over it. Oh, we are so very blessed!!

If you follow me on Facebook, you hopefully saw the reason for my super long absence online lately:

Ugh. I was in a hurry making dinner Monday night and sliced right through my knuckle on a can of refried beans. 🙁 We butterfly-bandaged it back together but it was still bleeding pretty good Tuesday morning. Thankfully I was able to avoid stitches and got to have it glued back together instead but I had to keep it in a splint for the past four days, which has made it incredibly difficult to type! (Someone had some sympathy pain, can you tell?) 😉

I slept without the splint for the first time last night and my finger appears to be doing much better! It’s still pretty tender and the cut is still semi-open, so I’m trying to be very careful about how much I bend or use my finger right now since I do NOT want to get an infection!

Praying you guys all had a great week! Hopefully I will be back Monday with a fully-healed finger and a more fun post. 😉

I haven’t taken too many pictures this week for some reason. We’ve had a great week filled with lots of visits with great friends but apparently I just didn’t feel the need to capture it. 😉

My boys love their cookie dough. I swear Nathan can hear the thought of making cookies running through my head and he comes running. 😉

He was very proud of this Lincoln Log tower he made!

My bean at Cubbies when we came to pick him up. He was so intent on the story he didn’t even see us. Ha! Also, this is his favorite way to wear his hat and he adjusts it back down this low every time we try to raise it up a bit. The hat is disgusting but he loves it.

I am seriously really wanting an oatmeal cookie right now. If anyone would like to start a cookie delivery service to my house, I could be on board with this. 😉 Typically, I’m not the biggest oatmeal cookie fan but I had one last night that was amazing at Starbucks. What is your favorite cookie?

Don’t forget that Paige Torn and Paige Rewritten are on sale for a limited time only in my bookstore!!