Catch Up

Okay, catch up, my Mom and Dad bought a condo here in town around Thanksgiving, so Rob and I went in and painted and bordered their bedroom and hung some new light fixtures for them for Christmas, that was a fun little project to get my mind of my miserable hugeness! This year our Christmas tree was somewhat exciting and different, for Zach, mostly, the kids wanted to decorate with their collection of ornaments, which I agreed to, I get them ornaments every year, but we only hang up the new one each year, and the rest is "The Pretty Tree", they call it, well, we had five casualties in the first day, so I decided that we won't do that again for the five or six years now! Back to the "The Pretty Tree" and this year I found plastic ornaments that look like glass, so we're good to go for next year now!

I had a family bridal shower of sorts for my soon-to-be sister-in-law (now is sister-in-law), that was fun, and she is definitely the best, I could not have hand picked a more perfect person to join our family!

Our wonderful small group had a diaper shower for us, that was so much fun! We played hilarious baby shower games, and since several of our small group members do not have kids, and some are even single, this was even more fun to watch their squirms at the "Dirty Diaper Game"! We have been supplied with enough diapers to last a long time (well, at least a few months, I can't get over how many a new baby goes through!).

I had my birthday, the 19^th of December and turned 29, this was fairly uneventful, one more year till, well, we're not talking about that. I did however get surprised with a, Italian dinner out and a movie to boot! That was fun, it had been awhile since Rob and I had gone out!

With budget restraints this year, Rob and I stretched the Christmas budget to the max, I bargain shopped, on eBay, and we went all over town and got a big bang for our bucks. Somehow, I think shopping early really made a difference too. Anyway, I was pleased to find that Rob and I selected some very pleasing gifts for the kids still, even though we stuck to our budget this year!

The Kemper Family Christmas was at our house this year. It went very well, I didn't cook or clean up, I just played lay on the couch hostess kind of! But, we all had a great time. The afternoon movie selection was WALL-E, a very cute movie, my sister cried, I kid not, she cried. Anyway, the girls were all excited to get handmade night gowns, one for them, and a matched one for their American Girl dolls, that my Mom made. Ethan decoupaged and painted small wooden jewelry boxes for his sister and cousins and Grace decoupaged wooden frames for her cousins. I like to make something with the kids for their Papa and Nana for Christmas, this year, I got an idea from a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Wooden plaques, painted brown, shrunk profiles of each of the kids' busts and decoupaged them on, hot glue ribbons for hangers and viola! Beautiful!