Busy, busy!

It's my FAVORITE time of the year! Actually, June - December is really my favorite time of the year. Lots of birthdays, holidays, milestones, changing of leaves, sprinkles of snow and of course, all the festivities of the holidays. I'm a bit of a holiday junkie - do a ridiculous amount of baking (why? I have no idea. Platters upon platters of cookies adorn my counters and tables), love investing in ornaments and decorating the tree, wrapping balsam garland in white lights and draping it around our front and back door, shopping and wrapping, entertaining and hosting...and everything else that comes with this wonderful time of year. Of course adding children to the mix takes the holidays to the next level - not only in terms of fun, but in terms of the sheer number of things that need to get done. More shopping, more wrapping, more fun to be had. The girls and I have Christmas music on 24/7. Literally, in the car, Gloria constantly yells "LOUDER" for me to turn up the music. As the sun goes down, it's all about finding the best Christmas light displays. We also began an advent calendar tradition with Rosemary 2 years ago and have continued to carry this on through the years. As a parent, there is also a huge responsibility that comes with this time in year in helping the kids understand what we are actually celebrating. I am so thankful to have Rosemary's teachers at school to help us make sure this message comes across clearly. We have been so busy with all kinds of little projects around the house. We recently wallpapered the kitchen, had our dining table side chairs reupholstered...and perhaps most rewarding, had our COUCH delivered. It's beautiful, we really love it. It's a nice generous size, but not too 'overstuffed' feeling in our tiny family room. It's a VERY neutral fabric, part of a 'bigger picture' as I assured my mother who loves color. Of course, now that the couch is here, I'm desperate for the rest of the room together. Patients my friend! I also had my friend Steph take some pictures of the girls for the holidays - which means I was finally able to fill all the frames in my stairway gallery wall which is quite possibly my favorite part of this home! We had our 16 week doctor appointment this week for tiny baby #3. Things are going well and baby's heartbeat sounded great. I've gained about 5 pounds at this point which is a little less than I normally have at this time. I attribute it to an awful case of the stomach flu I had a few weeks back and the fact that I'm really still waiting for my appetite to come back. The nausea is gone for the most part - occasionally a bad day sneaks in there, but I'm anxious to start getting my eat on. With both of my previous pregnancies I've gained 40-50 POUNDS...WOO! So, I'm feeling a little behind in my eat-a-thon. On 12/28 at 10:30am, we will be sitting in the u/s room finding out the gender of our third child. Words can not express how excited we are. This is a first time experience for us as we've found out during the deliveries for both of our previous pregnancies. Since this will be our last baby, we decided it would be fun to experience things a little differently. I honestly could not care less what the gender is. I can envision our family both ways and both are exciting. I am a firm believer that God gives us what's best for us and I can't wait to find out what it is He sees us with! Sorry this is a really random post but we are watching Saturday Night Live while I'm typing. Thought it'd be fun to share what we've been up to though. By the way, Jeff and I went out on a little date tonight - to dinner and grocery shopping. Lol. Is this what our Saturday night's out have come to? ;-) Not sure I'd have it any other way.