Catching Up and Little Bits of Happiness

Wow. I haven't written anything since my first post in November.  But I suppose I can be forgiven seeing as I was still suffering from a good deal of pregnancy nausea at the time, we traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we hosted my whole family at our home for Christmas.  We enjoyed having my mom stay for two extra weeks bonding with Abby and giving us another set of hands around here to get things done.  We just dropped her off at the airport yesterday and Abby still keeps asking about "Hamma" (grandma).  When I told Abby that Grandma went bye-bye and if we wanted to talk to her we would have to use skype she ran to the computer immediately after we dropped Grandma off and asked to skype.  She's asked me several times today too.  Cute kid.

By way of recapping the last several weeks, I thought I'd just post a number of captioned photos that highlight some of our Christmas activities while sipping at my blackcurrent Ribena tea.   (I'll recap Thanksgiving later.)

Mmmmmm Tea.....

 Abby and I made our first batch of cookies (biscotti, to be precise) together in preparation for the holidays

 Abby enjoying the sunny weather and our Christmas pointsettia

 Some after-church family photos with Jeremy's mom.  Abby was not keen on the idea!

My family arrived on the 23rd.  Abby spending some morning time with Happa (grandpa)

 Giving Aunt Sarah a lengthy explanation on a topic of great importance

    

Opening presents!  And more importantly, PLAYING with them!

Seeing the lights at the Zoo and freezing our fingers off

Getting pretty before her birthday celebration with bows (and Uncle Daniel- I think he looks pretty too)

 Gluten-Free Chocolate birthday cake

Opening a present from her great-grandparents.  She was tickled pink!

 She got a new baby doll too!

 We hosted a murder mystery dinner with my family, my grandparents, and Jeremy's mom.  Sadly I don't have more pictures.  I think some others might though...

Going out for lunch.  Love these two!

Playing in the fountain after lunch

        

 Lots of time loving on Grandma.  This just makes me happy!

 More cake!

 Grandma was showing Abby how to slide her hand in the potholder and Abby said "Cook, no hot."  Apparently she has it all figured out already!

 A pretty common sight around here: Abby on the counter as we prepare dinner; in this case, gluten-free pizza.  Sorry, no after pictures as we were all hungry and there were important things going on (namely Downton Abbey).

 Banana Shake mustaches make me smile and should be captured for all posterity.

We had a few other adventures too.  We celebrated my birthday.  I got a sewing machine that has already been put to use fixing some maternity pants for me (thanks, Mom!) and putting up matching curtains in my living room (thanks, Peggy Lee, Jeremy, and Mom!).  Mom and I explored the Asian and Indian food markets in the area and found a plethora of gluten-free flours that I'm excited to try out.  We did lots of cooking and generally had a wonderful time!  We had an awesome doctor's appointment were we got to see this beautiful little thing: 

And we confirmed my suspicions that we are indeed having a BOY!!!

Now we are trying to settle back into a routine.  Abby is trying to get used to not having an adult fully at her disposal every second of the day.  I'm rediscovering my introvert self and resting a bit.  Next up: develop a better system/agenda for keeping up with the house and making the most of my time with Abby before "baby bruher" comes in and demands a new normal.  Cheers!