Merry Christmas!

Despite not being able to be with our families for Christmas, we've had a wonderful holiday here in beautiful, wintery SoCal.


There was snow...

and presents....

and an obscene amount of Christmas cookies ;)

ok I admit, it wasn't very wintery. It was in the mid-60s and sunny the past few days ;) but we tried our best to make it feel like a Northeast winter.

Christmas Eve we made our big family dinner then hit the slopes at our neighbors church. Her dad is the pastor and he brings in a big truck of snow from the mountains and they create some sled hills for the kids to enjoy.

The twins got to ride down the little slope with daddy. I didn't think it was the best idea for me to do, being 35+ weeks pregnant and all ;) they had hot chocolate and cotton candy and all kinds of treats for everyone so we had a fun time hanging out for a bit on a beautiful sunny (not at all blustery or cold) afternoon.

We then ran home to change and hit up Christmas Eve mass at the base.

After talk the day before of where all the overflow rooms would be for the early evening mass at our regular church, we opted for the smaller base church to avoid the crowds, not getting a seat, and having to show up 2 hours early to even get in the church. I'm glad it's such a big church and there are so many people, but holidays aren't the best for that ;)

Luckily, the twins were pretty worn out when we got home so there were only a few threats of Santa not visiting them while we put them to bed. Then Tom hit the living room to get out all the presents and finish putting a few things together. He was excited to watch Scrooge (his family's tradition) and it was the first year we had to "hide away" presents so the twins wouldn't get into them before hand ;) so we felt like quite the grown ups. After many cookies and some hot chocolate, I went off to bed and let Tom finish putting together the cardboard blocks ;)

Finally, it was Christmas morning :)

 We attempted my family's "stair picture" of the kids waiting to run downstairs for presents. It didn't go so well. My children don't sit still...ever.

 Then it was time for presents. Once they warmed up to it all, they were really excited.

They loved all their gifts. Considering Tom and I bought them 4 things total, they sure did make out with lots of great presents. I know 2 little babies very spoiled by their grandparents and uncles ;)

After presents and skyping we ate our traditional Christmas breakfast. I had woken up early to make the aebleskiver so it was waiting for us in the oven when the presents were done :)

Our last Christmas activity was lunch and hanging out with friends from church. A couple with grandkids the twins age invited us over to their house and we knew the twins would have fun playing. The couple's older daughter and her 2 sons actually go to preschool with the twins so we already knew each other :) (random because the parents invited us over, not knowing we knew any of their family already haha) The twins played, we ate and hung out, and had a fun afternoon.

Overall, it was a very busy and exciting Christmas. Very different from last year. The twins don't understand the whole Santa story, but they sure do get new toys, opening presents, food and of course cookies. I know next year will be even crazier. The twins will probably be a lot more into it and we'll have a new baby to share the holiday with! Tom has off work for another week so we're going to enjoy some quiet family time and relax. Probably our last chance to relax before baby 3 makes his/her debut in just a few weeks!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has a safe New Years! Maybe next year we'll get to go home for Christmas...

The big 3-3!

I cannot believe I'm 33 weeks pregnant! Every day I get a little happier, a little more surprised I've made it so far, and a little more excited to meet baby 3 :) I'm definitely starting to get nervous for the inevitable delivery but baby has to come out somehow, sometime, so I try not to think about it too much. As it gets closer to the scheduled c-section date though, I'm sure I'll start to panic.

30 weeks pregnant in the picture. Don't mind the fuzzy hair. You can't tell but it was actually pouring down rain when we took this picture! haha

So what's going on at 33 weeks you ask? Honestly, and happily, not much! This entire pregnancy has been a breeze compared to the twins which I am soo grateful for since I've been able to handle the twins fairly well by myself still.

The only big concern I've had is baby is very relaxed. I don't feel him/her very much. I go through periods with a lot of activity and then long periods of feeling practically nothing at all. It's a little stressful, because I expected to be feeling the baby more but after talking to my doctor, he decided to do an ultrasound and nonstress test and baby came back perfect. Well, not too perfect. S/he BARELY passed the nonstress test so we're going to repeat it every week from here on out, but everything looked great in the ultrasound so baby looks healthy and very happy and content inside of me.

My doctor makes a comment every time I see him about how much I've grown as he takes a double take at his measuring tape, so apparently baby is really growing in there! Which is great! S/he was 3 1/2lbs 5 weeks ago (at 28 weeks) so my guess is I have about a 5lb baby inside of me right now :) AKA almost a pound more than the twins weighed COMBINED! :)

My biggest complaint at this point in my pregnancy is just that I'm tired. I don't have the energy I'd like to have...to say the least haha I feel bad because I'm not on the floor and as hands on with the twins as I was, or I'd like to be. I mostly sit on the couch and they bring toys to me and I'll play with them. If I sit on the ground to play with them, I'm down there for good, but they usually want me to be up and down and chasing after them, so that kind of playing has become a bit sparse these days. If they're climbing outside I'm at the couch right next to the back door watching or sitting on a chair outside keeping tabs on them, not climbing all over their jungle gym with them. Hopefully, after I have this baby, things will go as smoothly as they did with the twins with my recovery. I remember getting my energy back almost immediately, my back pain magically disappeared, and I was up and moving around very quickly after the c-section. So I'm just praying things go that way with this baby too so I can get back in the action with the twins!

Even with the limited mobility I'm still having to remind myself to slow down or take a seat a lot because I've been having a fair amount of braxton hicks in the past few weeks. Usually a few a day. Never painful, never accompanied with any other signs of preterm labor, and they always stop when I sit down for a few minutes, so it's nothing I'm concerned about, but it's definitely a hint that I need a break, even if I'm still feeling good other than that.

So that's it in my rather uneventful pregnancy so far! Still overall, I feel amazing compared to my pregnancy with the twins and have been enjoying the pregnancy and how long it's lasted ;) Part of me wants the baby to come soon, because, hey, what have I been working for the past 8 months? I'm excited for the end to see my baby! But part of me is happy to just have these last few weeks to enjoy the time with my precious first borns :) It's gone by so quickly and I can't believe how much our world is going to change again very soon. I'm excited, but hoping and praying for a smooth and easy delivery so if you're thinking about us, say a prayer for my baby birthing anxiety and that everything goes well when the big day comes! 6 1/2 weeks, if not sooner, will be the big day! yikes! :)

Holiday Season

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

atleast for some people. Apparently, not these 2 ;)

Our church had the holiday boutique/breakfast/santa greeting this morning and things definitely didn't go as well as last year. Amelia took 1 look at Santa and got a look of panic on her face. Jack sat on his lap, confused for a second, then realizing his sister was terrified, proceeded to have a melt down. But I guess what childhood isn't complete without a terrifying experience with Santa?

The rest of the morning went much better. They were adored by everyone at our church and had fun running around looking at all the tables with goodies for sale. We ended up just buying some bagels by some miracle I said no to the sweets on the table haha) and a cute bow for Amelia. It's nice to support the church and school and still get a fun breakfast, some christmas shopping, and a very entertaining trip to santa, all in one morning ;)

I might try again with Santa at a store, but we'll see how brave I'm feeling ;)

Now we're off to the San Pedro Holiday Parade!