And here comes 2008!

Our family had a fabulous Christmas. The girls were blessed with many gifts and lots of time spent with friends and family. I of course think that Toys R Us threw up all over my house, but luckily we've been able to find some new homes for our old toys, and even put away some of the new toys for rainy days. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner here at our home then went to Church with the girls. Christmas morning was spent watching the girls happily unwrap presents and then we headed over to my inlaws for more presents. After that was done the girls were getting a bit tired, so we went home and they took their naps. Paul and I spent their nap time putting together toys, cleaning up some old toys and mostly just finding the space for all their new gifts.
My parents arrived on Friday and I spent most of Saturday preparing for Paul's graduation party. We had his party yesterday and it went really well. We had tons of food and drinks left over, but I'd rather have too much than not enough, and was even able to send food home with friends, so that was great. The girls got to play with their friend's at the party, and Paul and I got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while. All in all I think it was a wonderful time.
Today is my father's birthday, in addition to being New Year's Eve. The girls and I went out this morning to pick up breakfast for him and we had a nice breakfast together. I've been trying to get the house cleaned up a bit today as well. Tonight we will be going out for Sushi with my mother in law. Paul is working tonight from 4pm-12am and tomorrow from 8am-4pm, so he'll be spending the night at a friend's house instead of making the hour drive back home, and therefore missing out on some much needed sleep.
Wednesday is my next midwife appointment, and I'm really surprised how fast this pregnancy is going. I'm almost 27 weeks I think, which puts me at the beginning of my third trimester. I haven't done a darn thing to get ready for this baby. My goal however is to get the bedrooms painted in the next couple of weeks, then move the girls into the same bedroom in the beginning of February. Getting Julia and Lily comfortable sleeping in the same room is currently my priority, and I feel like once they are ok with that, I can start getting the nursery ready.

I'm going to attempt to post some pictures from our holiday celebrations... however I always have trouble with this part, so we'll see how it goes.

so i've been ordered

I've been ordered to update my blog... apparently there is a rule I need to write once a week. Paul graduated from the police academy this past weekend! I'm so proud of him. We had such a fun weekend with family and friends.
Christmas is one week away and I'm not feeling that stressed about it. I'm happy Paul has off the 4 days before, that way if anything needs to be done, it can be done then and I'll have help. I'm more stressed out about the Graduation Party I'm throwing him the week after Christmas. Luckily my parents will be visiting, so we'll have some extra help.
Lily is getting more and more excited for Christmas, nearly every day she asks me if its Christmas yet, and every time we drive by a house with Christmas lights and decorations, she yells out "Mommy, look, they are having Christmas at their house!". Its just too cute, and I love hearing the excitement and wonder in her voice. Julia doesn't really have any concept of Christmas yet, but she sure loves the tree and all the fun ornaments to play with. I put all the safe ornaments on the bottom and let her touch them and play with them. She loves putting them on and off the tree.

Ok hopefully this blog post fulfilled my requirement for the week... next time I blog will probably be after Christmas, if thats ok with you Melissa.

There's snow, Christmas must be coming!

"Look Mommy, its snowing!!! Christmas must be coming!" So says Lily. Christmas and all the joy and wonder and stress that comes with it, certainly is coming. This weekend I have dedicated to baking and decorating. Maybe even some wrapping if I feel especially motivated. I've been a baking fool the last couple of days and have gotten a good dent in the baking I want to do. Tomorrow, Lily and I will be baking chocolate chip cookies (with red and green chocolate chips that she picked out), pizzelles, and starting our sugar cookies. I'm hoping to also get the tree and the lights up, and do some decorating. We won't be decorating the tree or the sugar cookies till Sunday, when Lily and Julia's aunt is coming over. All in all, it should be a festive weekend.

Next weekend will be quite busy as well. Paul graduates from the police academy on Friday! Can you believe it? I can't! Well I can, because he's worked so hard the past 4 months, and has really kicked butt in the academy. We'll have his graduation ceremony on Friday, a Christmas Party for the girls on Saturday, then a graduation party for his class. So it looks like it should be a fun filled weekend.

We recently found out that Paul will have the entire weekend before Christmas, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off of work, so I'm thrilled we will have this holiday to spend as a family. Of course he won't have these days off again for the next 7 years, so we are definitely going to take advantage of it and make the most of it.

On a side note, can you believe it, I'm already 23 weeks pregnant!?!? I haven't done a darn thing to prepare for this baby... but I figure we can worry about all that stuff after the holidays.