A Facebook Tag

I just did a facebook tag and thought I would post it here to share (for my non-fb friends and with a few added pics). I'm not really sure how to "tag" people on facebook like I am suppose to do, so hopefully I can figure it out and actually post it!?! You're suppose to put down 25 random facts/goals/whatever about yourself:

1. I've been married almost 9 years
2. I have an addiction to the internet/computer/emailing/FB/digital scrapbooking
3. Photography is becoming my next addiction
4. I have two very energy filled kids, one on the way (April 8th!)

The Belly Shot:

5. I'm not much of a reader. I started Twilight and never finished it (gasp!)
6. My favorite show is lost and really the only show I watch
7. I love to organize, more than I should. But, usually I'm too cheap to spend the money to do it.
8. I would rather spend my money on traveling than almost anything.
9. I'm a RN and work 2-3 times a month. I work on different floors-- my favorite is the ICU.
10. I have a twin brother and a little brother and sister that are twins too.
11. Before most ultrasounds of my babies I dream that they find twins (refer to #10)
12. I lived in the Philippines during highschool (4 years) and loved it!
13. I would love to live abroad again, but I have a hard time thinking about leaving my parents and siblings.
14. My husband would probably make a better mother/wife than me (he cooks, cleans, reads stories, turns off the TV-- I do too, but not half as well as he does)
15. One day I might go get my master's in nursing to become a nurse practitioner. The responsibility scares me though.
16. I talk a lot about digital scrapbooking, but have actually finished very few pages.

However, I finished 2 layouts/pages last night (I'm trying really hard to get Ashlee's 1 year book done before baby #3 comes...)



17. I eat a lot of pickles and even more when I'm pregnant.
18. I'm horrible at exercising-- maybe I'll be better after this baby comes (it's a new years goal!)
19. I'm buying a minivan next month and I'm really excited for the automatic sliding door.
20. I'm running out of things to say
21. I love to blog, mainly because I hope to print it out one day to be like a journal.
22. If I had a few hundred $ to blow right now, I would spend it on new towels/decorations for my bedroom/bathroom-- I'm in the process of redecorating it (or really just decorating it)

My Room: So far I've painted, added drapes, new pillows on the bed and a few decorations. Definitely still a work in progress. I guess I'm looking for the few hundred dollars to blow.


23. I plan to take some more photography classes this year.
24. I love to take pictures of babies-- can't wait to take some of mine, especially now that I have my dslr.
25. I've spent all morning on the computer. (It's 11:30 am)

Where to start....?

Sometimes life seems to come at you too fast and there's no time to blog. As I have been easing back into the blogging world, I have LOVED reading everyone's updates, thoughts, inspiration. I'm afraid that I've lost some of the details that I would have captured if I had kept up, but over-all I think that this has been one of my favorite Christmas season's since we got married because:

1. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in town

We got to spend Christmas Eve at home for the first time. We had my parents, Jennifer and Jared (Justin's siblings) over for a nice dinner. Justin pounded chicken breasts all afternoon and made yummy chicken cordon blue for dinner with all of the fixen's. We baked some cookies for Santa and left them out. We sang Christmas carols and watched the touching film of "Joy to the World" that the Church put out a couple of years ago and tucked some very excited children in bed. (Unfortunately I have no pictures of the night, see #2 below) .

Sadly, Justin did have to work part of Christmas day. He was on reserve for the day (on-call) and so we weren't sure if he was going to get called in at 4am (with which I was sure we were going to have to wake the kids up and do Christmas then to have Dad around), but luckily he didn't have to leave to the airport until 9am so we were able to open gifts and have a nice breakfast with dad. Then Mom (me) got to have the fun of cleaning up and putting together toys while Justin flew a round trip to Canada and was back in time for Christmas dinner at my parents. We've been really lucky with Justin's schedule over the years and have never had him gone the entire day.

2. I took a record low number of pictures

I was very surprised after the holidays were over that I had so few pics. I got my new camera last year for Christmas and have been going picture crazy ever since. But, it was just really nice to take a few pics and then just enjoy the moments.

3. I was done shopping nearly a week or two before Christmas!

This is mostly thanks to online shopping. The internet is such an amazing thing. I laughed all month long as I saw the UPS and FedEx trucks racing up and down the street all day long for weeks before Christmas and stopping at our house many times during that period. Luckily I have children that are very believing and accepted whatever lame excuse I could come up with of what was in the box!

4. My kids are starting to get what Christmas is about!

We started doing a Christmas jar last year after a neighbor gave us a jar and a poem about saving your change all year and giving it to someone in need at Christmastime. We did add to the jar, took our jar to the change machine to find out how much we had (we decided that we wanted to do something with the money instead of give the jar of money away) and attempted to deliver, but because of complications we were unsuccessful. I was even on the phone on Christmas Eve trying to make arrangements without luck. But, my kids loved the idea and in order to not break their hearts of wanting to carry it out, I had to promise that we would save the money for next year and I vowed to follow through next Christmas. Andrew eagerly even took money from his regular coin collection jar to add some extra. It was pure joy to me as a mother to see them excited to serve! I also loved to hear all December long Ashlee squeal with excitement when ever she saw a picture of baby Jesus.

So, I did actually take some pics of the season. Here are some of the photo highlights:

Our trip on the Polar Express.... A train ride, cookies, hot chocolate. I really believe that life for Andrew in his mind couldn't have gotten better at that moment!

Andrew getting sung Happy Birthday to on our Polar Express ride (the ride was part of his birthday present and we went on his actual b-day)

My cuties in their Christmas attire the Sunday before Christmas

Ashlee eating her firsts of many handfuls of snow this season

Our house we bought to rent out. Hopefully the saying that goes with boat ownership doesn't apply to this: 2 happiest days of a boat owner-- the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it!

Andrew being a "seed" as part of his preschool Christmas program

"Oh, I got just what I always wanted!" (Mom sighs!)

Ashlee loving the Christmas gift opening thing! "A Doll House!"

Ashlee putting more candy on the gingerbread house than in her mouth-- a first.

Andrew finally getting to make his gingerbread house after being nearly in tears everyday that it wasn't the day yet to do it. He could have spent all day working on it.

Ashlee dreaming of all the fun she's going to have wearing her princess dress-ups from Grandma Todd (and never regular clothes again)

Since the holidays have been over, I've been feeling the "nesting" upon me. I have been making lists and more lists of things to get done and trying to work on them despite my growing belly and diminishing energy. Good news-- baby is no longer breach (though I probably will still have a c-section after weighing the risks!?! But, at least a VBAC is an option now), my amniotic fluid levels are still good and baby is actually showing 3 days ahead of schedule by weight! So, maybe I might have a few more weeks to work on that to-do list and not have another premie! Keep your fingers crossed for me!