Random stuff

-Millie and I got to go visit Tyler at work last week! We came during his lunch and Millie entertained the whole break room with her funnies. It was great to see where he works so hard and we loved seeing him in the middle of the day. On the way home we stopped at IKEA and wandered around for a bit. This girl finds fun everywhere.

She was like this before we exited the parking lot

-On Sunday mornings Millie and I sometimes paint our nails (read: I attempt to get her to hold still while her polish dries, getting nail polish everywhere and becoming too frustrated to do my own). She loves having her nails painted and is so good at taking each bottle out and naming its color.

-Our neighbors invited us over (along with other kids on the street) to decorate gingerbread houses. Millie didn't really get the concept and was much more interested in eating the toppings and crackers, but we had a great time!

-I couldn't use the new wrapping paper we bought for a few days, because someone was a little bit attached... she held it on her lap anytime she sat down.

-We're really enjoying a warm Houston December!

-I took Millie shoe shopping the other day and she could not get over these red beauties!

-I went with the YW to see a fun light show. It was a full 25-ish minutes with music and movie clips and fire and smoke and bubbles! I can't wait to take Millie back, she would love it.

BHAGs

My dad uses the term BHAG at his job-- it means Big Hairy Audacious Goal. That has been running through my mind lately as I've tried to finish all of the goals I set for 2013. I am proud to say that this year has been my best ever as far as setting and accomplishing goals! Finally at almost 25 years old I think I've got a system down that works for me.

BHAG #1: Read the Old Testament from cover to cover. This took reading 3 pages/day, which I wasn't always perfect at, but I caught up by reading like crazy the last week or so and I will be done today! Hooray!

BHAG #2: Read 24 books. I actually read 13.5 books, but I'm not beating myself up about it. After all, there are a lot of books in the Old Testament, right? I can always count those. And if you're curious, I'm not going to set this goal again for next year. Maybe 12 books (one a month) instead of 24.

BHAG #3: Finish Nana and Botz's quilt. Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but it was their Christmas preset for last year. I partly set it as a goal for this year so that I would be even more hasty to finish it. The top was finished to present to them by last Christmas, but then I had to quilt and bind it, which required a trip to Lufkin {thanks Mom!}, so I think I was finally done around the middle of February.

pic stolen from Aunt Sheila's instagram!

BHAG #4: Open an Etsy shop. This happened in February, and the shop promptly died in June or July when I let all my listings expire. Thank you pregnancy. But I'm thinking about re-opening it in January, because I've still been doing little side jobs, like these lovely boot cuffs below. 9 pair in the last week, thankyouverymuch.

BHAG #5: Well, I can't say much about this one, because it happens to be a Christmas gift for a certain someone who may or may not read this in the next week! But it was a big one. And I finished it yesterday.

BHAG #6: Make Steph's blanket. I wrote about the Ann Perkins Blanket back HERE. That was definitely big, hairy, and audacious for me!

Anyway, hooray for goals. I think the key for me was not setting very many! Ha. But they were mostly attainable and things I was excited about. I had smaller goals for each month until about July- again, when pregnancy sickness hit. But overall, I'm going to count this year as a success!!

10 on 10: December 2013

A big mess with delicious results (below)

One of my favorite Christmas cookies

Making deliveries-- and so happily! 

My favorite piece of mail yesterday

All the rest... it'd been a while

We stopped by to see Gigi and walked out with these treasures! 

In case you've ever wondered what happens when you forget to poke holes in potatoes before you bake them

Her current favorite "toys"

I've been craving turkey sandwiches a lot lately... and I need to just start wearing a poncho

I still really love our tree

Had a mini mental breakdown yesterday. I think I have too many things going on right now. I just really want Christmas to be perfect and magical for Millie! But the truth is, she is not going to care if I make a cute new garland for the mantel, or if her stockings are handmade. She's not even going to notice! So I finally let go of some of the silly things clogging up my to-do list this morning and I feel much better. 

Also, I had a straaaange dream last night. I dreamt that I gave birth to twin girls, and I really enjoyed labor. The babies were born in the garage, and Tyler took them immediately (why wasn't this strange to my dreaming mind??) and not seeing them didn't bother me at all for some reason. I was walking around the house, going about my day, and I kept thinking, "I'm going to go check on the babies." But I never did! And there were other strange things too. I woke up around 1:30am, feeling my stomach to see if I was still pregnant- the dream was so real! I couldn't go back to sleep after that... so I crocheted and watched a cheesy Christmas movie. I guess we've entered the insomniac phase of the pregnancy. Last time around I watched a lot of Chopped and River Monsters (????) but this time I hope to be more productive if I'm not sleeping anyway. Babbling over.

Dancing queen

On Friday night we went to the wedding reception of a couple in our ward. We all had a great time- especially Millie. This girl didn't stop dancing the entire time once the music came on! I just sat back and laughed and took a million videos and pictures. She spent half the time on the floor, and I was tempted to leave a note for whoever was cleaning the building the next morning to tell them not to bother mopping. Surely Millie's dress did a good enough job! Millie's friend Storey came and danced with her- they were so cute and funny together. Anytime we tried to take her off the dance floor, Millie yelled, "I DANCE!" and squirmed her way out of our arms. When this girl wants to dance, watch out.

Storey kept bringing her chocolate kisses. Millie didn't mind at all 

I tried to upload a video but can't for some reason. You'll just have to believe me- it was hilarious! We love our little dancer.

Christmas-y things

Christmas time is in full swing at our house. Millie is at such a great age where every light and decoration is magical! It's so fun to watch her be so excited about it all. I already posted about how she woke up from a nap to find I had put up the Christmas decorations, but her excitement is just as high every time she sees it all again! I love it. She calls Joseph "Joe" every time she sees a nativity, which cracks us up. She's also got a funny way of saying Christmas tree. It started out as "miss tree" but now it's "misstree tree." Someday she'll get it right, but I'll really miss her little mispronunciations.

We started a new tradition this year of a scripture advent candle. Every night we light this red candle and read some verses about Jesus as it burns. It was the gift we gave our YW this year and I was so happy to get one too! We'll definitely keep this tradition. Despite her face, Millie is not scared of the candle. This sometimes just happens when I tell her to smile.

We ordered a big Christmas tree this year, but it didn't come for a while after we'd put up everything else. So I finally gave in and Millie and I put up our little tree that Tyler and I got with wedding gift cards our first Christmas! This little tree will always be special to us, and Millie loved "helping."

I tried to teach her not to touch the ornaments, but when I found her taking them off and lining them up on the windowsill, I just couldn't be mad. 

Our big tree finally came and we put it up on Saturday! We couldn't even wait long enough to get out of our pajamas.

Once the heavy lifting/assembling part was done, I stepped in and finished decorating it during Millie's nap.

We've already knocked out a few holiday events, too! Thursday night we went to Tyler's team Christmas dinner. Gigi and Poppy were nice enough to watch Millie. It was fun to get dressed up and go to the City Centre, where we ate at The Capital Grille. It was fancy and yummy and we had a great time!

Saturday was our ward's Christmas party. In addition to dinner and a program they had fun things set up around the church. We loved walking around the nativity display, where they even had a table full of ones that kids could touch. 

And then the kids got to make snowglobes! She is mildly obsessed with it now.

These next pictures were taken Saturday night. Since the big tree replaced the little tree in the living room, we moved the little tree up to the front room by the piano. Millie can do whatever she wants with it, and she does!

We watched the Christmas Devotional on Sunday with Gigi, Poppy, Nana, and Botz. Millie was especially crazy, thanks to a very off-schedule couple of days with all of the holiday partying. Oh, and sugar.

"SONGS!"

This is such a fun time of year!

23 weeks (and before)

It's hard to believe that I'm only 23 weeks pregnant, because I feel like an elephant. I know I don't look like an elephant, and I know that I have a lot further to go (and grow!) but I just feel large. My baby-carrying muscles cause me a lot of pain, I think because of the way the baby is positioned. Some days I can hardly walk and other days I hardly notice it- weird. At our 20-week ultrasound, the baby was measuring about a week ahead, but my stomach is measuring about 2 weeks behind, which tells me he's still very much inside of me, if that makes sense. I think once I have a bigger belly he'll be more free to roam about. Right? Riiiight. But I love that I've been feeling our boy move so much, and so much sooner than with Millie. That makes it all worth it to me! Anyway, on to pictures.

17 weeks

20 weeks

23 weeks, comparing pregnancy 1 and pregnancy 2. Also, Millie's tummy at 23 months. She cracks me up.

Pregnancy 1

Pregnancy 2

We just feel so thankful for good health right now! To have healthy children and to have good health to care for them (inside & out!) is such a blessing. We can't wait to meet our little man.