Christmas Festivities

Wow.... we sure had a wonderful relaxing Christmas!!! I cannot believe how blessed we are to have such wonderful family and friends, we got so many fun Christmas treats, cards, and gifts. I can't believe how spoiled we are! My parents of course take a BIG part in that! This Christmas was a little bit different than the others because my parents came to me this year! So we celebrated a quiet Christmas in Spokane. I was originally scheduled to work the day before and after Christmas so that was the reason for my parents flying out here instead, however, due to some new hires at work and last minute changes, I only had to work Christmas Eve 'till 2 PM, and then had Friday through Monday off!! Whoo! So we starting celebrating Christmas right after work on Christmas Eve! Shad and I made them our new favorite dinner, homemade pizza! Delicious! And we had our regular Christmas Eve tradition of opening presents.

The delicious pizza... Mmmm.

Cooking pizza:

The Traditional Family photos by the tree:

Since we already had the tripod set up, Shad clicked some photos while we were opening gifts!

Our Christmas Loot... we were VERY good this year! I got a Wii from Shad, and Shad and I got a video camera from my parents!! (For when baby arrives of course!) Plus all this other good stuff...

On Christmas Day, we had a relaxing day together playing with all our fun new gifts, and spent the day making Christmas goodies, and cooking a delicious christmas dinner. Later, our wonderful friends came to join us for an awesome Christmas dinner prepared by my wonderful mother and I helped a little bit. We visited, laughed, and played some games. Here is how we spent most of the day:

Naturally most of our Christmas weekend was spent playing the Wii!!

Eating some of our delicious Christmas goodies:

Talking with friends via Skype!

Spending time with family:

Having good friends join us for dinner!

And then eating a wonderful dinner:

Then Saturday we went out and about shopping at some after Christmas sales, and went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. It was actually pretty good. Shad really enjoyed it. My parents left Sunday night back to Seattle, so overall a wonderful and successful Christmas weekend together as a family. Weird to think that next year at Christmas we will have a little guy crawling around joining in on the Christmas festivities!!

Hope your Christmas was just as wonderful as ours, and you got everything you wished for! What a sweet time of year to gather together, remember our Savior, and spend quality time with family and friends. We are truly blessed!

Baby Shower!!

Over the weekend my wonderful mother, and previous YW leaders in my home ward threw me an awesome baby shower! They starting planning it in October, and everything came together wonderfully. I flew over Saturday morning, Shad couldn't come over because of finals, so it was a quick, girly weekend trip. My mom, of course, went all out on the food and desserts; it was delicious! (with tons of yummy leftovers!) And the girls made all the decorations, favors, and invitations so adorable! They went with the jungle/giraffe theme that I love so much... so cute! We ate good food, played a fun matching game, all about boys! And we even had a name suggestion bowl, where we actually got a lot of good ideas. :)

Lots of my old YW leaders were there, some family friends from the ward, and a couple friends from high school. I got so many clothes, my little man is going to be the best dressed baby around! I feel so blessed to have so many friends who were so generous to give such fun, cute gifts. It was a great, successful shower, and I loved it... the food, the company, the decorations, and the gifts! Our little baby room is really coming together, and the baby stuff is slowly piling up! We're so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family!! We cannot wait for this little guy to come.

My mom's delicious food spread:

Blue Chocolate Covered Strawberries!

My mom, and my second mom:

My dear friend Michelle, I hadn't seen her in SO long!

The ladies who put the whole thing together, love them!

Alyssa, my old friend from high school!

Some of the gifts:

Baby's Room

Over the weekend, when Shad had a small break from studying for finals, we put together some stuff in baby's room!! We had been collecting baby stuff over the last couple months including a crib, stroller/car seat, swing, changing table, Herman, and misc. toys/clothes, etc. We had no other place to put the stuff except for in our dining room, so our dining room was getting a little lost in the mess. A couple of weeks ago we posted our old Ikea couch on Craigslist to try and sell it to make room and money for the baby. At first we didn't have any takers, but suddenly over the weekend we had numerous people interested! Then Saturday afternoon we had a couple wanting to come and pick it up right away. It was a bittersweet goodbye, because that was our first real piece of furniture, and it was sad to see it go. But now, we had room for the crib and baby stuff! So after a long day of studying (for Shad), we put together the crib, moved out the computer and desk, and got started on baby's room!! Its so exciting.

Shad and I got this idea from our friends Jay and Courtney to set up the camera on a tripod and take pics as we were putting the crib together. I must admit it turned out pretty good. Enjoy our little movie of putting the crib together:

The beginnings of our baby's room, it's a work in progress:

Our old couch, you will be missed!

Belly Shots for Kirsten and Kjirstin: 30 weeks!!!

Shad was making me laugh in this one, so I look dorky:

I'm looking large these days, I'm not sure how long I'll be up for these belly shots. NOT feeling too cute.

A Quickie Thanksgiving

Shad and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! After lots of debating wether or not we should make the 4 hour journey over to my parents house for the Holiday, battling weather, and potentially snowy passes, we decided to go for it! We made a speedy trip over to Auburn from Spokane for a day! Unfortunately, I had to work the day before and AFTER Thanksgiving, so we drove over to Auburn Wednesday night and got there about 10:30 PM. Thanksgiving morning we made a quick trip over to Shad's sister's, Heidi, house and spent a couple hours catching up with them. Lucky for us they also live in Auburn! Then after a nice, but quick, visit with Heidi and her family, we headed over to Thanksgiving dinner with my parents at our dear friends the Lomeli's house. Our families have been best friends for my entire life, so its like my second home. It was so wonderful to see them and be together for Thanksgiving. Kambria lives in New York now, so I NEVER get to see her, and oh how I missed her so! Plus this Thanksgiving was like the Thanksgivings we used to have when I was younger, so it was a sweet, perfect reunion. After chatting, catching up, and stuffing our faces and bellies with delicious food and PLENTY dessert; we headed back to my parents for the night and played some games. Then EARLY, EARLY Friday morning (about 5:30 AM!) Shad and I drove back to Spokane so I could make it in time for my 11:3o AM shift at work. Phew!! It was a quick trip, but Shad and I will both agree it was totally worth the drive. It was a little crazy, but nothing beats being around family and friends on Holidays. :)

Shad and I with Heidi's girls: Our adorable nieces.

LOVE these girls!

Excuse the large pregnant belly!

Kambria and I, she's pretty great!

The family, our Thanksgiving bunch: