Random assortment of thoughts and updates

***WARNING***This is a marathon post. I had a lot to say.

*Christmas tree*For all of you who had been concerned that we'd lost all Christmas spirit, we FINALLY got our Charlie-Brown style tree up.

It was Brandon's turn to put the star on top.
Voila!

*Tea cakes*My girlfriends have been so festive this year. I got to participate in not one, but two baking-related girls nights out. (HUGE props to Andrew for taking two nights of kid-duty!) First I got together with some church friends.

We met at Kelly's house

There were a whole bunch of us wannabe cake-decorators.

We joined in on one of Kelly's holiday traditions--
tea cakes. (Kind of ironic since none of us drink tea.)
Have you ever heard of them? I hadn't either.
They are individual little two-layer cakes
that you decorate to be super cute.
Here's how mine turned out:

Aren't they fun? They got rave reviews from
all four of us in my family.

*Cookie exchange*Another night I got together with my preschool/playgroup friends and we had a cookie exchange. I felt so domestic. Ok, I took the easy way out and made Pretzel Hugs, but I got to take home lots of YUMMY cookies. And we've already eaten almost all of them.

Cookie exchangers.
Oops--Shani and I lost our mouths.

Sidenote: I volunteer in B's classroom once a week
and on two different occasions, two different children
asked me if I was "Sebastian's Mom," who happens
to be one of my good friends, Bea.
Do you see the resemblance? I think we could
be sisters! My Latin blood does shine through!

*Leaves, glorious leaves! *LOVE the spring in NC when the trees start blooming. LOVE the summer in NC when the there is green EVERYWHERE. LOVE the fall when the trees burst into bright shades of red, orange, and yellow. HATE having to clean all those leaves up when they fall all over my yard. Boo on that!

We broke down and got a leaf blower to help.
It still took both Andrew and I working for over
two hours straight to get the yard looking decent.

Fun side effect: HUGE leaf piles for the kids to
jump in and bury each other.

Where's Whitney?

Here's a glimpse of

before

and after. I forgot we had that
little path under there!

*Christmas in July?*Our weather around here has been GORGEOUS this week. I felt like we moved back to AZ! It has been 75 or higher all week. Hasn't felt much like Christmas, though.

We had picnics in the park,

played in the sandbox,

and had a mean game of soccer between
B and me. (He won.)

*Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night to Whit's purple cast* Yay--we survived the five weeks with a one-armed wonder and yesterday was her big day to go back to see Dr. Norris and get it off.

This was her pose in the waiting room
when I said, "Let me get one last pic of
you with your cast on."

They gave her these headphones so the saw
doesn't sound as loud. Great idea. She loved 'em.

She's such a brave girl. Didn't bat an eye at that
scary-looking saw being used next to her flesh.

See those little green things? Those
are the tips of the pins in her arm.
They took a follow-up x-ray to make
sure everything had healed properly.

It had, so next step: pin removal.

That's the new crush on the left--Dr. Norris.
I don't think he's supplanted Dr. Buckley on the crush-scale.
They had me hold Whit like this in preparation for
restraining her if she freaked out, but she was
SO brave and just sat there as they pulled
THESE HUGE THINGS OUT!

Can you believe how long they were?
Her arm was not as stinky or hairy as I imagined
it would be. Instead it was covered in dried skin
that will slowly shed over the next few days.
Ewwww.

She is still adjusting to having a healed arm.

She walked around all day yesterday holding her
arm as if it were still in the cast. This morning
she has gotten a little better at using it.
I'm sure it's stiff.

*Reality TV* So I just found out that both Angie and Amy (My SIL) have been watching THE BIGGEST LOSER this season. Anyone else? Who do you think is going to win? I think Bill is going to beat the ladies, but I want Julie, the cute little blondie to win. I like her personality. I'd be happy if Isabeau won, too. But I'm not a big Hollie fan, even though she's from Tucson.

What about Survivor: China? Anyone watching? It's the big finale tomorrow. Exciting stuff. I'm rooting for the lunch lady, but unless she wins the next immunity challenge, I'm afraid she's gone.

*Sixteen weeks along*I've made it to the four month mark in my pregnancy and am feeling great. Yahoo! And even though I've felt like I've been showing FOREVER, the general public is finally admitting that I'm showing.

I think it's a cute little belly.
LOVE this part of pregnancy.

I haven't really started feeling the baby move, though. That'll be the next fun milestone. We'll find out whether we're having a boy or girl on Dec 27th, so start thinking about your guesses. I'll take a poll before the ultrasound and we'll see who the most accurate predictors are.

Phew...I think that's it.