37 weeks down, 3 to go!

I'm sitting here on the couch, enjoying the feeling of the squirmy baby inside of me. Actually, it's become less enjoyable in the last few minutes because it is kicking my ribs which doesn't feel very pleasant. I've hit the point where, at times, you can see little elbows or feet poking out of the side of my stomach. It gets distracting at work sometimes. Overall, I am feeling really good and can't complain too much. I have had some back pain in the last few weeks. I think the weight of the baby and the fact that I'm carrying this baby lower is getting to be a lot for my back to handle. I have been resting up as much as possible too. The past two nights, I have gone to bed at 8:30-9PM and still feel like I could use more sleep. This time George and I are both very aware of what we're in for in a few weeks as far as sleep goes. With Madeline, we were blissfully ignorant and it was a rude awakening (literally). As far as work goes, I will be in the office for one more week and then I will work from home starting Feb. 8 until whenever the baby decides to make its appearance!

We have been trying to get on top of some things before the baby comes (house stuff, car maintenance, etc). Last weekend, we dropped our car off for an oil change and then enjoyed a walk around the Gilbert Farmers Market. We found ourselves on the lawn at Postino. It was the perfect spot for us because we could order brunch (and eat it on the lawn) and Madeline could wander around and play. Who knows, you might find us there again this weekend! 

I won't get into politics on here, but I must say, I have been getting a kick out of the political news this week! I listen to the news on my one hour drive every morning and afternoon. The "drama" helps make the drive feel a bit faster! That being said, I don't know if I can take another 10 months of it!! Is it November yet?! 

Christmas, New Years, etc, etc, etc

Where to start?! It's been so long time since my last post, I'm having a hard time even remembering what we've been up to! :)

I'll start with December 19. That's the day that Hannah got home from Costa Rica. A big group of us went to the airport to greet her! We missed her and are glad to have her back. If you follow her blog, you know that she had a great semester abroad. It was definitely full of many, many adventures! I think her Spanish has definitely come a long way too. That same day, in the evening, we celebrated Christmas at Brian and Terrisa's house. They traveled to Atlanta for Christmas to be with Terrisa's family so we had an early Christmas as a family. I didn't get many pictures of people, but I did get some of the food....priorities! Haha. The spread was so beautiful, I couldn't help myself! 

Bruschetta! 

Meat and Cheese Board...

Hot Chocolate Bar!

Madeline taking a turn with Parker's new power tools! 

That same weekend, we went to a ginger bread cookie decorating party. Our old neighbor, Diane Rogers, invites us every year to her sister's house for the party. You should see their set-up....the amount of candy is incredible and as you can see in the picture below, the ginger bread men were almost as big as Parker and Madeline! :) The actual food spread was incredible too. I'm realizing that so far I've spent the majority of this post talking about food!

December 21st was a very special day...Grandma Clark's 80th birthday! My Uncle David and Aunt Lesley both surprised her by flying out to celebrate with her. We went to Buca Di Beppo for dinner and afterward everyone came back to our house for dessert. We gave her "Kind Notes" from everyone as a gift. Kind Notes is a jar full of notes from family and friends. The notes can be anything (i.e. "I love it when you...." or "I remember when we...") We also did this for my Grandma Warren's 80th birthday. It's a great gift for someone who is hard to shop for and it's a great chance for everyone else to show the person how special they are to everyone!! 

Here is some of the group after dinner. Brian, Terrisa, and the kids aren't pictured because they had to head home for a very early flight the next morning. 

I took two weeks off of work around Christmas and got to spend a lot of time with my girl! She's such a little character. One of the days, Madeline and I went to Chuck E. Cheese with her babysitter and the other kids. Madeline absolutely loves Chuck E. Cheese!! And it's hilarious because she totally knows how it all works. She asks for tokens, feeds the tickets into the machine, etc. She's a token hoarder. She likes to have a token in her hand at all times. 

 Madeline and I also did some baking together. She loves being my little helper in the kitchen. It is a little bit of a messier process when she helps me though! 

Santa requested Grandma Warren's sugar cookies with lots of frosting from the Lucas house.

My mom made these and Madeline and I just frosted them. 

We also made some Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss cookies. I'm not a huge peanut butter person, but for some reason, I love these cookies!!

This is the first year that Madeline really understood what was going on on Christmas (although not fully). On Christmas Eve, we went to the Moser's house for appetizers and then George's parents house for dinner. On Christmas morning, we did stockings and one or two "Santa presents" at our house. We did the rest of Christmas morning at my parent's house along with Christmas dinner.  My mom's Christmas dinner is probably my favorite meal of the year. A roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire Pudding, oh man, it's the best! 

Here is Madeline opening her stocking. Santa was very practical this year. She got a new Minnie Mouse bowl and spoon/fork set in her stocking :)

 Madeline also got a really awesome garden set from Grandma and Grandpa Warren (my mom found it at a craft sale). We have it on our back porch so we just open up the door and she plays with it while I'm cooking dinner. It's great! 

The day after Christmas, we hosted the Lucas Family Christmas Party! Let me tell you, our 2700 square foot house felt pretty small! Overall, it went really smooth. We had plenty of food (thanks to lots of help from others) and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The set-up was actually easier than expected, but I will say that the clean up took much longer than expected. That's probably b/c we were so tired from the prep and the actual party! I was so busy during the party that I really didn't get many pictures. I did manage to get one of Daddy and Madeline sitting on Santa's lap. Madeline was fine with Santa (Grandpa Lucas) as long as Daddy was holding onto her!

No pictures of New Year's either, but we did an Amber Lane block party. We are SO lucky to have such awesome neighbors. It's perfect too b/c there are tons of kids right around Madeline's age. And yes, we did stay up until midnight...and were in bed by 12:01AM! Haha!

I spent the rest of my time off relaxing and preparing for the baby! We are getting pretty close to "go time" now. I have just under 5 weeks left. Ahh...how did that happen?! We'll be putting the final touches on the nursery this week. I have also started getting things together for our hospital bag. 

Here are a few recent baby bump pictures...

 

This past weekend, the entire family headed up to the cabin. Pinetop got a ton of snow last week so George, my dad, Brian, Emily, and Hannah enjoyed some skiing on Saturday. The rest of us attempted to take the kids sledding. Being the AZ kids that they are, they were confused about the concept and let me tell you, it was a workout for the adults!

Here's a video of George on the slopes. I've been "out of commission" this season...I might have some catching up to do next season!! 

So there's the last few weeks of our lives! We plan to keep the next month or so as low key as possible. We need all of the rest we can get before the baby comes!!