Well, I couldn't resist going ahead and writing tonight since it's all fresh in my mind and these days anything can leave my mind in a split second!! Tim and I call it "pregnancy brain." Anyway, here are a few highlights from last night's and this morning's festivities with my family in Austin. Here's a picture of my mom and me on Christmas Eve. Aren't we cute?

Her house and tree always look so nice and it was actually cold enough for my father to build a fire in the fire place. Most of the time it's too warm on Christmas but this year was a different story. Before dinner and presents the kids gathered together to color and play... notice the girls outnumber the boys, which has never really been the case in our family before now.

Blessings abound as is proof through our nephew Daniel. He's doing so well and weighs in over 10 lbs. now. Here I am snuggling with him and as Tim noted, there were 3 of us in this chair!

Here are Daniel's sister's, Catherine and Grace, as little Rudolphs. Unfortunately you cannot see in this picture that their noses blink on and off...

Ben stayed up pretty late on Christmas Eve playing with his cousins and the new gifts from family, not to mention he hardly ate any dinner, so come Christmas morning he was quite tired and didn't really pep up until after he ate some breakfast and woke up more. In the first pic he's looking into the stocking that Santa left for him and in the second he's finally playing with the shopping cart full of food that Santa brought (this was after we went to church).

Lastly, here's a picture of our little family all dressed and ready for Christmas morning church (in which Father Elmer, at the church I grew up in, St. Thomas More, told us we were wise for coming to church in the morning instead of on Christmas Eve!)

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and hope you all did too. Happy New Year!

So, I've almost got the Christmas shopping done and the cards are sent out and I have managed to bake some cookies... and it's the most wonderful time of the year, right?! Oh, but it's also the busiest! Doing it all and being pregnant are definitely wearing me out! I don't remember it being this way last time I was pregnant. Maybe because I didn't have an active 2-year old the first time! But of course I would not have it any other way! : )

Here are a couple of pics of Ben "playing" his guitar and Seasame Street CD player (on loan from cousins Catherine and Grace!) So, the music theme continues with Benjamin.

We had our Christmas concert Saturday night at our church and it was very nice. Tim's Mom was able to come and enjoy the music while Ben fell asleep in her arms into about the 3rd song. Turns out he had a little fever that night and just wasn't up for all the excitement. But that's okay. Apparently he was dancing at the beginning but he missed both Mommy & Daddy's solos! Here's a link to our church's website with some pictures. There's one of me singing about 8 rows of pictures down and a few of Tim on the next row.

http://mostblessedsacrament.org/Pictures%20-%20Christmas%20Concert%202006.htm

Well, I probably will not post again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas and happy gifting and eating and family, etc, etc!

Oh the Holidays are Here

Well, we had a fun weekend including Christmas shopping at the Galleria and I was able to do some scrapbooking (boy am I behind this year!)

Tim loves to go to The Galleria every year during the holidays so I guess it's becoming a family tradition (forget cookies and that kind of stuff - we want shopping!) But seriously, it is fun to see th HUGE tree and ice skaters and of course I cannot turn down a trip to the mall. Also, it has now become our preferred mall for seeing Santa. For some reason both times we've been there the line was not too long and this time Ben was most excited to go see him. He kept saying, "I want to go see Santa!" So, he got his wish and I would love to show you the wonderful picture that he took but it may end up in our Christmas card, so it's too soon... It was funny too because they had to change the film in the camera that they take the pictures with while Ben was sitting on his lap, so he was able to have and extra long visit with him. Oh, it was too cute!

We also put up the Christmas tree and other decorations last week and Tim did the outdoor lights on Sunday night. Ben enjoyed watching The Polar Express a couple of nights ago and he's really starting to like movies - but since we like them so much, I guess it's to be expected.

I went to the doctor last Thursday to check on the baby and all is well. We listened to the heartbeat which was at a rate of 156 and sounded just great! We hope to find out the gender of the baby on January 5th when I have my next sonogram. It will be a little strange since we did not find out last time, but it's best that we know this time for planning and naming (which already seems it will be a challenge, but at least we will be able to narrow it down by gender!)

Lastly, we suspect that Ben may be a singer like his parents after his performance on Sunday during our choral auditions for our church Christmas program. Yes, the child stood right up in front everyone, by the music stand (where the rest of us had been standing as we auditioned) and did a solo of "Jingle Bells" on tune and everything. Needless to say everyone was impressed, including Mommy & Daddy! And here's a picture of our tree...