{Christmas with McQuays}

Being so close to my due date, we didn't want to travel far from home for Christmas, so we invited our families to come spend some Christmas time with us!

The McQuays were able to come from Dec 24-26th. It was great! We had Sean's parents, little brother Brenden/wife Natalie /baby James, and little sister Megan. 

They arrived Christmas Eve and we chilled during the afternoon and then went to a local church for their Christmas Eve Service. It was nice! The children read some scriptures and acted out the Nativity while the congregation sang Christmas hymns. It was nice and we stayed through a good portion of it. We snuck out early due to a restless 2 year old, a tired pregnant lady, and hungry stomachs from everyone.

For dinner that night we enjoyed a delicious clam chowder [my family's tradition]. Sean and his Dad did the clams and threw it all together.

It was seriously amazing.

  

Visions of sugar plums are dancing in her head....

Santa visited!

   Christmas morning! Evette slept in til about 7:40! It was awesome! She threw a fit the night before and would not wear her Christmas PJs...and then refused to put on any pjs at all on after changing her diaper. So...we all wore our comfy pjs and Evette was dressed for the day.

 Evette loved Christmas and opening all her presents! She was pretty patient while others opened presents, too!

 

Santa got all worn out - resting on Christmas morning

After presents and nap time, we enjoyed a delicious Christmas Dinner! We had ham [with a glaze made by Randy, who saved the day!], potatoes au gratin [thanks Kristen!], asparagus and mushrooms, an arugula/pear/cranberry/feta salad, and rosemary bread.

After dinner we got to video chat with my baby brother who is on his mission! He looked so happy and so good! I might have just bawled my eyes out. I just miss him so much and I'm so pregnant and hormonal! It happens...

Isn't he adorable?!

After we talked to Scott, we got to visit with Caitlan, Sean's little sister who is on her mission! It was so fun to see her happy face and hear about all her adventures!

I'm so proud of our siblings on missions!!

 Next we enjoyed some delicious pies. Yes, I married an awesome husband who makes amazing pies. Look at the pictures to see what a mean. A homemade strawberry rhubarb and lemon meringue.

And just some random photos from their visit

Megan and Kristen stayed a little bit longer than the rest of the folks on the 26th so that Megan could go with Sean to the Body World's exhibit at the Perot museum. They loved it! Kristen and I stayed home with Evette to take a nap and then we visited the arboretum.

It was a lovely visit!!

Thanks to all involved for making Christmas such a happy time!

{Life in Pictures}

These first couple are way back from the beginning of November....My lovely friends threw me a lovely baby shower! It was seriously the best baby shower I've been to....Great friends, great food, great everything.

Since I didn't need any more baby girl things [we're up to our necks in pink onesies] they threw me a Book Shower where everyone brought a book as a gift! It was so sweet and so fun to get so many different books! And as you know, we love to read at our house!

The theme for the shower was based on one of my favorite childhood books "The Giving Tree"

I mean, check out this cake! AMAZING! And it even tasted better than it looks - which I didn't think was possible.

And the adorable party favors!

I seriously felt so loved. I have the best friends. I was even lucky enough to have my mom, sister and motherinlaw come out to visit that weekend! It was great!

 On another note....

This is how we get ready for church on Sundays. Sean an I frantically get ourselves ready while Evette reads electronic books on our phones. We limit her screen time so she doesn't have her face glued to the screen all the time, but 15 quiet still minutes on Sunday morning is heaven-sent.

She loves to wash dishes. Seriously. She frequently gets upset when I don't let her wash her dishes after meals or when I put them straight into the dishwasher - I guess it's just not as fun that way!

Gotta have your baby and peppermint hot chocolate during your Christmas shopping!!

One day during joy school I only had 2 other little girls over - everyone else was sick! So I took advantage of the "girl time" and painted everyone's nails Christmas colors. Quality Education right there, my friends.

Also, I have made [and EATEN!] more of these delicious cinnamon rolls than I would like to admit.

For my little brother who is on his mission in Brazil, I made him a Merry Christmas banner outta pictures of the family [Thanks for cooperating!]. I loved it so much I made a copy for myself! Sorry the lighting is terrible.

Evette also loves to play dress up.

A funny thing that she's been doing lately is laying out her necklaces from her dress up boxes and assigning "characters" to them. Her favorite "characters" to use are Baby Jesus, Mary, Jo-fish [Jospeh], and the angel. It's very interesting. She doesn't "play" with them, just lays them all out and starts labeling them. "This is Baby Jesus!" as she points to the white necklace....."This is Jo-fish!" as she points to the gold chain and so on and so forth. Funny girl.

 We had a beautifully warm-ish day earlier this week and Evette and I spent a lot of time playing outside - it was gorgeous - and so is she.

Since Sean's fancy work party was cancelled due to the ice storm, I persuaded him take me out on a fancy date so I could wear my dress that I bought specifically for the party. Best. Decision. Ever. We ate at a delicious french restaurant and sat and talked and ate for hours. Awesome. This also served as our last "date night" before the baby comes! Just 2 more weeks til the "due date" and hopefully sooner than that! It was a great night!!

{Gingerbread Houses}

Since our ward Christmas party was cancelled due to the ice storm we decided to have our own little party and make some Gingerbread houses with some friends!

Ryker eating his dinner before the candy :)

A ridiculous amount of sugar was consumed.

  

After the kids were finished [or we were finished with the kids] we threw them in bed and made our own!

  

Julie finished up Ryker's house - an adorable log cabin by a lake

 Jake made this wonderful Dallas rambler 

Sean wanted to be different so he made a tee-pee out of pretzels - notice his little Indian gummy bears around the fire

I went more of the traditional route...

And here's Evette's! She did a surprising amount on her own. She just told me where she wanted the candies and I put the frosting on for her. 

Good times! I hadn't made a gingerbread house since my senior year of high school - it was so much fun! Unfortunately they are taking up a ridiculous amount of space on my table/counters.....we'll see what happens :)

{Winter is now}

Once upon a time a huge ice storm came and blew threw Dallas - once upon a time being last Thursday/Friday. It was pretty crazy.

 Literally everything was covered in ice!

 Evette liked to suck on the icicles :)

  She was quite intrigued by it all. 

 My roses were sad. I probably should have covered them.

 The whole city basically shut down.

 Even Sean's fancy end of year party was cancelled. I was bummed to miss out on the delicious food and fun but kinda nice to instead stay home in my sweatpants instead of balancing my 8 month pregnant self in my electric blue high heels.

  But the sudden onset of winter has kinda freaked me out.

Baby #2 is due in the winter. It's now winter. Baby is due now.

Not exactly....but that's how it feels. 

I'm kinda in a panic now. I feel like the baby could come at any time, maybe it's just wishful thinking. I am not 36 weeks and in just a few days I'll be considered "full term" and safe to deliver at any time.

I have prepared everything I possibly can.

The nursery is all set up, all the pictures hung, all the clothes washed, the baby swing set up, the hair bows organized, the blankets folded....we're ready.

If you build it...she will come... right? right!?

I honestly have no idea how I'm going to handle having a second child. But, it's happening. And I'm thrilled. And I'm scared. And I'm tired. And I'm nervous. And I'm apprehensive. And I'm praying a lot and a lot. And I'm feeling very blessed.