Another Snow Day Post

The day before Christmas Eve we had another huge snow storm. As soon as I showed Claire all the snow out the window she begged to go outside and play in it!  
Claire was eating the snow and Rory ran and dove in the snow right by her spraying her everywhere.  Luckily, Claire just thought it was funny and laughed.

I ordered Claire's bonnet on Black Friday and it finally came in the mail this week.  I love that it ties under her chin so it won't fall off.  It has a sherpa lining to keep her ears extra warm and it doesn't hurt that it looks adorable on her!

Eating more snow.  Probably her favorite part of playing in it :).

I have loved all of these snow storms we've been getting lately!  I don't think any one in our house will be sick of them for a while. 

Gingerbread House Decorating

Last week we made a gingerbread house!  Bryce is super good at building things so he constructed the house one day during Claire's nap time while I was getting a few things ready for Christmas.  He did an awesome job, much better than I could've done!We had a bunch of Christmas parties after we made it so we had to postpone the decorating for a few days but we were finally able to at the beginning of this week.  We all helped decorate it, Claire mostly helped by taste testing all of the candy we used :).
The almost finished product, we just added a few more decorations to the snow but I forgot to take a picture after we were all the way finished.

Breakfast with Santa

The preschool my sister teaches at put on a breakfast with Santa the Saturday before Christmas so we decided to take Claire to it.  They served a pancake breakfast and had activities like cookie decorating, coloring, an ornament craft, a play dough station, and of course getting to sit on Santa's lap.    
Anna was a surprise visitor for all of the kids as well.  When Anna first came in I pointed her out to Claire and Claire ran up to her and gave her a huge hug.  It was the cutest thing ever!  I wish I would've had my camera out.  Of course later when we tried to get a few pictures of Claire with Anna she didn't want to be held by her so this is the best we got!

Coloring with Lydia.

Decorating sugar cookies.

And last of all sitting on Santa's lap.  I love this picture so much, I can't help but laugh every time I look at it.  Claire didn't cry when we put her on Santa's lap, but she was not at all happy about it.  Santa gave Claire a candy cane before we put her on his lap and after we set her on his lap she threw her candy cane on the ground and pouted angrily until we got her off.  She is getting pretty feisty the older she gets :).  It was such a fun morning and we were thrilled that we didn't have to wait in line for an hour somewhere to see Santa!

Pregnancy Update: 16 Weeks

I posted these updates on my blog about once a month when I was pregnant with Claire (more for my own benefit since I use this as a family journal) and I wanted to do it again with this pregnancy so I thought I'd better get my first post written before I'm halfway though my pregnancy haha.

How far along? Almost 17 weeks, I'll be 17 weeks exactly on Christmas!

How big is baby? About 1/4 pound.

Stretch marks? None yet.  I didn't get any with my last pregnancy so I'm really hoping I'll be lucky enough not to get any this time around too (but that's probably wishful thinking)!

Sleep: I've been sleeping great, probably because I'm exhausted all the time so by the time bedtime rolls around I can barely keep my eyes open.  Being pregnant while chasing a toddler around all day puts a whole new meaning on pregnancy fatigue!

Best moment of the week?  Finding out the gender of our little baby at our doctor's appointment yesterday!

Food cravings?  Salty foods.

Symptoms? I'm past the sick stage of pregnancy, although I don't really get too sick when I'm pregnant.  I didn't get morning sickness at all when I was pregnant with Claire and I only got it a little with this one.  I'm starting to get heartburn sometimes, but so far that's about it!      

Movement: I've just barely started feeling little flutters from the baby moving around the past couple weeks but nothing hugely noticeable yet.  

Gender? Boy!

Belly button in or out? In.

Wedding rings on or off? On
Anything making you queasy or sick?  No.

Happy or moody most of the time:  Happy!!  I was a little moody earlier in the pregnancy but the past couple weeks I have mostly been happy and excited for the holidays and to find out what we were having.

Miss Anything?  Hmm...probably my pants that don't fit :(  I'm having a hard time finding any cute maternity jeans but I need to find some soon because basically all I wear every day is leggings haha.

Labor Signs? Nope and hopefully not for a while!

Looking Forward to? Christmas and getting to start making and buying little boy things to get ready for his arrival.

It's a....

Boy!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning and we found out our little baby on the way is a boy!  We were both very surprised!  For some reason, Bryce and I both thought we were having another girl.  Bryce didn't think he'd be lucky enough to get a boy yet, he thought for sure we'd have another girl first.  My sister just had a boy in October so I didn't think we'd be lucky enough to have boys be the same age since we already had our girls the same age.  But sure enough, he is definitely a boy!  We sent this picture out to our families yesterday and posted it on Instagram & FB to announce it so most of you have probably already seen it. We are both still wrapping our heads around the idea of a boy, but we are so so excited (Bryce especially)!  Now we just have the hard part of coming up with a name.  Boy names are SO HARD.  We of course had like four girl names we really liked, but NO boy names.  At least we still have a while, so hopefully we'll be able to come up with something by June!

Snowed In

Snowy days when we have nowhere to go our my favorite kind of winter days.  I love staying in our jammies all day and having nothing on the agenda but read books and cuddle up to watch the snow fall out the window.  Last week on one of those days I got out my camera and took a few pictures while Claire and I played in her room.
A year later, and these princesses are still one of Claire's favorite things to play with!
Claire got her first black eye in nursery two Sundays ago.  It was so sad!  Bryce thought it was funny and was quite proud haha.  Apparently her and another kid ran into each other and the other kid's head bonked her right in the eye.  I forgot to take a picture after it happened so this about a week later.  It still hasn't quite healed all the way so she will still have a little black eye on Christmas this year :).  
 
Claire has started saying little prayers when she has a tea party and I am so happy I finally snuck a picture of it.  The first time I found her doing it I about died.  It is the sweetest thing ever.  I turn into a puddle.  In this picture she's folding her bunny's arms and praying with her bunny before they eat :).    I love moments like this, they make me think maybe I'm not doing too bad of a job being her mom.

Marshmallow World

Last Monday we finally got the giant snowstorm I've been wishing for all month!  It was much better than the storm we got on Thanksgiving.  We got over a foot of snow!  Some places in Utah got over two feet.  It was crazy and so much fun!  Bryce came home after taking one of his finals and he had a few hours until he had to go to work so we all bundled up and went outside to play in it.  
Rory is our little snow dog.  She loves the snow and had a blast running and rolling around it it! 
We tried to make a snowman but the snow was too powdery and soft.  We couldn't get it to stick together at all, so instead we made snow angels and pulled Claire around in the sled.  We hooked Rory up to the sled again and her pull Claire a few times too.  We're supposed to get snow again this week so I think its safe to say even after a questionable December we'll be getting a White Christmas!