Adios, 2010

The past month has flown by! We took the tree down yesterday and I feel like we just put it up. I finished the semester at Longview and then Jimmy's fam came for a weekend visit. We crammed as much fun into one weekend as possible- Jimmy's birthday celebration, early Christmas, bowling, carriage ride at the Plaza and a quick visit to the Holiday Express at Crown Center. We spent Christmas in KC with my family. This year was SO fun as Samuel was excited about everything- the lights, the presents, seeing friends and family. He also seemed to grasp a bit more of what Christmas is really about- at least he can say it's Jesus' birthday and he learned a bit more of the Christmas story. Jimmy's been off of work since Christmas and we've been doing projects around the house. I guess it's nesting or my already task-driven personality, but I have been making lists like nobody's business. Can somebody please help me explain to my husband why it is urgent to clean the mini-blinds?

This week we also had a quick getaway to the Elms in Excelsior Springs. It was a late anniversary/babymoon. It's an old, historic hotel/spa and we enjoyed it. The rooms weren't anything to write home about, but the place is gorgeous, I had a fabulous prenatal massage and the little town is cute. We also had visits this week with some great college friends- Artz's, Garlich's and Gilbert's, but tonight our NYE plans include staying home! I've been pretty tired as sleeping well is challenging lately. I'm officially to the stage where you can feel people look at you with that "wow, she's really pregnant." Hopefully Baby Armstrong will make his arrival in the next five weeks!

December in pictures...

Samuel with his cousins and Grandma Mary...


Jimmy and his ice cream cake- I promise it tasted better than it looks...


Christmas Eve at my parents' house...


Christmas morning with a favorite toy...


Happy New Year to all!

Saturday Morning!

Thanks to my sweet friend, Vanessa, I actually have some pictures from the baby brunch this past weekend.... here's the link- fun morning, great people and great food. I want to go back for dinner when I can drink some wine!!

Hello mid-December

Can't believe it's December 12th! My teaching semester, the pregnancy and the holidays are all flying by!! This is finals week for me so I just have to show up, test, grade and then submit grades. Yay! I'm looking forward to the break, however I do have to do this huge "reflective portfolio" as part of my evaluation. I'm not really in the mood to reflect- I have house projects to do and a baby name to pick out!

Our past few weekends have been full, but of fun things. We checked out the Christmas lights at Longview Lake- Samuel loved it! He is impressed with ANY lights, so this display pretty much overstimulated him. Yesterday some of my sweet friends had a brunch/shower for me at a fun place near Westport- Room 39. Despite being freezing cold, I had a great time!! Mom and I spent today making chocolate peanut butter balls. We've been doing them together for years- they were my Gramma B's specialty and we started making them with her before she passed away.

Last weekend we took an 8 hour birthing class. It was sort of like birthing boot camp. I had to stop Jimmy from playing with the foreceps. I can't say the class "scared" me any more about giving birth than I already was! I think I'm just as worried that I will say something awful to Jimmy in the process. The bizarre part of the class was that I was one of the older moms in the room and also because we were the only non-first time parents in the room. I had the same experience at breastfeeding class this week. At this class, the teacher asked who had adopted or step-kids at home. When I raised my hand, she said "You won't be able to use some of my advice such as 'Sleep when the baby sleeps.' You're just going to be really tired." Thanks for the pep talk, lady!

Samuel has been talking up a storm lately. Two classic quotes...
"Jesus loves tooters" and "I can share my name with baby brother" (poor kid is sick of hearing us discuss baby names!).

The rest of the proofs from Samuel's 3 year pictures are up here... I think they are pretty stinking cute!