Why crying can be a good thing...

Last night I was watching Dateline with Matt Lauer. He was interviewing the families of two girls that were in a car accident in Indiana two years ago. One of the girls died and the other was in a coma for weeks and had horrible brain trauma. The reason that this story got national attention was the fact that the two girls were mistaken for each other. So one family buried and mourned a daughter that didn't die and another family sat in a hospital room for five weeks caring for someone else's daughter. The whole thing just boggles my mind. I just couldn't believe how each of these families handled the situation. They were so compassionate and loving to each other. There was no ill feelings or hate. They were both so Christ-minded. Of course watching a show like this, I cried my eyes out. Who wouldn't? Troy. He kept asking me if I wanted him to turn it off. He doesn't get it. He always asks me why I watch such sad shows. But those are happy tears and sad ones too I guess. I just like knowing that there are good people still in the world.

Rosie's Gingerbread Party

Every year for as long as I can remember we have had a family party to make Gingerbread houses. The venues are always changing and people come and go, but the party remains the same. For the past several years the party has been at my aunt Rosie's house. She makes the best icing and she is great about making sure we have a huge variety of candy. Troy has participated for the last three years. I'm starting to think that maybe making a Gingerbread house isn't as a fun a tradition for him as it is for me...

And this was my creation...

I'm really grateful for the family traditions that my parents started for us and will continue for our children.

Winter Wonderland

We have had a massive amount of snow at our house for over a week now. Its just crazy that this much snow has accumulated here. We have about two feet. I can't remember ever having a time where there was snow like this in Western Washington. I have a bit of cabin fever and my dog goes crazy when he actually gets to leave the house, but honestly I'm loving it! I took a few pictures last week when the snow was fresh and beautiful.

My Friend Fibroid

I found out about a month before I got pregnant that I have a fibroid. Basically its a noncancerous tumor in the wall of my uterus. I'm not really very good at remembering all the technical stuff about it so I'm giving you a link to the Mayo Clinic's definition. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/uterine-fibroids/DS00078

The beginning of November I started to have severe pelvic pain. They went through every reason from a kidney stone to severe constipation. And me being a hypochondriac, believed them all. I ended up having an ultrasound where they realized that my fibroid had grown from 4 centimeters to over 7 centimeters. It in no way harms the baby. In fact the baby is harming it by taking its main blood supply. It turns out that the severe pain I was experiencing was the fibroid dying a little because of the lack of blood supply. Unfortunately it hasn't shrunk enough and I am at high risk for a C-section. Its located in the front lower left side of my uterus and it can interfere with the placement of the baby and delivery. We won't know for sure until I am farther along. On a happy note, we get to have at least one more ultrasound. It will be around 30 weeks and based on that one they may do another at 36 weeks. I'm excited that I get the chance to see Maddie again and make sure everything is okay.

Introducing Kaiser to snow...

For the last few days, all the news stations have been talking about a huge winter storm that was supposed to blow into the Seattle area late Friday night. Well this huge storm turn out to be not so huge. Troy and I were a little bummed, so we decided to go up to Stevens Pass to play in the snow. We even convinced Derek to come along with us. We stopped at Zeek's on the way up for burgers and fries (delicioso!). The snow started coming down pretty thick as we headed up the mountain and there were a bunch of cars in the ditch or trying to put chains on in the middle of the road. Lucky for us we were nice and safe in the truck. We even had to tow a SUV that got stuck in the parking lot at Stevens.

We were both so excited to see how Kaiser reacted to snow. He LOVED it! He kept jumping into the big mounds and getting almost completely buried. He would try to eat it and his mouth looked like he had eaten a dozen powdered doughnuts. It was pretty funny watching him run around playing in the snow. Please excuse the quality of the pictures I took. I only had my camera phone.

Everything Pink!!!!

We are having a GIRL!!!! I almost can't believe it. I am so excited. After our ultrasound, Troy and I met up with our mothers for lunch. They are both ecstatic. As soon as lunch was over, Eva took me to Target to buy some pink stuff. We have both held off buying anything until we knew the sex of the baby. Its on now. haha!

They took some 4-D pictures during our ultrasound. I can't believe how well you can see her face. I tell everyone that she looks just like me.

We have a DVD of the whole thing so I'll try to post it on here at some point.

Cupcake Balls...

My friend Karrie came over last night to teach me to make cupcake balls. Really it was just a great excuse for us to get together. I wanted to share what we created. They are delicious and super easy. And not to mention freakin adorable!

Our Christmas Tree

We finally got our Christmas Tree up and decorated. I love Christmas!

Which is it? Boy or Girl...

We have our ultrasound on Wednesday to check everything out and find out the sex of the baby. We are sooooooo excited! I figure that this is a great place to see what everyone else thinks we are going to have or what everyone else hopes we are going to have. Troy and I are just so excited to have a baby that we don't care what it is, so I'm not having a feeling either way at this point. Nick has his opinion and most of you know that he is usually right. He keeps saying its a girl. We'll see. Boys run pretty strong in Troy's family.

I think this baby is starting to feel a bit excited too because the last day or so, I have been feeling it move so much. Its crazy how you can go from feeling nothing to feeling it all the time. I got an email today saying that it is the length of a banana and has started producing that black, sticky stuff in its bowels. His two favorite things, bananas and poop. This is the best week of this life. ha!

Husbands

Just as a bit of advice...don't ever leave your blog open unattended if your husband is around. Sometimes husbands think it is really funny to post stupid things for everyone to read. Thanks Troy.

Mission Accomplished!

When I answered the phone yesterday, the first thing that Troy said to me was "How do you think you did on minutes this month?". Bad sign. I try really really hard to not talk on my phone all the time and stay under my alloted minutes, but its seriously my favorite thing to do. Especially on my 30 minute drive from my mom's house to my house. He told me that I didn't have to worry about minutes anymore because my scheming had worked and he had upgraded my plan to unlimited minutes. Now I would love to say that I was clever enough to think of this scheme that he was accusing me of, but at least I get to reap the rewards of it. ha!

Grown Up Christmas

Troy and I are actually decorating for Christmas this year. I feel so grown up. He is putting up lights on our house today.

Hopefully we'll be getting a tree tonight for Family Home Evening. I even bought a tree topper this year! Its a star...not an angel. Sorry Nick. He is a bit upset with me about this. Nicholas just doesn't think that your tree is a Christmas tree without an angel on the top. Hopefully he'll forgive me soon.

I'm going to buy my first nativity today. Its a really cute little nativity from Blossom Bucket. It's a 12 piece set and it only costs $32 at Desert Book. Plus I have a $10 off coupon!!!! I love deals.

This Christmas is just full of firsts!

** The pictures were added later **