a baby, holiday, crafting update

Time for a much needed update. Sorry I am such a terrible blogger these days. In baby news, I'm getting more and more pregnant-looking by the day! I'm about 19 weeks right now - the below picture was taken on Thanksgiving last week at 18 weeks 3 days.



My belly has really popped out over the last couple of weeks and I'm thankful I've got a wardrobe full of new maternity clothes that I got a few weeks ago at the Motherhood Maternity outlet in Foley. We went down to Daphne for my oldest nephew Bridger's 5th birthday party, and my mom absolutely spoiled me when we went to try and find me a few new things to fit my new body. I don't know what I would have done without her! One pair of jeans and 3 shirts would not a maternity wardrobe have made...

Thanksgiving night, we carried on our tradition of putting up the Christmas tree and watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation with eggnog. Nathan gave me my 4th Swarovski snowflake ornament -- which he gives me every year on Thanksgiving. Sweetest tradition ever! :)



I was glad I made us a new tree skirt - the old one was just sooo big for our little pencil tree, and didn't really fit our decor. Now we have one with vintage-y fabrics and red/mint green to match our house.

'

Spike helped me make it, of course. He truly thinks that anything on the floor is automatically for him. It is an honest-to-goodness PAIN, but he is pretty cute, so it's okay.



I haven't gotten too far on other Christmas crafting yet, but I did stitch up a little embroidered tea towel as a thank-you gift for someone I work with. It's kind of wrinkly in this picture, but here it is anyway:



I've also gotten a LOT done on the baby quilt I'm making. All the rows are done and now I just need to sew the rows together, slap on some borders, buy some backing and finish it up. In retrospect I do still have a lot to do, but to me, I've gotten the hardest/least fun part done (cutting and making headway on rows). Of course, Spike was helpful in this project too...





He always likes to make himself at home ON my projects and ON my craft desk. It's fine as long as he doesn't start playing with all my tools, which has been a problem lately.

Anyway, we will find out boy or girl at our big anatomy ultrasound on December 15th. The wait is AGONY for me, but it's going by quickly with all the holiday preparations to keep me occupied. Nathan and I are both really excited for Christmas this year and we're already all decorated and have lights on the house. Woohoo! Now to finish up our shopping and get on with the parties. :)