Thanksgiving Reunion

Ok I have not been too good at blogging lately.  November and December have just been crazy months!  During Thanksgiving Dan's whole family came to St. George for a reunion.  Between us and his parents we were able to house everybody.

Here's the group:

We did our best to get everyone to look.  This is about as close as we got.

During the week we had lots of fun (even though I don't think I was that fun... I just felt so tired!)  But here are a few of the highlights:

• Ate yummy Thanksgiving dinner!  I even made my very first homemade apple pie.  
• Had a Christmas gift exchange.
• The girls threw a baby shower for me.
• The men went hiking.
• Went to the Tuacahn Nativity.  
• Got Dairy Queen. 
• Dan went to a few late night movies... I went to bed :).  

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are a few of us at the Nativity.  It is one of my most favorite Christmas events in St. George!  I am sure it will always be a tradition for us.  

Waiting for the Nativity to start.

We got a pic by the camels after!  They are my favorite part of the Nativity.

On the train ride.

28 weeks

I realized I haven't posted a belly pic in over a month!  Here I am... 28 weeks (hello, 3rd trimester!)

I feel like I haven't changed much since the last pic.  I did have to finally put away my skinny jeans though!  I still wear most of my normal shirts, but I've had to switch over to mostly maternity pants.   

Not much news except I'm stopping my job earlier than I had originally planned.  After having a cold for nearly 2 weeks I decided I am done being around sick kids all day!  I should be done working by the end of this month.  Yay!  I'd rather stay home and sew anyway :)  

We still haven't started on our nursery because our basement is not quite done yet.  However, we are getting super close!  Our carpet goes in tomorrow and then we can start moving things down there.  I can't wait to post pics of our finished basement!

That's pretty much it for us.  Just 12 more weeks til we meet baby girl.  Time is just flying by!    

Birthday Week

Most people know I love my birthday!  I make sure it is thoroughly celebrated every year.  I don't just celebrate for one day, but usually the whole month of October.  This means if I see something I like, I usually buy it and tell Dan "it's for my birthday!"  Or we might go out to dinner more than usual, or stop for cupcakes because hey, "it's my birthday month!"  I figure I might as well live it up!  And luckily I have an awesome husband who supports birthday month fully.

But this post is about Birthday Week.  I feel we did a lot the week of my birthday and I just considered it all part of the celebration.  My parents even came down to celebrate with us!  It also happened to be my fall break, which was perfect timing.

Here's what we did...

Saw Aladdin at Tuacahn!  We all really liked it.

"A whole new world!"

The next day we did a session at the St. George temple with my parents.  We were able to do some work for Dan's ancestors.  I love doing family names!  It was great being there and I loved going with my parents.  I just didn't love the part at the end when I really had to go to the bathroom (thank you, pregnancy!)

After the temple my mom and I went shopping while Dan & Dad went golfing.  This arrangement pretty much happens every time they visit.  My mom helped me pick out fabric to make a car seat cover and then we stopped at TJ Maxx.  Because what's a trip to St. George without a stop at TJ Maxx?

That night we went to the Piano Guys concert!  Unfortunately Steve, the cellist, wasn't there because his wife had a baby that day (good reason not to be there).  So it was just Jon.  But Jon always puts on a great show!  We really enjoyed it.  

My sister Jannifer & her husband, Danny, also happened to be at Piano Guys that night.  They were down in St. George celebrating their anniversary.  So after the show we met up with them for some Yogurtland!  I love Yogurtland!

Happy 2 years!

Parents!

Not the best photo of us, but had to show we were there too!

Then on my real birthday, my parents headed to Las Vegas for a wedding.  You see, when you are mission presidents you get invited to lots of weddings.  I feel like my parents have a wedding almost every weekend! While they were gone Dan took me maternity clothes shopping, then we stopped at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for caramel apples, and lastly we went to see the movie Hotel Transylvania.  It was sorta cute, but not anything I'd really rave about.

Once my parents were back we all went to Buca di Beppo for my birthday dinner.  Jannifer & Danny met up with us for that part too.  It was yummy (I definitely recommend their apple gorgonzola salad)!

We then ended the night with cake!  And yes Dan made my cake (he only had a little supervision from me).

Ahhh 26!

First cake Dan has ever made!  Turned out delicious!

Making a wish!

And that was birthday celebration for this year!  I think we did pretty well.  Thanks to Dan & my parents & Janni & Danny for celebrating with us!

I forgot to mention, Dan got me a serger as my birthday gift this year!  Can't wait to start sewing with it!  And thanks to my many other family members and friends for the phone calls, gifts, cards, facebook messages, texts, etc.  I felt very loved :).

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch for FHE with Dan's family.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but Dan's brother & his wife & kids, and Dan's parents have all moved here!  It's been fun having family around to do things with.  We are no longer the only Deceusters in St. George!

Dan picking a pumpkin!

With our pumpkins :)

Tiana, Kenzie, Jackson & Grammie

Ethan, Dan & Joel

We ended up with 3 pumpkins to represent our family.  We got the daddy pumpkin, the mommy pumpkin and a baby pumpkin (Dan is holding it in the last photo... you'll notice it's green and not quite ripe yet).

Projects & a baby bump

Time for a quick post before I head off to work.  Just to show you all what I've been up to lately.  First off... most recent baby bump pic:

23 weeks... I'm finally looking pregnant!  At least I think so :)

Second thing, I sewed a blanket for baby girl!  I really like how it turned out.  I did most of it in one night while Dan was at church meetings.  It's not all fancy quilted or anything like that, but I think baby will like it.

The front is the aqua & the back is pink minky with a green ruffle all the way around.  I used the tutorial on this blog.  It wasn't too difficult.  Minky is a little bit of a pain to sew, but not too bad.  Also, I found my fabric at Mormon Handicraft.  I was so excited to find fabric in all 3 of the colors I am using for the nursery.  My next sewing project is probably a carseat cover.

Lastly, while I was at my sewing machine this week I decided to finally finish these Old MacDonald puppets I started a year ago!  They really aren't that difficult, I just kept forgetting about them.  But glad I have them done now that I'll have a child to enjoy them.

I love them, even the backs are cute.  The horse is my favorite!  I got free printable patterns for them at this blog here.  The only thing I added was I gave Old MacDonald a hat, which wasn't in the original pattern.

Aside from sewing, working and resting the only other thing we've been working on is designing our basement!  It is coming along.  We most recently chose the carpet, cabinets & tile.  Can't wait for the whole thing to be finished!