Leavenworth Christmas

This weekend we decided to go check out the Christmas lights in a little town called Leavenworth. Cody had been there before for Octoberfest, but I had never been. It is about a two and a half hour drive from Seattle. On the drive, we passed Steven's Pass, which is a ski resort, and I could not believe how much I missed the snow! I'm excited to visit Utah for Christmas so we can soak up some of the snow. :) Anyway, Leavenworth is a very tiny German town with a few blocks of shops and restaurants. It was so beautiful with all the lights!

It was a lot colder in Leavenworth than in Seattle, but I didn't have any big, warm coats that fit over my belly, so I had to wear one of Cody's coats, so I look like a big, black, and purple marshmallow. :)

It was a short trip, but it was so much fun. I loved the lights and the cute little town. It was a great mini trip to have taken before the baby is here. :)

It's beginning to look...

a lot like Christmas!! I can not believe that it is Christmas time already, this year has gone by so fast! One of my favorite things about Christmas is putting up all the decorations, but Cody has always had a rule at our house that no Christmas is allowed until the day after Thanksgiving. So that Friday we pulled out all the Christmas stuff and started decorating. After everything was up, I realized that I have never posted pictures of our house after it was all fancy and not all cluttered from moving in. So I figured I would post pictures of our house all fancy with Christmas. :)

Our entryway.

Our front room.

Our Christmas tree.

And, this is our Seattle Christmas ornament we got to remember our time in Seattle.

Our kitchen.

Cody's office.

This house was advertised as three bedrooms, which it is, but to access the third bedroom, you need to walk through the second bedroom. So we turned it into our "closet room" and our "bed room." This is our closet room.

And this is our bed room.

Our TV in our closet in our bed room. :)

Vega's bed.

And that is our little tour of our house in Seattle. There is also a basement, but I call it a "scary" basement, so I'm not going to post pictures of the scary basement. :) Thankfully, it is very big so we have tons of room for storage. We also have another room, which will be the baby's room, however I will post pictures when that is all set up and ready.

Finally, here is a belly picture of me at 30 weeks. :)

Our Thanksgiving

Since we didn't go to Utah for Thanksgiving, we celebrated it differently than we normally do. A few of us transplants who weren't going home for the holiday decided to get together and have our own Thanksgiving. It turned out great! We went over to our friends home in Sammamish, which is about 15 minutes east-ish of Seattle. We ate great food and had great company. As hard as it was being away from family for Thanksgiving, I'm glad we have found some good friends that we were able to share the day with.

Our friends Pedro and Jessica, who recently got engaged!

Jessica and Jill

Mmmm...look at all that yummy food!

Aaron serving the first piece of turkey.

Us after after dinner and dessert. I think I have a food baby in there with my real baby! :)

It was a little different than we are use to, but it was still so much fun!

28 Week Belly

Here is the most recent belly picture of me.

A few things I have LOVED during this pregnancy:

• feeling my baby boy kick, roll and hiccup, even if it keeps me up at night
• hearing his heartbeat at every doctor visit, such a wonderful sound!
• watching my belly move and twitch when baby boy moves and kicks
• shopping for little boy clothing (everything is so little!)
• shopping for bedding, cribs, changing station, and everything else that is needed/wanted in his room
• trying to find the perfect name
• having my niece Anna hug my belly and her saying hi to her cousin
• seeing Cody smile every time I say "your son"

These are just a few things I wanted to share and remember. A few things I don't love about this pregnancy is the worry I have for my son since I found out I was pregnant. I worry about how he is doing every day, I worry about his future, I worry about all the little things I probably shouldn't even worry about. But, apparently, this is what it means to be a parent. :) I have had many people tell me that this is totally normal, and that the worry will never stop. :) I am just so excited to meet our little guy, only 12 weeks left before we get to see his little face!!

Fall Weather...

So, I visited Utah last week, and the day before I left for Utah, I was taking Vega for a walk, and it was such a pretty day, I had to stop and take a picture.

And the first morning in Utah, I woke up to this...

Thankfully that snow storm mostly melted by the end of the day, and didn't snow again until the day I left, but it was kind of funny. :)

As usual, during my visit to Utah, I forgot to take pictures. I get so busy seeing everyone and trying to get all the yummy foods in, I totally space pulling out the camera, and pregnancy brain didn't help with the forgetfulness. But it was wonderful to see my family, as it always is. Our next visit should hopefully be during Christmas time if all goes well with the doctor, and we will be driving so we can bring the Vega puppy.

While I was gone, it was apparently just beautiful fall weather in Seattle, and Cody got some great pictures of the trees and of Vega, so I just had to share.

And a silly picture of the Vega puppy!

Fun Weekend!

My mom and step-dad came to visit us a few weekends ago, so we got to practice our tour guide skills. :) It was so great to see them, even if it was just a short visit. They decided to drive from Logan to Seattle and they stayed in Bellevue, which was cool because then we were able to go hang out on the east side which we rarely do. Anyway, the first night they were in town we ate at a tasty little spot in Redmond called The Stone House (and it really is in a house made of stone, imagine that!) that was super yummy, then we called it an early night so they could rest after the long drive. That Saturday we got up nice and early, grabbed breakfast, and went to show off lovely Seattle. First, we showed them Pike's Place, but because it started off rainy and cloudy we decided to drive up to the top of Queen Anne (a neighborhood close to downtown) to see if we could get a good view of downtown. Thankfully, by the time we found a good spot, the sun had come out and we were able to get some great pictures. My mom is the one with the fancy camera, and she got most of the pictures, and we ended up only taking one picture on Cody's phone, but I think it turned out great. :)

After that we went and visited the Ballard Locks. It's like a boat elevator that connects the Puget Sound to Lake Union and Lake Washington. We were lucky enough to see some of the smaller boats go through. We loved it!

Here are a few pictures from the Ballard Locks.

Cody being silly with the sculptures at the locks.

To get over to the locks, there is a cute little flower garden. It was very pretty.

Me, my step-dad Chad, and my Mom Lisa trying to get all the pretty pictures.

The next day we decided to drive out to Snoqualmie Falls, which is about 30 minutes or so east of Seattle. Cody and I had been meaning to go for quite some time, so having people in town was a great excuse to finally make it over there. It was an awesome place.

Some different views of the falls.

Cody and I at the falls. It was very, very wet! My hair was soaked when we were done with the pictures.

After the falls, we went and hung out around Bellevue for the evening. It was a very fun, very busy, very short weekend trip. I'm so glad that they were able to come and see our home and visit with the Vega puppy, even if it was only for a few days. :)

And finally, here is the most recent belly picture of me from this last Saturday. I am 25 weeks here.