Showered

On Saturday the 6^th, Jan hosted a lovely Christmas themed baby shower for me. Of course, I was having so much fun with my friends I completely neglected to take any photos. I’m going to try to steal some from another friend, Jill who at least managed to get some shots of the décor.

They say that everything is bigger in Texas and Jan, native Texan that she is, does Christmas up good (as I imagine they say in the south). She only “counts” the Christmas trees that are more than 6 feet high because “the little ones take no time at all to do anyway”. But there must’ve been six or seven full-sized trees plus all the little ones tucked into various corners of the house. There was a rubber ducky and toothbrush tree on the kids’ bathroom counter, a tree for each of the three boys in their rooms, two four-foot-tall trees in the master bedroom decorated entirely in pink in addition to the full-sized gold and white clad tree in the opposite corner. One of my favorites was her newest addition, a three-foot tall white tree made of feathers and decorated entirely in glittering white butterflies. She has a tree for each major place the family has lived, China, Texas and Colorado. I could go on but seriously it’s too much to recount.

And I haven’t even started on the food yet! Jan prepared all the food herself, and it was delicious. The Coffee Punch (basically coffee with three bags of sugar and an entire carton of vanilla ice cream) was a hit, naturally. There were all manner of finger foods, sweet and savory, perfect for a nearly constantly hungry girl with very little room in her belly for food to nosh on.

I found out at the end of the gathering that she’d never hosted a shower all by herself before. Coudla fooled me!! She did an amazing job, and she was only half done for the day (more on that in the next post). I was so grateful to spend some girl time with good friends. Jan provided the perfect, festive and relaxed atmosphere with (here’s my favorite part) NO SILLY SHOWER GAMES!! It was a great time just catching up with people who I see far too seldom. And I truly felt showered with their love.

Party. Party. Party.

For those of you who read Jan’s blog, you’ll notice that I’ve stolen her recent title and appropriated it for my own use. Of course, there are two less parties in my title, since she had five in one week and I only had three. Hummph. But being as I spend at least a minute or two every morning trying to figure out how to roll my ginormous belly out of bed without shifting the axis of the earth, having three parties in one week still makes me feel like a rock star.

The week from November 6 through the 13 felt like one amazing fete after another, with a small intermission to make room for work. Originally I thought that I’d just do one post on all of them but it’s just too much. Inego Montoya once said, “Let me ‘splain. No. Is too much. Let me sum up.” I really don’t want to sum up my three party week. I want to ‘splain it in all its glorious detail.

So, let’s begin at the beginning, shall we?

Long Time No See...

I started his month with the best of intentions - I really did! November is always a crazy month for me. As soon as we hit Halloween, things don't seem to slow down until about February. In fact, since the last few weeks of pregnancy slow time to a crawl and my typical holiday season flys by at light speed, I'm really interested to see if by having both events at once they manage to cancel each other out and allow time to move at a normal pace. I'm not holding my breath, but I'll keep you posted.

Anywho, my typical blogging time is Thursday while Mark is at band practice. Norah has a full day on Thursdays so we eat dinner at my parents, Mark heads to practice and I take her home for an early bedtime. Sometimes it’s the only two-hour stretch that I have to myself all week. Ever feel that way?

The past few weeks the weather has been uncooperative. Since I don’t have snow tires on my car yet (an issue we will remedy very soon thanks to an incredibly generous birthday gift from my in-laws!) I have been waiting at my parent’s place for Mark to pick us up in the truck so we can carpool home. I love spending time with my family relaxing in the evening, but not having those few minutes alone on Thursdays has reminded me that even for someone as social as myself, time away is precious. I feel like I haven’t been able to organize my thoughts the way that I normally do. This is compounded by the fact that, at 35 weeks along, I’m less able to complete a given thought at any time anyway.

We’ve been very busy these past few weeks and I have a lot to catch up on. I’m going to try to put it out there in little snippets a couple of times a day so that it doesn’t feel like drinking from a fire hose of Jones Family info after a more than two-week drought.

Thanksgiving

I literally cannot list all of the reasons I'm thankful this year. Here are a few bullet points just in case you were wondering. I'm thankful for...

• new jobs (and first paychecks)!
• a textbook pregnancy so far.
• a healthy family (all four of us).
• new snow tires (there's a big story behind that one)!
• a fresh blanket of snow, but none in the forecast for this weekend.
• my first baby, who's growing into such a big girl.
• my second baby, whoever s/he turns out to be.

We have been through so much as a family this year. But through all the uncertainty, we can lok back and see how wel we have been taken care of. As difficult as this time has been, I wouldn't trade the lessons we've learned through it for anything. Now, as we approach new beginnings in so many areas of our lives, we are truly grateful for where we've come from and how we got here.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!!

Heard Around the House - Technology Edition

Every once in a while it strikes me that my kids are going to grow up in a world that is amazingly different than mine. Every time Norah sees my iPod touch she asks to draw and play Baby Flash Cards. When I was her age, there were very few objects that could do two things. I had an etch-a-sketch to draw and I played flash cards with.... um..... actual flash cards.

Here are a few things my sweet girl has said in the last few weeks that remind me of how technology shapes our lives.

Upon hearing a line in "Slice" by Five For Fighting where he says, "No cell phones, just 20,000 lights swayin' on a Saturday night, alright."

"What he talkin' bout? What wrong with his cell phone?"

Upon learning that anything is not working quite right.

"Check the baddawees."

Upon being told that she should eat her vegetables to grow big and strong.

"I'll grow as big as Grandpa. Then I will have my own computer."

Family Photos!!

I mentioned a while back that our awesome neighbor had gone out with us to take some family photos. I had been praying (seriously) that we could get some family photos of just the three of us before the baby came. I was so, SO excited that our neighbor agreed to help us out. You may not know this, but a photo shoot with a toddler isn't always the easiest.

Along with the ones scattered throughout the last few posts, here are a few of my favorite photos:

Thankful Thursday

Today has brought a lot to be thankful for. I'll have to get into specifics later, but some very long term difficulties look to be coming to a close. I can't tell you how grateful we are. We've learned so much during this time ad we're grateful for the lessons. But I won't lie, I'm so relieved to see a light at the end of this tunnel! Anyway, like I said, I'll get into it a little later. Right now, here are a few things I'm thankful for:

• My amazing husband. His after dinner foot rubs seriously make my day. He is a fantastic husband and father. I'm SO grateful for him.
• Fantastic friends who check in and let us know they're thinking of us.
• Terrific people who jump in to meet needs they weren't even sure we had.
• Potato chips. (What!? I'm pregnant.)
• And of course... this little angel.

Doesn't she look sweet? Stay tuned... the next post is family pictures!!