Happy Christmas

I'm just on a roll with updating the blog! Probably because I know I won't have much energy to do it when our little one decides to show up. :)

Anyway, sorry for a million more pictures! And I'm especially sorry for how materialistic they are - I promise I don't think gifts are the reason for the season! But this year we spent Christmas with the Payne side of the family here in Mesa and it was great! We drew names for the gift-giving and decided to do everything homemade. Oh. My. Busy. I had NO idea how much more work it is to make something as opposed to going out and buying it! But I enjoyed it so much, and I learned a lot - even if I lost a lot of sleep. We had my brother and his wife and his two daughters who are 8 months and 2.5 years old, so I really wanted to do something "thoughtful" for each of them.

So for Paisley, I decided on a stuffed animal. I was so in love with this little guy when I saw him (I almost bought it for Finn, but come on, $18?) So I tried to copy it for her. Yes, I am proud of how he turned out. :) I'm definitely making another for Finn.

For Jason and my Dad, we had a harder time deciding, but since they both like reading, we bought some old books at Goodwill, glued the pages down, and Chase hollowed them out to make "secret" cut-outs to hide goodies in. We added some custom bookmarks I found for pretty cheap on Etsy (kind of cheating, but oh well).

For Hadley, who LOVES to color, I made a coloring book/crayon carrier! It was really easy - just buy a few quilting squares.

For Krystal I made a magnet board/mail holder thing. It turned out cute, but definitely not as well as I wanted. I hope she can find something to use it for! Haha.

And then for both of our parents, we made a picture of our family in 4 different illustrations. Chase came up with the cool idea. He is such an artist at heart! So making these gifts was by far my favorite part of the "presents" part of Christmas because I really wanted them to be special. Anyway, wow I sound really braggy. Sorry. :(

Our little home-dog in her Christmas hoodie :)

Our friends Matt and Nikki made us this cute little guy for Christmas!! We love him.

I think she likes the owl. :)

Nate's penguin footie jammies are so rad. Poor baby Kenz was sick though. :(

Mom and Dad finally got matching snuggies! All I can say is it's about time. Good job Nate and Steph.

I wish I had more pictures of everyone. But it was such a fun Christmas... Chase and I were also able to do some special things with and for some of our neighbors... it really reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas. The Savior's birth changed everything for all of us, and His sacrifice for us was the purest form of love. We kind of had a rough patch the week before Christmas (especially me with all of my pregnancy-induced emotions) but it was such a blessing to be in a position where I didn't know what was going to happen and how things would turn out - those feelings of self-pity, fear, worry etc. completely went away when I stopped thinking about myself and instead thought about others. I honestly think that a lot of the things that were making me so stressed happened just to teach us this lesson. And it is one I'll never forget. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well! :)

Baby Shower!

I had my baby shower on December 4th and it was incredible, to say the least. Everything was perfect, more than I ever could have imagined - I have such wonderful friends and family and I can't believe how lucky I am to have them in my lives. My best friends threw the shower for me. Amanda, with the help of Kristalyn and Lauren, made the most adorable cake, delicious treats, cute invitations, and lovely little decorations. They put so much work into it! And I couldn't believe how many people came to wish me well and congratulate us on our little guy. After it was all over and cleaned up, Chase and I laid down to take a nap and I just cried because I was so overwhelmed with gratitude. We received so many thoughtful and much-needed things for baby Finn and I know he is already so spoiled. :) Anyway, tons of pictures below... like tons. I wish I had more of everyone who came - thank you all of you for making me feel so special and loved! I don't deserve you.

We only took a couple of pictures before people showed up - I wish I had closer ones to do Amanda's handiwork justice.

The cutest cake I have ever laid eyes on. Love it!

So the theme for refreshments was "Amy's Favorite Foods" so there was Mac & Cheese, Sweet Potato French Fries, and Mini Pizzas! Mmm.

Seriously, this was my reaction to almost every gift. Haha. And I just love the cute little bear below that my friend Nikki made. :)

Finn has so much competition with his cousins. I don't think it gets any cuter than these little ladies.

Anyway, it was such a wonderful day. I enjoyed every moment. Wait, scratch that... can I just tell you that opening presents in front of a bunch of ladies who are being totally quiet and staring at you is the most awkward thing ever? I was blushing so much! But I am so grateful to everyone for coming and spoiling our little grub! :)

Thanksgiving

Okay finally getting around to updating this thing. So about Thanksgiving. It was great! We flew up to Idaho to spend the week with Chase's family. Our flight also happened to be on the night of the presumed "worst storm Salt Lake had seen in 10 years". Anyway, our flight got delayed and we figured even if we made it to the airport late that night, no one would be able to drive on the roads to come get us! So we rescheduled for a flight early the next morning. The next morning we both woke up with sore throats and stuffy heads. Oh my goodness, it just got worse and I cannot ever remember being more miserable from a cold! It ended up lasting a solid 2 weeks. I blame it on my more-than-normal congested pregnant body. Bleh. But the good news is we still had an amazing time just relaxing with the fam!

Thanksgiving Day... it was in the single digits! And Mama Child said no coats for the pictures. Probably the coldest Finn has ever been.

Love my In-Laws so much. :)

Lots of sleeping happened on this trip. Seriously, where is the fun in being pregnant on Thanksgiving if you can't taste the food?

So Chase's Uncle had this GINORMOUS swing built for the Child's backyard. It was so huge and bouncy.

So anyway, that was our Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to get away from Mesa for a bit and be with the Child family and just totally relax. Chase's mom and sisters threw me a sweet mini-baby shower too! I wish I had gotten pictures. They are so awesome and I was so grateful for how thoughtful they were to do that. :) I wish I could remember what else we did while we were there, but it's all a bit of a foggy blur in my head. Hmm.