What A Wonderful Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I know it's a few days afterwards, but the Spirit is still around. Despite not being able to go anywhere for Christmas, we certainly had a wonderful time. The girls got all dressed up in their Christmas clothes on Christmas Eve...Christmas shirts and light-up socks (thanks Marj!!) and special Christmas bows for their hair (made by mommy). They were very excited...too bad Robbie had to work all day.

After dinner we did our normal holiday traditions. First we made cookies, and while they cooked and cooled off, the girls colored a coloring book of The Night Before Christmas that I had put together for them to keep them occupied, since they are a little small to do Christmas Bingo like my family has done for years. After coloring, we sat down and explained the story of Christ's birth to the girls with the help of a toy manger set that Marj bought for the girls (which they loved...we were worried that we wouldn't find all the pieces by Christmas because it's all they wanted to play with every day up till Christmas). They really loved the baby Jesus. We then went and decorated Christmas cookies...everyone except Grace...she kind of ate the decorations before they got onto her cookies. After picking out cookies for Santa and getting some carrots for the reindeer, the girls got ready for bed and we read The Night Before Christmas. Gwen didn't want to go to bed after that, and she even woke up at one point and half asleep asked where Santa was. It was really cute.

The girls had a breakfast picnic in our room the next morning while Robbie set up the video camera and I got my camera ready. They had a lot of fun doing that, especially since they got to watch Shrek while eating. Amazingly we didn't have any spills or crushed food in our bedroom afterwards. They certainly enjoyed their Santa gifts too...Grace got a bowling set (which she loved) and Gwen got Moon Sand (oh, she was thrilled).

They had so much fun opening gifts too. Gwen wanted to play with each gift after it was opened, and Grace just wanted to play in the box of ripped up wrapping paper each time she took her presents wrapping paper to the box. They both had so much fun though and got so many nice things from everyone. The biggest present though was the toy box/bookshelf that Robbie made for the girls for Christmas (and much thanks to Quinn for all his help and to Diana and Quinn for having Robbie there two weekends in a row and helping him with the box...we really appreciate it, and the girls absolutely love it). Grace immediately started putting toys in the box and they have both found that they can climb in and out of the box to reach any toy they want (or to just play with them in the box, which lessens the mess I have to pick up). It's awesome, and they have had a blast. Rob and I didn't make out too bad either, but I think we most enjoyed the look on the girls faces as they saw what they got and the look on each other's faces as we opened our own presents. It's been a great week for us, and we hope it has for you as well!! Thank you to everyone for the gifts and the Christmas cards we recieved from you this year. You have all been in our hearts and we're pleased that you too remembered us. Love you all!!

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my 25th birthday...hip hip hooray!! Actually, it just feels like another day, but apparently it's making my mom feel older. We're getting a pretty big snowstorm today, so I feel really bad that I'm making Robbie barbeque for my birthday dinner tonight...oh well. Other than that, it's just another day.

Robbie's doing really well. He's looking forward (and so am I) to Christmas...not only for the excitement of it all, but he gets Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work. So, while that means less of a paycheck, that's more time than normal that I get to spend with my husband, and I am all for that. He starts school again on the 7th, so the more time we get to spend with him before he's busy with school and work, the happier I'll be. He took our family Christmas photo on Sunday, so as soon as he's done editing it, we'll post in here and email it out. He's becoming quite the photographer with his new camera!!

The girls are doing really well too. We painted Rudolph the other day with their hands and feet (feet for the head, hands for the antlers) then glued google eyes on and used red glitter for the nose. They had so much fun doing that-Gwen keeps talking about her reindeer. They went and met Santa for the first time on Friday and Gwen went right up to him. Every time Santa asked her a question though all she could do is giggle like crazy. She still talks about Santa and has even said that she's seen him and his reindeer flying at night. Grace didn't react at all to Santa-she just sat there, looked around at everything except Santa, and true to her personality around strange people, showed no emotion what so ever. The rest of the time we were in the store though she kept saying, "Tanta? Tanta!" They both seem really excited for Christmas. Oh, and there's a new Gwen funny-she runs around after Grace with a blanket over her head and says "Ooohh...Grace, I am the Holy Ghost!" in the spookiest voice she can do...it's really funny.

As for me, things are going good. I had a doctor's appointment on the 18th and they said that everything looks good-nothing to be concerned about. I go back for my next appointment on the 2nd and I'm pretty sure they're going to start checking me then since I'll be 20 days from my due date and because of signs my body is showing me (and I've talked about this with the doctor) that it's getting ready for labor (I had the same signs with Grace...and one of them with Gwen that I can remember). So, we'll be spending this weekend and next getting all the baby stuff out of storage and figuring out where we are going to put everything in our little apartment. I've also been preparing things for my counselors so that when I do go into labor, they won't be confused as to how things are supposed to go (I have to call a new 1st counselor and my 2nd one has been away for the holidays) and who everyone is in Primary. Lots to do before the baby comes, and time is running short. Oh, and we have decided on a name...her name will be Georgia Ann Congdon. I'll let everyone know when things start happening, but hopefully she waits until after Gwen's birthday (Jan. 12th). With my luck, she probably will. Still, doesn't hurt to be prepared (oh, and Gwen tells me all the time that I have a fat belly-even when she sees pregnancy pictures-"Mom, that's your fat belly!!")!

4 Years

Today is our anniversary...4 years together! It seems amazing that all that time together has all ready passed and at the same time it seems like we've been married so much longer than that. It seems like yesterday where I was still deciding to either turn in my mission papers or to marry Robbie...good thing I listened to the Lord, or I wouldn't have the wonderful family that I have now and would have missed out on so much. I am so grateful for Robbie and our love for each other and that we were able to go to the temple together and be sealed as an eternal family. I love him so much and I know he loves me too by all the things he does for me and our family. I look forward to the many years ahead with him and all the experiences that we'll share.

A Tinker Bell Party!!

My mom sent the girls a box before Thanksgiving with all the things we needed to have a Tinker Bell party, including the new Tinker Bell movie. We finally had our party on Tuesday and the girls had so much fun!! We set up the table with everything Tinker Bell-tablecloth, plates, napkins, cups, balloons and "streamers."

The girls also had fairy crowns and noise makers to play with. My mom also sent them Tinker Bell stickers and Color Wonder books, along with everything to make confetti cupcakes (the cupcakes and icing with little spots of color). The girls ate cupcakes while they watched the movie-and then played with their balloons for the rest of the afternoon. They had a blast-thanks mom!!

Snow Day!!

We got a good deal of snow last night (okay, well maybe it was only 2 to 3 inches, but that's enough) so I decided to take the girls out to play in the snow for the first time. Gwen was so excited! She was thrilled to look out the window this morning and see all the snow. I don't think Grace knew what was going on-just that we were going to go outside for a little while. The girls looked so cute in their new snow clothes.

Grace had a hard time outside though. She would loose her balance and fall backwards in the snow, then lay there like a beached turtle and whine until I came over to help her back up. Towards the end, she actually fell face first in the snow and just freaked out. She did not like having a face full of snow. Gwen had a blast though. We made a "mini snowman" (that's what she calls it) and she had so much fun packing more and more snow on top of the balls of snow I had rolled for her to make the snowman. It did at one point have a third snowball for it's head, but the snowman would fall over periodically while Gwen was "fixing" it that eventually the top one just fell off. I think it turned out all right though, and the girls did have a lot of fun being outside for a while today.

Another Checkup...and Christmas!!

I had another doctors appointment today. Everything is still going good...the nurse even thought it was funny how little weight I had gained over Thanksgiving. And despite my telling the doctor which side the baby favored, she still went looking for the heartbeat 3 times on the opposite side...and guess where she ended up finding the heartbeat? On the side I told her the baby liked. I go back on the 18th for another checkup and to get my Group B Strep test done...hopefully I won't have it this time like I did with Grace. Gwen told Robbie today at lunch that "mommy's stomach gonna pop open" when I have the baby...we got a good laugh out of that. What a mental picture that was.

We got all our Christmas stuff out on Saturday and set it all up (well, except for the few things that need a little bit of glue). The girls were thrilled. I tried teaching Gwen how to sing Jingle Bells but it didn't seem to sink in. Grace had a blast helping Rob put up Christmas ornaments on the tree. She threw a huge fit when I told her we were all done and there was nothing else left to put on the tree. She calmed down a little bit later when she found "tanta" (santa) and "melmo" (elmo) ornaments hanging next to each other on the tree. Gwen just had fun ringing the bell that was given to us for her first Christmas. They also had a lot of fun looking at all the hand carved ornaments that my Grandpa Sessions has made for me over the years. They are quite impressed with the outdoor lights too...Gwen talks about how pretty they all are, and Grace just says "WOW" over and over again. They are really getting excited. I'll put up more pictures as we take them and as we do more things with the girls to prepare for Christmas.