Christmas With Extended Fam

My aunt is always on top of things. This year for Christmas Eve she had all the costumes to act out the first Christmas. They elected Randy and I to be Mary and Joseph since I am expecting. Ha! Anyway, the kids loved it. Ava was a sheep but wouldn't put on her hat and kept stealing baby Jesus and Bella was one super proud angel. Dinner was wonderful as usual and we had a blast singing and dancing after. Here is where I say it every year- There are five original granddaughters, plus eight great granddaughters on this side of the family. My cousin has a son, Bradley, but he is almost grown himself now so having a boy is still a shock! After eight consecutive girls, plus my sister's due in June, which will make nine, this little baby boy Eich is going to get a lot of love, dress up and who knows what else! We are going to need to find him some manly men to hang out with and many sports to play ;)

First Hair Cut!

Bella asks to go to the "Beauty Shop" on a daily basis. Whether we pretend and I do the work or we go get a real hair cut, she loves it all. It had been a few months since she got it trimmed so on a whim one day I decided to make her wish come true and we headed to the Beauty Shop. I also decided with Ava's wacky "layers" and lack of curl these days, I may get her a trim if all went well.

When we arrived, both girls were chomping at the bit to get in the chairs so I went ahead and signed them both up. I let Bella go first so that Ava would know what to expect and maybe lessen her anxiety. There was no need though because she was READY! She waited in her chair patiently and they hadn't even called her name.

Bella wanted her hair cut short like in a picture she saw of herself (as an 18 month old!!!). Yikes. By the time we got there she was describing it like a male friend at school. Um, where did my princess go? I met her in the middle and told the lady to stack it and bring it around to angle towards her chin. It ended up a little shorter than I would have liked but Bella was happy.

Ava tapped her toes the whole time and "drove" the taxi she was sitting in, just soaking it all up. When I would smile or gigggle she would put her tongue in her cheek, like "Yeah, I know Mom. I'm sassy." Anyway, I got a similar cut for her and they were ADORABLE! Unfortunately she has not let me do too much blow drying in our day to day life so it isn't always laying right but it is still cute. As part of the first hair cut package, they took a wonderful picture! The ones I have are good too but don't show the finished product so I took their picture the next day after baths and my attempt to dry it.

Getting Crafty...

From my grandmother to my daughters, crafting is in the blood. Most girls do enjoy it I guess. Ava is the newest member of our little club. She is crazy about the activities they do at school and wants to do all those things her big sister does. Recently she started asking to paint on a daily basis (not to crafty per say but fun nonetheless). With Advent season in the works, we have been doing quite a bit of other things. I caught a few pictures of some of our adventures.

Christmas Celebrating Begins

We had Christmas with my Dad this past Sunday. With everyone's work schedules, trips and multiple families to visit, we get creative and celebrate at all different times. We had a nice dinner at my Dad's and opened presents. The girls were spoiled with princess sleeping bags, a princess game, a matching fishing rod for Ava, and some other things. It was a great start to all the celebrating with family.

It's a...

BOY!! I am still in shock. I thought we were having another girl and had her name all picked out. It will take some getting used to. I heard myself say, "son" and "brother" today and it was STRANGE. Anyway, we are happy to have a healthy baby and will post his sweet ultrasound pictures later.

Great News!!

Today is the day! I went for my ultrasound and routine appt this morning at 9:30. Randy wasn't able to go this time so the gender is sealed up in an envelope for us to open in a little bit. I have a feeling now what it might be and I hadn't had any feelings before yesterday. We will soon see! More importantly though, the ultrasound revealed that my placenta is actually not laying low and everything is going great. I have nothing to worry about, can resume with regular activities and can still deliver vaginally come May!

Our Favorite Time of the Year!

We kicked off the Christmas season with Advent bags and going shopping for a Christmas tree. It was so fun having Ava know what was going on (sort of) this time!

Thanksgiving This Year

We celebrated with my Dad and that side of the family earlier this year. The day of Thanksgiving my mom and grandma came over for brunch then we headed to the Eich side for dinner! It was a great time. The couple of days following were amazing- having nowhere to be, a house to decorate and a family to relax with. It was five wonderful days of peace. (Then Sunday night, I woke up with a bad sore throat and found out the next day I had strep. Ugh. Second time in this pregnancy and it put a damper on the week, but at least the break went well.)

And this was the only ham we had this Thanksgiving! Well, her and her sister...

The First Snow of the Year!

In Novmeber!! I wish we had more pictures but... caught the moment anyway. I had to be at my internship that night and Randy had the girls. I was so impressed he got them all bundled up and took them out to see it. He said Bella loved it. Ava could have done without it. I didn't really get to see it but where we live it actually stuck for a bit.

A few more soccer "shots"