Baby Tyler Preparations!

I had my last day of work in Mid-November, and the waiting game officially began!  I knew this would be Keira's last days (turns out, it was weeks) of being an only child, so we decided to fit in some fun before the baby came.  We made several trips to the park, and she showed that she is turning into quite the social butterfly!  On this day, we found about 5 three year old girls at the park, and they all became instant friends.  Keira particularly liked this little girl, and they ran around the park, holding hands.  Keira kept telling me they were her friends, and the next time we went to the park, she was confused about where they all were.  She is turning into quite the friend, making new friends everywhere we go.  I know she'll do great in Pre-school next year. 

We found lots to time to build with blocks- here she is, saying "ta-da!- and I even managed to get down on the floor to play...

...which is no easy feat, when you look like THIS-

She got in tons of snuggles-

and developed an affinity for frozen foods.  Lately, she doesn't want me to cook any of her food.  Here she is enjoying a (frozen) veggie corn dog.  When I say frozen, I don't mean frozen then reheated.  I mean frozen, straight from the freezer.  She definitely enjoyed it though, she ate the entire thing!  We figure, as long as she's eating...

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with John, Catherine, Cortney, and Catherine's parents.  It was different for us this year, the first year we haven't traveled for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it was much less stressful!  No packing and driving through LA traffic for hours on end... but we definitely missed our family and friends in Santa Maria.  After Thanksgiving, my due date came... and went, so we decided to take the extra time and get ready for Christmas.  I completely FINISHED my Christmas shopping the Monday after Thanksgiving (usually, I'm just starting to think about it around then) and we went Christmas tree shopping on the last day of November.  Keira enjoyed going to the Christmas Tree Farm, but loved the dirt and sticks more than the actual picking of the tree. I finally convinced James to pick a tree that actually FIT in our house (if you've never been to our house at Christmas, James LOVES big, fresh trees, usually, we have to cut the top off to fit it in the house.  It drives me crazy.)

When we got home, it was time to decorate!  I was thinking that Keira would like to help this year, but she was much more interested in taking the ornaments off the tree and carrying them around in her Easter basket.  She particularly enjoyed these snowman bells, given to us as wedding gifts by my Godparents. 

Here I am, four days past my due date, looking gigantic and decorating the tree.  This was the LAST thing we wanted to do before he came, and Tyler must have known, because labor started the next morning!  What a sweet boy, just waiting until we were completely prepared.  :)

Our finished tree, we're ready, Tyler!