I guess I'm not 21 anymore

I used to go out ALL the time. EVERY weekend I would go out. Jenn, Victoria, Aimee and I had our routine in college. We used to be slightly crazy. We would even go so far as to call each other to remind each other NOT to eat so would get drunker faster! Jeez, what were we thinking? Then after college, I met Ami, Mary, Anabelle and Nicole and discovered the Moon. We would go every Saturday night and line dance and have so much fun! Nicole and I would even go so far as to bring Pucker in the car with us and do shots (in the parking lot, not while we were driving!) before going in (drinks were expensive!). Then I met James. We would still go out every weekend, maybe not drink quite as much but still go dancing just because we both loved it. And then... I got knocked up. So much for going out every weekend. We didn't go out for about six months. Last Saturday, I was feeling well enough to actually go out! Yippee! It had been so long, I was so excited to finally go out dancing! The first problem was trying to find something to wear. Back in the day, I would wear my shortest skirt, my tightest shirt and my highest heels and be ready to go! Yeah, after gaining 10-15 pounds during the first four months of my pregnancy, none of my pre-pregnancy Moon clothes would fit. Well, they still "fit" but it was not a pretty sight. So I tried some of my maternity clothes. Those made me look like I was going to a PTA meeting! I was cute but I was not used to this look for going out to the Moon. Ugh. Alright, I can do this. Now instead of bringing a bottle of Pucker, I brought an apple with me. Nobody likes a hungry pregnant girl ;) Once we got in, I was ready to dance! Apparently, so was our son! I had felt him move around a teeny bit before but it was NOTHING like this! He was moving all around and didn't stop for a good long time. James could even feel him this time and he never had before! I was slightly afraid I might be damaging the baby's hearing because the music was so loud. Pre-baby, I could dance all night long. James and I could stay till closing and dance every song without getting winded. Not so much now. I could go maybe two songs and then needed a break and a lot of water. I lasted a whole two hours! We got there at about 9:00 and left by 11:00. The next day I was tired and sore. I'm wondering if it will be another six months before we go out again ;) By then, I'll have another set of issues to deal with!

Our little mover and shaker :)

May I welcome you, to Christmas morning!

You know those scenes in the movies where everyone rushes down the stairs on Christmas morning and tears open every single present as fast as they can? Yeah, well that's not the way it's done in the Spencer house. If you haven't gathered from previous posts, we are an extremely organized and well-planned out type of family. So instead of the mad rush we have a much different type of Christmas. Always have, probably always will. Here's the way it works. We get up Christmas morning and open our stockings. My mom always does an awesome job filling the stockings the night before. While we do that, we eat the much anticipated cinnamon rolls, yum! Then we get ready to go to to church. Since we get dressed up for Christmas Eve services, Christmas day attire is much more informal. We have joked with my dad for several years that one time we are all just going to show up in our pajamas! So far, none of us have had the guts. After church, we come home and eat yet more cinnamon rolls and settle in our places to open presents. The tradition is, my mom passes out one present to every person and we take turns opening the presents, starting from the youngest and going up to the oldest. Being second oldest in my family growing up was never fun cuz I always had to wait what seemed like forever to open my presents! When that round is over we start again and continue until all presents have been opened. Sounds boring, I"m sure. But this way we get to stretch out the day and have it last longer. I am so bad at remembering to take pictures during the actual opening of the presents so this year the only pics I have are of the clean-up after and the presents we got for the baby ;) After presents, we get ready for dinner. We usually forgo the traditional ham for Christmas since half my family became vegetarians long ago and opt instead for Mexican food! My mom and dad make the best Mexican food too! Yum! After dinner we play games or watch movies. This year we played the new Mario Bros Wii. It was fun seeing everyone else get killed playing that game too! Then dessert (if you couldn't tell already, we like to eat!) which is usually my mom's killer cheese pie... no it's not pie made out of cheese, it's like cheesecake but creamier and less cakey. Then for me at least, there's the long drive back to Tucson. I love celebrating Christmas with my crazy family and I can't wait for next year when we add a few more people into the mix. I"m excited to share our traditions with our baby boy :) Here are a few pics that I did get of Christmas:

Wow! That is a giant present! What could it be???

Hee-hee :) It's Emily! My dad got my mom a bunch of big presents and when we were cleaning up, we thought it would be really funny to put Emily in the giant gift bag, cute huh? :)

My mom got James and me a new camera since someone (ME!) dropped our old camera on the tile floor and busted the battery compartment.

Emily got our baby boy a Grease onsie! Cute!

My talented sister-in-law Leah made the baby a quilt that matches the nursery perfectly!

Here is a close up, see Winnie-the Pooh!

My brother Matt got us some baby boy clothes :)

My sister, Lizzie, got me season one of Gossip Girl! Yippee! This was one of the few gifts I got that was actually for me! Thanks liz!! :)

My sister, Emily, got the baby a baby gym! Now he'll be buff!

James got me a Tony Romo jersey! Go Cowboys!!! :)

That does it for Christmas 2009. Next year is going to be so much fun! :)

Christmas Eve

Another Christmas tradition we have in my family is church. We have a children's service on Christmas Eve that we all "enjoy"... especially now that we no longer have to participate! We eat our traditional Albondigas soup, get dressed up, bundle up and head off to church. This year I wanted to make sure and take pictures of everyone by the tree since it would be our last Christmas before babies ;)

It looks like there are only three people in this picture, but there are really SIX! Can you believe me and both my sisters in law are pregnant at the same time?!? Left to right: Leah (my older brother's wife, due one week after me) Me, Kenya (my younger brother's wife, due February 12th)

The happy couple's last calm Christmas before baby boy comes to add fun and excitement :)

My big and getting bigger everyday, family. Top row, left to right: Chris, Leah, Matt, Erin, Me, James. Second row: Kenya, daddy. Third row: Emily, momma. Front and center: Starla (Kenya's daughter) There are currently eleven of us, next Christmas there will be FOURTEEN!!!

We did a little math today and right now there are seven girls and four boys in our family. However, since Kenya and I are both having boys, the boys are quickly catching up! If Leah turns out to be having a boy too (which we all think she will!) that will even up the boys and the girls, seven and seven! Crazy huh? Should be a very interesting Christmas next year :)

Christmas cinnamon rolls

There are so many Christmas traditions we have in my family that I love. One of our traditions that James and I started taking over is the making of the cinnamon rolls. I'm not talking the pop out of the tube kind either. I'm talking the made from scratch dough, all day type of project. I'm not sure exactly where this tradition got started but I'm thinking it was my dad's grandma. The recipe got passed down through the family and I'm proud to now be a part of it. James and I have had a chance to practice the last couple of years with my mom and this year we tried it on our own and, I think we got it down perfect! Here are some pics of the multiple steps it takes to make these wonderful rolls.

Step one: make the dough and let it rise.

Step two: knead and name. I know it sounds strange but we always name the dough since it kind of seems alive anyway. We named this dough Franklin ;)

Step three: roll out!

Sometimes it's a bit difficult to roll, you need a big strong man to do it!

Step four: while the dough is being rolled, I make the filling. Lots of butter, sugar and cinnamon!

Step five: once the dough is rolled, we spread the cinnamon filling.

See how much fun!!

Ready for the next step.

Step six: rolling up the filled dough. I shaped it into an "S" just cuz it was fun :)

Step seven: cut and place in pans, let rise again before baking.

Ta-da!!! :) And they were super yummy too!!

Daisy likes to help too :)

Stay tuned for more Christmas fun the next few days. There was way too much for one post :)

Baby pics :)

We went for our "formal ultrasound" today. I was nervous, of course, hoping that everything would be normal. Thankfully, we had a very nice tech who explained everything to us and pointed out all the bits and pieces. It was so cool to see all that stuff going on right in my belly! Everything was perfect! I even have a bunch of pics to share :) Embarrassing ones for the future too but hey, inquiring minds want to know! Hopefully I can remember what each pic is of...

Here was our first glimpse of our baby :)

Can you see it? Yep, that's a little ding, ding! It's a BOY!

Nice shot of his twig and berries ;)

A nice profile :)

Here's the little one yawning.

Another profile.

Closer profile.

And again.

Here's his arm and leg, all measuring perfect for his due date! :)

Hope you enjoyed the pics as much as we did! We are so excited to be having a little boy :)

And God bless us, everyone!

When I taught first grade, I decided to do a little mini-musical celebration with the kids for Christmas. Each class was in charge of a song, the kids dressed up in red and green and the kids sang and danced for their parents. It was so fun and cute, I loved it! We did it for at least the past five years. Well, last year I graduated to second grade and I really, really wanted to take my show with me. Unfortunately, it had become a first grade tradition and I had to let it go. I needed to come up with a new thing to celebrate the season with my kids. Well, my sisters and I have always loved A Christmas Carol. I thought it would be super cute for the kids to do that as a play! Luckily, I found a script online and tried it out last year. It went great! The kids learned a lot about the 19th century and Charles Dickens. It was fun for me to share something I really loved with the kids and the parents truly enjoyed coming to see their kids in a Christmas play. Since I had success with it last year, I decided to do it again this year. It is so much work but it was worth it when I see the parents' faces :) Almost all the kids' parents were able to come and they all let me know afterwards that it went really well, even though I did accidentally call one student by another student's name. Whoops! My sister Erin got to come again this year too :) I'm glad it went well and it's over. It's a bit stressful. Check out the cute picture I got of my kids...

Hee-hee :) Merry Christmas! And God bless us, everyone!

Mini-wave in celebration of me!

I've always loved baking, especially cookies! Ever since I got pregnant I just have not had the energy to do any baking. I did some for Thanksgiving but it was more like cooking and not baking. Cooking I'm not so good at. With Christmas coming up, I need to get back in the groove. So today, I FINALLY did some baking! I made two different types of cookies, some sugar cookies for my kids and some chocolate chip for my teacher friends at school. Check them out...

Before you get too super impressed with my mad skills, I need to confess that I took a bit of a shortcut on the sugar cookies. The chocolate chip, I made from scratch but sugar cookies from scratch are just soooo much work! You gotta make the dough, then chill it so it's easy to handle, roll it out and cut the shapes, then decorate and bake. Ugh! Too much work! So while James and I were at Target this weekend, I just happened to spot this awesome invention from Nestle...

That's right, pre-cut sugar cookie shapes! There are 24 cookies already cut and ready to decorate and bake! Yippee! So even though I took a bit of a shortcut I am impressed with myself that I worked a full day (*side note, the week before Christmas break is ridiculously stressful due to the hyper kids and all the projects that need to get done!) then came home and took Daisy for a walk and baked two sets of cookies. Granted I did not do the dishes but hey, I gotta save something for tomorrow... or for James ;)