36 weeks!

36 weeks and Baby Girl P is still hanging in there! :) Getting bigger everyday, and making it slightly harder to walk everyday too! But, we want her to keep "cooking" until her due date! We've now met with the pediatrician that we're going to use and we've been reading every BabyTalk and Parenting Magazine article that's been mailed to us! I'm now slowly working through the beginning of the book What To Expect The First Year!....

The nursery is pretty much finished too! We've now added a clothes hamper, matching valance, matching blankets, and matching sticker decals - though I'm not showing that part yet because they surround the baby's name on the wall... Jer and I painted the letters ourselves! We also added the three frames that you can see next to the window - since butterflies and flowers are the theme of her room, I found some butterfly and flower pictures that I took and thought it would be special to hang them up in our baby's room! We're having a lot of fun and know Baby P could really come any day!!! :)

Long Beach Baby Shower

My mom threw an incredible baby shower in Long Beach on December 18th. The rest of my pictures are on their camera, but at least I have these two from Jer's Iphone from after we set up. What an amazing time! Everything was beautiful and we had so much fun!

Sandy's New Dog Bed?

When we traveled down to Long Beach for my baby shower this past weekend, Sandy assumed that the newly installed car seat was her new dog bed... and she slept in it the whole way down! On the way back up, Clara joined her! Aren't they in for a treat?

A funny little story...

So, Jeremiah and I placed two space saving high chair seats on our registry, one from Target and the other from BabiesrUs. We did this because we knew we'd be down at my parents home a lot and Baby will need a place to eat and sit at their house too! So, a couple of days ago, my brother Marc and his wife Aadra sent us some baby gifts in the mail - one of them being the high chair you see below....

Then - two days ago, we got another package in the mail from my other brother and his fiancee... and it was the other high chair!!!

And neither family knew what the other had purchased!

Our School's Musical

Last weekend, the musical and skits that I directed this semester were performed in front crowded, fantastic audiences! I worked with 35 kids and our wonderful music teacher from school (for our 2nd production together) and the show went off sooooooooooooooooooooooo well! We put on the musical 'The Big Bad Musical' which was about the Big Bad Wolf on trial. Characters like Little Red Riding Hood, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Three Little Pigs (among others) testified against the wolf, and the Fairy GodMother and The Evil StepMother had to battle it out during the witness testimonies. It was hilarious, and the music was so much fun! Since I couldn't cast all 35 students into the cast, I had the remaining students reenact the three main fairytales before the main feature presentation was performed. Here are some cast pics we got before our last performance on Saturday night.

PortNaz Baby Shower

One of the amazing things I've seen our church do in this past year since we started attending there is throw showers for all of the soon-to-be brides and mommies! This past Sunday, the church threw Jeremiah and I a baby shower for Baby P and we were so touched by the amount of people who showed up, the decorations on the tables, the delicious cake, and the incredible generosity showered upon us. What a unique and beautiful blessing!

Special Gift

My friend Rebekah came over the other evening to give Baby P a shower gift. She handmade much of the gift and made it ever so cute, I just couldn't resist taking pictures and showing it off!

32 Weeks!!!

How has 4 weeks already gone by since the 28 week posting? Wow! Only 8 weeks to go until Baby P's declared due date! That's crazy!

As Baby P continues to grow, I'm starting to feel a bit of back pain. It's a tad uncomfortable, but it is so nice knowing that there are only a few weeks left before our Christmas vacation!!! Baby doesn't move too much, but when she does, it is so much fun to watch my tummy move around :) We're hoping her lack of constant movement means she will be a calm baby girl!

I had so much fun getting a 3D ultrasound last week. Baby P had her arm nuzzled across her face for most of the experience, but it was so amazing to me even to watch her sleep! I'm guessing it's a good thing she likes to sleep so much - like father like daughter! At one point, she yawned and smiled at the camera, rubbed her eye, and fell back asleep again. Absolutely amazing to spy into her world! From what I can tell, looks like she'll have my nose and Jeremiah's lips...

My mom and dad created a doll from Build-A-Bear for Baby P (she is super cute, adorable and SOFT!) and they even included a personalized message for her - you can hear that message when you press down on one of her paws. This doll's name is Cocoa because her "fur" color reminds us all of that yummy food!

Our nursery continues to come together! My dad helped Jeremiah build a set of dresser drawers for Baby P this past weekend (on the right side of the picture) and our dear friend Nancy gave us a BEAUTIFUL quilt for her (hanging over the crib)! She went to BabiesRUs, bought a set of sheets that matched our nursery design, cut it up and designed this quilt - I wish I had such talent!

Thanksgiving 2011

For the first time since we moved to Porterville (3 years ago already!!!), Jeremiah and I did not make the 8 hour (in traffic) drive down to Long Beach for the Thanksgiving holiday! Instead, we had Thanksgiving at our house, and my mom and dad came up to join us! My mom and I "slaved away" in the kitchen and made some pretty delicious food.... :)

My mother made her amazing brisket recipe (it's actually my Grandma Brown's recipe that has been passed on!)

And our other main entree was a honey baked ham.

Where's the turkey??? Well, we decided to break that tradition this year!

We also made some delicious homemade applesauce...yummy!

When we filled up our plates, they looked like this - our other sides included sweet potato and green bean casserole.

Even our dogs got to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner!

We've never seen them eat so quickly!

Throughout the weekend, we also decorated our home for Christmas! I can't believe it's already that time of year again! First Christmas in our new home... Jeremiah asked me to go shopping for a stocking holder for the fireplace, and I had no idea what he was talking about - but he found some! Guess that's what happens when you are born and raised in a Jewish home :) All we need now is a Hanukkah menorah - kinda hard to find in Porterville...

The Melting Pot! (Anniversary Celebration)

Jeremiah and I decided to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary (it's next week) at our favorite place - The Melting Pot! (where we got engaged). They don't have that restaurant in Central CA, so we decided to take advantage of it while we were down in Orange County this past weekend. We invited my mom and dad to celebrate with us! Look at all the yummy food!

The best part - dessert!

As if we needed anymore chocolate!

Wedding

This past weekend we traveled down to Orange County to celebrate Cindi & Steve's wedding. I felt like Fanny Brice in 'Funny Girl' when she sings I am the Beautiful Reflection of My Love's Affection...and comes out quite pregnant....

So good catching up with family!

The Limo! I was FREEZING!

The tree is finished!

The tree in the nursery is complete! We are soooooooooooooooo excited at how it has turned out! Next to come are butterflies and more flowers / leaves. :) We can't believe all the detail that has been painted on the wall. The room looks entirely different now!