She should be here any day now. :)
It's been pretty difficult to post lately with all the busy-ness and my current condition. I am supposed to be on "moderate bed rest" right now, which means that if I don't have intent to do something (like eating or going to the store), I'm supposed to be laying down. This has made it really difficult for me to be a part of the online world, considering the only internet access we have at our condo is on the floor against the back patio door (not a very comfortable position for an 8 months pregnant woman to be in). The good thing is that I have an adorable puppy to keep me company. She loves bed rest!
Sam surprised me with this amazing Christmas mobile to replace our falling leaves... can you believe it?? It's awesome! The light bulb is green on the other side and he made it entirely out of paper cuts! I adore him!! It seriously makes me smile every time I see it. :) Click on the pictures to see them up close. Here it is in action...
It's that time of year! Here is the unveiling of the first Snyder Christmas tree! Beautiful, isn't it? I sure think so. Lately, it's hard to keep myself from just sitting on the couch staring at it and all its Christmasness. I love it. Sam loves it, too. His favorite part are the LED lights we purchased together. They're a dollar or two more than the incandescent ones, but--get this--they only use about 3 watts of electricity compared to 40 watts for incandescent and have a guarantee of 20,000 hours compared to 1,200 hours! They do wonders for our carbon footprint (and our electric bill!). Would you like to see them in all their glory? Here!
Aren't they beautiful?? They are so bright! We have been enjoying making ornaments together as well as putting some of our individual ones on the tree. My grandma gave me all the ones she had for me when I was little and I collected the ones from my parents that were mine as well. It's really special watching it all come together. Piper isn't so sure about it. Actually, when we first put the tree up, she thought it was a giant monster and wouldn't go near it. Eventually, she figured out it wasn't going to bite her after a night or so alone with it in the living room. However, she still stops to sniff it every once in a while on the way to chase her toys, just to make sure.
As crazy as they always seem to be, I love the holidays.
This year was the first Thanksgiving Sam and I shared as a married couple, trying to spend time with both of our families, and guess what? We survived! It was actually a really wonderful day. We had 17 people at my parents' table (more like tables stuck together). It's beautiful to see our family growing. We joked a lot about renting out New Seasons' kitchen next year and hiring a chef... but I think everyone loves bringing their own special dish to add to our melting pot of wonderful deliciousness too much to do that!
I spent the entire day prior making gluten-free and dairy-free Monkey Bread--a dish I have always LOVED, but until yesterday wasn't able to eat under my dietary restrictions. Everyone liked it and didn't seem to notice it was GF/DF.
Sam & I brought some of our games from home, but Grandma Betty (yet again!) had her games prepared... everyone's favorite being some sort of mystery person game where the answer is almost always Audie Murphey!
It's fun laughing at how ridiculous our family is. "I guess every family has its skeletons in the closet," said Grandma. But each and every one of us (17, actually) found one if not many reasons to be thankful as we shared around the dinner table.
After dinner with my folks, we headed over to Sam's Aunt Beth and Uncle Randy's house to have dinner with his family. It was much smaller and I very much enjoy the change of pace. We had a wonderful time visiting with his cousins (one just had a baby, me in my third trimester, and another in her first!).
Dinner was lovely, even though I was too stuffed to have any (there isn't a whole lot of room in my stomach these days... actually, there isn't a whole lot of room for my stomach these days! haha).
It was beautiful to hear Sam's mom and dad share the goodness of God in their lives during this rough time for them in struggling with unemployment. Very encouraging.
Then it was back to spend the night at my parents' house and rest up for the early beckoning of Black Friday. At about 6am, Sam & my dad headed of to Sears to take advantage of the sales on tools and I journeyed by myself to Fred Meyer to buy socks. I have to say, I extremely enjoyed shopping by myself and Fred Meyer was WONDERFUL. There was hardly anyone there! I parked right up front, walked in, got what I needed, didn't even have to wait in line at the checkstand, and walked out! I thought, that was a sinch! And decided to venture over to Target with my newly acquired confidence.
BAD IDEA.
Fred Meyer was nice and quiet because EVERYONE ELSE was at Target. My first red flag should have been when I pulled into the parking lot and a lady almost ran into my car with tons of shopping bags and Target Cafe food & drinks in her hands, and then proceeded to mouth nasty words and send ugly looks in my direction. When I finally found a parking spot, I walked in the doors and down a ways until I noticed that the line for checkout wrapped around the ENTIRE back of the store. I walked right back out.
Mom & Autumn went to Freddie's a bit later and then we all reconvened at Starbucks to recoup and share our goodies. Sam's Aunt Beth gave him some birthday cash with which he finally bought himself a LEGO set (he's been wanting one for so long)! My mom found an adorable onesie that is quite perfect for her to give our daughter. It says "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's). Ha!
Piper was waiting for us back at their house. She spent the night, too, and was so excited when she woke up and there was another dog to play with! I'm not sure if Kobe felt the same way, but she sure is content. I know he loves her, though. I snuck up on them taking a nap together... pretty darn cute :)
The best thing about Thanksgiving weekend is that even though we have spent today and yesterday running around like crazy, we still have another two days of weekend left! Tomorrow we will be home decorating our tree and relaxing. Thank you, Lord, for another beautiful Thanksgiving weekend!
Sam wouldn't let me tell anyone it was his birthday this year. He doesn't like a whole lot of attention on himself, but his family couldn't let the occasion go by without celebrating a soul we love so dearly.
We had a wonderful dinner at Sam's parents' house with his family and mine. His dad made homemade Pad Thai for everyone and I made Sam his favorite cake: Funfetti. We had such a great time sharing laughs and good memories--I had to share!
This last Saturday was our baby shower and it was so much fun! So many of our friends and family came to support us and it was so great to see everybody there. I was amazing at how much people blessed us, even by just bringing food (there was quite the delicious spread!). We had a blast visiting with everyone and opening all of the amazing presents!
On the left is a quilt that my cousin Lacey made for our baby girl... I was so impressed! She seriously just learned to use a sewing machine not that long ago and she whipped out this and the adorable owl pillow in the next picture. There were so many well thought out and handmade gifts, I absolutely loved them! My Aunt Brenda crocheted a blanket and hat using my great grandma's favorite stitch (she passed away my freshman year of high school and I miss her very much). Sam's mom made us some adorable burp cloths and a little blanket with ribbons on it for playing and chewing.
Other gifts that were not handmade, were still HUGE blessings to us. Like this prenatal 
massage from my aunts Kelli and Valerie! Oh my goodness... I can't tell you how much I've been needing that!
I wanted to thank all of you for blessing us so much. We praise God for his richness in giving us so many wonderful friends and family. I have a feeling our little girl will be very well loved by everyone around her!
