Thanksgiving 2010.

I love Thanksgiving!  It has always been my favorite holiday.  I love the food, the family, the focus on gratitude and the lack of commercialization.  It’s a perfect holiday!  Brian and I think we will try to go to Fairfield every Thanksgiving and stay here in Troutdale every Christmas.  We’ll see how that works. 

This year was great!  My brother was home from traveling through Egypt and Europe for the good part of 2010 and I was just starting to feel a little better.  I ate most of the weight back I had lost during the first part of my pregnancy.

One of the days we went on a fun excursion to the outskirts of San Francisco to see the light house at Point Bonita.  It was a nice walk up to the bridge that crosses over to the lighthouse.  The bridge was closed for repairs, but we could still see a good view of the lighthouse.

 

David, Mom, me

Brian, me, David

David and Brian near some batteries we happened upon while exploring.

Such a fun day! 

Another day we went to the Jelly Belly Factory—actually we went twice.  We like that place!

Postcard wall.

A while ago Brian and I saw something like this on a blog and thought it would be the perfect way to display the postcards my dad sends us.  Ever since I was a little girl my dad has given me postcards.  During college he sent them to me each week.  Now he sends 2-3 postcards a week.  I have quite the collection now, and love them!  And now, thanks to Brian’s hard work, we can show them off!

I was amazed at how Brian could see this idea on a blog and duplicate it so well.  We got 6 foot long 1 x 2 inch pieces of wood from Home Depot.  Then Brian routed a notch the length of the board for the postcards to sit in.  He drilled pilot holes on the short side so he could mount them directly into the beams on the wall without splitting the wood in half when he screwed through it.  He sanded them, painted them white, and screwed them in.  I love it! 

The finished product (living room)

20 weeks.

I am definitely starting to show—it is more obvious with some outfits than others.  This shirt accentuates the bump nicely.  I haven’t had to get into my maternity clothes yet, but I’m sure that will happen pretty soon.  Baby Girl Harris has been moving around for over a month now.  Her movements are becoming more pronounced.  I can feel very definite kicks, but Brian hasn’t been able to feel them, so she must still be too tiny.  I’m feeling much better most days.  I’ve started walking for about an hour each day.  I’d like to keep that up through the rest of the pregnancy.  I’ve started cooking again, and am mostly doing vegan again.  I love knowing that our baby is getting healthy food now.  Poor girl was probably so done with pop tarts.  Twenty more weeks!  We can’t wait to meet her!! 

Sugar and spice and everything nice…

That’s what little girls are made of!

This little lady will be making her way into our life at the end of May, and we can’t wait!

For those of you who would like proof, feel free to study the anatomy below:

Both Brian and I had placed our bets on boy, but boy were we wrong!  We couldn’t be happier!  I think the chandelier I was hoping to put in the nursery (regardless of the sex) will have a greater chance of happening now…especially after Brian bought the (expensive) pink golf balls to celebrate. 

Happy Birthday Clark!

Clark is 2 years old!

It seems like a lifetime ago—not just two years.  He is such a cute and happy boy!

Skamania.

New Years Eve we went to Skamania Lodge (located up the gorge and across the river) for a yummy buffet dinner.  We were celebrating several fun things—New Years Eve of course, our sister-in-law’s birthday, and Brian getting his CPA—yay Brian!  I’m so proud of him!  He’s such a hard worker and very, very smart!  It was an appropriate place to celebrate Brian’s accomplishments since Brian absolutely loves their Friday night seafood buffet.  In fact, it’s where he proposed to me almost 18 months ago.  He really wishes that I would agree to a Skamania Lodge clause in my vegan diet.  Tempting.

Lucy, Brian, DeWin, Barbara, Chris, Heather, Daren, Jared

O Christmas tree.

Though Brian and I have spent two married Christmas’s together, this was our first in our house.  It was so fun to be able to pick out a tree together and decorate the house. 

Picking out our tree was a feat.  Brian grew up going to Christmas tree farms to cut down a tree with his family.  We thought that would be a fun tradition to continue.   We tried a nearby farm we heard good things about.  Our first task was figuring out what kind of tree we both like best.  They turned out to be different ones unfortunately.  Brian likes very full Noble Fir and I like the more sparse Noble.  We looked for a very long time with no luck—for either variety of our favorite tree.  So, we decided to try another farm down the road.  Again, lot’s of looking, but no finding.  It was cold, very windy, and we had to get home to get to our ward Christmas party, so we finally decided to head home and try another time.  On our way home, and just a few blocks away from our house, we saw some pre-cut trees being sold in a lot.  We figured they couldn’t be better than the ones at the farm.  Boy were we wrong.  We loved the first tree we looked at! 

  

I think we ended up picking out the perfect tree—not too full and not too sparse. 

We just love our tree! 

Here are a few of the other decorations we put up:

These are a our stockings made by my mom.  I love that they say “Mom” and “Dad” on them.  Next year we’ll have a third stocking!

My star trees—supplied with ornaments over the years by my parents.

This was my favorite nativity growing up.  My mom made it in 1980, the year before I was born.  I love it!