A Christmas Letter

I know this is a random tangent, but I don't send out letter because I think they are cheesy.  I am one to think (though I could be wrong) that everyone who would care enough to get a letter about our 'year' doesn't really need to read it because we talk to them often enough that they know what we are up to.  And sometimes they come across to me like a competition of 'keeping up' with other families and blah blah blah....stuff like that.
Anyway.  So someday if we do send out a Christmas Letter remind me of this blog post.  Although, I LOVE family Christmas cards and someday when we aren't poor students anymore, I will send some out.  And if I can get Bryan to consent to family photos. And letting me spend money on REALLY cute 'holiday' dresses and suits for the kids... For now we will just stick to Peter's letter to Santa.

 

He wrote his name and "santa" all by himself, as well as drawing the train tracks.  I helped a little with the rest.  I always love this time of year, and now that Peter is old enough to understand things, I REALLY am loving this Christmas season.  I love how magical everything is for children.

I was shocked when Peter wrote his own name.  We have been practicing for MONTHS.  And its a fight.  Every time.  Want to know why?  Because he is upset that his name doesn't have the letter "I" in it.  So he doesn't want to write it.  Bryan and I were in charge of cleaning the Church building one night last week and while we cleaned we set the kids loose in a classroom with a couple pieces of chalk.  I walked in later to see his name written on the board.  It made my whole week.  I love that he really is paying attention to things I try to teach him- even if it seems otherwise.

On to Brooke.  She is starting to talk- alot.  I like to refer to her as my 'babbling brooke' (pun intended...).  She doesn't say much in public but at the house she either talky-talky or listening to Peter be VERY chatty.  Her latest include always telling me "I stink" and getting a diaper for me to change her.  She can say all the names of the "Thomas and Friends" trains, though her favorite is "Stanley" and "James".  She loves her baby dolls too and is playing 'mommy' all the time.

 

My favorite event of late is Brooke's binky, which she refers to as "Mimi".  She likes to pull out the neck of her foot pajamas and drop the binky into her jammies while she is supposed to be sleeping.  Then she gets pretty ticked because she can't unzip them to retrieve it.  I think its pretty comical (unless it is 2 am).  It always ends up down by her feet or behind her back.
Pregnancy update:
I am now 35 weeks along.  Fabulous.  I am measuring a little more than 2 weeks ahead so they are sending me in for an ultrasound tomorrow.  I am not getting my hopes up.  I think I just like to retain a lot of fluid.  My feet and ankles are swelling if I sit for more than an hour.  My hands, correction, my left hand, is swollen as well.  (Its been like that off and on since 26 weeks or so)  I am still running 1.5-2 miles 2-3x a week (at a snail's pace!) and using a workout video 2x a week as well.  As fun as running is right now, it is worth it because I am less swollen on the days that I do- which is worth the 30 minutes of misery, torture, excitement a couple times a week.