As of Sunday, I am 22 weeks pregnant! We saw Dr. Robbins last Thursday, and she said that everything was looking good. The baby’s heartbeat was 150 bpm, and her size is right on track. I was also excited to hear that I had only gained 4 pounds this month, especially with the holidays being in there! The closer May 17th gets, the more excited we all get! I can’t wait to start decorating the nursery!
In the last month we celebrated Ryan’s 9th Birthday and Gabriel’s 6th Birthday. Ryan had a Backugan party at one of the local skating rinks. There were about 17 kids there, which was crazy and fun! He racked up on the Backugan toys and money!
For Gabriel’s Birthday, we celebrated his actual birthday by going to Build a Bear and letting the boys each build their own special bear. Gabriel made a black bear named Beary Tony Hawk, and Ryan made a cool looking longhorn! We had a sleepover party a couple of weeks after his actual birthday since his birthday is so close to Christmas. This party was a Cowboys and Indians party. Each of the boys made Indian headbands and vests, and we gave them cowboy hats and bandannas. We had a “shoot out” between the cowboys and Indians and then rounded up our cattle (AKA balloons).
As a joint gift, we got the boys the Guitar Hero band set with the drums, microphone and another guitar. We are now able to jam as a family with each of us being able to play (or sing) something!
Celebrating on Gabriel's Birthday with his brownie cake!
At Build A Bear!
Ryan with "Cody" and Gabe with "Beary Tony Hawk"
Gabe's Cowboy & Indian Party!
On December 20, 2008 we went to the final Cowboys home game at Texas Stadium. We got there around 3:30 that afternoon and grilled hotdogs in the parking lot while the boys played football until there got to be too many cars. It was incredibly cold that day and the night got even colder. We bought the boys a foam finger and cotton candy (their favorite). 
Christmas was busy and fun this year! Manuel’s mom, sister, and her kids all came down on Christmas Eve and stayed through Christmas Day. We made sausage balls, puppy chow, and homemade gingerbread cookies for Santa. It took FOREVER to get all 5 kids in bed and asleep, but we managed to get the milk and cookies out for Santa and put our “magic” Santa Key on our front door so Santa could get in since we don’t have a chimney.
Christmas morning all of the kids were excited to see that Santa had come to see them! Ryan got some new Backugans, a Backugan tin, a dart board, Monopoly Jr., and lots of other goodies! Gabe got a Spongebob skateboard, Camp Rock CD, Connect 4, and a few other fun things too! Tristan, Summer, and Hayley all got sleeping bags, tattoos, and a game or book. Santa even left a few surprises for me and Manuel in our stockings!
After we checked out all of the goodies that Santa brought, we went upstairs and opened our gifts to each other. The boys were super excited to open their new Wii! We got them a few new games and controllers to go with it too, so as you can probably imagine, we spent a big chunk of our afternoon playing them all to check them out! Manuel surprised me with a garnet ring from James Avery that I had my eye on too, so all in all, it was a great day!
Friday afternoon, the boys and I headed to Abilene to have Christmas at my mom’s house with Justin and Hayley. Manuel had to work Friday night and was on call the whole week, so he wasn’t able to go with us. We had a nice dinner at Mom’s Friday and then opened our gifts. Mom got the boys new bed sets for their rooms, which was the first thing we had to put up when we got home. I got a new trash can, which seems silly, but I was very excited to be able to get rid of our old piece of junk one and use the new one!
Saturday we went to Fay and Chuck’s house to have Christmas with Mom’s family. There was tons of great food and then we did our traditional Chinese Christmas. I ended up with a pretty bubble vase (which didn’t get stolen), so I was happy! After that, the boys and I stopped by Granny and Papa’s house on our way home. The rest of the weekend, we spent relaxing and enjoying all of our new goodies.
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