What Just Happened??

Okay, so it's been a month... totally unintentional... and I'm totally not gonna apologize.  This pre-baby, crazy Christmas, been out-of-town season has totally kicked my blogging butt.  Don't worry-- I have no intentions of falling off the blogging bandwagon.  Sometimes a girl's just gotta take a little unexpected break.  Sooo.... what's been up around here lately?  Let's just do a little picture recap, shall we?

Over the past few weeks...

We got a wee bit of pre Christmas snow here in Abby... definitely snowman worthy.

Caleb begged me to let him continue with swimming lessons... even though I was so done with sitting on the side of the pool twice a week.  But, he finished yet another level a few days before Christmas and was a little sad to be done with lessons.  I'm going to wait until life settles down a bit before we decide to conquer the next level :)

Eme and I shopped and shopped.  Turns out she's as into shopping as her Mama is... no real surprise there.

I baked a zillion gingerbread cookies for the school bake sale-- torture for this gestational diabetic preggo.  And shocker-- I made it through the ENTIRE Christmas season without a SINGLE bite of Christmas candy/chocolate/baking goodness.  I decided I would make no exceptions... no compromises... otherwise I would likely slide down the slippery slope of sampling too many sweet treats and have trouble stopping.  Needless to say-- the ladies at the Diabetes Clinic LOVE me, and I will admit that it's nice to step on the scale and realize that I've only gained one pound in the last 7 weeks of being pregnant.  My non-exsistant waistline is gonna thank me later!!

The week before Christmas I finished moving the last of Eme's things out of her room and started prepping for baby #3.  Turns out gallery walls murder your drywall.  So I've got some patching and painting to do.  More on the baby room progress to come...

The "nesting" phase made a brief appearance.  It has since disappeared (darn it!).  I did manage to do a clean sweep of a few closets... all the kids crafty stuff found a new home as Eme has demonstrated the tendency to run with scissors and experiment with markers/paint on any and every surface of the house.

On the 25th we took the first flight out of town to head home to Saskatchewan for Christmas.  Doug sat with the kids giving me the most relaxing flight ever-- alone across the aisle free from kids-- glorious.  Best Christmas present ever.

The kids were so excited to be at Nana and Papa's-- and absolutely fell in love with their cousin.  Seriously... Eme tried to smother him.  Baby Toews #3... watch out.

Eme was a frequent helper in the kitchen.

My sisters and I did our annual boxing day shopping trip.  I bought... slippers.  So exciting, hey?  Seriously... it was the only thing that fit.

Guys... I turned 30.  And I have nothing to say about that.  Well, except that I should have actually combed my hair and washed my face before snapping an "I'm officially 30" self portrait.  Oh well... I guess it's all down hill from here anyways.

(side note-- I get a little weird-ed out taking self portraits and always end up looking like a crazy person-- sorry about that)

The kids had the most fantastic time bundling up and heading outside to play in some good old Sasky snow!!  Eme thought Caleb looked hilarious when he got all ready for a snowmobile ride... but soon she was bundled up just as good as he was...

And of course Daddy had a fantastic time playing in the snow and cruising around on the snowmobile too.  Just love this picture :)

And this one too!

And then this happened.

Like most households we were hit with the nastiest most violent flu.  It struck down EVERYONE except me and my Mom.  Honestly... I must have superhuman immunity or something.  After listening to the most awful and wretched sounds coming from every bathroom in my parent's house I thought I was a goner for sure.  I'm not taking any chances though... I booked myself in for a flu shot as soon we got home!

And now... back to normal life.  Doug's been back at work, Caleb heads back to school on Monday, and the baby is set to arrive in about 5 or 6 weeks.  My family doctor and the obstetrician I've been seeing are wanting to induce me sometime during the 39th week due to the gestational diabetes and  because I had an abruption during delivery with Emerson.  So... the countdown is on!  I have SO much to do in January... where to start!!?