Birthday and Christmas

December is a busy time of year for everyone, and the Nelly household is no exception! We've been busy around here trying to fit in all of the celebrations, and the month isn't over yet!

Rich's birthday was earlier this month, and we celebrated the day of by going to a Gonzaga basketball game. One big perk of the volunteer coaching position are free tickets to several Zag games! We had the camera with us all day, but we forgot to take pictures. Oops.

We did, however get pictures for the family celebration a couple days later. Happy birthday, Rich!

I'm not all that crafty when it comes to cake, so this Jazz note candle setup is a pretty big deal for me. (And the cake tasted pretty good, too.) 

The cake on fire - 27 candles on there!

Happy birthday to you!

 I got 4 photos in by the time the candles were blown out! They kept relighting. (They weren't trick candles - I guess I placed them too close together.)

Camping stove for the birthday boy

Rich and I love getting our Christmas decorations up and look forward to how festive our apartment can be. I particularly enjoyed our setup this year.

We have this little electric fireplace that we never use, but it sure is a great place to hang stockings.

We were afraid for a while that Spokane wouldn't get a white Christmas, but the snow came just in time.

Rich got a Christmas present from the Gonzaga Athletic Department, and it meant a lot to us for him to be included in that. (Mark Few got the same gift!) However, they don't really have Mormons in mind when getting they're gifts. (And why should they, right? I mean, it's a Catholic school.)

It's a pretty cool set. Aren't those goblets awesome? We don't know what to do with the wine, but it looks pretty sweet.

This year we spent Christmas in Spokane, making this my first Christmas here. I realized this is the first time ever I haven't done some part of Christmas with my side of the family. But Christmas with the Nelsons was tons of fun, too! We got to spend a time with the Dre (and her new boy toy while he was here for a few days), and, of course, Doug and Edie. 

Turns out Rich and I aren't very good at remembering to get pictures. We always had the camera with us for our Christmas celebrations, but we just forgot about it. Here's what we did get when we remembered.

Rich and my dad got the old Nelson train set to work while my parents were up for Thanksgiving. I love what it adds to the Christmas tree.

 The family sitting down to dinner on Christmas Eve

 You can see some of the Christmas loot all around. The monkey I'm holding is Baby Nelly's first stuffed animal from Grandma and Poppa Nelson.

 The unwrapping aftermath at the Nelly household. Next year will be an even bigger mess with a baby to help make it!

We had a fun Christmas here. It's the last one for us with no kids of our own. We know next year will be very different, and we are excited for Christmas with our baby.

(Speaking of baby, I have just started wearing maternity clothes. It's quite the change. I don't feel like I'm big enough for this yet, but my old clothes aren't working anymore so I guess it's time I made the change.)

Life the Past Little Bit

Well, I will first start off by saying that morning sickness (or pretty much just daily sickness) kicked my butt. I was pretty much not human for about two months. But thanks to prescriptions (Zofran saved my life) and the end of the first trimester, I finally feel human again (although I think any woman who's had a baby will agree that you never feel completely normal when pregnant).

We don't really have much to report in the Nelly household. Rich finished up the cross country season with the Gonzaga cross country team and is now looking forward to indoor track starting early next year.

We enjoyed our Halloween and got to see my parents and the Dre for Thanksgiving. Now, we're getting really excited for Christmas. We had our annual debate on when it would be appropriate to put up the Christmas tree, and this year we actually waited the longest we ever have to put it up (the Sunday after Thanksgiving).

Rich and Andrea ran the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. My mom and I tagged along for moral support.

Putting the star on the tree

Our ornaments for the year (Rich's on the left, mine on the right)

And now that I made it into the second trimester (and I've stopped throwing up everyday) I've really started to get my baby bump. Rich and I notice it most, but I swear it has exploded (not literally) the past week. I already feel huge, so I wonder how I'll feel about 20 weeks from now.

We took this about a week ago (15 weeks), but I swear I'm bigger than that now. 

I decided I'm going to take pictures every Thursday (this is the day, according to my due date, that I can say I'm starting a new week), so I'll compare my tomorrow picture with this one to see if it's just in my mind. It's still hard to not feel self-conscious when Rich comments on how big my belly has gotten. In the words of Cami (my also-pregnant sister-in-law who is due just about the same time as me), its really weird to gain weight and just embrace it with open arms!

One final observation, when you tell someone that you're pregnant, they automatically look at your stomach. That's also a little uncomfortable - not a region I generally want people staring at. Now I just can't wait for people to start touching my belly (I hope you caught the sarcasm). Apparently, I still have a lot of things to get used to about being pregnant.