How cute are these boots?

My birthday was this past Sunday, and these boots were my present from Cory. So cute! We went out to dinner on Saturday to Buffalo Wild Wings (which I'd been craving for weeks) to celebrate and unfortunately, my food didn't stay down. Sigh. But it sure was yummy while it lasted. We had a nice, laidback Sunday and Cory made me dinner. Luckily that stayed down :)

I've wanted a rocking chair for years. Even more now that we're expecting; I want to put it in the baby's room. This was my dad's present to me for my birthday/Christmas. It's genuine Amish handcrafted. It's so pretty and I'm so excited about it. It will be nice to have a tangible souvenir to take home to Utah with us from New York. Other than all the pictures and memories, of course.

Wonderful Weekend

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend. We stayed in town and had dinner with a family in our ward. Of course, I took my camera and then forgot to take a group picture. The Simmons family has been a true blessing to Cory & I. I tutor 3 of the kids with their math homework, so that's been an additional source of income. They often feed me dinner when I'm there (and then pay me on top of that). They graciously welcomed us into their home for Thanksgiving, and let us bring all our laundry, so we didn't have to go to the laundry-mat (one of my least favorite things to do, especially whilst pregnant).

As we were eating the delicious feast Deena made, we went around the table and said the things we were grateful for. Cory said he was grateful for the true gospel and that no matter where you live, there's always a ward family there to take you in. The Simmons family has done that for us - taken us in while we're so far from home. I'm grateful to them for that. I'm also grateful for Cory, for I don't think I would have survived these past 5 months without him. As much as this pregnancy has been not fun, I'm so grateful that Cory and I will get to welcome a beautiful little spirit into our family.

Instead of going shopping on Black Friday, we slept in, cleaned house and went to a tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree.


We played Christmas music and decorated the tree. It was a nice alternative to the craziness that is Black Friday. Normally I love Black Friday shopping, but we live so far from any stores ... and I'm 5 months pregnant and just so very lazy :) We did venture out to the malls on Saturday, and just about completed all of our shopping. Hooray for us!

Here's a picture of the decorated tree:

And a picture of me at 23 weeks, with the tree. People keep saying to me "wow, you look pregnant" ... which I guess is a good thing, since I only have 4 more months to go!