Top 10 Things Not to Say to Pregnant Woman:

10. Do you want a beer?
09. Do you mind if I smoke? (Not sure which is worse, asking this question, or just smoking)
08. Wow- that is A LOT of food.
07. I can tell from the back that you are pregnant, but not so much from the front.
06. You are HUGE.
05. So, you are just about ready to pop huh? (at 5 months along)
04. Your back must be killing you!
03. Is your skin suppose to look like that?
02. Can I cut in front of you for the bathroom?
01. I hope you don't scream when it comes out of you. (Thanks for your concern, Harrison.)

Weighing in at a whopping 11 ounces....

While I try to figure out how to scan and upload our ultrasound pics, these updates will have to do.  Here is the baby bump at Week 19 (?).  Apparently there is now a question of just how far along I am because of the size of our baby girl on the ultrasound yesterday.  They were estimating that she weighs close to 11 ounces already.  The average for this time period is only 8.5-9 ounces, so we are already scoring higher than average! Yes!  Because of that, they may move our due date forward a week or so, but we'll see. In any event, we can say that this is the baby bump at 5 months- that's a good estimation. Just ignore my messy bathroom in the background behind me. :)  Some exciting news: we saw two arms, two legs, two sides of the brain, two kidneys, 4 chambers of the heart, one stomach, one diagphram, one very long spinal cord, two feet, two hands and two thumbs being sucked! The ultrasound took nearly 45 minutes because the little girl just couldn't hold still for the pictures! She was flip-flopping all over the place, but always managed to find her hand or thumb again.  Also in the picture down below is the adorable, cuddly little rabit, courtesy of Grandma Bonnie and Papa Ted and the flannel blanket from Great-Grandma.  All we need is our little bundle to snuggle up with and rock to sleep!

Are you kidding me???

Have you ever heard of anything more appropriate for the holiday snacking season than Hot Chocolate On a Stick???  If you are on my gift-giving list, I hope you like hot chocolate!

Favorite Holiday Family Tradition- THE NUTCRACKER

My lovely, lovely husband takes me to see the Nutcraker every year, and every year we have seen a different one.  We really enjoy comparing them and seeing the many differnet interpretations of this wonderful holiday tradition.  It's also fun for me to walk down memory lane and remember the nerves and the butterflies I use to feel waiting in the wings during every performance when I was younger.  I'm so thankful for the experience I had to be on stage and to perform when I was younger and it's so fun now to remember all those little stresses and growth experiences. Like that time I slipped on the snow when I was on pointe and I had to just jump right back up with a smile on my face (when I really just felt like running and crying off stage!) 

This year is a little different- my parents are taking us this year to see the San Francisco Ballet AND its the first year that Harrison will be coming with us to see it.  We have never brought him before because I was convinced he wouldn't want to see a ballet and would not be able to sit through the second half.  But he begged us to take him with us this year and is actually very excited about it.  He went with James to pick out a nice outfit to wear that night and is full of questions about what it is going to be like.  This weekend really will be the highlight of holiday season for us and I can't wait to see him experience the magic of a live orchestra, beautiful costumes and engaging performances. 

Doesn't it look like it's going to be wonderful?!  Only two more days until we get to see it live!

Park City 2009

So many great memories were made this past weekend with the Murray Women.  A few highlights:

• Snow, Snow, Snow- it started the first morning we got there, and is probably still snowing! I left when it was 6 Below!
• Manscaping, er, I mean "scapegoating."
• The "hellicopter", "ugly lady", "fruit basket", "snail"...what else am I forgetting?
• Haul your own.
• That's what she said.
• Grandma breaking the fireplace.
• Cold showers then scalding hot showers.
• Being my mom's personal heater.
• Best of all- the shopping spree we went on at Motherhood Maternity- SO.MUCH.FUN! The best shopping experience ever!
• Surprising everyone with this baby that's growing so big in my belly!

Here's some pics of the weekend!

Our Holiday Service Project

This year we made cards to send overseas for the troops to help them celebrate the holiday season.  Harrison was so excited for this project.  Here are some of the cute things I saw him write to the troops:

"Dear Army Guy,..."
"Dear Mr. Soldier..."
"You Rock!"
"You're Awesome"
"Hope you get to see your family soon"
"Hope you have a GREAT Christmas"

If you want to send some holiday cards to the troops as well, I recommend the "Holiday Mail for Heroes" program ran through the American Red Cross. That make it very easy and offer some tips on what to write, and what not to write.  Here's the link to their website: Holiday Mail for Heroes

Favorite Holiday Song - Oh Holy Night performed by Josh Groban

Holiday "Oops" Moment!

So, have you ever left the bag of giblets inside the turkey while it roasted all day???? Because I did just that on Thursday!  James found the bag when he went to empty the cavity to carve the bird.  Thanks to Butterball's Turkey Hotline, we learned that if the bag is paper- then it's okay.  But if the bag is plastic and was melted or changed in any way, then you have to throw out the whole turkey!!  Luckily....our bag was paper-so no harm done!  Whew....I was wiping sweat off my brow...

Went. Saw. Loved. This...

Any one else switching to Team Jacob???

Halloween Catch Up

We had a very busy Halloween week here at our house.  First, I had my halloween costume and decoration contest at work.  Then had to hustle over to Harrison's school to put on the "Harvest Party" and then we went trunk or treating, followed by, of course, trick or treating in our neighborhood. 
The theme for this year's contest at work was "TV show"; you had to select a TV show, dress like a character and decorate your office like the show.  Here are a few of my co-workers:

 At Harrison's Harvest Party we did a few fun things: We decorated mini-pumpkins for the kids to take home, we decorated (and ate) sugar cookies and we had a scarecrow making contest.  The kids were suppose to take a bag full of supplies and build a scarecrow like this:

But then one of the boys got the idea that HE was the scarecrow and the contest turned into this:

And this:

Doesn't she look pregnant? They stuffed all the newspaper up into her belly and no where else. The kids had a blast! And then of course, it was Halloween and Harrison dressed up as .....(for the third year in a row....)

A ninja:

Here's the cookie and pumpkin portion of the Harvest party.  I'm already busy planning the next Holiday Party for the kids- there are 34 kids in his class and it gets crazy in there. He's teacher deserves a medal!

2nd Annual Apple Hill trip

Mom and Dad are in town for a few days for a visit before the holidays.  I'm so happy that they were able to visit us and we were able to do so many things.  We took a long drive up to North Lake Tahoe for the day and had a great lunch in the beautiful autumn leaves.  We celebrated Harrison's birthday, again, with pizza, arcade games, presents and brownies. And we took our 2nd Annual trip to Apple Hill and ate peach cobler, berry cobler, apple donuts, apple cider, carmels apples and fresh vanilla ice cream.  Somehow we managed to leave Apple Hill without eating any apple pie.  Can't wait to go back next year - delicious!

Just a few cute pics from this month!

Harrison's 9th Birthday!

We had a slumber party last weekend for Harrison's 9th birthday party. I swear, the years are flying by so quickly- it's crazy!! The boys had a great time skateboarding, playing legos, playing video games and were only up until midnight! :) And then wide awake at 6 am the next morning! It took a while to recover from that weekend....

Max's First Trip to the Dog Park

Max is old enough to go to the dog park now- he just turned 5 months old.  He did very well and wasn't too afraid of the other, bigger dogs.  He plays fetch really well when James throws the tennis ball, but sometimes forgets that he's playing fetch half way through! I love the one that shows how floppy he's ears are!!

Last Days of Summer....This summer we....

Hung out in Vegas!

Ate Icecream!

And laid by the pool!

Ah, sweet, sweet summer...you'll be missed.

(Especially when it's 34 degrees outside while I'm walking to work!)

Snyder. Harrison Snyder.

Harrison's cousin is a few years older than him and routinely and graciously send us clothes he has grown out of.  The latest box of clothes came full of underarmor shorts and tshirts- perfect for Harrison, along with Raiders jerseys- perfect for James.  It ALSO came with a complete suit! Jacket, pants, shirt and tie! Harrison's first thought:  "Sweet, this is my James Bond outfit." 

He puts on the suit and takes over the house on his creative and imaginary James Bond Adventures! 

This is his super serious, secret agent face he's making for the camera---so "in character." 

Our Long Weekend

We hung out in the pool almost all weekend. And it was Max's first time in the pool ever.  He didn't want to swim by himself, he always wanted to be held. But overall, he did really well and will soon be a strong swimmer, so we don't need to worry about leaving him in the back yard!  We also had movie night and Max and Harrison did some bonding while kicking back and watching Arachnophobia- remember that movie? I was afraid it would give Harrison bad dreams, but he did fine! He loved the movie- I think it was so old and cheesy that he couldn't take it seriously enough to be scared by him.

In other news, James is soo excited that football season starts this week (hence the background of our blog right now- I'll change that as soon as I get a chance!)  And I'm excited about our upcoming trips to San Diego.  We are taking off in 2 days to go spend about 5 days down in San Diego at the State Bar Annual Meeting.  Should be a great event and a good chances to catch up with friends and family.

Puppy Update!

Max is now just over 13 weeks old and is growing so big! He can walk up and down the stairs and has convinced Sammie to play with him.  They fight over the bones and chew toys and Sammie almost always wins, despite being twice as small as Max.  Max is still getting his puppy shots so he can't go out on walks or to the dog park yet, but he is going to love it when he can.  He sleeps about 18 hours a day and is pretty mellow most of the time.  He's fitting right in with our family!

Kayaking with the Scouts

Last weekend we took the cub scouts to Folsom Lake to get their aquatics badge. It was SO fun. We had never been to Folsom Lake before, even though its only about 25 minutes away. We are excited to take our kayak back there next summer and campout there later this year. Here are some pictures of Harrison and the boys. They had to swim, dive, rescue each other and kayak around. There were a few "accidental" flips in the middle of the lake and the boys had to go and flip the kayak back over and help their friend back into his kayak. Afterward, they were able to play on this huge inflatable trampoline and a floating rock-climbing wall. I soooo wished I was a scout the whole time.