Lost Valentine's Pictures

Somehow, I completely forgot to post about Valentine's Day! I was emptying my camera card, and found just a couple of pictures from the day. Keep in mind that Tim and I never really celebrate Valentine's Day. It comes at a bad time, first comes Christmas where we spend a lot of money (who wants to skimp on Christmas?), then comes January when our HOA fee ($1000!!!) is due, as well as my birthday. By the time we get to February, we are tired of writing checks! We are both totally fine not doing much for Valentine's, and just enjoy each other's company!


This year, I managed to find a holiday color appropriate shirt to fit my ever expanding belly, and Tim surprised me with flowers :) My students had a blast at our Valentine's 'party', and I left for home that day not too completely drained of all energy. It was a good day. We exchanged cards, and I surprised Tim with a homemade meal. I have to say surprised because those homemade meals are hard to come by when your wife is getting more and more pregnant, can't stand the sight of raw meat, and works all day on her feet with 24 kindergarteners.

25 weeks pregnant

A Bump For New Year's

Here is a quick picture of my New Year's Eve bump:

I DID wear tights when we went out, but when we got home I took them off, and then wanted a picture and didn't want to put them back on. To see the whole ensemble.... click here.

Happy New Year! 2012, Are You Ready?

I am beyond excited for 2012 to get under way! We have a one BIG exciting change that will be coming, but who knows what surprises will also be in store this year?

On New Year's Eve Tim and I got all dressed up and went to one of our favorite fancy restaurants, Rainbow Lodge. It is a rustic log cabin-y type restaurant that has lots of different wild game (and also a chicken dish for me, lol!), Tim usually tries something new and exciting when we go, but last night he kept it simple with a rib eye and duck gumbo. They had a limited menu for New Year's Eve, and I am really glad that I took a look at it online before we went! There was NO chicken! I called the restaurant ahead of time, and told them that I am pregnant and the only meat I can really handle is chicken. They had no problem cooking it for me, and I was so thankful! Here we are at the end of dinner:

I brought our huge DSLR camera, but when we went to take pictures there was no room! I had to delete a couple of random pictures, but then the valet showed up with the car. I was kind of bummed that I lugged around the camera all night and only got two pictures!

Here is Kristin and Jason:

After dinner we went home to change into something a little more comfortable and then decide the rest of the evening. We knew that it would be a little bit up in the air because I didn't know what I would be up for. Kristin set to work looking for non smoking places that we could go to, and I hemmed and hawed whether I would go or not. I felt bad, but I didn't want to get 'out' somewhere and feel so tired and/or sick! She found the Texas Repertory Theater which said that they had a special show for New Year's Eve, it said it was a "Vegas Style Show mixed with Illusion and Dancing with the Stars"... Hmmmm, whatever did that mean?

We soon found out! After paying $45 per person to get in, we found ourselves watching 4 Vegas-style show girls, one lady who sang broadway songs, and a magician couple who salsa'd while they played illusionary tricks with our minds. 

Here are the 'Illusionists":

They were actually pretty good! A couple of the tricks we think we could figure out, but he did saw her in half and we are still confused on that one! They also did a dance where he tied her all up, then pulled a man from the audience, and they went into a curtain thing for literally 20 seconds, and in that time, she took off the old man's jacket, and put it on, AND tied herself back up. We were a little perplexed on that one, too. Whether or not the old man was in on it, I don't see how she had time! And, the magician kept moving the curtain up and down and you could see the man's face the whole time, so it's not like they were back there working together all that much. I am just amazed at how fast she could do it!

After that, we went back home, sat in the driveway and watched a free fireworks show courtesy of about 10 of our neighbors brave enough to break the 'No Firework" rule. I managed to stay up until midnight, although I am not quite sure how! Here we are at midnight:

Here we are at home. I had to get my annual New Year's Eve kiss husband on the cheek New Year's kiss. 

Four Christmases

Have you seen that movie, Four Christmases? It had Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, and they go to each of their parents' houses for separate Christmases. It's pretty funny.

Ever since I have been married, I have experienced something kind of the same. We do a Christmas Eve with Tim's sister and dad. Then early Christmas morning we get to my parents (details below). After that, we have a little bit to come home and regroup, then we head to his mom's for our final Christmas festivity.

This year:

Christmas #1: Christmas Eve with Mr. Thompson

Krissy and Jason hosted his dad's Christmas at her house which is super convenient for us seeing how they live across the street. She handled dinner, and I handled a simple desert of sugar cookies and brownie bites. Then we opened presents and sat and talked for a bit. Tim's dad got us and Hunter a gift card to Baby's First Furniture to help with the nursery fund. Awesome! We had fun talking for a bit, and Tim and Jason set up his duck blind.

Then my new nightly ritual (morning sickness) kicked in and I had to get home. I made it across the street in time to throw up..... nice.

Christmas #2: Low-key Christmas Eve

After I changed into comfy clothes and I felt a little better, Tim and I decided to exchange our gifts. I was kind of excited about what I got him (duck hunting supplies), but it turns out it all has to be exchanged. Boo. He was pretty excited about something he got me, so I was anxious to open it. I have a Brighton charm bracelet (Pandora-like) that my mom and I started. Well, my theme is kind of mostly these pretty charms that have a word on them that describes you, and to me they mean a lot more when given as a gift. He bought me one that says 'Sweetheart' because they were sold out of 'Wife' charms last year and mom got me 'Daughter' for my birthday. This year, he bought me one that says 'Mom' on it, and I am proud to wear it. He thought I needed to wait until this little guy makes an appearance, but I told him, "Hey, I am growing a baby in my belly... I am a mom". Very sweet. Next year, we will go back to our usual Christmas Eve tradition of just exchanging pajamas :)

Christmas #3: McLees Christmas

Christmas at my family's household is filled with traditions, big and small. I relish in every one of them. I truly love family time, and Christmas is pretty much a guaranteed day when all three of my brothers come into town. My oldest is married and lives in San Antonio, my middle is living in Austin, and my youngest is going to college in Hawaii. We weren't even all together for Thanksgiving :( Anyways, since I have been married, Tim and I still manage to make it to my parents' house for all of the festivities start promptly at 7. Well, I think I actually kind of started this tradition when I was little because I would wake up so early, wait as long as I could, then burst into my parents' room and say, "Santa came!!!" They would tell us to come back right at 7:00.... and can tell you, that wait was always so long for us, but we waited until 7:00 on the dot! Every year after the first few, we already knew that the time would be 7:00, and so we would settle in and watch Christmas Story marathon on TBS on the couch (no, I didn't wait until 7 to wake up my brothers!).

This year was a little bit different, but not because I wanted it to be! We got there at 8:15, by far our latest since I have been married. Being pregnant, sleep is sometimes hard to get. I woke up at 3 to pee, then couldn't sleep til 5, then when the alarm went off at 6:15 and I felt that I could sleep another few minutes, I took it! I accidentally slept until 7 and tried multiple times to get Tim up, but he was being stubborn this morning!

We made it over there after the tradition of stockings followed by breakfast. This will NOT happen next year! Luckily, my mom didn't do a stocking for me, and my although the breakfast my brother made was surely delicious (beignets) the smell of the oil frying would have been too much for my preggo stomach! I tell you, I don't have many symptoms, but the smell of certain foods just ain't gonna happen!

Then we let my brothers pass out gifts and we started opening. When I was younger, my mom tried 'savor' Christmas a little bit by having us each open one gift at a time..... like my little brother, then my middle brother, then me, then big brother, then her, then dad.... and back around again. I think I was one of the kids that really enjoyed this, because it helped 'extend' Christmas a little, and you got to enjoy ALL the gifts rather than just your pile an you're done. The problem was that we would end up taking forever to get done because our family is so big and because we are spoiled and got quite a few gifts! Seriously, friends would be knocking at the door ready to play and we would still be in our pajamas opening gifts!

We have tweaked the method a little where we all open about one gift at a time, after getting mom's approval (there is usually a certain order to gifts), that way it doesn't take too long! This year was not different, and since I had only asked for gift cards for baby furniture, I was surprised to see a mounting pile of presents. Tim got lots of fun fishing equipment, and I got some cute maternity clothes, a waffle maker so I don't steal my mom's anymore, a new leather halter for Phaedra, and an AMAZING purse. I seriously was not expecting a gift so extravagant on top of their gift for the nursery furniture! My mom was so cute because she put the gift card with some super cute baby clothes, love it!!

We hung out for a couple of hours at my parents' house, then headed home to shower and get ready for Christmas at his mom's house. We actually managed to go back to my parents' house to eat a delicious meal, made with love by mom, and take a family photo with all of the kids. Then we rushed over for our last Christmas!

All of the siblings with spouses
(Matthew, Heidi, Michael, Christopher, Isabella and me, Tim)

The McLees family
(Dad, Isabella and Mom, Matthew, me, Michael, and Christopher)

Christmas #4: Winding Down Christmas

We made it over to Tim's mom's house so that we could do a gift exchange with his mom and her husband. She is like my parents who love to go overboard on Christmas..... my kind of lady! While we waited for one of my sister in laws to arrive, we munched on some food and chatted for a while. Everyone is so excited for next Christmas when we will have another Thompson joining us!

We exchanged gifts and began to open! Tim's mom went crazy with gift cards to Lowe's for Tim so that we can get new carpet sometime in the near future. She also got me a pretty make up bag and laptop case made by an equestrian style designer that I had been eying for a while. We also received a gift card to a fun fancy restaurant that we love to eat at when we feel like being fancy. We are going to eat there on New Year's Eve with Kristin and Jason! She got me a gift card to a spa so that I can get a pre-natal massage, something that I have been dying to get! Yay me!!

Lastly, she got us a generous gift card to the baby furniture store! We were shocked at how all the grandparents pulled together (kind of) and now we have over half of what is needed for his furniture that we chose for Hunter's room! (Yes, we picked crazy expensive baby furniture, but it WILL last him through high school. It is super high quality and coverts to a full size bed. We love it.)

We hung around his mom's house for a couple of hours, and then left because we were so exhausted! It was great to see every part of the family, but sleep sounded so good!

All in all, we had an amazing Christmas. It was a different feeling this year when someone would ask what we wanted and we truly only wanted things that would help us with the nursery!


Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Thankful this Christmas

This Christmas has been good to us. We have amazing families who we love very much.

I actually wrote out a long post about what we asked for for Christmas and why. What we got for Christmas. How much I love family time. Etc, etc. etc. Then I deleted it. I don't like writing about specific things that we received, but I do want plan to print out this blog into a memory book after the baby is born, and I want this Christmas to be documented.

Tim, Hunter, and myself are so loved and blessed it's not even funny. Both of his grand-ma's had presents for him snuggled under their trees. My parents, Tim's mom, and Tim's dad made the trek out to Baby's First Furniture to get us (very generous) gift cards for the nursery furniture. On top of that, they spoiled us beyond belief.

I am so excited to tell Hunter that his bedroom is a gift from the whole family.