Merry Christmas!!

For Christmas this year my family was all meeting down in Houston, so we decided to drive down there and join in all the fun. We actually drove down, a nice 15 hour drive, that could've been shorter had we not gotten lost on the way down there. But we made it and ended up being very glad that we drove our truck because we brought back a lot of goodies with us.

Since we drove we brought Ace, and of it was a little chilly one day so we bought him a vest to try to help him stay warm. 

Lance opening his present

Zach and Alivia

Mom, Dad, Kacie and (kacie's baby) Cade

Poor Lance, in pain, in his sling....

Our current family photo, yes getting bigger, in fact I think I've tripled in size over the last couple of weeks. I'm hating it...

Chad, Becca, Alivia, and Ethan (their newest baby, born Dec 1) They were able to bless him while we were down there, it was awesome

Adam, Kacie and Cade

Haley and Alivia (we had family pictures taken one day, so thats why the purple shirts)

Christmas was wonderful, we feel so blessed right now and are so excited for the new year and all that it has in store for us. Hopefully this week we can think of some really great resolutions, and figure out some way to bring the new year in right! 

While Lance was taking finals....

I was done with work and decided that I wasn't needed at my house while Lance and Tate were finishing up school for the semester. So I jumped on the opportunity to go with my mom over to Geneva for a little while and see where they are living now. It was so fun and I had so much fun hanging out with my parents for a while. I hadn't ever been to Geneva, but it was beautiful and I can't wait to go back and visit again.

While I was there we did a little traveling around, I was happy to get a few more stamps in my passport. Here are a few pictures from the trip...

This is in France, we went to a really old town that had a huge castle. We spent the day walking, exploring and shopping. 

In France, across the lake is Switzerland.

The name of the town that we went to, I told ya it's really old.

Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain around there

My Dad had business in London, so Mom and I went. It was great, we spent a day just exploring and walking, and everyone was speaking english so we loved it :)

The tower of London bridge

Walking across the bridge to the Tower of London

 It was a great trip, freezing but great. Hopefully Lance will be able to come next time :)  And poor Lance... while I was gone he decided to have surgery on his shoulder. Now before you think I'm the worst wife ever to leave my husband in his time of need, he scheduled this surgery AFTER I was already gone. I asked him to wait, but he thought that was the best time to do it. Luckily Jeff and Lynn, our great neighbors, and Tate were here to help take care of him. But he is doing well, the doctor said everything went great and now he just has to let it heal. He actually had his first rehab therapy session today and things are on track and look to be healing well. 

Question

So my pregnancy has been going better lately, and I'm finally into the double digits with how many days I have left and besides the killer backaches and uncomfortable growing stomach, I am actually feeling not too terrible. But this week, I have been a little disappointed because I was running a couple of days ago and my stomach started hurting pretty bad. I had to stop and walk the rest of the way. The same thing happened the next day, so I had to walk some more. Basically, I feel like I have to only walk now. It makes me a little sad, but I was wondering is that normal that around this time to cut back? I feel like its almost too early to only be walking, but I don't want to hurt myself or the baby. I was wondering what everyone else has done, and/or if this is too early (I guess I'm 28 weeks now) to be cutting back a little?  

Turkey Trot

This year we kept up one of our newer Thanksgiving traditions, by running the Turkey Trot here in Johnson City. This is our 2nd year doing it, and we actually really enjoy waking up early and getting in a little exercise before we stuff our faces with food. And this year there were even more people that participated, so it was fun to be involved with the whole town. And for being almost 7 months pregnant I was pretty proud of myself for doing it. We were a little slower than last year, but 26 minutes is pretty good for my big ole self :)

We had a great Thanksgiving, we decided to split up the cooking responsibilities and ate with friends again this year. Our Turkey (we cooked) turned out pretty good, or at least the parts that were cooked tasted delicious :)  Then after dinner we drove to Atlanta and stayed with some of Lances family down there. It was great to get out of town for a few days and actually go shopping at a real mall. Hope everyones thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours, we have so much to be thankful for and are grateful everyday for all the blessings in our lives!!

Winter Wonderland

We actually had a free day the other weekend and decided to go up to a waterfall and practice taking more pictures with our camera. It turned into a really fun day, there was snow everywhere and we got to hike around the waterfalls and just enjoy a little bit of winter weather. Jeff and Lynn came with us, and Ace loved running around in the snow all day. Good thing he wore his bell necklace to help him stay warm :)