Holidays are the best...

time to be pregnant!  I have enjoyed one specific aspect of the holidays this year more than any other; the eating part.  Since I shed my baby weight (when I went to college) I have worked hard to ensure that I don't gain it back, especially over the holidays.  But thanks to this little bundle of joy (who has less than 24 hours in which he can choose to join us and then be guaranteed a great allowance/college fund) who has graced my belly and appetite I didn't have to think about what I ate.  For once, gaining weight is a good thing and secondly portion control is already taken care of by him because of how he is situated in my belly and therefore making it hard for me to over consume.  To all who contemplate baby rearing I highly suggest planning it so that you can enjoy the holidays as never before!

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last week.  I am back, but probably only until the baby comes, then I am told I will be pre-occupied with other things....huh, who would have thought?!

Since no blog is complete without a picture here is one of me snowshoeing prior to Christmas.  Cory was quite proud of this picture as it "fully captured me".

Snowmaddness

Its fun to live at a boarding school.  I think I may have to say much more fun than living in college dorms.  Since the snow began falling Friday evening here is what we have done besides snowshoe and quinzhee build.

Friday night there was already a staff Christmas party scheduled that turned out to run pretty late because of all the snow that had already begun falling (people just didn't care about getting home).  Since the snow managed to trap about 20 boys here who were suppose to leave on Saturday all the families and boys were invited to the headmasters house for a potluck dinner.  It was awesome. There was a ton of food, a ton of people and it was just a good time.   Everyone (other than the boys) were so relaxed and happy to be snowed in.  And the headmasters house is just awesome, see.

By Sunday the snow had stopped falling and it was a little more bearable for parents to take their kids out to play.  Since Cory and I are just big kids we went and joined a group of them yesterday for some sledding and snowball fights.

 

 

 

We also had to go over there to compare another attempt at a snow cave to Cory's.  Clearly

Cory's is greater than Tony's

 >

Snowhere To Go

Today was day two of the fabulous fluffy white stuff.  Instead of digging out our car as most people did, we decided to build a Quinzhee (pronounced quincy--aka snow cave).  Its pretty awesome.  It will be even more amazing tomorrow after it has the night to fully harden up.  Here are some (okay, a lot) pictures of our awesome quinzhee building day!  FYI-quinzhee building is not necessarily good work for a pregnant woman, so all the pictures are of Cory doing work, but I did do some light snow moving.

Hooray for having a snow home!

Snow Day!

Even though I lived in Colorado for five years I still get excited when there is snow in the forecast.  Most of the time while living in NC I was disappointed, but the storm of forever HAS NOT disappointed.  Apparently, by the time tomorrow ends Virginia is suppose to have more snow than they ever have.  By the time morning rolled around we already had over a foot with snow still falling.  This snow has been a bit different than Gunnison snow because it has been mixed in with wind gusts of up to 25 mph.  Its all good though.  I do not mind one bit.  I can say that yesterday I did go to the grocery store to pick up a few things just in case it did get bad.  Its funny because all the time in Colorado I never remember thinking "oh wait, I should go to the store in case that storm tomorrow is bad".  I guess there is a first for everything.  Today Cory and I ventured out on our first snowshoe hike in about four years.  It was awesome, probably the best early Christmas gift ever (Cory claims is taking responsibility for the snow).  Here are some pictures my man took out and about today.  Enjoy!

We found our car!

Yes, I am 36 weeks pregnant

What a stinking awesome day and I think more is to come!

One Month

Roughly a month from today I will have a little-bity baby in my arms.  Even though I have a tall husband the doctor is pretty sure I am not going to birth a giant.  So for all of you out there who think I am going to have a child that is sized like Cory (about 36" long and 5 lbs) I feel pretty confident in saying you are wrong.

Here are some pictures Rachel took from the weekend that show proof that I have something growing inside me and that my husband is tall.

 

Now that I have scheduled appointments on a weekly basis I feel like it is time I get myself into gear and finish getting this nursery ready.  I think Cory and I have done a good job of being as minimalist as we can, but dang, babies need a lot of space for being such little creatures!  Anyways, I have several tasks ahead of me to get ourselves ready for our man.

Its fun to be a month away-I can almost start a day countdown to a date that I really don't know yet.  Each day he moves and finds new ways to inflict little bits of pain on my body, but its okay.  As a parent I figure I will eventually get to inflict little bits of pain on him like a groundings, making him eat all his vegetables, and curfews.  Its gonna be a great life!

Cookie Extravaganza IV (part I)

This past weekend we had the IV annual Woods Christmas Cookie Extravaganza.  Its quite the festival that is a spin off of one of my family traditions.  It incorporates two things that I love about Christmas-the family sugar cookie dough (although I didn't eat any this year) and my mama's special egg rolls (which one can never get enough of!).  Seriously, I don't like egg rolls, except these.  Here are a few pictures of the prep for this event.  It is no small task I can tell you that much.  It usually involves some slave labor from Cory and at times other friends.

 

After all the dough is made, egg rolls cooked we are ready to let the party begin.  We had some very special guests in town this time that traveled just for this event.  Sol, Rachel and Finley came down for their first cookie extravaganza experience (we apparently didn't get a picture of the three of them together).

Seasoned veterans Tony and Jordan along with second timers Jennie and Andy made the trip up all the way from North Carolina.  These four really take the decorating experience to a whole new level each year.  There is already talk about the designs for next year in the works.

This year, the winning cookie design goes to Cory!  Why we have never thought of this I still cannot figure out, but he pulled the rabbit out of the hat this year with his sleigh pulled by reindeer!

The second place finisher would most definitely be Rachel for her Carrie inspired snowman complete with stick figure baby in the belly.

If you are ever around Casa de Woods around Christmas go ahead and clear your schedules for the best event of the month!

Christmas Happiness Continued

After yesterday's post I got an email tell me to check out www.lala.com.  Its a great site where you can listen to entire albums one time through to see if you like them (then go to itunes and buy them, although I doubt that is their marketing desire).
So as I have been searching for new tunes I kept seeing these albums by a group called Straight No Chaser, so I decided to check them out.  Needless to say I was blown away and laughing close to hysterically.  Its a group of guys that were in choir in college and happened to get back together thanks to you tube, and now they have a record deal.  If you are a fan of Moulin Rouge (and you should be) I encourage you to listen to the Christmas Can Can--it will make you smile.  This is the performance they put on you tube that apparently made them "famous"-enjoy

Still looking for great music, so let me know!

Christmas Happiness

Christmas makes me happy, for lots of reasons.  First is that it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  Carrying a child of my own right now has really changed my heart as I read the story of Christ's birth.  It makes me really excited as I begin to look for ideas on traditions to begin next year for our family as we celebrate advent.  If you have great ideas, feel free to share.  Thanks to the bloggosphere I have found some really awesome ideas.

I love that the Christmas season makes a majority of the world just a little bit nicer to each other for about a month, I love the celebrations that the season seems require and how it can bring families and friends together.  I love the lights, the movies, and especially the music.  Every year I am always on the search for good Christmas music.  To me, 'good Christmas music' falls into three categories.  The first is the traditional songs that point my heart to the reason for the season, songs like 'O Come All Ye Faithful' or 'Joy to the World'.  The second is the traditional songs such as 'Let it Snow' or 'The Christmas Song'.  Finally there is a category for new Christmas tunes, but rarely do I find ones that impress me.

I have two recommendations for the Christmas music lover out there.

The first is an album called 'Peace Came Down' by David Spencer and Scott Cash.  If you like the songs in the first two categories you should love these because he takes some of those traditional favorites and adds a rockin' groovy tune to them.  To date, this is the best Christmas album I have owned.  I absolutely love it.  In fact, it is play right now.  Go to itunes right now and check it out, I promise you won't be disappointed.

The second is for the people that enjoy some easy listening Christmas tunes.  'O Night Divine' is an all acoustic guitar album by Trace Bundy.  This dude is wicked sick on the guitar, I mean wicked sick.  Don't believe me?  Watch this video.  

Go support small artists and buy these albums--I promise they'll make you smile and dance around with joy as you listen to them.  

If you have worthy Christmas music suggestions I welcome them all!  Leave me some Christmas music love!

34 Weeks of Growing

34 weeks ago this is what I looked like....

(actually this was only about 26 weeks ago).

Now this is what I look like

In a matter of weeks I have gone from having six pack abs to having an alien baby invade my belly.  At times, it really is like watching a strange creature trying to do flips inside a balloon or something like that.  Its all good though.  In what I guess will be 7+weeks (not the 6 my due date would indicate) I will be holding a sweet, most likely smelly little boy in my arms. We learned all about giving birth this weekend and unlike my friend Hillary I got to watch some crazy videos that are possibly a little to up-to-date.  Thank goodness the hospital can't afford an HDTV is all I have to say.  

Little Woods is growing bigger and stronger and we can't wait to meet him. I also cannot wait to be able to sleep on my back again.  I keep waking up with a hand that is asleep and somewhat swollen, its not awesome. I also keep waking up at 3 am for my ritual trip to the bathroom.  So, if you ever need someone to talk to at 3am you can be pretty darn sure your friend Carrie is awake.

So heres to 6+ weeks of being a twosome and a whole lot longer of being a threesome!

Entertainment When You Drive Across The Country

Cory thinks I am special, especially when we travel.  He jokes that after two minutes of sitting on a plane I throw child like "look at me" tantrums because I need to be entertained.  Its half true.  I do feel like a child sometimes because I definitely pack the laptop to watch a movie on flights because I need entertainment. There are only so many things you can do to entertain yourself when you drive long distances.  "Hey Cow" is hard to play at interstate speeds and the ABC game only gets you so far.  This trip I went to the local library and checked out several books on cd.  Even though books were play 98% of the time we were driving we were only able to listen to three of them and I really only enjoyed two of the three.

The first  "No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the Worlds Highest 14 Peaks" is an autobiography by Ed Viesturs about his journey of climbing the 14 tallest peaks in the world.  Ed Viesturs is hands down one of the worlds most premiere high altitude mountaineers.  You get that way by climbing a lot of tall peaks and not dying.  He has summated all 14 peaks without supplemental oxygen and was the first american to do so.  I highly suggest this book if you want to be amazed.

The next book that I really enjoyed was "Three Cups of Tea".  This book truly was a book after my own heart.  It is the story of a man named Greg Mortenson--it starts off with his failed attempt at K2 (one of the worlds tallest peaks) and then focuses in on his journey of promoting peace by building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Its such a great story of perseverance and dedication to the cause you believe in the most.  I was really taken into this story because like Greg I believe that if we want to change the world it isn't going to happen through wars, gun control, or petty congressional hearings, it will happen through education.  Its a really great story that I suggest you all check out.  A new book was just released the other day that picks up where this one left off.  I can promise you that I will one day listen to that book as well (not that I don't love reading).

On the note of education.  If you are in a state with a budget issue (most likely you are) you should take some time to write your legislature and tell them how important funding for education is.  For whatever reason those people who have most likely been education and had their children education through public schools don't believe the government should be funding schools anymore--which is lame.  So take some time this week and write a letter.  If you need ideas of people to write to let me know, I can give you a big list (especially of people in Kansas).