december in a nutshell.

{a really big nutshell}

i can't believe december is coming to a close. it has flown by... which is good in some ways. my baby ticker is counting the days so fast this month. today is my halfway point! happy 20 weeks to me!! now that i've joined the ranks of the blog slackers, i have to do the random update posts. so here it goes!!!

{i'm actually getting out my day planner so i can remember what we've been up to these past weeks.}

i had my final christmas concert with the salt lake symphonic choir a couple of weeks ago. it was fun to finally have a concert that my family could attend. my parents, sean, his parents, shannon, seth, dave & kirsten all came and i was so glad to have the support. unfortunately they only got to see my smiling face for about 2/3 of the concert. for the first time in my life, i felt like i was going to pass out/puke/die right in the middle of a concert. i've heard horror stories of people passing out in the middle of a concert and i did NOT want to be that person. luckily i was on the back row of the risers and the girl next to me had a speaking part. when she got down, i did too, and i hung out on the back of the risers for the rest of the concert. i only caused my family SLIGHT panic and worry {haha!}. the best part was when i got back on the risers for the final song, the lady in front of me told me i shouldn't be locking my knees. THANK YOU dear choir friend, but i was not locking my knees. after years and years of singing in choirs, i think i know that one by now. anyway... it was a fun and slightly dramatic night. but from where i was sitting on the back of the risers, we sounded great!!

next item of business. sean and i celebrated our 3rd anniversary on the 22nd. i really can't believe it's already been 3 years. in some ways it feels longer than that though. sean gets offended when i say that, but i just feel like we've known each other forever. i'm so glad sean didn't give up on love like he wanted to at age 24 {seriously... he had made peace with the fact that he would never get married! what a dork.}. he's the best husband in the world and i'm so excited for this baby & the next chapter of our lives.

last tuesday i gave my mom an early christmas present and took her to see a christmas carol at hale centre theatre. if you haven't read the book, you should. the play was great. the guy who played scrooge did a fabulous job. i would love to make this a family tradition every year, but i guess sean's parents tried to do that with them when they were young and now sean DESPISES the play. i don't know how that's possible. but he does. what a scrooge.

our christmas festivities were wonderful. we had delicious fondue on christmas eve with my family {steak & battered shrimp and veggies & breads in a yummy cheese fondue}. i have to say that one of our newer traditions is my favorite: this book. it's hilarious. we went back to my parents house on christmas morning for gifts & breakfast. it was so nice to be home and be lazy and be with my family. we had lots of fun lounging around the house after breakfast and playing with our new toys from santa. we spent the latter part of the day with sean's family. we had a delicious ham dinner, a short devotional, gifts & a game of catch phrase and then we were exhausted! we loved driving home in the storm. the snow was probably my favorite christmas gift this year!

the rest of the weekend we were LAZY. we played a lot of american idol on our new wii, ate way too much food {including some really yummy waffles courtesy of my new waffle iron... another favorite gift this year!}, saw a couple of movies, went to bed early, and thoroughly enjoyed our christmas break.

this week i'm looking forward to the annual "shrimpfest" {more to come on that later}, my 20 week appointment, which means another ultrasound {yay!}, another short week at work & maybe a trip up to the cabin! maybe i'll actually take some pictures of these festivities so my blog doesn't look so boring.

there and back again.

{john, me, juliann, janessa}

Last weekend I went on a very short road trip with the Salt Lake Symphonic choir. As you can see, it was a very squishy ride down & back, but we had fun talking and the drive flew by. We performed on Friday and Saturday with the 23rd Army Band which was really fun. I have never been involved in concerts like this and it was a new and fun experience! Seriously, there was some amazing talent in that band. And the best part was getting to wear these lovelies:

{me, janessa, juliann}

I hadn't even tried on my dress before the first concert, and miraculously it fits pretty well. Better than Janessa's anyway :) It was a fun & exhausting trip. I'm so glad to have my friends from the UMC in this choir! They make it so much fun. We perform again tonight at the Beneficial Life Christmas party. President Monson will be there & we get to stay & hear him speak. I'm sure I'll post something about that tomorrow!