I've been rather bad at blogging this last month so this post will most likely be a long one and picture heavy as a result. Nothing too crazy has been going on here, work has been keeping me busy while school has done the same for Matt, Baby J is continuing to grow and look healthy (more on that of course!), and the Christmas spirit is in full swing in the Joseph household.
We had a lovely and relaxing Thanksgiving, just the two of us. Matt prepared the turkey, dressing, and green bean casserole while I tackled the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, and made two pecan pies and two pumpkin pies. I must say, we did a great job for our first Thanksgiving on our own and the food was delicious!! We spent the evening with some friends from Matt's class enjoying dessert (hence the excessive number of pies) and board games.
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| Matt's beautiful and tasty turkey! |
We decorated our home for Christmas last weekend and went to the
Denver Botanic Gardens to see their Blossoms of Light exhibit: over one million lights decorate the gardens to help you get in the holiday spirit! Christmas is hands down my favorite time of year and I absolutely loved walking through all the lights! Of course, we will still have to head to Tilles Park to see Winter Wonderland while we're in St. Louis but it was great to see Denver's light display. Despite the fact that it was a bit chilly outside we decided to head to Little Man Ice Cream in the LoHi district...we didn't realize that it was an outdoor only establishment but the ice cream was well worth it and it was great to explore a new area of Denver.
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| The lights! |
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| Matt really liked the blue and green combination. |
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| Love the reflection off the pond. |
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| So many lights! |
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Such a cute place to get ice cream...though
it's no Custard Station. ;) |
We opted to get our Christmas tree from a tree lot this year (if you recall, last year we drove down to Pueblo and cut it down ourselves!) as we don't have space for a very large tree. I believe we went with the second tree we looked at, definitely a record for the shortest time I've ever taken to choose my Christmas tree. We just love our tree, it is absolutely beautiful and fits perfectly. Normally, I wouldn't be decorating for Christmas quite so early but seeing as how we'll be heading back to St. Louis on the 20th, we wanted to enjoy our tree. I've been ready for Christmas since before Thanksgiving but restrained myself from decorating or listening to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. I think part of all the excitement is the fact that we're going to be driving home this year to celebrate with our families. While we loved spending our first married Christmas just the two of us out here in Colorado, there's nothing quite like being home for the holidays. We are so excited to see all our family and friends in about a week and a half...it just can't come soon enough!!
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| Matt putting the finishing touches on the tree. |
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| LOVE our tree! :) |
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| J is for Joseph. |
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| Representing good ole' Mizzou. |
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| A slightly blurry Grinch...my favorite Christmas story. |
And last but not least, an update on Baby J! Our babe is growing well, we're over 23 weeks at this point, and looking healthy. We had our 20 week doctor appointment the day before Thanksgiving and the ultrasound technician apparently could easily tell the sex of the baby...good thing we informed her prior to starting that we want it to be a surprise! I've finally been feeling Baby move which is both amazing and strange. Matt hasn't been able to feel it yet, but I suspect it won't be long before he can. It seems like we have a pretty active child in there...he or she is often moving around! I feel like my baby bump actually looks like a baby now, though people seem to think I'm on the smaller side for being a week shy of six months pregnant. We haven't been keeping up with the weekly pictures like we had planned but here's a couple from a few weeks ago:
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| 19 weeks. |
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| 20 weeks--halfway there!! |
I'll have to take another picture this Friday to mark 24 weeks which is roughly six months!! Matt and I joke that this baby is going to be here before we know it the way time is flying. Our next appointment is in just over a week, can't wait to hear Baby J's heartbeat again. :)
Well, this post has gotten long enough, hope all is well with everyone and we'll be seeing some of you soon!!
Xoxo!
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| Cooper was a bit overwhelmed from all the Christmas decorating and excitement. :) |
