Long Overdue.

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.

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.

The lights!

Matt really liked the blue and green combination.

Love the reflection off the pond.

So many lights!

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!!

Matt putting the finishing touches on the tree.

LOVE our tree! :)

J is for Joseph.

Representing good ole' Mizzou.

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:

19 weeks.

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!

Cooper was a bit overwhelmed from all the Christmas decorating and excitement. :)

Growing.

Hard to believe that we're already five days into the month of November--where has time gone??  I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  Ours was a very low key night; we purchased a lot of candy in hopes of trick-or-treaters but didn't get a single kid!  So, we were left with way more candy than we need.  I guess next year we won't need to worry about having candy for the kiddos.  Nevertheless, we had fun carving our pumpkins and watching scary movies.  The Friday night before Halloween, Matt's MBA program had a party a bar in Boulder so we dressed up Tony Stark and Pepper Potts from Ironman (sadly we forgot to take any pictures!) and had fun celebrating with Matt's classmates.  I can't wait for next year when we'll have our Baby J to dress up! :)

My pumpkin is on the left, Matt's on the right.

Speaking of Baby J, we are now at about 18 weeks and 3 days.  I am still feeling great pregnancy wise though I've had a nasty cold/cough/sore throat since last Tuesday that I haven't been able to shake.  On top of feeling under the weather, work has been a bit busier lately and I had a tough last week patient load wise. Hopefully this week will be better!!  I feel like I'm finally starting to show bump-wise and I've actually purchased a few maternity items...such as the grey polka dot sweater I'm wearing in the picture below.  Our last OB appointment was on the 24th and baby's heart beat was nice and strong!  All of our tests have come back negative so we have a very slim chance of Down's, trisomy 18, or any neural tube defects.  We weren't worried about that to begin with, but it's nice to know that Baby J is healthy.  Our next appointment is the 21st and we'll be having another ultrasound done--I can't wait to see how much our little peanut has grown!!

There's a baby in there!!  And he or she is the size of a sweet
potato: 5.6 inches long and 6.7 ounces!

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I simply adore pumpkin, especially in the fall.  I love almost anything pumpkin: pie, bread, Starbucks pumpkin spice latte. :)  So, when Matt mentioned that our neighbor had made these delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I was sold without even tasting them.  Even better, the recipe had three ingredients: a can of pumpkin, a box of spice cake mix, and a bag of chocolate chips.  That's it.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Mix the pumpkin and cake mix and then add in the chocolate chips.  I stuck my dough in the fridge for a little bit so it could solidify some as it was pretty soft and sticky.  The dough tastes pretty delicious too--and there's no raw egg to worry about!

Drop dollops of the dough onto a cookie sheet and bake!  I didn't grease my cookie sheet but it may not be a bad idea--some of the cookies stuck just a bit to the sheet.  I left mine in the oven for roughly 10 minutes and the insides were still a little soft, just how I like em!  You may need to adjust the time if you try these, I'm not sure what exact effect the higher altitude may have on bake times.

These easy cookies are great for fall and I got about three dozen out of my batch...way more than two people need to eat so I'll probably take some to work and send some to class with Matt.  Once they're done baking, grab a glass of milk and enjoy!!  :)

Yum!

First Snow.

We got our first snow of the season last night with more expected tonight and into Friday morning.  We took a moment last night to stand outside, watch the snow fall, and just listen to that amazing silence that a fresh snow fall brings.  :)

Fall Break and Four Months.

This last week marked the end of Matt's first session of his MBA program and that meant lots of studying for, and taking of, finals.  However, it also meant a much deserved Fall Break!!  It's been great to have Matt home for a couple days without having to worry about school.  We drove into Boulder on Thursday to hike at Chautauqua Park which is a national landmark and quite beautiful (you can click the link if you'd like to know more about it).  I love hiking out here in the fall and seeing all the colors and breathing in the crisp, fresh air.  Unfortunately, I'm a bit slower than I used to be and seem to get out of breath much quicker than I used to which is incredibly frustrating...I was told to expect that with pregnancy but it doesn't make it any less irritating.

The Flatirons.

Looking out a CU's campus from our hike.

Stumbled across some unexpected red in a field.

We planned to hike on the McClintock trail but had Cooper
with us and well, we're kind of fond of our dog and didn't
want him to possibly become bear food.

I mentioned in my previous post that we planned to spend a day and night up in Ft. Collins but plans changed and we ended up driving down to Golden instead yesterday for a nice day-trip.  Matt had been to Golden a few times but it was my first.  It only took us about 20 or 25 minutes to get there and it's a beautiful little town.  It reminded me a lot of Old Colorado City where we used to live in the Springs.  The leaves on the trees were nice and colorful and there's an awesome creek that runs through the middle of the town.  We had lunch and then walked around the shops downtown and along the creek.  If we did end up staying out here after Matt's graduation I could see us living in Golden as it just has such a better feel to it than where we are now and what I've gathered from Boulder as well.

I just loved this creek!!

There were a number of old building from the Pioneer days and the "M"
on the mountain is for Colorado School of Mines.

Another view of the creek.

There were statues all along the creek...Matt really enjoyed this one.

Today marks week 16 of my pregnancy, or four months.  I'm still feeling great, just tired sometimes but it's hard to tell if that's from the pregnancy or just the fact that I work nights.  Baby J is definitely growing and is approximately the size of an avocado and weighs about 3.5 ounces.  While Baby J is doing plenty of growing, I still don't feel like I look very pregnant...more like I've eaten a bit too much lately and have a food baby going on.  I've noticed that my waist and hips have gotten wider and my middle looks softer, but I'm looking forward to the day where the bump just "pops" and people will be able to tell that I'm actually pregnant.

Not much of a bump...and please excuse the fact that the
flash illuminated my undergarments! Opps!

Hope everyone has had as great a weekend as we have...now it's time to settle in on the couch for some football! Xoxo!

Weekend in St. Louis.

We're back home safe and sound after a quick trip back to St. Louis for our good friends' wedding.  We landed a little later than expected Friday but made it to the rehearsal dinner just in time for the actual dinner.  It was wonderful to see all of our friends again and to celebrate Tim and Megan together.  We were able to watch that intense Cards-Nationals game as well...there's nothing like cheering for your team with your friends with the Arch in the background.  I have to admit, it made us miss St. Louis even more.

Matt was one of the groomsmen in the wedding Saturday and he looked quite dapper in his suit...he cleans up very well. :)  I was able to squeeze into a dress I already owned--I'm really trying to avoid having to purchase too many maternity items so I'm putting it off as long as I can.  The wedding itself was simply lovely, as I knew it would be, and the weather was perfect for a fall wedding.  We danced the night away with our friends and just had an amazing time.

We clean up pretty well. ;)

Not the greatest picture of us, but the bride and groom look lovely
and you can see the baby bump (it grows after meals, haha). :)

We took a little time on Sunday to enjoy the weather and the beautiful colors of the changing trees.  There is just something wonderful about fall in St. Louis: the smell, the crispness in the air, and the colors.  As amazing as Colorado is, you just don't experience fall like you do in the Midwest.

Prime example of amazing fall colors!

In other news, we're into week 15 of the pregnancy with Baby J roughly the size of naval orange.  It's hard to believe we're less than a week away from the four month mark.  I'm still feeling great which is wonderful.  Our next Dr. appointment is the 24th so we'll get to see the baby and hear the heartbeat again on the ultrasound.  Pretty exciting stuff!!

Matt has finals this week so most of his time will be devoted to studying.  He has Thursday and Friday off after finals as part of a Fall Break so we're hoping to head up to Ft. Collins for a day and night or so.

Hope all is well with everyone!! Xoxo!

Snuggles.

This was the sight in our house this morning after a rough night at work for me:  I worked the two previous nights, had difficulty sleeping during the days between shifts, and was on call last night only to be called in at 0100 this morning.  Oy.  Sometimes you just need a quick nap on the floor snuggling with the dog. :)

Not the most flattering picture, but Cooper snuggling is a rarity.

We're getting ready to fly back to St. Louis this afternoon (yay!) for a wedding but I'll be sure to post an update picture of my baby "bump"...it seems to have had a minor growth spurt these last two weeks!!