o holy night (These are the special times concert)

This is my very favorite Christmas song!

The Polar Express - believe

We love this movie so much! Baily has watched 2 or 3 times a day since we got it. She's gonna be so sad when we have to return it. I love Christmas season!

Nesting and Venting...

I'm definitely into my nesting phase but unfortunately I don't have the energy to go along with it. And when I was in this phase of pregnancy with Baily it was so much easier since I didn't have a 2 year old to tend to and I could take naps frequently. It's a little annoying wanting and trying to get so much done but it being so hard and getting done so slowly. And I hate Robert's schedule so much. He was working all day so I didn't have any help with moving stuff as well as keeping Baily entertained. But enough of the complaining. I did manage to get a lot of organizing and decluttering done as well as getting all Bubba's clothes washed along with the car seat and bouncer and swing covers and stuff like that. So that's a relief. I worked my rear end off every spare minute I had. Baily was actually pretty good with staying entertained on her own with her books and videos. She needed my attention full on a couple of times yesterday but she was much better than she has been lately. I think she senses a big change happening because, with the exception of yesterday, she's been so clingy to me lately. She always has to be where I am and even when she's sleeping I have to have my hand on her and she has to be touching me somehow. She freaks out whenever I'm not in her sight. Robert tries to help but she only wants me. I think she must know her full attention from me is going to be much more limited in the near future. It's funny how kids are intuitive like that. Anyway as you can imagine by the time Robert got home from work I was spent. I was on the verge of emotional breakdown and I think it was purely from being tired and frustrated for not being able to physically get done what my body is somehow craving... the whole nesting thing. I'm so glad Robert's such a patient husband and so loving with me. I was pretty grouchy and tired and he was just so sweet.

Yesterday my BIL, Robert's sister's husband, got home from Afghanistan to visit for 2 weeks. It's exciting and I'm so happy for their family to have him home at this time. Bryan was so excited to have his Pappa home... it was so precious. He could barely keep from having a huge grin on his face all day. Thomas and his family are truly sacrificing for him to be over there in Afghanistan to fight for our freedom and it makes me so grateful for him and all our troops. I love being an American and thank everyone who ensures that it's a free country. They came straight to our house from the airport and Cande grilled carne asada for the traditional Dominguez carne asada dinner. It was delicious as always and nice to enjoy having him home. Baily was excited to see him as well. They didn't stay long- I'm sure he was tired and just wanted to get home to be alone with his family. They and Cande are all flying to Florida to Disney World on Sunday until Thursday night. They won't be here the morning I have the baby but they'll get home that night. I hope it's a fun 2 weeks for them. They deserve it!

And I forgot to mention for my own memory purposes that on Sunday night we finally finished the Book of Mormon in our family scripture reading. I'm not sure but I think it's the 2nd or maybe just the 1st time completely reading the BOM since we've been married for these almost 3 years. It took forever but it felt great to finish it and I'm sure we'll do much better this next time in not taking so long to finish reading it and in being more consistent. Robert also ordained Andre a Priest after church on Sunday which was a special experience. Andre has really made some positive progress and I'm so proud of him. After he was ordained the Bishop put him on the spot and asked him to bear his testimony to us. It was a sweet, simple testimony but it really touched me- especially when he expressed his love for us. I sure do love that kid!

So hopefully I'll find a way to finish getting my rooms and house gutted and organized and everything ready for my sweet baby boy these next couple days. If anyone wants a 2 year old to play with I know a little girl for you... lol! Love you all!

Lovely.

Yesterday was just a nice and simple, lovely fast Sunday. I woke up early and got some things done that I had been putting off so I would not have to worry about the rest of the day. I had time to catch up on some of my scripture reading. I was bad last week and didn't make the time to read my scriptures and I got behind on my schedule. So it was nice to do a lot of BOM reading and get that spiritual boost that always comes from reading from it's powerful pages. There were a lot of changes announced during Sacrament meeting including a new YM President and a new Relief Society Presidency. I was shocked because it seemed totally unsuspected but I felt a huge sense of gratitude to the sisters released and a loving acceptance for the new sisters called. The released sisters will be missed and the newly called, I have not a doubt in my mind, will be great. Sacrament meeting was wonderful and I felt the Spirit so strongly... especially while I partook of the Sacrament. I'm so grateful for this sacred ordinance and to be able to partake of it weekly. Their were strong and simple and sweet testimonies born and I felt refreshed and uplifted. Relief Society was awesome as well. Our released RS President gave the lesson and it was about focusing on the real meaning of Christmas. She's always given such wonderful lessons and this one was no exception. She had a couple of sisters read some beautiful stories and as you can imagine, everyone was crying and sniffling. I'm sure the emotions of just the change in Presidency didn't help either. Anyway my favorite story that really inspired me was called The White Envelope. Here's the link I found to the story. http://www.humanhealing.com/stories/white-envelopes.php Read it!! It's so good. I totally think we're gonna start this as a new Christmas tradition in our family. I've been trying to come up with ways to really focus on the Savior this Christmas season and on traditions that will bring the true meaning alive to my family and it was like a lightbulb when this story was read yesterday. After Church we just rested and relaxed. I wasn't feeling all too well and really wanted to just rest. For dinner we actually did our Sunday tradition of breakfast for dinner and had some scrumptious ham and eggs. It was delish! After dinner we went for another walk and Baily had a blast. She looks so cute all bundled up like the little Eskimo baby she is. I felt truly grateful for such a wonderful Sabbath yesterday!

Here and There

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday. I dropped off Zach and Kenzie in the morning at their grandparents since they had a birthday party to go to and when Baily and I got home Robert went to a really important job interview. But I'll explain more about that later when we know more. After he got home I wanted to get out of the house for a little bit. There was a lot to do around the city but we're broke so we decided to just go to Chandler Mall and window shop. That probably wasn't my best idea. The traffic to get into there was insane and Baily was way overdo for a nap. Once we got inside it was ok for a while. Baily and I were treated to some delicious Haagen Daz Rocky Road ice cream. It was nice to sit and talk for a while about some issues and decisions Robert and I have coming up. Baily started breaking down big time so we didn't stay too long at the mall. It was kind of pointless anyway to just tease ourselves with not being able to buy anything. I'm really trying to be ok with us not being able to buy Christmas gifts this year but it's still hard. I wish we could have a magic shopping card that would let us buy gifts and not have to go into debt over it. But I realize I do have so much to be thankful for and should really just focus on the real Spirit of Christmas this season. No more trips to the mall! Anyway after we left and got into the van Baily had a tantrum for about 10 minutes and then she was out. She was just way overtired. Robert and I decided to forego our plans for an anniversary date and just hang out at home since we're so broke. Our anniversary's not until the 18th but we wanted to celebrate it last night since we're not gonna have another chance to until who knows when. Oh well. We decided to get some Chinese takeout. We got it from Golden Eggroll in Tempe. It was really good. We pretty much never have Chinese food so this was a nice change. We pretty much just hung out and watched tv, played with Baily and chilled for the rest of the day. I sat down and watched a whole movie with Baily for once. We watched Polar Exress. I had never seen it before because I was never really interested for some reason. It was really, really good. We enjoyed some popcorn and candy bars while we watched. Who needs money and a theatre to enjoy a good movie?! Later that night we also decided to not go to the light parade that we thought about going to. It was nice to just hang out at home and not have to worry about anything. We did take a walk around the neighborhood so Baily could look at all the "pitty, pitty wights." She's really into the Christmas lights this year and it's so fun. We discovered that a new pizza place, Fox's Pizza Den, just opened in the strip mall by our house so we tried it out for dinner last night. It was really good. It was a little pricey but Robert's mom and sister wanted to try it also so they went halves with us. We were all impressed. They sell pizza by the slice for lunch so it's nice to have that option so close. So like I said, nothing too exciting yesterday. Just some good ol' down time at the casa!