Merry Christmas!!!

Boy, have I been a slacker about taking pictures lately!!!  I'm really gonna regret that…but here are a few that I did take (well, I had Ryan take some of them…)!  :)

 Here it is - the baby bump!  This picture was taken just past 23 weeks.  I still haven't gained a ton of weight, but my stomach is growing.  Little Rebecca is getting stronger, too - and her kicks are starting to get painful at times! ;)  Ryan and Nicole were both able to feel her kick for the first time this week.  :)

This next picture is of Nicole's hands.  She's standing behind me, wrapping me in a hug, but her fingers can't touch around my expanding belly!  Cole wants to take a picture like this every week to show how big my stomach is getting by how wide the gap between her fingers is.  :)

We were able to take a trip up to Driggs to see Grandma and Grandpa Beard this week!  Grandpa took us on a horse-drawn sleigh ride, which was a blast!  :) :) :)  And then we built a snowman in their front yard.  The little Santa hat was Cole's idea.  :)  I didn't get this picture until after it started snowing and blowing, so our poor snowman was a little plastered - which is why his eyes and nose are mostly white.  Also, my cool phone just added the special snow effect - not sure how, but I like it! :)

Cole had lots of fun playing in the snow with Grandpa Hollinger on Christmas Eve.  He buried her, and then she broke out of her grave. ;)  They also built a cool work of art with icicles from the roof.  This little munchkin LOVES snow!!!  :) :) :)

We didn't have a lot for Christmas this year (thanks to being without an income for half the year…), but Santa was thrifty and was able to use up points on Disney Movie Rewards to get Nicole a Tinker Bell Razor Scooter!  :)  Nicole spent hours and hours riding around the house on her scooter yesterday -- I've never seen her play with one toy for so long!!!  And it was pretty much all she could think about during the times when she had to put her scooter away and do other things.  ;)

We were able to spend lots and lots of time with family, which was absolutely wonderful!  Christmas Eve with my folks, and Christmas night with Ryan's folks.  It was hard to leave the festivities early though, but Ryan had to go to work last night.  But we are grateful he has a job, even though it means missing out on some of the good times!!!

Our next big celebration will be Ryan's birthday, which is just 2 1/2 weeks away!!!  I have an idea of a few things I would like to get for him, but I don't know if I'll be able to find them (or if they'll fit into our budget…).  But no matter what, I know I'll be able to make it a GREAT birthday for him, and he deserves it after all the hard work he's done over this past year!!!  He pushed through the final months of his externship, graduated with his bachelor's degree with incredible grades, worked hard to earn money while he searched for a job, and finally landed two jobs in his chosen field (one full-time, one per diem)!  I sure do love that man!!!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!!!  And I hope you were able to take some time to remember our Savior, who is the reason that we celebrate Christmas!