As promised, here's the small but growing bump. It is big enough that I don't fit in my normal pants, which is proving to be quite the challenge. The maternity pants I wore last time just aren't that cute. How did I not know? I was so happy with them three and a half years ago.

Welcome to our new home. We moved from one apartment in our building to another. We knew we wanted to stay in our building and spent hours looking at each floor plan. We ended up choosing this one because it has so many windows. I love it. There is so much light and on a sunny day it gets so warm.

We've been decking the halls around here. Okay, who am I kidding. These all went up the weekend after Thanksgiving but I absolutely love Christmas decor. Ours is rather meager but perfect for where we're at in our lives. I prefer to keep my house uncluttered feeling and part of that means not looking like the Christmas aisle threw up in my living room.

When we first looked at our apartment I fell in love with the entry hallway. it adds a lot to the entrance and makes it feel less like an apartment and more like a home. I wanted to do something to really dramatic and fun. Thankfully my husband was on board and did the painting. I just had to measure and tape. Conveniently the wall was 88 inches from baseboard to ceiling. The meant I could do eleven 8 inch stripes. Perfect.

I ended up making sugar cookies for the cookie exchange last week. I love sugar cookies as does my family. To me it is really the best cookie out there. I have a fabulous recipe that always works. And since I can't do anything half hearted I shaped them into trees and frosted them. Cute but a lot of work. I will probably do them again next year though. They are what my family wants to eat so all the extra stay here. It's great, just a lot of work. Here's what they looked like unfrosted. That is 10 1/2 dozen sugar cookies.

These are some of my favorite pictures from Spain. I know I said I would share them with you. Don't worry I won't overwhelm you with our day by day itinerary. I'll just say, if you get the chance, go to Spain.

I am going to a cookie exchange on Saturday. My first ever. And I'm a little nervous. This is the 9th annual exchange hosted by the same people and I don't want to screw things up. I would like to be invited to the tenth annual. You know?

We move in 2 days and I can't be more excited! We get our keys tomorrow night. All of our stuff is packed except toothbrushes and a few toys. Okay and shampoo but otherwise it's all in a box, in my living room. I am always surprised by the mound of boxes. I waiver between thinking there are so many and thinking we don't have much. I think I will always long for being happy with less.

My family is moving in three weeks. I am planning on making this the easiest move we've ever had. See, we're moving upstairs. We live on the 3rd floor and we're moving to the 13th. Same building, just an elevator ride away. It seems weird to box everything up for such a short move but there's no way I could not put everything in boxes, even for a short move. So far our record is 2 hours, start to finish and we had to drive the truck 5 blocks between loading and unloading. I'm hoping this will be an hour or so.

My thoughts have been a little heavy lately about those with disabilities, specifically the men and women injured in war. As I've mentioned before I live in a building with a lot of recently injured veterans while they are being treated at a military hospital nearby. With the recent 10 year mark of 9-11-01 I think it really hit home how lucky we are to be with those we love and how thankful I am for those serving our country and their sacrifices.

The other day someone asked me how I learned to sew. I had to laugh because I honestly couldn't really remember. It wasn't when I was a kid. My mom sewed while I was growing up but if I wanted her to sew something for me I would mow the lawn, make dinner or do the dishes. It wasn't that she wouldn't show me how it was that I didn't want to learn. I was going to be a big business professional who didn't have to deal with small homemaker type jobs like sewing, cooking or canning fruit. To this day, cooking is not my favorite but I really enjoy sewing and canning.