It's beginning to look a lot like...

This is my absolute most favorite time of the year! And for so many reasons!

First of all, this is the time we stop to really consider what Christ did for us. God sent his son to Earth to be born as a baby, live here as a man, and to die on the cross for our sins. The greatest gift of all. A gift that we should be celebrating all year long, not just one day in December.

Sadly, for many, this isn't even a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, but instead is just for spending way too much on gifts, decorations, and winning the "Best Decorated Yard" contest. The world gets so caught up in the "hustle and bustle" that Christ's birth is pushed to the back burner. In fact, where I work, we can not even say Merry Christmas to customers! We have to say "Happy Holidays." It breaks my heart to even think about it.

Don't get me wrong, I love giving gifts to my family and friends. Decorating the tree is the highlight of my year. And driving around to look at Christmas lights on houses makes me feel like a kid again. I love it! But these things are meaningless. Fortunately, Matt and I were both brought up in homes that taught us the true meaning of Christmas. Looking back, my fondest memory of Christmas morning is my dad reading about Christ's birth from Matthew 1. Before we opened any gifts, we would sit and listen to him read, then he would ask us questions about it, and we would pray. Of course at the time, I just wanted him to hurry up and get finished. But now, as an adult, and with a baby on the way, I am so thankful for that time.

Second to giving thanks to God for sending his Son, is decorating the tree. I actually hated decorated the tree when I was a teenager at home, but I think having my own home and family has made it more special.

However, I must say that I'm quite a stickler about my tree. Growing up we always had a tree with "kid" ornaments on it. My parents always gave us cute little Hallmark ornaments each year. So the tree was covered in them. No color coordinating, no matching, no uniformity of the placement on the tree. Of course as I child I loved the tree with all my ornaments on it. But NOW...I am very particular about the tree. And Matt is exactly the same way. It's quite funny! All of our ornaments are from a set...they are the same style and color coordinate. Each ornament is strategically placed on the tree to make sure that there is flow and uniformity. I know..its sick. The only ornaments on our tree that are not from the "set" are a couple of "Our First Christmas" ornaments...and I put those towards the back. When our children are old enough to have ornaments and care about decorating the tree, I don't know what we're going to do! They might have to have their own kid tree or something.

I know there are others of you out there that are the same as us...other OCD tree decorators. What do you do for your children? Do you sacrifice your own selfish desires and let your family Christmas tree be filled with sports figures and Barbie, randomly placed all over the tree, with gaping holes in some areas and clusters of too many in others? I realize that when Brody is born and is a little older, and has young siblings, our outlook on all of this may completely change. But right now, we love our OCD tree. And did I mention that the star HAS to be placed on last?

Here are a couple of pictures of Matt stringing the lights and the final product. (We didnt get any pics during the actual decorating process. It was too serious a job to be interrupted by taking pictures. :) )

Here is the final product. However, you can't really tell what colors our ornaments are from these pics. For some reason some of them look gold in the pictures. They are all various shades of blues, white, and silver. The colors of the tree skirt.

I love traditions (probably why I'm an Aggie) and I hope that Matt and I are able to start some with our own growing family. I forgot to mention that while we decorate the tree, we have to have hot chocolate. Ideally, I would like to have Christmas carols playing in the background, but this year there were some football games on so we nixed the carols. But the hot chocolate is a MUST, even if its 80 degrees outside. I learned of another tradition this past weekend that Kirby's family does that I loved! Does anyone else know about the hiding the elf game? It's going to be a must in the Palermo household during the holidays.

What are some of your family traditions at Christmas time?

Britney, A Belly, & A House

I never thought I would be a once a month blogger..my original intention was to update at least once a week. However, as you've all seen, that has not happened. So this might be quite a long post since I haven't updated since Oct 28. Not a lot has happened in the last month, but I have pictures!

For Halloween we struggled on what to dress up as. We wanted to incorporate baby Brody in our costume. What we came up with..well..quite ridiculous haha.

Yes, we were Britney and K-Fed.

Belly Shot

(28 Weeks)

House Update

I've been promising pictures of our new house for the last 3 months. We finally finished construction on our 3rd bedroom/study and have ALMOST the whole house organized. We still have a few pictures to hang, etc but for the most part..its done.

Here is the conversion of our garage to a bedroom. Thank you to Lance and Blake (matt's cousins) for their awesome work! If you need a carpenter, let us know! We will give you his contact info!

Before

After

And we can't forget the faithful family and friends who helped with the painting and tiling. Larra's parents (Larry & Tina), Matt's parents (Allen & Dena), Larra's sis Shelley, Leigh Ann, and Charlie. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone!!

(Matt and Charlie inspect the progress so far)

(Allen diligently lays the thin-set)

(Shelley, dad, and Matt grouting..the final stages!)

And here are the pics of the rest of the house. We would love to have you awesome people over anytime! well, I take that back..we would love to have you over anytime...after Dec 14. That's when Matt graduates and we're trying to get past that before we make any plans. Things are hectic for him these last couple of weeks. So let's plan something for next year :) Enjoy the house pics..they've been a long time coming!

(3 different angles of the living room)

(dining area)

(guest bathroom)

(our bedroom)

(our bathroom)

(Brody's pretty much empty room)

And that's our house! Seriously..the longest post ever!

24 down...16 to go!

I know, I know. It's been a while since I've posted. As some people have said "I've blossomed" since the last post. Brody is growing and so is everything else on my body haha.

There's not much new to report...we had an anatomical sonogram on Oct 11 at the hospital and the results were great. They said he is growing fine and everything looks wonderful. He is already such an active little boy...if this is any indication of what he's going to be like, I'm going to have my hands full! He gets it from his daddy :) I've still been pretty sick off and on. I don't think I posted about this in any previous posts...but I took off 6 weeks of work in order to try to recooperate and take care of myself and Brody. It's 6 weeks less of maternity leave I'll get in February, but who cares because I won't be going back :) Those are the most wonderful words ever! Let me say it again...I don't have to go back to work after Brody is born!!! I get to stay home and be the wife and mom I'm called to be and so desparately want to be! I've just finished my 5th week of being home and these last 5 weeks have been WONDERFUL! The sickness has interfered with me getting things done that I've wanted to do, but I have been able to cook, clean and help my husband in ways that are not possible when I'm working 8-5 everyday. When I go back to work on Nov 5, I will only have about 12 or so weeks left of working..hopefully I can make it!

Other than that, there's really nothing new as far as Brody goes. We have been really busy the last few weeks working on our house. We converted our garage into a 3rd bedroom/study so we have been very preoccupied with construction, painting, finding tile, etc. Laying the tile is our next step...won't that be fun. I've been promising pictures of our house and as soon as we get the room all done, I'll post some...PROMISE!

On top of handy man projects, Matt has been swamped with a semester long project for school. I keep reminding him he has less than 2 months left!!! Graduation is Dec 14! WHOOP!

So for all of our friends who we have neglected for the last couple of months who think we have fallen off the face of the Earth, now you know why. Our life is crazy..but then again, who's isn't?

Our Little Brody

It's not the greatest picture...the ultrasound pics don't scan in too well. But you can see his little head, an arm up by his face, and his leg. He's so sweet. So sweet that he's constantly kicking and punching me. But I wouldn't trade it for anything :)

Here's another one..I had to put this one on here, because even though its hard to see, he's making pouty lips! If you look real close, you can tell his lips are pouting. Matt says he's already taking after me with those haha.

We've also decided on a middle name for him..just not the exact spelling. His name is Brody (Layne or Laine) Palermo.

Thats about all the updates..I go next week for a more thorough ultrasound so we'll have more great pics of him. And I'll have a new belly shot up soon.

Sorry to keep you waiting....

So, the original plan was to have a picture of the ultrasound on here and reveal the name and gender of our baby. However, we've had an exciting and busy day and just haven't had time to get the pic scanned in. So we decided to just fill you all in and just post a pic later.

We are having a precious baby Boy! Brody Palermo! We aren't 100% settled on a middle name but are narrowing it down...we have a couple of good ones to decide between. We will put the pic up soon so you can see him. It is so crazy now to get to know his name and know who it is that is growing inside me. I can't wait for you all to meet him in a few months!

By Popular Demand

11 Weeks Ago....

Today, Sept 14..17 weeks and 5 days

I had to put up the first picture to prove to some of you that I am actually growing. Thought we needed a comparison. My belly has grown so much in the last week alone! And this past Monday I felt the baby move for the first time! Ever since, it has been an active little thing! I mostly feel it first thing in the morning or at night when I'm really relaxed on the couch or in bed. It is the most wonderful, crazy, miraculous thing to feel! Matt thinks he might have felt it once...not sure when it will be big enough and kicking hard enough to know for sure. Hopefully soon so Matt can enjoy this as much as I do.

We find out this coming Thursday, Sept. 2o, if we are having a boy or girl! So here are the poll results...and your last chance to change your mind. I've actually changed mine! I thought it was a boy in the beginning..but now, everything in me says girl. I don't know why..but I have this really strong feeling its a little Kinley in there! Looks like thats the most popular vote as of now:

Poll Results:

Girl: 9

Boy: 3

These are just the "official" results from the blog poll. We've had numerous people just tell us they think its a girl..and only two other people said boy. Allen & Key... and I think that was just so Matt would have someone on his side :)

Its been a while since we've done the poll and I know a few of you had to have changed your mind like I did...so if you have, let us know!

A Place of Our Own

Thought we'd leave you all hanging for a little while on the house situation :) We've been a little busy.

So here's the scoop...

For the last few months, we've been looking at houses (for fun). OUR plan was to buy a house in December after Matt graduates, or possibly not even until next May. I had tons of houses picked out in my head...of course none of them were in our price range. So we always just looked for fun on the internet.

Then..the Lord stepped in. A house that was way cheaper and smaller than what we thought we would be buying became available. At first we weren't excited about it at all..we thought it was too small for our "stuff." The Lord began to change our hearts and showed us that this what He had in mind for us. We realized we had so much "stuff" that we didn't need or even want/use anymore. We got rid of a ton of it and started the crazy process of buying our first home.

We had to get a sublease for our rental house..and wanted it subleased before school started because thats the best time to get someone to rent. The Lord provided a renter by the weekend..one day after we put the sign in the yard! This was HUGE! We had 8 days until school started..and this family needed to be in the house before then. We started immediately painting the new house, packing, and moving with help from family. Even thought we hadn't closed on the house, the sellers allowed us to paint and move in early because of the circumstances. By the following Saturday, we were in!

We've sort of settled in..but still have a lot to do. There are things without a place and the baby's room still looks like a storage room. But it is slowly coming along. We are beginning to see the huge blessing it is and how great it will be to have our own house when this baby comes. We are going to do some minor construction on the garage to make a 3rd bedroom in order to welcome guests into our home.

Come see it! Its super cute and we love it..and would love for you to come hang out!

Sorry, no pictures to post yet. Guess you'll have to come see it in person! And to those of you who are waiting for a formal invitation..THIS IS IT! Just call to make sure we're home :)