NINE Months!

I'm exactly 36 weeks pregnant to the day, about a month shy of finally getting to meet this little lady.  With another semester ending in less than a week and a long Christmas break awaiting on the other end, I'm hoping to make it through this Christmas week, enjoy some of my favorite traditions of this time of year, and then have a few weeks of quiet to prepare our lives for baby two.  That's the plan in my head; however, I'm preparing my mind, heart, and hospital bag in case she decides to make an early appearance.  Peace of mind for the daddy-to-be as we have some traveling to do.

Everything seems to carry a different weight around the holidays and these pictures of Cruz Man and I in the kitchen are no different.  Never again will we have pictures that look like this - a three year helper, independent and eager to do everything himself, and a mom about to pop with his baby sister.  I know these frozen snapshots will someday mean so much to me and be so fun to share with our little girl --- a glimpse into our life just a few weeks before she joined it. 

We had a fun day Sunday, making messes and eating cookies.  Cruz was a chatter box all afternoon, talking my ear off as we dug our hands in flour and baked cookies for Santa Claus.  Or I wonder if it was more the fact that I had lots of time to listen.  Batch after batch, we didn't leave the kitchen until Cruz crashed on the couch with Beau.  We rolled the dough more times than we needed, washed our hands at the sink longer than we needed to, and used far more sprinkles than necessary, but there was no other way I'd rather spend my Sunday. 

Happy cookies, Happy Christmas, Happy BABY.