'Tis The Season

'Tis the season for busy schedules, and we have been right in the thick of things in the Steffen household.  It's funny that I look at this week and see TWO free nights with nothing written on the calendar & that makes my whole week!  Then I realize that one of those free nights is Wednesday night & really we should probably go to church because we haven't been doing a good job of attending our midweek services...and THEN I get a call about making candy & it's scheduled on the other free night of my week.  Once again, my week is full and the madness continues.  It's an exciting time, but I'm really ready for January and a slower schedule. There is so much to do before baby Steffen joins our family & we haven't really had time to do any of those things.  If I think about all of this too much, it makes me want to scream!  AAAAAHHHH!!!  Ok, my venting is over & I feel so much better J Here are a few things that we've been up to lately.

I've been starting to look & feel pregnant.  My clothes weren't
fitting great anymore & thankfully I have a great friend who said
I could borrow some of her maternity clothes.  Wasn't expecting
a tub filled with 57 items!  Thanks, Sara!

My first time wearing one of those borrowed maternity shirts!
Ryan has informed me that he kinda likes my little tummy.
I didn't even know he took this picture.

Decided to hang our Christmas lights the day after thanksgiving.

It was freezing!  Thus the parka.

Extremely windy too.

We strung out our lights in the house because our hands were so
numb we couldn't do anything with them outside.  Nice hood honey,
don't think it's doing much for you warmth wise!

So windy that Ryan's ladder fell down...it wasn't pretty, but he
persevered!  JK he didn't really fall down.  We just thought this
was a funny picture.

Later that day we went to cut down our Christmas tree.

All dressed up & ready to go.

Oh & did I mention Ryan & I had just spent over an hour outside
hanging lights.  Another hour outside cutting down a tree wasn't
sounding quite as exciting, but it's tradition so there we were the day
after Thanksgiving heading out to get our tree.

Seth being a great brother rolling me out to the Christmas tree field.

Someone's gotta cut...

and someone's gotta hold.

Back in the warmth decorating our tree.

Stringing the beads.

and the bulbs.

Our finished tree!

Saturday after Thanksgiving we were back outside finishing
the Christmas lights.  We were very glad that job was over!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, my family got together
to decorate Christmas cookies.

Love Otto checking out Ryan taking the picture.  He's probably
the only one who noticed!

Klint & Sarah hard at work.

Another picture of my tummy that I didn't know Ryan was taking!

Ryan eating a cookie while I ice it.

Aw!  Cute couple J

Klint & Sarah

Jon & Pam hosted our last couple's Bible Study.

Good food, friends & games.

Wendy realizing that she has the upper hand in The Price Is Right!

Last weekend we babysat Jesse & Janelle's kids Friday & Saturday.

We had fun but were totally exhausted Sunday morning!  We decided
 that ONE is a good number to start with for our family.

We have this cute little nativity that kids can play with.  Molly
& Tess really enjoyed playing with it.

Monday we found our nativity put back like this.  We laughed
really hard...how cute is this!  I guess we just didn't have the
excitement of baby Jesus quite captured the way we had it set up.

To finish it all off, Ryan's coat zipper broke last week &
therefore he has been wearing this coat to work for the last
2 days.  He asked me if this coat was tacky...um tacky may
be a bit of an understatement honey, but I love you anyways!

And that's what we've been up to the last 3 weeks!