hanta clause came to town early.

we celebrated w/ my dad's side of the family this past saturday...& yes as oliver would put it... "hanta" showed up as well. i enjoyed the early festivities...kind of prolongs the holiday a little more =) but...really found out that it's hard to be a preggo during such times. no wine. no follow up with baileys on the rocks. no 'tis the season, i'll have another, why not!? haha =) despite my lack in indulging in beverages, it was so much fun to get together with everyone! especially watching our little oliver & stella bounce around all hopped up on sugar & good times!

our first round of snow has since disappeared...

it's not gonna be a white christmas at this rate...& that's okay with me!

giving jared a big ole hug!

the guys piecing together toys...their job for the next how many years to come =)

the gift that keeps on giving...jelly of the month club!

fabulous anthro coffee cups

and james showing off his "forever lazy"

room for stella in there!

oliver sharing his sucker with james...courtesy of lucas

and this is our attempt at a family photo...wow!

and then the dance party began...

via stella's request for damon dotson...

it was a good night =)

eric teaching the kiddos the 'hanny dance'

and then it was time for "sleigh rides"...

they hooked up their trusty reindeer to tow them around

sugar high + non-stop running around for hours + christmas jammies = crashing soon!

...and then the dance party was revisited...this time in their christmas jams

...the next morning =)

love you hanson family! xoxo

a little nice & a lot of naughty.

the title is a direct reflection of oliver, yes...while he really does have a sweet sweet personality {sensitive heart & affectionate}, he continues to show us how the terrible twos are going to proceed. we have overcome 2 major barriers in the recent past: we've managed to add more movies to our watch list {i haven't watched Cars for like 5 days - ring the alarms!} & oliver's vocabulary is growing daily! it's amazing. i constantly catch myself thinking back 2 years ago, when he was just a little muffin, screaming for food & sleeping more than awake. such progress! but he's repeating everything, which means, mama & daddy really need to watch it =)

as far as this mama bear goes...i am reaching that...okay! i'm ready to have this baby out of me threshold! i know, already. i physically feel how i did at 9 months with oliver. but there are still 2 months to go. the beginning part of this pregnancy really mirrored my pregnancy with oliver, but as the days close, i'm starting to experience some very different side effects. loss of breath, fatigue after minimal activity & braxton-hicks contractions. i'm going to admit that those scared me a little. i had not experienced any of these "false" contractions when pregnant with oliver, so this new experience threw me off. and to call them "fake/false" contractions is a horrible name might i add...they hurt! they didn't continue like real labor pains, but they hurt! i told mike that if i was dilated, it felt like this baby was going to fall right out. i have since felt any since the weekend, so i've made the conscious effort to really watch my energy exertion. but you tell me how the heck i'm supposed to do this w/ a maniac 2 year old?! ha. i've started my 'every 2 week appointments' to the doctor this friday, so i am hoping that between the more frequent visits & the holidays...february delivery day will come soon!

with the braxton-hicks going on, it was a real eye-opener to how close this was to actually happening. we have numerous home improvement projects that have been put on hold due to mike's extra-curricular jobs on the weekends...but now...i am seriously ready, as is mike, to continue the progress. just a short home improvement list to check off in amongst the holiday activities & baby delivery. no biggie. i think this is what they refer to as "nesting" with preggos. i never had much interest my first pregnancy, but now, it's time to get some stuff done!

on a sweet note, i also wanted to share that despite my failure of first round glucose testing during first pregnancy...i passed this one w/ flying colors! whew! so to wrap this post up, i'll leave you w/ some holiday ollyness & texture. i love me a fresh christmas tree & the lights aglow =) and yes, shirts & pants are still optional in this household...