Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'm finally catching it all up! Hooray! I just updated all of our pictures in Picassa, so please feel free to take a look and see more in depth of what we've been up to. It's taken a while to get it this far because I've been updating 6 months of pictures. Yuck! I hope I never lose my computer again! We do have some more pictures on David's computer from our parents' cameras over vacations. But I'm still working on loading those to my computer. These pictures will give you the general idea at least of what we've been doing.

Part 1: November activities & Thanksgiving

The weather was beautiful for most of November and allowed for a lot of time to be spent outside. Lydia loves to ride her bike. She can't quite reach the pedals yet, but she enjoys Daddy pushing her around anyway.

The 1st weekend of each November is the Motorcycle Ralley in Galveston. We decided to take a gander at it all this year rather than just recieving the downside of Harley's revving their engines all night long. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the cool gadgets out there. We were just a little bit out of place though. This street is just a small sampling of the bikes in Galveston that weekend. All of the streets were lined like this. More people are on the island during this weekend than any tourist day in the summer. Quite the event!

Lydia enjoyed making her apple turkey. Though, she enjoyed eating it even more!

The week before Thanksgiving, Lydia and I were able to join my parents and Neil for a trip to El Paso. Lydia had never gotten to meet my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson before, so we decided to take the chance while we had it. Unfortunately she got sick while we were there and didn't want much to do with anyone but me most of the time, but they enjoyed meeting their Great Grand-daughter anyway.

One day when we were in El Paso, we decided we needed to get out and enjoy some fresh air. So, we took a trip to the zoo. It was fun to see all the animals and walk around.

We kept telling Lydia to stretch out her arms like the monkey, but all she wanted to do was hug it. It was cute.

Unfortunately the carousel was closed down, but Lydia was still happy to sit on the tiger.

My parents and Neil came back with Lydia and I to Galveston for Thanksgiving so that we could include David in our festivities. After a yummy meal and some much needed rest, we decorated a gingerbread house with Lydia and Neil. I think we did a pretty good job!

We all went to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens. It was a beautiful night to go and the lights were amazing. Lydia got so excited for each one!

And, of course, we couldn't have my parents in Galveston and not take at least one walk on the beach! Lydia quickly discovered that she loved hanging out with Grandma the most! She was always looking for things in the water and that was where Lydia wanted to be too! They were such cute little friends!

Part 2: December Pre-Christmas Vacation

Santa made sure to visit at our Ward Christmas Party. Lydia loved watching him from a distance as all of the other kids went to talk to him. However, the closest she would get to him was a stretched out high-five. Working on it a little at a time.

Most of my November and December were spent working Christmas gifts. I will do a post on all of my projects soon. Promise! This was one of my projects. Before we left for visits with Grandparents, we had our own little Christmas. This was Lydia's big gift from us. Lydia was so excited to get her own little kitchen for Christmas! She loves to do whatever I'm doing and I'm happy to say that now, instead of pulling up a chair to help me cook on the hot stove, she goes to her own little kitchen and cooks up some amazing gourmet food! She is also modeling one of her cute little aprons in this picture.

I also got a wonderful gift of my new computer which I love using. The only thing that would make it better would be a comfy chair to sit in, but don't tell David I said that! He'll complain that I sold our old one before we left Provo and then immediately start looking for a new one.

Part 3: Christmas vacation: Andersons part 1

Our first stop on our Christmas vacation was to San Antonio to visit my parents, Neil and Eric and Kiersten who came out from San Diego. We enjoyed a couple relaxing days with them and were able to finish up all of our shopping and do some fun baking. Lydia loved playing the piano with Grandma and Uncle Eric whenever the opportunity arose. She always accompanied it with her beautiful little voice. She is going to be quite the performer one day!

Our last night before we left San Antonio (for the 1st time) we did a little Christmas together complete with caroling, stories and presents. Lydia was excited to get some food to go along with her kitchen set and immediately began preparing meals for everybody. David got some much needed tools and I was excited to get a brand new flat iron (the one I've been using was a hand me down from my sister and was never quite what I needed).

Part 4: Christmas Vacation with the Dickinsons

Okay, so this picture isn't really with the Dickinsons. We were able to steal 1/2 a day away and go see my Grandma Matthews in Issaquah. This is our 3 out of 4 generation picture. Next time we need to drag my mom to Washington with us so that we can get the full deal. It was fun to see my grandma. She is such an energetic, happy and caring woman.

We took a few minutes to see my Grandpa Matthews new headstone. It was beautiful. Perfect for him with Mt. Rainier on it and the caption "You are the wind beneath my wings". Lydia loved walking around the cemetary and admiring all the headstones and pretty flowers.

We spend part of a day at Pike Place Market with David's family. I have fond memories of going there as a child with my family. And it never disappoints me when I see them throwing the fish around and tasting all the wonderful nuts! Lydia loves seeing all the exciting things there too! I had though that she may get bored easy, but she was enthrawled the whole time!

That night we went to the Point Defiance Zoo to see the lights. Once again, Lydia loves lights and gets excited for them. It took me several shots to get this picture, but it sure was worth all the effort! Such a beautiful happy girl!

Christmas morning (the real one). It took a lot to get Lydia to stand there for a picture when she desperately wanted to plow into all those beautifully wrapped presents! It was a nice Christmas and I wish I could say like all my friends that the spirit was felt so much stronger because we were able to go to church. But the truth is, that was probably the most challenging sacrament meeting I have ever had with Lydia. I was to the point of tears. I actually gave in a spent a lot of it in the Lobby with her (and that's saying quite a bit because I'm very opposed to letting Lydia think that is acceptable). But, by the time all the excitement over opening presents had cooled down and I had a little time to rest, things got better and it ended up being a pleasant Christmas after all. And sweet Lydia was having a rough trip too. As we found out later that week, she was sick with Fifth Disease and was really having a hard time. Poor girl! (And for those who know about Fifth Disease and pregnancy: I'm okay. My brother had it when I was little and I built up the necessary antibodies for it. So, the baby is doing good.)

Lydia loved Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson's cat, Herckie. This is a sampling of the loving she gave that poor cat. Fortunately, he was very patient with it all and took it like a champ. I think that he was very happy when Lydia went home.

Lydia also loved getting to play with her cousin Sophie who is just 6 months older than her. They were the perfect little duo and were always getting into mischief!

Grandma Dickinson with all of her grandkids: Sophie, Noah and Lydia.

Part 5: Back to San Antonio with the Andersons

Being back in Texas felt amazing after weathering the cold of Washington! I have to say that I am built for warm weather and (as we learned on this trip) so is Lydia. It was both sad and funny when Lydia would cry and say "ouch" when her hands got the slightest bit cold from being outside in Washington!

Anyhow, after getting back to San Antonio, realizing that Lydia had been sick with Fifth Disease for the whole week, being on the phone with nurses on what to do, and then getting some much needed rest, we got outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We spent one day touring the San Antonio missions (minus the Alamo). They were all beautiful and unique in their own ways. Some were restored more than others. It was my first time getting to see them all and enjoyed it a lot.

One of Lydia's favorite parts about the missions were the rock gardens. She loved throwing the rocks and collecting them. My mom joked that she would also have a lunchbox full of rocks one day (like somebody else she knew).
This was Lydia by the time we reached the final mission. Such a sweet little angel!

That night we had fun playing with the parachute and eating my dad's dutch oven cooking.

On the morning before we left San Antonio we took a hike in Government Canyon. It was very beautiful and felt so good to be outdoors! This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip! Lydia loves her Daddy so much!

Grandpa found Lydia her own little walking stick. She had a lot of fun hiking like Grandpa!

And that sums up our trips and some of our fun over the last couple of months. I know it was long, but you made it! Life has been busy, but exciting! Now I'm very excited for some much needed rest, organization time, catching up on things (like blogging), and starting some fun new projects!

It's (another) girl!

Despite my confidence that I was definitely having a boy this time, I was proven wrong. We went on Monday to get the fun ultrasound for our baby # 2 and were told that we were having another little girl! I asked the nurse a couple times if she was sure, and she pointed everything out to me very slowly. Apparently I should never make a guess again as to what people (including myself) will be having! I have been wrong every time as of late.

Even though I was wrong, I am so thrilled to have another little girl! I have fallen in love with ruffles and bows with Lydia and am excited to have another little girl to dress up. Plus we have several of the little girl essentials already (this is important considering we are still pushing through med school) and Lydia can have a playmate to cook in her new little kitchen with and sing and dance with. David is excited too, even though he is realizing that he will really be out-numbered with another girl running around. He was hoping for a wrestling buddy. But I think he felt better when I pointed out how much Lydia loves wrestling around with him.

We took Lydia with us to this ultrasound in hopes that it would help her understand a little of what is going on. I'm not sure how successful that was. She was excited to see the baby on the screen, but got bored after a while of all the necessary measurements and wanted to get up on the bed with me. After we were all done, Lydia climbed up on the bed, put the towel over her stomach and asked to see the baby in her tummy. I wish I had been able to pull out the camera fast enough. It was cute. She now points to my belly and tells me there's a baby in it. However, it is always followed by pointing her her belly also and telling me about her baby. Sigh. I don't think she'll fully understand it until her world has changed forever. She is enjoying all the excitement though and that's enough. She'll be a great big sister!

Here's a couple pics from our ultrasound. We expect this one to be a great gymnist because of how her feet were kicking herself in the head for most of the ultrasound. Too fun!

Those are her feet up above her head.

And I'll be posting more updates soon! I got a wonderful new computer for Christmas and can now update all of my pictures so much easier! Things don't take several days to complete anymore! Hooray!