It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Finally we made it home with the tree! It took me forever to put the lights on the tree, and Evan even had to run to Wal-Mart to get another strand of lights.

The kids waiting patiently to put on the ornaments...

Kinda patiently...They kept asking me, "can we put the ornaments on the bottom where you already put the lights?"

Passing out the ornaments, just like my mom use to do

Evan's "First Christmas" ornament

My "First Christmas" ornament

As per Robins family tradition we let all the kids have a turn putting up the star.

Yeah all done! I think Wade was mad in this picture because his little brother got to put the star on last. (p.s. I LOVE that we have a mantle in this apartment, makes it feel more like a home and I love to see all THREE of our stockings hung there)

FALL? In Arizona?

Evan may have worn shorts and a T-shirt to pick out our Christmas tree, but I have notices some Autumn-like things this year in AZ. Most notable is the tree in from of our apartment building that keeps losing it's leafs! All the other trees around the complex are green and filled with leaves, but the one our front reminds me a little of seasons to come!

Not much of a pile to jump in, but they had a good time for about 5 minutes!

Most of the tree is still green, but the leafs that aren't are so beautiful. Gotta Love AZ

Finding the perfect Christmas tree

As Norby tradition goes we buy a REAL tree the day after Thanksgiving and let the Christmas celebrating begin! This year we brought our niece, nephew and Evan's brother along to help pick out the tree...and it's a good thing we did.

Walking around the Home Depot (my favorite place to buy a tree) lot to find the perfect tree.

Wade hiding in the trees

Kallie found one almost her size

Which one do we pick? It was a tough choice, BUT we went with...

the right one!

This year we didn't live close enough to a store to walk, like we have done the three previous years, so we had to drive. Since we had to buy straps to secure the baby's crib in the crib fiasco it was no big deal strapping the tree to the roof of our car, especially since Evan's brother was there to help (I'm no longer very useful in situation like that;)

36 weeks

We are getting closer to welcoming Baby Norby. We couldn't be more excited. Christmas will never be the same again-and we couldn't be more happy. Evan put together our stroller (which I love). All these little projects have seemed to creep up on me, but I finally feel like I'm getting a handle on all the misc things that need to be done before baby arrives. I thought that 9 months would go by so slowly so I spaced out all my chores so I wouldn't get to antsy. However these last few months have gone by so FAST...Oops. Good thing I have a husband to help me out! I love him so much and can't wait to see him as a dad!

Action shot!

Here I am 36 weeks pregnant. Every time I upload these pictures I realize I need to clean my bathroom mirror! Also all the markings on the mirror are from my nephew who wanted me to leave it on the mirror so uncle Evan could see it.

Thanksgiving

Evan finally got home from Florida. We actually got back on the same night...Me from my brother's wedding and Evan from his long drive home. So a few days later we had our Thanksgiving feast. We celebrated at Evan's sister's house and his brother was still in town after their trek back west. Sara also had a few friends over so it was quite the low key party.

Sara and I split the cooking assignments, but I told her she could do the Turkey;)

My favorite part about Thanksgiving is not the stuffing or the pie it is the relish tray. As a kid my mom always put out a relish tray and cheese and crackers while we waited for the feast to finally be ready. It kept us busy and out of her hair, she's one smart lady. And of course the football game is on in the background!

Carving the turkey!

I wanted to take a picture with Evan before he went off to play Frisbee with his brother...and I fell asleep on the couch;) Not the most flattering picture of me...but that's what I look like right now! That night we attempted to go to bed some what early since we decided to go black Friday shopping. It was Evan's first experience. I was a little disappointed for him because it was so painless, or perhaps it was so painless because Evan is so lucky. We went to the one store we wanted to go to-found what we wanted and didn't have to wait in a check out line. We were out of the store in under 10 minutes. So then we wondered around Evan's favorite store Best Buy for a while-which was no longer crowded because we got there 5 hours after the doors opened.

Year of the Wedding part IV

My big brother Dustin tied the knot November 18th in Berkeley, California. It was so fun to have our family all together another time this year (minus Evan of course since he was still in Florida). I also got to meet my famous niece Alice (she was accidentally born on the bathroom floor at her house-her mom's just a rock star that's all)

The night before the wedding we had a "rehearsal dinner" in San Francisco. We didn't rehearse anything, but we did have some yummy Italian food.

The wedding was so nice. The couple said their own vows which were very thoughtful. And my ring bearer nephew and his "date" stole the show. They walked in first and people couldn't stop taking pictures of them. They were just so cute.

They had some really personal touches to the wedding which I liked. My brother really loves baseball, especially the Giants. So there cake topper was a groom pitching a baseball to his bride. The bride Jessica wore a black and orange garter and black and orange shoes (for the Giants). All the groomsmen and Dustin wore Vans. Dustin and Jess met in high school when Dustin trained Jess at the Vans shoe store in Tracy (Jess is now a store manager). Overall a great party!!!

Amber's Little Pumpkin

November 12 my "medical school wives club" threw me an awesome baby shower. The theme was "pumpkin." My friend called me up and asked what my feelings on pumpkins were...um I like pumpkins? I wasn't sure how I was suppose to answer, but they diffidently had a clear vision in mind. They decorated the tables with vases full of pumpkins and gourds, had yummy food for the brunch including pumpkin cinnamon rolls, passed out pumpkin seeds as the favor, and of

course this adorable banner as a decoration.

My camera batteries were dead so this is the only picture I have (which I took from my SIL facebook;).

We also played a few rounds of baby themed charades. My 8-year-old niece was fun to watch especially when she drew "going into labor" as her action to act out. I couldn't have asked for a better shower, great food and great friends-they really thought of everything!