Happy 5 year anniversary

Tuesday December 20 was Evan and my 5th anniversary of our first date, and subsequently our 4th anniversary from the day Evan proposed. I spent all day baking and cooking for the arrival of Evan's family and in the afternoon I got my hair cut. While I was getting my hair cut the lady of course starts some "small talk" and asks me about my plans for the evening (after she asks me, "oh you must hate your hair cuz it's so straight?") so I told her my husband and I were celebrating our 5th anniversary of our first date, by going out to ice cream, which is what we did on our first date. She wasn't too impressed-she thought it was cheesy or corny or perhaps both. Well I love to celebrate non-holidays, and any excuse to have Magnetic Mint from Sub Zero is good enough for me. I tried to get a picture at the ice creme place, but the lighting was awful, so here we are in the bathroom at home.

oh yeah, it was also my due date! Happy 40 weeks. I'm still not very uncomfortable, and with my huge torso, I think the baby is comfortable too so I suspect we'll meet her next week!

Evan's first pay check

Friday was my last day of work. As you could imagine it was a little biter-sweet. I really enjoyed this job and I loved my coworkers, however leaving work means I'm just a little closer to becoming a mom-which I can't wait for. (My "due date" is Tuesday, but I have a feeling this little one is going to wait until after Christmas)Friday was also "Holiday Dress Up day." I've always loved dress up days. Can you guess who I am? The Virgin Mary! There are a lot of Jewish kids at the club I worked at, so the kids kept asking me if I was a dradle! I did however learn how to play dradle with a first grader.
Evan has now been in medical school for 3.5 years. Which means he has not had a paycheck in that time frame....until last night. Evan's sister Sara is involved with a local theater company which also carols around Christmas time. The carolers were in need of another male voice so they asked Evan if he would join. They sang last night at a retirement community's dinning hall-and got paid for it! I found Evan's "costume" hanging in our closet and thought they mistakenly wanted him to dress as a pimp, but it appears that the holly on the side of the hat distinguishes him from a pimp and makes him a caroler!

The Coper Star Carolers!

Baby it's cold outside

Evan had an interview for a residency today. So he told baby before he left that she must wait to arrive until Wednesday. Well he's home now so we are ready for her anytime! I'm 39 weeks today. My coworkers have a poll going so my boss keeps reminding me NOT to have the baby when I leave each night (she picked Dec 24). I still feel pretty good, so I'm ok waiting for her to be ready, but we sure are excited to meet her.

The nursery is not quite done yet. I still want a dresser and book shelf, but for now it's done.

GO COUGARS!!

Yes that is my Christmas bear swaddled in the crib! And yes that is a beautiful quilt Grandma Pattie made for baby Norby (yup still no name, but we're getting closer to picking one).

I love Christmas

I love Christmas. I love trying out new things and going on new adventures. I love Christmas Traditions. I just love almost everything about this time of year! Evan and I tagged along with Evan's sister and her kids to a "train display." It was held at this man's backyard. Apparently he is a train collector and shows off his trains for a couple nights during the holiday season. It was almost like an amusement park. There were tons of people, lots of old people and little kids. It was fun to try something new.

Our nephew made Evan close his eyes while we were waiting in line to get to the backyard. They were so excited to show uncle Evan all the cool trains.

After our train adventure we went to a friend of Evan's Christmas party. It was fun to go to an "adult only" Christmas party. The next night we went to a Messiah Sing-a-long with Evan's sister and her kids. Her kids were really well behaved (mostly because they ALL fell asleep). It was really fun to hear the soloists and Evan and Sara each both their own scores and belted out the sing-a-long parts (I just tried not to make a fool of myself;)

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;)