Christmas Bells Are Ringing

I love Christmas season. I love the holiday music and the goodies and the focus on the Savior and service. And this year I especially love the holidays because they have been coinciding with me getting better and puking less! At least, they were until last week when Levi came down with a stomach bug and then Eric got it and then I got it despite my panicking efforts to quarantine myself, not touch anyone and desperate prayers for mercy. I literally had an anxiety attack when Eric threw up for the first time. But I suppose it was just in the cards for me to get it anyway. So, I went from throwing up a total of 3 times all week the week before last (woot woot!!) to throwing up 9 times in one day on Wednesday (booo!!). But thankfully it went away relatively quickly although I'm still recovering and definitely not back to the way I was before I got it. It doesn't help that Eric, Levi and I drove through the night Friday night to come down to California. I LOVE being here with my family but turns out my body really, really does not like sleep deprivation while pregnant and responds by puking more. Awesome. But today has been better and I have high hopes that I will continue to improve.

Anyway, back to the whole Christmas thing, I love Christmas. I love surprising people with gifts and I'm excited this year to see Levi be old enough to actually get excited about the presents he is opening. Eric and I got him a play kitchen and my mom got him a shopping cart and fake food. I am so excited about it because I just know he will love it. At playgroup on Friday he had three major meltdowns because there happened to be a play shopping cart there and he was obsessed with it and having some serious difficulties sharing. So while it was embarrassing for me to repeatedly have to calm down my screaming child and talk to him about sharing because some other kid had attempted to touch the shopping cart, it reassures me that this is definitely the right gift for him! And at least he responded with crying rather than hitting or biting. Haha.

So yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to the next two weeks here in sunny California! Eric and I are leaving Levi here at my parents house on Tuesday and driving down to Monterey for a few days. I am sooo excited for some alone time with my hubby in such a beautiful place!! And then back here in Santa Rosa for Christmas and getting to hang out with Eric and Natachia and Katie. It'll be awesome :) And hopefully we remember to take more pictures than we did when we got together at Thanksgiving! Haha.

Here's some photos of life lately:

Levi's best friend right now is Lincoln, who is 4 days older than him. They've gotten to hang out together a few times in the last few weeks and every time Levi gets really excited. He will sometimes ask in the morning "Ni-con's house? Ni-con's house?" Haha its so adorable! 

They are both very much into trains. They say, "choo-choo" and "ding ding" while they make their train cars go around the tracks. 

I helped Levi put his hands in his pockets and it was soo cute! Haha. Also he still loves his dinosaur boots. 

So the other day I was dumping our recycling into the big recycling dumpster at the back of our complex and the noise startled Levi so he yelled and grabbed me and I totally dropped our recycling bin into the dumpster! I couldn't figure out how to get it out so Eric had to come help me the next day. Of course Eric got it out within a couple seconds. Haha. 

Levi loves "driving" the cars at the mall!