Waiting away the day

It's Christmas Eve and the kids have been off school all week. It has gone well so far...until today. We have stayed pretty busy this week. Mon we went to McDonald's for lunch with friends. The kids had dons all their chores so I figured they deserved a reward. I went over to Sam's Club with a friend to stock up on snacks and stuff while another friend stayed with the kids at McDonald's. Brave friend, thanks :) I'm not sure what we did Tues, but whatever it was the kids were good. Wed. we had a company come and Aero seal our air ducts and then the kids went to the gym I used to work at for "Mommies Day Out" They were there for 3 hours and I got all my gift wrapping done. Now today we have nothing really planed so we are waiting around till Daddy gets home from work.... With not much to do the kids are starting to pick on/at each other. I should let them go to the park or something.

Tomorrow is Christmas and we are all so excited for it. I think I will start feeling it when Chad gets home and we can start spending time as a family.

It's hard to believe this year has gone already. This year to come is going to bring so many changes, it will probably fly by. This last year I felt like I was checked out of life for most of it. I sincerely tip my hat to working moms. I don't know how you do it. I had such a hard time balancing everything, I constantly felt overwhelmed and out of control. Then I got pregnant in Aug and while I was able to quit due to Chad getting a promotion :) I was now very tired and nauseous all the time, so again, I never felt like I could handle much. It is only recently that I feel normal again, who knows how long that will last! Since I was working this summer we did not go to my parents like we have the last few years, but we made up for it at Thanksgiving. The kids and I went to California for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we had to leave Chad at home due to his work schedule. We had lost of fun. it was especially exciting because this pregnancy we decide to see how long we could go without telling our families about it. We have always tried to tell at lest Chad's family in a creative way. My family always got a phone call. This time around I tried to think about how we could tell them and I asked Chad if would be bad of us to not tell them and make a game out of seeing how long we could pass it off. Especially since most of them think we are done having kids and are not expecting us to be making any announcements. I made it to Thanksgiving with my family. I was 21 weeks by then and couldn't hide it any more, especially for a week and a half! I spent the day with my mom and sister at my cousins wedding before I finally revealed it to my mom on our way back to my house from Mesa. I had worn a flowy dress to hide it, but it hurt to try holding it in by the end of the day. She was very surprised and immediately reached for her phone to call dad, but I told her she had to wait till we got to California (She was driving home with us for our holiday trip). My brother Sam had one of the best reactions. He walked in and gave me a hug. and as we stood there talking I noticed he was looking directly at my eyes (until I would look away and then he would gape at my stomach). Until my mm started giggling a little and then he couldn't stand it any longer. "OK this is REALLY awkward" he said " are you pregnant?" He was relieved that the answer was yes, he was unsure if he had just forgotten or what. Deveren was also great. he walked in and said "your pregnant!" I said "No I'm not, I've put on some weight" Then after his look of paranoia my mom broke in and said I was. I was seconds away for crying, it was going to be so great! I'm obviously pregnant so he was really confused. We are going to Chad's families tonight, so we are anxious for their reaction. It has really helped to pregnancy go by fast, I'm more than half the way through, now it may slow down. It was always fun to see if I could wear an outfit to get by for one more month.

Update -

Chads families reactions - We walked into TA's and G-pa stood and looked out he side of his eyes looking, but trying to not look like he was looking. He then walked over to G-ma and TA where she was asking TA, is Nicki pregnant? TA said "I sure hope so". They talked for a bit and mom walked over and asked if we had an announcement to make.

The next day we went over to mom and dad's and Nick and Kristy and Ashley and Bart who were not there the night before got to see. Nick was so confused and kept trying to get Kirsti's attention. He finally had to go stand by her and ask her. She said, "I'm not asking" he made her ask and she asked if we had an announcement to make. He was relieved to hear the news and they were both very happy for us. When Ashley got there he brought attention to my belly and she noticed. She was so excited.