Feliz Cumpleanos Jesus!

Well, now that the commotion and chaos has died down in the Dennis household, I thought I might sit down and write about it before we go to our second Christmas with the Gutshall side of the family!  That is one nice thing about  married life is that you get multiple Christmas celebrations!  I have been observing the differences between my family and the Gutshall family.  Growing up at my house, everyone was always loud and there was always something going on.  My family is the type that will have the TV blaring while we all sit and have a conversation, not watching the TV but trying to speak over it.  The noisiness intensified when we got my little brothers Asher and Clay (ages 6 & 5), who use their outside voices wherever they are.  Caleb's family is the type that is always quiet, one person speaking at a time, and they might sit down and play a quiet board game.  I appreciate both styles and it's nice to have both.  It might be a little much to always have one or the other, ha :)


So, I spent the first few days in the kitchen when we got into Joplin.  My family is also the type that goes overboard on food for holidays, especially sweets.  We had an entire table filled with sweets: oreo truffles, peanut butter bars, puppy chow, toffee, chocolate-covered peanuts, Christmas cookies, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...  And we have no problem going through them.  However, I do have to say that we had 13 adults, 2 kids, 1 baby, 1 baby-in-the-making, and 5 dogs running around.  Meaning we had people sleeping in all rooms of the house, including the work out room.  On Christmas Eve we went to the service at my parent's church and came to a surprise visit from Santa Claus!  He has visited every year since we were tiny.  It's a tradition...

Our festive boy in his Christmas sweater:

Brody opening his stocking.  Surprisingly, he knew just what to do!

Christmas day we were up at 7 opening presents, which is not bad, because I'm sure it was much earlier when we were little.  It was most fun watching Caeden open presents.  Since we always have so many relatives here, it always takes us the entire morning to go through all the presents.  We decided we would like to go simpler next  year by limiting the number of presents.  We'll see if that happens... Nana (my mom) likes to spoil people a little much :)


Caleb has spent much of the time here working on Emerson's baby furniture.  We bought some white wood furniture (crib, dresser, changing table, glider) and have decided to distress it.  So, Caleb has devoted a lot of time to sanding the corners/edges and staining the furniture.  It looks great so far!  It ends up with a creamy color rather than stark white and will go really well with the brown and green colors we have picked out.  I cannot wait to get it all put together whenever we move into a roomier place before Emerson comes.  I am getting very antsy for him to come, especially after spending the week with my precious nephew Caeden.  It will be so fun to have a 9 month old with us next Christmas!  


Here are a few more random pics for you that I couldn't not put on the blog:

So you can see my belly:

Because footy pajamas on toddlers are wonderful:

Well, time for me to go help clean up now! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and were blessed by the time with your families as we celebrate Christ's birth!

Amber vs. moth... the showdown

When living with all females, I was the fearless bug killer.  When I got married, I figured I would be able to retire from this position, since I would be married to a man.  Boy was I wrong.  I wasn't wrong because Caleb is scared of bugs, but because the bugs only come out when Caleb is at work.  They know I'm alone and they want to get me.  So, this morning I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business when I heard a squeaky noise.  Who knew that moths made squeaky noises?  At least this one did.  So, I looked behind me and a couple feet from my head is a moth.  Not the normal kind of moth that sits there without moving; this was a crazy, psycho moth.  And he was a fat moth, full of guts. 

So, what do Brody and I do, but jump up!  Normally Brody comes to my rescue with bugs because he is a fearless hunter, but this bug could fly and Brody is only about 8 inches high when standing on all fours.  But he knew what was going on and he was prepared to go into battle with me.  So, at this point I am torn... fly swatter or shoe?  My instincts make me run to my closet to get a shoe.  Then I remember that I would rather get Caleb's shoe gutsy than mine, so I go to his closet.  Then I remember that all his shoes are heavy and I should go get the fly swatter.  But as I begin to exit the bedroom door, in comes the big, crazy, sporadic moth.  He followed me!  What makes this so scary is that I know he senses me with his wave radars.  I feel like he follows my movements.  So, I grab one of my flats and chase him into the bathroom.  Brody and I stare him down waiting for him to be still, because he is all over the place.  Finally, he flies behind the shower curtain... I sneakily approach him and fling open the shower curtain!!!  And he goes behind the shower doors.  I hurriedly open the doors and find Mr. moth flying all over the place again. 

Then I begin a game of whack a mole with this moth and miss about ten times before I finally hit him, since he was soo fast and unpredictable, just like any good warrior would be.  But I got him in the end and he lie dead on the floor of our bathtub, unmoving.  So, I picked him up with some TP and flushed him down the potty, never to lay eyes on him again.  I have to admit, I was flustered and feeling anxious about this whole experience.  I was feeling a little bit angry at Caleb for never being there to come to my rescue.  It was traumatic, like all my bug incidents are.  I am not scared of bugs, usually, especially when I am in control of the situation, but every once in awhile I am not in control, like today. 

But, Brody and I survived to tell another battle tale, no thanks to Caleb.

Deck the Halls!

Warning:  this is going to be long and full of pictures.  I know it takes me forever to post, but we don't have internet and as you know, this is the busyest time of the year!  Where to begin?  Well, I will just go in chronological order of the events which have taken place...

I am sad to say (yet grateful to say) that we sold my car, Roxy.  Roxy was my first car ever, thus she was mine for 8 years.  We have developed quite the bond, so I had a bittersweet feeling inside as I saw her drive off.  Caleb and I just came to the point where selling her was the wisest decision for us financially.  It's because we have the whole newlywed, student, pregnancy thing going on.  But praise the Lord we sold Roxy for the asking price.  They didn't even try to talk us down!  Answered prayer.  Now, let's have a moment of silence as we remember Roxy.

After saying goodbye to Roxy, we zoomed off in Yoshi (our Japanese Toyata RAV4) up to KC for Thanksgiving.  We spent Thanksgiving with Caleb's family.  We relaxed, shopped, trotted with turkeys, and ate.  It was perfect.  Mike, DeeDee, Danielle, Caleb, and I ran the 5k, and it went well!  We now all have matching turkey shirts.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Though I did realize later that I forgot to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which stinks!  Oh well :)  

After Thanksgiving Caleb and I decked our halls, making our little apartment look quite festive.  We are now in the Christmas spirit :)  We also purchased a dog-sized stocking for our boy, Brody.  It is hanging on the corner of his cage.  He thinks it's a toy, but little does he know it will soon be filled with treats from Santa ;)  Here are some pics!

There is just something about Christmas time that fills me with joy.  I just love the season.  I think it's because I grew up with an entire family that loves Christmas.  I have so many fond memories from my childhood of our Christmases as a family.  So, I am loving this time of year.  My family takes an annual trip to Bass Pro Shop in Springfield to take pics with Santa.  We did that this past weekend and here is the pic:

 Please excuse my cousin to the far left who was so excited to be in our family picture that she couldn't resist the urge to pledged allegiance, so sentimental.  Our family is continually growing.  We started with five people in the picture and now we have eleven (not including Santa)!  Next year, little Emerson Paul will be in it... as a 9 month old, which is CRAZY!  Speaking of Emerson, I have some belly pics for ya!  This is me at 23 weeks, which is 6 months. 

We took this picture 2 weeks ago, because now I am 25 weeks.  I'm growing every day, because I'm in the second trimester!  We had a doctor's appointment last week and I have gained 16 pounds so far and Emerson's heartbeat was 152 bpm, which is normal.  Here is a little baby update for you: Emerson is about 9 inches from head to bottom (not including legs) and weighs about 1.5 pounds.  My uterus is the size of a soccer ball... Emerson's nostrils are beginning to open this week and his vocal chords are developed :)  He still seems to be a pretty calm baby.  I feel him probably about 2 to 3 times a day, usually in the morning or evening.  I love it when he presses outward against my belly.  You can feel a hard area and figure out where he is.  I just like to rub him when that happens, because I think he can feel my touch!  I am becoming so eager to meet him already, but I still have 15 more weeks.  I know if I'm already getting impatient that I will become even more impatient the closer March gets.  I have to just remind myself that he is still growing and we are in preparation for him.  I would be better if he just waits :)  

Finally, I will conclude with a little bit about my honey, Caleb.  He is doing well and finishes school this week (one week earlier than me).  He has a possible job opportunity for May when he finishes school.  I will reveal more about that as it gets closer.  He has been working on his winter beard for a month now and it is growing in nicely...and thickly... and scratchily.  Anyway, he stopped to pose for a few photos to show off his beard:

What a dork :)  Anyway, I hope this post made you smile.  Enjoy this Christmas season and let's try not to get too caught up in the commerciality of it all...  Love y'all!