Gingerbread Competition 2010

Shem won the Thompson Gingerbread competition this year!  We held our egg drop at the church on Christmas eve and dropped our creations, made of food, from the ladder to see if the egg inside would survive.  Shem had the brilliant idea of using rice paper (light-weight and edible) to make an upside down witch hat to help his egg float to the ground.

As you can see from the photos below he is soooo excited that he won! 

P.S. Don't mind the sloppy template job...I'm still learning how to use photoshop elements, but so far I like what I'm experimenting with.

Photoshop elements template

Photoshop is so complicated!  I downloaded elements today to try out these templates and I just can't believe how finicky the program is, and there is so much for me to learn!  I will definitely need some kind of a book to get me through this because unlike Lightroom it's not as straight forward; however, I'm excited to learn something new.

Here is what I made today and what I hope to perfect in the future. :)

Baby Boy

This is my baby boy at 20 weeks.  We're currently working on putting some meat on those bones and baby already likes to suck on his hand and sip amniotic fluid every now and then.  He moves a lot and seems to move even more if I eat sugar.  Can sugar harm my baby?  I'm assuming that it's not good for us, but I wonder if in large amounts it could hurt the baby.  Weird thoughts.  In addition to feeling the baby a lot I have also grown a good sized belly and despite my growth I've discovered that I can still wear a pair of my old jeans zipped and unbuttoned.  The zipping is tight around the bottom part of my uterus, so I'm looking for ways to wear them without zipping.  I'm okay with a big belly (it's inevitable with my short torso), but I'm hoping that most of the weight will be pregnancy related and not result in huge amounts to loose later on.

I think Shem is slowing beginning to feel that this baby is real.  After our ultrasound he was quiet and I assumed that he was processing the whole experience and realizing for one of the first times that we really are having a baby.  It made me happy when on our way home he made a joke about me carrying a baby boy and today while we cuddled before getting out of bed he felt the baby move when his hand was on my belly.  I hope that he begins to feel more connected as the baby grows.  He's going to be a great father and I'm sure once our little one is here it will be one of his happiest moments.

I really want to remember this special moments with baby before he is born!  Sometimes I feel like he moves more when we talk about something specific or, like this morning, when Shem was waiting to feel him move.  After our ultrasound he was moving like crazy and I think he was excited to know that we knew that he was a boy.  But that's just my assumption. :)  He and I are already making a great team since from the beginning I had a feeling that he was a boy.  Last Sunday during church that feeling was even stronger.  Is it possible for there to be a special motherly connection between baby and mama?  I'm thinking yes because of what I've felt so far...I love it!

Okay, this post has been much longer than anticipated, but what do you think we should name him?  I'd like his middle name to be Jeffery after his Grandpa Thompson since he's already passed away, so it has to sound nice with Jeffery.

Boy or Girl?

On Wednesday Shem and I get to find out what we're having!  We're so excited and I can hardly wait to finally be able to pick names, fabrics, and register for useful baby gear.  Shem and I made a deal to not discuss names until we knew the sex, and it's been SO difficult to not think about names.  I have one in particular that I like, but all discussion of names will have to wait until Wednesday.

What is your guess?  What will we have?

A. Boy
B. Girl
C. Twins....(one person thinks I'm big enough... but I think it's a far fetched idea.  Shem is a twin though, so we'll see.)

Our Tree ~ 2010

Some early holiday cheer for you from us!  Yeah, we decorated our tree, cooked dinner, watched "Alice in Wonderland", and Shem did some work all in one Monday night.  I think this picture is the perfect reward for a long day and evening of work. :)

Photo recipe: crank your ISO up to "H" or as high as it will go.  Open your f-stop as wide as it goes f/1.4 or 1.8 would be good.  Hold steady and shoot!  No flash was used and all other lights were turned off.