December at lastI have been looking forward to December for a while now, mainly because I should become unhugified sometime this month and also because we should be mostly done with all of our house projects for a few months. I know December is still two days away, but it feel like it's here because Thanksgiving is over and everyone is putting up Christmas lights! Since I last posted, we have painted almost all of the outside of our house (about half of one side will wait for warmer weather). We really wanted to finish but keeping all of our fingers was a higher priority. We have also made 4 trips to Othello and 2 trips to Utah, and Ben took one to Oregon and one to Texas (for football games with some friends). Ben has also gone on a scout campout about once a month. So needless to say, it has been busy. We painted our dining and living rooms in the last week and hope to finish up with the kitchen and finally, the bathroom by the laundry room. Our goal is to get the painting finished before baby girl makes her appearance sometime this month. Most of our baby preparations are more like house projects that we are squeezing in while we can, but we did have a very cute baby shower thrown by my friend Jen from my ward in November, which was great. I think the main thing I still need to buy is diapers. Two kids in diapers will be awesome... I guess the other way we are prepared is that I am done with my Christmas shopping and wrapping. It's an awesome feeling. Once we move the furniture back from painting I will do some decorating and then sit back and enjoy the Christmas season. Thanks to Josh and Lauren for being our personal UPS this Thanksgiving!In other news... I was released from my calling as Mia Maids advisor. Sad, but true. I am now realizing how relaxing it is to have just one calling and am enjoying focusing more on my ward missionary calling. Ben is still Deacons advisor/Assistant Scoutmaster and ward choir director and is doing awesome at both jobs. He is also helping teach a class on personal finance on Tuesday nights. Somehow he still manages to do our house projects and play basketball with his work team. I married an amazing man. :)Hyrum is trying out a few more words lately but still communicates mainly by his voice intonation. He loves watching movies and playing with Dad, and also tries to help us paint if we let him anywhere near a brush or roller. He is such a doer and a worker, like his dad. He is so much fun to play with and I think he will be a great big brother-- he likes babies and other kids, he is always checking to make sure that all family members are coming/not getting lost, and he is awesome at the "go get it" thing and at anything that involves helping mom. Hopefully those qualites will continue to grow with a sister on the scene.I hope to get some pictures posted of our progress soon, but if not then Merry Christmas! And we'll definitely load some baby pictures as they become available.