An almost white Christmas

Our yearly visit to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree was again at Cherryville Farm. We have gone there the past 2 years and they have a great selection and free hot chocolate when you are done! So we headed off in the "old front wheel drive sleigh" (Christmas vacation = the best movie ever) to pick out our tree, and no, we didn't forget the saw!
Picking out a tree this year was a little more exciting than usual because we had the dog with us. Although it is not going to be anything compared to trying to do this next year with a dog AND a baby. The only downside of it was there was no snow this year! We have been really lucky during the past 2 years that there has been at least a dusting when we picked out our tree leading to a very picturesque outing. This year, no such luck, not even a flurry!
The only picture worthy part of the outing was the dog who only cooperated occasionally for pictures, my belly (the baby bump), and of course the tree itself! There it is! The "Beykirch family Christmas tree"


The best part of this Christmas tree farm, other than the fact that they actually wish you a Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holiday's, was the sign that said: "Unleashed Pets will be Recruited for Reindeer" Thank goodness Nick was there to make sure the dog was safe from being recruited. I do think that Whitney bears a resemblance to Max from the Grinch. I really wanted an antler for her to wear at Christmas, but I settled for a collar of bells.
She had a great time running around picking out a tree, and in typical fashion she fell asleep on the way home. I swear she knows I am pregnant, because she just snuggles right up to the baby.

Now the day before this outing I had an unplanned trip to the doctor. It seems that I had strained a muscle (I didn't know it at the time) and had a stitch in my side. The doctor wanted me to come in just to make sure everything was OK, so I had an ultrasound. This time they got a great 3-D photo of the baby's face and hand. The hand is on the baby's forehead making the loser sign. Now the left side of this picture is up, and I don't know why this is loading sideways, so just tilt your head to look at it. The hand is at the bottom (or if you are tilting your head the hand is on the left). We could have found out what we are having, but we want it to be a surprise. The day after Christmas we not only finally got snow, but we had a full out Blizzard! (winds over 35 mph and visibility less than a 1/4 mile (sorry, I am a weather geek) So we missed out on our White Christmas, but still enjoyed some snow. The only downside? We were already off of school so we didn't get a snow day out of it. This was Whitney's first experience in the snow, and she loved it! I realize that in less than 3 months we won't be focusing on the dog, so here is me being a proud dog owner.

She ate the snow

leapt through the drifts

chased a ball


and just looked cute!