Christmas Highlights

She's Here!

I was once again having on and off again contractions on Tuesday. At about 4:00 I called my doctor and they said come on in to the hospital and let's get this show on the road. It was 8:00 p.m. by the time I was admitted, hooked up and the pitocin was flowing. That was all it took because 2 hours and 45 minutes later we welcomed our beautiful girl Hannah Marie, 9 lbs. 3 oz and 21 inches long. We are so thankful that she is here and Alexander is thrilled to be a big brother.

New Tradition

As I was loading and sorting my pictures in Picassa the other day I realized that without even meaning to we have developed a Thanksgiving tradition. Here is a picture of Alexander from last Thanksgiving eating pancakes in his travel booster seat in the living room.

This year we had our first dusting of snow the day after Thanksgiving so we decided to make pancakes for supper and eat them picnic style in front of the fireplace. No baby yet but a tradition is born...

Transitions

I had been working to "back blog" some of the events from our Spring/Summer to show everyone what we had been up to. Then in a casual conversation with a regular blog reader, who shall remain nameless even though their last name used to be the same as mine, it was mentioned that they don't really care what we already did, they want to know what we are doing now. So I took some time today to tell you what I am doing now, I am waiting.

Those of you that know me well know that I am a planner. I am constantly making lists, written and mental - grocery lists, gift lists, to-do lists, books I want to read lists, etc. In many ways I feel that all this planning and list making helps to make me more prepared for the unexpected. Well, here we are at the due date and I have done everything on my list and no baby. Alexander was 3 days early and I thought for sure this baby was going to come early as well. I had been feeling so tired and ready by the end of last week that I stopped work a few days before planned just so I could rest. I had mild contractions last night so I thought we were on to something, then I went to bed and it all stopped.

Don't get me wrong, I am taking full advantage of this time to rest because I know what the next few weeks will be like. It is just strange when I find myself watching TV and they run a trailer for what is happening on Monday's show and I think, what will life be like for me on Monday?

It has not gone unnoticed by me that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I have so much in my daily life to be thankful for, but right now I can not help but give thanks for the gift of time. It has been a blessing to be carrying this child for the last 40 weeks. It is such a short amount of time in the life of my child. We are so curious about who he/she is and the person they will become. These are the thoughts that I now fill my days with, reflections on myself, my family and the family that we are about to become. Thank you to all of you that have been thinking about us and wishing us well. We can't wait to update you with news of our newest arrival, whenever he/she decides to come!

Fast Monkey

This past weekend Steve and Heather came to visit us and then we all went up to Boston to cheer for Heather while she ran the marathon! She has run other ones before but this was going to be a personal challenge for her. She was sponsored by the Hopkinton Covenant Church which invited us to Sunday morning worship, hosted Steve and Heather, their IL friends Ginny and Mike and NPU professor Boaz Johnson the night before the race and prayed for the three runners all day Monday. She ran to raise money for World Vision and we were so pleased to support her and her cause. We went to the 1 mile marker where we saw the front racers and then waited for Heathers group to come by. Steve and Mike tracked the runners on-line by their bib numbers and Eric navigated through the side roads of MA so we could see Heather and Ginny at a couple of different places in the race. They did an awesome job and we were so proud to be able to share this experience with them. We love you Heather!

Hippity Hoppity

We hosted Easter at our house this year and although it was a chilly day it was still great to be with friends and family. We had Alexander and Daniel have their egg hunt on the front green this year where we met up with our new neighbor Cayleigh. The kids were very focused on finding their eggs and the parents were very focused on making sure everyone was warm enough. It was a quick trip outside but well worth the chill.

Florida

Eric was in FL for a week long workshop so Alexander and I took a few days off and flew down there for a family vacation. We were able to have some family time together as well as get some time to visit with my cousin Adam and his wife Michelle. Michelle works at Animal Kingdom so we were able to go spend the morning in Africa! Thanks again guys for a great trip, we will definitely be back!

Morning View from our room

Waiting for the safari ride with Adam

Heading out for a walk with Fenway

We had a great time with Uncle Adam!

Liz and Dan

Last weekend we had the privilege of going to Boston for my dear friend Liz's wedding. Liz and I met in high school when we sat next to each other in Mr. Lito's Spanish class. One day she asked if she could borrow my hair scrunchie and we have been friends since. Thankfully hair scrunchie's have gone out of style but Liz definitely has not. The wedding was beautiful and a true celebration of both Liz and Dan as individuals and now in their new life together. All our love and best wishes to you both!

That's My Boy!

We have begun the process of redecorating our living room. I have a feeling this will end up like most of our other household projects, a lengthy process. None the less we have started with a new rug. As I took out the vacuum to clean the old one before bringing it to it's new home (the basement) Alexander insisted on using the "acuume". This is not a new habit of his, in fact he has been known to chose vacuuming over snack time, however this was the first time that I was able to capture it on film. I plan on keeping these pictures handy when he is older and I have to convince him that he really did like to vacuum at one point in time!

Bedford Springs

The Omni Hotel group recently partnered with a resort group and took over operations at the Omni Bedford Springs in Bedford PA. We decided to take advantage of my February break and a short break in Eric's travel schedule to head down there for a few days. Alexander did great in the car (5 1/2 hours each way) and it was nice to see another Omni property. We had some good food, nice family time, a dip in the pool and lots of walking around. I was able to capture a few pictures of Alexander's favorite things to do on the trip.

Walk out of the room (with mommy)

Find the letters on the wall

Press the elevator button ("ess etton")

Ride in the elevator

Walk down another hallway

Look out the big window to see if it is "oing" (snowing)

Toss leaves off the balcony

Sit cozy in mommy and daddy's bed and have a snack

We hope to go back in the spring/summer when we can enjoy some more of what the property has to offer, namely the stocked trout stream across the street.

Up and Running

Sorry for the delay in posting, we were without a computer for about a month. When we purchased TurboTax this year, we also received some free software that would "fix" our slow running computer. In the process of doing this many files and programs were misplaced or deleted which caused things to be slower or not work at all. This then required our computer to take a few days of vacation at the "spa" where it came back to us cleaned and refreshed and free of all programs. We were happy to have it back but have now spent weeks reinstalling all our software and are not even close to being done. I will be working on pictures this week as soon as I get Picassa back so check in with us again soon. Sorry for the delay and thanks to the faithful viewers who have been checking the site non the less!