What does 2012 hold for us?

I wish I knew for sure.

Every year at this time people start with the resolutions.

This year I will:

Lose Weight

Exercise More

Stop biting my nails.

Etc. Etc.

I don't exactly understand why we all do this because we never follow through.  Maybe some people do...but I don't think I know any of those people.  I am sure if we go back and look at our resolutions from year to year, they are usually the same.  I know mine are.

This year I have a bigger goal in mind.

As many of you probably know, Shawn and I have been trying for quite some time to get pregnant.  Unfortunately, our path to parenthood has been more like an epic journey that is not even close to being over.  We would like to keep the details to ourselves and within our immediate families, but the general story is that we are experiencing infertilty.  We have been undergoing lots of diagnostic testing over the past year and we have seen lots of doctors and specialists.  We do have a few options available to us, which we will be looking into over the next few months, but the road ahead of us is certainly not straight and easy, it will be extremely hard emotionally, and it will not be inexpensive.

For those of you that know me well, you know that being pregnant and becoming a mother is something that I have wanted very much all of my life.  Shawn and I both have struggled emotionally with the infertility dianosis.  Since my job surrounds me with pregnancy, birth, and babies, it has been a great challenge to continue in my career with the same passion I felt before. I have been attending support groups and even started seeing a therapist for awhile.  Infertility is much more common than most people know and believe me when you are the one who isn't getting pregnant month after month it seems like everyone around you suddenly is pregnant!  Infertility often causes tremendous strain on a marriage, but I am happy to say that Shawn and I are approaching this as a team and our marriage is as strong as ever.  No matter what the outcome is, we will be together at the end of the road.

I am trying to approach the new year with new hope.  We will see new specialists.  Test out new insurance.  Try things we never thought we would in an attempt to have just one miracle.  That is all that we want.  We will update people when there is something to report, but we would appreciate no questions about our when and how we will be pregnant.  It is too complicated and it is difficult for me to talk about.  For now we just live day to day, enjoying our family as it is.  We have a great dog that will have to fulfill my maternal needs for now :)  We also have the most wonderful nephew ever and we love him more than we ever thought we could love a child!  The love we feel for him gives us hope that no matter how a child enters our life, we will be a loving family. 

So what does 2012 hold for us?

We hope that 2012 brings us a miracle.

Playing with Presents

Mom, Eric and I were all home yesterday having a lazy day.  Mom wasn't feeling well, Eric wasn't with Nessa (amazingly), and I didn't have to work.  We decided to bust out some of the games I got for Christmas and start playing!

We've been playing Banangrams for awhile now...LOVE IT!  I discovered a few months ago that that makers of Bananagrams created 2 additional word games.  Had to have them!  Luckily, my familiy knows me well and I got Pairs in Pears from my in-laws for my birthday (Thanks!!) and Appletters from my mom for Christmas (Thanks!!).

So we played.

We laughed.

We learned words that exist involving a Q with no U.  MBAQANGA.  Seriously.

We laughed some more.

We learned words that exist involving no vowels.  XYST.  Seriously.

Mostly I won :)

Eric cheated.

Oh, how we will miss Eric when he goes off to college...

I wish Shawn liked to play word games :(

Excited already for our next game night!

Too Much Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone again...while we had decided we were going to take it easy this year and not go crazy spending, we did it again.  Too much!  Excess...of everything!  Too many gifts.  Too much food.

It sure was fun though :)

We all got up early Christmas morning and headed to Mimi & Ian's house.  Logan was just waking up.  The living room was so full of presents...and they were mostly for Logan.  Shocking...I know ;)

We got our yearly McGaughey Family Christmas picture in front of the tree.

Marcie LOVED her jammies ;)  Seriously cute, right???

Shawn's stocking with the coolest stocking stuffer ever...Guinness Reindeer made by the best wife ever :)

Gotta love the bedhead :)


So tired...but really wants to play with the new Thomas book!

He hasn't realized yet that the blocks are for building...not climbing!

The best present all day...the slide from Grandpa Don & Grandma Ana!!!

Christmas Highlights

Skype with Sara

Yearly Hallmark Ornament

Onion Goggles

Harry Potter Scene-It!!  Woohoo!

Family :)

Next year we'll spend less money...

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

It's Christmas Eve!  Yay!

Dad, Ana, Niko and Mike arrived from Chicago yesterday.  We spent the evening at Mimi's house letting Logan get warmed up to the new visitors.  Today he was much better!  Shawn and I both had to work all day :(  When we got home though the party was on at our place!  Logan was in a super good mood and there was a TON of food!  Dad, Mimi & Eric made all the perogis!  Perogis on Christmas Eve has always been our family tradition on my Dad's side of the family and since Mimi and I can never get there anymore, he helped us bring the tradition here so we can share the little bit of Polish we have to our families.  It turned out great...even though I missed it all so they'll still have to teach me sometime :)

Nessa brought us a present so we let her open the ones from us.  Nice!  She got us a game.  It's like CandyLand but with bacon.  Pictures from our first adventure with Mr. Bacon to come soon :)

Time for Logan's present.  This one if from Uncle Eric & Auntie Sara.  He wasn't quite sure what we wanted him to do with it, but once the paper was ripped a little and he could see a dinosaur inside....

...he was in awe!

Then we pushed the button and made them talk...Big smiles!

Now time for Marcie's big present...a big bone!  Heaven.  Pure heaven. 

Of course no Christmas Eve would be complete without Eric and I making our cookie tree for Santa.  Success again!

Now time for bed.  Early morning tomorrow to see what Santa brought for Logan :)

Merry Christmas!!



My Birthday Party

I was just looking for a picture on our camera memory card and I found a bunch of pictures from my birthday!  Mimi, Ian & Logan came over and Shawn took pictures.  I had completely forgotten!  There are some really cute ones of Logan :)

I'm pretty sure this picture of Mother & Son couldn't be any sweeter!

Logan wanted to help me with my cake...he wanted to grab all the candles, but we put a stop to that! Notice that I am holding his hands back :)

Time for the jammies...it's game time!  While everyone else was playing Trivial Pursuit, Logan decided to play peek-a-boo with my curtains!

Logan decided that since Uncle Eric was sitting in HIS chair, he would sit on Marcie's bed with her.

"Hello Uncle Shawn!  Why are you still taking my picture?"

I found Auntie Lisa's IPod!  Yay!  Now for a place to play with it...

My chair!  Yay!

Proof that we got Eric to play that Wii Dance game with me!  Notice Mimi, the ginormous poopy-pants, just watching.

All partied out.

I'm pretty sure Ian didn't move from this spot except while we were eating.



What a fun birthday!!

Irish Cream

We had our NICU Christmas Party on Saturday night...it was great!  We did an Italian pot luck.  So many delicious foods, desserts, and drinks!  We had eggnog, punch, wine slushes, some delicious drink made with Amaretto, and I brought my favorite: Homemade Irish Cream.  A few people were initally wary of it because it has raw eggs, but once people started drinking...rave reviews!  They loved it!  So I decided to post the recipe on here so everyone can enjoy it for themselves (and because I can't afford to make it for anyone else...Jameson is expensive!)

Irish Cream

1-3/4 cups Jameson Irish Whiskey

1 cup whipping cream

1 can condensed milk

4 eggs

2 Tbsp chocolate syrup

2 tsp instant coffee

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Place all ingredients in blender.  Blend until smooth.  Store in a container with a tight fitting lid and refridgerate for up to 30 days.  Serve chilled.  Enjoy over ice or added to coffee :)

** I am sure you can use a cheaper kind of whiskey, but I have never tried.  Jameson is perfect :)  Also, I find that if you put the whiskey in the blender first then add the cream, condensed milk, and eggs and start the blending at a low speed it will turn out better.  I left it blending on the low speed while I added the chocolate syrup, coffee and extracts.  Then I turned it up to blend for a minute after everything was in.  Turned out perfect! **

Musings

As I mentioned in my last post, Shawn and I went out to dinner at Flemings for my birthday.  It was so delicious!  We had an appetizer, steaks, wine, and we got a free dessert for my birthday!  It was the best free dessert I have ever gotten at a restaurant!  It was enough cake to for at least 4 people...and it was heavenly!  Seriously...go there for your birthday!  We got dressed up nice to go out too, which I love to do! 

There are so many December birthdays at work that a bunch of us got together at BJ's for dinner the other night to celebrate 4 birthdays at once.  It was so much fun!  There is always lots of laughing when the girls from work get together!  We got 4 free desserts too...but they weren't very big :(  It was still fun though and I'll get to hang out with the same group tonight at our work Holiday party!  I will be sure to take some pictures.  We went to Shawn's corporate holiday party a few weeks ago and the Christmas party for his store is tomorrow night.  We're going to be all partied out soon!

Dad, Ana, Mike & Niko will be here soon too...for Christmas!  Yay!  I'm so excited for them to be here, even if it is only for a few days.  Dad's going to teach Mimi and I how to make perogi.  Yummy...

Another Birthday...

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I'll be 32.  Yikes!

Ever since I turned 30 I have stopped looking forward to my birthdays.  I am not enjoying aging.  Oh well...I guess I'll just have to deal with it like everyone else!

Tonight Shawn and I are going out to dinner at Flemings.  I am so excited about that!  It will be yummy and I get to spend the evening with my favorite guy!  He left my birthday present out last night so I would find it this morning.



Now lets zoom in on the small box...

Yay!  I've been wanting some diamond earrings for a long time!  I wear my birthstone earrings all the time now, but these will look beautiful!  I have the best husband ever!

I also got my birthday present from Dave in the mail...new shoes for work!

I have really needed new work shoes for quite awhile, but I have been putting it off because they are so expensive.  I found a website with some great deals on Danskos and so Dave told me to add them to my Amazon wishlist and he got them for me!  So excited to start breaking them in.  There was also a Starbuck's giftcard...my favorite!

So far this birthday is turning out pretty nice and it hasn't even started yet!  Tomorrow is family dinner at home.  We're doing build your own tacos and game night!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....

...CHRISTMAS!!



Yay!  I love Christmas time.  The time of year from Thanksgiving to the New Year is my favorite time of year!  There are many reasons...

Thanksgiving.

I already told you about my Thanksgiving.  It was awesome.  The food was delicious.  Logan was adorable.

Christmas Music.

Every year, I hold off on my Christmas playlist until Thanksgivng...then it is let loose!  I love Christmas music.  I have to buy at least 1 new Christmas CD every year.  Yes...I still actually buy the CD.  The physical CD.  I love it!  It makes me happy.  This year my CD purchase was Michael Buble.  He is heavenly.  I could listen to him sing all day and his voice is extra wondeful when he's singing Christmas music.  Plus the Target version of the CD had extra tracks.  I'll take it!   My Christmas playlist grows significantly every year.  This year it is up to 250 songs.  Last year I blogged everyday about a Christmas song I loved...check it out if you are interested in finding some new, great Christmas songs.

Crate and Barrel

If you've never been to this store you are missing out.  It is great any time of year.  If I won the lottery (if I played the lottery) it is the first place I would go.  But...it is extra wonderful at Christmas.  I spend entirely too much money there every year...especially after Christmas.  One of my favorite purchases recently is the pancake molds.  Shawn loves  pancakes and now I can make them festive! 

(Disregard the disgusting looking snowman pancakes...Shawn lathered them in peanut butter!  Gross, but he loves it!)

Christmas Trees and Decorations

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my Christmas tree.  I have decorated my tree the same way for years.  All blue, white, and silver.  It has been called "The Colts Tree" and "The Keystone Tree" in the past.  It is neither of those but I think it is the most beautiful tree ever.  My husband and mother disagree.

They wanted our tree to feel most like a famliy tree.  I know exactly the tree they are talking about because my mother and Shawn's mother do this tree (and most other mothers too).  It is decorated with multicolored lights and handmade christmas ornaments and sometimes actual candy canes or popcorn garland...not my kind of tree.  My plan has always been to do my beautiful blue tree until we had a house.  Then I could put up 2 trees...mine and the family tree.  This year I caved...and I put up the family tree to make Shawn happy.  He loves it...so I guess it is worth it :)

December is also my favorite because it is my birthday month :)  Stayed tuned for highlights from birthday festivities coming up this week!