Cookies and Hallmark

The annual cookie tree turned out beautiful...and delicious...as usual!

Ingredients ready!  That box of cookie mix from Costco was one of the best purchases ever!!

The pregnant holiday chef...ready to go :)

Rolling and cutting out the cookies.  The cookie tree kit we use now we got 2 years ago from Crate & Barrel.  It is awesome!  We had an older one, but when I found this one I had to have it!

Ready for assembly.  Now is when Eric helps :)  Mostly so he can beg for cookies though!

The finished product!  Santa always enjoys his tree :)

Shawn and I were friends before we became a couple, but once we were a couple I started buying Hallmark Christmas ornaments each year.  I thought it would be a nice tradition to start and each year that something significant happened in our relationship I would try to find an ornament that "fit."  As I was putting up our ornament for this year on the tree, I realized that it would be nice to share our ornament journey.  So here it is:

2008: Our First Christmas Together

2009

2010

2011

2012:  New Home

Next year we'll start a yearly tradition for Nora too!  So excited to buy a Baby's First Christmas ornament!  Plus we are heading out for some after Christmas deals today and I will hopefully find Nora's first stocking too :)

Had a Holly, Jolly Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  This year I had to take my turn at work, so I spent today at work with wonderful coworkers and beautiful tiny babies and their families.  It was a nice, quiet day in the NICU and we had an amazing pot luck meal...that was DELICIOUS!  I work with some fantastic cooks!

We didn't have any extra family around for Christmas this year...mostly because everyone wants to come visit after Nora and Amelia arrive.  So we'll have lots of visitors in Feb, March and April, but we had a quiet Christmas.  We did our family Christmas on Christmas Eve.  It was great!

We opened all the gifts from each other and from our out of town family that sent them to us.  Logan opened his gifts from his Mom and Dad....and Santa....this morning.

Merry Christmas!  The 34 week baby bump is getting big!!

The McLachingson Family (Shawn coined this name but we like it!).  Logan did not want to cooperate, and neither did Marcie!

 

Marcie looked so festive in her pretty scarf :)

She certainly loved her Christmas bone!!  She barely got through one of the knots on Christmas Eve, but we'll let her munch it for a little while each day til she's done!  The gift that keeps on giving!

The babies even managed to get some loot!  Gifts for Amelia and Nora (mostly from Abuelita...of course!)

Logan's favorite gift of the day...this cool wooden train with farm animals.  Uncle Shawn picked it out and Logan loved it!!

As soon as it was time for us to open our presents the little man decided he wanted some attention.  So he emptied this red "toy chest" and decided to wander around the center of the room posing for the camera.  Could he be any cuter???

We basically had a great day and ate yummy food.  I made the annual cookie tree with Eric, but I'll post that another day.  Now it's time for sleeping for me!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Christmas!!

We finally managed to take pictures for our Christmas card.  Finally!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Hopefully we'll get them in time to get them out before Christmas...

Thanksgiving...and moving on to Christmas!

Thanksgiving has come and gone again.  We ate a ton of food and spent quality time with our families.  We once again took time to think about the things in our lives that we are truly thankful for.

I am thankful for my family more than anything in the world!  Not all families enjoy being together and I can honestly say that there is never a dull moment when you're with any part of my family :)  We laugh and cry together...but there is certainly more laughing than anything else!  The laughing is almost constant when you're  around Logan.  He's such a hoot! I am so thankful that my wonderful husband has fit into my family so well and meshes just like he's always been a part of it.  He is the best husband anyone could ask for and I love him so much!!  I am thankful that we have been given the great opportunity of becoming parents together.  I know that baby Nora is going to have a great father and a great life, as will any future children we have.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Gotta love that sweet (and mischievous face!)

My sweet Marcie Moo always want to sitting right next to me!

Thanksgiving dinner!  Wish more of our family could have spent this day with us for our first Thanksgiving in our new home!

Now that we're through Thanksgiving it is time to get excited about Christmas!!  I love Christmas time.  The music.  The lights everywhere.  Normally the snow, but not here :)  I did get a bit of a head start on Christmas this year, busting out my Christmas tunes almost a month ago.  I was told it was ok because I'm pregnant!  I'm sticking with that story!  Everyone probably knows that family debate that has existed for the past few years about my blue tree vs. a mismash "family" tree.  I was overruled last year and it seems that will be the case forever now.  So my blue tree became the the little upstairs 4' tree.  But I love it anyway!  I've been playing with our camera and found some stuff on pinterest about how to take "glowing" pictures of Christmas trees, so I tried it out on my little blue tree.  Beautiful!

On Thanksgiving day we put up our family tree.  Turned out pretty nice!

Now time to decorate the rest of the house! Yay!!!  I love Christmas time!

It's almost Christmas time :)

Thanks to an old friend, I discovered that if you're pregnant it is okay to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving :)  So I have been thoroughly enjoying my Christmas playlist for the last week or so.  I am now completely ready for Christmas time...which makes me want to start decorating!  I decided to start slow though, so I just put up my little blue tree.  Shawn and Mom have won now and the family tree will be multi-colored and full of random ornaments (like last year) but now that we have more space in the house I can do my pretty blue tree in a smaller version upstairs!  So it went up today an I love it, like always!  Logan "helped" me put up a few of the ornaments too!

Musings...

We've been so busy with baby things and the house, we just haven't had a chance to keep everyone else in the loop!  On our days off we just try to spend as much time as possible with Logan...and Marcie too of course!

 

I promise I will try to get some pictures of the house now that we have things on the walls and such.  Our camera has been acting stupid, but I will sure try!

Our House

We are moving into the house on Monday.  Yay!  We have been working hard to get it all ready and we are SO ready to be living there.  Please ignore the dead looking grass in the front yard...it doesn't rain here much and it is CRAZY hot!

 

The painting is done...for now.  I am sure I will do more painting later (especially the nursery once we find out the baby's sex and work out a decor theme) but we are done for now.

 

Before (Living Room right - Dining Room left)

 

After

 

We (or I guess I should say, I) chose much more neutral colors :)

We also painted the upstairs "gameroom."  It wasn't painted before but we wanted to add some color to the upstairs.  I love this bright blue color!

 

I am sure you noticed Logan's tent has already set up camp in the living room.  This tent was so helpful as Shawn and I were getting things ready at the house.  Logan could spend hours in his tent with the iPad...and he did!

 

Last note...I found this awesome houseguest as I was leaving one day last week.  Mom is so excited :)  Gotta love the bugs in Texas!

 

 



Logan, Crafts and School

Logan's favorite thing recently is Mom's iPad.  He is addicted.  Seriously.  I am not exaggerating.  He looks for it as soon as he gets to our house and is completely engrossed in it for hours.  As annoying as that can be when you are trying to get his attention for anything else, it has been a great learning tool for him.  He is amazing with it!  The stuff this kiddo can do amazes me, especially considering he still barely talks!

 

 

A few months ago I found a super cute picture on Pinterest of a sewing machine cover and I thought it would be great to have one!  Mom always keeps my sewing machine covered with towel, but it always falls off then the sewing maching gets so dusty.  I don't use it all that often, but maybe I will now.  So I dusted off the sewing machine and got some cute fabric and viola...I  have a sewing machine cover now!  Yay!  I love it and I do think it turned out pretty good!

 

 

 

Today was Eric's first day of his senior year.  Geez.  I can't believe he's a senior already.  I know I say this a lot but he makes me feel so old!!  Mom wanted to get first day of school pictures, but Eric didn't want too (obviously!) so we just snapped a quick one while he was about to leave.

 

 

On a side note, I start grad school this week.  I will be getting my Masters in Nursing Administration.  I am only going to go to school part-time, since I will still be working full-time and I will be having a baby in the near future :)  The program will probably taking 3 years or so instead of 2 years.  I am excited to get started though!



Things that touch our lives...

Today I went to the memorial service for a baby that I was given the chance to care for this week.  She had a very short life and I am honored that I was able to share in it, for her and her family.  Her family is obviously devastated by her passing but were extremely grateful for the love and care she received in our NICU.  It was touching to hear from her family how the nurses and physicians in our NICU touched their lives as we tried to save their precious baby, and also how they felt how much we cared about them as they held their baby and let her go.

The family has older children, an 11 y.o. boy and a 14 y.o girl.  The first day that their baby sister was born, their father brought them into the NICU for a visit.  I was taking care of the baby while her sister was visiting.  She came up to the baby's bedside but was reluctant to get close or touch her new sister.  I encouraged her to place her hand inside the isolette and touch her sister.  She placed her hand beside her sister's hand and the sweet baby grabbed her finger.  I have never seen such a smile.  Today at the memorial the chaplain read a letter that each child wrote to their sister.  This moment was what big sister chose to write about.  She wrote that she will always have that special moment with her sister that she will always remember and cherish it.  Moments like this are why I know I chose the right career.  I, and the other nurses I have the privledge to work with, made a difference for this family, even though we were unable to save her life.  They are content now with the feeling that she is in a better place where she won't suffer.

There is no way to understand the death of a child and my heart will always ache for this family and their pain.  As much as it was painful to see the family suffer today and hear their stories, I am glad that I went to the memorial.  I know it meant a great deal to them to have some of our staff there to support them.  When I left, I picked up Logan at school and hugged him tighter than I have in awhile.  Life is so precious.  I have so many friends that are pregnant right now and many that have suffered similar losses, whether it be recently or years ago.  Losing a child at any time is such a tremendous loss and I can't begin to express how sorry I am for anyone that has lost a child.

I my own pregnancy, I think being a NICU nurse is a bit of a blessing and a curse.  I know a great deal about fetal development and at what gestation a fetus becomes a "viable life" and also what the chances of survival are at each week of gestation after that point.  I know so many things that can go wrong...but I also know that most things can be overcome, especially when you have neonatalogists and neonatal nurse practioners as fantastic as ours.  There are some things that can't be overcome and those are the things that scare me.  Pregnancy is one of those situations where I think the phrase "ignorance is bliss" rightly applies.  In my pregnancy I do not have that luxury.  Especially after all the struggle Shawn and I went through to get to a pregnancy at all, I worry daily that something will happen to destroy the current happy bubble I live in.

This was in the program from the memorial today.

Tiny Soul

When God send forth a tiny soul to learn the ways of earth,

A mother's love is waiting here, we call this wonder birth.

When God calls home a little soul and stills a fleeting breath,

A Father's love is waiting there, this too is birth not death.  

Homeowners :)

We started talking about buying a house about 4 months ago.  We knew we were going to be starting our process to pregnancy and our apartment kept raising the rent, so looking for a house seemed like the best option.  We started saving some money and then started looking for a house in May.  It didn't take us too long to find one that we thought would be perfect for us, we made and offered and it was accepted!  We started the process of getting our loan secured and today we closed on our first house!  We are so excited!

Unlocking the door to our house!

The house is in a cute little neighborhood in South Austin called Rancho Alto.  We fell in love with this neighborhood immediately, for several reasons.  First, it isn't a huge neighborhood and every time we drove through people we out walking their dogs or playing with their children and it looked friendly.  Secondly, we knew we wanted to stay in south austin somewhere and it was an affordable neighborhood with really cute houses.  Third (and most importantly), the streets are named after members of the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team (the story featured in the movie Miracle).  Our house is on O'Callahan Dr. and neighboring streets are: Jim Craig Ct., Herb Brooks Dr., Craig Patrick Way, Eruzione Dr, McClannahan Dr., etc.  Cool, right?  Well, you probably don't think so but we think its awesome!

Our house is 5 bedrooms (so a bit bigger than we wanted, but that just means there is room for visitors!) with 3 full bathrooms.  We were looking for a house with a bedroom and bathroom downstairs (for mom) but not the master downstairs.  That is hard to find.  This house had it plus 4 additional bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs!  It already had an updated kitchen too!  Plus a really good sized fenced-in backyard for Marcie!  I think she is gonna really love her new yard!

Logan already loves the stairs!

The upstairs hasn't been painted before, so it's very neutral.  I hope to get some color to at least some of  the rooms before we move in. 

Logan is checking that vent for us.

Peek-a-boo from the pantry :)

Toasting our new house with some Sparkling Cider :)

I think Shawn is a bit overexcited!

Our current lease isn't up for about 6 more weeks, so we will have plenty of time to get the house ready before we move in, plus we can move stuff over slowly.  The living room and dining room are painted yellow with one dark red wall, so that whole area needs to be neutralized prior to moving furniture in!  We will be buying new living room stuff eventually, so for now I don't want to add any color downstairs because I'd rather wait until we choose a new couch and things so I can coordinate the colors.  I've been watching HGTV for a long time and now I will get to use some of the stuff I've learned!  We'll start by buying the essentials (mower, fridge, ceiling fans) then cleaning and painting.  We'll post updates as we progress!