Baby Part Deux

BFP on a POAS with an EDD of 9/15 for DS #2!!

So apparently James has been browsing around BabyCenter too much again lately and is only able to speak in baby acronym.

TTC
Megs and I had been discussing TTC so that Nathan would hopefully have a baby brother or sister when he was around 2 years old.  So began the debate of the perfect birthday.  May was no good, because it would be too close to Nathan's birthday, plus there was also Mother's Day.  We briefly discussed June, but that would've required TTC just after James' ACL surgery, enough said.

That got us into July and August.  I've always had a summer birthday (funny how it's always the same month?) and was always kind of envious of the other kids who got to have a birthday party with all their classmates during the school year.  Okay, so it was pretty fun always having a birthday during the summer with the nice weather and all.   But summer also meant James would have to share his birthday, hey, September looks nice!

So we set out for September.  Needless to say, it was a very Merry Christmas :)  I remember Megs disappearing after dinner one night and hearing the distinct sound of a plastic wrapper being opened.  Five minutes later Megs came sauntering down the stairs with a little plastic stick in hand and a satisfied grin on her face.  It was January 8th.

The Bigger Reveal
Our first reveal party was pretty amazing, so we had to work even harder to make the second one just as spectacular (as I write this, I'm sensing a theme with our second baby)!  We finally decided on filling a pinata full of pink or blue colored candy, depending on the gender.  But we would need someone to actually fill the pinata.  At first we discussed asking our neighbors to do it and then giving the left over blue or pink candy to their children.  In the end, we decided that we wanted to find out the gender, by ourselves, alone at home.  If this was to be our last child, we wanted to have our own special moment.

We opened the envelope together and at this point I was pretty sure it was going to be a girl, although I would have been perfectly happy either way.  So I was fairly surprised to see that we were in fact going to have another boy!  Watching Megs expression, I could see that, although her heart was filled with joy to be having another baby, she was struggling to hide the disappointment of not having a girl.  She had wanted so much to have a baby girl that hearing it was a boy took some time and grieving to adjust to the news.  We were soon discussing what a world with two boys would look like, bunk beds, having a playmate, looking up to an older brother and watching out for a younger one, something I never had.  Our new reality was hard to imagine, but left us both with smiles of pure joy.

We weren't entirely sure how to go about the whole pinata thing, but thankfully, it included some strings to pull at the bottom, one of which would give way to the lot of candy.  Everyone took turns pulling the strings, anticipation growing with each failed tug.  Nathan wanted to help whoever was pulling the strings, so it would become a dual effort.  We finally agreed that Nathan should just keep pulling until he found the right one.  What a fitting way to reveal his baby brother, to be the center of the entire event, even though he didn't fully grasp the gravity of the situation that was about to befall him, literally and figuratively.

With nearly all the strings pulled from the pinata, Nathan finally connected with the right string sending blue candy cascading on top of our smiling and laughing boy with cheers from his family.

Photoshoot
We recently had the chance to meet our new little guy and from the initial images, he's going to be a cutie, just like his brother, not that we're comparing!

We are over the moon.

So, here we go again!  We can't wait for him to arrive.

-Written by James ;)




Wisdom from Dr. Zimmer, our OB:

"With a girl, you have to worry about a bunch of penises.  With a boy, you only have to worry about one."

Acronym decoder:
TTC = Trying to conceive
BFP = Big fat positive (pregnancy test)
POAS = Pee on a stick
EDD = Expected due date
DS = Dear son

Out with the Old, In with the New

After 5 years our exciting news is that we are getting new appliances!  We've been looking forward to this day for a long time.  Not that our previous appliances were horrible, but they were just older and more of a cheap version.  The stove always made me really nervous because it got too hot on the surface.

Although I'm so stoked about having newer, upgraded appliances, there is a small part of me that is sad to see our old fridge go.  We have a new stainless fridge and as everyone knows, with stainless you aren't able to hang anything with magnets on the stainless part.  My favorite part about our old fridge is that we covered it in photos/Christmas cards of all our dear friends and family.  The fridge was also filled the past year with kids magnets, Nate's first coloring artwork pieces, stickers, etc.  So everytime I came in to the kitchen, our old fridge just made me happy.  It definitely brought color and light to our kitchen.

I am in no way complaining or stating that I would like our old fridge over our new one, but I just wanted to memorialize our old fridge for the happiness it brought us with seeing the faces of our friends and family and the life/activity of our toddler every day.

With our new fridge, I had to do something--I couldn't just leave it blank, boring and sleek.  So I've done what decorating I could.

It's not the same, but it'll do.  I think the fact that we have way more space, a water/ice dispenser, and fun LED lighting will help me cope with the change.  RIP old fridge--thanks for the great memories!

Snowshoeing....finally!

Up until February it had been a pretty calm winter around here.  Not much snow, pretty dry, horrible ski season (which is actually a plus since James can't ski this year with his ACL still healing).  People were actually starting to get concerned about a low snow pack and the potential for drought conditions this summer.

Then all the sudden winter showed up in February and the mountains got pounded with snow.  There were actually many times the pass was closed and it was dangerous conditions.  Once things slightly calmed down we were ecstatic to finally be able to go snowshoeing!  This is one of our favorite activities in the winter because we own our own shoes and it's much cheaper and easier to do than skiing.

So one Saturday we headed up to Gold Creek in Snoqualmie Pass to enjoy the beautiful views and get our mountain fix.  We actually did the trail last year which you can read about here. What we didn't anticipate was that Nate wouldn't absolutely love it right off the bat.  With snow flying in his face, the cold temps, riding in a sled for the first time, and no toys involved I'm not quite sure why he didn't absolutely love it.  What toddler wouldn't?  We took Nate snowshoeing last year in our hiking backpack a couple times and he was in heaven every time--very content and would actually fall asleep! Hence here we are in the dichotomy of our life: baby vs. toddler--toddlers have a lot more opinions about things we're discovering.  But we trudged on.  Eventually we came to a spot where people had built snowmen and that helped cheer Nate up.

All the sudden he felt much more brave to ride in the sled and was having fun eating the snow.  We soon stopped to enjoy some lunch and then he became a completely different kid--very happy, enthusiastic, etc.  Man the miracle of food.  We should have started with that from the beginning.

Nate attempting to do a snow angel

After lunch Nate took a long ride in the sled as we took the trail around the pretty lake.  The views on this trail are so beautiful.  It's not a difficult trail, but it's amazing how much of a workout you can get in snowshoes even if the trail is relatively flat.

After about 30 min we could tell Nate was getting tired and it was naptime.  So we tried the backpack again. This time I think he was appreciative of the chance to rest and enjoy the ride.  In about 10 minutes he was fully asleep!  He did that last year too, but I didn't think it would happen as a toddler.  He slept the whole rest of the way and James and I got to enjoy a peaceful journey through the snow.

Yay for naptime!  And yay for James' strength carrying a heavy backpack!

Thank goodness for the sled once he got used to it

All in all it was a great winter day.  We're excited for hopefully a better winter next year to do this many more times and even get up to ski more too.  Ok now we're ready for spring......

Seahawks are World Champions

What an incredible football season it's been!  Seahawks just won SuperBowl 48--their first SuperBowl win ever!!  James and I have waited all our lives to witness this and we still can't believe it.  The whole time we were watching the SuperBowl we were in total disbelief and even though they went up 43 to 8 (against the Broncos!!!  Best offense in the league!!!), we wouldn't let ourselves fully believe the win until the final seconds of the game.  We had to keep pinching ourselves.  I realize that for all the people watching who weren't Seahawks or Broncos fans, it was a pretty boring game.  But for Seahawks fans, it was like we died and went to heaven.  All parts of our team played perfectly.  It was the ideal culmination for a hard fought, magical season.

Yesterday Seattle had a parade for the team downtown and over 700,000 people attended.  The fan base in this city and the team's relationship with the 12th man just gives me chills sometimes.  It's such a great community bonding experience.  All week I think most of my conversations have been about the Seahawks and the SuperBowl. Everyone now has a "where were you when the Seahawks won the SuperBowl" story or a crazy parade story.  Unfortunately we didn't get to the parade, but we watched it on tv.  Such a spectacular thing to watch.

Probably the most special thing for me though has been that James' favorite team has finally won a world championship.  He believed in them all year and was always positive about their abilities when I was doubtful.  He grew up watching the Seahawks games with his dad and on SuperBowl Sunday he and his dad got to witness probably the most spectacular game of their lives together.  And now we have a 3rd generation who is in on it too.  Leading up to the SuperBowl Nathan wanted to wear his Seahawks attire every day.  And throughout the day he would randomly just say "Go Hawks!"  What a special thing for James to share all this with his dad and his son.

Ok I know this is getting pretty schmultzy.  But this has been a pretty big deal around our house.  We're excited for the journey again next year.  And in the meantime, we'll watch the replay of the game for the 50th and 100th time--whatever we need to do to get us through to August.

Christmas Catch Up

I'm really not surprised at all that it's the beginning of February and I'm just now doing our Christmas post.  Feels like I'm always behind on the blog.  But oh well.  I only do it for our family so all that matters is that I do it right?

Here is a recap of our Christmas 2013 through pictures...

Annual trip to Molbaks for Christmas decor and samples of danish!

Making Christmas cookies with Nana and Pops

Annual trip to Nielsen's Bakery to pick up danish for Christmas morning

Christmas Eve with the Warners

Nathan had lots of presents to open!

Christmas morning at our house--Nathan got a new kitchen!

Building a new toy airplane with Papa

Christmas day with the Spauldings & Antis'

Visiting the Zoo Lights at Woodland Park Zoo

What a fun holiday!  Nathan was at such a fun age this year and helped make our holidays more magical. We're so blessed and spoiled by our families.  What special times we got to share that we'll never forget.  

Saying Goodbye to a Beautiful Friend

On Sunday, December 8, 2013 Becca's long battle with stomach cancer ended.  She is now in a better place with no more suffering.  I still can't even believe it and it's hard for me to comprehend that I just won't see her anymore.  She was such an amazing friend and she was such a beautiful person both inside and out. 

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with her in the hospital about 2 weeks before she passed.  At that point she was still pretty coherent and in very little pain.  I went with a close group of girlfriends and it was one of the most special girlfriend times I've ever had in my life.  I was privileged to witness true, raw friendship--amazing women surrounding a friend with so much love in the darkest, hardest days of her life.  I'm so grateful for the incredible friends I have in my life. I think it was comforting and energizing to Becca for us to be there.  The following two weeks Becca started to lose her capability to speak and she was sleeping most of the time.  She finally ended her courageous battle and passed peacefully in her sleep with her parents by her side.

We celebrated Becca's life on Saturday, December 14.  It was so wonderful to see how many people attended the service and especially how many friends from high school were there.  Becca touched so many lives. 

It's still hard to put into words how I feel and it's hard for me to process that I've lost a close friend.  Especially with how fast it all happened.  For now it's been comforting being with friends, spending time with her husband and son, looking at pictures to remember happy memories, and reflecting on how grateful I am for my special friendship with Becca. 

Becca, you are so loved and will never be forgotten.

Thanksgiving weekend

I started writing blog posts a couple weeks ago and then other things happened and I'm just now coming back to it.  So the next few posts are catch up posts....

I just love the time of year between Halloween and New Years.  So much festive and fun stuff going on.  Lots of family time, beautiful décor, and things to look forward to.  Although this season hasn't been as joyful because we are just heartbroken about Becca and what the Stevenson and Holland families are going through.  This year's holiday season just isn't the same.  But we're trying to make the best of it as much as we can especially because Nathan is so much more aware and into the holidays this year.  He has said "wow" probably 100 times from seeing fun décor in our home and in the stores, and Christmas lights on the houses. 

Thanksgiving weekend was full of holiday events.  Especially because Thanksgiving was so late this year, it feels like the day after we just rolled right into Christmas.  The other special element to our weekend is that we got to have Brown Bear with us the whole time.  Brown Bear is a mascot from Nathan's class.  For the past couple of months, each kid has gotten to take Brown Bear home for a week or two and take him on special activities.  This week was our turn!  Keep an eye out for Brown Bear in the below photos.

I feel like Nathan got to more fully experience all the great parts of Thanksgiving this year since he's older now.  Our day started out as it usually does with the Macy's parade.  Nathan was enthralled watching all the dancers, marching bands, and floats.  Then he had his first official full Thanskgiving meal this year.  Last year he was just starting on solids so only got to enjoy sweet potatoes.  But this year he had all the fixin's.  We had a lovely meal at the Spauldings' with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Joyce visiting.  After the meal we took a brisk walk down to the park that Nathan loves.  Later in the afternoon we went over to the Warners' to enjoy some pumpkin dessert and French silk pie.

The next day we moved full speed ahead into Christmas.  Nathan, my parents, Brown Bear, Carly, Ryan's girlfriend and I all went to downtown Seattle to brave the Black Friday activity while James and Ryan went to the Apple Cup game (lucky them!).  The stores were crazy, but we tried to keep a good perspective and just enjoy the sights and sounds.  We visited the gingerbread houses in the Sheraton which were really cute and of course had to stop for peppermint mochas in the middle of the day.  Some stores were way too overwhelming for me.  I tried to get some Christmas shopping done, but realized it's better not to have an agenda on this day and just simply be present, browse, and just enjoy being with the family.  Ryan and James met us later for a yummy dinner at the Pink Door--one of our favorites.

Saturday's adventure consisted of helping Grampa Jay find a 12 foot Christmas tree for their home.  That's right...they have tall enough ceilings that they can get a 12 foot tree!  After a couple hours of searching and Jacky and I teasing the guys because they're so picky, we finally found the perfect tree and sawed it down.  Can't wait to see what it looks like all decorated!

Finally Sunday we spent some time at home.  We worked on getting our house decorated both inside and out.  Then in the afternoon, we met the grandparents for a Santa visit at the mall.  I was looking at last year's Santa photo and Nathan was happy as a clam sitting on the big guy's lap.  This year...not so much.  This year Nathan realized that Santa is a little scary.  But we got a classic crying photo (I was hoping we'd have at least one of them!).  He was a brave boy.

It was a wonderful holiday weekend and I just reflected a lot on how much I'm thankful for even in the midst of this hard time.  In fact it's interesting how the hard times help us realize what's really important and help us appreciate the good in our lives. I'm grateful to Becca for helping me live better in the present and really take advantage of every day.