Christmas 2009

What an amazing Christmas we had. It was sooo relaxing, just what we all needed. Brian's mom drove in on Wednesday. His Dad was unable to make it due to his sciatic nerve bothering him and his Physical Therapist recommending him not drive the four hours in the car. Christmas eve we went to the Children's Mass at St Anthony's. After mass we went to the Selby's for their annual get together. We didn't stay for dinner this year, but joined everyone for appetizers and drinks before hand. We left about 8:30 to go home and open our new pajamas and put Ashley to bed so Santa could come. Christmas morning my family came over and Brian cooked a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we opened our gifts from each other and Santa. Ashley got a new kitchen from Santa and a mommy set complete with a stroller, high chair, and bassinet from Grammy and Grandpa. As well as a tea set from Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Al and other gifts from Grandma and Mommy and Papa. That night we went to my parents house for dinner. They put on quite the spread with prime rib, tons of delicious sides, and pecan and apple pie that Steph made. I'm always inspired by the decorations my mom has for Christmas, but I was in awe at the table set up this year. I almost didn't want to eat on it because it was going to get all messed up, but the smell of that food cooking took over and it didn't matter much after that. Thanks mom and Dad for helping to make celebrating Christmas so special. I also really enjoyed that Christmas was on a Friday this year because I got to enjoy more time with my family who has to work during the week!

Brian picked out this tree and had the house all decorated for Christmas before we got down here. It was really sweet and he picked out a great one.

Showing us where Santa is going to fly in from

My mom claimed buying an outfit for the kids for Christmas and Brian's mom makes the Halloween costumes. This is the outfit that she got this year. It was velvet on top, she loved the feel of that!

Grandpa and Ashley

Mom and I

Gram and Grammy with Ashley

Brody was even in the holiday spirit! Poor guys just got covered in wrapping paper, but it didn't seem to even phase him. He just wanted to be a part of the action.

She couldn't stop talking about Santa coming and the presents she was going to get. She knew exactly what to do to open them to. Last year she was too young to get into, but this year was really fun to see her get so excited.

Ashley's new kitchen from Santa. He had a sheet over it and she was so nervous to pull it off. Mom had to help her, but once she saw it her face lit it, it was so cute.

Ashley opening her presents. Next to her is the craddle from the mommy set my parents got for her. She loves it!

Christmas table all decorated

36 weeks

Less than a month to go before our little guy's arrival. After the move and all the stress involved with that we can finally focus on him and getting ourselves ready for another baby. Ashley can't wait and neither can we! I had my last OB appointment in Seattle the morning before we left and will see my new OB in Tualatin the beginning of the year. I knew I wanted to deliver at the hospital down the street from my parents house, so I just called up and made an appointment with one of the OB's there. I was lucky enough to keep my insurance from UW until the end of the Jan. It's cutting it close, but hopefully he'll come before then! Ashley was a day early, so I'm not expecting to go over my dates by much if any. He is still just a round ball in my tummy, not hurting mom's ribs too much like his sister did. I'm carrying him lower and I'm not sure if it's because he's my second or because he's a boy, but it's a lot more comfortable... not to say that I'm comfortable, just more so that a constant buttock in my ribcage!

Big Girl Bed

We transitioned Ashley to a big girl bed as soon as we got down to Portland. Papa set up the crib for baby boy's arrival, so she really didn't have a choice. I was worried that she would get out of bed and play with her toys, but that never happen. I thought for sure we would have a few nights where we'd have to go in there and explain that she had to stay in her bed until Mommy or Papa came and got her. If she's awake she'll just entertain herself until we come in. We got the bed from neighbors who had the bed in storage and offered to pass it down to us. She had bedding and everything, so it was really nice that we didn't have to go out shopping for all of that as soon as we got down here. She loves her new bed and tells us all the time that she "sleeps in a big girl bed."

Portland

We are finally a family again after three long months of being apart. For those of you who don't know Brian moved down to Portland to start his new job Sept 15th. He stayed with my parents during that time while Ashley and I stayed in Seattle so I could finish up work at UW before the baby is born. My last day was Dec 11th and our official move date was the 16th so we could finish getting the house ready for new renters. As ready as we were to start a new life in Portland, it was really hard to leave Seattle. Brian and I have a lot of history at UW, it's where we met, it's where I did my internship, and it's where I have a lot of friends that I will miss dearly. We had amazing friends and neighbors in Seattle that we hope to find again here, but it was also home for three years and really all Ashley has known. She also really like her daycare and all the teachers there. Our family is in Portland, though, and we know it's the right move while the kids are growing up. We've got our beach house and condo in Bend that we can enjoy more often, and it's a chance to discover if CT surgery is what Brian really wants to do with his career. One of the many perks to being a PA. If we find that it's not the right job for our family, he can switch and not have to go back to school. So, in the three months we were apart we spent finding renters for our townhouse which will move Jan 1st. We also spent a month looking for a house to buy in Beaverton only to find out a week before closing that financing wasn't going to go through (that's another frustrating story that I won't go into!), but we're now renting and learning that it's a better situation for us anyways. Brian got his privileges within two months of being down here, so he's been in the OR as first assist and taking most call on his own. The last week in Seattle was pretty interesting. Ashley and I were basically camping out with an Aerobed for me and a pack n' play for her along with a few suitcases, pots and pans, and some food in the pantry, otherwise everything else had been packed and moved in the moving truck the weekend before. That week's temperatures were also in the teens and with no furniture in the house, it wasn't too fun to be home, so you could imagine how ready we were to move. Ashley has done amazingly well through this whole thing and I'm so proud of her, but the last few weeks before we got down here were the hardest. She really missed her Papa and it was definitely time for us to be together again. It was a tough first week down here as Brian was on call a lot and working long hours. I was exhausted and adjusting to being at home full time with a 2 year old, unpacking and getting the house in order before the holidays... not to mention being 36 weeks pregnant! I can't say that I would do it again, but we got through it and we're happy to finally be down here!

Our best friends had a going away dinner for us the weekend before we left. It is so hard to leave these guys. We do everything with them and what's amazing is the guys are as close as the girls. I met Jo and Danielle in ultrasound school and our husbands just hit it off.

The girls

Our neighbors organized a going away dinner for us at Greenlake Bar and Grill. The only family not pictured is Trent, Rachelle, and Kylee. We remembered to get a picture after they had left. We will miss these guys so much. Back Left to Right Tricia, Steve, Adam and then Brian and Ashley. Front left Mandy with Steve and Tricia's little guy Evan, and I.

Ashley's teacher brought cupcakes on Ashley's last day. She asked her what song she wanted everyone to sing to her and she said "Happy Birthday" so all the kids sang Happy Birthday and ate their cupcakes. I guess she just figured cupcakes and birthday go together. Just so happens that it was my Mom's birthday on the 15th (her last day), kind of a funny coincidence or maybe she knew! It was hard to see her say goodbye to her teachers, I was just an emotional wreck about leaving anyways. The kids made a card for her which they all drew pictures in, the teachers all signed a card for us and her waddler teacher Dawn made a DVD with pictures of the time she was there as well as a video DVD of the kids. They took such good care of her there, we will all miss them very much!

Potty Time

We came home from Thanksgiving and Ashley wanted to sit on the potty. She calls it "poo-poo on the potty" and no matter what we say she wants to call it that. Ever since she's moved down to the bluebird room at school, she's been interested because she sees the other kids using it. So, we put her on the potty as we have before, but this time she went! We were shocked, only expecting her to just sit there and not produce anything. She went two more times that Sat night, but then none on Sunday. This week at school she's been going, not consistently, but still she's ready. I'm just not sure if mom is yet. My plan was to wait until we moved in a few weeks and then go all out with the big girl pants and everything and actually start in on the "training". Well, no need for training this girl, she did it all on her own. As of now we're still in the diaper, she just tells us she has to go, undresses herself, takes her diaper off herself and just needs us to lift her up onto the potty. She's a very independent 2 year old!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year we spent Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Timm's house in Pendleton. Before we did that though, we needed to stop in and see how Grammy Lewis was doing after her hip replacement on Monday. She was supposed to come home from the hospital on Thanksgiving afternoon and we were going to have breakfast with her at the hospital, but to every one's surprise the physical therapist suggested that she go home Wednesday night because she was doing so well! So, we got to have a nice breakfast at their house before heading out to Pendleton. It was great to see her, we're very proud of all the hard work she's doing to recovery quickly so she can run after little misses again! The drive out to Pendleton was about 3 1/2 hours and Ashley did great! She slept an hour, and entertained herself almost the whole rest of the way. We did have to crank up some kids tunes and sing "This old Man" to entertain her, she got a kick out of that! Uncle Mike drove out from Seattle and joined us for the holiday this year. It was really good to see him and it meant a lot to have him there. Steph put on quite the spread and we were all hurting afterward from eating too much. As always we had plenty of leftovers to last us the rest of the weekend. Friday morning we had breakfast with Santa, which may have to be a new tradition. They did a really nice job with a pancake breakfast, picture with Santa and crafts for the kids. We dressed Ashley up in her elf outfit and of course everyone was commenting on how cute she looked and it made Grandma very proud since she made it. Ashley wasn't so excited about the picture with Santa, but we attempted a family picture and got one that didn't turn out so bad. Friday night we made traditional gingerbread houses, which was a lot of fun! We ate about as much candy as we put on the house, but accounted for that when we bought our supply at the store. Saturday afternoon we left for Seattle. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great Thanksgiving weekend!


Ashley was a little happier to sit by the snowmen than Santa.



Uncle Mike and Brian

Grandma and Grandpa

Steve and Steph's house in on the left and Brian, Uncle Mike and mine is on the right

PEPS Birthday

November 20th was the PEPS group 2nd birthday party. It was set for an earlier date, but an unfortunate thing happened and Sara's house was broken into the night before it was scheduled. No one was hurt, thank goodness, but you can imagine they were all really shaken up. Bless her heart she rescheduled it and we were able to celebrate with almost the whole group. We did miss Jackson, Jordan, and Oliver, though.

Sara made these placemats for all the kids. They turned out so cute and will be something we'll look at often to remember our friends when we move. We'll miss everyone!

Ashley was the last one at the table again this year. She took her time making sure all the frosting was licked off her cupcake before she started in on the cake part. Clockwise: Ashley, Schuyler, Collin, Sophia, Tallyn, Elizabeth, and Ryder.

Our PEPS group plus some! Bottom left to right: Amy, Sophia, and Logan, Lydia, Collin and Logan, Middle right to left: Ashley and I, Shannon (pregnant with a boy due in Feb) and Elizabeth, Brita and Schuyler, Cress (11 weeks pregnant) and Ryder, back row: Sara and Harper and Tallyn not in picture.

Birthday Gift

We gave Ashley this pretend food set for her Birthday this year. She's been pretending to make us coffee and have us taste creations that she's made with her plates and bowls, so we thought it would be fun to get her this and then for Christmas add a kitchen set to cook everything on. She made mommy a sandwich this morning which was delicious and had Papa taste everything else that was in the baskets one at a time. He was a very busy eater this morning!



She made sure that each piece of paper was properly taken care of by mom, no messes for this girl!

Red Robbin

We decided to take Ashley to Red Robbin with some friends for her birthday sundae they're famous for. We went to the RR in the U district which is where I used to work for a while in college. Of course everything looks the same and even the birthday songs haven't changed. Ashley loved her ice cream sundae, but made sure she didn't get too messy and cleaned her face and even the table when it dripped. She is so much like me, it's really quite funny to see.





The gang

Ashley was very excited that baby Nathan got to come to her birthday party. He is such a good baby and slept the whole time. Ashley was very interested in him and all the faces he made while he was sleeping. I was impressed at how well she handled us holding him. It's a good sign for when her brother is born.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Yesterday Ashley turned two! My little angel is growing up so fast! She is such a gem to be around and I couldn't be more proud of her and everything she is. She had such a good birthday and it's not over yet! I woke her up yesterday singing "Happy Birthday" and she was all smiles and giggles. Then I told everyone at her school that it was her birthday and at snack time they all sang to her. Then when I picked her up we headed to the store and she picked out her own little cake for dessert. The funny part is I wanted to light a candle on her cake and have her try to blow it out, but she was too scared of the flame. She moved herself to the corner of her high chair and said "mommy, hot" I guess we got it across to her that fire was hot and she should stay away from it. So, I blew out the candle for her, but she was still nervous about the candle being in there still and wanted me to take it out. After it was out of her sight she politely asked for a fork and then she was very happy to eat her cake.

28 weeks!

Everyone at works thinks he looks like another Brian.

Wow, I can't believe I'm 28 weeks already. I was always told that the second pregnancy goes a lot faster than the first, but I didn't expect this. The pregnancy is going so well, I really don't have much to report on. It's funny when I go to my OB visit I always ask them to compare my weight to what I was with Ashley and so far it's almost exactly the same which makes me feel good. I'm definitely not working out as much as I was with Ashley, but I try to walk on my lunch breaks and do yoga at home when I can. He is a very active little boy and when I lay on my side he really gets going in there. I was on call this past weekend and got called in at 4am. When I got back he wouldn't let me fall asleep and for a solid 1/2 hour he was kicking around in there. So far, he's not stuck up in my ribs like Ashley was, so I'm grateful for that. Although that was later in the pregnancy, so hopefully he won't do the same. In the midst of this H1N1 craze, I've managed to stay healthy and so has the rest of my family. I was one of the first to get the vaccine when it became available at the hospital and Ashley will get the nasal mist tomorrow. It is definitely one thing that will stand out in my mind when I think of this pregnancy and thankful that I never got it!

Halloween 2009

She's a happy little elf isn't she. At least this time when she wore it. When I put it on her at Christmas she had a fit. Remember that picture?

We did the same thing this year as last and went to Northgate mall for trick or treating. Brian's mom made this costume for her last Christmas and it still fit and she liked wearing it. She loved the bells on her toes, but took them off on the way to the mall. I don't think she expected them to come off. Mom will have to do a little repairing as she has to wear her costume for her 2nd PEPS birthday party next weekend. This year D and Hani joined us so it was extra special. Ashley did great and wasn't scared at all going up to strangers once she figured out they were giving her candy. She certainly didn't run up there, but cautiously came close and held out her bag for the people to put the goodies into. Then she would take them out and run back to us saying "candy, candy". She really didn't know what candy was until that night because she never gets it and she made sure we knew that she liked it and wanted more!

"Yep, I'm ready. Now where's that candy you were telling me about!?"

She was so cute to watch. Didn't say a word, but of course the people handing out candy knew what to do. She just stood there and waited for them to put the candy in her bag making sure she didn't get too close.

Ashley pooped out after walking almost the whole loop of the mall. Lucky for her Papa was there to scoop her up and get some snuggle time in!

Aunt Becki made this adorable trick or treat bag for Ashley. She couldn't wait to put stuff in it when we got in the mail.

"Papa Friday"

"Papa Friday" is what Ashley told me when I said we were going to see Papa after school today. She got all excited and can't wait to give him a big hug and kiss.

Bluebird

Ashley will officially be a bluebird as of Monday next week. The bluebird room is the 2-3 1/2 year old room downstairs at her daycare. She's been transitioning this week spending a few hours Mon-Wed and then almost a full day yesterday and today. She has so much fun down there and is really challenged with her learning. The first day they all lined up to do something and counted in Spanish, English, Japanese and German. Wow! She's having to adjust to all the new stimulation and couldn't fall asleep at nap time yesterday because of it. Of course I made plans for us to go to a friend's house for dinner and she fell asleep 2 minutes after we got into the car. I had to cancel. I didn't have it in me to make her stay up, so she had a quick dinner and was sleep by 6:30!

For Papa

Cute!

Night, Night

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Nathan James

Our friends Joana and Steve became proud parents Saturday morning to Nathan James, 8lb 4 oz and 21 inches. We went to see them at the hospital that afternoon and lucky for Brian since he was up this weekend got to meet the little guy too.

Leavenworth

Last weekend Brian and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in Leavenworth. The actual day was the 18th and that weekend we spent as a family at the beach house, but this weekend was just the two of us, Grammy came up to watch Ashley. We took the corvette since it was going to be 80 degrees, which definitely made up for the fact that we couldn't take the car to Anacordes a few weekends ago because of rain! The Fall festival was going on and we got there right in the middle of the parade. So, we parked and walked into town, got lunch and went into all the cute shops. They had a band playing and people dancing, it was great. We spent the afternoon there and headed back to our bed and breakfast for dinner. We stayed at the Pine River Ranch where Brian proposed to me 6 years ago in January. Same room and everything. It was completely different being there in the fall, especially since the last time we were there is was after that huge 2004 snow storm where they cosed down I-84 because of snow and ice. We still talk about how crazy it was that I drove out there, but it was a big weekend and someone was determined that I get there! The leaves were changing and made for a beautiful scenery. It was a perfect weekend, spent with the perfect person.

I caught Ashley trying to drink from the camel pack. You can just look at the still image instead of clicking to view the video, it's only 1/2 a second when I realized it was on the video setting and I was trying to take a still picture. She had been watching us trying to figure out what we were doing and I guess she decided to give it a try. By the time I switched the setting she wouldn't do it again, I think she decided it wasn't as fun as it looked since she couldn't get any water out.

Tiger Mountain

Last Sunday we went up to Tiger Mountain for a hike. It was a gorgeous day. We both had never been there, but decided it was on our "to do" list before we moved. I think we would have enjoyed it a little more if we were in shape, it's a tough hike straight up with hardly any flat areas for relief. My quads were burning!!! I thought my legs were going to give out from underneath me. Of course people had warned us of this, but you forget how out of shape you are. We're a little sore even days after, but we made it and the view was.... unimpressive! I was ready to give up at 2.2 miles (it's a 6 mile round trip, 3 miles each way, so we were almost there) and Brian kept encouraging me saying it will be all worth it once we see the view from the top. Well I'm glad we didn't really know what that view was like because I wouldn't have pushed myself as hard as I did and Brian was the one carrying Ashley! There was an old man at the top who commented that "a young girl like myself should not be breathing that hard", my response (to myself of course) "try carrying around a 21 week belly old man!" The nerve!






These birds were taking food right from people's hands, never seen anything like it

20 Weeks

Well 21 weeks 3 days today, but this picture was taken at 20 weeks. So far the pregnancy as gone really well. I'm a lot bigger this time, mostly because I have no time to work out, but also because "he's my second", everyone has been so sweet by saying that. It makes it not so fun to dress myself in the morning, though. I'm feeling him kick all the time, it's quite amusing. He's a strong little guy and very busy in there. He's going to give his big sister a run for her money. Speaking of, I think Ashley kind of gets that he's growing in mommy's tummy. She'll randomly say it and include him in our conversation. The other day we were "brushing" her baby's teeth and she said "brush baby brother's teeth?" Then when we asked her where baby brother was, she responded "in mommy's tummy". I was impressed. She'll also just randomly state the fact that "baby brother in mommy's tummy" and point to my belly. I hope she's as excited about him when he arrives. She has been practicing with her own baby, feeding it a bottle, putting it under the covers and rubbing it's back, and of course holding and patting it's back whispering "shhhh, shhhh" when it's "crying".