Holiday Fun

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! Unfortunately I was unable to find my camera cord, so while I have lots of good pictures of my time at home, I don’t have any to put up. I will try to put some up later

I’m just going to do a brief day-by-day rundown of each day’s activities. I had so much fun with my family and we made a lot of memories. I really enjoyed watching Nathan interact with my family as they don’t know each other well because of the distance.
Most evenings we did Advent, watched Christmas movies and other movies, and endlessly cooked and did dishes

12/17—Thurs—As you know we went to the Dr. to find out we were having a boy, then we packed and left for OH around 10 in the evening.

12/18—Fri—Drive, arrive in OH around 6 and see baby stuff mom bought

12/19—Sat—I shopped with mom all morning—Once upon a child, Mall, Target, Walmart, Chipotles!, the Boys did their own thing, then in the evening the boys went to the movies and to the mall, and Mom and I went to The Greene for the live Nativity. I met Mom and Dad’s pastor, and we bought a Chai Latte and shared it while we walked around.

12/20—Sun—Visit Mom and Dad’s church, then go to the Air Force museum. Nathan and I went on the tour of the presidential and experimental aircraft. Erika and her fiancé Nate, and a few of his siblings joined us there. Erika was with us from this point on.

12/21—Mon—Got family photos taken at Walmart (and they did a great job!), went to get schwarmas but the shop was closed :(, so we had lunch at Long John Silvers instead. Then we went Christmas shopping at Valley Thrift store. The four of us kids shopped, and we got $5 to spend on each person in the family. And you would not believe the amount of gifts we all bought for our money! It was really fun—a new take on something we did when we were kids in Africa. On the way back home we had a family outing to the Pitt Stop tire store, then spent the evening gift wrapping, packing for the tripto NY, movie watching, and baking stuff that couldn't be done in oven in NY. (We only had camp stoves in the NY house, since Mom had brought her nice stove to OH)

12/22—Tues—Drive to NY, us kids took Mom and Dad out to lunch at Bahama Breeze for their 25th anniversary, and we decorated the NY house for Christmas.

12/23—Weds—Went to Ellicottville to go to Doug (PTL!) and get back and hips adjusted. He actually did adjustments on Mom and Dad and Nathan and I. Then we all went down to this cute little coffee shop just the four of us. Nathan and I walked around and window shopped while Mom and Dad went to their realtors office. Later that afternoon my cousin Ethan came over and brought Guitar Hero (which apparently my mom loves to play!) and we all took turns for several hours. While we were having fun, Dad was down in the cold basement replacing mom’s brakes. That night was our Baby Shower/Party at the church, which was really fun. Grandma and Grandpa Holtz bought the cake, which was super cute, and we got to see a lot of relatives, friends, and church family. Baby got some really nice presents too! After the party the Coulters came over to the house and we got to visit with them for a while longer.

12/24—Thurs—Chrismas Eve—Played guitar hero all morning while Miah and Dad were working at Grandad’s house. Mom and I had to go to Uncle Den’s to borrow a cheese grater but we stopped at Brooks and sneaked a sub sandwich. Nathan , Erika, Mom and I spent the afternoon making the Christmas Eve foods and we had over the Stovers and the Rineharts. Aunt Bonnie, Derek, and Brian stopped by for a few minutes to say hello, but didn’t stay long.

12/25—Fri—Christmas—Family day. Grandad came over for a brief visit and everyone mostly just played games and watched Christmas movies.

12/26—Sat—Packed up and cleaned up house(it’s still able to be shown), drive NY-OH, stop to meet the Gould family (the family of Erika’s fiancé), and see our old family dog Cadet, who now lives with the Goulds. When we got back to Mom and Dad’s we unpacked the cars, and then Nathan and I packed up our stuff to leave the next morning.

12/27—Sun—Drive OH-TX. Cry on and off for most of the day while I’m driving. I hated leaving. More on this one later.

12/28—Mon—Back in Texas. Sleep in, unpack, weep some more, go see Alvin and Chipmunks Squeakwell as a matinee.

12/29—Tues—Back to work

12/31—Thurs—New Years Eve—Off work early. Ordered pizza and Melissa, Thomas, Nathan and I sat around and watched TV. I fell asleep (big surprise!), but they watched all the festivities.

Then on Saturday Melissa and Thomas left—they moved down to the coast of Texas. I am happy for them since it gives them a lot of new opportunities, but for me I am sad because Melissa is my best (and basically only) friend and I will miss her big bunches. With her gone, I’m back to just having Nathan. And don’t get me wrong, he’s my best friend and I love him to death, but the reality is that he is gone way more than half of the time and that leaves me kind of lonely sometimes.

Christmas was amazing and such a happy time. I am so glad that we got to go and that God provided the means and kept us safe. I really needed that trip. The New Year has started out a little bit sad, but I do have Piglet’s birth to look forward to this year, and my mom (and hopefully Dad) coming down to visit after he is born.

Twig and Berries

16 weeks, 5 days ultrasound

It's a boy!  Will try to upload ultrasound photo later.

Lists, glorious lists!

My mom and I were having the most philosophical, in depth conversation the other day—about the values and intricacies of a to-do list. Or really, any list, so long as it is detailed and you can scribble out your accomplishments. We are, in fact, such nerds that sometimes when we do something that is not on our to-do list we write it on the list, just to have the pleasure of crossing it out. Sometimes there are to-do lists for our to-do lists. Currently I have 4 running lists. (Which is nothing compared to mom, but I won’t tell you about hers and risk embarrassing her in public.) I have a list for Nathan to-do before we leave, and for me to do before we leave. Then I have a list of things that HAVE to go in the car with us. Important things, like winter boots and jackets and beef jerky and a pillow and my chipmunks Christmas CD. Then I have a fourth list of things I’m supposed to ask Dr. H about. Things I was supposed to ask him about on my last appointment, but got too excited about hearing Baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler to remember to ask.

ALERT: RABBIT TRAIL: ALERT

I know I will also be too excited to remember my questions this appointment, because we are having our second ultrasound! So we’ll get to see our chillun, and hopefully find out it’s gender. Which means that I will get some new pictures of said chillun. Which means that after the sonogram when we go to meet with Dr. H, I will, like a dork, want to show him said pictures, just like last time. This is somewhat how I imagine things will go:

Me: Look! I got some new pictures! (shoves them at him to see)

Dr. H: Thinks, yeah I reviewed them before I came in the room so I would know what to tell you. It looks just like any other 17 week old fetus. Like a little alien. Says, What a cute baby! Congratulations! (hands them back)

Me: Thinks, why did he say my baby is cute. It looks like a little 17 week old alien. Not so much cute. But for sure more human than the gummy bear we got pictures of last time, about which I was still unreasonably thrilled. Whatever, I guess that’s what I’m paying him to say. Says, Thanks.

In excitement, forgets all about questions-that-must-be-asked. Goes to pay grumpy front desk lady. Pulls out check. See’s list of questions-that-must-be-asked. Looks for nurse to ask if I can talk to Dr. H again. Will have to wait until the next appointment.

In reality of course, I hope that I will remember the list of questions-that-must-be-asked BEFORE I leave the exam room.

END OF RABBIT TRAIL

So aaaany ways, I have three of my four lists (the Dr. H list is in my purse so I don’t forget it) arranged neatly across the front of the refrigerator. I cross my things out when I complete them. On Sunday night, after Nathan finished working on the car, he came in and I asked him if he was done. He marched over to the pen holder, grabbed a pen, and briskly scribbled out the things he had accomplished on his to-do list. It was really funny the way he did it. I said, “See honey, isn’t is nice to be able to mark things off a list?” He grumbled, “NO!” as he continued intently scribbling.

Sure. Uh-huh. I know that one day my continued attempts to help that man be organized will be appreciated.

16 weeks and holiday treats

16 weeks! Seems like it was just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant. My little poppy seed has grown to an avocado, and in just a few short days we will see it again. Don’t be modest, little one! This is the only time Mama will ever want you to show your bits. And in honor of being 16 weeks preggo, here’s a picture!

This weekend I finished unpacking and organizing my house. I bought some super-classy (sarcasm) shelves for the garage, and spent my Saturday banging nails into the wall for cords and various hangable items, and arranging other stuff all over the shelves. I went through all of the plastic tubs and organized and sorted, and even went through my books and weeded some out.

Tear.

But everything is very organized. Then I decided, well, that wasn’t enough work for the day, so I figured I’d make Christmas treats! I made puppy chow, and several batches of two different kinds of Christmas cookies. I was planning on cookie plates for nine people so I had to make plenty.

I made Puppy Chow first.  This is Nathan's favorite holiday treat and I make it for him every Christmas.  I also don't believe that my family has ever had it and I wanted to take some up to Ohio. (EDIT: I lied. I forgot my family helped make many batches of puppy chow for our wedding favors.) I only made a single batch of this.  You need: One box rice cereal, one bag chocolate chips, one jar smooth peanut butter, 1/2 stick butter, and 3/4 bag of powdered sugar. Put the jar of PB, the bag of chocolate chips, and the 1/2 stick of butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt. Stir occasionally.  Dump the cereal into a large bowl. ( I don't have a super huge bowl so I do half, dump it out, and do the other half)  Pour your melted mixture over cereal and stir gently until coated.  Pour some of the powdered sugar into a bag ( I used a garbage bag. Yes, it was clean.) Pour your coated cereal in, and cover with more powdered sugar.  Shake. When covered, spread out on wax paper to dry.  Store in airtight container. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS VERY VERY SWEET.

Then I made Christmas cookies. I can't remember their names, but they are cookies we traditionally make in my family.  They are super-yummy!

The cookies you see in the ziploc baggies are the cookes I have to take to Ohio with us.  There were many, many more than you see in the picture!

(Oh, and to get those ziploc baggies, I had to go to The Armpit Of The Earth--otherwise known as Walmart--after church on Sunday. Not. A. Good. Idea.)

Anyways, I filled up 9, yes 9, little plates with my festive Christmas bites. Four for the men than helped us move. Two for my bosses.  One for my baby doctor (and his note says from Baby!). And one for my parents-in-law, and one for my sister-in-law and company. Nathan helped me by covering them in green Saran-wrap.

And then, since I couldn't walk like an upright human, I hunched and stumbled my way to the couch where I begged a foot massage from my newly-arrived-home husband.

Sunday was church and then an afternoon spent buying car parts, picking up Nathan's motorcycle, picking up tools, working on the car to ready it for our much anticipated journey, and picking up my cookie mess and doing dishes. Blech! Yet again I worked myself into painful hobbling, and didn't get to bed until waaaaay past my bedtime, but all-in-all it was a very productive and enjoyable weekend.

The moral of the story is: You. ARE NOT. Superwoman.  So CHILL!!!!