Its funny, Matt and I are going to spend our first and last Christmas this year as just the two of us. No family, no kids, just us. I'm excited and sad. Its weird knowing that all of my family has gathered in Houston and to not be with them but at the same time, I'm excited to share the day only with Matt. I hope it all goes well and that the few gifts I got him arrive before Christmas (I was very late ordering so it will be my own fault if they don't). With the baby coming and the new house, we don't plan on having gifts under the tree or anything spectacular and for the first time, since before I started working at 16, I don't have amazing gifts for my family and friends. We sent out cards and I'm in the middle of making a few things but overall I'm just not prepared for the gift giving part of Christmas. I hope everyone isn't disappointed in me because of it.
That being said, I'm excited for Christmas for the first time since Mom died. I am listening to the music and rejoicing in the season. I think a lot of that has to do with the small one I am growing in my belly. At mass on Sundays the message goes straight into my heart and soul and I feel such a bond with Mary. In fact it seems weird that our baby isn't coming on Christmas day but a few weeks later instead. I just feel ready and expectant, I hope the baby isn't too late :)
I'm scared of the birthing part and the pain but I know that Matt and I are blessed and I can't wait to see Matt as a dad...he will be great at it.
Peace and joy this week of Christmas
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Parties, Bellies, Snow Hunting, Christmas decorations and more!
This has been a pretty busy couple of weeks and as usual I am behind in my blog.
First, Matt and I attended the ICF/Jones and Stokes Christmas party. We were very surprised by how wonderful and fancy it was, of course since we have both mostly only worked for the federal government that we haven't ever been to a company party before. We had a great night and met some new people who will hopefully become good friends. The company also paid for each of us to recieve a professional couple picture...so here it is:
(Not the best picture but hey they were free and Matt looks great)
My belly has been growing by leaps and bounds as you can see in the above pictures....here are a few more. One is the Matt's view and one is mine. As you can see from my view, half of my belly button is now poking out, I call it my ski slope :)
In semi gardening news, we finally decided on our Christmas tree this year after many false starts. The first time we went looking, we ended up with brand new bookcases from Ikea instead. The next time, Matt went in to sticker shock over the price of trees and finally realized why so many people not from Oregon (where the trees come from) buy fake trees. In the end, we brought in my Norfolk pine and decorated it. We also got the lights up outside the house and its beginning to look a lot like Christmas:
Today, after spending the week decorating and cleaning the house, we decided to take the girls out to see snow for the first time. We went "snow hunting" on interstate 50 and found an amazing spot. It was beautiful and it even started snowing again while we were there. Surprisingly, the girls seemed to be in heaven:
Although, I think Chaquita might have duplicated herself (due to some very werewolf like behavior during the full moon the last couple of nights, howling, screaming and breaking the wire that closes the door to her house) and is now living in AZ at a very nice house....as seen in this magazine add below:
(You can barely see it but this dog is as gray in the face as Chaquita)
Last but not least, we finished the baby's room (well almost). I am very proud of it, I even made the mobile myself....
Oh wait I almost forgot....Cathy and Barbara from Matt's side of the family sent me the best baby shower gift ever!!!!! Fresh strawberries covered in chocolate and a note saying I don't have to share with anyone. They made me so happy that I giggled and laughed for almost an hour straight.
Some times blogger just doesn't cooperate....sorry for the strange layout but I am done trying to make it work!
First, Matt and I attended the ICF/Jones and Stokes Christmas party. We were very surprised by how wonderful and fancy it was, of course since we have both mostly only worked for the federal government that we haven't ever been to a company party before. We had a great night and met some new people who will hopefully become good friends. The company also paid for each of us to recieve a professional couple picture...so here it is:
(Not the best picture but hey they were free and Matt looks great)
In semi gardening news, we finally decided on our Christmas tree this year after many false starts. The first time we went looking, we ended up with brand new bookcases from Ikea instead. The next time, Matt went in to sticker shock over the price of trees and finally realized why so many people not from Oregon (where the trees come from) buy fake trees. In the end, we brought in my Norfolk pine and decorated it. We also got the lights up outside the house and its beginning to look a lot like Christmas:
Today, after spending the week decorating and cleaning the house, we decided to take the girls out to see snow for the first time. We went "snow hunting" on interstate 50 and found an amazing spot. It was beautiful and it even started snowing again while we were there. Surprisingly, the girls seemed to be in heaven:
Although, I think Chaquita might have duplicated herself (due to some very werewolf like behavior during the full moon the last couple of nights, howling, screaming and breaking the wire that closes the door to her house) and is now living in AZ at a very nice house....as seen in this magazine add below:
(You can barely see it but this dog is as gray in the face as Chaquita)Last but not least, we finished the baby's room (well almost). I am very proud of it, I even made the mobile myself....
Oh wait I almost forgot....Cathy and Barbara from Matt's side of the family sent me the best baby shower gift ever!!!!! Fresh strawberries covered in chocolate and a note saying I don't have to share with anyone. They made me so happy that I giggled and laughed for almost an hour straight.
Some times blogger just doesn't cooperate....sorry for the strange layout but I am done trying to make it work!
Monday, December 1, 2008
This Month
The month of November has been busy for us. We met some new friends, worked on the nursery and of course celebrated Thanksgiving with Matt's family.
We went birding with the Sacramento Audubon Society earlier in the month and met a young couple that we had a lot in common with. Later in the month they invited us to go with them to Bodega Bay to see an Alaskan bird that had decided to make its home there for the winter. We had tons of fun, saw the bird and I think made friends with an awesome couple at the same time.
We have also come to the realization that the baby will be coming in less then 6 weeks (if it is on time) and that we really need to get its room ready. The two weekend leading up to Thanksgiving we worked hard to get the paint on the walls and some of the stuff put away. I hope to get it completely finished this weekend. In the meantime, here is a picture of Matt working hard on the painting.
To finish out the month we went on one last long roadtrip to Portland to celebrate Thanksgiving with Pat and Pat and to see Harrison and Haley's new baby, Rowan. We had a blast and discovered a great park to walk the dogs at. The scenery was amazing on the way up and back:
but the temperatures were just a little cold for the dogs:
We did the touristy thing out at the Gorge and took some pictures from Crown Point:
On the way back we stopped at Lake Shasta and took a short walk....I recently discovered that overalls were super comfy for long drives (never thought I would wear those again).
I hope that everyone enjoyed their Turkey Day as much as we did.
We went birding with the Sacramento Audubon Society earlier in the month and met a young couple that we had a lot in common with. Later in the month they invited us to go with them to Bodega Bay to see an Alaskan bird that had decided to make its home there for the winter. We had tons of fun, saw the bird and I think made friends with an awesome couple at the same time.
We have also come to the realization that the baby will be coming in less then 6 weeks (if it is on time) and that we really need to get its room ready. The two weekend leading up to Thanksgiving we worked hard to get the paint on the walls and some of the stuff put away. I hope to get it completely finished this weekend. In the meantime, here is a picture of Matt working hard on the painting.
To finish out the month we went on one last long roadtrip to Portland to celebrate Thanksgiving with Pat and Pat and to see Harrison and Haley's new baby, Rowan. We had a blast and discovered a great park to walk the dogs at. The scenery was amazing on the way up and back:
but the temperatures were just a little cold for the dogs:
We did the touristy thing out at the Gorge and took some pictures from Crown Point:
On the way back we stopped at Lake Shasta and took a short walk....I recently discovered that overalls were super comfy for long drives (never thought I would wear those again).
I hope that everyone enjoyed their Turkey Day as much as we did.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Things every pregnany woman should know
I thought I would start a little aside where I can post about cool things I find during these last few months of pregnancy. The first and most amazing thing I have found so far.....Pottery Barn Kids always has a clean bathroom in the back of the store for Moms-to-be, babies and even Dads. In fact they always have a few diapers and wipes in there too!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Baby Shower
My friends and I entered the new century over the weekend. We had a conference call baby shower! My good friend Kelley (also prego) and I were talking many months back about how sad we were that we could not share our pregnancies with our friends because we are all so spread out across the country, when the concept of everyone just calling at the same time to celebrate came up. She took it a step further and threw me a shower complete with recommended treats, decorations and presents.
On Sunday, my friends and family from: Texas, Florida, Dakota, Louisiana, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa and London all called the same conference line inorder to play games, open presents and celebrate. It made me feel so loved and special to know that so many people were out there that loved me and our baby-to-be.
Here are a few pictures of were I sat for the the shower and the pile of gifts that came to my door.
The amount of boxes that came to my house was overwhelming (I love getting presents everyday). It took all of my self control and many, many reminders from Matt for me not to just tear into them when they arrived!
I set up my space with decorations sent from Kelley, a plate of cheese and crackers and a rootbeer!
After the party was over I took a picture of all the gifts so everyone that attened could see how well supplied baby Ewalt was beginning to be.
Last of all, here I am, super pregnant and growing everyday (thank goodness the midwives reassure me everyother week that I am normal and not turning into a big blob)!
On Sunday, my friends and family from: Texas, Florida, Dakota, Louisiana, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa and London all called the same conference line inorder to play games, open presents and celebrate. It made me feel so loved and special to know that so many people were out there that loved me and our baby-to-be.
Here are a few pictures of were I sat for the the shower and the pile of gifts that came to my door.
The amount of boxes that came to my house was overwhelming (I love getting presents everyday). It took all of my self control and many, many reminders from Matt for me not to just tear into them when they arrived!
I set up my space with decorations sent from Kelley, a plate of cheese and crackers and a rootbeer!
After the party was over I took a picture of all the gifts so everyone that attened could see how well supplied baby Ewalt was beginning to be.
Last of all, here I am, super pregnant and growing everyday (thank goodness the midwives reassure me everyother week that I am normal and not turning into a big blob)!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Dream for Kelley
Those of you that know me well, know that I have absolutely crazy dreams and pregnancy seems to have only heightened them. My latest one was all about Kelley and I, which makes sense because we are both having a baby within weeks of each other until I tell you that the dream was all about Kelley and I getting married at the same time instead.
In the dream Kelley and I decided to have a joint wedding (although separate because I wanted a Catholic wedding and she wanted a protestant one) in Minnesota. The church was set up so that everyone could watch both weddings at the same time even though they were on separate altars and divided by a partition. Of course this wasn't the issue during the dream, there were two issues.
One, we needed to save money on the wedding so Kelley decided that the rehearsal dinner would only be for family members and that we would have it at a Japanese steak house but only serve the salad that they always have before the cooking gets started (you know with the ginger dressing). Crazily enough I was okay with the salad but I wanted to let my friends come too since they were coming from out of town, unlike Kelley's. The next issue was how to get all of the flowers to the church. We loaded up tons and tons of flowers in the priest's little pickup truck and the priest then proceeded to drive us to the wedding. The problem was that Kelley was giving directions and she would wait until the last minute to tell the priest where to turn and then it would take so long for the priest to slow down that we would miss the turn. Then Kelley would tell us to take the next turn and it would all happen again. When we finally turned on a street, the street was full of holes and turned into a roller coaster. When we finally got to the ceremony I remembered that Matt and I were already married, so we had a renual ceremony instead. It was beautiful and all my family (living and dead) were there. Even with all the crazyness Kelley and I both had beautiful ceremonies and I woke up with a smile on my face :)
In the dream Kelley and I decided to have a joint wedding (although separate because I wanted a Catholic wedding and she wanted a protestant one) in Minnesota. The church was set up so that everyone could watch both weddings at the same time even though they were on separate altars and divided by a partition. Of course this wasn't the issue during the dream, there were two issues.
One, we needed to save money on the wedding so Kelley decided that the rehearsal dinner would only be for family members and that we would have it at a Japanese steak house but only serve the salad that they always have before the cooking gets started (you know with the ginger dressing). Crazily enough I was okay with the salad but I wanted to let my friends come too since they were coming from out of town, unlike Kelley's. The next issue was how to get all of the flowers to the church. We loaded up tons and tons of flowers in the priest's little pickup truck and the priest then proceeded to drive us to the wedding. The problem was that Kelley was giving directions and she would wait until the last minute to tell the priest where to turn and then it would take so long for the priest to slow down that we would miss the turn. Then Kelley would tell us to take the next turn and it would all happen again. When we finally turned on a street, the street was full of holes and turned into a roller coaster. When we finally got to the ceremony I remembered that Matt and I were already married, so we had a renual ceremony instead. It was beautiful and all my family (living and dead) were there. Even with all the crazyness Kelley and I both had beautiful ceremonies and I woke up with a smile on my face :)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Trip to Tampa and Orlando
I spent the week with Anne to celebrate her 30th birthday and to have a small baby shower. We had a great weekend in Orlando partially thanks to Dad sharing his time share with us. We ended up getting upgraded into a three bedroom suite, almost bigger then our house!
The living area
Friday we celebrated Anne's birthday by attending a murder mystery dinner in Orlando
Then on Saturday Anne threw me a small but fun Baby shower. We woke up early and decorated the hotel suite and then played some fun games.
Anne and Erin making Cookies for on top of the cupcakes
The finished cupcakes
The table all set up (we couldn't decide between Winnie the Pooh and Noah's Ark so we did a little of both)
Anne found some great kids poetry books to hand out as favors.
One "game" was for everyone to create a hand painted onesie for the baby.
Some of them turned out really well...our baby will have the coolest clothes around.
We also had diaper races. Erin had never put a diaper on a kid before. She had the fastest time but her diaper would have leaked everywhere so Anne clenched the win instead.
Anne and I finished out the weekend by spending some money at the Disney shops and then heading for Tampa.
It was a great week and lots of fun for me to spend time with family and other girls. I can't wait for Anne to come here next.
The finished cupcakes
The table all set up (we couldn't decide between Winnie the Pooh and Noah's Ark so we did a little of both)
Anne found some great kids poetry books to hand out as favors.
One "game" was for everyone to create a hand painted onesie for the baby.
Some of them turned out really well...our baby will have the coolest clothes around.
We also had diaper races. Erin had never put a diaper on a kid before. She had the fastest time but her diaper would have leaked everywhere so Anne clenched the win instead.
Anne and I finished out the weekend by spending some money at the Disney shops and then heading for Tampa.
It was a great week and lots of fun for me to spend time with family and other girls. I can't wait for Anne to come here next.
Settled In
Well we finally have things pretty settled in at the house. I thought I would post some pictures for everyone to see. Pictures on the wall really make a house feel like a home :)
Family Area
Family Area
Monday, September 29, 2008
Behind and lazy
Well I know I have been taking my time about keeping this blog up and I can only apologize and offer that I am lazy as an excuse. There just doesn't seem to be a lot going on in my life but I figured I could talk about a couple of things this week.
The most exciting news is that my gardenia has decided that it likes Sacramento and has actually re-bloomed in the back yard. The smell is amazing and reminds me of home. Also making an unexpected appearance in its pot...the crapemerytle that I thought was a goner after it lost most of its leaves during the drive over. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to plant anything in the ground since moving here but Matt and I have been looking into native gardening and can't wait to get our hands dirty this fall. Of course that will depend on whether or not we ever get the nursery put together.
Speaking of, we finally have unpacked all the boxes in the house (we cheated and moved a few to the garage, don't tell). Now we just have to find a place for everything. That could take awhile since the dogs are starting to get a little more demanding of our time now that they have settled in to the wonderful weather. We have been taking them to various parks on the weekend and both Matt and I enjoy the excuse to get out and explore. Most recently we have been wandering up and down the American river park system with the girls. They really have loved the ability to jump in the river and cool off (we have too).
I guess the only other bits of news are; Matt made his last trip to Louisiana before the baby is born last week, I am off to see Anne for her 30th birthday next week, Pat and Pat are going to visit for the first time this weekend and my stomach just keeps getting bigger and bigger (daily it seems).
I am so glad and thankful that all of our friends and family made it through Ike safely. For those of you wondering, the family home escaped without damage although a tree fell on the fence in the backyard a day after the storm.
The most exciting news is that my gardenia has decided that it likes Sacramento and has actually re-bloomed in the back yard. The smell is amazing and reminds me of home. Also making an unexpected appearance in its pot...the crapemerytle that I thought was a goner after it lost most of its leaves during the drive over. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to plant anything in the ground since moving here but Matt and I have been looking into native gardening and can't wait to get our hands dirty this fall. Of course that will depend on whether or not we ever get the nursery put together.
Speaking of, we finally have unpacked all the boxes in the house (we cheated and moved a few to the garage, don't tell). Now we just have to find a place for everything. That could take awhile since the dogs are starting to get a little more demanding of our time now that they have settled in to the wonderful weather. We have been taking them to various parks on the weekend and both Matt and I enjoy the excuse to get out and explore. Most recently we have been wandering up and down the American river park system with the girls. They really have loved the ability to jump in the river and cool off (we have too).
I guess the only other bits of news are; Matt made his last trip to Louisiana before the baby is born last week, I am off to see Anne for her 30th birthday next week, Pat and Pat are going to visit for the first time this weekend and my stomach just keeps getting bigger and bigger (daily it seems).
I am so glad and thankful that all of our friends and family made it through Ike safely. For those of you wondering, the family home escaped without damage although a tree fell on the fence in the backyard a day after the storm.
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