And it was love at first sight....

Nadia and Justin are in town visiting and Asher is loving all this attention! He met Nadia at her wedding when he was just 4 months old, so basically it was like he was meeting her for the first time this time around and it was love at first sight! He squealed with delight like she was his long lost best friend when he saw her after he woke up from his nap yesterday. So cute!

Love This!

The highlight of my day? Seeing this video pop up on my blog reader! Okay, I admit, in my hormonal pregnant state it made me cry a little to - tears of joy though!

We are so proud of Sam & Sara!

Good Bye 2010 - We're Sad To See You Go!

I can't even tell you how many people I've heard say that they are so ready for 2010 to be over. It seems like a lot of the people that we know and love have had a really rough year.

For us, I think it's been one of the best years yet. I'm seriously so sad to see 2010 end. Yes, we've had a few challenges this year, but the good has definitely outweighed the bad.

Is it bad that I'm scared for 2011? It seems like 2010 has been so great, that 2011 will almost certainly seem rough. I don't know why it is, but for some reason whenever life is good, I have a hard time with sitting back an enjoying it, because I always fear that something bad is just around the corner. I know this is silly thinking and so not God's heart for me, but I still have somehow always felt that way. I have found though, that when the tough times do come, it helps to look back on all the blessings of the past and it reminds me that there is a season for everything.

Back to the 2010 that we love so much though! These are some of my very favorite memories:

January - finishing our basement renovations! It seriously felt SO good to have that project done! We also rang in the New Year with friends in St. Louis

February - A surprise visit from Nate. We miss our friend so much and love it when he comes to visit!

March - A girls weekend with Sarah in Milwaukee. Steve and Nich stayed back and painted the baby's room and setup the crib.

April - Celebrating our anniversary in Chicago. We had such a great time. We also went to a Cardinal's game in April - one of my favorite things to do!

May - Baby shower in Madison and then a trip to St. Louis for 2 baby showers there. The baby showers were great, but most of all I loved spending time with our family and friends!

June - what a great month June was! We went to Minneapolis for a hurling tournament and then spent a few days with my family in Eau Claire. I also went on maternity leave June 1st and loved having time to get ready for Asher to arrive.

July - We celebrated the 4th of July in the hospital bringing our little guy into the world. Not only was this the best month ever, but the best moment of my entire life as well. I also put in my resignation at Independent Living in July and choosing to stay home with Asher has been one of the best decisions we've ever made!

August - My mom came to visit and meet Asher. We also had a mini-vacation to Chicago in August and it was so perfect! I also got to see my old friend Kris, who was one of my english students in Thailand back in 1999. We had so much to catch up on - luckily he is now speaks fluent english!

September - A trip to St. Louis to introduce Asher to our family and friends there!

October - A visit from my dear friend Sara that lives in Montana. I finally got to meet her little sweetheart Amelia.  This was definitely one of my top highlights of the year.  We also had a visit from my Dad and Stepmom this month. It was fun seeing them in the "grandparents" role.

November -  A trip to St. Louis to see Nadia get married. We had such a fun time!

December - What a great month to celebrate all that God has done for us in 2010. We spent a day in Milwaukee enjoying being a little family and took Asher to his first NBA game. We also got new windows installed in our house this month - it may not be exciting to some, but it was for us! :)

It has been a very good year and we're sad to see 2010 leave us. We are so excited for everything that's in store for us in 2011 though. Hopefully this will be another exciting year for our family!

Happy New Year everyone!

Thanksgiving

Despite being terribly disappointed that we didn't get to go visit my family for Thanksgiving we tried to make the best of it. We're so thankful for good friends like Nich and Sarah that made the day a little more fun! Since we had planned on being out of town for 2 weeks we had absolutely no groceries in our house (except for popcorn, of course!) so it was really nice of them to bring us some Turkey and fixings!

I'm still not feeling 100%, but nothing keeps me from black Friday shopping! I have a love-hate relationship with black friday. I hate getting out to shop, but love it when I see how much money we saved. We're not the typical "stand in line for a TV" type of people, but instead we normally get practical things. Last year was a new vacuum, this year was some new cookie sheets, bedside lamps for the guest room and light fixtures to replace the ugly gold ones in our bedroom and hallway. They're not really fun items, but saving money is always fun in my book!

Last night we had dinner with our long lost friends the Bianchi's. It was so good for my heart to spend time with these guys and really helped cheer me up. I normally don't get bummed out very easily, but I've been so bummed these last few days with just really wanting to see my family - mostly just my brother and my grandma since it's going on 2 1/2 years since I've seen them now. I hate to sound ungrateful to be alive, but I really wish all of this stuff with my appendix wouldn't have happened when it did. I'm happy to be on the mend though and am feeling better every day.

St. Louis Wedding Weekend!

We had a double-whammy for Halloween this year. We got to celebrate in St. Louis and Madison - so fun!

It was also the big wedding weekend and I was so happy to see one of my favorite people get married to a wonderful man. We're so happy for Nadia and Justin - they are just perfect for each other!

The wedding and reception both were gorgeous! Unfortunately, I didn't really take any pictures. Sommer got this one of Nadia and Asher though.

Doesn't she look gorgeous?!?! She was such a beautiful bride and it did my heart good to see her so happy at her wedding. There's just something so great about being able to rejoice with others. I find myself always crying at weddings - don't know why, but I'm always just so happy for the bride and groom that it makes me tear up.

It was also sooooo fun to be able to see some of our friends while we were in town. We got to take dinner to the Nathan and Jamie and it was so great to spend time with our dear friends. Jamie is such a trooper and I already deem her a super mom even though she hasn't had the baby yet because of how amazing she has been with being on complete bedrest. I can't imagine how difficult that must be, but she is still so positive and it's so challenging to me.

Also got to spend time with the ladies and it did my heart good.

Asher got to spend time with his favorite girl Amanda and that did his heart good!

All in all, it was a good trip. I don't think we'll be making it back to St. Louis for awhile though. It really is a pain traveling with kids and as much as we love seeing everyone it's just exhausting trying to balance our time when we come to town now that we have a baby. Truthfully, it kinda takes the fun out of it.

We miss everyone in St. Louis dearly, but our life is in Madison now and we're fine with that. We love going home to visit, but I think we've decided that our visits will be few and far in between now. We'll definitely plan a trip back next spring sometime to meet the newest little addition to Nathan and Jamie's family, but other than that we're sticking close to home.....at least for the next 3 weeks until Asher gets his first trip on an airplane! :)

I'll post some pictures of our cute little Halloween charmer tomorrow. As for now, it's back to catching up on life.

Hanging with the homies....

This last week has been great and so refreshing. Sara and Amelia came to visit from Montana. It was so wonderful to meet this sweet Amelia that I've only heard about and seen pictures of for the last year.

Sara and I have been friends, well, for forever! One of my first memories of her was when we both sang in a little play with our children's choir at church - Sara was a little sheep in the play! If I had to guess I would say we were probably in forth or fifth grade at the time. Since then we've been good friends. I don't see her as often as I'd like since we live on opposite sides of the country, but when I do it's one of those friendships where you can just pick up right where you left off with none of the awkwardness that sometimes comes with catching up with someone you haven't seen in forever. I love those kind of friends.

Anyway, we had such a great week hanging out, introducing our kids to each other and catching up on life. After having such a busy and somewhat draining last few weeks it was so refreshing for me to spend some quality time with my good friend. Sara is such a wonderful mom and I just wanted to soak up every second of watching and learning from her. I think I must have asked her at least a thousand questions about parenting.

I was so sad to see her leave, but so happy that we had the opportunity to spend this time together.

Asher loved his Auntie Sara!

Hanging out at the park, yes, that is Josh pushing my 200 pound husband on the "big kids" swing. I think they were trying to catch up with Amelia.

Asher's First Trip to the Lou...

Asher made his first trip to St. Louis and was finally able to meet some of the most important people in our lives! So exciting! It was a busy and long few days. I've learned that traveling with a baby is not so fun. Not only was our car completely packed with all the stuff we had to bring, but just being in a new place with not a whole lot of familiarity was hard for the little guy.

We spent the majority of our time with Steve's parents, but managed to get a little time in with friends as well. It was sooo good to see everyone! This will be a post with lots and lots pictures!

Some of the highlights of our trip:

Taking Asher to the arch for the first time. We lived in St. Louis for 6 years and rarely went down to the arch - I even worked just 2 blocks away for 4 of those 6 years. It's kind of one of those things that once you've seen it the first time you don't really need to go back again. Anyway, so after not having been to the arch in a few years I was reminded of how just amazing it is. I just can't imagine all the thought and planning that went into constructing something so amazing.

He also got to meet Grandma Rodriguez for the first time and as expected all she wants to do is spoil him rotten! She's so excited to finally be a grandma! It's the moment she's been dreaming about (and all we've been hearing about) since Steve and I even started dating. I think she has more items for a baby in her house than we do!

I'll admit it was a bittersweet trip for me. Seeing our friends was so great, but it made me so, so sad that our little boy won't grow up surrounded by the people that matter the most to us. It's so sad to know that Asher won't get a chance to really get to know the people that know us best. I hate that our friends have, or are having kids and Asher won't grow up with them. Moving back to St. Louis is something that will most likely never, ever happen for us though, and I'm okay with that, just sometimes a little sad about all that we're missing out on.

We got to spend time with Nathan and Jamie (check out her cute little baby bump) and we are so, so excited for the addition that will be coming to their family in January....a little girl! We can't wait to meet the little beauty! It was so good see these guys and to be able to spend some time with Erica as well.

We also go to see Nadia and she was completely smitten with our little guy (who am I kidding, she's smitten with ANY baby). Next time we see Nadia it will be on her wedding day. We're so excited for her and Justin!

Thankfully, we were able to get together with Tim and Amanda for a quick visit before they left town for the weekend (coincidentally, they were coming up to Madison). Asher loved Amanda! It was cute to see him get all snugly and flirty with her! It was the first time I've ever seen him make it really obvious that he liked someone. I dressed Asher in his favorite neck time onesie that Amanda had made him and she stocked us up with some more that she had made for him! Prepare to see lots of pictures of Asher with cute polka dot neck tie onesies on in the upcoming weeks!

Asher also got to meet old man Freet while we were in town. I think it was the first time that I've ever seen Dan hold a baby, and he did pretty good. It was really cute to see him get so excited.

Last, but not least, I got to see one of my favorite people in the entire world. No matter what, a trip to St. Louis is never complete without seeing my amazing friend Missy. I so wish we would have had more time together, but I'm so grateful for the time we had and for her amazing margarita's that force me to pump and dump. Ha! Ha! Love you SO much, Bodum!

It was so good to see everyone! Now that we have a baby our trips to St. Louis will be a lot less frequent than they have been in the past year. It's just to difficult to plan and pack for the baby and I was surprised by how difficult it was for Asher to adjust to getting out of his normal routine. We are looking forward to heading back to town to see everyone in October for Nadia's wedding though!

Weekend in Minneapolis

Steve & AJ warming up before the first game.

Good weekend! We went to Minneapolis for Steve's hurling tournament, and although they didn't win, they didn't do so bad either. The bad news is that Steve got hurt. He further injured the shoulder where he already had a torn rotator cuff, so now he pretty much can't lift anything with his left arm and is in constant pain. He's going into the doctor next week and hopefully they can fix him up with a non-invasive surgery.

The team

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Eau Claire to hang out with some of my family. It was so great to see my grandparents from Montana. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pics! It was also good to see my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. We've seen them three time now since we've lived in Wisconsin. I haven't even seen them that many times in the previous 15 years, so it's been good to reconnect.

It was fun to get away, but even more fun to come home! We've been traveling a lot lately, so I'm happy that we have no plans to leave town for awhile now.

Maternity leave has begun! It all started yesterday with me getting up at 4:30. I just couldn't sleep anymore because I was thinking of everything I needed to do. Steve packed up the rest of Jessica's things last night, and we'll be delivering it all to her new apartment this evening, so that means I can get started on getting the baby's room ready! Yea! I can't say I'm excited about the process, but I will be so happy once we can get all of the crap out of our room and the baby's room so we can have a little space to live. Since I get up every hour upon the hour to pee in the night, tripping over the boxes in our room while I'm half asleep is getting a little bit old.

Ironically, I was really sad to leave my job on Friday. I knew that I liked my job, but I guess I didn't realize how attached I had become to so many of my clients. I will miss them, along with my coworkers a lot! I can't wait to go back and visit though! Assuming I don't have the baby by then, I will be heading back for a 100th birthday party for one of my clients in 2 weeks.

That's all for now, I gotta get to work on cleaning up the basement.

Babies and Bands

Besides all of the baby shower extravaganza I had a few other highlights of our trip to St. Louis.

One would be this little guy:

This is little Griffin Jude. I got to meet him for the first time and it made me oh so happy! He is one of the sweetest babies ever. Seriously, the kid hardly cries at all. I have been looking forward to being introduced to this little guy for the past few weeks and was so excited when I could finally hold him! Dale and Missy sure do make some cute kids! Other highlights was seeing his brother and sisters. It's amazing to me how fast these kids grow up. We just saw them over New Years but it seems like they've grown so much since then. Caleb is just as cute and sweet as ever and Hannah and Ava are the same sassy little girls, full of independence.

The other highlight was seeing Waterdeep. This band has been on the list as one of my top 3 favorite bands for over 10 years now. I've seen them in concert several times, but over the past few years they've stopped touring as much, so it was probably at least 5 years ago since I saw them last.

I was SO excited when Missy told me that they would be in town the same weekend we were and couldn't wait to see them live again. I know, I've said I would never go to another concert again while I was pregnant after my last experience, but this concert was special and I just had to go. Not only was it my favorite band, but it was actually the very last concert where they would be playing with a full band. From here on out it's just Don & Lori acoustic (which would still be great) and it doesn't even sound like they'll be doing to many of those shows.

So, without a doubt, pregnant or not this was a show I wanted to go to. It worked out so perfectly because they actually had seats (rather than standing only) at the concert and we got some good ones in the 4th row (we somehow thought that concert started at 6:30 when it actually started at 7:30).

Anyway, so as I sat there in a comfy chair with a perfect view listening to pretty much my favorite band ever I just felt so loved by God. I love how God chooses to show us how much he loves us in the little things. How amazing that it worked out that on the exact weekend we would be in town my favorite band would be there as well for their last concert and God allowed me to be a part of that. Music is such an important part of my life - it's how I really connect with God and only God knows just how much it would mean to me to be able to see them live this one last time. It just made me aware of how good our God is that he chooses to show us his love and bless us in the little ways that He really doesn't need to. Not being able to see Waterdeep would have not changed the fact that I know I'm loved by God, but just the opportunity to see them this one last time reminded me of just how much God knows us and loves us and cares about the little things that we care about. I love that I serve a God that is so big, yet so personal.

All that to say, one word to sum up our time in St. Louis was "love". I felt so loved by our friends and so loved by my God. Life can't get much better!

Oh Baby....

We had a great trip back to St. Louis - exhausting, but great! It all went by to quickly and we were busy every second we were there. I still feel like I need a few more days to recuperate and catch up on my sleep.

Saturday consisted of two baby showers - a brunch in the morning at our old church and then a co-ed BBQ in the evening with all of our closest friends. We came away feeling so blessed. We seriously got so much stuff that our car was absolutely packed! Here's the gifts in the baby's room after we came home - and this isn't even all of them!
We also got completely stocked up on cloth diapers, which is HUGE! Several of our friends work at Cotton Babies (the makers of Bum Genius, Flip and Econobun), so it definitely has been a major blessing to us!

Most of all though, we just enjoyed being able to see our friends. Usually when we go home to visit it's such a whirlwind of a trip that we leave feeling bummed that we didn't' get to see everyone we wanted to, but this was so great to have all of our friends together. I was soaking up every minute!
Two of my favorite people ever!

We had a great time and came away feeling so loved and blessed by all of the people that we love and miss so dearly. Steve absolutely loved the co-ed BBQ idea and so did I! We both got to see all of our friends in a laid back atmosphere where it didn't feel like all of the attention was on us so much (I hate being the center of attention). What's better than beer and burgers for a baby shower? Thanks Missy and Nadia for one rocking party!

Opening some cute little gifts!

Steve relaxing on the couch after unloading all the gifts. Check out the cute cradle Dale & Missy gave us (thanks guys!) !

Annette

Remember my zany friend Annette (aka sharpie eyeliner lady) from work?

She made it into an article in The Capitol Times this morning. You can read the article and see her picture here. Ironically, after all she's gone through she does not support Obama's health care reform plan as the article suggests.

Twilight, Cardinals and Nesting!

I've been neglecting the ol' blog lately. We've just been super busy these past few weeks and I haven't really had time to do laundry let alone blog.

The weekend was good. We've literally had something going on every single night for the past 3 weeks, so Friday night Steve and I decided to take a night off and lock ourselves in the house and ignore the world. It was very much needed! We caught up on last weeks episode of Lost and then watched Twilight. I'm not normally one to want to veg out in front of the TV for all that long, but I really just needed a night of nothingness.

I'm ashamed to say that we totally got hooked on Twilight! Yes, it's more of a flick that teeny boppers get into because they think that Robert Pattison is so hot, and I normally don't like these kinds of movies, but somehow it totally sucked me in and now I can't wait to see the 3rd movie when it comes out.

Saturday we headed to Milwaukee to cheer on our Cardinals! Our boy still may be in the womb, but we're really hoping that we can influence him to cheer for the Cardinals early on! One thing I love about Wisconsin is the tailgating, we usually have just as much fun tailgating as we do at the game. This game was no exception as we absolutely kicked the Brewer's butts! I'm glad we won, but the game was actually quite boring because we just beat them that bad.

We had a good time though and it was good to do something fun!

Poor Ryan opted to stand in the back behind my extremely large stomach to help hide his Brewer's shirt. Needless to say his trash talking of the Cardinals stopped somewhere between the 1st and 2nd inning.

The next few weeks should continue to be busy. Things should slow down just a little bit in May and then June 1st will be here before we know it!

I'm getting so excited to go on maternity leave and catch up on some sleep before our baby boy gets here. We still have lots and lots to do to get ready (all you have to do is take a look at all the boxes, computer equipment, guitars, amps and keyboards in the baby's room to understand) for our little guys arrival and I'm so excited to get started on that process.

I have been nesting like crazy lately. While Steve was away at hurling practice on Sunday I completely rearranged the living room furniture 3 different times, only to get exhausted and realize that it really worked best the way I had it originally. At that point I gave up and figured I'd let Steve put everything back together once he got home. I have been getting so frustrated with wanting to get our house in order and knowing that I can't really get started on much until the end of May due to our current living situation. This nesting is driving me crazy and I hope that once the time comes to get everything in order in our little guy's room I have enough energy to do it all!

In the meantime, since I can't do much at the house I have been cleaning and organizing our office. My boss even caught me mopping the bathroom floors last week - totally and completely not even remotely part of my job description, but I just gotta get this nesting out of my system somewhere!

Speaking of nesting, I think I hear some filing calling my name....

Our Egg-Stravaganza!

Yesterday was the perfect day. Literally it got up to 75 and I drove home with my windows down. We even put out our patio set and ate dinner outside. It looks like spring is finally here and I'm so happy!

It's been years since I decorated eggs, but I thought it might be a fun new tradition to start, so we had our egg-stravaganza party and got a little creative (or at least tried to). Somehow we messed up the pink dye, so we were stuck with just blue, and yellow (and green if we decided to combine the two).

For some reason coloring eggs was not as fun as I remember it being when I was a kid. Maybe it's just because I'm not to creative with that kind of stuff. At least a few people had a good time just being their crazy old selves!

4 is the magic number...

Little Griffin Jude arrived yesterday morning, making it baby #4 for Dale and Missy. I would be a liar if I said I didn't contemplate playing hookie from work all day long so I could drive back to St. Louis to meet the little guy. This is the first of their children that I haven't been able to introduce myself to right away.

It's so crazy to me that Missy - perhaps one of the most amazing people I have ever had the privilege of knowing is now a mother of 4. It seems like just yesterday we were both 18, having left the "nest" for the first time. We met when we became roommates with 4 other crazy gals in perhaps the smallest dorm room ever in the middle of nowhere....otherwise known as East Texas.

Time has flown by and now 12 years later we have gone through a lot together - traveling the world, lots of laughter and tears, weddings, babies, moving to a different part of the country together and then adjusting to not living within 5 minutes of each other for the first time in 11 years when Steve and I moved to Madison.

I couldn't be more happier for this sweet friend of mine that is such a wonderful mother, wife and friend. I can't wait to meet little Griffin Jude and see his brother and sisters ooh and ahh over his existence, just like I plan to!

Good News and Cute Things!

Not the best picture, but it was the only one I could find with Justin in it. I'm surprised that I'm smiling, because if I remember correctly I was experiencing some of the worst of my morning sickness at this point.
I'll start with the super happy news that totally made my day yesterday. My girl Nadia is getting married! Woo-Hoo I am so excited for her! They've been kind of secretly engaged - wedding planning and all for the last few weeks, but yesterday on her birthday is when Justin actually popped the question, giving her some bling to go along with it and all!
They are so perfect for each other and Steve and I couldn't be more happy for them! We actually just met Justin a few months ago when she brought him up to meet us, but it didn't take long to give him the seal of approval! Can't wait to see them tie the knot in October!

Now, onto the cute things. I commented to someone the other day that there's not as many options to get cutesy little things for boys as there are for girls, but I changed my mind. There are some super cute boy things out there! We actually received our first few items of clothing for our little guy yesterday and it made me giddy just looking at them! Nich and Sarah found the way to Steve's heart with the perfect onesie....a hot wheel onesie! I think Steve was jealous that the baby gets to wear it and not him. They also got us this little bomber jacket that is just so tiny and cute. Sarah's mom made us the cutest little comforter to!
I've kind of been in more of "planning mode" with preparations for the baby, but now that I'm starting to see all of this super cute stuff, it's making me so giddy with excitement! As much as I haven't really enjoyed being pregnant so much, the reality that we're going to have a little one to love on in just a few months is starting to hit me and I just can't wait!

I somehow have a feeling that Hot Wheels are going to be a part of this kids life! Isn't this comforter just so cute?

Another weekend down, is it Friday again yet?

The good news is that I was able to pick up some paint for the baby's room this weekend. The even better news is that we had a surprise visit from Nate! The bad news is that because of that we didn't get any painting done. Really, I'd rather have Nate here then paint any day, so it was very worth it!
He called us on Friday night and said he decided to pop in for the weekend and would be here in an hour. Thankfully, our super great friends were very understanding when we had to ditch the plans we had with them for that evening! Since these surprise visits have now become a regular occurrence every 2-3 months, I'm no longer surprised when he randomly calls to tell us he'll be here in a few hours. It was so great to catch up on life with this friend that we love so much. I just love the friendships where you can always pick up where you left off even when there's a few states separating you.
Nate's a huge hockey fan, so was super excited to go ice skating. Unfortunately, for him, it was a beautiful day, so the ice was kind of slushy. Fortunately, for me, it was a beautiful day and it made it impossible for anything to ruin my good mood.
I met up with the girls on Saturday and was able to get my Babies R' Us registry done...yeah! I didn't even cry or get completely overwhelmed once, so it was a very successful trip! For some reason I'm not much of a fan of Babies R' Us, since every time I go there I get overwhelmed with all the millions of baby items and feel like I will be a complete failure as a mother. So, needless to say, I was very relieved that this was a happy trip with no freak out occurrences!

Plans are already in the making for painting day to resume next Saturday! Sarah S and I are gonna have a girls day out and head to Milwaukee to check out some outlet malls and shop for maternity clothes - which I am in desperate need of. Meanwhile, Steve and Nich will paint the baby's room. Sounds like a perfect plan to me!

Meet me in St. Louis....

We had a good trip home to St. Louis. It was so nice to spend some quality time with friends and Steve and I were both a little sad to have to come home to Madison. I feel like I'll be recuperating for weeks from all the late nights that I'm no longer used to.

I was super happy that we got to spend so much time with Missy, Dale and the kids. I have missed them so much and love that we have the kind of friendship that can pick up right where we left off. I always get a little nervous about seeing the kids when we go home because I wonder if they'll remember me since it's so rare that we get to see them now, but I was very happy to see them waiting to give me a hug outside the bathroom door at 6 am on Thursday morning just after I had gotten up. They were very excited to see Steve as well and kept asking me when he would wake up.
I actually ended up staying awake until 1:30 to bring in the New Year, I might have been a little bit half asleep, but I was still functioning nonetheless! We ended up going to the Blues game with Nate & Moyer and then headed over to Chasers to hang out with Jamie, Jerry and Phyllis.Go Blues!As always, we enjoyed our time back in St. Louis and soaked up every minute that we got to spend with friends, but every time we go home it just leaves us feeling so sad that we live so far away from all of the people that we love the most. We always can't help but feel a little bit lonely once we get back to life and reality in Madison. It's been especially hard since I've been pregnant, because I get so sad that our kids won't grow up knowing all the people that are so dear to our hearts because of the 6 hour drive that separates us.

Being further away really does help me treasure the moments that we have with these dear friends though and not take a single second for granted. Now we're back to life here. Steve started puking almost immediately once we got home and has been sick ever since. He ended up going back to work today, but now I'm starting to feel like I might be coming down with what he had - so not fun! I'm just glad we weren't sick while we were away. Now it's time to get back to the daily grind. After having 3 day work weeks these last 2 weeks I'm really not looking forward to putting in a full 40 hours, but then again, I'm just happy to have a job!

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving. We had originally planned to head back to St. Louis, but because I've been so exhausted I figured I wouldn't be fun to be around. Just thinking about making a trip home kept stressing me out, so we just decided to stay in Madison.
The weekend went as I expected....lots of sleeping for me!

One of my favorite traditions as a kid was to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade - something I haven't been able to do in years, so I had a good time relaxing on Thanksgiving morning while Steve and I watched the parade together.
We went over to Chris and Tina's for a Thanksgiving feast in the afternoon which made for a happy husband! (sorry Tina, I was to lazy to take pictures, so I stole some of yours)

Steve loves any holiday that involves food - when he's happy, I'm happy!

We woke up early Friday morning to do some black friday shopping. I
hate black friday shopping. Not so much the shopping part, but the crowds and all the rude people. We had a few things that we really needed that were selling for really cheap though, so we figured it was worth the trip. Really we only got up 15 minutes earlier than we normally do for work, so it wasn't that bad. We got home at around 8:30 and I was exhausted so I took a 3 hour nap. Then it was back to work.
We just found out that Jessica is coming up on the 12th with a carload of stuff to move in, so now we're scrambling to get everything ready for her as we thought we had another 6 weeks to prepare the basement for her. The rest of the weekend pretty much consisted of working on the house....so exhausting and so not fun!

Weekend with friends...

It was a good (but busy) weekend. I loved having Nadia here and really enjoyed getting to know Justin. He's a good guy and they seem really happy together, which therefore makes ME happy. Steve and Justin hit it off immediately, which is huge as a lot of times it takes Steve awhile to warm up to people. We had a good weekend with lots of laughs and not enough sleep. Did I mention that it was absolutely GORGEOUS in Madison this weekend? Yep, we were able to walk around outside with no coats and soak up the sun. It was so nice.
We have officially taken a break from working on the house. We are both exhausted, overwhelmed, burnt out and missing spending time with friends. So, in light of all that we've decided to take a few weeks off before we start up with our projects again. We will get everything done by the time Jess moves in with us in January. So much to do, so little time.

Speaking of time, I'm out of it. Gotta go!