Annabella Marie

Welcome Annabella Marie, born at 5:35am on December 25, 2012!

She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and she was 19.5 inches long.

Her birth story is pretty short and sweet. My water broke on Christmas Eve at around 8:30pm. I called the on-call doctor and they told me to head to the hospital. Luckily my mom and Nate's parents were visiting for Christmas so they could watch Ben. Actually Ben was asleep when we left so he had a really big surprise on Christmas morning! Fortunately, we had decided to open gifts Christmas Eve morning and Santa came early just for Ben! We arrived at the hospital at around 9:30pm. I got my epidural when I was dilated to 5. It was sometime after 11pm I think. I rested while everything progressed. The nurse checked me again around 5am and I was ready to go. After 15 minutes of pushing, Miss Annabella made her debut! Since neither of us had any major complications, we went home on Wednesday! Everyone we have talked to were shocked that we went home so soon! I was very sleep deprived since I only got about 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours! Bella had slightly elevated bilirubin levels at the hospital so she had to get labs drawn again on Friday. Her blood coagulated so they weren't certain about her results so we were told to just watch her over the weekend and call if her color worsened. Talk about a paranoid, tired, nervous, hormonal momma!!! I feel bad for everyone who was around me that weekend! We have been blessed with a very calm, quiet baby! Ben is an amazing big brother!

Easter

Happy Easter! We spent Easter with our family this year and had a great time! Ben got to spend lots of quality time with all of his grandparents, including great-grandparents and he loved every minute of it! Sadly, as I was looking through the pictures on our camera, we didn't get any good ones of Ben with the grandparents, so we will have to make sure to get some next time.

We spent the evening with Grandma Julie and Great-grandma Ann and Great-grandpa John on Saturdy to celebrate my Mom's birthday and Easter. We had delicious food and lots of fun! On Sunday, we celebrated Easter and had dinner at Brenda and Cary's and my Mom, Grandma Pat, and Jason were there as well. Melissa, Clayton and Marshall came to visit in the evening and we really enjoyed ourselves! Marshall is the cutest and sweetest baby!

Ben is a very loved boy and got several Easter baskets this year. He got a Toy Story themed one from the Easter Bunny, Cars themed one from Grandma Julie, Spiderman themed one from Mema and Papa, one from Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Chris and some candy and bubbles from Great-grandma Pat. Ben had so much fun looking for Easter eggs in the yard on Sunday after his nap. What amazing weather for Easter! We are definitely blessed!

New Job

Wow! It has been forever since I posted anything on here! I have been super busy with work and home stuff for the past few months. I have been so busy that I decided to change positions at work. My job was becoming overwhelming and I felt like I was neglecting my family and house and falling short of expectations due to high caseloads and working 50 or more hours each week plus on call responsbilities, so it was definitely time for a change. It is really hard for me to admit when I cannot handle something or balance things, so it was really hard for me to change jobs, however, I am so grateful I made this decision. Already, I am working regular hours and feel far less stressed out. I get to spend more time with Nate and Ben and have been keeping up (a little better) with housework. I have a reduced caseload and most of my time is spent completing mental health assessments for another program at work. I really enjoy what I am doing and feel like I have way more of a balance now. I can tell that Ben is happier now that I am home in time for his bedtime routine most nights and I get to spend more time with him. Nate has more responsbility and stress at work right now, so it is great that I have less. I still have to work kind of late some nights but I go in later now to balance my time at work and I wasn't able to do that before because I had too much to do. Life is good! I am beyond blessed and thank the Lord every single day for everything that I have in my life!

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, celebrating from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day. Nate and I off were both off of work and we had company during our vacation which was awesome! Brenda, Cary and our friend Jimmy (who went to college with Nate) came to visit for the entire time we were off of work. With the amazing and generous help from Brenda, Cary and Jimmy, we painted Nate's garage (the inside) and hung signs to give it more of a finished look. It turned out awesome! Then, my Mom, her boyfriend Steve, our friends Doug, Amanda and Elyse and Joe, Kate and Zoe came to celebrate the New Year with us. We had a lot of fun! I will post pictures from my Mom's visit and New Year's later. Merry Christmas!

Stoney Creek Inn

We stayed at Stoney Creek Inn with Mema and Papa (aka Brenda and Cary) and Ben had lots of fun as always! We had a rough night in terms of sleep and had family photos the next day with my amazingly talented best friend Mandy of Mandy Marie Photography! Ben was not very cooperative due to lack of sleep so we will likely be doing another session for family photos sometime this spring or summer. Here are some photos from the hotel and pool:

Grandma Pat's Birthday

We traveled to Iowa to celebrate Grandma Pat's birthday! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing family! Ben had tons of fun playing with the other kiddos!

Anniversary Weekend Photos

"Look, I'm stuck in the castle"

I wonder where he gets that expression from?