Happy New Year!

Chad, Jack, and I had a nice quiet New Year's Eve at home this year. If you remember, last year we got stuck in a ditch in 2 feet of snow so this year was much less stressful. We went to Meijer to get steaks and a bunch of food to cook for my in-laws to come over today. Apparently the rest of the residents in town decided to go to Meijer last night as well - nothing like waiting until the last minute. Oh well, Jack got a little fussy but he's a good little shopper so we made it just fine! When we got home we gave Jack a bath and put him to bed. He didn't want to fall asleep right away but we are working on him fallin asleep on his own which he did - eventually.
Anyway, Chad and I watched Stepbrothers with Will Ferrell and John C. Riley, ate our steak and tator tots and later I ate some ice cream. I also had my first alcoholic drink since last year on NYE because I got pregnant last January. Jack was a trooper and slept through the night so by the time I woke up I was bright eyed and bushy tailed.
We have been so blessed in 2008 and we are really looking forward to 2009. Happy New Year everyone!
Oh and we have about a MILLION new pictures on our picture site! Check it out!

Getting ready!

Homework done - check
Laundry done - check
dishes done - check
house cleaned - check
classroom ready to go for sub - check
eating all of the junk food I can stomach - check

Tomorrow is the big day - I am going to have a baby - tomorrow! We welcome all of the postive thoughts and prayers we can get!

Oops, its been a while!

Yeah, so, I've been a bit busy. I am trying to get a lot of things done and ready because I am having Mouser on Friday. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? I am having a baby on FRIDAY!!!!! My Gasteroenterologist and OB have decided that the best thing for me at this point is to have a scheduled c-section for various medical reasons. I trust my doctors and I have decided to follow their advice. This weekend we lived it up a bit knowing that it was our last weekend ever without kids! YIKES! We are excited, nervous, and a little overwhelmed! I keep thinking that I have no idea what to do with a baby but it seems like most people figure it out.
I am not sure if I will be updating before Friday (I have lots to do!) so if I don't be sure to check our shutterfly site for pictures of our little Mouse and of course the big reveal of his real name!
Oh, and we will take any prayers and positive thoughts anyone has to offer. I am kinda scared of the surgery but I know that the Lord will take care of the baby and me too! I trust my doctor and I am just looking forward to meeting the little dude soon!!!

Shower from Kacey and Casey!

I had a wonderful weekend. Two of my closest friends, Kacey and Casey threw a wonderful baby shower for me on Saturday. It was great! Those girls are wonderful. They worked so hard to make my day special! It was mostly my friends from work as well as my mom and Chad's mom. We had delicious food, great company, and of course a generous array of gifts! We got lots of clothes and baby essentials! It was so great to see everyone and to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our little dude. I can't believe how soon he will be here!
Check out all of the pictures here!
On Sunday, Chad and I went to WalMart to get all of the last minute things that we still need before he gets here. We had to get wipes, a few more bottle accessories, formula, and stuff for me to recover. Oh yeah, its starting to dawn on me that this little guy is going to get here one way or another and I am going to have to recover afterward! Yikes!
We also installed our carseats this weekend. Looks like we are almost ready for him to get here. Of course, I hope he keeps cooking in there for a while but as far as stuff is concerned we have what we need! As far as if we are mentally ready - we are getting there, I wonder if anyone is totally mentally ready when a baby comes? I guess we will find out within the next month! WHOO HOO!

Kacey's Shower

Okay, so I threw a baby shower at the beginning of the month and I haven't blogged about it yet, so sue me! I am excited to show all of the little details that went into making a special day for my friend and fellow Kindergarten teacher, Kacey.

I had about 20 people over on Sunday, March 2nd to celebrate Kacey's second baby. I know its kinda taboo to have a shower for a second baby but Kacey lived in Florida and none of us knew her then. At that point she only had one very small shower and didn't get to celebrate in a big way. Now, the other big factor here is that Kacey has a four year old boy and Kacey is VERY excited to welcome a baby girl! So, we were all excited to get her some cute, frilly girly outfits and accessories. We were all happy to get together to celebrate the birth of her new daughter.

Okay, so first I decided that I was sick of winter so I had a spring menu of fruit salad, croissants, and green salad with strawberries, mozzarella, and walnuts. I also made a delicious punch in my mom's deluxe punch bowl. I made ice with a star shaped ice cube tray. The punch was simple with frozen pink lemonade concentrate mixed with sprite and frozen strawberries.

I had a duck theme so the cake had ducks and the favor was a duck shaped sugar cookie that I made and decorated with royal icing. I also had some cute decorations to make everything just right.

Here are some pictures:

Christmas WHOO HOO part 4 (Scroll down to start on Part 1)

Okay, so finally on Christmas Day we went to my mom and dad's house for Christmas. We foolishly didn't take any pictures but we got a lot of wonderful gifts and my mom made a YUMMY meal. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and cheese, rolls, and chocolate pie. Oh boy was it good! My grandma, Uncle Joe, his girlfriend Jamie, and my cousin Cristina came over to share dinner with us. We then watched Animusic which is a cool computer generated music DVD my dad loves. We had a nice time and it was really hard saying good bye to my mom and dad. Then later we went to my grandma's assisted living home and then back to Chad's grandma and grandpa's house.
Christmas night rolled around and our friends Megan, Evan, Chris, and Sarah came over along with Chad's brother and girlfriend to Chad's parents house and we all played on the Wii. It was lots of fun. So, overall we had a great holiday and although it was busy we wanted to see everyone! I hope you had a great holiday too!

Christmas WHOO HOO part 3

On Monday, Christmas Eve, we went to Chad's parents house I visited with his grandparents for a while and ran some errands with Chad's mom. Then it was time to get ready for mass. We picked up Chad's grandparents who have a hard time getting around while Chad's parents, brother, and sister-in-law (almost) saved us seats. Mass was nice it was good to sing all of Christmas songs and the homily was cool because the priest brought a bunch of kids up to help him with the sermon. Then we went back to Chad's parents house for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. Later that night we opened our gifts from Chad's parents and brother and girlfriend. It was lots of fun. Here are some pics . . .

Christmas WHOO HOO part 2

On Saturday we went to my Grandma's house for our family Christmas. We had lots and lots of fun and opened a million gifts. My mom has 8 brothers and sisters and all but 2 of them were at Grandma's along with their kids and grandkids. It was great to hang out with all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. There were so many people and so much laughter. I am so happy that our family all gets along so well that we can have so much fun together! Our family is huge and I used to think it was weird but now I love it so much. The only sad thing was that my sis and my little cousin Sarah (who is like my sis) both weren't at Grandma's. Oh well, maybe they will come next year. I get to visit my sis in January anyway, thanks to Chad!
Here are some pics from the family party . . .

Christmas! WHOO HOO! Part 1

So we had a few Christmases this year (as always). Our first Christmas was at our house with just the two of us. We had lots of fun at our new house with our own tree and our gifts to each other. I have to say that overall, I cleaned up! Poor Chad hardly had anything to open. He got his Wii and PS3 in the last couple of weeks but he didn't have much to open during our Christmas. We are a couple of dorks, however, and took pictures of all of our stuff. So, if you can bear it, here is what we got each other . . .

I got two pyrex portables to bring delicious dishes other places.



My Western Michigan University flag. This is me saying GO BRONCOS!



Ornaments and a Taylor Swift CD. (I also got a snow globe, necklace, and Dance Dance Revolution dancing game for the Wii)



AND A brand new, chrome colored, 9 cup Kitchenaid Food Processor!

I think the best gift of all, however, was clearly the most thoughtful. Chad got me a trip to go down to South Carolina to visit my sister because she couldn't come home for Christmas. Chad knew how much I missed her and decided to surprise me with a plane ticket. What a nice hubby!

Poor Chad didn't get much

He got this sweater with red stripes and one with light blue stripes



Smartwool socks and gloves



And Chad's favorite gift . . . Guitar Hero for PS3!

We had a great Christmas together. The next morning we woke up and went to my Grandma's for our family Christmas!

WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I did it! I finished my big, fat, complicated action research project for my inquiry in teaching master's class. YEE HA! What a feeling! I finished my online class on Sunday. I have a presentation board to make for this big project but the major bulk of the work is DONE! I feel GREAT about it! It has been hard work teaching full time and taking two classes. I knew I could do it but I am looking forward to so many other things in the Winter semester. I have a list of books to read, decorating to do, and cleaning to catch up on. Hitting that submit button was fantastic!