Loquacious Lady

Well, tomorrow I will officially be 40 weeks pregnant. Tomorrow, I will also be giving birth.

WHOA!

Yes, I went to the doctor today, and the doctor said, “Induction! Tomorrrow!” And then he sang “Tomorrow” from Annie, but he changed “sun” to “daughter,” which made me laugh.

And then, I called Tom, all excited about meeting our sweet Josey tomorrrow. After which, I promptly burst into tears because he had to take the dogs to the kennel before I would be home to tell them goodbye. And I cried because they won’t be home with us on our last night home together before she was born, and everything is changing.

It suddenly got very real that our life together is going to be different in so many ways. A new person is joining us! Forever. We will need babysitters in order to have a datenight. And that nursery is going to have an actual human in it. Whoa!

Nothing like those crazy pregnant hormones to really kick off your evening, right?

Tom calmed me down, and then we called and texted family members to let them know what was going on. Of course, when I got home, I had to get online and let you peeps know too.

I mean, despite my moment of insanity/panic/being overwhelmed, I am SO completely excited. I can’t even explain how ready I am for this girl to be here, in our arms.

We will probably be posting many pictures to twitter and facebook of JoJo once she arrives. Heads up!
~Meghan

This Saturday, the walls in JoJo’s nursery got a big makeover. Want to see?

Here’s the nursery before anything went up:

Now, we’ll look all around.

Curtains

I had picked out three fabrics I liked together, and ordered them online. My sweet mom paid to have them sewn into curtains and hung up in her nursery. I was really happy with the results!

The sheer curtains are from IKEA, and they’re super girly. Lacy sheers with scalloped edges…I picked them out a long time ago for her room.

And the curtains are lined with blackout fabric. Tom and I became jealous of Josey when we saw how well they worked. In this next picture, you can see how the room looks with the lights off on a cloudy day.

And here is the same room, same camera settings, thirty seconds later, but the blinds and curtains shut:

DANG, right?! I mean, what I wouldn’t give to have our room get that darkened when we sleep!

Entrance

When you first come in the room, there is a wall to the left. It needed something.

A few months ago, I went to the Yellow Daisy Festival with my mom and mother-in-law. I saw this little plaque and had to get it.I didn’t even know if I was having a boy or girl yet, but I couldn’t pass this up.

Now it’s up on the wall!

Mirror

Originally I really wanted to get a fancy round mirror over the changing table. One like this or even more detailed on the edges:

(source)

I looked and looked for the right fit, but I couldn’t find anything like that that was also the right size and in our price range.

After looking for months online and in stores, I finally ended up grabbing a fairly simple, white rectangular mirror to go above the changing station. And I ended up liking it!

Chanel Quote

Over by the closet, I have the Chanel quote I was given as a gift at the Decatur baby shower. Seemed an appropriate place to have it!

Reading and Toy Corner

In the corner by the changing station, I set up some baskets to hold Josey’s toys and books. Originally I was going to do some baskets on the floor, and some planters on the wall, like I had seen on Pinterest:

(source)

I had had my eye on some certain soft baskets from IKEA for a long time, but they no longer carried them when Tom and I went to buy some the other day. I about had a hormonal breakdown and started tearing up right there in IKEA on a Saturday (which I only mention to let you know we were surrounded with shoppers as I almost cried over baskets).

Tom promised we would keep looking until we found something else I liked, and then he found these baskets. Yay! Dad saves the day. =) But the baskets needed a little help, and I had already decided planters were too expensive to do in addition to baskets.

Back to Pinterest, and I found a quote that I liked. Since it was a reading corner, I thought that this was perfect:

I printed the quote onto some photo paper and framed it. In case you can’t make it out, it says, “You’re our happily ever after.” The quote I saw on Pinterest said “my” instead of “our,” but I changed it to fit our family.

So that’s what we’ve added to the walls in Josey’s room so far! More about future plans in a post to come…

~Meghan

You all were so sweet with your comments from yesterday’s post about Josey’s changing station. Thank you!

One thing I noticed was that several of you commented on how much energy I have this far into my pregnancy. I had to laugh. You are seeing a few photos of work that took me roughly two weeks total to complete when it should have taken half of that. Or less.

What you didn’t see was that my entire house was covered in dog fur. Our bathroom was disgusting. Our floors looked awful. Dust was on every surface.

All my effort had been going into Josey.

Shopping to get final things before she arrived. Putting things in place- her pack’n'play, her carseat, etc. Putting together meals that I could freeze. Packing bags for me, Tom, and Josey’s stay at the hospital.

Tom and I had touched up the walls in Josey’s room with caulk in areas where the beadboard had seams, and we had begun a second coat of paint… but we hadn’t finished it.

And at the end of every day, I was completely exhausted. So the housework, which I wanted to get done before she arrived too, just slid.

Enter my amazing sister-in-law, Lisa. She and my brother Jonathan have 4 kids. On MLK Day, she asked her mom to watch them for her, and instead of doing something for herself, she came over to our house.

She painted the rest of the beadboard while I worked on Josey’s changing table box.

After that, she busted out her vacuum cleaner. It’s one of those MEGA cleaners that can work on carpet, hardwood…pretty much any surface. It has a tray of water to let it steam clean, and it works really well!

So. She busted out that sucker as well as some of our cleaning supplies, and the next thing I knew, I had a squeaky clean house. She scrubbed, vacuumed, and wiped until everything gleamed. She worked until well after the sun went down.

While Lisa did that, Tom touched up spots on the wall that needed it. Spots that required a step-ladder to reach, only I’ve been told not to climb any ladders.

And I was cleaning up. Lots of scraps of fabric and batting, staples that malfunctioned, a paint tarp, and more. I cleaned out the trash and put away the rest.

By the time we were done, it was time to eat.

Lisa had, in one day, done what would have stretched out over a week for me at this point in my pregnancy. I had so many things to do and move so slowly these days, there’s no way I could’ve done it all so quickly.

So we ate some Mexican food (no, it obviously did not jumpstart labor for me), and Lisa headed out around 10pm.

She a is a total super-star, and she kept saying with all the projects I’ve been doing, she wanted me to have one day to just put up my feet before Josey arrived and not worry about cleaning or anything else.

I am so grateful for all she did that I can’t really find words to show my appreciation. So I thought I should at least publicly sing her praises.

Thank you, Lisa!

  ~Meghan

Josey’s room is the second biggest bedroom in the house, so when it came time to look for furniture, I needed things that fit the scale of the room.

Her changing table was a challenge. I knew that I wanted to get a dresser and fix it up, but I couldn’t find one that was the right length AND the right height. Dressers tend to be shorter than you would expect.

Finally, I found just what I was looking for at an estate sale back in December. I had gone looking with some girlfriends, Jenn and Megan, and we found the perfect fit- a 72″ long dresser.

The first issue was getting it home. Thankfully, one of our friends from small group was willing to drive over to the house with his truck and help Tom load it up and take it up to Josey’s room at our house. We couldn’t have gotten it without him!

I was also excited to get the dresser for less than a third or what they originally wanted for it. That was a good thing because I had plans for it. The hardware was all going to be replaced, and the dresser itself needed to be sanded down and painted black.

The sanding process took forever! I took out each drawer and sanded it down, including all the little crevices. I also had to fill in the holes from the hardware where I didn’t want them. Any holes in the middle of a drawer, I left for future knobs.

Those little crevices ran all the way along the dresser as well, so it took some time. After the sanding was over, I could finally start painting. (In the picture Tom took, below, you can see the baking soda covered rocking chair too.)

After the painting was done, I went on the hunt for new hardware. At Hobby Lobby, I found just what I was looking for: some colorful knobs that would add interest to the piece and go well in the room.

Unfortunately, I needed 10 knobs, and they only had the two. So now I’m waiting on 8 more to come in, and the dresser isn’t complete without it. But it won’t be long until I have my hands on them, hopefully.

I also needed a changing station on top of the dresser. There were three problems with just putting her changing pad on top by itself.

First, it would easily slide right off, and that was scary dangerous. Secondly, it had a little belt running under it that made it uneven and wobbly. And third, I wanted something more like a box to hold it, and I am no good at giving up what I want.

What I decided to do was build a customized changing station for the dresser. It would sit on top, and I could take it off when she was potty trained. I wanted it to have a section for the pad, for the diapers, for the wipes, for lotion and powder, and for diaper cream and vaseline.

After enlisting Ben, my brother-in-law, to let me use his nail gun and showing him my plans, he told me it’d be easier if he just built the box himself with his table saw. I was so excited when I got my box from him!

I began by painting the inside black.

Then I covered all the edges in batting.

Next, I took leftover fabric from the chair and covered the box with it. I also covered some cardboard pieces with fabric and laid it down in the smaller boxes where you’d see the bottom of them at times.

Then I filled it up and it went on top of the dresser. It fits great, and it’s so heavy, there’s definitely no chance of her sliding off while I change her diaper!

So, here’s the dresser, complete with the changing station:

Again, it still needs eight knobs. But it’s almost done!

And soon, a sweet little girl will be using it. Kind of funny to think that all of that work is to make it easier for us to wipe her behind.

But it’s totally worth it. I’m happy with the way it turned out!

 ~Meghan

A while back, I showed y’all some stuff that was going on in the nursery.

Remember the mallard rocking chair from my parents’ basement and the old ottoman I found at a flea market?

As….stunning…as that look was, it was NOT what I was going for in Josey’s nursery.

A friend had recommended a person who does reupholstering, and he did a great job! Want to see it now that it’s in a fabric I picked out?

Ta-daa! Quite a change from the ducks and old leather, no? He fixed something that was broken in the chair and added padding to the top of the ottoman. I love how it turned out.

The only issue we had was that when we got the chair back, it reeked of cigarette smoke. Our friend had not experienced that problem with this person, so they had no idea to warn me this would be an issue.

I HATE the smell of cigarette smoke, and I’m asthmatic, so that was a problem on its own. But when you add in that I needed this furniture to go into my sweet infant girl’s room…no way was I going to leave it like that.

I tried a bunch of stuff. First, I opened the windows and let it air out for days. Unfortunately, it was rainy, so it couldn’t just go outside. It was also cold, which I am sure made a nice dent in our bills for heating this month.

While it was airing out, the first product I tried was Febreze for fabrics. I saturated both pieces with it (with the cushion removed and sprayed all over), let it dry, and then did it again. It didn’t really make a dent.

Then I read that vinegar breaks down smoke on a molecular level, so you should spray furniture with it. I tried that a couple times, and all I got was a vinegar-smoke smelling room.

Then I tried covering the entire thing in baking soda to draw out the smell (another thing I read online, which makes sense since people do this in fridges and freezers). I left it on there a couple of days, then I vacuumed it off. The smells were starting to lessen, but they weren’t gone. I repeated this, and when I could, I left the windows open.

By that point, we’d had the chair for a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if it was a combination of all of those things or if it was the baking soda in the end, but when you go into her room, it no longer reeks. And you only smell the chair if you put your nose right up to it and sniff. And even then, it’s not a strong smell.

Phew! So that was the drama with getting a good deal on reupholstered furniture.

Lesson learned- always ask people who work with fabrics for your home to not smoke around them. My mom said she always asks, but I never would have thought it even necessary. Now I do.

Thankfully, it’s over, and we can just enjoy having a nice, customized chair and ottoman for JoJo’s room! It’s super comfy, now that we can use it.

I see many an hour being spent in that rocking chair with our baby girl. Can’t wait!
~Meghan

I’ve mentioned the small group Tom and I attend on my blog before, a few times.

Since this time last year, one of the couples has had a baby, one couple has moved to a new church, and another couple moved to a different state for grad school. And then another couple got pregnant (us).

Since the beginning of our group, we’ve gotten to see each other take on big stuff. Many of our small group members have run races. Some have done triathlons- one even completed an Ironman. Several members have gone back to school or started new jobs. Tom started his own business. I left nannying for photography and mommyhood.

It’s been fun to support each other as we have all had changes and challenges in our lives and grown in faith. And we like to have fun together too!

This Christmas, we had a “cheesy” Christmas party. We all brought food, wore silly (and some hideous) Christmas clothes, and did a “dirty Santa” gift exchange. It was so fun. (We’re missing one member in the pictures below.)

After Christmas, on our first small group gathering of 2012, they threw me and Tom a baby shower. The theme was so cute. It was “Meghan’s about to POP!”

All of the food was “pop” related- cake pops, Pops cereal, popcorn, pop tarts, popsicles, jalapeño poppers, spicy chicken poppers, and sausage ball poppers. YUM.

There were also calendars printed up and set out on the table so everyone could make their predictions as to when Josey will arrive.

And on the left, in the back, you can see that there was a blanket with Josey’s name embroidered on it. Our small group all placed hands on it and prayed for Josey.

The idea is that when she is sick or we are having a hard night, we can wrap her in the blanket and remember that there are others praying for us and for her. It’s an encouraging reminder, for sure!

They also gave us our carseat. WOO! Tom and I were definitely going to need to purchase that item before she arrived. It was so exciting to receive that from our sweet small group.

We love these people. Going through life with them is awesome- they make us better people, hold us accountable, pray for us, support us in big and small ways, and help us grow in our faith.

That’s the kind of small group anyone would be lucky to be a part of, and we don’t take it for granted. Thanks, y’all!

~Meghan

I have some friends and family members who feel uncomfortable giving gift cards as presents. They feel it’s too impersonal or that it doesn’t seem like much or that it comes across as if they put no thought into the gift. They don’t mind receiving them, but they feel uncomfortable giving them.

I am not one of those people, and here is why- I LOVE receiving gift cards. So why not give them as well?

It’s a practical gift that allows you to get what you really want/need when you need it. And you can combine them with other gift cards to get a really big purchase.

Case in point- shower gifts. After our wedding and honeymoon, I moved into the two-bedroom apartment that Tom and I had picked out (he was already moved in), and I began unpacking shower and wedding gifts. We had so many beautiful presents, and we were (and still are) thankful for each one.

Upon our first full day back, however, I realized I needed to do some shopping. We needed a bunch of small things that seemed like “little” things on our registry, but they were essential for cooking, showering, laundry, etc.

It didn’t seem like a big deal. They were all small things, but I couldn’t believe how quickly they added up. And when I had to purchase those necessities, I had never been so grateful for the gift cards we had received.

I was looking for a job, and Tom was supporting us on his own.

Coming home to tell him I had spent a large amount of money on more things for the kitchen or bathroom or laundry room was something I dreaded. Being able to lessen the amount significantly with gift cards allowed us to get what we absolutely needed.

Now that we are expecting our first baby, it’s the same story. We have been extremely blessed. People have given us shower after shower to start us off well-stocked.

Josey has more clothes than most adults. She has diapers, toys, a nice jogging stroller, a new carseat, and a new crib. She has books, crib sheets, a changing pad, a liner for shopping cart seats, frames, blankets, and more.

This girl even has jewelry, shoes, and a basket full of hair accessories. I feel like I’ve barely begun to describe how blessed we have been by friends who have helped to celebrate the arrival of our baby.

I am SO grateful.

Despite all she received, I couldn’t deny that I still needed to purchase a diaper pail, a pack’n'play, the carseat adapter for the stroller as well as the handlebar console, some nursing items, diaper rash cream, an infant bathtub, baby lotion, baby shampoo/soap, and a whole lot of wipes. These were all things I realized I really needed and did not have.

I was able to purchase all of it, but only because of the giftcards we had received. Now, if you know me, you know I didn’t just go buy it.

I found a pack’n'play on sale. I waited until I received 10% off for the “registry completion programs” at Target and Babies R Us. And I used coupons.

When all was said and done, I had bought items that should have cost close to $500 total, but thanks to some great deals and gift cards, it only cost me $23 out of pocket.

Most of the time, the people who give gift cards don’t have the benefit of knowing how they were used and how VERY appreciated they are.

So I wanted to make sure that anyone who gave us a gift card knew that it was used well, and it was just as appreciated as all the precious gifts Josey received at her baby showers.

I’ll even share a blurry cell phone shot I took of the pack’n'play/changing station in our living room. My sister-in-law, Lana, and I were so excited when I got it that we set it up as soon as we got home from the store.

Tom and I have other things that we have to put our money towards with Josey’s arrival, like banking her cord blood and having her delivered in a hospital. And co-pays on perinatologists visits and visits to her pediatrician after she arrives.

There is no way we could have gotten the rest of the essentials while staying on our budget.

That is why I love gift cards. They are always useful, and, for me, anyway, they are always appreciated.

If you ever find yourself shopping for a wedding or baby shower (or birthday or Christmas) and don’t know what to get, just the store you should be getting it from…get a gift card. Unless that person has an almost moral opposition to them, I promise, they will be grateful!

 ~Meghan

As of today, I am 37 weeks pregnant. (And yes, I need to post more cartoons. I have some in my head, but they need to go on paper.)

Almost everywhere I go, people ask me when I’m due. When I tell them three weeks, their eyebrows shoot up. So do their voices, by about an octave, as they comment about how a lot of first time babies come early, I better hurry to finish the nursery (they’re right), and they wish me good luck.

My belly is huge. HUGE.

And now we know why. It’s because Josey is huge. =) And my torso is short (along with everything else about me, besides my fingers, toes, and hair).

Thursday we had our last ultrasound of JoJo. She has been retaining fluid in her kidneys for the last three sonograms at the OB’s office, so we were sent to the perinatal consultants to get another look.

At our last ultrasound at the OB’s on December 16th, they had estimated her to be about 5lbs, 13oz. Putting her at 8lbs, 13 oz if she went to 40 weeks.

At the perinatologist’s office on Thursday, they estimated her to be about 7lbs, 10oz. Whoa.

That would put her at over 9lbs if she goes to 40 weeks. Double whoa.

The next day, the OB that I saw (my usual one was at a different office) told me that the perinatologist’s office always estimates bigger than the ultrasound tech at their office does. So maybe she’s really just 6lbs, 10oz.

No way to know for sure until she gets here, since all estimates made off of ultrasounds are just that-estimates.

But there was no disputing what we saw- her belly was nice and round, and her cheeks were plump little chipmunk cheeks. I think we’re going to have a chunky monkey on our hands. Which is fine- I think baby fat is super cute- on babies. =)

Since a lot of people get confused as to what is where in ultrasound snapshots, I’ve included one with words and arrows to point out just what you’re looking at. You can even see that she has hair! =)

But just so you know, her eye and mouth look a bit droopy and weird because there are shadows on them. (Strange to think of shadows inside my body, but I guess that makes sense.)

 Anyway, we think this is our favorite picture of her yet. Those little chubby cheeks make us smile so much. And all that hair! I wonder if it will be dark like mine and Tom’s. (Our siblings had blonde hair when they were really little.)

As for her kidneys, they basically just confirmed what we knew- she has been retaining fluid in them and still is.

They also agreed with our OB that her kidneys are clearly working because there is plenty of fluid in there with her. In fact, between the fluid and her size, it’s no wonder my belly is starting to create its own gravitational pull.

Basically, when she is born, Josey should be healthy. Everything they looked at other than the kidneys looked great. Her heartbeat is strong, her movement is great, and she is growing well.

And we were told that the deal with her kidneys isn’t even looking serious. Most of the time, this issue self-correccts.

When she is about a day old, the pediatrician on call at the hospital will do an ultrasound on her kidneys to see if they have self-corrected. If they haven’t, an ultrasound will be repeated at about 2 or 3 weeks of age to determine cause (if they are refluxing urine back up or if her ureter is too small to drain properly, etc.).

If her kidneys are causing her urine to reflux, our pediatrician will decide if she needs to be put on prophylactic antibiotics to prevent UTIs.

Most babies who don’t self-correct this kidney issue by birth do self-correct in their first year. So we’ll just keep an eye on it.

The advantage of knowing this now is that if we didn’t, and she just had this going on for her first few months of life without us watching for it and treating it if necessary…she could seem totally healthy and then wake up one night screaming with a fever of 103F. And we would get shipped down to Scottish Rite, freaking out, while they ran tests. And then they would find this issue, put her on antibiotics, and she’d be fine.

I’d rather know now and just keep an eye on it with the pediatrician, thank you very much.

But we aren’t really worried. This doesn’t seem like anything to get worked up about. And we are really enjoying our last “portrait” of Josey before she arrives, chubby cheeks and all.

I can’t wait to hold this baby girl in my arms!

~Meghan

I have been having a hard time lately with juggling everything. Getting ready for Josey, living life in general, and blogging do not always go hand-in-hand, and I have found blogging gets bottom billing in priorities.

I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I have a journal that I use to write letters to JoJo. When she’s older, I plan to give her all the letters. I don’t know if that will be when she’s 18, when she’s graduating from college, when she gets married, or when she is pregnant with a baby of her own.

But someday, she can look back and know what thoughts went through her mom’s 26-year-old brain while she was growing inside me.

The letter I left her today was a bit more of a “here’s what I’ve got going on before you get here.” I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off one day, and falling asleep for an unplanned, two-hour nap the next.

I guess I feel that way because I am doing that. But unplanned naps make my urgency to get things done that much more intense.

And no one ever seems to talk about how nuts life is BEFORE kids. Just after.

Well, I’m keeping it real, and I’ll tell you something I wrote to her. Even though I get the “yeah right, stupid” look from others every time I say this, I feel like when she arrives, I will get to relax. Not forever, but just for a couple weeks, at least.

Yes, there will be a baby to care for, even in the middle of the night. Guess what? I wake up at least twice a night now anyway. I hear it’s God’s way of preparing you for waking up in the middle of the night to nurse and change diapers. I don’t doubt I’ll be tired, but I know I can do it.

And yes, there will always be meals to cook, a house to clean, laundry to do (and more of it), and groceries to buy. There will be a baby thrown into it all.

But as a former nanny, I can say that at least I’ll be home. She’ll be at my house. I can get stuff done because I’ll be here to do it- my laundry, my meal prepping, my house-cleaning. When I was a nanny, I took care of Will at his house, so I couldn’t get my laundry done while I played with him or sweep my house while he napped.

I think I’ll be more efficient as a mom than I was as a nanny because I’ll have the option of multi-tasking with my chores and caregiving. (Or maybe I’ll just spend all my time taking pictures of her….)

And Tom can watch her while I run errands, or I’ll just take her with me. I’ve done it before with other peoples’ kids, so why not my own?

But once she’s here, I won’t be preparing for her arrival anymore. Just like I was running around crazy until the day I got married, but once the wedding day was over, I got a week of chilling in Jamaica, I will run around crazy until the day I go into labor, and then I will come home and have my mom to help out for a week, and Tom’s mom to help for a week after that. Sounds great.

Here’s what’s going on, just this week:

*I’m removing hardware from her dresser (which I will convert to a changing table), filling holes with putty, sanding it all, and staining it. Then I plan to build a box for the top to hold her changing pad. I also need to pick out new knobs to replace the old hardware.

*Laundry

*Big shopping trip to Sam’s followed by preparing a bunch of small meals to freeze and pull out later to defrost/cook/eat.

*Baby shower with our sweet small group.

*Perinatologist appointment Thursday to have her kidney’s looked at. Should be our last sonogram before she arrives. She’s retaining a bit of fluid in her kidneys still, and we want to be sure she’s fine.

*Doctor’s appointment Friday (and every Friday until she is born).

*Working (still) on getting the smoke smell out of her rocker/ottoman (another blog post in itself!).

*3rd birthing class with our sweet friend, Bett. She is awesome.

*Post office run to return some stuff and to mail some books.

*Taking our nephew and nieces to Chic-Fil-A and to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (a movie at the theater was their Christmas present from us).

*Lunch date with my sweet friend, Jennie, who I don’t get to see often anymore.

*Tour of peditricians’ office to see if they are the practice we want to use for Josey.

*Set up cord-blood banking so they can go ahead and send us a kit for the hospital.

*Work on touching up nursery walls.

*Shop for mirror (still searching) and for shelves for nursery.

*Set up time to work with seamstress who offered to help me on cutting and laying out curtain fabric so my mom and I can sew it without messing it up.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Most of those things are tied into the nursery and preparing for Josey’s arrival. So you can see why I would think some of my hectic day-to-day might have a chance to chill out for at least a couple weeks after she’s born.

Nursing? Changing diapers? Bring it on. I’m ready to meet my girl.

And if I blog less in the mean-time, you’ll know why.

~Meghan

Tom and I had a crazy busy December. The nine days leading up to our leaving town, we had plans every single night.

We left for Covington on the 23rd, and we were busy every day and night there doing dinners, lunches, Christmas Eve and Christmas day (both of which include a lot of driving around for us), and more.

I love seeing how much my family changes every year. We have always done a photo of our entire family on the stairs leading to the basement, where we do our Christmas morning. (It’s a finished basement. We aren’t just sitting in a musty basement exchanging gifts.)

But this year, we finally agreed that we have too many family members to all fit in a good picture on the stairs anymore. So we did just a grandkids picture. Aren’t they cute?

It was fun watching them open presents too. It’s always fun to see what gets their interest.

Ella was hilarious this year. She would watch her older cousins open presents, pick one, go take it from them, and say “Thank yoooooou!” as she walked away, their toy in her tiny hands. Kristen would admire whatever Ella brought her, then returned it to the rightful recipient when Ella wasn’t looking. Her cousins were very sweet about it all.

But then, after we opened all the presents, we still wanted a family shot, so we dragged a couch in front of the fireplace and posed. And yes, two of my nieces had changed into gymnastics leotards that they’d received that morning (most noticeably, the zebra print-clad Violet, front and center).

I wish I had some photos of us doing the same thing on Tom’s side, but there were so many cameras out there, that I had left mine packed during all the kids’ presents being opened.

After our time in Covington, we came back, unpacked, had more dinners with friends, and put away Christmas decorations.

So while all that we did was fun, it was also exhausting. By the time we reached New Years Eve, we had decided that our New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day would be spent chilling out, just us and the dogs. Tom and I made no plans and turned down all invitations this year.

In our living room, we have two couches. The one facing the TV has a queen-sized mattress that you can fold out from it. So on New Year’s Eve, we put on pjs and pulled out the bed on the couch to get extra comfy. Which is hard to do at 9 months pregnant.

We had Chinese food delivered, watched a movie, kissed at midnight, and went to bed. Fairly uneventful, but just what we wanted.

On the first day of 2012, we slept in. Then we spent the day doing nothing but what we wanted to do. We lolled about in pjs all day. Tom played a video game while I read books. We grilled out and watched some tv. It was relaxing.

The reality is that most days are completely packed for us. And weekends fill up before we know what’s happened. When Josey gets here, it’s not going to slow down any. So starting off this year with nothing to do was JUST what we needed.

How did you spend your holidays?
~Meghan