Christmas 2009

We had our first road trip with 2 kids coming down to Tucson Christmas Eve.

I had mostly packed everyone the night before, but it still took 3 hours from the time I got in the shower at 7am to the car being loaded up and ready to go by 10am the next day. I tried to plan it out so that the baby was fed and ready to go when we were, but by the time the car was packed up, the dogs were loaded into the back of the truck and we were ready Katherine had a poopy diaper and Jane was hungry again - everyone out of the car seats. After diaper changes, feeding and burping we were ready to roll.

Jane did great, she slept the the whole way. Katherine, on the other hand, screamed/cried/fussed for the first hour and the last 45 minutes of the 3 hour trip. We were THAT family who you laughed at while passing them on the freeway...both of us had our fingers in our ears after exhausting all other attempts to pacify Katherine. Sometimes you just gotta turn up the radio and endure it.We had a wonderful day filled with family. We did the traditional sausage egg bake casserole for breakfast followed by stockings and presents.

Katherine was a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff, maybe we'll do a bit less next year, but had a ball. Here she is modeling her new shoes Mom and Dad got her (she was wearing footie pajamas so had to strip down to try them on).

My Mom made a wonderful meal shared with 15 family /friends. Katherine, who had gone to a Christmas Eve party with my folks and sister the night before and gotten up early Christmas day, fell asleep with bread in her mouth about 3 minutes into the meal. Little dear, she was just exhausted.

My Mom finished Jane's stocking, and it's gorgeous. My mom makes all our stockings. She used to do it with her Mother, but when she passed away my Mom inherited the entire job. She spends hundreds of hours needle pointing these stockings, they are amazing and so special. Here is a picture of our family's stockings. She made Nathan's when we got married.If you're wondering why I am up so early doing this post it's because with all 4 of us sleeping in one room I had to physically leave the room around 5am in order for Katherine to go back to sleep. She woke me up by handing me Jane's pacifier and saying "thank you". I haven't heard her in awhile so I am hoping she'll be asleep when I go back in there as it's been a rough night with Jane and both Nathan and I are exhausted.

Traditions

Everyone has traditions. Some are passed down from your parents, some are created fresh with a new spouse or the presence of kids, and some are just random. A tradition doesn't have to be traditional, just something you do every year, right?

Nathan loves fires. He loves the winter as he makes a bonfire almost every night, usually in our driveway as that way the neighbors can wander out and enjoy it as well.

One of Nathan's favorite Christmas traditions is burning the Christmas tree. Today was that day. Our tree officially "died" some time last night. We got up this morning and the thing was pitifully dried out, dropping and threatening to drop every single one of our ornaments and shatter them on the tile floor. Since we're going to Tucson Christmas Eve we were planning on taking it down before we left anyways.

Step one: trim off a lot of the branches. Katherine supervised to ensure proper trimming.
Step two: burn said branches.

Step Three: add more branches as the bigger the flames the more fun you're having.

Step Four: try Mama's patience by burning the entire top of the tree and creating 12 ft. flames. I didn't go back inside until the tree was completely burnt deciding this activity required Mom supervision.

Nathan, Katherine and neighbor Dave thoroughly enjoyed this years tree burning and already look forward to next year's tree.

Holiday Cheer

For the past few years Nathan and I have made yummy treats for our neighbors. This year was no different. Nathan, my Mom and I made some goodies for the neighbors. We made cranberry pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies with a maple glaze. Both turned out delicious if I do say so my self.

Katherine was an adorable delivery elf taking each neighbor their plate of goodies in her wagon. She pushed the wagon from house to house and then after Nathan would ring the door bell I'd give her a plate (one more cookie or slice of bread and they would have been too big for her to manage) and she'd walk up to the front door and deliver them.

She was so cute and did such a great job. She's getting to be such a big girl. We get sad about that a lot, but try to look at it as something to be excited about rather than dreaded. We're trying to relish each stage she goes through, fully live in that moment and then embrace the next one when it comes.

Jane wasn't available to help out with the deliveries, she was sleeping.

Jane Isadora Whicker

Jane is here!

I have posted the full birth story on her Totsites page. There is a link to it on the right hand side of my blog under "Sites I Visit." I typed it up and Word and can't figure out how to copy and paste it into the blog. If I have to re-type the whole thing I'm going to have to work up the motivation to do so...not happening tonight :)

We came home today and she's healthy, happy and amazing. Katherine got to meet her today, we opted not to have her come to the hospital to meet her, and it went very well.

Dec 4, 2009

Things are going well here at the Whickers.

It's 3 days past Jane's due date but I feel great. I am having contractions, of course, but nothing consistent or hard core. Just enough to hopefully be dilating and effacing my cervix as much as possible so when I do go into labor a lot of the work has already been done. I'd much rather it be that way anyways, I'll take slow painless labor over long painful labor any day.

Folks have come to the conclusion that predicting Jane's arrival on a daily basis is not working and have decided to be patient instead.

Nathan and I are taking lots of walks and enjoying the cold weather that's blown in. I actually wore a jacket over my sweatshirt on our walk last night, which says a lot for Phoenix weather.

I haven't gained any weight in the last week or so. Jane is still gaining about an ounce a day on average. My belly really isn't going to change much either between now and her arrival. It's just a holding pattern of sorts.

Maybe Jane will come over the weekend and my Mother in Law won't have to take off any work. I'm sure she'd appreciate Jane's thoughtfulness if that's the case.

On another note Katherine is loving me being home full time. We're spending a lot of extra time with her and talking about the baby she's about to get. She's just starting to get interested in "drawing" and is saying new words every day. She's so amazing and Nathan and I frequently end our day in bed discussing what she did that day that made our hearts swell with love and pride.

We love her so much and hope she adjusts well to her baby sister. We expect some resistance and an adjustment period, but hopefully it'll be a smooth transition over all.