A delayed Christmas

Christmas was an extended event for us this year. Nick brought our gifts to each other up to the hospital for us to open.

Ironically, I had wrapped up the ultrasound pictures for him, not knowing he would actually be here on Christmas. After months of working very hard (on a four year project) I finally finished knitting Nick a blanket, in perfect time too.

Once we got home from the hospital my parents, sister and her family came up so we could open presents from each other together.

 We opened everything from Nick's parents, and my parents.

 We were so surprised that we had received so many nice things. We certainly do have a generous family.

 Everyone took turns holding baby William, even Aaron and Zach held him, and they both did a great job.

 The kids helped us open the mountain of gifts everyone sent for William.

It was a great evening spent together as a family. We are so lucky to have such wonderful and loving people in our lives, especially this time of the year.

An unforgetable Christmas

This year we received what can only be described as a Christmas miracle, the best Christmas gift ever. At 3 o'clock that morning William decided he was ready to be here, breaking my water. We quickly packed our bags and headed to the hospital.

At 8:30 labor finally started.

Despite the fact that it was a holiday, my sister Kim came to help me through it all, and without her and Nick I know I couldn't have done it. 

Just a short seven hours later our baby, William Tyler was born (3:52). He weighed 6 lbs and 14 oz and measured 20 inches long.  

My parents were making there way here as he was born, so as soon as their plain landed they were brought to the hospital to see their newest Grand baby, number 13.

We are so happy to have him here, and blessed that he was perfectly healthy.

 It is so true that there is nothing like motherhood. You carry this baby for nine months, experience hours of excruciating pain, yet once they get here, you can't help but love them just as much, if not more, than anyone else in your life.

And now we wait

I love this time of the year, Christmas is such a wonderful holiday when everyone is so happy and there are so many good things going on. This year, we are waiting for more than Christmas and Santa to come though.

Nick is suppose to be getting his projection of where his next duty station will be this week. It seems that he is the only one in his class that hasn't gotten it yet, so we just keep waiting and checking. Hopefully it will come out soon so we can start planning for the next stage of our adventure.

And of course, the best and most exciting thing we are waiting for is William's appearance. Despite my best efforts, he seems determined to stay in there until we force him out. Right now the plan is to go in the afternoon of Tuesday the 27th so get prepped for the induction and sometime in the early morning of the 28th I will actually get induced.

The best Christmas present

After six long months, Nick finally made it home.

 He came in Saturday afternoon, and will be here for 17 days. My Sister and her family came with me to pick him up, and the kids even made a "Welcome home" sign for him, and they did a great job!

Although I have seen him twice since he left, it is so great to have him home, especially on this holiday so focused on family.

I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present.

Even though he is a Grinch, he helped me decorate the tree. It was the first year we have had the space to put up our new tree, so we had to string the lights on.

Although we were short one strand, I would say it turned out pretty good, and we had a blast doing it.

Ready for baby William

With this being my last week of work, and Nick coming home today I wanted to make sure that we were more than ready for baby William whenever he decided to make his grand appearance.

I got the changing table set up and stocked up, the bassinet is full of blankets and ready to.

The car seat is in the car and I have finally finished all of the projects I've started to decorate the nursery with.

We can't wait for him to arrive, and we couldn't have asked for better timing since Nick will be here until the 2nd of January. He may have missed every doctors appointment, the fun of feeling him kick of have the hiccups, but he will be here when he is born, and that is the most important part.

So many exciting things

With only two more weeks till my induction date, and Nick coming home on Saturday, this is my last week of work.

I started about a week after we got here last March, and have really grown to like the people I work with. In an office full of men, and truck drivers too, I didn't think I would fit in at all but it turned out to be the opposite. We have become friends over the months, and with Nick being gone especially I know that if I ever needed anything at all, there would always be one availible to help me. So leaving is a little bitter sweet.

Thanksgiving weekend

The rest of the weekend we just spent hanging out, enjoying our time together.

Friday we went to the National Aquarium and had a blast.

 We saw lots of cool fish while we were there, they even had a white alligator.

 We finally found the tank with the sharks in it, and I tried so hard to get a picture of the big one they had, but he was to quick for my camera.

This guy was one of Nick's favorites, so he told me I had to get face to face with him and get a personal picture.

It was so nice to be with him, without a bunch of rules of where he could go, what he could do. To just be with my husband.

The weekend went by to quickly, which is to be expected. But he will be here on the 17th and has 17 days till he has to go back. That will certainly be a nice time with him.

Our very unconventional Thanksgiving

This year, Nick is still in school so I decided to drive down to Virginia so that we could spend the weekend together. I left early Wednesday morning, made it through the pouring rain and traffic, had a couple of mishaps but I finally got here.

Bright and early I picked him up at the base, it was the best feeling to see him again, it was freezing outside and we were both shivering but we couldn't stop hugging.

After dropping his things back at the hotel, he changed into his uniform and we went to find some breakfast. We stopped at this cute little diner and had a great meal. The women sitting in the booth behind us came up to give him a great big hug, and thanked him, her husband was in the Army as well. She was so sweet, when we went to pay our bill we had found that she had already paid it for us.

We went to do a little site seeing, since it was such a beautiful day.

We went to see the Lincoln Memorial,

 the Korean War Memorial,

the WWII Memorial

and the Washington Memorial.

After searching for somewhere open to have lunch we went back to watch the final Harry Potter movie together. We went out to get some dinner, but after making a few phone calls, and spending a while driving around, we discovered that no one but CVS was open on this Thanksgiving evening. So, we went in, bought some pizza rolls and cheese sticks and came back to eat our strange dinner.

We certainly didn't spend the day as you normally do, I didn't even get to watch the parade but I honestly couldn't have imagined in any better. After these last six month, anything would have been wonderful, as long as we were together.

A taste of New England

 The week after I got home from Utah we had a big snow storm, combining with all the leaves still on the trees, most of the state and New England lost power for a few days.

I spent a good portion of the week house hopping, trying to stay warm. It was my first taste of a tradition New England winter, and I must admit, I didn't enjoy it. Luckily it only lasted a few days, and now we have beautiful weather to enjoy!

A wonderful vacation

I had so much fun during my two weeks in Utah. It was so nice to see all my family and a lot of my friends. I also enjoyed the break from work to just relax and do whatever I wanted!

Just like anything good, it went by a lot fast than I would have liked, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

 I was lucky enough to have two baby showers, I spent a day with Nick's younger brothers and just hung out with the family. I can't wait to go back and see everyone again.

Baby Showers

 

While I was in Utah I was very fortunate to have two baby showers thrown for me thanks to the tremendous amount of love and support from all of our family and friends.

We got so many things that we needed, and plenty of money and gift cards to get all the other things we need.

Friday Kim and I are going shopping for all the big things like the car seat, stroller and high chair and I can't wait! Only six more weeks and he will be here, I can't believe how quickly this is going!

A yearly tradition

Every year my Mom and I go to the Witch's Night Out at Gardner Village. We managed to scrounge up some costumes and after a few delays we finally made it.

We noticed the last few years that it just keeps getting more and more popular and this year it was crazy busy. We didn't enjoy going from store to store and looking around like we usually do but we did really enjoy looking at every one's fun costumes and interesting hats. We have lots of ideas for next year now!

Fall is in the air

This last weekend I went with my sister Kim and her family to a little festival a local farm has every year. We picked apples, went on a hay ride and made a scarecrow. My neice Katie and I worked on the face while everyone else worked together to make the body.

It got a little hotter then we all planned, but we still had a great time. While we were admiring all of the cute scarecrows there, we came accross one all dresses in camo so we had to get my picture.

Aaron asks about Nick all the time, so he had to get in the picture as well. I miss him so much, but I'm so proud of him and his determination, it wont be long till he'll be home for Christmas!

 A fun way to spend my last weekend before my trip to Utah.