More pictures of Ezra

Well, I have to post more of the fam. It was a great day today. The other kids met their baby brother and were SO excited on the way to the hospital. Kate, the 2.5 year old started singing (unprovoked) and looking out the window of the van as we were going to hospital, "I'm going to meet my brother, I'm going to meet my brother." When I understood what she had said, I looked at her, and repeated it and she just GLOWED - she then started 'jumping up and down' in her car seat - sheer excitement!! When we got their, they ran in the room and all took turns holding him and loving on him. They were also very excited to see their Mommy and Daddy!! They will be coming home tomorrow from the hospital. So - I'll post (probably too many) pics from today.

Well, the spacing on these are not what I was hoping for, but I tried. I am still trying to play with the pictures and get them to do exactly what I want. I'm still learning, that's for sure.

We will see what tomorrow brings! The excitement of Ezra coming home. It is so neat to be here for this...

On a different note, still no update on the LOI or confirmed dates... Tick tock, tick tock.

I'm an Aunt... again!

My sister had her baby!! Yeah! And the really awesome part is that we came down to SC today to 'visit' and today was the day she had her baby... totally cool! We were getting off on the exit for our hotel when the call came that she had the baby... talk about timing!

To her total surprise, she had a BOY! (Matthew and I thought it was a boy...she was sure it was a girl!! She was right with her three other children, however.) His name is Ezra Fuller (last name not listed) and he is 8 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces... Another rather large child for my tiny little sister! We went to the hospital this evening and got to visit them and meet him. He is gorgeous!! Just gorgeous! And he may be a 'big baby' but he seems teeny tiny to me!! Here he is...

Wow! What a day! I'm not sure I've ever seen any other baby (besides Matthew) so early in life! Anyway, he wasn't even 5 hours old when I got to meet him... how special!

Well, we got up early today, and I drove 550 miles, all by myself, so I am tired and ready for bed!! The trip was very uneventful (which is always a good thing). Oh yeah, except for the fact that my tire was almost flat 100 miles in so i was afraid I'd have to get a new tire. I filled it up though, and so far it seems to have held... I kept checking it on the trip down. Thank goodness it didn't blow! OK, time for bed - enjoy the pictures of Ezra as much as I am... :)

Christmas 2007

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a fabulous time together. My brother came out and stayed two days from the city and my parents were here a week. We wrapped and wrapped, and watched Christmas movies, and listened to carols and just had a great time! This was really the first year Matthew has gotten up 'early' and wanted to get started. I've been lucky until now, I guess! He woke me up at 6:30 and I was 'ready' by 7:00 or so... (I was stalling a little bit!) It was a great day and we had a lot of fun. I hope you all did as well!

It was a little sad this year - missing friends I haven't seen in too long, not being able to be with my sister and her family as well as knowing that my little baby girl is spending her first Christmas without her family in Kazakhstan! I thought about her a lot, and I did get some gifts for her, both from my parents and from Matthew (who went shopping with my parents!) They were really cute. Next year will be really awesome to have another little one around on Christmas morning!

My sister, although she had some close calls, has not yet had this baby. She'll be induced Friday if she doesn't have it tomorrow. Matthew and I have decided to go down there Friday and come home Tuesday! That'll be awesome!! Can't wait to meet and greet my new niece or newphew! It'll be great to see the other three too!!

My grandmother taught my sister, me and my brother how to crochet when we were growing up... Neither my sister nor I can (or do) this at all. My brother, on the other hand, is gifted and has made many nice blankets for us over the years. Well, he had already bought me my Christmas present this year, and wasn't going to get me anything else, or so I thought, but he 'got' me another one. A hand made blanket that he had done. It is INCREDIBLE!! It is huge (so that when I cover up my feet are not hanging out the bottom of the blanket!!) It would easily cover a king sized bed!! Here it is....

So, that was a total surprise and is just so lovely!! I don't know where I'm going to put it yet, but I've got to find just the right place for it.

I am still waiting to receive my LOI. I am waiting for that phone to ring!

Baking Fun

Matthew and I finally got to make the Gingerbread House today. Now, it's not like I do this from scratch or anything, but it was fun nonetheless. Actually, you never know with Matthew if he will be in the mood to sit long enough to help and 'do', but he did. I helped construct the walls of the house, and he did 100% of the decorating. THEN, he frosted cookies and decorated them too. I was totally impressed. Usually he'll do about 3 cookies, eats one or two, and is done. :) Here is some of his handy work.

Then we decorated cookies, and he did all the red ones.

I did the white ones and the yellow ones... (we had done green on another day.)

We had a great time! I am so glad i am here with him for this Christmas! (The chance of travel was always there, but of course, it is now pushed to beyond Christmas, yeah!!) What a blessing to be home with him.

The other thing I've done this weekend is paint the nursery! The green is exactly what I wanted. The other walls were supposed to be 'creamy' and they are in some light, but in other lights, it looks very pale yellow. I like pale yellow, it's just not what I wanted. But, by the time I put all the furniture I bought in that little room, there won't be much wall left to notice the variation in color, so I'm going to try not to fret about it. Here are some shots of the room.

Exciting stuff, right? Well, exciting or not, it all had to be done. I am sore from painting. It seems so easy, and yet at the end of the day... muscles I didn't realize I had hurt. Oh well! Now, the room just needs furniture, and a little girl from Kazakhstan to make it complete! :)

Are there others who use blogspot who post pictures? Am I doing something wrong in that it posts them ALL up top and you have to edit the HTML to fix it? I feel like I must be doing something wrong. Also, can't I line two or three up across instead of having them all post down the page? Just wondering! Help!

I have my third interview with that company I've been waiting to hear from, tomorrow! Yeah! But, I'm traveling soon and will be away for two months, and then need the time when I return to get the baby adjusted... so, I would LOVE a job... But I need my first three months off, ok?? Ugh! I hope that all works out so I know the new job thing settled before I travel. That would be awesome.

I also need to START my shopping, so tomorrow after the interview I will be shopping... before I get to pick Matthew up from school like a Mom who doesn't work! :)

Friday night

How does this happen? It is Friday night... and I'm sick! I should be enjoying this time, right? Man, I hope it passes FAST so I can do the 8 million things I have on my to do list! I'm not as bad tonight as I was last night, but I'm not good... my fever is keeping the chills 'around' which is a bummer, I can't get under too many more blankets. :)

I hope Matthew and I can make our Gingerbread house tomorrow. It'll be fun. Right now we are watching Christmas Specials (Charlie Brown right now.) We're about to watch Home Alone, one of our favorites.

I hope everyone has a great night and weekend! Stay well and enjoy the season - :) What a wonderful time of year!

So I'm getting pretty darn excited for the baby to be... and I HAD to buy something!

So, I've been waiting and waiting, and wanting and wanting to buy SOMETHING, and I gave in on a few small things. But, I really wanted to start buying some of the bigger things for the baby. I want baby gear... the problem is, we don't know the age, or the size, or anything - so buying the small stuff is hard. But I had to buy something, so I bought the furniture!! So, below is a picture of the furniture - i just LOVE IT! :) I can't wait to get it delivered! I plan to paint the room later this week so it is all ready for the furniture...

Anyway - to spare you any more pictures (and spare me from trying to upload them (not hard) and get them where I want them to show in the blog (this is hard!) I'll just tell you what else I bought. I bought the mattress for the crib and a high chair.

OK, so I quickly changed my mind, I had to show one more picture. I put the high chair together today... For now it's in my dining room, I'm sure I'll put it in her room for a while once I decide I need the space in my dining room for the holidays! I thought this was a really neat high chair and will really match my dining room table and chairs! It's cool too that over the wood tray is a plastic tray that can be used and then put in the dishwasher! neat! Such different choices even since Matthew was a baby!

My parents are here until Monday morning. Today, we made some Christmas (cut-out) cookies. We went to make the frosting and only had a tiny amount of sugar, so we'll have to frost them tomorrow. My brother came out from DC to visit us again today too. It was a really great day - I had an awesome time and it just felt very Christmassy!! Music, and decorations, baking, all spending time together, putting together high chairs... fun stuff!

My brother (Bobby) showed us a picture of a child he just signed up to sponsor through World Vision. He is so cute! That was really neat to hear about and look at the info on the website! I can't wait to look at that website some more.

One last thing... I got new windows for the house on Oct. 3rd. Ever since then, my bedroom and sitting room have had lovely sheets and towels hanging on them because I had had blinds on the windows before and decided not to put those back up. So, I've had old sheets in the nice new windows. My mom and I finally bought some new curtains for those windows which I put up today. They look great - at least much better than the sheets and towels... Since my room faces the street, I'm sure the neighbors will now appreciate my curtains as well! :)

Monday Monday

There really isn't much going on around here, but I thought I'd give an update anyway! I was hoping to hear something today about the job interview I had had, the man was just back today from vacation... but I heard nothin'. Oh well, I know how things are when I first get back from vacation, so maybe there just wasn't time to worry about hiring someone... I'm hoping that's the reason, anyway!

On a brighter note, we did get our Christmas tree this weekend! Matthew and I went with my parents and my brother. It was chilly, but NOTHING compared to what Sunday and today are! Wow, the wind outside is brutal!! I got the lights on (only ten strands this year) and then many of the ornaments. I still have one box of ornaments to go though - I'm running out of room. This years tree is smaller than last year, but not small!! Last years tree was just huge! The tree is nice, I am a little afraid it won't last til Christmas, there are already a few droopy branches! (And we're watering it twice a day!!)

My parents did come up on Saturday for the Patriots vs. Ravens game tonight in Baltimore. They came Saturday so they could go get the tree with us. The bummer is, my mom got really sick on Sunday and is still under the weather! Poor thing. She is just miserable, and only marginally better than yesterday. Anyway, because of her illness, she couldn't go to the Ravens game, and Matthew couldn't go because of school tomorrow and he wouldn't get home until about 1:00 a.m. So, I thought about going with my dad, but then broke out laughing at myself. I'm cold when it's 70 degrees outside... so this would NEVER do! it's like 35 degrees with 50 mile an hour winds, and they just showed SNOW (flurries) on the screen. Although flurries would be 'cool', I would be so cold it just wouldn't be fun!! Anyway, my dad decided not to go by himself and sit in the cold either, so we are all home tonight, watching in the warmth of the house. It also helped to make the decision KNOWING that the Patriots are going to KILL the Ravens tonight. :)

I can't wait until tomorrow night. My friend Judy and my mom (I hope) and I are going to a concert at my church. It is a speaker who is one of the funniest ladies I've ever heard speak and also the singer Kathy Troccoli. I have been to this event many times (3 or 4) in years past and it is just AWESOME. I just hope my mom feels better enough to go along with us!!

I went and got some bourbon from a friend tonight to make my bourbon balls. She said, I'll just put it in a mug... I thought, um, no... I really don't want to drive home with a cup of bourbon in an open container. I can see it now!!! Anyway, we found a travel cup (with a lid) so I felt better about having it in the car! Besides the bourbon balls, I also plan to make our Christmas cookies (frosted cut-outs) this weekend. Does anyone have any great cookie recipes? I'll be home (not working!) so I'd love to try something new this year!

It may not last, so I have to say it now... THE RAVENS ARE BEATING THE UNBEATEN PATRIOTS!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!! (and WOW!)

Don't forget to vote for the Christmas decorations (I think you can do more than one vote at a time!) and girls names too!! :)