Santa!

December 2011

This year, we were fortunate enough to be able to see so many of our relatives for the Christmas holiday season, so there are quite a few Christmas posts coming up.  I thought I would get everyone into the holiday spirit with Jack's annual Santa picture from daycare.  This year was much more successful than last year and Jack sat on Santa's lap with no trouble and no bribes :)

It's amazing to see how much he's grown in just a year, and I love that the Santa is the same!

2011

2010

Fun Times in Colorado

December 2011

Almost every year, our friends plan a ski trip.  Until now, except the year I was in National Office, I have had to send Tommy off to Canada or Colorado with everyone else and stay at home, working around the clock during busy season.  This year, everyone made the effort to plan the trip before my busy season got too busy.  I even had a training in Colorado in December, so I could turn my training trip into a long ski weekend.  I didn't know at the time we planned the trip that I would be nearly 19 weeks pregnant at the time.  Unfortnately, that meant I wouldn't get to spend any time with everyone on the slopes, but I found plenty to keep me occupied during the day and joined everyone for some (alcohol free) apres ski.

I arrived in Denver on a Wednesday for a half day of training.  Unbeknownst to me, it would be an eventful day back in Dallas.  Albert had jumped off the sofa the night before and slipped a disk in his back, paralyzing his back legs.  Tommy took him to the vet first thing the next morning, but if we would have known how serious it was, we would definitely have taken him sooner.  If this happens and a dog is not in surgery within 24 hours, it risks permanent paralysis or worse.  Needless to say, we had Albert in surgery that afternoon.  $3,000 later, it took Albert several months, but he's back to his old self, just with a slighly wobbly rear end :)

After training, I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with a couple of old friends from elementary and middle school who I hadn't seen in nearly 20 years for dinner at Cheesecake factory.  I had a great time catching up with Lindley and Liv (who I learned was expecting twins!) and hope that it won't be 20 years until I see them again!

I worked from Denver on Thursday and Tommy joined me on Thursday night.  It was the first time we had left Jack for an adults-only vacation (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!), so it felt a little strange not to have our little guy with us, but it was nice to get to have some quiet time to ourselves.

We met up with Tom, Jen and Greg on Friday night in Vail.  We stayed at The Lodge at Vail, in the heart of Vail Village and walking distance to all the shops and ski slopes.  We ate fondue at a quirky little Swiss restaurant in Vail Village on Friday night.  Early Saturday, the group hit the slopes, while I had a lazy morning and spent the rest of the day shopping around Vail, picking up fleece jackets for myself and Jack and thank-you gifts for Mom and Dad and enjoying a yummy crepe for lunch.  After a day of skiing, everyone joined me for dinner.  After breakfast the next morning, Tommy drove me back to Denver to the airport, then headed back to Vail to ski for another couple of days with everyone else.  It was definitely a quick trip, but a much needed break from the everyday chaos of work and family life that fills our days.  While I wouldn't trade it for anything, sometimes it is nice to take a break!

Here's everyone else skiing at the top of the mountain.  Picture me down in the village shopping or enjoying a crepe in a little cafe!!

18 Weeks

November 2011

It's been a while since since I posted about Baby Mhire #2, but I can guarantee she was still in Mommy's tummy, growing away and bringing me all kinds of sleepless nights and queasy stomach moments. At this point, Jack knew that his baby sister was in Mommy's tummy, although he still didn't grasp exactly what that meant. The week after Thanksgiving, we headed to Dr. Harn's office for the ~20 week anatomy scan. This is usually the appointment when gender prediction becomes a bit more reliable, so I held my breath to see if we still had a baby girl.

We got all kids of shots of fingers and toes, arms and legs, loaded on a CD for us to take with us and bring back to future appointments (which we always forgot!). All of the measurements looked right on track and yes, still a girl!

We sat down with Dr. Harn after the ultrasound and he reiterated that everything looked really good. There was, however, one thing that he needed to tell us. He hated to tell us, because he had never seen it turn out to be anything bad, but he had to let us know. My heart sunk into my stomach. What could he have to tell us about our precious baby girl that we had just seen squirming around and fallen in love with just a little more? He continued to tell us that she had an ecogenic intracardiac focus, or a calcium deposit on her heart that shows up as a bright spot in the ultrasound. They are fairly common, occurring in 3-5% of all pregnancies and usually disappearing by 32 weeks. In the absence of other markers, it usually doesn't mean anything, but there is some evidence that babies with an ecogenic focus have a higher risk of Downs Syndrome.

I know, it could have been a lot worse, but I didn't want to hear that my baby was anything other than perfect, so I burst into tears. Dr. Harn did his best to calm me down - he even got me an appointment with the maternal fetal medicine specialist that day for the higher level ultrasound as I was headed out of town for work the next morning. Dr. Koster confirmed everything Dr. Harn had said. Other than this bright spot, everything looked perfect, and this finding didn't increase the odds of Downs Sydrome from the earlier genetic tests, so she didn't recommend that we do anything else. Of course, I scoured the internet for everything I could find and was actually put a little more at ease by what I read. It would continue to be in the back of my mind throughout the rest of the pregnancy, but was most likely nothing that should keep me up at night.

Here are a couple of pictures of our baby girl at 18 weeks and 2 days:

 

A Chilly Day with Shrek

November 2011

Last year, we loved the Ice Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan hotel so much that we decided to go back this year and take the whole family with us.  The boys were all a little bigger than Jack was last year, but it was still entertaining to see the three little guys roaming the exhibit in their giant jackets.

 

 

Come to think of it, we all looked pretty silly in the jackets - but at least we were warm!

 

 

 

As you can see above, this year's theme was the movie Shrek  - not a movie Jack had ever seen before, but he immediately took to it and found a favorite character, Donkey.  As he wandered through the exhibit, he pointed out every sculpture of Donkey he could find.  If I had to choose, I probably preferred the Peanuts exhibit from last year, but this one was pretty amazing, too.

 

Donkey!

Jack even went down the ice slide!

And of course, we broke down and bought the family picture they took at the entrance to the exhibit.  Aren't we cute?!

A Family Thanksgiving in Dallas

November 2011

As I was somewhere in the middle of my second trimester and exhausted, I was so excited that my family made the decision to join us in Dallas for Thanksgiving.  Thankfully, that meant no long, uncomfortable pregnant drives and my sister and her family would finally get to see our house in Frisco for the first time since we moved in!

I was so thankful to be surrounded by my family who didn't mind helping out the tired pregnant lady and cooking virtually all of our delicious Thanksgiving dinner, even though they were guests in my house.  We had traditional turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potato with bacon and blue cheese, dad's onions, homemade noodles, and crescent rolls.

Head chef carves the turkey

We attempted to make noodles that live up to Grandma Rose's.  No one can make them exactly like she does, but these were pretty good!



The feast!

 

 

 

The delicious meal was followed by yummy pies for dessert - pumpkin, pecan, chocolate and peanut butter (not normally on the menu, but a specific pregnancy craving request that was honored by my amazing Mom!).  I'm not sure you can tell how much the boys loved their pie

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa took advantage of having their grandkids all together and stole lots of hugs, kisses and snuggles:

 

It was so wonderful that everyone made the trip to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  It was great seeing the boys have fun together.  I wish they lived closer, but I know the times when they do get together will be even more special!

Birthday Party: Cars Style

November 2011

The weekend before Jack's actual birthday, we celebrated with friends and family.  I came to the realization that planning a two-year old's birthday party when he can't tell you who he wants to invite, all of his friends are from daycare, and you don't know their parents is not easy.  I stressed that not enough people would come to the party and Jack wouldn't have had fun, but I shouldn't have worried, he had a great time and in the end, that is all that matters.

This year, his birthday party had a Disney Cars theme. 

 

Nana and Papa drove in from Houston and Grandma and Grandpa came from Boerne.  Aunt Brandi, Uncle Ryan and cousin Lincoln drove over from Fort Worth for the afternoon.  One of Jack's closest friends from daycare, Jacob and his parents came over and Mommy and Daddy's friends Uncle Greg and Esther and Jen even stopped by to celebrate!  Jack is a lucky boy to have so many people who love him!

Mommy and the Birthday Boy!

Grandma with Jacob's parents

Mommy and Grandpa

Aunt Brandi and Mommy

Papa, Uncle Greg, Esther and Jen

We didn't plan any structured activities for a group of 2 year-olds.  The boys spent quite a bit of time playing with play-doh:

 They all particularly loved the balloons:

 

 

 Daddy barbequed some delicious hot dogs and hamburgers:

 

 Instead of a cake, this year I decided a cupcake tower would be more fun.  The boys really enjoyed decorating their own:

 

 

 After cupcakes, we spent some time in the backyard playing with balloons and sidewalk chalk:

 

I think he had a pretty good birthday, what do you think??