Christmas 2009

first outing - home depot & lowes, of course!!

coming home

coming home from the hospital... hanging out with dad and taylor, meeting cousin morgan and meeting georgia

rachel elizabeth abbott

not the "abbottboys" anymore!

rachel elizabeth was born at 8:29 pm on december 17 (sharing a birthday with uncle geno). she arrived after a pretty short labor (6 hours) and only 12 minutes of pushing! since she was a week early, she was really ready to come out!!

7 lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long. she's got dark hair and she's really beautiful. we may be biased, but really, she's a great looking baby!

ed called the boys to the hospital after she arrived (not telling them if they had a brother or sister). they'd been waiting at home since the labor started. so they walked down and got to meet rachel first. then we ordered a pizza in the delivery room to celebrate. (which i promptly threw up - note: pizza not ideal following giving birth.) grandparents were called and nana & ace came to the hospital that night too (everyone stayed until about midnight). grandma & grandpa (& uncle bill) will come to meet rachel in january.

everyone is doing well. rachel isn't much of a fan of night-time sleeping, but we're trying to convince her to change her mind. she's a great eater and has already passed her birth weight. she's adorable and sweet and we think we'll keep her. the boys love her and are great with her.

more pics to come...

3 weeks and 3 days

not that we're counting or anything...
well, we're getting ready for the big arrival of our Christmas gift! i had the last of my wonderful baby showers (technically, i had 5 baby showers... i know, totally extravagant! but i feel SO WELL LOVED!!) and we feel pretty well-stocked for the baby's arrival. of course, it also helps that susie is loaning a bunch of her baby things and i have several friends who have done the same. awesome! :)
the room is painted & carpeted (although the trim isn't completed yet) and most of the furniture is ready. we still need to put together the crib, but i think that will be later this week. we do have the bassinet from mom abbott for when the little one first comes home, so the crib isn't that big of a deal at this point. we're just glad to have it in the house! now, for the little details like a lamp in the room (lighting will be helpful) and wall hangings up. so exciting! once i get things organized, i'll post a picture of the room.
in the meantime, i've set this week as my "get it all done" deadline. eddie & i went shopping last night and got most of the boys' Christmas shopping done. i have a few more things to complete, but otherwise we're about ready. this week, i also have 2 child-birth type classes (one for mama only and one for daddy & me) and we need to get our tree & finish the outside lights. then, i think we're about ready and we'll just wait on the kid to arrive.
work is another story at this point, but i've tried to arrange what i can ahead of time. beyond that, i can't worry about it. its hard for me to admit, but the office will carry on without me and somehow the church will still run in my absence. :) this is probably a good lesson for me anyway.
kinda like the swollen ankles that are working on my pride these days... i've always prided my thin ankles... God is humbling me quite a bit in these last few weeks of pregnancy! see? just look at how God is working in me, even as He blesses us with a new baby!! (mental note: careful what i pray for...)

35 weeks

so, we have 5 weeks to go until the due date. time to really get things moving!

on nov 1, i was showered by my church friends & co-workers with a really lovely party! it was such fun to get all sorts of baby items and we just marvelled at the size of the tiny clothes and the little person inside of me who will soon be wearing them! we also had special surprise (uninvited) guests at the church shower...

last weekend, ed was sicker than i've ever seen him thanks to an infected tooth that had to be pulled! poor guy. he was in such pain. so, the guys and i tried to keep things quiet at home and went about our busy weekend, including going to dinner with aunt woofie (from NJ) and cousin, Alex (who came up from WVU). while ed was sick, the house projects obviously took a bit of a break, so it was a good time to address the issue of 3rd floor (boys' living quarters... that i try not to enter any more than absolutely necessary). lets just say this: after our weekend together, the boys have clean clothes again, you can see that there is carpet on the floor, the smell of rotting, moldy foods (like fruit peels & a block of cheese(!), etc) is definitely diminishing, and our kitchen has been restocked with dishes that had disappeared. clearly, the former rule of "no food or drinks on 3rd floor" is being reissued and enforced. as for the new holes in the wall, brought about by wrestling (about 30 minutes AFTER bedtime)... that's just going to have to wait until dad is done with other projects. we get all excited when we think that we're done replacing walls (the ones that are falling down due to old age, etc) and then we're reminded that we have 4 boys... the wall replacements may continue for a few years more. what on earth will we do if #5 is a boy too?!

anyway, speaking of the baby, i had another shower this past weekend with my friends from home - girls i've grown up with and known about 27 years. it was SO good to connect with these lifelong friends and chat about life, motherhood and all sorts of other fun things. and, again, it was SO EXCITING to get some of the things we need for the baby! every time i look at a diaper bag or the pack-n-play, i get excited and a little freaked out about the fact that this little person is on the way!!

ed is back to working on the baby's room (as i type, even) and i think he'll definitely make his deadline of having it ready by thanksgiving. we'll be painting later this week (still undecided on color) and then the carpet goes in. and sometime in the midst of that, we'll have furniture arriving! so, things are starting to finally find their place. i think once the room is ready, i'll feel a little more at peace about this kid's arrival.

thanksgiving weekend is the last of the baby showers - one with the kenyon family and close family friends. can't wait to celebrate with my sisters! and that week will also be the "abbott sibling hospital tour" (they get a personal tour so they aren't in a group with little toddlers) for the boys (and us) to get a feel for where we'll be for delivery and ask any questions. (right, like teen boys are going to ask questions about labor and delivery! ha!!) we're just happy that they will know where to go and where we'll be, should we have to run off to the hospital and have the boys come and find us. so glad the delivery will be at the hospital at the end of our street! that way, the boys can come and go on their own. :)

long update. sorry! :)

30 weeks (& the pellet stove)

homecoming dance

taylor & drew both took juniors as their dates for homecoming last weekend (not bad for freshmen & sophomore boys)! taylor's date was a girl he met from another town. (ed put on his red long-johns to go and pick her up... t didn't think it was funny. don't worry, we made ed change his clothes!) drew's date was on the dance committee and had to be there early, so there were no pictures of the two of them. anyway, the boys had full schedules of pre-dance parties and after-parties and had a really good time. ah, high school dances. :)

kitchen surprise!!

this past weekend, i went away with aunt betsy to visit my little sister, susie, & her family in north carolina. i expected ed would take a slow weekend, enjoy his return to playing drums at church and just hang out with some of his buddies. ha! instead, i came back from the 5 day trip to be surprised with a totally re-created kitchen! i can't even say how exciting it is to have the kitchen (still in "phase 1 stage") that we've been dreaming of and planning. ed worked with my dad all weekend and the result is a very excited wife!! :) (and the boys think it's amazing also)

because our kitchen has interesting angles & 4 different entry points (one on each wall), we've been limited on how to make the best use of the space. thus, the "big island" plan, which is perfect for the appliances and the counter space we need.

here are pics:

the back yard

okay, so "we" (read: ed) have been working really hard on the house this summer and fall. since ed is still looking for work, he's been home with time on his hands to complete some major work on the house and this is especially great to get the particularly yucky projects done before the baby arrives. so, one major project was the back yard/driveway. our neighbors (downhill) agreed to give us a lot of fill dirt if we would put up a retaining wall (they hoped it would help with their water problems). so, ed was able to level out the small yard in the back and with the retaining wall, extend the driveway a little more to allow 2 cars in the parking area. on the other side of our driveway, we had a small hill that was not only ugly to look at, but seemed to be eroding right before our eyes, so ed also built a wall on that side of the yard (and flattened out our neighbor's yard for her too). this was all tackled just after ed completed the work on the deck (replacing the falling down "lean-to" that was formerly part of our kitchen)... needless to say, the man is incredible and also very sore at the end of every day!

so, here are pics of the backyard project (including the deck):

15 weeks... and counting

well, i'm in my 15th week and still sick every day. staying on meds that help with the nausea and just trying to cope. feeling really tired too. and i had an interesting experience with my clothes... tried to wear my stretchy, elastic-waisted skirt to work and found that the waist was just too tight to be comfortable (especially for all day at work). so, i'm wearing a maternity skirt for the first time. oh, it is so much more comfortable!! anyway, that's pretty much the update on the baby. we did go and hear the heartbeat a few weeks ago and it was amazing. (this finally seemed REAL to me when we heard it) we'll have the sonogram in a few weeks more (around 20 weeks), but we won't be finding out the sex of the baby. sorry to those of you who don't want to wait to find out! (oh, and since i only look fat and not pregnant, there are no pictures yet)

the house changes daily - and i do mean DAILY - and that's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. as soon as we get a system down, things get switched around again, so it sometimes makes daily living a little difficult. but we seem to be managing okay and the results (like our new placement for the laundry and our forming baby room(!!!) are really exciting!!! i can't keep up with ed and all of the work he's getting done. he's like a machine! but i should be taking more pictures... hopefully i'll get more before we head to MN so that the abbotts can see what's going on. (i do hate to take pictures when it's a mess, though... and it's usually a mess these days)

summer is going well, for the most part. noah joined the swim team (finally, a swimmer in our house!) but isn't as into it as i think i'd like. one more area where i need to learn not to push... the weather around here has been really disappointing, so we haven't had a lot of good pool days. but we've been busy. we went to a few great concerts at the arts festival and have had fun with friends and picnics, etc. to celebrate father's day/dad's b'day (the boys will be away for ed's birthday), the guys bought new drum sticks, brushes and a stick bag for ed. ed has finally returned (sorta) to the music team and is very happy to be back to playing drums. and we moved the drum set back upstairs and it now sits in the front hall (it was in storage in the basement). that makes the 5 drummers in our house happy again.

i think that's about it. we're anxiously awaiting our trip west to see all of the abbotts and i'm trying to figure out a few other trips we might fit in before our busy fall hits.

dec 24 - we're expecting a pretty great gift!!

oh my word, so much has gone on since march 31st... i don't know how to catch up! well, april 18th is the day ed & i discovered we are expecting. we were on a fabulous weekend away and took a test in the hotel and were... (not sure what word describes us... in awe?)... well, thrilled to see the little pink + on the pregnancy test. then, after a weekend of talking freely about it, we came home and kept it hush for several weeks more. i did call the doctor and set up an appt, but otherwise, everything was quiet. until april 26th when i got a migraine, couldn't take anything for it and ended up throwing up all night. but then, the throwing up continued EVERY DAY. NOT a typical migraine experience for me. that was the start of "morning sickness" (or in my case, "24/7 sickness"). three trips to the ER (one on April 30th in order to be well-enough to attend sandy & travis' wedding, then again in may and our last visit was june 6) to get an IV & anti-nausea meds in order to rehydrate and all the while, keeping this under wraps for weeks!

i did break down and tell aunt betsy, susie & my mom at mother's day. i really needed to be able to talk about it - especially when i was feeling so sick! thankfully, my history of migraines & puking gave no one (boys, co-workers, friends, etc) reason to think this was anything different. there were occasional questions of "pregnant?" but those have been asked since i was in high school, so it was easy to play off. finally, when i was close enough to my second trimester (and still sick enough to be encouraged that we have a healthy & growing baby), we told the boys. it was june 4th when ed called a family meeting and informed the boys (while watching the pens play) that our family would be getting bigger. it took a split-second for taylor to turn and say "is buffy pregnant?" and i just looked at him. drew jumped up and came over to hug me and say how excited he was and ev came and hugged me/stood close to me (with repeating hugs over and over again). it was really fun. the next day, ev came and put his hand on my tummy and asked if he could feel any kicking. i told him "not yet, it's a little early". a half-hour later, he came back again to feel. i had to explain that we'd be waiting a few weeks and i'll let him know when he can check it out.

in the meantime, when we were still only 8 weeks (and still not telling anyone), ed was among the many cuts at his office (over 50%!!) and lost his job. yikes. we quickly transferred medical insurance back to my plan and he started the process of looking for work. he also has gotten A LOT of work done on the house. (he says it's amazing to see what can get done when you aren't working... good to find some silver lining!) our trim is going up and our rooms finally look/feel a little more finished. and we've cleaned out the basement and gotten a lot organized. next up is the baby room that's going to come from our current laundry room/office on the second floor. yeah!!! (i'm really excited about this!!)

hmmm, i guess that's most of the "update". i'm still pretty sick every day. tomorrow should be 13 weeks and i'm hoping to be done with this stage soon. (& ed's looking forward to the "nesting" stage where i get things cleaned up!!) today, eddie & i went to the doctor's and heard the heartbeat. it was amazing (and a little creepy as it feels like we're listening to space/listening for aliens). we heard our little baby's heartbeat - strong and fast and moving all over the place! the doctor had a hard time keeping track so that we could hear him/her! FINALLY, it feels REAL. we'll go for a sonogram and see our baby in a few weeks. we are not going to find out if we get a boy or girl. we'll wait on that until december.

one extra fun thing is that 4 of my girlfriends that i grew up with are also expecting (3 of them for the first time, like me) and that's really fun!! so, we'll have arrivals in aug, oct, nov & 2 in dec! 2009 is a good year for babies among my friends!! how fun!

okay, and now that we're getting finishing touches done, i think ed will let me take more pictures of the house. we need to post them for family to see what's going on. that should be soon. :)

2 of 2 - pictures, as promised

well, instead of heading out to enjoy the beautiful evening, i dragged ed to a movie tonight because i was so anxious to see 12 rounds... i was so wrong about that movie. it was awful. if only we were 15 years old, we might have enjoyed it. or, if that were the case, we might have enjoyed the movie more if we'd just made out in the theatre instead. hindsight...

oh well. at least we saw a preview for wolverine. that movie can't disappoint. i've been so excited about it for ages. bugger about tonight, though.

anyway, as promised, i'm posting a few pics. but ed wants me to wait until we get the walls finished to show off the work he's done.

so, here's the chandelier in the stairwell with the new window too, the fort in the unfinished gameroom (the boys made it and lived in it for a week or so. they loved it), and quick views of the dining room and front hall (including the glass tables that belonged to my granddad). oh, and one of the closet ed built for me in our bedroom. it was a surprise when i was out of town. he's amazing. (the closet is one place where the finish work will be done this weekend!)

1 of 2 today... that's my goal

i know, it's terrible of me to only update after having someone ask about the blog. the truth is, i'm lazy and a lot of the things i am focusing on these days are not things i want posted for the world to have access to via the internet.

however, there are a few things i can share about. first of all, the wonderful camera i got for my birthday a year ago or so isn't as wonderful as we thought. the battery dies quite quickly and at the least convenient times!! so, that's my excuse for the lack of pictures. that and the fact that i'm always waiting for our house to be clean so that i can take pictures of the projects we've completed... ha! like that's going to happen. i've sworn up and down, though, that i will take pictures of my house and send them to my father-in-law, so i really WILL get those done soon. in fact, i'll get a few off the camera today and post them. seriously.

after that, we'll have to wait only a short time for another set of completed projects!! we're having some guys come this friday (!) to start the mud-work on the walls. they do a really nice job of hiding any seams and then we'll have FINISHED WALLS in the gameroom, the master bathroom and along the NEW CLOSET that ed built for me in our bedroom!! it's just too exciting. we looked at paint colors last night for our room and then we'll try to mediate as the boys choose their game room color. taylor wants white and noah wants bright orange. as usual, those two are not even close to the same page. i'm guessing the paint jobs will be totally done by the end of april (probably sooner, as ed will be too excited to wait), so that's pretty exciting. we're still behind on the 3rd floor (boys' bedrooms)... still need to build the wall and doorway into drew's room and fix the walls where the boys have punched through. and new windows... but i suspect the windows might be a while. unless money starts falling from heaven, which hasn't happened so far in my life, so i'm not counting on it. :)

so, that's the house update. other than that, we're surviving. it's pre-Easter, so my job is causing me all sorts of stress and anxiety. i'm soothing that anxiety right now with a raspberry hot cocoa and a lemon/choc chip muffin top... i don't remember being a food-for-comfort person but this is the dangerous place i'm getting to... thankfully, the weather is getting better and eddie is too injured (shoulder and knee) to exercise vigorously, so i can count on a good walk with him most days. we still love to walk through the cemetery. it's the prettiest walk in town and we love it.

okay, i'm going to dive into my muffin top (and not go near the pastry shop again until ev's and my breakfast date on friday!!). pictures later today! :)

getting out of hand

for pete's sake. this morning, i left for work early so that i could make a quick stop at the store and get groceries for the next two days (no time for my usual "big shop"... maybe this weekend). then, i raced to work and went through a busy morning. i had exactly one hour before a meeting, so i hurried home for lunch... where i proceeded to unwrap my wrap skirt and start cleaning the bathroom (in my slip, tights, slippers & blouse!!!). yes, this is how i spend my "free time" from work... running to and from stores, cleaning when i have a minute, etc. and yet, our fridge is always empty and our house is always a mess. it doesn't make sense!!!
i wonder how ed spends his lunch hour... ?

my word, i just get off-track and never seem to update this anymore! things are going well, i think. we're making good progress on the house (the theme of our Christmas party invite was "we have walls and want to celebrate, fa la la la la la la la la!"). our master bathroom is coming along nicely - we may even get our closets set back up soon... maybe. (right now, poor ed has to deal with his dress clothes crammed in with mine or hanging in random areas of the house.) the game room needs to be our next focus, as we are currently living with all of the furniture and everything else in that room (i.e. everything for the boys, essentially... toys, tv, games, etc) is stacked floor to ceiling in the middle of the room. these days, it's become the pit where things go and disappear. i can't imagine what we'll uncover when we get that room back in order. and i just can't wait until we get it done... it will mean that the boys have their space back and we can live a little more "normally". AND they can get back to having friends over again! it's bad enough that ed & i have dropped off the face of the earth socially and didn't have friends over while we've been working so hard on the house, but we both feel it's worse for the boys. so, that's the focus now. well, that and the heating issues we have in our 110 year old house that started with no insulation and we still have a basement that may as well be wide open!!
geez, and i wonder why i'm battling constant headaches!
that's about it really. i'll write about our latest trip to mn soon. and pictures... i'm always promising pictures and never coming through on that. bugger.