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New Year’s Eve.

December 31, 2010 By

1 pregnant lady who goes to sleep at 9pm + 1 Hubby with a cold and a bum leg=a VERY low key end to 2010!

Earlier this week I was resigned to staying in for New Year’s Eve.  A nice, cozy evening with my dear Hubby. Maybe we’d stay up ’till midnight…maybe we wouldn’t. I would make a few appetizers for us instead of a formal dinner and maybe we’d rent a movie.

And then we got an invitation to a party. And we all know I’m a sucker for parties. So we decided to go and be grown-ups and have a fun night out (because I know that those nights are numbered). I RSVPed “YES!” I picked out my outfit. I bought stuff to make a dip to take. I bought some champagne for the Hubby and some sparkling apple juice for myself to take over. And then I got home from work today.

I was pretty tired, and I may or may not have struggled to stay up past 10pm last night. And then I saw my Hubby. He sounded like he was hacking up a lung. He’s still hobbling around on his crutches. But because he’s an awesome Hubby, he was trying to get excited about going out tonight. For me.

So I asked him, “Hubby, would you rather stay in tonight?” And so now. Here we are. Cozy in our house. I’m making the dip I was going to take tonight. And we’re going to enjoy our champagne and bubbly substitute for champagne while watching a movie. And we may go to bed at 10pm. But you know what? I’m TOTALLY okay with it! Because there is no one I would rather ring in 2011 with than my Hubby!

Happy New Year to you all!!!

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Christmas Highlights

December 29, 2010 By

Whew! What a whirlwind week! Last night the Hubby and I arrived home from a ten-day trip back to Missouri to see the family (and promptly fell asleep at 7pm…wow we’re OLD). It was a wonderful, low-key, much-needed vacation…but boy is it good to be home and get back into our routine! I was a bit nervous about how I’d do traveling as I’m starting to get a bit, um, rotund, but it turned out that I was NOT the one in this couple who needed to worry! The hubby ended up having surgery on his knee only ten days four days before our trip, so he was on crutches throughout our trek to the Midwest. He was a trooper though–and with some assistance from bell hops, sky caps, and a few wheelchair attendants at the airport, our trip went relatively smoothly. I do think we were probably quite the sight though–preggo and the cripple hobbling through the airport! :)

Rather than write a long, newsy post detailing our time back home, I thought I’d just give you a little pictorial synopsis.

I was going to start off by showing you some pics of our first stop to see the Hubby’s family at Lake of the Ozarks, but unfortunately, it seems we have NO pictures from here. But we had a marvalous visit with the Hubby’s dad and stepmother, despite our complete lack of documentation!

When we arrive in Northeast Missouri, we had the lovely Winter By the Sea-themed baby shower, which apparently inspired some REAL snow…not enough to cause major issues like the Northeast, but enough to make it a BE-AU-TI-FUL white Christmas!

These next two pics are of the Hubby and me and then my family and me at church on Christmas Eve.

But this photo is perhaps my favorite. Every Christmas Eve, my Dad’s side of the family gathers at my Grandma’s house. A few years ago we gave up the big Christmas meal and gift exchange (because eveyone does that the next day with their immediate families), in lieu of a much more casual soup and sandwich dinner followed by a rousing game of Bingo. Everyone brings wrapped Bingo prizes, which are chosen as we play throughout the evening. Once all the prizes are gone, we set a time limit and when you get a Bingo, you can steal one of the wrapped gifts from someone else. It always seems people steal the same few presents back and forth from one another, and then when they are finally unwrapped (by whoever is in possession of the gift when time is up), it turns out that the gift is an ugly Christmas tie or a can of bean or something. It’s pretty funny. My Hubby was lucky enough to win this fabulous hat in the Bingo game this year–I think it’s pretty awesome.

On Christmas morning, my mom unwrapped a small bag with a set of keys in in it. My family then drove to the local dealership, where, in the showroom, this new Ford Escape was waiting for her (the dealership owner had given the keys to the showroom to my dad…don’t you just love small towns?).  It was a pretty fun Christmas surprise!

After the car reveal, we headed home and started to put Christmas dinner together. While my mom cooked up a storm (Prime Rib…YUM!), I set the table.  I used this beautiful china that my parents inherited a few years ago. It used to belong to my great grandmother…or is it great great grandmother? I can’t remember… Anyway, it’s red and green, and was perfect for Christmas!

And while I may not have been in any sort of condition to rearrange furniture or redecorate bedrooms (which is my usual M.O. when I’m back at home), I did take the opportunity to go through all my childhood boxes. I spent the better part of a day sorting through my childhood artwork, report cards, and such. It was pretty hilarious to read through some of that stuff! My favorite? A letter I wrote to my parents circa age 6: “Dear Mom and Dad,  I love you. Love Katy. P.S. I would like to have more presents please.”

So there you have it…that’s what I’ve been up this past week! And how about you? How was YOUR holiday?!?

1 Comment Filed Under: Musings

Winter By the Sea

December 23, 2010 By

As I wrote in my last post, my best friend Leslie and my mom (with lots of help from my sisters!) threw me a baby shower a few days ago. You may remember that we’re doing a beach cottage theme for the nursery. The ladies used the beach theme, combined with the middle of December shower date to throw a beautiful event, which I’m calling “Winter By the Sea.”

When you walk into the main part of my parent’s house, where the shower was held, you see the dining room table. The ladies made this lovely centerpiece out of branches spray painted white and blue sparkly sprigs stuck in a tall vase with artificial snow. And to add that beach feel, they set out starfish, blue stars, and seas shells. Lovely!

And then as you can see, there was quite the blue and white candy bar. It always amazes me how versatile clear vases and white serving dishes can be! Some blue confetti, white votives, and seashells spray painted silver finished off the look.

The ladies served a light dinner of salad with walnuts and blueberries, delicious artichoke dip served with blue corn chips (seeing a color theme here), and then white pizza served on these pretty silver plates.

And to drink? Beer and wine, and an assortment of blue beverages: water, Blueberry Izze, Blue Raspberry lemonade Jones Soda, and a blue Cream Soda. It all looked so pretty in this big silver tub.

All around the house there were little touches. Like this crystal bowl that held blue and silver christmas ornaments, shells, and starfish:

And this one, too:

And this garland that hung over the door into the house:

Then, of course, there the shower gifts! My friends and family were very generous and we now have the beginnings of a stockpile of baby clothes, blankets, and the sort! Thank you everyone!!! Now…we just need to finish the nursery so we have a place to put it all!

After opening the gifts, I prepared to cut into this adorable little cake.

Funny story: because we got married in such a small town, I decided that rather than have a local baker attempt to do a fancy wedding cake, I’d just ask them to make four individual white cakes, and then garnish them with sunflowers (our flower of the day). I loved the way the turned out, but my mom has never let me live down the fact that I did not have a tiered wedding cake. So, she had this cake made, and, of course, it was two tiers. :)

Here’s a pic of me with a few of my friends from high school (the blond on the far left is Leslie, who was responsible for putting it all together).

It was a wonderful evening filled with family and friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to kick off the holidays! And a huge thanks to my mom, my best friend Leslie, and their assistants Caroline and Sydney for putting it all together, and also a thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the impending arrival of Seamonkey and Pollywog!

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Babies, Party Planning

Stuck in my childhood bedroom…

December 21, 2010 By

I’m currently being quarentined in my childhood bedroom (thanks to my little sister Sydney for loaning it to the hubby and I while we’re home for Christmas!) as the rest of my family and my best friend Leslie prepare the house for my baby shower (like me, they want everything to be a surprise, so they don’t want me to see any of the prep work)! I’m so excited to be at home and to be able to celebrate these little babies with all my family and childhood friends. Many of them I haven’t seen since our wedding three years ago!

While I’m stuck here in my room, I thought I’d share with you how I revealed to my friends from work the genders of the babies a few weeks ago!

The day before the ultrasound, everyone in our office bet $1 on their “baby picks”…boy/boy, boy/girl, or girl/girl. As you guys will all remember, I had my money on girl/girl. The betting was pretty evenly split with about 1/3 of our office on each pick.

Since our ultrasound was first thing in the morning, I went straight from the appointment to work. So the night before, I baked a whole lotta sugar cookies and iced them–half blue and half pink:

They turned really well! I used this recipe from Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen and followed it pretty precisely. I tinted half the icing blue and half the icing pink. And Ta da!

They were sooo good. I should warn you though, they were VERY sweet…like the ones you get in the bakery at the grocery store. Yum yum. I then wrapped them up tight in an airtight container and labeled two tins, one A (for Baby A) and one B (for Baby B). They waited patiently (or as patiently as a cookie tin can wait) to be filled the next morning with those pink or blue cookies!

We went to the ultrasound, and well, you guys know what happened. So in the parking lot afterwards, still filled with shock, I packed up my two tins–both with BLUE COOKIES (I think I’m STILL a little in shock, even if I keep telling people I’m not :) ).

It was a really fun way to share our big moment with friends!

And with 10 minutes left until the baby shower starts, I think I’m soon going to be allowed to leave the bedroom. See you back here soon with a wrap-up of the baby shower!

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