A Quiet Christmas

*VIDEO*

We just celebrated our last Christmas as a family of 2.5. *sigh*  It was a good holiday and good to spend some time together alone before the baby comes, but it was a little odd not seeing our families for Christmas. Any other year we would've celebrated Christmas in Florida last weekend with all the Stelsels and in Kentucky on Christmas with the Parkers. Although we didn't get to share in all the family festivities, we shared in the celebrations as best we could by phone, email, text, and Facebook.

Merry Christmas

Chase helps David open his presents.

It's official: the basement is all his.

Helping Momma

Not sure how much time I'll have to devote to reading or dancing, but I'll do my best. ;)

"Mom, really? Why do you do this to me?"

Chase opens his present.

"I'll put up with anything for a bone."

My parents came up Christmas evening to visit for a few days. It's been nice to have some company (and even better to have someone cook for us)! We've been so spoiled lately. :)  We didn't even leave the house yesterday. We worked around the house a little, watched football, played games, and laughed so much we all thought I'd go into labor. We're looking forward to Dave and Connie's visit this weekend over New Year's to do it all again!  

In the meantime, we're still working little by little trying to get the house in order and just enjoying the calm before the (baby) storm. Just one more week until Bubba's expected arrival. We shall see when he will decide to make an appearance. Stay tuned..... :)

Perceptive Puppy

Something's going on. I can feel it in my bones. For the last few months, I thought all the ruckus that was causing my anxiety was due to all the moving. But now that we're settled into our new house and things still aren't back to normal, I'm beginning to realize there's something else going on. I don't understand what it is yet, but I'm sensing some signs that something's just......off.

1)  There's a lot of new stuff in our house that I've never seen before. In fact, there's a whole room of new stuff! I've been spending a lot of time in this room, sniffing and checking everything out. There are some new clothes. New furniture. And best of all, new toys. But Mom won't let me play with ANY of them. *sigh* And if I try to help her with the clean laundry that she hangs in the closet in this room, she gets frustrated. So I just have to sit and watch.

2)  Mom smells different. I've noticed she isn't the same as she used to be because I can't lie in her lap anymore. She also moans and groans a lot these days. And it takes her twice as long to get up off the floor. I try to help her when I see she's struggling, but there's not a lot I can do without opposable thumbs. Lately, though, she not only looks different, she has a different smell, too. Odd. Not bad. Just odd.

3)  Dad keeps talking about somebody named Bubba. I've never met this Bubba, so I have no idea who he's referring to. But he talks about him constantly, and even talks to me about him as if I know who he's talking about. He'll ask me things like, "So what are you gonna do when Bubba gets here?" and "Are you excited for Bubba?" Ummm, hello! Who is Bubba?! I can't answer your questions until I've met him. Duh.

Anyway, I hope things get back to normal soon. In the meantime, though, I'm keeping an extra close eye on Mom and Dad. I've made it a rule not to let them out of my sight....ever.

See what I mean?



Oh My Wordy, Look Who's 30!

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Turning 30 wasn't a big deal to me like it can be for some women. I have my health. I have my family and friends. I have an amazing husband and our baby due any day. And I still look like I'm in my 20s (ha). Life is good.

Every birthday since 21 hasn't been a big deal. The older I get, the more boring and ho-hum birthdays become to me. This year, however, was an exception. It started out as just another day, but it sure didn't end that way. I got up. Went to work. Ate too much during the work day (between the carrot cake a coworker made for my birthday and a birthday lunch compliments of my boss). Struggled to stay awake in the afternoon as the inevitable food coma hit me. Enjoyed all the birthday phone calls, emails, text messages, and Facebook messages. Then headed home at 5:00, excited to see my happy dog, check the mail for birthday cards and packages, and go out for a nice birthday dinner with David.

This is when my 30th birthday took a surprise turn. As I rounded the corner of my street, I saw, to my utter surprise, what looked like my Dad's truck parked in front of my house.

"No, it couldn't be...." I thought.

"Wait, yeah, I think that's his license plate."

Sure enough, as I pull into the driveway, up pops the garage and my Mom is standing there. "SURPRISE!!!" she yells with the biggest grin on her face.

And I just started crying.

I think I was in shock for a good hour (at least). I kept saying, "You're crazy!" and "I can't believe you're here!" And, of course, David had been in on it the whole time (since Thanksgiving!), which made it that more special to me.

As if their visit alone wasn't awesome enough, they came bearing gifts. Lots and lots of gifts. The first thing I saw when I walked in the house was a gift for Bubba from my sister Jennifer, which was SO sweet because she had already done so much for me and Bubba already. Next to the baby gift was this huge three-layer cake my Mom made. [Becky and Jeff, you'll love this: it was FUNFETTI!!! My favorite when I was little, and still love to this day because it reminds me of childhood.]

One of my first questions to my Mom, "So are we still going out for dinner?" Because at this point I didn't know David had been in on this and I still thought we had dinner reservations. Wrong. She pointed to the oven, and I peek in and notice a heaping pan of lasagna starting to bubble. My favorite!! Not only is lasagna always my birthday dinner of choice, this one was extra special because it was Jennifer's famous 8 lb. lasagna. Nothing beats it. And last night it was extraordinary as always.

THEN Kirk stops by to drop off a birthday card (that he's been meaning to give me for three years, which is hilarious) and a scrumptious chocolate cupcake from this fantastic cupcake bakery in town. It was so sweet of him to stop by, and the three-year-old card made me laugh. I'm saving the cupcake for another day, though, because I have an entire funfetti cake to eat!

My serving of cake had toothpicks in it. I thought that meant I won a prize, but all it got me was excused from washing dishes. ha! I'll take it! :)

After dinner, we moved into the living room where this was waiting for me:

Let me explain. Many, many moons ago, when Jennifer turned 30, Mom had a fun idea of getting her 30 gifts. Well, what you do for one you have to do for all. Sure enough, Jamie got 30 gifts on her 30th, and now it was my turn. I, of course, had not remembered this tradition at all, so I would've been none the wiser had I only received one birthday gift (until Jamie called and asked how I liked my 30 gifts; I could see that happening. ha). And so I spent the next 60 minutes tearing through presents (with some assistance from Chase The Opener, David The Box Keeper, Mom The Trash Collector, and Dad The Photographer).

I was not amused by this gift: "Olivia Newton John's Greatest Hits Vol. 2." What the heck?! Well, turns out this is part of the tradition. Mom always got the #1 song, book, and movie from the year we were all born. Ummmm.....thanks? hahahhaha 

Won't be drinking this for a while, but never hurts to start filling up my wine rack now. Best to be prepared. :)

Love this! A bath caddy to hold my glass of wine, a candle, and prop up a book while I soak in the tub. *sigh* Makes my muscles relax just thinking about it.

Little helper. Look at him go!

After we opened presents, we stayed up too late talking and laughing and telling stories and laughing and looking at baby pictures and laughing and talking about Bubba and laughing. It was a perfect night. I didn't want to end it by going to bed, but alas, I had to cut it short because I knew I had to get up early for work.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mom, Dad, and David, for making my 30th SO special. I'll remember it always.

Two other random highlights from the day:

1)  I turned 37 weeks pregnant on my birthday, which means Bubba is officially full term! We made it! Now we're just waiting for him to decide to enter the outside world. :)

2)  I won Final Jeopardy for the first time ever. Let me explain. The Stelsels and the Parkers love Jeopardy. David has this fun (?) habit of guessing an answer between seeing the Final Jeopardy topic and seeing the question. Well it's caught on, and now we all do it to test our psychic/genius powers. So as we're in the middle of opening presents last night, Kirk calls. It's Final Jeopardy time. He tells us what the topic is -- Popular Baby Names -- and we all make a guess. Lo and behold, I got it right!! How appropriate considering my condition. ha. The answer, by the way, was Jacob. ;)

This Puppy Turns 5

*VIDEO*

I realize I haven't blogged in a looooong time, but if you've kept up with Mom and Dad, you know things have been a little out of sorts at my house for quite some time. Frankly, I just haven't been in the mood to blog about anything; too much to do (and maybe a few periods of stress and depression). Things are starting to settle down now, though, so what better way to get back into the blog than with a post about my birthday!!

That's right -- I turned 5 yesterday! Can you believe it?! Does this officially make me an adult dog? I don't know. I still feel so young at heart. :)

Here are some pictures and video from my birthday. Enjoy!

Presentsssssssss!!!!! Gimme, gimme!

I can open it myself, Mom! 

YAY! New bones -- just what I wanted!



Back off, Dad! It's MINE!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Stelsel household. We're slowly getting the house in (some kind of) order, while simultaneously preparing for Christmas and Bubba's arrival. Although we still have boxes scattered about here and there, and the dining room and office still resemble war zone territory, we've been able to mark other things off our to-do list.

For example, we finally got our blinds installed, which has made a big difference in making the house more comfortable. Living in a fish bowl for a few weeks was a little....odd.

We also got the "reading room" cleared out. Our bookshelves are once again filled to capacity.

We also got cable and Internet this weekend, so we're no longer sitting around in silence nor having to check our email on our itty bitty phones. Chase especially enjoys having the TV on again.

Bubba's room is looking back to normal. Although I haven't finished it yet (there are still books piled in the corner and toys piled on the dresser out of Chase's reach), I did manage to get all of his clothes, sheets, and blankets washed and stowed away. *sigh*  David also put together the stroller and car seat, so I think we're just about set for Bubba's arrival!

In addition, David (with some assistance from me and Chase) put together some of our new office furniture. You know you're getting old when you spend your Friday night putting together furniture.

We also put up some of our Christmas decorations this weekend (for the first time in probably two years!). We aren't decorating the outside except for a wreath on the door, but we have our tree up and other decorations scattered about the house.

In addition to the chores around the house, we attended David's work holiday party. This year it was at a country club, and it was fantastic as always. The best part (for me, at least) was catching up with one of the partners' wives. Get this: she and her husband are expecting their first baby -- a boy -- on Jan. 5 (one day after us!). She also goes to the same practice as me, so we could very well be in the hospital at the same time. Isn't that crazy?!

36 weeks -- 4 more to go!

Happy December!