Welcome back!

Hello, little blog of mine! It’s been a while since I’ve posted in this space. Life got away from me and my blog fell away from my priorities. I was working two full-time positions for seven months while my department was down a person, breastfeeding/pumping full time, running a household (with Dave’s help, of course), raising an infant, volunteering at church, volunteering to be an advisor for a collegiate chapter of my sorority, and was asked to head a fundraising committee for a new non-profit organization in town. Did I mention that the majority of our families both live in another state and therefore weren’t easily accessible to come help or watch Carter for a little while so I could catch up on everything.

Stressed doesn’t even begin to describe how I was feeling.

I raised the white flag and sadly backed away from as many commitments as I could. First the nonprofit, then my sorority and finally church (mostly). I was still drowning in tasks at work with no help, even when I asked for it. I was doing as much as I could but spending the evenings engaged with my family (and an infant who thinks my laptop is a toy and would scream at me if I left the play area) and fulfilling my household duties left the wee hours of the morning for additional work time.

I burnt out quickly.

Even with the addition of a new staff member in June I had a lot to catch up on. And then with some additional staffing changes at work I inherited more responsibilities and the requirement to attend evening and weekend events – keeping me from my family even more. All with no financial compensation or additional time off. It was killing me that was spending so much time away from home while my baby is growing so fast.

But there’s a happy ending to this story!

Long story short, Dave’s postdoctoral position was coming to an end and he was offered a permanent position at the company which came with the awesome job title of “Laser Physicist” (how cool is that!) and a very nice raise.

This allowed us to finally take the steps to achieve one of our long-time goals…


I get to stay at home with Carter!

I officially quit my job this week and my last day will be either September 19 or 25 (they asked me to stay for a while to help wrap up projects but I also want a solid finish date so things don’t drag out). Either way, I’ll soon get to focus on playing, reading books, and going on field trips with my little guy, plus better supporting Dave in his new position and taking care of our home… and blogging more! I am beyond excited to have this opportunity and so grateful that I have a husband who supports me staying home.

Praise God for answered prayers!

I’m looking forward to this new stage of life and hope you’ll enjoy following along, too. Cheers!

Christmas as a family of three

Christmas this year was very special for our family - it was our first time celebrating with Carter! We have been looking forward to sharing Christmas with our children for years and it was so wonderful for it to finally happen. And if that wasn’t enough we were also privileged to have my Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim come and visit us from Santa Barbara to celebrate the holiday! They are like a second set of parents to me and a third set of grandparents for Carter and we were honored to have them here!

Pat and Tim arrived on Christmas Eve. We went to church for the Christmas Eve service and then headed out to P.F. Chang’s for a yummy dinner. Carter did well at the restaurant and even enjoyed some cuddle time with Aunt Pat after dinner.

Before bedtime Carter set out some egg nog and cookies and wrote a letter to Santa… well, I wrote the letter but I’m sure it was what Carter would have written, if he could write.

After what felt to be a short night we woke up to find that indeed Santa visited our house!

We caught Carter’s trip from his bedroom to the living room on video (a long-standing family tradition on my side of the family). Checking out the shoes seemed to be more exciting initially, but I’m sure that was because he didn’t know what was in store for him in the living room…

Then the fun began as we showed Carter how to check out all of the loot from Santa in and below his stocking (that my mom, aka Grammy, made for him)!

After this we headed into the family room where our Christmas tree was to open gifts under the tree from family and friends. The tree was certainly packed for only having five people’s gifts under it. What a blessing!

It was really fun teaching the little guy how to open presents and he caught on pretty fast! He’ll be a gift-opening pro in no time!

After opening the gifts under the tree we ate brunch, hung out, did some video calls to family, made dinner, ate dinner, and hung out some more - a pretty wonderful way to spend the day if I do say so myself!

We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of three and we’re so glad we got to share it with Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim! We hope your holiday was wonderful, too! Merry Christmas!

Grandma and Grandpa meet Carter!

A couple of weekends ago Carter's Grandma and Grandpa (Sue and Rick who are Dave's parents) came out from Colorado to visit and meet Carter! We were SO excited that they were able to come!

Even Gromit was excited to see them. See the smile on his face?

It was so special to see Carter be so comfortable with his grandparents right away. It’s like he just knew that they were family!

I swear Carter doesn’t always have his hands in his mouth, but most of these pictures don’t seem to support that statement…

Anyway, we had a pretty low-key weekend just hanging out and playing with Carter. We managed to get out a bit to show our guests our little town including where we both work. We even stopped to have lunch on the property where I work overlooking a beautiful golf course. Of course, we didn’t take any pictures while we were there - oops!

We also got a special visit from Sue’s aunt and cousins who live in other parts of California - Dorothy, Deb, Rob and Dwight. It was fun to be able to meet them and to introduce them to Carter. They only stayed for a little bit, but they will certainly have to stay longer next time they are in town! Below from left to right is Dorothy, Deb, Sue and Carter.

It was a very special weekend for us and we are so glad that everyone was able to come and visit. We can’t wait until Grandma and Grandpa can come back again! We love you! 

Visit from Aunt Erin

Aunt Erin (my youngest sister) came to visit this week! We had a gap in child care so Erin was nice enough to watch Carter for us during the week days and then she even let Dave and me go out on a date Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary!

When she wasn’t watching Carter for us we went to a Counting Crows concert at my work, watched The Hunger Games at a free community movie and took a trip to our downtown area for lunch and ice cream. We all had a great time!

Carter had a great time getting to know his Aunt Erin better and I’m pretty sure she enjoyed getting to know her nephew as well.

Thanks so much for all of your help this week, Erin. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Mother’s Day weekend

It was a very special first Mother’s Day weekend for me! My parents and my brother and sister-in-law came to California to meet Carter and celebrate the holiday.

My mom was there when Carter was born and stayed in town for the first week after he was born but the rest of the group was meeting him for the first time. Carter loved meeting his Granddad and aunt & uncle! And I’m pretty sure they enjoyed meeting him as well :-)

I started off the weekend by going to a special Mother’s Day tea with my mom on Friday afternoon while my dad and Dave watched Carter. There is this super cute tea room in the town next to us and they offer tea parties with sandwiches, pastries, fruit and a whole menu of different teas. We tried the Almond Joy and Cherries Jubilee teas and both were delicious - and the food was amazing as well! It was a very special afternoon and I’m glad that I got to spend some alone time with my mom :-)

On Saturday we all took a driving tour of the town we live in and stopped off at the winery I work at to taste some wines and enjoy a shared bottle of chardonnay on the patio (which I didn’t get any pictures of, oops!). We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and Carter got to know his extended family a little bit better. And Gromit got in on some of the attention too.

Twins with Uncle Curtis! (We didn’t plan this…)

Mother’s Day was baby dedication day at church and that made the day all that more special for me. We were glad to be able to dedicate Carter to God and it was extra special to have my parents and Curtis and Daché here for the event.

We have become very close with our pastor and his wife so it was even more special that he did Carter’s dedication ceremony. The pastor was even a little emotional during the dedication, especially when Carter grabbed his finger during the prayer. So sweet!

It was a great weekend and we’re so lucky that Carter got to spend some time with extended family and celebrate Mother’s Day together.

I love my little baby bug and I am so glad that God chose me to be his mommy! My life is so much better with him in it and I loved celebrating my very first Mother’s Day with him. I look forward to all of the Mother’s Days to come!

Baby Showers

First. let me just say that I am one lucky lady! I have three groups of people who are my support system and who I really care about (and they care about me too!). Each group threw me a very nice baby shower to celebrate Baby Bug’s impending arrival. Each shower was very special and unique and I am so grateful that there are people in my life who were generous enough to host these gatherings for me. I genuinely loved getting to spend time with family, friends and co-workers and celebrate this little life that will be joining us very soon.

Shower #1 - Family and friends in Colorado
My aunts (with the help of my mom, cousin and a family friend) threw me a fabulous shower in January (while I was still allowed to travel). The theme was an owl in a hot air balloon (since owls are a part of my nursery decor and both Dave and I have won photo contests taking photos of hot air balloons) and the theme was carried out in the invitations, cake, favors and decorations!

My aunt even made super cute cookies with the owl in the balloon but unfortunately my cookies were a bit damaged on the plane ride home. Oops. I should have taken a picture of them at the shower, while they were still perfect. Lesson learned.

Other than the crushed cookies the shower was wonderful! I got a chance to spend time with a lot of people who I don’t get to see as often as I used to since we’ve moved to California. And I was extra lucky that my brother, sister and sister-in-law flew in from Texas for the occasion! I wish we would have gotten a picture of the whole group, but luckily my mom got a few shots of individual tables.

But one of my favorite pictures from the day is of me and the grandmas-to-be! From left to right is Dave’s mom, me and my mom. Such a sweet picture!

Thank you to all of the family and friends who took the time to celebrate baby with me! It was so good to see everyone!

Shower #2 - Friends and family in California
My girlfriends Kendra, Margaret and Jennifer threw me a lovely baby shower the first weekend in March. From left to right below: Jennifer, Margaret, me and Kendra.

In attendance were many of my California friends (all from church), Dave’s aunts Jan and Cathy (who also live in California), my mom (from Colorado) and Aunt Pat (also from California). From left to right below: Aunt Jan, my mom, me, Aunt Cathy and Aunt Pat.

We had a great time playing games, eating and praying over Baby Bug. It was a very special day and I think all of the ladies who came to celebrate this little guy and welcome him into our church and California family!

Shower #3 - Co-workers
My last shower was thrown by some of my co-workers; Diana, Melanie and Marv. We had it at the grill on the winery property and just hung out, ate yummy food and (everyone but me) drank wine (because that’s kind of what we you do when you work at a winery).

I wish I would have taken more photos but I was too busy chatting with everyone. Oops! At least I have these two to share.

Thanks to all of my co-worker friends who came to celebrate Baby Bug’s arrival! I look forward to getting reacquainted with all of our wines with all of you once I’m able to sample again!

Thank you to EVERYONE who came to one or more of my showers! I am definitely all set for baby’s arrival this week. We certainly do feel loved (and spoiled) and I look forward to sharing the news of Baby Bug’s arrival with all of you! Cheers!

Our little pumpkin is a…

We know the gender of Baby Bug! And we’re ready to share with you! Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll. The final results were Girl: 11 votes, Boy: 9 votes, Velociraptor: 6 votes. We’ll see who was correct.

Since our families live out of town (or rather, we live out of town from where both of our families are) it would have been a little hard to put together a gender reveal party that they all could have participated in, in the same time zone. So we had to get creative and find a way to surprise them with the gender reveal without them having to be here and without having to try to find a time for everyone to be on group chat on Skype or Google+.

So here’s what we came up with:

Dave and I found out the gender of the baby at the ultrasound appointment and then kept our mouths shut. That night we made cake pops with either pink or blue cake mix inside, decorated them like pumpkins (because it’s October) and mailed them off to family members to bite into.

Every family group opened their box at different times and then some groups were even able to Skype with us (one-on-one) as they bit into their cake pops. It was a really fun way to share the news and to watch people’s reactions!

So, I bet you’re wondering what Baby Bug is. Here’s YOUR cake pop…

 

Our little pumpkin is a…

 

BOY!!