Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

For me this holiday will forever be trumped by the happenings of Martin Luther King, Jr. day 2008. I awoke at 2:15 with strong, consistent contractions and a couple hours later drove to the hospital in the middle of the worst blizzard of the year (for me the worst blizzard ever). As Curtis inched along, we saw several cars off the rode and I knew if that happened to us our son would be born in the car. We made it safely and just in the nick of time. I was dilated to 9 1/2 cm and had to wait to push till my nurse midwife arrived. Nathan was born at 7:30 am and I did it all natural, just as I wanted. I will write more about my buddy boy on his birthday, January 21st.

We Did It!

We have now replaced 100% of the floor coverings in this house!

Thank you to everyone for your votes! 8/10 said, "Do it!", so we did.

We got new carpet upstairs this morning. We found the best price we could for both installation and carpet/pad. We worked all day Saturday ripping out the old stuff, painting the ceiling and sealing the floors. I am please with the results. I hope potential buyers will like it too! =)

Your Opinion...

We are considering replacing the carpet in all three bedrooms upstairs, along with the hallway and stairs. We know it needs to be replaced. We wanted to do it shortly after we moved in, but have gotten along without.

The debate is whether to allow the next home owner to choose and replace the carpet (which may encourage them to offer us less and also not be as interested) or for us to replace it with a nice neutral color (which we hope they would like, but would be lots of work for us and money out of our pocket, but encourage a purchase, maybe).

I placed a poll in the sidebar to the left. Please vote, we would love your opinion. Thank you!

A Homemade Christmas

I guess I got in a creative mood, or maybe I was just crazy, but I came up with gifts that I really wanted to make for my family. I am now going to show them off.

This little snuggle dress was made for my newest niece Laura (2 months old).
It says, "I love my daddy!"

This quilt was a surprise for my mother. All of my siblings helped pay for it. She loves her grand kids so much, but only gets to see three of them on a regular basis. I bet Curtis she would cry when she opened it. She did. I haven't seen her sit down once with out holding onto it.
It says, "Hold this tight when you can't hold us!"

I made 8 of these capes. 2 batman, 3 superman (one adult sized) and 3 princess.
I asked Audrey if she would be a super helper and do something for me. She said, "I can't. I don't have a cape on." I better finish hers quick!

I made these matching aprons for my sister-in-law Becca and her daughter Emma.
I loved this fabric so much.

I also made a tutu for my niece Sophia. My sister Alaura paid for the materials to make 3 capes and a tutu for James' family. I haven't heard their reaction, but I hope they love them.

In the midst of making all these gifts, I was able to use my talents and make special requests because of my BuzzAboutBaby business, which mostly paid for the gifts that I created for my family. I made an apron, a car seat canopy and a nursing cover.

It was a busy two weeks before Christmas, but fun.
I now need to catch up on all the housework I let slip.

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to posted the awesome Christmas letter that Curtis programmed for us. He is so creative and worked really hard to get this just right.
Check it out: http://www.curtisgibby.com/christmas2008

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!!

My Nathan...

I just wanted to document that at 10 1/2 months Nathan now has 2 words: Hi! and Uh-Oh! (which sounds more like uh-uh!). Today he started to wave bye-bye and a couple weeks ago he started to clap. He is so proud of himself when he does his tricks. He is a good stander and zooms around holding onto anything he can get his hands on to walk. He does not take the time to balance and take a step, he just want to go, go, go! He is such a pleasant, happy baby and I am constantly surprised by how he out eats Audrey at almost every meal. I am really enjoying my little boy.

Wow, It's Been So Long!

I knew I hadn't written in a while, but I didn't realize it has been more than a month!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family. My brother James and his family came from just north of L.A. He had been in Afghanistan for the past 7 months so we were all really excited to see him home and safe. My sister Lynn and her children came from the northern tip of California. At one point we had 10 adults and 9 children packed into the upper floor of my parent's home. It was a lot of fun. We also opened up our Christmas gift early because we thought everyone would enjoy playing with the Wii and did they ever. We even got my mom and dad to join in the fun. We are still trying to beat some of the records James set on the Wii Fit.

Curtis was very funny to watch when he was learning to hula hoop on the Wii. I was practically rolling on the floor with laughter.

Did someone say PIE?
(Everyone waiting patiently for a slice of the many yummy pies my mom worked so hard on.)

I have been really busy with boutiques. I have had one every weekend for the passed several weeks. This weekend is my last one of the season. I am looking forward to a break and being able to get things done around the house. (Still no luck selling our house, but we have had another looker this week. Christmas is a slow time of year for real estate, without the market being bad.)

Audrey is really looking forward to Christmas. We just barely got our tree set up yesterday and debated if we should even do it at all, but she loved it and can't wait for Santa to come.

I have been working on several Christmas gifts that I am excited to show off, but I can't for obvious reasons. I will make sure to post them after Christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone!