This little guy was completely out when I went to get him from his nap this afternoon. He was so cute and cuddly.
Category: Uncategorized
happy birthday my love
Happiest of Birthdays my love! We sure are lucky to have you :)
Family Circles
Kristen and I have wanted to make a printable family tree for a while and what better motivation than Christmas gifts? We looked at a few ideas and the inspiration for the design we ultimately landed on is now nowhere to be found so we can’t link to them. Anyway, below are the three family “trees” that we created. And by “we” I mean that Kristen did all the design concept work and I clicked the mouse a few times in a graphics program with her supervision. We gave these to the grandparents and any other family members whose names we happened to draw and we’re happy to print more for other family members.
I will also point out that my very compulsive wife insisted that all photos be chronological by birth. Whether the aesthetics worked best clockwise or counter-clockwise, the second generation is in age order and then the third generation is in age order while staying within the bounds of their parents, etc.
Unfortunately, we didn’t do a circle for Kristen’s Dad’s family, the Westlakes. We don’t get to see that extended family often and obtaining all the required pictures would have been exceedingly difficult.
projects
It’s safe to say that I usually have a project (or two or three) underway at any given time. I like to create, I like to make things with my own two hands and I really enjoy making gifts for others. Creating has a way of recharging me that is SO, SO necessary to me these days! So it works out well for me that fall is here (well almost if you are being technical about it) and the holidays are coming!! I am so excited to get our fall decorations down and to begin working full tilt on some of my holiday preparations and homemade gifts. Would you be jealous if I told you that I have already started on my Christmas shopping? Well I have, so be jealous ;)
Holiday prep aside most recently my projects have been centered on updating our home; however, in-between painting and reupholstering furniture I was able to make a few gifts for some sweet little people. I am lucky enough to have dear friends that have either just had babies or have little ones on the way. And I, like many others, am a sucker for all things tiny. Here’s a taste of some things I have been working on.
Some sweet headbands for baby Elise. I mailed them to Mississippi right before hurricane Ivan :( here’s hoping they arrived ok. And if they haven’t arrived yet, sorry Nan for the spoiler…
My models… Charlie had no choice but Jay begged me to be able to wear the headband too and who am I to refuse ;) Heaven help me if we ever have a little girl because the list of sweet baby girl projects I have in my head is ever growing.
A hand stitched mustache onesie for a little one that has yet to make his appearance. Really looking forward to December when I can cuddle with this one.
I have a few other things in the works that I will show soon, that is if I can remember to get photos of them. I am going to try my hand at quilting and I have a few crochet projects in the works too- yay for fall and cool weather projects!
thing one and thing two
The other day I was trying to get some photos of Jay and Charlie in their thing one and thing two shirts… We don’t have many of the two boys together in photos right now so I am trying to make a more conscious effort to take some. I wouldn’t exactly call the said “photo shoot” extremely successful- you can’t really tell what the shirts say and I am not wild about the back lighting in the photos. That being said, I will most certainly try again for a ‘brothers’ shoot soon and there are a few cute ones of my fellas that I had to share… enjoy and happy Friday to you!!!
the next two of Charlie are really similar but I couldn’t decide on which one I liked best so you get to see them both. Isn’t he getting so big!?!
Thank you
Just a quick note to say “Thank You” to our vets at Tuskawilla Oaks Animal Hospital and the veterinary specialists at AVS for helping us provide Dolce with the care he needed to live 6 more months with us. We wish his time hadn’t been cut so short, but we are thankful for the time that we had. (Except for the first few weeks of recovery, you wouldn’t have known that he had been through major surgery.) The compassion shown by both offices is very much appreciated.
Dolce cared for us long before we had to care for him. When Kristen was pregnant with Jay (August 2009), Dolce made sure she took it easy and stayed warm
And later, when both Jamie and Jay were sick (June 2011), Dolce was there to make sure we got better
When Dolce returned from the Vet (September 2011), he had a little sweater on to hold a feeding tube in place, but he still wanted to be where everyone was, a part of the action
And even though he wasn’t back to 100% himself, he kept Jay company when Jay wasn’t feeling well, cuddling up next to him while Jay watched a movie
left out and pitiful
Piper felt left out yesterday… so here she is looking as pitiful as ever :-) That face can make me melt, so much so that I took her for a walk this afternoon- what can I say I am a sucker for puppy dog eyes…
think they’re friends?
I found Dolce and Bella hanging out at the window today. They really are cute when they are being sweet; although, he was chasing her around this morning beating the crap out of her- sibling love I think they call it :-)
preparations being made
A few pictures of some random preparations…
The Little Guy’s Room:
We have had the nursery done for quite some time but I haven’t posted any complete pictures so here you go…
rest assured the pictures have been ordered for that frame and they are on their way- it won’t hang empty on the wall for much longer
Car Seat Installation:
Probably the most notable thing that we have done recently was to put the car seat in the car this past weekend. Both of us were rather surprised on how easy it was to install; it honestly is pretty dummy-proof. It is kind of odd to drive around with it in the car: whenever I get out and walk away without it I wonder if people think that I am leaving a child in the car…
Here is a picture of it in the car which shows off the new cover that Mimi (Jamie’s mom) made for it; she did a fantastic job- it looks professionally made and I love the puppy dog print!!
hurry up and wait…
I resolved myself months ago to the fact that I wouldn’t know exactly when this little bambino would enter the world; however, the “hurry up and wait” game has become not as fun as I thought it to be originally. I have NEVER claimed to be a patient person so as you can probably tell this has not been easy for me; which means that it has pushed Jamie closer to Sainthood for dealing with me :-) I would just like to meet my little one, hold him and cuddle him- is that too much to ask? I don’t think so…
We have been “prepared” for a while now; I use quotes when I say prepared since we truly believe that you are never prepared to bring a child into the world. However, we are as ready as we can be- the freezer, pantry and extra toiletries are stocked, the house is clean, the laundry is done, his laundry is done, his room is ready, we have way more things than we could possibly ever need for him, we’ve taken classes- I think you probably get the picture by now although I am sure that I could keep going. We are prepared but now we are in this odd stage of maintenance, maintaining the preparation that we have done. It’s weird, we have food in the house that is easy to prepare and ready to eat but neither one of us wants to eat it (why would we want to decrease our supply?) Last night we had publix subs and I am not sure what is on the menu tonight, maybe eggs. I also have this odd feeling that I should keep doing small loads of laundry just to make sure that it’s kept up with- it’s crazy and OCD I know. This is our conundrum as of late, we are sitting around forced to just wait, if you have any suggestions/ coping mechanisms please let me know… We are going to enjoy the long weekend, sleep in and try not to guess when he will come- or at least that is what we are (or I am) telling ourselves.
By the way, everything is going well. I have been a little more tired than usual and my upper back is starting to bother me pretty consistently but other than that we don’t have any complaints- which means we are blessed. I will continue to keep you posted as we go along, thanks for all of the well wishes and questions of concern- we love you all.
even the animals are just hanging around waiting…
