Christmas in Cleveland

Well, we made it there and back (NOT without serious events!). We were bouncing around from house to house, trying to see just about everyone we could imagine. I think we pulled it off. Of course, we wish we had more time. We were so sorry to have to leave on Friday. However, by the time we got home, Sawyer had been squeezed and smooched by a lot of people.  Check out our photo page to see the play by play. We felt so loved this holiday! Thanks to everyone who welcomed us and warmed us. We miss you!

Tennessee Christmas

Well folks... Here is what our first Christmas looks like in Murfreesboro! I made a video of the living room decorations so everyone can check it out. I doubt it's as festive as what we will find up there! However, with Sawyer on my hip I am absolutely proud I got this much up... The video is here, or you can use the link to our You Tube page over on the right.

The tree was Lee's idea. He's so bright :) I think it turned out excellent.  We are also making lots of cookies. And, obviously, we decorated Sawyer. His antlers were from Grandpa Might.

We can't wait to see everyone! 

It Followed Us!!!!

NOOOOOOooooooooo......

The Snow has followed us to TN. This is the first time there has been measurable snow in Nashville, in December, since 2000. Seriously. That is unbelievable. The other really funny thing is that by nine o'clock tonight, every area school was closed. We can only imagine what it's going to be like out there tomorrow... Amateurs! 

At least it is beautiful :)

Pregnant Again!?!

Ok.. just kidding! The photos of me holding Sawyer in his wrap make me look pregnant again... But that's the closest I will be to pregnant for a while!  Lee took a few pictures, because the baby was just too cute once he fell asleep in it. 

He seems very happy to be back nearly in his old residence. Carrying him in this familiar way actually felt great for my back too. Nevermind how sweet it is to have him so close to me :)  A good deal of our cooking for tomorrow's dinner was done with him in this very spot. 

                       Turkey Day !!!

We have some spectacular plans for tomorrows turkey dinner... We will be making a turkey breast with out stuffing. The smallest whole turkey at our grocer was still HUGE!  With a few mashed potatoes and lots of gravy, it will be a very satisfying meal. Perfect for Sawyer's first Thanksgiving. We will be missing all the traditional dishes... like Grandma's baked beans and homemade pecan pie! This year we will have to just get by with a minimal meal. Christmas time will be a real feast. Until then, here are a few more pictures to hold ya'll over :) 

Sawyer gets bigger!

We have seen a few exciting milestones this week. Sawyer's little umbilical stub fell off! This meant he could have his first little bath. It was pretty tame, and he seemed intent on holding on to me! Thank goodness we had an extra pair of hands from Grandma Might. However, no tears and only a little shivers. We lathered him up pretty well with lotion. His hands and feet are a little flakey and peeling. All the rest of him is super soft and pink :) He has a habit of staring off indiscriminately. Yet lately he is actually focusing on lights and windows (Sometimes, even people). 

He also got to watch a Browns game with daddy! We were a little worried that dad was gonna be at work all night... But we lucked out last Monday. He was home early enough to catch almost all the game with Sawyer right there on his lap. Of course, we had to take a picture! He loves sitting upright. His swing is already getting lots of use. He nods off up on my shoulder much more often than in my arms. His neck seems very strong for his age. He loves to lift up his head to look around. He also sleeps with his skinny little arms up over his head, just like mom!

The Baby Brigade

It is a little over a week since our little punkin arrived.  Today was also a week that we have been home with him.  We are all doing well, and in large part that has to do with all the help we received from some Lakewood Ladies!  

Sawyer would like to thank his Grandma Ritchie, as well as Aunt Kate and surrogate-Aunt Kelly.  Their help allowed me to heal so much faster, allowed daddy to get lots of sleep, and allowed Sawyer to actually burp regularly.  They are already missed. We realized very quickly how lucky we were to have three extra helpers to help fold laundry, cook meals, and clean up the kitchen.  Sawyer appreciated all the expert care he got from grandma. Mom and Dad are still getting the hang of things, but we were taking notes the whole time. 

THANK You Ladies!!!

Tomorrow, Sawyer will get to meet even more family. Grandma Might is arriving for the week. Hopefully the weather will be warmer here. Although, I doubt she will notice the weather for a few days at least :)  More pictures to come!

Welcome Sawyer

To begin with, I am sorry it has taken so long to get pictures out to all of you. We have taken hundreds already, I think. There are quite a few posted on the Picasa Website. And you'll notice our new banner as well :)

The entire experience has been wonderful so far.  Lee and I feel very lucky to be the new parents of such a happy and healthy little boy. We went into the hospital at eight pm on Sunday night. The medication they gave us worked pretty quickly! By ten the next morning I was howling for my epidural (just in case any of you thought I was a tough guy....).  Then, at 2:15 pm we finally got little Sawyer to come out into the world. 

He was born  7 pounds, 9 ounces, and 21.5 inches long. He has a ton of light brown hair. His little eyes are a very deep blue. We will have to wait and see if they will stay that way! We hope they do. He is precious, and we are totally in love.

Another Ultrasound

We got a new ultrasound today... The idea was to make sure that little Sawyer wasn't too big for mommy. He is freakin huge! I have no idea why he has not graced us with his presence. We have a beautiful and cuddly nursery waiting for him. Though, he did look pretty content in his current digs. He was awake. We got to see him blink at us, which is pretty cool. 

It's actually pretty hard to see much with the little ultrasound camera. It's funny to think that we could see the entire baby, tip to toe, on one snap shot. Now, we barely crammed his whole face into one screen-shot! As a fun contradiction, we received our last shipment of diaper covers and cloth diapers yesterday. They are so tiny! We had a makeshift diapering lesson for daddy with one of his cuddly teddy bears (Don't worry, he's been warned that baby will NEVER be so still or quiet). Ironically, the diapers were too small for about half the bears. 

Well, we figured it was time for a frustrated rant/update. When we have exciting news to post we will! Our hospital actually allows cameras, cell phones, and even provides wi fi. So you could be getting more "play by play" s than election night. Keep you posted.

The best of Tennessee...

When people ask how we like it down here, it's easy to say we love it. Here's why... Monday night we had a little backyard get together. Lee and his buddy, Dave, rolled the big screen out onto the deck. We pulled out every chair into the yard.



Then watched the Browns kick some serious butt!  while we were sitting there in the beautiful outdoors, it occurred to everyone that we should do this again for the Titans game in two weeks. Then, the more we thought about it... The weather is gonna be sweet enough here to keep this up for most, if not ALL, of this season. So while you are all frozen to the core trying to tailgate in a Cleveland December, remember us. We may even call to share the joy over our spiced cider and hot dogs.

PS! Don't forget to vote on the poll... 

Two Week Countdown!

Well, we are ready to go here at 38 weeks. Now we just have to wait for Sawyer to be ready! We finally finished painting last week. Our bedroom was the last room to go. We are pretty happy with the results. It looks kind of artsy, and very serene. I'm glad it's a pretty dark color.

We also finally posted the adorable ultrasound pics from our appointment at 20 weeks. We will get more recent pics up much faster (Promise!) when he finally gets here. We have the camera all ready for the big day. Bag is packed for the hospital. Every week now, the Doc checks our progress and says all is well. Hopefully, the next post to read will be an announcement!

Traveling Tales

We had a nice trip home a few weeks ago to visit... Slight coincidence that we were there for both Jeff's presentation AND the championship softball game.  Both were excellent to watch. Although, I can tell you I understood a lot more about the softball game than the software pitch! All in all, it was worth the long drive.

We had a great time and took lots of pictures.  We got to meet the newest addition to the family, Layla. She only gets to hold that title for a few more weeks though.  Sawyer only has another eight weeks to cook.  With that scary fact in mind, we have gone into overdrive on nursery prep.  The next post will likely be filled with before and afters of his new digs.  More to come!  

Dog House Rocks! !

OK! So Jen has told me over and over that until I post its not a "family" blog its hers. So I guess its officially a family blog. Over the past week or so we have been transforming our back yard a little. We had a pretty shoddy, ghetto, redneck (choose your adjective) deck/sunporch thing that was torn down. The wood and other materials will be used to fuel our imagination in projects. The first of these projects was a new house/bed for our two girls. I think it turned out well, they seem to like it, or at least they have not complained to me. Alright thats it for the first one from me. They are more pictures of the dog house on our pics page and deck pictures to com soon. If your reading this and have not voted I will find out and you will be sorry. Love most of you and miss you all!

Rainy Day

When you combine rainy weather and slight homesickness... add in a little hungry prego chick and now we are in need of some comfort food! My plan was to make a plain old roasted chicken, just about as basic as you can get, right? We had one that was only about 5 lbs. that I set out to thaw while I cut up potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. I must have been hungry when I set out the veggies, because even after stuffing the bird with a bunch of the onion and celery there was WAY too much. A 9 by 12 baking pan was standing in as our roaster. And I quickly realized that there was no way all the veggies were going in with the bird.

So we ended up with boiled and smashed potatoes, and everything else went in the "roaster." The house smelled awesome! The chicken was really juicy, with nice crispy skin, of course. But that's not the best part...

The BEST part was the fabulous gravy I made from scratch! It tasted great. It wasn't lumpy. It rocked. And if you couldn't tell from the picture, that belly loves gravy :)

Because the leftover bones were so small, I don't know if I could even use them to try and make  stock. I am saving half the grease for a cheesy casserole tomorrow with the leftovers and some broccoli. Let ya'll know how that one turns out! 

Newly anointed domestic goddess is happily accepting recommendations for new recipes, or tips and hints. More pics online if you follow the link to the right.

Houston, we have power...

What a fun afternoon! We have a new reciprocal saw, that was put to great use in the back yard. Anyone looking for a great fire, you can find one every night for the next year at our house!  We always get into trouble when we head out to the Home Depot. Maybe that's why they sent us the nice coupon : )

Major bonus, TN (and probably other states) has designated weekends that are "tax free."  The timing seems to be centered around the back-to-school crowd. However, virtually everything that is normally taxed, like oh say saws..., can be purchased tax free this weekend. With all this in our favor, how could we deny? 

By the way, starting finger count; all 10. And two of mine crossed it stays that way!

Two days in a row!

Well, the experience of adding photos to the blog... more difficult than expected. For now I guess we are going to just use a separate site and application. (Still Google, of course!) As already mentioned, we're pretty new to this! Anyone more savvy, feel free to suggest a better way!

Happy Friday to all! I'm heading back to the painting, and Lee is off to work.

Hello to all!

Well, let's see how this goes. We have set up this blog to help everyone get much anticipated info and photos from down here in Tennessee. I can honestly say I have never done anything like this. In fact, I don't really even post messages to my FB or MS pages! However, if you all will read and leave comments... we will post!  Promise : ) So, subscribe to the blog, tell a friend, stalk away...

This weekend, you can hopefully expect to see pictures of the parts of the house we have started decorating and painting. Lee will be working this weekend, but we might get a little more progress on the nursery.  We'll see... or rather, you'll see! 

Don't forget to take the poll.