Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Looking around the house...

We have officially entered parenthood (on top of actually having the baby). Our living room has multiple baby entertainment devices. The kitchen counter displays a wide array of feeding tools drying before their next use. And to top it off, the video camera arrived in the mail yesterday! Yup, get ready because before long there will not only be pictures on this blog, but video as well. As of right now she doesn't do too much, so the videos are probably only exciting to Mom and Dad. But soon enough.

To Wrap or Not to Wrap- NOT FOR CHILDREN'S EYES

The question came up at a recent girl gathering about Santa Claus and whether he wraps gifts or not when they arrive at the house Christmas morning. There were 10 of us girls there and 8 out of the 10 had wrapped gifts from Santa under the tree that morning. I was one of the 2 that had unwrapped gifts from Santa.

Here is my family background- each Christmas morning (that I remember anyway) we would awake to find Santa's gifts in nice piles for each of us four kids. The piles were all separate under the tree with each child's stocking laid out in front of that kid's respective pile. We did not have anything in our stocking- just the gifts behind them. I always thought it was amazing how Mom got a picture of each child's gifts in the nice pile for the scrapbook. I think one time she told me that Santa helped out and took them for her. How nice is that Santa.

I found it really interesting that this topic came up because Nick and I went back and forth on how we would celebrate Santa and the gifts from him. I believe that Nick had wrapped gifts and got a piece of fruit in his stocking.

Back to my original thought… being the 'organized' (substitute your word of choice for that one) person I am, I wanted all traditions to be set for Eleanor's first Christmas. Yes, my friends did think it was very funny that when they came to meet Ellie for the first time (the week she was born) that there was already a stocking hung for her. Yup, I convinced Nick that we HAD to have stockings, and they all had to match. They also needed to have our full names on them and we needed them this year so the pictures in the scrapbooks would be uniform throughout the years. Our stockings arrived the day before Eleanor was born (and I may have had them up just to see how they looked the night we went to the hospital). It is a good thing the ultrasound tech was correct and Ellie was a girl!

Back to the gifts- Nick and I decided that Santa would wrapped the kid(s) gifts and we would put a little gift in their stockings as well, maybe a piece of fruit once Ellie gets old enough. It is also a good thing that when I was purchasing our wrapping paper for Christmas on December 26th of LAST YEAR that I grabbed a roll of paper that did not match the other ones (just in case Santa arrived this year). So, our tradition will include wrapped gifts, but the gifts will be in a different paper than the other presents and will not arrive until Christmas morning. Each family member will also have a stocking, with a small gift in it. I cannot wait until Christmas morning to see what Santa puts in my stocking!

Let's the Christmas Celebrations Begin!

Last weekend kicked off the first of our many family Christmas celebrations- and are gearing up for a week of festivities. I do believe that Christmas is my favorite holiday (Nick would probably agree since I get so excited for it and like to start the holiday season early). Once again this year we had all (well, all we could get before Ellie was born) presents purchase before Thanksgiving. With Ellie's impending arrival, the tree was put up ahead of time as well and the presents wrapped and under it.

I did hold off on starting the Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, thank you very much Lite 104.1 for your non-stop Christmas music! Ellie is a big fan of Christmas music as well. Her favorite songs: Silent Night (in honor/memory of her Great Grandpa Greving), Baby It's Cold Outside, Away in a Manger, the song about a Baby Being Born (I don't know all the names of the songs- just the words), and the Christmas Shoes song. Her non-favorite songs: O Holy Night (she thinks it is over played), Santa Claus is Coming to Town (she must think she was bad this year because almost every time this one comes on she cries), Rudolph (once again, I have no idea but it makes her cry), and any song without words (she likes her Mommy to sing the songs to her). What we are going to do after Christmas and the songs are not allowed (per the radio station and her Daddy), we have no idea! One more week of singing and dancing for Ellie (and Mommy).

If you cannot already tell from the multiple blog posts- we are very excited and super blessed to have Ellie be a part of our lives for this Christmas Season. It makes the season even more fun and we cannot wait until next year when the tree excites her a little more.

Daddy photo shoot and more...

Daddy got a new flash for the camera (well, we got one but Daddy is the expert photographer). He needed a subject so Ellie volunteered. Here are a few of the pictures, as well as some other ones that have been taken this month.

One Month Old!

Ellie turned one month old yesterday. It is crazy how fast the month went by, yet it seems like she has changed so much during that time.

Here is where Ellie stands today. She can:

- down 7 ounces of milk and then proceed to go 6 hours before her next feeding (this happened last night for the first time)

- lift her head up at least 45 degrees, going on 90 degrees

- wake up and lay in her crib looking around after her morning nap with no crying

- lay awake in her crib for alone time (or on the floor in the living room) for at least 10 minutes at a time

- sleep in her crib the entire time at night, with minimal awake time other than eating and changing the diaper

- 'become the talk of the church' just by being cute and well-behaved during mass

- almost get her Daddy wrapped around her finger- and get whatever she wants (I think this will be 100% the minute she smiles and laughs at him). Her Mommy thinks she has probably achieved this with other people such as her aunt Megan, Grandma(s), Grandpa(s), and Mommy

- make her Mommy sing and dance with to Christmas songs with a slight whimper

- help get Noah his daily walk by making Mommy and Daddy walk the hall during fussy time at night (Noah walks behind them, just to make sure they keep it up and make her happy)

- fit into some of her 3-6 month clothes (mainly bodysuits) without any problem

- continue to make her Mom and Dad the happiest people on earth by having her in their lives

2 Week Dr. Visit

We had Ellie's two week Dr. visit last Monday, and she is growing like a weed! If her percentile stats are any reflection of her future grades in school we are set!

Weight: 9 pounds 2.5 ounces (95 percentile)
Height: 20 1/2 inches (85 percentile)
Head circumfrance: 14 1/2 inches (89 percentile)

Her breast-milk induced jaundice has gone down considerably (which we could already tell as the yellow/orange color has all but gone away) and she is doing great on her feedings! She is still a decent night sleeper, lasting 3.5-5.5 hours between feedings and going back to sleep immediately after she is done eating. That makes for one happy Momma!

This week she has started holding her head up more and more. She is also a new fan of just laying in bed and looking around! A couple times today I head her making noises and went in to check what was going on, only to find her looking around completely content.

We are still waiting for the shoe to drop, as things have been going very well thus far. We have had a few fussy days last week, but other than that it has been pretty easy (knock on wood).

We hope to have some more pictures up in the near future.

The Third Parent

Thanks to Nick's Aunt and Uncle down in Texas, Ellie now has what we like to call the Third Parent. If the swing could only feed and change diapers, I think it would be her preferred parent.

What's in a Name?

We have been asked by multiple people where Ellie's name came from, so here it is. Before we found out we were having a girl Nick and I started throwing out potential girl and boy names. Of course we couldn't agree on any one of them at first- are you surprised?

Anyway, we must have been destined to have a girl, because to this day we will cannot agree on a boy name. Growing up without a nickname, I really wanted a name that could be shortened- but still have a full name that sounded professional and traditional for when she was older. Nick wanted a name that wouldn't hit the 'Top Baby Name List'. After much discussion we decided on Eleanor (like former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt). It is both traditional and ranked number 256 on the Top Baby Names for 2008 (not common at all)!

Eleanor is of Greek origin and means* 'shining light'

The meaning of the name is perfect, as she is the 'shining light' in our life. Eleanor is the most traditional spelling of the name. From there we came up with Ellie for a nickname (it goes with her girl cousin's 'ie/y' theme: Sammy, Ally, Izzy, Natalie and Ruby).

As for her middle name, Ann--- that was the easy part. Both Nick's mom and my mom have the middle name of Ann. I remember looking at our birth certificates when we went to get our marriage license, and commenting that they had the same middle name AND it was spelled the same way! I think it was at that point that the idea of if we ever had a little girl she would have the middle name of Ann- after the two of them.

So there it is. Pretty basic and not all that exciting- but still has meaning to us.

*We understand that there are other meanings for the name Eleanor. We opted to be selective and pick our favorite.

Ellie's Thanksgiving Meal

Here is a picture of Ellie's Thanksgiving dinner, and her first experience with an official bottle. She took it like a champ, and Dad enjoyed being able to have the quality time feeding her.

Thankful

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are just 5 things I/we are thankful for this year:

5. A career that I love, and a job that I enjoy going to each day. Nick and I are both lucky to have jobs, let alone ones that we like. Thanks to our Company and co-workers for making going to work each day enjoyable.

4. Great friends who are always there for us. You are all the best, and we are lucky to have you in our lives.

3. Wonderful parents, awesome brothers/brother-in-laws/sister/sister-in-laws, and super cute nieces and nephews. Not to mention our large extended families as well. You are all so important to us and Eleanor.

2. A husband that continues to amaze me each and every day. These past few weeks have made me love you even more than before (if that is possible).

1. A beautiful, healthy, well-behaved daughter. I never knew I could love something this way, and cannot imagine life without you in it.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Already One Week Old!

Here are some of our favorite moments from the past week:

Introducing Eleanor Ann

We are happy to announce the arrival of our new bundle of joy, Eleanor Ann. Ellie decided to enter the world 11 days ahead of her due date, on Friday, November 13th at 1:58 in the afternoon! It is a good thing she did, as she weighed in at 8 pounds 15.4 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. As expected, she arrived with lots of black hair (just like her Mom did when she was born).

Day One:












Due to Mom developing a fever during birth, both Mom and Baby were put on antibiotics during the hospital stay. Unfortunately for Ellie (and Mom and Dad), that meant having to stay in the Special Care Unit and only getting to visit Mom's room for feedings. However, she is doing great with no other issues, and loves to come and feed. We cannot believe how in love we are with our new little baby girl- more than words can even describe! Below are a few pictures from Ellie's first two days in this world. She is already a Hawks fan, even if they didn't win when she made a special point to delay a feeding so she could listen to the game with Mom and Dad

DMB: Des Moines 2009

I am a little late in updating this thing- but last Friday’s activities could not be ignored any longer. DMB: Des Moines ’09! Lucky Turkey got to listen to her 3rd Dave Matthews Band concert during her time in Mommy’s belly (and yes, I checked and she had ears for all three concerts). This one was a little closer to home, which was very nice after the concert when I knew where I was going and made it there in a matter of minutes! Even with the concert being in Des Moines (not nearly the tailgating festivities as Alpine Valley, WI), we continued the tailgating tradition prior to the concert. The pregnant tailgater has decided that Des Moines has no idea how many porta potty’s are needed for tailgates- the 2 in our lot were not enough by a long shot (the same could be said about the bathrooms in the stadium as well). Other than the bathroom situation, the tailgating was a blast and the concert was great! I was very fun to continue our DMB tradition with friends Brad and LuCinda, but also add a few more newbies to the bunch. We hope Mike, Megan, Sue, Ben, Ryan and Crystal all had a great time at their first ever DMB concert (from what we have heard they did). Another fun thing about the night was that we got to see my brother and sister-in-law, who came from Iowa City to see the concert with a different group of friends. Here are a couple of pictures from the day and night:

Beer, beer and wine!

Here is a picture of one of our Sunday activities from a few weeks ago:

We did a similar thing this past weekend brewing up an Oatmeal Stout beer, bottling a Cream Ale beer (the white bucket in the above picture) and transferring the Australian Chardonnay (the yellow glass carboy on the left in the above picture). I guess you could say that I am getting prepared for after the baby is born and I can participate in adult drinks once again!

We have found that doing a number of different batches on the same day makes it much easier with the sanitation process. I believe this is our 3rd batch of beer this fall, and we have one more left to go (we are hoping to get it brewed next weekend if the weather is nice and our schedule permits it). The last time we brewed we had a incident with the turkey fryer (no, not the baby), and the gas-line creating a little bit of a flame (that could be an understatement). We cannot complain, after 28 batches our cheap Walmart turkey fryer was bound to call it quits and the only thing injured during the incident was the grill cover (easy to replace). Needless to say, we purchased a new fryer this morning from our favorite local brew supply store: Beer Crazy (check it out if you are in the DM area, not only do they sell brewing supplies and wine-making supplies but they have a very nice selection of specialty beers). Here is a picture of the new addition to our brewing supplies: We love the new burner and it makes things much easier!

The next job is to figure out a "winery name" and label design for the wine- any suggestions?

Counting down and stirring up some home-brew goodness

We have officially hit the third trimester for Baby Turkey! 12 weeks left and counting down. The baby’s room is pretty much complete, and as Nick puts it: “It looks like a baby’s room now!” Not sure what it was looking like before. I also had my glucose test earlier this week, and with no call from the lab- I must have passed! Thank goodness for me, and the lab tech that said she really hoped I passed because she did not want to have to take blood out of my hand that many times in one day. Baby seems to be growing fine and we are now onto our every other week Dr. appointments- let the fun begin.

With the end in sight (sort of), and the summer turning cool it was time to get active with our brewing once again! Nick ordered up his favorite from last year, a Peat Smoked Porter. I ordered a new brew, a Cream Ale that is supposed to be a good beer after mowing the lawn (which doesn’t really make sense because I don’t mow the lawn, nor will the lawn need to be mowed by the time the beer is ready for consumption.) We brewed up Nick’s batch last weekend, and will start mine this weekend. Don’t worry, the beer will not be ready to be drank until around the time the baby is here- I may have to be tempted for a week or so, but not much longer than that. I am thinking I am going to put more of mine in growler containers (see picture) so I can open one and have small bits at a time without having to drink a whole bottle. And who knows, Nick may opt to help me drink it as well. It was very fun to get back into the brewing business again, as we have taken most of the year off with the pregnancy.

If you are in the neighborhood around the holidays, we should have a little one to hold and some homebrews to drink- until then the homebrew stash is getting a little low and the baby just kicks in my tummy.

Reading, research and babies

When we found out we were expecting, my sister, Megan (The Teacher), presented Turkey with a couple of books and a card that read:

"Research has shown that if a baby is repeatedly read the same story while in the womb, it will begin to recognize the story and settle down when it is read. Not only is this effect seen before birth, but reading the book to the newborn shows a similar calming and comforting response. This could be a big help for new parents who are just learning how to calm a crying baby or settle baby down for a nap."

What an interesting concept! Anything that will help settle down a baby is worth a try. Turkey is quickly becoming fond of the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," as well as a few others (to add a little spice to Mommy's reading list). We will see if the research holds true with our little one!

Thanks for the idea Aunt Megan (and Uncle Mike)!

A Month in Review

I am a little bit behind in the blog updates, or a lot behind in Nick's view. So here it goes: Our mid-July-current list of fun filled activities.

In mid-July, we made our annual (or usually annual) trip to East Troy, WI for the back-to-back DMB concerts with our friends Brad and LuCinda. This year we made a change and opted to get a hotel room verses camping. Oddly enough, this changed was decided prior to finding out we were expecting. When the time came the change was welcome with open arms by the 5 month pregnant woman (me!). We had a great time, and even got to break-in our newly constructed Bags game.

Up next was the First Annual Lawn Olympics. Nick and his friend/co-worker, Levi, decided to get people together and have a tournament revolving around playing yard games (and drinking of course). Those that were able to attend had a blast and “The Ringers”, Andy and Scott, dominated the games and took home the grand prize. Way to go Andy and Scott! And yes- we still want you guys to come back next year, I want a rematch in the finals of Bags!

Then August began and we quickly realized that at the rate we were going the Baby was going to be here before we were ready for her. And so, work on the Baby’s room quickly began! Nick was a trooper as I hit up Pottery Barn Kids for the bedding and room decorations, and then went to Babies R Us to begin our registering. Registering didn’t last the longest, as a busy Saturday afternoon is not a good time for a pregnant lady that doesn’t like crowds while she is shopping (at Babies R Us). The registering quickly got put on hold and we will make attempt two sometime this week/weekend. Who knew a kid needed so much stuff! We were able to pick up our stroller/car seat combo, and we love it! Testing out a Pack N Play was a different story, as there was no sales assistants around to help us (we looked) and so we decided to take one down and try to take it down and put it up by ourselves. If the store has people watching the security cameras I am sure they got a kick out of the two of us trying to figure the dang thing out. Needless to say, we will NOT be registering for that model and hope to find a more Kara/Nick friendly version when we go back. The next day was spent cleaning out the Dog’s room and converting it to the Baby’s room. Sorry Dogs, you will now be banished to the basement for your new sleeping/daytime quarters. The Baby’s room is coming together nicely, we are just waiting for the glider and ottoman to arrive for pick-up at the end of the month.

This past weekend was Beach Day at the Lakewood beach with Nick’s high school friends and their two little girls. As always, we had a great time with all of them and cannot wait to do it again! The weather was hot, but the water was great and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I believe everyone should be caught up to date at this point. Sorry for the delay on the updates. I am sure it will only get worse once the Turkey arrives in November!

Congrats!

Congrats to Lindsay (Kara's old roommate) and Alan on their marriage this past weekend! We couldn’t be happier for the two of you and loved sharing your special day with you.

Saint Louis Trip

For our one year anniversary and a "babymoon" trip we decided to venture down to Saint Louis for a few days. Here are the highlights:


The Arch

Outside the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour

The bottling line on the brewery tour

Go Cards! Nick and I decked out in our Cards jersey's before the game

Busch Stadium

Forest Park

One of the hippos at the Saint Louis Zoo

Playful tigers- just like Toby!

Nick's favorite, the giraffe

Tower Grove Park

Our Carriage ride through Tower Grove Park

And we couldn't leave the city without a souvenir for Turkey. His/her first article of clothing! A little Cardinals fan before he/she is even born!

Turkey Update

Baby Larson (Turkey) continues to be growing- or a least the clothes are not fitting nearly as well. We had our 16 week appointment and the heartbeat was strong and things looked good! The Doctor said Kara’s energy would come back sometime between now and week 28- it is a little better, but we are still waiting until Kara can stay up until 10pm for multiple nights in a row!

The baby room is slowly coming around (or at least the process is started). We are once again going through the house and compiling bins for Goodwill. It is so nice to not have to study, and be able to organize things again! The goal is to have the nursery put together by the end of summer if possible. We will see how the dogs enjoy their new living quarter’s downstairs- although we are putting that off until later August.

That is about it on the baby front. Just taking it one day at a time and enjoying being able to feel decent for the majority of the day!

Dam to Dam

Congratulations to Nick and Megan for participating- and finishing- the Dam to Dam 20K race this past Saturday! When it gets too cold outside to bike what do you do? Nick runs, and so the Dam to Dam training begun. With the help of his running partner Megan he made it to May with his training (although biking took over running for Nick during the end of April and May). Although they split from each other around mile 4.5 or so, Megan and Nick ended up finishing a second apart (without knowing the other one was cross the line at the same time).

Megan’s time: 2 hours, 2 minutes and 17 seconds
Nick’s time: 2 hours, 2 minutes and 16 seconds

WAY TO GO NICK AND MEGAN! And congrats to all of our other friends participating in the race!

Megan giving the thumbs up between mile 3 and 4. She must be having fun. You can see Nick's head above the other runners- his height was nice when trying to locate them amoung the thousands of people!

Nick around the half way point. By this time Megan and him had split from each other.








Megan and Mike after the race! Good job Megan and way to be a great spectator Mike.

Less that 2 weeks left!

Until freedom begins, and we can start to focus on the little one more. Yup, the official (and one with a light at the end of the tunnel) countdown has begun. June 6th (exam day) cannot get here fast enough! I am hoping that there will be more frequent updates after that point (when I am not spending hours and hours studying). Until then...

Kara

Where to start... where to start...

I am very behind on this blogging thing- I think I was doing pretty good in the beginning, but looking back on my lack of posts I realizes that is over. So here is a recap- and a BIG ONE if I do say so myself.

(In event order- not necessarily importance order)

I ventured out of the country to Canada last week for a study seminar at the University of Windsor (just north of Detroit). It was a lot of information in a short amount of time, but was very informative and I hope will help come test time next month.

On Sunday Nick and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary! It is hard to believe that this time last year we were lying on the beach in Antigua enjoying our fruity Honeymoon drinks. We both wish we could go back... maybe someday. Back to present day. Saturday we had an early dinner celebration and went out to dinner at Lucca in the East Village. We had never been there, and were pretty impressed. Sunday, the actual anniversary day was low key. Nick made dinner and we celebrated by having some of our ‘wedding cake’. The neat thing is the place where we got our cake makes you a replica of your top tier to eat on you anniversary- so it was fresh and tasted great! We also celebrated Mother’s Day… by ourselves!

Yup, the BIG PART (or small if you think about it size wise)… Baby Larson is due to arrive around November 24th! We had our 12 week check-up and ultrasound on Monday and everything looks great. The Turkey (my name for the kid since he/she is due to arrive 2 days before Thanksgiving) was sitting up during the ultrasound so of course Nick thinks Turkey was in his/her bike riding position- and I must admit that Turkey’s position did look like that. We are very excited to be adding to the family, and finally able to tell everyone our fun news. More baby info to come in the future…

From brewers to wine-makers!

After many, many kits of home-brews we have decided to expand our operations to wine-making. Truthfully, Nick got me the equipment to start our wine-making for my birthday back in September. We were just a little behind in using it.

First up on the wine-making list: a California Cabernet. Nick's choice if you couldn't have guessed.

Like with the beer, we are using kits at this point. We ordered our kit from Midwest Brewing (great store for those of you interested in this fun hobby) and started the actual process a month or so ago.s ago. We hope we like it, as we have 30 bottles of it either way.

Next up on the wine-making list: a California Chardonnay (can you tell we have a preference to where our wine's come from?) We have yet to order the kit, but will do it one of these days. Estimated consumption date: November/December. I cannot wait!

Here are some pictures of the process thus far.

The transfer process

Bottling the wine

All 30 bottles, and still room for more in the rack!