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?