Christmas Things

Thought I would post a few Christmas decorations I put up this year. I didn't spend a dime on anything new except for some lights when we discovered half our tree lights were out. I was pretty proud of myself. In fact I have a whole box of Christmas stuff I would really like to get rid of. Trying to simplify...

I was inspired by a friends table decorations at our church brunch so I went
around my house and started collecting things. There are red jingle
bells in the blue mason jar and cranberries in the clear jar.

I've been looking for a cute way to display all our Christmas cards. I saw this on Pinterest
and made it my own.  I used a large embroidery hoop ($3.79 at Hobby Lobby) and
clothes pins (you can get a large pack for $1 at Dollar Tree). I hot glued the clothes pins
about every 2 inches rotating end that clips to the inside and out. It worked great!

Our Melissa & Doug Nativity Set.  Brendan's mom got this for us last year in hopes
we would have a little one to enjoy it this year.  Little did she know I had my
suspicions we would! I can't wait till Ellie is old enough for us to talk about
the Nativity and share the story of Christ's birth with her.

Brendan's grandmother passed away when he was a freshman in college. She had
started to make all her grandkids a tree skirt for when they had families. She had
all the pieces cut out, but not assembled. Brendan's mom found the pieces and sewed
it all together and this is the first year we got to use it.  Very special to us!

And the best Christmas present of all.....

A First Christmas

Its the first week of January and my tree is still up, decorated and the lights are on.  I just can't bring myself to put it away yet. Its hard to believe that my girl's first Christmas is over! (cue weepy sentimental momma).  It was a wonderful Christmas.  We had Brendan to ourselves for a full 11 days!  Ok, so we shared him with family and hunting, but it was so wonderful for our family to be together.

We traveled to Oklahoma to spend Christmas with my family for 6 days.  All of my sisters were able to be home and it was so fun having everyone together.  My dad bought a puzzle to have just sitting out and hoped some would enjoy putting it together.  Well I learned that my husband LOVES doing puzzles. We had to make a run to the store to get a second puzzle. I didn't participate in the puzzle making, but I was cracking up at them because they were high-fiving and giving each other updates on the puzzle.

All the MEN in the family

Whenever we are in Oklahoma we try to go to our old Church, Heritage Baptist, to see our friends, but really they are like family. We went to our friends', the Williams, house for breakfast before church. No there is no relation by blood, just brothers and sisters in Christ. We had fun seeing their handsome boys and having all the Williams' kiddos together.

Mathias, Silas, Isaiah, Ezra and Eliana

On Christmas Eve we went bowling with the whole fam, minus one brother-in-law who works retail and had to work :(.  Its pretty fun and sad....sad because half of us were complaining we were sore the next day from bowling...very sad.  Brendan and I were playing with my sister Natalie and her husband Evan. Check out our scores! After bowling we all attended the Christmas Eve service at Henderson Hills Baptist Church and then went to my brother-in-law's parents house for dinner.

The boys scores were identical and so were the girls!

L to R: Aunt E (Eithel), Dad (Max), Mom (Diane), Mary (sister#4), Emily (sister#2), Evan, Natalie (sister#3), Me (with my eyes closed), Brendan and Ellie

Of course the center of attention was Eliana. Being the first grandbaby/niece has its perks. Like a mound of gifts and more clothes than this girl will ever be able to wear.

In front of ALL her presents

See, I wasn't kidding, a MOUND of gifts

She was sooo tired. We opened her gifts first so she could go down for a nap.
I'm sure she was so glad she got to see all those gifts. :)

She was the star of the show the entire week.  Every time I walked into the room with her an aunt or grandparent had their arms out waiting to hold her. She did so good with all the attention and surprisingly I didn't have too much "de-programming" to do. She traveled relatively good, I mean how much can you ask of a 3 month old when you stick her in a carseat for over 3 hours.

Just a few more pictures....

Pretty sure she won Uncle Evan over and I'm pretty sure there is
some camo and cowgirl boots in her future.

Aunt Mary and Ellie's mid-morning nap

 I told my husband that I honestly didn't need anything for Christmas.  I have everything I need and want...ok, well I would take a dishwasher if someone just had to get me something. But seriously, there were so many times over the holidays that I would look at my hubby and daughter and choke back tears because I feel so overwhelmingly blessed.  Last December was bittersweet because it was the month we would have had a baby had we not miscarried, but it turned out to be the month we found out we were expecting our Eliana.  The Lord is so good and I am constantly reminded of that every time I look at my daughter and husband.

Happy New Year from the Williams!

{and yes we like flannel}

Ponderings from a new mom.....

Being the oldest of 4 girls and the first to have a grandchild on my side, I began thinking of advice that I would tell my sisters when they have their first baby.  I've told them that I already broke several of my "rules" that I had set before Eliana was born. Like......

• At hospital my baby will room in ONLY. ha...it took less than 4 hours for me to realize that all those moms who advised me to take advantage of the hospital nursery were 110% right.  During the first 2 hours of sleep, my aching body was out of bed 3 times to check on the baby because I heard her make a little sound or I needed to make sure she was still breathing or she started crying because she got her little arm out of her swaddling. Then I woke poor sleeping daddy to check on her once because I just couldn't make my legs move anymore. We both agreed she would go to the nursery....best thing I ever did. We both got MUCH NEEDED sleep. Our first night home, with the baby finally asleep, we looked at each other and said, "no nursery anymore" :( Bless those nursery nurses for taking care of my baby!
• I won't use the pacifier.... when you have a screaming baby and can't calm her down, the pacifier becomes your sanity saver.  I also said I wouldn't let her have it in bed....yeah she gets it in bed. 
• I'll be tough and let her cry herself to sleep. I'm tough....for about 2 minutes and then I can't stand it any longer.  I've become tougher, or as Brendan would say, my heart has become cold. :)  I do let her cry a little longer than 2 minutes, but sometimes the girl just needs her momma.

Nursing is natural; the way God designed it; the best for baby.... then why is it so darn difficult! We spent Eliana's first 6 weeks with a lactation consultant. For 6 weeks for e.v.e.r.y. feeding we nursed, pumped and fed her a bottle.  Each feeding lasted about an hour or more.  EXHAUSTING!   I'm so glad that for the first 2 weeks my mother in-law and my mom were there to help out. They would even get up for the night time feedings. Bless their hearts, they were so helpful! Around 7 weeks baby girl finally caught on to nursing and by 8 weeks the bottle was a thing of the past! So were night time feedings! Hello 8 straight hours of glorious sleep! It seriously does a body good!

In the first few weeks you spend most of your time consoling a crying baby, feeding your baby, changing your baby, or putting baby to sleep.  All the while trying to find a spare 15 minutes to take a shower just so you can feel human! More common advice from moms is to, "Sleep when baby sleeps." And ladies if you follow any advice follow this! It makes a much happier momma, a happier daddy, and just a happier home!  One day I didn't get a nap and I was a basket case! So my hubby became the nap nazi. He always asked me when he got home from work if I took a nap that day.  I really didn't stop taking naps until she started sleeping through the night. 

Here are some of my top picks on must have's for new mom's...ok, maybe you don't have to have them, but they made my life a little easier.

When parents tell you to, "Enjoy them because it flies by before you know it," listen to them.  I can't believe that I have a 2 month old!  Every day is different than the day before. The sweet noises of a cooing baby that fill my home put a smile on my face and tears of joy in my eyes

Eliana's Birth Story

On Friday, August 31, as I was making dinner I noticed I was having a few contractions.  I told Brendan, "I think this baby is coming this weekend." I'm pretty sure I saw a look of terror cross his face.  As we watched a movie that night I began timing them on a very helpful phone app.  As the evening progressed the contractions became less frequent. So I reassured Brendan that I probably would not go into labor tonight. I'm pretty sure he let out a HUGE sigh of relief.

On Saturday, September 1st I woke up with a small amount of bleeding, so I called the on call midwife and she reassured me that it was probably ok, but to call if it got worse.  We had breakfast and then I had Brendan go to Hobby Lobby with me to finish up an Etsy order that I had received. It was at that point that I noticed my contractions were getting closer together and started timing them around noon.  My contractions were staying at about 7-8 minutes apart. They grabbed my attention, but were bearable. Around 4pm I had a larger amount of bleeding so I called the on call midwife again and she told me to go ahead and come into the hospital.  I told Brendan and his response..."It's Go Time!"

So at 5 pm we got admitted into our labor and delivery room.  They hooked me up to monitor my contractions and the baby's heartbeat.  During a few contractions the baby's heartbeat dropped which caused the nurse some concern.  It didn't drop during every contraction so they never really said that she was in distress.  They wanted to keep me overnight and basically just told us to rest. Which is easier said than done on a hospital bed and a pull out couch.

The next morning on Sunday, September 2nd, they resumed monitoring contractions and baby's heartbeat with the expectation of sending me home. The baby's heartbeat did the same drop during a few contractions.  After consulting with the on-call doctor and midwife they recommended that my water be broken and they start me on Pitocin. I was ok with breaking my water, but I did not want Pitocin, I had heard that this medicine made contractions super intense.  Because my goal was to deliver without pain meds I wanted to avoid it at all costs.  At 11am they broke my water and my nurse agreed to let me go for a while before I started the Pitocin.  After a walk around the hallways, my contractions went from 7-8 minutes to 4-5 minutes apart and much more intense.  At this point I have no concept of time.  My contractions grew closer together and more intense through out the day. I was also experiencing back labor this whole time because baby's chin wasn't tucked and she was posterior.  So we tried several different positions in hopes she would turn.  My incredible husband was by my side the entire time, helping me breathe, applying pressure to my back, rubbing my neck, getting me water.  He was an awesome coach and teammate!  I was also blessed with a great nurse who was there with us her entire 12 hour shift.  If Brendan was counting breaths for me, she was applying pressure to my back and vice versa.

As I reached transition and was dilated to 7cm, I begged them to let me in the jacuzzi. The midwife agreed and I was able to relax a little better during the contractions.  I think I was in there about an hour. This hour helped me prepare mentally for what was ahead.  Because the jets were so loud I had to count and breathe on my own.  I also began saying a prayer during every contraction, just reminding myself that I had the Lord's strength and what more did I need than that.

After I got out of the jacuzzi I hadn't dilated much and so they wanted to start a small dose of Pitocin.  I agreed, but don't think I really needed it, because before I knew it (or at least according to my concept of time) I was dilated to 9cm and then felt the sudden urge to push.  I asked Brendan if this part went as fast as I remembered it and he said no. Oh well, I guess I'm glad it felt like it went fast. :)  Brendan's worse fear was that I would need to push and no one would be in the room.  Sure enough that's what happened.  As soon as our nurse walked in, he said very calmly with some slight urgency, "She wants to PUSH!".  And thus began the hour and a half pushing session.

On a side note: My nurse's shift was to end at 7:00pm.  I told her to come by and visit the next day to see the baby.  She said, " Honey I'm not going anywhere until this baby is born."  So she clocked out at 7pm and stayed with me until Eliana was born.

Towards the end they told me to reach down and feel my baby's head which gave me much motivation, not to mention the excruciating pain!  At 8:05pm on Sunday September 2nd, I heard the words, "Sara reach down and get your baby!" Immediately she was on my chest and I was staring at the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.  She didn't even cry, she was so quiet, looking at me wide eyed with those adorable chubby cheeks. Both Brendan and I were overcome with emotion at this tiny blessing. She was FINALLY here! 

Seeing my daughter for the first time.

Our beautiful blessing, only minutes old

After a while I finally had the clarity of mind to let Brendan hold her.  Oh my goodness, seeing my husband hold our baby for the first time melts me into a puddle and still does!

First time to hold his daughter

First day home and already napping together

After we were home for a few days I began finding out I had some prayer warriors praying for me during the time I was pushing.

A couple days after we were home I noticed a voice mail on my phone and listened to it.  It was my neighbor, Heather, calling at 8:17pm on Sunday, September 2nd to tell me she and her husband were praying for us thinking about us and just wanted to let me know that.  Little did she know she was praying me through the hardest part!

My youngest sister, Mary, told us that several minutes before she received the text that Eliana was born she felt the sudden need to pray and she was praying hard, like crying/lifting her hands/ come to Jesus moment! Definitely interceding for us! After she was done praying she looked at her phone and saw that Eliana was here and thus more tears!

I know all our family was praying for us as Brendan was updating them throughout the day.  What a blessing to know so many were praying us through one of the hardest things we have ever done! I know that there is no way I could have done this without the Lord's strength!

Our Answered Prayer

Our sweet baby girl, Eliana Michelle was born on September 2nd at 8:05 pm.  She is absolutely perfect in every way.  A perfect blessing from the Lord.  I look at her and I am amazed that this little one was inside of me for nine long months.

I teared up when I sang to her for the first time....I've been imagining this for years.

I cry when I see my husband with our daughter....I've fallen in love with him in a whole new way.

I can't stop staring at her tiny little feet.....those little feet that kicked my ribs the last few months.

And oh those cheeks, those chubby little cheeks have had many many kisses from her momma.

When we first found out we were pregnant and went to our 8 week ultrasound, we found out that we might miscarry our little one. As we anticipated our next ultrasound in 2 weeks I came across a song by Watermark called Elliana's Song, you can read the lyrics here.  I told Brendan I loved that name.  Meanings of names are really important to me, so I looked up the meaning of her name.  In Hebrew Eliana means, "God has answered."  I told my husband that if we are blessed to keep this little one and it is a girl, this has to be her name.  He couldn't really argue with me.  I always had an idea that this baby was a girl because I felt the Lord had given me her name. If you read our Baby Williams post you know what an answer to prayer our sweet girl is and how special her name is to us.

Baby Girl's Nursery - Part 2

Only 9 days to go until our due date!!! The past 2 weeks have been full of NESTING! My extra long (and always growing) "Before Baby" To Do List has been mostly checked off! Nothing is more satisfying than a To Do list with all the boxes checked and sometimes I highlight too, just to make me feel a little more accomplished. :) Are you a TO DO list addict? Do you sometimes write things on your to do list that you've already done just so you can check it off?

Ok, moving on.....

We have decided that we will be keeping the nursery a guest room for the first month or so after baby girl is born. Since both our mom's are blessing us with a week of their help we want them to be as comfortable as possible. Which means they won't be sleeping in our unfinished, cob-web infested basement. So there will be a Part 3 post with the nursery completed.

Before

In the Part 1 post about the nursery (click here to read Part 1) I told you my next project would be to finish the 2nd dresser that my sisters and I grew up with.  I later found out from my Granny that the dresser was used by my mom, aunt, and uncle and then by my cousins too. I even found my cousin Micah's signature in the floor of the closet.  So when I was 36 weeks preggo I decided to get the dresser finished.  Thank you 100+ degree temps for making me wait to get going on it.  Here is a before and after:

After
(like all the extras stuffed in the corner?)

I know it doesn't look that different since I just painted it white again, but believe me, it looks A LOT better after sitting in the garage for 10+ years.  I painted it using the same method as I used to paint the blue dresser.  I lined the drawers and made my own fabric liner.  I love this method and will do it in the future to all my dresser drawers.  You can find the tutorial here at Blue Eyed Yonder.  I did eliminate the ironing spray, although I'm sure it would be lovely to open your drawers and the scent of lavender greet you.  Here are a few detail photos:

Cheap brass knobs painted the same color as the 1st dresser
and distressed.

Drawer Liner

Isn't it so cute with little clothes! Thanks Jenn Huff for the
adorable handmade dresses!

Next on my to do list was the glider.  I did not get it painted, but I did make my own fabric out of canvas drop cloth and recovered the cushions.  Again I should not have waited to do this so late in my pregnancy, but its done and that's all that matters.  I have to thank my friend Kathy for giving us the glider.  She noticed that I had pinned an idea for a glider on Pinterest way back in January and offered the glider  to us (she didn't even know we were pregnant yet)! So far this glider has only cost me about $15 which was for the dropcloth, fabric paint medium, and stencil. I already had the green paint. 

Please don't look at my horribly unorganized basement!

The paint has a little "worn" look to it.

Another friend, Janna, was cleaning out her basement and found some toys and this cute little toddler rocking chair she offered me.  I had a rocking chair when I was little and loved it, so I couldn't turn this down! I painted it the same color as the dresser and decided to distress it. I rubbed a tealight candle along the edges of the arms, legs, and back before painting.  While the paint was still wet, I used a wet wipe to remove the paint where I rubbed the wax. Then after it was dry I used sand paper to distress the rest of the chair.  I think it turned out cute and I'm going to try to use it for baby girl's monthly pictures! Thanks Janna!

Before

After

Do you know how hard it is to find fabric in a coral color?  HARD! When I saw this fabric (on the discount rack...score!) I knew it would be perfect for her room. Another easy project that took less than an hour, but adds that punch of color was sewing a changing pad cover. I used the super simple tutorial found here at Sir Bubbadoo blog.

Hopefully my next post will be pictures of my beautiful baby girl!

Babymoon

Babygirl's due date is fast approaching! Only 7 weeks to go! Yikes! Before I was restricted to travel we wanted to getaway for a weekend and I didn't want to be in the car for a very long time. So we decided to head to Kansas City.  My only criteria was it had to be relaxing and I needed a pool. We had a Bedandbreakfast.com gift certificate that we had been hanging onto and decided this would be the perfect time to use it. So after researching many options I came across Inn on Crescent Lake in Excelsior Springs, MO (just North of Kansas City). (check out their website for the story of the Inn and pictures of the beautiful estate) It had what I wanted....a pool! I would highly recommend this B&B to anyone! It was so beautiful, breakfast was simply scrumptious, quiet (even with a full house) and the story behind the B&B is truly romantic.  So here is how we spent our mini Babymoon.

Friday:
Brendan took a half day and after lunch we hit the road.  Our first stop was the bank for some spending $$$. We have been collecting our change in a jar for 6+ years. The jar was just about full so we decided this would be our gas & food money. Brendan guessed there was $93 and I guessed $108.  We were both surprised when they said it totaled to $244.10! Who knew!

We checked in to the B&B relaxed for a bit and then headed to Ventana Gourmet Grill in Downtown Excelsior Springs.  This is the innkeepers favorite restaurant. They had a live piano player and the seriously some of the best cheesecake I've ever had.

Saturday:
At the Inn breakfast is served in the Solarium which overlooks one of the crescent shaped lakes that surrounds the property. We enjoyed some coffee and then had a wonderful breakfast of egg casserole, sausage, biscuits, hashbrown and watermelon.  The innkeeper and her late husband (a frenchman and romantic at heart) created a walking trail that ended at "the Kissing Point"so we decided to walk off breakfast.  I wish I would have brought my camera because this was the most amusing part of our trip....ok most amusing for me.  The tree canopied trail follows the curve of one of the Crescent lakes and it really is quite beautiful.  We *ahem* Brendan figured out early that some friendly spiders had created their webs from one side of the walking path to the other. So my arachnaphobic husband got a stick, a LONG stick, and was waving it in front of him our entire walk. He looked like he was casting a spell or like the Catholic priest who signs the crucifix in mass.  I had to stop several times because I was doubled over in laughter, which is pretty hard when you can't really double over any more.

The rest of our day was spent by the refreshing pool. It felt glorious on the 98 degree day.

This is pretty much what he did all afternoon. Couldn't stop reading....

For dinner I had read about a winery about 20 minutes from the Inn that served brick oven pizza. So we ventured to out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-Missouri to VanTill Family Farm & Winery. The pizza was wonderful! I think they grow most of their own vegetables, it was so fresh! They made their own whole-grain pizza crust and of course wine.  Which Brendan said was pretty good.

Update on Baby Girl: 

She is still moving like crazy! She is positioned sideways and no matter what position I put myself in she really likes to stay sideways. So we are praying that she will flip soon so this momma can stop stressing out!