Christmas 2010 Recap

I found myself having a hard time focusing on Christmas this year, because my thoughts kept taking me to next year and future Christmases with Nathan. It's hard to believe that starting next year we'll have a new member of the family to spend Christmas with for years and years to come. I consciously tried to focus on this Christmas and making some great memories, and overall it was a fantastic Christmas filled with moments I know I'll never forget. We made it to Weatherford Thursday night and focused that night on celebrating Nathan and not so much celebrating Christmas. Friday morning we slept in relaxed, played Settlers with my parents, ran a couple of errands and ate Barry's delicious steaks for lunch. That evening Matt and I and my parents and grandparents went to Matt's parents for the evening. We had a good time eating, visiting and playing dominoes.

We got back to my parents later that night, and Matt and I opened our gifts from each other. Traditionally, we wait until midnight to open our gifts, so that it's technically Christmas morning, but we've eased up on that a bit and just open them before we go to bed on Christmas eve. This year we went in together for our big gift and got living room furniture and a new TV, so we just exchanged a few small things on Christmas. I got Matt a video game, a drill bit set, and a book on parenting. He made me an awesome coupon book filled with amazing coupons. He did it last year and I loved it so much I've hinted like crazy that I wanted another one this year, and he outdid himself. Some of my favorites this year were free reign to buy a luxury baby item with no complaints from him on the cost. (I've already used that one and splurged on baby bedding that I've been eyeing for months). He also gave me a coupon for a long weekend getaway to Kansas City, a whole housecleaning, a dinner and movie of my choice, and a coupon for him to plan a whole date day. He definitely knows the way to my heart. I told him he went way over budget, but he assured me that the coupon book cost less than a dollar. Opening our gifts together just the two of us was one of the top moments of Christmas this year.

Christmas morning we always spend with Matt's family. We went over about 9 and opened gifts and had lunch with them. Matt and I got a user friendly video camera, so once Nathan gets here, I'm sure my blog will be exploding with videos of him. After lunch we played dominoes together, and then Matt and I went back over to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with my family.

Jeremy and Anna arrived shortly after we did. They weren't able to be at our cake cutting party, so I gave them these as soon as they arrived to share the news that they were going to have a nephew.
After Jeremy opened these, he pulled this out of his pocket and said, "We don't know what we're having yet!"
That was another top moment of Christmas this year. I had some suspicions they might have a big announcement and I am so thrilled Nathan will have a cousin so close in age. I think I've reached the point of being a parent, and life is no longer about me, because for years and years I've wanted to be an aunt, and the thought of being an aunt when they told us they were expecting didn't even cross my mind for the longest time because I was so focused on Nathan having a cousin. It's also fun to be pregnant with Anna even though they live so far away.

Because of everything that has happened in our family in the last few months, we all decided it would be best to take the year off and not exchange gifts and instead focus on just being together as a family. I think it was a good decision especially since my parents are moving in a couple of weeks, and things have been hectic lately. Barry's sister and her family and my grandma joined the six (or eight, technically) of us for a delicious Christmas dinner. Everything tasted so yummy this year. We had a great time visiting with everyone and I really enjoyed getting to know Barry's sister and her family better, and was grateful Momoo was able to join us.

After everyone left that night, we broke out settlers and spent the rest of the night playing. Sunday morning, Matt and I went to church and then came home to help prepare for Christmas with my mom's extended family. After Papa's funeral in October, we all got to talking about how much we missed getting together at Christmas. I have great memories of Christmases as a kid with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins, eating, opening gifts, playing games, and running around outside at my grandparents' hosue. Several years ago, we stopped that tradition because my grandparents moved to a smaller house and didn't have the energy or the room to host everyone. This year my mom took on the challenge, and we had a houseful of family over on Sunday for lunch.

Our family has grown and changed a lot in the last few years, and it was so fun to have everyone together. I really enjoyed visiting and catching up with cousins I don't get to see very often, and I know it eased some of the pain and emptiness everyone was feeling this year with Papa's absence.
I'm pretty partial to little boys these days, and my cousin's son Joey is absolutely adorable.

Jeremy and Anna and my mom left Sunday evening to head to Broken Arrow. My mom had to work Monday morning, and Jeremy and Anna wanted to see my parents' new house before they headed back to Iowa. Before everyone left, I wanted a picture with Anna while we are both pregnant. There won't be many opportunities to pregnant pictures together, since there's a good chance we might not be together again until Nathan is born, so I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

Our family has so much to be thankful for this Christmas and much to look forward to in 2011.

The Big Reveal

Since we knew we would be finding out whether Lovebug was a boy or a girl so close to Christmas, we decided to wait and share the news until we could be with our families in person. At the time when I made that decision, I didn't realize that my mom would be living with us at the time we found out the news, but we did manage to keep the secret from her for a whole week. I wanted to tell our families in a creative way, and I had heard of the idea of baking a pink or blue cake to share the news. I had so much fun making the cake and sharing the news that I think this will become the traditional way of sharing our news with all our babies. It was also fun to keep the secret just between Matt and me for a few days before we told anyone else.

It's a BOY! We are thrilled to be expecting a healthy baby boy in just four short months and thankful he was cooperative during the ultrasound and had his legs open :). We let my grandpa cut the cake, and my mom was hovering over him the whole time. Before he left that night, he came up to us and said, "When he gets old enough to understand, I'm going to tell him that I was the one that cut the cake." I'm pretty sure he felt awfully special to have that honor.

During the cake cutting we also announced Lovebug's name to our family. I'd like to introduce you to:

Nathan Wilson Baugher

He had his mouth wide open during the ultrasound. I think he was trying to talk to us :)

Once we found out we were expecting a boy, we got to work on baby boy names. We had our girl name finalized but were pretty up in the air with a boy name. Matt asked me one night if I liked the name Nathan. I was a tad skeptical at first, but the name grew on me, and after I looked up the meaning, I was sold. The whole way trip home to Weatherford, I read our baby name book, and every name we thought we liked just didn't compare to Nathan, so we decided it was final. I've mentioned before about how this pregnancy came at a difficult time in our family and I believe the timing of my pregnancy was God's way of showing his faithfulness and promises to our family and carrying us through a dark time. Ever since I got pregnant, I have been drawn to names that signify God's promises, so when I discovered that the meaning of the name Nathan is God's gift, I knew it was the perfect name for our first son. He is such a gift to our family. Matthew's name has a very similar meaning, and I've said from day one that if we have a boy I want him to grow up and be just like his daddy. Wilson is Matt's middle name and was his grandfather's name and has tradition in his family, so it was fitting that Nathan share Matt's middle name. Now that we have a gender and a name, he feels so much more real, and we can't wait for him to get here. We're gearing up for lots of baby blue jeans and sweater vests, and blocks, Legos, trains, and cars. Bring on the blue!

The Last Christmas

All our gifts are wrapped, our bags are packed, the car is loaded, and I'm just waiting for Matt to get off work so we can head to Weatherford. Today as we've been preparing for Christmas, I've been looking ahead to next year and how Christmas will be different. As excited as we both are to celebrate Christmas this year and about the wonderful memories we're sure to make, it's hard not to think ahead to next Christmas and the changes that are headed our way.

This is the last Christmas before we become parents.

It's the last Christmas that Rhapsody will have free reign of the backseat during the drive to Weatherford.

It's the last Christmas to celebrate with my parents at their house in Weatherford (They'll be living in Broken Arrow starting next month).

It's the last Christmas card picture of just the two of us (and Rhapsody).

It's the last Christmas we'll be able to drive our Focus home, because everything we need for the trip still fits in our trunk.

It's the last Christmas I'll wonder what it would be like to have a baby at Christmas (I'm glad we waited a few years to start a family, but I always get baby fever at Christmas).

It's most likely the last Christmas where we won't have to travel on Christmas day.

It's the last Christmas before Matt and I have a better understanding of the sacrifice God made in sacrificing His child for our salvation.

It's the last Christmas before we get to experience the joy of Christmas from a child's perspective.

It's the last Christmas dinner that won't involve feeding someone else or cutting up their food.

It might be the last Christmas that Matt and I are able to stay up until midnight on Christmas eve to exchange gifts with each other.

I just can't get over how blessed we are to have all these changes to look forward to. God has been so good to our family.

Santa Came Early

The past few years instead of exchanging Christmas gifts with each other, Matt and I have splurged and made a big purchase together that we can both enjoy. In the past we've bought a wii, a glass storm door and a laptop. This year we had tossed around the idea of getting new living room furniture, specifically a new entertainment center and coffee and end tables. (Somehow, our gifts keep going up in price). Matt's stipulation was that new furniture required a new TV. The same stipulation applied when we bought new bedroom furniture a couple of years ago. I think we have a pattern going, but I'll always give in if it means he'll go furniture shopping with me :).


We spent awhile looking earlier this Fall and then everything got busy and we put the buying on hold. We finally had some time a couple of Saturdays ago to go back to the furniture store and order the furniture, and it came in last weekend. We weren't expecting it until after the new year but were pleasantly surprised, and with some help from our friends we got it moved and situated last weekend.


Our previous entertainment center had been a Walmart special that we bought 5 years ago, and our coffee and end tables were hand me downs from my parents, so I was excited to have all new matching furniture for the living room. And I do have to admit that the big TV is pretty nice. We still exchange small gifts with each other at Christmas, but this is definitely our big present to each other.

Christmas Date 2010

One of my favorite Christmas traditions that Matt and I do every year is have an annual Christmas date. Basically it's just an excuse to spend an entire day together doing fun things, but I look forward to planning it every year.
We celebrated our date last Saturday and had a great day. Saturday morning we got up and headed to do a little shopping. We found out the gender of Lovebug on Thursday, so we wanted to pick up a few gender specific items and look at bedding and nursery decor. We also had a couple of other errands to run while we were out. Since Matt has been in Florida so much, most of my baby shopping has been with my mom, so it was super fun going with Matt. We got home about 11:00 and spent the next few hours baking and decorating Christmas cookies. I love baking and decorating cookies each year, and Matt is always a good sport and helps me. We've given some away to friends and have been munching on the rest all week.

After we finished with the cookies, we spent the afternoon playing Wii. It had been a long time since we had played, and it was fun to break it out again and play for a couple of hours.

That evening we got dressed up and headed to dinner here. It was really yummy. Matt had the filet and said it was the best steak he's ever had at a restaurant. The restaurant is at Utica square which is all lit up and decorated for Christmas. It was gorgeous.

Before Dinner

Rhapsody got jealous that she wasn't in the picture

After dinner, we browsed another baby store at the square and then headed home. We had a couple more Christmas goodies to make and share so we spent the rest of the evening making turtles and chocolate dipped pretzels.

It was a great date, and I was thankful that we could spend the whole day together doing fun things.

Halfway There

Yesterday marked the 20 week mark in my pregnancy. I really can't believe that I've already reached the halfway mark and that this baby will be here in less than 4.5 months. We have so much to do before he/she arrives. Here's an update on my pregnancy now that we've reached the 20 week milestone.

Symptoms:

So far, the second trimester has held up to all the hype I've read/heard about. I feel great. I'm not nearly as tired as I was during the first trimester and no longer need a daily nap after work. I've still never had to deal with much nausea, and I'm so thankful for that. Really, the only symptom I've noticed lately is that I get pretty congested at night. And yes, that is a pregnancy symptom. my books have told me so. I asked my doctor for remedies and after trying a couple of her ideas, I'm starting to sleep better at night. For a few weeks there, I would wake up and spend 30 minutes blowing my nose before I could make it back to sleep. The last few days have been much better though, and I'm still sleeping really good at night. I only have to get up twice at the most in the night to go to the bathroom. I'm enjoying it while it lasts, because I know the 2nd trimester won't last forever.

Favorite Moments:

At my 14 week appointment, we got to hear Lovebug's heartbeat for the first time. When the doctor came in she said, "Now you're still in the gray zone of hearing the heartbeat, so don't freak out if we can't find it right away." Lovebug knew that his/her parents didn't need any added stress though, and as soon as the doctor put the doppler on my stomach we heard a steady heartbeat, such a precious sound. We heard it again at my 18 week appointment. It never gets old :)

I really enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving this year with a little baby bump. It was a constant reminder of how much we have to be thankful for and fun to think ahead to a new guest who will be joining our table next year.

One of my favorite things about being pregnant is watching Matt interact with the baby. He rubs my belly all the time and talks to the baby everyday. When I picked him up from the airport a few weeks ago, he asked how the baby was, and I told him that the baby was able to hear sounds and voices. Right there in the airport, he bent down and started talking to my belly. I know I'm totally going to lose it when I see him holding that baby in his arms.

Lovebug has started kicking. So far, they've been pretty soft, and Matt hasn't felt them yet. Last night he was rubbing my belly and told me to tell the baby to kick. When there was no response from the baby, he told me I needed to work on my parenting :). I'm sure it won't be long before I can't get the baby to stop kicking.

Our BIG ultrasound is scheduled for tomorrow, and as long as the baby cooperates, we will know whether we have a son or a daughter. We're keeping it a secret until Christmas though, so don't expect any big announcements for another couple of weeks.

Maternity Clothes:
I've converted to wearing maternity jeans and dress pants. I told Matt last night that I was never going back to regular jeans. I was just going to wear maternity jeans the rest of the my life. They are much more comfortable. All my maternity shirts are still too big, so I'm still in regular shirts and sweaters.

Baby Bump pictures:

16 weeks

18 weeks

20 weeks

Trimming the Tree

Sunday night Matt and I decorated our Christmas tree. He turned on Christmas music (Trans-Siberian Orchestra), I whipped up some hot cocoa and we got to work. Decorating the tree together is a really special time for us. So many of our ornaments are just bursting with memories and special significance from our childhood and our relationship to some of the best times in our lives. We spent the evening reminiscing and enjoying each other. We got a few new ornaments this year that I wanted to share.

We picked these up when we were in Disney World last May:

One of our traditions is to try and get an ornament during every vacation we take. We had fun shopping for these at the Christmas themed gift shops at the park.

We picked this up when I visited Matt in Florida in July. It was a mini vacation for us, and we wanted to document the vacation with a Christmas ornament:
These two ornaments came from a recent ornament exchange with our Sunday school class:

We just love our Sunday school class and all the couples in it, and I always have the best time at our Christmas parties. This year we ate delicious food surrounded by great company, played Dirty Santa for the ornament exchange, shared about our Christmas traditions, sang Christmas carols, and spent time in prayer. It was a really fun night, and we have new ornaments to document the memories with the couples in our class.

And here's the finished product:


I have one more new ornament to hang this year, but it's not quite ready for the tree. I'll be hanging it next week, and I'll be sure to share when it's finished.