Baby Emma

Welcome to our newest niece, Emma Rae Woolley. She was born last Wednesday to my brother and his wife. This is only the second time I have become an auntie, and Clara is so excited to be a cousin again, at least in concept.

The baby is absolutely beautiful. Good job guys. Of course we went to the hospital to hold the baby after she was born. Clara held her for about 3 seconds, then declared "I'm all done." She was really interested in the balloon in the hospital room though. I wonder if she'll have any interest at all in her baby brother.

Congrats to Ben and Tosca. We love you guys.

Overnight getaway

Our due date is fast approaching (not really fast enough, but what can you do?) so we decided to do a little overnight getaway this past weekend to unwind and get a good night's sleep before this little guy joins our family. We wanted it to be low key so we just stayed at a bed a breakfast in Midvale in a Romeo and Juliet themed suite. We both kinda hate the story of Romeo and Juliet, but the room was nice with the just right amount of cheesy.

We had a great time. We ate out without our toddler in tow, which was relaxing and just divine. We stayed out past 8 PM. Ha ha. We got some water ice at Rita's and went shopping. We took the time to just peruse the aisles at the store without hollering at a little girl to stay nearby, don't touch that, no we can't buy that, etc. Then we headed to the bed and breakfast for tons of junk food, a movie (we finally watched Frozen), and as good a night's sleep as you can get at 35 weeks pregnant. In the morning, we got breakfast in bed, which was absolutely delicious (we forgot to take a picture because we scarfed it all down so fast), the headed to home to see our girl. We missed her, even though it was fun to take night off.
So I guess this means our batteries are all recharged and we're ready to do this whole baby-having thing.

Who needs lunch...

when you can have a Leatherby's sundae instead?

Christmas

I was lucky enough to get both Christmas Eve and Christmas off work this year. Since I have been so sick/tired/miserable with this pregnancy, we decided not to decorate for Christmas at all this year. I figured Clara will never remember and it was not worth the effort. I love Christmas and I am really not all bah humbug or anything. It has just been a rough few months.

We did our own little family Christmas on the evening of Christmas Eve. Here's a picture of the set up, in front of our entertainment center due to lack of a Christmas tree.

 Here's Clara walking in to see her presents for the first time.

 She had a great time opening gifts, and wanted to play with each one before moving on.

We split Christmas Day between Zack's family and my family. It's nice to be close to both families so we can share these special occasions with all of them. We enjoyed opening gifts, eating lots of junk, and just relaxing with people we love.

Thanksgiving

I've decided to just get through Thanksgiving and Christmas, then cut my losses and pick up at the present. 

So Thanksgiving was pretty low key for us. I had to work so Zack and Clara spent most of the day with Zack's family. In the evening after I got off work, we headed to my parents' house for the turkey dinner. 

Here's some cute pictures of Clara in her Thanksgiving getup.

Halloween

I told you I was behind, but I do want to make a bit of an effort to get caught up for my own sake.
I bought Clara's Halloween costume earlier in the year on a really good deal, but by the time October roller around, I got too worried that she wouldn't leave it on. So when we went to a church Halloween party with my sister and Clara's cousin a few days before Halloween, we just dug out a bunch of the pink giraffe clothes we already had on hand and made a costume out of those. She was adorable. Marseille was Minnie Mouse, and also adorable. After the church party, we went to a trunk or treat right near our house.

On the actual day of Halloween, I had to work until 6:30, so Zack went after work to his parents' house and let Grandma take Clara trick or treating to a few neighbors. Zack isn't as much of a wimp as I am and decided to try out the costume that I bought for Clara earlier in the year. She actually left it on a was super adorable in it. (it's an octopus, in case you can't tell)

When I got off work, I picked up Zack and Clara and we went to my parents' house so Clara and Marseille could go trick or treating together. Clara didn't really get what was going on, and she wanted someone to carry her pretty much to whole time, but she enjoyed all the candy afterward.

Maybe she'll get it next Halloween.

Anniversary date

Yeah, now I am headed all the way back to the beginning August. Just trying to get caught up.

I decided when I planned our monthly dates back in February that our anniversary date in August would involve an overnight getaway... our first since lovely little Clara came into our lives. My mom was very gracious and agreed to keep her overnight to make this possible.

We started our evening at Faustina restaurant. Dinner was yummy and we enjoyed sitting outside, enjoying the summer air, and not trying to wrangle a very busy toddler whilst trying to eat. Very relaxing.

We decided to stay the night at Haxton Manor, a little bed and breakfast right downtown. We didn't want to go too far away to minimize the time we would have to spend away from our baby. The room was cozy and cute, and we relaxed, pigged out, and laughed our way through some crappy TV. 

I was so looking forward to my first good night's sleep in a very long time. My baby still gets up a minimum of 2 times per night (on a very, very good night) and I am one tired momma. I can hardly think of anything better that a complete, uninterrupted sleep. And I was getting just that... until the fire alarm starting blaring in the middle of the night. Zack went out to see what was going on, and I guess it was just malfunctioning, so we just went back to bed and just kinda hung out for the half hour or so that it kept blaring. *sigh* I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Besides that, we had a delightful time. They brought us breakfast to our room, which was delicious, and we went home feeling relaxed and somewhat more well rested than usual. My mom, on the other hand, got to learn first hand what I go through every night, and just to really drive it home, my child decided to wake up for the day at 4:30 that morning after getting up several times over the course of the night. Sorry mom. You are a good sport. 

I am so glad that I married this guy 6 years ago, and that we have added our little sweetie to our family. These 2 people make me so happy. Love you guys!