Merry Christmas 2014

Our little family stayed in Chicago this year as we continue to adjust to two children.  We missed being with our loved ones, but we are grateful for the reason we celebrate this occasion.

Christmas morning began at 4:30 when Hylie fell out of bed!  Poor kid.  Geoff was able to comfort Hylie, but she was up again at 5:30 when I was able to rock her to sleep with Eliana.  The festivities officially began when she woke again at 7:00 AM and Hylie was quite thrilled to see that Santa came.  She enjoyed opening and exploring each and every gift.  

Eliana was pretty low-key about everything, but hopefully she'll eventually get into her new things, ha ha!

Our ward held a musical service that morning which we were grateful to attend.  Each musical number was beautiful and the video presentation was quite touching and reminded us of the significance of the Gift our Savior is to all mankind.  We are grateful for our Lord, Jesus Christ and celebrate His life and love.

Merry Christmas to all!

"So, This is Christmas"

Before Christmas Day arrived, we were able to squeeze in a few other activities--some that will be repeated, some that will not!  We'll let you guess which one of these two adventures was the hit and which one was the absolute bomb...

Hylie was a great helper when it came to making Christmas cookies.  She helped Mom roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters, and finally--decorate with sprinkles!

I think it's safe to say, cookies are a hit with this girl!

The Monday before Christmas, Geoff and I decided to check out a light show that was highly rated  and recommended.  It was located 30 minutes north of us, so it was a bit of a haul, but the admission was only $5 and the reviews said if you go on a weeknight, you miss the crowds.

Lies.  All lies.

We had hopes of arriving to the light display at 6:00, but we're finding that when you have a toddler and a nursing infant--you can throw any and all schedules out the window.  We got to the place at 7:30 but didn't figure out where the END of the line was until 8:00.  There were SO many cars, it was crazy.  Geoff and I looked at each other, both wanting to just call it a night, but the entire car ride, we were building up Hylie with what a great trip this was going to be and how fun it would be to see the light show.  When we got in line she kept asking where the show was.  We told her we had to wait a long time to take our turn...so then the next 20 minutes she kept asking if it was our turn yet.  Once we were in line, we realized it would be pretty tricky to pull out of line--so we were pretty committed.

Being that it was past bedtime, Hylie started fading, so we did what any desperate parent would do: fed her candy.  We had two small packets of Sixlets that we gave her.  The car was getting really stuffy from sitting there with the heater on and we were bundled up in our coats.  We decided to peel off our layers and let Hylie out of her car seat.  (We were creeping along so slowly and infrequently, we figured we might as well make Hylie as comfortable as possible.)  Needless to say, she was THRILLED to be sitting on Mom's lap instead of buckled up.

About 45 minutes into our wait, we all of a sudden heard a pretty big 'crunch' and looked over to see a huge SUV had rammed the tail-end of the mini-van in front of it.  Yikes.  We thought we had it rough waiting in line, we at least didn't have to call our insurance company to report an accident that happened at less than 2 miles an hour and probably caused at least $1,000 in damage--yep, it was pretty bad.

Finally, an hour and a half later after we got into line, we finally entered the park.  Of course being we are almost ready to turn in to the park, Hylie has an epic meltdown and kicked the car into neutral.  For more evidence that Hylie was pretty delirious she was pointing to trees and asking if it was a cat or a donkey.  Great!  The entrance to the display had every cartoon character under the sun, so Hylie did enjoy pointing out the ones she new.  However, when we were about halfway through, Hylie started gagging.  I knew what was coming next and frantically tried to open the door, but it was locked.  Geoff pulled over and I finally got the door open...a little too late.  Both Hylie and I were covered in pickles and chocolate vomit.  Luckily, it wasn't the flu or anything, it was just a one-time incident (thanks, Sixlets!).  For the rest of the 15 minute show we had the windows rolled down in a vain attempted to air the car out.  It did nothing!  We pulled over again and cleaned up as best as we could, got Hylie back in her car-seat and headed home.  We were a pretty pathetic bunch: we were tired, we smelled horribly, I had a headache, the car was all fogged up, Hylie was miserable.  So it was quite comical to hear the song "So This is Christmas" by John Lennon pipe through the radio as we finally headed home.  Geoff started laughing hysterically as we both agreed that we will NEVER do this again!

But hey, we have a pretty classic Christmas adventure to tell now, right?

"I'm Married"

We've been talking quite a bit about Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus this month and Hylie apparently noticed that a lot of pictures and figurines of Mary have her dressed in blue.  So anytime Hylie sees a blue blanket, she drapes it over her head and says, "I'm Married!"

Needless to say, I had to take a photo of her all dressed up as "Married" and include a little baby as well!  'Married' Christmas!

Eliana's Newborn Pictures

Thanks to Andrea for the darling headband, Jared and Genevieve for the purple afghan, and Mom Nelson for the white blanket!

We sure love our little girl and think she is super precious!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

We've been trying to keep up with the season along with a newborn--it's been a little crazy, but a lot of fun at the same time.

Hylie was quite thrilled when all the Christmas bins were pulled out, tons of things to explore!  We had to decorate the Christmas Tree in two phases because it was proving a little difficult to keep little fingers out of all the fragile decor.  We were glad Mom was here to help out!

Hylie loves playing with her manger scene--and felt it would look great as decorations for the tree!

Lately, I've noticed the bottom of the tree has been looking a little sparse and soon figured out why. 

 Hylie's decided it's more fun to find new homes for all these ornaments.  I have a feeling packing up Christmas decorations is going to be an ongoing process throughout the entire year!

Geoff and Hylie had a ton of fun putting a gingerbread house together while Eliana and I watched these creative geniuses in action.

Having Grandma Around

My Mom was so wonderful and willing to come out for the birth of the baby.  Because I was being induced, she was able to drive in December 1st and be with Hylie when Geoff and I headed to the hospital.  Hylie was thrilled to have so much one-on-one time with Grandma while Geoff and I were away, but I admit, I was stir-crazy to get home and get some of my own Mom time in.

Hylie was definitely not the only one spoiled for having Grandma in town.  We ate like kings the entire time (she made a Thanksgiving feast the day we came home!), had such a great time just sitting and gabbing away, and if Eliana wasn't nursing, she was snuggled up with Grandma.

I was especially grateful Mom was here the first week Eliana was home.  Eliana was dealing with mild levels of jaundice which required her to go in every day to get blood tests, plus the jaundice had an impact on Eliana's sleep--she never wanted to wake up to nurse.  Needless to say, this heightened the stress levels for me.  I had a few melt-downs when Eliana wouldn't wake up to eat and pretty much every time the doctors called to let me know her jaundice was still on the rise.  Mom was always there to reassure and help me keep perspective.  The day before Mom left, we got the news we had been waiting for, Eliana's jaundice levels finally went down!  To celebrate, Eliana had a great deal of alert time with Grandma that evening which was sweet for all of us to witness.

Mom also made a quilt for Eliana based on the theme "I love you to the moon and back".  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Thank you, Mom, for sharing your love through your talents in so many ways.  We will cherish this quilt always.

Thank you, Mom, for being here as we enjoyed welcoming Eliana into our family.  We are still enjoying the food you prepared and I feel more confident going out with both kiddos because of the 'practice' runs we took!  We love you so much and miss you tons!

Sisters

We were excited for Hylie to come and meet Eliana.  Mom Nelson and Hylie were able to come to the hospital early in the evening on December 2nd.  Throughout this entire pregnancy, I was so nervous about how Hylie would handle this huge transition of being an only child to gaining a sibling.

Hylie patting 'the bump' for one of the last times on Sunday, November 30th

Well, Hylie was so sweet and so excited to meet Eliana.  Her first meeting with Eliana melted our hearts--and Hylie has been such a wonderful big sister ever since!  Mom let us know that the morning after Hylie met Eliana, she woke up and asked, "Can I go back to the hospital and hold the baby?"

Would you ever guess these two are sisters?

Eliana Grace Woodhouse

On December 2nd our lives forever changed, and we are forever grateful.  Eliana Grace made her entrance at 11:10 AM weighing in at 9 lbs. and 1 oz. and measuring 20.5 inches long.

Her birthing story began the night before when Geoff experienced one of the calmest car rides to the hospital with an over-due, pregnant wife...who wasn't in labor.  I think Geoff was a little disappointed when I didn't let him drop me off at the main entrance and sit in a wheelchair while he parked the car, but I reassured him (quite a few times) that I was fully capable of walking with him from the parking garage to the women's center.

We checked in for our 10:00 PM appointment to be induced and soon after found ourselves in the labor and delivery room.

The nurses began prepping me for everything and around 11:00 PM the doctors came in to assess a few things in order to decide which approach to take with the induction process. We were delivering at a university hospital, so student doctors are always in tow.  Normally, I don't mind at all, but the student physician on the night shift appeared extremely green, which didn't put me at ease.  He had a hard time finding the baby's head on the ultrasound...yikes.  So anytime the resident doctor asked my permission for the student to perform a procedure, I found myself cringing as I said "yes".  I felt bad saying no, because they have to learn sometime, right?  And as long as this guy wasn't actually delivering our baby, I was fine enduring everything else--including the base of the bed collapsing because he didn't put it back on correctly, ha!

They decided to use a device called an EASI to help my body dilate as well as administer some pitocin.  The procedures began at midnight, the pain began at 1:00 AM.  Once the contractions started kicking in, so did the back pain.  The nurse kept coming in and saying, "This is the time to rest!  Why aren't you resting?"  Umm, because I'm in severe pain?  (Apparently, they induce you late at night because it is supposed to take a while for your body to respond, so most patients sleep through this part...not me.)  The back pain I was experiencing was so bad that I welcomed the contractions to distract me from the constant ache in my lower back.  I found if I stood up, the back pain lessened, but because of the EASI, I wasn't allowed to stand.  So the nurse propped up my bed and gave me heating pads, but relief didn't come until they took out the EASI at 5:45 AM.  At that point I was dilated to a 5, but they said it was a false or an EASI 5 because I was mechanically put there and my body would most likely digress back a centimeter or two before I would continue to make progress.

I'm going to guess that my body starting making its own progress around 7:00 AM.  The contractions were becoming more severe and closer together.  Unfortunately, Geoff was also not feeling so hot--he was not acting like himself and had to sit down.  Terrified at the thought of not having a fully-coherent and attentive husband through this labor, I asked him to go get something to eat.  He wasn't completely willing, but after the nurse and I both insisted, he headed out to find food.  The nurse stepped out as well and soon-thereafter, my water broke--well, it really burst.  I felt like I was in a movie with how dramatic it was.  I paged the nurse and soon thereafter, the nurse and Geoff were back with me.

Now the pain REALLY kicked in.  The contractions were so painful and intense, I was getting worn down with each one.  The nurse asked again what pain management options I wanted to consider.  Up until this point, I felt like I could make it through, but now I was terrified at how much more worse things would get.  Geoff and I decided to go with the epidural, but I wasn't the only one in the hospital who wanted one at that time, so I ended up waiting an hour before the anesthesiologist was able to arrive.  That was the longest hour of my life.  During that time I kept thinking of all the women who did this without drugs and I couldn't understand how they made it through.  It was excruciating...but eventually relief did come and I couldn't have been happier.

At 10:30 AM, Dr. Drachler came in to check me and found I was a 10.  He asked me to push on the next contraction and when he saw the progress I made with one push, he decided to suit up for delivery.

At this point, my entire body started to shake with uncontrollable shivers and tremors.  It was pretty overwhelming and distracting, Because I was on sensory overload from the shaking, I couldn't feel when contractions were coming, so I had to rely on the nurse telling me when I was supposed to push.  Geoff was by my side, coaching and counting and helping me keep focused through all the craziness.  The baby's head came through and Dr. Drachler told me to look down and as I did, I was able to witness the birth of our little baby.  He flipped the baby over and all in the room exclaimed, "It's a girl!" and they immediately placed our little Eliana on my tummy.

 I was overwhelmed with such joy as I looked at this little girl and thought, "This is our daughter.  This is Hylie's sister."  It felt so good to finally have her in our family.

Eliana was extremely calm right after birth, she barely fussed at all and has been a pretty calm baby ever since!  I'm waiting for that to change...but in the meantime, we are enjoying every second with this beautiful girl.

Thanksgiving 2014

Truly, I had made no plans for Thanksgiving because I figured I'd either be in the hospital in labor or in recovery mode...so not the case.  My family in Pennsylvania even had their Thanksgiving feast last Saturday so Mom could enjoy the festivities with family (and prepare the food!) and then be here in Chicago when the baby arrives.  I'm thinking if I had planned hosting a feast at our home and if Mom had decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on the actual day, I would probably be holding our new little baby with a ton of uncooked Thanksgiving food in the fridge and Dad would have been stuck in Pennsylvania in charge of making the turkey while Mom made her way to Chicago, ha!  Alas, regardless of what plans we make, everything will work out the way it needs to happen.

Some kind families in our ward got together at the church to feast and invited our little clan to join them--and we are so glad we got to join in on the fun.  There was TONS of yummy food, great conversation, and good laughs.

The kids were in charge of clean-up...

Indeed, we are so grateful for all we have: our amazing family, the fullness of the gospel, and wonderful friends.  We are so, so blessed and are anxiously looking forward to holding our next blessing any day now!

Sparkly Toes

Well, my 'nesting' phase has kind of reached a stopping point, and unfortunately it's not because the baby is here...it's because all the projects I've had on my 'to-do' list are done!  Yes, it's a good feeling to have things finished and Geoff is super relieved to come home each day and not worry about still having 5,000 tasks hanging over his head!  But, now it's just a waiting game and I don't play those games well!  We had a doctor's appointment on the due date, November 25th only to find that baby has dropped, but I'm not dilated AT ALL.  My OB does not want me to go longer than a week overdue, so (if the baby doesn't come on its own) we are scheduled to be induced on Monday, December 1st at 10:00 PM in hopes that my doctor can deliver the baby when he reports for his shift Tuesday morning.  An end is in sight!

We are just grateful to have had such a healthy pregnancy and that the baby continues to show wonderful signs of a fit heart and active body.

So in the meantime, Hylie and I are having fun relaxing and doing 'girly' things!

Hylie was cute, as I painted the sparkles on her toes, she kept saying, "It's so BEAUTIFUL!"

Any Day Now!

I have been so blessed with such a wonderful pregnancy.  I have been amazed at the amount of energy I've been able to maintain which has been needed to keep up with Hylie (and our house projects!)  Truly, the biggest challenges now are putting on socks and shoes and getting up off the floor, ha ha!

It's hard to believe I have less than a week to go to my due date, so this little one could literally come any day now!  Looking forward to welcoming this baby into our family.

Playing in the Leaves

Now that SNOW is on the ground, I figured I better get the pics posted of Hylie loving the chance to play in the leaves this year.

Our neighborhood does a leaf pick-up program, so all the residents rake their leaves into piles on the street and the city comes and vacuums them up.  So yes, it is what it looks like: Hylie is playing in the street.  But she was being closely monitored at all times!

Our Kitchen

Our kitchen remodel is (mostly) complete and we are loving each and every bit of our new space.  We couldn't be more happy with how everything has turned out and it is also nice getting our home back together.

Last week Geoff proved yet again that he is the best husband ever and took a day off so we could finish all the painting that needed to be done.  This 9 month pregnant gal couldn't have done it without him---thank you, Geoff!

So here's the big reveal!

 

We hope you all come over for dinner soon!