He's Here! Spencer's Birth Story

Feeling so very grateful and blessed to have Spencer here and well! Especially since he decided to keep me waiting 2 days after his due date!! Little stinker. ;) But he's here and he's healthy and that's all that really matters.

While I realize that every pregnancy/labor/delivery is going to be different, I still started last week with the expectation that things would still happen similarly to the way they did when I went into labor with Nathan.

My mom picked up Nathan to take him to her house for the week on Monday and it was soooo nice to have him completely taken care of for the week.  Thanks Nana!!!!

I had a dr.'s appointment on Tuesday and I was told I was 1cm dilated. That's it?! My due date was the next day for crying out loud! And I was thoroughly depressed. So I went walking. I walked a couple miles with a friend right after my appointment and then John and I went walking again that evening. And nothing happened.

Wednesday (my due date, the 8th) I went walking again and got another couple of miles in. And still - nothing. By this point I was feeling pretty frustrated. I was sure I was going to be pregnant forever. ;) And all my preparations backfired on me because I had the apartment completely clean and I had finished all my projects that I had wanted finished before he arrived, so after I read my 8th or 9th library book for the week, I didn't have anything to do! I was planning on being at the hospital by now!!

Finally on Thursday I started feeling contractions. They were very sporadic and spaced pretty far apart, but at least something was finally happening. It wasn't until 6:30 or 7pm that they started to become pretty regular, about 6-7 minutes apart. With my first pregnancy, my contractions got going pretty quickly once they became regular, so we debated on whether or not we should just stay up and wait or try to get some sleep before going to the hospital. We decided to try to sleep. It's a good thing we did. After about an hour and a half of sleep, I woke up at midnight to some very strong contractions. But they were happening 10-12 minutes apart! I'd never heard of them getting stronger and further apart. After about 2 hours they were 12-15 minutes apart! So weird. I called the midwife on duty that night at 2am to ask about it and find out when we should consider getting to the hospital. She told me to wait a little more, to come in when the contractions were 5-7 mins apart. 2 hours later they were 7 minutes apart, so off we went.

We got to the hospital at about 4:30am. They took me to triage and checked everything out. But I was still only 2-3cm dilated! Talk about disappointing. They asked me how long my labor with Nathan had gone, and I had said "a long time!" but after a few more questions, I realized they were asking about dilation (I considered my labor with Nathan long because I'd pushed for 4 hours) and after I told them that I'd gone from a 4 to an 8 in 2 1/2 hours with Nathan, they decided to check me in anyway and get me set up in a delivery room with my IV and antibiotics (because I'm positive for group B strep) as well as oxygen because Spencer's heart rate was a little high. I guess he was just really excited to come. But I wasn't getting sent home! Yay!

My contractions had finally gotten closer together, about 4 minutes apart. Once we got set up in the delivery room, I requested my epidural, and I thankfully did not have to wait very long before it was administered around 6:30am. I was checked again and I was 4cm. Then it was time to wait. After a little while I got kind of nauseous. After readjusting my position I felt a little better and learned that nausea was a good thing - it meant things were progressing. I think I fell asleep there for a bit, which was probably good. I was so exhausted already from being up since midnight. After waking up I was at 9cm. Hurray!!!

Even though I was at a 9, Spencer's head was still pretty high up in my pelvis. My contractions had also slowed down a little so they gave me a little bit of pitocin to speed things up and try to get Spencer's head further down. My contractions picked up quickly, but Spencer's heart rate would go down with each one before coming back up again. My midwife also mentioned that my water hadn't broken yet, but that she could break it for me. The only risk would be that once it was broken, and Spencer did move further down into my pelvis, his heart rate might go down and stay down, in which case I'd need an emergency C-section. We said a prayer, and we decided to wait, and we found another position for me to wait which involved laying on my left side with my right leg up in a stirrup to open up my pelvis to make it easier for Spencer to move. In this position Spencer's heart rate remained fairly stable and after a few minutes I had bloody show, meaning that Spencer had started to move.

Upon closer inspection after my bloody show, my midwife informed me that my water probably had broken, though why it hadn't come out remains a mystery to me. I think it started to flow out when I started pushing. And speaking of pushing, it was time! I hardly pushed at all (after 4 hours of pushing with Nathan this was seriously awesome.)! 8 minutes, they told me! I think I made maybe 10 pushes and Spencer was here! Born at 10:44am on July 10th.

After delivery we found out that there had been a true knot in Spencer's umbilical cord, which explained the issues with his heart rate. We feel so blessed that the delivery went so well, and that the knot had remained loose. At 6lbs 1oz and 20inches long, he's just perfect!

 

 

  

Spencer's Nursery Reveal

Ohhhh you guys! We are getting so close! I go between feelings of panic and feelings of "I AM SO DONE BEING PREGNANT". The second one actually tends to occur more often, which I take as a good sign ;)

But anyway, I've been meaning to take and post pictures of our cute little nursery! John was making fun of me the other day, getting a room ready that he won't even use for several months, since we'll have him sleep in our room in a bassinet for a little while. But I was scrambling to get it done now, because if I wait until after Spencer arrives it's never going to happen.

So I finally remembered to take some pictures, and here we are. We went with a color scheme of Navy, Grey and Apple Green with a nautical theme. I really liked it in Nathan's room, so I decided to keep with it for Spencer's.

Here's what you'd see when you walk in the door:

Remember the bunting in Nathan's room? I loved it so much, I made one for Spencer. I'd never made one before, but it was super easy, and Nathan and I had fun picking out the fabric a few weeks ago. Next to the rocker we have the dresser that started it all, along with the gallery wall. I scored this dresser from a friend in the ward - they just moved and were selling a lot of their furniture. She was worried no one would want it since it was such a unique color but it ended up being PERFECT for us and helped me finally decide on the color scheme for this room, as I'd been completely torn between two completely different looks. And since it was already painted, I didn't have to paint it! Which I would have done had I found a dresser to makeover, but with this one I didn't have to haul it down to my parents, paint it, and get it back here. Win win win win!

We have a little bookshelf for books, toys and other things like wipes, and I'm going to have a large storage bin on the other side of the dresser for diapers. Right now that corner has our hospital bags. (Eeek!)

If you keep going you'll see the adorable striped curtain I found. It's actually a fabric shower curtain that I found at Bed Bath and Beyond, but it was exactly what I was looking for in my price range AND I didn't have to DIY anything (which rarely happens - so I was extra excited). Once Spencer starts sleeping in this room I'll add a blackout panel to the curtain, since I don't know that I'll have time to do it before he gets here. So pleased with this find though.

Along the other wall we will put the crib once we've transitioned Nathan out of it (which I'm SO not looking forward to - chances he'll actually stay in the big boy bed at night are basically slim to none). I found this adorable set of nursery wall art that I loved on Etsy, but at $40 a print for a total of $120 for all 3 that wasn't really going to work. So I made my own knockoff in Photoshop and printed them out at Costco, and it came to $6 instead. Muuuuuch better. :) I also refashioned the mobile that I made for Nathan's room by replacing all the red circles with green ones and I absolutely love how it turned out.

And that's it! I am so happy with the way everything turned out AND that I managed to get it all done before Spencer's arrival. The countdown begins!

34 Weeks!!

6 Weeks to go!! AHHH! I’m freaking out a little bit, starting to think about things like my hospital bag and arrangements for Nathan and wondering how things are going to go. Have I mentioned I’m terrified of having 2 children? Thinking about having a toddler and a newborn gets me a little overwhelmed to say the least. How am I going to keep Nathan from burning the apartment down when I’m nursing?! Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme, but seriously, I can totally see him pulling everything out of the fridge and eating his favorite things and pouring condiments all over the floor… ;)

Anyway, things have been about the same since my last update. Still feeling ginormous and wondering how I can possibly get any bigger, but I am still hoping that Spencer won’t be too much bigger than Nathan was when he was born. Fingers crossed! Spencer has been getting more hiccups these days and that has been fun. I remember Nathan got them almost every day from 28 weeks on, but this time around it’s once or twice a week, but it feels as funny as I remember from last time.

Spencer is also the most active around 11pm and 5:30am. Which makes for some very interesting sleeping. It totally feels like he’s flip-flopping around. He also seems to like to stretch he legs out as far as they can go, and it’s kind of painful! I have to push his feet back in to get him to stop. Crazy boy.

But other than that, things are just plugging along as usual. I’m still working on getting Spencer’s room all finished and decorated, so I’m hoping to have some pictures up soon. I basically have about a month left to finish up all my projects! Eek! Wish me luck!

32 Weeks!!

Okay, so I totally missed my 30 week mark – Oh well. I was kind of in the middle of throwing multiple birthday parties….so I’ve been a little busy ;)

Not too much has changed since the last bump update – feeling bigger and bigger and more uncomfortable. And seriously you guys, Spencer kicks hard! I don’t remember Nathan kicking this hard until the very end of my pregnancy, when he had pretty much completely run out of room. But this little guy kicks me so hard it hurts! And we’ve still got 8 weeks! (oof, it sounds really short when you say it that way…) Trying not to panic think about labor and delivery too much yet, but I had a trippy dream about it this past week, so it’s clearly on the brain.

Other than that I’ve been in a nesting mode the last week or so, I’m trying to have Spencer’s room all set up and organized and we’re just about done. He will be sleeping with us for the first little while, but I definitely needed to get all the stuff we were just storing in there out and into new homes. Just a few more things to take care of and his room will be all set! I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also trying to finish up as many craft projects as I can until the end of June because really, July doesn’t really exist for me in terms of getting anything done ;) I’ve managed to check off a few things, so that’s good. Things are really coming together! 

28 Weeks!

You guys. I’m in the third trimester! WOO HOO! The countdown hasn’t really started, but we’re getting close! Still can’t quite believe how close though! But I love that this pregnancy is going by so much faster than my first one. And I clearly need to look up what a chinese cabbage is. Is it different from a regular cabbage? I had to look up rutabaga the the other week. Weird.

And I’m about 95% sure I’m having another wild child. Spencer moves and kicks soooo much. He even made me a little queasy yesterday evening with all his movement. But I guess that means that Nathan will have a little buddy that can keep up with him. And I’ll have two major mischief makers. Oof. I’m tired just thinking about it. ;)

Things are plugging along the same as they’ve been for a little while. I’m sleeping even worse, but that’s pretty normal these days. I’m really trying to clear out the stuff we’ve been storing in Spencer’s room and to start getting ready for him to come. Which means I have to get pretty much all of my framed pictures up on the walls (I’m working on some picture ledge ideas – I think it’s going to be good!) and I’ll need to bring up the baby stuff that’s in storage at my parent’s house. I finally found a dresser for his room that I’m really excited about (I’ve been looking all over craigslist and facebook yard sale groups/sites for weeks!) and I’m trying to decide on a theme. I was thinking of keeping with a nautical theme, since that is what we are doing for Nathan’s room. But dinosaurs would be fun too. ;) Hmmmm…

26 Weeks!

Well, I’m finally in maternity clothes. I was trying to put it off as much as possible, but with the weather (kind of) starting to get warmer and I definitely don’t fit most of my short sleeved shirts (and I’m kind of sick of wearing sweatpants), it was time to break out the bump wardrobe. I only have a couple of short sleeved maternity shirts because most of my really big months when I was pregnant with Nathan were during the winter months. But thankfully my mom helped me out and bought me a few more cute short sleeved shirts to get me through the summer. Thanks Mom! I need to get a little bigger for my jeans, so right now I kind of rig them with a belt (with the maternity panel there are no belt loops) so that they don’t slowly slip down during the day. Super fun.

Spencer is already a little crazy, I feel so much movement most days. And a lot of it happens between 9-10pm. Oh dear. ;) John was able to feel him move last night, so that was really fun.

I’m feeling very big these days. I’m not really looking forward to getting bigger, but onward we go! It’s getting harder to hold Nathan and to bend over and put my shoes on. Or, really, bend over at all. Oof. Thankfully flip flop weather is coming (hopefully) soon so shoes shouldn’t be too much of a problem in a little while!

I can’t believe I’m already at 26 weeks! I’m still trying not to think about labor and delivery just yet, but I find myself thinking about it anyway. And then it stresses me out. ;) I’m so grateful though that things have gone so smoothly thus far! Just a few more months to go!

24 Weeks!

If you’re thinking it seems like I just barely posted my 22 week picture, you’re probably right. I was several days late on that one… ;) Now I’m just one day late this time. Yay!

Baby Spencer has been so wiggly the last week or so! Or maybe he’s always been wiggly and now he’s just big enough for me to feel it. I’m starting to worry that I’m having another crazy one. Nathan was really wiggly when I was pregnant with him and he’s wild!

I’ve been feeling pretty good. Just tired. (That seems to be my standard response when people ask me how I’m feeling) I’m getting up almost every 2 hours at night to use the bathroom and that has seriously got to be one of the most annoying things about being pregnant for me. I just want to sleep! As a result, I’m pretty sleepy during the day, but I suppose that’s going to be pretty normal for a while…

The time is going by really fast though, I can barely keep up with how far along I am these days. The move went really well and I’ve been spending a lot of time getting things unpacked and organized. We are almost completely unpacked and put together. I’ll be posting something on it soon, but I put up a pegboard to organize my craft stuff and I’m completely in love with it – it freed up a ton of space by putting everything up on the wall! My goal is to have everything completely organized by the time Spencer comes – I guess I’m having an early nesting phase ;) It’s coming along quite nicely though!

22 Weeks!

Alright so I missed my 20 week mark for pictures, but I was in the middle of a move and Nathan decided to spend 3 weeks taking 45min naps and I couldn’t get ANYTHING done – so that little that I did do was for the move. So we’re just going to count the gender reveal as my 20 week post, mmmkay? 

These last several weeks have been fine. Though I am sleeping terribly, so I’m pretty tired most of the time. I’m feeling a lot more movement than before, I’m hoping I’m not having another wild child! I’m also starting to feel really big – so I’m warning you all now to keep the size comments to a minimum (unless you’re going to tell me I look fabulous, because really, that’s all I want to hear anyway ;) ). Not really craving anything, unless you count sugar, but then I’ve always had a bit of a sweet tooth anyway… I have been wanting a milkshake for a couple of weeks now…I should probably take care of that…

I guess the biggest news is that we’ve finally decided on a name! It only took a couple of baby name books from the library and some time to read through the entire boy name sections. (Okay, so I skimmed through them, I’m not going to spend a lot of time reading through names like Armani, Champion, or Cork – yes those names are really in there) I wrote down a list of about 11 names that I liked, John looked through them and picked his top 3 and after that it was pretty easy (whew!). So the winner is:

Spencer Christian  :)

The middle name was easy, I already knew that’s what I wanted for it (Christian is John’s middle name), but I was having such a hard time with the first name! I finally feel like I found one that I like AND seems to flow with the rest of our names (call me crazy, but I felt like it needed to ‘fit’!). So there you go! We are so excited to meet baby Spencer!

Gender Reveal #2!!

Okay, so it’s time to find out what we’re having! But first I have to catch up a little on photos. I’ve been meaning to scan the pictures from our first sonogram for a while now so here’s back when #2 was a little blob (I want to say about 9wks). Aren’t they a cute blob though? ;)

And here we are 10 weeks later! Crazy how much development happens in that short amount of time!

Okay, ready to see if baby’s a he or a she?

Here is the score so far

Hurray! A baby brother is on his way! I have to say I was actually really surprised. I totally thought we were having a girl. I kind of did when I was pregnant with Nathan, but I think that’s just because I wanted a girl. But with this pregnancy I just kept having a feeling even at the very beginning that it was a girl. But we are so excited for this new little guy to join our family! It’s going to be double the trouble, double the fun with two little mischief makers running around! I’m totally stuck on a name though! I have no ideas!! And I need to figure something out because John says he’s going to call him Angus Fergus until we make a decision. Oh help. ;)

You are going to laugh at me because I totally couldn’t decide what kind of picture I wanted to use for the reveal, so I made another one. I had purchased a little pair of shoes right after our ultrasound and put them in a little box for my family to open last night, so I did a little shoe picture too, hee hee

And I thought doing just the boys’ shoes together was super cute too.

Well there you have it! Another little man! So excited for July!

Maxi Skirt Mania

So I really wish I’d know about the awesomeness that is the maxi skirt when I was pregnant with Nathan. I think for most of that time I wore the same stretchy black skirt every week to church with a different top and it got really boring. And tight. ;) I finally bought my first maxi a few months after Nathan was born. I got some birthday money for clothes and bought an adorable black and white chevron one. Then later in the winter I bought a taupe and black striped one. And I LOVE them! They are so comfy, and they are great year round!

So with this pregnancy I definitely started wearing my maxis to church every week pretty quick – I mean, I was having to use the hair-tie-to-button-up-your-jeans trick at like, 9 weeks. Oof. But I was, admittedly, getting kind of bored of wearing the same two outfits every week – because that’s all I can fit into right now… (I know, I sound a little vain, but I really like a variety in my wardrobe, am I the only one that gets into a fashion slump wearing the same few things all the time?) so after finding some easy peasy tutorials on Pinterest, I figured I would take a shot at making a new one.

I found some turquoise knit fabric at JoAnn’s that I loved for $5.99/yd (AND it was 40% off!) so I grabbed 2 yards for around $7 and whipped up a skirt in less than 2 hours! It was so easy! It was also my first time sewing with knits, but I didn’t have too many problems. Luckily, my machine came with a ballpoint needle and though I had to adjust the tension on my sewing machine, after a few trial-and-error runs with my scraps, it wasn’t much different than sewing with other cotton fabrics. I can’t really link to a tutorial that I used, I actually ended up just using my taupe/black striped skirt as a pattern, but made it a little bit bigger to accommodate my growing bump. And I lurrrrve it!

So naturally, I wanted to make another one. ;) Back to JoAnn’s I went and found this adorable red with white stripes knit and then I bought some plain black knit – I figured I should at least have a plain black one, as it would be the most versatile. Whipped those babies up in about 2 hours and voila! My new maxi collection!

The red striped fabric was a little more on the pricey side, but I managed to get it with a sale. The solids were much cheaper and are a little see-through, but that’s nothing a little slip underneath won’t fix!

Now I guess I can pack up my sewing machine for the move… ;)

Baby Bump #2 18 Weeks!

Is it just me, or is this pregnancy going by sooooo much faster!? Not that I’m complaining! It’s almost nice to have a bajillion other things going on (AND a toddler!), it makes the days fly by and I can’t believe we’re already going to find out (hopefully) what we’re having next week! Any guesses??

The last two weeks have actually been kind of rough, as I was still recovering from bronchitis, then Nathan got pink eye and a nasty, mucous-y cough that he is still recovering from. The pink eye is gone though, thank goodness! But we are finally doing much better in the general health department, yay!

In other news, we are moving! I know, again. We lasted 2 years in this apartment though! That’s a record for us. With our growing family we decided we needed another bedroom for our new little person, because honestly, if we try to make Nathan share a room right now, no one is ever sleeping again. That’s just the way it is. After much stress and prayer, we found a place with 3 bedrooms that we think will work well for us less than 10 minutes away from where we are now. We are kind of bummed we are leaving our current place, we’ve really enjoyed this community, but the 3 bedrooms here are almost twice our budget! So away we go. ;) We move at the end of the month – and I should probably start packing…

Baby Bump #2 16 Weeks!

Definitely out of the first trimester – woo hoo!! While I haven’t been nauseous, I’ve been super bloated and uncomfortable with everything I ate and that has been going away. Hurray! So glad to feel a little more normal and to not worry about gurgles in my stomach.

Big bummer this week though has been this nagging cough that I picked up last week that has gotten progressively worse. It has kept me up all night the last two nights and I finally went to an urgent care office this morning and it turns out I have bronchitis. I don’t think it’s a super serious case of it, but the Dr. sent me home with some antibiotics. Boo. But hopefully this will get it all taken care of and I can finally get some sleep again.

I felt the baby move this past week! It almost helped that Nathan was trying to sit on me so I could feel it even better ;) We’re starting to count down the weeks until we can find out what we’re having! So excited!

Baby Bump #2 14 Weeks!

Okay, so let me just say now that the whole Mom-brain thing has really gotten to me for the last week or so. I totally thought I was 13 weeks today, but after my appointment yesterday, I found out that I am, in fact, 14 weeks. I still have no idea where that 1 week went in my brain, but hey! I’m a week further along than I thought! Yippee!!

This pregnancy has already been very different, and very much the same as when I was pregnant with Little Man. The main difference being that I haven’t been nearly as sick! YAY! I only threw up once, right around 11 weeks - for some reason my lunch just didn’t sit well with me that day. With Nathan I was pretty nauseous from week 6 to week 14. I’m feeling so blessed I haven’t been sick this time because I was so nervous about getting pregnant again and being sick with a toddler. Definitely hungry all the time again, but that didn’t hit till later this time around, and definitely tired again. I’m certainly showing much sooner this time, I don’t think I looked like this last time until like, 16 weeks! I heard the heartbeat yesterday at my Dr.’s appointment and its feeling much more real now!!

Holidays 2014 Catch Up

Oof, I have a lot to catch up on! Get ready, this is a crazy long picture-filled post!

I guess to start, just in case you hadn’t noticed on facebook…

We’ve expecting Baby #2!! Due at the beginning of July! We are so excited! We found out at the end of October. November and December were that much more exhausting for me, but I took the opportunity to put together a pretty adorable (if I do say so myself) Christmas card this year since we announced it in December:

Hee hee hee

November was totally crazy. I taught a cookie decorating class for Relief Society, made Alice in Wonderland Cookies, and got ready for a pop-up boutique shop that I was doing with a friend. Then we spent Thanksgiving with my family in Virginia. Nathan and I actually spent about 10 days there because my parents were putting in tile flooring in their kitchen and long story short, they suddenly needed an adult present at home while the contractors worked (as both my parents work) so we went down a little early to be there while the flooring went in and then John came down for Thanksgiving. It was about that time that I started to get really hungry and tired and slightly carsick if I hadn’t eaten. But we had a fairly good time and a yummy turkey dinner and pie night and Nathan loved being at Nana’s house.

December was really crazy too. My friend Karen had invited me to participate in a little boutique she was putting together at her house the first weekend on December. I made 20 felt play sets to sell, as well as some sugar cookies. I started work on the play sets in October, but still barely managed to get them all done in time! The boutique was awesome though (aaaaaannnnnd I have some play sets leftover for sale if anyone is interested!!). The apartment was completely overhauled to make room for all the fun crafts we had to sell.
I also had to help put together our Relief Society activity for December, and though it felt kind of thrown together, it still turned out nice. We had a yummy ham dinner and a musical program. Once that was done, most of my holiday craziness was over. Thank goodness! Then I was really able to enjoy the Christmas season with John and Nathan. It was a lot more fun with Nathan this year since he’s bigger and can do more things.  We took him to the train garden at the Ellicott City Volunteer Fire Department and he loved it!

We also met up with my family to go to the German Christmas Village in downtown Baltimore. Wasn’t quite the same, but the pretzels we pretty good. ;) I didn’t get many pictures since it was already really dark when we got there.

On Christmas Eve we went to see the temple lights. Nathan seemed to enjoy it more than I thought he would, and he really liked the life-size nativity display.

Christmas morning was so fun! We were going to be spending a week in PA with my family right after Christmas, so we decided to spend Christmas day as just the 3 of us and it was really nice. I had a lot of fun putting the presents out under the tree after Nathan had gone to bed on Christmas Eve :)
Look at that cute face!!
Are those for me?!
We got him a super cool Melissa and Doug shopping cart and a couple of books this year.
Grandma and Grandpa Moffat got him a play cash register and a riding scooter!
Nathan was having a hard time figuring out the scooter at first, so John took it upon himself to show him how it’s done…
Can’t have pictures of Christmas without a picture of the aftermath! John got me a spiffy tool belt for my building projects and this awesome apple peeler/corer/slicer thing. It’s pretty awesome. And my parents and in-laws got me a new stainless steel cookware set! It’s amazing. And shiny.
My in-laws and I went halfsies and got John a home theater sound system. He was pretty excited! After Nathan went down for a nap we set it up, and had to literally fish the wires behind the media center to get it to all fit – hence the fishing pole.
One of my favorite parts of the day was getting some cuddles from my non-cuddly Little Man!

We spent most of the rest of the day facetiming with family and hanging out. We finished the day with a steak dinner (I’m thinking we might need to do that every year) and packing for our PA trip!

We made the drive up the day after Christmas. On the way there we stopped in a little bitty village called Cumbola, which is where one of John’s ancestor’s was born. I want to say this ancestor was the first born in the US in that line.

Fist Bump for family history

It took us about an hour longer than it was supposed to (lots of food and potty breaks for the pregnant girl here), but Nathan did extremely well in the car. Once we were checked in, Nathan wasted no time in checking out the condo’s amenities.
On our first full day we went to a town called Easton, which was about an hour and a half away (PS – our condo was nice, but in the middle of no where, no joke) to the Crayola Experience. It was like a big activity center. I think it was definitely better suited to older children, but Nathan still had a good time and the rest of us really enjoyed it.

The world’s largest crayon!
He’s a little more into it now, but Nathan didn’t have much interest in coloring while we were there.
You could make your own markers and watch how they are made and put together.
At the gift shop they had allllll the colors they make on display and what year they came out. They had tins that you could fill, customizing which colors you wanted. Papa ended up getting us a tin of crayons and markers! We managed to get at least one of every single color and most of the markers. Thanks Papa!
Quick photo bomb by the brother…
Nathan loved the marker display
And they had this cool crayon crosswalk…
We also went to the movies a couple of times to see Night at the Museum 3 and the last Hobbit movie. we played games and I binge-watched HGTV. We don’t have cable so whenever we’re on vacation I watch as much of it as I can and I don’t feel bad because I hardly ever watch TV. ;)  And Nathan got a haircut (he was getting so shaggy!!!)
And while my Mom was away for a day to go to a wedding in Vegas, the rest of us went to a pretzel factory (relatively) close to where we were staying. I joked that I was so hungry, I was going to eat like 5 pretzels…and then actually ate 4. I was really hungry…and they were super tasty!
We could watch them make the pretzels through these large windows.
Someone also came out and gave us some dough to try to make the pretzel twist. It’s been forever since I shaped pretzels as an intern at pastry school, but I don’t think I did too badly. ;)
Afterwards we bought pretzels to eat and Nathan hung out on this sweet bike he found while we were eating.
On New Year’s Day most of the family went skiing. I was a little bummed I couldn’t go (with the baby and all) but I needed to stay home with Nathan anyway and it didn’t really snow while we were there, so all of it was man made…and I don’t think I really missed much. ;)

And then it was time to go home! Nathan loved being able to see my family that whole week, I think he’s missing all the extra attention now that we are home. ;) It’s good to be back but it’s been tough coming back to reality!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!