Happy Birthdays

Because we stayed home for the holidays, Scot also got to spend his first birthday (Dec. 26th) at home (and not in Wausau) in many, many years. To celebrate this rare occasion, we invited several friends over...but alas, only our friends J-squared & Keira were able to make it. Oh well, we still had a fun time! I made a spaghetti dinner and we played the Wii. What more do you need?

The birthday boy with his two favorite ladies


Keira and Ava - polar opposites (can we have a calm one next time?)

The girls helping Scot blow out his candles

The next day (Dec 27th) was Grandma Di's birthday, so we took her to a fancy steakhouse called Murray's in downtown Minneapolis - we had a great time!

And sooner or later, we'll have another birthday in the mix. Two weeks and counting! Fortunately, I'm not experiencing the lovely symptoms mentioned in the ticker above...I'm just tired and ready to get on with things. I had my 38 week appointment today - I'm now dilated to 2-3 cm, but really don't have anything else to report. Other than Ava's question while I was being examined..."What's in Mommy's butt?"

Home for the Holidays

Well, it's the first time we've been home for Christmas in at least eight years. Usually we are on our way to Wausau fairly early on Christmas day...but with the baby cooking this year for just a few more weeks (if that), we elected to stay put. And it's pretty nice, especially now that Ava is older and sort of "gets" Santa. She enjoyed picking out cookies to put out for him last night and really enjoyed seeing that they were eaten this morning!

We've had a very relaxing Christmas day - opened and played with Santa presents, watched one of Ava's new movies - "Charlotte's Web", ate leftovers, napped (all 3 of us), went sledding, and now Scot and Ava are watching another one of Ava's new movies - "Horton Hears a Who".

So, despite not having to travel, we still have been very busy the last week. My parents came to visit last Friday - our Christmas gifts to them were tickets to the Minnesota Orchestra's holiday program, with Doc Severinson conducting. It was a really terrific show (how can you can go wrong with 2 hours of Christmas music?) and we had an amazing dinner in downtown Minneapolis beforehand at The Newsroom. A great perk was that we could see the Hollidazzle parade from our nice, warm, cozy seats instead of standing outside freezing with the masses.

The next day, my brother Mike drove over from Wausau to rescue us from a bathroom emergency. Shortly after we moved into our house 4 years ago, Scot and his dad redid our upstairs bath - new tile floor, shower, tub surround, recessed lighting, etc, etc. Well, unfortunately, we recently discovered that the tub surround was not doing its job and the wallboard underneath was growing mold and getting water damage. Scot called Mike on the off chance he could come over in the next few weeks and put up some tile, which he does for a living. He was free so he came over right away the next day. I'll spare you all of the agonizing details and delays that occurred over the weekend - let's just say it's done, it looks awesome, and we owe Mike big. Thanks bro! Here's some shots of the finished product and Mike's signature...hopefully the power of the snowman keeps our bathroom in good shape for many years to come!



So, we celebrated Christmas Eve last night with Scot's family and had a wonderful time, despite it being very bittersweet for all of us this year. The week prior, Scot's cousin Dan was home in between his Iraq deployment and his next Naval assignment - Hawaii (rough). Here we are all:

In baby-related news, I had my 37 week appointment on Monday. I'm dilated to 2 cm, but otherwise not much is going on. My doctor gave me strict orders not to have the baby this weekend since she'll be out of town. :-) I am happy to play by those rules for now, though I am getting increasingly anxious to get things rolling along. As easy as my pregnancy has been, I'm still eager for it to be over. Our good friend Lauren (and Jerry), who was due on January 5th - one week before me, just had her baby boy on December 23rd. We visited them in the hospital that night - the same hospital I'll be delivering at. So yeah, I'm getting ready for the end.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Heading South...

in April, that is. To Atlanta. For about 3 months. Yikes!

So, Scot has more military pilot training to complete - he will be upgrading from copilot to aircraft commander. We have known this would be coming for awhile, but just didn't know when. And now we know - we actually got his dates in early October but have just recently figured out the logistics of it all. Awhile ago I think we both assumed he would just go down there by himself and do it whenever it came up. Ha! My perspective quickly changed about, oh, 2 days into his most recent deployment to Afghanistan. It became clearer and clearer throughout his 8 week absence that I was in no condition to take on yet another absence with one more child.

Just one small detail - what was I going to do about my job? The timing seemed like it couldn't be any worse. If I have this baby sometime around my due date, I will be going back to work the first part of April. And now to ask my boss for another reprieve starting at the end of April? Ugh. Well, I got the courage to bring it up a few weeks ago and surprisingly she was very supportive. In the end, I think we have agreed that I will take a personal leave of absence between late April and the end of May and then I will work remotely part time for the rest of our stay there. And the timing actually worked out better than I initially thought, as we're already prepping another gal in my dept to take over some of my tasks while I'm on maternity leave - now we'll just add a few more months to that.

So, it is pretty exciting to think that after the first of the year I will barely be in the office until the end of July! The thought of moving the 4 of us down there is a little unnerving, but it should work out all right. We'll probably just take our 2 vehicles and then rent a furnished apartment while we're down there. I haven't really spent any time in Atlanta before, so I think it will be a lot of fun to explore. And my mouth is already watering for some sweet tea...yummy.

Counting down...

Yikes! Gosh, less than one month to go. It seems like forever and not enough time all at once. I do feel like I've been pregnant forever, considering we made the initial announcment to our families on Mother's Day. But in many ways, I'm not ready. I'm mostly scared about going from a family of 3 to a family of 4 and all of the unknowns it will bring. I know it will all work itself out in the end, though...we won't have any other choice, right?

So, I had my 36 week appointment a few days ago and now will start seeing my doctor every Monday. Things are moving along just fine - I was surprised to find out I'm already dilated to 1-2cm, though my doctor said that's fairly common after the first pregnancy. If I remember correctly, I was dilated for 2 or 3 weeks with Ava and she did not budge until 3 days after my due date. And for all those people who ask if I want a December baby for the tax deduction? I really don't care. I would just as soon make it through the holidays without a disruption like childbirth and let this little guy or girl cook a little longer. Besides, my insurance will actually be quite a bit better beginning in January so it all ends up being a wash. Otherwise, my iron is still low and I'm still tired most of the time. I don't expect that to change anytime soon!

We are definitely in less of planning frenzy with this baby. We have a boy name picked out, but still no girl name. We don't have a nursery for the baby - Ava is still using the only other bedroom that is upstairs by ours (our other two bedrooms are downstairs) so we aren't in a rush to move her. We figure the baby will sleep in our room for the first few months anyway - we'll get a room for him/her eventually. I just finally did my first load of "baby laundry" - got out all of Ava's things that can be reused and washed them up (OK, so that event tugged at the heartstrings a little...). I received a sample newborn diaper in the mail from Pampers last week and couldn't believe how tiny it was! We have a couple of boxes of diapers and wipes. And I have boobs, assuming nursing is a success again this time. Eh, so everything is pretty much checked off!

And because I don't feel like typing much more, here are some pictures from the last week...

Ava's idea of trimming the tree - the cluster technique:


Ava and Daddy all bundled up, ready to tackle snow shoveling:


Making spritz cookies, a Wilcox family tradition:

A few shout outs...

I follow quite a few blogs...I just thought I'd give a shout out to a few here. By the way, if you have a few blogs you follow, I highly suggest using Google Reader - you can enter the URLs all on one site and it will indicate which ones have new entries. Neat!

My sister has a blog! This is just short of amazing, considering just over a year ago she didn't know how to bookmark a website as a favorite (sorry Jo, Mom told me about that). She's big into the knitting scene and her family life in Wausau, WI.

I have a very talented friend in California, who I've actually never met, but we have gotten to know each other through a parenting website for our November 2005 babies. Her name is Rebecca and she is the proud mother of 4(!) - an 11 year old boy, 4 year old boy-girl twins, and a 3 year old boy. Her husband is in the Navy and was also deployed to Afghanistan this year, so we've been able to commiserate on a number of levels. She actually has several sites, a few which serve as business ventures. Her main blog is here - check out the links to her 2 Etsy stores (baby cocoons and hair accessories). Hmm...wouldn't one of those baby cocoons be perfect for a certain baby due in January? She also makes custom photo announcements - I would love to do this more as well, but I have come to accept that I just don't have the time. I still love to do it for friends and family and will probably dedicate a future post to some of my latest creations.

Another online friend is Shannon from Ontario, Canada. She is another very crafty girl, which is obvious by her blog. I have just re-discovered that she has an offshoot blog which focuses on menu planning and trying new recipes for her family of five - I am definitely going to start paying more attention to this one! We can definitely use help in this area.

I'll try to give credit in the next few months to some of the other great blogs I read regularly.