Merry Christmas!!! I hope Santa finds all of you!!!!
Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!
December 24th, 2009
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The Year in Review
December 16th, 2009
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So hell has frozen over and I am posting again…
As we are wrapping up 2009, I thought it would be nice to do a Year in Review post. Not only for anyone reading this blog and interested in our crazy lives, but also for us to look back and say HOLY SH** HOW DID WE COME OUT OF ALL OF THIS ALIVE?!?!?! 
So the year went as follows…
December 31st, 2008 – Spent a quiet New Year’s with Tim and Elyse at the Garden Walk in Anaheim. I was super pregnant and wondering how I was going to get through a another month + of this
January 9, 2009 – Had my 36 week check up with my Dr. in the morning and then got an unexpected surprise while at work…yes folks, my nightmare came true…my water broke at work (well kinda anyways). Went back to the Dr. and it wasn’t confirmed that my water actually broke but they said I could go into labor at anytime.
January 10, 2009 – So excited!! This was the day of my shower, well it was supposed to be anyways…but I woke up and my water DEFINITELY broke, so it was off to the hospital to get checked out. It was confirmed, this was going to be Hayden’s birthday. Due to complications, Hayden Marcelo was born at a healthy 6lbs. 13 ozs via c-section. Our lives were changed forever for the best!
January – April - I was lucky to stay home with Hayden on Maternity Leave during this time and Nick was able to spend 8 weeks of this time with us as well (thank you paternity leave!). My parents also made two visits out to California during this time.
April – Begrudgingly, went back to work….
May - A job back at WIU in Macomb opened up for Nick. After a lot of contemplation we decided it was probably best he apply for it. After a series of interviews, he got the job. Time to pack up our lives and head back to Illinois.
June – Said a tearful goodbye to family and friends in California and moved into temporary housing at WIU. Oh…and Nick had a big birthday. Which he spent with my dad and Paul in Vegas…what a coincidence that they were driving the moving truck across the country and just happened to pass through Vegas on Nick’s 30th birthday huh??
July – Hayden turned 6 months old! We also celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. I also accepted a position at WIU in the University Union.
August – Let the house hunting begin!!! We also received the great news that Hayden is going to have a new cousin in May! Tim and Elyse shared the great news that they are expecting. We can’t wait to meet the newest little Katz!
September - Closed on our house on September 11th. We are officially homeowners!!!
October - After doing some major projects on the house we moved in and started putting down some roots.
November - We spent Thanksgiving in Illinois with my family.
December - We are spending our time chasing around a little scooting (yes scooting, not crawling) 11 month old with a big all-boy personality We can’t wait for Hayden to have his first Christmas and see his reactions to everything. Children do make the holidays quite a bit sweeter.
We will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning & afternoon in Illinois with family. We are then leaving for St. Louis to take a trip back to California to celebrate the holidays with family there. We are so excited to see everyone back in California and for them to share in the joy of Hayden. We will be having a Christmas dinner and celebrating Hayden’ s 1st birthday (West Coast Style) while we are out there. It will be a great time!
I’m sure I’ve missed something somewhere, but I hit on the major points. Exhausting isn’t it??
I must say, it was all worth it. Expecially since this year gave us this little guy…best thing we have ever done, hands down.
Daily Funny
December 10th, 2009
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Sorry for the delay in posting! We are still trying to figure out the design for the blog (any help would be great appreciated!), but wanted to share this little cartoon.
I think this pretty much sums up where we’re at right now…
SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
November 12th, 2009
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Trying to make the site a little prettier….will be returning soon!!
These are the moments…
September 22nd, 2009
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So I totally got inspired from a blog post that I just read as it has me reflecting on the past 8 1/2 months of our lives. The blog post was on one of my favorite blogs, babyrabies.com and was entitled “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” The post discussed the hot topic of living in the moment while parenting and wishing for your child to reach that next stage. Whether it be rolling over, smiling, holding their head up, or that first laugh, I as a parent have always wished for that next big thing…and am now working on living in the moment.
Even in my professional and personal life, both Nick and I have always thought in terms of what’s next. With short stints in both Atlanta and California we were always living years down the road. We never painted walls, always saved boxes, and were always searching for jobs…kinda…but anyways it was always about “when we move.”
But that’s different now, we have purchased a house, are employed by a University we both have great pride in, and are putting down roots for once. It has taken a lot for us to be in our current situation, but all the while we were trying our best to enjoy those sweet moments with Hayden. It is absolutely amazing how quickly the time flies and how far he has come from that little bundle of joy we brought home a month early.
So lately we have been having issues with Hayden sleeping through the night in his crib. He slept through the night easily very early on….in our bed. We then got him sleeping in his crib through the night. Lately, he has been battling an ear infection/cold/daycare initiation that has him waking halfway through the night. I feed him a bottle, lay down with him on my chest and we both pass out for the rest of the night. Part of me wonders if he has it all figured out…he has figured out how to get into our bed for the night. In the morning I wake up frustrated that I didn’t sleep as well as I would have if he would have stayed in his crib. But I am now starting to realize how amazing these moments are. I need to cherish these times, sleep or no sleep, it’s what parenting is about. These times are going to be gone before we know it.
So now, when I lay Hayden on his tummy and he kicks his legs and “swims” as he tries his hardest to crawl, I have come to peace with him taking as long as he wants.
Paint Colors
September 9th, 2009
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As promised in the previous post, here are the paint colors that we have selected for our house…
Kitchen/Dining Room/Entryway/Hallway
Family Room
Main Bathroom
Hayden’s Room
Our Bedroom
We are also planning on using the leftover tan that we used in Hayden’s Room for our bathroom. It looks a little like this…
We are still tossing around colors for the third bedroom/guest room/office, but are thinking about doing something fun…perhaps a red? Not quite sure yet.
OH an update! We are closing this Friday at 3:30pm. So if any of you want to attend a painting party, we are throwing a big one this weekend!!
It’s Complicated
September 8th, 2009
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This homebuying stuff is complicated!! There are just too many i’s to dot and t’s to cross with this stuff. So our offer was accepted several weeks ago and immediately following that we had a home inspection completed on the house. In the meantime the bank we are using (who has been wonderful – I highly recommend Heartland Bank & Trust for mortgages) was compiling all of our paperwork and collecting all of the necessary “stuff” in order for us to be approved for the loan. Finally, we signed off on the loan and had an official appraisal done.
As all of this “business” stuff was being done I was busy with the fun stuff…paint colors have been chosen for the entire house, applicances have been purchased, and a date has been booked for carpet installation. And all of the furniture has been arranged in the house…well in my head anyways
So today we purchased home insurance and the termite inspection was to be performed on the house. So if all is clear, we are set to close on Friday. After closing on Friday, we are going to do a quick test of the paint on the walls and then go and pick up all of the paint at Home Depot (along with other things I’m sure…Home Depot is going to be our second home for awhile I’m sure) and then spend the weekend and following week painting the house. I will do a post soon with pics of all the paint colors we have picked out. After the painting is done, carpet is set to be installed on Sept. 21st. After that it’s moving time!!!
I am so excited to have all of our stuff in one place again. I think we are very lucky to have found a house and close in three months, but on the other hand it’s been a long 3 months living in between our temporary housing and my parents house. So it will be very nice to finally settle in, start a routine again, and have a place to call home :0)
A New Home
August 13th, 2009
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So it finally happened! We bought a house!!!! Well, we haven’t closed yet, but we are still excited (as we are doing the “we bought a house dance”). The pics of the house are linked up to this site through our flickr account. We are scheduled to close in mid-September, so we are now in the process of picking out flooring, fixtures, and paint. We were lucky to get into a 3 bedroom, 1 and 3/4 bath home where the kitchen and bathrooms were already redone, but there are still some minor projects that need to happen at some point. But, after being in Macomb for 2 months we are excited that we finally will have a space to call home in a few short weeks. Be on the lookout for photos as we begin to paint and decorate
Things are still going well with Hayden. His last day of “Grandma School” is tomorrow as my mom starts school again soon. So Hayden will be starting at Wesley Daycare on Monday. I am sad that he won’t be spending the quality time with his grandma and his G-G, but I am excited for him to start making friends with other little ones and flexing his social skills once again.
We have figured out that Hayden LOVES his vegetables and is not a big fan of fruit. Weird kid, huh? Especially anyone out there that knows about Nick’s eating habits For those of you that don’t, Nick won’t eat anything that is green….well I take that back, he eats lettuce sometimes and also likes avocado, surprisingly enough…must be because he is from California or something, I’m still trying to figure that one out.
Hayden is also getting a lot more comfortable on the floor, we can now leave the room while he is sitting up since he is not taking nose dives anymore. He is also rolling as a means of transportation and moving in every direction but forward when on his stomach. Now when you are holding the little man he instantly flexes his legs to stand up…no more cuddly little baby anymore, he’s on the move!
Speaking of the little man, here’s a recent pic:
Two Year Anniversary
July 14th, 2009
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It is hard to believe that Ashley and I have already been married for two years. I feel like we were just in Las Vegas at our hotel room in NYNY getting ready for the big day. ..
I can still hear the slot machines and dueling pianos on the casino lobby floor. I can still feel the heat from the sun – if you remember, it was HOT!! I can still remember seeing Ashley for the first time in her little room at Sunset Gardens like it was yesterday. She looked so BEAUTIFUL.
So much has happened in two years. We moved from Atlanta to Southern California driving 2400 miles. Got new jobs, starting house hunting, found out we were expecting our first child, stopped house hunting, moved apartments, had Hayden a month early, decided to move back to Macomb, driving 1900 miles, both got new jobs, and that brings us to today.
I feel so lucky to have found Ashley. She is the best wife and the most amazing mother I could have every asked for. She is passionate, caring, giving, loving, smart, funny, outgoing, and driven. I love that she keeps me on my toes and takes care of me when I am sick. She is there for me when I am having a bad day and is first in line to celebrate when things go great. She cares about my happiness and is determined to be both a great wife to me and mother to Hayden.
One of my favorite things about Ashley is when we are driving in the car and a song she likes comes on. She’ll think I am not looking so she’ll do a little dance. I’ll ask her to do it again but she’ll always tell me it was a ‘one time show’. I appreciate everything she went through to have Hayden as I cannot imagine a day without him now. I love how she lets me sing songs, real ones, made up ones, to Hayden all morning when he wakes up, even though I cannot carry a tune to save my life.
I am thankful to her for spending the first two years of our marriage, and her first time being pregnant, near my family, and away from hers. I am lucky that she puts up with me when I am tired or cranky and I still melt every time she tells me she loves me.
Thank you Ashley for being YOU!
I love you.
ME
Happy Half Birthday Hayden!!!
July 13th, 2009
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Oh my goodness where does the time go???? A quick 6 months ago, Nick and I were wandering around the aisles of Babies R Us wondering if we had everything we needed for the nursery…not to mention we still thought we had a month longer, but little Hayden was ready to come into the world early! Fast forward 6 months later, in a new state, with new jobs, and new, well new everything pretty much.
As we speak, Hayden and Nick are sitting on the couch, yup that’s right I said sitting. Little Hayden has now mastered the art of sitting on his own. I would say he is about 95% sitting on his own at this point. We have just gotten to the point where we can put him in a high chair at restaurants. There are some other developmental milestones that he has also recently mastered, such as rolling from back to front and trying to scoot. He manages to move sideways and backwards, but not forwards just yet. He is also talking a lot more, we always say that this child will not have a problem finding his voice. I find him screaming “Ma Ma Ma Ma” at times….which I of course interpret as him saying mama, but Nick says otherwise :0)
We have also moved forward with solid foods. We have been working on rice cereal for about a month now and have just recently progressed with other baby foods. We started with peas, which he likes and then moved onto green beans, which he loooves!!! Tomorrow we start on squash and move onto the yellow/orange vegetables. It is so fun to watch him discover new foods and learn to eat off of a spoon. I’ve even caught him licking his lips several times, so cute!
While Nick and I are working during the week Hayden is staying with my mom, as she is on her summer break from school right now. He will start up at Wesley Daycare Center in the middle of August. So Hayden, Grandma, and GiGi (his great-grandma) are hanging out everyday and going on field trips, most recently to the Farmer’s Market. And now since we are so close to my parents, we are able to visit them at lunch, which is a nice change.
Tomorrow is another first…Hayden’s first swimming lesson!! He was eligible to start at 6 months so we signed him up. I will make sure to blog a full report and post pictures after the lesson.
Hope all is well with everyone and good night!
