Feathering Our Nest

I hope by now you are on the couch, wearing some stretchy pants and basking in the glory of everything you ate today and who you sat around the table with.

We had a lot of fun with the Eagle’s in Davenport (yes, most of them were there and we totaled up to 44!) and Miss Georgia got to meet a lot of the family. Then we got home and even changed her into her ‘fat pants’ – festive, of course.

Even though this mini-photoshoot was way past her bedtime, she was rolling all over the place. Rolling from back to tummy and then tummy to back and then pushing up on her hands and just grinning that gummy smile that we love! She is moving so much these days – I don’t think crawling is too far in our future. Oh crap

Enjoy the pics of our little turkey!

Georgia’s pictures went so well today! She was in such a good mood and the photographer James and his wife Missy were fabulous and so fun to work with! Ryan went to college with the photographer and ran into him at a Hawkeye tailgate earlier in the season. We looked at his website and I knew we had to have him take pictures of our peanut.
We snapped one on our phone while he was taking pictures of her in the Christmas outfit. Here’s a little sneak peek for ya:

It will be a long two weeks waiting to see all the pictures they took – just a measly 750!

I have so much to be thankful for this year, and if possible, more than ever before because I have been blessed with a beautiful, healthy, perfect baby girl. Every day I look at her in amazement – she is part me, part Ryan and she will carry on our family after we are gone from this Earth.

I just stare at her sometimes (ok, a lot!) and smile. I can’t help myself! Plus, with those cheeks, what is not to love!?
The other night we were doing just that — and cracking up listening to her babble, giggle and smile at us. I thought we’d share it with you!

We also have amazing families and friends we couldn’t live without – here in Des Moines and of course, scattered around the country. We are healthy and happy and feel blessed. And are so thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

We did some serious celebrating for Ryan’s birthday on Saturday and I think he had a good 29th birthday!

 This is what I got Ryan for his birthday. We’ve been talking about making a huge canvas with our wedding song lyrics on it for years and I went ahead and designed it with a graphic designer in Texas. It’s 5 feet by 3 feet and is going to hang on the landing of our staircase. LOVE IT!

Friday night we headed to Washington to stay at Ryan’s parents, since we were tailgating in Iowa City the next morning and they were going to watch Miss Doodah. Here are the Hawk fans decked out in their gear for football Saturday.

Georgia woke up the other morning making another new sound: she now says ‘na na na’ when she’s happy, when she’s mad, when she’s talking to herself in her crib at 6am, it’s pretty cute. And sometimes she can even say ma ma ma ma – ooooooooh!

I tried to get her doing it full-out on video last night, and this is as good as it gets.

She also has started using her arms more now that she’s a tummy sleeper! And is even getting one knee up. I think I can see crawling on our horizon. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Excited: yes. Scared: yes. Wishing we had more carpet: yes! Her poor knees. We’ll have to invest in some baby knee pads.

Ryan got his birthday gift last night and I took lots of pics of the finished product but don’t have the camera here with me, so I’ll upload those after the weekend with pictures from the weekend and the tailagate.
Have a great weekend, friends!!

I last blogged on Monday and it’s Thursday already! How did that happen?
Let me just say it has been one crazy week. The website I’ve been working for finally launched this week and it was so much fun and so far the students love it! I can’t wait to see where this gig takes us all.

Plus, my hubs turns another year older (and wiser, I’m sure) on Saturday and we’re going to celebrate with his family and some peeps at the Iowa game. I ordered these cupcakes that look and sound so amazing. They’re from a couple of local gals, FancyPants Cupcake Co, and I ordered their Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. Guiness in the mix and Bailey’s in the frosting – what is not to love?

I may have a few birthday surprises in store for Ryan, and I can’t wait to give him his gift! I have been working on it for a couple of months. And yes, I kept it a secret this whole time: major points for me! It is scheduled to arrive today – and he’s in Chicago for work until late tonight which will be just perfect for my ‘plan.’

Can’t wait to share all the details with ya’ll! Happy Almost-Friday day!

On Sunday, with less than 50mph winds and a fairly sunny day we put up our Christmas lights, wreaths and garland. This is our first Christmas at the house and we were so excited to get them up, then we had to wait for it to get dark to check out our handiwork in it’s full glory.
I think we did quite well!

Using the flash on our camera.

And without a flash.

I think in the future we’ll do more lights, more garland… just more, but we’re pretty happy with it for our first year. Plus, all of that stuff gets expensive!

We had a lot of laughs putting the lights up: our hands freezing, me in Ryan’s wool dress coat, a red shirt and red pants (yes, seriously.), and opening up my dad’s tool box was the icing on the cake.

My dad was known for having a million gadgets, 8 hammers, 30 rolls of duct tape, opened tubes of J.B. Weld, and he even saved old screws – just in case! When you open up one of the drawers at his tool bench or a tool box, you’re bound to find something to make you smile. Sunday was the perfect example of that.

Ryan and I were on the upper porch trying to attach the wreaths to the porch rails. In our 2 hour trip to Lowe’s the day before, Ryan could only find small zip-ties, so we hoped they would hold the wreaths for the next month and a half in all of the harsh weather. As we hooked 3 together to reach around the banister, we realized we had a problem. Not only did it not look sturdy, (it wasn’t) the zip ties kept snapping in half. I was freezing and so frustrated, so I told Ryan that I quit and went inside. I knew we needed super-heavy-duty indoor/outdoor zip ties to hold through the winter storms, and I said, half-joking on my way inside, “I bet my dad has some in his tool box.”

A bit later, Ryan went into the garage, opens the old metal toolbox that we have of my dad’s and guess what? Long, black, heavy-duty zip ties right inside.
I smiled, teared up and then had to just laugh. That man had everything.
Because you just never know.

The threat of snow – and the pictures of snowmen and snowflakes from up north – motivated us to make a trip to Lowe’s today and buy all of the winter necessities. We also had to stock up on everything to decorate our house for our first Christmas!

When it comes to holidays, I am a huge believer in tradition. Try and change my tradition and I will put up a fight! Honestly, a couple of years ago, my mom thought she would decorate her tree with fancy garland, all matching bulbs, sort of like a departmen store tree. Nice, but not happening! My siblings and I (well, I) threw enough of a fit that she decorated the tree that year, and every year since, with the macaroni and glitter ornaments we made in preschool, those clay stars with our names written in them and all of the ornaments we remember from our childhood. Victory.

I also have very strong ideas about what Christmas decorating should be. To each their own, of course, but I think Christmas should be white lights, green wreaths and red bows: which is exactly what we stocked up on today! (In addition to a snow blower and shovel…ugh)

Here’s our loot:

Garland and decor for our open staircase inside.

Wreaths for our second story porch

I can not wait for it to be tomorrow so we can put all of this up! I tried to talk Ryan into putting up the wreaths and the garland in the dark and he looked at me like I was a nut.

What are your favorite holiday decorations?