5 Years Ago

Five years ago I was laying in a hospital bed in Milford, MA staring at this precious, tiny baby girl who came exactly on her due date and changed our lives in ways we couldn't imagine. Her story actually starts over 6 years ago when we decided that we were ready to go for it in terms of having a 3rd baby. Why not? I always wanted a big family I told Paul. Also adding, you know it has to be even numbers so if we have a 3rd we're also having a 4th. Somehow Paul agreed and we got lucky - so lucky, getting pregnant the first time trying. All was swell until I went in for my 12 week appointment and they couldn't find the babies heartbeat. Worst day of my life. Fast forward 3 months and we figured I'd healed (at least physically) and we'd try again. I got pregnant again. I was MUCH more cautious and I'm sure drove Paul absolutely crazy. I refused to do anything strenuous (like vacuuming) until I was like 24 weeks pregnant. And with 2 toddlers at home it was interesting to say the least. It was also winter, in New England with my family in NC and my husband working over an hour away from our home. I've never had so much anxiety. I begged, pleaded and even scored my OB a wii (this was 5 years ago when they were new and very in demand) to try to get her to plan my induction so I would know exactly when this precious baby would be born. No luck. As usual, God had different plans in mind. It was the weekend before my due date and my mom came up - thinking surely I would have the baby soon. Thankfully her timing was perfect. On Monday night we went to bed like usual. I remember a few days before having contractions but they never got organized. That night I awoke about midnight (gee..the older she gets the harder it is to remember the little details) with some contractions. They were pretty tough but I remember not wanting to wake Paul up just yet. Finally I decided to wake him up and have him help time them to see if this was it. This part I'll never forget - he got up to go to the bathroom and heard a POP. I had no idea what it was but I ran to the bathroom and realized it was my water breaking. Thankfully I made it to the toilet! Ha! I remember yelling to Paul to call the doctor and having to repeat the number several times. I then remember going to tell my mom we were leaving and heading to the hospital. I think was around 2:30am (ish). I remember that on the car ride the contractions started hurting in a way that I had never felt and as soon as we walked into the ER I begged them to call for my epidural. I got settled in a room and asked everyone who walked near me to please, please get the epidural. The doctor came in to check on me and I wasn't dilated too much. Finally I got the epidural (though it seemed like it took forever. It did not.). And literally about 20 min after I got the epidural I needed to push. And a few minutes later our precious baby was born.

We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl with her. Emma (who was 3 at the time) was convinced it was a girl. She would tell anyone it was a girl and her name was going to be Julia. When we did indeed have a baby girl it only seemed right to name her Julia. Claire was just a name we liked and it seemed to fit. On January 23, 2007 at 4:31am Julia Claire was welcomed into our family.

Fabulous Forty!

My dear husband turned 40 on the 18th. 40. Oh my. Not that I AT ALL think 40 is old since I clearly knocking on 40's door but wow..just how did time pass that quickly that many of my friends are turning 40. I vividly remember my parents turning 40 and now that's us?? Can't. Get. Over. It.

But anyway, I digress...my husband. 40. So I decided I needed to throw him a party. A surprise party. Yes..this was a good idea. I had toyed with the idea for months but kept putting it in the back of my mind since January was so far away. Ha. Once you get to December 1 January gets here in about a blink of an eye. But I managed to get a date, do a Facebook event and mentally start preparing. I'm so bad at being sneaky so this was really hard for me. Thankfully my BFF agreed to come to town to help me with everything. Thanks to pinterest we got some great ideas. And many thanks to my friend Angela who made the most amazing cake! Everything was set! The hard part was keeping Paul out of the house for the day. Thankfully his work was busy and we had planned for him to pick up Emma from camp and take her to her dance class. We decide that we are going to send him for pizza before he comes home. We decide on Mellow Mushroom knowing they will be super busy on a Friday night and we were right. I get some angry texts from Paul about how busy they were all the while giggling about it with our friends!

Finally he makes it home and I think he was a little surprised! Not shocked but surprised. He said he had an inkling that something was going on - I think I called him one too many times that day at work. Nonetheless it was a great evening with great friends celebrating Fabulous 40!

We celebrated on Saturday evening with dinner at the Melting Pot with Erin and Tom. What a treat! So yummy!

His actually birthday was a little quieter - we met for lunch at Tribecca Tavern. For dinner we grilled steaks and had some of his favorite sides: grilled Brussels sprouts and cheesy grits. And it was the 10 year anniversary of the German Chocolate Cake. A very great night! I hope his year is off to a great start!

Winter Break

I can't believe it's 3 weeks into the new year and I haven't blogged yet. Clearly I'm not doing well on my resolution to keep up the blog better! Fail! Oh well..I'm going to play a little catch up this morning on what's been happening at our house since the start of the year.

Track Out. That's pretty much it. My older kids have not been to school since Dec. 21. Yes, that's like nearly 5 weeks ago. The break has for been great - I really can not complain. It just feels like FOREVER since we've been at school. And when 2 kids are out of school it just feels like our whole routine is thrown off. And generally..my family likes routine. Nonetheless the days have been filled and good. The first week of the official track out Julia and Jacob headed back to school (and seriously Wake Co. what is up with all the Mondays off in Jan??) and the girls and I got some fun shopping time. The second week both girls did camp which was a new experience for us. Generally we just hang out during track outs but since this one was so long Paul & I decided they would benefit from doing a camp. Lily did an art camp at the town of Cary Art Center which was great. She loved it! Emma, not so much into art did a sports camp at Sport2Sport. We found an awesome deal thanks go Living Social and Emma LOVED it. She came home exhausted every day and loved getting to do all sorts of sports. It was a perfect week for them! We also had visitors that week - my BFF and her hubs came to visit! It was great! And..in a "I can't believe I said yes" moment the girls went back to Ohio with them for a week at Camp Auntie Erin's house. Yep..they've spent all week in Ohio and I miss them like CRAZY. They are coming home today and I can't wait!

The little kids have seemed a little lost without them here this week. We've spent a ton of time at home since we weren't running people all over the planet to activities and it's been nice. Really nice. Just the break we needed. I've been armed with trashbags and boxes getting this house organized and cleaned up. Paul's gave me some house cleaning groupons for Christmas but I felt like I needed to clean a bit before cashing in. Well now is the time..can't wait!

It's back to school, back to craziness on Monday (and Julia's 5th birthday). I think we're all ready. Also? Our next track out brings our big family vacation so let's get it started!