Shiloh the "Barn Cat"

Meet the newest addition to our menagerie. This is Shiloh, Aaron's little barn cat. He brought her home from Shiloh Nursery on a plant excursion and she has been happily residing both at Meredith College and at our house. Aaron takes her to the barn at Meredith to play in his nursery every day and then she usually comes home to hang out with us in the evenings. She is unlike any cat I've met (or I am just used to the decorative pillow that is our Izzy). She comes when called and actually likes riding in the car.



How did the other animals react? This picture sums up Fitzi's relationship with her new sister. She LOVES her! They wrestle constantly and we have to constantly stop Fitzi from dragging Shiloh from room to room by her scruff like a little mother. Shiloh also loves Fitzi and will jump out from behind furniture to bite her back (with affection I think). JoJo and Izzy are fairly indifferent to her.

January Projects

Sigh. January is such a downer month. The holidays are over and it isn't nice enough to have a lot of events going on. Since we can't really do much work on the nursery yet (because we don't know the gender) we are getting organized and doing small projects that need to get done before baby arrives. WARNING: these are very boring pictures but they help me realize we are actually getting things done.



The good thing about January is the sales. Pottery Barn finally put my silk drapes on sale and Aaron was good enough to hang them. Beautiful Oxblood color. The dining room is a hard one to photograph because of size and the colors don't photo well. Notice the lack of crown moulding. Guess what project needs to be next?

Can you believe I am showing the inside of one of our pantries? Had to because we have been meaning to install this extra organizer on back of door JUST FOR AARON'S BEVERAGES!!! What use is having a second pantry if it is filled with drinks? Aside from one can of condensed milk, this is all beers, random nectars and things like coconut water and ginger ale. He has been confined to this one area before buying more.

I'll spare you pictures of my sock drawer and putting our baking ingredients into air proof containers. Oh the excitement!

Baby Sprout

Okay, so all of you at least know the news by now but here is a picture at 9-10 weeks or so (we're 14 weeks now). This ultrasound was the most surreal experience. We were not prepared for what we saw in the least. I just assumed you'd see a gelatinous spot that indicated the baby was there but the baby was totally moving arms and legs and turning over. At 9 weeks! We were both stunned into silence. Needless to say it makes it a bit more real and exciting. I even stopped complaining about feeling bad and gaining weight. For about 2 hours.

Telling everyone has been such fun! Some of your reactions have been just hilarious and wonderful and it feels great knowing people are so excited at this very unique time in our lives. Your check-in calls, cards, etc. have been very sweet. It is finally starting to sink in and we are getting more excited. We will be even more excited February 15 when we find out the gender! Keep you posted!

Happy New Year!!

May all your joys be true joys, and all your pain Champagne - Anonymous

Christmas 2007

We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! This one was nice and low key for us which is just perfect! We were able to participate in a few Christmas festivities but never felt too stressed and hurried. Ahhhh. I'll have to figure out how we managed that! Here's a look at what made us smile this holiday.

I love having a Christmas project to work on while watching old fashioned Christmas movies. This year Aaron and I made truffles for our friends and wrapped them in leopard print Chinese containers. They were so easy and rich. We rolled some in red sugar crystals, powdered sugar and cocoa. Aaron added chopped candied ginger to some. Yum.

Christmas movies! I watched just about every one of my favorites this year - even the ones that are a little silly now. I still enjoy them all.

Aaron always finds a creative way to give a little something to his boss and fellow managers at Meredith. They all enjoy gummies and sours (is it a guy thing or what?) so this year he layered different candies in rugged masculine travel mug/water bottles. They were a hit.

I also love to gift wrap although this was the year of cellophane. Instead of finding a box to match every item I wrapped things in cellophane with ribbons.

Strange but true. I love this time of year partly because it is Clementine season!!! Yea!!!! I can polish off boxes of these little cuties this time of year.

Getting together with friends. We have an annual Christmas dinner somewhere fun. This year we went to Cafe Luna downtown.

(Below) Of course, getting together with family is always great. This was a great year because for the first time in many years, 2 groups of family members actually live in the same town! My brother, sister in law, and nephew moved to Kentucky in November so it was very easy to see a nice group. We also got to see some of the family's oldest friends Bob and Alice Austin who seem like family. Bob was the first person to hold me when I was born. They joined us Christmas Eve so it was a nice party.

Dad opening his sock/shoes from Aaron and I. I swear he actually requested these. I didn't even know they still made them. Dad is all about comfort.
Look at this face. Jake is so active now. It was so funny to see how he gave each present its own attention. Every little gift was as exciting as the big ones. He's getting so big!

Mom, Sharon and Jake playing with camera. After all of those presents he still prefers expensive adult electronics.

Aaron and I examining a gift.

BJ, Sharon and Jake playing with a plush horse Bob and Alice gave Jake. He loved it. He carried it around to each person and then kissed it on the snout.