2014 in Review

What a year! Here are some highlights:

• Natalie:
• Turned the big 3-0 in January
• Completed her second half marathon in February
• Sold her Neon and bought a new "mom car"
• Mitch:
• Climbed Long's Peak with his brother! 
• Got his CrossFit Level 1 certification
• Started coaching 3x a week at OSFX
• Completed first Tough Mudder - and enjoyed it?!
• Lots of friends had babies: Emily, Brittany, Kristin, Aimee, Megan, and soon Sara!
• Lots of trips!
• Florida in January
• Colorado in February
• Camping at Enchanted Rock in May
• CrossFit Regionals in San Antonio and Texas Hill Country Wineries in May
• Mexico in July
• Colorado in August
• Work:
• Boeing won the largest portion of the Commercial Crew contract
• Weddings: 
• Dylan and Mary in January
• Dan and Rachel in August
• Books read:
• Dude, You're Gonna be a Dad
• Classic Christianity
• Sequencing
• Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
• Your Pregnancy Week by Week
• Excellent Wife
• Cherish the First 6 Weeks
• Baby Preparation:
• Transformed the "junk room" into a nursery
• Completed Lamaze Class
• Completed all the pre-baby scrapbooks and photo albums
• Wonderful baby showers from church friends, work, and gym

Of course, the biggest highlight of them all was meeting our daughter last month. Our lives will never be the same! Merry Christmas and Happy 2015!

Dedicated to Elissa Claire

The other night I was listening to the Pandora "Lullaby" station while putting Elissa to bed, and this song came on. When I heard it, the tears just started flowing and we listened to it over and over. This is now our bedtime song. 

Elissa, this is for you, my sweet girl. Mommy loves you.

When the rain is blowin' in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I would offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love

Evenin' shadows and the stars appear

And there's no one to dry your tears

I could hold you for a million years

To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet

But I would never do you wrong

I've known it from the moment that we met

There's no doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go blind for you

I'd go crawlin' down the aisle for you

There ain't nothin' that I wouldn't do

To make you feel my love

Storms are ragin' on a rolling sea

Down the highway of regret

The winds of change are blowin' wild and free

But you ain't seen nothin' like me yet

There ain't nothin' I, I wouldn't do

Go to the ends of the earth for you

Make you happy, make your dreams come true

To make you feel my love

Surprise Baby Shower

Today was the BEST day! 

I wasn't going to go to the gym this morning because I was really discouraged earlier this week with how difficult it is becoming to keep up with my friends at our gym. I asked Mitch what we were going to do today (since he is the coach now and he gets to decide), but he wouldn't tell me specifics. He just said "we're doing all your favorite moves!" And I was like yeah right.... but I decided to go anyway and just give it a try. 

We pulled up and I saw that the pavilion by our gym was being set up with a "baby shower" sign, but I didn't think anything of it.... at all. Talk about baby brain. 

So we get inside and I saw that Mitch had already written the workout on the board the night before. It was "The Nat" which is a workout that I programmed back in April when we were all taking turns making up our own workout. So I was pleased just because they chose to do my workout again. It's all things that I like to do. Although, I wasn't pregnant at the time, so we had to modify some things. 

THEN....Mitch pulled Saran Wrap out of his bag.... I was like "no way! we're going to do that?!?!" I had seen a video a while back where a gym had the non-pregnant people wrap medicine balls to their tummies to simulate being pregnant in solidarity with the ladies in the group who were pregnant. I thought that was really cute and would be a fun thing to do sometime, so I had mentioned it but decided to just let it go because I figured that would be kinda mean to make them all do it. But that's exactly what they all did. My whole gym strapped 8lb to 25lb medicine balls to their tummies and we did "The Nat" together. I was cracking up the whole time. Couldn't stop smiling. Couldn't believe they were actually doing this for me.  

And there was MORE! After they completed a grueling 2000m row and a 30 minute workout, we went out to the pavilion and it turned out that the baby shower that was being set up earlier was for ME! I still can't believe they did all this. So they put pink tablecloths on the 4 tables out there, hung streamers and a sign with hand-made flowers. They brought a watermelon cut like a baby carriage, pink popcorn that had little tags with poems written for baby, bundt cakes with little hand-made tutus, bottled water with custom labels, and of course chocolate milk - the ultimate recovery drink. They also brought gifts! Some warm clothes, socks, headbands, books, blankets, and a bottle of wine for later. :) 

I'm so grateful for this supportive group of friends. They've been so encouraging the whole time. Now I feel like I have the motivation I needed to keep working out the next 3 weeks - or however long - until she comes. I love you, OSFX! 

35-36 Weeks

Time it takes to walk up 4 flights of stairs at work: Mostly using the elevator now, but I can do it in 52 seconds (5 seconds slower than baseline)
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Loved that extra hour we got this weekend!
Best moments this week: 

• Unexpected baby gifts from family 
• Helped Mitch with his bio for the coach page on our gym's website
• Dinner/pedis with bestie while Mitch had his "man shower" 
• 8th Annual Halloween at the Rosson's!

Movement: She moves a lot! 
Labor Signs: Nothing
Symptoms: Just the heartburn. And now my knees are telling me that I'm too heavy. 
Looking forward to: Showering this baby girl with love. This is a great blog post from one of our local radio personalities who had a daughter a few years ago now. I've always loved this post and it captures the type of mom I hope to be, too.

Waking up her sleepy head before dawn, filling a thermos with hot coffee and heading on a beautiful morning hike together, talking or just hiking in silence. Splurging for a massive bouquet of flowers after her dance recital, singling her out from the other kids and celebrating when she accomplished something amazing at school, listening to a song we both know by heart in the car and singing at the top of our lungs, asking her what she thinks about politics and allowing her to have her own opinion, creating an environment with no inhibitions to keep her from dancing wildly to her favorite music, chic flicks with popcorn together on a rainy afternoon, talks till 3 a.m. about why he broke up with her (loser), stopping for lunch together after shopping for a prom dress, and girl trips here and there to visit places and people we love.

These are the things I daydream about with her. I don't want to miss a moment. And I want her to know how celebrated she truly is.

God, give me everything I need to be the mom she needs and deserves.

Worst that happened this week: I'm a project manager for International Space Station, and some of the hardware that I built was on the Orbital rocket that exploded on Tuesday. I'm very sad that happened because a lot of time and hard work went into those projects, but NASA is in the process of determining what to rebuild. It looks like both of my items will be rebuilt in the near future. Also sad for the people who work at Orbital - this is a very tough thing to happen but I know they will find the cause, fix it, and learn from it. 

This week's accomplishments: 

Week 35: Hanging the shelves and pictures in the nursery. It's pretty much done now! Just needs a nightstand or little bookshelf near the gliding chair.

Week 36: Mitch's first Tough Mudder!

Next on the to do list: Pack the hospital bag and pray she comes early rather than late!