Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A whirl wind of sorts or the birth of Zoey Lynn

We have spent the last month and a half waiting for the phone to ring. I have gone to bed with my cell, Jeff's cell and our home phone all at my ear. Saturday I thought for sure it had finally happened!

False alarm.

It was my good friend Jenny announcing the anticipated arrival of seven adorable puppies. The momma dog was really struggling so it was with much fear....and later relief that I received that series of late night, early morning texts.

Back to the (human) baby. We have had her name spray painted (well basically) across our calendar in eager anticipation. We have made loose plans and then canceled them because she had not yet come. Such as a day trip to the Natural Bridges Monarch Preserve. Every year I put this day trip on the calendar. Every year I erase it. We waited till 11:30 the night before to cancel the trip.

Butterfly fail.

No baby, no leaving town.(imagine how we felt flying off to Maine)

Sunday was a day of crossing T's and dotting I's in preparation for Monday morning. We were making sure everyone was on the same page for the second semester of our school year. We had hair cuts, double checked all the teachers manuals, filed paperwork, updated calendars and day planners etc. I was exhausted and had a killer headache. Jeff offered to go buy dinner while the boys and I finished up our tasks. While he was waiting for our take out order he got THE phone call. So gnarly haired (no it didn't help that we just had our hair cut), funky PJ's and all we hurriedly got ourselves to the hospital where we began the game of  "hurry up and wait" We arrived at 6:30 in the evening. We got home at around 3:30 in the morning. Poor Crystal, what a delivery!

No. We did not start school yesterday. That much was in our control. However the normal "Manic Monday" of it all was enough all on it's own. Not to mention the activities the boys are in did start back up, including  Billy (Permit) Vincent stacking up the driving hours and starting his second semester of college. What a game that is, especially when you are drunk on sleepy!

Back to the baby. Our niece, my brothers daughter Zoey Lynn Steproe has made her debut. Lynn is the middle name of our sister who passed away several years back. Nice touch. Zoey has beautiful little lips and the sweetest rosy cheeks. She has dark hair, like me! She looks a bit like her Mom. Really though she looks a whole lot like her name sake. She has Rebekah Lynn's long beautiful pianist's fingers and her long, slender feet. I'm not quite sure what it is about her facial features, but the moment I saw Zoey, I saw Rebekah.


Emotions were flying. Family was bonding over the birth of our newest member. Trips down memory lane were taking place. For instance my oldest baby was born in this very hospital. He was even born in the same room as his little cousin. We now have a picture of him at sixteen years old holding little Zoey. We can place that next to the pictures of him as a fresh little miracle in the very same room. Isn't that cool!

Welcome Zoey Lynn, we are so in love with you. Thank you Eric and especially Crystal for all your hard work in getting her here. Congratulations Nathan you are already an awesome big brother!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas & New Years

Well our Christmas played out a LOT different this year.  For one we spent our $$$ on a fabulous trip to Maine!
More on that later.
For now let's just say the timing of the trip...you know...basically...um...December, meant that we had to miss out on some of the seasons annual festivities of social-ness.
You know what?
We lived.
Imagine it!
Yeah, I know.
However we made sure to go to Coyote snow park & eat dinner at The Hungry Hut on Christmas Eve. This is a tradition that cannot be messed with.

Despite losing much of the month in travel we did manage to see most of our family (to get those memories in) and also get most of those treasured family recipes made. Speaking of which, I owe a big thank you to my brother Eric for his enjoyment in being as big a dork as I am, I love him for it! (Christmas carols sung loud & off key while baking, decorating and creating sugary bliss!!) Yeah we had a great December! Heck we even managed to squeeze in a long-time-coming trip to Laser Quest with the Shugerts. Yah Baby! We had planned on winding down the evening at the Colorado Grill afterward. Well the kids did anyway. You see Jenny spotted our local Thai restaurant and just had to experience it! Time to keep the silliness that ran a muck during the laser tag fanaticism in check? Not likely with this crew. Yes it's true our trip to the two separate restaurants left the kiddos at one joint on a soda & milk shake buzz. While Jeff & Nathan (needing no such stimulants) acted just as silly in the Thai restaurant. But really, would we want it any other way?

We managed to take an awesome break. To really unplug. Ricky especially needed this as he is obviously going through the same massive growth spurt Billy did a few years back. Ricky slept till noon everyday for two weeks! There was much leisure time the remainder of those days as well. Apparently Ricky was worn out from all that sleeping in!

2010 went out with a bang! I mean literally. The four of us had a great time on New Years Eve playing board games and gettin' some wii action. We were eating decadent sweets and a dinner fit for royalty. We were singing energy pumpin' songs and movie watching. Umm, what else? Oh just a little bit of dancing like crazy people, watching the ball drop while counting down, throwing confetti, shooting silly string. Then of course there was the running outside with noises makers, party blowers and a small amount of explosives shouting  into the night air "Good Bye 2010, Hello 2011!!" Somewhere in there was a toast of Martinelli's complete with a speech and a midnight sweet......and a kiss from my honey.

New Years Day was perfectly, leisurely, nothingness. Well basically. What did we do? It's called Funky PJ wearing and  HGTV Dream House viewing my friends! Billy did make pancakes some time around 2:00. Then it was off to the in laws for beans and a new movie.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Kissing 2010 Goodbye

These are some of my favorite memories from 2010. There were so many wonderful moments to think back on it was hard to narrow down a list. Of course there were also some not-so-wonderful moments, but we aren't going to give those the time of day! Downers, we stick our tongue out at you! So there!

January: We had beans with the in laws, a family tradition going back generations.

February: J, B, R & I started Insanity. I kept up with them fairly well. (They are now doing P90X, not me)

March: Tabitha & Crissy found me on Facebook.

April: We finally made it to Death Valley, best of all we went with the Shugerts!

May: Ricky Graduates from 8th Grade. How special to do so with long time buddy Aubrey Lim!

June: Eric announces he's gonna be a Daddy. Little Kayleenie turns sweet 16. We got to go to Morro Bay with the Chavez clan. Hannah Orazem makes even Ricky appreciate Art co-op class. Monica finds me on Facebook. (sorry couldn't pick just one)

July: Mike marries Angela and that's just the beginning....

August: Billy get's a drivers permit, starts his first job and begins taking community college classes.

September: CJ goes with us on our annual Camp-at-a-new-location trip. I mean come on now!

October: Crystal announces she's gonna be my sis-in-law while she, Mom and I are shopping for little miss Zoey Lynn.

November: I ate Aunt Ceci's Cranberry Relish in her living room on a recycled glass plate. The amber color was my favorite!


December: J, B, R & I spend 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 days in MAINE! Yah Baby!!