White tailed deer

Dear "Spuds"

At some point in your life you will learn how disappointing the human race can be.  We lie, steal and kill, often for no good reason. We set fire traps to shoot at people who volunteer their lives to save ours, we barge into elementary schools, malls, movie theaters, high schools with guns loaded with hate and the desire to prematurely end lives.

However, even though humans may fail our envision of what God may have intended for us I hope I can enstill in you the peacefulness nature can provide. While, nature still has it's own sense of forcefulness, it is in the end pure.

Today is Christmas.  It is your dad's and mine last Christmas as just the two of us.  As with tradition, we took a walk through Mendon Ponds park to feed the chickadees.  There was a fresh coating of snow from the night allowing for fresh animal tracks to be visible.

left by a little mouse

  The birds were abundant. The chickadees were happy to oblige in our fondness of having them land on our hands, taking as many sunflower seeds as possible.

That's your dad with a chickadee!

black capped chickadee

The nuthatches happily peeped as they creeped up and down the trees and the woodpeckers were busy looking for their next meal. 

White breasted Nuthatch

Red-bellied woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

There was a sense of peacefulness and serenity.  A moment when you could forget about the outside world and lose yourself in it. If I could teach you one thing, it would be to appreciate the nature surrounding you.  In the end, it is what we have to return us back to our humanness as God intended. 

I look forward to being able to carry on this tradition with you and to be able to watch your face as the birds land on your hand.  I look forward to being able to name the birds with you, look for leaves and identify the trees and look for animal tracks in mud or snow.

There is good in the world.  You just have to know where to look. 

Love,
Mom

I found out early September that come May my simple little family consisting of 2 dogs, 2 cats, a husband and myself, would be expecting something totally foreign to us: a baby.

Hey look, I peed on this!

While totally planned, I still felt my heart stop for a moment. Crap. It's a good thing they give you nine months to adjust. 

Well, I am now 19 weeks along. While I am wanting to run out and buy everything right now- i am also trying to be practical. There is still a long way to go... many more pounds to go... and I am waiting on the big stuff till at least 23 or 24 weeks. However, thanks to my mom, I already have the nursery theme stuff picked out.

I am blessed, however.  I was able to avoid the whole morning sickness, and aside from two episodes of feeling like an urinary obstructed cat (btw, I totally understand now why they are so grumpy when they can't pee), it has been a pretty uneventful pregnancy.   I am fortunate enough to continue to be active and still feel like me, albeit a bit heavier version of me.

This past week we were able to see our newest edition, toes and everything, during the anatomical ultrasound.

Look at those giant feet!  Totally blame Chris.

 We were able to find out the sex of "Spuds" as well and tried to find creative ways to tell our family and friends.  I made cupcakes- the cake was dyed the color for the sex, and then we frosted half the cupcakes pink and the other half blue:

and people could choose which sex they thought it was by the color frosting.  For the record, both Chris' and my families were 100% correct.

it's a boy!

For Wild Wings inc., I baked layered a vegan chocolate cake and dyed the frosting in the middle blue:

Check out my mad cake decorating skills! (done with a plastic baggie and a toothpick hole)

hooray! It's still a boy!