Christmas Eve

By now the Christmas cards that we sent are beginning to trickle into the appropriate homes so I decided perhaps I should put some of the pictures up here that didn't make the cut.  Poor Carri does such a fantastic job clicking away while our whole family shifts and moves, trying to get three kids and three dogs to do much of anything is super hard.

Christmas Time!

While it was neat to have off 6 weeks during the summer for the maternity leave with both girls...it is AMAZING to have off all of the Christmas season with Jackson.  Holy smokes, what did I do without all this time off in years past?

Jackson is doing just fantastic, although you can tell that the sneezing that his big sisters have been doing directly into his mouth is at least leading to a stuffy nose now.  Because of which we don't get much sleep but hey who's counting those hours at night. :-)

Here are some more pictures and a video that I didn't realize that I took...I think I was trying to take a picture but chose the wrong option.

This is where he is the happiest..sleeping on someone, which he does a lot of.

 Here's Jackson enjoying Austin's Christmas party at school.

 Austin was an EXTREMELY good big sister at her school party, never leaving Goose out for even a second.

Picture Drop

I am literally just coming here to drop off some pictures real quick so they don't get lost.


Already forgetting how much labor and delivery hurts in this picture.

 Look at that perfect little boy. Scoring an 8 and then a 9 on his APGAR's.

 Just got home and sat down on the most amazing, soft couch in the world (well compared to the rock hard hospital beds).

 Gram and her kiddos, gotta love Tyler here...I think since Tadd was taking the picture she was being extra goofy.

 All of the December babies came home with giant stockings that they could fit in.

 This one might be my favorite, me and the kiddos.

 Look at that amazing December day in Colorado - what a great day to be born Jackson.

The girls requested headbands and necklaces from Gram to meet their brother for the first time, you know to look extra "fancy".

 Soaking in the Colorado sun first thing in the morning.

 I finally got around to asking specifically what makes our kids jaundice when born.  It's turn out that it is a ABO incompatibility.  Which means that my blood type is O+ the kids are B+ and Joe must be some kind of A or AB.  My O blood when mixed with their B blood during birth starts a process that breaks down their red blood cells and causes a slight kidney failure.  Obviously if not treated it could get much worse, but as long as we use UV lights (pictured here) to help the blood flush out the toxins and keep plenty of fluids in them, we can usually get them completely out of the weeds in less than a week.  Luckily Colorado is a state where they believe that a baby should stay with Momma all the time because in other states they require NICU stays for an ABO incompatibility.

 Look how little he looks compared to Joe's hands.

 Jackson's at home UV light bed.

 Which we put on the changing table to keep him up and away from dogs, cats, and sisters.

 Baking Joe his Sour Cream Apple pie for his birthday.

 I have officially run out of room in the largest SUV on the market.  This is my front seat after shopping for our Toy Drive party.  The back two rows are already full! WHOA!

 The lighting in this picture is horrible but I love how HUGE Kuma is compared to Jackson.

The girls were watching cartoons on the iPad this morning waiting for Jackson to wake up enough to eat.  Jackson is able to nurse - though it takes him a very long time in between falling asleep - but I have also been pumping a ton since I have so much milk.  What we don't freeze each day we'll feed to him in a bottle which of course Austin and Tyler love to do.

 Taking a rest in his co-sleeper in our bed while I took a shower.

Wrapping up

November 28 - Today I am thankful for the lack of Black Friday interest in our home.  I refuse to participate in Black Friday, a merchandise holiday built around sales in which people get trampled.  The girls and I even needed several items from the grocery store and I wouldn't leave the house for them.  Luckily everyone that I surround myself with feels about the same way.

November 29 - Today I am thankful for Shop Small Saturday.  While I can't stand Black Friday, I LOVE Shop Small Saturday.  The girls and I (and whoever else we can wrangle up) head down to Manitou Springs and eat lunch and buy new Christmas ornaments.  This year we were able to convince Nate and Christine to join us and Joe even took the day off.  Although I believe Joe took the time off to be closer to me while at the end of this pregnancy.  It's been cute to watch the girls be so oblivious yet Joe and the animals HAVE to be right around me.  I feel very well monitored at all times. :-)

November 30 - Today I am thankful for our Christmas tree. I know it's just a tree and a fake one at that but it makes me so happy.  Two years ago all of the built in lights on the Christmas tree burnt out so we have to string it up with lights and while we threaten to buy a new one because of it, it has yet to happen.  This year is especially lovely to me...I am too wobbly to reach the top portion of the tree from the ladder so there isn't one ornament up there.  All of the breakable ones are at the mid section out of reach to the cats, dogs and small people and then there's the bottom section.  Oh my.  I won the battle this year with Joe and rather than having a tree decorated with any type of spacing in mind, I hung the breakables and then turned the girls loose with the rest.  We have some branches with a dozen or more ornaments on them.  It makes me chuckle to think about them.  Then since they aren't breakable at all, we have been letting them take them down, play with them and then re-decorate the tree at night.  It's perfect!


What a fun November it has been.  I love having tasks and completing them so being able to write one little blurb a day makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.  Obviously I am sitting here super pregnant (9 days over due - but who's counting) or most of you reading this would have at least received a text.  I thought about it and while this little guy was supposed to be a November baby, perhaps he is following in the last two generations of DiFabio men by making December his home.  We went in for our check up again yesterday and while everything looks just wonderful (he is measuring in at a whopping 8lbs 9 oz) they have officially scheduled me to be induced starting Thursday night with an anticipation of delivery on Friday.  Everything about this saddens me but at the same time I knew going in that if we got to these dates they would start insisting on things to move.  My biggest fear is that the induction will take too long and we will end up with a C-section.  Not only does the control freak in me loath the idea of being told what to do, just the thought of NEEDING help afterwards makes me sick to my stomach.  I am trying to stay super positive and use my next two days wisely...complete with scrubbing floors and jumping flat footed off table tops. ;-)

Puzzles, Docs and family.

November 25 - Today I am thankful for puzzles.  I love building puzzles and am trying to pass along my love to our kids.  I bought one of those packs of puzzles that contains four different patterns and the girls managed to while I was not looking, open more than one bag so the pieces got all mixed together.  The only way I know of to successfully get them back in their respective bags is to build them.  It made me happy to sit around building puzzles with my favorite two little helpers (well nearly three but he just pinches nerves and causes my legs to fall asleep). :-)

November 26 - Today I am thankful for an OK from the doctor.  We went in for our biophysical profile and while everything else looked good they normally like to see him move more during the 20 minutes of monitoring.  Luckily the doctor was not as worried as the technician but it did cause me to instantly start sweating and feel like I was going to pass out.  An emergency C-section to potentially save a baby in distress does not sound like a good Wednesday.  The doctor just thinks he is getting SO BIG in there that he is sleeping more in his cramped space which was a complete relief to hear and enabled me to then go to the store and pick up the necessary supplies that I needed for Thanksgiving.  My Grandmother used to work at a florist shop during the holiday season making wreathes and centerpieces, because of this I decided to make a live centerpiece this year.  It took me hours to make and I referenced a lot of images online all the while being some what sad that I never really knew my Grandma.  We saw her once maybe twice a year and would wave Hi and then run off to play.  I couldn't for the life of me even tell you where she was from - other than Grandma's house.  I wish that she had been alive when I was older and cared more about people's stories.  I bet that she was a lot like my Mom and I, boy would the three of us had some good universe solving conversations.

There's my pride and joy!

November 27 - Today I am thankful for my family and tardiness.  I was petrified that I would be sitting in the hospital during Thanksgiving this year, obviously all of that was wiped away when the little guy gave us a scare the day before - at that point I just wanted him healthy.  Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday, I consider it Christmas without the uncomfortable presents.  The big meal, the fancy China place settings, the centerpieces, the laughing until it hurts.  All of it is just magical to me.

Catch up again...Ooopps!

November 19 - Today I am thankful for Starbucks.  After Goose and I were all finished up at the doctor's for our Wednesday morning check we drove through Starbucks before heading over to Joe's shop to say Hi.  With my last two pregnancies I was very cautious as to how much coffee I would drink in the morning, always limiting myself to one cup.  But with this one I have been drinking several and just more winging it with most of the rules.  We will have to see if I have caused this poor little boy to have extreme amounts of energy or some other type of side effect.

November 20 - Today I am thankful for Grandparents day.  Austin's school hosted Grandparents day and we were able to go to Austin's school and eat lunch in the cafeteria with her.  She is only half day kindergarten right now so she doesn't get to eat there either so it was a big deal to everyone.  It was fun to watch my Mom's face as she walked through her school and notice how different each generation must see things.  From Tyler that sees it as intimidating, to myself that sees it as more of a necessity to my Mom that was looking around in amazement.  I am sure it transported her back to the days when she was in the necessity role and how that must feel like just yesterday.

Enjoying lunch with Gram!

November 21 - Today I am thankful for sleep.  Friday mornings are the only morning that I do not have a meeting at 8AM that I have to wake up and be ready for, so it is the one morning during the week that I can take my time getting up and drink some coffee before firing off emails.  I tend to also sleep in just a few minutes later.  Of course this particular Friday morning I was called by work early and as I mumbled to myself and powered up email I thought about the sleepless nights I have coming up right around the corner.  While I was saddened to miss out on that little extra sleep this morning it made me realize that at least I have been fortunate enough to have some sleep for a while now as I get back into the sleepless zombie stage of parenthood.

November 22 - Today I am thankful for good friends.  It seems as though we get older and have less and less time for friends, each time we see them it was an actual act of carving time out of that day to make it happen.  No longer are the days when you can call someone and have them just hanging out on couch doing nothing.  We celebrated one of our friends 40th birthdays on Saturday night and it was great catching up with everyone.    

Someone managed to snap a picture without me noticing but it included the belly. :-)

November 23 - Today I am thankful for due dates.  While I am still pregnant so in this case the "due date" was not exactly that, at least we have some kind of idea as to when the baby should come.  If you had asked me honestly at the beginning of this pregnancy I would have guessed that I would have delivered just before the due date, only because it's my third...and at some point don't they just fall out of you?!?!  But no here we go with the waiting game.

November 24 - Today I am thankful for Thanksgiving Break.  Austin is off all this week for holiday break and I am super happy to have her home.  Of course my happiness is not quite as massive as Goose's who is ecstatic to have her home.  They are getting more and more excited to meet their little brother, I don't have the heart to tell them that meatloaves don't do much at first but they are definitely already preparing to teach him how to walk and talk.

Sick kids, movement and chats.

November 16 - Today I am grateful for days at home with sick kids.  Yep, you read that right Anne...I now officially have two sick kids, I must have jinxed it by telling you that I didn't have anyone sick.  On Sunday we were supposed to do all kinds of running around to watch football games but instead Joe went out and ran the errands and checked on things while I stayed home with the booger noses.  Austin has now been out of school for two days and we are hoping that tomorrow will be better.

November 17 - Today I am thankful for movement.  This little baby boy inside of me was resting on a set of nerves for the last couple of weeks that made my left arm swell up and I lost all grip strength in my hand.  It was somewhat comical to watch me not be able to pick anything up with one hand but it sure did hurt to have that much swelling.  Magically I woke up yesterday morning and picked up my coffee with "the wrong hand" but it didn't drop it.  Wow...I feel like a whole new person having both hands in action now.  My To-Do list is long today!

November 18 - Today I am thankful for help desk chat sessions.  I am attempting to get something fixed on my work laptop and normally you would have to call the help desk and deal with an hour of clarifying questions but since we have implemented the new chat service I can now blog while I am trying to explain what I need and why I need it.

Ooops - Catch Up!

November 12 - Today I am thankful for my flexible schedule.  Every Wednesday I have my biophysical profile (which we got another 8 of 8 at this week) and I have to take a few hours off to get there, get all checked out and get back home.  I have to work some off hours here and there like this week both Wednesday and Thursday night I worked until almost midnight but because of that additional work I put in everyone is very willing to let me take any time I need.

November 13 - Today I am thankful for snow days.  I still am not the biggest fan of school, and every time I start to warm up to the idea they run another active shooter drill and I am back to where I started.  At least this year we have a teacher that both Joe and I appreciate.  Even with the acceptance of school this year, on this sweet Thursday we got to stay home and enjoy a snow day.  It was fantastic!

November 14 -  Today I am thankful for family dinners.  It was Carri's birthday and Tadd organized a family dinner for her.  There never feels like enough time at these dinners, we could sit around all night and talk.  On this particular night the girls never left my Mom's lap and the food was amazing.

Look Uncle Dane even came down for the occasion.

There's the birthday girl!

 And Sunni came too!

Yep, Grandma didn't let go of them pretty much all night.

 Joe and I...not sure how Papa got out of the pictures.

November 15 - Today I thankful for gingerbread cookies.  Much like so much at the end of a pregnancy things start to change it's possibly the universes way of preparing you for the changes that are coming.  Joe is taking all of his employees out tonight for a dinner thing - but since we don't really have a babysitter and my Mom is already on call for baby time I chose to stay home with the girls.  Tadd and Carri headed up to Blackhawk, CO to go gambling and stay the night along with 25 of our friends - I REALLY wanted to go with them but Blackhawk is nearly an hour outside of Denver and being as though if I went into labor we would have to name the little guy Craps or Poker, I skipped it too.  Oh yeah and Hoss and Leslie are having their house warming party tonight but again it starts pretty late and I didn't want to drag the girls and my big ol' belly to it.  My silver lining after canceling all other plans were some delicious gingerbread cookies that the girls and I made and decorated.

I haven't even sat down yet to help decorate and they are already eating the icing. :-)

The sugar is starting to kick in. 

 No cookies would be complete without the help of the cleanup crew under the table, patiently waiting.

Maternity Leave

November 11 - Today I am thankful for my upcoming maternity leave.  While I tend to fight my leave and login as soon as I get home from the hospital just to make sure I haven't missed anything, apparently in this country I am very fortunate to have a company that not just allows for me to take it but actually demands it.  I am required to take a minimum of 6 weeks and can extend that to 12 weeks paid if I so choose or even up to a year if I only want 75% of my pay.  Here is a recent statistic that I read this morning in the news, it was kind of shocking.

"Even if you're lucky enough to be gainfully employed in the U.S., there is indeed only an 11% chance you have access to paid family leave. And as many as 40% of workers don't even qualify for unpaid leave."

Delivery, my brother & half day kindergarten!

November 8 - Today I am thankful for delivery, we have one pizza sub shop that delivers out here in Black Forest and on Saturday it was a nice treat to have them provide dinner.  I find winters especially hard with meal preparation, during the summer we have volleyball and softball and what not so I don't actually have to cook every night.  Here it is winter again and the sun sets at 5 and the days feel longer than they did and the meals are harder to come up with.  I try to come up with new recipes and try new things but some days are nearly impossible.

November 9 - Today I am thankful for my brother.  Joe and I didn't have any plans for our football Sunday so we invited ourselves over to Tadd's house to cook and watch the game.  It's always nice to hang out with him and now Carri too.  He loves to cook as much as I do so we sit around inventing new things and laughing and joking.

November 10 - Today I am thankful for half day kindergarten.  It started out a very nice 65 degree day and by lunchtime it had dropped 20 degrees....by now another 15.  I was very happy to be able to pick Austin up, run to the store and make it back for my afternoon meetings and before the snow blew in.

Mud & Home

November 6 - Today I am thankful that Joe has so much experience in construction.  I find myself watching a lot of You Tube videos and reading instructions but it is much nicer when someone else at least has an idea of what needs to be done.  Pretty much every wall in our house has been painted many times and in order to get a new fresh coat of paint to look nice we (read Joe) will probably have to re-texture each one.  Here is the wall in the little boys room - or as the girls have named him - Button's room.  By the way if we can't start narrowing down some names soon his name very well could end up Button.


After the first layer of texture.

And then the second layer.

November 7 - Today I am EXTREMELY thankful that I work from home.  It was supposed to be nice but has been mostly cloudy and windy all day thus making me very sleepy.  If I worked at an office I am sure by now I would be sleeping in the storage closet, but I have managed to find a ton of things around the house to keep me busy.