WE MADE IT!!

I just wanted to say thank you to all the advice and comments that were made in regards to my traveling concerns. Rebekah did sooo good during the flight. She slept pretty much the whole time and didn't even cry. We did end up taking our car seat with us because logistically we couldn't make it work without. We checked at the gate. We did get a few scratches on it but it was still intact. I'm thinking maybe I'll bubble wrap it for the trip home. :)
We also had a wonderful friend who conveniently had the same flight as us and helped us carry our bags and little girl through the airport. It made it soooo much easier!! THANKS MARIA!!!

Now we only hope that things go as well when we go home!

If we don't get to blog again before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

White Dresses

Sunday our little girl was blessed. I think I've always overlooked this ordinance but as I arrived at church and sat down I found myself emotional. It really was a special day to have her surrounded by family and friends and be given a name and a blessing. As I dressed her that morning in her white dress, I thought to myself, " I hope this is the first a few special white dresses she'll be wearing." This is just the beginning of her life and it was nice to have a blessing that was given to bless her as she embarks in this scary, exciting, and joy-filled journey known as life.

need your experience

Okay, on a completely unrelated note, we'll be traveling (flying) during Christmas break visiting family, do any of you seasoned parents have any advice, tips that you've learned from experience? Things to bring/not to bring, etc. I realize that people have learned a lot by experience and instead of me learning everything the hard way, I'm hoping to gain some wisdom from you.

We love you all!!

Hypothetical

Hello Friends!! I've got a question for you but first here's a quick update on life with a baby.

So we've made it almost two full weeks...at home!! YAY!! We are learning to get into the swing of things. Some days I'm a bit tired and frustrated because I can't get things that I want to get done done. But other than that not too bad. The diapers aren't as bad as I thought they would be. (For those of you who don't know, I don't do diapers. I used to pay my sister a dollar a diaper when she came with me to babysit my brother's kids. That's saying something when you only got paid $3.00 for the entire evening. cheep labor. )

Okay, so we've been getting our insurance explanation of benefits for our hospital bills...which first, I must say thank heavens for insurance, but I noticed that before insurance an epidural cost nearly a thousand dollars! I started wondering to myself, because I can be too practical sometimes, if I didn't have insurance would I pay $1,000 for an epidural. Then I started to be curious what others would do in this hypothetical situation, would you pay $1,000 for an epidural?

I think that I probably would. Even if I had convinced myself to try without, I would inevitably give in and get one...I'm afraid I can't tolerate pain.

Hope you are all doing well!!

We're Home!

I was more excited about bringing her home than I am about actually being home with her. Wow! How do moms do this? I've always known that my mom was amazing but really how did she do it?? 12 kids??!! I'm getting worn out with one in only one day. I'm hoping it will get better. :)

In the NICU she was pretty much good. She seemed to be on a nice schedule and fairly predictable but now that she's home she's thrown that out the window.  Yesterday morning she would only eat a little bit at a time and maybe sleep for a few minutes and then she'd eat and sleep. I couldn't tell how long she would sleep or how long it would be until she would eat again. She finally slept long enough for me to shower around 2:00. We headed to Grandma's house and she slept the whole time! Good grief.  Right now I'm at my mom's house and she's asleep. I'm about ready to move into Grandma's!

I really can't complain too much however because she has done well at night. She's only waken up around 4:00 each morning to eat and has gone back to sleep. I just need to get her to stick to it and maybe figure out how to deal with her fickle morning schedule.

Little girl and I just came from her first Doctor's visit. I can see the office from my apartment building and yet I couldn't make it there on time. MAN! I'm still standing in amazement of moms.  How do they make it anywhere on time when kids have their own schedules?

Anyway, here are a few more pictures...we just can't seem to get enough pictures. :)

Grandpa and Little Girl just having a nice little chat.

In her going home outfit...a little snug but we had to at least wear it once!

Ready to Go!!

My Little Girl

I know she's not so little but she's still Little Girl to me. (That's how I seemed to talk about her when she was still in the womb.) Right now, she and I are just hanging out in the NICU, well she's sleeping and I'm just hanging out. She is doing well.

We are basically just here until they give her the last dose of antibiotics tomorrow. They've taken her of oxygen and the glucose (I'm not exactly sure why they were giving it to her anyway.) So it feels like it is pointless to be here for them just to administer antibiotics but what can you do?

As nice as it would have been to have gone home Wednesday had all been normal, it's been a blessing to be here. It's given us a nice transition to parenthood. We've been able to learn from the nurses (although at times frustrating) how to take care of our baby. Its been nice to go home at night and sleep most of the night except for waking to pump. I'm still nervous about caring for her on our own but more confident about bringing her home. Here are some pictures of Little Girl during her first week. (They go most recent to when she was first born.)

Enjoy!

I love this scowl! It's so funny it makes me laugh almost everytime.

This is her one eyed look. She does this all the time. She gets this from me!

The NICU parent group had a Reunion Halloween Party. They made little costumes for the babies in the NICU. This is little girl as gumball machine. Cute huh? It's great they have a parents group for the babies in the NICU. Some of these babies have been here for months, they would need that extra support.

Grandma Sue and Little girl Haines. Not that I could ever keep Grandma away from a newborn baby let alone a grandchild, its been nice to have her come and visit everyday. I'm sure little girl enjoys the visit as much as I do!

Daddy and Baby Girl! You can just tell how much he loves her in his face! Mom said that when he went out to get her to come into the room after our girl was born, he looked like a boy that just got his first bike.

Announcing Our Little Girl Haines

Hello Friends! We are proud to announce that we are no longer just Victory and Alissa. We are now the Haines Family!

She measured in at 9lbs 9oz and 22 inches! We are both smitten with her and love her very much.

The sad news is that they think she has pneumonia and will need oxygen and antibiotics for seven days. Which means she will be in the NICU during that time. Otherwise she is doing really well.

Maternity Leave

So here I am on my second day of maternity leave and still no baby. I don't even feel uncomfortable right now. Its so weird. I feel like my body has forgotten that its pregnant and that it has a job to do to get her out of me. Sunday morning I woke up and I could see my ankles. My water weight has seemed to pretty much disappear...there's still a little bit but I feel like my body has gone back to normal minus this huge belly I have.

I went to Walmart and the check out lady said, "My you are carrying your baby high! It's a girl huh? You're going to be carrying her awhile longer!" All I have to say is thanks.

So I'm just kinda bumming around, trying to stay productive but what am I supposed to do all day? I'm not used to having this much free time. I pretty much have always gone to school or worked. People tell me I should enjoy this time because I will never have time like this again. So far I am enjoying it but just unsure on how use it all up. Yesterday I went shopping but I decided I shouldn't do that with my free time it will very quickly eat up our bank account. I bought a set of lamps for our living room, a decorative clock which I'm not sure where I'm going to put, new cookie sheets and a few other random items. We won't expose the grand total because I'm not necessarily proud of it.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted but according the walmart lady I'll be like this for awhile.

Take care friends!

39 Weeks

Beware: This isn't a happy, optimistic post, it is written by a hormonal, upset, and ready to go pregnant woman.

Well, as you remember from the last post, I wasn't supposed to make it to 39 weeks but here I am with baby girl still in my tummy at 39 weeks:I think I have a few words for doctors right now. Do they realize that they are dealing with pregnant women? Seriously. Don't say that I'm going to have this baby in 2 weeks with so much certainty....say it as more of a possibility. She did say after I gave her a concerned look, that she "had been wrong before but at least I'd be prepared." Well now I'm prepared (mostly) and very very impatient and onry.

I've been working very hard trying to get things ready for her. My apartment isn't perfectly organized or decorated yet but it is sufficent. I have most everything I think I need for her to come....so why isn't she coming???

I seriously thought I'd have this baby this last weekend....but nothing! All of the sudden I'm starting to realize the distinct possibility that I could go over my due date! That thought had never crossed my mind but now that I'm only one week away (and heard one too many stories at church yesterday) I guess I'd better settle in for another two weeks at least. OYE! Good luck to those who have to be around me! I'm not forseeing a happy Alissa.

Should I be worrying??

Okay so here is an update. This is me and baby girl at 36 weeks:

I went to the Doctor today and she said

I'm 70% effaced and have dilated 1 cm.

Okay, 1 cm, that doesn't sound like a big deal, right? She then said that I was going to have this baby in a couple of weeks. WHAT???!!! FREAK OUT!! I'm not ready. You all said that I was going to my due date or even later! I'm soo not ready for this! She said she hopes I'll go at least one more week but she thinks I'll have it within two. However, after seeing my concerned look on my face, followed-up by saying, "I've been wrong before and I could be wrong again...but at least you'll be prepared."

I didn't sleep very well last night. I felt a since of panic. I'm trying to relax myself but good grief I'm getting really anxious. I'm afraid of walking too much or exerting myself to much in getting ready for our move next week. I just don't want to trigger anything. I'M NOT READY!!

THE DUE DATE...too far and yet entirely too soon

Can I tell you I have completely mixed feelings about my due date? I want her out and the very same time I think she can pretty much live there for a long time.

I WANT HER OUT!

1. I'm tired of waiting and facing the unknown.
2. I want to know what she looks like.
3. I want to adorn her in cute shoes, clothes and bows.
4. I want to hold her and make her laugh.
5. I'm tired of her kicking my ribs and creating back pain.
6. I want my body back!! I want to run, eat and play. Roller skating is definitely on my list of things to do once I'm able. I want to go shopping again for cute, clothes and pair of sexy jeans. (oh my!) And cute shoes...I miss my shoes! I know my feet don't look it to those who don't know my feet because they were so skinny and skeleton like before but they are swollen and I swear are a size 10 now!

SHE CAN BE A PERMANENT RESIDENT

1. I'm terrified of having a baby. LABOR!! YIKES!! I know there's the epidural but things can go wrong. Someone that works in mydepartment had their baby last week, 30 hours!!!! two failed epidurals and a spinal tap. And episiotomies, oye! And will I be able to get a hold of Victory? He's so stinking busy right now I'm afraid he'll be away at a football game and I'll be delivering her all alone.
2. We are completely unprepared for her! We aren't moving to our two bedroom apartment until September 29th. So we've put off buying anything for because we have no where to put it right now (except a few clothes...and a crib and bedding being stored at my parents house). I'm hoping to go buy a car seat soon so if she does comes early we can at least take her home.
3. What am I going to do with her once she's out? What am I going to do when she cries all night long? How do I get her on a eating/sleeping schedule?
4. Not sure how to make things work financially with me working possibly only part time or not at all and the increase in insurance? how do people make it these days?
5. I'm going to miss the movement of my little girl in my tummy. It's kinda fun to feel her there.

Well, you're guess is as good as mine as when she'll come out but I thought it would be fun to get your input. Her due date is October 19th and my maternity leave starts October 14th.... when do you think she'll come?

Also, we've been keeping her name to ourselves because we were afraid of negative feedback, however I'm not so sure about that name anymore. And just so we don't go to the hospital without any back ups do you have any name suggestions? Hope you come up with some good names...by the way Victory likes common but not popular names. :)

Can't wait for your feedback!!

Mr. Haines

Today is Victory's first day of teaching so I made him pose for a first day of school picture. He wasn't too thrilled about it especially knowing it was going to end up here. :) But isn't he cute??
I'm kinda sad that school is starting. It's the realization that I won't see him much anymore. He won't be home during lunch time and he won't be home when I get home from work. He's going to be a very busy man. He'll leave before seven and won't get home until after seven. He'll have football games Monday and Friday night and film review Saturday mornings. Then he'll probably still have school stuff to do. :( It's a sad realization that we are growing up. I like being the young married couple with out too many responsibilities.

Expectant Mother

Victory and I went shopping and decided to take a photo opp with the expectant mother sign with my cell phone. It's not the best picture but thus far the first picture I've been in since being pregnant. Maybe we'll do a few more here in the near future.

Hope you enjoy looking at the fat girl...uh... I mean pregnant girl! :)

MmmMMmm Goodness!!

On Sunday there was primary teacher appreciation and training. I've been substituting every other week for the last few months so the Primary President invited me to eat some of the goodies (and I didn't even have to stay for the training!!) For those of you who know Sister Stevens and her divine baking talent, know that she prepared AMAZING FOOD!! Well, she had these little brownie cup things with carmel or peanut butter in the middle. (how she gets it in there, I have no idea!) One just didn't seem to be enough to satisfy but I couldn't eat more than one...after all there were other people in the room who deserved to eat at least one. So we left.

I was still dreaming of brownies so the next day I went to the store to buy ingredients to make my own brownie goodness. I loved them! Maybe because I'm pregnant they tasted 10x better but mmmhhmmm good.

I made a pan of fudge brownies. After the were done baking, I pressed Rolos into them on one half of the pan and peanut butter cups on the other half of the pan. I put them in the oven for a minute to help them melt. I lightly spread the melted chocolate across the brownies. SOO GOOD! Especially after their cool. They definitely didn't have the visual presentation that her brownie cups had but they were GOOD! mmmm. The pan of brownies are gone now and I'm left to only dream of them again in the near future. :)

It's no longer an It!

So we went to the doctor's office today to find out what "flavor" of baby (as my dad would say) we were having. Victory insisted that I share our news right away...so for the news we've been anxiously awaiting....

The baby looks kinda likea zombie in the picture above but the next one is pretty neat.

Now if you can't tell what this bottom picture is of, just imagine the baby is sitting on a xerox machine...she gave us a great view!
We are excited to finally know what flavor our baby is going to be...it just time for us to decide on a name!

Boy or Girl???

Victory and I find out the gender of our baby next Thursday. I've posted a poll on the left side of the screen. We'll let you know next week whether you were inspired or just a lousy guesser. :)




Until then...

Hope ya know

YAY!!!

I was just so excited by last's show that I had to create a entry about it. I don't know how many American Idol fans I have as friends and I don't know how many of you were voting for Kris but I'm sooooo EXCITED that HE WON!!!!! I don't usually vote but I did seven times!! Would Adam have made the best music star? Probably, but I really did not enjoy Adam's screaming and the creepy way he performed. He often choose songs that didn't make me feel happy or reflective and thats way I listen to music. I know Adam will still go far in the music industry and probably further than Kris but I'm so excited that America voted for Kris to be America's idol. He's been so humble about his talent and even about winning. WAY TO GO AMERICA!!!

I'm finally doing this Jami!! She tagged me about a month ago but I started it and all I could think of was pregnancy related items and I wasn't ready to share the news on the blog yet.

Here are the rules:

1) Post rules on your blog

2)Answer the six "8" items

8 Favorite Shows:

1) Friends!!! Most definitely FRIENDS!!! (thanks Jess)

2) American Idol

3)America's next top model

4)Bones...sometimes
5) Friends

6) I don't have any other TV Shows that I watch currently

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1) Woke up

2) Went to work

3) Picked up my wedding pictures FINALLY!!!

4) Went back to work (That's where I work =>)
5)Sorted Wedding pictures

6) Dinner...we made tacos and they tasted gooood!

7) Played Scramble on Facebook...it's kinda like Boggle...addicting!

8) Watched American Idol.....I wish Adam would just GO HOME!! HE's CREEPY!!! Seriously, when he sang "Feeling Good" he looked like a villian saying he was feeling good because he was going to destroy the world.

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1) Our Anniversary. We're going to go see Wicked!!! YAY!!!

2) Our next doctor's appointment where I find out that our baby is going to be a GIRL!!! (I hope) After I have one girl, I'm fine with whatever the other children end up being...assuming we have other children. :)

3) Eating...I'm hungry.

4)Beginning and Finishing our Wedding Scrapbook....I'm nervous for this one because its supposed to be special and I want to have a beautiful book of memories.

5) Being skinny again....I don't look prenant yet I look like I'm getting FAT!! Can't wait to have the mostly flat stomach that I previously had....and a few other features to be back to normal.

6) Maternity leave....No work and I think I get paid for the entire time!! WAHOO!!

7) Buying new furniture and bedding for our bedroom. I despise our current bedding and just have a huge desire for new furniture. I'm always watching Craigslist for good deals.

8) A new apartment for three and one that will have lots of room in it!! And the day I gain the talent to be able to decorate it so that it feels warm and inviting.

Favorite Restaurants:

1) Lazlo's

2) Olive Garden for the time being.... I went there to eat last week and it tasted soooo good to me.

3) Grissante's

4)Whatever sounds good

5)Wow I just realized I really don't have any favorite restaurants except Lazlos.

6) Little Ceasers 5 buck Pizza's. Best deal in town

7)Drawing a blank on this one...

8 Things On My Wish List:

1) A beautiful baby girl

2) Bedroom furniture

3) The funny noise my car makes to go away.

4) One of my dear girlfriends to live in Nebraska. How did you all end up in the west??? I understand the ones that I met in Utah and Idaho but those of you from Nebraska too??

5) Not to live in North Carolina....please oh please No!! But I will survive if I have to. :(
6) A rootbear float....mmmm that sounds lovely... oooo monster cookies or chocolate chip cookies!

7) A cute pair of black sandals....why do they not exist this spring???? I've looked everywhere!
8) A new pair of tennis shoes to encourage obtaining an attractive pregnant body.

8 People I Tag:

All those who need something to update their blog with. :)

Little Secrets...

Victory and I have had a little secret for the last few months. The friends and family that we've visited this last month are well aware of our situation (for those of you who we haven't seen and don't know our news or have heard it through the grapevine....I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark for sooo long.) Maybe next time we will be able to share our news in a much more creative and exciting way so EVERYONE can know when we are expecting. Yes, that's right, Victory and I are expecting a new little addition to our family. We are due October 19th. We don't know the sex of the baby yet but we will find that out in June. If you can't tell by the pink playlist music player on the left...I'm hoping for a girl. :)

Little Secrets....

I started playing with this post on Thursday but didn't pubish until Sunday night. So I re-posted it so it would show up with today's date but I didn't want to lose the comments.

Temples

This is an awesome video about why we build temples. I know there has been a bunch of hype about the tv show "Big Love". We have been quick to be appalled and offended (and rightly so) but I love the Church's statement concerning their recent episode depicting the temple endowment. It will not hinder the Lord's work, it will continue moving forward. With this video, the church is using what seems to be negative attention as a teaching moment to really teach what temples are about.

Enjoy.

1 year

It's been quite awhile since I've told a story from the not very long ago past but since we passed our 1 year mark of when Victory proposed to me, I thought I'd share the story for those who haven't heard it before. :)

It was a Saturday afternoon, and at the time I was still working Saturdays at Younkers. Each shoe associate was going to be receiving a free pair of crocs that they would then have to wear to work during the croc sale, in order to promote them. So, I was there trying on crocs to decide on a size that would fit me best since my long toe stuck out the stupid hole in the front. I was so completely distracted by the stupid shoes I didn't realize that my manager was there (who was not working) and a few others who just happened to be hanging around the shoe dept. I was still debating and adequately complaining about the stupid crocs when our friends Aaron and Whitney came along.

I started talking to them for few minutes and then I started to realize there were quite a few people in the shoe department and that I probably should get back to work. I was about to leave to help other customers when Whitney, said she wanted to try on a shoe. She showed me the shoe, and I said, "Hey, the style of that shoe is named "Victory!" So I went to the stockroom to retreive the shoe and while I was back there I opened the box to make sure I got the right color and size, well, inside the shoe box was a ring box. I thought to myself, "stupid customers". You can find the most random things in shoe boxes. I opened the box and saw the ring (still thinking it was costume jewlery). I walked out of the stockroom and turned to my co-workers and said, "Hey look what I found! And just as I did so, Victory Haines, dressed in a suit and carrying a bouquet of flowers came around the corner and took the ring from me and said, "that's mine" and got down on one knee and asked to spend eternity with me. I obviously said yes and as I did so everyone in the huge crowd that had gathered began clapping. And we are living happily ever after!

Proud Aunt of 41!!

Two posts in one day, I know! But I actually have stories to tell today. So all my life I think I've been fairly reserved about the size of my family. Whenever someone asks me how many siblings I have, I answer the question and almost prepare myself for all of the comments of "OH MY GOODNESS!" "From the same parents?" "Any adopted?" "How old are your parents?" "How old is your oldest sibling?" "Can you name all of them?" etc....I've always wanted to be proud to say "Yes, I come from a family of 12 children, the best family in the world" but whenever I mentioned the size of my family, I would just quitely and quickly say the number and try to make it seem like it was nothing because I didn't want people to over react and make it a big deal since I don't necessarily like the attention...sometimes anyway. :)
But yesterday, as I shared the news of my sister having her baby with my coworkers, it finally dawned on me, I'm now an aunt of 41 neices and nephews (36 from the Randalls and 5 from the Haines side)! That is truly amazing, especially at the age of 25 and gosh darn it, it should be something I'm proud of because I truly am! I love all of my neices and nephews and they make me soooo happy!
So GOSH DARN IT!! I'm Proud of my HUGE family! I wouldn't ever wish to be a part of a different family! NEVER!

What is that smell??

Victory may not like that I'm blogging about this but I he knows its coming. :) I would have had pictures but he destroyed the evidence before I could get my camera.
Last night I made cookies, really yummy ones, and I put a batch in before I left for a visiting teaching appointment. I asked Victory to take them out in 10 minutes. I left in good faith that he would finish up with cookies while I was gone. I get home about an hour later and walk in the door and say, "Victory, what is that smell?" He tilts his head to the side a bit and sniffs, instantly it registered, "COOKIES!" The cookies were FRIED!! BLGHH! They were completly black all the way through and our poor house smelled HORRIBLE!
I was just amazed that he couldn't smell that overwhelming burnt smell. When I asked him why he couldn't smell it, he said, "I thought I smelled something but it just didn't register."

What a silly boy but I sure do love him!

After our cookie episode, Victory left to go play basketball. 15 minutes after the game started I got a phone call. I knew that couldn't be good. Turns out that he got elbowed in the mouth by his teammate and had to go get stitches. It was a 2 1/2 cm cut on the right side of his mouth. He'll be fine, he'll get the stitches out on Saturday. I feel kinda sorry for him, he was having kind of a rough night.

Love true love.....

In light of Valentine's day I thougth I would share this video here.

rAndOm

So my loving sister tagged me....and I don't like tagging others so if you read this consider yourself tagged, if you want to be tagged. :) But since she made the comment that it's not Christmas anymore and that I needed to update my blog I'll play the game....
Rules
1- Post the rules on your blog
2- List 6 random things about yourself.
3- Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4- Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
5- Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
Here we go......
1. I squeeze the toothpaste from the middle and often fail to put the cap back on... sorry Victory.
2. I like to conserve my food so that I will have left overs not only to save money but so I don't have to worry about what to eat the next day. However, now that I'm married this seems to rarely happen.
3. I love the Trident Tropical Twist gum as well as the Extra's strawberry Bannana gum. And when I was in college I would chew an entire pack in preparation for my Cognitive Development tests. INTENSE!
4. I've been told I'm a crazy driver... I don't think I'm so bad. I'm just not so good in unfamiliar places....on my first driving test for my driver's license I got 39 points, you can only have up to 15 points and still receive your license. I ran a red light during the test and automatically failed right there. Once again, that was a completly unfamiliar side of town.
5. I love the t.v. show Friends. It's on at 5:00 and 5:30, if I miss those they replay them at 9:00 and 9:30. For better or worse, I think I most resemble Monica. I've even taken up talking like her. I KNOW!!!
6. I love school supplies! Markers, pens, crayons, post it notes, glue sticks! I love Back to School shopping! Even though I don't have a lot of use for these supplies currenly I still buy them.
YAY! I did it! have fun!

Merry Christmas!!!

Here are pictures of Victory and I's first Christmas as a Married couple!!

Everything I need to be a Princess, including the Prince!!

Lauren learning to be a princess. Cute girl!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Happy New Year's!!

Well, here are the pictures from New Years. (you'll have to wait for pictures from Christmas since they are on my parent's camera.) We decided not to do the traditional New Year's Eve activities of hanging out and playing games all night while eating delicious appetizer and snacky foods all night. So we did something different and went out to eat. We dined at the Green Gateau, where I swear they served raspberry topping instead of raspberry vinaigrette on my salad. Otherwise, the food was enjoyable.

Victory and I then headed to the blockbuster downtown to see if we could find a Doris Day movie to watch. And just so you know, the only blockbuster in town that is supposed to have old movies, doesn't even have one Doris Day movie. We ended up watching a Kerry Grant movie, "War Bride". Funny.

We still had an hour or so to kill so we played Guestures. All I can say is, "Wow!" The two times my family has played that game in the last year, my dad has been the star of the show. It's quite hilarious to watch him frantically act out the words. The last time we played, one of the words was fire hydrant. What did my dad do? He lifted up his leg like a dog. Hilarious. This year, it was hurdles. That was so funny that Stephanie went into a laughing fit-to the point we were afraid she would go into pre-term labor.

And for the crowning event of the evening, my dad and Jeff did a balloon drop. They used the holes in the walls from our wedding to string a huge bag of balloons. It was an awesome New Year’s Eve.

Ice Skating!!

To start off the Christmas break Victory and I went Ice Skating. There was a very enchanting, small, outdoor ice rink in Omaha that looked like it belonged in the North Pole. It was a cold evening but it was worth it. Afterwards we took a walk along a beautifully lit path. As we were walking a horse pulled carriage drove by on the brick road. It was just like the movies! I loved it!

And if you observe that I'm looking a little chunky in the picture it's only becasue I have several layers on top, Victory's under armor (which wasn't terribly too big), t-shirt, a hoody and then my coat and scarf . I also have three layers on the bottom as well, a pair of long johns, sweat pants and then my jeans. I can't quite remember, I may even have three pairs of socks on to. I like to stay warm what can I say? And I did, all except my face. By the time we finished ice skating my face was frozen and I could barely move my mouth to speak.