A Welch Family Affair: 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Pregnancy Blues

Anyone who knows me and has seen me in the last 9 months knows that this pregnancy has not been an easy one. The first 5 months were spent being nauseous 24/7 and throwing up 5-20 times a day, which led to a 5-day hospital stay and a two-month stint with a PICC line in my arm for IV fluids and complete nutrition since I couldn't eat. I am so thankful to my family and friends who were so supportive in helping with Ellie during those months. Since about 22 weeks, I've been functional, but vomiting (sorry for too much information) 1-2 times a day, sometimes more, is still a part of my daily routine. Now, at just about 36 weeks, my blood pressure is way too high for comfort, and my OB has placed me on bed rest for the remainder of Mason's pregnancy. I'm sure you can imagine how easy that will be with my two year-old beauty running around. Thankfully, Dave is home 3 days a week and she'll be going to daycare 1 day a week. That leaves me with 3 more days during the week to figure out how to be on bed rest and take care of a toddler. Fun stuff. In the back of my mind, I hope they just induce me early so I can be done with this whole charade. I am so excited to meet my son, but at the moment, am equally excited just to be done being pregnant. Forever. That thought sends me into a tailspin of euphoria. No more being pregnant? Forever? Amazing. I'll have my two precious babies, wonderful husband, crazy dog, and lots of family around. What more does a girl need?

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Christmas Street

We're lucky to live in a place that has so many great places to visit-34th Street AKA Christmas Street is one of them! Ellie has been into all the Christmas lights this year, so we decided to take her to see the insanely tacky/wonderful lights display on 34th Street in Hampden. It was PACKED-the crowds were a little much for her, not to mention she was exhausted from only napping for an hour and a half, but she loved the lights! I'd say the Salvation Army man who gave her a candy cane for donating a dollar was the highlight of her night. We'll probably bring the kiddos next year (5 more weeks and we'll have kids-plural-yikes!), but on a weeknight when it's not so crazy!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Thanksgiving!!

As a running tradition for six years now, all of our friends get together for a pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving dinner. Whoever hosts makes turkey and potatoes, and everyone brings the rest, potluck style. This year, dinner was completely different, seeing as though in the last year, we went from 1 baby (Ellie) to now five-Ellie, Griffin and Braeden (14 month old twins), Louis (7 months), and Liam (3 months). Next year will make six! Poor Ellie will be surrounded by all boys! They all did great. All Ellie wanted to do was hold Liam, and she was just so sweet-hugging and kissing him every chance she got. Too cute!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Two Years Old!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful TWO year old daughter! Before you become a parent, people always tell you to savor every moment because it goes by so fast. I have people stop me all the time who have kids in their twenties and thirties who say they feel like their kids were just as small as Ellie. I am starting to realize that these comments are not just cliche. The time really does fly once the craziness of parenthood starts. I literally feel like Ellie was just born and here she is, no longer a baby, but an intelligent, curious, spunky little girl!

Yesterday, we had a small family get together to celebrate Ellie's 2nd birthday. In attendance were Ellie's Grandma, Aunt Becky, cousins Jonathan and Kaylee, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Wayne, cousin Paul, and good family friends, Ron and Mary. Oh! I can't forget. My mom and Keith were there for a good majority of the time via Skype :) Of course, Dave and I were there, along with 31 week old Mason, who will grace us with his presence very soon! We decided not to do a big blowout and keep things small for Ellie's sake. At 2, she gets overwhelmed with lots and lots of people, so we wanted to keep it just to family who she loves and is super comfortable with. Here are some pictures of the day:

Taking a nice, long snooze before the big event!

Ellie's Minnie Mouse themed dining room-she was

very excited when she saw it!

Daddy and his girl!

Playing some football!

Good catch, Ellie!

Kaylee-boo!

Playing some drums with Daddy

Minnie Mouse cupcakes were a hit! I'm proud of

how they turned out :)

Yum, yum!

Jonathan liked his cupcake, too!

Can you tell?

Nanny Skyping in for the big day :)

Mommy and her girl!

Opening presents :)

She showed Nanny and Grandpa every card and present-

too cute!

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween!

We weren't sure how trick-or-treating was going to go with Ellie. She tends to be a little timid around new people and big groups, so we braced ourselves for a 5 minute affair. Boy were we wrong! Our little smarty pants quickly realized that knocking on the door and looking cute earned her some yummy treats in her bag. We had to force her to stop after over an hour of trick-or-treating. So much fun!

Sugar Rush!

Little Miss Independent!

Stopping for a lollipop break!

Trick-or-treating at The Bennett's house!

First stop-Ron and Mary's house!

For sure the cutest Minnie Mouse I've ever seen!

Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

ZooBoo!!!

This weekend has been all about deciding whether or not we were going to do the things we had planned. The unexpected snow/sleet storm yesterday put a damper on our plans to go to a wedding of one of Dave's high school friends, and the cold weather almost canceled our plans to head to the ZooBoooo! event at The Maryland Zoo. We decided to brave the cold and head out anyways, and we are sure glad that we did! We had a great time with our friends, Heather and Matt, and their daughter, Eliza. Dressed in her cutie-pie Minnie Mouse costume, Ellie got her first taste of trick-or-treating, and LOVED all of the animals. Ironically, the skunk (the "unkkk") was her favorite!

Checking out some birds!

She loved the tram that took us into the zoo!

Dancing on stage!

A rare family shot where Ellie is smiling AND looking

at the camera!

You know where there's a coloring station, there'll

also be an Ellie :)

Perfection :)

"No!" This is still our favorite word. Well, hers at least...

Hay maze!

Such a big girl!

My favorite Minnie Mouse!

Water break!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Fall is in the Air!

There's something about Fall that I love and look forward to every year-the hot apple cider, pumpkin patches and Fall festivals, Halloween...I just love it all! It all seems to have even more significance again now that I'm a parent. With Ellie being almost two (hard to believe!), we're really enjoying the season this year! Not to mention that the fact that October is almost here and gone, and that means we're that much closer to meeting our baby boy and me not being pregnant anymore. I'm going to go out on a limb and risk being ridiculed by saying I'm not sure which one I'm looking forward to more-meeting Mason or ending the world record for number of consecutive days of puking. I've got to be up there on the list somewhere! Anyways, here are some photo reminders of our Fall season so far:

Last weekend, Dave and I went to see Zac Brown-it was a perfect fall evening!