Coming to terms with the fact that I live in Florida and Spring starts in January, apparently.

Living in the Florida Panhandle means I don't have to know how to drive in snow, and the entire difference between my winter wardrobe and summer wardrobe is that in the "winter" I don't push the sleeves of my cardigans up to my elbows.

There were a few pretty nippy days back in December, and I realized I didn't own a decent coat. I was cold and I thought for sure we'd have until the end of January to have use for a nice warm coat, so I purchased a lovely gray pea coat. I was really looking forward to using it.

But then, it stopped being cold.For the past few weeks we've been crusin' at around 75 degrees, and its truly lovely. But I was sad. Because I wanted to use that new coat that ate up all my free Kohl's cash. But then. Then something magical happened that chased all the sad feelings away.

An early sighting of the elusive Cadbury egg!! And I wasn't even looking for them! Have you ever found a box out this early?? I exhibited remarkable self restraint and only bought four eggs. And I even shared one of those four with Cory.

Back in the days when I roomed with my BFF Lara, we would go Cadbury egg hunting every January. We scoured every grocery store hoping to find the very first shipment. Then, once spotted, we would stockpile the glorious creme filled delights for the long Cadbury-less summer and winter months ahead. Although, no matter how many we put in the freezer, they never seemed to last past May. 

I think this might have contributed to all that weight I put on during those years, but...I suppose we'll never know for sure. 

And so, strengthened by the magic of the Cadbury Egg I was ready for a balmy and prosperous Florida Spring. Which means, I had to finally take down the last and most favorite of my Christmas decorations. 

Yep. I did that mason jar/epsom salt/christmas tree thing you saw all over pinterest. And it was magical. I looked everywhere for some little woodland creatures to add to my jars, but alas, they were no where to be found. I almost ordered some on Etsy, but then realized they were expensive and unnecessary and we're having a baby and I shouldn't spend money on fake deer because soon my whole income will be consumed with diapers and baby food and whatever else tiny humans need to survive. Sometimes I make hard choices. 

Then my mom came to visit. She loved the little jars! Validation! I confessed my fruitless tiny woodland creature hunt to her, and she says, "Oh, I have some little deer. You can have them."

 Apparently people used to buy her tiny little cute things all the time in the 70's. It was kind of her thing. And I'm starting to suspect a slightly ridiculous affinity for nick nacky paraphernalia is genetic.

Blurry pictures... but you get the idea. Tiny ceramic adorableness abounds.

 I took down the "Merry Christmas" banner the first week of January but I held on to the jars. I reasoned, there is nothing inherently Christmas about the snow and the deer and the trees, right? Even if its warm enough to wear shorts outside, I can still have a few more weeks of winter on my window sill, right?

Nothing about Christmas to see here folks.

It wasn't meant to be. The Cadbury egg has spoken. I've gotten all of winter I'm going to get. The window sill got some fresh flowers and a Valentine banner. So fresh and so clean.

The flowers make me so happy, but I really couldn't pack those deer away. So, we improvised!

Take a few river rocks leftover from last years failed gardening attempt, some weird moss from outside and...we have a springy little mountainous home for our deer! Everybody wins! Unless that moss becomes some kind of creature. Then we might have a problem.

Why I think we should name our baby Clementine, and other pregnancy updates.

Citrus. It's basically the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my entire life. Last Friday I bought a crate of clementines at the store. I was feeling a little sick when I was walking the groceries out to the car, and a clementine sounded so good. So I peeled one, and it was so. good.

I ended up finishing three on the drive home.  And I only live a mile away from the grocery store. Here's the crate after I'd had it for 2 days.

 It was empty three days later. I miss them.

 I'm 24 weeks along with little baby girl Allen this week. I haven't posted much about the actual pregnancy so far because I was taught that if you don't have anything nice to say....don't say anything at all. And most people don't count hearing stories about projectile vomiting, or peeing your own pants in public places as nice--no matter how hilariously awkward the story may be. So I don't say anything. And here we are, 24 weeks later, with nary a record kept.

So, I'll list a few questions that are pretty frequently asked, and I'll spare you the pee pants stories. Although, now that you know they're out there, am I really sparing you anything at all?

Do you have a name picked out?

Nope. Naming someone is hard. We'd like to use Kathleen as her middle name, after Cory's great grandma who passed away last year.  There are a few first names we've talked about and both seem to like. Eleanor, Emmeline, Amelia, and Clara are on the list right now, but nothing has been decided yet. We're not keeping it a secret, we just really don't know what it's going to be. I told Cory that we should name her Clementine after I pounded that crate late week, but he wasn't going for it. (But really, we could name her Clementine and still call her Emmie, my favorite of the nick name options so far. Just saying. It's on the table.) 

Feeling any movement?

 I started feeling a little nudge or swipe here and there starting at 17 weeks, but in the past week I've been able to feel little movements pretty regularly, which is totally surreal/amazing. She's not quite strong enough for Cory to feel her little kicks, so it's just a little treat for me right now. I can't help but smile when I feel her, and send "Hi little baby" messages from me to her. 

How much weight have you gained?

I lost about 15 pounds in the first few months, and I've gained about 3-5 of that back so far, depending on the day. 

Any symptoms?

I get sick about once or twice a day, but the constant nausea started to fade around 16 weeks (which has been amazing!). My legs get super restless and sometimes even wake me up at night, but Cory and I started going for walks to help with that. I typically fall asleep around 8:30 PM these days, but I've always been an early to bed, early to rise kind of girl so that's nothing new. 

Any aversions?

The smell of our laundry detergent and dryer sheets made me so sick that I now keep that junk on the porch. And the blue original Dawn dish soap scent is pretty bad too. Dairy products are also pretty gross.

Any cravings?

Aside from treating any type of citrus as my own personal brand of black tar heroin, I can't think of anything really. I like salad with Italian dressing a lot. Every now and then I can really go for some lasagna (meatless, please). 

My belly has finally gotten to the stage where it looks a little bit like there might be a baby in there, and less like I've just been hitting the snack cakes harder than usual, so I finally took a belly shot. Cory didn't tell me he was actually taking the picture when he snapped this one, so I'm not sucking it in or pushing it out at all, btw. I'm thinking stripes might have been a bad choice but, oh well.

Things really do seem like they're flying by, so I'm sure before I know whats going on she'll be here! I'm ready to start getting her nursery nook set up (she'll be in our room for the first little while) and get some basic clothes and diapers stocked up. And hair bows. She needs lots of hair bows.

So, that's where we're at now a days. Even with all the bodily function surprises, I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world. We're so glad you're one your way, Little Baby Girl.

Christmas '12 & New Years '13

Finally getting back on this blogging train. New Years resolution: Weekly posts. The great 4 months of morning sickness 2012 really zapped all blogging motivation--I've got some catching up to do! Here's a recap of Christmas and New Years with WAYY too many pictures. You've been warned.

 Cory and I opened our gifts and stockings for each other on Christmas Eve. We filled the Santa Mugs with piping hot chocolate (my contribution to our holiday tradition making) and ate Zebra cakes (Cory's contribution to our traditions in the making. We'll see if that one sticks).

Cory gave me some fancy cardigans (my favorite gift to receive EVER. I've never met a cardigan I didn't like) AND the 1.8 aperture camera lens I've been ever so subtlety hinting that I had to have. I gave Cory grill accessories and a fancy MAX access Craftsman ratchet/wrench set that he showed me a youtube video about, so I thought he might want it.

 Cory really raked in on the ratchets/wrenches this year. He got like, 200 different kinds. Now we just need a project for him to wrench open or something.

Kourtney made this nativity on jars for me--She sells the vinyl cuts on Etsy, so you can make one too :) Click here.

We spent Christmas day with Cory's family, which I sadly didn't get any pictures of. We opened presents in the morning and I got a Dyson vacuum!!! I cried when I opened it. Does that mean I'm officially grown up? I am seriously in love with it.

Then Cory's dad made a giant breakfast of Belgian waffles, spicy eggs, and sausage. We hung out watching family videos the rest of the day and we got to skype with Cory's brother who is serving a mission in Arizona. He comes home in June and we are so excited!

After Christmas we headed over to Marianna to spend a few days with my family while they were in town. We took turns snuggling grand baby Nathaniel, and feeding grandpuppy Daisy people food that she is not supposed to have. Aren't they precious?

We spent the nights playing Mexican train, Cranium and Settlers of Cataan. We'll some people played Settlers. I never really developed a taste for games of strategy, so I declined. But Jesse, Tanya and Cory really seemed to enjoy it.

Grandpa and Grandma couldn't get enough of sweet baby Nate. And Sam couldn't get enough of lighting fires. He kept that thing going for days. And Cory sat in front of it for days. What can I say? The boy doesn't have a lot of insulation on those bones.

We felt adventurous one day, so we took a trip to Alabama. We hit up the flea market where you can buy pretty much anything. Boiled peanuts, fancy pearls, old books, south American specialty spices....seriously, you could buy anything. We found a guy selling fruits and veggies in the back, and they were so fresh! And cheap! We got a ton of grape fruit, sweet red peppers, strawberries, 2 little pineapples,and I forget what else for 13.00 dollars.

Things that made me laugh in Alabama.  Now I'm really jonesin' for a Strawberry-Quiwi sno cone.

Kourtney brought her crafting supplies, and we camped out in the dining room making fancy cards off and on throughout the week. I got some adorable cards for baby showers and weddings out of it. Cory even made a few cards. He was a stamping mad man.

The boys had fun doing boy things. They used saws, and automatic nail guns, and mitered things, and eventually got beadboard and thick baseboards up all over the attic. We had a box of two thousand expired paintballs that they had fun shooting off for about 10 minutes. Seriously. It took them 10 minutes to get through that box.

After that they started our annual new years bonfire (gotta start it early so it has time to burn down). And then they went and bought a few boxes of fireworks from Alabama, the land of legit fireworks. Jesse was really chatting it up with the fireworks dealer, and when they were checking out, the dealer gave them a free box of fireworks ($60.00 retail value!). So yea. He's still got it.

We spent New Years Eve roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, and lighting fireworks that may or may not be illegal in the state of Florida. It was nice. Also, Nathaniel looooved the fireworks. That is one 2 month old who knows whats up. Hansen boy, through and through.

A little bit of Roman Candle magic. It felt like we were in Harry Potter for reals. Expelliarmus!

We ended the night having waaaay too much fun with sparklers. Things got wild.

The break was so wonderful, I want a million more weeks of it. Alas, that's never going to happen. Back to work for me, and back to school for Cory. Today is the first day of his last semester!! We been waitin' for you, 2013.

Hope you had a great holiday break filled with family, and Christmas, and just maybe a little bit of relaxation. Any new years resolutions out there? I think mine is "Get it together" and we'll leave it at that.

Sunrise, Sunset

Every year we make the drive over to Cory's grandparent's house on the St. John's River for Thanksgiving. It is seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. 

We get there Wednesday night, and eat dinner and hang out until everyone falls asleep. I'm always one of the first to go. And these days I don't even have a chance. I'm out like a light around 8:30 every night. The bonus to this is I'm up early. I love the quiet mornings.

I peeked out the back window when I got up, and couldn't resist this amazing sunrise.

I slipped on my shoes, and walked through the wet grass to the little citrus grove on the side of the house. I found some nice juicy oranges, and sat on the dock while the sun rose. 

 It was one of those moments that make you say, "Seriously? Is this my life right now? Because I am in love with it."  It was the perfect start to Thanksgiving. How can you be anything but grateful when you're watching a perfect sunrise, sitting on a peaceful dock, eating an orange you just picked from a tree?

The icing on the seriouslyitcan'tgetanybetterthanthis cake: I didn't throw those oranges up. A Thanksgiving miracle!

Then everyone woke up, and we started the traditional peeling, boiling, mashing, and roasting. The parade was on, and we watched it. We looked up black Friday sales.We braided each other's hair. Oh Thanksgiving. You are so great.

 We ate our Thanksgiving feasts (Cory's family always serves it up buffet style, and uses these disposable lunch trays...clean up is a BREEZE. Keep your fine china, place settings, and centerpieces thank you very much. This is the perfect way to feed 25 people.).

They live on a wild life refuge, and everyone kept seeing all this crazy wildlife. Wild turkeys, sand hill cranes, fox tail squirrels, etc. After lunch and a nice nap, Cory took me for a walk so I could see these crazy animals.

This is the most exotic thing we found:

Yea. I guess we missed the crazy animal train. But he did show me this Indian Mound they used to play on as kids. Apparently before the road was paved you could just find pieces of Indian pottery all over the place. Aunt Keri and Uncle Neil used to buy arrowheads, hide them in the road, and tell the kids, "Ohh look over here! I think you might find something really neat!" And the kids would come running.

When we got back from our walk, the sun was going down, and we found grandpa fishing with some of his girls. It was a little bittersweet this year without Great Grandma Kathleen to keep us company on the dock, and show us all how to really fish.

Anyway, that's how I watched a sunrise and a sunset from the very same place. 

And then we drove home with a broken radio, so we had no choice but to tell each other stories for a few hours. It was a good Thanksgiving.

The Big Reveal

So, we all went in on Friday to take a look at this little baby. 

I went to Party City and Target on my lunch break to pick up some mustaches and hair bows for everyone to wear before we went in. I brought them back to work, and my co-workers really needed to make their official guesses.

Then we had everyone wear their guesses just before we went in for the ultrasound.

Little baby Nathaniel was really hoping for a boy cousin. I'm really impressed with how well he pulls off the facial hair look.

Then we went into the room, and projected this little cutie's picture onto the wall. They had me doing all kind of crazy rolls and stuff to get the baby to flip over and show us the goods. We were really worried for a while that we wouldn't get a clear shot!

Look at the little tease. Waving to us while we tried everything we could think of to get a good shot!

Finally, we got some really clear shots, and this little baby gave up the goods! Guess what....

Knowing that we're going to have a little lady  in just a few months makes it seem just a little more real! We saw her sucking both of her thumbs, and caught a few adorable hick-ups. Now taking name suggestions :)