Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Merry Christmas! For unto us a child is born!


I love Christmas, in case you didn't know that.  Unfortunately with a six month old it is exhausting.  We had a great time but we were all beat by the 26th.  We began by heading down to my folks to spend the 23rd and 24th with mom, dad, sis, Cliff and some friends.  On the 23rd us ladies headed out to a Cookie Exchange put on by Ericka and Laura, such fun but a bit too much champagne.  Lizzy was a champ but had about enough by 8pm. 

The 24th we did a bit of last minute Christmas shopping, grabbed Sushi Town for lunch and came home and rested a bit (by the way it was the perfect time to shop at Target, it was empty!).  That evening we made our way to church at 4pm and oops ... the time was incorrect on their website ... so we headed to another church ... we got to church about 4:10pm and ended up having to sit in the narthex.  The service was fine, what I heard of it, but I was irritated.  Not exactly what I had in mind for Lizzy's first Christmas Eve service.  I appreciated mom and Megan finding a service that wasn't at our normal 7pm time so that Lizzy would be awake for most of the Christmas festivities.  However heading to a mega church and fighting a thousand people for a parking spot wasn't quite what I had in mind.  Still, the message was good and it was wonderful to see so many people in church. 

We made it home by 5:30pm and enjoyed our typical appetizers and drinks for opening gifts on Christmas Eve.  It was fantastic, Lizzy was a champ and stayed up the entire time!  She was thrilled with her gift from Cliff and Megan ... a Bright Start Activity Table!  Too much fun ... although when Megan told me it was supposed to help her learn to walk, my first comment was great and when she starts walking I'm sending her to your house!  Haha!  We just started sitting up so I have a feeling we are a little bit away from walking, phewww. 

After opening up stockings at my parents house on Christmas Day we made our way to the Swerk's.  We enjoyed our typical Christmas breakfast with coffee cake and reese grins grit (not sure if that is how it is spelled but phonetically that is how it sounds!).  It was delicious!  We then opened stockings and on to presents.  After a short break, Jennie went to pick up Grandma Gerd and Lizzy and I took a bit of a rest!  That evening we enjoyed opening gifts with the Kosco's and Grandma Gerd and had a fabulous prime rib dinner.  Delicious! 

We did make it up and to church on the 26th but boy oh boy were we exhausted.  I definitely will be sticking to my 'stay home for Christmas' mentality next year.  Although I love our memories growing up and visiting the grandparents I do wish we could have woken up at our own home and hung out most of the day in pajamas playing with our new toys.  I look forward to being able to do that with Elizabeth next year and in the years to come.  It is wonderful that both families are so close and both are able to visit our house with just a short drive! 

Merry Christmas everyone! 









Sunday, December 19, 2010

Phewww is it Christmas yet?

I love Christmas! Anyone who knows me knows this.  Alright anyone who knows any member of my immediate family (dad, mom, sister or I) knows the Muldary clan loves Christmas.  Any person who is willing to decorate each room of a 3000+ square foot house with its own theme, six foot or taller Christmas tree included, loves Christmas.  Get the picture? 
Here is the catch ... I'm exhausted!  Whether it is the travel this time of year with my job or having a six month old daughter, I'm beat.  Pooped.  Stick a fork in me I'm done.  Okay maybe it is both work and family and having to figure out gifts for loads of people with no time to shop.  But we'll manage, we always do. 

This weekend was filled with fun.  I was in San Francisco and Dallas for the majority of the week so we did end up doing some 'crash' Christmas shopping on Friday but Saturday was spent celebrating the season with our annual Foisy, Karp, Swerk bash.  It was wonderful to see everyone and Lizzy was a trooper.  Up until about 9:30pm and no major meltdowns.  She loved the wrapping paper, boxes, etc ... as well as being fully entertained by two of our favorite munchkins Robbie and Cameron! 

Sunday was spent celebrating Tobey Christmas minus three and a half Tobey's (we missed you Allyn, Merryam, Ellie and soon to meet you baby Tobey!).  It was wonderful to have brunch and see the kiddos just dive into all the fun.  Highlight of today would have to be Audrie playing endless amounts of peek-a-boo with Lizzy and Lizzy just smiling away!  Merry Christmas everyone ... just a few short days left! 



Sunday, December 12, 2010

Ugly Sweaters Unite ...

Once again a great time was had by all at our eighth annual holiday party.  Hard to believe it has been eight years of wholesome goodness but it has.  This year we swung things a bit different, kids were invited.  Okay maybe kids have always been invited but generally speaking this is not a kid appropriate party.  We did have a few little ones stop by for an hour or two which was a blast.  Our little one made a brief appearance before heading to Grandma & Grandpa Swerk's for the evening.  Our first official night sans Elizabeth. 

It was a bit difficult as I missed her terribly and I wanted to go and grab her from the grandparents but I can say we both appreciated not having our normal 5am wake up call and the ability to sleep in until 8am.  It was fantastic!  Overall it was a wonderful weekend ... all I can say though is next year ... you all need to eat more!  Way too many leftovers ... and I scaled it back from last year!






Saturday, December 4, 2010

Oh Christmas Tree ... Oh Christmas Tree

What a beautiful weekend! 

The sun was shining and brrrr it was cold, winter is definitely here.  Time to get a Christmas tree.  Ben and I have talked for years about heading up to his moms cousin's tree farm in Stanwood. Well we decided with Elizabeth now was the year to actually finally do it.  It took a little bit of searching for the perfect tree ... and when we got it home it was a little big ... but it looks fantastic!  Thanks Scott & Sue for such a fun experience and a great family picture! 







Sunday, November 28, 2010

Blessings Abound ...


Writing this a bit late however my mentality lately is better late than never.  Thanksgiving week actually started out with quite a bit of snow.  For those of you who know Seattle you know what a few inches can do.  For those in the Midwest ... it is just embarrassing how much snow it takes to shut down the city (i.e. trace amounts).  I ended up having a 3 hour commute each way Monday and decided to work from home on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had about 4-6 inches in total.  It sure was beautiful though!

We spent this Thanksgiving with Grandma & Grandpa Muldary and boy did we have a blast.  We got down a bit later than anticipated but had a wonderful dinner with all the fixings.  A delicious turkey, stuffing (my absolute favorite), mashed taters and gravy, green bean casserole (does anyone really like this or is it just a Midwest tradition?), rolls and last but definitely not least pumpkin pie!  We were stuffed but boy was it good. 

Lizzy did awesome and even ate her first vegetable with us, sweet potatoes!  She started eating fruit a few days before but we thought it only appropriate to begin eating veggies on Thanksgiving.  The evening was spent watching a movie and football.  After all what would Thanksgiving be without football!

Friday my mom, sister and I did our normal routine of waking up early and SHOPPING!  We were out the door by 4:45am (we're crazy just not 'at the mall at 4am' crazy).  We headed up to South Hill Mall and we were in Target and in line by 5:27am.  Every year we are amazed by how efficient the Target in Puyallup is.  We may wait in line for almost two hours but we have a strategy.  One person, maybe two, with the cart in line while the other one or two shop!  Then we rotate through.  By the time we were each done shopping we only waited an additional 20 minutes.  It may sound like a long line but it moved fast and we got all the deals we wanted.  My best deal of the day ... 2TB external hard drive for ... $69!  Woohoo!  I picked up two!  Since getting my SLR the pictures are filling up our external faster and faster.  Now I have one just for photos! 

Saturday night Ben and I had tickets to go to Bob Saget.  Hurray for date night.  Ben and I along with my sister and Cliff headed to Snoqualamie Casino for the show.  What a beautiful casino and it is actually a decent venue for a show/concert.  He was hilarious.  Although fair warning ... I would highly recommend his show but not for conservative or faint of heart.  He is crass and vulgar, but hilarious!  The food was great too!  We did the buffet, after all what would a casino visit be without a trip to the buffet.  It just happened to be surf and turf night so we had one lobster tail and all we could eat crab legs along with prime rib and all sorts of other yummy goodness.  Ben's favorite though had to be the chocolate fountain with the strawberry marshmallows! 

We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season.  Most importantly our healthy baby girl.  Much love to all of you this holiday season! 



Sunday, November 21, 2010

Oh what a weekend ...



Friday, oh sweet Friday.  Friday was a joyous day.  For those who aren't in the know, Lizzy has had a couple of appointments at Children's Hospital for the shape of her head.  Her doctor was concerned that her head was mis-shapen (really?  what new baby doesn't have an odd shaped head!) and that it might not round out correctly.  So back in August we had one appointment to see if Elizabeth would need surgery or need to wear a helmet.  Praise God that both were not the case.  We were told to take a wait and see approach.  We waited.  We saw.  On Friday we went in for a follow up and again praise God that Lizzy got the all clear!  God bless all those wonderful people at Children's though ... if we ever had to stay for awhile, we know that we would be in good hands!

Saturday brought a fun filled day shopping at Southcenter with a dear friend and her almost 18 month old little girl, okay more like Lizzy lost it and screamed a majority of the time.  We still had fun and despite Lizzy's temperament I was able to buy multiple Christmas gifts.  Phewww!

Saturday night brought more excitement than I would like ... our furnace crapped out.  Yes, you read correctly.  At about 6:30pm we noticed it felt cold, went and turned the heater up, nothing.  But wait ... it would kick on ... and oh yeah ... nothing.  The stupid thing turned on but the fan wasn't working.  Really, REALLY ... it was about 30 degrees outside and the furnace tuckers out.  That sucked!  Now we feel like the worst parents as we don't even have a warm house for our baby girl.  So we got resourceful, dressed in layers and I slept on her floor while we warmed up her room with a space heater.  At least she was nice and toasty! 

Come today and we have someone out at 10am to look at it and in less than 10 minutes he has it fixed.  $200.  Best $200 I've spent all month, rather all year.  Like I told Ben, if it were just him and I no big deal we'd bundle up and make the best of it until Monday.  With Elizabeth, yeah frickin' right.  I walked into the bedroom at 4:15am this morning and told him to start calling people!  Haha!  We are so thankful and lucky that it was only a $200 fix.  We spent the rest of the day Christmas shopping and visiting Santa.  I had to beat the rush ... gotta get a crackin' on those Christmas cards! 

Monday, November 15, 2010

Elizabeth's Baptism

Well what a weekend we have had.  Saturday Lizzy was a road warrior with this momma and we headed out to two different Junior League meetings and two birthday parties.  She was a champ!  We had a blast catching up with JLS friends, enjoying a first birthday with some co-workers and catching up with an old friend for her son's fourth birthday.  Needless to say it was a full court press when we got home Saturday evening.  Sunday was Elizabeth's big day.

She looked gorgeous in her baptismal gown and did fantastic.  We were so blessed by the amount of people who came out and attended her special day at Trinity Lutheran.  Ben and I were simply in awe of how many friends and family came to serve as witnesses for her blessing.  Most surprising were my aunt and uncle who flew all the way from Minnesota to be at this special day.  Mom and dad had kept this a surprise so you can imagine my face when my folks pulled into church and there were four people in the car.  It took me a second but looked a little closer and about dropped Lizzy out of my arms!  Wow!  I hadn't seen them in almost two years. 

With over 40 people in church and even more heading to our house afterwards for brunch a good time was had by all.  We praise God every day that Elizabeth is happy and healthy!  God is good!






Special cookies made by Grandma Muldary


Butterfly cake made by mommy!


Friday, November 12, 2010

First Cereal



It has been a LONG week!  Phewww.  This mommy is exhausted and this is only the beginning!  Over the last five days I've been in four cities to visit, six cities to fly in and out of, and rode on eight planes.  Just typing it makes me exhausted.  Fortunately I have gotten a second wind, as you can see from the pic above and a few more below, it was an exciting night in the Swerk household.

Tonight Elizabeth had her first 'real' cereal.  We had fed it to her a few times, extremely runny.  This time we went for thickness!  She loved it!  You can tell daddy got pretty in to it also.  We had a blast but can't believe this time has already arrived.  She is growing by the week now, topping out at over 20 pounds at the last doctor visit. 

We have a busy weekend ahead of us so this mom is going to leave now and go bake a cake. 
How domestic of me!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Elizabeth says "Boo, how are you?"


The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind ... last week we were plagued by the stomach flu and the seasonal head cold.  Pretty sure that we are also teething.  This has made for a somewhat cranky Lizzy and a very cranky daddy.  Somehow mom has gotten away with just a cold but I'm knocking on wood, hard. 

In the last week we did start eating cereal, just a wee bit.  We are also working REALLY hard on sitting  up and holding our own bottle.  Elizabeth is such a good helper when it comes to eating, we're just a little messy when we try to do it all by our self!

We spent this weekend down south visiting Grandma and Grandpa Muldary along with Auntie Megan and Uncle Cliff ... we also threw in a quick pit stop to visit the WWU crew and The Pitman's.  Phew what a busy weekend!

See below for a few festive pictures ... Lizzy the Ladybug and Elizabeth as Elvira!  Who knew we'd end up with two costumes this year!