Marathon December

So much has happened in the last little while.  We had all of my fam over for Christmas and were determined to get the house in order and the basement in  a useable condition before Christmas arrived.  We have been working on it for months but the week before Christmas we were working on it for like 20 hours a day.  In that week we ripped out the built in bunk beds, mudded, taped, and painted the room, or that is mostly what I did while Aaron put the family room together sheet-rocking and putting in the plugs/switches/lights we needed as well as some intense cleaning .  We sort of finished this whole endeavor on Christmas Eve.  So for the most part we accomplished our goal and we now have a sort of finished family room. Yay!!! I think we are going to take a month off or so from the home improvements but then when we get back to it there is not a ton left to do.  Here's the white room:

And here's the family room:

 

Besides the work we had a lot of organizing to do in the whole house because we have been so busy working on stuff we never really got it organized.  So after finishing all this stuff we went to my sisters for a little holiday celebration and then we came home and got ready for Christmas morning.  Which was totally magical.  We just took it easy, opened presents and ate a yummy breakfast and didn't do any construction. Yay!

That night and the next day family came in from out of town and then we got a family pic done (our first ever on my side) and then opened up more presents together.  It was so fun to be together.

 During all this fun and excitement I was having irregular contractions from Christmas Eve on, however, they got pretty regular during the family pic and got more so after we went home to open presents.  So after about a half an hour of that we went to the hospital accompanied by my brother Tony.  I was so afraid it was false labor and they would send me home but I was at a 4 when I got there and at 5 or 6 an hour later so I stayed and continued to struggle through till 8 centimeters and horrible back labor till I got an epidural.  Sadly I guess they don't always work as well when you start them later in the game and it was only working on one side.  Anyway, it ended up all being a lot more natural and painful than I was planning but there was a gorgeous little girl at the end of the all that which was Gretchen Maria Eve Waldron.  And the intense relief and joy when she was born was so awesome! 

I love her little expressions:D

 

She was born at 4:34am on December 27.  Having such a sweet little one in my midst seems to do so much to put what really matters in life into a proper perspective.  Her little person is such a miracle to me and I don't think it really hit me till everything was done with.  After she was born Aaron got super sick and so I got to spend most of the time in the hospital just hanging out with her and taking care of her.  And I just fell in love all over again with another beautiful baby.  I am so grateful for our little family and that she has come to be apart of it.  Somehow it fills me with even more love for Julian and for Aaron.  That just seems to keep getting bigger.  And at this time of the year with new beginnings my only new years resolutions are to spend more time having fun with my family and friends and to ENJOY what I have.  

Here are some more random pics of Christmas time fun and our greatest gifts:)  (So Julian kind of reminds me of Frodo sometimes, especially when his pants are to short and his hair is curly...and when he steals apples to eat in bed.) 

Happy New Year!