A year in fiveish paragraphs

and thats a wrap for 2014. Holy shmoly.

We started the year by spending three months in Mahwah, New Jersey. We have some marvelous friends from Mahwah that own and operate a maple farm near Cooperstown, New York. Ches spent those months tapping maple trees, and I spent them annoying Nancy by laying around her house nauseous. We loved spending that time there, and feel so blessed to know such amazing people.

Chesley spent over three hundred hours of this year about ten feet off the ground in a BELL 47 helicopter. He dominated that sweet corn. He has loved flying everyday just as much as he always thought he would, and being paid to fly rather than having it the other way around has made for one happy man.

I spent the year growing a human. I finally got a piano of my own, and we were able to move from our apartment into a house (can I get a HUZZAH!) ?? The highlight of my year has been all of the visitors we've had. My mom basically waited on me for three weeks, and it was heaven. She was here a full week before the baby was born, and ten days after. My dad even got to come for a couple of days at the end of my mother's visit, which was a huge deal. My mother in law came for about five days while Ches went on a hunting trip, and we got to have the ENTIRE Lewis clan out for Thanksgiving. The house was bursting at the seams, and it was absolutely perfect.

Maverik grew from a baby faced toddler into a little boy this year. I can't believe how much he's changed. He has an incredible vocabulary for a two year old, and will talk your ear off. Some of his favorite things to say are from movies. He loves to say, "curse you tiny toilet!" and "I had a dream once" (even in a little tiny deep voice). You totally get points if you know those movies. He also totally rules at being a big brother.

Piper managed to break free of the womb on October 15th, and had one happy momma. She was about 10 pounds, and was between 21 and 22 inches long. She has been such a dreamy baby, and we can't wait to see her personality come out.

Have great holidays and stuff!...or we hope you did since we got our cards out late, and some of you may be reading this after the fact.

Love,

The Lewis's

Taking Stock

working: to stay on top of laundry. Babies  get some sort of body juice on themselves or a parent about hourly. 

cooking: chocolate chip cookies (surprised?) and biscuits. My aunt gave me a buttermilk buscuit recipe that rules, and when paired with raspberry butter it is truly impossible to get enough. Bring on the crisco.

reading: emails from my baby bro on his mission. He's the boy version of me. I'm hairy, but handsome as a man. I miss him, but what he's doing is so important and he's so good at it.

listening to: Winter Moon. I reeeeally enjoy Mindy Gledhill. 

wasting time: I never do this, but if I did it would be reading blogs and stalking people on facebook. But I don't....

looking forward to: CHRISTMAS!!!! Which entails family, food, presents, lights, snow (hopefully), and just good old fashioned joy from celebrating Jesus. He's kind of important. 

making: cinnamon ornaments for my tree. They smell sooooooo good. Sniffing a tree was never so pleasurable.

falling asleep to: man cuddles. Having a husband is great for a lot of reasons, but falling asleep next to one is the greatest...when they shower.

appreciating: the fact that Mav is fiercely in love with his baby sister. I have great hopes that they will be close as older people. I get in deep doo-doo when I don't allow him to give her enough kisses. Oops. My bad for wanting there to be at least some facial surface area free of brother saliva.

craving: Sugar. I'm an insatiable sweet monster. It's ridiculous. My sister and I have talked seriously about finding an addiction aid program that would take us.

smelling: more poopy diapers than any human should. M has started to fill his diaper a few times a day to try and keep up with his sister. 

excited: about seeing family. My family (including my husband's family) never gets old. They are the greatest in every way. So much fun and so many laughs are headed my way.

wearing: yoga pants (always) and one of C's shirts (also always). Somehow I feel most comfortable wearing at least one item of men's clothing.

experiencing: being a mom of two. It's actually less difficult than I thought simply because of how well Mav is taking it all, but it's still a challenge. The fact that the cold weather makes outings difficult or impossible has set cabin fever in early this year too. Thank goodness for amazing friends and an awesome community!

completely stole this idea from my darling cousin kayla.

and then there were four

I have missed this space. A remarkable amount.

There have simply been too many other things going on for me to get here.

Things like having a baby, readjusting to life with two children, and helping a toddler adjust to sharing mama.

He's doing fabulously by the way.

I think the perfect way to jump back in is to show you what my life looks like now.

Disclaimer: It just so happens that cameras are only pulled out for the cute parts. In reality there are plenty of messy, dramatic, tearful, boring, ineedadietcokethisinstant kind of moments. But these...these are how I get up and keeping doing it every day.

Some things about being back

Coming back to MN after dark, to a new house stacked with boxes, with a husband working at the opposite end of the state will make you want to cry a little. Or just make a u-turn for the airport to return to somewhere that doesn't make you feel sticky when you step outside.

It only take about 24 hours to get over the aforementioned wallowing , and the purchase of nutty bars, swiss rolls, and toffee ice cream bars definitely have a strong hand in that rebound.

Your toddler will feel like life is taking place in a magical new world because he has grass right outside his front door instead of a prison-like hallway. He also appreciates the newfound strength he has to crush rocks (dirt clods) with his bare hands, so don't worry about the dirt patches on the lawn. They are aiding in the construction of confidence.

Having wonderful friends is dee bayst. I know you don't want to seem moochy and needy, but lady, you're 8 months pregnant, and frankly, need all of the help anyone at all anywhere is willing to give you. Let them bring you dinner and unpack your kitchen. You will be so grateful.

Sleeping with a man in your bed isn't nearly as hard as you thought. Turns out your pregnant body didn't HAVE to take up all of that other space after all. 

Don't rake the entire yard at once. It will send you into contractions. Do half one day, and the other half on some other day.

Don't feel guilty about laying in bed for an hour after M wakes up. He got out of bed himself, and started playing with his toys himself. He's happy. You need rest. You can pick up every single toy he owns in about five minutes. Its okay if they get strewn about.

Those yoga pants that you stole from your mom? They fall down a lot. Try to only wear them at home.

Minnesota, its good to see ya.

Embarrassing mix-ups, and, oh how I love it when its not me.

Remember those times that I missed the obvious? Remember how I mixed up 'pubic', and 'cuticle'?

facepalm.

I'm still occasionally discovering new embarrassingly obvious facts that I've managed to never understand, but it would simply be selfish to talk more about myself.

I want to make you all feel a little less embarrassed about something outrageous that you've said or mixed up by relating a mix up that someone distantly connected with me made a while back.

In saying that we are distantly connected, I mean the far off connection one has with someone who gave birth to and/or raised them. But, I digress.

The aforementioned, unidentified person to whom I refer has had very serious back and neck problems from birth. During a surgical procedure her doctor, who was unaware of these conditions, positioned her neck in such a way that caused a lot of pain and problems when she awoke from the surgery.

While having a consultation for a follow-up procedure she made sure to mention to the doctor (who happens to be one of the most stoic, refined, and conservative people I've ever met), that she has genital fusion in her neck, so they would need to be a bit more careful.

...

Unsure looks, and and awkward silence were finally broken by my father another distant acquaintance mentioning to the doctor that she must mean congenital fusion.

Genital versus congenital. With the possibility of fusion going on here, I feel like we would need to be pretty sure about which we were speaking.

Thank goodness it was quickly cleared up, or the doctor may have thought he had a medical phenomenon on his hands.

Is it naughty that I find so much comfort in the fact that my blunders are less hilarious than these? I mean, we have also had to make sure she is very conscious of using the words 'sacrum' and 'scrotum' in the correct context.

Very confusing. Also, I hope I still have a family now.