Christmas week 2012!

Demcember 22

It was Jazlyn's 2nd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's! Raquel has been my best friend since I was 5 years old. It is so awesome that we both have little girls now. :) Looking forward to them growing up and becoming friends too!

December 23

It was Kristen's birthday! She moved a few weeks ago to San Francicso but already came back to visit for her birthday and spend the holidays with her family! lol. I'm really going to miss her! We had dinner at AZ88 to celebrate her special day. :)

Kristen's sister Melissa and I

 

December 24

During the day, we delivered Christmas gifts to our neighbors. :) On the mason jars had the verse John 3:16. We love our neighbors and want to share Jesus and the real reason for the season with them. We believe that God put us in this neighborhood for a reason and we want to make a positive impact while living here.

Gifts we RECEIVED from our neighbors! The best tamales I've ever had and a homemade bundt cake! We also got some homemade gingerbread cookies (not pictured). We have GREAT neighbors! :)

At Christmas Eve service at our church CCV

 

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house...

My brother was visting from San Francicso!

Abigail and my dad :)

My mom modeling one of her Christmas gifts hehe.

 

We got the PS3 Move! Yay!

 

December 25

 Christmas morning at home. Abigail opening her first Christmas present. :)

 

We spend Christmas day with Jim's side of the family... this is my favorite picture of Abby and Kenzie on Christmas! :)

 

I worked on Christmas night. To make it a little less depressing, I planned a white elephant gift exchange and potluck with my co-workers! :)

 

December 30

 

For Christmas, my sis-in-law gifted us little boxes of Cracker Jacks with a note attached saying they were treating the family to a day at Crackerjax! So fun! (Even if I had just gotten off work that morning and slept a total of 2 hours... lol worth it!)

Family

Aww mommies and our girls!





Picture post

This past week in pictures. :)

 

We updated Abigail's room a bit. We moved her monogram frame to above her crib, added a shelf above her changing table and found this rug at Target for 50% off the original price and just so happens that the colors in the rug match her room perfectly!

 

7 month picture with the birthday bear at Berda and Papa's house! :) They do this for all the grandchildren... take a picure every month from birth to 12 months and gift all the pictures in a big frame on their 1st birthday! Can't waity to get Abigail's, see how much she's grown and hang it up in our home!

First time eating apples!

Lunch with my co-workers Nadia and Christina (and Christina's son Mili)

First time Abigail in a restaurant high chair! (and thank you to my sis-in-law for the high chair/shopping cart cover!) Seriously, having a sis to give us all her baby hand-me-downs is the best!

Aww Abigail wih Nadia! You look good with a baby, Nadia! ;)

First time eating peas! Didn't really like it or any veggies she's tried yet for that matter. :/

 

Jim had a tonsillectomy. This was in pre-op, right before they took him back for surgery. He is now recovering at home, nursing my hubby back to health... lots popsicples, soup and love!

Carrots, bananas and pears... oh my!

We are motivated more than ever to get Abigail eating solids on a consistent/daily basis. She is just shy of 7 months (will be on the 8th) and she is still only drinking breastmilk for her nutrition. Part of me feels guilty, like I should've started to introduce solids earlier, but then I think- the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life.. so then I don't feel too behind. But I am also worried because since her only source of nutrition has been my milk, I am now running low! :( We have been going through our frozen stash since I am just not producing enough to keep up and now there are only about 10-15 5oz frozen bags left... I am trying to pump more, but I still fee like I am not catching up. :( Today we finally had a breakthrough and Abigail actually enjoyed her solid foods! So far Abigail has tried rice and oatmeal cereal (neither of which she cared for), avocado (which she seemed to eat half of what was given the 2nd time but since has lost interest in avocado), carrots (first time today, did not like them), banana (likes them if they are very ripe) and pear (first time today, likes them too). I read you should only introduce 1 food at a time, at a rate of every several days, but since she didn't like the foods she's already tried, I tried a couple new foods today. I am hoping tomorrow will continue to go well when it comes to feeding Abigail solids. Here are some super cute pictures from today of Abigail eating!

Breakfast = carrots. The only way she took some carrots was if she drank a little bit of her bottle right after eat spoonful. Otherwise, she would just spit everything out. :/ Will try carrots again tomorrow...

 

Lunch = banana. She loved this ripe banana! The first day we bought the bananas (few days ago) I tried feeding her some and she did not like it. I guess it wasn't ripe enough for her yet. I'm glad she finally took a liking to something that was a solid!

 

Dinner = pear. Since she liked the banana from today, I assumed that she would also like the pear. And I was right! ;)

Abigail admiring all the pretty lights and ornaments on our tree tonight. :)

Abigail's playroom and Kristen's going away party

Our upstairs loft area we are turning into Abgail's playroom. :) It used to be a secondary family room per say, although we hardly ever used it. It had a couch and some hand-me-down furniture, but since we had a nicer family room and bigger tv downstairs, that room was rarely used. Now that Abigail is here and needs some space to play, we are converting it into her playroom! We moved out the bulky furniture and went to Ikea for a smaller-scale tv stand and some other miscellaneous items. I love Ikea!

Classic Jim. At Ikea picking up our new tv stand hehe.

Abby enjoying her new play area and Jasper posing for the picture :)

She is pulling herself up all on her own now! That girl amazes me!

 

This morning we had a garage sale. Since we cleared out the loft area, I thought, might as well declutter our whole home! The rest we are donating to Goodwill. Oh man... clearing the clutter from our home and getting ready for the garage sale this week was waaay more work than I had anticipated! Especially with a very active and mobile little 6 month old!

our garage sale... isn't our home purdy? :)

 

Last night was Kristen's going away party. I am going to miss her so much! She really was the glue that kept all our friends together. She is so good at staying in touch and scheduling time to hang out and stay connected as friends. First, our dear friend Nikki moves and now Kristen! :( I finally found a close group of girlfriends and then they all move away... only Kelly and I are left. I need to do a better job of staying in touch. Good friends are hard to find!

At Kristen's going away party :(

Abby creeping in the pic in the background lol

Aww Abigail and Keenan meeting and playing for the first time :)

Abigail is glowing! lol

Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season!

For Thanksgiving, we went over to my mom and dad in laws' home. I felt so bad for my hubby... his throat was hurting so bad that he couldn't even eat or enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. :( Jim ended up going to urgent care later on in the night and got some antibiotics. The original plan was for him to go home with Abby (planned this before he got sick) so I could go Black Friday shopping with Laura (and her husband Pat would be home with their kids). But since Jim went to urgent care then straight home to get some rest, Abby came with and was awake the whole time Laura, Roberta and I went Black Friday shopping! So fun. :) We didn't even go with much in mind to purchase, but Laura and I just love th excitement! The next morning, Laura, Roberta and I watched Breaking Dawn Part 2 at AMC Westgate. Wow, loved it! Then I went home, and Jim and I both took a nap while my dad came over and watched Abby for us. Jim was feeling horrible and I was working the next 4 nights. Jim ended up going to the emergency department at my hospital that night. We thought he might have to be admitted since his tonsils were swelling up so bad, but they ended up just giving him a steroid injection to help with the inflammation, some more antibiotics and some pain meds. Update: Jim saw the ENT doctor yesterday and now is scheduled to have his tonsils removed. Doc said it's a harder recovery for adults than it is for children and that he'd need 2 weeks to recover. Please pray for my family! Thank you.

Cousins hanging out on Thanksgiving :)

 

Black Friday shopping!

So what am I thankful for this year? I have so much to be thankful for, but the main thing which I think is pretty obvious, is God giving us our beautiful, healthy little Abigail! That girl has changed my life forever. :)

So I worked Friday night to Tuesday morning, then slept until evening (so thankful to my mom for loving on Abby so I could sleep!) and then at night, Jim, Abby and I went to the tree lot to pick out our Christmas tree! I love that we are going to be picking out a real tree every year. Another tradition for our little family is one special ornament every year! Though we haven't gotten this year's special ornament yet. Today I spent decorating our home for Christmas! Still not done and Jim still needs to hang up the lights outside, but (singing) 'it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...' in the Podzius household!

Picking out our Christmas tree from the tree lot!

Taking our tree home!

Our front porch ready for Christmas!

Me hanging one of our special ornaments :)

 

This one was our New Home 2010 ornament.

Jim hanging another one of our special ornaments. :)

 

This ornament was purchased in St. Marten while on our belated honeymoon last year to celebrate our 1st anniversary of marriage! (2011 ornament)

 

Starting another tradition... Abigail putting the angel on the tree. :)

If/when we have another child, we will have to alternate who gets to put the angel on the tree. ;)

 

Daddy helping Abigail put the angel on the tree!

 

We think Abigail makes a cuter tree topper! Hehe.

 

I just LOVE Christmas time. :)

Great day!

I had a great Thursday. I went walking with my neighbor Kim this morning. Having a walking buddy is a good way to stay consistent because if it were up to just me to walk in the morning, I would get too lazy. :/ Then Abby and I went grocery shopping in the afternoon. At Fresh N Easy they are giving away a FREE turkey with $30 purchase!!! I have never seen my Fresh N Easy store so busy before! It was not in my weekly ad, but thanks to Cents'Able Shoppin! I am always up to date on the latest and greatest deals. :) I am not in charge of the turkey for Thanksgiving (still don't know what we're going to make/bring...) but I've never made one, so this one will be good practice for me. At night, we went on a walk as a family (including Jasper) to Petsmart to get him new dog toys, Subway for dinner, Sprouts to pick up the salmon that's on sale this week and since Papa Murphy's was right next door, got a dessert pizza mmmm. The dessert pizza was a splurge but I walked a total of 4 miles today, so I think I walked off enough calories to indulge a little. ;) Going on a walk with my little family was so fun. It totally made my day! I love quality time spent together! Here are some pics from the week :)

Jasper is so good around Abigail :) Such a lover and protector.

Abby getting the hang of sitting up! Big girl!

Abigail all bundled up before our walk tonight. I love that the weather is cooling down!

 

So I've been looking into different RN to BSN programs online today. Trying to find an inexpensive, accredited school. My co-worker Christina told me about University of Texes- Arlington. I looked the school up and you can get your BSN in 13 month for only $9,000! Still a TON of money, but very good in comparison to other schools. If anyone reading this knows of any schools I should look into, please let me know! I hate how going to school is so expensive! I'm appreciating my parents so much more now that I'm starting to realize all the sacrifices they made for me (including paying for my associate nursing education so I wouldn't have any student loans when I got out of school). My hospital does offer tuition reimbursement, so I called them today to get more information about it and I found out the wait list in about 2 YEARS! :( By the time my name finally rolls around, I will hopefully already be done with my BSN. I was talking with Kim today on how she was able to get her master's degree with 2 little ones at home. She said as soon as her husband got home, he took the kids and made her go into another room and study/do homework. I know I'm going to have to become really disciplined... working full-time, going to school full-time and taking care of Abby. Oh my. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it... 2013 is probably going to be my busiest year yet!