Friday, December 25, 2009





Christmas in California

Auntie Lizzie and Miss K hanging out Christmas morning

Snuggling with Papa Joe

Auntie Rena, Jacque & Kathryn getting ready for Christmas Eve

Four Generations-Granddaughters named after Grandma- Jacque, Kathryn, Jackie, and Kathleen

Great Grandpa Gregory and Kathryn

What an amazing Christmas we had! We arrived in Fresno, CA on December 22nd and headed down to Costa Mesa the next morning for a visit with Auntie Erin and Uncle Steve(Jacque's grad school room mate and her husband). Kathryn loved meeting both of them and especially liked being serenaded with an aria from Eugene Onegin(Thank you Uncle Steve). She also loved the adorable cat hat that Erin made for her.

Christmas Eve day started out with a visit from Jenny and Daren Stemwedel(my dear friend from Fresno & Calvin Crest and her husband, who are expecting a baby in the springtime!!!)

That evening our family got together for a meal. It was so amazing to get to see my uncles and aunts and especially my dear cousin Jake who I have not seen in 13 years. After dinner we headed to church. It was so much fun to sing with my sister Rena again! Paul, Kathryn, and I also portrayed Joseph, Mary and Jesus in the service(It was Kathryn's first performance as a boy-taking after her mother already!) After church it was so great to come home and relax with the family and open up our Santa pajamas. For those of you who don't know about this, every year Santa delivers pajamas to my parents house on Christmas eve for us to be able to wear Christmas day. We all headed to bed and awaited the arrival of Liz who arrived around 4:30am after driving home after her 11pm service at church. It was so great to know once she arrived that the whole family was under the same roof!

Christmas morning started with a great breakfast of fresh breads, my Mom's fantastic scrambled eggs and a cup or two of coffee, brewed by my Dad. Then we shared gifts with one another and Kathryn enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts and loved all of the fantastic gifts her grams and papa, and Aunties Liz and Rena and Uncle Brandon(Uncle B) gave to her. She also loved snuggling with them!

Around noon all of the rest of the family arrived and we enjoyed sharing a meal with 25+ members of our family. Once again it was a great time to reconnect with family members and reminisce over childhood vacations and times spent together(my cousins Jake and Alex used to go on a lot of Wilson family vacations).

Wow are we blessed, I know I keep saying that, but it is so true! God has given us a wonderful group of family and friends to encourage us and to help shape us into the people we are becoming and to also help strengthen us as we begin the journey of parenthood.

Sunday, December 20, 2009





Mom Connection

Friends from Mom Connection(all four babies were born within 3 days of one another!)


One of the new additions to my schedule this year is Mom Connection at Newton Presbyterian Church. This is a great chance to get together with fellow mothers to chat, pray, and generally enjoy one another's company. I am so blessed to have these women in my life.

Saturday, December 19, 2009





Early Christmas Celebrations with the Scharlach's

Daddy and Uncle Mark playing with Miss K

Special Snuggles with Gammy

Enjoying Relaxing with Auntie Jen

On the 19th we enjoyed sharing an early Christmas celebration with Paul's family in New Hampshire as we would all be heading to different places for Christmas(Paul's parents went to Georgia with Paul's sister, Dawn and her family, and Paul's brother Mark was with his wife Jen's family in Georgetown).

We enjoyed playing trains and running with our three year old nephew Jeremiah. He is getting so big and is very articulate, it gives me a fantastic insight into the exciting times of toddlerhood. We also had a great time visiting with one another around the dinner table and later around the fire. Kathryn also loved sitting in the swing during dinner which allowed her to be part of the meal but gave everyone their hands to be able to eat all the great food!

Unfortunately due to the storm that was supposed to be heading through Massachusetts that evening we cut the evening shorter than usual. We are so blessed to have such a great family and we just love spending time with them.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009





Fun Pre-Christmas Goings on

Miss K and her friend Dahlia

The Dad's with their little girls(Paul and Ryan)

Miss Kathryn wasn't sure she wanted to go meet Santa!


We have been enjoying celebrating the Advent season with friends and family. Two weeks ago we had a great time going to a Christmas party at our friends Dan and Christina's. Then this past weekend we enjoyed getting together with friends from church for a party at our friends, Jeff and Bethany's, house. We had a highly involved Yankee swap and tons and tons of good food and hanging out. Kathryn loved all the noise and slept through the whole party either in one of our arms or that of one of our friends. Kathryn has a special fondness for Yumin Choi and loves falling asleep in his arms.(in fact she did at both parties!)

We also made a stop by to see Santa at the Natick Mall. Kathryn loved him at first and then wasn't sure if she liked him anymore! I love that she is already learning stranger danger, even with Santa!!





2 Months Old



Kathryn is officially 2 months old, what a ride!!!! Today we went for her two month check up, and it is amazing to see the numbers reflecting how she is growing. As of today she is 10 lbs. 8 oz. and 25 inches long! She was also a trooper today getting a couple of shots. She is a little fussy this afternoon, so I am just giving her tons of snuggles.

It is so awesome to see her little personality develop. Right now as I sit here writing this she is smiling at me and looking at me with such love. She has quite a list of faces that she makes, and whenever I see a new one it reminds me of my childhood(my mom used to have to close the blinds during dinner because my sisters and I would make faces into the window!)

Kathryn is has also been sleeping in her own room for the last two nights. It has been going well, except for a minor monitor mishap last night(the battery died and we didn't realize it until I heard Miss K crying). We remedied this problem by plugging it in!!!

We can't wait for our upcoming visit to CA next week and for the chance for Kathryn to meet all of her extended family and friends out there.

Monday, December 7, 2009





8 Weeks Old-Loving Life




Well Miss K is just a few days over 8 weeks old. It is so fun to watch her grow and learn. She loves sitting in her bouncy seat and looking at the different stuffed animals above her. Paul and I will sing her songs about the animals and her whole face lights up and she smiles really big. She absolutely loves lots of noise and sleeps through just about anything. This past weekend we were at a friends Christmas party with a full house of people and she slept in one of our friends arms the WHOLE time! She also just had a huge breakthrough last night, she slept from 10pm-5:30am. We were both surprised as I woke myself up at 5am looked at the clock, thought I was dreaming, and realized she hadn't woken up to eat once in 7 1/2 hours!!!! Unfortunately it was short lived, as she woke up two times last night. She is also getting used to our crazy schedule and so are we. Paul works two half days from home so I am able to go to work. He has also taken some vacation days so I can finish my teaching semester at USM and do some sub work at Dean College. He is such a great life partner and I am so thankful I didn't ever break up with him(I almost did because I thought he was too good to be true, he obviously is that good!)

On other fronts we are all happy to announce that Paul has finished his master's degree in software engineering. Three plus years in the making and lots of hard work is at an end, with the fantastic reward of a degree.

Thanksgiving was wonderful as well. We had a fantastic meal at Paul's brother and sister-in-laws house. Kathryn slept in the sling during dinner and then was passed around from family member to family member, she loved it. The next day we spent visiting with Paul's parents and enjoyed relaxing by the fire and visiting with the two of them. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. That weekend we also had a great visit with our friends, Kev and Jamie Coleman, who also live in NH. We were so excited to celebrate with them the upcoming arrival of their baby in May(another playmate for Kathryn.)