Christmas!

Christmas a.k.a December 25th was Isabella's actual due date but Eric and I were thrilled that she decided to make her Debut eleven days early. Not only were we assured the tax break (Hooray for the gov-ment shellin out money for little ones) but we also got to have Bella here to celebrate the holidays with us. It was truly a wonderful day, since Isabella was still a mere 11 days old we kept everything really low key. We went to my parents for Christmas morning, home for a nap, and then back to the folks for Christmas dinner and movie night. It was the perfect way to spend Bella's 1st Christmas.

Here she is with her first stocking, It's good to begin her Jayhawk education early.






















The Averill tradition inckudes stockings first and the stockings themselves are truly something. We stuff them full of as much useful crap as possible until they overflow. This is vastly different then the Neuteboom tradition of well thought out gifts in the stocking. Here is Eric's first true immersion in the Averill stocking.






















Eric also spoiled me rotten this Christmas. Here I am with my beautiful pink sapphire past, present, future necklace he gave me in honor of Bella and our amazing life together.

















Now the necklace was something but it doesn't hold a candle to this next present.. A BABY LEASH!!! Now Eric knows how strongly I feel about the utter nonsense of this particular product ( sorry to anyone that "walks" their baby, You may hate me now) So this was almost the best gag gift of the morning. It was beat only by a little British gift from my bro that is so bad I can't even talk about it on the blog.

















Ahh family, It was a wonderful day ending with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a roast for dinner and Bella snuggling with her Averill Grandparents. We couldn't ask for a better Christmas.
















~Trish

We're wide awake

So it's 2:30am and we are wide awake. And by we I'm using it in the royal sense for princess Bella here. I told you I'd be writing in the middle of the night. Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates for a bit, We've been adjusting to Bella's schedule which is pretty much whatever she feels like doing we do. But things are going really well. She's already up to 7 some odd pounds and growing like champ. She's so beautiful as you can see below. So what have we been up to you may ask? Pretty much just hanging around our house and the folks house. We have yet to venture into public since it's cold and flu season and she's still so little! However, we think these next couple of weeks we may leave the house for short store trips and such.

First installment: Cute pics of Bella and Friends.

This first picture is one of Eric's artsy photos.






















Over the Holidays our friends Cari and Phil came up from North Carolina via Wichita for dinner and to meet Bella. It was so great to see them. Bella was even awake for company.


















One very special part of this year's Christmas was having my brother and sister-in-law home for the holidays from England. Bella was very excited to meet her Uncle Willie and Aunt Lucy.






















It was so fun to see all these folks. Up next.... Christmas pics.

~Trish

Our Beautifull Baby Girl

Well Isabella is now about 3 days old and the joy of our lives. We are now on our second night home and have quickly discovered that Isabella does not like to sleep anywhere but in our arms at night so we are right now sitting at the computer updating the blog at midnight. I'm starting to think that the middle of the night is when most of my blog posts will be composed for a bit.
Anyway, I know you're all saying " Enough Trish, where are the pictures?" well my friends never fear, Pictures are here!

It's a Girl!!!

She's here! Isabella Jeanette Neuteboom was born on December 14th at 6:18am. She weighed 5lbs 15oz at 18 and 3/4 inches and perfect! I'll post pictures soon. Thanks for all the kind thoughts and words. We're happily home now but would like to wait to see people until we get settled and adjusted, it may take us a bit, this is all very strange!

Pictures soon!!

~Trish

We're "Ready!"

Or as ready as we'll ever be I suppose. The baby's room is finished! In addition, the guest room/office/sports room is also complete. We finished up over the last couple of weekends. It's been so nice to have the house finished up and back in some sort of order. I've even spent a couple of hours sitting in the glider in the baby's room, it's very relaxing, peaceful and exciting. With the temperature in that room being about 10 degrees higher then the rest of the house it's become the cat's favorite room as well, much to our dismay. I arrived home the other day to find Maurice curled up in the crib. Needless to say, Eric and I are working on ways to keep the cats out of the room.

So without further ado, here are some pics to show off all of our hard work.

First: The Baby's Room!!!!



























Up Next, the beautiful Sports/Office/Guest Room; As you can probably guess, this one was designed by Eric.



















I'm so impressed with all the work that Eric did. He not only painted each of these rooms but also replaced all of the sockets and light switches, the baby's room has a new overhead light and he even helped me decorate and do baby laundry. Team Boom is enjoying getting ready for our newest member. As my good friend Victor would say "Okay, Here we go!"

~Trish

Making Progress

Eric and I had a VERY productive weekend over the Thanksgiving holidays. With five days off we couldn't help but nest. The house is now deep cleaned and the baby's room fully painted. The following pictures are some "during" shots to help you know what we've been up to. Once the room is decorated I'll take the "After" shots so everyone can see what we've worked so dilligently on.

First Eric finished up the painting in the baby's room while I worked on the dresser.


























Eric then came and helped me with the detail work. He is also responsible for the cool leaf design on the dresser. We got the drawer knobs from Bargain Depot for a great price and I can't wait to get it up to the baby's room.




















In addition we used a multitude of gift cards to finish picking up the necessities for baby like the crib matress, Pack n Play and a variety of other needs. Here they are in boxes ready to get built. It's so exciting!!

















We have some building, decorating and organizing to do and then I'll post our finished project. In addition we've had fun getting Christmas Decorations up and counting down to baby's arrival. They all come right when you plan right???? Just Kidding.

~Trish

Baby Shower on November 22nd!

We were yet again spoiled by friends a couple of weeks ago. Tracy threw a great shower located in the GCSAA multipurpose room.


















Eric yet again got out of going to the shower although Sean got roped in to come hang out with us and Keegan. It was kind of ironic since Eric was the only guy at Tracy's baby shower a couple of years ago. Funny how things work out that way. I think Sean secretly really enjoyed it, well the little smokies anyway.

It was a lovely morning where we decorated onsies, enjoyed snacks and opened presents. I had two adorable kids to approve of all the toys given and was surrounded by fabulous women who provided advice, support and all kinds of fun stories.



















Here Keegan is checking out the amazing mosaic box made for us by the beloved Chausse's. It's a memory box with a beautiful mosaic top that has numbered items up to ten. Baby can learn how to count on Art!

















Rock Chalk Jayhawk!! Boy or Girl, this baby is going to be decked out in all the greatest Jayhawk fashions.

















Here Keegan and Manning are checking out the goods, I think they approved.


















Next, the artsy photo I took of the drink brought to me by Kari, It scared me a little. I call it "There's a baby in my Virgin Mimosa" Clever huh.

















So many Thanks to Tracy and all who attended. Also, thanks to everyone who has spoiled us rotten with gearing up for baby as well as given us endless love, support, advice and friendship. We'll need it now more than ever once the little one gets here.

Thanks again!

~Trish and Eric

Thanksgivings

Yes, there was more than one Thanksgiving for the growing Neuteboom Family, In fact during the last couple of weeks we've had three Thanksgiving meals and tons of Turkey leftovers.

It all began on November 22nd with our annual Friends Thanksgiving.....
Loren came over the night before to hang out and wake up early to smoke a Turkey with Eric. Here are the boys working on that delicious Turkey, Looks pretty good huh. When Eric finished carving it he made turkey stock from scratch and we had a fantastic Turkey soup for a couple of weeks. I baked my usual pumpkin pie although this year I slacked a little bit and used pumpkin from a can and frozen crusts. I know you are all slightly disappointed but I just didn't have the energy for the whole pumpkin pie extravaganza. They still turned out yummy.
























Next, Thanksgiving itself arrived and we had two meals in one day, This is a normal tradition for the Averill family and a new one for Eric. First we went to Topeka to visit my Grandpa Rice at the nursing home, He looked great, no tubes or nothin! He was also quite taken aback by my big ole belly, It's been a while since we've seen him. We then went to my Grandma Averill's nursing home and met up with My dad's side of the family for a big Turkey, stuffing and meal with all the works. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures.

After that meal we came back to L-Town for a smaller family meal. We were thrilled to have Granny Sook join us for a Thanksgiving dinner which not only included Turkey, it had an even better main attraction; Goose. It was quite a feast. After dinner we celebrated Eric's Birthday and played games for the rest of the evening. It was perfectly relaxing and indulgent all at the same time. I LOVE Thanksgiving!

First here is a picture of Baby Boom saying hi to Granny Sook. Baby was moving quite a bit, even after all that Turkey.

















Three, almost four generations in one shot. Pretty hot girls huh.

















Dad was very proud of his Goose, He just kept hollering about how great "his Goose was cooked" Uncle Tim would have been proud.



















Here's a chance to see Eric at his best, Carving a Turkey........Leg. (We already had the Goose, no one figured we'd need a whole turkey.)


















I hope everyone had as fun a day as Eric and I did, we were spoiled rotten with good food, company and family. I can't wait for baby's first Thanksgiving next year.

~Trish