Christmas 2008, A very tardy Christmas letter indeed!

A very tardy Christmas letter indeed! (We originally sent this out in April with Laurens Birth Announcement!)

What a year 2008 turned out to be. We were really happy to see 2008 come to be, and one of the first things we did was pick up the beautiful prayer wheel that we had made for Charlie and Jackson. It was made by an artist in Bellingham named Chris Moench and what an amazing artist he is. The wheel was even more beautiful than we imagined and we enjoy looking at it every day and remembering the boys.

The very day after picking up the wheel we found out that we were expecting again! We had decided that we didn’t want to wait to try and get pregnant again, that we would just let nature take its course and if Casey’s body was ready it would happen. Apparently it was ready. We were excited, cautious, and scared all at once. We decided not to tell anyone outside our parents until we couldn’t really hide it any longer.

Also in January we decided to upgrade all of the rooms in the inn to king size beds. At first we didn’t think they would fit in all the rooms, but with some furniture musical chairs from room to room we decided that they would. Though a local wholesaler we found out about Paramount Bedding in Oregon. They are a small company and all their mattresses are hand crafted. They use natural latex and organic bamboo fabric. Hands down these are the most comfortable mattresses we have ever slept on. Our guests have not stopped raving about them.

We had one big project for Nathan and his Dad to complete during their stay, a Murphy bed for the “Garden Room” in our new extension. We purchased the kit online and it was delivered with a DVD and complete written instructions and cutting guide. The cutting and drilling had to be exact or the pieces wouldn’t work, and in the end it works really well. As of yet we still haven’t stained it or finished the bookcases that go on either side, but the Murphy bed is there in case we have any visitors, this way we don’t have to take away from the inn.

After the Murphy bed was complete we took off to Vegas for a week. Casey is the only one out of the five of us that had ever been. What an experience. We arrived the day after the Monte Carlo caught fire. By the time we left it had been repaired and the casino was reopened, they certainly don’t waste time. We went to the Red Rock Canyon, Grand Canyon and saw a few shows and ate a lot of really good food. The only negative things were that the weather was colder than it was at home, all the cigarette smoke, the water tastes awful and a slot machine somewhere got nearly all of us sick.

After the family went home we settled into our day-to-day routine of the inn. We started seeing a chiropractor and we now can’t imagine not seeing him and Casey started yoga again which really helped with the aches and pains of pregnancy.

We went to the Seattle Flower and Garden show where we ran into Jamie Dury. He made his start in Australia and has now taken over as host for the Victory Garden on PBS. We had our picture taken with him and talked a bit about Victory Garden and Australia, but I wasn’t smart enough to take a video of us with him as I had our little Flip camera in my purse and the photographer never emailed us a copy of the photo like she said she was going to, so we just have his autograph. He has our card and an open invitation to stay at the Inn.

As we were nearing summer the day spa in our attic was dragging along. This project had taken years longer than we ever thought it would or were told it would. The drywall was finally done in March and since Casey was preggers Nathan had the fun task of priming and painting, a job he didn’t really want. But in April Casey did tile the bathroom floor up there so the vanity and toilet could be set and save some time so no one would have to come down the two flights of stairs to use the bathroom.

In April we started our rose garden. We now have several varieties of bush, climbing, tea and floribunda roses and Casey is excited to add more. This year we are going to be adding to the rose garden, removing the grass (as it dies very summer) and paving it to create a little courtyard with the roses and fountain.

Towards the end of April we found out we were having a little girl and her name was confirmed in our hearts but we weren’t telling anyone what it was. We know that if you tell someone the name you are thinking of someone will have known someone with the name and a preconceived impression of that name because of that person with the name. So we waited.

May passed like we were standing still. At the beginning of May we made our annual trip over to visit Casey’s Grandpa George and Grandma Betty. We had heard he wasn’t doing very well and wanted to make sure we got out there to see him before the baby was born and to be the first to tell him we were pregnant again. It was a really nice visit as they all were. We told him the name we had chosen and he was so happy for us. He told us that it broke his heart when he heard that we had lost the twins but that he was confident that our little girl would be strong and beautiful.

We had our second wedding anniversary and since it is cotton Casey ordered two brand new Egyptian cotton robes from the company we order towels from. It didn’t turn out to be as big of a surprise as she had hoped though because Nathan opened the mail and asked why we were being billed for two robes. The robes are very soft and comfortable though and came in really handy after Lauren was born for making trips into the nursery every few hours.

For Father’s day Casey gave Nathan a blowtorch for the kitchen. It really confused him. Then she revealed she had emailed the Wynn hotel in Vegas and asked for the recipe for the Gourmet Banana Splits they had when we were there and the chef emailed it to her. So she made him banana splits for Father’s day. They are so delicious.

We had the first two windows on the 2nd level, the guest room level replaced, they are beautiful, and so energy efficient. Now we can’t wait to replace them all, but they are expensive! We are doing them one room at a time when we can afford it. Hopefully it will make a difference on the energy bill when we get them all done.

At the end of May we had our first harvest in our garden. Broccoli, spinach, and lettuce. Fresh veggies are the best! We are trying to stretch what we plant and when so that we at least have a two-season garden and hopefully three when we get it where we want it to be.

June marked the 28-week mark for Lauren, which was excellent. Every week that passed by was making us both feel more confident. Sydney had a bout with something. We think a bee stung her, her face was all swollen and then she stopped eating (which is saying something when she stops eating) so we took her into the vet and with some coaxing (with chicken broth and eggs) she started eating again and everything returned to normal. Then on June 28th we received a telephone call from Grandma Betty that Grandpa George had passed away. He lived a full life and we will miss visiting him, but hope now he is with Grandma Max enjoying himself being pain free.

July brought our first berry harvest with our late blueberries, our first strawberries and our first raspberries. They tasted delicious. It was hard not to just eat them all before they even made it inside. We had a celebrity chef stay with us, which made Casey nervous, but he was super nice and complimented us on our breakfast. We also started our Hynobirthing classes in July in preparation of baby’s arrival. Then on July 28th we received a telephone call that Beach Nan, Beryl, had passed away. Her health had been failing and like Grandpa George she had lived a full life and we don’t think she had any regrets.

With the heat of August Casey started experiencing some major swelling almost overnight. It was a little scary how much she could swell in a 10-hour period. Everything else though was normal so it was just excess water retention. I am not sure how that happens when she was peeing every 5 minutes, but ok. So 80+ degree weather and thigh high compression stockings. Not very fashionable, but very hot, and not in a good way. We chose Lauren’s pediatrician and got her nursery done and decorated. Much Ikea furniture was assembled. We hit the 36-week mark and celebrated, but Casey didn’t do any jumping up and down, she was too large for that now. We went away for a babymoon (like a honeymoon, but before baby is born), to our friends B&B in Olympia and went kayaking. It is a good thing their kayak is an open top double otherwise I don’t think Casey would have fit. We had a good time, and a delicious 3-hour dinner at Gardeners. Then when we returned home we had a baby shower thrown for us, there were so many friends and family there that we hadn’t seen in a long time and it was hard to spend time with everyone but so good to see them all!

While we were away for our babymoon Casey discovered sorbet and convinced Nathan to buy an ice cream maker. Then she went a little overboard and made sorbet out of everything, but it turned out for the best because it was an easy, refreshing and cool fruit course. We served them in saucer champagne glasses and they look very pretty. It was also a nice way to use up the plums from the plum tree and made for an interesting flavor.

At the end of August Nathan participated in the Sand in the City event with our friends’ team from BECU. He had a lot of fun, and at the Gala he enjoyed himself by drinking his two drinks plus Casey’s, as she wasn’t using them anyhow. That night Casey drove home the Miata and parked it in her own special way so she could actually get out of it. When you are 9 months pregnant a Miata is very small and close to the ground. Well needless to say, when Nathan hopped in it the next day and threw it in reverse and accelerated without looking he caught the front wheel fender on the post to the carport. Oops.

Just a week later was Harbor days and after a day of walking around, a late lunch of Mexican food, Casey’s contractions started. Not that she told Nathan, she was too engrossed in “Blazing Saddles”. Once they were about 10 minutes apart she told him. On September 1st Lauren Maxine Beryl Allan joined our family. She has been such a blessing. We got home on September 2nd just as Nanna and Poppa were unloading their suitcases. The first month we spent with them, they were helping Nathan take care of breakfasts and doing rooms so Casey could rest, as Lauren was very timely in her feedings. It wasn’t until her second month of life that Casey got more than three hours of sleep in a row.

October 1st Nanna and Poppa left for home and it was just the three of us. Pretty quickly we settled into a routine and the inn returned to its new normalcy with a newborn. In mid October our dear budgie Bug passed away and was found by a guest. She had been chirping away earlier in the day, but while Nathan was checking in a guest and the guest commented, “How strange, I have never seen a bird sleep on the floor of a cage.” Poor bug. She is now buried in our budgie graveyard. We are waiting on getting another for a while. We’ll see.

By November Lauren had grown exponentially from her average birth size. She was in the 80th percentile for weight at 12lbs, the 90th percentile for height at 24”. She hasn’t stopped either, but at least she is proportionate. Her pediatrician Dr Beth says she has been consistently advanced and doesn’t see her stopping any time soon. Lauren stayed up with us to watch election results and she still enjoys watching her president on TV. Maybe it is the matching ears. It was such a momentous occasion and historically significant, and we are looking forward to the next four years. Nathan even filled out his naturalization papers during the speech, now we just need the money to submit them!

In late November we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with family and friends as we were leaving for Australia for Christmas. We spent all of December including Lauren’s first Christmas in Australia in the cool and rainy weather. Everywhere we went the rain followed us. Since they have been in a drought we momentarily thought of renting ourselves out to bring rain. But since we were in the rain in Australia we missed the extreme snowfall here at home in Olympia.

We took a special dress with us to Australia for Santa photos, but were having a hard time locating one. We went to one of the department stores downtown / in the city but you couldn’t see the Santa until you committed to buying photos and stood in line forever. So we were walking through the city and there was a giant tree made of stars and just below it was a FREE Santa who was a really really good looking Santa, and the wait…less than 5minutes and we could take our own photos. WIN WIN WIN all the way around. Lauren was getting a bit sleepy at this point so no smiles or anything, but no tears either. We did get some decent photos and were really happy.

We arrived back home in mid January and next year’s letter will start there!