Christmas 2013 (New Year's, too!)

We spent Christmas on the mountain.  On our drive in, about 20 minutes before exiting 540 it started to really snow.  It was so pretty.  Big, white, fluffy snowflakes!  It for sure made it feel like Christmas :) We had everyone there...Shawn, Anastasia, Yasha, Adam, Christy...and my mom and Louis of course ;) SP and I have started a tradition (2 years so far) with bringing a bunch of tamales up from a little local taco shop here in Keller.  They make them fresh and they are soooo yummy!  That's what we had for our Christmas Eve meal, and on Christmas SCT prepared duck.  We never seem to do too shabby in the food department when we're all together.  Even with all that delicious food around, I still can't help myself from slipping a few handfuls of Cheetos on occasion (or often).  It's just that I know exactly where the green tupperware container that has been the Traylor family Cheeto container (doesn't every family have one of these?) for as long as I can remember lives.  And every time I open the pantry, it asks for me to eat a few. It's not my fault!!!  Great, now I am craving Cheetos and I'm supposed to be talking about Christmas!  Sheesh!

Ok, moving on...Christmas Eve was very emotional for me.  I feel like I was emotional at Thanksgiving, but Christmas was a whole new ballgame.  My dad used to always read The Cajun Night Before Christmas to us all in his best cajun accent. It was always the highlight of Christmas Eve. This year, Shawn gave it his best shot! He did a very good job, and I made it through with tears and laughter - that's the best way, right?

Christmas morning came, and we all had so much fun watching Yasha see what Santa had brought him!  Life size Legos, a train set, and a soccer ball!  We all tried to keep our gift giving in check this year, as we are all saving for something it seems.  We enjoyed slowly making our way through each gift and just being all together.

1- The snowfall!  2-  Yasha, Louis, and baby Parks in my lap!
3- Louis and his pal, Yasha!  4- Mom helping put the final touches on our Rum Cake!

1- No words.  2- Santa's delivery!  3- Adam and Christy trying to wake up!  4- Mom and her baby.

1- No words!  2-  Uncle Adam helping Yasha open his gift from him.  3- SCT drooling over the idea of going to Monaco for F1 next year!  4- SP's creative wrapping skills ;)

Adam and Christy went back to Shreveport on Thursday and Shawn and Anastasia left for Guatemala on Friday, leaving SP, my mom and I in charge of Mr. Yasha!  Sean stayed with us until Monday, thank goodness!  Uncle Sean is just too much fun to let go home!  

Boy did we have some fun with our little buddy!!!

1 - The duck from Christmas (a little out of order)!  2- Playing at the park!
3- Louis wants in the lap, too!  4 - Yasha looooved swinging, especially when SP pretended he was riding in a rocket ship! 

Yasha helped Grammy make sugar cookies!  Then, we each took a turn decorating the cookie Yasha picked out for us.  I broke mine the second I piked it up.  He didn't seem too concerned :)

We took him to see Frozen!  He sat through the entire thing, while eating an entire bag of fruit snacks!  Whoops!

1- He was attached to her at the hip!  So sweet.  2 & 4 - We took him to the Bentonville Fire Station!
3- Playing Play Doh.

1 - The Elmo puzzle that he wanted help working no less than 100 times!!!!!  2- After the fire station, we took him to Chick Fil A for his first time ever!  He LOVED the nuggets!!!  

These two were perfect playmates! 

This kid can eat when he's at Grammy's!  She made him special blueberry pancakes almost every morning.
When asked if he wanted some, he'd respond with, "Ummm...I think that'd be ok!"  Priceless!

On New Year's Eve, we put Yasha to bed and then my mom and I ate mexican take out and watched Grumpy Old Men!  It was the perfect evening, if I do say so myself!!!

I told Sean that my bedtime was going to be 10:30, so he should call me by 10 and we could pretend it was midnight!  He was right on time, and then I was quickly off to sleep :)

New Year's Day, we made black eyed peas, cornbread and brussels sprouts!  Becky came over to watch the Tigers play against Iowa, and Yasha napped during the game. That worked out well for us because he was not interested this time in watching Geaux Tigers play.  WHATEVER...he clearly has a lot to learn!  We won, 21-14.  I think we Tiger fans are very glad to see this season end!  

We had the best time with Yasha and he was so good for the 5 days we had him.  I enjoyed spending 2 weeks on the mountain with my mom and everyone else for the days they were there.  

The Reveal!

We found out we are having a boy the week before Christmas!  Sean and I were traveling up to Arkansas to spend Christmas with my family, and his parents were staying here in Texas to be with his brother and Kristi's family.

We knew we wouldn't see them on Christmas, so we made plans the Saturday before we left town for Jack and Sheryl to come over for lunch and our gift exchange.  We made yummy turkey chili and salad.  Graham crackers with Nutella and marshmallow creme for dessert (don't judge - they are sort of amazing!).

When they arrived, I asked Sheryl to come back and see the nursery.  She has seen the room (obviously) but she hadn't seen the dresser in person yet.  So that's what I used as my excuse to lure her back there.  Sean said something humorous to his dad to get him to follow behind.  Jack is who helped us pick the dresser up from the antique store, so he had already seen in.  We walked in the room, then turned around where the dresser was.  She admired the dresser (soon to be changing table) and then reacted to this...it took her a second to see it!

You see, Sheryl has made it very well known that she was hoping for a little girl for us!  Sean's brother Kevin and wife Kristi, already have 2 little boys.  We had to throw some humor in the fact that we knew she was hoping for pink, but in turn...more blue :)  She was thrilled regardless, and so was Jack! Yay for more boys!

After lunch, with our very full bellies, we opened gifts and then enjoyed an afternoon full of name humor.  That's right, we had a pretty hilarious time thinking of names for our baby.  It didn't start out funny, but as the day went on, it just turned into a silly game.  Who could think of the craziest name!  I remember vividly doing this the last time my mom was in town as well.  She, SP and I sat around one evening laughing at all the names we could come up with!  Who knew something so important and possibly stressful could end up causing so many good laughs!

Monday morning, SP and I left for Arkansas.  When we arrived, we couldn't wait 5 minutes before giving my mom a special gift.  My brothers weren't even in town yet, but we just couldn't wait!  So Sean did a typical Sean Parks thing (funny man)...he snuck a gift on the fireplace and said to my mom, "What's this? How did that get there?"  My mom had no clue what he was talking about, it wasn't a present she had wrapped.  And I just rolled my eyes with a big smile and said, "It's for you, Mom." We told her we got her a thanks for hosting all of us gift.  Ha, yea right!  J/k :)  Inside the tiny gift bag was this...

A Cabela's onesie :)  Why camo attire you ask?  Well, you see...my mom from the moment we told her we were pregnant just knew my dad had a hand in this and picked out baby our special.  Well, I about fell off the table when I saw it was a boy!  I mean, of COURSE my dad would pick out a boy. OH no!  A mini Fred!  God help us!  I kid I kid.  My dad's favorite store was Cabela's.  So it just had to be the way we told my mom about this.  It was the absolute perfect gift and definitely Fred Traylor approved!  She was so excited and overjoyed!  We don't have a first name picked out yet, but because of all of this falling right into place with my old man, our son will hold his middle name, Loyd.

Let me just list why we are all so confident my dad's large hand is right in the middle of this baby:

1 - We found out 3 months after his passing we were pregnant.  This means, our baby will be born around June 10, 2014.  My dad passed June 18, 2013.  This is his way of giving us something beautiful to look forward to when he knows we will all be mourning him heavily during this time.

2 - IT's A BOY!!!

3 - His legs are long!  Everyone noticed it when we got our surprise 15 week sonogram.  We didn't really know any different because it was the first sono picture we had ever really studied.  

4 - The most recent discovery... HIS LEGS ARE LONG!  We just had our anatomy scan yesterday (19w1d) and my goodness!  He's already running out of room I think!  (ah! help!)  Apparently he is around 12 oz and weighing in a week ahead.  Oh lordy!  My dad was about 6'4.  Sean's dad is over 6'0, and SP is 6'0!  I have always wondered why God gave me such a large rib cage.  I think I now know why, eeek!!!

Check out this comparison...

DO YOU SEE THOSE LEGS!!!  O.M.G!!!  I am just waiting to feel those feet in my ribs!  They say any day now!  Just please baby, please be gentle :)

Finding Out Early!!

Sean and I went to our monthly doctor appointment on Wednesday, December 18.  We first met with the financial office and got all of our routine visits with Dr. Allen paid for (woohoo!).  Then, our friend Datril came strolling in (Allen's assistant) and started chit chatting with us for a while.  Nothing pregnancy or doctor related.  Just shootin' the shit type of talk.  We had gotten there early because SP had to be somewhere right after our appointment, so we were hoping to get in early if we got there early.  It worked!  Only, Dr. Allen was still across the street at the hospital!  After about 20 minutes of talking to Datril, so tells us to come on back to the exam room and maybe Dr. Allen would be back soon.  Her c-section was running late.

Dr. Allen wasn't around, still.  I told Datril all was fine with me, and asked her if she could just listen to the heartbeat for us and we could be on our way.  She said she would try, but that she wasn't good with finding it on smaller bellies like mine.  She warned us to not freak out if she couldn't find it.  I had faith in her, so I laid back...and nothing.  She tried and tried, and all she kept finding was my own heartbeat! She went to go find a nurse practitioner to help.  Datril returns, alone.  No nurse to be found.  She tells us to just come back to the Keller office (we were in Grapevine) the next morning to see Dr. Allen since she was still tied up at the hospital.  I was fine with that, but SP had another appointment that morning and wouldn't be able to go.  I really wasn't concerned, but he was a little nervous about the thought of not being there just in case something was wrong.  And he knows me, and knew by the time we went to bed for the evening I'd probably be freaking out.  So he did what any good husband would do...continued to find a solution right then and there.

Next thing we know Datril leaves the room, and pops back in a minute later and says, "Come on let's go! We're going to go get a sonogram!"  I hopped off that exam table as fast as I could get my shirt pulled back down and off we went down the hall!

SP and I had no idea what we were about to be in for!  All we were thinking about was hearing the heartbeat, not really realizing we were getting a full blown sonogram at 15 weeks!  That just doesn't happen unless you are high risk or have complications.

The sonographer put the wand on my belly and BAM....on the screen above was our baby BOY, spread eagle, for all to see!  But she moved the wand away quickly and no one said anything.  Our eyes were looking, but our minds and ears were focused on one thing...that heartbeat!

The heartbeat was there, strong and beating just fine.  Finally I couldn't hold it in and I said, "So is it a boy or a girl?"  Her response, "Do you want to know?"..."YES!", I said.  SP quickly followed with "BOY!", "Yep", she replied.  I literally thought Sean was going to bounce out of the room he was soooo excited! He had somehow convinced himself we were having a girl!  I on the other hand, knew God was aware of how much I wanted a boy, and that he was going to give me just that :)  And he did :)  The next 10 minutes were spent staring at our son.  The sonographer was on her lunch break, but she was so excited for us and enjoying herself, that she kept telling us not to worry about taking her lunch. Such a nice lady.   She took a bunch of pictures and I got my wish...to know the sex before Christmas!!

Datril took us back into Dr. Allen's room and told us we had to keep this as a secret because otherwise the office would make us pay for the sonogram.  Our lips were sealed! Well, within the office anyway :)  She still wanted me to see Dr. Allen the next morning.

After SP and I left the doctors office that afternoon in separate cars, we must have called each other 5 times within 30 minutes, just so excited!   We were having a son! WooHooooo!!!

I went the next morning at 8am to the Keller office.  I had to pretend I didn't know the sex!  It was so hard b/c she kept saying things like, "Your next appointment is the big anatomy scan!  Are you so excited?"  And at one point, I even referred to the baby as he when we were listening to the heartbeat! Whoops!

Here are the pictures from our Wednesday appointment.  She said he measured about 5 oz!  That is a big baby (by 15 weeks, the average is 3 oz, ha!)  My mom always said my dad had a hand in this baby. Well, it's proving even more true.  A boy, and a BIG boy, at that :)  Thanks, Dad :)

Look at those long legs!!

I think he has my pug nose :)

Surprise!  I'm a BOY!

This is him turned towards the camera and his arms are up blocking his face :)  Cutie!!

On January 15th, we get to have the real anatomy scan, and see baby all over again!  YAY!!!