Maternity Pictures

On December 14th, 2013, my husband and I met with our photographer, Roxana Albusel Photography, to go to Cypress Mountain for our maternity session. I'd been looking forward to it since before I was even pregnant, and told Roxy that I needed her to be free when it was time! :)

 

I booked her back in July with this exact vision in mind for December, and I was lucky enough that she was just as excited as I was to make this dream a reality.

 

I had a rough time picking out an outfit, and in the end I just settled on comfortable casual clothes, but splurged on hair and make-up from my wedding make-up artist Jayna who is a much sought-after artist in our area who has worked with Lada Gaga and received many awards for her work.

 

I can say that I haven't felt this beautiful since my wedding, and even as large as I was, I felt like I was the best version of myself that I could be.

 

Here we are... the two and a half of us! 

 

NYE Traditions

As much as Aaron and I are Christmas people, we are NOT New Years people. Neither of us enjoy all of the anticipation and ultimate disappointment that comes with New Years Eve. The first year we were together, I surprised him with a full scavenger hunt at home which led us to Granville Island and all around it for the evening, where we enjoyed a set dinner and a night at a hotel. After that, however, we decided to just stay home each year due to lack of money after Christmas, lack of excitement to spend time on the roads with crazy people, and lack of desire to get dressed up.

 

This was our 5th year in a row staying home, our first with a baby on the way, and our last as a couple - next year we will celebrate as a family!

 

We had a lot to be thankful for this year, as we spent our first full year in our own home, took a trip to San Francisco, found out we were having a baby, and enjoyed life as a married couple. We took the last opportunity to enjoy the quiet before the storm.



 

We enjoyed delicious Indian take-out 

 The cats hung out, slept, and continued to play with their new catnip toys

 

 We watched When Harry Met Sally

 

And then we watched Dick Clark's Rocking NYE and celebrated when the ball dropped and struck 12! 

 We had our traditional midnight kiss

 

And then, we ventured to bed with this 34.5 week belly

 

All in all, it was a very lovely night in for us, and I even managed to stay awake until midnight, as much as I yearned to be in bed. Aaron polished off a bottle of good red wine, we kissed the cats, and then we were promptly in bed at 12:05am on January 1st, 2014.

 

This will be the very best year of our lives because we will celebrate becoming parents, we will watch my step-brother become a husband, we will learn more about ourselves and each other, and we will make so many amazing memories along the way.

 

Cheers to you all in 2014!

Christmas at The Regehr House

We have a very small family, especially since Aaron doesn't really keep in touch with anyone in his family with the exception of his parents and brother. He communicates with a few cousins, but never sees them even though they are local. My family is very close and we celebrate everything together. Therefore, this makes for a very long, drawn-out Christmas season, especially with several birthdays falling in this time period.

 

We traditionally start the celebrations at Ben's house on Christmas Eve where we all bring a dish to share, which usually ends up in a table FULL of food and a million left overs at the end of the night. We used to all wait until everything was out, but the boys in our family are all men now and seem to graze on everything before it's time to eat, so everyone is eating all night. 

 

The past few years, we've changed our gift giving from personalized, individual gifts to a secret santa game which almost always ends up in both laughter and sometimes anger because some people don't get that it's a GAME and not a war. But I digress...

 

This year, because of our baby on the way and more and more kids being added to our family, we set a limit on the amount to spend on the kids, and also decided that instead of toys, they would start to get books for Christmas, and we got the BEST reaction out of each of them. 

Calista was very excited to get Thea Stilton books!

 After Colby opened his gift of a Cars book and a Thomas the Train movie, he exclaimed "How did you know that I love Thomas... AND I love Cars???" Ummm, could it be that almost everything you own has wheels? :) I love him!

 



Aaron and my mom played with the puzzles

 

 Peanut got a new pair of pajamas from Ben and Bahar

 

And we wore matching shirts... mine said "Baby Bump's first Christmas", and Aaron's said "The Man Behind the Bump" that my mom gifted us at my birthday party.

 

When we get home from those activities, we always load up under the tree with our wrapped presents and fill the stockings for each other. We typically put on a Christmas movie, enjoy a rum and eggnog, and watch for Santa! :) This year, I skipped the rum obviously but we stayed up and enjoyed the quiet for a while until Keiko decided that it would be a good idea to try to unwrap all of our gifts in advance.

It was at this point that we decided we should give both of the cats one of their gifts from their stocking... a cat nip pillow for each of them. It was then that Halo abruptly turned into a drooling hippie!

The next morning, Aaron woke up early as usual (like 6am) to get our coffees poured (after setting the timer for 6am the night before) and turn on the Christmas music. He woke me at 6:30am with a Christmas dance, at which time I had no choice but to join him for Christmas morning.

 

 Halo continued with his Hippie routine after opening the rest of his stocking, and proceeded to fall asleep on his stocking. He was so very happy with his presents!

 

 Keiko was totally in his element amongst all of the paper he could rip up!

 



As much as Aaron and I set very specific budgets for each other, we still managed to find thoughtful and wonderful gifts to give. Aaron got some new shirts and a new sweatshirt, a single pour wine aerator, a new lunch bag, a book, a movie, and a new saw! He was very thoughtful and got me a one hour foot massage, pajamas, a beautiful scarf, an ITunes gift card, roll-on cocoa butter for the mama stretch marks, magazines, and a lot of wonderful stocking stuffers.

 

After tidying up a little at home, we hit the road for Mom's house where we were blasted with this sight as usual... 

 

 

Mom's living room is always spilling over on Christmas morning with gifts for all 5 of us. It's pretty insane!

 

 Oakley tends to open his first, and got a brand new dog bed!

 

I had asked my mom for practical gifts this year, so she gave us a bag full of cleaning supplies which was strangely one of our favorite gifts!

If you couldn't tell from the mountain of snowmen behind her, my mom is a snowman collector! I even bought her a sign a few years ago that said SNOWMAN COLLECTOR! Last year I got her perhaps the cutest snowman we've ever seen, so this year I got her a similar ornament and the above guy to add to the family as they are all from the same maker. She loved it!

Aaron and my mom have an inside joke about the camel who loves hump day, so she got him this shirt that recites the entire silly commercial.

 

All in all, Christmas morning took about 4 hours of presents and a delicious breakfast. My mom, truth be told, upset me a lot by going overboard again after I was very specific about sticking to a budget. She went way above and beyond, especially considering that she treats all 4 of us kids (spouses included in that) equally and has a grandchild on the way. When we were done opening, I burst into hormonal tears and couldn't stop because I was so upset that she spends her very hard earned money on us when it isn't necessary at all. She proceeded to cry, which made Cindy cry, which made Aaron cry. We were a mess, but left her house with many hugs and smiles. She has since sent me a very emotional letter about how it's a parents right to spoil their children, and I'll understand that one day. I'm sure I will, but I hope she slows down before she's in the poor house and living in our garage! :)

 

When we got home, we went right to work preparing Christmas dinner for my in-laws!

 

We had a lovely dinner of brined turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, chestnut stuffing, green beans, and bacon-fried brussel sprouts. We had such a great time with them and they gifted us with the one thing every expectant couple wishes and prays for: MONEY! :)

 

Boxing Day is always spent at my dad's. We exchange giant stockings (they are some of the best stocking stuffers in the world) and then exchange secret santa gifts!

 Wendy found Aaron a limited edition Superman bust and he was over the moon!!! Cindy got me a nursing tank top and a robe... just what I needed!

 

Mama-to-be with two out of her three favorite men on the planet!

 

Sorry for the super long post, but I didn't feel like splitting it all up into a dozen posts. As you can see, we felt very spoiled, very loved, and very tired by the end of Christmas, and I am thoroughly looking forward to Christmas 2014 when we will have a 10 month old to celebrate with as well! 

Belated Wishes...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years friends! I apologize for being a little bit late on my wishes, but I have been off work since December 20^th and really had no desire to do anything on my vacation except eat and sleep, which I did both of in copious amounts!

 I’d like to write a few individual posts about each of my activities, and I will, but for now, just know that our last Christmas as a couple instead of a family was wonderful and quite uneventful. We had a great Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day with family, and a quiet NYE at home with our fur babies.

All the best to you and yours in 2014! It will be a year full of firsts, amazing moments, and wonderful life events for the Regehrs! :)

Where Boys Become Men...

My husband and I have both always wanted our own rooms to call our own away from the main areas, so when we bought our house, Aaron chose a room he dubbed (as most do) his man cave. I took the smaller room. He didn't mind the blue that was already in his "man cave" which had been a boys room previously, but I went all out on my office with teal walls, girly white accents, and memories of our recent wedding all over the room.

Soon after moving in, I became a Scentsy consultant and that office became more of a Scentsy home base for me. I didn't spend a lot of time in there, however, because I just didn't need to. I thought I'd be in there all the time doing crafts, working on projects, wrapping presents, and working on my business. But life always seemed to get in the way. However, my dear husband loved his "man cave". He had hung his treasured framed posters on the walls, decorated the shelves and his desk with his favorite things, and best of all, hung his shadow box full of the die-cast comic book figurines I'd been buying him over the years.

In February 2013 when we decided we wanted to start thinking about babies, we knew that we'd be giving up one of our offices to become a nursery. We'd always said it would be the "man cave" because it's slightly larger. In all honesty, though, by the time we got pregnant and started seriously talking nurseries, my husband started changing his mind about the office transition. To him, it meant the end of his xbox marathons, the finale of his man time, the completion of his days as a comic-book reading, game playing, crotch scratching, candy eating man with no worries in the world. He tried to insist that the baby didn't need a big room. He tried to convince me that we needed more room for our offices. He tried to turn me on to the idea that the baby would be better off in my freshly-painted office. He tried - unsuccessfully.

Soon, my lovely husband started the process of packing up his favorite things, and eventually, in late November, we made the official switch and combined offices to my bright teal room. I gave him my closet for his gaming system, moved the couch to give him a big place to rest, and his computer died just as he was about to set it up, so I gave him my little netbook to download his comics on to. He seems happy enough, although it's no where near a man cave.

I'm so proud of him for taking this change like a man. He knew in his heart that the baby deserved the best possible space to grow in. And on top of it, we have big plans for the garage to turn it into half man-cave, half play space.

The end of November and the start of December was all about making the nursery a wonderful place for baby to lay it's head... and in my next post, I'll reveal the results.

Reflections

Sometimes I feel sorry for myself. We all do. I especially feel sorry for myself when I see other people doing frivolous things whereas Aaron and I struggle financially. We have a long list of to-dos that involve money that we don't have. I feel sorry for myself when I visit others homes that are spacious and contain play rooms for their children and room to roam, whereas my baby will have little space. I feel sorry for myself when I see skinny moms with perfect bellies, and I'm large and doughy. I'm trying to be honest - I feel sorry for myself.

And then something happens a lot of the time. I hit a wall. I wake up. I realize what I have and how what I have is something that I love. I love my husband. I love my future child. I love laying on my very comfortable couch in front of the fireplace watching a movie with my favorite person by my side. I love baking delicious desserts in the kitchen that we built with our own blood, sweat, and tears (literally) and with the help of our dads and my uncle. I love waking up in a warm bed with my perfect little cat at my feet who never wakes up before me, almost like he is protecting me. He won't go downstairs with Aaron... he waits for me, and then when I'm ready, he bounds down a few steps, turns around to make sure I'm following, and then continues on to the main level. I love that Aaron kisses my belly and tells the baby he loves him/her. How can anyone complain when they have what I have?

This is the most wonderful time of the year...

One of the things I love about winter is how jolly people become. I consider winter to fall on November 1st and continue until at least the end of January. November is my anniversary with my husband and my birthday, December is my mom's birthday, Christmas, and winter in general is all of the other wonderful things that associate with these big moments.

This year, things are different than any other year. For one, we're in our home and settled in. We had moved in last December 1st, but we were still a little bit in disarray and hadn't done much to fix up our home yet. This year, our kitchen is complete, the house is almost fully painted, and we feel somewhat content. But of course, the big change is that we're pregnant with our first child. I remember the day that my family first came over to see our place and help us paint - the day we got our keys. I remember my aunt saying that she could just see our kids walking down the stairs on Christmas morning holding hands and gazing at the tree. It makes me cry actually to think about it because as far away as it seemed at the time, I could see it too. On Christmas morning when I was a kid, my dad would stay in bed with us and make my brother and I wait until my mom had turned on the tree and the Christmas music and made coffee, tea, and cinnamon toast. And then, the three of us would walk down the stairs together to see what Santa had delivered as my mom took our pictures of our pure joy! I remember that moment very clearly, and the photos are precious and full of childhood amazement and glory. And to think that someday our children, mine and Aaron's, will have the same memories is very special to me. So this year, just over a year later, we are so excited to be starting our own family.

We've had our marathon shopping day, decorated our home, put our special ornaments on our tree that we've been collecting for our entire relationship including a new one for our new family, and put on Christmas music while we clean. Things are a bit tough this year because finances aren't as accessible and I'm much larger and not quite as mobile, but I've wanted to continue some of our regular traditions. We're trying to watch all of our Christmas movies, visit with friends including my annual Christmas get-together with Jay (and this year Charlotte as well), bake, sing carols together while we cook dinner, and wear our funny Christmas shirts.

I'm hoping that next year we can start some additional Christmas traditions, like reading the baby The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, going shopping FOR the baby, and have our whole family over for Christmas dinner. Family is so important to us, and I want to emphasize it even more when the baby is here. Although my few close friends mean the world to me, it is vital that this child remembers that family will always be more important than the toys you get or the clothes you wear. Family will support you and love you whereas the newest gadget never will.

I can't wait to start all new traditions, have new experiences, and create new memories with our little family of 3!