We brought the new year in with two buns in the
oven, with sparkling cider, and 12:05 bed time!
January we got to see baby Poppy,
healthy and looking good! January I also started Graduate School at Clemson
University (pursuing a Masters in Youth Development Leadership), with an
orientation and vacation to South Carolina.
We also got the nursery together as
we awaited baby Poppy with excitement! We also began our 12 week baby/birth class. We chose to learn the Bradley Method of Father Coached Natural Birthing. We learned so much, made some great friends, and met our doula. It was worth everything!
February we got a quick trip from
Jamie, Molly, and baby Emily! We ate, hung out, and just spent some time
together joyfully!
February we also welcomed sweet baby
Annalyn Eddie, pseudo niece! A few months later in April the Thompson's
welcomed Emily Jo and we couldn't be more excited for Jamie, Dusty, and Molly.
All these baby girls coming into our lives we were anticipating a boy :) Or I
was!
March I had a beautiful baby shower
with so many friends and family. It was incredible to see how loved our baby
was, without even being met yet. My mother in law and sisters in law did a
fantastic job and brought so much joy to us!
We also had a little Babymoon in a
cabin near Gatlinburg, TN. We were able to spend time together alone, explore,
and enjoy the great outdoors.
In April, Poppy and I were lucky enough to have another fantastic baby shower with even more friends to help celebrate! It was a social craft hour with some of my favorite people! It was wonderful and even closer to due date!!!
May was a busy month: May 5th, Dan ran his first mini-marathon in Indy. He had a great experience and enjoyed every step of the way. He also surprised us, and himself, but running it under 2 hours! It was awesome for all!
Baby Poppy surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for my first Mother's Day which we celebrated with my two favorite dads! Dan also got a great start to his garden, and Henry well is just being Henry!
We also celebrated our 4th anniversary with a delicious and beautiful dinner at the Scenic View. I spent most of May cooking and freezing some meals for our future, cleaning, studying, and trying to keep myself busy!
Look at the progress and growth of my pregnancy! Woah! Not shown here, week 41 (I was NOT excited about the camera). Every minute past my due date was hard, so if you know a Momma with a "late" baby please don't remind her of that fact!
Bennett, Henry, and Baby Poppy - I miss you Benny!
It was a Wednesday morning around 11:00 when my contractions began, 1 week post due date. Things progressed quickly and my labor and natural delivery were greatly supported by Dan and our doula Barbara. At 8:10 P.M. baby was put on my chest and Dan announced shortly there after, "Shawna, it's a girl! It's a girl, it's Remy!!!" I said "I love her, and I want to but her something pretty!" I was in shock for about two weeks that we had a daughter, but oh were we in love! So many people came to visit and we were so excited to show off our beautiful creation!
At a young age of 3 weeks, this little girl had so much personality. But mostly, she was happy! One happy, sweet, beautiful girl!
We had lots more visitors and fun in the first few weeks! Dan was able to stay at home too the first 3.5 weeks which was awesome! When he went back to work, he went back to a promotion!
And even more visitors! I still had class too, so I quickly became a pro at multi-tasking!
Wearing the sweater Grandmomma Connie made for Jamie's future baby! Glad she got to wear something she made!
Our first big outing, an Eddie (Emily & Aaron) wedding! We got to spend time with family and our BFF's (Mike, Ashley, and Annalyn)!
In August, for the first time in over 2 years, we got the whole Meyer Family together! We spent a week together doing what we do best, NOTHING! We ate, we explored, but mostly we just enjoyed the fact that we were all together as a family. Something that we unfortunately don't get to do so often. PawPaw got to be with all of his girls and grandgirls, the guys enjoyed beer fest, and cousins got to meet!
We also had a BLAST at the incredible Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo!!!
We had a great summer with more friends to visit, going to our awesome Farmer's Market, a neighborhood block party, and concerts in the park. My maternity leave was going to quickly!
Look at this girl? Remy was getting more amazing every day and we are so thankful for exactly who she is. So far she is long and thin, but ooh soo sweet!
In September I went back to work part-time and Remy started daycare. We love where she is at, and I'm so thankful for a supportive job that I truly enjoy! We also went on our first camping trip since baby was born! We enjoyed the campfire, cool nights, and fire cooked meals!
October and November were exciting but very busy, hence no photos really! We enjoyed Halloween, Thanksgiving, and honestly I don't know what else happened!
We spent Christmas in Bloomington and loved it. As always, good food and family was involved!
Later in the month we went to Huntington for Niederman Christmas and enjoyed more gifts, more food, and more sweet smiles from Remy! Jessie and Levi are growing up so fast too!
December 30th Remy was baptized at Grace Episcopal Church in the dress both myself and my mother were baptized in. Our long time friend and third component of the DJS, Jon Ross, became her Godfather. We also got to spend some time with other friends visiting in town that we hadn't seen in awhile which was so much fun!
Like always, the way we leave a year is the same way we welcome the next with the Eddie's. Except this year, we are a group of 6 instead of 4! Our two little girls are 4 months apart and so much fun! I've declared NYE as my new favorite holiday: guaranteed good food, people, and drinks!
REMY UPDATE: She is about 15 pounds, eating homemade solids, has two bottom teeth, can sit on her own, and is a little joy maker wherever she goes. She likes to stand, jump in her jumper, smile, and look at other people! She sleeps almost through the night, and loves to play on her tummy!
For the most part I love my classes and the time and money we are investing into this is worth it and important to us. We might be sacrificing some now, but the pay off will be sweet. I still have 12 months of school left, but I graduate December 19th from Clemson University! I'm closer to the end than the beginning!
We've got two trips to Clemson, 1 to Phoenix, and hopefully some other adventures too! We don't know what else to expect, but we will continue to enjoy our baby, each other, and try to maintain sanity as we juggle all of our commitments. But, if you don't see much of us know that you are still important!
May good things happen, and may we make good things happen, this year!
