A Kentucky Christmas

Christmas preparations began before Reese's arrival. We purchased the tree a week before she made her appearance. And we also had a very special opportunity to visit with Santa Claus himself. As opposed to previous years where we met the jolly old man at the mall, this year one of Callie's friends had an evening with Santa gathering. This meant that we didn't have to wait in line and Callie could get used to the idea of being near St. Nick.



We managed to get a pretty good family picture. Unfortunately, Callie never got comfortable enough to sit on his lap by herself. But she did get up the courage to tell him that she wanted a baby sister for Christmas. This made her parents heart melt.

And as we all know, Santa came through early on Callie's wish when Reese arrived a full two weeks before Christmas. And as you can see, she came ready to deck the halls and spread holiday cheer. Actually, the hat was a gift from afar, as the days before Christmas brought to Kentucky some of Santa's elves from Sacramento. Grammy Gayle, Uncle Zac, and Keith arrived just in time to put the finishing touches on the holiday preparations.


The first order of business was putting the construction management specialist in charge of the assembly of the gingerbread house. Zac led a solid team of workers who overcame some icing issues to put together a great looking piece of gingerbread architecture. And this time around Callie's candy decoration intake was kept to a minimum by Dad, the safety inspector. A good time was had by all.


Grammy Gayle enjoyed meeting her newest granddaughter and jumped at the chance to take a photo with Reese and Callie. The only girl missing from this picture is Cheyenne, but we can get a better group photo next year at Thanksgiving.



Also included in the picture is our fully decorated tree, which managed to keep all of its needles on until Christmas. We have realized, however, that with all of the ornaments we have collected over the years, it is time to start bringing home bigger trees. We'll keep that in mind next December.

As you can imagine this Christmas morning was special in a number of ways. But perhaps most special of all, both our girls gave us sleeping presents. Reese had a five-hour stint, and Callie didn't wake up until 8:45am. It made for a more enjoyable morning for everyone. But Callie was also very excited to get downstairs to see if Santa and his reindeer had visited and eaten the cookies and apples we left out the night before. She was not disappointed.

Once we made it downstairs, true to form, we made Callie and Reese take a family picture before they could touch their stockings. We have a picture like this at Callie's first Christmas when we were in Madison. It's fun to have our first one with Reese in front of our own fireplace, stockings, and tree.



Once her obligations to her parents were met and the flashbulbs dimmed, Callie was allowed to take down her stocking and begin the serious business of unwrapping.

It is important to note that Callie's stocking is almost as tall as she is. We may live to regret purchasing such monstrosities for stockings, but they are quite attractive. In any case, Callie was very excited to reach in and pull out goody after goody. And this was not a short process. All in all it took about 45 minutes for her to pull out and open the gifts Santa put in there for her. But her favorite was definitely the glitter Hello Kitty lipgloss. Somewhere out there are photos of her making John put on some of this wonderful stuff. We chose not to include them here.


Another prized possession was a wind-up musical matchbox deal that received attention from everyone in the room. Grammy Gayle took on the responsibility of showing Callie how it worked. Overall, we spent a lot of time admiring Callie's presents long after we had opened our own.


As we moved on to the gift exchange portion of the morning, Callie was once again overcome with joy. Uncle Zac and Keith gave Callie the tree tent pictured here. They set it up immediately and Callie needed everyone to get in the tent and hang out. She also moved all of her remaining presents in there. And it was quite nice to see that she was happy to leave quite a few presents wrapped while she played with those already opened. All told, it took her three days to open all of the gifts she received for Christmas.

Overall, this was a great Christmas. We had a great visit with the California crew, and Kentucky came through and provided a white Christmas for us all. This post could have been even longer if we had included all of the great pictures of snow shoveling, game playing, and just hanging out. The only problem, as always, was that the visit ended too soon.

There's a theory out there that you should always lead with your strongest story, argument or photo. We say, end each post with a bang. Or at the very least, give a prize to those who stick with us through the whole thing. You may remember a picture of a young Callie lying next to our Thanksgiving turkey. We did not want Reese to feel left out. With that said, we now present to you a special composition we call, Reese with Christmas Ham.



As we write this there is just over an hour left in 2010. It has been an amazing year for our family and we are thankful for being blessed with two beautiful and healthy girls. We look forward to watching them grow in 2011 and wish you and yours all the best. Happy New Year!!!

First week with Reese

No matter how long it lasts, a hospital stay is never easy. With Callie, we entered the hospital on a Monday night and didn't leave until Saturday. With Reese, it was a much shorter experience, lasting from Friday night to Monday afternoon. But it may have been a bit crazier because we weren't only dealing with the constant interruptions of nurses or the newborn who had joined our lives, but also had to make sure that Callie was adjusting well to our new reality.

Reese seemed to adjust quite well to her new reality. Here she is, resting on an afghan knitted by Sarah's Great Aunt Lorraine. Although Reese is only two days old in this picture, she was already showing signs of being a pretty mellow baby who is able to endure the love of all of those around her - especially her big sister Callie.


We managed to have Callie visit every day. Thanks to a mid-December snowstorm that closed her daycare, Callie even spent most of the last day with us. It was enlightening to entertain a three-year-old in a hospital room for over five hours in the midst of everything else.



But there were moments of beauty in the chaos, and the above picture is evidence of one of those moments. It was awesome to watch how Callie was excited to meet her little sister. She constantly wanted to hold her and kiss her. And although we tried to keep her runny nose away from her face and hands, the love was simply too much to contain. And while this is moving beyond the first week, we can report that Reese is only now recovering from the first cold she caught from her loving sister.

Of course, maybe if Reese kept her mouth closed she wouldn't catch illnesses so easily. We kid. This was just a picture that needed to be included. Both Reese and Callie seemed to sleep a lot like most infants do, but also had numerous instances where they were awake, alert, and aware of their surroundings. And in those moments we could not keep our eyes off of her.


There comes a time for every parent, a moment of truth, when you realize the hospital is going to let you leave with the kid. Then there's the time when you realize you are going home with a big kid and a newborn. Life is truly going to be different from this point forward. Fortunately, Reese is already buckled up for the ride. We should probably do the same.



Although you cannot see it, Callie is proudly sporting her "Big Sister" t-shirt. She is very excited about it. In fact, she wore it to daycare her first day back and told everyone who listened about Reese Harper, her baby sister. it's pretty cool.


Although this is round two for us, it is still incredible to see how tiny a newborn is. It's also wonderful to see how easy it is to pose them for pictures. Put on a cute outfit, prop up a few pillows, and instant cuteness. Here Reese is wearing her 2010 white penguin sweatsuit from Carters. And she wears it well, if we must say so ourselves.


The more things change, the more they stay the same. A newborn tires everyone out. And there is nothing so sleep inducing as a baby sleeping on your chest. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved. Indeed, we are happy to be home and have successfully begun the adjustments to life as a family of four.

Fashionably Late

The big day finally arrived on Saturday December 11. At 4:25am, Reese Harper Bowes came into the world at the healthy weight of 7lbs 1oz and the height of 20 inches. She was five days past her due date, but we are happy to report that she joined the world of her own free will. As was the case three years ago, we get to report on our joy from the comforts of Central Baptist Hospital.



Sarah went to work all week, but left after lunch on Friday when her contractions started to become regular. We spent the afternoon at home making the final preparations and getting Callie ready to spend the night at the Chrisman's house next door. After a good dinner with Sharon and Chris, we made a last visit to the frozen yogurt place at the Fayette Mall and then entered the doors of the hospital around 8:30pm.


By 2:30am, Sarah was pushing and just under two hours later, Reese gave us a first taste of her lung capacity. Fortunately, she wants to be just like her big sister Callie. Unfortunately, that means she spent the first four hours of her life in the NICU under observation to monitor her breathing. But she was brought to our room with a clean bill of health and we got to have some quality cuddle time.


We have often said how fortunate we are to have neighbors like Sharon and Chris. And once again, we find ourselves so appreciative of their friendship and support. Because as all of the above took place, they were taking care of Callie. Of course, it wasn't as if Callie was all that upset to have a sleepover at their house. They are so good with her and from all reports she is listening to them and behaving. They brought Callie in to meet Reese on Saturday afternoon. At first Callie was not sure what to make of the whole scene. She was happy to see her parents, but remained unsure about the little baby.




That changed pretty quickly, and soon she wanted to hold her little sister. Over the next couple of hours Callie bounced between curiosity about Reese and telling us about her day. The picture above was definitely taken during one of the few quiet moments when Callie was staring at her sister and not trying to tickle her.


It's safe to say that Callie won't truly understand what it means to have Reese in our lives until we are all at home. For the time being, this just means that she gets to stay with Sharon and Chris while Mommy and Daddy are in the hospital with a baby named Reese Harper. Hopefully the quiet moment pictured here will be the nature of their relationship moving forward.



As you can imagine, the first day was pretty exhausting. Between 7pm Friday and 7pm Saturday we went to the hospital, Sarah delivered Reese, Callie visited, and we all tried to get used to being a family of four. Out of everyone, Sarah and Reese deserved rest the most, so it is fitting that we end with a picture of the two sleeping and cuddling. Once again, the experience has demonstrated how absolutely amazing this whole process is and how incredibly strong Sarah is. Words will never truly capture all of that.

Preparing for Baby Peanut

It is December 1, and at this point most people are beginning the countdown to Christmas. In our house, we have a very different countdown going on. It is five days until the official due date for Baby Peanut. That means we may have only five days to get our act together. And it means that beginning in approximately five days, we will begin to find out if Callie's good nature has anything to do with our parenting or if we just lucked out.

Callie has been very excited about the idea of having a baby sister and has talked about it for quite some time now. And we have tried to make sure that she is a part of the different stages of preparation, including trips to the doctor for ultrasounds. In our most recent visit, Callie insisted on bringing her blanket. When we asked why it was necessary, she told us that we needed to bring it in case Baby Peanut came out. Hopefully this is an indicator of the type of big sister she is going to be.



Of course it is not just about the mental and emotional preparation. Once again, GA (Great Aunt Teri) strikes again with an incredibly beautiful bedding set for Baby Peanut's crib. The arrival of this gift provided the motivation to get the crib out of the basement and upstairs. As you can see below, Callie was eager to be a part of the process.



The changing table has followed the crib and hopefully this weekend we will put the finishing touches on the space put aside for our little girl. We are still a little in denial about how much stuff comes with an infant. Sooner or later we will have to face our fears. It is hard to believe how much we have forgotten in the time since Callie was first born.

Back by popular demand is the requisite belly picture. This is Sarah at 39 weeks. And although, much to John's dismay, she has forsaken the Dairy Queen Blizzard hunger that came when she was pregnant with Callie, she has still managed to become large and in charge. Seriously, don't mess with her. (For the record, as always, we are writing this together. It's not just John with a glass of bourbon in his hand thinking he's being funny.)



Our final picture shows Callie with the gift she picked out for Baby Peanut. It is safe to say that she is both excited and unaware of just how much the new baby is going to change things around here. I guess it is also safe to say that the same thing applies to her parents. We are excited and clueless all at the same time. But at least the three current members of Team Bowes are ready to add a rookie to the mix.

Thanksgiving in Kentucky

For the first time since Callie was born, we did not travel for Thanksgiving. Instead, we played host for the Bowes, Balestracci, and Hannen families from the great states of Connecticut and Colorado. Who knew that our house could hold eleven people for an extended weekend? Callie was beside herself to have non-stop attention for four days straight. It took a couple of days for her to readjust to life with only Mom and Dad.

Thanksgiving Day started for some of us with a 5K race at Keeneland. John, Suzy, and Brian were fortunate that the morning turned out to be sunny and in the low 60s. It was a great day for a run - as opposed to the following day which was in the low 30s and brought a little bit of snow. But the three intrepid runners were just happy that they managed to outrun the folks dressed as the turkey and the pilgrim.


Meanwhile, back at home, the master chef was dressed for the part. Sarah was extremely proud of her purchase and had planned out the menu to the last detail. With a host of potential sous chefs in the house, Sarah directed a magnificent effort that resulted in an amazing meal. It worked well in part because no one was going to say no or mess with a woman who was 38 weeks pregnant and holding a carving knife.



As the gang sat down for dinner, we all had good reason to be thankful. It is a rare event these days for all of us to be in one place for a few days, so it meant a lot to share some good food and good times together.



Thanksgiving Day was not only full of food, but also watching the Macy's Parade on TV, playing a few hands of Texas Hold-Em, and taking in a few football games here and there. And even though the two days after Thanksgiving were definitely on the chilly side we managed to take a couple of walks and watched the Lexington Christmas Parade. And of course we fit in the annual sibling dinner, which this year took place at Dudleys.




The above picture is the whole crew sitting on one of the focal points of the weekend - the couch in the den. Shortly after this picture was taken, Suzy and Brian left to catch their plane to Denver and the Connecticut contingent headed off to the Lexington airport. The house has seemed just a bit empty since...of course, we plan on changing that soon. It all depends on when Baby Peanut decides to make her grand entrance. Stay tuned...