Introducing...

Weston James Aurand
7lbs. 3oz./ 19in
December 27, 2009

T-Minus... any day I suppose

I don't have any cute pictures for this one.... mostly because I am a little lazy at getting the camera out (not due to a lack of exciting events).

CANKLE UPDATE...
My cankles have spread to my feet, or should I say, "theet," those would be thick-feet. My entire leg, really, looks like a Cabbage Patch Doll's. My calves go directly into my heels, leaving only a little dimple for my "ankle," my feet are over stuffed to accentuate the carefully "sewn on" toes. I am not mad about any of this, mind you. Mostly, I think it's amusing. There's no point in getting mad-- and it looks incredibly funny. The other morning I had to put on Matt's socks since mine are too tight on my Cabbage Patch Theet, but when I went to slide on my Birkenstock clogs, my feet wouldn't fit. Realizing I was going to have to wake Matt up and ask for his help in tieing my tennis shoes for me, I grabbed my shoes and went up stairs to gently wake him. After he put one on and tied it, he could see I was wincing a little (my ankles are so far gone that the ankle support for my shoe was not compfortable at all!). Being the most gracious, caring, protective, thoughtful, loving husband that he is.... he said, "hang on." He ran downstairs and returned with his tennis shoes. It was at that moment that I started to laugh... a lot (knowing they wouldn't fit). However, when he tied the first one on and it didn't hurt, I laughed some more until tears came. He reassured me that it was going to be okay, that my feet would go back to normal after the baby is born, and that this was only temporary. I asked him, "what will you wear then?" His repsonse, "I'll find some other shoes. What's most important is that you are comfortable!" How the heck did I get so lucky? I love him!

Speaking of lucky... I went out yesterday morning to meet some long time friends at Starbucks and catch up- before baby comes. While I was out, Matt stayed home and cleaned the house. It wasn't a suprise or anything, he even told me he was gald I wasn't going to be around so I would feel the urge to try and help. There are still some things that would not pass the "white glove test," but he cleaned all on his own, and I am not going to argue about that one. So if anyone comes over.... please look past the tiniest of imperfections that only you would see and realize that I have the most wonderful husband in the world, and be happy.

As for today... we are off for Dunwoody this afternoon to celebrate my sister's 6th child's 1st birthday. I can't believe that a year ago we were at the hospital welcoming Sara.... this year is really going to feel like deja vu!

We are sitting at 9 days away from my due date, but really anything could happen-- he could come early, on time, or just a little late. Either way, we are both "ready" to be parents and cannot wait to share him with all our friends and family-- so stay tuned.

Cankles!

Now that I am 37.75 weeks pregs, my ankles have decided to retreat into my calves until this baby comes. That, or.... my calves were starving so they ate my ankles. Either way, I am sporting the largest cankles known to man (or at least known to me)!disclaimer: please look past the chipped, almost gone, toe nail polish-- I can't reach my toes to make them prettier.

I remember giggling to myself, but it could have been out loud, at Tracy's cankles when she was giving birth to Sara almost a year ago. However, I am not giving birth yet and I have pair already! The things we do for our children. If you look really close at the picture you can see the ring band from my socks I wore today. The cankes don't really bother me, I suppose, but I am also not wearing tight shoes. Praise the Lord for Birkenstock clogs and tennis shoes! We'll see what I squeeze into tomorrow night for the Christmas party at Matt's work!

Update: I went to the doctor today and everything looking good for a December delivery... whether it's vaginally or a C-section. I am already on a weekly check-up... next week I will have an ultrasound to check on growth and such. So stay tuned!

Saturday Outing

Matt and I had a very busy, and productive day yesterday. It started at Starbucks and ended at some good friends' house for dinner.

After a brief stop for a morning pick me up at Starbucks, we headed down to Marietta to Kennestone Hospital for our tour. Luckily, Kennestone is still giving actual hospital tours-- many hospitals in the local area are not conducting any tours do to the H1N1 epidemic. We both feel extremely comfortable with our hospital choice... we now know where to go, what will happen, and what to expect from the staff. We also learned that no children under the age of 12 are allowed above the first floor... so if anyone is planning on visiting us in the hospital.... please leave your "mini me's" at home (sorry).

Next stop... LUNCH. Taco Mac was the perfect place to catch up on the 2nd quarter of the GaTech v. Duke game, and of course, grab a bite to eat. GO JACKETS!

Then we headed over to Tracy's to take family calendar pictures for Nana and to get some good "belly" pictures. Matt and Lee were very patient with Tracy and me.... but eventually patience does run out. So we left to finish running our errands.


Errands included, Target to return some recent purchases, Office Max for a yearly calendar, Verizon to check out the new Droid-- a possible eventual upgrade when we are due in Feb., though I think I might stick with the Blackberry (I am in love!). Finally, to one of the greatest places on Earth (dare I say, even better than Disney World...) Costco! We bought Matt some new socks. Usually we will get him a bunch of new socks, all the same, and he will throw out all of his old socks which, by now, have holes or lost their mate. It's a good system, and a day that Matt looks forward to ALL year!
The end of our day ended at the Turner's for dinner. Thank you both for a wonderful meal and a great visit!

So that was our Saturday... fairly mundane, but as cheesy as it sounds, we were together all day-- which made it a great day!

Our Growing Family

I finally scanned in a bunch of the ultrasound pictures so that you can all see the journey of our growing family... enjoy.

Our beginnings... 8 weeks, just a little gummy bear

12 weeks... He's starting to look like a real boy! his head is on the right and his belly is in the middle, and his two hands are around his head.

We found out he was a boy at 19 weeks-- he was in the perfect position to see his jewels!

30 weeks...his head is on the right with his hands under his chin

Also 30 weeks... he's in profile, with his nose sticking straight up. He's yawning and has a hand up by his mouth.

36 weeks... he's in profile again-- big head. He weighs 4lbs 10oz (at least he did in this picture... hopefully in a week he's gained some more weight!)

He's been moving around so much lately... not really kicking any more, just pushing out. I can actually see, on a pretty frequent basis, him move. It's really freaky, but I love it!

WINNER!!!

Well.... Matt won! Matt carved #1 with the guts and staples and I carved #2 with the dragon looking smile and partially carved eyes.

Thank you all for taking the time to place your votes, it was exciting to see who was going to win... up until the point I realized it wasn't going to be me!

BUT... we had a great Halloween anyway. Some great friends of ours came over for dinner-- flank steak and twice baked potatoes, yum! Then we passed out candy to about 20 kids, which was a great turn out for a soggy night of trick or treating. All and all, a pretty nice weekend.

Now that Halloween has officially come and gone, we can prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving, but we must not mention Christmas (or anything having to do with Christmas) until after Thanksgiving... there IS a natural order we must stick to.

ps. talking about the baby is not included in the "anything having to do with Christmas" clause.

Pumpkin Carving Contest

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! Matt and I are fairly competitive with each other... our latest competition-- a pumpkin carving contest! We bought three pumpkins with the intent to carve one together and then go it alone for our own pumpkin... and we need you all to cast your vote for the winner.

We're not going to tell you who carved which one... you may think you know... but you may not. Your choices are Pumpkin #1 and Pumpkin #2. So check out the pictures below and leave a comment casting your vote for your favorite.

Thanks a lot!! Stay tuned for the winner!

I drew the image and Matt cut it up.... can you guess what it's going to be?

Matt posing with the finished pumpkin

GT pumpkin on the porch

Pumpkin #1 on the porch: it had a scar on the side, so the artist of this pumpkin used a staple gun to create "stitches" on the side

Pumpkin #2 on the porch: the artist of this one did not completely carve out the eyes

All three finished... ready for a candle

Pumpkin #1 lit up in the dark

Pumpkin #2 lit up in the dark

GO JACKETS!!

Our front porch before trick or treaters began to arrive

SO WHAT'S YOUR CHOICE?

Seuss Shower, Zeta Style

Three of my best friends in the world threw me a wonderful baby shower last weekend. When the shower invitations were sent out and read, "One fish, two fish, red fish, new fish..." I knew that was just a preview of things to come, but I had no idea what was really in store.

Amanda, Katie, and Mary went all out on this one... there were Dr. Seuss books, foam core decals, stuffed animals, Seuss diaper cakes (mini and ginormous), and Seuss themed food that would rival a Wolfgang puck spread!

Many of my friends, past and present, showed up to celebrate, and I am forever grateful. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed this day with me, and a giant thank you to three of my greatest friends. The next day, when I was attempting to unroll a handful of the millions of diapers that made up the diaper cakes, I started balling. Matt came in and asked if I was okay... I just told him that I have wonderful friends. His response, "I know." My rebuttal, "no you don't... you weren't there... you don't know what they did!"

Zetas at the shower (left to right: Gretchen, Amanda, Mary, me, Katelyn, Megan, Katie)

Ladies I worked with at Griffin (left to right: Mia [who's also preggs.], Kim, me, Tatum, Leah, Melissa, and Lisa down front)

My wonderful sister-in-law

Amanda Walker and her youngest, Ian. Matt and Amanda's husband have been best friends since forever. I'm so happy she came up to Atlanta for the shower!

Playing a shower game... They had to find items in their purse that began with the letters in my last name... Griffin Team won with: Apple[iphone], UnitedHealthcare card, Receipt, ATM card, Note, Driver's license

Dessert Table: Strawberry and chocolate cupcakes with cotton candy on top... AND lifesavers to resemble the cat and the hat, M&Ms, and Swedish Fish (Mia liked the Swedish Fish... she's Swedish!)

Top of the ginormous diaper cake... it was seriously large! Matt's only request for the shower... he wanted diapers. He got diapers!

Thank you so much ladies!

ps. the green deviled eggs were my favorite!

pss. just want to say "hi," to everyone who works with Matt!

Afghan Love

There are 8 grandchildren on my mom's side of the family, and my Nana has made each of us an afghan. I'm not sure when it started, but she made them for us in order of birth, my sister Tracy got the first one. We chose our own colors, and for the most part, our pattern-- so each of ours is unique to our own personality. When Tracy started the great grandchildren line, Nana made afghans for each of her kids in succession-- but theirs are a little smaller since they are baby afghans.

Speaking of baby... (you must be seeing where I'm going with this)... I was surprised and amazed (to the point of tears, I do believe) when I opened a gift at my first shower from my Nana. It was my son's afghan. Thank you Nana... it's such a wonderful tradition and I am so blessed and honored that he has his place in it!

ps... each of our afghans also has our name tag stitched on the inside of one of the corners... both Martha and I looked for it when I opened the afghan.... but Nana is too smart for that! She does know the name, but only because she has already made his Christmas stocking-- another family tradition... I'll save that one for another blog.

My Nana and me

Our son's afghan fits in perfectly with his nursery

My afgan

Alan and his Hokie afghan

Laura's afghan

Claire's afghan

Sarah's afghan

Luke, as a baby, on Tracy's afghan

Tech Weekend!

We had a full house last weekend. Two of my cousins, Alan and Laura, went to Va Tech. Since Ga Tech was hosting Va Tech this year, Matt and I invited both Alan and Laura and their parents down for the game. Laura also brought a friend, Elizabeth-- who fit into our family like she belonged! The weekend was INCREDIBLY fun! We both loved being able to use our house to the fullest and host our wonderful aunts and uncles who have hosted us for countless family gatherings in the past.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we all threw on some clothes and headed to WallyWorld to gather much needed items for our last minute tailgate... things like gloves! Funny thing is... it was the first cold weekend of the season down here and the gloves were not on the shelves yet. Needless to say, Laura and Elizabeth tracked down Pat, a Walmart employee, who opened a frech box of gloves for us! Once we got back to the house, we layered up, loaded the cars, and headed downtown for some tailgating.

While it was quite cold... the outcome was perfect. It was such a good game- it went back and forth-- a good battle, but... Ga Tech upset 4th ranked Va Tech! We headed for the car as fans charged the field and eventually took down the goal post... only to delivery it later to the President's front door. Go Jackets!

We did take a picture in front of Walmart...

The group tailgating!
Ray, me, Elizabeth, Alan, Matt, Vicky, Laura, Susan, Randy

Vicky, Laura, Ray, cold Alan, Elizabeth

Happy fans in front of a field being stormed!

Deck Party... Days 4 and 5... DONE

Days 4 and 5 were a blur, to say the least, but it's done now... THE DECK IS DONE!

Ryan measuring boards for the stairs

Matt shaved his beard into a man 'stache just for the day...

Tracy's tightening the bench brackets

Jake, Laine, and Luke sitting on the benches so that Lee can screw them in place

Finishing the benches

The stairs are in place!

Matt and Tracy screwing in the rest of the kick boards

Matt showing a nervous Tracy how to use the compound miter saw

SHE DID IT!!!
(and still has all her fingers... attached)

Sparky loved hanging out in the sun on his new deck

Lining up the hand rail with the supports

Stairs' hand rail

Matt's screwing in the railing for the stairs... notice the pink Crayon behind his ear (Tracy couldn't find a pencil)

Sara being pretty darn cute...

I just wanted to try a black and white.... she's too cute

Lee's screwing in the last little bit of railing

DONE!

The Boys are tuckered out!