Baby Time!

In the last month of being pregnant, you usually see the Dr once a week. At our last scheduled appointment on Monday they informed us that we needed to be induced. They asked us to call the hospital and schedule a time between Tuesday and Thursday to go in. Somehow Tuesday morning at 6:30 was the only time they could get us in, in other words... It's Baby Time!

Here are some pictures of a very pregnant Tracie:

Another cute outfit.

The night before.

Just checked in.

Just getting settled.

(Fast-forward...Skip the gruesome pictures)

Cedar LeeAnn Lewis. Born February 28, 2012.

Tracie's first interaction with baby Cedar.

Brand new baby, a relieved mother and a proud Father/Husband.

John's first time holding Cedar.

Tracie's First time with a cleaned up baby.

Moving to a recovery room.

Baby toes.

Baby Cedar.

Mother/baby bonding.

Father/Baby bonding.

Afternoon nap.

Standard testing (heel blood).

Mother kissing baby.

Getting ready to go home.

All buttoned up.

Time to go home.

Welcome home Cedar.

Grandma Robertson and baby Cedar.

Sleeping Cedar.

Just after a bath.

So clean and so shiny.

More snoozing.

Sleeping on Grandma's lap.

Awake and happy.

Sleeping Beauty.

Baby Cedar is the love of our lives. We couldn't be more happy to have such a beautiful angel in our home.

It's Almost Baby Time!

With only one month before the baby comes we

thought we should show off our progress. Here

is a monthly picture of Tracie and her growing

belly...

First Visit to the Doctor

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

Only 4 weeks left...

Merry Christmas!

Since we have been out on our own for the last few years we have tried to continue some of our favorite traditions...

like a huge pot of home-made chicken noodle soup for Christmas eve dinner...

and dipped chocolates/nuts, buckeye balls...

chocolate pie, pumpkin cake and of course egg nog.

We had a wonderful quiet Christmas with just the two of us, but we wish we were back home with our loving families... Hopefully next year.

It's time for Christmas!

Tracie wanted to go cut down a Christmas tree this year, but with our busy work schedules, and the fact that there is only about 5 hours of day light during the middle of each day, we decided it was easier to just buy one. But, instead of going to Home Depot, like we did last year, we bought one from a local man on the side of the road.

It is the perfect little tree, though our 2 strands of lights and 5 ornaments barely cover it! But we are ready for Christmas!

Work Christmas Parties

Every year Dr. Johnson has a Christmas party at his house. Everyone that goes is supposed to take a wrapped gift for the gift exchange, and we usually eat a bunch of crab. This year was the same, minus the crab (a co-worker has an allergy to it).

Michelle, Jenn, and Tracie

Posing for a Christmas Card Picture

The next week we went to Dr. Nielsen's Christmas Party. We met at the office, where we got in the Hummer Limo that took us to his house for appetizers.

Jessica, Tateum, and Tracie

Sweet Ride

Dr. Nielsen finished building his house this last year, so he wanted to show it off. We were very impressed. Indoor basketball court and climbing wall, indoor pool and sauna... we could have stayed and played all night.

John testing out the wall

Instead, we rode to Sullivan's Steak House and had a very good meal, did a gift exchange and then ended up back at the office. It was a long, but fun night!

Most of the group!

Thanksgiving

We realize it is almost Christmas, but we had some requests to post what we did for Thanksgiving (and to put more pictures of Tracie's belly on). We volunteered to make homemade root beer for a get together the weekend before and for Thanksgiving dinner. The Saturday night before we went to, or called, just about every store in Anchorage to see if they had dry ice and root beer extract. We found one store that had dry ice, so we rushed over there before they closed and bought $20 worth. Then we still had to get the flavoring... not one of the 6 stores we tried had it. So we weren't able to make the root beer for the get together. Pretty lame. We finally found root beer extract at Natural Pantry, but not until Monday, so we just kept the dry ice on the porch in the freezing temperatures for a few days until Thanksgiving. Thursday came, Tracie had made pies, John mixed up the root beer and we were ready to go, but when John grabbed the bag of dry ice from the porch....it was empty! It had evaporated (actually sublimated), leaving a bag of paper. Lame. Luckily, the one store that carried it was staying open until 3:00pm, so we hurried before it closed to buy more. And then it all worked out ok, and turned out delicious, but we definitely learned that making homemade rootbeer, in Alaska in the middle of the winter, is not an easy process!