Thursday

Hard to believe Thanksgiving was already a week ago. Marc and I had a fantastic trip to California to spend time with my family. Not only did we get to see my mom and dad, but my sister flew in from England and my brother and his family flew in from San Antonio. Although I really felt like I got to spend some quality time with each of my family members the 5 days we were there flew by way too quickly.

Our hope was to return home re-energized and ready to start making some progress on our to-do list. Unfortunately, Marc and I both picked up a little cold on one of our airplane trips. Which means much of this week has been spent blowing our noses, resting in pajamas on the couch and going to bed by 8:30 pm. Thankfully I think we are both on the mend and we can finally get back to "normal activity".

Last night was our 30 week checkup for the baby. It was interesting how the tone of our meetings has now changed from "you're pregnant" to "you're having a baby". I guess 10 weeks isn't very long but February still sounds so very far away to me. I'm happy to report that baby girl is still growing well and has a very healthy strong little hearbeat. She's also very reactive when the midwife tries to locate her position, lots of little bumps, pokes and kicks. After the checkup I was beginning to feel like we really should get a move on with finishing up the baby's room. First on the list is finishing the painting, here's a sneak peak

We also had a little bit of snow last night and we think the mink might have been out exploring the frozen pond. I know it's hard to see on the photo below but if you look closely you might be able to make out the footprints in the snow (faint dark line) down the middle of the photo.

And that's about all the random news I have to share for today. I'll continue to share little sneak peaks of the baby's room until I can finally share the big reveal. Our hope is to have it done before the end of December, fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday Nixon and Josie

This past weekend Marc and I went to the 1st birthday party for the twins. My sister-in-law Carly did an amazing job with the decorations for the ladies and gents themed party. She baked delicious colorful cupcakes and smash cakes. She made ombre colored "1"s for each child out of hand dyed coffee filters and banners from tissue paper. The most impressive was probably the intricately drawn chalk board wall with all the essential stats for each child (words, foods, height and weight) which also doubled as a background for photos.  Plus, the food was so tasty - tomato bisque with grilled cheese, pigs in a blanket, quiche, and veggie cups.

There was also a table with temporary mustache tattoos in case you didn't bring your own to the party. Here are my favorite men with their 'staches.

Marc and I had such a great time at the party. I always enjoy spending time with my brother and his family but it's also fun to meet their friends and get to experience a little bit of their life in San Antonio. Plus it's a great excuse to play around with my camera.

It's hard to believe these one year olds are the same children we first met in person last December (check out this post to see how little they were). I can't believe how much they have grown and what little characters they have turned into.

Josephine - 1 year

Nixon - 1 year

My brother Andrew, Nixon, Josie, and sister-in-law Carly

Happy First Birthday Nixon and Josie!

It's Baby Pool Time!

28 Weeks

Now that we're officially in our third trimester and have less then 90 days to go until our due date (02/07/13) Marc and I have decided that it's time to have a little fun with our pregnancy. So we've decided to set up a baby pool at What's In My Belly. Here's how it works:

• Click either here or here to be taken to the website
• Choose when you think Baby Girl Aquila will be born and what she will look like. 
• Once she has arrived you will be assigned points based on your choices and a winner will be chosen! 

We haven't decided what prize the winner will receive but I promise it will be awesome! And to help you get in the mood here is some info about us.

Christina - 9 months

Marc - 6 months

Marc and I both have blue eyes. Marc was born with red hair which has slowly turned to a light brown now, my hair is and always has been brown. Marc stands 6'3" tall and I'm 5'7". Good luck! 

A man, a mower and a plan!

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have a couple days of 60F sunny weather. Determined to make the most of it Marc and I decided we would take the opportunity to spend some time outside and tackle our upper pasture. Ever since we moved in we've been eyeing the hill just past the pond and dreaming about what we can do with it. During the summer nature took over and it was a chore just to walk a few feet up the hill and through all the brush and grasses. So this fall we have been working on taking back our land from nature and taking the first steps in our grand plan. 

Lower Pasture Path - arrow indicates top of path
by the bridge and apple trees 

Lower Pasture Path - arrow indicates path from the
driveway down a hill towards the stream

As pictured above, Marc cut a few paths through the brush earlier this fall with the help of the ride-on lawn mower and weed whacker. The plan was to make it easy for us to go for a walk on our land. I added arrows to the pictures above because I realized after taking them that if you don't know what you are looking for, it's kinda hard to see the paths. These paths are the beginning of our grand plan which is to create paths throughout our 40+ acres.

Upper Pasture Path - you can see just how thick the brush and grasses were

Marc almost disappears in the brush in our lower pasture. 

Turning our attention to the upper pasture, Marc once again used the mower to start clearing the land. He quickly realized he had to be very careful as he was driving around not just to avoid rocks and small trees but to also avoid some hidden treasures. By the time he was done Marc had uncovered two tarps, a shovel, a pile of wood and a plastic storage container. 

The pile on the right is going to be our bonfire area for this winter. To give you an idea of how big that pile is, here's Marc (6'3") standing next to it. 

By the time Marc was done mowing, our upper pasture was definitely looking more pasture-like. Not only can we wander and day dream on the land but we're also hoping that with shorter grass we'll be able to draw some of the deer out of the woods. 

View of the upper pasture from Marc's bridge. 

View from the upper pasture towards the pond and house.
(Future view from the barn?)

In the future we'd love to build a barn up here to store our mower and other toys we may purchase (utility vehicle, tractor, or whatever else we dream up). We also see it as a place where we would eventually like to keep some animals. Right now there has been talk of chickens and maybe a goat or a donkey but you never know what we might end up with. 

Gordon

Yesterday afternoon Gordon, our peach faced lovebird of 18 years, passed away.

Some funny things about Gordon, he's actually a she. You see our family has never been good at figuring out the sex of a bird but after being named Gordon he laid an egg. I don't think that ever stopped us from referring to him as a "he" but I guess the nickname Gordie could have been considered a female name.

Gordon originally came to us as a finger trained lovebird. However, a few bites of mine or my brother's fingers and he quickly realized he didn't have to stay finger trained. Despite his hatred of fingers, Gordon loved sitting on your shoulder and cuddling up against the warmth of your neck. He would often push his beak against the back of your ear or, if you were brave like my brother, he would mush his beak right up next to your nose.

Oh and if you were ever eating anything, Gordon wanted some too. There has been many a morning in the Johnston household where my Dad and Gordon have shared breakfast - toast, cereal, whatever. Somehow this spoiled member of our family even had his own box of Carr's Table Water Crackers. Although I have to admit, they were usually the stale leftover ones we never got around to finishing.

But what will probably be missed the most is the sound of Gordon's chirp. It was the sound that always greeted you when you walked through the door. It was automatic to say hello to him when you got home. He was a part of the family and he's going to be missed.

It's in the details

As we get closer to the third trimester of our pregnancy Marc and I have started to feel more motivated to get some small projects crossed off of our to-do list. Here, in no particular order, are some of the projects we have been working on recently.

1. Closet Curtains
   
   
    
   When we first moved into the house we found that not only did we finally have our own closets but the closets had bifold wooden doors. I was hopeful we could paint them white and make them work but the problem is that on Marc's side any time he went to open the doors they would collide with the door into the bedroom. Needless to say the bifold doors didn't last past the first couple of days in our house. Since then I've been meaning to hang curtains so we had a way to cover our closets. We found these curtains at IKEA, bought a shower curtain rod at Walmart and now we have something we are both happy with.
   
   
   
2. Install Heater Covers
   

   

   The beautiful white case on the bottom of the wall is the heater cover.

   When Marc's dad was here in the summer he showed me how to install a heater cover over the heater we had in the bathroom. Hopeful I could share my knowledge with Marc, and make him to do the hard stuff, I went to Home Depot and bought some covers for the heaters in our bedroom. They have been sitting in the box on our bedroom floor for the last month. So finally I decided I would go ahead and install them myself. They were as much a pain as I expected them to be but they are clean and look beautiful.
   
   
3. Arts and Crafts
   When we went to IKEA a few weeks ago I found this container for the qtips in our guest bathroom. To bring some extra color into the room I decided to go ahead and paint the inside of the container with some leftover orange paint from another project. I love the way it turned out and how it brings just a little bit more color to the room.
   
   
    
   
   

   This past week I also took out my sewing machine and paired the flannel I have been collecting with prefolded cloth diapers to make some burp cloths for Baby A. I've made these for friends and family and, after coming across some really cute fabric at Jo-Ann's, I decided I wanted some for my baby. I mean Daddy will burp the baby if he has a dinosaur or surfing burp cloth, right? And Grandma's love the grandma burp cloth.

   
   

   

   
   
   
4. Wood Storage
   
   
   
   After lots of internal debate, Marc went ahead and bought 2 more cords of wood. That brings our grand total to 6. We're expecting to use this to heat our house so we don't have to use oil which is more costly. When the first two cords arrived Marc and I worked together to stack them. As soon as those were stacked, two more cords arrived. Thankfully my dad helped Marc with stacking these cords. Our most recent cords arrived a few weeks ago and my amazing husband not only discovered a wood rack buried among the weeds in the yard but he has diligently been stacking our final 2 cords. He has also made a place to store wood on our covered porch and next to our wood stove. It's amazing how much wood movement occurs at the Aquila Homestead!
   
   
   

Natural Disasters

We've been living in our house for less then 4 months and already we've experienced two natural disasters, an earthquake and a hurricane. Thankfully for us the earthquake was little and over very quickly and Sandy's path of destruction veered far away from our home.

The Sunday before Sandy arrived Marc and I prepared the house by basically winterizing our yard. This meant pulling the table, chairs, candles, flags and other miscellaneous summer items off the of the screened and putting them away in the garage. We brought the canoe in from the pond, covered the wood and took down the hanging flower baskets. We also made sure all our windows were closed and locked and the gutters were clean.

Inside the house we filled a pot of water to use for flushing the toilet just in case we lost power and therefore the power to pump the water from our well. We filled both our cars with gas and we also stocked up on some extra bottles of water to drink, candles, snacks and an emergency radio. All in all we both felt very comfortable in our home and prepared for the worst.

Thankfully we didn't experience the worst. We never even lost power. We went to bed early, in the guest room since it was away from the big trees, and woke up in the morning refreshed and safe. There were a couple of downed trees out in our woods and 6 more inches of water in the pond but overall everything seemed to be as it was the night before. The best part is that the roof that Marc fixed earlier this fall stood up to the challenge and we both feel confident that it will last the winter.

I can't tell you how thankful we were to be safe and to find out that our family and friends in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York were also safe.