To Grandma's House we go

Because we are celebrating actual Christmas in Colorado this year, we thought we would celebrate a little earlier at Grammys. Plan was to get into our Pj's and make roast beef and turkey sandwiches and watch Alistair play with his presents! Eggnog and Sparkling Grape juice was also on the menu. It was a dreary cold day outside so it was perfectly christmasy on the inside on Grammy's house.
We took out the old photo albums and remembered past Christmas' . We had a nice relaxing day. Grammy is a multitasker

Thomas the Train set from Aunt Shawn

Aunt Shawn, Bella and Autumn..just chilling

Autumn in her Christmas Pj's

Alistair feeding the Geico, he named him Tattoo, no idea where that came from

Sisters being silly in our PJ's , Shawn had to lower herself to my short stature

Laughing with Grammy is one of Alistair's favorite things to do

Very Ticklish boy

Me and my little man had a great earlyChristmas this year. Can't wait to spend it with Daddy in Colorado

McNeill Florida Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving ! This year we celebrated a day early because Jeff worked on Thanksgiving. Unforatunatly we had planned on having dinner with SKip , Mom and Grammy as well, but Grammy fell and broke some ribs and ended up in the hospital that night.
We were left to fend for ourselves and everything turned out delicous! The next day (thanksgivingday) I remade some of the dishes I had made the day before so that Mom and SKip could have Thanksgiving when Grammy returned from the hospital.
Jeff smoked us a Turkey , it was amazing , great job babe
Alistair smelled the Turkey smoking and came out to smell it...he loves to use his sniffer

Here's the Beauitful Bird , ready to eat....there's an annual turkey picture we do every year with baby of the year, which this year was Autumn, but picture is on Jeff's camera , which I could not get to download properly to insert here...its really cute I will ask him to place on here on another blog

Partial family pic with the Turkey

Stuck the turkey in the oven to stay warm , while I finished the rest of the dishes, don't worry oven wasn't on when Alistair stuck his head in there

Thanksgiving dinner plate: Turkey, Cranberry, Stuffing, Brussel Sprouts (myfavorite thanks Amie), Mashed potatoes

Okay now here's a family picture! Had camera on timer, so we never knew when it was going to snap, hence the expressions

Our Beautiful panda on Thanksgiving

She's got some lungs on her, think we made a little lion instead of a Panda

Sunday Aunt Shawn asked Me, Alistair and Autumn over for yet another thanksgiving, her husband Sam worked Thanksgiving as well and they celebrated Sunday instead. These pics are taken at her mom and father in law's home

Me and Shawn stuffing ourselves...so much for trying to lose the baby weight

our funny little man

Aunt Shawn and Alistair

Alistair had great time playing Shawns twin nieces

Alistair on Trigger the mini horse

our little princess

hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Autumn Outtings!

Autumn is just about 3 weeks and we thought it was safe enough to take her to see the beach that she was born on! This weekend they had the sand castle contests on treasure island. So we decided to check it out yesterday to see if they were still standing
Proud Poppa sporting the Moby , who says Daddy's can't wear them too? Here's the entrance to the sand castle exhibit , Sandy snowman welcoming us to the beach

I like this next one, very romantic, camera doesn't do it justice, she's losing her hand though

This was a really cool dinosar skeleton that ate his last meal

People came from all over North America to enter this contest, this artist was from Canada

Here's the first prize winner, sorta looks like a TOOL art. Very cool in person to see

As you can see a storm is brewing to wash away the sand...so sad

Alistair tracing tracks

Autumn Arrives!!

So at 37 1/2 weeks Ms. Autumn Victoria decided to join our family. We called up Grandma McNeill in Arizona and said "if you wanna be here for the birth , you better come now" So she got on the first plane available and left the day before baby's arrival.

We Started the 3rd day of November around 10am at Target and then the contractions HIT!!!!! I insisted on going to my favorite Italian Market Mazerro's in St Petersburg and that set her pushing . I had Jeff drop off Alistair with Grammy, pickup the hospital bag, and Grandma was going to drive us there. We got admitted right away and honestly I wasn't afraid of the delivery as much as I was afraid of the epidural ....ugh !!

I met the anasteologist immediately and he assured me all the epidural s that day went great !

We alerted all the surrounding family and friends that we were in labor and to come by later if they wanted.

Contractions were pretty bad and was measuring at a 4cm and within 40 min I was at an 8 !! After the dreaded epidural I was feeling good as promised, but then the shakes began and I literally could not control them or stop them at all.

My Doctor arrived measuring a 9 /10 and we pushed ! I am excited to say we pushed 17 min!!!! Alot bettter then when a certain son of mine took me 3.5 hours to push out. Autumn was flawless an absolute beauty and looked just like her brother measuring 6 lbs 12oz and 20in long. She arrived at 6:27pm and labored since about 10am. To all you moms out there working on your second baby, there's hope that your next delivery should be easier

We were instantly in love with her.

Aunt Shawn got me prepared to meet my daughter , but wiping away some smeared eyeliner from the earlier contractions

Epidurals are fantastic, once the scary needles go away
Met our sweet hippie chick....flashing us the peace sign
Shortly after birth, Alistair arrived with Grandma
Baby nurse was getting her measurements and cleaning her up, secretly she was thinking this was the cutest baby of the day....lolI think Big brother loved his baby sissy right away
He is still touching and counting her toes to be sure they are like his
All of us together in one hospital bed....awe our family is complete
Daddy and his baby girl
She smiles alot , must be thinking of angels
Love those big feet....her hands are just as big
Loving our new baby girl so much. Its been such an amazing joy to bring her into our world.

The BBE's (Before Birth) Events

So we are nearly the birth of Autumn Victoria and here are some of the events that took place before she got here....
We decided to take the little man to the Children's Musuem in Tampa called the "Glazer Childrens Musuem" it had just open a couple months ago and we wanted to have fun during our last days of the "only child" in our life.
Jeff and Alistair got hungry before the musuem visit and decided to eat at Five Guys and Fries for a burger and fries...Fries were amazing , but too many to count Alistair decided on a grilled cheese

Finally we got to the musuem, were Alistair and Daddy checked out the climbing wall

and then there was the Drum room and some other instruments to make noise with

Publix (the best grocery store in the world) donated this room in the musuem, a little plastic food mini mart, with kids' aprons to wear.

The tampa all children's hospital had an exhibit and he loved playing doctor, I still think we have a surgeon in our future

Because we were in downtown Tampa, we got to walk through some of the most amazing skyscrapers

And then Halloween came.... Well I was nearing the arrival of Autumn and not feeling up to walking around trick or treating with my huge belly, but the neighbor across the way asked if she could walk with us , in case something happened like my water breaking or something lololol. I had to get a costume together really quick for the little guy and came up with the lost boys of Peter Pan ....he looked great! I went as a "knocked up " Wendy Lady"

Alistair toted around his thomas the train treat bucket that night and loved taking candy from the neighbors...He enjoy even more next year I think !

Days before Autumn got here, he posed and walked around like he too had a baby ball in his tummy like mommy

He makes me laugh so hard

Last days of it just being Alistair were bittersweet, he's our life and we give all our love to him, couldn't imagine loving another as much as him, but sure enough we could , as you will see in our next blog.