Meeting Hank

Prepare yourself for lots of photos of our new nephew, Hank Joshua! He was born Tuesday, April 9th after a long labor and some complications with his mama (Nick's sister, Amber) - and both are doing well now. Amber's physical healing (from attempts at natural birth and from the c-section) continue, but she's so strong and is doing well. 

This is one of the first photos we got to see of the little guy and with some rearranging of our schedules, we were able to make the 9-hour drive to St. Louis to meet him and spend an extended weekend with family just a few days after he was born. 

We weren't sad about leaving the snowy mess happening that week back home either.

I like cool bridges - this one is near St. Louis

Uncle Nick holding Hank for the very first time:)

We fell in love with this little guy long before we ever met him, but seeing him and holding him was such a great moment. 

Flowers we brought for the new parents, Amber and Zach.

Kissing his soft newborn cheeks is one of my favorite things.  

Uncle Nick and sweet morning cuddles

 "Look how strong I am, Aunt Marissa"

He had some jaundice when he was born, so the docs wanted him to get some sunlight to help it. He loved relaxing in the warm sunlight.

He loves having his hands by his face too - it's so cute to get to see his personality and tendencies come through. He's already rolled from his back to his side within just a handful of days, shows some little smiles, and has great eye contact. We think we have a genius on our hands ;)

Slightly blurry family photo with Hank's mom and dad along with the first time grandparents

He fell asleep in his new swinging chair one night

He also seemed to enjoy the blanket Aunt Marissa {yours truly;)} made for him. More to come on the process of making the blanket, but in this photo, I think he's admiring the work I did crocheting his name;)

Then, in typical newborn fashion, he fell asleep. It warmed my heart. Making the blanket, I pictured him laying just above his name looking so sweet and seeing this made the work on the blanket all worth it. 

Once Hank went upstairs to eat, Cubby thought he'd try out the blanket too - ha! We all got a good laugh when he made himself at home there. 

Not much else better than holding a newborn baby - especially our first nephew. 

He's so tiny and precious. 

Hank loves his Uncle Nick (and vice versa:))

Sweet sleeper

The morning we had to leave our sweet Hank - until next time, sweet boy (don't grow up too fast, k?). 

Green grass in St. Louis, snow covered ground we were headed back to in Minnesota.

The morning we left was rainy, but we got to see the arch on our way out. 

Now fast forward to this week (Thursday - Friday), we got more snow! 8-12 inches across the metro. So crazy for this late in the season and it has us all craving for spring to come soon.

More of our snow this week (April 18th).

Today's Pinspiration:

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December Happenings

I'm not sure about you, but I feel like these past few months have completely flown by. It doesn't feel like it's as close as it is to Christmas. I have things to do and last week, realized this is our only free weekend this month! It overwhelmed me to realize that, but we'll be able to see lots of family this month which we don't get to see nearly enough. 

I have random things to catch up on!

I've started a Sunday night tradition of taking epsom salt baths. It's great for my fibro pains and gives me time to do some deep breathing and stretches that can help me too. 

A few weeks ago, I also made a batch of chili using random ingredients I had around, even adding ketchup, tomato sauce, and pasta sauce to get the good tomato flavor Nick's mom, Diane, has in her chili recipe. To make sure I had enough flavor, I added some beef broth substitution, 1 tbsp soy sauce and I did about 3/4 to 1 cup water with it. I also added some hot sauce to give it some spice and a few cans of beans, including garbanzo beans. Anyway, I added things here and there and this batch, to my surprise, was amazing! 

I thought I'd share a few of my seasonal swap-outs from fall to Christmas.

We put up our Christmas tree last weekend and I just loooove it. It's also the first year we're using that topper and I love that along with our nativity scenes! Are you feeling the love?! ;) 

I've also been busy working in Santa's shop on some gifts;)

I seeded a pomegranate for the first time. It wasn't all that difficult and the seeds are so delicious and juicy.

We ate salads with pomegranate seeds and also just ate the seeds plain for snacks.

I found a new favorite store too! 

There is so much cute stuff to look at. It looks like there are multiple locations in the Twin Cities. 

Last night, we enjoyed a date night to the Holidazzle (hey, Cameron Diaz!) 

 Hiiii Santa!

We enjoyed dinner afterwards at Taste of Thailand

My date. He's the best. 

 Observing the busyness of downtown Minneapolis on a Saturday night.

It's been snowing all day here today which is our first real snow storm. Local weather guys predicted 3-5 inches, but The Weather Channel says 6-9 inches. We'll see! It's already really adding up out there.

I took these this morning and it's snowed a lot since then. I'll have more pictures to share on my next post. I'm enjoying the beauty outside, but even as we were out earlier, we saw many cars in ditches and getting stuck, probably not realizing how slick it really is. 

Today's Snowy Pinspiration:

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