2009 is coming to a close...

Happy Holidays, friends and family! There are a few things that I spaced off as a new mom, such as taking Willa to sit on Santa's lap, cleaning my kitchen, and sending out a holiday card. Ooops! So on this crazy, snowy, not-leaving-the-house Christmas day, I am making a bloggy holiday card and I cleaned the kitchen! Not sure what to do about the picture with Santa, maybe Photoshop?!?
Wasn't 2009 great? It seems like it just FLEW by! I spent the first 7 months of it growing Willa, and Brad spent those months catering to all my weirdnesses. On July 14th, Willa came to join our little family and she is just the most fun! We also grew our family by a tiny bit at the beginning of 2009 by adopting our foster wiener, Bailey. If anyone is looking for a wonderful new pet this year, or a group to get involved with for volunteering or donating, the Nebraska Dachshund Rescue is an amazing organization (www.nebraskadachshundrescue.org).
Willa and the dogs are such buddies. Bailey is a little cautious around her, but Luther is just his big oafish self, and seems not to mind too much when Willa pulls on his wrinkles and pokes him in the eyes. We have had Luther now for 6 1/2 years! Such an old man:)

Brad is working at Star City Motorsports for his 7th year and still enjoying his work as a mechanic. He also plays the drums at our church, Southpointe Christian and plays drums for a group called Beatmix Sessions (catch them at Duffy's on New Years Eve!) When asked for some input on the family Christmas letter, he said "I enjoyed my first Christmas with my little bean!"

I decided to cut back my hours that I work at the hospital, where I have been employed for 7 years and focus more on the cleaning business that I own with my friend Tosha. And when Willa was born, cut back even further! I work a few shifts a week there, and clean a few days a week and usually have a day or two just to spend time with Willa. Our cleaning business, Purely Maid, is just booming! We love being self employed and enjoying the benefits of our hard work. We don't have any employees (yet) but we keep VERY busy! We have some really great regular customers and we like taking good care of their homes. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of Tosha and I cleaning. While Brad and I are working, Willa is in the wonderful hands of my mom and dad, who are the world's greatest babysitters! They are so kind to rearrange their own schedules to accomodate our strange ones. Willa adores them both.

Some other excitement this year included my bestest friend, brooke benson, becoming engaged to our new friend Brian Petermann! So, we have a very fun wedding to look forward to in '10. I had the opportunity to get together with cousins that I don't get to see very often which was great! Brad got to go on the annual Star City Trail Ride in Taylor Park, Colorado for several days of intense dirtbike riding. We also try to make regular trips to Grand Island to visit with Brad's family (that is what we would be doing today, if it weren't for this darn snow). We love getting together with Brant and Joy every once in a while. Hopefully, as Willa gets a little older in this next year, we can do a little traveling, maybe some camping and trips to the lake.

To conclude the Van Boening family holiday letter, I'd like to wish you all a fantastic time in the new year. I hope that it brings love, happiness and prosperity. I also hope that we get to see you, whoever you may be, in the next year! Following are some pictures of Willa last night and today, she was a present opening MONSTER!

Do you ever want to just squeeze babies till they pop and baby juice comes out of them???

According to Facebook, this is a pretty popular picture of Peanut Van Boening. And some people (eh hem...Amy) don't have a Facebook account. Those are the people who actually get things done in their free time:) So here she is! At the moment this picture was taken by papa, she was very amused by the fact that he was late for work. Again. She has quite the sense of humor for an almost-five-month old!

Gobble, Gobble!

Look at that GROWN UP baby!!! Willa is 4 and a half months old! (If you thought I was talking about Brad or I, we are 28 and 29 years old, respectively.) Her hobbies include putting her toes in her mouth, petting Luther's ears, and licking beverage containers when they are cold and wet. Some of her favorite things are toys that vibrate, her grandparents, Thirsties diaper covers and chewing gum. In all seriousness, Willa just may be the most laid back, easy to care for baby on earth. We also think she is the cutest and the smartest but I'm sure there are a few of you out there with the same claims on your own tiny tots. She is growing like a stinkin' weed! At her 4 month check up, she was 26 inches and very close to 14 pounds! I have had to pack away so many adorable outfits with the tags still on them, as there aren't enough days in each size to wear them all!

Much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving...The addition to the family, our fantastic health, amazing friends, having income in the challenged economy, and the tasty leftovers that Grandma Cindy sent us home with:)

Willa was one month old on Friday, August 14!

Years in the making and it was great!

These aren't the greatest pictures, but its all the blackberry could do (and Al wasn't in the mood to smuggle her camera in between her buttcheeks). Its Travis, Mark, and Tom. That's right, Brad and Al finally got to see Blink 182 together! Beautiful...Front row, too:)

Brad and Al did somethin' big! (in a little package)

After 9 long months of whining, gagging, growing, stretching, dilating, contracting, and becoming stronger people, Willa is here!!! She came into the world quickly on July 14 at 9:34am. It was very possible the snappiest, and maybe easiest labor ever. (Thank you very much Willa, Dr. Gibbens, and BryanLGH nurses!) She is so excited to meet you all and loves very much the family and friends whom she has already met. Rest assured, this blog will now be overtaken by Willa-ness. But she's so cute that its better than anything else we ever had pictures of. Yes, even the tiny puppies.

Foster Weenie

The Nebraska Dachshund Rescue let Brad and Al hold onto this little pumpkin for about a week while she healed up from her alteration surgery. How cute is she? Her name is Lucy and she came from a home in Kansas where a woman was hoarding dogs (she had, like, 30 of them!) Of course, she was snatched up by an adoptive family after only a few days and Brad and Al were very happy for her, as she went to live with a very nice family in Kansas City. Puppies sure are a lot of work! Hopefully babies are a little easier, at least in the fact that they wear diapers to contain their "accidents":) Good luck to Lucy and to the Nebraska Dachshund Rescue in their continued effort to find good homes for good dogs.

Its been such a long time...

Since not much goes on in the life of Brad and Al these days, here's a little glimpse of the rennovations that have occured inside the room that used to be storage/gym/gift wrapping station/craft area/place to put stuff when people come over/spare bedroom.

The progression of the pictures is obviously backwards, but Al is too lazy at this time to change it. At this point, the walls went from white to Robin's Nest blue, the wood floors are refinished, the baseboards are new, and the room is empty except for a TON of baby clothes crammed in the closet! In the next week or two, look for the room to acquire its furniture, and some very "tweet" curtains. All of these renovations thanks to Luther, Mabel, Grandma Cindy, and Auntie brooke.

All girls need these things...

Fancy shoes from Grandma, cute dresses, favorite aunties...Brad and Al are having a girl!

Brad Jr or Al Jr?

Monday is the big day to find out the sex of Baby Van! Its quite an exciting time, as this is definitely the biggest mystery the couple has ever been a part of. After finding out the sex, there are so many things that can be decided and so many things that can be planned for and decorated:) If you'd like to make a prediction, here are a few hints from old pregnancy wives tales:
-According to the Mayan age @ conception: girl
-Having dry hands: boy
-Not eating heels of bread loaves: girl
-Pencil on a string test: 2 out of 3 times boy
-Cravings being sweet or salty: completely unsure...at the beginning it was all salty, now Al will eat anything!
-If dad gains weight along with mom its a boy: boy
-Being nauseous: girl
-Higher heart rate of baby: girl
-Prefer sleeping on left side: boy
-Being moody: girl

You're guess is as good as Brad and Al's! It seems to be about 50/50.

As for other pregnancy related news, Al is feeling much better now that she has reached 5 months but those first four months were No Fun! She is also expanding. This is obviously to be expected but Al does have some size issues. She also has issues with maternity clothes, namely that she thinks they are disgusting and that the expense of such a limited-use wardrobe is ridiculous. She did finally break down and order some comfy looking yoga pants and tank tops so that she can begin exercising again. She also thinks that last night was the Last Night for wearing her jeans. The old ponytail holder trick was no longer comfortable.

Brad has been most helpful throughout these first five months, indulging Al when she wants to eat Subway six days in a row and most recently he went along on a Purely Maid cleaning trip to help Al and Tosha clean! What a trooper!

As for movements of the tiny one, the verdict is still out on that one...Veteran mothers say they feel like tiny flutters or gas bubbles but this mother-to-be isn't sure that those tiny feelings aren't just that - gas bubbles! Hopefully these movements will become more pronounced in the next few weeks to clear up any confusion.

There are big plans in the works for the room that will be the nursery. It started out as the spare bedroom/craft room/dress clothes storage/home gym room but it is now mostly empty, except for the treadmill and bed. The next step will be to choose a wall color and paint, then refinish the wood floors, replace the floorboards and light fixture. Then in May comes the really fun part which is the trip to Ikea for furniture! Al is taking trusted friend (with great interior design sense) brooke along for advice and guidance.

Brad and Al are still accepting all name suggestions, as there are no clear cut leaders. It may become more obvious once the sex is determined. A big thanks to those who regularly send name ideas. Brad does need to keep in mind that Al will probably not go along with any name that can be confused with a common noun. So when she asks him for name ideas, it does NOT do any good to look around a room and start naming things that he sees:)

In other news...not much, really! Brad and Al did finally decide to adopt one of their wieners, Bailey. Coco was adopted by a kind family in Council Bluffs and is doing extremely well there with their other two dogs. Bailey is doing great and Luther is tolerating her permanency.

Both Brad and Al stay very busy with their full time jobs. Brad has been playing his drums at different venues across town on the weekends and seems to enjoy this very much. Al has been staying at home most of those evenings, as bars are not much fun when you're bursting out of your pants and vodka is a no-no.
Al's cleaning business, Purely Maid, is booming right now! The state of the economy apparently doesn't affect how much people dislike cleaning their own homes:) Fingers crossed that this will not change! If any of you readers DO like to clean, PM may be looking for helper elves in the near future, so...stay tuned!

Now that you're all caught up, remember to check back to see if Baby Van will be a Timmy or a Sally! (or maybe a Skeletor?)

Is anyone tired of seeing pictures of this dog sleeping yet?

Luther just may be one of the sweetest dogs ever to waddle on this earth. The other night, he took turns sleeping on the back of the couch with his face resting on either Brad or Al, moving back and forth so as not to have anyone feeling left out. One can tell the great influence he has had on the foster dogs, aside from the amount of time that they spend lounging and sleeping by listening to the noises they make. When Luther is just entering the land of sleep, he often makes these long, drawn out, old man-ish groaning noises when he really gets comfortable. Coco has been overheard making her own small versions of this sound lately when she is getting into the sleeping position. It cracks Brad and Al up.

The perfect cup 'o tea

This tea pot rocks, if you're looking for a rockin' teapot. Thanks so much to Brant and Joy!

Gotta love Etsy!

This is the first (and so far only) purchase that Brad and Al have made for the yet-to-be-sexed bun. It looks a little boy-ish but if the bambino turns out to be a girl, picture it with some pink tights. Or little pink DCs. And if that pencil on a string test is to be believed at all, then expect a girl.

Inauguration Day!

Al seems to have forgotten to take any pictures of the festivities of the day, so here are pictures of the Luther, Coco and Bailey all settled in for bed that night. Don't they look hopeful for the direction our country is moving toward? They are. They most certainly are.

What is with the Nebesniak's and their torturous games?

Tonight, Brad and Al had dinner at Pat and Amy's along with Mel, Chris, brooke, Brian, and Amber. The dinner was yummy: soup and breadbowls, Momma Cindy's shrimp dip from back in the day, and 2 desserts. After dinner, games were played starting with that horrible thing in the first picture that shocks its players. An evil game. But next the group played Tripoley, which Al remembers playing at her grandparent's house as a youngster. This game was definitely a hit and will have to be played at future dinner parties. There was some talk of traveling to Papillion next month for fondue...

The coolest thing to happen in the kitchen in 2009

Meet the Liddle Griddle. It was a gift to Brad and Al from the Svendsen family and it has already been used numerous times to cook their favorite things, such as egg, cheese, and veggie sausage mcmuffins and grilled cheese (I'll trade you my shirt for a grilled cheese:) Much thanks to Tosha for the stellar gift idea, and its so small that it fits with the "clutter is yucky" thing the Van Boening household tries to hold onto.