Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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UPDATE: December 26, 2008 Our baby girl, Katherine (Katie) Nanson Ackers, came a month early. She was born on December 16th at 8:39am. She weighed in at 5 pounds 12 ounces and was around 18 inches long. We were thankful to be released from the hospital before a snow storm hit Seattle. Katie had a doctor appointment on Monday this week and we learned that her jaundice had become pretty bad. Her doctor sent us back to the hospital where we stayed for a day and a night while she underwent photo therapy. Thankfully she responded well to the treatment and was released once again. We had a follow up appointment this morning and she continues to do well. She is just about back up to her birth weight and her jaundice counts were where the doctor expected them to be. Please check out her progress in photos here. Our Message from December 11, 2008 The biggest news in our lives is that we are expecting our first baby, a girl! We found out we were pregnant on May 9th. The due date was set for January 15th and has been staying consistent throughout the pregnancy. Sarah has been feeling well for most of the pregnancy. A few food aversions and some bad days, but all in all, it hasn’t been too bad. The hospital where the baby will be delivered has a very thorough childbirth and parenting class schedule. We are almost done taking the classes we signed up for. By the end of them, we should be experts--right? Well, experts may be a stretch. But, at the very least, we will be more educated than when we started. Our baby has a name already, but we aren’t sharing until she arrives. For now, she is lovingly called "Pesto".Sarah painted a mural of Noah’s Ark on the nursery wall with the help of her mom and grandma. They used a greeting card as a template and then made some adjustments to make it unique. For instance, instead of a random bird on the roof, there is a duck in honor of her childhood pet duck “Peepers”. To document the painting of the mural, Ben stitched together photos from the painting to make a beautiful time lapse slide show. Make sure to have your volume up so you can hear the music when you watch. Although getting ready for baby has consumed most of our year, we have taken time to visit with family and friends and work on our home improvement projects. Over New Years, we were visited by our friends Thad and Shannon from Virginia. Thad was a classmate of Ben’s at Webb. We toured them around Seattle and Deception Pass and celebrated New Year’s Eve with them and Ben’s brother, Spencer. In January, we traveled to Houston to visit several of Ben’s Webb classmates and their families. To celebrate Ben’s birthday, we took our first trip to Mt. Rainier. We used a gift certificate we received as a wedding gift to stay at a bed & breakfast near the entrance to the park. There was too much snow on the trails to do much hiking, but it was a great weekend. At the end of the month, we went to Redmond, Oregon, to spend Memorial Day Weekend with Ben’s mom, brother, and family friends. In June, the church choir’s Music Sunday brought us lots of guests. Ben’s mom came up from Oregon and Sarah’s parents and grandparents came over from Spokane. Many of our friends joined us in church to support Sarah and then enjoyed a barbecue at our house. You can even check out a video of Sarah’s solo from the performance. Finally, the July 4th weekend arrived. We had been waiting for that weekend to share that we were expecting. Sarah’s parents met us down in Redmond, Oregeon, at Ben’s mom’s house for the long weekend. The morning of the 4th, we handed the grandparents-to-be and Ben’s brother envelopes containing copies of our 12 week ultrasound photo. Whooping and hollering, tears of joy, jumping, and hugs immediately followed the envelope opening. It was wonderful to be able to tell them all at the same time! We took a family vacation in August. The trip started out with three days on the Olympic Peninsula with Ben’s mom and brother. We visited lavender farms and several national parks. For the second half of our vacation, we drove across the North Cascade highway and set up base in Omak, Washington. From there we took a day trip to the Grand Coulee Dam where Sarah’s mom met up with us. We spent the next two days shopping in a couple cute artist towns and visiting with Sarah’s Aunt Mary and Uncle Greg in Okanogan. Ben’s favorite photos from the trip can be found here and Sarah’s are here. We have many more pictures to share from that trip, but just haven’t gotten to processing them yet. When we got back from our vacation, we hired a landscaper to finish our front yard. Knowing how busy we were going to be getting ready for Pesto, we knew we weren’t going to be able to finish it on our own. What a great decision! Two weeks later, we had a beautiful front yard complete with a full retaining wall, sprinkler system, and grass. There are just a few plants in the ground now, but more to come next year. Our jobs took us on several trips during September and October. Ben traveled to Alabama, Hawaii, and Houston. Sarah went to Las Vegas twice, Los Angeles once and also visited her brother Matt and his family in Rapid City, South Dakota. Matt and his wife, Jenna, welcomed Braelyn, a beautiful baby girl, to their family in April. Sarah loved getting to be Auntie Sarah! Although, working a bit while she was there, she got to spend most of each day holding and playing with Braelyn. She even got to take the photo that ended up being their Christmas card. What a treat! Since our due date is so close to Christmas, we are going to be staying home this year. Ben’s mom and brother will be joining us for the holiday. Sarah’s parents will stay in Spokane for Christmas, but will be visiting as soon as our baby girl arrives. 2009 promises to be one of our best when our baby girl arrives. Keep checking in to our SmugMug website for all of the exciting news. |