Our Dear Family and Friends, Greetings to you this cold and snowy season! This year has been full of many, many blessings, and we have so much to be thankful for.
We bought our first house in April, and moved into our cute little 7 bedroom home in May. Built in 1940 with many updates since, it has wonderful charm, a big kitchen, and a cozy living room with a fire place. We are slowly working on remodeling one of the bathrooms, but have been taking our time. We have a double lot with a big back yard and lots of big trees, and are two minutes away from the biggest grocery store in town. We love it.
After working for almost three years as a BSN RN at Good Samaritan, I started my indefinite maternity leave on June 1st. I have thought about going back for one shift a week when the holidays are over, but am not sure what I will do. I love working as a nurse, but there are many things about the job that I don't miss. I have also considered the possibility of doing online school or apprenticing to become a midwife, but that may still be a few years away. We shall see.
On June 13th, I gave birth to Chloë Ann Blakey, who weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and was 20 1/2 inches long. Born at home, we were grateful for her healthy arrival, and finally being done with morning sickness. She has chubbed up quite nicely, and is a very busy and energetic baby, bouncing and rolling over, singing and babbling, and tasting everything she can get her hands on. She enjoys grabbing handfuls of our face flesh, practicing her intense abdominal workout in her bouncy chair most afternoons, and loves rubbing soft things on her face when she's sleepy.
When Chloë was a few days old, she developed a hemangioma behind her right ear. It has slowly grown since, but we started seeing a dermatologist in Spokane in October, and are trying a new topical treatment that seems to have stopped the growing. We are thankful that it is benign and gives her very little trouble, and that the specialist says that such growths normally shrink in a couple of years, and should eventually disappear altogether.
We could not have anticipated how much joy our little girl has brought into our lives. We love being parents.
July marked the beginning of Bryan's 5th year at EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists Incorporated), a small economics and consulting firm here in Moscow. He is the head of the development department, and gets to manage the writing of the computer code that allows the website to function. He enjoys working there, and hopes to be there for many years to come.
In August we flew to Iowa for a mini family reunion where Chloë got to meet Great Grandparents and Great Aunts and Uncles. It was special visiting the farm where her great great great grandfather first settled. Being the first grandbaby and the first great grandbaby on both sides of our family, she is used to being held most of the time.
In November, Bryan and I celebrated four years of marriage. We are more madly in love than ever, and absolutely love our cozy little life here in Moscow. We have a wonderful church and many great friends, and Bryan's parents and three sisters all live in the area. We love our Sunday Feasts out at the folks, and the baby always gets passed around. My parents will soon be living closer, at least some of the time. They are in the process of buying the house right next door to us, which we are very excited about. They still have their little farm in Bonners Ferry, so they will be doing a bit of back and forth.
Blessings to you and yours. Stay warm, keep in touch, and have a wonderful Christmas.
Much love, Bryan, Bess and Chloë
I love the picture of Chloe and Brian in the bottom right corner!!!!
ReplyDelete~Aimee~