Goodbye, Nana

On Monday afternoon, my dad received a phone call from his sister saying that my grandmother (his mother) was not feeling well and was taken to the hospital. Less then 5 hours later, another phone call came to say that she had just suffered a massive heart attack and massive stroke. Because she had a DNR on file, we all knew that she would most likely not make it through the night.  She died sometime around 3am yesterday morning.

The sadness that we are feeling here on earth is mixed with happiness that she is now reunited with my grandfather, who passed away just three months ago in September.  We are all shocked and saddened to have to say goodbye so soon to Nana (as we Stank kids always called her), but I know that she and Papa are now happy and healthy in heaven and celebrating this New Year's Eve together with Jesus.

Here is a picture of Nana with all of her children.  This picture was taken the day after my brother, Mike's wedding (just two weeks after my grandpa passed away).  We'll miss you Nana!

My sister, Karen, wrote an excellent post about my grandmother on her blog. Click HERE to see it.

Christmas cookies

I love to bake, but I don't get the opportunity to do it very often. Every year, at Christmastime, I look forward to baking a variety of cookies for our families. I started this tradition in 2005 and was able to do it again in 2006, but couldn't do it last year because we had to leave for the Gator Bowl.

This year, today was my baking day. It was about 5 hours of kitchen craziness but all went well, except for one thing: my gingerbread men dough was way too crumbly and couldn't be used (the recipe said that it needed to be refrigerated for at least 3 hours. When I took it out of the refrigerator, it was not useable). Bummer, since Keith had requested those specifically and he was really looking forward to them.

Here are some pictures I took during my "baking extravaganza" today:

Keith and I went to Kroger last night to get the necessary supplies

"Cracker candy" - so easy and so good!

"Macaroons" - one of my favs

" Chocolate mint snow-tops" - YUM

"Peanut Butter Blossoms" - a family favorite

"White chocolate raspberry" - these are Keith's favorites

It's Official!!

For the last 8 weeks or so, Keith and I have known that I am pregnant. At the end of October, we decided to tell our immediate family members and last week, we finally felt comfortable telling "the whole world" (since we have successfully made it through the first trimester with no problems)!! We are so excited about our little bundle of joy and we can't wait to see what the future holds.

On December 5th, I had an ultrasound and we were able to see the baby for the first time. (Well, this is actually a lie....I had an ultrasound on November 3rd and we were able to see the yolk sac and the heartbeat. That was a very exciting time, but for the most part, it just looked like a small blob). This time, we were able to see what looked like a "real" baby, with arms and legs and a face. It was truly overwhelming and awesome! I still can't believe I have a baby growing inside of me, especially since I am not "showing" yet.

When we went to the doctor to have the ultrasound, they also did a "Nuchal Translucency Screening" or NT scan. It is a first trimester screening that assess the risk of Down Syndrome and some other chromosomal abnormalities. Based on the ultrasound results, the doctor said everything looks normal but they also took blood and they'll get results on the blood work in about a week. We decided to do this particular screening because it was so non-invasive, it is covered by insurance, and they were going to do the ultrasound anyways. Also, if we found out there is a good possibility of the baby having Down Syndrome, then we could start preparing and learning as much as we can before it is born. Sounds like I am a pretty low-risk though, considering our family health history and what the doctor saw today.

My next appointment with the doctor will be on January 6th. This will be a basic "checkup" and we won't have another ultrasound until around 20 weeks, at which time we will be able to find out the baby's gender. :-)

Here are some pictures that we got from our appointment on December 3rd. Isn't he/she cute?

The baby's CRL (crown to rump length) was 5.65 cm.

The technician said that is right where it should be.

His/her heartbeat was measured at 171 beats per minute

A view of the entire babyThis is the baby facing the camera. It sort of looks like it is waving at us!Here is a view of one of it's arms, from above.This is it's bottom and one of it's legs.

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted to this blog! I don't know where the time has gone! I have certainly had a lot of things going on and plenty to blog about, but obviously haven't found the time to do so.

Well, now that the holidays are here and we are doing lots of fun and interesting things with our families, I am sure I will have a lot to blog about. (Again, finding the time, is the hard part!)

Also, since the cat is finally out of the bag...woohoo!!...(see the next post!), I am sure I will have lots of updates to post as we await the arrival of Baby Weimer at the end of June.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season....not stressing too much, not overspending and not overeating (ok, maybe that last one is ok...haha).