The Ahern Family: Playing Catch Up....

I have had this post started, erased and restarted a number of times. I seem to not have enough hours in the day to work, do household chores, have quality family time, attend church activities, work on designs, etc. So needless to say the blog seems to fall to the bottom of the list. Life has been a little crazy for the last month trying to settle into a normal routine. It seems just as we find some sort of normal balance something comes up. Here is a short recap...

I went back to work 4 days a week. It seems to work out really well. About the time I start to wish I didn't have to work it is Thursday so I only have to make it through the day to be able to spend 3 days with her before having to work again. Daly's has been really great in that if I have to be at home with Alivia for any given reason I can usually make up my hours from home. I have a work laptop and the ability to connect to our network allowing me to easily work on my project from home.

A few weeks back Tom had to have surgery on his wrist. It has been bothering him for quite some time so he finally got it checked out to find that he had broken it years back. We are talking when he was a senior in high school. Over the years it healed incorrectly damaging nerves, causing the growth of bone spurs and arthritis. He had surgery to remove the nerves, bone spurs and arthritis that will help with the pain for the time being but he will have to have a second surgery in a few years to correct the original break site. The second surgery will take his mobility down quite a bit so he thought it best to hold off until he isn't doing as much on job sites.

Here is Alivia waiting patiently for Daddy to get out of surgery!

Tom has also been busy with a few other fun things as well. I will share more on this when it comes closer to the time. It's pretty exciting though...stay tuned!

Thanksgiving was great!! We had so much to be thankful for this year!! It is amazing the turn of events we have been through over the last couple years. We have defeated major conflicts, strengthened many wonderful relationships especially our marriage, developed new interests and hobbies, but our biggest accomplishment this year was the birth of our sweet baby girl.

I mean who wouldn't be thankful for these cheeks!!

We were able to spend time with both our families over this Thanksgiving Holiday. My mom came in on Wednesday night and stayed with us until Sunday. We spent Turkey day with Tom's immediate and extended family, my mom, and Tom's sister's in-laws. We had a feast!! The best part...I got to partake!! Alivia's pediatrician said that at 4 months we could do a dairy test where I didn't restrict dairy from my diet for a meal. Well of course I chose to use Thanksgiving as my test day. I mean who wants to look at all that amazing food only to not be able to eat any of it. I am happy to announce it seems to have been ok (knock on wood). I am slowly re-introducing dairy into both our diets. Friday, my mom and I got up early for some Black Friday shopping. 5am at Wal-mart will never happen again for me. The holiday spirit seemed to have been expressed in the form of selfishness and greed. We did get one of the two items we tried to buy but for the amount of money we saved, I think the sleep would have been worth more. That evening we traveled down to Lincoln to meet Beth, Randy and Ethan for dinner. It was really good to all be together! Ethan is getting to be such a big boy! He just adores his cousin Alivia! After dinner we ventured over to the mall to see Santa!! Well - Alivia sat and smiled at Santa but Ethan on the other hand wanted nothing to do with him.

Alivia's first Santa experience!

(Probably the last good one for a couple years)

We were also able to get together with some of Tom's friends over the Holiday. There were almost as many kiddos as there were adults. This is the daddy's and their babies. Alivia is 4 months, Gianna is 5 months, and Jaden is 11 months. Bella, Gianna's big sister was there as well. She is 3 and one of the most polite little girls I have ever met!! We had so much fun with everyone. Too bad we can't get all together more often. We just need to get Jason and Eric to move back to Omaha!

We started cereal last week too. We had heard many different opinions as to the best time to start but with the recommendation of our pediatrician and the developmental milestones she was meeting we decided to give it a try. The verdict is in and Alivia loves it!! She gets so excited when we put her in the high chair with the bib because she knows what's coming.

Do I have something on my face?