We are a little bit late on our 2014 year in review post. I’ve never liked year in review posts that come before the year is up. How can you declare this the “10 most shocking deaths of 2014” or “6 biggest news stories of 2014” with a week left in the year? It’s practically daring something to happen. But I meander off topic. Also I am writing about the same time I got last year’s post up. Glad I’m predictable. (Please note that I in this post = Elizabeth, Mom = Cleta, Elizabeth’s mom and Dad = Ray, Elizabeth’s Dad. Everyone else gets first names.)

It’s a girl! And a lovely cake made by Elizabeth

2014 was a HUGE year for us. We toasted in the New Year expecting our first child and overjoyed about it. Shortly into January we found out we were expecting a little girl. We celebrated by having a gender reveal cake at Sunday dinner. Because cake is awesome and any excuse for cake is a good one

In February we took are delayed honeymoon, now a babymoon, to Hawaii. We stayed on the island of Maui, relaxed on the beach, went snorkeling, drove the Hana highway, and had an amazing time. There were a few things I couldn’t do being pregnant (eat sushi, drink fruity cocktails, and zipline), but a lot of fun things we did do. One of them was going to Warren and Annabelle’s magic show. That was fantastic – we recommend it! And by then we had decided to name our daughter Annabelle. David has a grandmother Anna and a grandmother Angeline Ann and I had a grandmother Dorotha Belle.

Hawaii, February 2014. Black sand beach along the Hana Highway.

Maui, Hawaii. February 2014. Driving the Hana Highway. That was an amazing drive, hair raising, but beautiful.

The office nook before it became a nursery.

When we got home, it was time to start seriously preparing for the baby. We were turning an office into a nursery. It involved tearing out a built in desk, some drywall, moving outlets and light switches, framing in a door, redrywalling much of the whole thing, painting, etc.

My favorite part of the renovation was collecting paint samples. I wanted a gray that was mostly just gray not blue-gray or green-gray. Eventually I just had to choose one.

And there was a little bit of project scope creep. As long as we were going to all this work, we decided to redo the floors with laminate hardwood from Costco. We love it, but it did make the project take a bit longer. Especially because we did most of the top floor. End result is awesome though. Fortunately we had lots of help.

You can see the end result of the nursery here.

David, Matthew, and Chris work on the flooring in the living room

Me at the Chihuly glass garden in Seattle, WA. March 2014

In March I took a trip to visit my sister in Seattle. We hung out, went shopping, saw the Chihuly museum and just had some fun in my last days without the baby.

After the March trip it was all about getting ready for our baby, getting house, work, and life ready.

A lovely family at our baby shower.

And the on June 17, 1 day before her due date and 2 days before my birthday Annabelle was born. The full story is here.

And now there are three. The happiest I’ve ever been. From the set of photos after I brushed my hair.

Since June life has been all about the baby. We barely learn one survival technique and then another thing pops up. But every moment is amazing, a blessing. David was just saying that he can not imagine our lives without her.

An extended family at the state fair. Back row (l to r) Margaret, Cleta, David. Front row Elizabeth, Ray, Matthew holding Annabelle

I took nearly three months of maternity leave and went back to work after labor day. My parents came up to meet Annabelle and spend some time with us the week before that. I went back to work the day after Labor Day. Dad (Ray) flew home and Mom (Cleta) stayed here.

Please note a lot of this stuff has been blogged about before and I’m trying not to show too many repeat photos.

I’ve got a pink Royals baby outfit and a blue bow. Ready for some baseball!

Now all along Mom had said she wanted to come out when I went back to work, especially since our permanent sitter was having a fall baby and needed some time to recover before taking in Annabelle. However she also said that if the Royals went to the post-season baseball (mom and dad are season ticket holders), she was flying back for that. Dave and I thought it was hilarious. We told the funny funny story all over town. Well in September they were in contention and Mom flew back to Kansas City. She thought she was going back just for the Wild Card game. That was what her ticket was booked for. She had to change that ticket FOUR times and the Royals went to the World Series. (They lost in a super tight game that broke our hearts.) October was a lot of piecing together various people as babysitters, really stressful, but it all worked out.

Children’s literature halloween! I’m the Pigeon (from Mo Willems books) and Annabelle is the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Mom did make it back in time for Halloween which was good since she had part of Annabelle’s costume. See the full costume here.

Since she had abandoned us for an entire month, Mom decided to stay through Thanksgiving. Dad was always going to come up for the last week of her visit. And since my parents would be here, my siblings decided to come up for Thanksgiving and meet Annabelle. It was awesome to have everyone together for Thanksgiving. More about the holidays here.

Dude, who are you? Santa and Annabelle

After Thanksgiving, Annabelle started going to her permanent sitter, our good friend Hilary who keeps Annabelle with her own two kids. They go on play dates and outings and do fun activities. We could not ask for a better child care situation.

For Christmas we got to include Annabelle in some of our favorite activities, like going to Girdwood for David’s company Christmas party, and we got to do some new ones like Santa. (More in that post linked above).

I know holidays will be even more fun when she is old enough to understand and appreciate it, but we are savoring every moment.

Merrry Christmas from the Nicolai+ clan

In one year we have gone from barely could tell I was pregnant to having a six month old baby who can sit up on her own, eat finger foods (baby led weaning), babble, smile, laugh, and holds our hearts.

Oh and news that isn’t about the baby? We never got the trim up in the renovation so we still need to do that, summer 2016. David is still at Coffman Engineers and I am still the Youth Services Coordinator at Anchorage Public Library. We sold my Jeep right before year end and bought a new 3 row SUV to better hold more family members. Kinda sad because I bought that SUV to bring me up to Alaska and adventure 7 years ago, but it was the right time.

She can eat real food with her fingers now. It’s pretty amazing. 2015 should be an incredible adventure.