2009 in the Passe House

2009 brought many adventures for us, most of which were good! In February, Chris took 3 of his wrestlers to the state tournament in Madison and watched one of them place 6th. We found out we were expecting in March which made the following 6 weeks quite interesting! Despite the wonderful morning sickness that stayed with me all day, Chris and I managed to spend spring break in San Francisco. We had a wonderful time and got to see Chris's cousin, Mike, in Sacramento. I finished my master's degree in May and graduated on the same day that my little sister graduated from pharmacy school. Chris and I went to Des Moines for the graduation and were very proud of Kaitlin's accomplishments! We started our home projects in July. We did a complete remodel of the bathroom, put new windows in the rest of the house except for the kitchen, replaced the carpet, and transformed our office into a baby's room. Unfortunately, during this time we also had to say goodbye to our beloved Marley. Her kidneys shut down because of the medication the vet gave her for a pulled neck muscle. We miss her dearly and were sad to know she wouldn't be around when the baby was born. I started my 4th year teaching at Union Grove Elementary School. We made an early trip to the hospital in October and thought we were having our baby early. It ended up just being a practice run! It helped us to pack a little better for the real deal though! We were blessed with the birth of our beautiful baby girl, Ava, on November 17th at 1:18 pm. After an unplanned c-section, I was thankful that Chris was able to be off for two weeks with Ava and I! We had to make quite a few doctors visits in the beginning because of jaundice and weight concerns that I wouldn't have been able to do on my own. I am enjoying my time off with her but will have to return to work on January 25th. We enjoyed our first Christmas with Ava and look forward to watching her grow in 2010! We hope this finds you well and that you and your family will have a healthy and happy new year!