Countdown to mayhem

Well, it's almost here. My daughter Bailley's last Christmas as an only child. I have been struggling with this one all month. Do I continue to shower her with obnoxious amounts of gifts, and top it off with a week long vacation to Hershey Park for spa fun, and Holiday festivities? or...do I start to ween her from the enchanted life she is so accustomed to and cut Christmas down a bit, so as not to resent the kids when they get here? If you are someone that knows me well, you also know of course I went with plan A! I don't know how I will ever divide what is given to her and share it with the newcomers? It seems so unfair! I'm glad that we will have this one last trip together as a family of 3 before thing 1 and thing 2 show up. I'm already scheduling a c-section to work around Bailley's birthday so as not to interrupt that important time for her. I hope other people have felt like this. Is it possible to love the next like I love the first? I think Bailley will embrace the twins, and I hope to follow her lead. I know my brother became my whole world when he was born on Easter morning in my seventh year. It was love at first sight!  Heck, he's even the man that walked me down the aisle. Last weekend he graduated from the Musician's Institute in LA and is home visiting for the holidays. (congrats lil bro) It is now that I realize why I wanted to expand our family. The way I feel about my brother, no one can ever change. In my eyes it's just impossible for him to do wrong. I don't think I would have ever learned how to put anyone else first without him. And that is exactly the gift I hope to give Bailley. I wish I could have boxed that up for Christmas and saved my cash for a nice post pardum tummy tuck!

The beginning of the middle...

For some time now, I have wanted to journal, maybe catalog my life's events as a way for me to organize my memories. It's  hard thing to do when I'm starting with so many memories that I would like to pack up and ship out to a far away land, never to be seen again. But since this new life, my most "MacNificent" yet, I think it is only fair that I record these beautiful moments for our family to have always. This is something I truly wish that I could have had from my own mother. All of those moments seem to have passed on with her when I was 14. So here goes...
Day 1, we can start with the basics...
My name is Jasmine, husband Ian, 9 year old daughter Bailley, live in Newburyport, MA (heaven on earth), 2 chocolate labs Wyatt and Parker...oh yeah, and twins on the way! Our lives are NUTS! I am a full time bookkeeper and part time party planner. In my spare time I rip pages and pages and more pages out of my favorite design magazines in preparation for our upcoming addition (we have no spare bedrooms for these little bundles of joy) and for party inspiration!
My pet peeves...dirty snow, deadbeat dads (we'll get more into this later), soda from a can, people that can't make change in their heads...
My faves..."cool underside of a pillow on a hot summer's night", Christmas morning in pajamas, my nana's fresh lavender hanging in the linen closet tied to a swag of twine, diet coke...
That's a good start for now, small doses are usually best! :)