Back as "Team Z"!

Now that we've had Baby Z added to our lives, a lot has changed. It would make for one really long blog post to list all the changes and updates that have taken place since little Nikayda's birthday... so for now, we'll just pick it back up from where we are now! We are happy and loving life. We are Team Z!


I forgot to explain the meaning behind our daughter's name in the last post announcing her arrival...


Nikayda
-- We designed it from the name "Nikita" (unisex name), which both Justin and I liked.
-- Origin: Slovakian, Slavic, Russian, Greek, Macedonian
-- Meaning: Unconquerable, Victorious People, Victory of the People
-- Derived from Greek νικη (nike) meaning "victory".


Claire
-- Variant of "Clara" after Kacie's Great Grandmother -- Clara Cleveland, she lived to be over 100!
-- Origin: French, Latin
-- Meaning: Illustrious, Clear, Bright, Distinguished, Famous Bearer
-- Derived from the feminine form of the Latin adjective 'clarus' meaning bright or clear.


Zajic
-- Czech (Zajíc) and Slovak (Zajac): from zajíc ‘hare’, hence a nickname for a swift runner or a coward, one quick to run away. -- http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/
-- We'd like to think our last name is more from the "swift runner" part! Afterall, Justin is the all around track-star!! :-)

Updated Family Picture --  Nikayda at 8½ months old here.

What have they been up to?

Kacie, Justin and Baby Z have been doing well and keeping busy!

Justin started Junior High wrestling practice on Nov 17th, and their first meet was yesterday evening in Mitchell... so it's been hard for him to squeeze in any more deer hunting.  He may go with some teacher friends to bow hunt near Chamberlain tomorrow though. 

Kacie has been staying busy at work with lots of holiday events at the store lately.  She has an Ice Fishing Classic weekend to organize this weekend (so unfortunately will miss the Cleveland Christmas!), and she'll take pictures of kids with Santa the next 2 weekends in a row!  She's also planning for a "Santa's Workshop" for kids at the store which will include fun things like holiday crafts, writing letters to Santa, story time, cookie decorating, etc.  And she's starting to plan for when she'll be on leave from work and will have to train in a few people at the store how to take over her duties while she's out... she's planning for taking the full 12 weeks that the state of SD offers for maternity leave.

Kacie and Baby Z are at 30 weeks right now -- only 10 or so more to go!  Hard to believe.  Next appointment is Dec 9th.  So far so good.  She'll sign up for expecting parent and childbirth classes that will take place in January 2011.  Baby Z has still been fairly active and tends to get the hiccups about twice a day or so!  Apparently hiccups mean that the baby is healthy and working to develop her lungs.

We missed seeing any family on actual Thanksgiving day (Kacie had to wake up at 3am to work for Black Friday!), so we went to see family in Canby on the weekend instead.  Here are a few pictures from Vivian's house.  It was fun, but the time always goes by too fast ... and it's hard to get around to see everyone before we leave!  We imagine it may be a little harder yet once Baby Z arrives!

 

 Earlier last week, Kacie took part in the "Parade of Lights" for work on a cold Monday night -- Nov 22.

Kacie, Shannon & Andrew braved the cold to ride the float!

Parade theme was "Christmas Around the World" -- Cabela's float theme was "Hawaiian Christmas".

February 2011!

Well as you may already know, we are expecting a baby in early February 2011!  February 5th is the due date... who knows, maybe it will even happen on the same day as Kacie's birthday!  We had an ultrasound earlier this September and found out it's a GIRL -- "no hardware between the legs", said the ultrasound guy!  So we're pretty excited about the idea of a little girl!


Kacie started feeling the baby flutter around in early September around Labor Day weekend... And Justin felt the her kick for the first time on September 9... and now we both have been feeling her wiggle around in there pretty regularly.  It's a pretty cool experience for first time parents!


We're pretty sure we have a girl name picked out and locked in ... and we even have a few boy names ready just in case!  Picking out a name we both like was hard!  Especially when one of us is a teacher!  It seems Justin has had almost every name as a current or previous student already with only 2.5 years of teaching under his belt!


Kacie's next doc appointment is October 21st, after the busy opening weekend of the pheasant season in South Dakota.  She's been pretty busy the last few weeks planning for the big pheasant opener events at work, and now traffic at the store probably won't slow down until after the winter holiday seasons!  So January and February is a good time to have a baby since work will slow down then.


Justin's been busy with teaching, training in his student teacher from DWU, and keeping up with his American History masters classes... oh yeah, and all the work Kacie has for him at home!  This summer, he remodeled our bedroom, and he's now in the process of remodeling our upstairs hallway.  All the old and ugly floral wall paper is now GONE! 


Baby's room is painted and set to go, now we just need to find a crib and all the other baby essentials to fill the room with.  Colors will probably be:  pink, lime green, light blue, browns, and whites.


Kacie had fun shopping around at garage sales this summer for gender neutral baby stuff ... but now that we know it's a girl, it will be more fun to shop!  And maybe she'll get a few hand-me-downs from her baby cousin, Jaylyn, who was born August 21 this summer!  They will be best-cousin-friends and can't wait to finally meet each other!

9.26.10 - Week 20 - halfway there!

She's growing pretty well and fast inside that belly!

Well that's all for now!  More updates to come another day!