This last week, Lily turned 6 months old.  She had her checkup and the doctor said She is doing good and is healthy. She now weighs 15.25 pounds and is 2 feet 2 inches tall.  She is currently in the 90th percentile for her height and 40th percentile for her weight (Tall and Skinny).  She is really starting to develop and is interacting with her surroundings, grabbing and touching and of course everything goes in the mouth.

Also this week I wrapped up week two at my new job.  For those that didn't already know, my last day at my old job was on the 19th and I started as a Project Manager in the Hosting Services Division for Tomax Corporation.  Tomax focuses on retail based systems for Point of Sale and works with a bunch of well known clients.  In Hosting Services we are responsible for managing and hosting the hardware and applications that make it all possible.  The team is made up of DBAs and Sys Admins and my job is to manage the projects (upgrades, migrations, installs) that we get involved in. 

I am really looking forward to spring this year and over the last few weeks we have been teased a bit by the warmer temperatures.  Now that I am working downtown, I have been walking to lunch which is great!  As it gets a bit warmer, some of my co-workers have mentioned a few lunchtime concerts that happen a few blocks from the office.  So I can walk up get a bite to eat and enjoy a free concert. Sweet!  Also as this year, Ashley isn't pregnant so we can get back to hiking and biking.  We will have to make some arrangements for Lily, but that is very doable...

Apparently, every nearly 5 month old girl needs to have a duck in their life.  Well, this is at least what I was told when I got home from work a week or so ago and we had a new pet duck.  Lily really seemed to love the new duck and it quickly became her new best bud.  Radar however was not sure of this new member to our family and he was starting to feel a bit left out.  So he decided to make friends with the new duck and quickly started carrying it around with him.  Since this made the duck less then desirable to be placed in Lily's mouth, Ashley decided to give the duck a bath.  While this seemed like a good idea at the time, it apparently was not appreciated by the duck.  Now at totally random times the duck spouts of at the top of its lungs "Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack Quack, Quack Quack Quack."  This is just fine but last night at 2am, both Ashley and I were woken up to an ongoing and repetitive series of Quacks.  After a few minutes, Ashley jumped out of bed and wrangled up the suspect duck and locked him in the bathroom for the rest of the night.

It may have been the second Christmas we spent in our house but it was the first one we spent as a family.  This year was the re-start of Christmas as we have known it for many years.  Each year we gather with our family's, celebrate the year and enjoy each others company.  This year however, a new tradition was started... Christmas morning @ the Neilson's.  I was actually so excited about this Christmas, that I awoke at 4:30.  I stayed in bed until 5:00 trying to go back to sleep, but couldn't.  Obviously, Lily is to young to know what Christmas is all about, but over the next few years it will just continue to become a larger and larger part of her year.

This year was a rough year for us.  For a good portion of it Ashley was pregnant and had several issues along the way.  I was laid off this year and was out of work for a few month before landing in a new job.  In addition to having the baby, Ashley had a tonsillectomy and I had my gallbladder taken out.  Add to that a few coughs and sniffles along the way and you have our year in a nutshell.  We did however hit a major milestone in our lives on August 14, 2009.  Some people would know it as the completion of baby step number 2, but for those that don't, we became debt free.  Through all the challenges this year brought to us physically and financially, Ashley and I above all were able to stay focused on our goal.  Our goal to bring a new little person into a world where her parents were not living paycheck to paycheck and not borrowing money or living on credit.  With the support of our families and the strength of each other we will achieve our goals.  We are still a long way from getting there, but we will get there!

For all of you out there, I hope that you 2009 was enjoyable and I sincerely hope that your 2010 is much better.  With the start of a new decade it is a time for a renewed since of hope and a new view on life.  I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and and incredibly happy New Year...