Sleeping like a king!

A lot has happened since we last posted, so here is all the news in the order it occurred...
First, last Tuesday we got a new KING size bed. It's so big I need a step stool to get into it and Max is afraid to jump onto it, even using the dog stairs! It's so comfy and cushy and best of all, it's like having a full size bed for each of us. We got the bed and head/foot boards on an amazing clearance sale! One day we will get dressers and other furniture to match it.
Second, on Wednesday, we had another ultrasound. Under normal circumstances, I would have only gotten the one ultrasound at 20 weeks. However, we got the second one at 30 weeks to check on the placenta previa. We found out I no longer have placenta previa! This is great news because we won't have to schedule a c-section. That also means there less additional risks to worry about. We also have hope that the baby won't be early! I'm no longer on pelvic rest, so am able to lift things and have more physical activity (and get to enjoy that king size bed). The ultrasound wasn't as clear as the first one because the baby is so much bigger now. It weighed in approximately 3 lb 6 oz. It was so big that the entire baby didn't fit on the ultrasound screen. However we did get to see a lot more movement this time. The baby was sucking it's thumb and playing with the umbilical cord. We also learned the baby has it's head WAY down, and we're able to feel the butt sticking up.
Next, we enjoyed some time at home on Christmas Eve opening gifts from each other and watching the dogs get their stockings. Max knows exactly what to do when he sees the stocking on the floor- dig in for the prizes. Marley wasn't sure what was happening. That evening we went to Trina's parents house to enjoy clam chowder and appetizers after going to the Christmas Eve service at their church. We got to play Santa for a while, helping wrap many of the gifts since Mom was sick. On Christmas Day we stayed there and the rest of the Juilfs family joined for great food, gifts, and games. We got up the next morning and had Big Foots (a yummy breakfast food Mom makes) and headed back home.
AND...during gift open on Christmas, Tasha & Kyle announced that they are pregnant! They are 12 weeks along. Everyone was surprised and excited for yet another baby. I already knew this news, and it was so hard to keep the secret. Tasha is feeling pretty good, just really tired and hungry. For us, that will be the 5th baby Aug '09-Aug '10 in our immediate families. Not including 8 additional family/co-workers/friends we know who are pregnant. Tyler and Taya are going to have a baby girl near the end of May. Autumn and Reed are going to have their baby at the beginning of August. We can't wait to have all of the kids together at the same time.

Check out my baby bump.

Week 11Week 21Week 31

Looking ahead (because I'm assuming we won't post again this week), we will be spending a lot of time with the Roos family this week, celebrating Christmas together. Tanner will be spending a lot of time finishing yet another class toward his degree while he is off of work. We also expect to get our new washer on Thursday. The old one leaks and I don't want to deal with that when we are washing our cloth diapers.

Last Week

Last week was a very busy week for the two of us. On Tuesday's, Trina went to Young Parents Network. I believe that she has volunteered with them for about three years. This week was the last week that she was going to be a group leader. After we have our baby, she may or may not return to help the young mothers get prepared for their babies. She has some time to make that decision.

On Wednesday night we had a parenting class at St. Luke's. I believe that it was called Prenatal Stimulation and Baby Massage. I thought it was a pretty good class. It reminded me about things that I have heard or read over the past seven months. I don't think Trina gets as much out of these classes. She rarely comes home with information that she doesn't already know. I on the other hand could use all of the reminders.

Thursday night was the Grant Wood music program. The second grade sang songs about Santa making his way through the weather to deliver to their homes. It was really cute. During a rehearsal, the kids started shouting SANTA SUIT at me. I guess they wanted me to get dressed up. After talking with the music teacher, we decided that the kids couldn't handle singing with me in a Santa suit next to them.

Friday night was really busy for me. The PTA Christmas Party was right after school. There was great food. One of the guys that helps with the Running Club cooked a bunch of Italian food. It was great. After the party, Trina and I went to Orchestra Iowa at Coe College. The orchestra played Christmas music and had a fun skit between songs. It tied everything together to tell a story. It was much different than I thought it would be. I enjoyed it. I think our baby liked it too.

Family Photos

If your looking to save money on pregnancy pictures, you should read the following steps.

1. Get pregnant

2. Grow a belly (guys can do this too)

3. Borrow a camera

4. Borrow a tripod

So far, everything listed has been free. Some of it has been fun. I rather enjoyed eating Trina's leftover supper each night from week six until week fifteen.

5. Take the sheets off your bed

6. Wash them (optional)

7. Hang them on your wall with thumb tacks

Although washing them is optional, it is highly recommended if either you or your spouse drools.

8. Figure out how to use the ten second timer

9. Smile pretty

10. Edit the pictures to accent your wife's beautiful belly

If your husband is feeling left out, you can repeat steps 9 and 10 to include his new baby bump.

This is just a small taste of the pictures that we took. There are many more that I would have loved to post, but some are more private than others. All of the shots were very tastefully done.

One of the highlights surrounding these pictures was when we picked them up at Wal-mart. The guy at the photo booth didn't want to give them to us because he thought we were printing these without permission from the photographer. He wrote "copyright?" on the packaging. He must have thought we were breaking copyright laws. When Trina said that we took the photos, I could tell that Trina was proud of our work. She did a great job with these. I just wish you could see them all.

Snow days... one of the many perks of being a teacher.

This weekend was busy for Trina and I. On Saturday I went hunting with my friends. We shot our guns a lot, but only Adam came home with a deer. He shot two bucks. One was an old 10-11 point (I can't remember) and the other was a wide eight point. The closest thing I got to taking home a deer was when four of us shot a total of nine times at a very wide eight point buck. We could see that someone hit it in the rear, but we couldn't track the deer down. I'm going to take credit for hitting it for three reasons. First, I took the first shot. Second, I had a rear angle. Third, I don't want Trina to think I'm a horrible shot.

On Sunday, Trina and her family went to Des Moines for the day. I don't really know what went on, but you can go to Kim's blog to find out more.

If you haven't noticed, Iowa has been covered in a blanket of snow. Let's change that to a comforter of snow. There has been a lot. I recently purchased a used Toro snow thrower on Craigslist. It came in really handy the last few days. Trina snapped this picture of me in action this morning. Before bed, I got rid of the same amount of snow as I did when I woke up. I"m really glad that I didn't wait until morning to do all of it. I think the snow thrower can only handle 8-10 inches at a time.

While Trina was working on Tuesday I stayed home with the dogs. I am home today too. One of the fun things I did to pass the time yesterday was have a photo shoot of the dogs. Trina made Marley's vest and purchased Max's shirt this weekend. As much as I hate dogs in clothes, I have to admit that Max looks pretty good. Besides keeping the dogs warm, it's important that Marley wears his when he goes outside. His hair collects snow like Tiger Woods collects girl friends.

In response to Christmas Questions

This post is in response to "Christmas Questions" on Kim's Kreations blog.
I love the Christmas season!!! There is something about the smell of Christmas, all the lights and decor, the music and spending time with family that floats my boat. Tanner doesn't love the season quite as much as I do, but I will share that I caught him listening to some Christmas music when I wasn't home the other day. I hope he converts to loving the season as much as me, and think he will once he sees how wonderful it will be to have our own family traditions.

1) What is your favorite Christmas movie? I love to watch Christmas movies on Christmas Eve, and any other time I can. It's a Wonderful Life is by far the best, followed by a tie of White Christmas and Christmas Vacation.
(2) What is your LEAST favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story.
(3) What is your favorite Christmas Song? It's impossible for me to pick just one. I love I'll be Home for Christmas. I also like Jingle Bells as sung by Bing Crosby.
(4) What Christmas song(s) drives you crazy? I can't say I have one.
(5) What is your favorite Christmas drink? Egg Nog
(6) What is your favorite Christmas memory? I really liked driving around to look at lights as a family, finding reindeer tracks in the snow on Christmas Eve, and the traditional soup/cookie dinner we at on Christmas Eve. I expect to continue these traditions for my family.
(7) What is the best toy/gift you've received on Christmas? I can't say any one thing stands out to me. Not like I didn't get great stuff!
(8) What is the worst toy/gift you've received on Christmas? One year Santa left me coal in my stocking, really!
(9) What do you LOVE about the holidays? I guess I answered this at the top. I just love the feeling of love in the air.
(10) What annoys you about the holidays? A focus on gift giving and all the "rules" that come with it.
(11) Do you prefer a star or an angel on top of a Christmas tree? Or something else? I follow in my mother's footsteps, having 5 trees in our house. 3 topped by a star, 1 topped by a Cubs flag and one without a topper.
(12) What is your favorite family recipe for Christmas? I don't really have one. I enjoy a variety of cookies (especially since I don't make them), and I also enjoy sweet potato casserole.
(13) Are you a Grinch or a Who at Christmastime? A Who for sure! And I think I'm turning Tanner from Grinch to a Who.
(14) Christmas light displays - Love them or Hate them? Love them...on other peoples' houses. I love to drive around and look at the lights, but would prefer to keep my efforts toward decorating our house/outdoors to a minimum.
(15) Santa’s at the mall - Fun times or Creepy? I think they are fun. It's gets everyone in the spirit. But sometimes they don't look real and can be creepy.
(16) Christmas cards - do you send them, yes or no? I've never received many Christmas cards and only send them sporadically. We do, however, plan to send them this year to a few people.(17) What is the best thing about Christmas, in your opinion?Everything!
(18) What is the worst thing about Christmas, in your opinion? Again, I hate that people have certain gift expectations. I think people should appreciate the little things more.
(19) When do you put the tree up and take it down? I usually put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but since we were gone this year, we did it the weekend before Thanksgiving. We'll take it down the second week of January. But I'll leave up "winter" decorations into February.
(20) Out of the 12 days of Christmas, which day and item would you want your true love to give to you? The golden rings.
(21) Why do you think that Grandma got run over by a reindeer? Santa saw Grandma coming and had to rush away from the house before anyone saw, and he accidentally ran her over!
(22) Who is your favorite reindeer? Rudolph of course.
(23) Do you believe in Santa Claus? I believe in continuing a tradition started by a generous man who gave gifts to people to needed them. So yes.
(24) What is your favorite smell at Christmastime? I'm not sure what the smell is, but it's missing in my house. Is it pine cones with cinnamon scent?
(25) What would make you happy at Christmas this year? For no family quarrels, appreciation of the little thing, and spending time with family.

Deer Hunting

I got up at 2:45 this morning and headed over to Sychra's house. On my way there I found myself ten feet from a deer. It just stood on the side of the road as I stared at it. If we weren't in city limits, I might have taken out my gun right there and shot it. Within an hour I could be back in bed. I think it's a sign that hunting is going to be good! I'm pretty sure that Adam, Greg (Adam's step-dad), Craig (Adam's college friend), and the Maffin's (Tony and Lance) will be there. I haven't seen Tony or Lance in a really long time. I am really excited to catch up with the two of them.

It looks like it is time to get in the trucks. The sun will be up in a few hours and we want to be the first to pull the trigger!

BANG, BANG!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This is the 26 week picture of Trina. She is 27 weeks along today. That means if things go the way they should, I could be a dad in about 13 weeks.

We spent Thanksgiving in Marshall this year. Autumn, Reed, Tyler, Taya and the girls were there as well. Besides eating a lot of good food, we also played a lot of games. Our favorite game was called Pit. It can be played with 4-8 people. If you haven't played it, look it up on the www and read to see if you would like it. We also watched a lot of football (Trina pretended to care) and played a lot of pool.

I did something that I was really proud of this weekend. While playing pool, I broke the balls up and hit in five balls. One of them was the eight ball. For those of you who don't know anything about pool, that means that my team won with just one shot. It was really cool. However, the cool factor only lasted about two minutes and then disappeared. That's why I had to bring it back up. Other than that one shot, I'm pretty horrible at pool.

After we got home from Marshall, we decided that the dogs were just tired enough to let us give them another hair cut. Trina shaved them, while I held them down. We haven't figured out how to shave their heads yet without being eaten. Here is a photo of Max after we shaved his body and left his face hair long.

After bringing him to PetSmart, Max looks like a little puppy again. They cut his face hair without incident. I don't know how they do it for only $6.00. I would pay them $30.00 if they asked.We shaved Marley too. This is a picture of him just after we put him in the bathtub. Do you think he enjoyed it? After taking him to PetSmart, Marley was back to his old self. His big eyes melt my heart. I hope our kid has eyes that big

Pregnancy Perk

I've finally come to appreciate a perk of pregnancy...

Longer stronger nails! For 26 years I have been cursed with weak, brittle, peeling, ridged nails that are constantly breaking and chipping. I've even been painting them. When you have strong non-peeling nails, apparently the paint stays on better and longer.

It's one thing that makes me feel good and a little "pretty" even when I can't see my feet or fit into my shoes & clothes. I'm pretty sure Tanner thinks I'm crazy for enjoying this, as he said, he's always had strong nails and never thought twice about it.

Update: We have a doctor appointment today at 4. We hope to ask a lot of questions regarding the ultrasound (last one and next one), when our next ultrasound will be, my heart rate and activity issues. Although I know I haven't gained too much weight, I feel like I've gained a ton already. Nothing fits anymore, not even my stretchy cotton comfy pants, my shoes and some maternity shirts are getting a little short in the belly. We even had to buy a stand-in wedding ring yesterday for me to wear, because mine is getting stuck on my hand. I will wear it the rest of my pregnancy, then never wear it again. Although I need to probably start wearing it, I just can't let go of mine.

I obviously stopped giving weekly updates on the pregnancy. There for a while, I just felt like nothing major was happening, nothing worth sharing. I will try to do a better job of posting again. Our goal is at least 2 times a week.

Our baby is now the size of an eggplant:

And the winner is...

For over a week now, our evenings have been consumed with the World Series. Each year I make a special evening of the CMA (Country Music Awards) complete with ballots and an array of appetizers. Because the World Series is an equally big event in our house, I had to go all out. It was slightly more difficult since it is spanned over several days, and it's unknown how many games/days there will actually be.

So we created a menu consisting of one appetizer for each game. This is what we had...

Game 1- Bruschetta
It turned out to be super easy and very tasty. I'm sure I'm make it again.
Game 2- Arby's

I ended up having severe wrist and elbow pain this day and wasn't able to make anything, but who can complain about Arby's?!

Game 3- Fruit Pizza- Yum!

Game 4- Crab Canapes

This is a recipe that my mom has made for Christmas Eve. They are extremely rich with cheese and real butter (two favorites in our house), but wow are they delicious!!

Game 5- Taco Dip

This one ended up being supper. It's basically cream cheese spread on a dish, layered with taco meat, taco sauce, shredded cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, and eaten cold with tortilla chips.

Game 6- Rotel dip, an old standby

The series ended with the Yankee's as the winning team and Crab Canapes as the winning dish.

We also tried keeping score of odd statistics. We guessed the number of everything from strike-outs in the seventh inning to number of players hit by a pitch over the corse of each game. It was fun to beat Tanner for each game (except 1).

Our First Anniversary

Last weekend, Trina and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. This is how it went.

On Saturday we decided to go to Table for One and get massages. I've never had a professional massage before. Trina wasn't sure I would like it. I don't really like people to touch me. Trina on the other hand loves them. Trina came home from a massage once and told me that massages are her new hobby. She tried to compare getting a massage to me playing softball on Monday nights. Let me know if you think she's crazy too.

We then went to Starbucks to get a free cookie and small hot chocolate. The coupon queen found a one day only special. After the hot drink we went to the movies. We decided to see Couple's Retreat after a referral from my parents. We both really enjoyed it.

Following the movie, we exchanged gifts and went out for dinner at Cibo Fusion. Trina and I went there for our rehearsal dinner one year earlier. It was fun to think about the hours leading up to our big day. Trina and I both tried something different. We've been watching the cooking shows a lot recently and I had no clue what scallops were. It was on the menu so I tried it. Alone they aren't anything special. However, with the noodles and sauce that was on the plate, I could have swore I was eating gold. It was terrific. Trina had a similar experience. She ordered the rib eye. That wasn't the best part of the meal. In fact, I would say that both sides were better than her steak. The menu said "white truffledmac & cheese, eloté, and sweet ancho horseradish sauce." Basically it was the best noodles and cheese ever. The other side was a very fancy version of and ear of corn. It was cooked in a special sauce and rolled in all sorts of spices. I didn't know vegetables could be so good! As I tried to leave, Trina suggested that we try a desert. We ended up with flaming fondue that featured strawberries, bananas, nuts, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate and carmel sauce.

This is a picture of Trina after she finished eating (insert joke here).
The next day we went to Central City to Pinicon Ridge State Park. This is the exact tree that we got married under a year prior. We took a walk with the dogs and talked about how the day progressed. The colors of the trees weren't as crisp as they were last year. Yet the park was still a beautiful place visit. I hope that returning to the park becomes a tradition for us.

Since Bud had to read all of the sappy stuff, I am leaving the last two pictures for him. Both the deer and the elk are fenced in at the park. This is the biggest rack I've ever seen in person (on a deer). I've also never been this close to an elk. It was really cool to see both of these beautiful animals standing feet apart.

Overall, this was a great weekend. I couldn't have had a better year with my beautiful wife.

Half way there!

As of yesterday we are 21 weeks pregnant. That means I'm about half way there! The past week or so has had some ups and downs concerning the pregnancy/baby. Last week we had our ultrasound and doctor appointment, which Tanner shared about. It was so exciting to see our little baby actually moving around and being a little human. As Tanner reported, we found out I have placenta previa. The way they made it sound (and therefore the way Tanner described it in our blog) it wasn't a big deal, and simply meant I would likely need a c-section. We lived with that reality for only a day, until the doctor called me the next day to review the ultrasound results. She was a bit more alarmed about this condition and put me on "pelvic rest" which is exactly what it sounds like. I'm not allowed to do any lifting "generally around 15 pounds or anything that uses your pelvic muscles" is how she described it. To put it in perspective, I can't pick up my dogs at the same time. It also means no sex. The concern is that the placenta would detach, which would obviously be fatal. I will continue with these precautions until early/mid December when we will have a second ultrasound to determine if I still have the condition. After that, we may find out it fixed itself and then the risk factors basically go away. If we find out I still have it and/or it's gotten worse, many more risks/concerns come in to play.

I also reported to my doctor last week that my heart rate has been generally very high (my blood pressure is perfect). She recommended I greatly increase the iron in my food for a few days. After choking down a bunch of red meat last week, it didn't help. So on Friday I was sent in for a holtar monitor. Basically they stuck 5 patches to me and hooked them up to a portable monitor for 24 hours. I was to log my activity during those hours. We are now waiting on those results. It's difficult and concerning because I'm not supposed to let my heart rate get above 140 even if I'm exercising. But even this morning, I was just standing in the bathroom, blow drying my hair (like I do every morning) and my heart rate went up to 145. Hopefully we'll find out what's going on soon!

Besides all of this concerning news, we had a glimmer of exciting last night. When laying in bed, I put Tanner's hand on my belly and we waited. We're pretty sure he could feel the baby move a couple of times! He said it wasn't what he expected, much lighter and didn't feel like a body part. Tonight I'm going to have some caffeine and we'll try again. Last night I also brought home from YPN some fetal models. They are silicon (i think) forms of a fetus at various stages of pregnancy, 10, 15, 20 & 30 weeks, representing the actual size and weight. It was so cool to hold the 20 week model and imagining it being comparable to our little baby! We realized that the 8x10 ultrasound picture we had in our living room was the exact same size as the 20 weeks fetus.

We got another dog!

Yep, we did it. We got another dog! I can here you now. Most of you are want to know why we would want a third dog right before Trina has the baby. Others of you (Trilby) want to know who is going to be taking care of these dogs when we go away for the weekend? Well, I don't have all the answers yet. We will figure these things out when they become a problem.

So you're not as gullible as I thought you might be. This is actually a project that Trina was asked to do for Big Brother's, Big Sister's. The entire staff was given a bowling pin and asked to decorate it. After the bowling pin sat in our house for close to a month, we decided to turn it into something fun.Ten easy steps

Step one, spray paint the bowling pin white before talking to Trina

Step two, spray paint the bowling pin black because Marley isn't white

Step three, drill holes and insert dowels for legs and tail

Step four, cut dowels to the correct size

Step five, cut out ears and a tongue from leftover fabric around the house

Step six, hot glue synthetic grass to the bowling pin

Step seven, spray paint the grass

Step eight, spray paint white spot on the chest

Step nine, create collar with bell

Step ten, teach the new dog how to drink from a water bowl I think we did a pretty great job. Marley approves. Max does not.This is the other project that we've been working on. Trina and I created this for our baby room. It is our version of Eric Carle's, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We tried to create the images from his book similar to the way he created them. We didn't have the same supplies, so we used tissue paper and crayons for shading. I think he used tissue paper and paint. The middle is a modified version of Eric Carle's book. We left out a few things, but it gets the point across. Trina did the majority of the work. I'm really proud to have this on our baby's wall.

20 Week Ultrasound

We had our 20 week doctor's appointment and our first ultrasound today. Trina and I have been waiting for this day for what seems like forever. We first heard our baby's heart beat 8 weeks ago. Today we not only heard the heart beat, we saw all four chambers of the heart working properly. We took a little video footage of it at the appointment. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

This was our favorite picture of the baby from the ultrasound. I printed an 8 x 10 for our living room. It was my way of feeling closer to the baby. Trina can feel our little active guy/girl (we didn't find out) flipping and kicking all day long. I will probably have to wait until week 25-28 before I can start feeling the kicking. That's going to be another special day for me. I'm really jealous of Trina right now. In this picture you can see a profile of the baby with it's leg(s) up by it's head. That's the position it was in the entire time today.This is a picture that we took of the monitor. In this picture we could see red and blue blobs that sometimes connected. It turns out that that was the blood moving throughout baby.Here is a picture of our baby's face. It has one arm up by his/her head. Trina decided that it has my big nose. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure she is right.

This is a close-up of our baby's foot. One is clearly visible while the other is almost out of sight. it's upside down and of the side.

Here is a picture of Trina shortly after she saw our baby for the first time. I don't know if this picture accurately shows how happy she looked. Her smile at that moment will stick in my memory forever. She's going to be such a great mommy.

Today we found out a couple of important things about Trina too. Currently the placenta is over the cervix. This is pretty common, especially early on. Basically this means is that we are getting another ultrasound (usually they only do one) later in the pregnancy. At that time, if the placenta hasn't moved, then it's likely she'll need a c-section.

Also, during the doctor appointment, Trina mentioned to her doctor that her heart rate has been high even when resting (easily between 110-140 doing nothing). For the next 3 days, Trina is supposed to increase her iron intake and drink more fluids. If by Friday the heart rates hasn't slowed, she'll be put on a heart rate monitor for 24 hours. The doctor thought maybe it's iron deficiency anemia. Chances are, if that is what is wrong, she'll just need to take an iron supplement.

When we put the baby's picture in our living room, we had a conversation with Max and Marley to prepare them for the new arrival. As expected, Marley was calm, and Max didn't even pay attention. :)

It's been a while

We haven't blogged in a while. This is what we've been up to...

Last SaturdayWe went to Payton and Cael's soccer games. Both teams played really hard. It was fun to see them running around and kicking the ball.

Wednesday

I borrowed Reed's truck to drop some of our old stuff of at Stuff Etc. It was hard to part with the desk that I brought in. Randy made it as his senior year project in high school. It was in great shape. I offered it to him many times over the past three or four years, but he didn't want it back.

We also went to US Cellular to pick out new phones. Trina's old phone would turn off while she was talking to people. She didn't like that very much. Her new phone is really cool. One of the options allows her to play music from her phone through a radio frequency. It's basically an Ipod. I know most of you don't care what it's called, but I know Erik is going to ask if I don't tell you. It's a LG Rhythm.

My phone didn't display who was calling anymore. As it turned out, my phone had been exposed to moisture. When we tried to transfer numbers, my phone didn't work. My new phone is pretty average but it meets my needs. I wanted something that was small enough to not make a huge bulge in my pocket. I also wanted a phone that didn't have buttons that were exposed. My phone was the penny phone! It is called the LG Helix.

Thursday

Trina and I went to Des Monies after work and saw the traveling production of Wicked. We absolutely loved it. If you haven't seen it, we both highly recommend it. However, if you do choose to go on a school night, be aware that you might not get back home until 1:30 in the morning.

Friday

Trina and I cleared out more stuff and took a trunk full of things to Goodwill.

Saturday

Alexa came over in the morning and stayed the night with us. Tyler, Taya and Paige went to Wicked and stayed the night with Taya's parents and sister's family.

Sunday We woke up to a tree that decided to shed all of it's leaves. IN ONE DAY!

We also gave Marley a hair cut. He had so much hair!

We also framed some of the artwork that we created for our baby room. When we finish it I will put up a photo.

Alexandria, Minnesota

I caught fifteen fish in Alexandria last weekend. This was one of the three that fought like crazy to stay in the lake. We measured him at 26 inches. Well below the largest northern pike caught this weekend. I also caught the second and third longest bass of the weekend. One weighted in at 4.5 pounds. From left to right: Charlie, Ben, Brad, Randy, Rick, Tanner, Tony, Tyler, Reed, Greg, Erik. As a group we caught 231 fish (equal to the number of beers that were drank). We should thank Rick, Greg and Ben for catching about half of those fish.

The Windjammer is the place where our family has been staying for about twenty-five years. Wayne continues to reserve a couple of cabins for us each Fall.

If you notice the bottom of the Windjammer sign, you will see they advertise a beach on the property.This is the beach. Seriously.

We didn't play as many games of poker this year as we had in the past. The Iowa at Penn State college football game took priority Saturday night.

This is the newest addition to the Dutch Mafia. We had too many people to fit on two boats this year. Let's just say this boat was not intended to hold big people. Is that a G or a 6 on the motor?

Rick brought his trusty boat again this year. More fish are landed on his 40 horse boat than anything else we fish from.

This might be why we don't catch many fish on the pontoon. Overall, it was a great weekend. I can't wait until next year!

Excitement all around!

Last weekend was fun for Tanner, but not quite as fun for me. I stayed home to attend Chance's baptism on Sunday. That meant I would be alone from Thursday night until Sunday night. It sounds weird, but I was nervous being home alone! It's been a full year since I've been alone at home and I wasn't quite sure if the buggy man was coming to get me or not. I did get some things done that I had planned. I organized 3 closets and our baby storage stuff. I was/am so happy to have Tanner back in the house!

I don't really have anything to say about the past week in terms of pregnancy. It's been normal and no new developments to share. However, there are still exciting things ahead!

On Monday we are touring St. Luke's hospital and will hopefully be making our decision about which hospital we will deliver at. That will really make things feel near.

Today we were offered 2 tickets to Wicked in Des Moines next week. I've never seen Wicked, and am thrilled that I finally get to go. We had tried to get tickets for our anniversary, but because all the shows are sold out, the cheapest ticket would be about $140 each! A group of my co-workers purchased tickets, then 2 of them ended up not being able to go. Now we are getting 2 tickets for less than what one would have cost. Works out great for us! It's going to be like an early anniversary celebration. We're going to eat at Spaghetti Works before hand, which is very near the Civic Center. I've only been there one time and that was in high school. I remember how much I loved it and enjoyed the Italian sodas. It might possibly be the first time eating out since June that I will actually enjoy (I hope anyway).

And I can't go without mentioning, again, that our ultrasound is October 13, less than 2 weeks away. We're so excited for that!!! We had a weak moment when discussing whether or not to find out if we are having a boy or girl (as we've/I've always been against finding out). So we made a pro/con list including scores for each thing on the list. After totalling up the scores...we still won't be finding out. That's the final decision. Even though most of you, according to our poll results, think we should find out, we decided not to. It will be exciting enough to see a picture of our baby!

This week our baby is the size of a sweet potato: