Shower in a Box

I called my mother the other day and asked what she was doing and without hesitation, she said, "We're having a shower for K." Hmm? I thought she just said my name but meant my cousin, Gena. I just said, "For who, mom?" Then she started to trip over every word she said. She gave it away. They wanted to surprise me when I got the box in the mail, so I knew nothing about the shower. Since I couldn't make it up to Montana before the baby, my wonderful family up there decided to have a shower for me anyway. I got the box today. It was so nice of them to do something like that for us. I got a diaper cake and lots of gift cards and a couple of ornaments. I looked all over for ornaments that were for expecting parents and couldn't find any. Leave it to my mother and grandmother....now I have two! They are adorable. I'm very grateful for the gifts that we got in my "Shower in a Box." Thank you so much to everyone that came and thanks a ton for all of the baby goodies! I heard there was a nice spread...I wish I could have been there for the fruit pizza! That sounds wonderful! Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!

My Christmas Present

This year I was very impressed with my Christmas present from my husband. I think he did a wonderful job. I always get a little nervous when it is gift-giving time in our house. One year for V*alentine's day I had resigned myself to the fact that I would get nothing unless I asked for it specifically. I just wanted a card...nothing more. When I told him that V-day was coming up soon, he said that he was "working on something." I started to get a little excited, wow, he's already thinkin'! Well...he's not good at keeping secrets, so he keeps talking. "It's kinda for both of us." OK "Well, I don't really think that you're going to like it." OK, so you're working on something for yourself? Then he said that one of his friends had gotten a bull m*astiff puppy and didn't realize how big it would get and his wife was making him get rid of it. S. said all that he would have to do is pay the shipping to get the dog to him. Now just a side note: we already have two 90lb dogs at this point in our lives. No! No, no, no!! No more dogs! So what to I end up getting for V-day.....nothing...not even a card! So this Christmas I told him that I would like a futon or daybed to go into our guest bedroom/office. I began to get nervous when he started to tell me that he was going "all out" this year. And then he again said, "It's kinda for both of us." I started to imagine seeing a futon on Christmas morning, then quickly got over that and thought that he was either assembling parts to a rifle down here or building a dog kennel for the "new puppy." I was thrilled when I came downstairs on Christmas morning to find that he had slaved all night in the guestroom painting and putting together my Christmas gift. He painted the whole room, the desk, and added the coffee table and "click-clack". (Kind of like a futon, but a little different. Not 100% that is really the name for it.) He did not come to bed at all on Christmas Eve and only slept 2 hours on Christmas day because he worked so hard on my gift. I must say I'm very impressed and totally grateful!

Sugar Cookies

One of our family traditions is to make sugar cookies for Santa every year. Since I was away from my sisters this Christmas, I made my husband decorate cookies with me. Let's just say from the pictures above of the dead ginger people, you shouldn't decorate Christmas sugar cookies with boys. He also had a few punisher skulls that he threw in there as well. It was fun though. I didn't think he would really want to do it, but when we sat down to roll them out he tried to take all of the dough and only left me with one cookie sheet! He did get bored after decorating one or two sheets of cookies and just started to put the same color sprinkles on all of the cookies. We had a fun time making them together, though. I can't wait to make a big mess with our little one next year.

38 Weeks

What do you think? My mind has been wondering since the day I found out we were going to have a child. What will this baby look like? From the looks of the parents, baby will always look irritated and gassy! We'll just have to wait and see. I just pray the baby is healthy and NOT A CAT!
S. and I had some belly pictures done the other day. They won't be in for a while, so I doubt that I will post them. Anyone of you that knows S. knows he's not a fan of getting pictures done, and he continues to live up to that expectation. It was like pulling teeth out of a duck to get him to pose. Some of them turned out really well though.
We're just two weeks away from our due date. I guess it could be any day, but my mother won't be here until one week from tomorrow. I've been told to cross my legs! ha! I don't think there's anything going on. I've been having a few contractions, but I don't think they are productive and they aren't yet predictable. So far, just hanging on and getting things ready. S. and I put the car seat into the truck yesterday. Just want everything to be ready. Normally I'm last minute Lucy...I think this child and my wedding are the only things I've actually taken time in advance to prepare.

The Baby's Room

I know there are only two pictures, but the room isn't very big and isn't very done! ha! I just wanted to post something of the baby's room before I have no time to do so! The room still needs curtains and I have a few more dots/cirlces for the walls. I'm not sure if I should do the dots/cirles all around the room or just close to the crib. I'm open to suggestions. I haven't yet found a crib set that I like either. I have found a couple, but they have either blue or pink in them. I might wait and just buy one after the baby arrives. However, I wanted to get something that I can use again with a boy or girl, so that might not work either. I guess I will just keep looking. I also want to find some shelving and other fun stuff to put on the walls. But for now, this is what I've got.

A cat?!

Any women that has ever been pregnant has probably had a dream this strange or even worse... I had a dream last night that my baby came out just fine and healthy, but once I got her home, she turned into a cat! Most of you know that I'm not a big fan of cats. However, most of the time I can't get them to stay away from me; they are attracted to people that don't like them(that's just how it works). But this was the only cat that I've come across, other than my sister's little devil of a cat, that didn't like me. :( How sad to find out first of all that your beautiful daughter is now a cat, but on top of that, she doesn't even like you!

35 Weeks

Wow! I can't believe that I'm already 35 weeks. It feels like I just found out yesterday! S.took this picture for me. I was standing there with a smile on my face for several minutes when I finally said just take the stupid picture. He was standing there just waiting to see how long I would stand there with a pasted smile on my face. Ain't he sweet?!
I washed everything for the baby today: sheets, clothes, towels, washcloths. Everything started out so small and it gets smaller when you wash it! Crazy! It's hard to imagine that in a just a matter of weeks we will be bringing home a little bundle that might even be too small for the clothes that we have. The baby's room is coming along. I put a couple dots on the wall tonight, but I need to paint some more of them still. I promise, once I get it all finished I will post pictures of the room. Right now there is a lot of green. The dots are all shades of brown, so it will look better once I'm done. I finally got my chair too. I have wanted a glidder rocker from K*M.a.r.t and gone in a few times to try and get it. Finally, I got someone to actually help me the other day and S. and I were able to bring it home. I've already sat in it a few times to read to the baby. :) I can't wait until I can hold the baby in my arms and read. We are so blessed!

Third Day and Jars of Clay

S. and I went to a concert last night. We got to see Jars of Clay first and the main show was Third Day. We both really enjoyed it. After the show was over, they all came out and sang a couple of songs together. It was their Christmas Offerings tour, but I thought that Jars of Clay would at least throw in some of their old songs...they didn't. Third Day had their hits sprinkled through their show, so that was nice. We can't decide if the baby really liked the music or really wanted it to stop. I was getting the snot kicked out of me most of the night, though.
It was such a great experience to be in a room filled with that many people worshiping God through these moving songs. We went with a group from our church. Yes, we did take the big "church van." Gary, our driver, thought he would be on top of things and get the directions off of the internet. The concert was at M*urray State University in K*entucky. I'm pretty sure that he printed off directions to the dean's house, not the school. We were back in some subdivision when our directions told us we were there. We ended up finding the place and making it there on time also. We really did have a great time.

No Scissors!

I was a sub in a first grade class the other day. We read a story and then the kids were supposed to make their own totem poles. I gave them a piece of paper with everything on it. All they had to do was cut the pieces out and glue them to construction paper. I had a little girl tell me, right when I told them they would have to cut, "I don't have any scissors." Not too much earlier she had also told me that she didn't have a pencil either. So my response to both questions were the same..."Ask one of your friends around you if you could borrow theirs." When I told her that about the scissors, several of the students heard me. In turn, 4 or 5 students willingly offered up their scissors for her to use. A few minutes later she comes back to me and says that there are too many people that offered and she doesn't know who to borrow from. "OK, you'll just have to pick someone." She comes back again saying she still doesn't know who to pick because there are so many. This little girl ended up coming to me a total of 3 times just to tell me that she didn't know who to borrow from....and I thought I was bad with decision making!

Where's the Salt and Pepper?

We sat down to our thanksgiving meal and a few minutes after everyone started eating I figured I would let them know that there was butter at the table and salt and pepper. I guess with the center piece or just the fact that I was eating with a bunch of guys...they didn't think that there was any at the table. I always get onto S. Whenever I cook anything, he goes straight for the salt and pepper and/or hot sauce. "You haven't even tasted it yet!" is something I say very often at our dinner table. I think S. had a feeling that I didn't want anyone to add salt or pepper without having tried their food first so I just didn't put any on the table. When actually, the salt and pepper were just "camouflaged."

Our First Married Turkey Day

This Thanksgiving had a few firsts. Being that S. was d*eployed last thanksgiving, this was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. It was also the first thanksgiving that I was pregnant. Let me tell you cooking all day long and being pregnant...not so nice to the feet and joints. And lastly, it was the first thanksgiving being away from my mom, dad, and sisters. It wasn't the easiest because my family is very close, but I made it through only crying a few times.
Our dinner turned out very nicely though. S. invited a couple of the single guys that he works with over to eat with us. It was very nice being able to prepare thanksgiving dinner for all of us. Thankfully, I didn't have to prepare a turkey...my husband took care of that. He just had to fry a turkey this year. His plan was to use his uncles recipe. Well, he didn't get me a list of things he needed before I went to the grocery store to pick everything up. The day before he wanted to prepare this turkey he had done a 12 mile "march" (having to do it in under 3 hours makes it more of a run) with a 50 pound pack on his back and had crashed on the couch once he got home. I ended up having to call his uncle to get the recipe and venture out to pick everything up. To keep this long story a little shorter...I ended up having to go to 4 different grocery stores to find everything that was needed! It was worth it though, the turkey was delicious. The best part: it only took 30 minutes to fry and I didn't even have to do anything.
When I asked S. what time he had told the guys to come over, he said between 3 and 4. What? I would like the opinion of everyone on this subject. My family, for every holiday, has always gotten together at 2pm. Everybody always says they don't know what time...let me check with your gramma, let me check with your mother, but the time always always ends up being 2pm. That's just the way we do it. So we ended up eating around 4:30 this year, because the food is never ready on time whether it's your first time preparing it or not and no matter if you have everyone over at 2 or 4. That's just how it works out. Things worked out well. Dan and Andy even showed up with flowers and a chocolate cake. I thought that was very sweet...duh, you can't bring a pregnant women wine! It ended up being a very nice night. We sent lots of left overs home with the guys and they were very grateful saying if they hadn't come over they probably would have stayed home and ate cheerios. I'm so glad they shared Thanksgiving with us.

Crazy silly spoiled girl with homemade rolls!

I have always been spoiled on any holiday having homemade rolls....from scratch. This was my first Thanksgiving away from my mom. :( This time I had to make my own rolls. Not an easy task. Needless to say....15 calls to my mom, 2 recipes, and 15 cups of flour later...we had homemade rolls!

No fun to be sick!

S. and I have been sick for the last week or so. It started with feeling congested...I can deal with that. Yesterday I felt sick to my stomach all day. Yuck! Being pregnant and having your stomach out of whack is not fun at all! Now not only do you have stomach cramps, but you've a little squirrel that keeps kicking it because it's making funny noises! S. is a hypochondriac, so of course all night he kept asking if he needed to take me to the doctor. Poor guy...I must have been a little whinny. Thankfully today we are both feeling better. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Planning Ahead

I'm trying to plan ahead for Thanksgiving day. S. has invited a couple of guys that he works with over to the house. I have decided on a few things to make and thought I would get on top of things and prepare a few dishes today. I found a recipe for "Frozen Cranberry Banana Salad." Now, I don't really like cranberry salad all that much. I come from a family that just made it because the table didn't look right without it, but no one ever ate it. My grandmothers have always made it with nuts and celery. Gag! My husband said he wanted it though. The bananas and coolwhip made this recipe sound better to me. Well...I made it today and I'm a little nervous that A: I'll have to buy more stuff to make it. or B: We won't be eating it on Thanksgiving day. HA! It is very very good! I don't know if it's just because I'm pregnant or if it really is wonderful! I'll give you the recipe just in case you'd like to try it, but I'm sure this won't sit on the table for very long!
Frozen Cranberry Banana Salad
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 20 oz can pineapple tidbits
5 med firm bananas cut length wise then sliced
1/2 c sugar
1 12 oz container coolwhip
1/2 c chopped walnuts
Drain juice from can of pineapple into a medium bowl. Set pineapple aside. Add bananas to juice, let sit. In a large bowl, combine cranberry sauce and sugar. Drain and discard juice from bananas. Add bananas to cranberry mix. Stir in pineapple, coolwhip and nuts. Put into a 9x13 and freeze. Take out 15 minutes before serving.
Let me tell you, it is yummy yummy yummy!

Home again, home again!

I know it's been a little while. I've been out and about the last couple of weeks. S. and I went down to L*ouisiana for our new nephew's christening. I got home from Louisiana and my mother and sister called and said they found a ticket to come out to Colorado for cheap, so I couldn't pass it up. I'm so glad I got to see so many people. I do hate the fact that I just missed Gramma Marlene, Brynn, Derek and the boys. They had just left Colorado a couple of days before I got there.
While we were in Louisiana we got to see just about all of that gang. S.'s mom and aunt even came down from Canada. His father was out on the water, so we didn't get to see him at all this trip. Hopefully sometime soon, though. S.'s family had a wonderful surprise baby shower for us when we were down there. I am so blessed to have married into such a thoughtful and generous family. I'm so thankful to have each and every one of them in my life.
Colorado was a short trip, but I still enjoyed it. Not the flying to or from, but I managed. I feel terrible for the man sitting next to me on the way to N*ashville. I kinda got a little sick. Fun fun! I could have taken d*ramamine, but I just don't like to take a whole lot of medications having the little kangaroo on board. Mom, K*isti, John, Maren and I spent a few days together. Katie and Eli came over to K*isti and John's for a short visit as well. It was very nice to see everyone. Maren is growing up so much. John was carrying her around the house one morning and they saw a ladybug. John pointed and said, "Ladybug." Being the parrot that she is at 16 months, Maren said preciously, "Babybutt." So cute! We were walking around a store later that day and she just kept saying it over and over. Mom kept saying, "That's right, ladybug!"

Colorado

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures when I went to Colorado. The time went by so quickly I don't know what I had time to take it out! Here are some of Katie and me and then her little girl, Sammy Jo, playing with Maren. And just a note to everyone, I am the only one with the privilege of calling Samantha "Sammy Jo." hehe Oh, and Katie is also 18 weeks or so pregnant.

Caleb and Kyle

Caleb playing outside and Kyle the night we spent just the two of us. Every one ditched us and went to Sesame Street live.

Our Shower

Kyle's Christening

"FIVE WEEKS!!" ~preschooler

I was subbing in a pre-k class a few days back and a little girl asked if there was a baby in my belly. I smiled and told her yes. Then she looked very concerned and said, "You know, that baby is going to be in there for FIVE WEEKS!!" (as if that were an eternity for her) If only! Five weeks would be so nice, but on the other hand, a lot longer than nice months would be nice to prepare to bring a child into this world. That part is a lot of work!

The Last Trip to N.e.w. O.r.l.e.a.n.s

These are pictures that I took the last time we were in N.e.w O.r.l.e.a.n.s. S. had just gotten a truck from his friend that lives in L*ouisiana and Caleb (K-Bob) wanted to drive it. Caleb did not want to get out of that truck. We had to leave just after these pictures were taken. What I did not get on camera was the screaming fit that Caleb had when "Unca S." had to leave. No fun :( We had left the truck at the house earlier that day while we were off in the F*rench Q*uarter and Nat brought Caleb home. When he saw the truck he got very excited. "Unca S., Unca S.!!" Then she had to tell him that S. really wasn't there, it was just his truck. Very sadly, he waited by the door until we returned to their house. Natalie even tried to offer him lunch, to which he replied, "No, I wait, unca S. I wait." When he saw us pull up in the car through the window, he jumped up proclaiming, "Unca S. here, unca S. here!!" It was precious. Can't wait to see him and the whole crew in a few days.

The Niece and the Nephews

These are a couple pictures that I snapped of my niece Maren, K*isti and John's daughter, and my nephews Brandt and Wyatt, Brynn and Derek's twins. As I was trying to get the boys to look up at me, Maren popped in front of the camera saying, "hi!! hi!!" Almost as if to tell me, since they won't do what you want them to, I will do it instead, I can smile for pictures! I was also trying to get Wyatt to stick his little turtle tongue out at me and she showed me how well she could stick her tongue out. Too cute!! For those of you unfamiliar with the boys, Wyatt has on the dinosaur shirt and Brandt has on the spider shirt. (Yes, they are identical) S and I are on our way to N.e.w. O.r.l.e.a.n.s later this week to meet the newest addition to his side of the family and spend time with everyone. Can't wait! Hopefully I will do better about taking pictures this time and actually have something to post when I get back.

Doctor Says All is Well

We spent all day at the hospital today. I like to get everything over at once, so I scheduled all of the appointments that I needed to get out of the way in one day. Makes for a fun day! ha! First I had a thyroid ultrasound at 8am then it was on to the lab to drink the lovely orange cocktail, wait for an hour, come back, get blood drawn. After that we went upstairs for our regular OB appointment, went home for an hour and came back for a b*reastf*eeding class.
S. feels as though he was tricked into going. Call it what you wish, had I actually told him what kind of class it was going to be, he would not have come! As we were walking into the hospital he says, "So what kind of class is this? C*hildbirth?" I then grabbed his hand tightly so he had no way of escape and told him it was a b*reastf*eeding class. "You tricked me! You lied to me to get me here!" I then told him, "I did not lie, I only withheld information!" Very different! ha! All he knew is that we were going to a class. We both ended up learning very useful information and when the baby comes and I'm freaking out because something isn't working, he can recall the class and confirm that I'm just crazy.
The baby is fine. I have been having lots of contractions, but they are not productive. They just told me I'm going to have to deal with them. There is no need to worry unless I get to the point where I can't talk through them. For now, they are just annoying. I will just deal with them, because I think the end result is well worth it! :)

Some say there's no way I'm only 28 weeks. Then there are others saying that I'm not big enough to be 28 weeks. Judge for yourselves. I've been doing very well. I went through the nausea and fun stuff for the first trimester and did pretty well during the 2nd trimester; not many complaints. I'm starting the 3rd trimester today, so we will see what that has in store for me! I'll keep you updated!

A Precious Gift

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3
This is our little one! The day this precious child should show his/her face is January 6th. S. and I are very excited and feel very blessed! We have decided not to find out the s.e.x of the baby. There are very few wonderful surprises left in life any longer and we would like for this to be one of ours. As for the potential names....we're not telling! :) No matter how hard you try to get it out of either of us. You will all find out soon enough.

The View Behind Our House

Our back yard is often sprinkled with deer.

Our House

Here are a couple pictures of our little house. I'm going to put more up of the baby's room and our room once they are put together. This is a work in progress; be patient with me. :)

Joining the Club

I'm officially joining the blog world! It's my goal to get this going so everyone can keep up with us all the way out here. And this way I can tell you all about my fascinating life! ha! I can also keep you up to date with stories and pictures of our little one due to arrive in January! Yes, for those of you that didn't know: S. and I are expecting! I just hope I can get this whole thing figured out. I've never been very good with a computer; here goes nothin'!