Half Way

We had these pictures done a couple of weeks ago, and we just got them. They turned out really cute!! Thanks Jessica for taking them for us!!

This one is my favorite!

Brody's Surprise

This morning at about 8.43 Brody had a baby.

It was 18 inches long and 6 lbs 6 ounces. What an exciting morning! 

(Last night we also set up the crib. So Kiki can get used to all the changes we need to make.)

And it is a...

BABY!

Baby was very shy and likes his hand by his face and kept those legs together. So we DID NOT find out! Phew! Now, it wasn't just me who doesn't want people knowing.

So now for some wonderful pictures!

Random Thoughts

This post is going to jump all over the place, mainly because I just have somethings I think y'all should know.

1. Brody is AMAZING!!!

Today he kicked me out of the kitchen while he made breakfast, and dinner. He made these pancake breakfast sandwiches:

2. Our house is S-L-O-W-L-Y getting cleaned and organized from all the crazy things that happened this summer.

3. Our ultrasound is on TUESDAY!!! We are excited and will hopefully NOT be finding out girl or boy.

4. I am still terrified of complications. ANY and all complications. I have been hearing a lot about people having babies around 26 weeks and it freaks me out, a ton! Also, lately my biggest fear is that I am not actually pregnant and it is just some weird thing.

I cleaned my kitchen!

So maybe it isn't that big of a deal, but to me, today, it is.

I haven't had the motivation to do much of anything the last couple of months. I feel like I have a really dang good excuse. My mom died and I am pregnant, that has got to be one of the best excuses ever, right?

Well, I have been tired of the awful state our kitchen has been in for about a month, but I never wanted to take the couple of hours I knew it is going to take to actually clean the darn thing.

So we started slowly, running the dish washer twice a week.

Then I graduated to loading the dishwasher and then washing enough dishes to fill the dish drainer.

Finally, today I washed all the dishes including a crusty dried crockpot that I don't remember cooking in... And I swept and washed all the counters!

It is mostly clean. All that is left is the stove top, which I am going to do Friday morning.

So here is my pat on the back, for finally finding some motivation to do something!

It is Finally FALL!!

To celebrate that it is finally fall, we decided to go Apple picking! This is something we do every fall, I LOVE IT. This year, it wasn't what I had imagined it would be, but it was fun!

To start off you should know that we are surrounded by wild fires. See:

So it is REALLY smokey outside. We are also under an advisory to stay indoors as much as possible.

But Saturday was the first of Fall, and I wanted to go apple picking. Once we got to the Orchard, it was clear and nice. We took Brody's little brother Levi with us.

Me eating an apple, not a great picture, but when are eating pictures...

You can not suppose to climb the trees, so Brody and Levi do this is pick the apple up top!

Lentil Festival

The National Lentil Festival is my FAVORITE thing about Pullman. Seriously! The whole town gathers downtown on Friday night for free chili and some "swag". Then on Saturday, we gather again for a Parade, food, music, and tons of fun for the whole family.

This year my little sister came to visit for some much needed away time. I think the only way the trip would have been better for her was if our brother magically moved his growing family out of the house...

But anyway, she has the bulk of the pictures, and I am waiting for her to send them, which is why I am posting this now not two weeks ago... So more to come!

Semesters, The Good and Bad.

On Monday, Brody started another semester of school. (By the way, I am LOVING being out and done with school!) He is working hard going to school full time and working full time. So far he is enjoying his classes, his favorite being a class on the effects of music. Brody is officially a junior this year, and that means we should be out of Pullman by August of 2014!!!

Also, on Monday, I entered into my second trimester! Baby is doing fine, Tuesday we had an appointment, and everything is going great. Baby's heart beat is good and strong. We are very excited, and hoping that everything continues to go well.

Now, that Brody is in school, it seems like our summer is gone. Honestly, it couldn't be a better time to move on from summer.

It doesn't look like everything is going to peachy from fall, but it is definitely looking brighter!

As some 'housekeeping' I would like to say, if you want to know about the happening in our lives, FOLLOW our blog. I might be on facebook, but we don't like to post personal things there. Which is why, with our pregnancy we haven't gone "facebook official". That and I think it is tacky.

13 weeks

Everyone keeps asking, and I am not keeping track, (is that bad?). But today my wonderful mother-in-law got me a Pregnancy calendar, so I filled it out. and hung it by my computer. So, now I will hopefully be able to answer that question.

I went maternity shopping this week, holy smokes! I thought I was being generous taking $300 cash... Yikes! Hopefully I won't need more clothes...

We are taking bets on the gender. I don't want to know, and have kind of been talked into a gender reveal party... Brody wants to know. So we are take a poll, Boy? or Girl? I say boy, Brody says girl.

Although, it is too early to tell, we want a theme, and jungle is a great one, but after doing a little shopping I think an aviation theme would be awesome!!

How cute are these! 

Baby Toms!

One year later...

I told y'all I would write about cats and bags, and I promise this is, so just hang in there!

I was looking through my posts, and wanted to know which post had the most views...

It was one about a year ago about my brother knocking up his wife while living with my parents... Still peeved about the situation, as they are still living with my dad... But the baby is kind of cute, and I think I know more about a taking care of a baby. (Well I do get paid to take care of two toddlers, and a few people at church call be the "baby whisperer"...)

It has 54 views.

But which post has the most comments...

It was one about me wanting to leave the ward, with 5... Honestly, some days I still want too. We have been in the ward for over 3 years now. We have seen lots of people come and go, leadership change, and have heard about more babies being birthed than I care to count. Some couples in those three years have had 2! (or are expecting!!)

Which leads to an understanding of why being told we were being classified as "unexplained infertility", is a hard thing to understand. Especially when the statistics are 2 to 10 couples are part of the special club. Another great bonus to being in the club, even if you do get pregnant, you get to have more tests done and some your insurance won't pay for...

But that isn't something we have to worry about, or is it...

Nope. We are lucky, at least so far. At 11 1/2 weeks, doctor gave us the a-OKAY to start gabbing away. Which now that I am allowed to start telling people, I don't really want to do that. It is like a little secret that I want to keep all to myself. That, and I am scared out of my MIND that something horrible will go wrong.

It is hard being pregnant, the first daughter to be pregnant, and having lost your mom. I was never able to ask her anything about being pregnant, and don't know what to expect. They tell you that can expect your pregnancy and labor to be like your mothers... Here is what I know, 5 kids after 30; 2 to 3 years apart. 4 natural labors, one induced with c-section.  I think labor and delivery should be fine, but I have 7 to 8 months of baby growing time I know nothing about...

Well, I guess it is a good thing, I know a thing or two about babies, and we didn't leave the baby factory ward...

And as Brody put it, "Let's let this cat out of the bag!"

Cats and Bags

Life has been REALLY CRAZY!!!

First, my job, which is usually not fluid, has been like the ocean! I work this week, but not the next, I only work Tuesday this week, and Monday through Friday the next. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my job. But I hate change. I am really looking forward to summer being over and my schedule going back to "normal".

Second, we planned ZERO trips to the west side this summer. I have been over 4 times, and together twice. We don't really enjoy the drive over, and some of the trips have been for not so happy things.

Third, too many people are dying! This summer alone, I have know personally 3 people to go, and then a hand full of actors/figure heads/important people to go. Namely, Andy Grifith and Sally Ride! (Sally Ride was my hero for most of my life!) Interestingly enough, I was talking to a friend a while back, and she said, "You aren't old until you hear more about people you know dying or of their funerals, than of weddings and babies being born." So, I have been feeling pretty old lately, so all you young baby making couples hop to it!

I could keep listing all the things I am not enjoying in life right now, but I thought I talk about Cats and Bags. I know you all are super intrigued!

Our cat has a love/hate relationship with plastic bags. It is really funny, and ANNOYING!

She is terrified of them. She can be curled up asleep and you move a plastic bag and she is instantly awake and watching to see what that bag is going to do. Best of all if you shake one to open it, she freaks! Darts as far way from the bag as possible.

Paper bags, she enjoys to play in, and will even knock over a bag you have just setup...

But those plastic grocery bags... She hates them so much, that she EATS THEM!!! She eats them so often, that I switched to cloth grocery bags. (By the way, if you don't like them, we love them, and would love to take them off your hands!)

Back to her EATING PLASTIC GROCERY BAGS! At first, we were wondering what was happening to handles on the bags we had around the house. Then we started hearing her eat them. It is the world most annoying sound! And you have to physically TAKE the bag from her to get her to stop! The worse is when you are in bed... At those times we at tempted to stuff her in the bag.

We were also worried that digesting plastic was bad for her, but had since given up hope in stopping her. Unless the bags are behind close doors, she will find it. And EAT IT. We have found bags we used to store something under the couch or bed, 70-80% eaten! Also, she will start eating bags almost as soon as you come home with one!

We love our cat, and hope she doesn't shrink wrap her colon.


There is another, cat and bag story, we have for you...

This one is really interesting, but you are going to have to wait until at least the first of August before we let that cat out of the bag!

Numb

Sunday, July 15, we woke up late (which is actually normal for us on Sundays). Both of our phones had been ringing, but we just figured it was someone from church needing something. When I finally got up to check my phone, I had 3 missed calls from my dad, and Brody had missed calls from my mom.

I called my dad back, as I had just missed his last call. I was concerned, but didn't think much of it. When my dad answered the phone, I knew instantly, something was very wrong.

My mother, at the age of 57 died suddenly of a heart dysrhythmias and complications of hypertension and diabetes.

We left Tuesday evening, to go to Olympia, to help organize and to be with family. The funeral was Monday.

We are both still numb from the shock. There are so many things changing in our lives right now, that we just want some time to process.

We would also like to thank all of our friends who have offered to help in anyway, and to say that just knowing so many of you care is helping in more ways than you know.

Ch-Ch-Changes...

To start off we thought we would reel you in with a super cute picture of our cat.

She will do anything for some sun

Yup, she is cute!

To bad I am forever mad at her... She is very pensive though.

Let's see it has been a LONG summer. And a very hard one.

This summer we have had to say, "Until later" to too many friends.

First to my friend Merri, who moved farther away. But she did get a totally awesome new job in Utah, and so moved from Oly to Utah.

Then, my Grandfather died. As a family, we have mixed feelings, but his crazy ideals, will be missed.

A couple weeks ago we saw off some friends, as they moved back to Tacoma.

Now, the Wagstaff's are leaving (which honestly is the HARDEST THING EVER, ok not really, but it is hard! Yes, I am crying, don't judge me!) They have been our best friends. Helped us through a lot. We even say in our house, "What would the Wagstaff's do?" We knew that they would leave before us, now we just have to hope maybe Ross will transfer to Texas A&M or Brody gets into the University of Illinois and not Texas A&M. Actually, I don't want to live in Illinois it still snows there... Maybe we will visit, A LOT!!

The whole ward is changing, and it is weird. After three years of being in it, I have never noticed this big of a change. The Olson's are leaving too, and I am really going to miss her style, and her cute kids! (By the way, Rachael, if I never told you, I secretly envy your wardrobe!)

But sometimes change is good, right?

It is Summer?

These last couple weeks have been interesting. Brody is still in summer school, and sometimes it feels like he is gone more than when he is in a normal semester! He did just finish one of his two classes this summer!

This last weekend we traveled to the west side for my little sister's High School Graduation. I can not believe she is that old now, makes me feel old!

We also ran a 10k up in Burlington. It raining during it, which was nice, but really annoying around mile 4. I have now taken 15 minutes off my 10k time from the first one I did in April! The Ragnar is coming up in 5 weeks, and I am starting to get a little nervous.

We don't have many plans for the rest of the summer, other than the Ragnar and possibly a back packing trip in the end of July.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend Brody and I did separate things. I went away, and he stayed.

Brody stayed and worked on homework and on Monday went sailing with his friend Thane.

This is the sailboat they purchased

Refurbishing the boat.

They wanted a dragon on the boat, it looks very nice.

Getting ready to sail Rock Lake

Sailing, well minus the sails.

I went to the Westside to see a good friend, and to run a 10k.

Friday, I went to a Baseball game with Jessie.

Mariner's lost of course, but it was the closer's fault! If they hadn't of changed pitchers it would have been 4-2 not 6-4!!!

On Saturday, we drove out to Westport for her dad's birthday. I am close to the family, enough so that I call him Father George.

Westport is on the Pacific Ocean.

Almost a year ago, I was at the Emerald Coast...

Gulf of Mexico

What a difference!!

In Westport there is a Museum and out side there are some displays with whale bones.

Baleen

Sea Lion Bones

Wauna, the Gray Whale

I also participated in some beach driving... I thought, having been raise in an area where it is illegal, driving on the beach is illegal. Not in Washington!

Just look at that! SUV's on the beach!

Fishing in the tide.

Rocky beach.

Dark sand, which is coarse, not soft.

Drift wood is everywhere

SO MANY ROCKS!

I also got a chance to walk around with sweet little Anna, she is six weeks old. I was also one of the few people she spit up on. Poor girl has reflux.

Moby wraps are awesome!

They were some Sea Lions on a slip. 

They were huge.

And very close!

And they were loud!