Baby updates

Well, I had the growth scan on baby boy today. It turns out he already weighs about 5 lbs. 3 oz., which if anyone knows-his weight would not keep him from going home if he was born now (though his under developed lungs probably would.). He should technically weigh around 3 lbs. 4 oz. this week. So we’re two pounds ahead. His torso and legs are measuring around 34.5 weeks, which is two and a half weeks ahead of schedule. I’ve already scheduled an amniocentesis (inserting a needle into my uterus, withdrawing amniotic fluid, and testing it to see if his lungs are developed) for April the 6th. That means I hope to induce around the 12th or 13th of April. It’s hard to believe that I’m now under 50 days until he’s born-most likely. I can’t wait to see him. And so, here’s a picture of my big ol’ belly-and this is the 4D ultrasound picture of his beautiful little face-hint, it’s on the left of the picture, and the nose is the easiest to pick out. Here’s a picture of me when I was about 37 and a half weeks along with Misha (so 5.5 weeks head of where I am right now) to compare the size of these two. Hope everyone’s good!

Misha pregnancy-37 weeks, 1 day

Baby boy-31 weeks, 5 days

See his beautiful little face on the left side?

Keep On Keepin’ On.

Well, that’s what we do. Things have been fairly routine I suppose. Jer is working lots and doing the paramedic class, and therefore we hardly see him. I have my lazy days and then I have days I paint the whole kitchen. It’s hard to find the motivation some days to do anything, and other days I just have to get it done. The joys of nesting…

Things do seem to be getting in order though, and that makes me happy. We have a pretty good clothes stock started for this little guy, and I can’t wait to have him in the world. I especially can’t wait to sleep on my back and stomach again….*sigh*. I try to keep things tossed up once in a while, so I go down to Southern Maryland a couple of days a week to help out my mom in her tax office. I’ve gone from being a respiratory therapist to my mother’s dream of an accountant.:) But I can certainly tell you more or less what you can and can’t deduct on your return!

Misha it seems has successfully potty trained. An accident here or there once in a great while, but other than that she’s got it down. Thank heavens! I refuse to have more than one child in diapers at a time unless I’m having twins….which as far as I know, I’m not. Though this kid is actually measuring about two to three weeks ahead of where he should be. Where do my gigantic children come from?!?! Contrary to popular belief, I am still having episodes of throwing up even though I’m 7.5 months into this thing. Sorry all you who thought that’d go away! I proved you wrong! And no, before you ask, it doesn’t work-trust me, I’ve tried it. But hey, at least my fear of puking is all but obliterated.

Well, we have four feet of snow piled up in the front yard again, but here’s a picture of Misha sledding in that first big storm we got. It was her first time at it, and she LOVED it. No surprise there. Other than that I haven’t had much reason to take pictures. I suppose one of these days when Jerry is home, I’ll have him take a good picture or two of my huge belly, and then I’ll post them. Hope everyone is great!

Christmastime Catch-Up

Merry Christmas everyone! A lot has happened, and I have lots of pictures, so I suppose I'll get right to it. Well, November 24th was officially my last working day. I am now employed as a stay at home mom and house organizer. We've got a lot to do to fix and organize this place before the baby comes in April seeing as how we found out that it'd cost us over 15k to sell this place. So, we're not moving...we're attempting to somehow make more room....not an easy task. The day after my last day we found out the gender of the baby. Here are a few pictures.

And that's right! We're thrilled to announce that it's a boy. We can't wait until he makes his adorable appearance in April, and I've already started to buy some cute boy clothes....I forgot how small they can be! My favorite picture is his cute little foot.:)

Thanksgiving we spent with my parents. I only managed to catch two pictures, and both are of the same thing. Misha decided she wanted Opa to help her eat some pudding, and being spoiled as she is, he obliged. I find it hilarious that he opens his mouth to get her to open hers. Isn't it funny the things we do without thinking about it? We had a blast with them, and look forward to spending a few days this next week with them-even if Jerry does have to work Christmas and the weekend.:(

Our first snow finally came around in the first week of December. I caught a few picture of Misha playing in the snow for the first time. She also helped Jerry brush my car off.

Our first HUGE snow came yesterday.:) We got over a foot in less than 12 hours or so. It made me feel like I'd moved to Utah in the middle of the night! It was REAL snow! (I.E.: Powdery!) And lots of it! It brought back a lot of memories for Jerry and I when we first lived at Sundance after we were married. Multiple memories of driving in knee deep snow...and shoveling a wrap around deck...and doing it all the time...and it made us miss having a four wheel drive vehicle. Misha also decided to find the shovel on the front porch and once again help daddy out.

(I actually caught a drip!)

I just love the look of untouched snow. Isn't it beautiful!?!

And so, that seems to be about it. Things are going well. We have had a wonderful year and are incredibly grateful for the chance I have to be at home with the kids (multiple?!?! That sounds SO weird). Jerry has worked very hard this year, and as of tomorrow or Tuesday will have finished his first college class in about 7 or 8 years. I’m so proud of him! Misha continues to amaze us and grows bigger and smarter every day. It has been a truly bountiful year. We love and miss all of our friends and family who live out of state and hope you know that you are often in our thoughts and prayers. May our Heavenly Father bless all of you at this joyous time of year when we celebrate the birth of His son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have a strong testimony of Him and of the gospel. We know that it is through living the way He would have us to is the only way to true happiness. Merry Christmas to all, and remember that wise men STILL seek Him.

Testing testing one two three!  I figured out how to use different fonts!!

Halloween and other happenings

So, for the few of you that read this blog, yes, we're still alive and kicking. It's been a busy time and things are happening, but we're still here. So, I'll give you the updates and make you wait in anticipation for the pictures.:)

As of November 24th, I will no longer work at the National Institutes of Health. We have so much to do in getting ready to move (we just need to sell our house, and then are planning on renting in the area) that I have no time to get it done on my days off! So, in order to make for a less stress life, I'll be stopping work to get things in order here at home before this baby comes. I honestly can't wait to tackle my closets...I've been wanting to get at them for quite some time.

We will find out the baby's gender (provided shim cooperates) on November the 25th.

Thanksgiving with the folks on November 26th! What a great week!!!

The morning sickness is still prevalent, but only on the mornings where I have to wake up for work...something about getting up before 6 in the morning-believe me, I've tried everything there is to think of to not get ill, and it's simply the time I wake up. Another perk to not working anymore (besides not having to commute over an hour anymore!!!) is that I always get up after the timing that would make me sick.

Jer begins his paramedic class in just a couple of short weeks...afterward he'll go from having 5 college credits to his name, to over 40! I'm so proud of him, and he's on his way to a degree (at very least an associate's) faster than we realize. Though the class won't give him an increase in salary, he'll be that much closer to finishing school so he can find a job he loves AND that pays well.:)

And now...on to pictures.


My mom got Misha a Dora backpack not too long ago, here she is receiving it! She absolutely loves it, and was wearing it all through the episodes she was watching yesterday.

We of course took a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins this year. Here are her and Jer picking out a little one for Misha.

My little Dorothy (with Toto of course!)

(Sorry it's blurry!!)


The First House

(She actually tried to give them candy out of her basket...isn't she just the sweetest?!?)

Right before getting scared by a fake spider on the porch...it was the only thing that scared her the whole night!

The Loot

I've been experimenting with my new camera-as you can tell from the fuzzy pictures above...sometimes I wish I had an automatically focusing lens...but Misha is a blast to shoot when she's just being herself. She's playing with Jer's wedding ring here...

And here's winking at you kid...

Yes, she can wink with just one eye...isn't my kid talented!

Hope everyone's good-we'll be letting you know the gender in just a couple of weeks, so stay tuned Slackers!

A thing to view

Please see my guest post this week on On How to be Lovely. It's done by my great friend Lindsey and a couple of her college roommates who also seem to rock. And always check back. It makes you feel good about yourself.

Yes

I'm pregnant.


And nauseated.


'Nough said.

Good bye Scout, Hello Jet!

So, as many of you have found out, Jerry and I recently utilized the Cash for Clunkers program and purchased ourselves a BRAND NEW CAR!!! We thought for sure that it would be years (more like 15) before we were able to do that, but after saving, saving, saving, and saving some more, we paid off a brand new vehicle on the spot. And so, after being with me for 6 faithful years, I sadly had to say goodbye to my trusty 4Runner, Scout.

As much as I would have LOVED to buy another 4 wheel drive vehicle, paying off a brand new car is better than going into debt on something that can wait a few years (see mom and dad-aren't you PROUD?!?!;)).

And so, I'd like to introduce everyone to our brand new Honda Civic LX, 4 cylinder, manual transmission vehicle...ladies and gentlemen, Jet.

I don't care, Jerry, if you don't believe in naming cars. I do, and I drive it the most, so there. I believe in the long run, if you name your car, you'll treat it a little better, and it'll be good to you. So there you have it folks...the newest member of our family.

In other related news-seeing as how we purchased Jet the day before my birthday-we went to my parents just after purchase to celebrate my b-day and my dad's that was going to happen when he was out of the town. (Mine's the 15th-his the 18th.) We had a great time. On Saturday I decided that I'd rather chill out at home with a great barbequed meal than go someplace fancy. So, we grilled some steak and veggies and had a fabuloso dinner. Jerry whipped up a delicious fun-fetti cake. My dad decided to help decorate....

Clearly the logical choice after failing out of cake decorating was to go to law school...it was his only option left.....and yes, I turned 26-represented at the top by two and six candles...

I appreciate the effort and love that went into this though! I love you Jer and dad!

Hershey!

So we had a great time on our trip to Hershey Park on the first weekend of August. We didn't get a ton of pics, but here are a few-mostly of the kid.

Here she is on her very first solo amusement park ride. She had a ball-it was the little kiddie ride that's hot air balloons. She went on it about three time before our trip was over.

She also seems to be quite the little daredevil. She made Jerry go on this ride with her, which goes surprisingly fast! It also had a joy stick at the front of the space ship that controls it going up and down-Jer wanted it down, she was all about going up!

I'm quite lucky I got this shot.

Of course she went on the swings. They're her favorite!

She also insisted on going on the carosel several times. It was fun though.

For the first time ever, we got our caricature drawn. Misha was not a happy camper at the time, so the fact that he was able to capture her so completely from the one or two times that she smiled was quite good! He also kept saying while he was drawing me that it looked like I was a presidential candidate. I said yeah, my campaign would be "Grow up, go to school, and get a good job with health insurance benefits. Sorry, the welfare system is closed." He he. All in all it was a really fun trip.

Happy Birthday!

To me! Okay, so it was Saturday, but who cares?!?




Yes! That's right! Jerry got me a Nikon D5000 for my birthday!!!! My camera actually came with Tamron lenses, not Nikon ones, but the reviews have been fairly similar, and I think will be great for what I'm planning on doing with it for my little side hobby. I LOVE it. I'm still a bit intimidated by it, but I took a picture this morning that if you asked me turned out pretty darn good.



Look at how beautiful my little girl is! It kills me. This isn't quite as sharp as it appears on the camera, or when downloaded to my computer, but it still gives you somewhat of an idea....

Hope everyone's good out there-we went to Hershey Park a couple of weeks ago, I'll be posting pictures soon.