Mele Kalikimaka....

Don’t get me wrong, I love Halloween. Shaun and I will have our best dressed pumpkins on display, scary music playing through the front window and honor our reputation of handing out the biggest handful of candy in the neighborhood. I love love love Thanksgiving dinner. So much I actually do a dinner at our house just for us, and sometimes some lucky guests ;-] Thanksgiving is always fun and a great kick off to Christmas. I will make my traditional Pumpkin Soup (which for the 1st few years the comment was always "Pumpkin Soup again?" and then one year I didn't make it everyone complained- of COURSE!). So now I make it every year. :) Normally the day after Thanksgiving we would get our Christmas tree in the mountains, but this year we are short on time so I think we will get it early.........YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! So....in short LET THE HOLIDAYS BEGIN!!!! :)

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Even though the day you turn 29 isn't so exciting, I had a pretty darn good birthday. My dad surprised me on the big day (he was in town for his baby Bear (me) and a good friend's memorial service was the same weekend). He stayed with us for 3 nights and it was nice to share "everything baby" with someone from my family, since they all live in Florida, California and Illinois. :( Poo! He came with presents and, like I requested, they were all for the baby. YESSS!! Shaun and I went out to the Garage on my actual birthday for a friend's birthday party. Why would I go to someone else's party on my birthday you might ask??? Well, I can't explain it but the thought of going to someone else’s party sounded better than having my own!!! If I wanted to stay home at the last "Preggers" minute I could and if I wanted to leave early I could. I thought it was a great idea!!! Shaun and I celebrated just the 2 of us with my traditional Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake.....which I have been getting for as long as I can remember, and when my family moved away Shaun has whole heartedly kept up the tradition. I love him so much. :) Wednesday Becca planned a girls dinner for me (love her) at Zeke’s Pizza in Kirkland......Pizza has become my favorite thing in the world!!! It was SOOOOOO good!!! Here are some pics. It was a great time. I am truly thankful for my friends, they are the best.

Am I cheap?

I have to admit, I have an addiction to the sweet satisfaction of "saving money" and having a baby has opened up a whole new world to satisfy my craving! I have become quite the consignment shop fanatic. I had no idea there was such a huge market of mother’s selling their (generally) 3 months used baby goods in conjunction at these wonderful little stores. I have so far visited 4 shops from Redmond to Everett and to my delight spent minimal dollars for some great stuff! My favorite find is a complete Janie and Jack Outfit (head to toe coverage and accessories) for less than $10, I have had such luck 3 times! I found the babies bedding at Ashleigh’s Attic in Downtown Redmond (it’s adorable, I will post some pics). (Ashleigh’s Attic seems to always have a few Pottery Barn sets in almost new condition for about $40). I found the same bassinet I registered for for 1/3 the price and yesterday I picked up my GREATEST find EVER for Dad! I got this jogger (retails for $375-$400) for $69.99. It’s a TRUE Husky Purple and I have started the search for Gold UW Patches to sew onto it. I scrubbed the canvas last night and the frame and it looks NEW! I love it! I know (he that will soon be named) will love it too.  That’s all for now, have a great weekend! PS the Armoire behind the jogger is apart of the nursery furniture set but it is too big (or our house is to small) to fit through the door frame.

(Click the pic for a larger size)

Baby Moved!

Shaun and I went to the Husky/Stanford game last night and I could start to feel the baby- finally! I read that at about 19 weeks the baby can start to hear, so maybe the stadium woke the little bugger up ;-] It feels like a little tap, not much happening there. Yesterday I started to feel little twitches that made me itch.....today Leslie said "Don't Itch!". She said the itching is caused by the stretching and if you itch you will get stretch marks....good to know!!! Today I am sort of in pain. I read it's like growing pains, I don't ever remember growing pains. Now I can really emphathize with Shaun since he is 6'5" and had awful growing pains growing up. Bummer! This kind of sucks.

Boy!

Shaun and I are still in shock. We can't believe we are going to have a little boy running around. We are VERY excited, I think more than we have been so far. In preparation we have to finish cleaning out the room (mostly done) and re-paint. I was thinking of keeping the green color, but now since there is going to be SO much color in the bedding and furniture I might go for beige and brown accent wall. Which might have something to do with the fact that my office is based out of a brand new model home and it's covered in vanilla paint. Mmmmm.....what to do?!?! These are major decisions to start thinking about!

Last night Shaun and I tried to decide on a name.....this is not going so well. We just can't agree. We did agree on a new theme for the room (easier decisions)- fishies!!! Much better and since we love to fish and we don't live on a farm (yet) we decided to nix the cows. Plus the cow theme was mostly white and, yes Becky, white will be tough with a baby, 2 black cats and a ridiculous black lab.

Since I took all my pics off my laptop this is the only pic I have of Gus. This pic was taken last year in the Olympic Peninsula Mountains....we were getting our $5 Christmas tree.

Oh BOY oh BOY!!!

We found out yesterday we are having a boy! Shaun and I are both ecstatic. I can't explain how much more of a connection we are feeling with the baby now. Shaun is completely beside himself, I knew he wanted a boy but I had no idea how bad! It's great!

After the ultrasound I had a few hours to kill before meeting the girls for dinner so I, of course, went to the mall! I haven't been to Bellevue Square (the actual mall- I have been to Lincoln many times) in a long time and boy oh boy (I just can’t stop saying ‘boy’…lol) have they done some major remodeling! There is more baby/kids store too. I went to Janie and Jack, my favorite kids clothing store. When I worked at the mall and Melissa was pregnant I probably went there every other day to check out the sales rack. (Darn it! I always staked a claim on the J&J clothes I bought for her daughter and now I don’t get them. :-( Sad!) Janie and Jack is a tad pricy but their sales are awesome! I got 3 little jumpers for $20! Then I went next door to Pottery Barn’s new clothing store for kids- Threads. They have super cute stuff too and they have an embroidery machine right in the store! They had some good sales and I got 4 onesies for $27….I think that’s a pretty good deal! Right?!?! I just love that you can get a whole outfit for a baby for less than $10!

This little baby boy, I can already tell, is going to be spoiled in the clothing department. It was really different looking at boy clothes. Even though Shaun and I have been convinced we are having a boy I still never REALLY looked at the boy stuff. I have, naturally, always looked at the girl stuff and mentally decorated in girly themes. Looking at the boy stuff was totally different this time around and having to steer away from the pink (and almost always more than ½ the department) was hard and a little sad. Awww well. Shaun says “I’ll give you a girl next time.” Let me tell you, since Shaun has 3 brothers, that was really comforting. ;-]

In this picture the baby is sort of squatting and the picture is being taken from underneath. To see the picture larger click on it.

Click the pics to see a version you can SEE :-)

Wine Night and Becca's Birthday at Heidi's Dad's House

The guest of honor....woohoo! 28th Birthday's are fun!

Trying to pose for the picture- wine makes people not pay attention

The birthday girl showing off some finer gifts..... ;-)

All the 'girls'

It feels like fall

It feels like fall and I am thrilled about it! The leaves are changing; the furnace has at last needed to fire up; and this morning I used my Pumpkin Mug with pleasure. I HEART it all!!!! This year I love fall because Shaun and I finally get to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl (today at 2:30 to be exact). I of course love fall every year because it’s my birthday (a few weeks away)!! YAY! I have given Shaun stern words to not go crazy (as we normally do) because we have a nursery to fill and we are traveling so much in the next few months (Florida for Christmas, Florida in Jan for my sister’s wedding and Hawaii in May for Tamara’s wedding). Shaun has brought out the orange tub from the attic so I guess it’s time to start decorating for the season! Only 2 ½ hours till the appointment! I am so excited, can’t wait to share the news. Bye for now!

Does the Starbucks Drive Thru Voice Drive Anyone Else NUTS?

So I am in route to Seattle this morning, which is an awful commute of at least an hour or more, and as a pregnant woman I HAD to stop by Starbucks to get my new craving "Venti Iced Passion Tea and Lemonade, no sweetener". Since I have nixed my commute I have given up my morning Starbucks run and forgot how annoying the girl is at 6am!!! Does anyone else dread the drive thru voice that starts with a slow spoken 'Welcome to Starbucks and h o w a r e y o u d o i n g t o d a y y y y y y y y y . . . . . . . my gosh is it just me? All I want is to tell her what I want. Maybe it's the pregnancy talking, but I think the world would be a better place if Starbucks just got to the point! :-)

Baby news..... we have our Ultra Sound tomorrow! My doc said we could move it up a week, we are TWO VERY ANXIOUS PEEPS who have very little patience, so of course we took the opportunity. :)