Belly Watch: 33 weeks along

We just barely got a picture of Raleigh too!

The other day a female coworker asked me how many days I had left. DAYS! I wanted to say, "Lady, I'm not even counting in days yet, I have a whole month and a half left." But I didn't. I was polite.

More and more people keep asking me when I'm due or similar questions to the one mentioned above. I just imagine people thinking to themselves, "geez, when is she going to pop? She's huge."

I want to say to people, "I'm not a tall woman, there's no room for the baby to grow upward...so instead it must grow out, which is probably why you look at me like I should be due tomorrow."

Anyway, enjoy the pics.

The birthday celebration

I promised pictures, and here they are :) Enjoy. These are all from Raleigh's birthday day.

Above: Raleigh admiring a starfish.

Below: Mommy and Raleigh watching some kind of fish swim by.

Above: Josh pointing out a fish to Raleigh.

Below: Some kind of shark swimming above us.

Above: Raleigh standing next to the beaver statue. He was kind of scared of it at first. Took a lot of coaxing to get him up there.

Below: Raleigh peering at some fish in a smaller aquarium.

Above: Raleigh opening up one of his gifts.

Below: Everyong playing with Raleigh's gifts.

Above: Raleigh eating the graham cracker that Chelsea and Jenna decorated for him. It had a frosting "Emily the Train" on it.

Below: A picture of Raleigh's birthday cake. Ice cream cake from DQ, and the graham cracker that Chelsea and Jenna decorated for him.

Above: Raleigh attempting to blow out the candles from 2 feet away. I think Jenna helped him a bit.

Below: Success! Candles blown out.

Above: Raleigh successfully squeezed next to Chelsea and Jamie on the stairway.
Below: Raleigh's first painting lesson with Chelsea. (two pictures)

Happy Birthday Raleigh!!

I can't believe that he's already 2 years old. The time, seriously, just flies by. I'll have pictures to post later. We're actually venturing out to the Mall of America today to take Raleigh to the Underwater Adventure Aquarium. I'll have pictures to post later, and in a week or so, I'll have video to post.

So, have a happy Saturday!

-from the mom of a two-year-old boy

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

I was going to post yesterday but I was just too busy traveling and eating. We left our house at 6:45 am yesterday morning and drove down to Coon Rapids, MN, to participate in the glutany that is Thanksgiving.



Josh's Aunt Soni had a delicious meal prepared and other family members brought dishes to share as well. A few of the dishes were new to me. There was a yummy cold noodle salad that had tomatoes and feta cheese and some kind of balsamic dressing with penne noodles.



The stuffing had golden raisins, sausage, and awesome mushrooms. I think that was my favorite dish. The cranberry sauce was also delicious. Overall a very good meal.



The company was great as well. We saw a lot of Josh's relatives that we hadn't seen for quite some time. His Aunt Sara had never even seen Raleigh.



Speaking of Raleigh, he behaved so well and even ended up taking a nap on Aunt Soni's bed with Grampa Steve.

Above: Raleigh wearing the hat that I purchased for the New Baby.

Below: Raleigh wearing his new Thomas the Tank Engine PJs while eating a blueberry bagel with cream cheese.

Below: Raleigh with staticky hair after jumping in his bouncy thingy.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday. Remember to wish her a happy birthday if you talk to her!



Here are some photos of mom.

Above: Mom and me as a baby.

Below: Mom and me as an adult.

Below: Mom on the hunt.

Raleigh's 1st 2nd birthday

Raleigh turns 2 on the 29th. We've decided to have multiple little parties for him. Last night we celebrated at Grandma Wanda and Grandpa Dave's house. It happened to also be David's 30th birthday so it was double special.

Grandma Wanda made taco/taco salad fixin's and she also had an ice cream cake ready to go. Everything was delicious and fun was had by all. Today, we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with the Wilsons. I'll post more about that later.

Belly Watch: 30 weeks along

Ok, so kind of a dark picture, but you get it... I'm bigger now than last week.

The baby has been moving quite a bit, especially in the evenings. I don't think that it has settled in the head down position yet. I had an appointment with my doctor last Thursday and things are going quite well. I'm measuring where I want to be, my weight is where it should be, and the baby's heartbeat was around 154 beats/minute.

Josh and I have settled on a girl's name if the baby is a girl, although it's not the same girl's name that we had settled on before we knew Raleigh was going to be a boy. We're still struggling with finding the right boy's name. Can we just call it Raleigh # 2?

And to provide more of an update on our lives, things are going pretty darn good. We've made some changes to the house in the last few months:

• Installed vinyl tile in the kitchen
• Ripped out existing door jambs and trim in kitchen doorways and replaced with much better looking jambs and trim. (We still need to paint the new jambs and trim though)
• Purchased a new entertainment center that fits our small living room better but still provides ample storage
• Purchased a large mirror for the wall above the kitchen table.
• Cleaned and organized the laundry area of our basement and caught up on laundry
• Purchased a new car
• We cut down the oversized trees that were too close to our house corners

In general, we're on good pace right now to have all of the necessary changes made in order to put our house up for sale this upcoming summer. I still need to go to the bank and find out how much house we can afford. We still need to package up about 2/3 of all of the stuff we currently own so that our house doesn't look like pack rats have been living here.

And among all of that, I need to give birth to a healthy baby and find time for Raleigh. He's been extra clingy lately and only wants "mom" to do things for him or carry him. It's pretty tough carrying Raleigh with this massive belly. I have to find ways to bribe him into walking, either that or distract him enough so that he forgets how much he wants to be held by "mom". Part of me just loves how clingy and cuddly he is though. After he stopped nursing around 1 year of age, he became a very independent little guy and he didn't want to cuddle anymore. Now, he'll suprise me with impromptu hugs and kisses. I guess I'll take it while I can get it.

All right, so this blog ended up being a novel. Sorry. It's just nice to be able to have some time to write. I got a 2 hour nap today while Raleigh was sleeping so it doesn't seem that bad for me to be up past midnight right now.

Raleigh's boo boo

We babysat Reise Berg the other day and so we brought our infant swing up from the basement. Well...Raleigh wanted a go at it too.

Raleigh playing with playdoh. He asked mom and dad to make him tunnels for his trains.

And today, I came home to see this.

Raleigh and dad were rough housing on the couch and Raleigh fell on one of his train toys. He's got a pretty good cut on his brow. He wasn't nearly as sad as he seems in the picture above. Especially when I took of that "normal" band-aid and put on a Nemo shark bandaid after I got done looking at the wound.

The Bucket List e-mail forward

The Bucket List
Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not, and send it to your friends.

This is for your entire life!

Gone on a blind date. X
Skipped school. X
Watched someone die.
Been to Canada. X
Been to Mexico.
Been to Florida.X
Been on a plane. X
Been lost. X
Been to New York. X

Gone to Washington. DC
Swam in the ocean. X
Cried yourself to sleep. X
Played cops and robber. X
Recently colored with crayons. X
Sang Karaoke. X
Paid for a meal with coins only? X
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? X
Made prank phone calls. X
Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose. X
Caught a snowflake on your tongue. X
Danced in the rain. X
Written a letter to Santa Claus. X (at least I think that I have)
Been kissed under the mistletoe. X
Watched the sunrise with someone. X
Blown bubbles. X
Gone ice-skating. X
Been skinny dipping outdoors. X
Gone to the movies. X

1. Any nicknames? Shy, Shiggs
2. Mother's name? Wanda
3. Favorite drink? Non-alcoholic wine right now
5. Body Piercing? Ears. Used to have navel and tongue pierced
6. How much do you love your job? I feel very blessed to have my job. The company that I work for takes great care of its employees.
7. Birthplace? Cohasset, MN.
8. Favorite vacation spot? Anywhere non-touristy with the people I love.
9. Ever been to Africa ? No
10. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? yes
11. Ever been on TV? yes
12. Ever steal any traffic signs? No
13. Ever been in a car accident? yes, very very minor
14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? I mainly drive a 2-door, but we own a 4-door now.
15. Can you drive a standard car? Assuming that standard = manual, then yes.
16. Favorite pie? Pumpkin pie with no whip cream or ice cream
17. Favorite number? 21
18. Favorite movie? Ever After
19. Favorite holiday? Halloween. Thanksgiving comes in second.
20. Favorite dessert? chocolate
21. Favorite food? Thai
22. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
23. Favorite brand of body soap? Ivory
24. Favorite toothpaste? Regular, non-whitening, toothpaste. Not Gel.
25. Favorite smell? Babies, preferably my babies
26. How do you relax? I surf the web, reading articles that I come across.
27. How do you see yourself in 10 years? I'll be a mom of a 12 year old and a 10 year old and married to the same man. I hope to be working for the same company. I hope we're in a bigger house by then.
28. Furthest place you will send this message? I'll most likely post this on my blog. I'm not sure who will read it and what country they may be from.
29. Who will respond to this the fastest? Wanda

Visit from Grandma Wanda

Last weekend was our Halloween party, but we were also blessed to have Grandma Wanda visiting us. She was a huge help preparing for the Halloween party, and she had a blast playing with Raleigh, as he did with her.

Grandma Wanda dressed as a clown. See evidence below.

Raleigh got to read with Grandma Wanda.

Grandma Wanda also was present for Raleigh's first ever trick-or-treating adventure. You can see the pictures that she posted here:

http://northstar26.blogspot.com/2008/11/happy-halloween.html

Grandma Wanda also took pictures of all the raking we did that weekend. Raleigh sure had fun in those leaves:

http://northstar26.blogspot.com/2008/11/raking-leaves.html

Raleigh got to lick the blender attachments. Yummy!

Ooh, and the bread that we made. Delicious. It is a no-knead bread, and it was simple as can be. We made two loaves and we cut it into small pieces to be used with the spinach and artichoke dip that we made for the Halloween party.