Boy or Girl?

Today I had my first and hopefully only ultrasound. After 3 days of consistent abdominal cramps my midwife felt I should get an ultrasound ASAP instead of waiting 2 more weeks. Jared and I invited his parents and my mom, and boy the pressure was on!!!  We wanted to be the first to know the baby's gender and asked our folks to leave the room before the ultrasound technician made the announcement. Needless to say, they were they not thrilled with that choice! 

Afterwards we had lunch and it was so hard not to refer to the baby as her or him. Oh my gosh it was!

To be fair, we are having a "Pink or Blue" party this Sunday and we are going to announce what the little guy or gal might be!

We are still not sure what is causing the abdominal pain but the doctors are going to keep looking.

So on Sunday I will post whether we are having a boy or a girl!

I have never known this sort of love :) 

I can't wait to meet our baby.

Oh Hi!

 This is what I have been doing lately...

Pulling the darn rocks out of my garden(s)! 

But it's all good.

All the hoeing, sorting rocks (which SUCKS!), more hoeing and mixing compost is finally going to pay off.

Getting the tomatoes in the second garden has been on my "to-do" list for such a long time!

I felt like my lil babies graduated! 

(At least from their baby pots)

This is the first garden. It has a ton of little guys in there right now.

All we can do now is wait!

(Don't mind Jared's "not having fun" face.

 I had to get a ton of picture retakes on his phone to get this one just right.)

The third and final garden is going to be a potato garden.

Hmmm. I have never grown potatoes before but I guess we shall see what happens!

'Till next time!

Dear Baby,

I am 17 weeks pregnant with you at this point and my dear, it has been quite the ride. Pregnancy has not been as difficult as I thought it would be. Maybe I am already forgetting the never ending nausea of the first trimester and the uncontrollable tiredness that has comes with having you grow inside my belly, but it really hasn't been too bad. Maybe I am just realizing all the good that is going to come out of this, outweighs the bad. I can't wait to kiss your feeties and rub your little chubby legs with lotions!

It's funny, people don't tell you a lot of things about pregnancy. They don't tell you, you still have the responsibilities you had before and even though you are black out tired. They don't tell you you might be growing tummy hair or that your teeth are going to bleed every time you brush them. They don't tell you one moment you will want to cry because you want to see your baby so badly, you just want them here now.... and the next moment you are scared to death because in 5 months everything is going to change. I just want to be a good mom to you and hopefully having had four younger siblings to take care of most of my life should help a little. Weird, I guess those guys will be your aunts and uncles. That is going to be a fun thing to get used to saying. 

There are a few things I don't want you to worry about. I just want you to grow and be strong okay?  The first thing is we found out that I am a carrier of cystic fibrosis. We don't need to worry yet though, because you can not get the disease unless Jared also has the gene. Our midwives are going to draw his blood in a couple weeks to see if he too is a carrier. (He is pretty scared about that, he doesn't like blood.) Chances are everything is going to be okay, but I need to ask one little thing from you. If our midwife needs to do an amnio on me to check on you, DON'T TOUCH THE NEEDLE! Oh my gosh that freaks me out so bad! Just don't go anywhere near a needle if you happen to see one. I don't want'cha getting poked! I'd feel horrible! However, they probably wont have to do that, but I figured you might need some warning. The second thing is we are having an ultra sound ultra soon! I hope this does not effect you negatively in any way. It will brief and there have been no studies showing negative effects for human babies. (Just whale babies, ummm, I'll show you what a whale is later!) And the third and final thing is your birth. I know you will know when the time is right, even if I have fantasies of having you here before Halloween, I can wait until you feel it's GO TIME. I am not afraid of having you at all actually. I am really quite calm about it. Bodies are amazing things and I hope to participate as much as possible, however if things get complicated don't worry. All that matters is you get here safe.

Eight weeks from conception I felt you move, no one believed me but I knew it was you. I knew your eyes, ears, and fingers had not developed yet, but I hoped you could feel how much I already loved you. I hope you know I honestly am going to try my hardest to do what is right for you and know that is not what is necessarily right for me. A lot of people have been, and are going to continue telling me how to do things for a long time. Young people here don't get a lot of credit for being wise or making the "right" decision, but don't worry kid. I got yo back. :) 

So in ending, whether you are a Miss Sparrow, or Mr. Onyx just know the world can't wait to meet you.

Love, 

Your mother.

The Day We Ate Snails

When my Gramma calls she says the same thing about Jared every time. "He is such a good husband to you." And that friends, is spot on. I have been itching to go to the ocean for a few weeks now but it is SO FAR AWAY.  This seems like it would not make sense since we are a coastal state, but the only thing within driving distance from us is the Puget Sound. So Jared took me to the bay and saved the ocean trip for another day. He is also very good at picking up my hints (Which seems to be a rare trait among men! hehe) and he knew I had been craving seafood so we went out to eat at a little place called ...

Oyster Creek Inn! Where I had my first positive experience with eating oysters and Jared felt brave enough to try escargot! Sadly, once again, we dug in so fast we forgot to take pictures!

As it turns out, snails are much softer than I imagined. I thought they would be more like squid.  Jared thought they were a bit to earthy for his taste. He said they tasted a bit too much like the forest floor. Haha, coming from Jared who eats mushrooms all the time off the forest floor I found that a bit humorous. 

Here is us! At Larrabee State Park.

 

Jared

+

Me

+

Baby!

We are both really anxious to know the gender of our future "little". 

Just a couple more weeks to wait! 

One of the funny things about Jared is he LOVES flowers. 

I would rather have vegetable plants, but he is so stuck on all the pretty flowers. 

He was just amazed at the amount of rhododendrons at the park.

I caved. I admit. I don't like flip flops and I am very partial to skinny jeans but lately...

Who cares!? 

I am chubby, waddling and sassy... so fashion can come back once I have this baby!

Jared, not waiting for Madam Slowpants to waddle my bottom through the tunnel.

He just wanted to get to the beach.

And finally we were there.

Oysters and slugs in our belly.

It was such a good adventure.

Until next time...

Peace!

Life Lately

Over the last month, all of our Sunday school classes worked together to make a huge "Creation" project. Each class was given a day or two of creation, and with those days, build a huge poster. When all the classes worked together, each creation day's poster was lined up in a row and it looked really nice! Our class was assigned day 4. The day the sun, moon, stars and planets were created. (A pretty cool day if I do say so myself...) The teachers were asked to bring snacks matching with their day. I could not do it alone so I had my best friend "Spiffy" come over and help me make planet cakes and shooting star cupcakes! It was a huge success, and as usual, too much cake! I don't even like cake! (Except cheese cake! Mmmmmm!) Poor Jared misses these guys so bad. He has had to work Sundays again, so he never see's the kids! I asked them what we should name baby (Even though the names are chosen!) and I got the following names: Baby Flower, Aurora, (oddly enough, I had considered in the past) Cinderella, Dr. Pickle and Baby Spongebob. (My personal fav!) I asked them, "What about when it's not a baby anymore?" Old Man Spongebob? 

Hmmmm.... I think we are just going to stick to the names we have!

All The Swimsuits I Am NOT Buying This Summer...

... and all of the winter onesies I WILL be buying make me one happy lady. 

(Is it just me or does my arm looks like a crazy chicken leg!?)

Truthful Sunday Time!

Right after Jared and I married, I almost instantly wanted kids which leaving me totally confused, because I am NOT that person. I never wanted to get married or have kids, but who comes along but a certain blue eyed (he says green eyed, we have debates about this) super attractive best friend, ready to shake up any life plans I thought I had. I had dreams of moving to Seattle, attending an art school, going into the fashion industry, sewing wedding dresses and selling them at high prices so I could travel and eat all sorts of exotic foods month after month. (Run on sentence much? Hehe) However at some point I suppose I had to choose. I was enjoying being single and free and knew that if Jared and I starting courting it was a done deal, we were as good as married. I chose him. After all there is no amount of good foods, money, and new places that can compare to that "complete" feeling you feel when you are in love. Plus I can still share these things with him in my life.

After we got married I wanted a child so badly, sometimes I would just cry, sometimes I would want to scream, or be alone and sit in the lonely little miserable world I was creating. Truth was, I have a really good life so there was nothing to be sad about. I just could not let it go. Like so many before me I felt the spirit of this child long before she (or he) was conceived. It's such a frustrating thing to feel, let alone try to explain to someone.

So when I learned I was pregnant I was so ready. I felt empowered and brave, I could do anything and everything. During the entire first trimester I was SO sick, but I felt like I could take on the world. So why is it now, 15 weeks in I realize, oh dear God, I am terrified! I have so many things rushing through my head. I've read this is just some pre-baby jitters and it's best I get them now so I can sort out my fears by the time baby arrives, but right now I am at the top of the roller coaster, afraid, and moving fast. I guess all that is left to do is let go, take the plunge and smile at the end of the day.

All is love. 

On Stereotypes...

Ladies and gents,
 meet my newest teacher,
the biker-cosmetologist.

...That is all. : )

Oh! And have a wonderful mothers day!

I Have a Riddle For You!

What do these two things have in common?

I Just Can't Stop and It's Taking Over My Life!

... Planting things that is. It's not as bad as it sounds and it's an obsession I am okay with having.

Here are some of my plants I have started indoors...

 

We are going to have 
radishes, corn, squash, 
beans, cilantro, lettuce, cabbage, eggplant, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, beets, kale, carrots, tomatoes and I could keep going!

More pictures when they grow up!