Little William

I think it's pretty obvious what we're having. But just in case you can't tell, the arrow's pointing right to it.Our baby boy in 3D. You can see his eyes, ears, nose . . . he looks like a little monkey. He's so cute!

Boy or Girl?

Make a guess: are we having a boy or girl? (For those who already know, don't give it away - just put down what your initial guess was.)

"Twilight" Movie

I was curious to know how the Twilight movie was coming along and came across this clip. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the movie. I think it looks like it's going to be good.

Completed Patio

Here are some pictures of the concrete forming, pouring, etc. process.
This is the form for the patio.Hosing off the stamps for the concrete. The pump to pour the concrete. The cement truck.

Smoothing the concrete. Putting stress joints in the concrete to help prevent it from cracking anywhere but those places.

It's done!

Closeup of the stamp

It will be nice when we can finish the rest of the landscaping, so we have something nice to look at from the patio (instead of cinder block and piles of dirt). It will also be nice to have some furniture to sit on.

Our Latest Home Project

Scott and I decided that the next project that we would like to get done on our house is the backyard. With Scott being a "do it yourself" person, he has had a lot of work to do. He opted to have someone else do the concrete patio, but he had a lot of prep work to do before that.

First he had to dig out the old drainage, so it could be moved out from where the prospective patio will go.
The missionaries came over two different days to fulfill service hours. It's undecided how helpful they really were . . . they probably had a hard time keeping up with Scott. But we are still grateful for whatever help they did provide.Scott then had to dig (or jack hammer) a 2 1/2 foot deep trench from a corner of our house to the diagonal corner of our yard. (The dirt is really hard to dig in - there's a lot of clay in it.) He wants to put in a rock waterfall, so he had to bury an underground electrical wire to reach the future waterfall - hence the long and deep ditch.Bringing in the cinder block to line the fence where the planter will go.Digging for a sprinkler system (to the left of the drainage - again, notice the jack hammer)Our friend Andrew came over to help Scott. He was definitely Scott's miracle that day (prepping the yard for the concrete was a lot harder than Scott had anticipated, so any extra help was really appreciated, especially from another hard worker).Laying the new drainage system. By this time, the crew who is doing the concrete came over to help Scott finish and perfect the drainage. I'm glad we had professionals help Scott finish this part, so that we know the water will actually drain from our yard properly.

Now all we need are the forms and the concrete for our patio. Hopefully that part of our yard will be finished in the next few days.

12 week ultrasound

Scott and I went to the doctor today for my 12 week checkup. I was just supposed to get a routine checkup and listen for the heartbeat, but the nurse told us she could do an ultrasound as well if we wanted her to. We both said yes right away, so excited to see how our baby is growing. She started with the ultrasound, and we were shocked at how big the baby had gotten in less than four weeks. We could see its arms, legs, the bones in the legs, a knee, fingers (it was even sucking its thumb for a little bit), its mouth, jaw bones, spine, heartbeat, nose, eyes. It was so incredible. It was moving like crazy, and we think it had the hiccups for part of the time. It also kept kicking its heel against the uterine wall and bouncing back and forth. The nurse asked which one of us (Scott or me) had rhythm because the baby looked like it was dancing (we both answered right away that it was me - and it made me so proud of our little baby). I know it's so soon, but we're already so proud of our child and feel like it's the most perfect baby in the world. It was so neat watching it live inside me. (We weren't able to hear the heartbeat today, so I'm really glad that the nurse did the ultrasound first - otherwise I would have panicked, thinking that something had happened to the baby). We are both so excited and are loving this experience more and more (especially since the morning sickness is becoming less apparent and food is starting to sound good again).

That random white thing by the baby's face is its hand. You can also see where the leg is bent. It was probably getting ready to kick.

Happy Birthday Tiffani - yesterday

Yesterday was my good friend, Tiffani's, birthday, and Andrew and she invited some friends to go bowling. I was apprehensive at first, embarrassed for others to see how much I lack the bowling skill, as well as nervous that my back would give out (I have a history of back problems starting in high school - being pregnant hasn't helped with it either). Anyway, the first game that we bowled, I think I scored in the 40s or the 50s - maybe. I didn't feel too terrible since Catherine was getting just as many gutter balls as I was. The second game, however, Catherine and I discovered new ways of bowling. She did the grandma squat - she's 32 weeks pregnant, so she could get away with it - and Leslie told me the correct way to aim the bowling ball. With that said, Catherine and I were the top scorers for the girls the second game. She got a 104, and I got the best I've ever gotten with a 95.

Mark, Ben, Eric, Andrew, Josh, and Scott (They kicked our butts both games, but three of them were getting strikes or spares pretty consistently - Eric used to be in a bowling league.)
Leslie, me, Tiffani, Catherine, Alyssa, and Robin
We then went to the Morgan's to relax, watch TV, and eat cake with ice cream (I'd been craving cake and ice cream all day, so it worked out really nice for me).

Thanks for the fun Andrew and Tiffani. We had a great time! Happy Birthday Tiff!