Salt Lake Shower Yields Gifts, Cornhole and Good Hygiene

Chris and I attended our first baby shower. Yep, now everything is starting to seem more and more real. We are really having a baby and now our house is starting to show it. For my birthday back in August Chris bought us tickets to SLC to visit my family before we hit the no travel zone (aka the third trimester). While we were there my mom and sister-in-law, Amanda, threw us a baby shower. It was a lot of fun. Because we wanted to see as many people as possible while we were there the baby shower was co-ed (much to the "delight" of Chris).

We played two different shower games. The first was for all the men who attended (all 8 of them). They had to drink beer from a sippy cup and the first to finish was the winner. Needless to say it was fun to watch.  Take a look for yourself, below. My mom's friend and co-worker Karl won with my uncle Dan coming in a close second.

After the beer drinking, the second and final game was for couples. We all had to dance with our significant other, with an egg held between our foreheads.  The last couple left dancing without dropping their egg wins.  Chris and I made it to the final two before we dropped our egg.  Oh, so close!

However, our spirits weren't dampened by the loss.  Rather, we felt blessed when we opened lots of loot in the form of great new clothes for our little guy and a few gift cards as well. Chris' mom even made the trip and got us our car seat. She's doing her part to make sure her grandchild will travel safely, and in style! It was really fun to have her there.

Before we left, my mom and I made a couple of trips to some fabric stores and picked out a few things. She is going to make the bedding and curtains for the new nursey. I will be sure to post pictures as soon as we see the finished product. I'm sure they will be wonderful.  She did such a great job helping my neice Stella out with her room I'm sure our little man will love his just as much!

All in all, it was a great trip. Hopefully we won't have to stay away too long after the little man is here. A ski trip would be very nice this season and we hope to fit it in.

One other thing to mention is our newfound fondness for a game to which my brother Paul and his wife Amanda introduced us: Cornhole. We've posted some pitures of us all playing on our Flickr site (see below for an example). I would like to mention that Paul and I won 5 of the 7 games we played as a team. We rule! Needless to say, Chris is planning to build the appropriate fixtures so we can play here in Dallas as well. If you live in the area, don't be suprised if you're invited over for a game or two in the near future.

Next up? Painting the nursery. I will have pictures soon. We plan to have it done by the end of the month if not sooner. We have furniture arriving in October. Wow, this pregnancy is flying by!

Long time, no post

It's been a while since our last post and a lot has happened in that time. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), we've broken the updates into sections for easier consumption.

Home Improvement
First, what's the reason for the long delayed posting? Our new office...well, office/guest bedroom. In order to make room and prepare for our little man we have disassembled the office (as we once knew it) to combine it and our guest room. First we painted the room. Then we assembled some new office furniture (by we I mean Chris). Finally, we moved the guest bed from the old guest room to the new combo room. Next on our agenda is to paint the now empty remaining room - the nursery - and acquire furniture. We'll post about our progress in the nursery as soon as we've actually made some. In the meantime, here's a photo of the new office/guest bedroom.


Family Reunion
Before all of this (way back in July) we went to Lake Tahoe for my family reunion. It was lots of fun and we got to see many members of my extended family that we hadn't seen in a long time. We also got to use our new camera and took a ton of photos (see below for one example). Among the fun activities at this year's reunion were karaoke, kickball, rafting, wake boarding and even a photo scavenger hunt. On top of all that, each night had it's own fun from card games to a Trivial Pursuit smack down. All in all it was a great trip!


Our Baby Boy (In Progress)
Two weeks ago we had our 20 week sonogram and got to see (almost) irrefutable evidence that our little guy is indeed a guy.

There are even more pictures of our baby on our Flickr site and while he seems to look a bit more like a little alien than a baby, he's OUR little alien. :-) During that same appointment, we received news that I have what is called a low lying placenta. That condition may or may not correct itself in the next few months. If not, it looks like we will have a planned c-section. That's not something to worry about at this point so we are focusing on getting everything ready for the big day.

Meanwhile, my little hitchhiker has been kicking up a storm. We're hoping that in the next week or so Chris will be able to feel some kicks as well. It all seems to be going so fast. Next thing you know it will be December and we'll have a whole new reason for delayed posting.

My Birthday
For my birthday, Chris gave me a round trip ticket to SLC so I can visit my family in September. I'm going to let him tag along. While we are there my mom is throwing a baby shower. Yay, gifts!

Last, But Not Least
For our last bit of news, we just found out that there's a bun in a different oven. Chris's middle brother, Michael, and his girlfriend Melissa are expecting a little one of their own. We are very excited that our little man will now have three cousins close to his age (two in the Dallas area). Our family keeps growing and growing. We wish Michael and Melissa the best of luck.

Bart, Bert...Bort?

Until you are faced with it, you never think about how hard it is to name your child. I mean, I always thought I had names picked out since I was young, but now those names seem immature and silly. Do you name your child after a family member or someone who has influenced you or do you just pick a name that sounds good out of a book? Can you really know for sure if the name you pick is going to influence how people see them or treat them? You have to think about unfortunate nicknames they might get saddled with. Even their initials can prove problematic. Other kids can be so cruel sometimes.

I guess it all comes down to picking a name that you like. One that you can stand hearing for a long time and hope that your child can as well. Any advice from other parents out there? How did you choose your child's name?

Becca's new ride

We'd been thinking about a new car for a while now. With a baby on the way, we wanted something a little bigger and a little safer than the Civic but with comparable fuel efficiency. It was a close race between the 2008 Honda CRV and the 2008 Nissan Rogue. In the end, the Rogue edged out the CRV and we couldn't be happier with our decision. We'll absorb a manageable increase in our monthly car payments but our insurance premium actually dropped by about $14 per month. Anyway, here's a photo of Becca's new ride. Click it for a larger version.

It's a boy!

Well they are 95% sure it's a boy anyway. They have to keep the 5% probability for themselves just in case they are wrong. We had our first trimester screening today which helps identify if our baby may have down syndrome, trisomy 18 or trisomy 13. Everything looks good so far, we'll get the results in about a week. After they took some measurements of our baby's neck and a small blood test, they took an early look and determined it's not an it any more, it's a he. :-)

We got to see him moving around and he even waved for us so we could see all his tiny little fingers. Heartbeat is still going strong at just over 160. This was the first time Chris got to see him moving, we are so excited. Below is one of the sono shots from today.