We're Getting Ready

It's been an eventful week in our little family.  Last Saturday was my baby shower and I had so much fun!  Richie's sister Jami threw a great party -- there was a lot of delicious food, and at my request, no games (hooray!).  It was nice to just relax with friends and family and I received some really cute gifts too.  I think a baby shower is one of the final steps in mentally preparing for the baby and it was great to talk with other moms about what to expect.

Richie's mom and three of his sisters came: from left, Kari, Diane, me, Jami and Andi.  

We also got to physically prepare this week as we had some medical excitement again with a little trip to the hospital.  I was in a lot of pain and the general consensus was that I probably passed a kidney stone.  I guess it was a good preview for what I'm about to experience in labor.  I now feel like if I can endure the passing of a kidney stone, I can probably survive the pains of labor.  We had a good dress rehearsal this week so we're ready.  Just 4 more weeks until my due date.  

Ahhh ... the pool

I'm posting these pictures of our pool so that one day I can remember back to the first time I was pregnant and I spent hours and hours in the pool.  Sometimes I swim laps, sometimes I make up dorky water aerobics exercies, sometimes Richie joins me and we recap the day and on occasion I'll invite a friend or two to keep me company.  No matter how I rule the pool, it's nice to get some relief from my back pain and the summer heat.  Every day I am grateful for the pool.  

 

Grateful for Dad

Today we take some time to reflect on our dads.  As Richie and I are about to become parents, we are grateful for our fathers and the good examples they have set for us.  As you can see in the pictures below, both our dads, Steve and Kenny, look happy to be with their kids and to this day, both seem happiest when they are surrounded by their families.  Happy Father's Day!

This picture was taken on my 1st birthday and I think we were somewhere in Utah.  My mom says she always kept a bandana on my head because I didn't have hair until I was 2 years old.

Here Richie is about 3 and a half and is with his dad at a company picnic (yes I cropped out Colonel Sanders).  Even at a young age Richie detested having his picture taken.

Happy Birthday Aunt Sheila

My Aunt Sheila and I share the same birthday and today she hits a big milestone.  We wish we could be in Portland for her party and wish her well.  For the big night, My mom asked everyone to share a favorite memory of Sheila and below is one of mine.

When I was younger she invited my siblings and me over to her house for the evening.  We went out to pizza and I think we all ate more slices that we should have.  Then after dinner we went to the grocery store by her house and she let us pick out any ice cream and all the toppings we wanted.  

We were so excited to eat amazing ice cream sundaes, but when we finally got back to her house the pizza had settled and we were uncomfortably full.  We reluctantly told Sheila that we were too full to eat ice cream, which I remember being really sad about.  Fancy ice cream sundaes with all the fixings were not a frequent treat at our house and we truly felt spoiled by our aunt that night.  But we were just too full to eat any more.

That didn’t seem to matter to Sheila because she proceeded to force us to eat the ice cream.  She probably spent like $50 on ice cream and toppings and she was going to make sure that we had fun and enjoyed the yummy dessert.  We were told we had to eat the ice cream.  I remember we all protested, but she kindly told us that we couldn’t leave until we ate some.  Most kids are forced to eat broccoli or Brussels sprouts, but that night our aunt made us sit at the table until we ate our ice cream. 

Kicking Like a Champ

Don't freak out mom.  The baby is fine.  I'm fine.   The baby just took a little break from kicking most of the day yesterday and I started to get a little worried.  So we took a little field trip to the hospital last night to check things out.  Not long after I got all hooked up, our little one kicked and then kicked some more.  The doctor also ordered an ultrasound so we got to see our baby, super cute and moving around.    

So here's a little cell phone pic of last night's excitement. We were happy everything was fine.

A New Start

So, we're back.  Where have we been?  Oh, you know.  Around.  Maybe we've been a little lazy, not taking pictures to share or wanting to take the time to sum up all our activities.  Or maybe we've had less to share.  Life gets busy and not everything is super interesting or blog worthy.  Needless to say, we're going to forget the past year and a half of non-blogging and just move forward.  And, we're about to have something really interesting to blog about.  We're having a baby!  Most of you probably already knew that, but we thought we'd publish the big news to make it official.  Little Baby Bristow is due July 23rd.  Only about 7 weeks to go.