Baby E, You are Already Loved.

My Dear Baby E,

I have not worked on any craft projects for the last couple of months.  I've been saving my energy for the greatest craft of all: making you!  It's been a rough ride at times, but I know it's all worth my energy and effort. 

Your daddy and I found out about you when I was 5.5 weeks along on May 27th.  We kept you our little secret for a few weeks.  We had fun whispering and giggling about you, and reveling in the knowledge that your precious little body was quickly forming!  I thought about how I wanted to share the news with our friends and family.  We decided to wait until Uncle Jeremy was back in OR from Texas on vacation with Shannon.  That would be Father's day weekend - June 20th.  We put together little photo books to give to our dads for Father's Day.  Pictures of your daddy and I growing up, of family, and of our parents.  We wrote blurbs to go with each picture and told our dad's how much we appreciated all that they did for us; for being hard workers, and taking us fishing and camping and for loving us.  We told them that we loved them.  And on the last page, we included a picture of my positive pregnancy test picture and your due date, Jan 24, 2011.  We told them that you love them too.  (We know you will. :))  Grandma Anderson started bawling and Grandpa Anderson said, "right on!" with a big grin on his face.  You'll get used to hearing him say "right on" when he's excited about something. :)  Grandpa Miller read the book by himself first while Grandma Miller was doing dishes - she thought it was just a grandpa present for father's day.  Grandpa Miller looked up, grinning and just said, "really!?" He called Grandma Miller over to come read along with him.  Grandma Miller was a little shocked, I think, that her baby was having a baby.  She went back to the kitchen and back to doing dishes.  She takes a little while to process things sometimes, but no fears: she was excited about you. :)  Your aunts and uncles were all excited about you too - and especially your oldest cousin Kaily!  She is so adorable and loving to you already!  Every time I see her, she runs up and says, "Hi Kayla! Hi Baby E!" and gives my tummy a big hug and a kiss.  She is so excited to meet you and play with you!  She said if you are a girl, that she can help change diapers!  I assured her that girl OR boy, she can definitely help! ;)

We waited another week to tell our friends the good news.  We host game nights here and there and decided that would be the best way to share!  We invited our friends for food and games.  Above the food table in the kitchen, I hung up a banner that said, "Bun in the Oven!"  The women all got it, the men were a little slower. :) Your "uncle" Brad took the longest.  He went in the kitchen to talk with your daddy for about 10 minutes, and came back out saying nothing.  I sent him back out in the kitchen.  He refused.  I had to tell him 3 times to go back in the kitchen, before he finally got up from the couch (a little annoyed at me) and went in there.  I had to tell him to look at the banner.  He read it aloud.  Pause....Long pause.  "Are you guys pregnant?" Big nods yes.  "Alright! I'm going to be an uncle!"  It was fun to see our friends get our news.  Gemma was very excited and cannot wait for you to hang out with Silas! 

That same night, I posted this blog on here and also posted on Facebook and let my other friends and distant family read about our home and see who caught on to the big news at the bottom of the page. :)  They were pretty quick!

At that point, I had been feeling pretty well, but was beyond exhausted, and felt queasy towards some foods.  That next week, yikes.  I started the "morning" sickness pretty bad.  It was really like 8 am - 8 pm sickness.  I never have vomited, but I dry heaved a good number of times!! 

Here are some pictures of you growing in my tum!  I'm pretty sure that by the end of this, I'll be sticking straight out like a watermelon!  I'm too short and have no where else for you to go.  Don't make me look too goofy, ok?

8 weeks: (um, and please pardon the underwear...)

 

9 weeks:

10.5 weeks:

11 weeks:

12 weeks:

And finally, we got an ultrasound.  We got to see you!!  The tech said that you were a challenge to get a good photo of!  I told her that you must take after your father. ;)  Finally, we got you though.  We got a lot of good pictures of you!  It was so fun to see you bouncing around, moving your arms and legs.  You even waved to us once.  You have the most precious, adorable little fingers.  I cannot wait until they wrap around one of my fingers.  We saw your heart beating, and saw you put your hand up on your face.  Too cute. :)

Here are your arms and legs:

You can kind of see you waving at us here!

I love you; you are way too precious already. :)

I am so so SO excited about you, Baby E.  I'll be posting more about you soon.

Love,
Your Momma

P.S. Do what you can in there to come out with daddy's dimple, ok??

California Roadtrip!

Warning: Picture heavy post!! Hope you don't mind... :)

We are back.  It was a much needed and wonderfully adventurous vacation.

We started out Thursday night after work and made it down to Medford area to the Rogue River by about 8pm.  We decided to just camp for the night so we went to the Valley of the Rogue State Park....I am so glad we were there only to sleep.  It was essentially a glorified rest area, not to mention that the couple who arrived before us and were in the campsite next to us, totally pitched their tent under the small grove of trees on OUR campsite... We got a talking to by the hippie couple who took our camping spot about using dish soap to wash our dishes...We would've liked to know how the gas mileage on their BMW compared to our Subaru...but whatever. :)

Anyway, morning came finally after an uncomfortable sleep and we packed up and headed to our next destination: The Oregon Vortex.  Totally worth going to... (but not if that's your only reason for heading down South.) Have you heard about this place??  Here's the info.  Basically, the magnetic field in this small area is funky (pardon my scientific jargon. ;)) and the way the light reflects in the vortex makes things/people look larger or smaller depending on where they are in the vortex...  Here's some pics!

Skyler balancing the broom in the original crooked house (happened naturally from a mudslide or something)

Me looking "taller"

Me looking shorter!!

After the morning in the vortex, we drove the 30 min to Ashland and walked around the big park there (Skyler had never been).  Look, we found an Anderson Fountain!  Joy! :)

In the Park - 10.5 weeks

And then we found our favorite thing ever - self serve frozen yogurt... :) Never cheap, but always delicious.  Look at all the toppings at this place!

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See, told you we like it.

After our short Ashland jaunt, we drove down to San Francisco, with a quick stop in Anderson, CA, just for a photo op. :)  

 

I think we were at a total of like 600 miles by the time we reached San Francisco.  The sun was setting as we crossed the bridge and Alcatraz looked quite peaceful there on its island by itself.  We got settled in our hotel and asked for the nearest In-N-Out because my dear Skyler couldn't hold out any longer. :)  I had never been, and for once since this pregnancy - greasy hamburgers didn't sound totally awful.  

We spent the next day just strolling around the piers and town, and ate an awesome Ghirardelli sundae.  Let me tell you - hard for a pregnant woman to find a bathroom every 15 minutes in a big city!!  New York might not be the best choice in September when I'm 6 months pregnant....

 The following day, July 4th, we headed down to our next destination: L.A.  But we took a pit stop in San Jose to visit the Winchester Mansion.  It was quite easy to determine that this woman was a paranoid, crazy lady.  10,000 windows and doors in this 160 room mansion.  Not all rooms were finished, and some were damaged in an earthquake and never repaired.  We couldn't take pictures in the house unfortunately, but wow wow wow.  So crazy.  Windows everywhere - like she needed clear views of all the rooms so she could see if someone was sneaking up on her or something.  A staircase that went to the ceiling.  Cupboards and doors that opened up to the wall.  It's totally worth seeing.  I wouldn't go frequently because it's spendy, but definitely worth seeing once.  We'll probably go back when we've got a bunch of kids. :)  Here's some of the exterior though:

 We made it to L.A. at about 7 pm, after driving for 6 hours through the nasty nasty desert/dry hills down I-5...Ewww.  It was awful.  But we made it :)  We went to my friend Jen's house and we all walked up a hill by her house and watched all the little cities surrounding having their firework shows.  There were literally about 40-50 firework shows going on simultaneously!  It was so crazy!  You could see them going on everywhere.  Unfortunately, we couldn't stay up there too long because...well, pregnancy bladder got the best of me. :)  We spent the next day at Universal Studios Hollywood!  I'd never been to this one before (only in Orlando); the studio tour was really cool! (Even though we had to wait for almost 2 hours for it and it was in the HEAT of the day with NO shade for the first 1/2 of the line...

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The New York set

Wisteria Lane!

The following day, my friend Jen met up with us again and showed us around Hollywood.  We walked Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd, drove through Beverly Hills, past the Getty and to Venice Beach!  Venice Beach was an experience, that's for sure!  "The Doctor's in! Get legalized!" ... if you know what I mean. But it was a beautiful day, a nice stroll and a fairly uncrowded Venice Beach, and delicious burgers. 

Squint and you'll see the Hollywood sign on the mountain in the back :)

 On our walk to Venice Beach

Jen and I at Venice Beach

Later, before heading back to our hotel, we went to the Santa Monica Pier and checked out the ferris wheel and carnival rides, and Skyler got another one of his beloved smashed pennies (he thinks he has about 120 now.)

 
The next day we were to head down to San Diego, but decided to do just a bit more in LA.  I wanted to drive down Rodeo Drive (not sure what all the fuss is about), and we went to the Getty Museum.  Free, awesome museum - all you pay is $15 for parking and then you take the tram to the top of the hill where the elaborate Getty Museum sits.  We aren't really "museum people", meaning we can appreciate them for an hour, maybe two...but we really just like to stroll through and not do too much reading and staring at objects.  They had a great garden and magnificent views of LA though.  Then, one more stop at Venice Beach again because Skyler had seen a wrestling mask that he decided he had to have.... "Our kids will love it when I wrestle them in it!" .... he knows how to get me to agree. :) 

LOOK at this bed!! I want it.  It's almost like a crib.  I would love to sleep in a crib. :)

 View of LA

 Um....What?!

By late afternoon we headed down the 101 towards Huntington Beach.  Skyler, an avid surfer, wanted to see it.  Also, every year a big paintball tournament is played there right on the beach.  So, double bonus for him going there.  :)  We didn't get to San Diego till dark, but we had a fun, lazy trip down South and that's all that matters when you're on an adventure!

11 Weeks :)

 

In San Diego, I unfortunately didn't feel too well either day we were down there.  Plus it was overcast and 64-67 degrees the whole time.  So, no SeaWorld and no San Diego Zoo for us.  But we went to Point Loma, rang the Friendship Bell on Shelter Island at 11 pm, ate an elegant fondue meal at The Melting Pot, strolled downtown during nightlife hours (but we were far underdressed to go in any clubs), saw the Mexico border, roamed around Balboa Park, and did a lot of laying in bed watching HGTV (due to me feeling sick). 

Melting Pot!

 

Balboa Park - they had the cooolest plants in this ... building?

And then, we made a stop at Belmont Park for some more Fro Yo and a nice walk!

And the border....ain't she pretty?! ;)

Then, like the stallion that he is, Skyler made the entire trip from San Diego back to Salem, 1200 miles, in 18 hrs straight....from 10:30 am Sat morning to 4:30 am Sun morning!  And I slept. :) And drove a meager 100 of the miles at about 9:30 pm because I forced him to take a power nap.  My butt has never been so sore in my life.  Fun adventurous trip, but I am so glad to be home!!

Love, K