Grandma's Birthday and Ravinia

We had a surprise birthday party for my Grandma a week ago at my parents house. Here's my dad and Sonja waiting for the guest of honor to arrive.

My Grandma was definitely surprised!
Party on the party deck!!

It started raining so we had to momentarily move the party inside.

Even during the summer my family is cold in my parent's house. Pretty good for no air conditioning!

A week ago on Friday Stacy, Jonny, Annie, Kenny and I went to Ravinia for Steve Miller Band. It was a great time! Ravinia never disappoints.

Don't worry, I am drinking sparkling grape juice.

Do you see how good I am being with the stomach touching!!!

Kenny would not dance with Annie and Stacy would not dance with Jonny so they danced with each other.

Annie and Stacy "Rockin' Me Baby"

AFTERGLOW 2009!!!!!!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love and look forward to going up to Afterglow with my dad's side of the family for the 4th of July. It is always easy to figure out how many years we have been going because it is one year more than my age so this was our 28th year! It never gets old. This year it was weird to think about the fact that there will be another baby with us at Afterglow next year and even more weird to think that the baby will be ours!!! As you will see, this tradition even has many traditions within it!! What can I say, our family loves traditions. Afterglow did not disappoint as far as being able to relax and get away from every day life. I just wish that next year was not so far away.

Could these girls get any cuter???

At the parade in Phelps, WI. Gwen was stocked with candy for the whole week!

Welcome to the party island!! There was a hole in it at the end of Afterglow last year but thanks to my dad it was fixed and ready to go for this year!!!

Matching shirts :)

Our tradition for one of the nights is to go to Alexander's pizza, followed by ice cream, followed by the candy store and finished off with go-carts. Always a night to look forward to because we have a blast every year!

Gwen gets to go in the bounce castle AND on the go-carts. Lucky girl

This loon was stuck in the lake for a while because the lake was not big/long enough to fly across and then to get high enough to go over the trees. So it would swim to our end, take off, then land at the other end just to swim back again. I think there were around 10 attempts to leave the lake but we didn't mind watching the process over and over again.

In flight. It is amazing how much noise their wings make when they are taking off.

Something we do every morning is have 'breakfast club.' This is something that our dads started to get the kids out of the cabin so that the moms could sleep in. Now it is just nice to start every day having breakfast together outside on the lake.

The beach. There were not too many beach days because it was so windy but we took advantage of the ones we got. The other days were spent on the party island.

We had our second annual bags tournament. We put our names in a hat and pick our teams from there. Even Grandma and Grandpa play!!

That's it for this year!!!!

Gone Fishin and 14 week update

Last weekend Scott and I went out on Lake Michigan to do some salmon fishing with Scott's dad and his wife, Mary. I have to say, the water was rougher than when we went deep sea fishing on the ocean. I was very happy that I didn't get sea sick despite being 13.5 weeks pregnant but I can't say the same for Scott's dad.

Mary, Scott and I

Scott and I with Scott's Dad

One of the fish Scott caught

Here is the salmon I caught. It was the biggest fish we got...that's right. I caught it!

Here is everything we caught....2 trout and 6 salmon.

We had a great day! Thanks Bill and Mary!!!!

I am now 14 weeks along and I am feeling better. I feel like I am slowly gaining my energy back but I don't feel like I have tons of it. I am very happy to be in my 2nd trimester and even think I have felt the baby move a couple times (no it was not gas). It will be nice and fun when feeling the baby move is a more definite feeling and more regular. The bump is slowly coming along as you can see in the picture and I am starting to allow Scott and my friends to put their hands on my stomach without slapping them away. It's a big step for me :) I can still sleep on my stomach but I think that will soon be over which I am not excited about because I sleep on my stomach a lot. Oh well, it is for a good cause and only temporary. So far so good!

Go Cubs Go

We got great seats for the Cubs game the day before Father's Day and had a great time. It was a little too hot but they won and that is all we can ask for. GO CUBS!!

This is a picture (a bad one) of George Lopez who threw the 1st pitch. I would have zoomed in but that guy was in the way. He is just to the left of that guy.

George Lopez also sang the 7th inning stretch. Another bad picture of him with his back towards the field. Then my battery died.

Surprise!

Well a couple months ago, to our surprise and delight, we got a "pregnant" on a pregnancy test!!! What!!???!!!!! As Scott likes to say when we have told people "we just got married!" We are so excited and can't wait to be parents. We are excited too that our little one will have two cousins that are only a year older than him/her so that will be great.

My due date is December 30th and I can't think of a better Christmas present. (I am also excited to be able to use the "expectant mothers" parking spot at the malls during the holidays) If you are doing the math I am 12 weeks and we heard what our midwife describes as the "perfect" heartbeat just yesterday. I don't think any words can describe how incredible that sound is! Who knew that we might end up having a baby before our first wedding anniversary. As the saying goes "We plan and God laughs."

I have had a lot of people ask how I am feeling so I am sure some of you are wondering. Around week 7 and 8 I started feeling more nauseous but the worse of it went away by week 9. I kept the rest of my nauseous feelings under control by changing my eating habits and eating more frequently. I am most frustrated with how exhausted I am all the time!! I do what I can to help by getting 9 or 10 hours of sleep but not much that does not always work. There is just a lot going on in my body right now and that's that. I am hoping that I get some of that super energy that comes with the second trimester. I would not say that I have been having any particular cravings but I have been making fruit smoothies for breakfast which I have been loving and are good for me and the baby. Bonus! I actually just got back to my starting pregnancy weight so I have not gained any weight yet. Not a bad place to be in when coming close to the end of the first trimester.

So now for the pictures that everyone loves and expects.....including me :)

8 Weeks

12 Weeks

(the baby is the size of a lime)

As you can see there is still not too much there yet and we still have a ways to go...28 more weeks! We are excited and thrilled and can't believe how much love we already have for this baby! Thanks to everything who has sent us congrats. We are so happy to see all the love and support people already have for our little lime :)