Life Right Now

Life keeps moving on.  Brad is BUSY with school.  He has had at least one test a week right now.  And this was the "easiest" month.  Brad has 7 exams in the next 5 weeks, 5 of which are finals.  The exciting part is that he is also starting his dental restoration class which will be a lot more hands on dentistry.

I'm keeping busy.  By this point I thought I might be going a little crazy, but honestly I've had enough going on and a big new project.  Perhaps sometime soon we will have more news about that.  But I've thrown in a few fun projects here and there.  I recently finished this scarf and hat.  I had a pattern for the hat, but I made up the pattern for the scarf to match.  I love how it turned out!

As for the last member of our family, I'm starting to really feel the baby more and baby boy has given me a few good jabs and kicks.  For example, I had to give a talk in church last week.  I don't mind writing talks, but hate giving them.  Anyways, my heart was racing and the baby didn't like me being so nervous.  It gave me a few good kicks telling me to stop.  Funny boy.

One thing we are excited for right now is our Spring Break in March.  We're going to Utah!  I'm so excited to go see our friends and family there.  We keep coming up with things we want to do while we are visiting.  With our expanding list I hope we have time for it all!  But all we are really wanting is to make it through this month so we can enjoy our break with our family.

It's a . . .

It's a BOY!  Our sweet little baby boy was asleep when we started the ultrasound (not in a useful position), but he woke up at the end and helped us out.  We were able to see everything we needed to today.  He is healthy and growing well, which we are both grateful for.

While we were watching our baby's heartbeat, I asked Brad if he could tell what was what on our baby's heart.  He said he could (the ultrasound was so detailed you could actually see all four chambers of the heart, so cool!)  Our tech asked if Brad was in the medical field, and Brad explained that he was in dental school.  After that our tech started pointing out more of what we were seeing.  So while I didn't really know what they were seeing, Brad was very excited to know all the structures.

Also, while we were looking at the baby's head, I asked if the baby had teeth at this point.  The tech said she wasn't sure.  Brad said the teeth buds are there from early on, but they are so small and not calcified you can't see them.  Go Brad for knowing the answer when the tech didn't.

Today we got to see baby's calcified bones, baby's tongue while he was swallowing, stomach, all ten fingers, baby's feet, head and profile, and yes, found out it's a boy.  There was a lot more than that, but that's what I remember most.  It was amazing to see how much our baby has grown.  I think we got so used to seeing such a little peanut floating in there on our early ultrasounds (our last one was at 12 weeks) that it was surprising to see how big he is getting.

When he woke up it was so cute, he kept bringing up his hands to his face and rubbing his eyes (that's what he's doing in the picture.)  At least that's what I think he was doing.

And for my dear sister who keeps threatening me, here's what I look like this week.

Now all the fun projects and shopping start since we know it's a boy!

Home for the Holidays

We have been dying to go home to Minnesota for Christmas.  We had lots things we wanted to do while we were there.  You know, opening presents, eating out, french pancakes, playing games, shopping, puzzles, cooking, hanging out with family.  All the good stuff about being home for the holidays.  It did not disappoint.

Doug really saved Christmas this year.  And surprisingly without singing dancing animals.  I think they got replaced with these.  A cow pen and duck pen that would light up and make noise.

But our favorite was this little gem.  Air swimmers.  As Doug put it, they're the new helicopters.

Christmas was simply great because it was spent with our family relaxing.  It was exactly what we wanted.  There were lots of puzzles, games, and good food.  We're a little sad to be back "home" in Philadelphia and wish the break would have been longer!