Si's First Party

Our first baby shower! Caleb and I flew home a couple of weekends ago for our very first baby shower with family and friends from the Northwest! It was a
quick trip and a lot of plane and car travel to reach our destination (my parents
house), but so worth it! We were blessed to spend time with both Caleb's and my
sides of the family as well as some great friends.

Of course, we jumped on the plane without our camera and had then, no pictures to document our trip, thankfully my mother and Becky came through for us...the

only problem is that I had to download them from a Kodak website which apparently only allowed me to save mini-pics....so happy looking if you can actually see any of these. If you can't tell, we had a great time. Some of you may
recognize yourselved in these, but maybe not! One of my friends here in AZ commented about how savy I must be with computers to figure out how to blog

and add pictures, etc....well FYI, you don't really have to know anything at all about computers or uploading or downloading anything...just somtimes you end up with mini-pics and weird spaces that someone smarter or with more time probably could figure our how to rectify. But not me, I am fine with mediocrity! So blog away folks, it's easy!

So here is the quick recap of our crazy weekend to WA...Caleb and I love to fly, mainly I think, because of the expectation and excitment of traveling in general.
So on Thursday, early in the morning we drove to the airport and excitedly got our lattes at the airport which always signifies the beginning of any trip. Then we

sat on two different planes for a total of...all day...before landing in Seattle. Got in just in time to meet Caleb's family and had a fabulous dinner with them!

Unfortunately, Thursday night, I had a HORRIBLE allergy attack which consisted of lots of misery, the inability to breathe and unfortunately quite a lot of benadryl. I

mention this just to fill you in on what I believe was probably my first failure as a

mother: I know benadryl is on the "somewhat safe list" for pregnancy, but I also realize that pregnancy-safe, with any drug really just means that drugging your baby is better than both of us dying due to lack of oxygen in my lungs.

It was a terrible experience when at 4 am I was popping my third benadryl of the night and sobbing to Caleb about the perminent damage I was likley causing to our child. It was a tad over the top in the hormonally crazy department, but really only a fairly average glimpse into my hormonal mood swings lately! I thought for much of this pregnancy that I was handling it all in stride, but about a month ago my hormones and emotional state went crazy and even I could easily recognize that I've slipped into some sort of weird psychotic pregnancy world of crying...all the time for no reason.

Anyway, after Thursday night, Josiah was definatly moving less, or at least it seemed that way to me, so whether or not I put him in a little baby coma, I am sure that anytime in his life anything goes wrong, I will blame it on the benadryl.

(or whatever I do next to inadvertantly tramatize my child).

But Friday came and baby eventually woke up and our little family drove to Yakima! We had a great time with my family, Case and Jarrad and the girls came with another good friend of ours from Tacoma and we girls took my mother out on the town for mothers day on Friday night!

We had the shower on Saturday complete with some silly games in which groups of my family and friends creatively made up songs about my growing family to the tune of "Old McDonald had a Farm" Some of my favorite lines were...

"Here a labor, there a labor, everywhere a labor, labor" "...will Shep end up in the

pound?" and "with some breast pads here and some fresh wipes there..."

It was a very entertaining game by the way.

After the shower, we let the boys come back and BBQ for us all! A great day and wonderful for us to get to share two great parties in one day with all of you who we see so rarely.

Sadly, on Sunday it was back to Seattle for another day of travel and back to work on Monday...but at least we will always have these tiny pictures to remember Josiah's first party!

April in Review...

April was an okay month...I think. I can't quite remember where it went or what I did except that I never really let you all in on what was happening. I had to take a peek at the last post
to remember what was going on...oh, six weeks ago. I am afraid I look quite different now! I am almost 28 weeks along which means that I am just starting the last trimester. Hard to believe!

My mother has now flipped her little baby widget on the blog to count down rather than up! It is hard to believe I am almost done...although, we've just entered that time in AZ where it is over 100 degrees each and every day in a given 10-day forecast...which means that I may stop believing that this pregnancy is flying by soon...I sense the dragging on and on about to set in!

I still feel great. Hardly a thing to complain about...a co-worker of mine tells me that after week 27 I will magically lose my ability to sleep. I really hope that is not true for me! I get really grumpy with no sleep but I guess I am going to have to get used to it sooner or later, right?

Last time I posted I was getting ready to head back to the doctor for another ultrasound and I was a little nervous. Well I am happy to report that although Si was still breech a month after the first ultrasound, they were able to get much better pictures of him this time and he is, I'm sure the healthiest kid ever! Seems to be growing like a champ...just like his mother!

So here is a quick update on Josiah and some photo memories of our fly-by April....hoping May brings much more down time and a little less work, no offense Catholic Charities, but I could use some down time. Thankfully they are releasing me from my servitude this coming weekend! Caleb and I will be going to Yakima for my first baby shower! How exciting! Hopefully I will get to see some of you there! And hope you read this before hand so I don't get too much gruff about not posting anything for over 6 weeks! Okay, now for the update.

Si weights over 2 pounds, so they say. I think he is likely around 15 inches long from head to foot. He is moving a ton now which is one of the most thrilling things I have ever experienced! I love to feel him move. Even better is now I can sometimes even see him move...no hand or footprints yet, but definitely an attempt to escape from the belly! A few friends even got to experience this weird "belly roll" the other day...which was a little alien. One of my favorite things so far is getting to feel him have the hiccups inside of me! WOW, babies are a miracle! Caleb and I are getting so excited to be parents and can simply not wait to meet our son!

Here are some other things that have been keeping us busy...


Caleb got the incredible opportunity to participate in the biggest sailboat race in the world a few weeks ago! We have some great friends here who have a sailboat in Newport and for several years have done the Newport to Ensenada race.

Well, Caleb apparently proved himself last Thanksgiving and joined a crew of 7 other guys to make his first international voyage.

I think there were like 500 + boats involved in the race and the boys had a great time. It took

them right around 24 hours to finish the race and then they took their time coming back to Newport from Ensenada.

I like to think of them being on the "fun team" 'cause let's just say they didn't come in very close to the front of the pack!

While the guys were sailing, I got to spend the weekend in Tucson with the wives club! We stayed in a hotel, went out to dinner and attended an amazing conference held by one of my friends' spiritual mentors.


Here are the guys after the big finish! Several of
the youth from church went with their fathers and Caleb was blessed to meet some new friends as well. I think he is hoping he'll be invited back next year!








We had an exciting weekend this past weekend
as well...we learned how to paint stripes on a wall! Finally we got around to painting the nursery! It turned out great and we love it. Caleb and I are very thankful to have wonderful and crafty friends here that are willing to help us in our time of need....if it weren't for them, we'd still have green walls and a mediocre motivation to change it. Thanks, guys!

The best part is our friends are willing to work for food! Caleb received his long awaited Traeger BBQ smoker a couple of weeks ago and since then, we have experienced a ton of productivity as we bribe our friends to help us get stuff done that Caleb and I are not talented enough to do on our own! We just promise them salmon or steak and they come right over with paint supplies and smiles! We love them very much and are so thankful for our friends here!

So here is the nursery! We love it and feel like Si will of course, move right in with thankfulness in his heart for all the work it took to put brown and blue stripes on his walls. He now has the best room in the house by far! Which is great, because I plan to spend a lot of time in that room in the middle of the night very soon.







By the looks of these pictures, you'd think Caleb was the hardest worker in the group....those are strategic, I guess. Caleb and the boys did some work on the yard and enjoined an afternoon was napping and watching golf...














This is who really made the magic happen! I am so thankful for Traci and Bethany who are expert painters and got us through our first set of stripes!

22 weeks

Si seems to be doing great! It is really fun to talk, sing and read to him. My mother and sister are so great at making up songs....that must be a learned skill that you develop with motherhood because I am a little rusty in the creativity department! I'll keep practicing.

We also got news the other day that "the ultrasound pictures were not clear enough" (says my nurse) and we need to go back (on April 13) for another altrasound. A little ensettling, but she assured us that there was nothing that they saw that was cause for concern, rather they just didn't get good enough pictures (maybe due to his position during the last ultrasound). Part of me is excited to get to see him again, but it is also unnerving to hear about anything even slightly out of the ordinary. I'll keep you posted.

I just copied one of the email updates I get each week so you could see baby's progress during week 22! We're flying here! I will try to copy one of these each week so you can follow along with me. The picture is always kind of cute.

Week 22: Get Moving--No ExcusesYour Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy --

By BabyFit

Your Baby This Week You and baby are both eager to meet each other! Your baby is kicking up a storm, and you feel like you're getting bigger every day. Your baby weighs more than 12 ounces (.35 kg) and is more than 7 inches (18 cm) long! Baby's eyelids and eyebrows have developed and her muscles are growing stronger--something you can feel by the strength of the movement in your tummy! Your baby is probably moving more regularly now-not just once in a while!

After birth, she'll recognize the songs you sing or play for her now, resulting in a soothing effect.Your Body This Week Although your tummy is growing, you should still feel comfortable and energetic enough to bend over easily and move around.

If you are feeling exceptionally tired, make certain to get a blood test for anemia, which is common during pregnancy. Time for a Nutrition Check-up You've recently passed the halfway point of your pregnancy, so the day you set your nutritional and health goals may seem like a long time ago. How well are you acquainted with your good intentions? As we settle back down into personal everyday routines, falling back into some old habits can be easy, painless and even without recognition. Think about or dig up your initial nutrition goals. What has been easy? A challenge? Something you forgot to try? A change you didn't like or couldn't keep for very long? One way to test of how well you're sticking with your program is by comparing some healthy snack rehab ideas.

Your Best Excuse Not To Exercise Excuses. When it comes to exercise, they're as varied as the individuals who voice them. Lost interest. Lost my workout buddy. Lost my motivation. Lost directions to the gym. Lost my shoes. But one excuse is pretty universal among most--no time! In our frenzied way of thinking, one of the hardest concepts to understand is that taking time to exercise has such an impact on the rest of your life that it can actually save you time. More energy, clearer thinking, more endurance--these are all things that can help you take care of the rest of the day more efficiently. No more excuses. Check out this collection of ways to be inefficient on purpose.

Josiah David Fields

We finally have decided on the perfect name for our son. We are very excited to announce that Josiah is doing well and really starting to kick up a storm. As you may remember Caleb and I were having a terrible time deciding on a name. We went round and round with many possibilities and wanted to share with you not only our decision (which we think is final but of course, always subject to change) but also the reason for our decision and the meaning behind the name Josiah.

Josiah literally means "Fire of God". So, come on, how cool is that!? We could have stopped there, but the actual reason we chose the name is because of who the person Josiah was in the Bible. Feel free to read all about our inspiration starting around 2 Kings 22. Some of you may know that there were a long line of Kings who ruled both Judah and Israel throughout history. In the beginning Judah and Israel were united and there was a King who ruled the entire nation. Those Kings were Saul, David and then Solomon. After those first 3 kings, the kingdoms were seperated and seperate kings ruled the two territories. Well, many generations passed and there was never, ever a good king in Israel and in the whole history there were only recorded to have ever been 4 good kings in Judah. Josiah was one of those good kings.

Josiah was the son of a very evil king. His father died and Josiah became king of Judah when he was just 8 years old. Even from that early age, he was a very good and faithful king. At the age of 25, Josiah initiated total reform of Judah and reintroduced the scriptures to the people of Judah. He took down all the objects of pagan worship that other generations had errected and he completely brought the entire nation back to the Lord. Until that time, the scriptures had been completely lost, but Josiah found a copy of what is probably the book of Deuteronomy and had it read to all the people. He reestablished scripture as the cornerstone of what people should base their life on. We see Josiah, today as being a man of faith, wisdom, obedience and most of all, an incredible passion to serve God.

It is so obvious when you read the bible that names are so important to God. The Lord often gave a new name to a person to reflect their character or a specific role He was calling them too. Also, all throughout scripture, the meaning of names are given to help you understand the significance of the person that is being talked about. For our son, we wanted to honor how much God cares about the meaning of a name and we wanted to honor our son by giving him a name that represents the character that we are praying that he posess. We plan to raise him to love the Lord and to serve Him and we especially love that Josiah of the bible loved God and remained faithful from the time he was a small child. We are believing that our Josiah will also become a faithful man of God who is a reformer and a leader.

So there you have it! Thus the reason for naming him what most of our youth think is "weird". I have been using the nickname "Si" a lot when I talk to him (No "Joe" please).

David (our choice for the middle name) was also a king (and also a very good king) but rather than having a fixation with royalty, we just thought David sounded good with Josiah. What do you think?

So...a bible lesson and homework assignment had the makings of a pretty boring post, so I thougth I should at least put some pictures in here and talk about what else is going on in life. (Not that anything is more important than what is going on in the bible!) Here is a picture of the first little shirt Caleb and I bought Si. We had mistakenly been under the impression that there were no cute boy clothes out there, but we are starting to come around. I know this hoodie isn't very "AZ" but hopefully it will get some good wear when we are home for Christmas.

Here is another updated belly-pic. Getting bigger! I promised myself and most of my friends that I was not going to be a complainer after all we went through to get pregnant in the first place. I truely am so thankful for the breeze of a pregnancy I have had and the incredible joy I feel for getting the privilage of experiencing it. However....due to Caleb's back problem we have a very firm matress which is totally fine with me (although pregnant or not, I would prefer to sleep on a soft fluffy cloud anyday)! but now that I am pregnant is it okay to complain about the fact that my hips are soooo sore!? Firm matress was fine when I could sleep on my stomach or back but now with only the sides as options, it has been pretty hard to sleep. I even tried sleeping in the guest room last night (mmmm...remember my college bed, Laura? Didn't you want to sleep forever on that fluffy cloud!?) So I slept there for one night, but missed Caleb too much so I won't be doing that again. It was a nice break for my hips but who wants to sleep alone? Actually it was really not even a better night sleep due to the printer noises and water heater turning on, not to mention the few glow in the dark stars that still remain on the ceiling from the last homeowners. Printer noises? you might ask... my printer started making noises in the middle of the night. I woke up and almost became convinced that it was going to feed the paper and print me some creepy ghost message, but thankfully it stopped short of a terrible horror film I'm sure someone's made. I guess we have a few modifications to make before the guest room/office will be guest ready. Sorry to all of you who've already had to endure the stars.

IT'S A BOY!!!!

I didn't want anyone to miss my story about finding out because they were trying to scan the blog to find out, so I decided to just lay the good news out there in the beginning! After almost 20 weeks of calling baby he/she we finally have our answer! And we couldn't be happier! As my father stated when we told him...we are really just concerned about his health and would be so happy with a boy or a girl...but a BOY is just a little bit BETTER!

We had been looking forward to this day happening on Wednesday. In fact we took the afternoon off work and planned to go out to an early dinner before youth group to celebrate our findings. I also had intentions of recording the whole thing via photo and video so that I could share our whole experience with you all. So we got to our OB's offce right on time and sat in the waiting room for about 40 minutes. Despite our embarrasment, we had a nice lady take pictures of us "anxiously waiting the big news". It's no surprise to you, I'm sure that several women laughed out loud at us and our "photographer" commented that this must be our first child. What's a little embarrasment in exchange for good memories?!

I had this whole thing planned that I was going to picture-introduce you to our doc (who was out delivering a baby that day, hense our 40 minute wait), take you on a tour of the office, and take both video and pictures to help you feel like you were there with us... but then our dreams were dashed and I lost my motivation.

We were escorted into the exam room and I inocently asked when the ultrasound takes place so I would know how much water to keep drinking (I was already at capasity). And the nurse gave us the weirdest look in the world, right before she informed us that they did not have us scheduled for an ultrasound on that day...and that the ultrasound tech had never ever in her career ever worked on a Wednesday: Someone screwed up and I so badly wanted to take it out on this flustered lady...she must have felt so awkward standing in front of two grown people who were tearing up and about to throw a tantrum. So I didn't take it out on her. We just took it for the unexplainable injustice that it was and tried to wait quietly and patiently for them to figure out what went wrong. And then our good behavior was rewarded when they were able to get us in at 7 am the next morning. I think they could tell that we were not able to handle even 24 more hours!

So for the moment we were forced to settle for a "regular" appointment. We did get to hear the hearbeat again. Cool I guess, except that we already new he had a heart...it was the other parts we were interested in! The heartbeat was just a little anticlimactic at that point. No offence, my son, it was still great. Your mom and dad were just a little hard to please on our big day: Take 1.


Which is why I am wearing a different outfit for our big day: take 2. Thankfully our wonderful tech skipped breakfast, I'm sure, to get us in before her shift was even supposed to start. We decided not to test our luck by trying to take a video in the ultrasound room: I've heard that's a no no. So Caleb got this rather flattering picture instead! The screen babe, take a picture of the baby! that's what I meant to say.

We did get lots of great pics of the baby. See below! Our little man listened to the advice that we have been imparting on him for weeks now: Modesty is very important...except for today! He did not disappoint! Good job, Love! We could tell (read: our ultrasound tech could tell) almost immediately that we have a man in here. She also could tell that he had 10 toes and fingers (the split screen photo is of his cute toesies if you can't tell), and all the vital organs appeared to be perfect and cooking right on schedule. He weighs 8 oz!

The two at the bottom are my favorite! I love seeing his little profile! Doesn't it look like, from the profile one, that all his facial features are proportional!? He is perfect! The one second-from-the-bottom is of his little face-facing us. Caleb and I have been joking for months about the fields nose. Judging by that face pic, it looks like we might have passed that gene along. Sorry, little one. Who are we kidding, he didn't stand much of a chance: See pictures of parents above. We may have to teach our child that, although they fit, quarters should never be placed in your nostrils. It's important to start thinking through those valuable lessons.

We have been thinking a lot about names of course and hoping that by the time this day came, we would have firmly established what we will be calling him. I think we have narrowed the field now to 2 possibilites. Caiden Elijah and
Josiah David. Those names are not similar in the least so I am hoping one floats to the surface sometime soon. We have really hoped to be able to call him by name and pray for him by name for the rest of this pregnancy, but we may just have to wait until we meet him to be sure.
It was an exciting day and very fun to connect with some of you over the phone. We are so thankful for all of you
and can't wait for you all to meet our son! We are even more excited to think about all the ways so many of you will love and support our little man throughout his life! Thanks for joining us in this part of the journey!

17 1/2 weeks

Well here I am, almost at the end of February, man, scratch that, beginning of March! I want you to know that I had great intentions to update the blog for the past three or so weeks, but isn't it amazing how those days and weeks just fly by....in some ways.

At 17 weeks, it still feels like the pregnancy is inching by...not because its awful! In fact, I love it! And I think Caleb loves it too, except I have noticed a few times so far where my hormonal, emotional thing has gotten the best of me. But anyway, I think the main reason that pregnancy seems to be inching along is because we still have 2 weeks until we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Doesn't it seem like we should have found out by now?!

Don't worry, I tried. I had a very enlightening conversation with our OB after I begged her to do the ultrasound at 15 weeks rather than 19. My thinking: I know you can tell earlier than 19, why not take a peak...her thinking: we are not actually doing this expensive medial procedure so that you and your husband can choose colors for the nursery; we are doing them to view your baby's organs after they have developed to a certain point: 19 weeks. So apparently there are real medical reasons for placing that ultrasound just out of our reach for another couple weeks. And I guess they are more important. So I promise, two weeks from now, we will post the big news: many prayers please on March 11 that all is well with baby. The medical stuff is still a little nerve wracking for me but I am also very confident that all is great.

While we wait, Caleb and I have puchaced a few things that we are really excited about. On Valentines day, Caleb and I and another couple braved a huge crowd at the REI garage sale in hopes of finding a cheap baby backpack. We got up at 4:00 AM to sit in line with hundreds of other outdoorsy people all ready to compete for cheap, used gear (that is, we got up at 4 to get in line; many slept in tents overnight but we are just not that hard-core). If you have never been competitive shopping, let me tell you that you can't really go into it with one thing that you want to buy. It will almost never be there. The tricky thing about this sale is that REI is very sneaky. They cover all the merchandise so that you can't spend your 4 hours in line scouting out the land and planning your strategy. You have to be surprised with everyone else. So after 4 hours of cell phone Scrabble, we put our lawn chairs back in the car and lined up for the big game. At first, it wasn't looking good...didn't see a backpack anywhere. Then, like a light from Heaven, there was a metal frame sticking out of a big cardboard box. I had to wait awhile for the employee guarding the box to "release" the items inside, but thankfully, I was patient enough to desearve his grace and that employee handed it dirctly to me. There was hardly any pushing or shoving! So for an extra 4.5 hours of our lives, we bought a like-new baby pack that would have cost us $160 for about $3o. You gotta love competitive shopping!

We also have been utilizing the wonderful world of craigslist to find less expensive baby furnature. We are very excited about our new furnature in the nursery. What do you think? Boy or girl, we are doing Noah's ark as the theme...because we found this cool toy. Hey, whatever inspires you.

One of the coolest things that has happened in the last two weeks is that little Fields has started making his presence known. He has been moving a bit which took awhile to diagnose since it is easy to pass off the first movements as gas or something. Pretty sure though that we can be confident that there is actually movement and that it will only increase from here on out! I am sure that soon enough the little girggles will turn into full on grappling with my organs. what fun!

Vegas with the Hovis'

We spent a wonderful weekend in Vegas with my parents over superbowl weekend. Caleb and I road tripped this time because we calculated that a 6 hour car ride was nothing compared to an hour drive to the airport + a 2 hour flight to either LA or San Francisco + a 2 hour lay-over before taking us back to Vegas where we would have to rent a car anyway. It felt much better just to drive there and pick my parents up at the airport. I can't wait until the airline industry starts making money again so we can find some direct flights. My parents are now officially professional travelors and we had the great privilage of staying at one of their resorts with them. We stayed just off the strip begind the MGM and had great rooms.

We toured many of the major casino/hotels and had a great time walking around and shopping at all the stores that house $3,000 purses. Mom and Dad graciously helped our baby from being

born with weird creases when they bought me some new maternity closes. Casey also had them bring down some of her maternity clothes...so nice to be able to share. (and so nice to be comfortable again!)

One of the many highlights was seeing the Cirque show, Misteire. It was so amazing! I highly recommend that show to anyone visiting Vegas.

Baby is doing great and it was wonderful to be able to show off my growing belly to my parents who otherwise would only be able to experience my pregnancy in pictures. I hope they will continue to be able to experience various stages of this pregnancy with Caleb and I and this was certainly a fun way to do it!

My parents had to fly out early Sunday afternoon but thankfully Caleb and I were given permission by the front desk to check out later in order to stay and watch the superbowl at the hotel! I think that deal was hingent on our willingness to sit in their bars and buy their food but Caleb and I oppted to watch in our room and order pizza instead...thankfully they didn't seem to miss us at the bar! We watched all the agonizing details of the game through the 3rd quarter and decided we'd seen enough and headed for home. Unfortunately our Cardinals picked it up in the 4th quarter when we had less than stellar radio reception. We did jump out of the car and into a sports bar in the middle of nowhere just in time to see the Card's 4th quarter comeback...which was immediately followed by the Steelers 4th quarter comback...so we got on the road again. Not the best way to end the game...for us or the Cardinals, but oh well, Caleb and I have only been their #1 fans for this playoff season anyway! Maybe next year, guys!

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for a great time this weekend and for your incredible love and support! You are already the greatest grandparents in the world to those beautiful girls of ours and I am so thrilled to see you love our baby as well!