Just Me & My Mom

Hi again. Daddy's off to his BFFs wedding in Oregon (that's the real reason I came early--if they were still waiting until next Tuesday for me, Daddy couldn't go see Joel get married), so mommy and I are just hanging here in the Arizona heat. I've gained a bunch of weight, as you can probably tell from these pictures. I even have some fat on my arms. Last time they weighed me I was 6 pounds 11.5 ounces--and that was last week. Just think how much I weigh now!

I'm really strong, too. I can lift my head up when I'm doing Tummy Time and I can even turn it over and look the other direction. Watch this!

Mooma went home. She said she still loves me even though she had to go back to Washington. I believe her, 'cause she kissed and hugged me a lot. She said three weeks was probably enough for Papa and Andy to fend for themselves.

Daddy's mom is going to come see me this weekend. She takes really good pictures (she's a pro) so we'll have even better pictures for me to post later. Just wanted to let you know how I was doing. Bye for now.

PS: Hurry home Daddy--we miss you.

I'm Home

I'm home, and I'm a whole week old--cool, huh. I really only had to stay at the hospital a couple days and we all came home together. My Papa and Mooma and Auntie Casey were all here to meet me, but Papa and Auntie Casey had to go home. I guess my Mooma really likes me 'cause she's still here.

It's been a really busy week. Yesterday they actually took me to have some medical thing done so the other kids won't make fun of me in the locker room; anyway it really hurt at the time, but I'm OK now. See how good I can move around!

Today is my daddy's birthday. I don't think you can tell, but my onsie says "I love my daddy" and I really do. This is me snuggling with him. I can tell when I snuggle with my daddy because he has all that prickly stuff on his neck. I kind of like it, though, and mommy says he's handsome.



Daddy went to float the river with the youth from our church. He said I couldn't go 'cause it's only for Junior & Senior High kids--whatever that is. Maybe next year he will take me. I'll be lots bigger by then.

I have to go now. We're having cake and ice cream for daddy's birthday. Hope it's good--I've never had that before. Oh yeah, one more picture. This is one of my mom's favorites. She's really impressed with what I can do with my feet, but she says I can't run away and join the circus. Hmmmm.

I'm Here

Hi guys! Mom's kind of busy (trying to get me to eat) so I thought I'd let you know I'm here. On Thursday I heard there was a really hot weekend coming up and decided it would be a good idea to get out of this cooped-up space. So I just decided to assert myself and come on out. It took awhile but I made it by about 10 a.m. on Friday, July 10. Turns out my decision-making skills could use some work and I really should have waited until August 4 like everyone expected, but you know--live and learn! Everyone keeps asking my mom and dad how big I am, so I might as well come right out with it: I'm 6 pounds and 19.5 inches long. I got to go--mom's pretty insistant that I eat; but she'll write more in a couple days! Can't wait to meet you all! Love, Josiah...PS: Check out my wing span (NBA here I come)! And I have better pictures, but this is my very first one--I think I'm only a minute or two old!

33 weeks and counting

Just a quick update and photo of what week 33 brought this little pregnant mama! "little moms" is what the instructor at our birthing class called us...I had a hard time deciding if I liked being called that or if it was a tiny bit offensive. I guess in any case, "big moms" would have been much worse.

Josiah is doing wonderfully I am happy to report! We just had a doctor's appt. yesterday and our doc says that he is doing great. He is moving all the time! She felt around my belly this time to help me figure out where he is positioned. Finally it seems our little man has put his head down where it is suppose to go...good to see since I was beginning to think he was committed to being breech till the end. Mostly he seems to sway his little buns from one side of my belly to the other. According to my best-guess websites, Josiah is around 4-5 pounds and 19 inches long. He will gain about a half a pound a week and I will gain about a pound a week from here on out. He is filling out now and preparing to make his grand entrance. Sometimes I just take him into his room and we walk around and I talk to him about how cool it's going to be when he gets here and we can play with all his stuff! (Between the sleeping and crying of course).

I am very anxious to meet him! Every day it seems I realize how boring life has become without a baby around! What a weird thing to think before he is even here. I guess that is God's way of preparing me for this huge life change. Unfortunately I am still waiting for the nesting period to begin! I really am looking forward to an energy boost and a clean and organized house...nesting isn't just a myth, right?! it really happens?! If not, I am just going to have to manufacture the energy from somewhere because it still seems like there is so much to do!

I was a little lonely this week because Caleb was gone all week on a summer youth trip. Thankfully the weekend came and he returned. Just in the nick of time...it is a lot harder to have a traveling husband when you're 33 weeks pregnant. Must be those raging hormones again! Caleb's had 2 trips so far and 2 more to go before Josiah is born. In fact, you can all be praying for Josiah to come AT LEAST after July 27 as Caleb will be in New Orleans for a youth trip from the 22nd until the 27th. A little scary that close to my due date, but we like to think of ourselves as "adventurous". Never a dull moment! Thankfully my parents will fly in the day before Caleb leaves so at least I won't be alone if the unexpected happens...and of course we have lots of contingency plans for how to get Caleb home if I go into labor...except that if he is already in New Orleans, the plans still include a standby flight and who knows how long that will take! So pray the contingency plans are not needed!

But I am sure you will hear much more about that when the time comes. As for this last week, Caleb took a team of 30 up to the Navajo reservation for a week of VBS. They had a great time and we finally got him home and in bed around midnight last night. It was a little lonely for me. Usually I do great with his summer travels and am eternally greatful that he has a job where a few trips in the summer are all we have to deal with. However, remember the hormonal changes...I got really lonely, even though I spent time with friends at least half the nights he was gone...and then worked full time on top of that. I don't know what to make of it, but I am going to have to gear up for these last two weeks of his absense. Let's just say it is wonderful to have him home! Here are some pictures of his trip.

Caleb and the team on a hike

Some of the Navajo kids during VBS

The River is a long-held tradition for the team...

(don't you wish you were there!)

In case you have not been introduced to Caleb's Traeger...

This is it! Caleb took it to Navajo and used it to feed a ton of people this week!

He is very proud!

Quite the week 31

This week was a busy one! I am 31 weeks pregnant and we had the incredible fortune of having my great friend Carolyn come for a visit! Carolyn is expecting her second child, a little boy, about 8 weeks after Josiah is due.

This picture is entitled "Belly to Belly". I thought I had a 22 week photo, but I must not. I do remember, however, that I am pretty sure I showed more at 16 weeks than Carolyn shows now at 22... Carolyn and I have decided that although we are the exact same height, what I have in legs, she makes up in Tourso! We are pretty sure her son is standing strait up in there and creating no tummy what so ever!

She is really working here for this much tummy...I however, am not working at all to show off Josiah to the world...Josiah is all to happy to show himself off at this point!


We had a ton of fun this week shopping for maternity clothes and mostly just talking and relaxing!

We also did a project for Josiah! I know this is a pattern for me where I have friends come over to help me with projects that I am just not Martha Stewart-y enougth to handle...and this week was no exception!

Carolyn is VERY crafty and has a very cute "birdy" mobile in her daughter's room...so she volunteered to make a mobile a reality for Si as well.

I think it turned out very well! Certainly much better than if I'd been left to my own devices! It is pretty funny, we are going for this animal/noah's ark theme for his room and I had this idea to make a mobile out of thin wood animal pieces that we could paint to match his room colors...anyway, we went to the Hobby Lobby and bought each and every wooden animal they had which turned out to be a very eclectic assortment from dogs and cats to a moose, rooster, kangaroo and aligator and even a large mouth bass-or that, at least is what we think it is. So they all went on the mobile together. Thankfully we have some time to learn which sounds each of those animals make before we have to start teaching Si...What does a large mouth bass say?




From Josiah's perspective!

It was absolutely wonderful to have Carolyn here. I truly felt so refreshed after our visit! Just what I needed.
Thank you, Carolyn for taking time away from your husband and daughter to hang out with me. So fun to get to experience pregnancy with a great friend--especially one who has been pregnant before and can share all of her pearls of wisdom!

We girls were also blessed to have my wonderful husband take very good care of us. As many of you know, Caleb has a new Traeger BBQ (no, scratch that...I mean "smoker") which he used to cook us some amazing food! I had been without Caleb for the entire week before Carolyn arrived and had been pretty much a vegitarian in his absence. (in my opinion, sometimes you just need a little break from the traeger). So it was great to have him back home and he took very good care of us this week!

Carolyn left this Wednesday morning and we picked up another member of our family! Our friends Bob and Bethany left town for the weekend and left us with their 100+ pound dog, Rocky! Rocky and Shep have a very love/hate relationship, so it is always entertaining to get them together! Just a cute picture of all my boys, Caleb is taking the picture. It occured to me with stark reality how my femininity will be far, far outnumbered soon....Yikes.




To round out our hectic week; Caleb and I had our 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday which we spend at our Child Birth Preparation class. We got to meet several cool pregnant couples, learned a lot about anatomy and viewed some very disturbing videos about our almost immediate future! It was great. It was much more like Lamaz class than I was expecting, especially since I am fairly committed to receiving an epidural as soon as possible, but I am glad for all the information about breathing and relaxing anyway! Caleb was a great coach!

We did actually get to experience our anniversay in a tad more romantic way...we just waited until Friday. Here is a picture of us out to dinner to celebrate 4 years together! Pretty sure our next four years will look very different from the last four!...and we couldn't be more excited!

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!