expecting

She's a brick house!

Today is my 29th birthday and I am 37 weeks pregnant. Unfortunately, I am spending the night by myself - Nate is at work and Emma is spending the week with my parents. I did get to celebrate the occasion a few nights ago with dinner and a movie with Nate. We saw Hangover and I'm still laughing, so tonight is not a total drag.

Sitting here by myself more than ready to welcome this new person into the world, I am contemplating what it means to be expecting. These have been my expectations during these last few weeks - most have not been met.

1. During the hot summer months, I'll be able to keep my cool.

I have never sweat so much in my life. I have to frequently tell coworkers not to get too close and am constantly apologizing to my patients. I am also not keeping my cool as well with Emma. My patience is about an inch long and I feel really bad. I hope she doesn't remember this ranting, irritable pregnant mom.

If you look closely you can see my new nasty stretch marks

2. People will keep their comments about my growing belly to themselves.
It will always amaze me the things complete strangers will say. It ranges from the mild "any day now, huh?" to "are you sure you're not having twins?" to "please try to keep your legs crossed until you leave the store so you don't go into labor on my watch". Yes, someone actually said this. Like if I happened to go into labor at the store the baby would somehow immediately fall out of me. Man people are dumb. I find the best approach is just to not make eye contact with anyone.

Regardless of my unreached expectations, I still am very excited to meet our little guy. Going through Emma's old things, I have been reminded how wonderful babies are despite the last nights and spit-up. So come on Mr. Isaac, we're ready to say hello!

Since it has been so long since I've posted, here are some pictures from our summer so far.

Cowgirl Emma

Emma wearing daddy's shoes

Emma and the birthday boy.

Emma helping daddy with his presents

The bfcw girls.

The bfcw kids Alex, Aidan, Emma, and Ivy.

Emma discovering "baby Eleanor".

Tromping through the park.

Running with daddy.

Practicing lacrosse so she can take on Uncle Josh.

Almost got it.

weekend

I am truly exhausted tonight. Probably a combination of my incredibly busy work schedule and the busy weekend we had. Oh yeah, and I'm pregnant! I think spring has officially arrived in Billings. Today the temperature was in the 70's so Emma got to break out a new spring outfit. What a doll!

Bring on the spring dresses.

It was really nice outside both days this weekend, so we took advantage of the nice weather to start tackling some outdoor projects. First of all, we moved in Emma's new swing set! It was my Aunt Janet and Uncle Chris' and they gave it to us. It's a little old (13 years to be exact) but you can't beat a free swing set. Thanks so much again guys! Emma was so excited to get it and promptly went to town on the swings. She also spent several hours playing on it yesterday, even going so far as sliding down the slide head first! Needless to say, we have our weekend plans laid out for us for the rest of the summer!



We are also doing some landscaping projects, the first of which is to replant the small flower garden in front of the house. We're not big fans of using rocks, which seems to be really popular out here, so the first part of the job involves removing all the rocks and existing plants from the garden. After loading up a wheelbarrow full of rocks, not only did we realize we had not come up with a plan of where to put them, it was also to heavy for Nate and I to move! Whoops! I'm sure more exciting landscaping adventures to come this summer.

Removing the rocks, Take 1.

Saturday marked the 10 year anniversary of my and Nathan's first date. To celebrate the occasion, we went out to dinner and a movie. We saw the new Star Trek movie which I really enjoyed. I certainly would not call myself a "trekky" but I've liked most of the Star Trek movies. When I was younger, I used to watch Star Trek (the TV show) on Saturday afternoons with my brothers (yes you guys know you watched too!) while Dad would grill burgers, our traditional Saturday fare. Ah, the life!

Sunday was mothers day and a really great day overall. I awoke to breakfast in bed made by Nathan and Emma. Tasty! We then spent the majority of the day outside, but I did get to experience a nice nap while Emma took hers. Nathan got me roses and cooked me Mannicoti for dinner too, which was really nice. I also got my first homemade mother's day card from Emma. How cute! Happy Mothers Day to all mommies out there!

Pretty mom's day roses.

First Mom's day card from Emma.

Inside of card.

baseball

Before updating you all on Emma, a few shout-outs. First off to Josh, who graduated from Northeastern University last Friday. Way to go! Again, sorry Emma and I weren't able to join in the festivities, but it sounds like you all had a nice time. He also narrowly lost his lacrosse game which would have allowed his team to compete in Nationals. Bummer! He did end up being awarded first team All-American in his division for lacrosse, which is pretty awesome! To see a sweet action shot, click on this link. Josh is #28 if you want to scope him out in the other pictures on the photographer's site.

Also a big Yahoo to Sam who made Delphian choir at Great Falls High. This is the highest level choir and, speaking from experience, really fun to be involved in. As a sophomore, it pretty impressive to get chosen. Can't wait to go to some concerts next year!

We've also been able to see Sam play some ball games already this year. Last weekend we traveled to Helena to see him play and the weekend before that we went to Lewistown. I don't know what it is about watching baseball, but I really do enjoy it. Last year for my birthday Nate got us tickets to see the Mariners play and it was awesome! (and also my first pro game) Here's some pictures from Emma playing on the sidelines.

Take me out to the ballgame.

Running from Maddie.

Batter up!.

In Helena there was a nice playground to enjoy which reminded me a lot of the playground we went to in Red Lodge this summer. She's taken quite a liking recently to swings so was a little upset when we had to leave. I also have several relatives that live in Helena and we got to see most of them (nice Meghan and Ryan!) after the game. It's always nice to catch up.

The playground in Helena.

Swinging with Maddie and Gramma.

Loving the swings.

The Helena crew (starting with first row on the left): Aunt Jan, my cousin Maurika and her daughter Piper, Emma and I, my cousin Joe, (second row) Uncle Marc, Maurika's other kids Truman and Rileigh, my Dad, my Mom, and Maddie.

Emma playing with Rika and Piper.

silly

Last week Emma's class celebrated the Week of the Early Child. I didn't even know this was a celebrated week! Anywhoo....there was a different silly theme everyday. The two I have pictured here are Mismatch Day and Hillbilly Day. Other themes included favorite sports team day, silly hat day, and crazy hair day. Overall it was really fun and reminded me of homecoming week in high school. The kids all looked so adorable, but Emma of course was the cutest.

Hillbilly day. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any cowboy boots for her yet.

Mismatch day.

Along with mismatched hair.

celebrations

My brother Jake recently informed me that he checks this blog everyday and it ruins his day when nothing new is posted, so here's to you Jake. Sending you smiles from MT!

We've had a lot happen over the last several weeks. Emma had her second birthday, we celebrated Easter, and we learned the next member of our family will be a boy! We are quite excited about the last piece of news. Everything on the ultrasound apparently looked fine. Even though I work in the medical field, I still cannot comprehend what I'm supposed to be looking at on those things. Good thing I don't have to worry about pregnancy in the population I work with!

Emma's birthday celebration was a lot of fun. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but invited several family members over for homemade pizza, cake, ice cream and presents. I got off work a little early (4:30!) and rushed home to start making pizza as I told everyone to be over about 5:30 and had 10 pizzas to make! Luckily my Dad was in town and came over to help. We got them all finished for the 20 or so guests and I still have leftover pizza in the freezer! Gramma Mary, Uncle Sam, and Aunt Maddie were able to join us via webcam and Emma got to talk to Nana LaVonne earlier in the day. Emma's favorite part was opening presents, but the chocolate ice cream was a close second! Enjoy the pictures and thanks again to everyone who joined us for the fun day!

Emma and Mommy opening presents.

The cliche hair bows.

The mini cupcakes I made for Emma's class

The birthday cake I made

Easter was wonderful too. We headed down to Great Falls to spend it with my family. It started off with an Easter egg hunt with some kids from my parents church. Emma loved it and even won two of the special prizes! We then dyed easter eggs which Emma seemed to enjoy too. She loved directed Gramma Mary which colors she wanted to use. She got to get all dolled up in her easter garb after discovering her easter bunny presents (a new outfit complete with flip-flops). She even got to watch Aunt Maddie and I fly kites, which didn't last too long after my kite got caught in the 2 foot tree in my parents front yard and Maddie's kite flew away.

On a sugar high in her Easter garb.

Emma and Mommy taking a break from egg hunting.

The easter egg hunting crew. Emma and Maddie are in the second row on the right.

Dying easter eggs.

A not so great look at the ever growing baby bump.

Here's some ultrasound pictures of our new guy. The first are from my first ultrasound when I was about 10 weeks, then 13 weeks and finally about 22 weeks. Pretty amazing.

Little alien.

Check out that nose.

Foot.

Maxin and relaxin.

Hello up there.

growing

So again it's been awhile since I've updated the blog. Oops. To my credit, January and February were not the best months for me. I forgot how unforgiving pregnancy can be. It really doesn't suit me, especially in the beginning. Fortunately I am feeling much better and now have the energy to do things I enjoy instead of only the things I have to do. Besides the nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, FATIGUE!, and "GI dysfortitude" (okay, done whining!) things in the pregnancy world seem to be going well. With my first ultrasound, I was told that I was not as far along as I thought - I was two weeks short. So now my due date is August 16th. Great. Almost the whole summer being massive. Can't wait. (I really am excited about having a baby, but being pregnant sucks!)

We haven't been too busy lately. We had a couple visits from my family when Sam came to town to play basketball. Here's a couple of shots of the superstar. He's now on to baseball and I can't wait for warmer weather to come so I can sit in the sun and watch the games.

Free-throw shot. Pressure's on!

Action shot. Sorry about the poor quality.

Emma is doing great. She's definitely getting into the fun 2 year old stage. I really think most of her frustration and "Emmatude" stems from the fact that she's really good at communicating, but still can't get everything across. She's actually been sick that past few days so that's not been fun. A nice stomach bug. Nothing like cleaning up a pukey bed at 11pm. Her current talents include counting to 10 and singing several songs all the way through. Happy Birthday is her current favorite. She always requests to sing to Sammy, Maddie, and curiously, Uncle Tom. She is a big helper around the house and loves to help do the laundry, unload the dishwasher (her job is the silverware), help mommy cook, and put away the groceries - as shown below.

Here's a few fun pictures and some videos. Enjoy!

Groceries!

Big helper

Sorting the soup

Watching the snow from her favorite window. Playing in her spare car seat. We have been working on Emma's manners lately. She's usually pretty good about saying please and thank you, but often when Nathan or I have a snack she will stand directly in front of us and repeat "please. please. please" until we resign to share. Now, we've started asking her to say "may I have some please?" Here are her efforts!

sister

So for those of you who haven't heard the news, Emma is going to be a big sister! At least as of early August. I am about 10 weeks pregnant. My due date is August 3rd. We are very excited, or at least would be if I had the energy to get excited. I'm pretty worn out. But hopefully it won't last long. At least I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel because with Emma I was even more sick and it did go away. I am a little nervous about the baby acquiring mytonic dystrophy. There is a fairly serious congenital form of the disease, but at this point, we're not planning to do an amniocentesis or anything like that. Nature will just take it's course and hopefully we'll be blessed with a happy, healthy baby.

Now on to Christmas! We were lucky enough to be able to be part of four different Christmas celebrations this year. To get us into the Christmas spirit, Emma had a Christmas program which was incredibly cute. Only 4 kids from her class were there, but it was still fun. As you can see from the video, I think she was a little stunned by all the people. The auditorium was full (there were other classes performing too). Enjoy the video and sorry about all the laughing, but Ava, the girl on the far right, was just so hilarious!

The first Christmas was official Christmas which was spent in San Fransisco with Nate's Dad and brother. It was a great time and the weather was perfect! We went down to the beach a few days and really had a relaxing time. I forgot to bring our camera charger and when we went to take pictures our camera was dead. Bummer! We got plenty of great stuff. Nate got an XBox 360, and as he put it, Christmas was officially over. We did have quite an adventure getting home. We left San Jose airport on time, but then sat on the plane for about a half hour before the captain got on and said a light bulb on the wing needed to be changed, but someone was working on it and we were supposed to be leaving soon. After another half hour, he comes on again to say apparently the mechanic broke the light bulb while trying to replace it and they didn't have any extra ones in the whole airport so someone was sent to San Fran to get one. So we sat on the plane for a total of 2.5 hours before we took off and they wouldn't let anyone off! Not fun with a small toddler. Luckily though, the plane we were on was actually the plane going from Denver to Billings with the same pilot crew, so we were able to make into Billings, but didn't get home until about 2 am. I really hate traveling this time of year! Helping Uncle Josh. I know he and Nate look nothing alike. THANK GOODNESS! JK Josh! Our next Christmas celebration was December 30th. Emma, Ben, and I and my aunts and uncles gathered at my Grandma's house to open and few gifts and enjoy my grandma's great cooking. Thankfully my stomach was cooperating and I did get to enjoy a bit. Everyone was so generous and Emma got tons of new stuff including a mini soccer net and ball, which Nate loved. Of all of us, I think Nate enjoyed all the presents the most! Next we had our own Christmas with just Emma, Nate, and I. Emma finally got to receive her Santa present which Santa mistakenly delivered to our office so we couldn't find it for a few days. She was thrilled to get her new baby doll and stroller, though, regardless of the wait. She calls her new baby Emma and brings it with her everywhere. I'm trying to explain she needs to be very gentle with the baby in hopes that these lessons will transfer to her new sibling! As you can see from the video though, she likes to do things herself and will often politely say no when offered help. Nate got some new slippers and I got a great new dress that will probably have to wait until I lose some pregnancy weight before it gets worn. But it will still look nice hanging in the closet! Reading one of the millions of new books More presents? Our final Christmas celebration was over New Years when my family came down from Great Falls. I felt kinda bad that everyone just watched us open our gifts from them, but really not that bad! Again, we all got some great stuff. It was a really nice few days all around. Jake flew back to St. Louis for his next semester of med school which was the only downer. Way to go Jake. His schedule really picks up though after this semester and he likely won't be able to come home until next Christmas, so it was sad to see him go. What a great guy! Emma has repeatedly asked where Maddie, Gramma, Grampa, Nick, Jake, and Sam are. It's pretty cute. When I say they're at their house, she then tells me the names of all her daycare friends and informs me they're at their homes too. Glad you're already keeping tabs on your classmates. She'll be using facebook before we know it! Helping grampa The Wingerter clan: Maddie, Jake, Nick, Sam, Ben, Mom, Dad, me Hope you all had a happy holiday season. For me it's not officially over yet because I haven't taken down Christmas decorations or sent out my Christmas cards yet, but sadly it will likely happen over the weekend. January is seriously my least favorite month just for that reason. The weather doesn't help either. People are saying this is the worst winter weather in Billings in the last 30 years. We picked a great year to move back. Happy 2009!