Week 19: A Message from the Baby Daddy

Brenda has given me (Kyle, future Daddy) the task of writing the blog this week. Yay!

Baby-wise, not a lot has happened this week. The most exciting event was probably Brenda telling her students about being pregnant. She was smart enough to do it when there were only 5 minutes left in the school day, as she knew they would get uber-excited and ask all sorts of questions. Of course the first question was: Boy or Girl? -Which as you can expect led to the argument about which gender is better. Her best question was probably: "Is Kyle excited?" To which she should have responded with something like: "He doesn't know" or "No, he's not very happy". HA HA.

Of course, those would be lies, and of course, I am really excited. We did our "Baby Project for the Weekend" today, which was to assemble the baby crib. Only took me about 45 minutes, and I'd say its very nice.

 We then sat down and read a few books to the babe. I chose the book "Fish Eyes" by Lois Ehlert . Brenda then read the book "Elephants"  by Nancy Parent. She made the mistake of squeaking the pink elephant on the book, which made the dogs go crazy for the next 10 minutes. Sissy settled down and managed to dose off during the book (lets hope the kid is this easy!). Buster was more determined, and it took feeding him his dinner to get his mind off of the squeaky book. Anyways, I think we are going to start reading regularly, because from now on, the baby is dividing its brain up into all of its sensory areas: sight, touch, taste, sound, and smell. We even read the 1st chapter of a much longer book, "BunBun" by Susan Clymer .


The rest of the holiday weekend we spent out at "the Land" in St. James. The official purpose was to complete a Stream Team water quality assessment down at the Bourbeuse River. I'd say the river is still extremely healthy; crystal clear and essentially no litter. However, we didn't find anywhere near the amount of invertebrates as we did when we monitored in the fall. Perhaps they all got washed away with all the recent storms. It was good to see both sets of parents, a good excuse to finally get down to St. James again, and of course, a good excuse for a barbeque. Fishing was decent, and birding was good with several new birds for the property and a lifer for me: the Prairie warbler (which lives in forests, not prairies). The dogs had a blast, even though they got covered in ticks. Fortunately, the Frontline kicked in and they all died, but we still had to pick them all off. I really hope our kid likes spending time outdoors, especially since if he/she doesn't, I won't be able to as much birding and fishing!

I think the belly is definitely starting to show now, and its more of an all day occurrence, not just after a big dinner like it used to be. Don't forget to check the pic!

Have a good week everybody!

Love,
Kyle, Brenda, and the "large tomato"

What happened to the saying, "Let them eat cake?" That was about pregnant ladies, right?

.10 pounds.  Most women would be thrilled to hear this is all the weight they gained since their last visit to the doctor.  Well, not if you're well into your second trimester.  According to one of the books I have but don't like to read, "What to Expect When You're Expecting," a woman is supposed to gain an average of one pound a week throughout her pregnancy.  As a former perfectionist, I read this and knew immediately, I would put on 1 pound/week.  If anyone could conquer this simple task, it would be me! Well, I've gained 3.1 so far, for an average of .1722 per week!  FAIL.  This freaks me out for two reasons, 1. Is my babe gaining enough weight?  Getting all the nutrient he/she needs?  and 2.  Does that mean I have 22 weeks left to put on all the weight?  (Yes, obviously it does!).  My nurse practitioner didn't seem concerned about the slight weight gain.  She actually said many women lose weight.  Then she proceeded to ask me questions about nausea, vomitting, etc.  I replied to all of her questions with, "No."  She again reassured me that this was normal and at this point in the pregnancy the baby really only weighs about 5 ounces and needs 200 extra calories a day.

Well, that was reassuring.  Then I asked her about protein as I mentioned I don't enjoy preparing and eating meat.  She asked me where I got my protein, I told her mainly dairy, but occasionally chicken and Taco Bell. (notice how I was too embarrassed to say bacon.  I'm sure she'd love the hot dog I'm having tomorrow even more!)  After listing my limited protein sources, I listened to the NP talk about how protein is the building block for baby's brain.  My thought went to "THEN MY BABY ISN'T GROWING A BRAIN!"  Then after thinking on it, I realized the baby must be getting all the protein for it's brain while not a bit of  the protein is going to mine!  This explains the fact that today- mid-sentence, I had to ask a coworker what day it was! 

As you can see, the appointment freaked me out a little.  After leaving, I headed to the grocery store to buy my 18 week pregnancy kit.  Behold: bananas, protein powder, and (because I like to keep it real on here) prunes.

 These are all new buys for me.  I haven't bought bananas in over a year because as the URL suggests, I'm a wanna be locavore.  Fruit grown in Ecuador isn't exactly local fare.  However, I'm chowing down on them now for the potassium.  Then we have protein powder.  This stuff is also out of my comfort zone.  The ingredients list is basically in a different language because it contains so many things with unnatural names!  However, adding one heaping tablespoon to a smoothie adds 8 grams of protein, so I'm in.  (Although I seriously cringe at the ingredient list : / )  Then, well, prunes.  The most amazing thing to me about prunes is the serving size on this container is for 4 prunes.  Seriously!?  4!?  How could you get anything else done in the day if you've eaten 4 prunes? 

Now, that I have those three items to add specific nutrients to my diet, I've got to figure out how to eat more.  My first thought turned to chips.  I could eat chips for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and then again for another snack.  I love them all and happily ignore nutrition facts.  So naturally, I thought I would eat a ton of chips to gain my baby weight.  Unfortunately, the NP and everything I've read up on the pregnant lady diet, insists that 'every bite count.'  Meaning: every bite should have some nutritional value.  UGH, where's the fun in that?  I already ate that way, why can't I grow my baby on brownie sundaes and garden salsa Sun Chips?  Oh, here's why, according to that book I really don't enjoy reading:

"but don't try to add pounds by adding junk food to your diet- that kind of weight gain will round out your hips and thighs, not your baby."  (p. 159)

 It's obviously good advice, but it makes me want to punch a kitten.  I've been trying to follow the advice, but it's really tough.  I try to at least eat a healthy choice with a non-nutritious choice.  Like tonight for a snack, I had a banana and a brownie sundae with cookies and cream ice cream and chocolate sauce.  I'll admit the sundae was a little smaller because I couldn't help but think as I was making it, "Every bite needs to count!"  It was a time when I wished I could rationalize ice cream as a serving of dairy. 

There you have it, I'm stuck in mid-Missouri trying to eat all the nutrients this baby needs each day.  It's not as easy as I thought it would be. 

Week 18: Laughing... A LOT

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This book arrived at my house via random package from Nancy.  Surprise packages are the best!  The book came with a card, which I read and went, "Awwwww....." Then I looked at the book and told Kyle, "I don't want to read this."  The cranky pregnant lady comes out when I feel like it's a book that will tell me all the terrible things of pregnancy.  So many books are frightening; I thought this book would be the same.  Thus, Belly Laughs sat on the kitchen counter for a few days.   On Saturday, I was organizing the kitchen and picked up the tome.  Walking into the guest bedroom to put it on the shelf, I decided to flip through the book.  I stopped on page 59 when the chapter "Hi, Porn Star!" caught my eye.  Well, I read page 59 and was hooked.  Jenny is absolutely hilarious; I can see why she and Jim Carrey were a couple for so long!  In the book, she delves into every aspect of pregnancy- strangers touching your stomach, not having anything to wear, having a wandering mind, premature labor, hating skinny people, etc.  She tells it like it is and has such an amazing sense of humor.  I laughed the whole two hours I read this book.  I'm so glad cranky pregnant Brenda was wrong about this book and even happier Nancy gifted it to me!  Although, per the included card, I will need to return the book in 8 years when she begins thinking about having children.

The part of the book I could relate to the most was when she mentioned having a obsession with online shopping.  Obviously, she and I have different budgets, but I have been enamored with online shopping.   Lately, I've spent hours looking at curtains, maternity clothes, baby gear, and everything else.  It's so much fun; I'm just glad I haven't taken it to Jenny's level where I have the boxes delivered to friends' houses because my husband is getting fed up with the craziness!

Kyle and I did in fact make one purchase today:  the crib!  We'd I'd been stalking out the crib from YHL.  I love that they did all the researching and I get to benefit from them finding the most reasonably priced baby-friendly crib.  I couldn't copy a picture of it from the store's website, so you can check it out here.  Now all we've got to do is wait a few weeks for it to be delivered to the store so we can pick it up and get it assembled.  I've already come to peace with the fact that our nursery will not be picture perfect.  Heck, it won't even have all matching furniture.  Without having a basement, we're forced to do very 'college apartment-like' things aka having a futon in the baby's room.   In other words, the room will be 'eclectic.' To get ideas for the nursery, I've been checking out lots of websites.  Here are a two I've found and adored!

The wall color of this nursery is nearly identical to ours (in the picture anyway).  I love the color of the curtains- finding similar ones seems very do-able.  The rug?  AHMAZING.  Light fixture? PERFECT.  Don't expect to see those in little McBaby's room though. You can expect some stenciling.  Ideally, the stenciling would look exactly like this- boy or girl, but I have another animal in mind that light be a little more realistic!

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Again, this room has a wall color similar to ours.  I'm totally ga-ga for the picture wall and ribbon wall.  Any idea how these people did it?  I'm very curious as how they attached all of them and love how you can customize the colors to fit your room.   

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To answer your question, no, I did not go out and buy a lottery ticket after drooling over these amazing nurseries.  It was just a lot of fun getting ideas for what we can do with our space.  

In belly news, this week I think I've felt kicks or movements.  As all of my baby books have mentioned, it could just be gas, but I'm pretty sure it's little kicks.  Yesterday was the best with four in a row! I love feeling them and often sit quietly trying to telepathically tell the baby to move.  This hasn't worked.  The child already doesn't listen.

We go to the doctor on Wednesday!  Can't wait to hear the heartbeat again! 

  

 

The Name Game

"My Baby This Week" is the name of a newsletter I get from thebabycenter.com.  This email is full of information about the baby's development, what I should be feeling like for the week, and my favorite part, a comparison of the baby to produce.  We're up to the size of a 5 oz. onion this week! Well, after reading this week's update, I noticed this suggested activity:

"Start a baby name list. Make a list of ten names you like. Have your partner do the same. Trade lists and each cross out one name on the other's list that you dislike. Keep taking turns until you have a set of names you can both live with. Talk about why you like and dislike certain names. Many couples even create ground rules, such as no names of former girlfriends or boyfriends and no names that have ever been used for family pets." source

We already talked about names, but I thought it would be pretty hilarious to see the names Kyle came up with, so we started our lists.  The only rule being: there are no rules.   Kyle took FOREVER to come up with a list.  For the first ten minutes, he couldn't think of any names besides the two we'd talked about.  In the end (after 35 minutes of Kyle in deep thought and 15 minutes of Kyle on the computer looking at name lists), we had this:

                     Kyle's List                                       Brenda's List

Boys                               Girls                            Boys                         Girls

James                             Olivia                           James                         Olivia

Nathan                            Margaret                      Austin                         Cecilia

William                            Margarite (Rita)            Max                            Jane

Brady                              Ashley                        Jackson                       Victoria

Kenneth (Ken)                  Kate                            Barak                          Charlotte
                                                                         Guillermo                     Savannah
                                                                         Yadier                          Maya
                                                                         Dexter                          Annie
                                                                                                             Julie

As we went through the lists one at a time, I had to break the news to Kyle that we can't name our child after a sibling,  cousin, cousin's kid, or our favorite LOST character.  Although a little Desmond would be adorable with his Australian accent!  My list really wasn't much better as I obviously got a little "current event" happy towards the end of the boy column.  I thought my mom would appreciate a little Yaddy in the family!  Then there were the plethora of cities on the girls side. I love all of them; Kyle, not so much.  :  (  All in all we had fun sharing the lists;  I'll let you guess which names we kept and which were crossed right off.

Today was a big day for me!  After trying on about a half dozen pre-pregnancy shirts this morning and looking muffin-toppish, I put on a maternity shirt.  I felt so much better wearing it since it actually fit.  So today marks the first time I wore a maternity shirt to work!  Here I am showing it off; I'm totally smeyesing in this pic.

Dinner is also worth sharing tonight.  I made some roasted asparagus following this recipe.  It was so good; I actually ate it all (sorry Kyle) within four minutes of it coming out the oven.  Yum, yum, yum.  Will def. buy more tomorrow at the market!  Kyle whipped up Sesame Soy Chicken. It doesn't look beautiful and it's obviously just protein and carbs, but it was very tasty!  I'd type it up the recipe, but that seems like I'd be stealing from Tina.  So you can get the recipe here if you're interested! Along with the Sesame Soy Chicken, we enjoyed Cucumber, Tomato, and Red Onion Salad. 

Kyle and I are in for a big Friday night of watching Rules of Engagement Season 3 and probably going to bed by 9.  I can't believe we'll have to give up this wild lifestyle in October!

Week 17: Asparagus Season!!!!

We made it through week SICKSteen!  Those allergies I mentioned in the last post turned out to be a cold and I had all the symptoms of a yucky one.  Including, losing my voice.  Teaching without a voice is funny because half of the kids ask, "Is something wrong with your throat?"  or while the other half say, "Your voice sounds strange."  It did sound strange, and I felt like I was growling instead of talking.  Professional, right?  I love too that last week the baby began to hear outside the womb. He/she probably thinks he's being gestated by an ogre.  

Due to my cold and the cold rain that has taken over mid-Missouri, Kyle and I didn't do too much baby stuff this weekend.  This was also due to Kyle wading through swamps for 4 hours on Saturday looking for birds.  He even saw one of these little guys.  It's a Sandhill crane colt that he spent all of Saturday's dinner telling me about.  I kinda love how he's into anything baby these days.  He's also excited to get the baby swing we bought from a friend this weekend.  He asked me, "Can we go get the swing now so we can put the dogs in it?"  Um, no.  I have a feeling if it were up to him the dogs would try out all of the baby gear well the before the baby is here.  Although, I have to agree that Sissy would look adorable laying the the crib under a blanket wearing a bonnet and using a pacifier.  Hmmm... we may have to try that.

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Although this weekend was full of birds, napping, and garage sales, we were able to get down to business making a baby budget.  I would post it on here, but it's too depressing.  Let's just say we'll get by AND have enough each month to add $25 to a college fund.  It's not much, but at least it's something!

Perhaps the best thing I did this weekend was focus on FOOD.  Last week, Kyle and I ate crap basically all week-mac and cheese for dinner on Thursday (hey, it was organic!), sweet potato fries for dinner on Thursday, and a baked potato on Friday.  I had been eating salads in previous weeks, but I've developed an aversion to salad dressings.  We would buy a dressing, I would have it once and LOVE it, then have it a second time and be thinking about how loathe I was to all things salad.   Which led to last week where the days were low on fruits and veggies- only 3 to 4 servings/day.  One of the many pregnancy books I have but don't enjoy reading, reminded me that this wasn't enough.  So on Saturday morning, I hit up the Farmer's Market with a mission: buy any and all fresh veggies.  Behold the bounty- all locally grown in mid-Missouri!  Swiss chard, asparagus, tomatoes- including heirloom Brandywine!

 Seeing asparagus at the market reminded me how overjoyed I am that I will be pregnant over summer when I will get to enjoy blackberries, peaches, eggplant, and so much more!   After purchasing this BEAUTIFUL produce, I actually planned out meals for the week.  Admittedly, bacon was the main source of protein 3 out of the 7 nights, but all the meals were loaded with veggies which was the main goal.  My worse pregnancy symptom has been thirst.  It's been insane and painful at times.  There are some days where I am just sooooo thirsty- even if I've already downed 60+ oz. of water.  Hopefully the added water from all the fruits and veggies will help with this.  I'm also avoiding Wasabi peas- so tasty, but I think they may exacerbate the issue.

For some reason, I am convinced the baby is a boy.  Seriously, I have no idea why- I fully realize it could be a girl.  It could even be twins.  We'll find out the sex and quantity on June 15 when we go in for our first ultrasound at 21 weeks. Most people have gawked at the fact that we haven't had an ultrasound yet, but I don't really mind.  However, I am SO EXCITED for June 15th at 9:30 a.m.  

There are a lot of good things happening between then and now- including the end of the school year.  Our last day is June 3.  I'm hoping the weather can stay in the 70s and 80s between now and then since my classroom is on the second floor and very much not air conditioned.  While not having a.c. is eco-friendly, it is also torture on days with lots of humidity and 90+ temps.  So here's to hoping for low humidity and moderate temperatures!  

Sorry this week's bump pic isn't as high quality as last weeks; hopefully you still get the idea- my stomach is growing, and I love it.  : )

Week 16: Cotton Babies

Kyle and I spent this past weekend in St. Louis celebrating a graduation and Mother's Day with our families.   As part of the celebration, we took the graduate and the mothers to the Cardinals game.  The Redbirds beat the Brewers 3 to 1; it was a great game and an excellent present for our moms! I received a few Happy Mother's Day cards and text messages yesterday.  My reaction was to freak out.  It was so weird getting them. 

Our project for this weekend was to learn about cloth diapers.  We are using cloth diapers for two reasons.  #1.  They are environmentally friendly.  I don't even use plastic sandwich baggies, so how could  I send dozens of disposable diapers to the dump each week?  #2.  They save money.  Initially, there will be a high cost, but then we won't have to rely on buying diapers at the store each week!  Those two reasons are why cloth diapers are a must for our little babe.

To learn about diapers, we visited the store Cotton Babies next to Whole Foods in Town and Country.  Cotton Babies sells three diapering systems.  We learned about all of them and were very tempted by the Econobum system where you could diaper a baby from 7 to 35 pounds for $100.  Quite economical.  However, the sales consultant was honest about those diapers being economical, but not necessarily the best at preventing messes.  YUK.  We learned about two more systems and have decided to go with the BumGenius Organic.  These diapers can be adjusted to fit a child from 7 to 35 pounds (that's what all the snaps are for!).    They are also good at keeping messes contained (A MUST!) and we have friends who use and like this system.  Plus, John and Sherry from Young House Love use them.  They wrote a Everything About Cloth Diapers post that basically sold me on these diapers.

http://www.bumgenius.com/organic.php

Those are the diapers we are so much looking forward to using on our little babe's bum!  Kyle and I even practiced changing diapers in the store with a doll on a changing table.  It was one of those amazing moments that I totally regret not having my camera for!  Kyle seemed to enjoy changing a fake diaper (let's hope that enthusiasm stays with him for say, the next two years.)

Check out The Bump page- my stomach is def. growing.  The baby is the size of an avocado this week which seems huge!! I've been feeling good so far this week, except for my seasonal allergies which have arrived in full force.   I'm hoping to get through them without taking medicine, but we'll see how long I last!

Two Salads and a Game of Fetch.

Tuesday night is one of my favorite nights of the week because it's a night where Kyle and I have zero shows to watch on television.  We actually can't stand to watch any show on the Tuesday night line up.  No Idol, Voice, or Dancing fans here!  Instead Tuesday night is a random night where we play a game of fetch outside with the dogs, eat dinner, and then ask, "What should we do tonight?"  Tonight I decided to cook (re: prepare salads).  Random, right?  I had hoped to use up a few pounds of produce staring at me from the fridge.  

The first salad I made tonight is a gem I came across a few years ago in a Better Homes and Gardens Annual Recipe cookbook:  Southwestern-Style Three-Bean Salad.  I love the recipe because it makes a large amount which can be stored in the fridge up to a week and taken to work for lunch or eaten after work as a snack.  Or, if your me, enjoyed in the morning for breakfast.  It's also perfect to bring to family gatherings over the summer; although, I'm never quite sure if anyone likes it as much as I do.  Also, the smell is tantalizing.   It's torturing me to wait until tomorrow to have a bite!

Southwestern Three-Bean Salad

Better Homes and Gardens Annual Recipes 2003

1 15-oz. can garbanzo beans

1 15-oz. can red kidney beans (rinsed and dried)

1 15-oz. can black beans (rinsed and dried)

1 cup thinly sliced celery

3/4 cup chopped red onion

1 recipe Cilantro Lime Dressing (recipe to follow)

1.  In a large bowl, mix together garbanzo beans, kidney beans, black beans, celery, and onion.

 2. Prepare Cilantro Lime Dressing; pour over bean mixture.  Stir gently to coat.

 3.  Cover and chill for 3-24 hours, stirring occasionally. 

Realistically, this salad takes 40 minutes to prepare. About 20 minutes will be spent finely chopping the onion and celery, 5 minutes preparing the beans, and 15 minutes putting together the Cilantro Lime dressing. 

Cilantro Lime Dressing 

WARNING: Please don't feel intimidated by the amount of ingredients.  I guarantee you probably already have 95% of them in your fridge and pantry!

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 minced garlic clove

2 tbsp. fresh cilantro

2 tbsp. lime juice

1 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. salt

1.  Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir well.

The recipe says it makes 8 side-dish servings, but at a big pot luck, you could easily have 16 people trying your dish.  If you were to have only 8 servings, here are the nutrition facts:  202 cal., 8 g. fat (1 sat.), 0mg cholesterol, 562 mg sodium, 27 carbs., 9 g. fiber, 9 g. protein.  With all the protein and fiber, it's easy to see why I enjoy this salad as a main dish for lunch!

Salad number two took 5 minutes to make.  It's a Cucumber, Tomato, Onion Salad.  I followed this recipe from Rachel Ray, except that I used a regular tomato instead of Romas.  I'm not as excited to eat this salad, but at least I know a tomato, red onion, and cucumber will be consumed! 

There you have it- a random Tuesday night full of chopping, mixing, and chilling. Hope your evening was equally as exciting! ; )

Week 15: Extreme Makeover: Junkroom Edition

We've already gotten amazing advice from new parents and parents-to-be.  Everyone agreed that having a baby/expecting was very overwhelming.  There is so much to do that we should do small things whenever we can.  So, I've declared to Kyle that we will do one 'baby thing' each weekend.

This weekend's baby activity was a big one: clear out the future nursery.  This wouldn't have been such a tough task if we had a spare room, but we don't.  As a result, we had to tear apart our 'office' (re: junkroom) and rearrange it as a office/guestroom (re: office/guestroom).  This meant removing all of the 'junk.'  On day one, we tackled the closet. This is what the room looked like after the closet threw up.  I would have LOVED to put everything in a bag for Goodwill, but alas we packed most of it into plastic bins and put about 1/3 back into the closet, only this time it was much more organized! 

Day two of the project involved taking apart a shelf and moving things all around the room.  'We' moved about 75% of the guest bedroom furniture from the future nursery into the office.  A big thanks to Uncle Mark for spending his Sunday evening moving furniture!  We hope the bratwurst dinner we cooked for him adequately communicated how grateful we are for his help!!!!  Here's the view of the new office/guestroom.  Big improvement, eh?  Everyone's welcome to come visit us!  There's even room in the closet for you to hang clothes!

 The future nursery currently looks like a junk room.  However, there's plenty of room for a changing table, crib, and rocker!  It will be many, many weeks before we can reveal the finished room!

Be sure to check out the first bump picture.  I swear it looks much bigger in person... especially after dinner.  I'm going through the unbuttoned pants phase where the pants totally fit, but are WAY more comfortable unbuttoned.  Here's to long shirts!

Weeks 12-14: Breaking the News

Kyle and I rock at keeping secrets.  We kept our baby-on-the-way a secret for two months!  Initially it was tough to not tell anyone about the babe, but then it became second nature- just something we didn't mention.  However, as we neared the end of the first trimester- we new it was FINALLY time to break our news.  Luckily, my side of the family was having a get together towards the end of week 12, so we had our chance to tell everyone.  
Our plan for telling my immediate family was to give my dad a onesie as a birthday present.  He opened it late Saturday night after a family party (hence the tables set up in the living room).  Feel free to enjoy the conversation about fleas, ticks, and chiggers we had as he opens the present.  What can I say- we're from Eureka!  My apologies about the lighting, but hopefully you'll enjoy the reactions as much as we do! 

 

The next day we went out to lunch with Kyle's parents, Caitlin, and grandpa.  After we had all ordered, Laura opened a 'late late birthday gift' from Kyle and I.   Lots of tears, hugging, and eating chips and salsa ensued after the filming of this video. 

We kept with the same theme for telling out-of-town friends. I have been known to ship random gifts every now and then, so sending packages was a no brainer.   Each package contained  a white onesie and a note saying "Baby coming October 2011..... seriously." 

After telling close friends and family, we waited about a week and told coworkers.  There are officially three Ridgeway babies on the way at school.  So I'm in good company, and there are plenty of people to talk baby with which is good since I'm officially obsessed with all of it.  The only people who are out of the loop (and will hopefully stay out of the loop for a while) are the kids at school.  I'm taking the advice of waiting as long as possible to tell them.  I already get off on tangents when they ask me about the dogs; my tangents would be 58 times longer if it was a question about the baby!

So now you know how we broke the news!  We hope to update you weekly with our most recent baby 'projects' and bump photos.  

Love, 

Brenda, Kyle, and a Baby-on-the-Way