It's a Girl!!!!

I had an ultrasound today and discovered (after an hour) that we are having a little girl! I was so excited, and Nick, well, will learn to be excited. It was pretty funny because she was in a breech position the whole time and she wouldn't move at all. She had her legs crossed (a lady, just like her mother). I tried walking around a few times and going to the bathroom to get her to move positions, but no luck. I finally did a head stand and she flipped onto her stomach.

You can see in these pictures her little foot and her profile and hand across her belly. She's already a chubby thing. At one point during the ultrasound, she was waving, and her fingers were pretty fat, and she has some fat on her neck. I guess I better lay off the ice cream! But overall, she's a healthy girl who likes to kick quite a bit. She also likes to be curled up in a ball. The technician was making fun of her because she had a ton of room to move around in the uterus, but she was tucked away in one corner. I can't believe how cool ultrasounds are. I saw her open her mouth, and make sucking movements with her mouth. We also obviously saw her lady business close up, her kidneys, the chambers of her heart, you name it. I could have sat there and watched her for hours.

Still the thought of labor freaks me out, so I'm just fine with her staying tucked away in my tummy for a little while longer. Now Nick and I need to start thinking of bedroom colors and names :)

Oregon and Snow is funny

It snowed here on Sunday and watching the news ever since has been just as good as watching any comedy show on TV. People freak out in Oregon when it snows, because it doesn't happen very often.

But when you have to be on the road driving with people, that's a whole other story. I drove back from Portland to Salem on Sunday night, and they don't scrape or salt the roads here, so I almost died. I spun a bunch of times, doing 360's in the middle of the freeway across all lanes, and I thought for sure I would run into the median in the middle or go off the freeway, but I didn't. It was a miracle. Since I was fine, I just kept on driving and Nick keeps making fun of me that I wasn't more upset or didn't pull over.

The good news about the weather is that because they freak out about the snow here, they cancel and shut down everything. Tomorrow is my third day in a row off from school, which means no work and sleeping in! I very much have needed it because my growing fetus takes it out of me (tomorrow I'll know the gender!!!)

What We're Doing During Christmas Time . . .

1. Making Nick put up lights on our house.

He almost died doing it. We're too poor to buy a ladder, so he got on the roof to put them up, and he fell off the roof. I came outside and the first thing I said, was "You almost died putting those up?" Now, I'm pregnant, so I tend to be even more blunt and rude than usual.

2. Decorating the house with Christmas stuff.

These are cute little wreaths that my Mom made me. Nick and I also cut down a tree on a tree farm. There's about 5 of them within a mile of our house (gotta love Oregon). We felt like we were ruffin' it, cutting down our own tree :) It was fun. However, we decided that we are never paying for a tree again in Oregon. We're just going to go in the middle of the night and cut one down on the side of the road. They're everywhere!

3. Nick studying for finals.

I'm so glad I'm not him!!!

Nick is being grouchy that he has to study for finals, take care of a pregnant woman and endure me making fun of him nonstop. The last few days I've had a hard time sitting next to him because he has a weird smell to him (I have an unusually heightened sense of smell). It's the fetus, it's not me (That's my coin phrase recently)!

4. Working on my growing belly.

I'm trying really hard to have a cute little baby bump, but so far, its just my middle getting fatter and splurging out everywhere (thought you'd like to know). The last few days I had some bad cramps, which my guess is that my uterus was growing, and I've noticed a little bit more of a bump, so hopefully my dreams will come true. P.S. I generally do not wear shirts this tight. Luckily, I have like 1,000 baggy sweaters from high school, so those have come in handy.

P.S.S. The baby now looks officially human (well, minus the clear skin), and its head is getting even smaller, so Carly, I think you may need to write a new letter, your old put downs are no longer accurate.

Thanksgiving Recap

Nick and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving, mostly because we had a nice little break. First Nick found time to organize a little turkey bowl with our ward (of course!) while I slept. Then we went to the Kuykendalls in Eugene, which involved, eating a lot of food, watching the little boys run around, and watching many many old home movies (Nick's favorite part). But it was nice to see and spend time with family. Its especially fun to have the little kids around during the Holidays, it makes it much more entertaining, even though all my my male cousins hate me because I'm a girl - they much prefer Nick.

Here is Nick, Sierra, and some of the cousins: Nash, Hudson, and Jaxon.

Here are the boys harassing Nick.

We then spent the rest of the weekend in P-town with the folks, Sierra, and McKenna. It was pretty low key, with again, more home movies. But it was pretty nice weather, so we were also able to go running and go golfing (it was a big day for me, I was exhausted). It was McKenna's first time golfing ever, so needless to say it was some good entertainment. She had the habit of chasing the ball to pick it up after she hit a bad one.

Sorry the pictures is so blurry, but the sunset was gorgeous. I blame it on McKenna and my crappy camera (shout out for a Christmas present!!!)

My one regret for the weekend was not going back to our ward in Salem on Sunday. Napolean Dynamite's parents are in our ward, and he came to visit. I could have met Napolean!!! And then I could have said to him. "Napolean, what's up with your new Gap commercial?" In case you haven't seen it, here it is. It's weird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQDGvzsWY44