Baby Names

So, since before Malea became pregnant we have been discussing possible names for our children. To be completely honest, boys names have been pretty easy. There are several names that both Malea and I like. Girls names, on the other hand, have been a bit more elusive. Malea and I have yet to agree on even one name. The closest we have come is May/Mei and Lilly/Lily. As you can see we differ on the spelling of these names.

So to help us decide on a name for our, as of yet, unnamed girl, I am throwing out this little post/contest. Help Malea and I decided on a name and we may choose your suggestion.

The details of this little contest:
1. Any name can be suggested, but try to avoid any profanity.
2. The more information you can give us about the name you choose the better your chances of being selected as the winner.
3. Be creative.
4. Don't be afraid to suggest something that has meaning to yourself.

Well that's it. Thanks for all of your help. And to those of you who think that I am just being lazy in my parenting duties, you are right, and I could really use your help.

Belly Shots

Ok, I've compiled a few belly shots for your comparing pleasure. Below is 24 weeks.

Below is 26 weeks.

Below is 28 weeks.

It wasn't at all on purpose, but I noticed that each new picture shows a little less enthusiam at getting larger. I have to admit, it's really exciting to start showing around 20 weeks, but that baby gets heavy pretty fast! Note to self: do back-strengthening exercises before next pregnancy.

Busy

I just wanted to make a quick post and explain that I haven't been able to post lately because I have been very busy. As Malea mentioned in another post, I got a job working for the Census. Because BYU and UVU both get out this week, the Census bureau decided that they wanted to send enumerators out to canvas students and have them complete the Census.

On top of the new job, we had our renters move in this week. With the new people moving in, I needed to clean the downstairs and make it ready for new tenants. Luckily, my mother was able to come to the aid and clean the house for me. I did all the heavy lifting, but my mom was a rock star and made the apartment look great.

To top everything off, our contractor let us know that he could not do anything until we painted the kitchen. While this was a little inconvenient, having finished the painting, the kitchen looks great. We have been living in this house for nearly five years and until now our kitchen has been three different colors.

Anyway, with all that said, I am hoping to post more often.

Aliens

The other night, as I was sitting in the room with my wife, Malea had her back arched and pointed out that her stomach had a weird bulge. I leaned over to see what it was and felt our baby's foot. Our baby had pushed her foot out so far that I could feel the individual toes. Needless to say, I was a bit freaked out. To be completely honest, I worried that we were going to have an Alien chest-popper moment. I believed that I may have cried like a little girl.

Feeling my babies foot made my wife's pregnancy all the more real. The reality of feeling the baby freaked me out more than anything else.

I wanted to add a picture of the Alien Chestburster, but realized that that may be a little too graphic for some readers.

Kitchen Remodel Part II

So, we opted to not pay to have the contractor sand, prime and paint (to save money) and I think at this point we would spring for painters!

James is a sanding mad man in this picture. And kind of a mad man in general.

This is the primed room, thanks to mom Schmitt for getting started on the primer! And Terry and Alice for the priming party on Saturday. We don't have to do where the cabinets will be, phew! But, we did have to do the ceiling, ugh!

This is the painted room below. We chose antique white, since it's a nice homey color and we know it won't clash the Alder cabinets, the stone floor tiles or the granitish countertops.

We just have the ceilings to paint with ceiling white and then they start installing floors! Oh man, it's been a crazy week. This coming from the girl who only did 15% of the work. Poor James. If you see him, tell him I really really love him.

Kitchen Remodel

James and I are lucky enough to have been able to borrow some family money to make some upgrades to our home. We enlarged the basement windows (up to code) and are updating the kitchen. I thought I would show some of the progress!

Below is our contractor and the first day of demolition!



Below is our current kitchen after they took out the carpet. We're painting and then they will come and put up new cabinets and tile the floor. Then, we will put in some newer appliances and voila! I'm psyched to have it upgraded, and even more psyched to have running water and a working stove again.

James got a (temp) JOB!

Thank goodness for the lazy and/or politically opposed Americans that didn't fill out and send in their 2010 US Census forms!
My handsome husband has just been hired as a US Census Enumerator. That means he gets to spend his Spring walking in the beautiful weather and counting people. We're thrilled for him to be out and busy since he's been so bored and we've been so poor!

It was like pulling teeth to get this picture, but you can see he's already getting tan from being outdoors. I'm so jealous that he gets to enjoy the Spring! Look how cute he is with his Census Bureau man purse. I sure love him...and temporary government jobs.

Dog and Baby

I read that when a baby is born into a home that has had a dog while the baby is in-utero, the baby doesn't freak out cause she's heard the barks and snuffles for several months.

Well, that made total sense and I forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I was going to bed. James was at the store or something, so Jack (our dog) was hanging out on the bed with me. Suddenly, he heard a noise (probably James coming home) and jumped up and barked full volume. The crazy thing was, the baby startled! She nearly jumped out of me! I felt so bad! But, I guess having her not freak out after she's born means she will freak out a little until she's used to it. I still felt bad I couldn't really comfort her, but I was glad she couldn't start crying...is that bad?

Anyway, it just made me think that she's learning and experiencing life even now. So cool.

20 Week Ultrasound - It's a GIRL!

We actually had a really disappointing 20 week ultrasound experience because the photo printer wasn't working and the ultrasound tech didn't really care the she gave us a sheet of totally black pictures. Ah well, we found out what we wanted, which was the gender. It took some time to settle into the fact that it was a she - but now it's totally normal.



I'm posting the only two pictures that had ANY use. The top is the face. A little skeletor-looking, but it's the head (forhead facing right) with two spread out black eye spots and a single black mouth-looking hole. Yeah, awesome. The bottom one was at least recognizable. It's her arm and hand with a little pinky sticking out. Terry (James' brother) said that's the pinky that she's going to wrap James around.

We considered getting a 3D photo experience at the mall, but we're really more concerned that she's healthy at this point. We'll get to see her soon in the flesh and that's good enough for us.

10 week ultrasound

Since we used a fertility specialist to get pregnant, we were lucky enough to have a 7 week ultrasound and a 10 week ultrasound to confirm it wasn't twins. It's amazing the difference in size of the baby! This little "peanut" was already sprouting arms and legs, while the 7 week patch of fuzz was just twitching involuntarily. Now I know why I needed 12 hours of sleep and a lunchtime nap - growing a baby is hard work!

Pictures

So, as Malea was pointing out, we don't have a lot of pictures, or any. I figure that has a lot to do with me. I am not really a picture person. I normally look angry so I tend to avoid them. I am not saying that I generally look angry in pictures, just all the time. My sister-in-law snagged this one of me in a rare moment of joy. My Nephew was trying to tackle me and I was laughing at the sheer futility of it all. Not really, I had a great time at my brother's new place and was getting ready to be a new father. Hope you enjoy the picture.

Welcome!

We started a blog so James and I can keep family, friends and posterity updated on what we're doing!

This blog will likely consist of James' random thoughts on Dungeons & Dragons, movies and life in general while my posts will probably be all pregnancy and baby oriented.

Enjoy!

Just a run-of-the-mill pirate day for us. Not really. Actually, we have NO current pictures of us and this one was from Robert (Berto) Carter's last birthday and I liked it.