Life is a Highway: August 2011

A Boy!

I didn't think we were going to be able to find out the sex today. This little guy was very modest. First hiding himself with his umbilical cord. After I got up and used the bathroom baby crossed his legs and feet hiding everything once again. The third time the ultrasound tech checked, baby's hand was covering things up. I said it must be a boy, the ultrasound tech replied "He's playing with his junk". Sure enough he finally moved his hand and we got to see! :)

Hand resting by head.

Baby's head squished between stuff.

Profile pic 3D

She said this indicates it's a boy... she said if it isn't a penis she has no idea what it is! hahaha

Hmmmm... I'm a lot bigger than I thought I was.

Gender Predicting

I go in for my anatomy scan tomorrow at 2pm. If baby cooperates we'll also be able to see if we're going to be having a girl or a boy. Brandon and I thought it be fun to look up some old wives tales that predict the gender and see what they say. I found an article on www.Parenting.com that had quite a few to try out! I also found a few others on random internet sites to try as well.

Carry High=girl, Carry Low=boy
Carry Low~Boy

140+ heartbeat = girl, Below 140 = boy
Heartrate 165 ~ Girl

Sweet Craving = girl, Salty/Sour/Savory Craving = boy
Salty/Sour/Savory Craving ~ Boy

Mother's age at conception and the year of conception... if both are even or odd = girl, if one is even and one's odd = boy
29, 2011 ~ Girl

Break outs = girl, Clear Skin = boy
Clear as I get ~ Boy

Wedding ring over belly from string... Spin Circles = boy, Back and Forth = girl
Circles ~ Boy

Sick as a dog the first trimester = girl, Little or no morning sickness = boy
Sooooo Sick ~ Girl

Took a online quiz on my symptoms ~ Girl

If hubby gains weight as you gain weight = Boy, Stays same weight = Girl
Holding Strong ~ Girl

Hairline of the immediate older sibling of the baby is V-Line = opposite gender, if the hairline is straight = same gender.
Tanner has a V-Line hair line ~ Girl

Father's Instincts ~ Boy

Mother's Instincts ~ Girl

Chinese Gender Chart ~ Girl

Let's Tally up the results!!!
Girl ~ 8
Boy ~ 5

OK, so the girls got it! We'll see what tomorrow's results bring!!!
I haven't been getting any photos of the ever expanding belly this go around... need to remedy that this week.

Three Oh

I stayed up until 12:00am AK time to celebrate my birthday. I thought I might as well post this blog that I've been working on the last few days since I'm up!

I turn 30 today. How exciting. I'm now the age that young kids think is OOOOLLLLDDD, or at least I know I thought that when I was a young kid! ;) 30 is far from old though. I feel like I'm finally starting to begin my life. Finally starting to pop out a few kids. Feel a little more self-confident and self-reliant. Know what I like and don't like. The word "NO" is part of my vocabulary. It's only going to get better from here!

My sister Autumn told me that this is going to be my lucky year. My birthday falls on 8/11/11 which when added up 8+11+11=30! If this is the case, I think I'm going to be pretty lucky for the rest of my life with that equation!!!

Here is a list of 30 things that I love right now.
(I got the idea from my favorite blog to follow http://www.digthischickmt.com/)

My man and I love each other a whole lot.
My home is well-lived in and I'm learning to love the chaos.
Red.
Downward facing dog with Tanner doing his version at my side.
My Family.
The 2 mile walk that Brandon, Tanner, the dogs and I take daily.
Pandora.
My dogs.
A clean kitchen.
Stretchy pants.
I am a momma.
Taking stuff I don't need to the thrift store.
Cheese.
Cooking dinner for my family.
My life. I love it.
Soup.
Girlfriends.
Generous friends/family with kids a few sizes bigger than my own.
Facebook.
Play dates.
Alaskan summers.
Fresh farmer's market produce.
Phone calls from Montana.
Prenatal visits to the clinic.
Lipgloss.
This Song and This Song.
The Cat in Hat Knows a Lot About that with Tanner. GO! GO! GO!
Texts from Georgia
Satsuma Body Butter from the Body Shop.
I don't feel that I've gotten older and wiser with age, I still feel the same.

I'm sure there will be a follow up blog with all of the days adventures! Happy 30th birthday to me! :)

Wild Alaskan Blueberry/Raspberry Syrup

Tanner and I went raspberry picking with our friends Emily and Daniel today. For every two berries I picked Tanner would come and eat one... if I wasn't watching he'd grab a few at a time. His friend Daniel came over and started feeding Tanner my pickings as well. I didn't get many berries, to say the least. Emily had better luck than I did and she gave me her berries. She's a sweetheart like that!

We did have a little excitement when Tanner fell down a 7 foot bank into a lake. He and Daniel were throwing rocks over the ledge into the lake below and I guess Tanner threw a little too hard. Emily was amazed at how fast I moved down the hillside! He was more shocked than hurt, luckily. I got a bruise on my shin and Tanner got a few scratches on the back of his head and a few scratches on the side of his belly and back. I can guarantee he'll be back to throwing rocks over the bank the next time we're out playing!

I got home with a little over two cups of raspberries so I decided to combine them with the few blueberries that I had leftover from the weekend to make syrup for pancakes, ice cream or whatever. The berries were so beautiful combined and while cooking down. My house smelled heavenly!

Aren't they lovely?

Berries combined with water.

Breaking down beautifully.

What was left of my beautiful berries.

I was in the last stages of having my syrup finished, it just had to come to a boil then simmer for 2 minutes. I decided to wash the few dirty dishes that I had in the sink. Of course, while my back was turned, the syrup boiled over and went all over the stove. My house no longer smelled heavenly but of a hellish combo of burnt sugar and berries. DAMNIT!

Grrrrrr!!!!!

After about 45 minutes of cooling down for the syrup, and myself, I poured the syrup into jars and placed them in the fridge. The syrup will keep there for about 3 weeks, though I doubt it lasts that long. ;) YUM!

Cooling.

The best berry syrup EVER!!!

Pickings

We got out and enjoyed a beautiful day today. We drove Standard Creek which is out the Parks Highway. We found an old, overgrown road, possibly an old logging road, and got out for a walk. We had lunch first then walked the road. Starting off the day we'd hoped to score lots of raspberries but we weren't that lucky. We found a few handfuls to feed Tanner as we walked. We did get enough high bush cranberries to make a few loafs of bread and we found enough blueberries to throw into some pancakes.

Napping while we drive to our destination.

I love our family.

Lunch along side the road.

High Bush Cranberries.

Rosehips. I plan on picking a bunch of these come fall to use to infuse oil...

Raspberries.

Loving the sun and green.

Crazy family of mushrooms.

I liked the progress of this mushroom type. The colors were beautiful!

Happy Duckie.

Happy Maggie.

A field of blueberries.

One lonely blueberry... I ate it!

Monkey see, monkey do!

Perfectly content.

He wouldn't eat the blueberries but Duckie sure would.

DeGroot Vist Part 2

We had a great time these last eight days with my sister and her family. Lots and lots of driving around and sight seeing and playing tourist. We made it to Creamer's Field, the Deltana Fair, and Pioneer Park these last few days. I really enjoyed seeing all three of our kids interact with one another. There were A LOT of squabbles between Ella and Tanner, but it was fun none-the-less! Will is such a sweet heart and just loves to cuddle. When I get to see him next he'll be an even bigger boy and that just about breaks my heart. Missing out on watching the babies grow is definitely one of the major drawbacks of living so far away from home.