Projects

~ My first on going project that I'd like to talk about is photography. I've been messing around with F Stop, and Aperture this week. A lot of my pictures end up blurry, dark, over-exposed, focused on the wrong objects. Surprisingly every once in a while a picture turns out and I LOVE IT! Brandon has been talking with his co-worker, who took our family pics, and brings his knowledge home and shares with me and we mess around with the camera. Kinda fun!

~ My favorite project that I'll be working on for another 15 weeks or so is this ever-growing belly!  In this pic I'm 24 weeks.  Today I'm 25 weeks so I've got to catch up a bit on my documenting.  I'm pretty sure we'll be naming this little guy Dillan Robert Shope, though Brandon thinks it's funny to call him Carlos. I can't say that we'll for sure be calling him Dillan Robert because Brandon and I have been known to change our minds at the last minute...  Baby boy is a mover and shaker!  I can now look at my belly and see his movements all over.  The last two ultrasounds show that he's been breech... I always feel like he's dancing on my bladder.  FUN!

24 weeks 3 days

~My least favorite project... Bangs! UGH! On Friday, while waiting for my ultrasound I was looking through a Redbook magazine and saw Jennifer Aniston with some sexy bangs... so Saturday night I decided I'd chop myself some bangs, and CHOP I did.  I hate them.  They are too short, make me look like I'm 18 and not sexy. I pull them back with clips or a headband and will do so for the next few months!

Yes, they are crooked

~ When Brandon's sister moved, they tore down a shed that they had in their back yard and gave Brandon all of the materials.  Brandon put the shed up this week.  Tanner loves being in the middle of all of the action.  He is not much help, but he sure thinks he is.  I tried to help but ended up with a wall on my toe.  Not a happy moment for anyone and I wasn't asked to help after that.    

Almost finished in this picture.  A few days later the shed got it's roof.

~ I have started a sewing project.  Brandon bought me a sewing machine about 3 or 4 Christmases ago that I've never touched.  I figured a good place to learn to sew would be to hem some edges of some large pieces of fabric and call them swaddle blankets.  I picked out 3 lovely baby flannels, washed them, pinned up all the edges an inch, and ironed them.  This coming weekend I'll get down to the business of sewing the edges.  I've enjoyed this project so far.

~Tanner and I made banana muffins this morning.  He loves muffins, well most muffins. I made pumpkin muffins last week that he didn't love.  He doesn't call them muffins.  When he wants a muffin he makes monkey noises, Ooooh, oooooh, Eeeeee, Aaaaaah, Aaaaah!!! I couldn't figure out, for the longest time, why he was doing this.  Then one day it clicked, he's made an association with the M's in Muffin and Monkey.  Kinda cute! :)
He burned his finger on the muffin pan after this batch of "Monkey's" came out of the oven.  Not bad, but bad enough that an hour later he still looks at his finger and says "HOT!".  Poor kid!

I'm trying something new.  If you received this blog in your email let me know if you'd like to continue to be on the distribution list or not.  I chose 10 people who I know don't have facebook or blogger.  Thanks.

Preggo Update

9/23/11 ~ We had our followup ultrasound today.  It wasn't as fun or detailed as our 20 week ultrasound, it was strictly business, besides when I asked the tech to check to make sure the baby still had boy parts.  He did.  All measurements resulted in an average baby. I am 24 weeks 1 day and measuring 23 weeks 6 days.  They give a 2 week leeway, either side of the due date and if the measurements fall in that range then baby is "normal" size.  We'll see what the OB at Bassett has to say about it on Tuesday.

9/27/11 ~ We had our 24 week prenatal checkup at Bassett.  Everything about the appointment was good.   The OB told me that she saw nothing to worry about in the ultrasound. She showed me how last time the baby's head had measured in the 3% and this time baby's head was in the 24%.  She said that the baby may have been in a weird position during the last ultrasound.  She asked if we wanted to do an amniocentesis to make sure everything was OK, I promptly declined.  Everything will be fine.  Dr. Ryan was great. She asked me how I was feeling and was just very thorough and friendly.  A lot of times, at the prenatal visits, I feel like we just go in, get rushed through the measuring and listening to the heartbeat and then we're pushed out the door.  I hope that I get to see Dr. Ryan again soon, or better yet, she delivers our little boy!  We will continue to be seen at Bassett since she told us that we'd only be seen once more at Eielson before we'd be back to Bassett for the remainder of our pregnancy.
I did open up a can of worms when I told her that after I get done with my 40-60 minute treadmill walks I'm hungry and crave junk food for the rest of the day.  She decided to look at my weight gain chart with me and told me that I've gained 15lbs so far.  She reminded me that they'd like me to only gain about 25lbs so advised me to steer clear of my favorite forms of junk food at the moment, Lays Potato Chips and ice cream. haha  I'll do my best.  ;)

Beans

We've been in search of more indoor activities.  With chances of snow this coming week and temps below freezing in the morning, it's time to start stocking up on crafts and fun toys!  We regularly play with play-doh, crayons, window markers and I recently bought some finger paints that I have yet to break out.  If you have fun ideas, make sure to share them with us! :)

This week we played with some dry beans that I had in the cupboard.  We started off with 1/2 a bag of lentils, moved to 1/2 a bag of kidney and ended with 1/2 a bag of lima beans.  I just dumped the beans into a bowl that was placed in a cake pan, gave him a cup, a spoon and a measuring cup.  He enjoyed just letting the beans slip through his fingers, scooping, stirring, dumping and tasting.  We managed to play with the beans for almost an hour.  That's an eternity in toddler world! We'll pull out all the beans again later this week. :)  Great thing about the beans is the cleanup is easy, just sweep and toss!  My kind of project!

Family Photos

Brandon's co-worker asked if he could take some pics of our family to see if he'd be interested in taking his photo-hobby to the next level. We were a hard family to capture images of. Tanner wasn't in the picture-taking-mood. His cousin was with us, and Tanner would have rather been off being playing with him than sitting still and smiling. We were able get a few great pictures. I hope we didn't scare Brandon's co-worker away from photography!

The Beginning...

My favorite of all the pics taken!

Tanner's most favorite toy that he's ever stolen from his cousins... a headless, one-armed motorcycle and rider.

The End.

Friday Photo Dump

Dumping this week's iPhone Pix.  Somehow I didn't capture too many this week.  We were busy having a great time though!

Friday Photo Dump

Dumping this weeks cell phone pix!  Lots of play outside, when it wasn't raining.  When it was raining there were crafts and playdates.  Never a dull moment in our world!

The BIG Playing Outdoors

With fall well underway here in North Pole, we've been trying to get out and enjoy what's left of the above zero temps.  Taking walks and park play are our favorite past-times.  Tanner is getting better about getting up and down all the playground equipment and doesn't scream for help as often, which makes it more enjoyable for everyone around!

Tanner is obsessed with tossing rocks into a body of water.

Can't beat park play with a doughnut to shove in your mouth

I'm throwing in my 23 week pregnancy pic.  I'm big.  I know I'm big. I got big with Tanner too...   I still have 4 months to go, so if you all keep telling me how big I am be prepared to be met with a cranky-preggo-momma response! haha Just kidding... kinda... :)

23 weeks

Friday Photo Dump

A fun week in cell phone pix.  Going to have to whip the big guns out with all the leaves changing colors! Can't miss taking photos of all the beautiful colors of fall!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Brandon had Friday through Monday off, which was great.  He always asks why I get so excited for the weekend since I "don't work". I think it's pretty obvious, he's home and we have more of an opportunity to get out and not have to worry about him leaving in a few hours for work.  The weekends are also great because I have someone to share the parenting-load with ALL DAY LONG!!! I love weekends! :)

Tanner has been going through a really whiny, fussy, fit-throwing phase.  It's exhausting, mentally and physically, for the entire family.  I had a good cry-fest on Monday due to the non-stop fit that had been going on all morning.  It's just no fun.  Brandon and I tried our hardest to keep busy all weekend.  We had 4 hours that were absolutely fit free, while he was awake, over the 4 day weekend.  They were while we were at a BBQ Monday night. All the kids there were about his age and size and they all played hard.  All of them communicating in their own way with the others all understanding.  No major scuffles.  It was such an enjoyable time.

On Sunday we made our way to Plow Driver Slough in Moose Creek.  We threw some rocks, Brandon did a little fly fishing, the dogs swam.

Brandon's big catch! ;)

He's got quite the rock-throwing arm!