Skis and a Baby

I don't want this blog to become the dedication to the baby, but I had to include a quick picture of an ultrasound picture we got of our little one. We are just so excited (duh) and wanted to share this picture even though most people totally don't care. Before I got pregnant, no, before I got this picture a couple of days ago, I really haven't cared much about other people's ultrasound pictures. They seemed weird to me, hard to tell what was going on and frankly, my response was "duh, it's a baby, like you didn't know there was one in there". But honestly, it's a phenomenal thing to know your pregnant but still not be able to cognitively understand that there is a baby in there. But then all the sudden you see this picture of a human that is growing inside of you - INSANE! How does that even happen? Anyway, here is a picture of the little Fogg:


Secondly, I was leaving for work the other day and thought that our "display" of skis was quite funny and needed to take a picture of it with my new camera. Now that I have this sleak new camera, I can take it whereever I go and have all these cool pictures of random stuff that I will post for your enjoyment. Sadly, this first one is of my own garage, but you gotta start somewhere right? Anyway, we seriously own this many skis - sad... Can you guess how many are mine and how many are Fogg's?

Christmas Time Catch Up

Sorry for my long delay in writing to you all! Lots has happened over the past month, let me catch you up.

First, we had a great Christmas with the whole family, Fogg and I, mom and dad, Gordon and his girlfriend, Leigha, and Nik (Wedekind). First, we all convened at Snowbasin on Christmas Eve for some fun festivities. We all climbed on the gondola for the torchlight parade (sans Leigha who doesn't really ski). We got to ski down and participate in the torchlight parade again which was a ton of fun. Here is a picture:

Then we headed inside for dinner but this year, it was so busy we didn't get to have the relaxing dinner that we did last year. Back to the Fogg house for hanging out the rest of the night. Then Christmas morning, we had a BIG breakfast then braved what we could of the weather and went to Snowbasin. It was pretty bad weather, really windy and snowy, really cold. They never openned any other lift than the gondola and by 2:30 the gondola was closed too from the weather. We then retreated to mom and dad's cabin with the addition of the Scrip's. We hung out at the cabin, hot tubbing, and getting dinner ready. Then we had a great dinner and started openning presents. Here is a picture of London showing off his gift:
And here is a picture of my growing belly. This is at 19 weeks, I'm currently at 20 weeks and if you can believe it, it looks even bigger now.

Here is a picture of Gordon and Leigha up at Snowbasin:

Unfortunately, the following morning, we received a phone call that my dad's only brother, Ray, passed away over the night. He was only 65 and one of my closer uncle's. It is a very sad thing, went very unexpectedly. We spent that day and Saturday figuring out travel arrangements as the funeral arrangements were being decided. Mom and Dad, and Gordon and I all headed out on Sunday to start the long drive to Wichita to attend the funeral. On Monday night we got there and went to the viewing. Tuesday was the funeral. It was hard but at the same time, it was nice to see the extended family and catch up. My cousin Dacia, is pregnant and due only 3 days after me, so that was fun to catch up on. Other family had more kids and it was good to see my cousins and aunts and uncles.

We got back home on Wednesday night and spent yesterday just trying to catch up on life. We'll spend the next few days recovering both mentally and physically. It was a fun and sad Christmas at the same time but we really learned to value the time we have with each other and were really glad to spend time with the people we love most.

Now on to 2009 where we get to welcome a new member to the family and hopefully many other fun things!

New Mantle and a Christmas Tree

My in-laws were just here for a visit for Thanksgiving and my father-in-law really wanted to do some work around the house so my big project for him was to build me a new mantle. I'm glad to announce that he completed it and it looks great! I'm so excited about having somewhere to hang my stockings this year! It's just so traditional to have stockings hanging from the fireplace - I love it! He and Fogg went up to a local lumbermill and got a raw piece of wood to construct the mantle. It looks fantastic with a little bit of bark on it to represent our mountain environment. Here is an after picture for you (sorry I don't have a before, but just imagine it without the mantle and that's about what it looked like).

I also decorated for Christmas this weekend, got myself a new artificial tree to replace the little one I used to use. Now that we have a bigger house, I can fit a bigger tree. It was really fun to decorate it but it took so much more time than the small one. Here is a picture of it:

Fogg also put my lights on the house, it looks so pretty. I love the look of the front of our house, so the lights just run along the roofline.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws and they took a picture of us that I plan on using for our Christmas card. It was great to have them here for our first Thanksgiving dinner in our new house. We had a great time with them while they were here, doing house projects, spending time together. Dick got a lot of projects done around the house including but not limited to: replacing a light switch with a dimmer switch, building the mantle, putting in more outlets in the basement, building Fogg a workshop, putting up pegboard, fixing a toilet, and putting up drywall on a room in the basement. He sure is a handy man! Fran made some window treatments and window cushions for me as well.



So now I'm all ready for Christmas, need to finish a little bit of shopping and do a lot of wrapping but the house is ready. Oh and to touch on the previous post, yes, I'm pregnant, we are expecting the baby on May 22nd. We are super excited and using the next six months to prepare for it. I've been feeling ok so far, I guess as good as you can feel with a human growing inside of you. If you want to know more, send me an email or leave a comment and I'll send you an invite to our private blog chronicling our pregnancy experience.

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Time!

I know it's been forever, sorry I've been slacking (not that anyone probably reads my blog anyway). So I thought that I would share my excitement for the upcoming holiday season! I very excited about Thanksgiving, my in-laws are coming to visit on Saturday then staying through Turkey Day. I'm excited to catch up with them, it seems like forever since we have seen them. We are very excited about showing them our new house and having them help us with a few projects. My father-in-law is a handyman for trade so he is wanting to help us with a few projects, and we are happy to have him. So number one on my project list is a new mantle. We currently do not have one in the new house and with the fireplace being a fairly central feature in the living room, we'd like a nice mantle to surround it. Right now, it's tile going into just the wall. And it'd be great to hang some stockings this year on the fireplace! We need a couple of other small projects done too. We are also going to be taking them to Snowbasin for Sunday brunch when they arrive, and I think we are all looking forward to that.

I'm also excited about the Christmas season. Can't wait to get my lights up and my tree decorated and the house adorned in holiday cheer. I can't wait to cook my Christmas goody bags to give out and the smell of the holiday's at our house. I love the Christmas cheer and music and the time with family. I hope to again do the Christmas Eve Torchlight Parade at Snowbasin as we did last year. We had so much fun as a family doing that, we hope to do it again. They did a big Christmas Eve shindig last year, with Christmas carolers and Santa arriving on a sleigh and a torchlight parade where we skied down the main slope with torches and apparently it was quite a site. But it was a TON of fun so we'd like to do it again. Then we got to go inside and have a delicious Christmas Eve meal in the beautiful lodge. What a great time!

Oh yeah, and if you haven't heard yet, we are expecting our first baby this May! Just thought I'd through that little tidbit in there for you as a little surprise.

Day Off

For you whiner's out there - Candace - the snow has been melting quickly and is hard to find anymore. Though I enjoyed the quick glimpse into the coming winter, I'm thankful that we get a couple of more weeks in Fall.

I took the day off yesterday, a well deserved rest, and got so much done I had to share! I got up and took London to the vet, got new tires for my car, went to the bank, washed my car, went to a doctor's appointment, met a friend for lunch, changed my oil, cleaned my whole house, and did 3 loads of laundry. Though many of you probably do that much on a daily basis, I find this to be quite an accomplishment mostly because I did everything that was on my list - everything. I love when a plan comes together like that.

First Snow

All day Saturday and today it has been dumping snow! We have a nice layer at our house and I'm sure that the mountains have even more. Good thing I got my new skis last week! Won't be skiing quite yet cause it's not quite thick enough to cover all the rocks and sticks and you wouldn't want to get hurt this early! It feels so much like Christmas time that it's hard to believe that it's still two more weeks before Halloween let alone Thanksgiving! I'm drinking some hot choco as we speak and have been pulling out all of my sweaters and down coats. I'm full on ready for this time of the year though I feel like the 2 weeks of fall wasn't quite enough. I'm sure we'll get a little of the fall back but I'm not sure I've seen such a big early season snow since I've lived here.

My new skis! The Volkl Kiku, can't wait to ride them!

We went by Pep Boys earlier today to get new wiper blades for my car. Fogg went in and asked the sales clerk to show him the best windshield wipers that they carried. The clerks response was "for like snow and rain?" Um, seriously? What else do you use windshield wipers for? Anyway, Fogg got me hooked up with some great new wipers that work like a charm. Now it's off to the tire place for some good all weather tires.


London is also soaking up the winter spirit as well, he's curled up in front of the fire...

Scotland

Well, my brother just arrived in Scotland on Tuesday, well maybe Wednesday, who knows what time zones he's gone through, for a two month travel around the country of our ancestors. My mom is mostly Scottish, my grandmother traveling over here when she was 6 in 1922 because of the potato famine. We still can't understand most of what she says and it's been a few years. Anyway, our childhood was full of Scottish tradition, Scotch meat pies, English tea with milk no sugar and as hot as a boiling pot of water, kilts and funny Scottish sayings. But as my brother shows in his first posting of his new blog, it's the Wally Dogs that kill us the most. My mother got some from who knows where and put them proudly in the living room on either side of the fireplace. They could possibly be the ugliest things we'd ever seen. My mom's defense every time of our insults was that they are "antiques" but my complaint is that this particular antique is ugly and that I never wanted to inherit them from her. In fact, my brother and I told her that if she does pass them along to us, we'll proudly sell them for the supposed "loads of cash" that they are worth. But my brother found them in a museum on day one of his adventure in Scotland. He should start a Wally Dog count...