Poll Update

Thanks to everyone who voted on the baby girl name in my poll. Here are the results from the 71 voters.

Which name do you prefer?
35% Sophie
35% Isabella Claire
24% Madison Kennedy
4% Madison Isabella
1% Cameron Isabella

I'll let you know what we have decided...

I picked the name "Isabella Claire" as my favorite. Tom loves "Madison Kennedy." After a lot of discussion, we started calling her Morgan Olivia. Yeah, a name that is not even on the poll list. Even though Madison is a cute name, I decided against it because it is so popular now. Tom decided against Isabella (almost as popular as Madison) because he thinks that everyone will think we named her after the girl in Twilight.

Anyway, things may change again but that's where we're at now.

Family Cars

Tom and I have been saving our money for a while so that we could both get new cars without taking out loans for them. After two years of looking for a car to replace my 1999 Pontiac Grand AM with almost 140k miles, I finally found it. I swear I test drove everything in Boise but the car that I chose is a black 2007 Suzuki XL7 -- definately a mommy car but I absolutely love it!

It was both a sad and happy time for Tom late last month when he traded in his fun car for his family car. He found a 2006 Acura TSX (also black) with only 3700 miles so it is pretty much new for the price of used!

He misses his little Audi with all wheel drive. I know he'll miss it in the summer when he can't put the top down on the Acura but hopefully he will be too excited to have a daughter to think about it.

Thanks Tom for all the wheeling-and-dealing that was done while I hid in the bathroom to avoid confrontation with the salesmen.

15 Pounds

Last month at my doctor's appointment I had gained 7 pounds. I thought, "not bad... just below average." That was until last week at my appointment. I have gained a total of 15 pounds. Yes, over Christmas I more than doubled what I had gained before. I can actually see my face getting fatter and my chin doubling. It sure was yummy though.

Here is a picture of me at 23 weeks. It's a horrible picture but I made Tom take it just before my 6 am gym class so I was lucky to be awake.

This is a picture of me this morning. I decided the other one was so bad I needed a picture of me with makeup on.

It really is a girl!

I love rescheduled ultrasounds! Today Tom and I got to see the baby again. The doctor wanted to see a few more things that they couldn't see the last time.

To make a good day even better, there was absolutely nobody in the waiting room when we got there. The baby was moving like crazy but they were able to see the heart, lips, profile, and finally a 90% sure gender. At first SHE was hiding again. This time she was sitting Indian-style so her feet were covering her pelvis. The tech had me move around enough to get her to squirm and move. She saw the tale-tale three lines and never saw an additional stick-like bump. That is how she got the 90% conclusion. By the end, Tom said, "well, I hope it is a girl because if it's a boy, he'll have a rough time in the locker room."

I really really loved seeing my little girl (if it turns out to be a boy I'll have to change this post). She is SO cute! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a mom. Sure, I'm starting to ache when I sleep and exercise... and just sit there, but seeing her is worth it. I can't wait for May!

It's a girl... or boy!

After endless weeks of waiting to see the baby through the ultrasound, the day finally arrived. On December 16th we went to St. Lukes. I met Tom there and on the way we were talking on the phone. He told me to stop and get some orange juice because he heard that the baby will move more if you drink orange juice before an ultrasound so we would be more likely to see the gender . Well, unfortunately I was already going to arrive barely on time and didn't want to be late. I couldn't get the orange juice.

We were in the room for an hour looking at the heart, brain, legs, hands, and everything else you can look at. When it came time to see what the gender is, the little cutie pie closed it's legs the whole time. I laid there pushing on my belly and rolling onto my side. I did everything I could think of and that they told me to do. Nope.

Finally the tech was very apologetically sorry but she couldn't find it and we'd have to come back in a couple of weeks. Of course I started crying and she felt so bad she tried again. Nothing. Then she asked another tech to try. The next one got a little picture of what looks like a girl, but still we're not totally sure.

The great news is that the baby looks very healthy and to top it off, we get to go back on New Year's Eve to have another ultrasound.

House News

Well, the bank accepted our offer on the 5,200 sq ft house. Long story short, we decided not to do it. Why? We realized that we would have to upgrade a lot of things to make it the house we want and in the end, it would cost the same as buying what we want.

So here we are, still renting the preforclosure. Our property management company told us that we can live there for free in January and February, then we get kicked out because it goes to auction in March.

My Cool Sister

My little sister turned 8 on November 21 so my mom planned her baptism for Thanksgiving day so the whole family would be there.

Shyanne is so cute. The week before, she decided she wanted a spotlight video to play while she was getting dressed after getting baptised. Of course, what 8-year-old doesn't?

My mom sent me a bunch of pictures so I quickly put together a montage for her. It was quite the hit.

You can watch on my youtube page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h91gPxNoCJg

Congrats Shy and happy birthday!