Baby Boy...

Okay...so I know it's been a few days...but just in case you haven't heard, Andy and I will be expecting a baby boy in February. We are sooo excited!. Thursday was the anatomy scan and it was neat to see the baby. They took several pictures of his heart, kidneys, spine, skull, etc. They also took some measurements as well. It was cool to see the arms, legs, feet, hands...the feet and hands were especially fun because you could see the fingers and toes. :) The baby was definitely very active as well and Andy still refers to him as a dinosaur. Anyway, I have started to feel the baby...i think...it's still very subtle so I'm not sure...but I like to think it's baby.

Well...as promised, here is a picture of our little one...it's my favorite one. :)

It's A _______!!!

So we found out what we are having this morning! It was soooo cool seeing the baby move so much. Anyway, any guesses on what we're having? I'll post pics later and let everyone know then. :)

Update on Life

I figured it's about time for me to update my blog...it's been way too long! Anyway, here is a summary of what has been going on the last few months:

May:

My Grandpa passed away. Luckily, Andy and I were both able to fly to Seattle to attend his funeral. The funeral was very nice and it was fun listening to everyone's memory of Grandpa. I will miss my Grandpa but I know he is in a better place.

Andy graduated from his master's program and no longer has to attend classes. YIPPEE! Unfortunately, he still has one independent class to finish before he can actually receive his diploma. But, I am still very proud of what he has accomplished. I know it hasn't been easy for him.

June:

Found out I was pregnant. Andy and I were soo excited. :)

July:

Planned a last minute trip to Duluth over the Fourth of July weekend. It was a lot of fun! The Whetten's and Jaclyn's dad stayed with us Thursday night and we were talking about Duluth. Andy and I had always wanted to go so Andy decided that we would do it. We booked the hotel that night for Friday night. We also learned that the Whetten's were moving to Utah sooner then we expected...we thought they were leaving mid-August but they ended up leaving by the end of July. They will definitely be missed! It was tons of fun hanging out with them. At least we can stay in touch via facebook and our blogs. :)

Duluth was a lot of fun! Our hotel was located downtown so we were in walking distance of the some of the sites. We left Friday after lunch and headed to Split Rock Lighthouse. It was AMAZING! The lighthouse was located on top of a huge cliff. We hiked down to the bottom and that was when we saw how high up the lighthouse was located. Also, the lake was sooo calm. The next day, we were walking around and we saw a huge barge pull into the harbor. That was fun to see as well.

We also had a first ultra sounds of the baby...the first ultra sound the baby was just a "blob" to me...it didn't seem real. This was at the beginning of the month. Near the end of July, we had our second ultrasound. It was amazing at how fast the baby was growing. It went from a blob to actually looking like a baby. AND, it was moving all over the place. Andy refers to the baby as a dinosaur. I was surprised that I couldn't actually feel it.

August:

My parents came to visit! I was sooo excited for my parents to come. It is always good to see family. The whole time my parents were here, they helped us complete a lot of the projects that needed to be done...i.e, re-staining the deck, finish the landscape clean up in the backyard, etc. With their help, Andy was able to get everything done. He is SOOO happy. Before he was very stressed out about it but now he can relax more. All we have to do now is just maintain the yard.

While my mom was cleaning up the back, she found a bunch of gao choi (chinese grass). She had brought some from home but was excited to see it. My mom and dad determined that an asian person used to live in our house. My mom also created a small garden and replanted some of the choi. It will be fun to see them grow. Hopefully, I'll remember how to cook it.

With the pregnancy, I have been feeling much better. During the first trimester, I did not have morning sickness...it was more evening sickness. As I drove home from work, I would feel slightly nauseated. It was almost like my car sickness that occurred when I was younger was coming back. Then, nothing ever sounded good, which Andy kept stating that it didn't matter if it sounded good, I just needed to eat. I of course, had a different opinion. Anyway, now, the nausea is gone but I get a very nasty taste in my mouth after eating. Hopefully that won't last for very long. I can also tell that my tummy is getting bigger because my pants are getting a bit more snug....which I do not like because it just makes me feel very fat. :( Andy keeps telling me that it's baby and not fat..but I still can't help the way that I feel.

Anyway, that's about all that's been going on. I can't believe that August is almost over. Work during the summer was very crazy but it has calmed down now. We are expecting things to get crazy near the end of the year as well. I am hoping it won't be too bad, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Crazy, Silly, Robin.....

For the past few weeks, a bird has been "attacking" our house. During the morning and throughout the day, this robin will keep flying into our window. Andy and I googled this and found that often times, robin's a very territorial and will see their reflection in the window. As a result, they will attack. It then listed suggesstions on how to minimize the reflection to prevent the bird from attacking. The only thing that worked was taping newspaper to the window and it worked. However, it did not look very pretty. Now, we've borrowed our friend's fake owl and that seems to work. But we'll have a better idea when it gets sunny outside. Lately, it has been rainy and overcast. We'll just cross our fingers and hope that it works.

Anyway, I was working from home one day and the bird just kept "attacking." Since it wasn't too bright, I actually got a good video of it. I hope you guys enjoy it. :)

Busy Life

Everyone has a busy life and I feel like my life has definitely gotton a bit busier! Work is definitely been crazy because this summer is full of implementing the new electronic medical records at the different health sites that we work with. So, I have been busy with go-live, training, support, and finishing build for the other sites. The next implementation will be the first week of May. After that, we will be supporting two sites and will be getting ready for the next implementation. Crazy crazy!

Anyway, for school, after this class is done, I will have 5 classes left! YIPPEE!! I can't wait for school to be done. Once I'm done, I'll have lots of time to do my own stuff....:) I think I've probably been spending about between 15-20 hours on homework. Which isn't bad, but it leaves little time to do my own things. I am getting tired of school and sometimes wonder if I should just stop and not get my masters....good thing Andy is there to cheer me on. :)

Other then school and work, we have been slowly getting the yard ready. Andy's done most of the work so far but I've been able to help a little...I started cleaning up the dead plant stuff to let the new stuff grow. It's fun and it's nice to see things clean up. Definitely gives you a sense of achievement. :)

BBQ!!

So...it's been way too long since posting....I don't know if its because we are too busy or if its because I'm too busy..maybe both. :)

Anyway, the weather has finally warmed up and we have already had 2 BBQs at our house. On the 11th, Andy's co-workers came over for a housewarming BBQ party. They had been bugging Andy for a while and next thing I knew, we were having a BBQ. It was a lot of fun getting to know Andy's co-workers. We talked and played the WII and went to the park.

Yesterday, we had our friends come up for a BBQ. The weather was nice and the Massen's took the initiative to organize a get together. It was decided to have a BBQ at our house and play some games. The Whetten's came up and we also invited the McCammon's over. The McCammon's live close by and we are in the same ward. We have actually hung out quite a few times with them.

We all had a great time playing a pictionary taboo game and a game of Pandemic. It was great hanging out with our friends and chatting. We have really missed hanging out with everyone so it was the perfect way to spend the day and enjoy the nice weather. I am just glad that winter is finally over!! :)

Offroading - Green Sands Beach

So, Andy decided to upgrade to a jeep so we could see the areas that the guides said only 4-wheel drive cars could go. Anyway, on the first day, we didn't do anything that needed the 4-wheel drive. The next day, Andy was obsessed about wanting to go offroading so that he would feel that paying for the upgrade would be worth it. Anyway, after speaking with my brother Aaron, we figured out how to use the 4 wheel drive. As we were driving back to Kona, Andy saw several areas on the side of the road that would lead into the desert area....all of a sudden, he slows down and says "I want to do something." Next thing I know we are driving off the freeway into the area on the side of the road. Andy shouts in glee "Yeah! Offroading!!!" I just busted out in laughter. So, knowing that he loved to off-road, I told him we should make the drive down to green sands beach....we weren't going to at first because it would have been a long drive but it ended up being tons of fun! We got down to the area called south point...we were still kind of disappointed because it didn't seem like we really did any off roading. Anyway, we learned that the beach was further in...once we started in, Andy was very excited! It was my first time and I thought it was tons of fun. :) Also, 25 minutes of driving was a lot better than 1 1/2 hour hike. We were both glad that we made the trip! I will also need to make a mental note to tell Aaron to be careful of what he introduces Andy too. :) j/k

Anyway, here are a few pics from that as well....

Volcano

Before meeting up with Andy's parents in Oahu, Andy and I decided to spend two days on the big island. The first day, we spent our time in Hilo to see the volcano. Here are a few pics from that area.

Trip to the ER

Despite being extremely busy (hence the lack in updates on my blog), Andy and I have been looking forward to our trip to Hawaii.  Melanie is graduating on Saturday the 13th and his parents were flying over from Macau so we figured it would be a good family reunion.  Anyway, the day before we were to leave, I got really sick.  Saturday night, my stomach started to not feel well and around 11 pm they turned into really really sharp pains.  Normally, I usually just sleep them off and within a few hours they are gone.  Well...I fell asleep only to wake up every hour or so with really bad stomach pains.  To top it off, everytime I woke up, I was usually in the bathroom.  It definitely was not fun.  Anyway, I thought it would be over by the morning but it wasn't.  So, the same thing continued on.  Finally, about 10 hours later, Andy called the nurse line to speak with a nurse.  She asked me a few questions and said it may be good to head to the ER.  She wasn't quite sure if it was just the flu since the stomach pains were extremely bad.  She was actually more concnerned about it possibly being a kidney stone, or something wrong with my galbladder. Anyway, I was sure the pains would go away soon and I hadn't thrown up for a while...so I decided to sleep it out.  Then I woke up again and the pain was back and I was in the bathroom again.  I decided it would be better to check it out.  So off to the ER we went.  The doctor checked me out and they found that everything was alright and it looked like it was a very bad case of the stomache flu.  Well, by the time I left the ER I was actually feeling okay.  But I still wasn't very much help around the house and ended up sleeping all day while Andy got everything ready for our trip.  I am very grateful for my husband and is hard work.  I am also definitely glad that I was able to recover before our trip.