Seattle Weekend

I just got back from a quick weekend trip to Seattle to visti the family. I had such a great time getting to hang out with my sisters and neices.

My mom and sister threw me my very first baby shower while I was home and it was so specail. Lots of friends were able to come and it was a deligth to share in the joy of new baby Gates with friends and family. I am excited now to use my gift cards to get teh careseat and for baby Gates to arrive 'cause I have lots of cute outfits for him to wear.

We had a great time at the photo studio over the weekend getting pictures of the girls and Amie and I even got our pictures taken since we are both pregnant (. Who knows when this will happen again, so though the prgo shoot was quite cheesy it is actually fun to have just a few pictures of us together with the growing baby boys :) The pictures of Amie and I are really for my parents but I think one might end up in the baby book. Here are just a few from the two photo sessions:









As alwasy the time went by so quickly. It was filled with laughter, stories, movies, and tears (but only tears while watching Grey's Anatomy with Anna). Next time I see my sister's they will be coming to meet Baby Gates :). I do get the joy of seeing my parents sooner though as they will come up for Christmas which will be great since my time with them this trip was far to short.

Enjoy this one last video of Rosemary and Providence on the swings laughing and giggling together - I love those girls :)

It's a...

Tyler and I went in for our second ultrasound today and found out that we will be welcoming a little baby boy into our family this February (just what we had wanted).

Everything looks great and he is very active. I am feeling him move a little, but if he remains as active as he is now, I am sure in a few weeks his movements/kicks will be quite frequent and very noticable. Let's just hope he lets me sleep :)

Our ultrasound technician was wonderful. He let Tyler video some of the ultrasound which you can see here:





Finally tonight we are going out to buy our little boy his first outfit :) Can't wait to look through all the cute clothes and find the perfect little outfit for him.

Broadway Celebration

4 years already - Tyler and I celebrated our 4th anniversary just last week. Since our anniversary fell in the middle of the week we decided to postpone our celebration for Saturday. For our special anniversary date this year we got to go see "The Lion King" Broadway show.



It was amazing - The best part of the whole show was the opening number with "The Circle of Life" song. All the costumes were incredible to see and the enormous (almost life size) elephant come down the isle right beside Tyler and I during the song.



If you haven't seen the Broadway musical and live in Anchorage you should go and buy tickets because it is well worth it. Just make sure not to arrive late 'cause you won't want to miss the very beginning.

It was a nice evening and fun outing - here is the best picture we could get of the two of us in our seats after intermission



Happy Anniversary :)

Prego bump and 16 weeks

We'll it's finally here - the baby bump. Not to big yet but you can tell there is something growing in my tummy.

I am at 16 weeks today and everything has been going great. I am happy to say that I am over the morning sickness (or in my case, any-time-of-the-day sickness). I am feeling back to my normal self again.

The next few weeks the baby is supposed to almost double in size, so I am sure my baby bump will be growing and showing more and more. Right now I am told my baby is the size of an avacado --- mmm avacado sounds really good right now :)

The big count down we have going right now is the to Sept. 15th when we find out if baby Gates is a girl or boy. We'll that's the update for now - just a few more random facts for those of you who like details

1. Craving:

a) Lemonade
b) Milk
c) Fruit

2. Other random pregnancy facts:

a) Gained 3 lbs since becoming pregnant
b) Up 2 to 3 times at night (bathroom visits)
c) Finally able to eat dessert without getting sick
d) Unable to button my jeans

3. Tyler update:

a) Happy that I am making dinners again
b) Anxious to feel the baby move
c) No sympathy weight gain for me on his part :) - but he sure is good at looking the part

12 Weeks

We're pregnant!


12 weeks along thus far - We are very excited and are looking forward to having a sweet addition to our family. Below are a few pictures of our first ultrasound. Seeing the baby move around was the most exciting experience I have had yet. The baby is very active and gave us lots of good pictures. We'll find out shortly if we are having a girl or boy so put in your guess and we'll see who's right.




The big day is estimated to be February 10, 2010.

Homer, Halibut and Hidden Treasures

Last week my parents got to come up to Alaska to visit us for about 10 days. About half way through the week we planned a trip to Homer to go on a Halibut charter. This was the first Halibut trip that my mom and I have ever done so we were quite excited.


Now Homer is about 4 hours away and since the charter was to leave at 6:30am on Thursday morning we thought it best to head to Homer the day before and spend some time in town and be able to get a good nights rest before our long day of fishing. We had a wonderful time around the town. May parents are both into Geocaching so we found 3 "hidden treasures" along the Homer Spit and were able to locate them using my dad's nifty GPS and Tyler's great hunting skills.

Tyler found the first one and won the prize of free ice cream from my parents. Good job Ty!
We stayed the night at a great little Bed & Breakfast just outside of downtown. Early Friday morning we got up to a wonderful home cooked meal and then quickly loaded into the car to get to our charter boat. The weather was amazing - sunny and warm which made for a great day on the water. I have never seen anyone catch fish as quickly as we were that day. You put your line in the water and as soon as it hit the ocean floor you were reeling up a Halibut- I kept the first two I caught since I was one of 3 on our boat to get seasick I thought it best to keep the Halibut I caught since I was never sure if I would feel well enough to fish later. But even while being sick I had a great time out on the water with everyone.



We now have a freezer full of halibut so I know what Tyler and I will be eatling the rest of this summer - Beer battered hallibut anyone?

Mayor's 5 Mile Run

So several months ago I asked my friend Melanie if she would join me in running the Mayor's 5 mile run on June 20th. She was game for it and so we started training. Melanie was in California for most of the time so we had to train seperatly but we both stuck with it and were ready and excited to do the run.



We both decided that our limit on running is 5 miles - sorry but no marathons for us. The race was listed as a 5.6 mile race however after doing a trial run on the course and clocking the distance we beleive that the acutal race was closer to 5.8 or 6 miles by the time you crossed the actual finish line. What a great accomplishment we felt when we finihsed - we actually ran the entire thing (no walking or resting) and we did it in about 1 hour and 4 min. I know we aren't breaking any records but our goal was to complete it in about one hour so we made it!

Here we are finihsing up the race together over the finish line (don't laugh at how we look when we run - I already said we aren't really runners)



Thanks Melanie for joining in the race with me. It was fun and a great way to motivate me to get into shape.