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Yesterday was busy for us, so I didn’t get much time to do anything but the running around we were supposed to do. The morning started out about 7:40 when I woke up and got showered and dressed. As I was about to dry my hair, I heard the children stirring in their rooms. A few minutes later they came out and Andreah was so excited! “Oh myyyyy gosh!!! ETHAN– SANTA CAME!!” We finally started opening presents at 8:15 and by 8:45 we were finishing up. Jim’s brother and his family stopped in as we were finishing up and we exchanged gifts with them. At about 9:30 we were on the road to Jim’s dads house for breakfast. We left there about 11:20 and went to Jim’s moms house. We exchanged gifts there– and I’ll tell you what, that woman has a knack for getting me the most perfect gifts, haha! Last year she got me a manicure and pedicure– this year she got me a 30 minute massage! (And the lady giving them does specialized pregnancy massages, woohoo!!) After we left there, we all went sledding at a man made sledding hill they have here in town. We were there for probably 45 minutes before heading over to one of my best friends’ house. And a few minutes before 4, I brought the kids back to the house so they could spend the afternoon with their grandparents and mom. Then I headed back to my friends house where Jim and I stayed until almost 9. All in all,this was one of my best Christmases. I loved all the presents I got– and we even got stuff for the baby!

My brother bought us a High Def Baby Room Monitor and two absolutely adorable outfits for my baby girl! Anddd we also got some onesies for her– as well as a memory book. I got my fetal heartrate doppler from Jim so now I can listen to my baby girl whenever we want to! And my sister and brother in law got me a body pillow. I’ve tried sleeping with just a regular pillow between my legs.. and that is not comfy. But ohhhhhh myyyyyyyy gooodddnesss! I cannot stress how awesome it was sleeping last night with this pillow. Haha. It amazes me but I slept so good last night.

Jim and I also decided on a name for our baby girl. We’re both in love with the name and cant wait to meet our Leila Louise!! I know, I am so old fashioned, haha.. but I love that name. And as it turns out, on Jim’s moms side of the family– Louise is a family name! I didn’t even know that!!

Well, I hope everyone had a super safe Christmas and if I dont log on before then, I hope everyone has a happy new year also!!

GIRL!! =)

Weight is currently at 15oz and I am measuring 21 weeks and 4 days. Everything looks good, baby looks healthy.

But I still cant get over the fact that I feel like I let myself down. I really, really didn’t want to know the sex. However.. it was Jim’s decision to find out. He hasn’t had much say with the baby. I’ve chosen the crib set, I’ve chosen names.. and he’s just agreed to it. So I wanted him to have something… but it doesn’t make me feel any better. I regret finding out– but whats done is done, right?

Hello Baby!! The ultrasound went well. I’m upset with myself, because I’ve said since the beginning I didn’t want to know the sex. At the last minute Jim told me he wanted to know. I did want to know, but I’m so.. disappointed I decided to find out.

So while I was cooking and waiting for the kids to finish eating, I went ahead and updated my about me page and added a page about our little monkey.

I cant say that much has happened in the months I’ve been missing. I’ve had a couple of doctors appointments, everything is coming along smoothly. My mom and dad will be down tomorrow night and my ultrasound is on Thursday! I’m somewhat scared that baby is going to move the wrong way and we’ll see something we dont want to! But, if it happens, it happens. I will be sure to post pictures as soon as I can.

I love feeling movement. Today has been super special for movement. Monkey has been moving all day. Must be excited for Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow!!

Jim bought me a heartrate doppler for Christmas. It arrived yesterday and he let me try it out. The kids got to hear the heartbeat in realtime and they thought it was super cool. I cant wait to get to use it more often! For now though, its wrapped up and under the tree.

Well, I’ll be sure to update more often now that I’ve been bugged by my mom and aunt to do so. Haha.

Wow, it sure has been awhile. I apologize for that. It’s not that I was busy with life or anything, just.. doing other things. But I’ve had a request by my mom and aunt to start a blog about this pregnancy. So.. this website is basically going to become that. Besides, I call this little one my monkey.. and monkeys love bananas, right? Alright then. Well, let me get some dinner done for the kiddos and then I’ll come back and do a decent update. Sound good? Okay then!

Jim and I went to San Francisco for our “honeymoon” last weekend (9/12-9/15). Our trip was nearly cut short due to disaster though. We were all packed and loaded and on the road by 9am. We got into California and thats when the problems started happening. We hit a construction zone and my car decided it didn’t want to catch the gears right. By the time we got out of construction, it was making horrible noises. (My poor Alice!) We made it to the first exit and that was followed by more horrible noises. As luck would have it, my parents were in town and so I gave my dad a call. They made the hour and a half trek up to where we were stuck and towed my car back to Reno. My parents are awesome, they really are.. they paid for a rental car so we could still go on our trip. They then towed my car back to where we live. Around 2 we got back on the road and made our way to our hotel in Vallejo. We arrived around 5pm. I didn’t feel like going into the city that late, so we stuck around and found something to eat and then called it an early night. The following morning we got an early start and we were in the city by 8 am. We went to the DeYoung Musuem first and went through the King Tut exhibit. It was very interesting. It amazes me how amazing their artifacts are. They are so intricate and detailed. After that we left and went to the San Francisco Zoo. We enjoyed ourselves there and I took lotsa pictures. After that, we went to the Sutro Baths. I remembered Jess taking pictures for her online magazine there and wanted to check them out. I went picture crazy there, too. It was super windy and chilly there so we warmed up by pretending to do the 49 mile scenic drive. We were doing pretty good until Jim took control of the map. He got us hopelessly lost so I took reigns again and said to him “Well, there’s only one other place we wanted to see so lets go there and then head back towards the hotel for dinner.” Well, he lost trust in my map reading ability and stopped and tried to follow the map again. Fail. He turned around the wrong way and finally we turned on Bitchin’ Betty– the GPS system my parents let us borrow. Lo and behold, a few minutes later we were on the way right down the street where he’d had his meltdown. Unfortunately for us.. AT&T Park (the place we wanted to see) was packed because the Giants/Dodgers game had just ended (in a Giants win, thankfully!) After fighting the traffic and making our way over the Bay Bridge, we were on our way back to Vallejo. We stopped and had dinner at Red Lobster (Dont worry ladies! I had a steak and mashed potatoes and a salad.. no shellfish!) and then returned to the hotel for another early night. We woke up early again the following morning and made our way into town to check out Coit Tower (A suggestion from Cinda!) More pictures. It was still early when we left and Jim wanted to check out the Wharf. We decided we would walk from AT&T park down there, but upon parking in a parking garage we decided to just hang out around the park for awhile. About an hour later, we noticed some other Giants fans had gathered and we migrated over their way. They were waiting for some of the players so we sat and waited too. Joe Martinez (a relief pitcher) was the first player Jim got to meet (Joe is rather handsome in person). A little while later Eugenio Velez (a left fielder) came rolling up in his grey hummer so Jim got a picture with him. Eli Whiteside was next– he’s a catcher (who is rather young but has a head full of grey hair). My favorite player (Aaron Rowand) came speeding by in a Spyder or something. Sad to say I didn’t get to meet him, but I will some day. (That man is a beast! And he has a great ass.) Then Jim’s favorite player, Pablo Sandoval, came driving up in his black Escalade. Jim got his autograph and a picture with him. He was the last player we saw before the game but we stuck around AT&T Park and got in when the gates opened. We found our seats and Jim tried catching some batting practice balls. I was sitting in the bleachers watching when all of a sudden a ball came right for me! Instinctively, I turned and it hit me on my back on the right side then ricocheted away. A few minutes later, another one came for me– it hit Jim’s chair and bounced away. The game was awesome– the Giants won 9-1. Jim got us lost (Go figure, right?! ) but as we were getting back to where we needed to be, Randy Johnson came walking right in front of our car. Jim got all jumbled up with his words and I put the window down and just said “Hi Randy Johnson!” He turned around and said hello back to me. Jim was pysched about that. We got back to the hotel late so we ended up sleeping in the following morning and didn’t even make it into SF till around 10:30. We went to the Exploratorium and that place is so incredible! So many things there– we didn’t get a chance to try everything out but we really enjoyed ourselves there. We finally made it to the Wharf where Jim was underwhelmed so we left early— to go to another game! This time, we got there at 4:30 and the gates opened at 5:15. During batting practice, Troy Tulowitzki came within inches of hitting me in the head! (He was the one that hit me in the side the previous day.) That man has something against me. So I returned to our seats to sit and hope to avoid any further mishaps. The game was great– Giants won 10-2. So.. that was our trip… if you’d like to see the pictures, check out my flickr set

School is starting on Tuesday!! Can you tell I’m excited? The kids have been driving me nutso because they’re so bored waiting. I’m so glad it starts soon. Haha. Andreah will be starting kindergarten this year. I’m very excited for her, but I’ll miss my bug during the day! Ethan will be in 4th grade and it just seems so crazy that he’s already in 4th grade!

On the pregnancy front, I’m starting to feel more symptoms. You see, as many of you already moms know, you get super smell when you’re pregnant. Well, I’ve been able to escape the whole getting sick because of this super sense.. until now. Today I smelled some of the Velvetta Shells and cheese we had with dinner and yeah.. it was not good. This whole pregnancy thing is new to me, but I have lots of people to refer to. I think just about everyone knows now. Well, not everyone, but anybody who needs to knows. We told Jim’s dad and his wife tonight and they were the last of the lot.

It’s still kinda weird thinking I’m pregnant. Other than the random symptoms, I dont feel pregnant. It’s kinda weird. But so much that I was feeling before I found out makes sense. I thought I was just getting the flu. My body has been achy, and I’ve been so fatigued.

My husband is so cute about it. He’s very excited about it. From sending me texts messages that say “Love you and our baby!” or “Kisses for you and baby.” to coming home from work and grabbing my belly and saying “Hi Baby!!” He even kisses my belly goodnight. Haha. It’s adorable.

Well, scratch off the whole trip to Six Flags… I found out I’m pregnant! =) I’m 5 weeks right now. We did, however, go ahead and get the cell phones, so thats good.

On the job front for me.. well, my interview went fantastic. Everyone was super impressed with me… but.. there was an in house applicant as well. Still haven’t heard for sure, but when I told them today I was pregnant, they said “Well, I dont know if we could accomodate for you.” Yeah, I’m devistated to say the least.

Blah, why does bad news always come right after good news?

Planning this honeymoon is taking a lot more work than I thought, haha. We’ve got our hotel booked, game tickets for the Giants vs. the Rockies (with TIMMY PITCHING! HECKYES!) We’re also hoping to hit up Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, too. I’m trying to decide if the flash pass is worth the money or not. Normally standing in the lines at those places.. well.. it sucks.. and normally we dont get to ride as many rides as we want to. Hmm.. I think it’d be worth it. And for the other days we’re there, we’re going to be total tourists. Alcatraz, Lombard Street, you name it, we’ll be doing it, haha. The last time I went, we just walked around.. we didn’t get to experience anything. So this time I’m determined to experience all the tourist trap spots, haha. We’ll be taking a drive down the 49 mile scenic drive. And we’re going to the aquarium, the zoo, and the exploratorium. I’m very excited about getting to visit there. The countdown has already begun!

In other news, Jim got a promotion at his job. Woohoo! Came with a nice $2 raise, too. So now we’re cancelling our home phones and getting cell phones instead. I’m pretty excited, actually. Considering we live in a rural area, I need to actually go out and about and see which is best around here. We found a phone we both absolutely loved– but they dont offer service out here. Damn them. So its a search. I know I dont want to go with Verizon– if I can avoid it, I will. My parents used to have Verizon.. and I remember being up in Virginia City (Nevada), and they had no service. Meanwhile, me, on Sprint, had full coverage. Their coverage blew. And the main reason I would refuse, is when my mom wanted to cancel her phone and just use my dads, they gave her hell and the “manager” of the kiosk basically called my mom dumb. My mom literally had to restrain me. I wish I would have knocked his lights out. Bah. I hear that most of the time, people in their stores are just like that guy. So yeah, if I can avoid giving Verizon business.. I will. Further research is required.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a position I put in for. I’m hoping that it’ll get the job as it will be a great opportunity for me. I’m keeping positive. Thats all I can tell you for now, at least until I hear whether or not I get the job!

So, I’ve acccomplished some things in terms of the website recently. I’m not a big fan of writing those About me pages. They always seem to come out pretty lame to me. Nobody really cares about the whole life story, or for me to tell them that I’m basically like a guy– a huge pervert and I love watching baseball. I’ve written one about.. three different times and deleted all of them. I just cannot seem to figure out a style I like. Bah.

My husband and I were married on September 13th of 2008. We did not have a honeymoon at the time. So this year, we kinda just glanced at each other and said “We need a vacation for.. just us.” We’ve planned it for our one year wedding anniversary and knew exactly where we would be going… San Francisco. You see, we’re both pretty big SF Giant’s fans. So we’ll be going to the game on the 14th against the Rockies. But we’ll also be spending some quality time together– just the two of us. I’m super excited.

If you’re here, you should really visit Ashli cause she rocks. So go ahead, get on out of here and visit her… NOW.