Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The Beginning of the End?

I just realized today that this weekend is the beginning of the end for us. This weekend marks the weekend that we are gone from home almost every weekend (except two) from now until we move on September 6. It it kind of bittersweet. That only means that our month and a half left here in Illinois is going to fly right by us. That's good and bad. We have made some great friends here in Illinois and just this past summer were starting to finally get a bit comfortable living here. Not that we (I more specifically) like living here itself, but our friends are great and will be missed a lot. So about being gone. We decided that we haven't been spending enough money on gas lately, so we are wanting to travel some more to contribute to the failing economy.

OUR VACATION WEEK:
This weekend (Friday-Sunday): Wausau, Wisconsin.
What: Rasmussen Family Reunion, staying in hotel.

Next week, part 1 (Sunday-Wednesday): White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
What: We celebrate our 1 year anniversary (man that went fast), catch up with some friends, and enjoy a week off of work.

Next week, part 2 (Wednesday-Saturday): Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
What: Langenbrunner family get together at Little Wabana Lake property. Camping, fishing, swimming, visiting, bonfires, wood ticks, and mosquitos.

Next weekend (Saturday-Sunday): White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
What: Hang out with friends. Leave on Sunday back to Illinois.

THE REST OF AUGUST THROUGH MOVING DAY
August 2, 3: Appleton, Wisconsin.
What: Krista's (Trevor's sister) bridal shower on Saturday morning and combined bachelorette/bachelor parties Saturday afternoon and evening.

August 8, 9: Lakemoor, Illinois.
What: Relaxing!

August 15, 16: Lakemoor, Illinois.
What: We will apparently be enjoying our very last weekend ever in Illinois.

August 22, 23: Rochester, Minnesota.
What: Fantasy football draft, our first baby shower, hanging out with friends.

August 28-30 (aka Labor Day weekend): Appleton, Wisconsin.
What: We are both attendants in Krista's wedding on Friday night.

September 6: Lakemoor, Illinois, to White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
What: We are moving! The day will be here sooner than we will be able to believe. Will somebody please tell me when are we going to have time to pack?

So come back to visit our blog often. We hope to write more blogs and post a lot of pictures during the rest of our summer!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Uh oh! Is it really a girl? Or is that little thing between our baby's legs an extra appendage?

The first picture that you are going to look at is just the plain ultrasound. In the second picture you are going to see "drawings" that Trevor "drew" (via PDF) that indicate what the ultrasound tech pointed out to us. The little circle that Trev drew above our baby's butt is what we think to be that extra little appendage that girls do not possess. So this has turned into a poll. Is it a boy or is it a girl? Keep in mind our ultrasound tech (we were told) has never been wrong. Though I am no expert, I think it's a boy, and I think what the ultrasound tech pointed out to us as the baby's vagina might be his/her feet.




Sunday, July 6, 2008

How Could I Forget??

We are going to Grand Cayman sometime at the beginning of next year. Since winter is not exactly the season to buy summer clothes for newborns, we thought we should get a few outfits for Addison for the trip. I could not help but post them since they are the first ones :) Tell me that our little girl isn't going to be the cutest thing in the world?




Babies and the 4th

Last Friday at our 22 week baby check-up we had our fetal survey ultrasound. Everything looks good, and our little baby is going to be here before we know it. I knew from day 1 that I would find out the gender as soon as I could. I hate surprises and need to plan. Between those little legs instead of an extra appendange were three little lines, indicating it's a girl! Our little girl's name is Addison Marie. It's a good thing it was a girl because we had no boys names picked out. I know we have a while, but we just wanted our baby to have a name right away.



On Friday since we didn't have to work and we were not traveling, we decided that we would go to Babies R Us to register. What a long and exhausting experience! We have registered before being that we just got married last year, but registering for a baby is a whole nother adventure. What kind of bottles do you register for? Glass or plastic? Without BPA? What about pacifiers? Why do there have to be so many different kinds and shapes and sizes? Then there's the bedroom. I think we are still at square 1 there. We registered for a crib and changing station with some drawers, but we could not believe the prices! $600 for both! We came home and looked online at Craigslist and found a used set in Hugo that includes crib, mattress, changing station, dresser, and glider with ottoman for $400. We decided to be thrifty and take off the way-to-much-to-spend-on-a-baby crib and changing station from our registry and buy a nice-looking used set. Now we just have to decide on room colors and decor. We did not want to register for a bedding set because (1) we're not going to have a bumper around the crib (which is thought to sometimes attribute to increased SIDS deaths) and (2) we are not going to have blankets as the new thing now is a SleepSack (also a safety feature to elimiate loose blankets in cribs, help prevent over heating, and also help prevent SIDS). So as you can imagine, our heads were spinning after our multiple hours at Babies R Us.

Since there are limited Babies R Us in Wisconsin (i.e. none in or anywhere near Appleton where Trevor's family is from), we decided that we had to register at Target too. We hate Target's return policy, and if gift receipts are not included in purchases, we may end up with multiple of the same items that we are not able to return. So if you ever buy anything for anyone off a registry whether it be for a wedding or for a baby, please remember to include a gift receipt. It just makes for a much more pleasant experience if you get multiple of the same items, which does happen all the time. So we resentfully registered at Target keeping in mind that we may as well register for what we need and want rather than getting a million pink outfits. (Pink isn't bad in itself, we just like a bit of variety too.) That was our Saturday afternoon.

Saturday evening we went over to Trevor's aunt and uncle's house in McHenry for their annual neighborhood cookout and fireworks. They live in a weathly neighborhood where a bunch of the neighbors pitch in $100 for fireworks and they have their own display. We were there until midnight! I coudn't believe how time flies when you're having fun. I haven't stayed up that late in ages! My normal pregnancy bedtime is between 10 and 10:30. I do miss my nightowl days, but those may be long gone now that I'm in the new pre-baby and soon-to-be post-baby era. Hope everyone else had a great 4th and long weekend!