Ultrasound V

It's been a little over a month since we discovered the possibility of our baby having a clubfoot. We had done another ultrasound and the little miss was not cooperating with us to determine if there was in fact an issue. We had scheduled another ultrasound in the hopes that she would change her position. Well, today was the day and I was please to see she had completely flipped her position. Before she was breached with her feet tucked underneath herself. Now her head was pointed down and her feet were flipped out. That was relief! I was a little nervous that she would still be in a difficult position. The sonographer was able to clearly see her feet and determined with ease that she did NOT have a club foot. Praise God! In fact, she (the sonographer) said that our girly was a perfectly symmetrical baby. :) She then offered us a treat to a fancy 3-D ultrasound. We very excitedly accepted the offer. :)

Now, remember the baby's head was now pointed down, but it was tucked into a corner of my uterus by my left hip. This was problem because the 3-D scanner was unable to get her head completely and so it kept coming out distorted and smeared. As we did in our last ultrasound we tried several methods to get her to move. They even reposition the bed I was lying on so my head was pointing to the floor and my legs were pointed toward the ceiling. We attempted this for about a half hour, but with no avail. One thing is definitely determined...she is her mother's daughter-stubborn as a mule. :) The tech finally gave up on trying to get her to move and just had to take the picture. It's a smooshed and incomplete, but it's still pretty amazing.

As you can see she's got those beautiful Nazaroff lips. I love that she has her hands curled under her chin. You can't tell from this picture, but I thought she had my nose. It's actually got a cute little curve to it on the bridge. David thinks she looks like Grace did as a baby.

Birthday Weekend in Seattle

The morning after the Brandi Carlile concert David and I packed up our car and headed north to visit John and Nancy for the weekend to celebrate John's birthday. This was our first time to visit them so I was excited to see where they lived. We got a little lost trying to find their home, but eventually we met up with Nancy and followed her the way there. :) John was still at work so we met up with Nancy's sister, Erika, and decided to get the tour of the area. They live right along a walking trail through the wetlands.

In a little less then a mile the end of trail leads you to the the Town Center (think Bridgeport Mall but as a strip). It was very very cute. After walking around the Center we headed back when heard this odd hacking sound. We looked around a discovered where the noise was coming from...

Yup, it was probably the largest frog I've ever seen in the wild. Crazy.

John and Nancy live in complex known as The Reserve (a.k.a. "The Res" :D) , so when we got back she took us on a tour of the cabana clubhouse with theater, pool and BBQ area. We went over to Nancy's parents house and met her mother and two little dogs. A little while later John came home and David convinced him that they needed to go for a swim.

We went out for pizza and decided to rent Jurassic Park to watch in the clubhouse theater. The next morning we met up with Dave Hammerstrom (he came up for John's birthday too) for breakfast. I don't remember the name of restaurant that we went to, but they had cinnamon rolls the size of dinner plates there and that's what I'll remember from there. :) We then headed into Seattle to rent some kayaks to burn off our breakfast.

I've never gone kayaking before, but had always wanted to so this was a very exciting first for me. :)

Whew! We made it under the freeway bridge!

We were looking for a turtle since Nancy's vegetarian sister had purposely whacked one with her oar last time she went out.

Yeah, group shot! We made it back!

We headed over to the store and bought some supplies for the BBQ we were planning on having at the park by the beach. Again, I don't remember the name of these places, but it's place where you actually have to hike down a mile to even get to the park. We met up with more of John and Nancy's friends and set out to get get everything set up. After a little setback of getting things down to the area we got the BBQ started.

While waiting for the food to cook a volleyball game ensued.

Then it was time for food!

Relaxing in the sun.

We decided to stay around to watch the sunset on the beach.

It looks lovely but it was cooling down rapidly. John dared Jim, one of his guests, to dive into the ocean and without hesitation ran into 40 degree water.

John was only a moment behind him.

Brrrr!!!!

After the sunset we headed back to the John and Nancy's for cake and a dip in the hot tub.

Note the two preggy ladies with only their feet in their water. :)

The next morning we went to Mars Hill for church service and then decided to drive around to some of the sights of Seattle.

Thanks John and Nancy for a great weekend! We had a great time. :)

Tomorrow David and I headed off to Family Camp which is already in progress. (*Phew* this month is just filled with events!).

Brandi Carlile

This past Thursday we took Grace and Sara Dahlin to the acoustic Brandi Carlile concert at the Aladdin theater. Since David's boss owns the venue we were able to obtain the 4 tickets for free! :)

Since the girls were underage they needed to be accompanied by someone over 21. Not a problem and David had already cleared it with the theater manger. He took the secret shortcut to the theater (through the bar) to save our seats while I stayed in line with Grace and Sara since they couldn't enter the bar. When we got to the front door the ticket attendant asked how old they were. I explained to them I was their guardian but he didn't believe me. I repeated myself and he dodged his eyes back and forth and then said said "Fine, but if I catch them with any alcohol I'll kill you." Dumbstruck, I quickly found David and told him what happened. He went straight to the manager and gave him a piece of his mind who in turn quickly found the ticket holder. I'm not sure what happened from there, but he really shouldn't get away with saying that to patron.

Anyway we got settled in the front row of the balcony (best spot in the theater) and waited for our concert to start.

The opening artist was some guy named Gregory Alan Isakov. I didn't really care for him, because I thought he sounded like Bob Dylan (bleh) while that was EXACTLY why David liked him. I didn't bother taking any pictures of his performance. :) I don't care if he becomes really famous, I still don't like that Bob Dylan sound. He did do a duet with Brandi Carlile during her set of You Belong to Me which I did liked.

Finally, Brandi Carlile came out on stage starting with an Elton John cover, Sixty Years On.

I obviously can't remember all the songs she did, but she did some of her own songs and some covers including more Elton John, Beatles, Radiohead and of course my favorite - Johnny Cash. :) (I didn't get a video of it, but someone else did and posted it on You Tube. Lucky me, I found it. :D)

Playingthe piano David had tuned for her.

Here's the best video that I got. It's a cover of I've Just Seen a Face:

All in all we had a really fun evening and I hope for many more free Brandi concerts in the future. :)

Oregon Strawberries Are Here!

Yummy! Go get some before they're gone. The season is short!

Pregnancy Update

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since the big news of discovering that we were going to have girl. A few events have taken place since then. A couple of days after the ultrasound we got a call with the results of the exam and they said they were not sure, but it looked like the baby might have a club foot. Well, it was a bit of a surprise to hear, but considering David's father had it as a child I wasn't that taken aback.* The geneticist wanted to schedule another ultrasound to see if they could truly diagnose this.

*I've been corrected. Doug did not have club foot. Sorry for damaging his reputation. :P

We were a little saddened that day and while we know that a club foot (if she even has it) was easy to fix, I still couldn't help but feel sorry for our baby. We decided to cheer ourselves up by focusing on the positive and give praise for our daughter. We went out a each picked out a little article of clothing to commemorate the news of a girl.

David picked this one out.


I picked this one.


A week later we were back for another ultrasound. Since I was given the opportunity I had the radiologist double check that "girl" was still the conclusion. She checked and very clearly could see that it was in fact a girl. Good thing too, because there is no way I'm going to take back those clothes. :)

They re-measured everything to make sure she was still on track a looking good. With that concluded they went to work on trying to determine the status of her feet. This was no easy task since she had her legs crossed and her legs were curled under her. The radiologist poked and prodded my belly to try to get her to move, but to no avail. She then had me sit up and bring my knees to my chest, hoping that the baby would have to reposition herself. After a few minuets of this we checked again, but she didn't move! Yes, she truly is her mother's daughter. I think my mother's wish that my oldest child be just like me, might possibly be true. (Those of you who know my birth story know what I'm talking about). :)

Well, they were able to conclude her left foot was perfectly fine, but they couldn't tell with the right. She said at the most it was a minor case of it and would be easily fixed. However, they wanted to be able to give a true diagnosis and since out girly wasn't cooperating we scheduled ANOTHER ultrasound in a month. She'll be bigger by then and hopefully in a different position (one that does not involve crossed or hidden feet). This will make a total of 5 ultrasounds for this pregnancy. They only gave me one picture to take home this time and it was just one of proving to me that she is a girl. :) I decided not to post it, and I wasn't bothered that it was the only I got since we just got some the week before.

I want to get some good pictures with my belly, but until then here is a picture of what I currently look like:

I'm currently 22 weeks pregnant.
Compare that to me a 13 weeks:

Quite a difference, eh? :)