30 weeks!

Hi There, not much time to post, I've just had several requests for an updated picture. More to come soon! We finally finished decorating the tree this weekend, and I thought it fitting to take a 30 week photo with it! I tried with Sammy on my shoulder but he wasn't interested. So, here you go! Merry Christmas and can't wait to see you all soon!

Christmas with the Westermanns

Ian and I had an eye opening experience today. We went to the Gaver Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree, and it felt a lot like we were the Griswold's. Except they had plenty of saws for us to use and our tree fits in the house. It just feels like we are entering a new phase in life....driving the station wagon to the Christmas tree farm, listening to Christmas carols. Next year we will have a 9 month old baby along with us...strange to us now, but I'm sure it will feel completely normal by then. We are looking forward to it. Also really looking to coming home in a few short weeks to see everyone! Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving '09

Happy belated thanksgiving! We have been on the go and finally back home. As you can see we were no where close to home (WI or MD) this year. We drove down to Destin, FL to spend time with Ian's grandpa and his siblings, who drove from WI. It was such a fun time and nice to catch up and spend some good quality time together. Of course we made a trip to the beach, it wasn't swimsuit weather though, only in the 60's, but still beautiful. While we were there Julia took some pregnancy/family photos of us which will be up shortly, so stay tuned.

Surprise!

I came home from work today to find this surprise! Ian had put together 2/3 of the furniture we bought for the room! I was going to have a blank before picture of the nursery to show you, but I guess not! So this is the stripped room with the first pieces of furniture in it. We got our furniture from IKEA for many reasons, so we weren't going for elegant, refined, expensive looks by any means. In fact, most of the furniture we've purchased in our marriage has been from IKEA. I will sleep well at night knowing that the crib was given an 'A' rating by our baby book, and the furniture is solid wood, no/little MDF, which was important to me. For the health/eco friendly/safety reasons, I am happy that we didn't have to sell a body part to afford decent nursery furniture!

Mom's visit

As many of you know my mom came to visit last weekend, we had a blast! We started out at my work on Friday morning taking a sneak peek at baby W. I think mom got a good picture for her frame. We headed down to Shenandoah to find lots of fog, but some good scenery in between. We hiked to the top of the mountain where we took the picture above (my 25 week picture) and drove down Skyline drive (not excluding seeing bears!) to Luray. We had an awesome dinner after a long day of driving and hiking at the Artisan Grill in Luray. The next day we went to the Luray Caverns, which were absolutely incredible! The 1st picture is of Dream Lake, which is an illusion, its a large lake only about 10 inches deep, and it projects an image of the ceiling. Its so real looking you sometimes can't even tell the water is there! We finished out the weekend doing lots of baby stuff: registering and buying furniture! We had a lot of fun, and plenty of good food and good times as always.

Viability Party

So we've finally hit the 24 week mark, which might not seem like a big deal, but for a former OB nurse, it used to be incredibly big. This is when they generally consider a baby 'viable'. About half of babies born at 24 weeks survive. Sometimes getting patients to that point was a struggle, so we would celebrate when they made it to 24 weeks. For me it means that I feel comfortable getting things for the baby now. Call me superstitious, but I always feel like its bad luck when people have a nursery set up before they're even 24 weeks along. I'm sure I will have a totally normal healthy pregnancy, but the OB nurse in me knows all the bad possibilities and doesn't forget all the bad things I've seen. I really am not as worried as I thought I would be, but am thankful and happy to have made it to 24 weeks! My mom is coming out this weekend to help us register/ look at nursery things!

Projects

Ian and I have been busy lately with some projects. He surprised me by cleaning out the garage (made my year) and putting together the bench that Papa made for us, turned out really nice! I took a sewing class today with my friend Rachel. We learned how to make pillowcases! I figured this would be a good one to have near the rocking chair when the time comes. The frames were an idea I got when I was visiting Lacey in ND, its just scrapbook paper that are framed in scrapbook frames. I love the colors and will fit well with the bedding and curtains we've picked out. Ian and I are going to look at paint colors tonight and are going to start getting everything rolling!

As promised

Here you go, this is our new favorite attire! It unfortunately wasn't a good luck charm last night, but we are hopeful that it will help the rest of the season. We took a peak at Baby W today at work, and she was in her favorite position again, breech with both feet completely over her head! It looks so uncomfortable, but it must be doing the trick! I have been starting to feel her move more and more, sometimes it takes me by surprise how strong she can kick! She weighed in at a healthy 15 oz. today, perfectly 50th percentile. Right now her head is nice and slim and she still has Ian's long legs! We'll see if she keeps it up. We haven't been able to get a great 3D picture yet, because she seems to be very shy! I am optimistic that it will come before she's ready to come!

Half way there!

Wow, can't believe I'm saying this, but we've hit the halfway point! I guess we should start thinking about getting ready for this baby to come! I finally bit the bullet and bought some maternity clothes, I can't deny it anymore. :) The lady at starbucks today even noticed I'm pregnant, so I think its about time I look like it. Today Ian and I went to a conference on cloth diapering and babywearing. We really learned a lot and think we will end up doing both! There are so many choices out there that it is going to be a tough decision, we will probably sample a bunch of different brands and see what works best. Soft and cozy baby is a small business, and she has a gift registry, which we are considering. The owner was very helpful and has a little boy herself so she has tried all her products, which is great. I have been reading a lot about natural child care (cloth diapers, breastfeeding, babywearing, alternate vaccine schedules) and have found a lot of useful information, so don't be surprised in future posts we end up deciding to do things a little differently! That is the way we roll!! My next post should hopefully include a picture of my newly purchased packers attire, can't wait to share it with you all!

Curious minds

For those of you who have been asking for pictures, here you go! I had my first patient (that knew me from before) guess that I might be pregnant this week so I figured it was time to show you all. I can still button my pants for the record, but it is pretty uncomfortable so I have succumbed to the bella band (the maternity pants kinda fall off still). Tomorrow we go for the 20 week sono (at 19 weeks). So hopefully will check out everything ok, although we've seen most of it already, it will be official! My work just approved video clips to give to patients on Friday, so if she does anything cool, we will get it on camera! Overall I am still feeling excellent, have tons of energy (thank God) and have felt her move every single day, which is great! We are very excited, still not agreeing on a name quite yet, but instead like to call her all kinds of weird names :). Put in your vote now before its too late!!

New Birdie home

Check out our new bird hacienda! Ours broke last time Ian filled it, and he was dying to see the birds again.

We got a new seed mixture so are hoping to get some different birds this time. Apparently our marketing department hasn't been doing so hot, we haven't had any customers yet. Although there is some pretty stiff competition next door, we are confident we will get our business back and booming! They can't resist it once they find it! :)

Baby W's first gifts

Baby W got some neat things in North Dakota courtesy of Aunt Lacey. The onesies are perhaps the cutest thing ever, Dad loves them. Lacey and I made the frames for our art project which turned out quite nice and I think will work well in the brown and pink nursery if Dad can agree to it :)

North Dakota visit

As most of you know, I went to visit my good friend Lacey in North Dakota for a long labor day weekend. We had an incredible time going all over the place, eating great food and getting to see a lot of neat things. We went up to Winnipeg, Canada for 2 days and really enjoyed our time there. Lacey and I always have a great time together and never get bored or lack things to see and do. Can't wait for her to come out and see me in the spring!

No midwestern trip is complete without a stop at Culvers!

Grand Forks Farmer's Market

Lacey and I feeding the Chickadee's at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg

Downtown Winnipeg

Grand Forks Flood marker; 2009 was 3 from the top!

Baby Westermann

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Family

Ian and I just got back from a great trip to WI, where we announced to our friends and family our great news! As you can see, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby Westermann! We are due on Valentine's Day and are very excited (as is our family). For those of you who have asked, yes, we are hoping to find out the sex of the baby. Since I work in a Radiology facility, it will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks, we are excited! I have been doing very well so far, and am thankful that everything is checking out healthy. We will be posting plenty of pictures in the months to come, thanks for sharing in our joy!

Friends Visit/ 4th of July

We had a great time last weekend showing our friends Gretchen, Paul, Beth and Chris around D.C. The highlight of our trip was of course the fireworks on the mall which were amazing! We went sailing, ate plenty of seafood (too much for some!), found a Wisconsin style custard shop in VA, and enjoyed each others company. I was very proud of almost everyone who tried our favorite, raw oysters! We had a full on seafood feast at Buddy's in Annapolis including plenty of blue crab, oysters, crawfish, shrimp, mussels, clams, etc. It was phenomenal! I think it was seafood overload for some, so we stuck to some safer food the rest of the weekend. We had absolutely perfect weather all weekend (I believe they brought it with them because it was 'unseasonably cool' for D.C. July) and had plenty of time catching up and having fun. We all rode around all weekend in our station wagon, I think Gretchen and Paul got sick of riding backwards after awhile but we managed. We wish they didn't have to go, but we will be home soon and spend some more time together!

My babies

As you can see I'm very proud of my orchids, however, I can't take much credit. I kind of ignore them and they seem to like it. They get watered when they are dry, and they seem to love my guest bedroom window. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a plant to ignore! :)

now two weeks behind

I've been meaning to post about our anniversary since the weekend it happened but just haven't gotten around to it, so here you go! We had a great time going out to eat at a place I had been to for drinks/appetizers with some work friends a month prior and i knew it would be great for dinner because the bar not only includes drinks, but freshly shucked oysters! :) Ian surprised me with staying in a hotel 3 blocks away so we got to skip the friday night commute (It was close to both of our works). I got my hair cut/done before hand, we checked into the hotel and leisurely walked over for our reservations which to me was awesome, its nice to not have to drive 15 minutes to get somewhere! We of course had oysters for our appetizer, got to choose from all over the U.S. so we went with a variety; CA, WA, VA and they were awesome! I had one when I put the cocktail sauce on it it turned out in the shape of a heart! Our meals were phenomenal including our drinks: Mine was a mojito of course and Ian got a classic Tom collins, what we usually get. We had wine with dinner which was really good too. Ian's meal was carolina trout on top of sweet potato puree that was straight from heaven. I got scallops on garlic mashed potatoes with a crawfish sauce that was equally heavenly. We finished with sharing a slice of cheesecake topped with lemon curd and a side of berry sorbet between two macadamia nut cookies. I wish i could have taken pictures of it all but Ian wouldn't let me. :) Also mildly tacky, I'll admit. Anyway, we both decided it was the best meal we've ever had! We will be looking for an excuse to go back again, and might just order the exact same things!! We are happy to be celebrating 5 years of marriage and are anticipating many wonderful years to come! The last picture is the view from the hotel room in the morning. We've been getting a lot of rain lately and it was beautiful to see the steam coming up over the trees!

Next post will for sure be about our visit over the 4th of July. Beth, Chris, Gretchen and Paul are road tripping out here and we are going to have a blast!!

Baltimore (last weekend of course)

Last sunday we decided on a whim to go to Baltimore, so I packed a picnic lunch and we headed off. We found a good parking spot that didn't cost $20 which was exciting. Decided to walk around the harbor. Our first encounter was with a trapeze school practicing their tricks. It was really cool to watch the girls flip around. We continued around the harbor and walked past a cruise that was reasonably priced and not all day. We decided to take it and enjoyed a harbor cruise complete with smelly dead fish. Once we got past that it was pretty enjoyable. It took us all the way out to Fort McHenry (I think). The harbor is huge (as is the Chesapeake Bay). It was cool to see Baltimore from that distance though since we are always looking out at the Harbor. From the picture above you can see that we were quite disappointed we didn't get on the Pirate Ship cruise. I think they were even make people walk the plank! The Domino Sugar sign is a classic Baltimore site. After our cruise, we went to the top of Federal Hill Park with our picnic lunch and enjoyed the scenery (and the food of course as witnessed by Ian). Federal Hill also kind of looks out over the harbor. It was a beautiful, relaxing day. Of course on the trip back we had to stop in Mt. Airy for Jimmie Cone! It looked like it was going to rain and we kept dropping jimmies so for a couple minutes we thought it was raining jimmies!! How cool would that be?! Anyway, we had a good start to summer!
Next up: our 5th anniversary celebration!! Can't believe its been five years already!