The nursery is painted!!! Christmas day while everyone was napping I went to work at painting my pink wall. Then when Clint got home he put together the crib. I got the touch ups done a couple of days ago so it feels good to have that all done. We got a Lazy Boy Rocking Recliner, so comfortable, one we can definitely fall asleep in. The nursery will probably sit this way for a couple more months, but the painting is done and the crib is up, so for me the big stuff is done.

I'm 19 weeks and I've hit a couple mile stones. I felt my first "flutter" at 15 weeks. I only felt a couple flutters but I have felt lots of nudges. I've felt the first kick of my bladder, though I could go without that one. A couple nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night to feel what I can only think was the baby doing somersaults/taking some laps while there is still room.
On day two of my ultrasound (US #5) we were able to get the final measurements. All those measurements put my due date one day ahead, so now it's May 26th. The ultrasound was all normal. My doctor hasn't looked at it yet, but I pulled it off his desk and looked at it. I can't wait till he gets around to writing what I can read!!!!
I finally got those last couple of pictures of the nursery.
One wall pink (on the left) and the other walls are purple. Very girly!
The crib and recliner
My metal flowers and butterfly. The three flowers will go on the pink wall with the butterfly on one of the purple walls.
I never pictured having a pink and purple nursery but I love it and wouldn't ever change it. I've been told 4 times it's a girl but I still get people who ask "what happens if it's a boy?" Well to all you who wonder....Then that little boy will live in a pink and purple room. I'm not repainting!
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Our stubborn Ryann Leora Greene

I had my official ultrasound Tuesday...if we are keeping count this is #4 but yesterday was the one that counted. The baby was head down with its legs wide apart, no being shy here. The technician said "there is no way that any little parts could be hiding from this view"...so I guess after being told three times it's a GIRL I can believe it. This child is definitely taking after her parents. She was not cooperating yesterday. She found her position she wanted to be in and would not move, no matter turning to the side or shaking or pushing...stubborn! We finally got most of the measurements we needed, though she was not in the ideal place she needed to be. They were all good. I had to go back Wednesday and try again to get the measurements. We got everything but I will go back again in a couple weeks to get a measurement on the face double checked. She had her face pressed against the placenta so there were no good looks at her face and no cute profile pictures. So now I am up to 5 ultrasounds and will be 6 in a couple more weeks. It’s fun having an ultrasound technician at work and just looking whenever I want.

After the ultrasound I went out with Clint's mom, Jeannie, and sister in law, Jenny, and we picked out my fabric for Jeannie to make my crib set. Then I picked up some cute metal flowers and a butterfly to go on the accent wall in the nursery. I have already picked out my nursery color-Amethyst Purple...kinda a dark lavender but a rosy purple. The accent wall will be a light pink that matches one of the pinks in the baby quilt Jeannie is going to make.

Wednesday night Jenny came over and helped me paint my three walls purple. I love it. I was a little questionable about it but was going to go for it anyways and I am glad I did. I love the walls. We are going to give the purple a good day to dry and then paint the last wall pink…Hello Dolly pink to be exact. Once everything is painted up will go the flowers and Clint can get the crib put together.

Our little girl will be Ryann Leora Greene. Ryann cause we like the name, would have been Ryan for a boy. Leora after my and my mom's middle name and my mom's mom first name. I've already bought my wooden letters for her name to decorate. Those pictures and pictures of the metal flowers to come.

This is the main fabric for my baby quilt/crib set.

These are all the fabrics we will be using.
The crib skirt and curtains will be white with the three stripes of the rickrack sewn on them.

I can't wait to see how it all goes together.

RLG

Profile and between the legs

Loving my baby's nice full lips!
Face and between the legs again.

That's our little RLG making an appearance around May 27th, 2010.

Fun with Friends

On our last trip with Kelly and Mark keys were lost. Kelly and Mark lost their keys. They looked through all their stuff and we dug through the truck twice with nothing turning up. Months later Stan had his truck detailed and Kelly and Mark’s keys turned up. They had gotten shoved really far under the seat. Just the perfect excuse to have them come out. Kelly, Mark, and Kian made the trip out to Vernal to visit and pick up their keys. We had a ton of fun with them over the weekend, but you don’t need to hide your keys in the truck to come visit!

Kelly and Kian both have birthdays in December so we got them a cake.

Kian liked the icing.

Clint showed Kian how to get lots of icing on his finger.
Kian found his own spot under the table.

After watching Sally get flipped on the Love Sac, Kian decided he wanted to try too.
Clint about to fall on the Love Sac.
Look at that boy fly up! He loved it and wanted Clint to keep going.We had to show Kelly and Mark how to really sled. I got a little ride around the house with Kian. No fast sledding for me this year. There is Kelly taking her turn and being brave letting Clint pull her. Of course there is Maggie running after whoever was being pulled. That dog loves to run.
Clint going backwards while Mark pulls him.

Clint pulled Mark and at one point the sled started to catch up with the 4-Wheeler. Mark almost ran into the back of Grandpa's garage. He wasn't hurt. Kelly and I couldn't help but laugh.
Sally's face covered in snow.

Kian pushing the snow off the chairs. That kid is so CUTE!!!! He had fun taking his turn on the sled and liked watching everyone else go too. When Clint would stop the 4-Wheeler he would yell "GO".
Come play again Mark, Kelly, and Kian. Thanks for coming, we had a lot of fun.

Baby

Thursday we got a pretty good look at the baby and we know what we are having.
It's a RYAN!

Easy Soup

Yes-I can cook, but do I cook a lot-No. Yesterday it snowed all day and still is. I didn't have any errands that I needed to get done right then so I didn't go anywhere.I got the house cleaned and things put back under the house and laundry done. I really must have been feeling good to get all that done in one day. I had wanted to try making a crock pot beef stew but that would have required leaving the house and that just wasn't going to happen. I pulled out a few cookbooks and found a potato soup recipe that I already had all the ingredients for. I got it out of a family cookbook and I must now share it with everyone. If you need something quick and warm this is it.

Potato Soup

6 cups of cubed potatoes

1 finely diced onion

Put in large pot and cover with water. Cook until potatoes are still slightly firm. Dump off half the water.

Add one 12 oz can of evaporated milk and 3 tablespoons of butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

I also added a little corn starch to help thicken the broth. I had some celery in the fridge and added some of that too. I let it just barely start to boil and then had it sit on the stove on Low till Clint was done snow blowing and was ready for warm soup. It was so good!

IT'S A.....

One perk of working at the clinic is I can have all the ultrasounds I want. Yesterday I had the heart beat checked again. At 11 weeks we were 150, 12 weeks 152, and yesterday 14 weeks and 5 days 153, so holding strong in the 150s. Clint was off so I thought it would be fun to take a peek at the baby. We took our peek. We got perfect pictures of the profile, face, hands, feet, and all over. EXCEPT our baby is sitting Indian style with it's foot right in the crouch where we want to see! So...it's a foot! We tried turning my my side, poking, and shaking, but baby just loves to sit Indian style with the foot right where we want to see. Now to just wait till my 17 week appointment and hopefully baby will not be so modest. At least we got pictures of our little one.

We got a Christmas tree and put it up. There it is.

The one thing I look forward to putting out every year is my Willow Tree Nativity. There was even enough room for me to put out the porcelain nativity that Grandpa Greene gave me.

Sally made a new friend, thanks to Clint giving her a lift.

Maggie's Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at Clint's parent's house. Clint had to work but I went up in the morning with the dogs to help where needed. I enjoyed Thanksgiving and even got to eat a little turkey, but poor Maggie, she had a rough day. First she got snapped in the eye with a toy. She was pulling it out of my hand, it was a slingshot frog, and it snapped her in the eye. Then she was following Sally behind an end table and knocked Jeannie's Scentsy over. The wax ended up on her shoulder and down a leg. Luckily the wax doesn't get very hot. But she had an experience that topped it all. Deer are always going through the yard. We don't let Maggie chase them, but she still tries. I let her out to go to the bathroom and then I saw her start to run. I step out the door and see her just a few feet away from a doe. Well that deer wasn't taking any crap, she turned and started to chase Maggie. Luckily Maggie got away unharmed. Now Maggie is happily snoozing away on the couch, sleeping off the events of Thanksgiving, probably dreaming of chasing deer.

Your hormones are showing

So I feel like for the most part I have been able to keep my hormones in check and not have too many emotional outbursts. Well that was until yesterday. I've had this pain in my left side that my doctor told me he is sure I have a corpus luteum cyst. Another one happened to flare up yesterday morning, yeah for constant pain. On top of the constant pain, I was also having a bad dry heaving day. Needless to say that within a couple hours at work it ended up with me in the bathroom in tears. Well the hormonal sadness morning was eventually taken over by anger. Had a patient go up to the front desk 15 minutes after her scheduled time and ask if they had forgotten to check her in. That patient went in the room that smelled like stinky diaper. Then at the end of the day I get a phone call from the hospital that they need the order faxed over for a patient's sleep study test. Okay that's fine, I can manage getting that over. Well, fifteen minutes later she calls back and apparently is really rude to the front desk and then all sweet and nice to me saying she hasn't gotten it yet, I know your busy, will you please get that over. Woman, if you needed it so quickly then at the beginning of the day you would have gone through your appointments for the day and made sure you had all the orders for them. Being hormonal I went to fax the order, and I continued to fax it five times in a row. I know, very childish. I let my hormones take over me. I was at least able to bit my tongue during my stupid phone calls. Though any sympathy I may have usually had in my voice was definitely not there. Don't care that you can only get to the pharmacy that minute and don't have enough pills for the night...not my fault, it will get taken care of at the end of the day when the doctor isn't seeing patients. Apparently pain and hormones are not a good mix for me.

On a really good note, Clint found an awesome deal on a Trek baby jogger. We were going to get one eventually and we could get this one for like a 5th of the price so he picked it up. YEAH! I'm excited for it.
Thursday I will be in my second trimester. I'm hoping that over the next couple weeks I will start to feel better. I have been very slowly improving, but I would like to feel closer to normal...as close to normal as I am going to feel while growing a baby. I will come out of my first trimester lighter than before I got pregnant. My doctor says I'm fine, so as long as he says I'm fine then I will not worry.
I made Sally a new dog bed on Sunday, no pictures yet. She has outgrown her old bed so I took some fabric I had hanging around, an old fleece blanket, and the stuffing from her old bed and made a new one. Basically I made a pillow with the fabric and then a cover with with fleece blanket. Sally enjoys crawling under blankets and pillows so I put an extra piece of fleece on it so that she has like an attached blanket to hide and snuggle under. She seems to like her bed....and of course Maggie does too.
Clint had Maggie in the back of his truck at the store this past weekend. He says that sirens went down the street, various police ambulance, etc. Then there is Maggie in the back and she starts howling away. Didn't know she was a howler. Wish I could have been there to hear her.

Guess

We are about a month away from finding out what we are having, but I have now heard the heart beat twice. The first time it was 150, the next time 152. So start making your guesses on whether it is a boy or girl.

Update

Today Clint stopped into my work at the end of the day. Since my OB is one of the doctors at the clinic we had him try to find the babies heart beat. Well...WE HEARD IT!!! There is so much comfort in that sound. I feel like I can start to relax a little bit.
As far as how I am feeling, I am surviving. I have only thrown up three times, I'm turning out to be more of a dry heaver. With each week I am getting a little bit better and a little less nauseated and dry heaving a little less. I've sworn off eating meat for the time being. I eat meat and then I throw up. I'm not liking chocolate right now, the sweetest thing I eat right now are fruit popsicles. The one issue I'm having with this baby is that he/she doesn't like Cafe Rio!!! Those of you who know me know I love my Cafe Rio and have loved that they put one in Vernal. Hoping all that changes with the close arrival of my second trimester.
Food smells haven't really bothered me. The only food I have found that I can't stand the smell of is bacon. Ground beef is a close second but I'm still okay with it...just don't make me eat it. It is more the body odor and perfume smells that get to me. I have officially switched to unscented deodorant and I'm using Crest Kids Sparkle Fun flavor toothpaste. My mint toothpaste cause a reshowing of some Honey Nut Cheerios. My nice Bath and Body Works hand soaps are being replaced with generic as unscented as I can get soaps. I hope the day does not come that I have to find unscented body wash and shampoo.
The fatigue is not as bad anymore. I am still ready for bed about 8 pm, but I'm not feeling like I need 10-12 hours of sleep every night. This past weekend I managed to summon the motivation to get working on the nursery. I now have the closet emptied out and all the stuff that needed to go in the crawl space has found its home and the baby stuff I have gotten so far as found its way into the nursery. I'm excited for December when my sister-in-law Jenny comes out so she can help me decorate the nursery.
With work I feel so blessed that I haven't had to call in sick. I had the fun experience when I was about 6weeks of getting rather large splinter in my thumb. It was in my right thumb and I was home alone so I drove over to work to have it taken out. Well the PA back in Urgent Care cut the skin above it and was able to get it out. Turns out it was deeper than it looked. Well, I can always watch things be done to me and I'm just fine...not this time. I almost passed out in the chair. After that I have been a little worried about helping with procedures, but I have been fine so far. Haven't had to help with any toenail removals or huge mole removals, so just have to wait and see how I tolerate those. I'm not even going to try and help with a vasectomy.
Things seem to be moving along great for us. We were excited to hear the comfort of our baby's heart beat. Just keep praying everything continues to move along fine. My doctor finds out the gender at 17 weeks, so we will find that out the week before Christmas!!!

Bed for Maggie

Any bed is fair game for Maggie, even if it is made for a dog a fifth of her size.

Spaghetti

Sally loves to try to sneak things to eat, but with her white beard it is always a give away what she has gotten into. This time she was just eating some spaghetti Clint had given her and Maggie. She was our little red beard for the night.

Happy Halloween

This year I made my Halloween cards super early, they were ready over a month early. Did I get them written and out in time...no. For those of you who normally get a card and didn't, well here is the card for you to enjoy now. I had a new pumpkin stamp set that I was so excited to use, so I got a little carried away at my craft night and made like twice as many cards as I needed to.

I had my work Halloween party and me and the other Nicole got together for our costume. Poor Sally of course got roped into the costume too and was the Cat in the Hat.
Once again we invited Clint's cousin Heidi and her kids to come. We all had fun.

Everett I think was Mega Tron, Maci-Hannah Montana, Porter-Bee, Allie-Devilish Devil

Clint and Grandpa's Deer Hunt

Last week Clint and his Grandpa went out for the deer hunt. They were gone from Monday night till Thursday. Now when Clint ask what is for dinner his choices will be jerky or salami. Enjoy the pictures of Clint's deer!

Learned Something New

Maggie's intellegence never ceases to amaze me. She has learned to do something new. For this week I'm staying with Clint's grandma while he and his grandpa are out hunting. Since I'm not at home at night, the dogs come up with me to grandma's. They love the huge backyard and all the smells of all the animals that have wandered through the yard. Maggie continually bugs me to go outside, as long as Sally with go with her. Maggie learned quite quickly how to open the doors at our house. We have push down door knobs and she can either push or pull the door open. Nothing keeps that dog out of HER house. Well grandma has normal turning door knobs. Grandma and I were eating dinner while the dogs ran around outside, but apparently Maggie thought it was time to come in and we hear the door open. She did this not just once that night, but twice! Maggie now can turn a door knob. Just another reason to double check the top lock is locked on the door.

Angel Of Mine

Clint came home from work the other day with a present for me.

I love Willow Tree! So much better then flowers!

Very Uneventful

I had my first appointment today, and it was very uneventful, just the way I like it. So here is the scoop...I'm not far along, I'm only 8 weeks. My due date is May 27th. This baby was not a "surprise". We actually decided that we were going to start trying and just let it happen. I'm constantly nauseated and tired and turning into a excellent dry heaver. My feelings of excitement right now are a little canceled out by how I feel. This new life style is taking some getting used to. Not having the energy to clean my house is the most frustrating to me but I'm learning to break things up and get a little done at a time. I'm feeling more excited about it all now that I've had my first appointment. I'm really looking forward to my next appointment and hearing the heartbeat.

Clint has been hard at work getting rooms moved around. On one of his days off he went and got a new shed to put our bikes in so we could free up some space inside the house and slowly get ready for the baby.

Our new shed.
Then he moved the guest bed out of the room it was in and into our office. I still have some organization to do on the new nursery but I still have plenty of time.
The new office/guest bedroom
Don't you just love the guest bedroom "headboard". I'm really happy with how the new room turned out. I thought it would feel cramped, but it all worked out and I actually like it.

Not a puppy....

I was talking to my 4 1/2 year old nephew Jackson the other day and I asked him if he wanted a new cousin or if we should get a new puppy. He voted for a new puppy.

Sorry Jackson, you're getting a new cousin!

Home for Maggie

Clint has talked about making Maggie a dog house for a while, but with the warm summer weather she hasn't needed it and she has one that we bought her. We've tried putting blankets out for her in her current dog house, but the blankets always end up all over the yard with holes chewed in them. I bought her an electric bed when we first moved into the house. To show her appreciation, Maggie pulled it out of the dog house and chewed it all to pieces. We have had two dog beds in the house so a couple of months ago I took one and put it under the picnic table. She has been really good and not torn it completely to pieces. This weekend we were sitting around and I suddenly just said to Clint, "Lets build Maggie a dog house"...so we did. Okay, let rephrase that, Clint built her a dog house, I handed him the occasional nail and measured some of the boards. It's not quite done, Clint is going to shingle the roof, put on some siding, and put on some sort of door to help keep out the cold air. Maggie likes her new house.

The New Dog House

Maggie approves

Bubbles

On Saturday we had Clint's cousin Heidi and her family over for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun, and our dogs love playing with their kids. Our house is not the most kid friendly house. I have a large Disney movie collection, but I don't have any kids toys or games. So after dinner I pulled out the bubble machine I bought this past Christmas for Maggie and Sally. Sally is scared of it but Maggie loves it. I gave Allie and Macie their own bubbles to blow. Maggie kept running in and out of the house to get me to come out with her so she could show me what was going on. One time when I walked outside I found Macie and Allie on top of the picnic table playing in popped bubbles. It turned into a wet, bubbly, sticky mess but they all had a lot of fun. Maggie had a huge grin on her face after playing with the girls. It was a really fun night. Play with kids and then send them home with mom and dad...just the way I like it.

Macie and Allie blowing bubbles.

Maggie catching bubbles.

Allie with a big bubble mass .Bubbles everywhere!
Everett slept the whole time. He even slept through Maggie and Sally licking his face and belly.

Terminator

What a horrible morning. I was pulling out of my driveway and it sounded like I drove over some gravel...then I saw the cat go running into the neighbor's weeds. I go check on him and I can tell I ran over him. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't "finish off the job", so I went to work. My friend, Caroline, had to leave to take her daughter to school so she stopped by my house and checked on him. He was dead. I killed our poor Terminator. I left work and put him in a box. When I get home I'm going to bury him. Honestly, I'm not too sad he is gone, I just feel so incredibly horrible that I hurt him. I was at the end of the driveway when I heard the noise, so he must have tried to run under the car real quick. I know it was an accident, but I still feel horrible
Just the other day I was cleaning up the bathroom where his food is and found three grasshoppers. It was like he was stock piling them to play with them later.
Go catch all the grasshoppers to your hearts content in kitty heaven Terminator.

Baby Lion's Back

We had to do one more challenge before the day was over. It's a quick trail but fun.