Close Ups

I have lots to blog about, but have been fighting another migraine all day. Sigh. So I will leave you with these pictures from walking around my parent's property last weekend.


Tragopogon dubius


Wild Roses


Moss


Wild Daisy


Horse Tail


Clover


Grass


Cinquefoil.

Independence Day Weekend

We've made a tradition out of going up to my parent's for the 4th of July. Last year, Chloë was a tiny three weeks old, and was appropriately oblivious to her surroundings. This year, she was an eager participant in all of the fun.

We drove up on Saturday morning, and brought Samuel and his friend Lewis with us. We relaxed and soaked in the sunshine, enjoyed seeing the mountains, played Rich Man Poor Man, played in the mud at the river...

rested in the shade...



made funny faces...


smelled the flowers...



walked in the woods and on Chloë Trail...


rode on the tractor...


made good food...


saw the raccoon (and her babies)...


shot the guns...



played in the water...




made and enjoyed s'mores and lots of other good food...


sat by the fire...



played with sparklers,

on an 8 second exposure,

and wrote our names,

(Aunt Katie wrote this one)...

and took lots of pictures.

Chloë was not a fan of the big, loud fireworks. So the two of us went inside and sort of watched from the window for a while. We came home this morning after another great weekend at my parent's. Ah, I love it up there.

Baby #2

We had our first ultrasound last week, and got to see our tiny little baby. The baby measured exactly 8 weeks along (due February 1st!), which means we're 9 weeks and 2 days today.

Our beautiful little child, about the size and shape of a teddy gram.


The amazing tiny heart was galloping along at 165 bmp. The flickering lines on the left part of the picture are the sound waves of the heart beat. What an amazing little miracle.


The sideways heart is the yolk sac, and the baby is at a good profile with little arm and leg nubs sticking out. We were so happy to see our tiny little child strong and healthy.

I had a really rough day on Monday, with a full forced migraine that I'd been trying to avoid all weekend. Combined with some wicked morning sickness, I was pretty miserable all day. I am so thankful that we have such wonderful family that can help take care of Chloë when I'm bed ridden with pain. After Bryan got home from work, he spent his birthday evening taking care of her. I was a bit concerned with my hydration since I hadn't kept anything down the whole day, but my pulse was good, so I tried not to worry. I woke up feeling semi-human the next day, and have slowly been recovering, and feeling surprisingly well.

I started my old trick of taking a half of a Unisom at night (one of the very few medications approved safe for pregnancy), and it helps me get a good night sleep. The best part is that it really takes the edge off the morning sickness. I feel so much better than I did at this point with my first pregnancy. Still somewhat nauseated, but not constantly throwing up. So thank you all for your prayers. Keep them up. God is good.

Birthday Photos

I uploaded these pictures on Chloë's birthday, but only just realized that I didn't actually post them. So here are a few photos from our little first birthday photo shoot.

Chloë's Birthday Party

We had a fun little birthday part for the One-Year-Old on Saturday. We tried to plan it so all of our immediate family could attend, but it's just impossible to do, we found. But we did have all of the baby's grandparents, most of her aunts and uncles, a set of great grandparents, and a few close friends.


Tissue paper flowers, and a birthday banner: my creative attempts for the party.


Mmm, food! I made "my" jalapeno popper dip, which I really just adopted and adapted from allrecipes a couple of years ago. Always a hit, especially with the guys.


The Birthday Girl!


Chloë greets guests as they arrive.


Aunt Katie shares some food with Eva and Chloë.


My mom's parents, Jack and Madelaine Moses were able to be come all the way from Oklahoma!


We were so excited that the Hughes' were able to be there. We've missed them since they moved to Florida a year ago.


And we're super bummed that the Dowers are moving to Seattle this coming weekend. We really are gonna miss these people.


Chloë trying to be sweet and share with and encourage Louella, but the poor girl had had a really rough day.

Time for Chloë's first birthday cake!




She didn't even cry when we sang her happy birthday.

I decided to go ahead and take her cute little shirt off so that she could smear strawberry shortcake everywhere.










She really seemed to enjoy it.

We opened a few presents.




All done and all tuckered out.