Introducing...

Nicolas, aka, Nico !!!  Keri and Charlie are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy.  He was due a few days before Ellis, so I'm certain they'll be the best of friends.  Look at all that hair! Welcome to the world, Nico.  You lucked out, your parents are super cool.

Guess who has surpassed the 5 lb. mark?...Any guesses?  Ellis Jane, that's who!

In the week since she'd come home, Ellis gained a whopping 11 oz., as of her first doctor's appointment yesterday, which is a fantastic showing. In the NICU she only ever gained an ounce or just a hair over an ounce a day at best.  Her little thighs are fattening up and I'm pretty sure she gets cuter everyday.  

There is a cacophony of animal-like noises coming out of my sweet baby right now because of the painful gas she gets from the vitamins we have to give her, so I'll leave you to view the rest of the pictures without my clever captioning while I try my best to comfort/distract her.  Enjoy!

Did you think it would ever happen?

Helloooooooooo, everybody!!! Alrighty roo, I have about 30 minutes before going to Gabe's writing class.  What's that, you ask?  Be patient, it's all in this blog.  There's no reason you should know yet, because as you may have noticed, it's been ages since I last blogged anything very informative.

So I am currently in the very comfortable second trimester of my pregnancy.  Amen for that.  Literally overnight (a few weeks ago, now) I woke up back to (almost) my normal self.  Rather than becoming an incoherent blob around 3:00, I now make it all the way to 9 pm.  I no longer require 18 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, and standing up from the sofa does not cause me to need an immediate nap.  This is much easier to live with.  PLUS, my constant state of being is queasy?  No sir, not anymore.  After three months of it, I actually got pretty used to always feeling like if I thought about it too much I could throw up at any given moment.  So when I woke up that glorious day feeling fine again, I have to say, I was not just a little worried that something was wrong.  I've now come to accept and embrace this not nauseous feeling.

We have our next dr's appointment on Tuesday.  Say a little (or big) prayer that everything is on track and developing normally.  If we have an ultrasound, we should be able to find out the gender---but I'm not sure we'll have another u.s. until November.  Yes.  We are finding out if Bobbie is a boy or girl.  And I'm very excited to find out. I don't know how people can wait.

Since my last respectable blog, Tim and Kristi have been back to visit twice and since moved to Vancouver.  We were very happy to spend time with them in Aurora, as well as on a trip to Indiana...more on that later.

Here are Maci and Kya at Sonya and Kendal's the night we had dinner over there during T and K's first visit.  
Chrissie and Krisit:

This was FOREVER ago! For whatever reason, since I've been prego, I have taken an interest in cooking!  Who would have though?!  This was one of my first big endeavors, a wild rice and wild mushroom soup with garlic butter.  It was delicious and I was quite proud of how similar my soup looked to the picture.  At the stage of cooking skill I am currently at, I generally prefer to cook recipes that show me what the outcome should look like.  Very helpful.
Magazine photo on left, my soup on right:

Gabe is teaching his final creative writing class tonight, a requirement for grad school.  I think it's been eight weeks.  I took this on the first Wednesday.  Notice how bright it was at 7 pm.  No longer.  It's pitch black out now, and I need to leave soon.  He does a fantastic job, and even someone like me (who isn't all that interested in creative writing) has enjoyed and benefitted from his creativity and ideas.  
Daly basking:
Some student projects:

This was Tate's first birthday party.  Notice the four heads facing away from the camera in the second photo (Dylan, Maci, Kya, Conner)---all related to each other, either sibling or cousin.  Anyway, don't they all have amazing hair?  I get a little jealous every time I see them :)

This was on the last day of our family trip to Plymouth, IN.  Gabe's grandparents, Vic and MaryLou celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and we all got to be there to share it with them.  It was a fantastic weekend.  I got to meet a lot of Gabe's relatives for the first time.   We had a really nice time.   Here is the family band, Gabe, Kristi and Janae---rocking that church youth building like it's never been rocked before.  On this last day, Gabe's cousin Kristi Kavicky put together a surprise baby shower for us, which was so thoughtful.  We felt very loved.



Here is Kristi's little boy, Jacob being rolled in a tire by his dad, Eric.  There were all sorts of giggles coming from the rolling tire.
I will post some belly progress pictures soon...

mr. max

Well, Marla and Melissa, here is your old house.  You can't quite tell from this picture, but the entire (facing) right side of the front yard is completely covered in hosta plants.  Sorry about the quality, I was trying to be very covert as we drove by at dusk in the hopes of not being noticed.  Lots of great memories in this yard and house.

Introducing....MAX!  On our last night in Iowa we drove to Iowa City to stay with my good good old friend Jessica and her husband Eric and five month old Max.  I cried a little when I saw him for the first time.  It's just so cool to meet the child of a friend you've had since third grade.  He is absolutely delightful and so easy to smile.  He has big brown eyes and a sweet little personality.  You love him immediately.

Here is Jessica in the background explaining to Gabe and I her immense fear of "cougars"---or in Colorado, we would say mountain lions.  It's funny...because she lives in Iowa...but she read that one was seen across the western Iowa border a few years ago.  I don't want to mock her, because I'm much more likely to be attacked by a mountain lion being that I live in Colorado. That would be a really unfortunate "I told you so."

Once again, the brilliance of our camera shines through.  Who need clarity in a picture, give me a blurred image anyday.

Krissi, if you're reading this, will you please email me the Iowa pictures from your camera?  I'm sure you got some great ones.  Especially from Frank's party.  

More tomorrow!

toasty party and holy skivvies

Last night it was our turn to host 12 great friends for dinner and dessert at our house.  We had a blast hanging out with Cori, Andy and Clayton, Kendal and Sonya, Brooke, Mark and Kinley (pictured below), Lexi and Sean, Gina and Joel, and Keri and Charlie.  Gabe and I had been at the Gathering (our church) yard sale, working since 6:30 yesterday morning (not to mention until 10:30 the night before organizing and pricing donated items) in 100 degree heat.  I told everyone I almost decided to  opt for take'n'bake pizzas instead of the original plan, but then changed my attitude and sucked it up.  I ended up enjoying making the dinner and didn't even feel to fatigued.  I realized I was tired because SO MANY people had donated SO MANY items to our yard sale, which was/is such a great "problem" and that I was making food in order to have over many of the people I enjoy most in life.  So why be grumpy?  Here are some pictures from yesterday evening:

Brooke and Kinley.  Even when lil Kinley yawns she smiles.

Mark and Kendal.  We had to open the door later on (once it cooled off) because 14 people crammed into our little home with only one air conditioning unit on a July evening makes for one warm environment. Toasty.  Our local stray black cat attempted to attend the party, but I chased her out, this was an exclusive party.

Cori and Clayton, who is about to celebrate his first birthday.  He kept us laughing with his great belly giggles.

Joel, Andy and Charlie having deep conversation around 8:45.

Gabe entertaining in the kitchen...in front of many beer bottles.

Sonya, Charlie and Keri trying not to stick to our sofa.

Gina and Lexi looking beautiful.

The rest of the photos are a selection of items donated to our yard sale.  I should have taken a picture of the massive mountain (filled a 400(?) sq. ft. room of donated items for our fund-raiser yard sale.  It was overwhelming, in a really good way.  However, there were a few items we would have preferred to NOT receive.  And some were very vintage and very funny.  Here are the highlights.

Keri and I around 10 pm after sorting and hauling and pricing for four hours.  Ready to collapse.

Eric holding one of the aforementioned items we would have preferred NOT been donated.  Are you kidding me?  WHY would anyone think this was a generous donation?

One way MAGIC mirrors!

I'm going to head back to the yard sale to finish up the last couple of hours and help clean up. Have a great weekend everyone!

TADAAA!!!

Whew!  I didn't realize it had been a week since I last posted.  Gabe was gone with the computer.  Then Gabe and Computer came home, but I have (not surprisingly) been more interested in spending quality time with Gabe than with Computer.   

I've got some photos from life the last couple of weeks.  They aren't in chronological order. Going through them I realized I took an obscene amount of photos of Daly while Gabe was away.  Not to worry, I'll put just one or two on this post.

AMELIE IN HER SHADES.

TADAAA!!!  OUR NEW STEPS.  

(the original look was nasty old carpet, and the white back part of each step didn't exist.   I tore off the carpet a few years ago and the stairs have since undergone multiple transformations.  I finally found the look I like.  They WILL stay like this as long as we live here.)

TADAA,  AGAIN!!!  AMY WITH HER SASSY NEW 'DO' SITTING ON SASSY NEW STEPS.

Amy and Amelie saved the day by dropping off an air conditioner for our bedroom the other day.  Amelie started exploring immediately (she found Daly, Daly's food, Daly's water, almost Daly's litter, cold strawberries, and dust).  I found little fingerprint lines all over the television screen, clearly communicating she thinks its time for me to dust.  This photo reminded me of a certain Friends episode in which Rachel is the maid of honor in her friend's wedding and unknowingly walks up the aisle with her dress tucked into her underwear.  So you're in good company Miss Amelie.

I'm going to start another post for my other pictures.