Here are past entries, in case you missed 'em!

(6 September 2011) Here are the new poll results after week 1. The Cougars take on Texas this week, currently in the top 25, so it could be a showdown. :-)

(4 September 2011) It's football season!!! Finally!!!! I had a great time yesterday watching my BYU Cougars play against Ole Miss. In many ways, the game looked like a "first game of the season" for both teams but it was still fun to watch. My favorite part was when the BYU defense forced a fumble and took it in for the winning touchdown.

Of course, I couldn't watch only one football game - especially since my energy level is dropping by the day. So, I happily spent the day sitting on the couch watching lots of games. How I love this time of year.

(29 August 2011) This was in the paper today. While our kid isn't due until October, I'm already starting to agree with the sentiment.

(28 August 2011) 6 days until the football season starts! 6 days until my BYU Cougars take the field!! Now I'll have lots of football to watch to keep myself entertained as we go through these last few weeks before Junior makes his highly anticipated appearance!!

Here is the week 32 picture. For some reason, a lot of people have commented in the last week or so about how much I'm showing now. I must look fat or something. Good thing I know it's just Junior!

(25 August 2011) We had our 32 week checkup today. The doctor says everything looks good. Baby is currently head down, good heart rate and tummy measurement is right on the line. Now we start the 2 week cadence for doctor visits rather than 4 week.

(22 August 2011) The preseason polls are coming out. Here is what the AP preseason poll looks like. Schools highlighted in yellow are those that BYU (in blue) will be playing this year.

(18 August 2011) We're starting week 32! We're starting week 32!! How very exciting! In the meantime, this comic was in the newspaper this morning. It describes me perfectly.

(16 August 2011) We're still chugging along, now in week 31. Junior remains amazingly active. Last night, Stamps had his hand on my stomach and Junior did this big stretch and then double kick - pretty hard I might add. Stamps was amazed.

As part of the preparations for Junior to join the family, we finally got around to getting the 'cat toilet' we've had our eye on for some time. When Junior is mobile, we don't want him getting into the litter box. The easy solution would be to move the litter box to someplace Junior won't be able to reach, but Stamps also wanted this special 'cat toilet' so he wouldn't have to worry about changing the litter box, since this is self-cleaning. Now if only Junior would come with a self-cleaning option...

Cosmo loves this thing. It will automatically clean itself shortly after he's used it. When he hears it start up, he likes to run in and watch it. Here's a picture of him doing just that before the shelf was done.

(7 August 2011) Week 30! We're in the middle of week 30! We may all actually survive this thing!! We have started working on the baby's room, slowly but surely. My dad was in town this weekend and he helped us put some things together. We also got to go see Les Mis, have a BBQ and make apple bread together, so it was a very enjoyable weekend.

Here is a cradle that my dad built by hand some time ago. It needed to be assembled, so he helped us with that while he was here.

We now have a glider (kind of a rocking chair with a different motion) which will be extremely useful when Junior arrives. For now, Cosmo has taken the job of "glider tester" as his own. Not shown in this picture is the ottoman that comes with the glider. It glides too!

(31 July 2011) We're working on week 29 of the pregnancy. For us, finishing week 28 was a big milestone as it indicates an increase in viability (the ability for the baby to live if he were to be born early). So, it's time to work on the baby's room!! We've been keeping busy looking for needed items and populating a few registries. I had to laugh when we went to Babies 'R Us and Stamps saw this little outfit with a fox on it. "We need to add this!!" he said. Yep, he's getting excited for all of this as much as I am.

Here is the picture we took at the end of week 28. I think I need a haircut.

(21 July 2011) We had yet another ultrasound today. The baby's weight is estimated at 2 pounds 3 ounces which puts him in the 50th percentile for his gestational age -- right at average in other words. The sonographer made a comment about how she had to chase the baby around to get the measurements she wanted. It made me think... if she has to chase him around now, when he's in a very enclosed space, what does that imply about how much we'll have to chase him when he learns to crawl and walk?

Here is the picture of his face that we got today. Not quite as clear as the one two weeks ago but still very recognizable. It looks like he's laughing to me with the way he has his mouth open.

Here is a hand with the fingers extended. We don't have a picture of it, but we also saw his other hand, which was clenched into a fist with his arm bent. It looked like he was getting ready to give me a good punch!

Here is a foot.

(19 July 2011) This comic was in the newspaper today and it made me laugh. I'd love to have a doctor tell me that vegetables are bad, as I've often suspected.

(17 July 2011) We're in the 3rd trimester!!! Yay!! Junior has really started to be active. One day this last week, he was doing what felt like a kickboxing session most of the day, which then continued well into the early morning hours. Perhaps this kid is a night owl like both of his parents.

Cosmo, Stamps and Mikey decided that Junior and I needed a demonstration of how to properly relax and rest. I seriously have such cute boys. Stamps is looking forward to having Junior join the "cute Stamps boys" group.

(8 July 2011) We had yet another ultrasound today. Things are looking good! Here are a few pictures to share.

This was our favorite picture from today - a decent view of Junior's face. Doesn't it kind of look like he is grinning?

Here is a profile shot with the mouth open. The sonographer said that the little 'bubble' next to his mouth is actually the umbilical cord. The other floating things there is actually a hand with the middle out of view.

This was taken with a 3D camera. His face is visible and that weird slanted thing is his arm/hand that he passed in front of his face while the scan was being taken.

This is the same as above, but the sonographer took the liberty of adding sunglasses to the image. Such a cutie!

(3 July 2011) "Kid-sized?" Nope, that is a "Stamps-sized" ice cream cone. The interesting thing is that he could actually eat a cone this size and not gain an ounce from it!

(1 July 2011) I've been getting numerous requests for a "baby bump" picture. I fail to see what's so exciting about seeing a protruding gut, but here's what I put on facebook anyway. May as well keep it for posterity, right?

(24 June 2011) We had an extra ultrasound today to monitor for a potential problem. The problem didn't develop which is a relief, and we got some more pictures!

In this first one, it looks like he's blowing a bubble, but since there isn't air in there, we're pretty sure that's not actually what he's doing.

Here is one of his lower face (sideways). The mouth is open and the nostrils of his nose are clearly visible. How fun is that?

(23 June 2011) The roses are really blooming in our yard. Stamps picked some to beautify the inside of the house. We have a huge assortment of roses with varying colors, sizes and shapes, but these are the ones he picked for this particular vase. They are all huge!

(15 June 2011) There's no shortage of ultrasounds when one has a high risk pregnancy! We found ourselves watching the screen at our young guy again today. The technician used words like "jumper" and "wiggle-worm," as well as made some comments about how he was moving a lot! It's so fun to watch him grow as we do all these ultrasounds. The neatest moment for me was when we saw him give this big yawn. So cute!! We didn't get a picture of the yawn, but we did get a profile pic. This time, instead of being folded up like a taco, he actually had his legs stretched out.

(7 June 2011) This one made me laugh, and got me even more excited for the next Harry Potter movie.

(6 June 2011) The school year is in its last week, so Stamps is making plans for how to spend his free time during the summer. I should mention that if someone were to ask him, he'd say that he's retired because he enjoys his job so much that it doesn't feel like work. He just hangs out with teenagers all day. So, this comic from the paper today seems to describe him very well.

(1 June 2011) We had another ultrasound this morning. The technician needed to get some views of the baby that the baby hadn't allowed at the previous ultrasound, but he didn't seem any more cooperative today. At one point, the technician said "This is one stubborn baby!" Raising this child suddenly seems like a very interesting and somewhat daunting challenge.

This was a fun view - the bottom part of the baby's face! Here we can see his chin, mouth and nose.

We got a nice profile view of the baby, though the printout doesn't quite do justice to what we saw. We literally saw him clearly from head to foot, all in one picture. His legs were extended such that his toes were up near his forehead (sort of visible in this picture). He didn't seem to stay that way for long since, as he's done in every other ultrasound thus far, he preferred to be moving, but it sure was cute to see.

(26 May 2011) Last night, I was resting when the baby started kicking up a storm. Stamps came running over to feel, and.... nothing. It was like the kid knew that the hand had changed so he stopped. Stamps took his hand away to sign something and then the kid gave a good kick. We imagined him laughing and thinking how great a trick this was to play on his parents. Fortunately, when Stamps put his hand back on my stomach, the kid complied and gave a kick all could feel. Such a special moment.

(23 May 2011) Happy Birthday, Thomas and Kai! We miss you! We continued our tradition of having a chocolate brownie to celebrate their birthday. We also went out to the cemetary to visit their gravestone and put some home grown roses there. We happened to have Mikey with us for the ride so we stopped off at a new off-leash area to let him run around a little bit. All in all, it was a nice day.

(20 May 2011) I went in to the office for staff meeting this morning. Upon returning home, I found a box waiting outside the front door. Inside was a selection of BYU merchandise so our baby will have appropriate attire for game day when he arrives. (smile) My mom is AWESOME!

(18 May 2011) We are delighted to announce that Baby Stamps is a BOY!

(17 May 2011) Today, we officially found out the gender of the baby we are expecting. In the interest of my being able to show up at a team lunch tomorrow and announce it in person, we are not posting it here until after that event. But, we can show pictures from the ultrasound!

Junior's profile.

Here is Junior's head and back. Isn't it cool how we can see the spine?

Here is the right foot. All five toes were there. It was rather difficult to get a picture of the left foot for a few reasons, not the least of which being that Junior was moving like crazy.

Junior was funny when it came to the arms. Both were kept up near the head. One was fairly easy to get pictures of but the baby was first laying on the other arm and then the arm was up and behind the head, as if the baby was scratching its back or something. So cute!

(14 May 2011) I am under doctor's orders to "take it easy," so Stamps has continued to insist that he do all the housework. Dishes, laundry, vacuuming, etc. So far, I have done a reasonable job of sitting around watching him do all of this but every once in a while, it kind of gets to me and makes me feel very lazy, at which point Stamps reminds me that I'm busy with baby-making and turns my attention to something else, like a video game. So, imagine the laugh that we each got from this comic in the paper today.

(13 May 2011) Stamps came home from the high school the other day with the following cake, made by one of his students. It was quite tasty! The blue and pink decorations are a reference to the baby's gender, which we should find out officially on Tuesday.

(12 May 2011) Hooray! Today, week 17 comes to a close. For most, that would hardly be worth noting but it's a milestone for us. It was during week 17 that our twins were born prematurely, so the fact that we've now gotten past that particular week is important to us. We sure do miss our twins, especially with their birthday coming up in 11 days.

As a bonus from work, I had all week off (along with the rest of my team). I'm actually getting around to doing some Photoshop projects I've had on the back burner.

I have had a craving for steak for a few days and it's just getting worse. Mikey and Cosmo haven't appeared as steaks yet, but otherwise, the scene from Madagascar where Alex sees everything as a steak is about how I'm feeling. Perhaps a steak dinner is in order?

(5 May 2011) We like our OB/GYN. He knows how much we like seeing the baby, so rather than just checking for the heartbeat with the handheld device, he did a quick ultrasound. Nice, yes? The baby is VERY active, which I think means that once I start being able to feel it, I won't have another moment of rest. It was moving around, turning, kicking and otherwise doing anything but staying still.

Here is another picture that the doctor thought was cool. The bright white line just left of the middle of the picture is the lens of the baby's eye. We *think* the baby is looking towards the upper left-hand corner if that helps.

(4 May 2011) A checkup at the perinatologist's office yesterday confirms that things are looking good so far. YAY! No pictures to show for it but we're breathing a sigh of relief. In the previous pregnancy, it was about a week from now when the complication developed that claimed our sons, so it goes without saying that we've been just a tad nervous. It just so happens that we have an appointment with the OB/GYN tomorrow so hopefully there will be some ultrasound pictures after that.

Stamps is the best husband, ever! Seriously, how many husbands will say something like "you just sit here and play Mario on the wii while I do the dishes and vacuum" to their wives??

(27 April 2011) Tomorrow, we start week 16 of the pregnancy. I'm feeling better day by day, though I'm currently under doctor's orders to "take it fairly easy." So, I am currently spending my days mostly sitting on the couch typing on my laptop (gotta keep doing the job they pay me for after all!), playing video games, and watching tv and movies. Seriously, I've probably watched more hours of television in the last two months than in all of 2010 combined.

Yesterday, I went outside to retrieve the newspaper and noticed that it was bright and sunny and the flowers were very pretty. So, I got my camera and snapped some pictures. Doesn't Stamps do a great job beautifying the yard? The coloration of the orange tulip is awesome. The pink one is bigger than my hand -- and it isn't even completely open!

(16 April 2011) My birthday yesterday was awesome! Stamps stopped by the store in the morning to pick up the newly released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 DVD for me to watch during the day. When he came home from work, we went out to dinner. I had been dreaming about a country fried steak (hey, it happens when you've had a strange diet for a while!) so that's what I had. It was divine. Back at home, it was finally time to open the pile of presents that I've been seeing every day for more than a month (guess no one can accuse Stamps of forgetting his wife's birthday). There were a lot of movies that I'd been wanting and some other neat presents. The rest of the night was spent resting on the couch with a movie. Oh - and eating birthday donuts.

(13 April 2011) A prenatal appointment today gave these ultrasound pictures.

This one has the baby looking right at us. This angle makes it look like it has the head of an alien or something, but I'm quite sure it is a human head. (smile)

Here's a reasonably good profile.

(12 April 2011) Looks like the sun is peeking through the clouds. Mikey noticed it and indicated that he wanted to go outside. Shortly thereafter, I got this picture. Two black-and-white, fur-covered creatures happily basking in the sunshine.

(8 April 2011) We did the first trimester screening today, which included an in-depth ultrasound. Stamps hadn't yet seen the high quality images that we get at the Perinatal Center as compared to the OBGYN's office, so he was in awe at all that we could see.

This is how the baby was positioned at the start of the ultrasound: upside down and very content to be so. Kind of cute, yes? It kept trying to get back into this position during the whole process.

After some poking, prodding and otherwise trying to convince the kid to get into the position the technician needed, it did eventually cooperate, for a little while. When it tried to change positions, the technician would poke and prod some more. We laughed when we saw a little tongue sticking out. A sign of things to come perhaps?

As indicated, these are the kid's feet. We got a decently good look at the feet and legs, as well as the arms, hands and brain. The arms were crossed, like an Egyptian mummy. During the whole ultrasound, the kid was practicing swallowing, which looked like a bad case of the hiccups.

(5 April 2011) Both of our animals shed. No doubt about it. The robotic vacuum that my husband wanted for his birthday does a marvelous job in picking it up though. He made the comment the other day that he's only used the upright vacuum a few times since his birthday. Normally he just lets the little robotic one handle it.

(28 Mar 2011) Here is a comic I found in the paper today that reminds me of me. I've been home for more than a month now and keep trying to willpower my way into not being so exhausted, but it hasn't worked yet. The 'bored' comment is certainly true as well, though I'm at least able to work from home so I have something useful to do.

(24 Mar 2011) I'm thrilled that BYU made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the March Madness tournament but wish they'd have played better against Florida. I think they were lucky to get to overtime and that's where BYU really shut down. Thanks, Jimmer, for some fun games!

As for me, the complication that made life difficult is resolved now. Some medication to help keep food down seems to be working, but it doesn't seem to completely get rid of the nauseous feeling, especially when I get up and move around. As such, my husband has been a sweetie during his spring break in catering to my every whim so I can just sit on the couch most of the time. I'll miss the constant attention when he goes back to work next week.

We had a checkup with the doctor this last Monday, complete with ultrasound. It's not as clear as the one before but here it is since some people (like our parents) will want to see. No dancing this time around but it did look like the arm was moving around a bit. So cute.

(18 Mar 2011) Saw this in the paper today... and it's me. Ugh.

(16 Mar 2011) We had another ultrasound today. How refreshing to have the doctor say that everything is right on the money. The complication is even mostly resolved now, but not quite completely. Here's the picture, though I have to say it isn't quite as clear as what we saw on the screen. We clearly saw the baby, looking off to the right (by our view) and doing this little dance, like it knew we were watching. Stamps said it looked like it was doing a hula and declared immediately that junior got that from him.

(13 Mar 2011) We are excited to announce that we are pregnant! It has already been hard on me but Stamps is taking care of me the best he can. Here is the first ultrasound picture we have. This is from a few weeks ago actually. Next ultrasound is later this week.

(20 Feb 2011) I had some spare time, so I was catching up on reading Photoshop User magazine from December. There was a neat tutorial about displacement maps, so I had to try it out. Here's the result!

(13 Feb 2011) This week seemed to be a good one for finding our family in the comic section of the newspaper. The best one, though, was this one which describes me quite well. How long until baseball season??

(7 Feb 2011) Stamps will sometimes talk about the "evil women" he dated before I came into his life. You know, the ones who just want attention or money spent on them or the ones that he liked but they didn't really like him and wouldn't tell him. I have no idea why they didn't like him, since he's wonderful but at the same time, I'm really glad they didn't!

P.S. The Packers won the Super Bowl.

(30 Jan 2011) Ah-ha! This must be what Cosmo is trying to tell me when we dish up his dry cat food, that he's supposed to get liver pate...

(23 Jan 2011) Packers vs Steelers? Seriously? (sigh) Well, that shoots my predictions to pieces. Since there is more about the Steelers that I don't like, I guess I'll have to support the Packers.
vs

(22 Jan 2011) Another comic from the paper today. This attitude describes both Stamps and Mikey. Stamps doesn't seem to gain an ounce though, even when he eats an entire box of cookies. So not fair...

(21 Jan 2011) Here's a comic that is totally us. Funny - it kind of has all four of us...

(16 Jan 2011) One fun thing about the NFL playoffs is that there are some Saturday games, so I can watch some of them. So, I got to watch some as the division games have gotten set up. The AFC representative in the Super Bowl will be either the New York Jets or the Pittsburgh Steelers. The NFC representative will be either the Chicago Bears or the Green Bay Packers. My prediction is that the Steelers will win the AFC, the Bears the NFC and then the Bears will win the Super Bowl.

(11 Jan 2011) Well, it's a new year. Last night, the Oregon Ducks lost the National Championship game to the Auburn Tigers. YAY! Sorry, I may live in Oregon but I am anti-Duck, so I was rooting for the Tigers the whole way. It was a nail-biter of a game and a lot of fun to watch. Sadly, though, it means that college football is done until August. How will I survive that long?!

Last Sunday, my husband (who happens to be the branch president) popped his head in to Primary to see how things were going. Since his birthday is this week, the kids took advantage of his visit to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Our music leader had just procured a "birthday hat" so he got to wear that as well. The kids loved it.

For Christmas, I got a 3-in-1 BYU puzzle. The first is just a football helmet, which is what I was working on the other day. As I was finishing it up, my husband started putting some of the pieces around it, so together we finished the puzzle. The third puzzle is on the back, but we didn't do that one.

For fun, I took a picture of just the helmet part and made a picture to use as one of my computer backgrounds. What do you think?

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This page was last updated on 04-Nov-2011 22:14
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