Piecing it together

This past weekend we went to Dothan, AL and we started at a city wide garage sale bargaining to get shoes for one dollar and then we made our way over to buy a travel system and 4 in 1 crib!

The garage sale was a success and we found a bunch of cute things for baby Minka.  Yes that is right her name will be Minka Martinez.  We still aren't sure about the middle name though.  Below are a few things we got for only a few bucks each- the socks have the shoes sewn right on!  We also found some books and a stuffed animal too!

I was anxious to get a few larger items for Minka and we found some great buys at Burlington Coat Factory- Baby Depot.  The travel system below is a stroller and carseat!

We also decided on a crib we have liked from the very beginning when we found it in Fargo.  Dothan had the same one so we bought it!!  It starts as a crib then transforms to a toddler bed, day bed and finally a full size bed!

We just need to paint the nursery and get a few other things and we are set!  It will be exciting to meet her!

Snazzy

Jareth all dressed up for an inspection of his Class A's.

Summer is here...in Alabama

We have seen some very sunny days and temps in the 70's, 80's and 90's.  So far it has been great and it isn't humid yet :)  I always wanted to plant a vegetable garden and now is my chance!  Jareth and I carefully picked out a bunch of vegetables we will use over the summer including jalapenos, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, leeks, cilantro, okra, and strawberries.  We decided we wanted to plant it above ground so we did not ruin anything at our rental house and we can take it with us when we move!  I also started a hanging basket of tomatoes earlier in the season from seeds and they are growing quite nicely- even when I forget to water them.  With my effort of trying to recycle and reuse objects I decided to punch holes in a milk jug rather than buy a watering can.  I can't wait to pick fresh vegetables from the garden!

23 weeks

We have now reached 23 weeks.  We are well into the second trimester and a lot has happened with me and the baby.  I have starting feeling her kick for the last two and a half weeks and have really enjoyed each kick and punch!  I have started growing a real belly and have learned a lot about what is to come.  Up until this point I was learning what to do and not to do while pregnant and what I should expect as the pregnancy continues.  Now we have shifted our focus on creating a comforting nursery, preparing what to have on hand to bring her home and learning how to handle this new person once she arrives!

As for the baby, babycenter.com says it better than I:

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.
 

Baby Bump

Baby Book of Tips and Tricks

Recently I have been receiving so much mail and information from my doctor to help prepare for the baby.  All it has done is overwhelm me!! So I decided to go through each piece of mail, each coupon, each magazine and each free sample to find what I really wanted.  I decided to narrow down the pile of baby stuff I would cut out everything I liked and put them into a book so I could easily find the tips when it was needed.  So far I have really enjoyed this process, creating a book of all the things I think are important or fun toys I want to try and be able to throw away and forget the rest!  I have pages for which medicines to have on hand, signs of when to call the pediatrician, toys, projects I want to work on, naptime tips, developmental stages of the brain and lists for things to help prepare to bring home our bundle of joy from the hospital.  Let the nesting begin.....

What's that green stuff?

I am sure I will get used to saying things like that all the time after the next few months.  Recently pollen has taken over the city.  It has been falling like crazy and has created a thin layer over everything!  Including my hair and clothes while we were at the driving range for a few hours!  It washes away with the rain and won't return again in this quantity for some time.

A Busy Sunday

So today was a day of chores.  As I did dishes, laundry, clothes-line-dried some sheets, grilled lunch, ran out to do a few errands (including buying oreos), working on my baby book, vacuuming, unpacking some random boxes, cleaning the stove and microwave, sweeping the rest of the house, and cleaning the bathtub, Jareth cut his hair, helped me with the rest of the chores and finished working on his Class A's to prepare for an inspection this week.  Since these are things we all do sometime throughout the week, the point of this blog is really to share this picture of Jareth sewing......

Tornado

Southern AL is very used to tornado season but Jareth and I are not.  Tornadoes are common from early spring through late fall due to the warm weather mixing with the cool Gulf air.  On April 8th we experienced our first of possibly many tornadoes.  It was thunderstorming in the morning and then it quickly turned to tornado sirens, strong winds, and heavy rain.  We do not have a basement but we do have a closet near the center of the house we will hide out in when necessary.  We watched the news as it was reported at 12:10 a tornado touched down just west of Enterprise.  It traveled through the city and continued towards Georgia.  We have not heard of any injuries or much damage so we'll just say it was a good trial run.  Shortly after the news reported seeing the tornado on the other side of Enterprise the clouds parted and it was back to sunshine :)

The town was a bit on edge though as they remembered the tornado which hit the high school on March 1st, 2007 killing 8 students and injuring more than 120 people.  Click on the link below to see pictures and read more on that tornado. http://alabamavva.org/storm/index.html

21st day

Well this picture is really from Jareth's first day of training but I have been a little behind in finding it and putting it up!  He has been going to training for three weeks now and has gotten used to the change in schedule.  He has to report for PT by 6:00AM everyday with the occasional PT test at 4:30 or 5:00 AM.  So far everything has been going well and for the next 5 weeks he will be doing various duties.  After that he will be doing SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape) school and then finally some classes on helicopters.

CONGRATS!

Since we left Fargo, our friends have had a lot of exciting news!

Congratulations to Kayla and Josh on the engagement!!  I cant wait to celebrate the big day with you two.  Jareth and I have loved spending so much time with you and we know you two will have a wonderfully fun and crazy long life together.  We love you!!

Congratulations to Jamie and Justin on their new baby girl, Kelli Lynn!  She is adorable and I wish I could come visit and help out!  I bet Karli is excited to have a little sister around.  We love all of you and miss you guys!!

All in a days work!

Instead of an easter egg hunt or dying eggs or opening gifts Jareth and I did some projects on Easter Sunday.  Our fence needed some 'Bodacious proofing' so Jareth spent most of the day re-nailing the fence and adding a mesh wire fence to prevent Bodie from trying to swim with the neighbors in their pool.  While he did this I went around doing other projects.  I poop scooped the whole yard (fun!) and carried over cement blocks from another part of the yard to create a fire pit. 

 

We have never really had a 'real' house projects before so I was kind of excited about these!  Next on the list is to do some painting inside the house, decorate a nursery, and do some flower/vegetable planting for the front of the house.

New Look

The blog has taken on a new look to change with our new life.  Before we were resembling Jareth and I and our wedding- a beach theme.  I have always loved the beach, lake, and water and it was a simple choice to continue with the beach theme for us.  Now we are expecting a little girl so I thought I would change it up a bit to reflect butterflies, pixie dust and all things little girls love!  Hopefully this is easy to read and gets cuter right around August 14th :)

More Baby Girl Martinez

By request, here are the other ultrasound pictures we got to keep.  The first is her flipped upside down after the nurse 'tickled' her.  The next two are her profile and the last is a clear shot of her 'mommy business' as Jareth so delicately puts it.

I Wish I Were A Cat

Ludo has recently found out what birds are.  After Jareth rescued a cardinal from our screen porch Ludo has taken notice of the many birds that inhabit our yard, trees, and bamboo.  He will spend hours outside chasing the birds, trying to climb the trees to get to them, and staring at them from afar.  Fortunately for us he is not that great at actually catching them.

Baby Girl Martinez

We have had our very first ultrasound!  I was excited to see our baby and hear our baby for the first time yet I was very nervous to make sure everything was going ok and that she was very healthy.  We heard all good news and found out we will be expecting a baby girl!

I was thinking as we went in that I would need a lot of explanation of what was on the screen but to my surprise it was very easy to see everything on her!  We could make out each vertebrae, finger, toe, nose, lips, arms and legs!   It was a great experience and I was very grateful Jareth was able to get off early enough to come see her for himself.  So here she is!