Fall time with the Rose Family

Hello all!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and made it through Black Friday alive! I am way behind on updating the blog, but here is what we have been doing the last two months.

At the beginning of October, Forrest and I headed back to Memphis for my sister’s baby shower. Jessica and I worked really hard to make it the most beautiful shower ever!

Here is Autumn with all her gifts and looking great!

The shower was a great success and Trace was showered with such beautiful and useful gifts!

During our trip, Forrest got to visit and meet lots of family.

Forrest with his Great Nana

Forrest with his Great Grandma Bennett

Forrest with his Great Grandpa Bennett

Forrest with his Emmie and Poppie

Forrest with his Auntie Jess

Forrest hanging out with his Uncle Michael

Forrest with his Aunt Autumn

I also got the chance to take Forrest to the Zoo for the first time. I personally love any Zoo and since we do not have one close to us, I thought the Memphis Zoo would be a great one! Nana and Pop went with us and Forrest’s favorite animal was the flamingo. They were pretty much the most active animal we saw!

Forrest with his Nana.

Momma and Forrest

What a face!

Since I wrote last Forrest has celebrated two more months of age! Here are a couple of his monthly pictures.

Here is Little Boy at 6 months.

Six months outside.

Getting bigger at 7 months. Such a happy child!

Caught him mid laugh!

So other exciting things that have happened in the month of October… Ty and Forrest were baptized in the Snake River on the same day by the same minister. It was such a great experience and I loved all the support we got from the church! We were lucky enough to have Forrest’s Godparents and our best friends come down to share in the occasion and a few other events with us. We also had a good group of church members. They video taped it and took lots of pictures. The actual baptism was on a Saturday and then on Sunday we were presented to the church.  During the first and second service they showed pictures of the event, which was very cool! We, as a family, will officially join the  church this Sunday. This is such a blessing for us to finally feel ready to take this step and move on from Germantown United Methodist. Most of you know that the churches on the  west coast are not any where close to what the churches are in the south. We have struggled with finding a place we feel comfortable with the service. Kennewick First United Methodist, for about  the past year, has grown on us and really has welcomed us with open arms. In some ways, we have become such an interest to so many people. We are the young couple who doesn’t like contemporary services, with the cute baby.  Ty is a Stephen Minister and we attend a small group once a week together. Forrest is going to be Baby Jesus in the church pageant this year. I would have to think he will be one of the largest Baby Jesus’ I have ever seen, but he will bring lots of smiles to lots of faces I am sure. I  am hoping at some point to get back into teaching Sunday School and working with the youth on Sunday nights. Anyway… kinda got off subject. Here are a few pictures from the baptisms.

While the Harris family was in town we did few fun things! We picked out pumpkins and Bradley and Forrest got to paint them with homemade finger paint. Forrest got to play with homemade playdough for the first time. We took lots of pictures and played on the playground. Celebrated Anna’s birthday and cooked some good food.

The rest of October was fairly calm. I worked really hard on Forrest’s first Halloween costume. I picked the pattern up two years ago and thought it would come in handy one day. I love how it turned out and I love that he looked so stinkin’ cute it in!

• 
• 
• 

At the beginning of November, Ty had his ear surgery. Everything went well and he is recovering on track. He still can’t lift more than 20 lbs, which means he can’t pick Forrest up. It is frustrating for him. He also has to cover his ear while taking showers.  I know he is ready for the doctor to clear him so he can help out more and get to his old routine.  I celebrated my 28th birthday! WhooHoo! Forrest and I also took a trip to North Carolina to see my family there. Forrest loved all the attention and kisses! My cousin Josh is doing great and is so strong! I admire him, Denna, and Jennifer for all the strength and faith they have.  We are all hoping this is the light at the end of a long tunnel, but they still need your prayers for the cancer to be gone and for Josh to continue to feel well.

Forrest with his Great Grandma Hanks.

It was a great trip and am looking forward to getting to see that side of the family  more often!

Thanksgiving was a good one! We cooked and delivered Thanksgiving dinner to our good friends Kyle and Amy who welcomed their first little girl into the world the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Eliza Denise Johnson is the cutest little thing and already has so many people who love her. We also fixed our own Thanksgiving dinner and had some neighbors over to celebrate with us. Forrest enjoyed his sweet potatoes and apples  as we ate our meal.

Here are the last set of pictures for this post.

Just a few updates on Forrest. He weighs 21 lbs. Loves to eat sweet potatoes, apples, mangoes, peaches, avocados once in a while, squash, carrots, bananas, and plums. We are still working on the green veggies, but no luck yet!

He is really close to crawling. Rolling and army crawling are his things now. He really loves to jump in his jumper and loves to make noise. Forrest helps me cook and eats up any and all attention he gets from strangers.

The animals are becoming more and more interesting to him. He loves to tear magazines, so I am hoping to get some good pictures this year at Christmas. As of right now he has been on 19 different airplanes. We have managed to do really great on almost all of them. The five hour and 45 minute one was a little rough on both of us, but he did surprisingly well! I think I was worse off than he was.

He is so close to crawling and I think by Christmas he will be moving all over the place. He has two teeth on the bottom!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year! I will post again after the holidays! Hope you enjoy the updates!

Love
Elizabeth

Forrest Helps with Projects

Good Afternoon all!

I figured I should take the time to update this before the end of the week since after this weekend we will have much more to write about!

The last couple of weeks have been lots of fun and a lot of hard work. We attempted to do some salmon fishing. No luck, but one day we are going to get one.  We are determined to have one summer where we try harder. We say that every year, but every year our schedule is jam packed with all sorts of other things besides having time to fish.

 

 

In pet news, we almost had another cat join the family. Not by the choice of me or Ty, but neither one of us could bear to have him put down.  To make a long story short, a kitten about 4-6 months old found his way into our street. Some of the neighbors seemed to think we had a new cat because he had a collar. Well we tried for a week to find the owner. Forrest and I put up “Found” signs all over the neighborhood and no one called. So sad. The kitten drove me nuts at night because when I had to get up with Forrest he wanted to play and at 3 am I am in no mood to play. He loved Forrest though and Forrest loved him. Neither was super gentle with the other. They made a great pair. In the end, Ty and I decided to just let him go. He would have a better chance of living and someone doing what we did than us taking him to the Humane Society. I am not sure if this is true nationwide, but in our area there is a major problem with overpopulation of cats.  One neighbor has said he has seen him so it is good to hear that he is still alive…. but the Rose household does not need any more pets! 🙂

Last weekend we started our big side yard project! It is something we have been talking about for a year plus. This was the first house project that I was not able to be a big part of.  Fire smoke from the forest fires, a ton of dust, and loud machinery do not really mix all the well. So my main contribution was making food and running to Lowe’s. We were lucky enough to have our neighbor really help us out most of the week and weekend and a good friend help out on Friday.  The project was to gravel the side yard so that we could park the boat and the camper on something besides grass. We are working on the big gate that will enclose the camper and boat. It will for sure make the side of our house look more put together.

Forrest is now about two weeks from being 6 months.  He is growing so fast it seems like everyday he can do something new.

Here are some of his latest accomplishments:

– roll from his back to his front

-practicing drinking out of a sippy cup

-holding his own bottle

-sitting up for 30 minutes at a time

-grabbing the dogs ears and the cats tails

-drinking 6 oz bottles instead of 5 oz bottles

-teething and chewing on everything

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Love you all,

Elizabeth

 

A Trip to Seattle and Labor Day Camping

Good morning all!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. I know we had a very relaxing one!

I guess this blog might turn into being updated every other week. That seems to be about the amount of time I can get on the computer long enough to type a new post with pictures.

We have been busy as normal. We went out on the boat again to do a little fishing. Forrest loves standing up in the boat and just watching the trees move and laying on the bottom of the boat looking at the sky. Being on the Columbia River or Snake River  is pretty peaceful. The lack of humidity is amazing. Forrest does have a life jacket, but we took him out to get a few pictures, plus the neck part seems to be a little small. (For those of you concerned with safety.)

(Richard, I think he looks like you in this one.)

The weekend before this one, we headed up to the Seattle area. We got to visit with our cousins Matt, Stef, Bryan, and Amanda. As always we had a great time! It was their first time to get to see Forrest, so he got lots of cousin love! All four cousins just loved holding him and Forrest enjoyed the attention, even though he spit up on everyone! Not sure what the deal was, but we went through lots of burp cloths that weekend. Twice as many as normal… weird.  Forrest is trying his best to be super cute with his cousins in the hopes of adding more cousins to the mix. 🙂

We also had a little cookout and Forrest got to meet his Great Uncle Jim and Great Aunt Nancy. Forrest seemed to bond with Jim right away. They wandered around the backyard and Jim just talked to him and Forrest just looked at him and smiled at the right points in the conversation. So sweet.

Forrest got his first trip to Ikea. It was Ty’s first time as well. I wanted to looking for a few things for the camper since they tend to have cheap kitchen tools and grab a few baby things. I was really hoping that they would have this red rocking moose that I found online, but the website could not find it in any stores.

Oh and I was THRILLED to find it on the shelves! I am looking forward to putting it together and having it in front of the Christmas tree Christmas morning! I can not express how excited about this I am. Try not to make fun of me!

After Seattle, I spent the next few days getting us ready to go on a four night camping trip. It takes some coordinating on my part, because I have to make trips to the camper outside while Forrest is sleeping.  On Thursday afternoon, we headed out to the campsite. It is about two hours from our house. It is on the Tuccanon  River for those of you who live in Washington. It is the same place we went for Fourth of July this year. This time the weather was dramatically nicer. The dogs, of course, loved being outside. Hank chases butterflies like his life depends on it and Joe is always in hunting mode. We went on walks, a hike along and in the river, did some fishing, and just relaxed. I can say that I did not grow up camping and really did not do it but twice when I was younger,but after we got married I was exposed a little bit more. The camper makes things easy and we relax out there and just enjoy time with our family.

Who does this look like?

 

Grabs at everything!

 

So in other news with Forrest.

He grabs at everything now. He puts everything in his mouth.  He is sitting up for about 3-5 minutes at a time. He loves to watch me cook in the kitchen. He sits in his high chair at night and just watches me go back and forth to the stove and the sink and the fridge. He will smile and laugh throughout the whole process.  I can tell that he is wanting to try what we are eating. He just will grab and open his mouth the whole time. I have already promised him that on October 17th right after his 6 month appointment we will go to the store and get him some cereal.  The doctor says wait till six months to start cereal and other foods so that is what we are going to do. I think the upcoming trip to Memphis will be easier with just formula too.

Here are just a few pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Forrest Levi is 4 months!

Hello all!

I have been a terrible blogger since right before Forrest was born! Whooops! I think I get some leeway since I just had a baby. Anyway, I am pretty sure everyone who reads this has heard the story of how labor went, but just in case for some reason you missed out I will give a short version. For everyone else, just skip down to a part you have not heard.

Well my due date was April 9th. By April 16th, I still had not gone into labor. I had a couple of tests done the Friday before the 16th to make sure that Forrest was okay. He was, but labor was not really progressing. I had a date to induce on the 16th. I am not sure how other hospitals work, but Kadlec calls you when they have a room ready. I knew they would call me, but I had no idea it would not be until 10 pm. When I got the call, the nurse asked if I still wanted to come in. Being a week past your due date, when you were sure that the baby was going to come weeks earlier, made those last weeks a little long. Needless to say, I was more than ready to get to the hospital and get hooked up! I took a shower and got everything ready to go. As we were driving to the hospital, I was really excited, but trying to figure out what it was going to be like to give birth. I can honestly say that I really had no fear of giving birth. It was not something I had a lot of questions about. I did ask my sister in law, Jessica  how safe epidurals really were. She said they were very safe and that is all I really needed to know.

When we got off the elevator and walked up to the front desk, I really didn’t know what to say. So “hey I am here to give birth” came out. I would have to say I kinda pictured the whole labor process starting at home and us rushing to the hospital to tell the nurses I was in labor and needed a room.  Not the two of us calming walking in at 11:30 at night. Once I got to the room the nurse got me change and hooked up to some monitors. I had one on my belly to monitor Forrest and then a blood pressure cuff for me. Turns out… I was in labor. I was having contractions five minutes apart. I just did not know it or feel them. However, my blood pressure was pretty high.  I ended up having to wear the cuff the whole night til the change of nurses. I did not sleep much. I was excited and anxious to get things started. The doctor came in once I was settled in and started the drugs to get the labor moving faster.  After that we settled in for the night. Ty, of course, fell asleep almost immediately. The boy can sleep anywhere and in pretty much any condition. I drank water. I went through at least four cups the size of a nalgene by five. I would have to say I did drink a lot of water during my pregnancy, but  I was so thirsty that night. I am sure it was a side effect from the labor meds.

The next morning things started to move a little faster, but not much. My nurses let me eat and I got my next round of labor drugs. I can not remember what time, but I would say early afternoon I finally started feeling my contractions, but they were still not super painful. Mainly just pressure. Kinda like a really bad cramp. I asked the nurse if I could get my epidural before we started the pitocin. She laughed and said no.. we got to see you in pain a little. Ha! I am glad she was joking. Just a little while later I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed I was leaking. (Sorry boys…. just part of it!) My water did not break, but it was sure leaking. Let me tell you what, once that water started to leak I really started feeling my contractions. At that point, I called the nurse in and said I was ready for my epidural. I think she was a little surprised cause I had not had any pain since the last time she was in. I think they were planning on giving me something through an IV first, but plans change.

The doctor came in and he looked just like a doctor should in my book. Which when you are about to have a  huge needle stuck in your back, it is a huge relief to not see a young doctor who only has a handful of epidurals under his belt. I would have to say the whole process was easy, but had a few moments of gripping Ty’s hand pretty hard.  It just feels weird to have a cold fluid run down your back.  Oh boy! Once that thing was in it was smooth sailing. I ate again. We watched a movie. Ty went home and took care of the dogs. He tried to do some school work.  By early evening our nurse, who was beyond cool, thought it was time to start getting ready to push.  She was really excited because for some reason she really wanted to be there for the birth.  It ended up taking longer than planned to get the doctor in the room and everything set up. So sadly, she was done with her shift before Forrest was born, but she did get to be my nurse the following day.

Once things were set up, I got to start pushing. I can say the epidural was amazing, but the draw back was mine was so good that I had a terrible time figuring out where to push. I really just could not control my muscles like normal. To make a long story short, I ended up pushing for an hour, resting for 45 mins, and then pushing for another 30 mins. My blood pressure was scary high and I could not get Forrest to turn. I pretty much fell asleep after each time they told me to push, which turns out to be a normal reaction. (Although, they certainly don’t put that in the movies.) Before I started pushing again for those last 30 minutes, the doctor came in and said if we can’t get him out in the next two pushes then we are most likely going to have to have a C-Section. My blood pressure was really high and Forrest was starting to get stressed out…. well that was sure motivation. I was NOT going to have a C-Section. I had to much stuff planned to be stuck in bed for weeks. Needless to say, with the help of the vacuum, Forrest was born on April 17th at 11:19pm weighing 7 lbs 6.9 ozs and was 20.5 inches long.

When I thought about having a baby, I always wondered what my first reaction would be after the baby was born. Would I cry? Would I laugh? I kinda figured I would cry since I cried at anything half way sentimental during my pregnancy. Still do to be completely honest.  Well my reaction was exhaustion and awe.  Forrest screamed for the first 20 minutes or so of life.  The doctor had to scream over him to wish us congrats as he left to head to the next patient. Pushing for that long really took its toll on me. I was so glad to have Forrest in my arms, but my emotional capacity was taken over by exhaustion.

Forrest was perfect. He looked just like all his ultrasound pictures. He would cuddle and just look at me. It was the best feeling in the whole world.

I can say that I really can’t imagine life without Forrest. It is so weird to think that it has only been four months since joining our family.

Over those four months, this little boy has done things that some adults I know have not done.
Here are a few things  since he was born.

– Got to meet Emmie, Poppie, Aunt Autumn, Uncle Michael,  Aunt Jessica, Uncle Richard, Nana, Pop, Aunt Amber, Uncle Tony, Zakk, Logan, Anna, Mike, Bradley, Joe, Lisa, Brenden, Great Nana, Katie, Emily, Julie, Frankie and Jolie, James and Michelle, Kyle and Amy, Matt and Stef, Ron and Anna, Dan, and Thadd and Laura.

-Flown on four planes

-Been to Nevada, California, Maryland, Washington, Oregon, and Tennessee

-Been wine tasting (just watching of course), fishing, on a boat, bowling, the fair, heard REO Speedwagon, and camping.

-Has seen and/or touched a live lobster, cow, goat, sheep, rabbit, dog, and cat

-Attended three weddings

-Seen fireworks and celebrated the Fourth of July, gone to church and sat through the service, and helped with a garage sale

Forrest can roll over from his stomach to his back, laugh, smile, coo, babble, pull himself to a sitting position while holding your fingers, pull himself to a standing position from a sitting position while holding your fingers, sit by himself for a minute or two at a time, hold toys, stick things in his mouth, and sleep 10-12 hours per night in his own bed.

He eats 25-30 ozs per day in 5 ozs increments. He spits up some, but that is why I made so many burp cloths! He is wearing 6 month clothing and is in size 3 diapers. By 6 months, I am sure he will be in 9 month clothing. I am actually going to stock up this weekend at the outlet mall in Seattle.

He likes to watch me dry my hair in the morning and loves watching the dogs. He really likes little dogs that are more his size. He loves when his daddy sings to him and he really like Ty’s duck call.

He has the sweetest personality and will just make your heart melt when he smiles. He laughs and smiles all the time and loves his swing.  He looks a lot like Ty, but I see me in him from time to time. I actually see my Grandpa Hanks in him a lot and my brother. He has the best kind of cheeks to kiss and his hands are just so sweet. He will put his hand on my cheek and just smile.

He weighs 17 lbs  and is 24.6 inches long. I have a feeling we are going to be crawling here in the next few months. Forrest is one determined little boy. For the past week or so, I noticed he was trying to sit up from a relaxed position in the couch or on a pillow. He just does not have the muscle strength to pull himself up yet. Well today I placed him in the seated position and just waited for him to fall back on my like normal. To my surprise, he just sat there. He sat there for a couple of minutes. Long enough for me to grab my phone and snap a few pictures.  He is growing so fast and setting the bar high for future siblings. I just know number 2 will not eat or not sleep or just be a cranky baby, because Forrest truly is such a great baby. I guess we shall see how the terrible twos go! 🙂

I will leave you with a few pictures of Mr. Forrest. I will try and update this blog once a week so all of you Forrest lovers out there can watch him grow and keep up to date on his accomplishments.  Love you all and miss you lots, Elizabeth

16 days to go….. but We aren’t counting :)

Morning!

Today is Saturday and we are just going to get some house things done. I am officially to the point that he could come at any time.  We have everything packed. It just has to make its way into the car. The nursery is done and I have just a little ways to go to finish his quilt.

As far as how I am feeling, I am trying to get over a head cold. I think a day or two more and all of it should be gone. Ty got some bug from work, so he is trying to get over his cold too. I guess it is just that time of the year.

I went and had my pertussis shot this week. I had the vaccine when I was little, but I was tested to see if I am still immune and I am not. Washington state has had a major outbreak of whooping cough and they have recommended any person who works with or is around small children and infants or older people get the booster. Ty will have to make time to go get his too.   We don’t have a shot nurse around here so the only place my doctor could think of is to send me to the health department.  Not a big deal, but I had to have an appointment.

I have doctor appointments every week now. I am already 50% effaced, and could be more since that was checked two weeks ago. He did not check me last week since I was not showing to many signs of labor. I am having contractions, but they are little and not consistent.  Forrest is actually moving more now than he ever has. Yesterday was the first day I have seen his foot imprint move across my belly. I just happened to be getting out of the shower and saw that little foot. He has been doing it for awhile, but I really have not jumped up and ran to a mirror to try and watch.

I have stocked the house up with a bunch of food. Some things like frozen lasagne and chicken bakes that just need to be cooked in the oven and then other things I have all the ingredients for that are super easy to throw together.  I have already started planning my meals for when all of our family and friends come.  Needless to say our last Costco trip was twice the cost of what it normally is maybe even triple.

I still have my spring cleaning list that I want to get done, but every time I get a burst of energy to do something it seems like five minutes later I am worn out and ready for a nap. I am hoping the cold is adding to that and in a few days I will have more energy.

I will leave all of you with this funny video. It is totally how I feel and I am sure those of you who are pregnant or have been pregnant remember this feeling.

Love you all,

Elizabeth

Let the countdown begin!

Morning Friends and Family!

I hope everyone is enjoying the weather where you are.  It is starting to get in the low 60s here, but still dropping down to the mid 30s at night.

I guess I need to apologize to a few of you. I have been terrible about updating my blog. When I went back to Tennessee for a baby shower a few of you gave me a hard time about being behind.  Hopefully, this blog update will be excited enough to make up for not updating in a while.

Let’s see… where to begin.

The last time I posted I think I was supposed to be getting my glucose tolerance test. Well that turned out to be quite the adventure.  They nurse was not really clear about what I was allowed to eat the day of the test. She said just eat  a normal breakfast. My breakfast is typically at school with the kids. We always have fruit… but I was not sure if I should eat fruit because of the sugar. Anyway, to make a long story short. I did the test and it came back slightly elevated. The doctor wanted me to take the three-hour glucose tolerance test. So about a week later I was able to take the test. I lab tech seemed to know what she was doing, but come to find out she performed the wrong test on me. She did not give me the stronger solution to drink and she drew blood at 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours. I guess she was only supposed to draw blood on the hour marks. So that test came back with one level elevated. The doctor wanted to know if I had any family history of diabetes or if there is any one giving birth to 10 pound babies.  The answer was no and the doctor did not seem really all that concerned. He said he was pretty sure I did not have gestational diabetes, but wanted me to watch my carb intake.  I have been doing just that.

I have taken a few trips since the holidays. I flew to Seattle for the day with my boss for a meeting. The flight was not too bad. The next trip we took turned into the worst travel experience we have ever had. Ty and I had made plans to meet his parents in Scottsdale to celebrate his dad’s 60th birthday. The Barrett Jackson car auction is there and we thought it would be a fun, relaxing trip! Well the weather did not cooperate with us at all. We were scheduled to leave Pasco Wednesday afternoon. The weather reports kept coming in that the Pacific Northwest was in for a huge storm. Well the storm turned out to be the worst one Seattle had seen in years.  Our travel plans were to fly through Seattle to then fly back down to Phoenix. We finally get a flight out of Pasco to Seattle five hours after we were supposed to take off. As we were leaving Pasco, our flight to Phoenix was leaving Seattle. Little did we know that that flight would be the last one to leave for days.  We landed in Seattle and were told to wait until the service desk opened at 4 am to get boarding passes for the next flight. So we slept for a few hours at the gate next to the service desk. At 3:30 am, we got up and stood in line at the service desk. Ty got us on the next flight out at 7 am. We grabbed our stuff and headed to the gate the flight was supposed to leave from. About an hour later, the flight was cancelled. We proceeded to get tickets or put on the standby list for every flight leaving for Phoenix on Thursday. Every single one of those flights was cancelled. Needless to say, it was a good thing Ty was there, because I had had enough of the terrible customer service we were encountering. There were a few times that I had to just sit against the wall and let Ty handle everything. I was so close to going off on so many people. There was a lot of “Oh we can’t get you on a flight until Saturday!”, “I am sorry. Alaska Airlines does not do standby.”, or my favorite ” We do not have a system of order to put people on standby, it is first come first serve.”  The next great step that Alaska Air did was release all baggage to passengers. I mean there were hundreds and hundreds of bags people were digging through. Of course, we were told our bag made it to Phoenix already. Which we were baffled by since there had been no flights since we got there to Phoenix and they made it clear they would never use another airline to transport their baggage. Huh? So there has not been a flight out and you don’t use other airlines….. then please tell me how our bag is in Phoenix. The sad part was we were told this by three different people. At least they are all consistently wrong.

So after spending all day and night in the airport, we called our cousins that live in Seattle. They were our saving graces!!! They came and picked us up from the airport, let us raid their fridge, take showers, and get a few hours of sleep. We were hopeful that the next day things would be better. We already had tickets on the flight that left at 7 am. By 4:30 am the flight was already cancelled.  We played the game for the rest of the morning.  We finally got on a flight mid afternoon. I am not sure what Ty told the desk clerk, but they were pulling all sorts of strings to get us on that flight. Now keep in mind, Ty’s parents have already been in Scottsdale for almost two days.  We both slept on the flight to Phoenix and when we arrived at baggage claim our bag was coming down the conveyor belt.  We had a great time in Scottsdale and the flight home was pretty uneventful, which was such a blessing.

The next trip I took was back to Tennessee to see friends and family, take some maternity pictures, and celebrate Forrest with a baby shower. My sisters, Katie, and Julie did a great job of throwing the best baby shower! Here are some pictures from the event.

The shower was a great time! Forrest got quite a few great outfits and toys! Everyone was so thoughtful. It was so wonderful to see everyone from back home and to just enjoy being around family.  My brother and I were able to spend part of one day together, which was so nice.  Since we are both married now and I don’t live in the south, we don’t get to do some of the things that we used to do. We went and checked out campus. The new University Center was amazing! The kids that attend University of Memphis don’t know how nice they have it! We hit up the Tiger Bookstore and bought a few things. We also went to Putt-Putt! We played some games inside and then decided we were tough enough to brave the cold and played a round of miniature golf. I, of course, got whooped.  Once we were frozen we headed to Patrick’s to meet up with some friends and with my sister and brother-in-law to watch the Memphis game. It was good to just relax!

Since I have been home we had one other baby shower. Ty’s boss at work really wanted to throw us a shower. I was a little nervous about going since I had not met any of the people he works with at the part of the site he works at now. It is a little hard to meet people when you must have a badge to get on the site and when the company does parties there are thousands of people there. I had heard a lot of good things about his boss, so I was looking forward to meeting her. Ty and I were both blown away by everyone’s generosity. They spoiled us for sure!! Here is the only pictures I took from the shower. I was so focused on meeting everyone that I failed in the picture department!

There was a slight mix up with the cake. Can you pick it out? I didn’t even catch it at first glance!

The past few weeks we have been working hard to finish up the nursery. My goal was to have it completely done a month before my due date. I am so happy to say that we have met that goal! In some ways, it is kinda shocking since it normally takes us forever to get house projects done! Here are a few shots:

Here is Ty putting up the hardware for the drapes. Scrappy was helping.

I made the drapes and the dresser is from my Grandma Hanks. We updated it with some grey paint and new hardware.

I found that shelf at Hobby Lobby. I am not totally sold on hanging all that stuff there. I love the fingerprint tree from my shower!

The crib we found of Craigslist. We painted it grey and I made the crib skirt.

We will put some maternity pictures in the frames or newborn pictures.

Autumn and Jessica had these cut outs of animals hanging on different things at the shower. I took some home with me and made new ones on different paper to match the room better.

Julie and Katie made this for Forrest’s door! Funny story to go along with it. After being packing in a suitcase, the ribbon wreath had a few ends that needed to be sealed. Well to seal ribbon you just run the ribbon through a flame. I had some matches sealing a few ends when the fire alarm when off. I realized I had been working right under a smoke detector. After the second time it went off, Ty made me move to a different part of the house. 🙂

I bought these bookends unfinished. Painted them yellow and sealed them!

Here are a few finished sewing projects for Forrest.

Boppy cover I made. I just love the turtles.

Two more Boppy covers I made.

Here are five of the blankets I made.

Car seat canopy I made.

The beginning of Forrest’s quilt to match his nursery. The middle row will have his initials  appliqued on in the animal print. This is my last project for him for a while. 🙂

Now that I have shared a ton of pictures, I guess I should talk real quick about the actual pregnancy. I am 35.5 weeks along. The doctor has said that if I was to go into delivery at this point they would not do anything to stop it. I feel like Forrest is really low. He just feels different inside the past few weeks. I have had terrible indigestion and the doctor gave me a prescription for it. Oh man! That little orange pill has worked wonders. I do not have any major complaints. My hands and feet are really swelling. I normally wear a size 3/3.5 ring and I am wearing anywhere from a 5 to a 7 depending on the day. The past few weeks I have been getting sick, but it seems to be slowing down a bit. We go for our Childbirth class this weekend. I am looking forward to what they have to say. I kinda feel like this is the last thing that we really need to be ready for Forrest to come. I just want to know what to expect and when I need to get my butt to the hospital. I have already started packing a few things and will most likely finish doing that this weekend. Our fabulous cousins are coming in town for the weekend to hang out, so after they leave we will get the car seat installed. I feel like we are ready! We just need our sweet little boy! I feel like he is going to come early. It is kinda funny that in the baby pool most people picked him to come late. At 37 weeks, I am considered full term. If he came at 38.5 weeks, I would be totally fine with that! My body is just tired and I am really just uncomfortable most of the time. Sitting through church is terrible. I can not get comfortable and I can’t get up and walk around. I feel like I am an antsy child who needs to go to children’s time at the beginning of the service.

I am sure there are things I forgot to update everyone on, but for now this should work! We love you all and are so thankful for supportive friends and family.

Love

Elizabeth

Third Trimester in 13 days!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year’s! We had the most relaxing holiday season. It was beyond wonderful.  We, of course, missed our families and friends, but getting to celebrate just the two of us and our pet family was such a blessing.

Here are some shots of what Hank and Joe got for Christmas. I will have to say their Wubbas lasted longer than I thought they would. Hank likes to destroy his toys pretty quick…. but these have lasted a little over a week. What a milestone right?

 

 

We were bad and did not take pictures of the two of us on Christmas day.  I think we just got sidetracked with making phone calls and playing with all our new toys.  For a child who is still in my belly, Forrest sure made out this Christmas! I was super excited to get a few things that I wanted for mom use!

Here is all the baby loot:

 

When we went to register for baby items, Ty and I talked about what kind of diaper bag he would want.  The one I have is super girly and I could not see Ty using it if I was not there.

 

So I got this for my birthday and love it!!! Ty decided he would just use a backpack. Well we do not really have a backpack that is lighter weight and would only be used for baby items. So here is what I found for him.  The sock monkey is kinda a family tradition. My grandma made each grandchild a sock monkey when we were little. My brother loved his so much he had to have his first one replaced with a second one.  I actually bought this sock monkey before we knew it was boy or girl…. maybe I did have a mother’s intuition about the gender or maybe it was just luck! haha

One of the many projects I have been trying to accomplish before Forrest makes his appearance is family Christmas stockings. I bought the fabric at the end of season last year and thought I would go ahead and tackle it! Thanks to my mother in law for the embroidery! I even planned enough ahead to have ones ready for kids! Forrest will have his for next year.

So in addition to stockings, I have quite a list of things to make for Forrest, the nursery, and a few things for Rosy Toes. Right now I am pushing the nursery and baby items ahead of the Rosy Toes stuff purely to make me feel more prepared. If any one asks if we need burp cloths or blankets….. I think we have it covered! 🙂

Burp Cloths about 1/2 way done

 

Minky Blankets that just need the binding put on.

Another couple of blankets

 

Here is the fabric for two of the three Boppy covers I am making.

So on to the nursery update. A few days before Christmas Ty and I painted the nursery. This was a little bit of a project since the nursery is taking over a guest bedroom/ my sewing room.  We had to break down the bed frame and I am still working on how my sewing stuff is going to be organized. Forrest is for sure not getting the whole closet to himself!!!

Here are some before shots:

 

 

 

It took two coats of primer to cover up the brown. The aqua went up easy and is the cheerful look I was going for! Here are some shots of the wall color, the drapes and crib skirt fabric, the glider we got for $100 bucks, and the picture frames that will go above the crib.

 

 

The wall frames are actually a dark wood. The picture makes them look almost black.

 

We have started sanding down the storage cube, dresser, and the crib. I had to stop after the crib, because I ran out of sandpaper.  We have to deal with Sears and Craftsman since they do not sell the coarse sandpaper for our orbital sander in the store or online. They sell it at parts direct, but want to charge us 8 bucks in shipping for a $4 item. Got to love dealing with Sears!

Alright so on to the pregnancy. I am 26 weeks and one day today.  In less than two weeks, I will be in my third trimester! I am feeling pretty good. I have a little bit of a cold right now, but I do not feel too bad.  It gives me an excuse to rest a little bit more. Forrest is moving like crazy.  He is more active at night it seems, but that could just be when I am slowing down enough to really feel him. The kids at work are loving that my belly is getting bigger and bigger.  One little boy likes to tell his mom on a regular basis that my baby is growing in there.

Things that I used to be able to do before I was pregnant:

– Reach things on the higher shelves… now my belly gets in the way.

– Let kids sit in my lap… now there is not enough room with my belly.

– Sleep on my back and my belly… I think I miss this the most! I have four pillows around me at night trying to keep me off my back, but it is so hard!

– Hold my pee longer than two hours

– Zip up my winter jacket… Thanks to my in laws I now have a maternity jacket, which I love.

– Work all day long with out my left leg going numb… I guess he likes pushing on that pelvic nerve.

– Have clear skin… yeah this is one symptom of pregnancy that keeps coming and going

– Hug my husband without my belly getting squished.

– Get up and down with no problems… yeah it is just kinda sad!

– Not cry at every sweet commercial or at the most random things… Ty is ready for this to be done with! haha 🙂

I went to the doctor about a week and a half ago and things were fine. The heart rate was 148 and Forrest put on quite a show moving around when the doctor was trying to measure me. I am on track with my weight gain and really have only put on about a pound a week since 20 weeks.  Everyone says that when you are pregnant, it is the perfect time to eat whatever you want and gain as much as you want. Well I guess that is great and all, but once that baby comes out you have to lose all that excess weight you put on that the baby did not need. I eat till I am full and eat when I am hungry. I eat what I want too. I have three weddings and a graduation to be ready for this summer!

I go in a week and a half to do my glucose test. They gave me my lemon lime sugar drink  at my last appointment. I have ten minutes to drink it and then forty-five to get to the lab for the blood work. I have heard that this test is terrible, so I will let you know how mine went next post.  January 25th I go back for my second ultrasound. They will do more measurements for what they could not get before. I am excited about seeing his face again and maybe getting some better pictures. At my last appointment, they let me go ahead and schedule all my appointments for the rest of the pregnancy. I go back for a 32 week, 34 week, and then once a week after that. It is CRAZY how close his arrival is getting. We can not wait to have our little boy in our arms!

Here are some belly shots for week 26!

Yes I am getting that great line down the middle of my belly and I am pretty much losing my belly button.

 

So we announced Baby Rose’s full name on New Year’s Eve, but for those of you who did not get it or are wondering where we got the name from here it is again

Forrest Levi Rose

Forrest is from Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a great cavalry officer of the Civil War. He is from Memphis and is buried in Forrest Park. This is a name that Ty has always loved and we knew we would name our first son Forrest long before we were even engaged.

Levi is from Ty’s great great grandfather, Levi Presley Sapp and from the bible, Levi was a son of Jacob.

I am so glad to have finalized the name! Now I can start personalizing things… his baby quilt to start. 🙂

I thought I would share something sweet to wrap this up. For our anniversary, Ty and I decided to each get each other something small since we traveled a decent bit last summer and spent some money finishing up the garage.  This is what Ty got me.

This is a cute display case from the Willow Tree series. I love Willow Tree because each piece I have means something special to me. I have to admit that I cried when I opened this because we did not know we were pregnant yet and the writing across the top means a little more to me than the average person.

Here is the precious addition Ty made at Christmas.

 

Here is a shot of the whole thing.  Maybe since there is three slots for three children it is Ty’s way of saying we can have three kids…. 🙂

 

Love to you all,

Elizabeth

 

PS. If you have a quick second, please check out this website.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joshrominger

On of my first cousins on my mom’s side is really facing a tough battle right now. He really needs our prayers.

Josh had a cough for a few months and when he went to the doctor and had some scans done they found a tumor pressing on his heart and lungs. He had the football size cancerous tumor removed from his chest two days after Christmas. The doctors also had to remove one of his lungs. They were able to get about 98% of the cancer, but he will have to do chemo after he recovers. He has since had two more surgeries. One to remove the blood that was pooling in his chest cavity and one to remove his left leg from the knee down due to poor circulation. He is in the ICU and is really just trying to take it one day at a time.

Josh is a junior in high school and has always played sports. He was never a sickly child and is just about as sweet as they come. Please just take a second to pray for the doctors and nurses, my Aunt Denna, my grandma Barbara, my cousin, Josh’s sister, Jennifer, and Josh’s strength.

 

 

Baby Rose is a BOY!!

 

Hello all!

Sorry it has been so long since I have written! Thanksgiving preparation seemed to get me off my blog writing schedule. I guess I need to get back on track! 🙂

Since the last time I posted quite a bit has happened! I celebrated my 27th birthday with all my boys.  It was a great relaxing time. We made plans to eat at Texas Roadhouse in town after they opened when everyone got here for Thanksgiving. As you can see in the picture, I am (at this point in November) not really showing too much.

The weekend before my birthday, Ty went elk hunting with Kyle in our new camper trailer.  I guess I should add a side note… Ty and I bought a 27 foot camper trailer a few weeks back. We have talked a lot about what kind of traditions and activities we want to expose our children to. Camping is one activity that I did not participate in growing up, but I really enjoy it now! Ty has been camping for years. We decided a camper would be a great investment in our family’s plans of vacations. Where we live right now is pretty much a huge campsite. There are just so many great places to go to and just get away from the world. 🙂

So anyway… Ty went hunting and I hung out with my good friend Amy. We watched movies all weekend and just hung out! It was so nice. Amy surprised me with a “mummy” cupcake for my birthday. It tasted wonderful!!

 

 

The next big event was my 20 week ultrasound and checkup on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  Leading up to the big day, I had quite a few people tell me that they were for sure Baby Rose was a girl. I still had no feeling of whether it was a boy or girl.  I loved hearing people tell me their reasoning for their gender selection. I really did not have too many votes for boys.

I had to drink 32 oz of water an hour before my ultrasound appointment. I struggled through drinking it since my appointment was at 8:30 in the morning. We got checking in and got in the dark ultrasound room. Our ultrasound tech was very nice. She agreed to write down the gender in a card for us… apparently there are a lot of techs who will not write it down. Who would have thought! I guess I understand that they do not want to be responsible for any mistakes made, but in all reality, the gender is not 100% until they are out of the womb.

The tech took well over a hundred pictures. She even burned some on a disc for us. I would have to say that it was really cool to see Baby Rose move around and see the heartbeat. I was allowed to pee about halfway through the appointment since my bladder was too full for her to get the pictures she needed. I am hoping I can cut down on the water intake before my next ultrasound appointment.

 

 

Can you tell what the gender is by looking at the picture?? 🙂

 

Thanksgiving was a good time. Our friends Mike and Anna came with their one year old, Bradley. Ty’s brother, Ted also got to come and celebrate turkey day with us. Before we ate dinner we did the gender  reveal. Here are are few pictures from the event. I will apologize to anyone who was confused by the color of balloons. I did not want to do just one color, because I found that to be boring. Right before we opened the box the sun came out and made it hard to see the balloon colors in the video.  There were two green and two blue. I want more, but the party store said they could not get any more in the box. Oh well!

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and having special people to share the gender reveal with was amazing! Anna and I did some Black Friday shopping. The boys brewed beer and watched some football. The whole group went to Bill’s Berry Farm for some family pictures. It was an adorable family owned farm with beautiful trees. They were a tad overpriced so we decided to wait. We enjoyed sitting by the fire and drinking homemade cider and hot chocolate. I bought some fresh garland and we all took a hayride.

 

Ty and I had a wonderful time playing with our Godson, Bradley. Ty really loved playing with Bradley.  Bradley really liked the dogs.  He did not want them to get too close, but loved watching them play and by the end of the visit was okay playing on the floor next to them.

 

Now we are getting ready for Christmas. Our tree is up, the Christmas cards are sent out, and the presents are wrapped and mailed.  I am currently 23.5 weeks along. Forrest is really moving and reminding me that he is in my belly. He likes to sit on some nerves in my back, which makes my left leg go numb.  It happens about four to five times a day. I will just be walking around and all the sudden my leg is numb!  It is the weirdest feeling.  My belly is getting bigger and bigger and the indigestion is getting worse and worse. Other than that, I have no complaints!  I am noticing that I do get tired faster and my feet hurt after work, but that seems to be expected.

I am not sure how many bare belly pictures I will be posting, but for the time being here are the latest shots.

 

 

We are working on middle names. We have narrowed it down to five.

1. Forrest Jefferson Rose

2. Forrest Harrison Rose

3. Forrest Levi Rose

4. Forrest Jackson Rose

5. Forrest Henry Rose

All the names are either family, biblical, or both. We will let everyone know when we have decided anything. In all honesty, with our busy schedule we have not had the time to narrow the list any more.  Ty will finish up this semester of grad school this weekend. We are both ready for him to graduate. He will take one class in the spring and then two in the summer. After the summer session, he will graduate. WhooHoo!!! We are so excited!!! Here is Forrest’s outfit for graduation day!

 

I go for my 24 week appointment next Tuesday! I will update more after that.

Love and miss you all,

Elizabeth

 

 

 

WooHoo for the 2nd Trimester

Hello Family and Friends!

Well I guess it has been a few weeks since I have last posted anything.  I have since been back to the doctor to hear Baby Rose’s heartbeat! It was 152. It is very cool to hear the whooshing sound on the Doppler. The visit was fairly uneventful. The doctor answered a few of my questions and then I was out the door! We will go back on Tuesday, November 22nd for our 20 week ultrasound and appointment.  I will be going to the lab on Thursday of this week to get some blood work done for our second trimester quad screening. It tests for indicators of Down’s syndrome, Trisomy 13, and Spina Bifida. The test does not tell whether the child will be guaranteed to have any of these, just the indicators. It does have a 5% chance of a false  positive results. If I was to have a false positive result, I would then be sent to have a high risk ultrasound done. My doctor says of the 5% of the false positive results, 99% of women are cleared after the ultrasound.  I was surprised to hear the mixed reviews of my friends who have had the option to take this screening test. I want to do it so if there was a chance the our child had any of these disorders, I can be as prepared as possible.  Will I worry if there is a chance of any of these things happening?? For Sure! However, I would worry just as much if I did not get the screening done.

On to a lighter subject….

At the beginning of October, we drove up to Spokane and registered at Babies R Us. It was fun, but overwhelming. Who knew that there were aisles of different kinds of bottles. We wanted to get a head start on the list since our Babies R  Us is lame and traveling to Spokane or Seattle is a little bit tricky once the winter months start to hit.  Doubling travel time because of snow and ice is just not fun!

We found a crib on Craigslist. It was seventy- five bucks!!! I was so pumped to find such a great deal!

In the picture, the front railings are not attached because the previous owner was using it as a toddler bed. My plan is to sand the crib down and paint it grey. The shade of grey will depend on whether it is a boy or girl! I love the back of the crib!! The detail is great!!

Here are some belly pictures.

Here is week 12

And here is Week 16

 

It really depends on the day as to how much I am really showing! I am not wearing any maternity clothing yet, but I have started looking at what I want to get. I did buy a few sweaters and a pair of jeans.  As of late, I have been using a belly band. It holds my pants up since I can’t zip them all the way. The only thing that kinds stinks about it is when I sit down to drive, work with kids, etc. it rides up and I have to readjust.

Here is a cute shirt I got at a store here in town. I am looking forward to wearing it.

I have started buying a few things here and there for Baby Rose. I did buy a couple of boxes of diapers and a box of wipes. I saved $30 with coupons and the sale they were having. I don’t plan on buying any more until the baby comes, but I just could not pass up such a great savings!

Here are a few onesies I have bought! I would love a University of Memphis one…. but the ones online are not so great. Not to mention the lack of selection!

 

 

If it is a girl I think the Bama one will be super cute with a black tutu!!!

We have really appreciated the support from all our friends and family with our exciting news! I think Jessica, my sister in law’s,  reaction was my favorite! The screaming on the phone was priceless!

Here is a card from my dear friend Katie! I just had to share it cause it makes me smile every time I walk by the fridge and I laughed out loud when I opened the card.

 

As far as pregnancy symptoms… I have pretty much stopped having morning sickness. I am still tired and worn out at the end of every day. My appetite has increased a little bit, but I don’t feel myself eating a ton of food. I am right on track for my weight. From here on out, the doctor says I should gain roughly a pound a week.  I feel my stomach stretching after I eat or if I need to go to the bathroom.  My skin breaks out here and there. When it happens it is worse than when I was in high school! I think the hardest thing for me is sleeping on my side. I always start on my side, but wake up in the middle of the night on my back.  I am not really on my belly any more, cause it is starting to get uncomfortable.

I have discovered Vitamin Water. I can drink as much as I want of it and it tastes good without the sugar. I do miss my cokes, but still drink  one every now and then.  After I shake this cold, I will be hitting the gym again to do some walking on the treadmill.

We are finding out the sex of the baby. Our plan is to get the ultrasound tech to write down the gender in a card for us. We will do a little gender revealment on Thanksgiving day with our good friends Mike and Anna, and Ted! We will get one of them to video tape it, and then we will email it out to everyone. Be looking for a test email soon.

It is getting late so I am heading to bed!  Love you all!

And We have a HEARTBEAT

Evening Ya’ll!

Today was the big day! We finally got to go to the doctor for the first time. I was nervous and Ty was calm. That is so us! So the first thing the nurse did after calling us back was weigh me. Now I am not a fan of having to “weigh in” at the doctor’s office. It seems like every single time I weigh three to four pounds more than I did hours before. It would not bother me so much except that they use the number produced by their scale.  I was a little concerned with this since all the baby books stress the importance of not eating for two during the first trimester and that some doctors will fuss at you if you gain too much weight. So I was right….. I weighed in at two pounds more that what I was about forty minutes before. Not too big a deal since I only gained two pounds so far.  Anyway, my next step was the peeing in a cup.  So it is a known fact that pregnant women have to pee pretty much all the time.  Well I got in to the bathroom and just could not go.  I was in there long enough that when I came out my nurse was gone and so was Ty. I was not too worried about it since I am the pregnant one and it is not like they can move on without me! 🙂

Next we watched a 20 minute movie about pregnancy. I think it was made in the late nineties.  I did see our neighbor in the video who has a 1st grader and a 5th grader. I am guessing she was pregnant with the 5th grader at the time.  After the video, we discussed our family histories with the nurse and headed to a new room to meet with the doctor. On the way, I asked the nurse if we would be getting an ultrasound today. (I wanted some pictures and peace of mind!) She said they do not typically do ultrasounds this early and normally the first ultrasound is at 20 weeks to discover the sex of the baby.  I was a little bummed, but tried not to show it.

We met our doctor. He was very nice and did a great job of explaining what was going to happen today. He told us that since we got pregnant the first month off birth control that sometimes the dates are off.  He wanted to schedule an ultrasound to verify the dates, but he said that he has a smaller machine that he would try first. Okay, so now I am excited! I get to see Baby Rose for the first time and I don’t have to wait ten more weeks!!!

Here is what we saw:

It does not look like much, but I think it is beautiful! I had a few tears rolling down the side of my face. The doctor said the heartbeat is 148 and we are on schedule. There is no need for an additional ultrasound. I am officially due on April 9th, 2012 and am in my tenth week.  God is so good!

After my afternoon nap, which only happens on days off and weekends, I ordered our pregnancy announcements. We decided to send a card to important friends and family that we felt needed to hear it from us and not rumored through the grapevine. We would love to call this huge list of people, but I think it would take weeks to get it done, since most will want details.  We figure people can call us at their convenience and check out our blog.

Here is what the cards look like:

We are sending out about 75 or so.  For our immediate families, we are starting the phone calls tomorrow evening. You are going to have to keep it a secret until you receive your card in the mail. Once you have it, the news can be spread to whoever you feel like. I think it is going to be a shock  to most everyone, especially since we did not share the word that we changed our fouryear plan.  I mean, who does not like a really great surprise every now and then??

I am going to take my Facebook wall down, so no one is tempted to share the good news before I am ready to. I am going to give it about a week after the cards are sent before the rest of the world knows.

For my parents, this will be their first grandchild (unless a sibling is farther along than I am and I don’t know it…. 🙂 ) and for Ty’s family this will be their third grandchild. Baby Rose will be the first niece or nephew for my family and the first great grand child for my dad’s parents. I am so excited to break the news and hear everyone’s reactions.

I will post again soon to share everyone’s reactions.

Love you all