The Mike and Lacy Show

Packing...

2009-09-24T20:44:00.002-05:00

Thankfully we don't have tons of stuff since our annual moves help clean out junk. But still, packing is packing and I don't like it. It's even more challenging with a 17 month old wanting attention or unpacking as I pack. We've been packing mostly after he is in bed, which leaves his room almost untouched. I have boxed up his too small clothes and too big clothes but the rest I'll just toss into a box. We have his room, the kitchen, and odds and ends to finish up.

Our closing is tomorrow. I have some friends coming over tomorrow evening to help me clean the house and then we hope to get most of the moving done on Sat. I don't want to be in limbo too long. Another blessing is the house is only about 5 miles away so we can just through stuff in.

I can't believe this day is already here. When we set the closing date, I thought it would be a long month, but as usually we somehow managed to stay busy. My sister came up one weekend, Mike's cousin got married last weekend and then this weekend is it.

We are excited to get moved in, settled and get the fire pit dug!

THE house

2009-09-07T08:45:00.004-05:00

The Friday before we left to help my sister move in in Madison, our realtor sent the usual email with a list of houses for us to look at. One house stood out because of the price and location. It was at the top of our price range but just 2 miles from Mike's work. One downside of where Mike works is all the house in that area are usually at least $100,000 more than what we can pay for. But not this house!! We drove by on our way out of town and decided it was definitely one to look at. I emailed our realtor and told him if this house is still available on Mon, we'd like to take a look at it.

Monday afternoon came and the house was still on the market, but barely. Apparently the seller's realtor had another offer to present but hadn't yet. This is usually pretty odd for a realtor to sit on an offer but we had until 7 that evening to put in an offer if we were going to.

The house wasn't a foreclosure which is pretty much all that we had been looking at so far. It was neat to walk into a house that had been cared for, currently lived in and had fresh flowers, music and the a/c running in anticipation of us coming!! So we put in an offer that evening and started the waiting. This is our second offer we had put in on a house, so we expected to have to wait like we did with the first house. Maybe about two hours later we heard back that if we adjusted our offer slightly we'd get the house. Thankfully it wasn't a price adjustment! We sent the adjusted offer back in and got THE house!

It happened so fast, literally one day, that we had a hard time believing we just bought a house. The funny thing is Mike has only been inside the house twice. My parents and grandmother were able to see it and they really liked the house.

A few details about the place: it's a story and a half house with 4 bed/1 bath, has two wood burning fireplaces!!!!, a huge unfinished basement and backs up to a lake. Now that lake part isn't too rare up here in the Twin Cities where there are tons of lakes. This lake is a wildlife refuge so no motorized boating is allowed but we are hoping we'll still be able to canoe on it.

So here we are, joining the masses to be first-time home owners!!!

(I'll post pictures when we actually own the house.)

What we've been doing

2009-09-07T08:12:00.003-05:00

It's been 3 months since the last post and we've been busy this summer. Camping with friends, visiting with family, eating some great food and the occasional house hunt (that's enough for it's own post later).

In July, Mike surprised me with a backpacking trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We dropped Josiah off with Mike's parents for four days and headed west. We stopped at the Badlands National Park on the way and hiked a short trail to an overlook of the park.

We backpacked in the Black Elk Wilderness just down the road from Mt. Rushmore. We swam in Sylan Lake and hiked Harney Peak. At 7244 ft, Harney Peak is the highest peak east of the Rockies. On the way back home, we drove through Sturgis, where everyone one was getting geared up for the rally. We had a great time and the weather was perfect besides the afternoon thunder storms that blew through. Check out the photo albums to the right for pictures of our trip.

In August, we went on our third annual berry picking trip to Bayfiel, WI. Our friends and their brother's family joined us so we had six kids under 4 in tow. We camped along Lake Superior and survived the nightly thunder and lightening storms. The kids slept through it all while the parents were awake praying and counting the miles between lightening and thunder. We picked blueberries and raspberries and probably ate as much as we picked. We arrived to the farm late so many of the berries had been picked but we still enjoyed the annual berry pancakes the following morning.

That next weekend, we drove to Madison, WI to help my sister move in. Yes, that's right, Lauren is now 4 hrs east of us in Madison starting her Doctorate program in Music Education at the University of Wisconsin. She had many universities to choose from but this one seemed to have the best program and also it was closest to us! That weekend we also got to visit with my Dad and Grandmother who drove up with Lauren to help her move. And with Mom who flew in for about two weeks.

The Monday after all this visiting, we went and looked at THE house. Stay tuned to find out why it's THE house!

He's a walking!

2009-06-16T21:17:00.005-05:00

This first video was taken two days ago.

This next one was taken today.

He can't stand up on his own yet without the help of something or someone. He has tried but it just looks like he's stuck in the touching his toes position. He's just got the hang of sitting from a crawling position recently. It's interesting to see in what order he gets things figured out!

And yes we do know that it's 2009 and there are much better quality video cameras out now. It does what we need it to do so that's good enough for now.

Good Ol Home Videos

2009-06-12T19:18:00.011-05:00

But this time we aren't watching them on a VCR.

These are videos we've taken in the past month.

Posting for family enjoyment:

My sister sent this card congratulating me on surviving my first year of motherhood.

Josiah trying out his walker he got for his birthday.

As you can see he's gotten much better at it.

Starting to use the spoon.

Josiah 1st Birthday

2009-05-24T10:02:00.005-05:00

For Josiah's first birthday (which was a month ago!), we had few friends over for cake and ice cream. We live across the street from one of the 10,000+ lakes in MN. Lake Josephine has a park with a swimming beach, playground, boat launch, fishing dock and numerous picnic tables. The weather was absolutely beautiful that day. I know everyone enjoyed being outside.

A local fancy grocery store offers free birthday cakes for your baby's first birthday so we took them up on the offer. I had never been in the store before I went to order the cake but I did buy a few other things there to ease my guilt! This store is carpeted and does not have your typical layout of a grocery store, I literally walked all over before I found the milk tucked away in the back corner. Here is the cake they made for Josiah, it was delicious.

I had the options of chocolate, white or marble cake, chocolate or white icing, balloon or flower decorations and what I wanted the cake to say. This picture was taken after I started slicing!

I made a special gluten, dairy and egg free chocolate brownie for Josiah to chow down and boy did he! I thought the brownies were pretty good but I didn't have any takers on them at the party, which meant more for me later! We did give Josiah a few smaller pieces a couple of days later but he may have been burned out from the big one he ate. I gave him that big of a piece for picture taking purposes but he probably ended up eating 3/4 of it, the rest fell through the cracks of the table.

Mike tried lighting the candle but it too windy for the little flame to hold.

Here is his nice brownie face and taking a break to chew on the fork, still no teeth at this time!

After downing the brownie, he need to laugh it off. He loves the swing, even more so when his daddy is pushing him! These baby swings are wonderful, I'm so glad the parks have them. At first when he'd swing he had to hold on but now that he's used to it he'll flail his arms and kick his legs.

His bud Joshua decided to join in on the fun. Joshua is Josiah's polar opposite, lots of dark hair!

When we got home that evening we opened his presents. The theme of the presents was blocks. Three of his toys had different shaped blocks with holes to put them in , he loved them. One of the block toys was a walker that he could push around. There will be video of that later on!

It was a great 1st birthday with friends and sunshine!

Crawling...And Climbing?

2009-03-14T22:20:00.014-05:00

Hello everyone! This is the very first post by the 'Mike' in 'The Mike and Lacy Show'. Lacy graciously allowed me to pitch in and provide an update, so here goes!

Since our last post, Josiah has continued to hone and develop his new found crawling skills. The video below was taken a week ago, about two weeks into his little 'experiment'. As you can see, he's made marked improvements in both speed and agility. The only downside is that he now gets into things he shouldn't about twice as often as he used to! (Yes, those are Christmas lights Josiah is trying to get a hold of. Don't tell anyone we still have them up ;)

Thus far, Josiah has approached crawling with the utmost prudence and care. And who can blame him? Bumbling around on your hands and knees probably feels pretty weird the first time you try it. But oddly enough, the same cannot be said for his attempts to go vertical. We don't know if he wants to be closer to where Mom and Dad are or if he just wants a new challenge, but he's definitely ready to go up. Lace had suspected that he was 'trying' to pull himself up over the last couple of days, but neither of us had actually seen him do it. Today he decided to show us (over and over again) what he's been working on:

Needless to say, we dropped his crib bed down to the lowest setting immediately after recording this!

Caution! What you see below may cause laughter.

2009-03-01T15:41:00.004-06:00

Crawling

2009-03-01T15:21:00.007-06:00

Josiah is 10 months old and on the verge of taking off! As you can see below he is trying out this thing called crawling. He's not consistent about crawling yet and prefers the side-winder army sprawl, but if he wants something, he goes after it!

He's been doing really well trying new fruits and veggies, he's not too crazy about chunky stuff and he likes his food warm. I think avocados are his favorite so far.

At the beginning of Jan. we discovered that he was allergic to milk after we gave him a spoonful of yogurt. Then we had him tested for other allergies and he is pretty much allergic to everything. He highest levels were for milk and wheat, but gluten, soy, egg white and nuts were positive also. He's had some eczema and minor skin rashes off and on, but we thought that was mostly due to the dry winter weather. It turns out it was all allergies from the food I was eating. So guess who gets to go on a everything free diet for a few months! I was and still am planning on breast feeding him until he turns one. It's frustrating though that one of the reasons to breast feed was to decrease his chances of having food allergies! Either way I don't regret having chosen to nurse him.

This past Fri was our 4th wedding anniversary. Since I'm on a limited diet, we went to Fogo De Chao. It's a Brazilian steakhouse where they bring around a variety of meats on big skewers and shave off pieces for you. It was unbelievably delicious and all you can eat. They also offer a salad bar for you to get your veggies in but we only went once and didn't fill our plate. It's expensive but well worth the money. They are located in a lot of big cities, so look one up next time you have something to celebrate!

Well that's a little bit of what's been going on with us.

The child-proofing begins

2008-11-04T14:53:00.002-06:00

Josiah's started playing roly-poly on his bedroom floor. He no longer just flops around on his blanket. He rolls until he can't go any more. Just a little while ago he bonked his head into the bottom of his little rocking chair. It left a red mark but it's already gone. So now there is a blanket in front of the chair.

Next thing I know he'll be crawling!!

6 Months

2008-11-01T16:04:00.008-05:00

Josiah turned 6 months this past Tues. Wed. he had his check up and shots. We also started him on rice cereal that night. Below are two videos of his first tasting. I'll warn you ahead of time the first one is about 3 minutes long and the second is about 4 minutes. I didn't edit them because one, I'm not really sure how and two, I know our families want to see it all. If you are not family, don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing. He makes some pretty good faces in the first video, so you don't miss much not watching the second one.

More cuteness...

Two post in one day!!

2008-10-27T14:12:00.008-05:00

I should be getting supper started but...

The first weekend in Oct we took advantage of the beautiful fall weekend and went camping up along the North Shore of Superior. We didn't get to the campground until after dark only to find out they were completely full as were all the other state parks along Superior! Apparently you had to reserve a site 3 weeks in advance. We just don't work that way. Thankfully there were two forest campgrounds just down the road that had plenty of space available.

That night the temperature went below freezing to somewhere between 25-27 degrees. It was cold but I surprisingly stayed warm if I didn't move, Mike didn't have as much luck. Usually we have the aid of sleeping pads to soften the ground and keep us warm but yours truly didn't pack them!! So we did not really enjoy our sleeping that night. You're probably wandering how Josiah did during his first below freezing night. Well, he didn't sleep as good as normal but probably because he was too hot! We had that little guy wrapped up snug on top of a folded blanket and sleeping between us. So we didn't end up staying another night since we didn't know what the temps were going to be.

I think Mike was more than eager to get out of the tent in the morning to get the fire started. We had a great breakfast of skillet hash: eggs, tater tots and bacon all cooked in bacon grease.

It was good and rich! You can only get away with that when you're camping.

Hanging at the campsite with Dad

We enjoyed a nice relaxing morning cooking breakfast. When we finally packed up, we went driving. Usually Mike's not up for this, but he was that day. We ended up driving to Ely. Ely is a popular place due to it's proximity to the Boundary Waters, which is a popular canoeing destination in MN.

We ended our drive back at the state park we were going to spend the night. We went for a short hike along the Baptism River.

The fall leaves were pretty but we only saw one really red maple, the rest were birch trees and evergreens.

The following weekend was the University of Sioux Falls 125th Anniversary. This is where Mike went for his undergrad and is only one hour past his parents house. We stayed at his parents for the weekend and went to Sioux Falls on Sat to visit with Mike's college friends and one of his professors. We had a good time visiting.

So that catches you up on our events. Somewhere along the way Josiah started sitting up. He doesn't have any teeth yet but I keep checking. Two boys born a few days before and after him have their bottom teeth in. Mike and I didn't get any teeth until we were at least one, so I'm hoping he'll be the same way.

One more post will get you caught up to the present!

I'm a slacker...

2008-10-27T10:52:00.009-05:00

I keep telling myself I need to post more often. By the time I sit down to do another post there is sooo much that has happened I don't feel like going through it all! It's been over a month since the last post!

Well here's brief summary of what has been going on: (I have to read my last post to see where I left off) Ok, ok, it's been WELL over a month since I've posted! (Now I'm looking at our calender to remind what has happened, sad.)

Not long after Josiah and I returned from TX, Mike and his brother went on a road trip out to California to go surfing for a week. They only surfed for a day but took the week to travel, they hit several places on the way out to to CA: Vegas, Zion, and Hoover Dam. They had more planned but they aren't as young as they used to be. While they were enjoying themselves out on the road, my mom came up for the week. We had much planned also but didn't get it all in. We did go the Science Museum to see their Omnitheater movie about the Great Lakes. The following day we drove up to Duluth for the day. I always love going up there. Lake Superior quickly became one of my favorite destinations since my time at Honeyrock. We drove along Skyline drive above Duluth and ran into alot of bird watchers. Early Sept. is when the hawks, eagles and other raptors start migrating south and Duluth is the place to watch. We also went down by the harbor and watched a freighter come through the canal under the lift bridge. It was really neat to see it up close.

Here it comes...

Closer...

There it goes under the lift bridge.

As you can see it was a beautiful day!

Josiah was mesmerized by the water.

I think this is the most sun he's had in his entire life, can you tell?

Josiah is waking up from his nap, so I'll stop here and try to continue during the next nap time.

Only in Texas...

2008-09-10T20:40:00.011-05:00

is every other vehicle a SUV or bigger and can you go to a Mexican food restaurant and have the waiter ask if you want tea, water or Dr. Pepper!!! Man, I missed Texas!!

Josiah and I just spent 10 days down in Texas. We flew down the Tues before Labor Day and came back last Thursday. We had a great time and he did really well flying. I'm sure all the business men and women on our morning flights were excited to see me walk in with a baby, but thankfully he slept the whole time!!
The first few days we spent time in Abilene with my grandmother, Dad and Lauren. During the weekend we spent time with our Labor Day crowd (all of mom's college roomates and families, who we've gone camping every LD weekend before any of us kids were born). This time we stayed in a hotel which I didn't mind since it was hot! I've been spoiled by being up north already...
The last few days we spent with my mom in Dallas. My good friend Bethany also got to meet Josiah, we had a good visit with her!
And were able to see my Aunt, Uncle, cousin and her family. Here's some pictures from that visit:

Josiah, Lisa and cousin Ben

Cousin Ben was nice enough to let Josiah use a swim diaper, it worked even if a little big!

He didn't like his first time in the pool but...

he adjusted, you know he doesn't mind if he's chewing his fingers.

Josiah, Ben and Ben's older brother Kyle.
Three blue-eyed stud muffins!!

During this busy but fun month, Josiah started rolling from his back to his stomach and grabbing his feet!!

August was a month of many firsts:

boat ride
plane trip
time in TX
swimming
rolling over
grabbing feet
getting licked by a chihuahua...just kidding Mike!!
sticking feet in Lake Superior
meeting friends and family

WOW! August flew by....

2008-09-10T19:34:00.021-05:00

I'm not even sure where to start but I'll try to catch you up on everything we've been doing! I'm at Panera enjoying ME time and catching up on this blog.

The first weekend in Aug. we got together with Mike's college friends and families at a cabin north of here. It's seems everyone has cabin up north in MN, they even have a weekend cabin weather forecast on the evening news. There were six families that came from Minnesota, Wyoming, Illinios and Iowa. We slept outside in a tent and went to sleep to the sound of loons and people talking around the campfire. The weather was absolutely perfect, warm enough to swim during the day and cool enough at night to wear pants and sweatshirts! Josiah went on his first boat ride around the lake, he didn't say if he liked it or not? I already new most everyone or had at least met them once, but it was really nice that two other mom's had little guys too. We had a mini la leche group! I didn't have to hide away while I was feeding Josiah, instead got to talk to the others a lot.

The following weekend went camping again with one of the couples from the previous group. They where one vacation the whole time and we met them up in Bayfield, WI. We went berry picking at a farm up there. Bayfield is right on Lake Superior and by the Apostle Islands. It's a beautiful area that would be great a great place to live if you could stand the harsh winters! Funny thing is this time last year we were pregnant but didn't know it yet! So technically, this is Josiah's second time to be there. This is us last year!!

The blueberries were huge and very tasty! And the weather was a lot warmer! Here's some more pics from this trip this year:

Full moon coming up over Lake Superior and Madeline Island

Blueberry bushes

Some berries where the size of quarters!!

Blue Vista Farm

Our happy little guy!!

Josiah in Mike's hat...

Wyatt in Mike's hat.

After all that fun, we drove home with the driver's side window down because it broke and with a faulty driver's seatbelt buckle! So we took the slower scenic route through WI.
Mike has spent the last few weeks working on the Explorer. All these things and more would quite working right after we bought new tires!!! The Chilton and Hayne's manuals and Joe's salvage yard have become Mike's new best friends! By the time we're done, the Explorer will be made of more used parts than original. Also each of the used parts have come from every state we've lived in minus Idaho.
Okay time for a new post...

Josiah meets Chewie

2008-08-02T22:43:00.008-05:00

What better way to celebrate a 3 month birthday than to introduce our son to Star Wars. The funny thing is we're not huge, huge fans, we just grew up watching the movies.
The Science Museum has a Star Wars exhibit going on right now. They have all the original costumes and model ships used in the movies. It was neat to watch how they filmed the ships flying and how they came up with the sound effects. Since CGI wasn't around back then, they were creative in making the movie.

In the omnitheater, a special effects movie was showing on how they made the model cities in Star Wars and how they blew up the capital in Independence Day. Josiah added his own special effect to the viewing. We went Monday night so very few people were in the theater. We sat away from everyone else so I could feed Josiah while we watched the show. Mike was burping him afterwards. Josiah's special effect was too much for the disposable diaper and Mike's hand, shirt and pants were the back up. As Mike was laying him down in the aisle for me to change him, he discovered the extent of the effect. He was a little grossed out and I was laughing a lot. Afterwards, he just shrugged it off being in Dad mode and we finished looking around the exhibit.

This is Josiah smiling at me while waiting for Dad to wash off in the bathroom. He's smiling cause he knew what he did!

Lumberjack Days at Stillwater

2008-07-27T21:48:00.003-05:00

Stillwater is the birthplace of Minnesota and is on the St. Croix river that is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Back in the day lumberjacks would float logs down the St. Croix to the mills there.
So each year the have a festival with concerts, lots of good fried fair food, inflatable toys for kids and competitions. This started on Wednesday and ended tonight with a big fireworks show that we did not stay for. And silly me took our camera but didn't think about getting out to take pictures, I'll see if I can get some from our friends.
The competition for the lumberjacks consisted of sawing, chopping, running and climbing on or up logs. It was very impressive! The Outdoor Channel was filming it and will be airing it the fall.
They also had dogs competing on distance jumping and retrieving and vertical jumping. We saw mostly the dog competitions which where world championships. The dog that won the distance jumping beat his world record twice. The highest jump for the vertical was 7ft 8in.
At the end they had a dogs and logs competition. This involved the lumberjacks and dogs doing a relay in two teams, it was a lot fun to watch.
As far as the food was concerned we did pretty good only spending $20 on 5 things: 2 drumstick icecreams, a corn dog, cheese curds and a big refillable cup of root beer. The drumsticks were a deal at $1 each. Since I didn't grow up in a land that sold cheese curds, I've always been skeptical, but really it's just fried cheese. And we all know anything fried is generally good, but I'm not going to try the fried snickers.

(Side Note having nothing to do with Lumberjack Days...Sonic just opened up their first one in MN a few weeks ago and plan on opening 35 more in the twin cities in the next 5 years...How can they be the All American drive thru if they aren't ALL over America??...But none the less I am excited about this hope to go visit Sonic soon...after the 30 min wait to get in the parking lot is over!!! I believe the Minnesotans knew what they were missing.)

Josiah was a trooper the whole time, as long as he can eat, sleep and poop he doesn't mind were we drag him to!!

A Good Visit

2008-07-22T15:59:00.003-05:00

Last week my mom came up for a visit. We had a good time running errands and playing with Josiah. The last day she was here we tried to take pictures with Josiah smiling. We really should have done it in the morning since that's when he's all smiles.
Josiah's starting to grab things more and I think it's intentional. It's more like if it is by his hands he grabs it but he's not reaching for things yet. He's making all sorts of sounds now too. It's great. We have a video camera so maybe I can catch him giggling. He usually just stares at the camera so maybe I'll have better luck with the video camera.

I love my Nerd!

2008-07-20T13:10:00.001-05:00

I've always thought Mike was a well rounded computer geek.

Who's the Cool Non-Nerd?

2008-07-11T18:16:00.002-05:00

That would be me!

We'll see how Nerdish Mike is when he gets home. He's an IT guy, how nerdy can it get?
This weekend he is doing a very non-nerdish thing, haying. He went home to help his dad and brother bale hay.
Fortunately my mom is coming to visit tomorrow so I'll only experience single-parenthood for less than 24 hours.

Do you see what I see...

2008-07-09T14:50:00.002-05:00

in that big ol' cotton wood tree?

Yes there are cotton wood trees up here, tons of them!!

Who wants to watch fireworks when you can sleep?

2008-07-09T13:20:00.003-05:00

Yup, that's what Josiah was thinking last Friday night. A park near our place had an all day celebration for the 4th. Mike's family was here for the weekend. We met some friends from church at the park for a picnic supper and listen to two community bands play before the fireworks started. Since this would be Josiah's first experience with fireworks we had a backup plan to head to the car if he didn't like it. Fortunately he fell sleep shortly before they started and slept right on through. Of course I was holding him with a blanket and my hand over his ears just in case, but he did well.
We had a busy and fun weekend with Mike's family. While Grandma and Grandpa were watching Josiah, Mike, Matt and I went for a swim at the lake across the street. I wasn't planning on going under since I thought the water would be freezing but it was actually very nice. I guess the summers up here in MN don't start until July, June was very cool and the first day it got into the 90's was the end of June. We also all went and played disc golf while Grandma carried Josiah around in the Baby Bjorn, then we ended the evening by stuffing ourselves at Maggiano's. All of which Josiah slept through.

Two months

2008-07-04T15:37:00.009-05:00

This is a late post, so I'll play catch up for a little bit.

We went camping the weekend Josiah turned two months. He did well but we didn't. I don't know what I was thinking camping in the summer in Minnesota. It did not even cross my mind that the mosquitoes would be bad and boy were they!! We were so worried about him getting eaten up that we weren't having fun. Camping is meant to be fun, so we stuck it out for a night and then went home.
Mike and I have camping gear but it's all for backpacking also, so our little two man tent was nice and cozy with the three of us. Granted Josiah is 1/5 of a person right now but he had the best spot, all nice and snug between us. He slept all night which tells you how comfortable he was!

Backing up some, at 6 weeks he started smiling more than just the random smirks. And everyday since then the smiles have been getting bigger and better!! Around week six we went in to weigh him and he was at 8lbs 7 oz. We get excited to see how much he is gaining. He started out slow but we are filling him up as much as I can.

A few weeks ago we started switching Tues nights babysitting with another couple who had a boy four days before Josiah was born. Right now it's easy since they just lie around. Mike and I could only think of a few things we like to do but can't take him with us, so we went canoeing on the lake across the street from us. Oh, we also took a pizza with us and ate it out on the water. Every third Tues, we'll all do something together. The dads held the boys up to look at each other and they started grinning!! I'm sure those grins will lead to a lot of mischief if a few years!

Here's few things Josiah's been doing (with me of course):

two trips to Ikea
one trip to the Mall of America, he was a little overwhelmed with that as I was my first time!
at least three disc golf games
numerous walks
one camping trip
one trip to see Grandma and Grandpa Loosbrock
every Wednesday, he gets to stare at the kids at our New Mom's group
stuck his feet in a cold wading pool and didn't like it

1 month old and going strong

2008-05-29T11:15:00.003-05:00

Nothing consumes your time like a newborn right? Amazing how fast someone else eating, sleeping, pooping and crying can pass the hours.
I can't believe he is already 1 month old. Everyone says the time will fly by and it has. But I'm looking forward to seeing facial expressions he purposefully makes and him being able to recognize us with his eyes.
He's spent this past month visiting with a lot family and friends, going on walks and even one disc golf outing. He's made it to church twice and gone on a few shopping trips with me.
This weekend we are heading to the Grandparents, it's a 3 hour drive. It's a nice test of traveling with Josiah, here's hoping he'll sleep the whole time!!

Happy Mother's Day to Me!!!!!

2008-05-10T22:35:00.003-05:00

I am officially a Mom as of April 28!!! And am learning to type with one hand as I hold J!!
This is how things happened the weekend before he arrived...
Friday night we get last minute tickets to the theater to see A Midsummer Night's Dream from a friend. We took them figuring this might be the last chance we get to do something like this. We rush to get there just as its starting, so there's a lot of fast walking and stairs involved. The next day we do some more unpacking and get things put away. That evening we go visit our friends who just had their baby that Thurs. Going home that evening, Mike calls his mom and tells her we're leaving the hospital just to tease her. Off and on during that day I feel things happening but not too sure if they're contractions. Sunday the things happening get more severe and frequent. So we stayed home from church and Mike was running on adrenaline getting last minute things done. We go shopping for stuff we have to have before baby arrives. Sometime that weekend we finally decided on a boy name and girl name plus middle names. Monday comes and I'm not having fun. I had been having contractions starting some on Sat and getting worse. My next appointment wasn't until Thurs and I did not want to wait until then to see what was going on. So I called the Dr office, I went in and was dilated at a 3. So they gave me something to help me sleep while I could and said the baby's probably coming in a few days! (before Sat, the due date) Mike stayed home the rest of the day just in case. Around 8 that evening the contractions were getting worse but not always that frequent so I paged the midwife and they told us to head to the hospital to get checked out. We got there at 9pm, I was dilated to a 6 and they said the baby was coming tonight!! It took about an hour to fill the tub and for the midwife to show up. At 10:15pm I got in the tub and at 11:30 J was born!!
I had him by water birth without any drugs and it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Towards the end I asked about it being too late for drugs and the nurse and midwife kind of laughed saying the baby would be out before they could get me the drugs. Mike thought I was joking....
Mike was great during the whole thing and he got to cut the cord. It all happened so fast, I can still see them pulling J out of the water and handing him to me but I had to ask Mike if he cried. I couldn't remember any of the sounds. He didn't cry but just lifted his head up and looked around with eyes wide open. It was amazing!!
He's a healthy little guy and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Mike's family has been here to visit and my mom and sister are here right now. My aunt and cousins stopped by for a short visit and my dad and grandmother are heading up here next week.
Tomorrow will be our first trip out as a family and I'm anxious to see how he will do. We're just going to church but I'm excited to show him off and to see our other friend's newborn, a boy J also. He was due two weeks before my J, but ended up being born only 4 days apart!!
I added a link on the side bar to a photo album the will be updated as we get more pics, enjoy!!

Even the little things help...

2008-04-17T10:38:00.006-05:00

Little things we do:

recycle all the paper products, glass and plastic that the city picks up here, this cuts down a lot on the amount of trash we produce
try to buy items with less packaging, but not necessarily in bulk (due to storage space)
Mike bakes bread and I've found recipes for taco seasoning mix and Bisquick mix, this goes with less packaging but also I'm sure is healthier than store bought. We've cut down on buying boxed food with tons of sodium and have been using make from scratch recipes. Allrecipes.com has been a huge help with this!
switched to cleaners from concentrate that do a little bit of everything, and also earth friendly dish detergent that the verdict is still out on. I can't tell if it's the detergent or our half-size, hard-to-fit-dishes-into apartment dish washer. Sometimes it's less frustrating just to wash by hand!
with all our new necessities coming up with the baby, we've been able to buy/get all the big stuff second hand. We have a hard time buying new when there is used still in perfectly good shape. Don't worry, we've haven't put the baby's safety in jeopardy by doing this.
we will also go the cloth diapering route once baby is here, we have diapers ready but can't really comment on them until after we've used them. I'll definitely be posting about this later along with our reasons to go this route. You'd be surprised and overwhelmed by all the options available now.
I've been getting a lot use from the public libraries everywhere we've lived. Why buy a book that you'll only read once when you can get it at the library?
Mike bikes to work and we only have one car, granted this one car doesn't get good gas mileage but we will drive it until it drops then get a used more efficient option.

Much of these little things may not stand out as being better for the earth but are. Less consumption and production puts less stress on our resources. Which also leads to less trash and junk being thrown out.
We don't consider ourselves extremist and obviously there are many things we aren't doing that we could and need to work on. But we want to make a specific effort to take care of and use wisely all that God has given us whether it be natural resources or the financial and physical blessings we've received.
So if all you do is change one little thing at a time, that will eventually make an impact.

Loosbrock Current Events

2008-04-11T22:17:00.004-05:00

I remember back in social studies class each week we had to read the newspaper and present a current event to the class. Well this is similar but I didn't have to read the newspaper to find the events:

Baby news: Everything is going right on schedule and I'm officially in the 9th month!! After having an ultrasound today that my mom got to sit in on, the baby is healthy although a little on the small side. So that means I will be pounding the water, food and getting more rest.
House-hunting news: We've had our eye on a particular house for a few months. We'd go back and forth on deciding if it's too much work or not and how cheap is cheap enough. So with some family advice we've cut it loose. It probably will get cheaper but not what we need in the long run. We kept our eyes open for 2 br apartments just in case we didn't do this house thing and found a much bigger place for a smidgen more than what we are paying now. It's a complete God thing since the owner is a Christian, the location is better, and we can move in now. Now is imperative since Baby will be coming within a few weeks. One great thing about the new place is it's across the street from a public swimming beach on a nice lake. One potentially hazardous thing is across the street from this beach is a DQ, which means it's basically at the end of our driveway!!! Thankfully it's not open year around or I'd not be loosing my baby weight!!
So all that to say we will be making our annual move but not cross-country, more like 5 miles to east. How do you even pack for a 5 mile move?? Will paper bags work instead of boxes?

Family news: Mike's dad has made it back safely from his second and final tour in Iraq. We were able to meet him at the airport and spend a relaxing weekend with him.
My mom has made it back safely from Kenya and Philippines. She has been up here this week visiting before Baby comes and helping clean the new place.

And now for the weather: Whoever came up with April showers bring May flowers, I hope was talking about MN. We still have some sort of snow falling even though it isn't sticking and nothing budding or blooming!! And did you know it can be snowing during a thunder and lightning storm?

I was NOT dreaming of a White Easter!

2008-03-24T08:07:00.002-05:00

When we lived in Idaho, I was amazed that it snowed during Easter! We helped hide eggs in couches and house plants.
Here in Minnesota, it started snowing Friday night and didn't let up until yesterday afternoon. Forget wearing any cute Easter dresses and white shoes! Some kids down the street made a huge snow Easter egg and even decorated it! If it's still there I'll try to get a picture. We also saw a few snowmen/families decorated in spring colors and hats instead of gloves and scarves.
My sister came for a visit this weekend and I had been telling her it should be nice, no more snow. Shows how much I know about Minnesota winters!!!

7 Random Things About Me

2008-03-19T19:13:00.003-05:00

I've been tagged by fellow blogger Kecia to write about 7 random things about me.
Here it goes:

1. Even though I am right-handed, I've always brushed my teeth with my left-hand. I've tried to use my right-hand but it's not as smooth.

2. I have scoliosis, but it was never severe enough to have a brace. Dr. thought playing sports throughout high school probably helped it not get so bad. To go along with that, my left leg is about 3/4 inch shorter than my right leg, so that throws my hips off. With being pregnant, I thought my back would really be killing me on top of normal pregnancy back pain. So far it's not been terrible, just different types of pain through different stages.

3. I had my tonsils taken out when I was 4 or 5. I remember being taken into a room with my doll and the nurse put the gas mask on my doll like she would do with me. Since that was the last thing I remembered, I always thought they had just sucked my tonsils right out. I don't think I learned the truth until middle school.

4. My college career was spent at four different schools and I was only in for 4 1/2 years. It took me a little while to figure out what I really wanted to do. I quickly found out marine biology wasn't for me when I wasn't doing well in the basic bio classes only to learn I'd have to take bio chem and other higher level biology. So I ended up doing Outdoor Leadership Ministries which has provided me with many amazing experiences and adventures.

5. I cannot stand eating beans of any type except green beans. It's a texture thing that also keeps me from eating oatmeal. My husband keeps thinking he can get me to like oatmeal and beans. I have tried and eaten them, and not enjoyed it at all!! I also eat my cereal dry with milk in a glass! This will be interesting to see which way our kids will go, my way or the highw...Mike's way.

6. I refuse to call any kind of carbonated beverage "pop" as the midwesterners do up here. I will still call it coke or Dr. Pepper. Our kids will grow up being bi-lingual, midwestern and Texan!

7. I taught water sports for four summers at camp during college. I never really picked up water skiing even though I could teach others how to. I just stuck with wakeboarding.

Now I'm supposed to tag 7 other bloggers to do a 7 random things about them. But I will just tag anyone who reads this and wants to play. Have fun!!

Could it be?

2008-03-11T19:31:00.003-05:00

Is spring really coming??? Today our high was at least 42 which is the highest it's been since November!! Yea!!!!! I even opened our sliding glass door for a little bit while the sun was shining in. I don't think I've ever been more ready for spring!
I was worried about not having enough warm weather maternity clothes, HA! I'll be lucky if I can wear my chacos before baby comes. I may have to pull out the sock and chaco combo after all the snow and slush have gone.

This week starts month 8! Most people don't believe me, but we'll see if I'm on target as far as weight and such is concerned. Tomorrow is my last four week visit, from here it's 2 two week visits and then down to every week. We can't believe it's come this fast and probably should really work on the whole name thing!!!

Parenting 101

2008-03-05T17:45:00.010-06:00

This weekend we participated in an informal parenting exercise: we babysat some friend's kids Friday to Monday. Matigan is 3 and Wyatt is 2. We've watched them for an evening before, but never this long. Also, they've never been away from their parents for more than a day. We stayed at their place since our one bedroom apartment is hardly the place to keep two toddlers entertained for a whole weekend!!
Overall it went well. They were both a little under the weather, which curbed their energy level some but also curbed their desire to eat. I was able to reminisce of when I was little and was left seated at the kitchen table, not wanting to eat my food while mom was cleaning up.

Our main activity for the weekend was to go to the "Surprise World," otherwise known as the Como Park Conservatory. In the Surpise World, it's sunny, warm, humid and full of all sorts of plants and flowers that smell really, really good! Oh, and the occasional frog, snake, bird, fish and local variety of toddlers. This day the conservatory was doing an exhibit with frogs for leap year, so I'm sure there were more toddlers around than usual. Another great thing about the Surprise World is that it's FREE, but donations are accepted! There's also a zoo attached that we'll have to check out once all the white stuff outside is replaced with green stuff.

This place does wonders for the winter blues, which I never experienced before now. The room in the first and last picture is the sunken flower room where every few months they change the flowers around. Right now it's winter flowers like amaryllis, lillies and cyclamen. Then for Easter they'll do a big lilly show I'm told. This room smells amazing!! What I want to know is what do they do with these flowers when they change the room out, I'd be happy to take a few!

Mattie and Wyatt did a great job themselves being away from Mom and Dad for the whole weekend. They only really got sad on Sunday night. Wyatt provided us with some nasty diaper changes for us parents-to-be! Mike did a good job on diaper duty, and once we had to tag team to get the job done. Looks like we just got in the diaper practice in the nick of time since the word on the street is that potty training is just around the corner!

So that was our fun Parenting 101 class that skipped a few years, so now we are furiously reading to know what happens before this age!

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

2008-02-28T08:00:00.005-06:00

It's been THREE whole years (from yesterday)!!! WOW we're getting up there!
To celebrate we went to a popular fondue joint last night in downtown Minneapolis. It was fun! It was our first official fondue experience, where you actually cook your food in the hot liquid of choice. I actually got Mike to try lobster without a fight! He wasn't too impressed. They give you a sample of different meats with sauces so it looks like you end up eating a lot but not really. All the samples were small pieces. The meal ended with a chocolate peanut butter fondue that we dipped strawberries, bananas, pineapple, marshmallows, brownies, pound cake and cheesecake. That was by far the best. We'll have to go back just for dessert next time, of course, how many times do we all say that and never do!?
In that past we've gone to a bed and breakfast for the weekend. But since this time of year it's cold, make that beyond cold up here, and I'm out of commission on any winter sports, we are going to wait till it warms up. We'll make it a combo anniversary/last-getaway-before-baby-comes weekend. That is if it warms up here in April!!
To all my southern family and friends that would be a stable 40 degrees!!

Belated Valentine's on How We Met

2008-02-21T09:33:00.005-06:00

Kecia wanted her friends to post about how they met their husbands, so here's our story:
Summer 2003 at Lone Tree Lakeshore camp on Elephant Butte Lake, NM
This was my second summer there and Mike's first. The camp directors, Eric and Nikki, knew me from the previous year and knew Mike from college, which is why he was coming to work at camp. I was one of the first staff there and was asking Nikki about the new staff coming in. She told me about them and then about Mike. While talking about Mike she threw in that she thought we would probably start dating this summer. She could picture us together and then told me about his long hair and beard. She also said that she can't say anything to him about it because he might not act on it on his end. So...I was stuck with this info not knowing what to do and a little nervous when we first met.
The first few conversations with others involved him putting his foot in his mouth twice. One comment was about these red neck/hick people on TV using this round thing on their dinner table to pass things around. I said yeah, a lazy susan, we had one of those, not realizing I'd just labeled my family as red neck/hick. But I think it embarrassed him more than me!! Fun stuff!!!
His first impression of me was a camp nerd (coming from a computer geek!) I just remember he was shy but a hard worker.
The good part was that I was his boss for part of the summer. Towards the end he'd follow me around trying to anticipate what I was about to do and do it for me. Sweet, but a little annoying since I liked to pull my own weight.
Our first date was eating Thai food and going to see Finding Nemo. Previously, he'd said he didn't like cartoon movies but quickly changed his mind after seeing my interest in the movie.
After summer ended we decided our relationship was worth trying over long distance. A year later I moved to Idaho, to actually live in a non-camp setting in the same town to make sure we could stand each other! Turns out we could!!
We will be married three years on Feb 27th!

Africa pictures

2008-02-20T23:41:00.004-06:00

Instead of painstakingly adding each picture to a post, I got smart! With Mike's help, I added photo albums to the right so you can look at the rest of our trip's pictures. Have fun browsing!

Baby Update starting third trimester

2008-02-18T09:54:00.009-06:00

I'm now at week 29 which is really hard to believe. I apologize for not posting more about my pregnancy but it has thankfully been uneventful. As you can see from the picture I am showing but still not as much as you probably expected. Since I'm tall I won't be really big till the end if even then, I'm told. But everything is going right on schedule and all test have turned out fine.
I've been putting off registering just because it is such a daunting task. The first time Mike and I walked into Babies R US we were extremely overwhelmed. But my goal is to get it done this week!!
Another reason the registering and baby buying has been put off is that we are in a one bedroom apartment. We really just don't have room to keep all the stuff and it helps us also to not go overboard on what we want verses what we think we'll really need!!
If any of you have items that were a must-have please let me know!!
Also if any of you have or are using cloth diapers, I'd love to hear what has and hasn't worked. I've decided to go that route but there are so many option available now, it's hard to know where to start.
A fun note: there are two other first time moms in our Sunday school class. One is due in March, then April and then me in May. SO I'm lucky to be last to learn from them as their babies come!!

Out of Africa: Part 2

2008-01-29T13:20:00.014-06:00

As you can see from the previous picture that Kenya is very sunny!! We were almost blinded coming off the plane out into the open. We didn't realize how big the plan was until you are on the ground looking up, to the left and right. Huge plane!!
Kenya kind of reminded us of Mexico as far as the driving rules are merely suggestions instead of enforced laws! Mom did a great job driving but it was a little stressful until we got used to it.
After a day or two of down time we went on safari. Safari technically means a trip/vacation. But we did go on a safari, as we think of it, to a game reserve to see all the animals your used to seeing behind cages in the zoo. Cool thing here is the animals are actually doing something with a purpose instead of pacing back and forth or sleeping in the farthest corner away from you!! Amboseli game reserve was a very bumpy 4 hr drive south of Nairobi close to the Tanzania border. Even though we had to pay to get into the park there are no fenced boundaries. The animals are free to roam the country.
We stayed at a lodge in the park that did have a fence around it that kept all but the monkeys out. As we were driving to the lodge in the reserve we saw many different animals up close. We went on one drive that evening, then three the next day and supposed to do one more on the way out but plans changed, more on that later.

As for the animals that we saw: tons of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, hyenas, giraffes, monkeys, hippos, cape buffalo, gazelle, antelopes, many different birds, cheetahs, lions and warthogs. They don't have rhinos there and there aren't any tigers in Africa, apparently those are all in Asia. We saw lots of babies also.

Below are some of the best pictures from the MANY we took!

Warthog with three little babies, can you see them?

Hippo with elephants and Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.
Hippos actually only come out of the water at night usually but we were fortunate to see this and another one out grazing.

Fish eagle

African circus parade!

The elephants were not too bashful, they are crossing infront of the truck.

More elephants crossing the road...

These were the smallest baby elephants we saw, so cute!!

More babies, monkeys that is...

I spy something cute and brown.
This was our first of two lion sightings.
You can tell they're used to the attention!

Yes, even safaris can have traffic jams!!

Ahhh, the two love birds.

More pictures to come...

Out Of Africa: compare and contrast

2008-01-14T12:11:00.000-06:00

From cold windy North of the Equator Amsterdam
(8 plane hours later)
To warm sunny South of the Equator Nairobi

P.S. The water does swirl the opposite direction south of the equator!

Out Of Africa

2008-01-14T09:42:00.000-06:00

Yes ,we are back from Africa, have been for a while but we hit the ground running as soon as we got back.
Our adventure started even before we left the states!! Our itinerary would take us through 3 international airports to finally get out of the states. So it seemed like half our travel time was spent in the states. On top of that the three airports where the twin cities, Chicago and Detroit, not the best picks for winter travel. We got to Chicago fine but Detroit was snowed under, which is where we would meet Lauren and get on our overnight flight to Amsterdam. Fortunately Lauren's plane got re-routed to Chicago so we could all be stuck together. At Detroit, we were going to get our bags and re-check them with another airlines to do the overseas flights. We were able to get a direct flight to Amsterdam from Chicago but our bags were on their way to the next flight to Detroit, so we took the flight thankful we'd packed clothes in the carry-on bags and hoping our luggage would show up sometime in Kenya!
We arrived in Amsterdam in the morning so we would technically have a full day of sight seeing to do in town. Total we probably spent maybe 5 hours out, we took a canal boat tour which is a good way to see Amsterdam, specially when it's freezing and windy outside! The boats where enclosed with glass sides and roof. Mike and I decided we could definitely live in one of the many house boats in the canals. After passing up the Mexican restaurant for an authentic Dutch place we walked around some more then headed back to the airport for showers and sleep. After the entire trip we became well acquainted with Amsterdam's airport.
To Be Continued.....

How about giraffes instead of reindeer, Santa?

2007-12-15T13:45:00.000-06:00

We are packing to leave on a big Christmas trip. It will take us two days to get there and will take a long stretch-our-legs break where they are known for their chocolate, tulips and abundant use of cannabis.
The giraffes will be in Kenya, where we will spend a warm and humid Christmas. My mom has been volunteering with Wycliffe Bible Translators working in their offices this past year. She will be there through the spring. We decided this is a once in a lifetime chance to go since the baby is coming in May. My sister is going with us, also.
Our long stretch-our-legs break will be in Amsterdam. We have a day layover there assuming all the weather in Chicago and Detroit cooperates.
So my next post probably won't be until we get back after Jan 1st.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Baby Update

2007-12-15T13:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we had our first ultrasound! I'm proud to announce we are having a healthy active baby. Mike was pretty much blown away with seeing the little person inside me! It's amazing all the detail that can be seen such as all four chambers of the heart beating, the kidneys and diaphragm. It was good to know that the baby had all the right spots, lines and black holes in all right places! I have been able to feel baby move but it's not strong enough for Mike to feel it yet. I told him he could strap on a coke can that flips and flops if he wanted to be in my shoes. You know since a coke can weighs sooo much.
I'm starting to show just a tad, not enough to validate any picture postings yet. But I will, promise, when I get bigger.

Snow, Snow, Snooowwww!!!!

2007-12-03T15:46:00.000-06:00

As of Dec. 1 it's already a White Christmas! Apparently last week was too cold to snow, who'd have thought? I think we got around 6 inches on Sat. Mike was a sweety and braved the cold to go to the grocery store to get some Rotel cheese dip. It really sounded good and he hasn't had to put up with any crazy cravings from me, yet... How could you not want to watch a movie and have chips and Rotel and root beer on a snowy Sat evening?? Thanks Lauren for reminding me how good it is!!

Hmm, I think I'm gonna have a craving for white chocolate covered Oreo's pretty soon...

10? Really??

2007-11-27T10:45:00.000-06:00

I didn't realize it until we got there but I was homesick for TX. I haven't lived there since 2000 but it's where I was born and raised and where family is. FACT: Mike was born and partially raised in TX, but he claims Minnesota. Now this is where you non-Texans can roll your eyes but we were talking about how Dallas/Ft. Worth feels so open and big compare to the Twin Cities. Big as in more elbow room and space. I do love all the evergreen trees up here but they close in things.
So to tie in my title for this post, the temperature this morning is directly related to what time it is!! At 9am it was 9 degrees, at 10am it is now 10 degrees, BUT it feels like -3!!! What am I supposed to do with that?!?! We are Not in Texas any more!!
Mike has been biking into work every day so I'm curious how it was for him this morning at 6am!!
I have been good about walking every morning but I told my sister today on the phone that I may wait till noon or later to see if it hits the high of 25....
Having had experience in North Woods freezing winters, I like to think I can handle cold weather better the most Texans, but I'm not going to take it without some whine and chili!!

Texas Brisket, there is nothing better.

2007-11-27T10:13:00.000-06:00

Normally for Thanksgiving everyone gets excited about the turkey and stuffing and all that good stuff. This year we were excited about the brisket!!!
My dad's cousin Dickie (Uncle Dickie) makes the best brisket ever! He is no relation to the Dickie's BBQ joints in TX that we saw this past week. He's the real deal, smokes his brisket with real mesquite wood for over 12 hours. He does it every year for all the dear hunters and for other groups in Mason, TX.
We had his brisket at our wedding and ever since any brisket we have elsewhere always gets compared to his. Nothing stacked up in Idaho and Maryland. Mr. Powdrell's in Albuquerque did a good job and for living in Minnesota, Famous Dave's actually has pretty good brisket.
Visiting my family in TX this past we week, we got to have brisket at least three times. Mike said he was actually brisketed out! Now that's a Happy Thanksgiving!!

36

2007-11-15T14:08:00.000-06:00

For once I actually took my own advice. I looked under the hood again to check on the walnut hoarding squirrel situation. It is turning into a situation but hopefully I have put an end to it. This time I counted the walnuts that were hurriedly put in one place instead of spread out under the hood. Yes, 36 walnuts under the hood that went immediately into the trash instead of on the ground. At least I'M learning from this experience, we'll see if the squirrel(s) do!!!

Pesky Squirrels!!!

2007-11-09T11:14:00.000-06:00

So the other day I was refilling the washer fluid in our explorer (yes, we still have the explorer and will until it dies). Lifting up the hood I noticed it looked like something had been making a home under the hood. This is where you ask "Do you drive your car and when was the last time you looked under the hood?" Well, yes and I don't know!!!
After looking closer I discovered walnuts stashed in multiple places everywhere!!! Not only had the walnut hoarding squirrels stashed nuts everywhere but they also thought it would be a good idea to dig and tear into the insulation? from under the hood to cover their nuts. Heaven forbid other squirrels find the stash under OUR hood!?!?!?
I'm sure I picked and flicked out at least 20 or 30 walnuts!! I can imagine the squirrel(s) getting excited about finding more on the ground to bury. Maybe I should check under the hood again to make sure they didn't add to the stash!!!
Someone suggested rat poisoning but I told them I didn't want abunch of deceased squirrels around the parking lot. And I'm sure that's illegal to some extent.
Well all the walnuts are off the trees anyway and we don't plan on living in this apartment next year so that'll just have to do!

1 + 1 = 3

2007-11-06T10:37:00.000-06:00

Let me explain our math...Number 3 in the Loosbrock family will be arriving in early May '08. Still not catching on? Well...I'll let you think about it.
I thought this would be an exciting first post for out blog. We hope this blog will help everyone far away stayed connected to our growing family. It seems I always see my friends after the baby is born and never during the pregnancy.
Mike and I are very exciting but the reality is still slowing sinking in. I had very little morning sickness and such during the 1st trimester, which we are very thankful for. A few weeks ago we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat which was really amazing. Mike is a very excited father-to-be.
Besides that exciting news we are settling into life here. We are looking forward to being in the same place for more than a year! We have already had several friends come for a visit along with my sister and Mike's mom and brother. Mike's dad is currently overseas again with the reserves and we are looking forward for him to being back for good in the spring in time for the New Arrival.
That is it for now, we hope you enjoy all that is to come!!