Halfway; 20 Weeks, 20 to Go

Well we are over the halfway mark, and on the downhill side. Things have been going great, other than not being able to sleep on my stomach, I can hardly tell that I am pregnant. We started doing aqua aerobics this month and most of the women in the class think that I eat a big hamburger before class every night, but that I can't possibly be 20 weeks pregnant. We had our first and possibly only ultrasound yesterday, so I can share pictures of the baby instead of myself this time (don't worry I haven't changed since the last photo). Knowing that we had an ultrasound the question that everyone has been asking!!!!! Drum roll please. It appears that we will be having a boy, but nothing is 100% until the big arrival day in June. With that being said there is a disclaimer for knowing this information; BLUE is not the only COLOR that boys can wear, decorate with, or play with. Just in case the doctors diagnosis is incorrect , we are still planning on using mostly gender neutral themes and colors.

The upper half of the baby's body including a bent knee over the stomach, the left arm on the side, with the bones visible (white lines near bottom of picture), fingers from the right hand just above the chest and the head.

A shot of the right foot and toes.

The ultrasound was an amazing experience, being able to see the baby so clearly yet it is still so small. Neither Doug or I were able to take our eyes off the moving screen as the tech moved around and the baby changed positions. Everything seems to be looking good, and the measurements of the baby exactly coordinated with my gestational day. Unfortunately, the tech can not reveal any problems that she sees, only the good stuff. We have our 20 week appointment with our doctor this Friday, which is where and when we will find out the full scoop on the baby's progress.

I will update again after that appointment and maybe add a picture of my belly.

New Aquarium

We'll get back to baby in a minute, but here are some photos of our new 75 gallon aquarium and the oak stand that we built with the help of Carmen's parents while they were here for New Years. The stand is done except for some door handles, and the tank is done except for some additional plants and most of the fish, which are still swimming in the small ponds to the right.

The whole tank set up, sorry about the light reflection.

The inside of the stand, filter etc.

A closer view of our lava rock reef and a few of the plants

17 Weeks, 23 To go

We hope everyone had a merry Christmas and that the new year is starting off well. We have had a busy December, and a great Christmas. The week after Christmas Carmen's parents came out for a visit. We enlisted their skills and support in building a new aquarium stand for Doug and my gift to each other (a 75 gallon fish aquarium). We also took them on a cold adventure up to Walden to do some serious hard water fishing, the water was hard, but the fish were not serious about taking the hook for any of us. We caught a total of 9 fish between the 4 of us and lots of hours freezing in the wind. The trip overall was fun and we saw a few big horn sheep up close.
After my parents left, we had our next doctors appointment at 16 weeks. Everything is looking and feeling good, I still have not gained any weight, but am definitely starting to grow. The picture above is from the 17 week mark. At our last appointment the baby's heart rate had dropped to 145 bpm, and we heard some "swooshing" as the baby swam around. I am feeling a lot better, and rarely have any sense of nausea. We have our next appointment for Jan. 30th to do an ultrasound and hopefully get our first glimpse of the baby and maybe it's gender. We will keep everyone posted!

Week 13, 27 to Go

Yesterday marked the start of week 13 of my pregnancy. So far so good, I have felt pretty well the entire time, and have successfully crossed over to the second trimester, which means all the bad stuff is supposedly behind me. I am not showing and in fact have lost a few pounds, but everything seems to be going well. We had our 12 week check up last week, and both Doug and I heard the baby's heart beat for the first time. The doctor said it sounded strong and healthy and had a heart rate of 165 bpm. As far as I know it is a little too early to determine the sex based on the heart beat because it continuously slows down, but all you old wives tale believers, feel free to start making your guesses. We are planning on finding out the sex and will share it with everyone when it comes time. Probably about 8 weeks from now. We have not had an ultra sound yet so I don't have any fun pictures, videos etc., but when we do I will do my best to post them on the blog as well as the ever popular belly photos.

The Next Generation

Well as most of you are aware, we have big news for everyone's holiday season, we are expecting our first child in June 2006. The big announcement came out over Thanksgiving week, while we vacationed to Oregon. We had a great trip and couldn't have had better weather, which is pretty remarkable for Oregon in the winter. The following week most of Doug's family found out the good news, as we travelled to Steamboat Springs, CO for Amber and DJ's wedding, which is where the above photo was taken. It snowed the entire time we were there, the boarding was great on the Champagne Powder for Doug and others, but pregnant women were not allowed to join in on that fun! Both Doug and I are very excited along with a little nervous about becoming first time parents. We already know that this baby will take a lot more responsibility than our current dependents (fish). The upcoming addition to our family was our real reason for starting this web page, so from now on it will probably take on a little different form, but we hope everyone will check back often for updates as we go through this little adventure.

Happy Halloween

Our carved pumpkins, I did the ghost house, with the ghost in the back and Doug did the other two. Happy Halloween to everyone.

Trip to Los Angeles

As many of you knew, our trip to the Cayman Islands for our honeymoon had to be rescheduled at the last minute due to hurricane Ivan, and as a result we had flight vouchers to use before the end of the year. After much debating we decided to make a trip to L.A. to visit a couple friends and catch our one and only Beaver game of the season. The trip started out pretty good, the sun was shining, and hey we weren't working :) We spent most of the day driving down the coast from LAX to Huntington Beach, where John Sanders lives, stopping at the beaches and other sights that caught our interest.

The following day we drove north to Hollywood, to see some sights and eventually make it to the staples center for the Nuggets/Lakers first
preseason game. We mad a quick stop at the Mann's Chinese theater for some poses with famous footprints and autographs. Photos at left are Carmen by Mel Gibson and Doug by Johnny Depp and if you have really good eyes, both of us with the HOLLYWOOD sign on the hills behind us. After a moderate hike to the top of Mt. Hollywood (where the Hollywood sign is), we made our way through the fancy houses to downtown LA. We were amazed how many downtowns there were, when you looked out across the Los Angeles area. As you can tell in the pictures Doug was sporting his Melo shirt all day, luckily I don't think many people caught on to the Nuggets significance until the game,

On friday we drove north again, up to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Here in Colorado we bought season passes to a six flags park, which meant we could go to any park in the country for free. I had been there 12 years ago, although not much was the same, and it was a first time for Doug. The weather was beautiful up there and we breezed right through most of the lines, until we couldn't go on any more rides.

Saturday brought a turn for the worse, along with the Beavers pathetic attempt at putting a football game together, the sun rarely came out for the rest of our trip. The sunny southern California atmosphere became a lot more like the dreary drizzly Oregon coast in the winter. We had fun, although the game was a blowout, and Doug met up with Andres, a guy whom he played soccer with at OSU, who he hadn't seen in 3 years.

Due to the weather, the rest of the trip was somewhat uneventful, we caught part of a surfing tournament at the beach, and watched some NFL at a local bar just off the beach, and just relaxed for the remaining days. Unfortunately, when we got to the airport we found out our flight had been cancelled, and the quickest way home was a reroute through Atlanta. So we spent 12 hours flying across the country and back again for the conclusion of our trip.

1 Year Anniversary

It has been a year since we have seen many of you, in that time we had a winter season full of weekend trips to the mountains for some of Doug's extreme snowboarding and Carmen's beginner, but improving skiing skills. We started and completed several new home owner renovation projects, including a complete gutting and remodel of the basement bathroom and construction of a new brick patio and landscaping around our hottub in the back yard. The summer season brought a new job for Carmen in the Town of Windsor doing boat patrol on Windsor Lake, which then moved into a front desk position at the new recreation center. We tried to make as much use of the boat for weekend camping and wakeboarding adventures that we could. In August we welcomed our first guests, as John, Jennifer and our new niece Anna came to visit for a week enroute to Seattle. (Check out the Caplinger Family link on the left for pictures of Anna) Two days later, Carmen's brother and sister, Joel and Erin came to visit from Oregon for a week and a half. It has been an eventful and great first year for Doug and I, we look forward to several more years of adventure and great times with family and friends.