Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here are some pictures of Vince in front of his first Christmas tree - not our tree but Uncle Mark & Aunt Mindy's. Thankfully they also stayed local this Christmas so we were able to all get together for some Christmas fun with family!

Our little elf (9 1/2 weeks old)...

Joys of home ownership

Turns out it was a blessing in disguise that our flights were cancelled this week. Monday morning Brian sat down at the computer desk to check our flight status and felt some water under his feet. Upon inspection we found more and more wet spots so we moved furniture out of the way and started pulling up carpet. This is what we found.

It's dripping in from the roof into the wall and then is seeping in at the floor. We don't see any wall or ceiling damage so it's just coming in through the floor - for now at least. Now all the carpet is pulled up in Vince's room. The water is leaking in the entire length of the wall from the window to the closet. We talked to the neighbors and found out they're experiencing the same thing. Out of the 25 townhomes in our community, we know of 8 having these issues. I'm sure when people get home from their vacations the list will be longer. Thankfully we were here to move furniture out of the way! It would be terrible to come home to so much damage!

We next found water dripping from the heat vent in the living room ceiling. It's hard to see but there are 5 drips from the vent.

This is one evening worth of accumulation. A contractor was here yesterday to break away the ice dams which are apparently causing all the problems (actually as Brian keeps telling everyone, it's not the ice dams but the holes in the roof that are the problem) so hopefully all the drips will slow down and/or stop.

This is the floor in our bedroom which is right above the living room vent. We did find some water starting to accumulate in here as well but it doesn't feel as wet as Vince's room so we haven't pulled up the carpet yet. We definitely are monitoring the migration of wet carpet though! We'll keep you posted.

All this, and a million calls to State Farm, and we still haven't heard from the adjuster to get the green light to start getting this all fixed! Hope all is well everywhere else and we'll keep you posted on our latest adventure...

Snowed in...

Our flight was cancelled for today due to the crazy weather Portland is getting so we're at home making the best of being snowed/iced into our house. We got 8 in. yesterday plus freezing rain last night and it has started snowing again! Hopefully it'll hurry and melt so we can make our flight tomorrow! Here are some pictures from our house.

The snow and ice were too much for the bush outside our front door!

Brian took Vince out to play with his first snowball! This was before the freezing rain.

Some professional shots...

Last Friday we had Vince's pictures taken by a photographer that goes to our church. They turned out AMAZING!! I love them all (of course!) and can't wait to share them with you! Favorites are posted on his blog, check out his blog entry for Dec 15 at http://www.curtisleefarmer.blogspot.com/. There are a few of Brian & I too (not on his blog) that I will include on my blog once I get our copies.

Our family

Our first official family pic with Vince. I finally read the book and learned how to use the timer on my camera so we were able to get a good shot at home. We have so few pictures of us together that actually look ok (both looking at the camera, both smiling, etc) we'll have to do it more often!

I also had my 6-week appt today (post c-section appt) and had Vince weighed while we were there. He's at 9 lbs 13 oz!! That's 2 lbs in just under 3 weeks! Good job Vince!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Vince!

Vince's Great Grandparents stopped by for a visit and to meet him. Here is our first 4-generation picture: Great Grandma Juanita, Great Grandpa Jim, Grandpa Terry, Mommy & Vince.

Here's the complete 4-generation pic: Great Grandma & Grandpa, Grandma & Grandpa, Mommy & Daddy, and Vince.

Great Grandma and Vince.

Aunt Angela and cousin Kelsey came for a visit too.

At one point while Aunt Jenny was holding him, Vince grabbed her hair and wasn't about to let go - he's got a really strong grip! I love how innocently but intently he's looking at her while yanking on her hair.

Go Blue!

Brian's coworkers got Vince a bunch of cool U of Michigan stuff, part of which was this pacifier that he got to try out while watching a recent football game with his daddy. Hopefully this will be a new good luck charm for the Wolverines!

1 month

Unfortunately I need to do a better job of posting pictures on here. Sorry about that!

Today is Vince's 1 month birthday! We started the day with a trip to the pediatrician and found out Vince is 7 lbs 14 oz - exactly 1 lb more than his birth weight. The first 2 weeks we had trouble with him not gaining enough (he was down to 6 lbs 7 oz when we left the hospital) so we're happy that he's now gaining the recommended 1 oz per day! His color is looking a lot better too so that pesky jaundice is about gone as well.

Here's a recap of our favorite pictures of Vince since we brought him home.

He's so tiny!

Spending some quality time with Grandma.

Chillin' with Mom

First family pic - tired but happy to be home! Chillin' with Dad

So sweet when he's sleeping!

Getting burped by Daddy.

I love how big Brian's hand is in comparison to Vince's back - so cute!

I had to throw in a fussy one too - he's cute even then! :-)

He likes to practice his karate chop in his sleep.

Now I'm off to take his official 1 month picture!

Halloween

Since Vince decided to come early, we got to dress him up for his first Halloween. No trick or treating this year but he sure was a cute pumpkin! and a cute ghost

Our little guy

Our birth story: After my water breaking during Sunday night child birth class and being admitted to the hospital 3.5 weeks early, we went into labor Monday morning and practiced the breathing we had just learned about to get through contractions. When I was ready for the epidural I figured I was at 2 cm but I was actually at 5 cm! Seems that labor was progressing fairly quickly! Pretty soon I was ready to start pushing and ended up pushing for 3 hours only to find that he hadn't moved any further down. We decided at that point to do a c-section and then realized why he wasn't moving - he was facing up instead of down and was stuck! The poor little guy had a giant bruise on his head from all of the pushing, but he was born with no other complications. We did have to battle with jaundice for a while, but he's coming through that well too. He was born Oct 20 at 6pm, 6 lbs 14 oz, 19 in long.

36 Weeks (8 months)

Ok, funny story here. This 8 month picture was taken on Oct 19, a week later than I had hoped to take one, but oh well. Later in the evening was our 3rd (out of 4) child birth class. During class when we got seated after a break, my water broke!!! Of course at first I wondered if I was pee-ing my pants but when it kept going I knew my bladder was not that big and that my water had definitely broke. Luckily the classes were at the hospital so we checked in and got settled - 3 1/2 weeks before my due date! I even had an OB appt scheduled for the next morning where I assumed we'd see if I was dialated or anything, that was going to be the first of my weekly OB appts. What crazy timing!! When we showed up, my doc was actually on call that night so when she came in to visit I apologized for being so early for our appt. :-)

I'll post some super cute pictures of our little guy.

33 Weeks (7 1/2 months)

Ok, so compared to the last picture, this red shirt makes it look like I didn't grow any in the last 3 weeks, but I promise I did! I measured just over 33 weeks at my doc appt and I'm gaining the pound a week that they're recommending. So even though the pic may not show it, I'm still right on track.

I am definitely into the puffy/swollen stage now - which is not very fun. My only complaint with that is the pregnancy carpal tunnel which makes my fingers fall asleep almost constantly throughout the day. Gotta love working on a laptop all day! Since it's still short-sleeve weather I can't bring myself to wear the wrist braces yet, but I'll probably have to start doing that soon.

We're feeling the little guy move more and more lately. His movements are definitely bigger and more noticable now so B has been able to watch my tummy move and also feel the movements with his hands. Pretty fun!

This last weekend was our last available weekend to go anywhere prior to our due date so we went to the beach for a "babymoon". The weather was perfect and we had a great time! Made coming home and going to back to work very hard. :-) The picture of me in the red shirt was taken in Seaside and the one of us together was taken at Cannon Beach.

30 Weeks (almost 7 months)

Only 10 weeks to go! Seems crazy that we're already this far along! Since I'm getting bigger faster and we're nearing the final stretch, I'm going to try to take weekly pictures. Maybe writing that here will hold me to it! :-) He's moving more and more lately which is fun. I've found that he likes to push up against the outside wall of my tummy, which of course feels weird but it's fun because then we can feel him from the outside too. Thankfully he's not keeping me up at night or kicking my ribs or bladder yet. Based on stories I've heard, I'm sure that's on the way!

27 weeks (6 months)

Here I am at 27 weeks. It's hard to believe I'm already entering my 3rd trimester! Since the little guy's job is to pack on the pounds for the next 3 months, I'll try to add pictures a little more often.

Not much new to report. We're still working on names and getting the house ready for the new addition. We'll keep you posted!

24 Weeks (around 5 1/2 months)

Here I am at 24 weeks. I'm currently making the switch into maternity pants for work now since my regular pants are extremely uncomfortable. I'm starting to get creative with my tops too since my regular ones are not quite covering my tummy anymore. Looks like I'll need to do more shopping! :-)

I had my 5 month appt on Friday and the doc said everything looks great and he sounds great, so no news there. I hadn't felt actual kicks yet, but we did feel him kicking last night when we went to bed - they were pretty faint but Brian could feel the kicks from the outside of my tummy. That was exciting!