Novruz Bayram

On the first day of Spring (March 20th), Carolyn & Jesse invited us to a traditional Azerbaijan celebration (they spent a year in Azerbaijan for the Peacecorps). They dressed the parts of hostess & host, but Carolyn couldn't keep a straight face for the picture. Apparently, Azeri people don't smile for pictures. :)

The Group: Kenton, Carolyn, Helen, Brian, Jacque, Stu, Jesse (partially covered by me), Katrina & Finn. Carolyn & Jesse made some of their favorite Azeri foods, like kabobs & plov. Yumm! Finn tried most of it, but he seemed a little relieved when I offered him a peanut butter & jelly sandwich that I'd brought just in case. What a good sport!

We played a game with hard boiled eggs where you hit yours against the other person's. The person whose egg remains intact continues on to attack the next person.

Amazingly, I won the game & broke almost everyone else's eggs. :)

Here I am with the winning egg!

Next, we jumped over a mini bonfire. We chanted something in Azerbaijani that has to do with casting all your bad luck into the fire...or something. It was tricky to say but we all took a turn.

Even Finn took a turn...the blur is Kenton helping Finn jump over the fire.

Some of the group finished the night by smoking strawberry lemonade flavored tobacco in a hookah that Carolyn & Jesse brought back from their time in Europe. It was a fun evening & Finn did really well with all the grown-ups. :)

**Carolyn & Jesse will have to correct me if I got anything wrong or mispelled anything. :)

happy birthday ty

My nephew, Tyler turned 9 on March 14th! We were all so excited to celebrate his birthday at the Chase's new house (they bought Josh & Gretchen's old house)!


Finn's watching Tyler & his friends play Mario Kart. Kenton played too, but I'm pretty sure they didn't notice. :P

Opening gifts.
It was cool to see Sadie, Ronan & Cohen having fun with the bigger kids.

We bought Tyler some Bakugan figures - I'd never heard of them before seeing them on Tyler's wish list. I'm still not too sure what you do with them. But Tyler seemed excited. I'm sure I'll figure out all of these "boy" toys soon enough. I've already learned more than I've ever known about Star Wars from Finn, who has recently become a little obsessed with the series (no thanks to Kenton). ;)

Watching Tyler open his gifts. Finn did really well, considering he was so excited to pick out the toys for Tyler. We weren't sure if he was ready to actually give them up, but he was a good sport.

Apparently, one of Tyler's favorite snacks - a huge bag of pretzels from Memaw & Papa.

Becca decorated an awesome Mario ice cream cake for Ty's Mario birthday party.

Blowing out the candles.

Finn & Cohen, looking pretty cozy with Aaron, while Tyler & his friends played his new game - Mario Party! Woohoo!

We had a great time celebrating Tyler. He's a pretty cool nephew & such a fun cousin for Finn. :)

i stole this picture

This was taken by Jesse...I think...& I stole it off his blog...cause I like it...a lot...& it's my son...& those are Kenton's feet in the background...that was a great day! Thanks for sharing such a cool photo Jesse...I know you didn't actually give me permission to steal it, but thanks for sharing anyway. ;)

i love this.

Lately, I've found Finn looking at my scrapbooks.

He mostly just looks, but sometimes makes comments.

It's so cool that he's taking an interest in looking at photos.

I love it when anyone looks at my scrapbooks, but finding Finn enjoying them really made me happy. He's pretty gentle too, which is awesome! :)

breathing treatment

Two nights ago, Finn had a really rough time going to bed because he was coughing so much. I always get a little nervous when a sickness interrupts sleep, so I called my dad to ask his advice. It's great to have a respiratory therapist in the family. :) Last night, my parents came by with a breathing machine to give Finn a treatment before bed.

Papa let Finn listen with the stethoscope.

Checking out the machine before the treatment began.

First try...

Kinda funny...

...but it tastes different.

Mama showing Finn how to take deep breaths.

We got him to take several deep breaths with a little incentive
(fruit snacks work well) :)

Visiting with Memaw & Papa. Finn's making a funny face, but he really seemed to be feeling better after his treatment. His cough sounded better & he had a much more peaceful night of sleep. Kenton & I slept much more soundly, too! :)

siblings, etc.

I stole this picture from Gretchen, because I've been pretty bad at taking pictures of myself during this pregnancy. With Finn, I tried to take a tummy picture at least once a month but this time I haven't set up a system.

Anyway, my belly is getting bigger. Here, I was 31 weeks along. Erik had come down for a quick film editing job & we saw him for a brief visit on Friday night. I probably won't see him again until the baby is born, so it was a nice surprise to get to see him, even for a short time.

In other news, I met with my dietician today & she said that I've been doing really well watching my carbohydrate intake. Unfortunately, my blood sugar is always higher than it should be when I wake up. So the specialist that I am seeing wants me to start taking medication to try & get those numbers down. This isn't bad in itself, but it means that my OB will want to do hour-long stress tests to monitor the baby, 2 times a week, for the remainder of the pregnancy. Eeek! It's getting harder & harder to find time for all of my doctor appointments. And I'm a little anxious about what my insurance will be covering & how much we'll be responsible for between these 3 doctors. Not to mention the prescriptions... So prayers would be much appreciate, as we feel the burden financially & on our schedules.

I am so thankful that modern medicine is available to us & that we know so much about Gestational Diabetes. It is so reassuring to know that so many well-trained doctors are keeping an eye on our growing baby boy. We only have about 7 weeks until our "scheduled" due date & I know it will fly by, even though it seems to drag at times. I just need to focus my attention on the unfinished (hardly even started) baby room! ;)

with my camera phone

I wish I had taken this photo with my nice camera...but this will do. I love my Junior Firefighter! This was just the distraction we needed to get through a grumpy morning. My friend Jacque made it for him at work because we talked about trying to come to the classroom when the firefighters came to visit. Finn & I didn't end up making it, since he fell asleep on our way home, but he still enjoyed his construction paper hat. What a goofy kid!

3D ultrasound

I met with a doctor today who specializes in higher risk pregnancies. Since I've been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, he will be monitoring my blood sugar & the baby's growth. So to start things off, we got to see how baby #2 is doing through a 3D Ultrasound. Super cool, since we didn't get to do one with Finn!

We were pretty surprised at how well we could see his face. He looks so peaceful here...

This one, not so much. It's a little harder to see, but he looks pretty sad.

This one made our Ultrasound Tech laugh pretty hard. She said that in 7 years, she's never seen a baby look quite so sad. :P We figure he was feeling particularly squished...or maybe he just doesn't like being looked at? Who knows...hopefully, he'll be much happier in a couple months when we get to meet him in person. :)

The appointment went well & the doctor said my blood sugar numbers were looking good. The baby's growth was right on schedule. He was in the 55th percentile for size, so that's great. Since my body is not processing sugar correctly, all of the sugar goes straight to the baby. This increases the chance of the baby getting pretty big, but it all looks good so far. I was relieved & felt a little spoiled for getting to see such a long peek at our little boy. Makes 2 months seem like a long time to wait to meet him, but then again there is a lot to do to get ready for his arrival...

ice cream!

My blood sugar was pretty good, so I suggested we stop for ice cream before heading back home. I still had a kid size serving of no-sugar added ice cream, but it was wonderful! Finn & Kenton shared bubblegum ice cream in a waffle cone! Lucky ducks!

We got to see a bunch of sea lions hanging out across the street from the ice cream parlor.

What a big day! We all had such a great time. Everything went smoothly & Finn was such a super star. It was so nice to go out & do something out of our normal, lazy routine. We loved being able to experience the coast through the eyes of our boy. Plus, we were amazed over & over again with how well he handled such a busy day & two long car rides. What a kid!

the beach

Carolyn carrying Finn to the water.

It's kind of sad, but this was Finn's first trip to the beach since he was about 8 months old (when we stopped for a quick visit in San Francisco). We're bad parents. But he definitely enjoyed it yesterday...

Carolyn & Jacque found a slimy, jelly creature that was probably dead. Stu was brave enough to pick it up. It was gross.

Digging with Jesse.

Jacque & Stu

All 7 of us, again. I propped the camera on some rocks & am quite impressed that it turned out so nicely. I'm also impressed that I managed to scramble off the rocks in time to make it into the shot...all at 7 1/2 months pregnant! :P

The weather was dry & there wasn't very much wind. The clouds looked a little threatening, but we didn't get rained on. It was a great day at the Oregon Coast!

Jacque & Finn - both looking so cute!

Carolyn & Jesse - also looking so cute. :P

Our growing family.
Kenton (27 1/2), Finn (2 1/4), Katrina (27 1/2)

My growing tummy (30 weeks)

The girls.
Carolyn, Jacque & Katrina

oregon coast aquarium

Yesterday, we took our friend Jesse up on the offer to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium with free passes from work. Kenton & I had gone about a year ago but we didn't get to bring Finn then. So we were really excited to share this experience with him. Our friends were excited to share it with Finn too; Carolyn, Jesse, Stu & Jacque all came with us! It was a lot of fun!

Finn was excited from the moment we walked into the Aquarium - he saw rocks & a waterfall first & thought that was the coolest! But there was so much more to see...

Dad lifting Finn way up high so he could see the sea lions & seals during their feeding time. There were lots of people there but Finn soon figured out that he could easily push to the front without being in anyone's way. :) It's good to be a kid.

We watched the sea lions swimming below the water for a while too. Finn loved seeing them zoom by - especially the BIG one!

One of the coolest sights was the Passages of the Deep exhibit. Finn had been talking about the "Shark House" for the past 3 days, so he was super ready to see the sharks. Much to our surprise, we also got to see a bunch of divers in each of the tanks! They were cleaning the glass & were very friendly & silly with the kids.

It was quite difficult to get Finn to look at the camera for even a moment. There were so many other cool things to look at! :)

Sharks!

Finn spent several minutes laying on the floor, looking through the glass at the sharks. Again, it's good to be a kid! :)

Jesse, Carolyn, Jacque, Stu & Kenton - enjoying Finn & the sharks.

Kenton & me with a shark zooming by overhead.

Finn the diver!

All 7 of us.

There are so many neat features for the kids to explore.
Finn & Kenton in a crawl-through tank.

Touching a little brown shark! So cool!

Sea anemones! What a great experience. Finn loved it & didn't want to leave...but we had more exploring scheduled for our day... ;)