first ultrasound

Here is the first ultrasound for our newest family member...the U/S tech sd that everything looked good, and that all measurements were right on for how far along I am. The official due date is April 27th- still too early to tell if Norah will have a brother or a sister...probably around Thanksgiving is when we'll find out. But for now, everything looked good- a strong heartbeat at 176 beats/minute. Yes, I cried when I heard it- just something about hearing your baby's heart beat.
Then after the Dr's appt., we were off to the store to buy some ginger pops- to ease the nausea. oh well, the nausea should be subsiding soon, it's less than what it had been. I just keep thinking that it's the baby getting stronger : )

Are we crazy??

This morning, we took Norah to the Kidsfaire/Family Expo at the University of Phoenix Stadium- where the AZ Cardinals play. Anyways- it was packed- couldn't barely move with all of the strollers- BUT Norah had fun- she got to see Barney perform, meet Clifford and Peter the Rabbit and go to the petting zoo, as well as getting handouts from all of the vendors. Loads of fun...Actually, it was more of a test to see how she would handle the characters- lately she has been really afraid of characters- so when we have talked about taking her to Disneyland, we thought it wouldn't be such a grand idea if she would freak out...she DIDN'T have any problems with Clifford or Peter Rabbit- gave them high fives, in fact, so looks like we will be off to Cali sometime soon!!

Fun times!

Grammy and Boppa Steve came out to Arizona in hopes of escaping Hurricane Ike- IT turned out Ike headed north and Port Lavaca really didn't even get rain. Which is fine- we had a good time -thanks Grammy for having a tea party with Norah!

Frozen like a popsicle

Our community had a little "pet extravaganza" with a talent show for the pets. And their owners. Bandit, for those of you that have met him, does a trick where he balances the treat on his nose, and then when prompted, flips the treat in the air nad catches it in his mouth. It's pretty impressive, and even more so now that Norah can direct him to do it. Well, that was the "talent" for the show. EXCEPT once Norah put the treat on Bandit's nose, he froze. She said "OK, get it!" MANY times, and then Scott tried to help her out, but Bandit wouldn't do it- the treat just stayed on his nose, for almost a minute...oh well. I guess even dogs get stage fright!

remembering Mom

It's been almost a year since we (Sandy & I) lost our Mom. Wow. There are times that it flies by, and other times it just hits us. Like a ton of bricks. Like tonight, we were talking on the phone, remembering how it was a year ago today that she had her stroke, and it was the beginning of the end of her fight. And how there are times we just want her back to hug, or for her to give us some encouragement or even advice. Or to share in our joys. And then we remember the excrutiating pain that she endured during her fight, and realize it would only be selfish for us to want her to be back, because then she would be in pain, and we are reminded how life just isn't fair. And how much CANCER SUCKS! But we do remember all of the good times, and how many lives she touched- at church, school, and all of her family & friends. This is what helps- knowing how many people loved her and will always miss her! It is then that we are reminded that sometimes we don't want it to get easier to miss her, or for our pain to be eased, or just to miss those little things. We love you, Mom!

A day trip on the Apache Trail

A day trip to Globe turned into driving the Apache Trail- for those that are not familiar with Arizona, the Apache Trail is 24 miles of dirt road that is mostly one lane- Not that that's an issue, except that it is on the side of the mountains, and is very windy- having a lot of hairpin turns. The 24 miles took over an hour to drive- my knuckles were white from just hanging onto the "holy shit" handle in the car, and I'm sure my blood pressure was very high. All through this, Norah slept- we took some pics of the view- it was spectacular!