Baby Bump - 25 weeks

Now that I'm finally done adding all of the Christmas stuff, I can add the latest belly shots. I was officially 25 weeks last Friday but we were a little busy so it got put off a few days. I usually set up a tripod in the nursery and do it myself but Jared found me this time and had to be in a couple pics. He's always lifting my shirt and telling me "Whoa! It's getting bigger!" Not sure how much longer my striped shirt is going to make it... it's not maternity and it's getting snug!

25 weeks... 15 to go!

Big smooch for the baby!

Deb & Jim's Christmas

Sunday was our final get-together for the season... Hallelujah! It was a long and busy 5 days. It was good to get back into some sort of a routine. Here are some more pictures to share...

 

The group

Daddy, Jared & Mommy

Ashlyn's new stocking... embroidered by Grandma Deb

Not so sure about this!

At least Ashlyn looks cute in this one... 

Jared was DONE with pictures!

Krystal, Mom & Lyndsey

Cele's Christmas

On Saturday we went to the Lind House for Keith's Grandma Cele Beranek's Christmas. Here are some of the group shots... not all turned out but that would be a lot to ask! 

Roger & Patty's Family

Dave & Aleda's Family

Cele's Great Grandchildren

Cele's Grandchildren

Cele's sons and daughter-in-laws

Christmas Day

We had a pretty laid-back Christmas Day. Went to church in the morning and then to the Farm to visit a while and pick up all of our goodies from the night before. We got home about noon and opened our gifts from Santa and each other.

Had to try out Grandpa Roger's new tools 

and put together the kids' new tricycle.

Santa dropped off a few presents for us!

Just a few new toys to play with... good grief!

Kral Christmas Eve

Our second stop for the evening was at Steve & Linda Kral's. The "crew" is getting pretty large so they cleaned up and decorated Steve's shop so we had plenty of room. They really went all out and it was a great time. As you'll see from the pictures, the little boys really like the straw bale display. Linda had a new idea of having an ugly tie and ugly purse contest. Matt Eilertson won for the guys and Mindy Ruch had the ugliest purse. I was taking pictures with my mom's camera so I don't have any of those to share but it was a lot of fun!

Chris, Terry, Mark, Doug, Steve

Lorraine, Albert, Pam

Sue, Debbie

The Outlaws

Kim, Paulette, Tim, Linda, Chad, LaNaye

Lorraine, Albert

What a cute couple! =)

Triple Trouble... Jared, DJ, Preston

They couldn't get enough of the stuff... it was everywhere!

Beranek Christmas Eve

Our Christmas celebrations started at Roger & Patty's in the afternoon. We had lots of great food to eat, as usual! And of course, there were more than enough presents to go around. They really like to go all out and it's always a good time! Here are a few pictures.

 

Jared was not-so-patiently waiting to start opening!

back: Emily, Patty, Roger

front: Brianna, Ava, Jared, Lily, Alec

"I just LOVE my new backhoe!" (from Craig & Shari)

Jared's new bookshelf... minus the shelves.

Miss Ava being cute and silly.

Ultrasound - 25 weeks

I had a follow-up ultrasound this afternoon. They wanted to double check the size of the kidneys. I'm not exactly sure what the concern was. My doctor didn't seem to think there would be any problems but she just wanted to be sure. I'll find out the detailed results next Friday at my routine OB check but the technician that did the ultrasound today said that she thought that everything looked great! Kidneys looked normal so that was a relief!

My mom came with since Keith is super busy this week at work. She was excited to see everything. Baby was very active almost the whole time so that was fun to watch. It was in a "pike" position most of the time (legs were straight over it's head... knees in it's face). How uncomfortable looking! Then we saw it doing the sucking motion with it's hand by it's face but there wasn't anything in it's mouth... you could see the mouth open and the tongue moving. Amazing!

The baby's stats...

Weight: 1 pound 10 ounces

Percentile: 51%

Heart rate: 157 bpm

I didn't get pictures on a disc this time so I don't have any to share. Bummer. We were just happy to see that everything looked great!!!

Snowmobile ride in the blizzard

Jared has been bugging Keith ever since the first snowfall to get the snowmobile out. Well, today was the day! We have a regular sled tied to the back of the snowmobile... so much more fun that way! Here's a video that I took from the front porch. That's about as far as I was gonna go with the camera! You can see how windy it was... could hardly see them through all of the blowing snow. Jared had a blast... until they hit a little bump and the sled tipped him off. Then it was time for hot chocolate in the house!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Weekend Blizzard

Yesterday was the start of a weekend-long the blizzard. I guess we got about 6 or 7 inches of snow total but it looks like more since it's been blowing hard all day. We woke up this morning and it was actually quite beautiful... the evergreen trees were piled full of the fluffy white stuff. The bad part was the frigid temperature... 2˚ was the high but the windchill was about -30˚. Thank goodness for our grove. It blocked us from the brunt of the wind. The drifts were amazing! I'll have to try to get a picture of that soon... hopefully the wind lets up and it gets a little warmer. 

Saturday... Jared and Keith were moving snow.

Got a neat picture of a Sun Dog.

This was the view of our backyard. Evergreens were almost totally covered up.

The front porch... frosty!

Before venturing outside to ride the snowmobile... all bundled up!

Keith is driving the snowmobile... Jared is being pulled in a sled. He absolutely LOVES it! Dozer wasn't too far behind chasing them.

After the fun outside. BRRR!!!

The picture doesn't show nearly how red his cheeks were.

Jared's 4th Birthday!

It's Jared's 4th birthday today! I can't believe that he's growing up so quickly! Kinda makes me sad... seems like he was just learning how to walk and talk. Now he's running around and screaming... literally! 

It worked out that since his birthday fell on a Sunday that we had the party today too. It might be a record day for the worst weather... 3˚ at 4:00 pm and 30-40 mph wind. At 8:00 pm it's -6˚ and just as windy. But on the bright side, everyone was still able to make it to our house so that was great! It was a packed house, as usual. Grandma Deb and Grandpa Jim made a dump truck cake and it was delicious. Jared got lots of great gifts and had a great time. He was so pooped out by the end of the night. (So were mom and dad!) I didn't get to take as may pictures as I wanted to but here are some that turned out well.

The Cake

Jared & Mom

Uncle Craig (Godfather), Jared & Auntie Shari

Grandma Patty, Jared & Grandpa Roger

Uncle Joe, Auntie Krystal (Godmother)

Jared & Cousin Ashlyn (5 months)

Daddy, Jared & Mommy

The boys had to set up the Hot Wheels Race Track before bed.

Daycare Christmas Party

Donna & Wally Beranek, our daycare providers, hosted their annual Christmas party today. The place was packed with all of the families (40+ adults and kids). As always, Santa stopped in to visit with everyone, sing some songs and hand out presents. He is always VERY entertaining and the kids just love him... well at least most of them. Jared wasn't so sure at first but warmed up eventually... he went on and on about what kind of farming equipment he needed... and a windmill! 

Not quite sure about this guy

And I want this... , and this... , and this...

Jared & Donna

Christmas Card

I finally got our Christmas cards ordered and mailed out! Only cost me $.20/ea. cuz I designed them on my Mac and printed them off as 4x6 prints. I heard the guy at the photo lab mumble something about that's a really good idea since a regular card costs $.40/ea. with the envelope. I'm so proud of my thrifty-ness sometimes! =) 

Here's the finished product...

Baby Bump - 22 weeks

Getting bigger! All is going well with the pregnancy. My only complaint is that my sciatic nerve pain is starting so I might have to start seeing the chiropractor soon. I had it with Jared too. It's basically a sharp pain at the bottom of my spine that shoots down my leg... not fun. It's from the weight of the baby in front throwing my spine out of whack. One quick adjustment and it's back to normal... for a week or two. 

22 weeks

19 weeks

Keith felt the baby kick!

Keith felt the baby kick for the first time tonight! It was just a little flutter but he felt it. Jared isn't patient enough to sit still and feel it. Won't be long til we're able to watch the little arms and feet jab at the outside! It's really movin' and groovin' in there!

Jared's Birthday Invite

Jared's 4th birthday is right around the corner (next Sunday) so it was time to send out invites! Here's the finished product... gotta love my new Mac... it was SO easy!