Preparing for baby

Operation "prepare for baby" is in full effect in the Foreman house.  Since I am now in my 2nd trimester & have a lot more energy & have been feeling great, I have not only been able to keep up with the house work, (I owed Kolt for my 1st trimester's weeks of laying on the couch), but we have also started re-organizing & making space for the baby.  Ever since Kolt & I got married, we have always managed to have 2 separate closets, which has pleased us both.  But now that we have a little one coming, Kolt had to move all of his stuff out of the guest room & into our bedroom.  I don't mind this as our room is big enough for the both of us, haha, but Kolt was not happy about the lack of "man space" he will now have.  Thankfully, he has accepted the new concept of sharing closet space & we are both happy with the outcome.  After hours of shopping online for the perfect crib & dresser in a decent price range & from a company that would ship to Alaska, our furniture arrived last week & thankfully not damaged at all.  I ordered from Kohl's & got what I would consider to be an amazing deal.  Both the crib & the dresser were on sale & I also had a 15% off coupon.  Shipping for both pieces was under $100 & I earned $70 in Kohl's cash for a future purchase.  Our furniture was also delivered within a week of when I ordered it.  With the Kohl's cash, another 15% off coupon, free shipping, & a gift card from Christmas, I was also able to order a crib mattress that was on sale.  I ended up paying $5 for a crib mattress that is normally sold for $120.  This past weekend Kolt & I got to work, cleaning out the guest room, & re-organizing the laundry room & storage closet & putting the baby furniture together.  You can guess which of us did the furniture building & who did the re-organizing.  I must say, Kolt did a GREAT job putting our baby's furniture together & it looks great.  Now, we have 3-4 weeks until we can find out the sex of the baby & start picking out the crib bedding & decorating the room.  Since we only have a 2 bedroom house, an extra bed (which would not fit in the storage unit), & hope to have many visitors while we live here, we couldn't give up the guest room completely.  Plane tickets are expensive enough to fly here, we couldn't possibly expect our visitors to pay for a hotel room also, therefore, the 2nd room is now the baby's room & the guest room.  It will have all of the baby's stuff as well as the guest bed, which will match the baby room decor.  When visitors come, the baby will stay in our room or can stay in the laundry room which is almost the equivalent in size to a regular bedroom.  Don't worry, we aren't that cruel to stick our baby in a closet, there is plenty of space & a big window.  If we have a lot of visitors as once, we actually plan on setting up an air mattress in this room for guests.  The down side to keeping the extra bed in the baby's room is that we don't have a lot of room for extra furniture that I would like such as a glider & ottoman & a changing table.  I am actually still debating on if we have the space to fit a changing table comfortably with everything we have in there now.  I know most of you are just as concerned about the lack of space so I will keep you updated ;)

 

Winter Storms

After a week of freezing temps, we got more snow again last week.  My car was frozen shut a couple weeks ago & then this past week my car got stuck in the parking lot several times, one time leading to a minor pregnancy meltdown.  On top of all the ice that has stuck around, it has been a pain to deal with.  Gunner absolutely LOVES playing in the snow.  We took a video of him playing & you can see it if you click on the link below.  Last night we had a high wind alert with wind gusts up to 70mph.  It took down a few trees & pushed our boat, which is currently parked in front of the house, out into the middle of the road.  Kolt hasn't been able to get the boat into the boat lot with all the snow & ice.  I am now 15 weeks pregnant, feeling good & have more energy, but still not showing much.  We ordered the baby's furniture & it should be delivered next week so I have been trying to rearrange the guest room/office which will become the baby's room.  I will be coming home to visit in 2 weeks & in 3 weeks Kolt will be going to Mississippi for a week long school.  After we both return to Sitka, we will have our 20 week ultrasound & will hopefully be able to find out the sex of the baby.  Kolt will be doing survival training next week which consists of him & a group of other guys being flown to a location & left for 2 days & 3 nights.  They are only allowed to bring with them whatever they are wearing & a small ziplock back of "essentials".  Kolt is VERY excited about this.  We will keep everyone posted on how that goes.     

video of Gunner playing in the snow
 

Gunner's day out with Dad

Kolt standing on Thimbleberry Lake

Update

We are still here, safe & sound, in Alaska.  Don't worry, we have not gotten snowed in either.  All the snow has been up north.  We did get a few inches a couple days ago, but nothing compared to the 15 feet Anchorage got a couple weeks ago.  Hunting season is over now so Kolt has been occupying his time with working on his boat & experimenting with deer meat & his new dehydrator.  We are slowly gaining more daylight, slowly being the key word.  It is still dark by 4pm but the sun seems to be coming up a little earlier.  This coming week will be my last week working full time & then I will start part time, 20 hours a week.  I will also be coming home for a 2 week visit on Feb. 19th - March 5th. while Kolt spends a week in Mississippi for C-school.  We have a Dr's appointment coming up for our monthly check up.  I hit 12 weeks last Thursday so I am moving into the final weeks of my first trimester & thankfully starting to feel a little better.  Not nearly as sick or as tired, but still having symptoms such as dizziness & headaches.  I am still not really showing, just barely, which I guess I should be thankful for since I will have plenty of time for that later.  Gunner is doing great, I think he has stopped growing & he will be 1 year old on January 28th.  He has become good friends with our neighbors dog, Tucker.  They like to play & run & jump on each other.  Tucker is smaller but a lot faster than Gunner so it keeps Gunner on his toes trying to keep up with him.  He is doing very good with his training & has learned some more tricks, our only problem area is keeping his attention when there are other dogs around.  Not much else to report on here but we will continue to keep everyone updated. 

Happy New Year!

Well 2011, you have been good to us, I'm hoping 2012 can be even better.  Here is a recap of 2011:

January- Loving life in San Diego, went to Sea World & got to go snowboarding in Big Bear with friends.

February- Began our cross country road trip from San Diego to North Carolina with a stop in Texas for a week to visit with some friends.  

March-  Kolt FINALLY started his school that he had been waiting for since joining the Coast Guard in 2008.  Settled into life in NC & decided to buy our very first puppy, Gunner.

April - July-  Loved life in North Carolina, made some great friends & family & also got to visit & reconnect with some old friends.  Kolt got to pick strawberries for the first time, we had a vacation in the Outer Banks, weekly t-ball & baseball games, & family lunches every Sunday.

August- Road trip back across the country to San Diego with a stop in Texas again.  Short visit in San Diego & spent some time in Arizona.  Then another road trip to Alaska.

September - October- Our household goods arrived & we got all settled in to our new home.  Lexi got a new job & Kolt bought his very first boat.  Kolt shot his very first deer.

November- Found out we were pregnant!!!!

December- Spent our first Christmas away from family since we have been together.  Got to see our lil baby & hear its heartbeat.  

We brought in the new year with some good friends & spent the weekend relaxing.  

Christmas in Alaska

For the first time in the 7 years Kolt & I have been together, we spent our first Christmas away from our family in Tucson.  I was a little sad & missing family, but we made due with our Alaska friends.  Christmas eve we went over to the neighbors house for dinner.  They had invited us & 3 other couples & everyone brought a different dish.  We had a great meal, Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, etc.  It was fun & there were babies everywhere!  Our neighbors have become good friends of ours, they have 2 little boys, 2 years & 8 months.  The wife is in the Coast Guard & the husband stays home.  Out of the 5 couples, including us, that were there, Kolt was the only husband who was active duty.  The wives were the active duty out of the other 4 couples.  Kolt & I got a kick out of how times have changed with the military & how it's not so uncommon for the female to be active duty & the husband to stay home now.  But we had good food & good company & a good night.  After dinner Kolt & I came back home to relax & we decided to open a baby gift from my sister, Mandy.  We also exchanged gifts with Kolt's friend Cooper.  He bought us our first box of diapers.  Mandy gave us some wipes & a baby blanket.  The neighbors gave us a little frog booster chair for the dinner table for when the baby gets a little bigger.  We LOVE all of our baby gifts so far.  
Christmas morning we woke up & Kolt made a breakfast casserole that we usually eat every Christmas morning at his mom's house.  We had Gunner open his gifts so that he had something to keep him busy.  Then Kolt & I took turns opening all of our gifts.  I think we each got everything we wanted plus more.  The rest of the day was very relaxing.  We stayed in our pajamas all day, I slept while Kolt watched tv.  In the afternoon, Kolt made our Christmas dinner.  Ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, & green bean casserole.  It was delicious.  I had baked homemade chocolate chip cookies the night before & had also made some of my mom's homemade fudge for desert.  

Baby Foreman

Last week I had a doctor's appointment for a check-up.  The Dr. had been trying for several weeks to hear the baby's heartbeat but couldn't get anything.  She was tracking me at 12 weeks as of last Friday, which she assumed just from info I had given her.  After yet again, no heartbeat, she sent me over for an ultrasound.  Almost immediately we heard a fast little fluttering heartbeat & saw our little baby on the screen.  It was moving a little which just consists of a little wiggle like motion right now.  The ultrasound tech measured the baby & told me I was 9 weeks & 1 day.  No wonder the Dr couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat.  The doplar that the Dr. uses usually doesn't pick it up until about 12 weeks.  So, we now have a much more accurate due date of July 26, 2012 & I am 10 weeks as of today.  They printed up a few pics for us but a couple were kinda blurry.  I am posting the best one.  The baby is upside down so the head is at the bottom.