Baby Bump week 23 vs. week 32

This picture was taken at about 23 or 24 weeks.

Below was taken this week at almost 32 weeks.

So! As you all can tell I've gotten quite a bit bigger!!! I've been being asked to put more pictures up or even post more than once a month. Anyhow, Jake and I are very excited about our little guy that we have on the way. Two weeks ago he had an abnormal heart beat when we went to the dr and so today we went to the University of Virginia Medical center to have a fetal echocariogram done. Basically it's a long name for an ultrasound that they do only on his heart. We went in and we got to see a little glimpse of his face and his little Johnson. We also saw some toes and of course his heart. He was all twisted up in there. While the ultrasound tech was looking at Connor's heart, she said it looked textbook and she didn't see any problems with him. His heartbeat also sounded MUCH better! It was such a relief to get the good news. The dr came in to check the tech's work and decribed what could've been the problem and that anything that it could've been, was no longer an issue. He said that Connor's got an awesome looking heart and that he's just fine.We took this picture along with a couple others this morning on our way to UVA. One thing that Virginia has that Alaska doesn't is a beautiful fall season! The trees turn orange, red, yellow and then some are still green and it's just grorgeous. I love it!
So anyhow, Jake and I are doing well and are having fun. We are both doing well in school and are enjoying our alone time together before the baby comes. We are so excited for him to get here though. Mom and dad ordered us a gorgeous crib, changing table, and dresser for Connor and Jake is so excited to put it together. It's like a manly thing to do or something. He's so cute. He's started talking about it more and more. On Sunday we were leaving lunch and he kicked the ground like he was pouting. I asked him what was wrong and he looked at me and said so sincerely, "I want our little guy!" I guess he had been looking at all the babies at church that morning and was feeling Connor doing flips and just wanted him to come out so he could hold him. What a sweetheart. He's so excited and so am I. We can't wait to see what he looks like and be able to count fingers and toes. :) Anyhow, we're all doing well and getting along great. We'll post again soon with a picture of our price of gas. It's pretty exciting! :D

Long Time, No Post...

Well, it's officially been forever since we last posted. We've been busy with school, church, and baseball. Jacob's grandma and grandpa Skinell came to visit us from Phoenix this last weekend and it was great to see them. They treated us to a couple of meals and some new maternity clothes for me. Sweet people they are! It was a great blessing to have them here. Sometimes we feel like we're so far away from anybody that we'll never see family again, but it was so nice for them to stop in with us while they were traveling. :)
Jake is having a blast with fall baseball. He's hitting better than ever and loving the outfield. He reminds me of a little kid when he goes to practice because he's so excited.
The other night we decided to run to walmart to look for a few things for Connor. We found some cute little onesies that had baseballs on them and one says, "Little slugger" and has a bat and bal right next to the wording. SO CUTE! Jake was really getting into picking things out for him. He picked out a really soft fleece dog that you pull a cord and it does the melody to a lullaby. He lit up when we found it. You can tell he can't wait to have Connor here. We both see people at church holding their band new little guys and we get so excited for when our little dude gets here. Jake's excited to get to take him everywhere with him, although with me breastfeeding, I don't think little dude will get to be far from mom.
I'm 27 weeks now and getting pretty big. I can't believe how fast it's gone so far. Only three more months!!! The rest of this semester will probably be just as fast. Next week I have to go get a gestational diabetes test done. I guess they make you drink this really sweet syrup-y stuff and make you sit for and hour before they draw your blood and then you're done. Sounds like fun to me...I suppose. After my last appointment the dr. told me that I'm a week further than what I thought I was, so it looks like that bumps my due date up to the 26th of December, but I don't know. I think we won't have a little Connor until the begining of January, but we'll see when he decides to come out.
School is great. We are both up to our eyes in work every night, but I like my classes a lot and Jake likes his too. The only one that we're really not enjoying is our dumb art history class. Jake is loving his Intro to Accounting class though. He had a 50 point quiz today and got a 95%. He loves it because he understands how to do it. He's also not stressing as much about spanish this year. He has such a hard time in Spanish, but this semester has gone pretty smoothly so far. He's understanding the concepts and doing quite well. It makes me happy to see him get Spanish, because usually he has such a hard time, but all is well and we are stoked about that.
Anyhow, we're loving life right now and appreciating all the wonderful blessings that Heavenly Father has poured into our lives. I'm so glad that Jake and I get to be together forever, and that our little Connor will be sealed to our family also. One day though, he'll have his own wife and kids and the cycle will continue. Pretty cool if you ask me!! :D

Baby Bump...week 21

Alright alright...many have asked when they will get to see pictures of the baby bump so here it goes. This was a week ago, but I feel like I've grown so much since then. Weird how fast it's all going!

Jake was able to feel him move for the first time a couple days after we got to Alaska. It was so awesome for both of us to get to share taht experience. Since Connor started moving around in there, he really hasn't stopped. He goes from the minute I wake up until I go to bed. I'm already thinking that he is going to be a very exhausting little boy, but I'm so excited about that! I just think about how much I already love this little person and I'm so psyched that Jake and I get to be the ones to have him in our family. Feeling him move around in there helps me to have the assurance I need between dr's appointments to know he's okay. Before I could feel him I would worry so much that there was something wrong with him, or that I was doing something wrong and didn't know it. Now when I want to know if he's okay in there I just sit still for a minute or so and he starts to wiggle and it lets me know that all is well. Jake and I just can't wait to meet our little Connor! :D:D

A few pictures from Alaska

The following pictures are from our trip to Alaska that we took July 27th-August 12th. It was so nice to get to spend that time there with my family. The pictures are pretty scrambled because I haven't figured out how to get them on here the way I want to have them yet. This blogging thing is still kind of frustrating. Anyway, these should give you a general idea of our time in Alaska-hanging w/ parents, fishing, and playing with dogs...it was so relaxing. We loved every minute!! Above is myself and my mom right before we went out on Ressurection Bay.
Below is my mom and dad's new little baby-Lexie. She's so pathetic. She is so sweet too. She's a little boxer, which is nice for our older one-Chloe-because now she has someone to play with that knows all her tricks.
The two pictures below are of our little apartment in Robey Hall. This was our first home...in a boys dormitory. It was small and squishy, but it was home. While we were in Alaska we found our that we got the Resident Director position at the Carriage Town Homes off campus so now we have a three bedroom and two bathroom place that the school lets us stay in. It's really nice to have the space...especially for our little Connor who will be here in January. Anyway, we had to take some pictures to remember our Robey home by. :D

Below is my fantastic husband and my wonderful dad right be for a day out on the Kenai river for King Salmon fishing. Right there it was about 5am. We were in the water by 6am and were pretty much there until midnight. All day we only got one real good bite. I had the dang thing on for like 30 seconds before it snapped my line. I bet it was a world record fish too... :D
This little fish below is one of the only two fish that Jake was able to catch in Alaska. It was a cute little guy, but we sent him back out in the water to get bigger. :D
Below is an interesting scene. For those of you not from Alaska...this is a razor clam. We go out to the ocean, waiting for the tide to go out, which is easily predicted with a tide table. You wait for the tide to go out far enough and then you start to look for little dimples in the muddy sand that is left when the tide goes out. Then, you take your "clam gun" (which is an 8 inch wide in diameter metal cylinder) and shove it down in the mud over the dimple. You put your finger over the hole in the handle to create a suction and then you pull up the mud. The clams are so fast at digging deep into the mud that it usually takes three or four tries to actually reach the clam. When you've caught your limit of clams, you take them home and to expedite the cleaning process, you put them in boiling water for about a minute and a half just to get them to open their shells. Afterwards you open them and cut out anything that isn't white. The final product usually ends up taking FOREVER to clean, but if you have a good clam chowder recipie, then it makes it all worth it. YUM!!! Clamming is truly one of the funnest things you can do in Alaska!
This is Jake and I right before we went on the long voyage into Ressurection Bay in Seward, Alaska. The plan was for us to catch something, but once again...skunked...

IT'S A...

Hey everyone! Jake and I have some very exciting news for you all! We had a dr appointment yesterday and they wanted to do an ultrasound first. So we went in, and the lady asked me if we wanted to know what it is. Of course I was like, "Heck yes!" So she showed us and took a few pictures. So here they are. Yep, it's a boy! It's neat because this time around it looked like a little baby in there instead of just a little gummi bear. The first picture is a profile view of his little face. At the bottom you can see a little forhead and the rest of his little face. Then in the second picture, his legs are crossed at the ankles and yout can see his little calf and thigh bones and then the little Johnson! The ultrasound tech had to dummy proof it for me and lable so I could remember where it was when I showed it to other people, but there it is next to the little arrow. Jake and I were really surprised when we found out because we just knew it was going to be a little girl, but nope. We are very excited to have a little boy join our family though. Jacob was sitting over there sniffling and I think a tear or two escaped. He's so excited that we're having a boy because he feels like he knows what to do. I'm excited, because Jake will have a little baseball buddy and hopefully someday we'll have a little missionary and all the cool things that come with having a boy. I know that this little boy is going to be just like his daddy and that means LOTS of energy and an exhausted mommy! ;) We're very excited!!!
Anyhow, just thought we'd let you all in on the news! :D:D

A Word from Jake

This is me on Saturday's.... bring on baseball!
Jordan told me that I have to start writting on this thing as well so I am gonna give it a whirl. Being back in VA has been great. Since being home all I have really done is work on a couple houses on campus, and help paint a friends home. It's been a lot better than selling. Yeah, I don't get paid as generously, but at least I am sane and feel like I am getting somewhere. I have no complaints.

Last week Jordan and I went to see The Dark Night on opening night! I recommend it to anyone. It is hilariously, suspenseful. With a bit of psychoticness. We loved it. It wasn't the best night in the world though. At the Lexington theater there isn't a lot of room and they only show a movie twice a day. The movie opened at 7pm on Friday, and we tried to get to that showing but it ended up selling out, so we had to wait til' 10pm for the final showing. On the way back to the theater that evening I ended up getting pulled over and getting a speeding ticket. It was REDICULOUS! On the way to Lexington the speed limit is 55mph then just as your driving into town it goes to 35 and then right to 25. Now I can admit that I was trying to get to the movie to get a good seat, but just as I was driving into town Jordan freaked out and told me to slow down and that a cop just flipped a U-ee after me. I wasn't even aware of how fast I was going. evidentally I was going 38 in a 25. It's not that I was driving recklessly. COME ON!!! That's just the way things are in these small towns. Cops got nothing else better to do. Needless to say I am still a little upset about it.

In other news we are pretty excited about this week because we are going to get Jordan another ultra-sound possibly to see what the baby is going to be. I'm pretty stoked about that because I can then identify the child rather than just saying "baby." On top of that we are leaving for Alaska on Sunday, and I am going to get to go fishing for the first time in 4 years. This time I get to go for the real fish. We are going King Salmon fishing and then I am going Halibut fishing with Jordan's Dad and brother Jesse. Bring it on! I am hoping to catch a 100 lb fish. And we will post pictures after the trip.

Finally, Jordan got a hair choppin' the other day and she looks quite cute! Dashing if you ask me! And this is a picture of her.... after seeing it you have to say awwwww!!!!

SAY IT!!! AWWWWW!!!

Nice to be Home

Hey everyone! We just thought it was time for another one of these little things so here we are. On Wednesday of this last week we decided that it was time to go back to Virginia. Working for APX wasn't bad, but it really wasn't for us. So on Thursday we spent the day packing and getting ready for the 7 and a half hour drive home. After we had packed our buns off, we went to see downtown Nashville for the first time all summer. We walked all over that place. There were so many cool things to see. On every block there was at least 3 or 4 bars with the doors wide open with young aspiring artists jamming their country songs, trying to be heard by someone important. There were also a bunch of gift shops! We went in a couple and tried on their cowboy hats-which looked awesome. However, besides all those cool things, my very favorite part of the whole trip was that when we walked by one of the breaks between buildings, we saw two bums! Now Jake has lived in the city his whole life and this was no new thing for him, but to me, it was one of the weirdest things I'd ever seen. Now you're probably wondering why this-of all things-was my favorite. It was because it made me realize how fortunate I am to have a place to live that isn't a cardboard box. It maybe almost as small as one, but it certainly is way better than one. This experience was just such an eye opener, that it really made me more grateful for what I have. We had a great night in Nashville though.

The next day we were on our way-hey, I'm a rhymer...we packed up and headed out. I love to go on adventures like that with Jake because he's so much fun. We laughed and talked and laughed and talked the whole way. Well, we started seeing cars on the side of the road and thought to ourselves, "We should stop and help someone!" So, we came upon this car that was pulled over and so we stopped and Jake got out to go see if they needed help. The lady in the car seemed really freaked out and mad, so Jake turned around and we realized that a police man had pulled up right behind us. The police guy told us we could go. I think what had happened is that the couple had been fighting and one of them had called the police. Hey, maybe because we were there it stopped them from totally killing each other before the police man got there? It was funny.

Anyhow, we kept driving and when we finally pulled into BV and smelled that nasty stinking river, it never felt more like home. Jake and I are so glad to be back. You know, Alaska will always be my home and Pheonix for Jacob, but when we pulled into town the other night, I just knew that this is our home together. I think we'll be here for a long while and I'm pretty excited about that. Going to our own ward today felt like home too. Anyway, I think we both came to realize, that while it's nice to go on vacation, it's even nicer to get home afterwards. :D