It's a ...

Generic post title, I know, but if you think of something more creative, leave me a comment and I will gladly change it.

It's a girl!  We were kind of hoping and thinking that this would be the case.  We're all ecstatic, and girl names are easier for us than boy names.

During the ultrasound, Bethelle was actually the first to say, "Looks like a girl to me!"  It was pretty cute.  We were all thinking it, but the tech wanted to keep looking before she said it out-loud.

Follow-up:  Many of you are interested in the name... we believe that we have chosen one, but we are so secretive!  You're just going to have to wait!

Bethelle's 4th Birthday

I feel compelled to admit that this was 3 weeks ago.  Oh well.  See previous excuses.

Anyway, here are some pics of my favorite little girl on her big day.  We first had a family party the Sunday prior. 

 Everybody came except for the out-of-towners (Blair and Casey).  Here are the two grandpas.

She screamed like a teenager getting her first car when she opened this one.  It's a Barbie "laptop" with little games on it.  It's amazing how well occupied this keeps her.  She had picked out the same one to give to her cousin a couple months earlier, so she already knew how much fun it would be.  In this picture, it looks like Ellana is the one doing the screaming.  I guess she was in charge of the echo.Her actually birthday was my day to host a little play-group, so I turned it into a convenient birthday party.  Here she is with her cousin, Joee.

I love you, Bethelle!!  I can't believe what a big girl you are!

We also celebrated Easter recently, of course.  I love getting together with the family.  Our camera batteries were dead, but we had a great dinner and egg hunt at my parents' the day before Easter.  We also celebrated my birthday there.  Mom made me a beautiful quilt (her specialty) which I will post a picture of later.  On Sunday, we had Easter dinner with Nick's family at Trisha's house.  Another egg hunt meant more happy kids.  At both occasions, Bethelle recited her favorite story from her "My First Scriptures" books.  It goes something like this:

"On Sunday morning, some women who were friends with Jesus came to the tomb.  The stone in front of the tomb had been rolled away.  The Romans soldiers were gone.  The tomb was empty.

"An angel appeared and told the women the wonderful news.  Jesus had been resurrected and was alive again!

"Later Jesus appear to his apostles and others.  The people who were friends with Jesus were happy.  Because of him, when we all die, we can be resurrected and have our bodies again."

I probably didn't get that quite right, but can you believe Bethelle could do that?  It is her favorite story (and rightly so!), so she has heard it many times.

One more Bethelle story...  Yesterday, Nick was trying to unclog a drain pipe that runs under our driveway.  Bethelle was with him and thought she knew a better way to do it.  Long story short, Nick did it her way and had the water flowing again quickly!  She's Mommy's little engineer!

Home for Sale! And AWESOME freebies

If that picture doesn't make you want to buy our house, I don't know what will.  Sorry, she doesn't come with the house.

Most of you know that Nick has recently begun a new job and has a longer commute than we care for.  We are selling our beautiful home and would GREATLY appreciate you spreading the word to anyone who might be interested.  For now, we are selling "by owner," making our sales price a steal-of-a-deal.  We will list with a realtor in a month or two, but are trying it this way first.

As an incentive for you, we thought it would be fun to reward any friend who helps us find a buyer with any one of the following:

2 round trip Airplane tickets (to any major airport in the states with enough notice)

32 GB engraved iPod Touch with $150 iTune gift card

120 GB engraved iPod Classic with $200 iTune gift card

Cricut Expression machine (the dream of any scrapbooker or crafter) or any other Cricut machine

Any new Ping, Calloway, or TaylorMade driver or putter

Is there some other object you've been wanting?  These prizes are negotiable... just tell us what you're longing for!  Prizes apply only during our "by owner" phase.  After that, the realtor will be taking your prize (and more...) so please think now of who may be interested and where you could post a flyer (we will gladly email or mail one to you by request).

I have created a website with lots of pictures and info about our home, but I don't really want to link our home address to this blog, due to the cuteness of my babies.  If you want the link, send me an email or give me a call or leave a comment with your contact into.   Thank you all so much for your friendship and support!  And feel free to tell anyone who is looking to buy or may have any connection to someone looking to buy a house in the Puget Sound area.  Please email or call with any feedback - we'd love to hear from you.

He's Allergic to CATs

Recently, Nick saw a doctor about his allergies.  He is allergic to some animals and produce, but his biggest problem is his itchy eyes during this hay-fever season.  While there, he also told the doctor about a couple areas of sensitivity around his chest.  For this, the doc proscribed a CT (CAT scan).

Tuesday was the big day.  Nick headed up to the clinic on his lunch break, walking 12 blocks.  He didn't realize until there that CTs involve injecting dye into your blood thru an IV.  Nick tends to be a little sensitive about blood, needles, etc.  Let's just say that during labor with Bethelle, Nick was a fantastic support 99% of the time.  The other 1% was spent with him passed out on the floor having a small seizure.  To be fair, he gets the 100% support rating for Rigby's birth.

Back to the CT, he was trying to ignore the needles and talk of blood, but the dye feels really warm in your system, and you just can't forget it's there.  He made it through the procedure and was ready to go.  When they told him he could leave, he said that he felt sick.  He sat down and they gave him some water.  Still sick.  Really sick.  Then he passed out.

The doctors say he wasn't out very long, but when he came to, he was on the floor.  A man was bending down over him, about to do CPR, another was feeling for a pulse, and a third was GETTING OUT THE SHOCK PADDLES!  He ended up not needing either, but they said that he wasn't breathing and they hadn't found a pulse yet (OK, until he woke up at least).

He is perfectly fine now.  In fact, he called to tell me about all this while walking the 12 blocks back to work.  He kept saying he felt like a million bucks, which is just how he felt after his little episode in the delivery room.  Apparently this was worse because some kidneys, especially those of people who eat fairly healthy and don't drink, reject the injected dye and want to stop it from getting to the brain, heart, lungs, etc.  No more CATs for Nick.