Pregnancy - Due Early April!

Not too long ago, Nathan and I were happy newlyweds. We thought, hey, let's start to make babies sometime in the next year or so! And it was so ... pretty much immediately. Here we are about to go to a friend's wedding on Orcas Island in early July. We don't know it, but this is our last weekend before being PREGNANT!

 July 2011

 Even though we didn't expect to make a baby quite so soon, we were pretty excited about it. I took this pregnancy test on July 31st, about 5 minutes after we got home from visiting Nathan's family in Boise. I was pretty sure that I was pregnant before taking the test but it was certainly nice to have the confirmation!

 Plus sign on top means baby!

 Nathan was VERY proud of what he had done. Good job, honey.

 Here's a pic of my pregnant tummy just a couple days later. Goodbye flat stomach.

 Here we are out at a Mariner's game, secretly pregnant!!

 And at 8 weeks pregnant the secret is over, at least when it comes to close family. My parents, my mom's parents, and my little brother were all present for our ice cream cake surprise! On the same day we called everyone who lived outside of the Seattle area, except for my LA grandparents and older brother who got the news in person a couple of weeks later. Side note - my little brother literally ate 1/4 of that cake on the day this photo was taken. Also, as a testament to the quality of education in my home town, I had to tell the Dairy Queen people how to spell pregnant twice. Once when I talked to them on the phone and once when we arrived to pick up the cake and it said "We're Pregnat". Oh Stanwood.

 13 weeks pregnant - this is about when I mostly pouted over the weight gain instead of celebrating the growth of our dear child. Nathan had to chastise me in order to get me to smile for this photo. I hope my poor child will not be as superficial as I seem to be.

 17 weeks pregnant - I was so proud to have an official baby bump. Now I look back at this photo and laugh at how pregnant I thought I looked.

 Going to a pumpkin patch soon after the previous photo is taken, I won't get to wear regular clothes for much longer.

 Super excited to get ultrasounds done on November 21st to find out baby gender! I was betting girl and Nathan was betting boy ...

 And it's a boy! I'm more than fine with losing the gender bet ... this time. We will have a girl and I will get frilly outfits at some point in the future. And after being given adorable boy clothes at baby showers I'm very on board with this whole boy thing. Overalls are so cute!

Here we are a couple weeks later at our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party. 23 weeks pregnant.

Celebrating my third place finish in the ugly sweater competition.

 

 In Boise for Christmas, shopping for a stroller. We didn't end up picking this one. I'm about 25 weeks pregnant here.

 

 New Years = 26 weeks pregnant. This is the photo my mom used for the Camano Chapel baby shower.

 Nathan and I went on a "babymoon" to Seaside, Oregon. It was basically one last trip of fun togetherness before baby comes and changes everything! This is at 28 weeks.

 Here's the same picture with flair!

Soon after our trip, we moved to an actual house with more than one bedroom (thanks Tina and Jett!). Baby items started arriving and Nathan was very manly and assembled them all.

I was not the only one who appreciated having some new furniture around the house.
 

 Some naughty kitties LOVED the new furniture, even when we tried to protect it from them by putting blankets over it.

 33 weeks along

 My belly button is no longer an innie

 Comparing bellies, I believe I am the clear winner in this contest.

 35 weeks pregnant. There's a whole lot of baby in there.

 And to think, I thought the kittens wouldn't like my pregnancy belly!

 More pictures will be forthcoming in the next couple of weeks, writing this at 37 weeks pregnant so our little baby boy should be joining us oh so soon!

Kittens!

Before our little family celebrates its new addition, I thought it would be appropriate to give the kittens some of the love and attention they so richly deserve. So I took ALL of our kitten photos from the last year and a half or so and put favorites below.

It's basically kitten photo heaven. Enjoy.

 

Our first meeting of little Meg, Layla, and Sookie. 

The story goes - we were supposed to get one cat and I told Nathan that was a bad idea, they get bored and are better socialized if they have a little friend. So we planned on getting two cats until we found Layla and discovered she had two sisters. I told Nathan I wasn't breaking up a family so we couldn't get her unless we got all three cats and sweet silly Nathan said, "well what's the difference between two and three cats?" Reason #154,632 I love that man.

Kittens were less than enthused about the cat carrier at first.

Meg still likes to cuddle by my neck. It's best when my face is her pillow.

Now only two can fit in this bed at a time, and it's a tight squeeze!

My family better be as excited when we bring a baby home for Christmas as they were when we brought kittens. I know my parents will prefer a baby but I'm not so sure about my brothers ...

Kittens love wrappings even better than the presents inside!

Meg is so stinkin' cute

Look what Santa brought us in this basket!

So so tired

Nathan and Layla cuddles have always been epic

Daniel might be okay with kitten cuddles

Smart kittens figure out how computers work

Nathan and his billy goat beard. Sheesh.

I wanted to take pictures with the real camera, but that had a super exciting string. So we had to settle for cell phone pics.

Mountain man Nathan can hold three kittens at once!

They still love playing in the shower

Meg is a killer

More cute cell phone pics

They chose to do this all on their own. Glorious cuddles!

A special present under the tree!

 Megatron rests ... for now

 This is bliss

Yeah, they like Nathan okay.

Nathan is unaware of the danger at his toes!

And destruction and chaos soon follow

Nathan and Layla are more than a little ridiculous together.

Meg loves her Auntie Laura!

Nathan gets some help putting away the Christmas tree lights

Oh look, a Valentine flower for me!

Meg may be rather fond of me

Sookie does not seem impressed by our wedding presents

Layla kills all the scary wrapping paper

Meg is kind enough to share a chair with Thomas while he assembles a wedding present for us

There was much for kittens to explore while we unwrapped gifts

Kittens are boxed up and ready to go

We left the kittens at my parents' house while on our honeymoon. If only they could have found cuddles and affection.

Nathan's cat continues to be the naughtiest

Mom and Dad tried shutting them out of the bedroom at night until the cats realized they just needed to hide under the bed until people went to sleep

 

 The poor kittens - how does one become so exhausted?

Okay, it seems like Layla may not be the only naughty kitten

Mom is so fortunate to get so much help while she works on her lesson plans

And Daniel is pleased to get some much needed assistance while he plays video games. Apparently Layla and Sookie would fight over getting to sit in his lap.Well, Layla would sit in his lap and then Sookie would try to sit on top of Layla. And then poor Layla would leave.

This photo was taken after the very scary dishwasher incident! Apparently my cruel parents lured the kittens into the kitchen with cat food and then turned on the dishwasher. They claim it made a quiet beep noise and then there was frantic scrambling and crashing and spilling of cat food as pictured above. Look at poor Layla returning to confront her tormentors.

Another cruel trap - they put a lot of interesting clothes on the top of the chair so when a kitten ran onto the chair at full force to check things out, it would fall over.

Sookie doesn't mind the occasional belly rub.

Back at home. Layla and Nathan enjoying our wedding quilt from my grandparents!

Kittens loved killing bugs in the summertime

Kittens also love killing lasers

So so tired

Meg always lets her claws be trimmed in this fashion. I can't believe that she is so mellow when it comes to this of all things.

I'm seeing how many cats I can get in kill mode at once

Nathan loves this picture. Layla is one cute kitty.

The cats' favorite spot in the condo, all lined up on the back of the couch.

I was really excited to dress the kitties up for Halloween! Cost of Nathan's and my costumes: approx $15. Cost of kitty costumes: approx $50. It's called priorities.

Layla is a sweet sweet ballerina

Daniel's no shave November "beard". And a kitten. Because why take a picture without a kitten, when you can take a picture with a kitten?

Trying to get a family Christmas photo

This was the winning photo - we did not end up using this on our Christmas card

Back to kitty costumes! Meg is the sweetest of butterflies.

There's even a cute headband!

Meg loves her costume so much

Nathan with princess tutu Layla

This was so completely hilarious to do. The cats didn't mind it too much, they were only in costume for about 5 minutes. And the memories are just priceless.

This did make the Christmas card.

And this probably should have made the Christmas card. Santa and kitties!

Nathan and this cat love each other so so much.

Christmas present!

My goodness these cats are cuddly

Please note the expression on Layla's face when Nathan returns from a weekend away

And the expression on Meg's face after the same weekend away ...

Kittens did NOT like being shut out on the deck on a snowy day.

Kitten mittens - Nathan's idea.

The fatter kitten - still no success

New cat bed after our move to Bellevue. We think the cats like it.

We can't wait until we get to take kitten with baby photos! We have no idea how these guys are going to react to a baby being around, there will be exciting and new adventures for all of us around here!