A BLOG ABOUT GUNNAR (AND HIS PARENTS)

My Blog Isn't Going to Have Many Pictures..Deal With It

2012-02-01T21:02:00.000-06:00

Here's the primary reason I continuously find myself starting, stopping, and then re-starting my blog: I initially get really excited about the idea of blogging, because I LOVE to write, and I LOVE to record all of the eventful (ok, who are we kidding... mostly boring, no-so-eventful) things that make up our daily lives, because I LOVE to go back months and years later, and re-read all of it. But then this pressure slowly starts to build...the pressure to have PICTURES. I feel like most people who are in the market for quality blog-reading, are expecting pictures. They browse quickly through the words, in search of the PICTURES. "Why are there so many words on this blog, and NO PICTURES??!??!??", is probably what anyone who reads my blog is saying. Well here's the deal, people....my camera sucks, I suck at taking pictures, I feel like an annoying member of the papparazi whenever I try to snap shots at playdates, birthday parties, and other such events, AND really, it's just the principle...if I'm taking a picture solely for the purpose of posting it on my blog, well that's just goofy. I was feeling kind of bummed about this, like maybe it means I just shouldn't have a blog, but then I remembered two things:1) This blog isn't solely for your eyes only...it's for MINE. And I am perfectly happy having no pictures on here2) One of my very favorite blogs that I follow is my cousin-in-law's (or something like that...it's my husband's cousin's wife), and her blog has very few pictures, and yet I absolutely love it. In fact, you should follow it, too. Click here. She is freaking hilarious. By the way Amanda, although we are family, I'm pretty sure we've only met in person like twice ever, but I wish we could hang more, because your blog posts never fail to make me laugh out loud!!!So.....if a blog with pictures is what you're in the market for, you might ought to quit visiting mine, because you're going to continue to find yourself sorely disappointed. If what you ARE in the market for is boring stories that only I find interesting, fascinating-only-to-me updates about Gunnar, my insights that seem really intelligent and thought provoking to me, but probably aren't to anyone else, and the occasional link to other people's blogs who are way more interesting than me, than this is the blog for you!!

Potty Training

2012-01-30T15:24:00.000-06:00

We may be potty-training around here. I'm just not sure. What I do know, is that the first drops of Gunnar-pee HAVE officially entered a toilet in our home, on three different occasions, over the course of the last two days. Umm.....we weren't going to do this until he turned 3. Unlike most mommies out there, I am really just in no rush to potty train. After 2+ years of changing diapers, I'm kind of used to it. It isn't that difficult, its not that time-consuming, Ok ok...diapers ARE expensive, I suppose, but still....I gave up my Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream a while back, and that stuff is so ridiculously expensive, it practically balances out. Honestly, potty-training just seems like a huge pain in the butt, not even to mention something that interrupts our oh-so-nicely routined days. BUT....Gunnar decided he's ready. I think this is mostly in part to the fact that while I was gone for the day a few weeks ago, Nason took it upon himself to teach Gunnar how to pee outside (like a real man), which apparently ignited an interest in all things "pee-related" for Gunnar (including but not limited to..urine itself, toilets, his man-parts, if you know what I mean, and toilet paper). It also includes visits to the toilet a million times a day, while he sits there for a while, toots, laughs, plays with himself, plays with the toilet paper roll, plays with the toilet water, and yes...occasionally...pees. If that's not toilet-training, I don't know what is! But.....I haven't read a potty-training book yet! I haven't made a plan yet! I haven't written out the instructions for "Potty Training Boot Camp" (everything I decide Gunnar needs to learn, from sleep scheduling, to table manners...still haven't accomplished that one, by the way....to discipline, to potty-training, gets labeled "Boot Camp" by me). So I'm not too sure what to do. I'm thinking about frantically reading through "PottyWise" over the weekend, and officially starting this Boot Camp up on Monday, but I'm not totally sold yet. Everyone says, "if he's ready, don't ignore it!". To that I say...."Uggggghhhhhhhh" and "You're probably right". So that being said, any of you have good, tried-and-true suggestions on Potty Training books or strategies that you care to share with me?

(We've perfected our technique since this picture was taken, and he sits on the toilet like a normal toddler would do. Much to Nason's surprise and disappointment, Gunnar isn't ready to stand and aim yet. Big shocker there.)

Changes

2012-01-26T15:56:00.002-06:00

One of the things I spent some time doing on my Planning Day was to identify some ongoing things about my day (every day) that, well, for lack of a better way to put it, basically just sucked. In other words, what were some things that EVERY SINGLE DAY were either stressing me out, annoying me, annoying Gunnar, annoying Nason, making our day run less than smooth, etc. Here's what I came up with:

- Trying to rush out the door every morning to get somewhere
- Messiness around the house
- Not enough quality play time with Gunnar
- Attempting to get cleaned up and ready in the mornings, while at the same time entertaining and/or keeping Gunnar out of trouble
- Feeling like I didn't have enough down time
- Dinner time. Everything about it. Period.

So, here are the six, oh-so-simple changes I put into place, that LITERALLY have been life changing so far. I have NO idea why it took me this long to do them:

1) Wake up before Gunnar: Every morning this week, I woke up early enough to shower and get ready, AND do a quick straightening-up of the house, before Gunnar wakes up. Added bonus besides the obvious? I get a full cup of coffee in my system before I greet Gunnar for the day, AND I get to watch snippets of my beloved Today show, which I used to ALWAYS watch, while getting ready for work (in the pre-Gunnar days), and seriously missed.

2) 3 times a day, I do a brief "straightening up" of the house. Once before Gunnar wakes up, once right after I lay him down for his nap, and once right after we put him to bed for the night. This ensures that the house never gets TOO messy, BUT (and more importantly) it ensures that I'm not wasting quality time that I could be spending with him, cleaning the house (which I was SUPER guilty of before)

3) I sit down and eat breakfast with Gunnar (helping to achieve my goal of my quality, face-time with him)

4) With rare exceptions, we do NOT leave the house before 10 am anymore. This is HUGE. One of the biggest sources of annoyance, leading to me being unnecessarily short with Gunnar, was that every single day, I was rushing us to eat breakfast, get ready, and get out the door. To go SOMEWHERE. Anywhere. I like to be on the go a lot, whether it's errands, playdates, etc. This hasn't changed, and probably won't, but by committing to not leaving before 10, it ensures that Gunnar and I get to have a nice, leisurely morning together, void of unnecessary rushing and impatience. Also, since I'm already ready, and the house is already reasonably clean, we can spend the whole morning up until then playing (which addresses one of the other problems mentioned above).

5) Gunnar stays in his bed until 7:15 in the morning, and stays in his bed for 2 hours and 15 minutes at nap time. It matters not if he wakes up prior to that. He can read books, or just hang out in his room, but that door ain't opening until the time I set. That ensures that I have time to get ready and do my cleaning in the morning, AND it ensures that I have SOME (even if it's small) amount of free time, to do absolutely nothing, during his afternoon nap.

6) I'm doing dinner prep during his nap. Dinner time at our house has become SO miserable lately. Especially with this new vegan way of eating. It seems to take FOREVER to cook, eat, and then clean up the millions of dishes involved with whatever recipe I've made, and Gunnar seems to take advantage of this time where I'm otherwise occupied, to be at his very most disobedient/disorderly. So, I'm doing as much of the dinner preparation as is feasibly possible while he's asleep, cutting down DRASTICALLY on how much time I'm in the kitchen in the evening.

This week has gone SO smoothly as a result, and I just can't believe that it's taken me so long to begin doing most of these things.

Funny

2012-01-26T15:18:00.001-06:00

Oh How I Love to Plan!

2012-01-25T15:42:00.007-06:00

Once a year, in January, I spend one full day "planning". "Planning", for me, consists of:

- finding a fun, cozy location FOR my planning

-Praying

- Drinking lots of coffee

- Reviewing the previous year, and measuring how well I did, in terms of living up to the goals I'd set for myself

- Assessing how I can do things better in the coming year

- Deciding what new things I need to implement, in order to more closely align myself with my "life goals".

"Life Goals" is kind of a cheesy little phrase, and I actually hate that I just used it. It really isn't even the right way to convey what I mean.

Basically, when I first started doing this, I sat down and listed out the four categories that I felt like kind of make up my life:

-Spiritual
- Marriage
- Parenting
- Personal

Then, I wrote kind of a "summary statement" for each one, summarizing what my main goals for each of those categories were. These are not goals that change from year to year, but "forever goals" (wow, that's even cheesier than "life goals"). Basically, I asked myself the question for each category, "Describe what it is that you are trying to achieve in this area". I spent a LOT of time last year thinking through those, prayed a ton about them, and then finally wrote them down. I won't share all of them with you (lest you die of boredom), but as an example, here is what I wrote out under "Parenting":

"I want to create good memories for and with Gunnar. I want him to grow up feeling loved, special, cherished, enjoying life, and enjoying time with his family. I want to take seriously mine and Nason's responsibility to teach Gunnar about Jesus. I want to help him discover his God-given purpose, and how to be a godly man, a responsible person, a good husband, and a good father. I want to cherish every second I have with him, and not wish for it to hurry by. I want Gunnar to love Jesus genuinely. I want Gunnar's biggest driving passion in life to be to find out what will please God most, and then do it. I want him to be confident and secure. I want him to enjoy and savor life. I want him to love other people well. I want him to know how to make wise and sound decisions for himself"

So anyway, every year, I revisit this and remind myself what I wrote in each category, and then decide what I SPECIFICALLY need to do/change/start/stop/implement/do better/etc, to continuously stay on track with that goal.

This system has worked great for me, and really helps me to stay focused, and be purposeful with how I spend my time and energy. Well, at least January through October. Come October, I start to get extremely lazy, and a lot of this stuff starts falling to the wayside. Not to worry though...January rolls around, and the process begins again!

"Worry....

2012-01-22T16:09:00.006-06:00

.....Been Doggin' My Soul, Since The Day I Was Born" There's a little Ray LaMontagne for you. And really, the lyrics say "Trouble" been doggin my soul, not "worry" ("worry" is in the next stanza, and those words aren't as applicable to my blog post, so I swapped them. So what?) Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, I struggle a lot with worry, and always have. Pretty much for as long as I can remember, I go through these "seasons" of worry, where I ruminate on some certain fear, and like a hamster in a cage, my brain just keeps going around and around and around and around thinking about it. It's really quite exhausting. Then I go through seasons where I'm really not such a worrisome person, and that's a nice break for a while, but inevitably, something will trigger the worry, and back it comes. So, one thing I spent my planning day on yesterday, was thinking through some lessons I had learned in 2011, and ways that God had really grown me. I think I made some big strides in my "worry issue" this year, probably bigger breakthroughs than ever before, because God taught me some big things (some of these things seem so simple, obvious, and "duh"-ish, but they suddenly made new sense to me):

1) God actually COMMANDS me not to worry ("DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING....." Phillipians 4:6-7) So if I choose to worry, that is a sin. If God gives me a command, then He'll give me the ability to keep that command. So if I find myself worrying, it's because I'm CHOOSING to.

2) God DESIRES for me to live free from worry ("Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid" John 14:27)

3) I WILL have problems/trials in this life. There's no sense in sitting around worrying about it. I just WILL. It's not heaven, it's earth, so why should I even have the expectation that it will be problem free? God allows certain trials in my life, because it's a huge way for me to grow, and become more like Him (which is His biggest goal), and I need to want that, more than I want to have a comfortable, problem-free life.

4) "God gives us His grace [to deal with problems/trials/crises] IN THE HOUR THAT WE NEED IT. If we worry about the future now, we double our pain, without the grace to deal with it" (I can't remember where I read that quote, but I liked it, and it really stuck with me).

ANYWAY....I learned a whole lot more about this issue of worry over the last several months, but these are the main four points, I think. Bottom line is, it's encouraging to me to realize that I don't HAVE to be characterized as a "worrisome person". I actually CAN overcome it, and I intend to!

Inspired

2012-01-22T15:49:00.002-06:00

Well, my blog still needs lots and lots of help....if expert bloggers have a master's degree, then I am basically still a blogging kindergartner. A preschooler, even. I did change my background, font and colors though! That was huge. Actually, I already knew how to do that at one point, way back in the early days of my blog, but I've regressed since then, and had forgotten how to even do that, so I feel hugely accomplished for having re-learned the skill. Anyway, recently, I have been re-inspired to get back to blogging. I should say, re-re-inspired, because I was re-inspired about a month ago and then I lost interest all of over again. This week though, I was re-re-inspired for two reasons:

1) My sister started up a blog, and reading hers has made me remember how much fun it is to blog (by the way, check her out here.

2) Yesterday, I did my annual Day of Planning, and besides thinking and praying through a bunch of stuff like goals for the year, priorities, ways to be a better mom, etc etc etc, I tried to think through some ways that I would most ENJOY spending the free time I have, versus simply piddling it away on Facebook and Pinterest, and I realized that I really do like to blog and write, and I think it would be a better use of my time (therapeutic, perhaps) than always zoning out on Facebook and Pinterest (don't misunderstand me though...eliminating Facebook and Pinterest ENTIRELY were NOT part of my New Year's Planning).

Anyway, I am excited to re-ignite this interest, and am hoping to become a bit better at it, as I do it more regularly. My sister and I even talked about taking a blogging class...although that seems incredibly dorky, and possibly like a huge waste of time and money (unless someone wants to give us some free private lessons, that is?)

Thankful, 2011 Edition

2011-11-22T13:05:00.005-06:00

I've been trying to talk to Gunnar this week about what Thanksgiving is all about (right now, he only knows that it has to do with turkeys, because one of our neighbors replaced their yard full of "scary stuff" with a huge blow-up turkey) and what all he has to be thankful for. So that has ME thinking about what I'm thankful for. Of course the obvious ones jump right out...the gift of salvation, my husband, my son. I certaintly don't want to undermine those....they don't just get an obligatory shout-out in my "Thankful" post...it's just that I'm constantly aware of how thankful I am for those things, year round. I wanted to start a tradition though of thinking through what I am SPECIFICALLY thankful for, for each SPECIFIC year. Maybe some "not-so-obvious" ones, but ones to be thankful for, none the less. So, in no particular order:

1) Our church, women's bible study, and Cindy Hawks: The Biblical Womanhood study, led by the maaaahvelous Cindy Hawks, has been (one of) the hugest blessing this year. I have learned SO much from the study, (much of which I am still processing through), and having the opportunity to lead a discussion group has been awesome as well. I've learned new things, met new people, grown in my relationship with God, AND discovered how totally cool, smart, and godly our pastor's wife really is. By the way, Part 2 starts up again in January, so if you want to jump in with us, go to this link, and check it out:

2) The adoption of Enock Box: : Seriously, this has been such a blessing, for SO many reasons. First of all, have you seen or met Enock? How could he not be a blessing?? He's precious. Secondly, his parents are amongst some of our very best friends in the entire universe, and getting to experience such an awesome, life-changing adventure with them has been one of the greatest things ever. Third, their story has been a huge inspiration/motivation to us, and I know so many other people. Its very convicting, and hard to ignore, when you hear the statistics on orphans, and become aware of how very many there are worldwide, all the while knowing that there just aren't a lot of good reasons why you SHOULDN'T provide a loving home for one of them. I'm thankful to the Box's for putting their belief into action, and setting an example for the rest of us.

3) Our friends: I really dislike the phrase "do life together"...I just hear it used A LOT, and any phrase that I hear used A LOT starts to get on my nerves after a while. However, I have to say, I can think of no better phrase to describe the relationship we have with our circle of best friends. Over the years, they have become more like family than friends to us. I love being there for them, and I love knowing that they are ALWAYS there for us. I love that we love their kids, and that they love ours, and that our kids love each other (well, I'm convinced they do at least, whether they act like it or not). I love that we have fun together, but that we're able and willing to experience the not-so-fun stuff together with them, too. I love that they encourage me, challenge me, make me laugh, and tell me the truth when I need to hear it. I just looooooove them so!

4) Troubles: Yep, I'm thankful for "troubles", and the lessons I learned from them. I could spend an entire page (or more) writing on this particular one, but because I know how easiliy I could let myself ramble on, and how boring it would most probably be to you, I'm going to intentionally make this one the very shortest paragraph of all. Suffice it to say, my biggest trouble in life is my "addiction" to worrying, and this summer was pretty rough, in terms of how much time I spent worrying myself into a tizzy over stupid things. However, the blessing that came out of it is...I'm done with worrying. Yup, I am. At least, I am in the process of being done with it. More on that later, in a different blog post.

5) Pinterest: Yeah, I'm serious. I just don't know what any of us ever did without Pinterest. It is a big time hobby/leisure/unwind activity for me, BUT I think it's totally a worthwhile use of time. Look at all the greatness that has come to our household, from Pinterst this year:

Not even to mention the fact that Gunnar is practically a genius by now, from all the educational activities I've gleaned from there. So I'm thankful for that, too :)

Thanks for Yet ANOTHER Great Idea, Pinterest!

2011-11-07T15:04:00.002-06:00

Picture Dumping

2011-11-06T15:20:00.009-06:00

Today, I was accused by Nason of being a "hoarder"...of pictures. This comment was preceded by an attempt on our part to snap a cute shot of Gunnar, using my phone, and not being able to, because there was no available memory. Nason is right...I am TOTALLY guilty of hoarding pictures. Here's the thing: I have this irrational fear...a fear most likely shared only by people 80 years old and up....that if I don't KEEP my pictures (preferably in an actual, old-school album, but if not that, then at least on my phone) that they won't be "safe"..like, maybe this "newfound, internet-thing" won't be around forever, and when it goes away, I'll no longer be able to access all the pictures I had safely saved (or so I thought) on Facebook, my blog, etc. Ok, I know that obviously that won't really happen, but it IS the method to my madness. Anyway, as I scrolled through ALL the pictures on my phone, I came across quite a few that apparently were never deemed "Facebook worthy", but also were just too cute and/or too sentimental to delete, which is why they are now availalble on here, for your (and my FUTURE) viewing pleasure....

Reasons Why I Shouldn't Have a Blog...and Why I'm Gonna Have One Anyway

2011-10-30T20:54:00.003-05:00

I'm baaaaaack. I haven't "blogged" since...like...forever. Over a year for sure. Basically, I had decided I wasn't going to do the whole blogging thing. Here's why:

1) I don't have any amazing recipes to share, or DIY sewing tutorials, or insightful book reviews, etc etc (I'm kinda talking about you, Beth Carroll)

2) I don't have tales from my super amazing, life-changing journey to Uganda, to adopt my super precious, Ugandan son (Krista Box)

3) I don't live in a different state than the rest of my family/friends, thereby NEEDING a blog to keep everyone posted on our family (ummm...April Lamb?)

4) I don't take have an awesome camera, that I take amazing pictures with, wowing everyone with how beautiful my family (and photography)skills are (I don't know who to mention here)

5) In my old age, I pretty much have started to suck at technology. I don't know how to do anything "cool" on my blog. I don't really know how to do some of the most basic things really. You should be so impressed that I was able to mention people above, and link you to their blogs. That being said, my blog is completely dull, and really, evidence to all who see it, that I am technology impaired.

Those are some pretty good reasons for not having a blog, right?? So why did I decide, against all reason, to keep it, AND begin updating it again?

1) It sounds fun, so why not?

2) It's a good way, if nothing else, for ME to keep track of our lives, and all the sweet memories we're making now, while Gunnar is still young. I feel like even if no one else EVER reads the blog, it still won't be a waste of my time or energy, because I'll have a virtual scrapbook of our life, and for my sentimental self, that matters A LOT.

I know blogs are boring without pictures, and lord knows, mine needs all the help it can get, so all future blog entries (or at least most) WILL have pictures!

Peace out!

Gunnar's 9 and 10 Month Update....Long Overdue!

2010-09-12T14:11:00.005-05:00

Well, I have COMPLETELY disappeared from the blogging world for the last two months. No updates, no pictures, nada. However, as I browse through friends' blog's, I feel a little bit better, realizing I am not the only one who has turned into a blog slacker (I mean YOU, Beth Losurdo, Krista Box, Michelle Hunt, and Mary Magee!).

Clearly, I am not a NEW new mom anymore...for the first six months of Gunnar's life, I faithfully posted a monthly update on the very DAY of his month birthday. Months 7 and 8 were posted a few days late. Now here we are at Month 10 (almost 11!!), and I'm two months overdue. It's not that the excitement or newness of having a baby has worn off, it's just that said baby is MOBILE now, meaning that mama has very little time for anything other than chasing after him!

At any rate, Gunnar has changed a lot in the last several months, and so has our life in general! As far as Gunnar is concerned, I refuse to do a list of every single milestone and skill he has achieved/learned, as I know that every single one of your kids have done the exact same things. It's not exactly groundbreaking news to anyone but me, that my 10 1/2 month old can crawl, pull up on things, wave, etc. (I guess I just DID kind of spout out a list). Suffice it to say, Gunnar hit 8 months old, and all of the sudden, he seemed to morph from "tiny baby who can't do anything", to "semi-toddler who seems more and more like a little boy than a baby". We are enjoying him more and more and more every single day. He is so much fun, and is really starting to show his little personality.

So what all as the Hengst Clan been up to since we last "spoke"?

- We moved into our new house! (Pictures below). We are loving it here! It's kind of weird to be in the same neighborhood, but in a totally different house (it feels really different, and really similar, all at the same time). I was sad to leave our other house, but the people who bought it are a really cool, young couple, and may just end up being our new friends! One strike against them- they painted over my beloved yellow walls on Day 1 of moving in. I loved that yellow so much!!! I can't believe they have the nerve to not share my same taste. Ha ha.

- We changed churches. We left Hill Country Round Rock, and are now at Hill Country Northwest. Still a Hill Country Bible Church, just a different location. Hey....kind of like staying within the same "neighborhood", just moving to a different "house". Ha ha. Apparently we like the idea of change, just not TOO much change. We changed churches simply because the location is drastically closer to our house. We miss HCBCRR, and all the people there A LOT. We are really liking our new church though, and Gunnar absolutely loves his little class. He actually cries when we pick him up, most weeks.

- Nason is working from home full-time now. That is, he doesn't have an office at Keller Williams anymore. He still isn't actually HOME full-time, as the nature of his job requires him to be out and about quite a bit, but as far as his actual office-work goes, he does it all from home. Last week was really his first week to do that, and it was a horrible week for him to use, to judge how he's going to like it. Gunnar was sick all week, and therefore, NO napping occured. In it's place, we had a surplus of crying/fussing/whining/overall loudness. Let's hope next week goes better, or Nason may start to rethink his decision.

- I'm still hard at work, training for my half-marathon. I'm up to 7 miles (should be up to 8), and I definitely still can't say it's gotten "easy". I just don't think my body is really meant to run. I pretty much hurt everywhere when I'm done. However, I'm going to keep going with it. I've gotten this far, I'm not stopping! I will say this.. once the race is over, I think I am hanging up my running shoes for a while, and switching gears. Yoga is sounding good to my poor aching bones right about now.

8 Months...What?!?

2010-07-03T21:51:00.003-05:00

Gunnar is 8 months now!! I am tired, and ready for bed, but I am determined to do his 8 month update tonight. So here goes:

Gunnar crawls now. Gunnar eats all kinds of "solid" foods, and I am still making them myself, and still having lots of fun doing that. Gunnar's funniest moment this month was on vacation, when we had his pack n play set up in front of a mirror, and in the middle of the night, he sat up by himself for the first time (from laying down) and terrified himself half to death by staring at his reflection in the mirror. Gunnar STILL hasn't stayed overnight somewhere without us, and I am STILL not sure how I'm ever going to be ok with that, even though Michelle is adament that we need to do it SOON (and I admit, the idea of sleeping late while Gunnar chills with his grandparents sounds heavenly). Gunnar is napping like a champ, and has even taken a few 3 1/2 hour naps lately. Gunnar is still the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful little person that I know!

THE END

Vacation!

2010-07-03T21:26:00.008-05:00

We just got back from our first vacation as a family of three. We went (of course) to South Padre Island. That is definitely our most frequented vacation spot. Nason's parents own a condo there, which they graciously allow us to stay at when we go, so it ends up being a pretty cheap vacation. Last year, around this same time, we went for our "Babymoon", and I vividly remember saying, "this will be our last time to come here before we have a baby". In fact, I think I posted a blog entry about it. If I was a bit more blog-savvy, and knew how to post that link into this entry, I would do so. But I'm not. Anyway, this vacation was interesting. Better than past trips to Padre in some ways, not as good (well, just different) as past trips in other ways. Better, because we had a perfect mix of "alone time" and "friend time". We were there for 10 days, and for four of those days, we had the Box's and the Hunt's join us. For three of the days, we had alone time, just me, Nason, and Gunnar, and for the remaining three days, Nason's parents joined us. DIFFERENT (or not as good) in that we maybe didn't have the right expectations ahead of time, about what a beach trip would be like with a baby. Gunnar just did NOT like the beach. Not at all. He didn't like the sand, he didn't like the heat, he didn't like the sun, he didn't like the ocean. We tried all kinds of creative ideas, trying to get him to enjoy it more, and he just didn't. He did enjoy the pool, but only for about 20 minutes at a time, and then he grew bored of it. What DID he like to do? Play inside the condo with his toys, and play in his baby pool out on the balcony. Both things he could easily do at home. Oh well. We knew ahead of time that going on vacation with a baby (or with kids in general) is definitely a different kind of fun than going on vacation without. However, we thought it would be an even trade off, getting to watch GUNNAR have fun. We didn't factor in the possibility that he might not. Although we should have..I mean, he is only 8 months old after all. What can you really expect?? Anyway, here are some fun pictures documenting our adventures is SPI....

Andrew and Michelle were staying at a hotel down the road from us, so we got to take full advantage of their hotel's nice, kid-friendly pool.

The Lovely Box Family

Nason and Jake made a rule that for 24 hours, they could only drink beer or milk. Here they are at 9 am one morning, drinking beer and smoking cigars.

All in all, it was a fun trip, and I think we've decided to try to make it an annual tradition. Hopefully, in subsequent years, Noah won't be scared of the sand, Camp won't be scared of the water, Gunnar won't hate everything about the beach in general, and the Losurdo's can join us!!

What Is Hayley Reading?

2010-06-28T12:02:00.002-05:00

Anyone out there need book suggestions? All 5 or 6 of you who read my blog, that is?? I thought I'd start posting some of the books I'm reading, along with my opinion on them, and a brief (I do mean BRIEF) summary of what they're about, just in case anyone is looking for ideas of something to read. Also, if you are reading this, and have any books you would like to recommend, please comment and let me know! I am a hopeless bookworm, reading as much as I possibly can, and am open to reading any genre of book.

So I have kind of a "system" I stick to, when it comes to what books I read. I try to cycle through four different genres of books:

1) Totally easy, mindless, just-for-fun book (think the equivalent of beach trash)
2) Something still fictional, BUT a LITTLE more "quality", if you will (think, bookclub type material)
3) Something educational (biographies, parenting books, books about politics or current events, books about nutrition, cooking, etc. etc.)
4) Something in the "religious/spiritual" genre (that's really not even a good descriptor, but I can't think of anything else to categorize it as)

So, here's what I've read recently:

1) Cry Wolf by Tami Hoag: definitely mindless, just for fun, and an easy read. I think I read it in about 3 days. I love her books though....always very suspensful, and the setting, for whatever reason, usually takes place in Lousiana (New Orleans), which, for whatever reason, I really like. For what it is, I give it "4 stars".

2) The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini: Love love loved it. I held off reading it for a while, because I loved A Thousand Splendid Suns so much, I was just convinced that this wouldn't be nearly as good. I think I ended up liking it even more though. His books give me a much different picture in my mind of what Afghanistan is (or, at least WAS) like...a much more DESIRABLE picture.

3) Baby Wise Part 2, Gary Ezzo: I've already given my soapbox speech about Babywise. I'm a fan. Part 2 was good....just practical information about feeding, disciplining, and sleep training your 5-8 month old. It was also a pretty easy read, as the majority of it was really just kind of common sense information, anyway.

4) The Reason for God, Tim Keller: SUCH a good book. It addresses so many questions, concerns, doubts, and hesitations that Christians, non-Christians, atheists, and everyone in between may have concerning God, Jesus, the Bible, the Church, and Christianity. Just because I have been a Christian for the majority of my life does not mean that I don't have my own set of doubts and questions. This book addressed them in a way that made perfect sense. It addressed readers on a very intellectual level, but was still relatively easy to read. Read it, people! If nothing else, I'd love to hear someone's take on why they DON'T think the book adequately answered the questions it presented. Could make for good conversation....

What Do Head Injuries and New Houses Have in Common? (Oh, and Consider This Your 7 Month Update)

2010-06-03T10:38:00.011-05:00

I am done with whole the "Top 5 List" thing. It's getting too hard each month to think of topics. I DO, however, want to continue with the updates on Gunnar's monthly "birthdays".

The title of this post pretty much sums of two of the biggest events that have happened in Gunnar's seventh month of life. Number one, we bought a new house! It is only two streets away from our current house. We love our neighborhood SO much, and are pretty sure this is where we want to stay long term. We also LOVE our current house, but we feel like once Baby #2 comes along (and Baby #3, if I get my way) we will need something with a little bit more space. So a few weeks ago, when the salesperson who sold us our current home, called us to let us know that a deal had fallen through on a house a few streets away from us, and that he could give us a really great price on it if we moved forward quickly, we decided to go for it. The house is about halfway complete, and will be done in late July or early August. We are very excited, but surprisingly, very sad to be leaving our current house. We have loved living here, and it's the house that Gunnar was born in, which makes it very special. I am so sentimental, even about things that are dumb to be sentimental about, so I KNOW I am going to cry when we have to leave, but I am looking forward to making lots of new memories at our new house.

So what does all that have to do with a head injury? Well, last week, when we were still in the decision making process about whether or not we wanted to buy the house, we strapped Gunnar in his jogging stroller, and took a little walk over to the house to check it out. We were standing on the back patio (which is perfectly flat, no slope whatsoever) with Gunnar next to us in his stroller. We'd been standing there a good ten minutes talking, and we turned our heads for one second to look at something in the side yard, and when we turned back around, Gunnar's stroller had somehow, on it's own, gone from a standstill, to careening off the side of the patio. Neither of us could catch it in time, and Gunnar ended up flat on his face, on a piece of broken brick, with the stroller on top of him. It was the most horrible looking thing Nason and I have ever seen. We had to lift the stroller off of him, and there he was, lying face down in the dirt. We rushed him to an urgent care clinic, and he ended up being perfectly fine. He barely even had a bruise the next day. Nason and I, on the other hand, were traumatized for at least the rest of the week. It ended up being a minor injury, yes, but it still taught Nason and I how FAST accidents can happen. Good lesson to learn, I guess, and luckily we learned it with not-too- horrible of a consequence.

One more notable event, that is not reflected in the title of this post, is that I think we are done breastfeeding. (If any guys read this blog, sorry if that's TMI). I am actually pretty sad about this. I had orginally intended on just going through month 6, and then stopping, but when six months came, and it was still going smoothly, I thought, "well, I may as well keep going another six months). However, nature decided for me I guess, as I recently discovered I have next to nothing left, in regards to milk supply. Sad. Just one more thing for me to feel sentimental about!!!!!!!! I was washing my pump parts today, and I actually got sad thinking it may be the last time I have to wash them!! Ha ha. What a dumb thing to be sad about!!

Here are some pictures of our new house, as well as my sweet 7-month old:

Gunnar and "Joe Joe"

Head Injury : (

Handsome Boy!

Front of House

Backyard

Kitchen

"Mommy, I'm Bored!!!!!" is starting early around here....

2010-05-18T13:07:00.003-05:00

Whenever we're out and about places, people always comment on what a good baby Gunnar is. They say, "He's always so happy! It seems like he never cries! He's always so content!" etc. etc....and they would be both right AND wrong in their observation. Gunnar IS always very happy and content when we are out and about, surrounded by plenty of people, and with lots of things going on for him to watch and listen to. However, when we're just hanging at home, it's a little bit of a different story. He's not BAD, but if he's not eating, sleeping, being held, or being walked in his stroller, there's a really good chance that he's fussing.

He has, what I think, is a pretty decent amount of toys, and they seem like fun toys, as baby toys go, but he seems to get very bored with them, very quickly. Sometimes I have him play alone on the floor, while I get things around the house done, but most of the time, I play WITH him, and even then, he is very unimpressed with these toys. For the longest time, he wasn't old enough to play with toys, then he finally reached the age where he was, and he enjoyed them for all of like two weeks, and now he seems to think he's OUTGROWN the toys, and wants to move on to more grown up activities.

Anyway, I don't want the poor guy to be bored and unstimulated all day, so I've been racking (wracking?) my brain trying to think of ways to interact with him that His Highness will find satisfactory, and today, I came up with two ideas that seemed succesful:

1) Sitting on the front porch- we've sat out in the backyard quite a bit, but he seemed to enjoy this more. We were able to watch the cars and trucks go by, the neighbors jogging, the work crew next door working on the house, etc. He was very fascinated with picking the leaves off of the plants out front, too.

2) A game I coined "We're Going on an Adventure". We started at the front of the house, and the goal was, in each room, to find something interesting to explore. So in Nason's office, we dialed numbers on the phone, and listened to the dial tone. In the kitchen, we took apples in and out of the bowl. In his bathroom, we turned the water on and off in the sink, and let him dip his toes in it. In the living room we smelled candles. In his bedroom, we looked at the pictures on his walls, and named each person. In our bedroom, we played in front of the mirror. In our bathroom, we flushed the toilet over and over, and watched the water swirl around. In the dining room, we opened and closed the blinds, and stared out at the neighbors house next door. Oh, and I should mention...as we walked from room to room, I sang "We're going on an adventure. We're searching for something cool" to my own little tune. Ha ha. Sounds dumb, but he liked it a heck of a lot better than playing with his (apparently) crummy toys.

So.......those are my two ideas for the day. Anyone else want to toss out some creative ideas of things to do with a six month old???

Gunnar's Six Month Pictures

2010-05-10T20:51:00.002-05:00

IF you are interested in seeing Gunnar's 6 Month Pictures:

www.andreafosterphotography.com
"enter site"
"proofing"
"Gunnar123"

If you're not interested, then ignore this post! : )

Mother's Day Weekend in Houston

2010-05-10T20:22:00.009-05:00

We took a little roadtrip to Houston this weekend to spend some time with family. Gunnar still does SO good in the car, and I'm hoping that that trend will continue at least into next month, since we have a trip to Padre planned, and that is a six hour car ride. Anyway, our first stop was at the rehab center that Nason's grandma is currently staying at, while she recovers from a back injury. Nason was SUPER close to his Grandma Dorothy growing up, and I know it really brightened up her day to get to see him, as well as little Gunnar.

We spent several hours there, eating lunch, visiting, and of course taking tons of pictures!

After leaving Grandma Dorothy, we headed over to my Aunt Debbie's house, and stayed the night with her, my Uncle Sean, my cousin Sara, and Sara's little boy Dylon. The next morning was my first Mother's Day, and Nason and Gunnar did a great job of treating me good! McDonald's breakfast (it's mainly their Diet Coke that I get excited about), and surprised me with my gift: a full day of "girl time" with my friend Krista...we're getting massages, having lunch, and spending the whole day shopping, while our guys watch the boys. We are both sooooooooooooo excited.

Later that day, my mom, dad, brother, Kristin, and her boyfriend Fidel all drove in from Austin to spend the day at my aunt's as well, and Nason's parents came over and joined us too. It was great getting to hang out with both mom's on Mother's Day....I'm so glad our families mesh so well! Kristin's boyfriend Fidel put on a little "concert" for us, and impressed us all with his musical prowess. He is REALLY good (yes that's right Fidel...I'm being nice to you on this blog, even though you and Kristin apparently get lots of laughs in about me and my napping blog entries).

All in all, a fun day with the fam!

Big Six

2010-04-30T22:40:00.003-05:00

I feel like my blog is boring, because as I scroll through past entries, I see SO many words, and SO few pictures. My problem, is that I already post a great deal of "Gunnar pics" on Facebook, and so there's no point in posting them here too, because anyone that reads this, most likely is my Facebook friend as well, and has therefore already seen the pictures. Not sure what the solution is...post less pictures on Facebook? Designate half of my pictures to Blog, and the other half to Facebook? Quit overthinking it, and just post all pictures both places? Who knows! Who cares??? Anyway, time for a six month update.

Top Five Ways that Life Has Improved Around Our House Lately:

1) Gunnar NAPS!!!!!! (You had to know I would make mention of naps in some form or fashion, right? The topic of napping seems to have dominated this blog. Who knew I would ever talk or think so much about naps.) Anyway, Baby Bootcamp finally paid off in a big way, and Gunnar takes two naps, every single day, hardly without fail. The naps range from 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours, and its as simple as setting him in his crib, giving him his "paci" and his blanket, and the kid is out. Moral of the story: If you have a problem-napper on your hands...unless you have PHILISOPHICAL issues with letting a kid "cry it out"...and I know many people do, and that is totally legit, and you are, of course entitled to your opinion.....but unless it's a philisophical issue, JUST DO IT. If the problem is just you are just having a hard time with the emotion involved with letting your sweet little baby cry (like I was) GET OVER IT. They will only cry for a few days, and then they will realize that naps are awesome, and that they were crazy to fight them for so long.

2) Gunnar goes to bed at 7:30!!!! My life two months ago consisted of Gunnar NEVER napping, AND Gunnar staying up until about 10:30 or 11 with us every night. So basically, from 7 am until 11 PM....no breaks! That was craziness, for us, AND for Gunnar, who was in desperate need of more sleep. About two months ago, we started gradually moving his bedtime up little by little, and now we start his bedtime routine at 7:30, and he's in his crib by 8. We have our evenings back!!!!! Please don't think I don't enjoy hanging out with my little man, because I do. More than just about anything. However....it's really nice to have some time to do much needed things around the house, spend time with Nason, work out again, etc.

3) I've quit worrying about him (ok...as much): Swine Flu. RSV. SIDS. Weight Gain. The list of things I worried about for the first few months of Gunnar's life is endless. I'm a worrier by nature (this is an area that I am constantly trying to improve upon), and knowing me, I will continue to look for and find things to worry about all the time, but I do feel like he's old enough now that I can lighten up a bit, and just ENJOY him more.

4) I Have Time for "Stuff" Again: by "stuff" I mean: reading, working out, having daily quiet times, being involved in a Bible study, trying out new recipes, taking my beloved bath each night, having actual conversations with Nason, organizing my house, etc. The first several months of having a baby are such a blur...at least they were for me. I felt like I was just in pure survival mode. I didn't see how I would EVER have hobbies of any kind again, despite friend's reassurances that I would. Around month 3 though, I could see light at the end of the tunnel, at around month 4, the light got bigger, at around month 5, I slowly started incorporating some of those things back in, and by month 6, I feel like life is pretty much back to normal. Or, at least, our "new" normal.

5) It's warmer outside! Ok....I'm reaching. I can't really think of a fifth thing. However...our life IS better now that it's warmer....I've been taking Gunnar on two walks a day...once during the day, just the two of us, and once in the evening with Nason. Also, I don't have to bundle him up to take him out and about anymore. Ok ok ok....this one is stupid. I know. I guess there's really only FOUR "ways life has gotten better".

I'll try to make sure my next several blog entries have lots more pictures. Thanks for your patience : )

Look For Lots of New Blog Entries That No One Cares About!!

2010-04-16T09:26:00.004-05:00

My friend Leah was telling me last night about a free computer program that takes your blog, and converts it into a book. I had heard about something like this before, but never really knew how to go about doing it. Last night, Leah gave me the rundown, and I am SOOOOOOO excited about turning my blog into a "scrapbook". I think I'll copy Leah's idea, and do one each year. I may just be the last one to know about this website, and the rest of you have already known about this for a while, but just in case you haven't, and you're interested, here's the info Leah gave me:

Visit www.blurb.com
Download "booksmart"
Work on your blog there
Upon completion, upload your book back to blurb, and then order your book! Leah's only cost her about $20.

Anyway....all that to say, since my "blog" is going to double as a "scrapbook/memory book" for me, there will probably be a lot of entries that aren't that interesting to anyone else, BUT are memory-worthy for me. So beware, and keep that in mind, when reading! : )

Easter

2010-04-05T22:21:00.007-05:00

We had such a great Easter this year! The whole weekend was fun, actually. Friday night, we hung out with our good friends from high school, Patrick and Jil, and their little boy Jackson.

The next day, we lounged around the house all day, and then went to church that night with Nason's parents. We got Gunnar all decked out in Easter clothes, which I know is SO impractical, and yes, the whole time we were trying to keep his hat on, his socks up, his dress shirt pulled down, and his pants pulled up, but I don't care. He looked cute. Our friends the Losurdo's were there too, and their little boy "Joe Joe" is one of Gunnar's best friends. Gunnar and Joe Joe may not know it yet, but they will one day. Maybe they can hang this picture on the wall at the apartment they live in together in college.

After church, we went out to Nason's parent's house in Liberty Hill, and spent the rest of the weekend there. On Sunday, my family, as well as the Magee clan, joined us for yummy food, kite flying, an Easter Egg Hunt, and more yummy food. All in all, a great weekend!

Month 5- The Fastest Month So Far......

2010-03-28T21:55:00.008-05:00

This month has FLOWN by. It has gone by quicker than any other month since we've had Gunnar. Which is weird, because it seems like it should have gone by slow. Gunnar got REALLY sick this month, with RSV, then a double ear infection, then bronchiolitis, and let me tell you, those 10 days were loooooooong. Besides that though, I feel like I blinked, and the month was over. It went by so fast in fact, that I haven't had time think up a good "Top 5 List" for my monthly update. In fact, even as I'm typing this right now, I can't think of anything to do. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. Ok....got it. How about, The Top Five Upcoming Events I'm Most Looking Forward To: 1) Starting Gunnar on rice cereal...tomorrow! I decided that 5 months is when I would start that, so tomorrow is the day. I don't know why I'm excited about that but for some reason, I am. I'm even looking forward to buying some cute little bowls and spoons for him to use. Oh the things that excite me now! 2) Easter. I one hundred percent know and believe that Jesus is the reason for excitement and celebration at Easter, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that a LITTLE bit of my excitement has to do with dressing Gunnar up in a cute Easer outfit. I know that's not what it's about, but can I just call it icing on the cake?? 3) Lennox Prince's birthday party. Our dear dear (but not often seen) friends Steven and Tameka have the cutest-little-boy-besides-Gunnar you've ever seen, and he's turning 1 in April. We are going to his birthday party in Dallas, and I'm looking forward to seeing them, celebrating with Lennox, and letting them all meet Gunnar. 4) My shopping spree!!!! My Christmas present from Nason, was the promise of a shopping spree, whenever I reached the weight that I intended on staying at for a while. I am hoping within the next 2-4 weeks to reach that weight, and once I do, I am going on a shopping rampage. I am going to shop like I have never shopped before. It has been over a year, YES OVER A YEAR, since I have worn anything even resembling cute. I thought nothing could be frumpier than maternity clothes, but I was wrong. At least when you are wearing maternity clothes, it is because you are pregnant, and therefore can kind of pull off anything, because everyone just thinks pregnant people are cute. However, AFTER the baby comes, and the maternity clothes are too big, and your old clothes are too small, and so you end up wearing sweats and t shirts most days, THAT is the very definition of frumpy. Ugh. 5) The beach in June. We are going to South Padre Island with our friends the Hunt's and the Box's the first week in June, and I am so excited to watch all of our little boys playing in the sand!!!! Ok, that's all for this month. I leave you with a video of Gunnar rolling over for the first time!!!! So proud!!!

Results of Baby Bootcamp, Week 2

2010-03-28T12:49:00.003-05:00

Read Results of Baby Bootcamp Week 1, and then just picture the opposite. That was how Baby Bootcamp Week 2 went. Not good!!!!!!!! Actually, in reality, it wasn't all bad. There were some positives, and some overall improvements, but it was much MUCH rougher than the last week. This actually FELT like bootcamp.

So I haven't actually ever even described to you what Baby Bootcamp consists of, besides just the fact that we're implementing a set schedule now. A big component of it is getting Gunnar to take two naps a day, in his crib, having put HIMSELF to sleep (versus me rocking him). This is important to me for many, many reasons, including (but not limited to):

- I believe that babies need structure, and they need naps. I also believe that they get better quality sleep in their crib, versus in a swing, in a car, in a stroller, etc.

- I believe it is important for babies to learn the art of soothing themselves to sleep, so that they are not forever dependent on someone else to help them go to sleep.

- I need set periods of time to myself during the day, in order to get things done.

So, in order to accomplish those objectives, I am using a "cry it out" method. I know many will argue that letting a baby cry in their crib for extended periods of time without coming to their "rescue", will make them feel abandoned, neglected, like their needs are not met, etc., and for a while, I struggled with wondering if that was true. However, I came to two big realizations that made me decide that I was ok with letting Gunnar cry it out:

1) Gunnar's needs ARE met. Always. His needs are met every second of the day that he is not in his crib, his needs are met prior to being placed in his crib, and his needs are met immediately upon being retrieved from his crib, after the designated napping period is up. If he has any immediate needs (dirty diaper, too hot, too cold, etc) while IN his crib, those needs would of course be met as well. He receives what is probably a ridiculous amount of hugs, kisses, and cuddles all day long, so his emotional needs are being met as well. Therefore, I do not believe that the reason he cries when I put him in his crib is because his NEEDS aren't being met....it's because he WANTS to keep playing, WANTS to be held, etc. Which leads to my next point.....

2) What Gunnar WANTS is not always what is best for him. I'm sure that as Gunnar gets older, he will WANT lots of things that are not always in his best interest, that Nason and I will have to say "no" to. Us saying "no" may make Gunnar mad, sad, upset, etc, but it doesn't mean we will change our minds, if we know that our decision is truly what is best for him. This is going to be (well, already is) a HARD lesson for me to learn, because I am a people-pleaser, and so my natural tendency is to want to make people happy, all the time, and ESPECIALLY when "people" = my baby boy. I don't think the goal of parenting though is to always make our kids happy. So besides just being convinced that napping is good for Gunnar, I am using this whole napping thing as a lesson for me, on how to parent according to principles, versus just pure emotion.

So anyway...all that being said, this week was kind of a failure, in the sense that Gunnar regressed from last week, and refused to take an afternoon nap every day except for one, but it was a success, in that I stuck to my guns, and put him in his crib at the designated nap time each day, and made him stay in there, until the designated time was over. Nevermind that at one point, that meant I was sitting in the living room crying too, as I listened to him on the monitor, and that at another point, I had to go sit out on the backporch for a while, because I knew I was on the verge of caving, and going to get him.

We are going to add one more week to our Bootcamp, and I hope to be able to report next week that Gunnar has made the decision to surrender to the Nap God.

Results of Baby Bootcamp, Week 1

2010-03-21T21:37:00.003-05:00

Our first week of sleep training and scheduling is a huge success! Gunnar has taken a morning nap EVERY morning this week, with the shortest nap lasting about 30 minutes, and the longest lasting about an hour. The morning nap hardly required any "backbone" on my part, as Gunnar barely ever even cried. Afternoon nap has been a bit more tricky, and HAS required me to stay strong, and endure several long (heartbreaking for me) bouts of crying, but he has fallen asleep every day except for one, and one of the days, he napped for two and a half hours!!!! As far as nights go, we are gradually moving his bedtime up 30 minutes per week, until we arrive at our goal of a 7:30 bedtime. We've implemented a bedtime routine, that consists of me bathing him, Nason feeding him, and then Nason putting him to bed. All week, we have put him in his crib at 9:30 (thirty minutes earlier than normal), and he has continued to sleep through the night, sleeping all the way until 8 am. Yeah!! Getting geared up for Week 2. Hopefully by the end of this week, our sleep problems will be solved, and we will have a napping pro on our hands!

Surprise! I DO Need Structure!!

2010-03-15T21:24:00.002-05:00

This weekend marked the beginning of the end......the end of the lackadaisical, loosey-goosey, schedule-less, structure-less way Gunnar and I have been conducting our lives. Nason and I have always been very aware of how different we are, in that Nason prefers things to be orderly, planned, organized, and structured. I, on the other hand, can typically do without all that, and prefer to just kind of go with the flow, figure it out as I go, every day different than the one before, etc. In other words...structure smuckture. With the exception of some feeble attempts early on to get Gunnar on a good schedule, we have pretty much just been shooting from the hip ever since. Now, despite my aversion to too much structure, I actually DID have good intentions to change, because I strongly believe in the benefits of getting a baby on a good schedule, setting a predictable routine for them, and protecting their nap times, to allow them to get good quality sleep. However, a couple of factors got in the way of my good intentions: 1) Lack of planning, discipline, and backbone on my part, and 2)Some "health" issues with Gunnar (feeding/weight gain problems, ear infection, serious cold, etc). I reached my breaking point sometime last week though, and realized that I am going completely nuts without a schedule. There is no order to our days, Gunnar has no set nap times (in fact, he has no nap times really), I'm getting much less done around the house than what I feel like I should, and as a result, I don't enjoy my time with Gunnar to the very fullest, because I'm distracted thinking about all the things I haven't gotten done for the day. All that to say......this week marks the beginning of a two week period I have coined "Baby Bootcamp". I spent some time over the weekend creating a schedule that I think is just structured enough, but not TOO structured so as to drive me nuts, and so help me God, we are sticking to it!

Besides planning and creating "Baby Bootcamp" this weekend, I also spent some time planning out my goals for the year. New Year's (Plus Two Months) Resolutions, if you will. I have quite a few, and I won't bore you by sharing all of them, but here's a preview of a few of them:

- At least two date nights per month with Nason
- Read 4 "parenting" books this year
- Feed my family healthy meals....let junk food eating be the exception, not the rule that it has become. Make all of Gunnar's baby food.
- Weigh 120 pounds again
- Complete the half marathon in October
- Learn how to knit
- Become a bookworm again!!!! I used to read non-stop. Lately, I hardly ever do.
- Get to know our neighbors better
- Faithfully complete my DWOP (Discipleship with a Purpose) Bible Study, and memorize all 13 of the Bible verses. Memorize 7 more, once the study ends, for a total of 20 for the year.
- Become a better, more thoughtful, friend

There's quite a few more, but if I tell you them all, you might hold me to them! ;)

Check Out Gunnar's 3 Month Pics!

2010-03-07T15:58:00.002-06:00

Here's the pictures from Gunnar's 3 month photo shoot.

Go to:

www.andreafosterphotography.com
click on "enter site"
click on "proofing"
type in Gunnar123 (make sure to capitalize Gunnar)

And if you need a photographer, keep Andrea in mind!!

About that time...for a Four Month Update

2010-02-28T15:37:00.003-06:00

Right now, I really need to be:

- doing my Bible study for Tuesday
- working out
- finishing laundry
- calling my grandma to ask her if she can baby-sit tomorrow
- something productive
- something productive
- something productive

But......the blog was calling my name!!!! Today is Gunnar's 4 month birthday, and in keeping with tradition, I need to do an update. (And I may be up until late, but I WILL get the other things on the list done before I go to bed!)

So yes, anyway, Gunnar is 4 months old today. This time four months ago, I think Nason and I were slowly exiting the "it's so fun to have all these people come and visit us in our hospital room and fawn all over our baby" phase, and just entering the "we are so tired, please PLEEEEEEEEEEASE leave us alone, and by the way, can someone please take the baby out of the room for a while so we can nap????" phase.

I don't have much time to write, so, on to "the list". My top five list for this month's update will be...........

The Top Five Things I Thought I Would Not Do as a Mom, That I Am Now Doing:

1) Spoil my baby: Now some will argue that you cannot spoil a baby, but I beg to differ. I belive that you in fact can, and I was determined that I would NOT. I did not want my kid to be the one who had to be held nonstop, who refused to sleep without someone holding and rocking him, who couldn't stand to be alone, even for a few minutes, etc etc. That being said....Gunnar insists on being held nonstop, he refuses to go sleep without being held, and he cannot stand to be alone longer than 10 minutes. I have created a monster!!!!! Mark my words though.....THAT IS ALL ABOUT TO END!!!! This week begins "baby boot camp" around the Hengst household, and King Gunnar is about to be demoted down to at least prince level. Little Man is going to have some ALONE play time during the day (just some, mind you), he is NOT going to be picked up the second he cries, and he IS going to learn the art of putting himself to sleep. Fellow bloggers.....hold me to this!!

2) Let his pacifier hit the floor, and then stick it back in his mouth without washing it- only at our own house, though : )

3) Add "y" to the end of everything: I HATE (hate hate hate hate hate) when people go overboard with the baby talk thing, and add a "y" to the end of every word. Guess what though? Can I just share with you a few of the words that have worked their way into our vocabulary around here? (This is embarassing, by the way):

Milk= milky
Burp= burpy
Nap= nappy
Poop= poopies
Diaper= diapy
Pacifier= paci (that one isn't so weird, I guess)

Anyway, I am only going to allow myself to continue this for a few more months, and then that's it. That is how I justify doing it for now. Oh...and I'm not the only one...a certain other parent who lives in the same house, uses the same vocabulary. Hee hee.

4) Take his temperature: YOU know what I mean. The very idea used to horrify me, and I was certain that I would be calling my mom over, every time Gunnar needed his temperature checked. Not so, though. It aint no thang.

5) Allow myself to go longer than two months without being back at my pre-pregnancy weight: I have a lingering 10-15 pounds that will not go away. I am somewhat trying to lose it, but I can't say I am really trying my best, and that is surprising to me. While I was pregnant, I thought that the second I had Gunnar, I would start eating salad for every meal, and spending 2 hours a day in the gym, and within a couple of months, I would be back to normal. However, that is neither feasible, NOR desirable. I do need to kick things up a notch, because I don't want to be one of those who NEVER loses my baby weight, but I'm not nearly as obsessed as I pictured myself being. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Happy 3 Months, Nasie Gunnar!

2010-01-29T09:24:00.002-06:00

Another month has gone by! I cannot believe Gunnar is 3 months old already. My pregnancy went by so fast, and now it seems like the trend will continue, and Gunnar's baby years are going to go by fast, too. Before I know it, he will be a grown man, and I'll find myself saying the cheesy phrase that all parents say, "It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing you home from the hospital". In reality though, it honestly DOES seem like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. He has gotten so much more fun since that day! He's smiling, laughing, grabbing at things with his hands, and showing definite preferences for his mom and dad over strangers, which makes us feel so special! Anyway, last month, when I did his 2 month blog post, I said I was going to start doing a "Top 5" list each month. Last month was "Top 5 Things I Love Most About Gunnar". This month, I'm going with the "Top 5 Biggest Events in Gunnar's Life Last Month". In no particular order...

1) HE HAD HIS FIRST CHRISTMAS. I was so excited about Gunnar experiencing his first Christmas. That's really kind of funny, because it wasn't exciting for GUNNAR at all. He had no idea that the day was any different, or more special, than any other day. We dressed him up in a special Christmas outfit, (which he peed on about 10 minutes after putting it on), everyone got him presents (which I couldn't even get him to look at), we stuck an ornament in his lap and shoved him in front of the tree to get a picture (which got on his nerves)...you get the point. Special for us, annoying for him. Next Christmas should be more fun for everyone.

2) HE GOT HIS FIRST SHOTS. I expected this to be so traumatic. I made Nason come with me, because I just couldn't bear the idea of having to pin a screaming Gunnar down on the table while someone stuck a needle in his thigh. I thought Gunnar would go nuts, and I thought I would for sure cry. It turned out to be so easy. Nason did go with me, and held him on the table while I closed my eyes and covered my ears, but Gunnar never even screamed OR cried. He let out one tiny little wailt, and that was it. Such a tough little boy!!!

3) HIS MOM DECIDED TO BE A STAY AT HOME MOM. When I first found out I was pregnant, the plan was that I would quit my job once Gunnar got here. Then, an arrangment was made where I was going to be able to work part-time from home. With that taken into consideration, I thought I may try to keep working. It would be nice to have the extra money, plus I really did like my job. It seemed like a perfect arrangement. However, after Gunnar arrived, I decided that I just didn't want to have to be away from him AT ALL...not even part-time. I also decided that being a mom was way harder than I thought, and I just didn't know if I could do both jobs well.Nason never even wanted me to go back to begin with, so that also played into the decision. So, I let my boss know I would not be coming back, and I officially became a member of the SAHM club. I am loving it, and I am so grateful to Nason for allowing me to be able to do it!)

4) HE GOT HIS FIRST COLD. As most of you know, I was pretty cautious (ok, maybe OVERLY cautious) about not taking Gunnar anywhere for the first 8 weeks of his life, because I was so afraid of him getting sick. Christmas kind of forced me to get over it, and reemerge into the world. I couldn't NOT see family for Christmas. So we went from one extreme (hermits) to the other (visit every family member and friend we've ever had, it seemed), and the Monday after Christmas, Gunnar got a cold. I smugly told my mom and Nason, "I KNEW I wasn't being overly cautious. I KNEW I was right all along to not take him out. Look at what happens the very first time I do...HE GETS A COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". My mom reminded me that it's inevitable that Gunnar is going to get sick at some point, and that I needed to chill out a bit. She was right. Today, I can proudly report that I am totally over the germaphobe period of my life, and Gunnar and I have a very active and healthy social life : )

5) HE STARTED SLEEPING IN HIS CRIB AT NIGHT. This was a slow, hard transition for me. I don't know why, but it was. He started by sleeping in his Pack n Play in our room. Next step was moving him into his crib, while I slept on the floor in his room. THIRD step was him in his crib, me in the guest bed (which is right next to his room). That lasted for a week. FINALLY, at the end of that week, I moved back into our bed, in our room, and the transition was complete! Gunnar does great in his crib, and it feels nice to have our room back to ourselves.

Shout Outs From Gunnar

2010-01-24T21:26:00.004-06:00

Gunnar and I were talking yesterday, and he told me that he would like to start writing a featured "column" on his blog, that highlights special people in his life from time to time. In this first edition of "Shout Outs From Gunnar", Gunnar will be focusing on......

His Mimi

Ok, actually, I'm not going to use Gunnar's "voice" to write this entry, because that would be super annoying and cheesy. So I'll use my own voice...just know that the words have all been divinely inspired from Gunnar. Ha ha.

My mom, "Mimi" to Gunnar, is one of the very most special people I know. She has the sweetest spirit, and is always ALWAYS thinking about other people above herself. She's not just a thinker though...she's a do-er. I would say that 99% of my mom's time is spent doing stuff for other people, and MAYBE 1% of her time is spent doing stuff for herself. That is the kind of mom she has always been to me, and that is the kind of grandma she is shaping up to be as well. Mimi is rapidly becoming a very special person to Gunnar, because:

- She is always willing and eager to come spend time with him. She typically asks Nason and I if we'll LET her baby-sit (um...YEAH!), so that she can come spend some time with him each week. She works hard all week long, and really should use her weekends for relaxation, but instead, she faithfully comes over every single weekend and sits for Gunnar, while Nason and I go on a date. Oh, and inevitably, while she's here, she does something helpful around my house. I guess Gunnar doesn't necessarily appreciate that, but I sure do!

- She is an absolute natural with him. I feel 100% completely comfortable leaving him with her, and what's more, is that he is 100% completely comfortable BEING LEFT. She is second only to me in her uncanny ability to soothe him, no matter the degree of fussiness he has attained.

- She is his biggest fan....pictures of Gunnar make up her computer screensaver, her cell phone screensaver, and her deskspace at work. She makes him feel so special!

- She has a sixth sense about her, that allows her to anticipate what he (and I) am going to need before we need it. Everytime I'm out and about with her...shopping, running errands, etc, she seems to know exactly just what to do to make things quicker, easier, and less stressful for everyone involved. I'd say she has this effect on everyone actually...not just Gunnar.

I will leave you now with some pictures of Gunnar and one of his favorite people in the whole world...his Mimi.

How Gunnar Feels About Napping (Part Two)

2010-01-23T21:46:00.002-06:00

Nap Time..Our Least Favorite Time of the Day

2010-01-06T10:37:00.002-06:00

Yes, I say "our" least favorite time of the day, because I think Gunnar and I both hate it equally. Nason and I have been very blessed to have a little baby who sleeps really well during the night...unfortunately, the same cannot be said when it comes to his daytime sleeping. Unlike his daddy, napping does not come naturally for Gunnar. It ESPECIALLY does not come naturally when he's in his crib. I may get a nap or two out of him if I allow him to sleep in his swing, or if I rock him for the duration of the nap, but otherwise....nada. This is extremely frustrating, because I can tell that he is tired...his eyes droop, he gets fussy, and he yawns continuously. So when this happens, what does mama do? She picks him up, rocks him for a few minutes, sings to him, lays him down in his crib, and he drifts peacefully off to sleep. For about 15 minutes. Then, he wakes up crying, and nothing, NOTHING, will get him to go back to sleep. He cries as though he is being tortured. As though it is the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to him. Now surely, SURELY we could do worse things to him, than lay him down in a comfy bed, with a comfy blanky (wrapped tightly around him, of course), soft music playing in the background, in a room that is just the right temperature, right? You wouldn't think so from his reaction. You'd think we were laying him on a cement floor, in a freezing cold room, with someone dripping water on his face continuously. Torture. I just do not know what to do with this boy! I dread naptime, because I know it's going to make him upset, and I hate knowing that I am to blame for causing my sweet baby to be sad. HOWEVER...for reasons that would have to be explained in a totally different blog entry, I am DETERMINED to stick to our nap schedule, and DETERMINED to get him to feel comfortable in his own bed, so for now, I am going to have to just toughen up, and continue to be greeted with the sad little face you see pictured above, and naptime will continue to be "our least favorite time of the day".

Happy 2 Month Birthday, Sweet Boy!!!

2009-12-23T14:52:00.003-06:00

Today is Gunnar's Two Month Birthday. Well, that's not technically accurate...he was born on October 28th, so realistically, December 28th would be his actual "birthday", but today is the 8th Wednesday since he was born (confusing, huh? The weeks don't actually line up with the months). Anyway....we're calling it 2 months. I cannot even BEGIN to describe how much I have grown to love this little guy over the last couple of months. It's funny, because although I've loved him since Day 1, I'm not sure I've truly ENJOYED him since Day 1. The first two to three weeks were such a blur, and were so much harder than I envisioned, that I can honestly say I really didn't enjoy them all that much. I know that sounds kind of bad...but it's just true. Quite a few times during those first several weeks, I wondered what in the world we'd been thinking when we decided we wanted to have a baby, and I felt pretty sure that one kiddo was all this household would be producing. HOWEVER....somewhere around Week 4, everything suddenly switched, and I suddenly realized that not only did I love Gunnar more than I thought was humanly possible, but I was also loving every second of hanging out with him, and that there was no where I would rather be during the day, than with him. In fact, here I am today, on his 2 month birthday, with the house all to myself (because Nason took Gunnar on a "man date"), and about five minutes after Gunnar was gone, I realized that I missed him being here, and really would just rather that he come back!! Anyway.....I'm going to do a "Top 5" each month for Gunnar's birthday...this month, the Top 5 will be The Top Five Things I Love the Most About Gunnar So Far:

1) His Shark Face- this is the face he makes when either his pacifier, his bottle, or his primary milk supply-me- is in his face. He scrunches his nose, opens his mouth as wide as it can possibly go, and then shakes his head back and forth viciously, like a shark that is tearing apart it's prey. It's scary and endearing all at the same time.

2) The way that every single time we lift his legs up, a fart comes out

3) His little baby mullet

4) His SMILE. Oh my gosh....I don't think anything could melt a heart more.

5) When he wakes me up in the middle of the night to eat, and I grab him out of his pack and play, and he instantly cuddles up to me, and kind of burrows up against my chest.

Gunnar's First Holiday

2009-12-05T22:39:00.005-06:00

Just a few weeks after being born, Gunnar was already able to experience his very first holiday...and what an appropriate one! Thanksgiving. Nason and I have plenty of things to be thankful for EVERY year, but we were ESPECIALLY thankful this year, for our sweet little boy. He was a long time coming, but he's finally here!

Anyway, the whole time I was pregnant, I was so excited about the idea of having Gunnar right in the midst of holiday season, and getting to show him off at all sorts of holiday gatherings, where everyone would crowd around and ooh and ahh over him, and remark on how cute he was, how cute his outfit was, how cute his parents are (just kidding), etc. What I WASN'T factoring in in those daydreams, was the fact that a) "Holiday Season" happens to coincide with "Flu Season" and b) upon having a baby, I would turn into a total psychotic, germaphobic, paranoid, Howie Mandel-ish, FREAK. I'm so afraid of Gunnar getting sick with The Dreaded Swine, that I can hardly stand for anyone to so much as LOOK at him, much less TOUCH him. (I'm not claiming that this is right, healthy, or normal, by the way).

So...the idea of him being around tons of people at Thanksgiving was really stressing me out. To get around this problem, we decided we'd do a small-ish Thanksgiving this year. Me, Nason, Gunnar, his parents, my parents, and the Magee clan. Just enough people for it to be festive, but not so many that my scrutinizing eye couldn't keep watch on all people at all times, to ensure that no one was touching Gunnar's hands or face (ha ha...I'm partially kidding). Anyway....at the very last minute, Cousin Aiden got the flu, sadly eliminating the Magees from the festivities, and my parents had car problems, taking them out of the picture as well. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR! I wanted a small-ish gathering, but not THAT small. Our Thanksgiving was beginning to seem a little sad. Just me, Nason, his parents, and Gunnar. Smallest Thanksgiving celebration ever. It ended up being SO nice, though. We spent so much time relaxing, eating our weight in GOOD food, letting Gunnar get uninterrupted loving on by his Grammy and Poppy, and enjoying lots of help/free babysitting for Nason and I, even allowing us to go on a date in Marble Falls one night! It was a different Thanksgiving, but special all the same!

Gunnar, aka........

2009-12-05T22:05:00.004-06:00

When I was pregnant, and even before I was pregnant, Nason and I spent hours discussing what we should name our little boy. A lot of thought went into finding a name that we could both agree on....one that was "different" enough to satisfy me, but still "normal" enough to not freak Nason out too much. My question now is, why did we spend so much time deciding on a name, when we NEVER even use it?? The kid has more nicknames than should be allowed for one baby! I realized today that I can barely even remember the last time I called him Gunnar. Same with Nason....neither of us EVER call him Gunnar. What do we call him? Well.....don't think we're too weird, but here is the list of nicknames that this poor boy has acquired thus far:

- Biscuit Man
- Buttermilk
- G Mac
- Sharky
- Mr. Butterton
- Little G
- Angel Bear
- Roo
- Roo Biscuit
- Bubba
- Bubbakins
- Sweet Man
- Poopy
- Gun (that one is probably the only one that has any rhyme or reason to it)

Here is a picture of little GUNNAR, for your viewing pleasure:

Daddy Goes Back to Work! (Our Day in Pictures)

2009-11-11T14:06:00.006-06:00

Monday was Nason's first day back at work, and my first day alone with the little guy. So, what did we do all day? Well......

We laid in bed and watched the Today Show while we ate breakfast

We tried out our new Kickin Coaster in the bathroom, while Mommy showered

We had our first play date!!!!

We went on our first walk in the neighborhood

We rolled around on the floor

We celebrated when Daddy got home!!!!

Answers to My Questions in September...

2009-11-09T15:02:00.003-06:00

In September, when I was still pregnant, I posted a blog about "Things I Was Most Curious to Find Out About Gunnar's Arrival". Well, now that he's here, I can answer those questions!

1) Will he have hair? YES! He does. He has sweet little fuzzy black hair. It is sweet and cute to us, but in all reality, it's really pretty funny. It's kind of mullet-like, and no matter how often I smooth it or brush it, it stays kind of messy. Eventually, he'll need a new look, but for now, we love it!

2) How will Nason be in the delivery room? Nason was worried about his tolerance for witnessing the blood, guts, and pain associated with labor. I'm not sure if he got off easier or harder by having to witness a c-section, but regardless, he was AMAZING just like I knew he would be. He would have been no matter what the circumstances, I am very sure. He was calm, cool, collected, sweet as could be to me throughout it, reassuring, and managed to take GREAT videos of the birth. I thought he would cry, but he actually didn't, so that was the one surprise. Believe it or not, the guy HAS been known to get pretty teary eyed (our wedding for example!!). He stayed dry-eyed throughout though, and actually, even I didn't cry as much as I thought I would. It was more a laugh cry combo.

3) Who Will Gunnar Look Like? The jury is still out on this one! Everyone seems to come up with different things. The one thing that most everyone agrees on is that he has my nose, and Nason's mouth/chin area. Other than that, he seems to be his own little unique mix of characteristics, and is not an exact clone of either of us.

4) Is my tolerance for pain really as high as I always say it is? Don't know. Didn't have to go through labor! I will say this though....not sure if it's my tolerance for pain, or just the nature of the procedure, but a c-section is an absolute piece of cake. I can't even believe that it could be that simple to have a child! 45 minute procedure, MINIMAL amount of pain, up and walking around by the next day, and feeling pretty much like my normal self within about 2 days. Amazing!

5) Where will I be/What will I be doing when Gunnar makes his Debut? Read birth story : )

Gunnar's "Birth Story"

2009-11-09T13:59:00.002-06:00

Well, Baby Gun is finally here. Has been for almost two weeks now, which seems hard to believe. He is such a precious precious little blessing! The last two weeks have been a bit rough, and somewhat of a huge blur, but we are treasuring every moment! I thought while it was still fresh on my mind (and while Little Man is asleep!), I should journal his "birth story", so that I don't forget any of the details of that very special day.

About two weeks before Gunnar's arrival, our doctor, Dr. Shaushua, started bringing up the idea of a c-section. He's been a doctor for a LONG time, and based on his past experience, combined with several other factors, he felt that it was likely that even if I did go into labor on my own, I would ultimately end up needing a c-section. He told us to go home and discuss our feelings on it, and we'd talk again next week. Nason was all for it, I was kind of stuck in the middle. On one hand, I wasn't at all OPPOSED to a c-section, and even thought some things about it sounded kind of nice (getting to plan for it, knowing that from start to finish, the entire process would be about 45 minutes, having more certainties in regards to the anesthesia they would be using on me due to my back surgery, etc). On the other hand, I had always envisioned the whole "having a baby thing" going down in a much more exciting, dramatic way....water breaking in the middle of the night, rushing to the hospital, bag in hand, long, hard-fought delivery, resulting in baby at the end. This c-section thing seemed a little anticlimatic. By the time my next appointment came, there was still no progression, and by this point, the doctor said there was an 80% chance that no matter what we opted for, a c-section is what would most likely end up happening. It was up to us if we wanted to go through labor first, and see what happened. We decided to just opt for the c-section. We were thinking the doctor would probably schedule it for sometime the next week. My jaw literally dropped to the ground when he said, "Wanna do it tomorrow?". My jaw dropped further when Nason responded with, "Can we do it today?"!!!!!!! As it turned out, there were no openings at the hospital until TWO days later....on a Wednesday.....so that's what we went with. Wednesday morning, at 5 am, we would arrive at the hospital to have our little boy. What a weird feeling it was to leave the doctor that day, knowing that FOR SURE we had two days left as a "couple" before we offically became a "family". Weird knowing ahead of time exactly when my son's birthday would be, and even knowing with a relative degree of certainty what his birth HOUR would be.

When I first found out I was pregnant, Nason and I were both excited, but Nason had a little bit of "freaked out-ness" mixed in with his excitement. He was happy, but felt a little overwhelmed at the same time, and had some second thoughts as to whether we were REALLY ready for this, etc. He even felt the slighest bit of sadness mixed in with his excitment, thinking about the fact that our days as a twosome were coming to a close. It took about a month or less for him to process through all that, and become just PURELY excited. I, on the other hand, was just purely excited from the beginning, and experienced none of those other emotions. However, when we left the doctor's office that day, by the time we got into the car in the parking lot, all those emotions suddenly hit me like a stack of bricks. What Nason had done 9 months ago, and already gotten over, I was just now doing. I cried a TON that night. Don't get me wrong...I was more excited than I have probably ever been. However, I was SAD in a way too, which I hadn't expected to feel. Sad that the chapter of our lives we'd been in for the last 6 years was coming to an end in TWO DAYS, and that I had NO IDEA what this new chapter would look like. What if I didn't like it?? What if it was way way harder than I expected it to be?? What if we should have waited longer to start trying to have a baby?? What if we COMPLETELY sucked as parents, and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it now? I spent the rest of that night in my "weird/icky" mood, and by the next day, was over it. So yeah, I may procrastinate dealing with my thoughts and emotions, but once I do, I get it done quick, right?? By the next day, I was back to being just purely excited again.

I spent that day visiting with friends, making one last trip to Babies R Us, and tying up loose ends around the house. We tried to go to sleep early that night, knowing that we had to get up at 4 am the next morning, in order to be at the hospital by 5, but I don't think we could have set a more ridiculous goal for ourselves. "Going to sleep" was simply not going to occur for me. I laid awake the ENTIRE night, and finally just moved to the living room to watch TV. I drifted off to sleep at 3 am for the first time, and woke up an hour later, ready to get the party started! Just like hearing the phrase "wanna have your c-section tomorrow" was surreal, so was getting up that morning, getting dressed, putting on makeup, loading up the car, and driving to the hospital, knowing that within a matter of hours we would have a SON! We videoed ourselves pulling out of the driveway, and driving down our street for the last time, before we had our baby. We got to the hospital by 4:45, parked, walked in the door, went to the desk, and when asked, "May I help you", said "Yes, we're here to have a c-section at 5 am".....SURREAL!!!!! We still had two hours until the actual surgery started, which I thought would drag by, but it was actually a super quick blur of activity. Nurse comes in, takes blood, asks tons of questions, gives me a gown, sticks in an IV, straps me to a fetal monitor. Nason's parents get there. My parents get there. Anesthesiologist comes in and determines "it may be difficult" to give me my spinal block, due to my scoliosis. Freaking great. Dr. Shaushua comes by to check up on me. Parents are snapping pictures left and right. I'm shaking uncontrollably, due to a nervousness that is JUST NOW setting in. Anesethesiologist's nurse comes in and asks a ton more questions. Another nurse comes in and says, "You ready?", and before I know it, I'm being wheeled out of that room, and into the actual OR. Nason will be joining me after putting on his scrubs, AND after my spinal block is (hopefully) in. I'm wheeled out in the hall, where my family is standing on both sides of the hallway, waving and smiling and wishing good luck. I've been in the operating room one other time, when I had my scoliosis surgery, so I knew what to expect. FREEZING cold room, BRIGHT light, and people EVERYWHERE. There were two doctor's, a nurse, an anesthesiologist, the anesthesiolgist's nurse, and then two nurses for the baby. This may be one of the most monumental days of MY life, but it's purely mundane for them. They are chatting about birthday parties, their kids, someone who recently quit their job, etc. Just a typical Monday morning for them. Despite the controversy surrounding whether or not my spinal block would go in, the anesthisia nurse did a truly AMAZING job at putting it, despite the apparent degree of difficulty that was involved with it. She would also prove to be my hero throughout the surgery (well, other than Nason) as she was the one who stayed right up by my head, and reassuringly coached me through exactly what was happening throughout the entire surgery. Once the numbness took effect, Dr. Shaushua and Nason came in. A curtain was put up right below my chest, so that Nason and I couldn't (or didn't have to) witness what all was going down below. The nurse was on my right side, Nason was on my left, throughout the whole thing. Both were sweet, calm, collected, and kept me udpated on what was happening. The casual chit chat amongst the doctors and nurses continued, as the cutting began. About ten minutes into it, the nurse by my head said, "ok Hayley, Dr. Shaushua is making his last cut, and in about two minutes, you are going to hear your baby cry for the first time". The moment I was most excited about, AND most nervous about, was about to occur. Sure enough, two minutes later, I felt the hardest tug I'd felt so far (I'd felt pretty much nothing up until then), and I remember freaking out a little bit and saying, "I felt that...why did I feel that???", and the nurse assured me it was normal, that it was the doctor pulling the baby out, and a few seconds later, I heard the most precious, most reassuring sound I have EVER heard in my life.... Gunnar crying. I was laughing, crying, and asking Nason, "is he ok? Does his cry sound ok? Is it loud enough? Is he ok??????" all at the same time. Nason, the doctor, and the nurses all assured me that, "yes, he was ok, his cry sounded great, and was plenty loud enough". Nason was laughing that kind of "oh my gosh this is crazy and awesome and unbelievable" laugh, while trying to video the whole thing. The nurse up by my head told me to look over to my left, and I'd be able to see them carry Gunnar by me, for the nurses to check him out. I looked over, and was able to catch a glimpse of a little wrinkly, reddish/purple-ish, squalling critter being carried by. After a quick examination, throughout which I continued to inquire over my shoulder, "is he ok? Is his APGAR score ok?", the nurses brought him over to me, and cuddled him against my face (I couldn't hold him yet, since I was still being sewn back up), and let Nason and I kiss and love on him for a few minutes. After that was done, it was time for Gunnar to go to the nursery, to be cleaned up. Nason asked me if I "minded" if he went with Gunnar while they finished up with me, to which I quickly not only agreed to, but INSISTED on. Are you kidding me?? We're not letting that kid out of our sight! Someone has to make sure those nurses take good care of him! : ) And with that, Gunnar made his entry into the world! 7 pounds, 15 ounces, 20 inches long, born on October 28th at 7:43 AM. The biggest little miracle I have EVER witnessed.

CHECK BACK LATER.....VIDEO OF DELIVERY COMING LATER TODAY!!!

As My Pregnancy Comes to an End.....

2009-10-16T11:25:00.004-05:00

Well, I really cannot believe it, but I am almost done being pregnant!! Gunnar's due date is in 15 days, and if he doesn't come by then, we'll probably induce (because the doctor says we can, so why not??). This pregnancy has gone by SO. INCREDIBLY. FAST. I don't know if it's because I've worked throughout the whole thing, and therefore kept pretty busy, or what, but the time has just flown by. I woke up this morning feeling really sentimental about the fact that soon I will not be pregnant anymore. I know that's weird...I know most people hate being pregnant, and are dying for it to be over. I also know that actually having Gunnar HERE will be way cooler than toting him around in my belly all the time, but still......the realization hit me, that I am going to miss being pregnant. It has just been such a fun, exciting, and special time for Nason and I. That being said, here are the Top Seven Things I Will Miss About Being Pregnant (It started out as Ten, but I didn't want the blog entry to be too long):

1) Lately, I end up falling asleep before Nason when we get in bed. Apparently, once I am asleep, Gunnar gets all fired up, and starts "partying" as Nason calls it. Since I am cuddled up against Nason, Nason can feel Gunnar kicking him on his back, so Nason always says that him and Gunnar hang out and have "guy time" after I'm asleep. It's so cute and sweet.

2) I can eat like a pig (like I secretly ALWAYS want to do, even when I'm not pregnant) and not feel guilty about it.

3) The excitment of something new happening each week with Gunnar....reading about what he's developed each week, watching my stomach get bigger, which means he's growing, seeing how he's changed at each sonogram, feeling him kick and wiggle, and the list goes on and on.

4) The SPECIAL ATTENTION! Yeah...I'd be lying if I said it wasn't kind of nice having everyone treat you like you're way more delicate than you really are....giving up their seat for you, carrying things for you, cleaning the bathrooms for you (Nason), etc. : )

5) Our baby doctor appointments. I think they're fun! Maybe that's weird (especially now, considering the fact that I pretty much get brutalized each time I go), but I really like them. Nason and I always go together, our doctor is really fun and never fails to make us laugh with his quirkiness, we usually go have breakfast afterwards (Nason and I....not the doctor), and it's just so fun to get to hear little G's heartbeat...that part NEVER gets old.

6) All of the "firsts". My FIRST time to be pregnant. The FIRST time to have a baby shower, the first time to get to register, the first time to buy baby furniture and set up a crib, the first time to see a "+" on a pregnancy test. So many exciting "firsts". It kind of makes me sad to think that it will probably all be just a tad bit less exciting with the second baby.

7) The feeling of knowing there is a PERSON inside of me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is about 10% weird and creepy, and about 90% amazing and awesome and wonderful. Every now and then, when Gunnar moves, it will kind of creep me out, like there's a little alien moving around in my stomach. But most of the time, it just leaves me in absolute awe and wonder, and GRATEFULNESS, that I get the honor of "housing" this little guy until he is ready to enter the world!

And the things I WON'T miss about being pregnant....

- Having to limit my Diet coke intake!!

- Not being able to eat cookie dough or calimari

- MATERNITY CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I cannot WAIT to be able to buy my first cute, non-maternity outfit)

- Waddling instead of walking

- The horrible quality of my sleep

Then and Now.....

Gunnar's Jungle

2009-09-27T20:21:00.001-05:00

Showers, Shots, and Swine Flu

2009-09-27T20:00:00.002-05:00

Shower: I had my second baby shower on the 19th. It was my "family" shower, and my mom, Nason's mom, and my grandma hosted it. It was so much fun, and I (or Gunnar, actually) got SO many great gifts. Sadly, I hardly took any pictures, and the few that I did are so bad, that I'm not even going to post them (although there are a few on Facebook). Nason's Aunt is supposed to be emailing me some that she took, and once she does, I'll post them. Anyway, the shower was great, and I was very thankful to my two mom's and my grandma for all the hard work that they put in. I'm also very thankful for the generosity of all of our family and friends! We have gotten so many things at both showers, that we hardly have anything left to have to buy for ourselves! Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!! Although I have been extremely appreciative for EVERY gift that I've received, there are a few in particular that, for whatever reason, I have been especially excited about. If the gift you got me is not on this list, don't get your feelings hurt : ) Everything I've gotten, I've needed AND requested. There were just certain things that were especially fun to get:

- The letters that spell out "Gunnar" that my mom and grandma gave me
- The picture that hung in Nason's birthday when he was a baby, that his mom gave me
- The "Pajama Time" book that Beth gave me
- The aquarium (for Gunnar's crib) that my Aunt gave me (even though I'm actually not sure anymore that it's going to fit correctly on the crib)
- The bubble bath Michelle gave me
- The sound maker my mom gave me
- The cushy leopard print robe Nason's Aunt Deb gave me
- The "boppy" Cassie gave me

Shots/Swine Flu: For the first time in my life, I got the flu shot. I've never even had the flu before, but there's been so much hype about the flu this year, and especially how dangerous it is for pregnant women, that I figured I better think about getting it. The news was saying pregnant women should get it, my doctor was saying pregnant women should get it, and the overwhelming vote on Facebook was that pregnant women should get it, so I got it. Then, I freaked out about getting it, and second guessed my decision for the next 24 hours. This was my first big "mom" decision. Should I get the shot, and risk the theoretical risk of the stupid ingredient that I can't even pronounce ( "thimerosal") that's in the shot, OR should I NOT get the shot, and risk DYING, or giving the flu to Gunnar once he gets here? Talk about two crappy scenarios! Is there a "win" in this situation? (I know I'm being dramatic, by the way). Anyway, the whole decision, combined with the guilt/worry/anxiety/second guessing afterwards reminded me of how I DON'T want to behave as a mom. I have vowed to not be a worry-wart, not freak out about everything, not be paranoid, etc., and before the little guy even gets here, I already am. This does not bode well for the next 18 years. I haven't even decided if I want to get the swine flu shot too, which is also being recommended by my doctor. One traumatic decision at a time, please!!

With 5 1/2 weeks to go....here are the things I'm most curious to find out....

2009-09-18T11:12:00.005-05:00

1) If Gunnar will have hair: I've always thought, in the competition for cuteness, bald babies win out over "hairy" babies. Therefore, I've always said that I hoped my baby would be born bald. HOWEVER, for whatever reason, I've recently really begun to hope that Gunnar comes out with hair on his head. I don't know why. It's kind of a weird thing to have a strong preference on, or to care so much about, but I just really do hope he has hair! Only time will tell!!

2) What Nason will be like in the delivery room: Nason is typically the epitome of calm, laid back, and in control. He never (or rarely ever) worries about anything, and HE is usually MY rock. However, he is getting a little freaky on me when it comes to the whole labor and delivery thing. I feel like I am pretty calm about all of it, and not too worried or nevous, whereas HE is the one "crumbling" for once. He has two big fears about the labor process: 1) Not being able to be in control, and do anything for me, while I'm in so much pain. 2) Having to witness all the "yuck" involved with birth. He's not sure his stomach can take it. In fact, he came dangerously close (and I'm not exaggerating) to passing out in our birth class on Tuesday. What's funny though, is that as unsure as he is in his ability to handle his role as "labor coach", I am COMPLETELY confident in him. I have a feeling he's going to end up being a lot cooler in there than he thinks he is. However....only time will tell!!

3) Who Gunnar will look like: Me? Nason? One of our parents? My brother or sister? Some random relative that neither of us have ever even seen, and only one of our grandparents (or someone in that age category) can recall? It could go so many different ways! I feel like the Hengst side of the family has stronger, more dominant features, so I think he's going to look like Nason, but there's really endless possibilities! Will he be cute?? I know he will cute be to US, because we're his parents, but will he be one of those kids where only his parents can recognize his "true beauty"? Only time will tell!!

4) If I TRULY have a "high pain tolerance" like I always say I do: I think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. In fact, I've even been entertaining the notion of going "all natural" with this birth (much to Nason's dismay). Because of my scoliosis, and having rods attached to my spine, I can't have an epidural. Instead, I have to have a "spinal block", which basically accomplishes the same purpose as an epidural (it's actually even stronger), BUT it doesn't last as long, so it can't be given to me until the VERY end of the labor process. Basically, right before the pushing begins. Part of me wonders if, since I will have already gone so far with no medication, should I just go all the way? I really feel like I could do it, BUT the very idea of it freaks Nason out, plus, at this point, I can only use my imagination to try to figure out what labor feels like. I really have no idea, and therefore, no way of knowing if it's worse than what I'm picturing. Only time will tell!

5) Where will I be/what will I be doing when Gunnar decides "today is the day": I'm working right up until I have him, so I feel like the likelihood is high that I could go into labor while at work. Which would be a little awkward. Awkward especially considering the nature of my job...speaking to high school classes all day every day. What if my water breaks in front of 20 17-year olds? What if the school nurse has to deliver Gunnar? Ha ha. Only time will tell!!

Jumpman 23

2009-08-31T20:35:00.004-05:00

My favorite gift to date is this Jordan outfit........pretty ridiculous for the soon to be little baller!

Shower!!

2009-08-31T12:47:00.005-05:00

I had my first baby shower on Saturday!! Yet another event I have been looking forward to for a very long time. (I wonder if sonograms, showers, registering, etc. are as fun with subsequent children, or if it's only your first? If it's only exciting the first time around, then I'm kind of sad that all of my "firsts" are going to soon be over) Anyway, I had so much fun, got so many great gifts, got to hang out with so many great friends, and was reminded how "so" grateful I am for all of them, specifically my hostesses! It's funny how none of the gifts (with the exception of the aromatheraphy bubble bath Michelle got me..which was life-changing, by the way) were even for me (they're tehnically for Gunnar), and yet they were way more exciting to open than any other gift I've ever received! How funny to get excited over things like bottle brushes, sheet protectors, and Diaper Genies!!! Here are some pictures from the shower. By the way, I think my friends are the most thoughtful and CREATIVE girls of all time!!!

Gunnar in 3D!

2009-08-31T12:15:00.005-05:00

At the beginning of the month, we were able to go in to get our much-anticipated 3D/4D sonogram pictures done. I have been SOOOOOO incredibly excited about this for pretty much the entire pregnancy. ALMOST (dare I say) more excited than when we found out the sex. I wasn't disappointed. Our hour-long sonogram session was every bit as exciting as I thought it would be. Two UNEXPECTED feelings I experienced though were:

1) The feeling that we were kind of "spying" on him: I know that sounds dumb, and I didn't dwell on it for longer than about 5 seconds, but it did cross my mind that it was kind of strange that we were all staring at him, and watching his every move (him sucking on his toes, stretching, rearranging, scrunching up his nose, sucking, etc.) for a good hour, and he had no idea. Nor could he see us (obviously). Kind of like we were invading his privacy. Ha ha.

2) Awe/love/thankfulness/fear all combined, and in that order: Shortly after we left the doctor's office, and I was flipping through Gunnar's pictures for probably the 100th time, all of the above listed feelings kind of flooded me at once. Awe: at how CUTE he was, how AMAZING it was that the little person I was looking at in the picture was what was actually inside my stomach at that very second, and how AMAZING the entire process of conception and pregnancy, and birth and life even is. Love: I think up until that point, I loved the IDEA of Gunnar, and loved knowing that I was pregnant, and that we were soon going to have a baby, but I think actually seeing his little face really made me love HIM for the first time. Thankfulness: that God even allowed us to have such an awesome gift. I think before getting pregnant, I (and Nason, too) just kind of assumed that whenever you decided you wanted to have a baby, it would just kind of happen. Just like clockwork. Make the decision, do what needs to be done (ha ha), get pregnant, have a baby. Kind of like it was all in our hands. HOWEVER, we learned that is not the case. It took us a long time to get pregnant (a year a half). As hard as that was, it could have been worse. We know plenty of people who have taken WAY longer than that, or who were unable to get pregnant at all, or who have had lots of problems, miscarriages, etc. Bottom line: getting pregnant and having a baby is NOT in our hands. It is 100% in God's hands, and it 100% happens according to HIS plan, and in HIS timing. The fact that He has allowed us to experience that gift at all is just unbelievable, and I am so grateful. Fear: Looking at the pictures made me realize that once Gunnar is born, he is going to just be so sweet, and small, and innocent, and helpless. His physical needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, EVERY need is going to have to be met by Nason and I. Now, I know that ultimately Gunnar belongs to the Lord, and that HE will be the one to TRULY meet his needs, however, God has put Nason and I in the position to most immediately meet those needs, and that is a BIG responsiblity (notice I use CAPS a lot to emphasize my poins :) ) Besides just his physical needs, which is overwhelming enough in itself, it will also be our responsiblity to be godly examples to Gunnar, to steer him in the right direction, to help him see and understand the purpose that God created him for, etc. It made me wonder, "Did God know what He was doing when He trusted us with this??? What if we mess Gunnar up somehow?" I'm sure every new parent feels that way, and I know it's just going to take a lot of trusting in God, and being sensitive to where He leads us, but I just hadn't really had those thoughts until Sonogram Day.

Anyway....here's a picture of our handsome little son. For all you FB friends....you've already seen this. Sorry.

Babymoon!

2009-08-16T20:54:00.004-05:00

So, the latest blog-worthy thing that's happened with Gunnar "and his parents", is that we went on a Babymoon to South Padre. Is babymoon a cheesy term, by the way? Yes, it is. But, that's what it is. Our last big "shabang" before the baby gets here. Not our last big shabang, mind you. Just our last one BEFORE the baby gets here. I point out the difference, because while we were on our trip, we kept finding ourselves saying things like, "Well, it's the last trip as just the two of us (sigh)", or " This is our last time to go to the beach without having a kid with us (sigh, sad face)", etc. etc. Midway through the trip, I realized that not only was that somewhat depressing, it was actually not even true. Nason and I plan to be very intentional about reserving quality time for just the two of us....dates, occasional trips, etc. Not that we're naive enough to think that our life won't change tremendously once the baby gets here, because we know it will, and not that Gunnar won't be a HUGE part of our life, because of course he will. It's just that we intend to make good use of willing grandparents ON OCCASION, for the sake of keeping our marriage alive and kickin' ; ) That being said, it WAS our last trip as a family of two, and we took full advantage of having ten full days with nothing to do, and zero responsibility. What did that look like specifically? Well...sleeping late every day. Staying in pajamas until about 1 pm. Eating whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Lounging on the beach. Reading book after book after book. Getting pedicures. Drinking beer (Nason). Smoking cigars (Nason). Then starting that whole cycle over again. It was great.

Unfortunately, the pictures included here will probably be a bit of a disappointment, since I'm betting anyone who reads this blog is also probably a Facebook friend, and therefore has already these pics, but what would a blog be without at least a picture or two?

Registering and Other Fun Stuff

2009-07-25T16:59:00.003-05:00

I know that the last couple of months of pregnancy are the months that supposedly go by the slowest (according to almost everyone). However, I think (hope!) that maybe this will not be true for us. We have a number of upcoming events that I (we) are really looking forward to, that will keep our weeks full, and HOPEFULLY help the time to go by faster (and it's not that I'm not enjoying these last few months of just the two of us, because I am, but I'm also really ready to meet Gunnar!). Anyway, last night kicked off the chain of "fun-events-that-I've-been-looking-forward-to-for-a-while" with our baby registration. (Others include our trip to Padre next week, our 3-D ultrasound when we get home, finishing up...ok, actually, STARTING the nursery decoration, Beth's shower, my shower, Nason's "man-shower", a family shower, and a church retreat later in September). Anyway, about registering.....

I had been really stressed and overwhelmed about the whole baby registration process. When Nason and I registered for our wedding, I put little to no thought or planning into it..I was just excited about registering, and so I did it WAY too soon after getting engaged, and put WAY too little preparation into it. As a result, we ended up deleting our entire first registry, and registering again. Even then, I could have done it a lot smarter than what I did. So I wanted to do it differently with baby stuff. I wanted to be smart with money (money we were going to have to spend, as well as money other people would be spending on us), but I wanted the things we registesred for to be good quality, safe for the baby, etc. I also didn't want to think of a bunch of things later on that I wished I'd asked for, and didn't. So I sought out the assistance of about 8 of my friends who have recently had babies (or are about to), and asked for their advice. I also spent about three hours at Barnes and Nobles one day, reading through a GREAT book called "Baby Bargains", that I would highly recommend to anyone who is having a baby soon. I then compliled all the info from the various sources, and made a list. As a result, registering was fun, not stressful, and I feel like we did a really good job with our selections. Nason was pretty pleased with the whole process, too. Here's some corny pics of us registering last night:

Of all the registry items, the stroller/car seat was the thing I put the MOST thought and research into. I was VERY confident in the choice I made regarding this, so when Nason had the audacity to say, "are you sure that's what we should do?" while in the stroller section, I gave him the look seen above, and reminded him who had put all the blood, sweat and tears into the research.

I really wanted to capture a "candid shot" of Nason scanning items, but he said it was stressing him out that I was following behind him trying to snap pictures while he was scanning stuff, so he asked me to just "hurry and get a shot out of the way" so he could concentrate. So this is definitely quite posed, and not at all candid, but it's better than nothing.

Gunnar Has A Place to Lay His Head!

2009-07-04T22:30:00.003-05:00

We finally picked out and bought Gunnar's bedding this week. I think I was a bit different than most of the other moms that I know, in that I wasn't just super super picky about his bedding. I obviously wanted to like it, but I didn't really look through tons of choices before deciding. I've browsed here and there online, but honestly not that much. Then this week, I decided we probably better pick something, so Nason and I spent about thirty minutes one evening browsing through different choices, and after viewing a few I liked that he didn't, and a few he liked that I didn't, we came across the "Jungle Babies" bedding, and both instantly liked it a lot.

So the bedding choice becomes the second surprising choice we have made with this new little baby. The first surprising choice was just choosing the name "Gunnar". It's so not the kind of name I would have thought we would have chosen....it's a bit "country", which I normally would NOT go for, but for some reason, I just LOVE the name Gunnar, and love it more and more every day. Then with the bedding, I wouldn't have taken us for "jungle baby" people....Nason's always been sort of into a sports theme idea, and I've always kind of liked a more "mature" look....stripes, plaids, polka dots, etc., but not Jungle BABIES. But for whatever reason, right when we saw it, we loved it! Anyway....here's the picture of his bedding (this is not our nursery by the way...this picture is off the internet)

22 1/2 weeks

2009-06-30T16:35:00.002-05:00

So......I may not be nearly so "blog happy" once a) this blog loses it's newness and b) Gunnar gets here and I have less time to write, but for now, I am happily maintaining an every-other-day rate of posting. Sorry if it's too much : )

Anyway, today was Baby Doctor Appointment Day, which I have come to love. I think it's so much fun going. Nason (being the good daddy that he is) has yet to miss a single appointment with me. We always schedule our appointments for 8:30 am, and then go eat at McDonald's afterwards. It's our new tradition. In fact, once Gunnar actually gets here, I think I'm really going to MISS that tradition!

The appointment today was supposed to be one of the more "boring" appointments, meaning just weight check, blood pressure check, urine check, and hear baby's heartbeat (well that part is not boring, at least), BUT the greatest Dr. ever, Dr. Shaushua, let us sneak in a surprise extra sonogram. I was a little bit worried that I hadn't felt Gunnar move yet (or maybe I have, but just don't recognize it for what it is), so just to ease my mind, he let us slip in and get a sonogram. Gunnar was moving around like crazy! Arms moving, legs kicking, lips sucking, everything! For whatever reason, I just do not really feel it. I'm fine with that though....I'll feel it eventually, and for now, just knowing that he IS moving is comforting enough. One other big thing about today's appointment....I've now gained a whopping 30 pounds!!!! We actually had to move big slider on the scale from the "100" mark, to the "150" mark...and then add a few extra little pounds up top. I've never had to move slots on the scale!!! OMG!

Gunnar's Friends

2009-06-27T14:17:00.005-05:00

CINCO LOSURDO (aka Joey 5th)

LENNOX PRINCE

CAMP BOX

NOAH HUNT

ADDISON LOSURDO

So....Gunnar is a very lucky little lad. Without even exerting any effort of his own, he already has five best friends. Instant birthday party guests. So even if he's a geek (which he surely won't be) he'll at least have the assurance of having those five guests at all his future birthdays. Joey, Lennox, Camp, Noah and Addison will make up his crew. Not even to mention four precious little Magee cousins, who are anxiously awaiting his arrival

you know that's polo

2009-06-27T13:35:00.008-05:00

Check out this ridiculous outfit little man Gunnar just got today from the Prince's ...... an unreal wardrobe is building for this cute little dude ...... watch out Camp & Noah , looks like we know who Addison will be chasing !

First "Shower"

2009-06-21T21:08:00.003-05:00

This last weekend was a LOT of fun. Nason and I went with our DEAR friends Jake and Krista to Houston for a little mini vacation. Actually, the original point of the trip was so that Nason and Jake could visit a cigar lounge there that they have been talking about going to for a long time (Downing Street Pub, to be exact), but Krista and I ended up having just as much fun as they did. We went to the Galleria, and shopped, had pedicures AND facials, ate some yummy food, played some putt-putt, and just had some good, relaxing, time. Her parents are the sweetest people ever, and were wonderful hosts. When we first got there on Thursday, there was a cake and a little present for Gunnar waiting for us on the table. So even though there were only three of us in attendance, I'm calling it my first shower :) Here's the cake, and cute little outfit they gave Gunnar as a gift. N

It's a boy !

2009-06-16T22:48:00.000-05:00

We were so excited today to find out we are having a boy! The ultrasound was at 8am this morning ........ our little one wasted no time in showing off his 3rd leg!

His name is going to be Nason Gunnar Hengst and we'll call him Gunnar.

More updates to come!