A White Christmas in Boise

This marked the last quiet Christmas for us. On Christmas morning, it was just my parents, Jackie, and myself. Luckily, it snowed heavily so we had a white Christmas. Unfortunately, it snowed a little too much, so the Spokane Van Inwegens were held up in Oregon tyring to head to Boise for a party on Saturday after Christmas. Don't worry, they safely arrived the next day and the presents were saved for Alex and Ella.

Saturday's party was centered around my cousin Matt and his wife Maria who were married in St. Lucia in October. A lot of our family couldn't make the wedding, so we all got together for a post Christmas wedding celebration bash. Welcome to the family Maria!

(well done Matt)

Ben and Nicole were all smiles as well as we played Apples to Apples.

Typically when my family gets together, we play games. Here is the rest of the clan comparing Apples to Apples.

You can't open presents without enjoying Grandma and some cookies first.

The Spokane Van's arrived on Sunday before we left, but we still had time for the kids to climb their mountain of presents.


Snow in the back yard. The next day we received 4 more inches. By the time of this posting, it has all melted away. Thankfully it was timed just right for a white Christmas.

I tried to zoom in a bit as the sun was hitting Shafer Butte that overlooks Boise. The pink sunset on the white snow made for quite a scene that a camera sometimes fails to capture. But I tried my best.

Congratulations to Abells

For anyone that may know Becky and Erik Abell (one of Jackie's best friends from college), they welcomed Ryleigh Paige into the world on December 22nd. She arrived a little earlier than we expected (9 weeks to be exact) weighing in at 3 pounds 11 ounces but she's doing very well. She found herself a happy little home in the NICU for a few weeks at the hospital where Becky is a pediatrician so she is in good hands. Congratulations Becky and Erik and welcome to the world Ryleigh! I tried to post a picture of her cute little toes but it won't post so we will try later.

Ice Planet Hoth

Our winter storms continue. This time, we had both wind and snow. We had sustained winds between 50 and 60 miles per hour. A neighbor up here has one of those home weather stations and measured gusts at 87 miles per hour. The storm claimed our power and our fence. Luckily the power came back on the next morning, but the fence will take a little longer to heal.

Below is a picture of the gate once it was rescued into our garage. It measures 9 ft by 5 ft, and was flopping around in that wind like tissue paper. The rescue mission was a little hairy at 10 PM, 18 degrees, and 60 mile per hour winds. After about 30 minutes of wrestling with the wind, snow, and wood, we were able to call it a night.

Here is a close-up of the piece that was ripped from the 6 x 6 post.

The 6 x 6 post after shedding it's pesky gate.

We had a nice even 4 or so inches of snow in our backyard. After the winds, everything was whipped up into drifts.

Every window in the house has a similar look to it. The snow was blowing around so much, that on all sides of the house, there's a few inches of snow tucked in between the window and the screen like our below sliding kitchen door.

You know it's windy when your car, inside the garage for the past week, has snow on it the next morning.

Winter Arrives

Winter finally blew into Snoqualmie Ridge. We have had an occassional snow flurry, but today's storm is the first real accumulation of the season. I snapped a few photos of wintery scene outside. Inside, Baby Van's developing lungs caused a case of the hiccups. It was either that or break dancing.

9 Weeks

We've been practicing our "parent pose." Thanks to our niece, Savannah, for stepping in.

Naming a Name

It's hard to pick a name. With recent events, it's even harder. Blagojevich Van Inwegen was one of our top picks, but now, not so much. Thanks Rod. Real helpful.

10 Weeks To Go!

With only 10 weeks to go, Jackie is looking good! We've started our birthing/parenting classes put on by our hospital. There are a dozen or so other couples in the class, and just about half the class has exactly the same due date as us - 2/18/2009. Could be a full maternity ward. It's fun trying to guess the sex of the baby. We're told that heart rate can be an indication. Beats in the 140's signify a boy, and those in the 150's suggest a girl. During our last visit, the beats were between 148 and 152. Great, real helpful. As of today, I'm thinking girl and Jackie is thinking boy. That changes daily. Who knows, maybe we'll just have a green kitty.

Week 30:

Cousins

Baby Van and I talked a bit last night. He or she mentioned that he or she really looks forward to playing with his or her cousins. I thought I'd post a picture of the cousins playing from Thanksgiving as Baby Van waits in anticipation for future play dates.

Emily, Bailey, and Dillon:

Baby Sharing

This past weekend, we visited family in Spokane for Savannah's baptism and Emily's First Communion. We also squeezed in some time with the other Van Inwegen's. To ensure Aunt Jackie didn't feel alone, our niece Ella decided that she was growing a baby as well.



Not to be outdone, Andy wanted to show off his belly as well...

One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The flu has claimed one of the residents of the house, but the other one and a half are doing fine. Aside from coughing, sniffling, and fevers, the furniture arrived this week! Here are some more pictures...

Crib:

Shelf:

Lamp On Dresser:

Mini Van

As my odometer informed me of an important milestone, Baby Van is that much closer to a Mini Van.

Milestones

Today officially marks the 25th week. We had an ultrasound this morning, and below are some headshots of the little one.

Profile looking up:

Smiling for the camera:

Later, the baby starting dancing and singing, but sadly the ultrasound machine stopped recording. The other milestone reached today is the nursery is all set for the furniture. I got the room painted, closet shelves hung, and some basic drapes over the windows. Below are a couple of pictures of the work so far. With luck, the furniture should arrive sometime between now and February. Naturally, I'll let Jackie carry everything upstairs as heavy lifting helps build bone density.

25 Weeks

On Wednesday, Jackie will be at 25 weeks. It's time for some updated pictures, so here you go:

Someone else had to be the center of attention, so she made her way into a picture or two...

Practice

As Kassio, Mike, and Dillon are enjoying the sun and warm weather in Cabo San Lucas, Jackie and I were awarded with a good babysitting opportunity with Belle. We went on a walk in our neighborhood today. Sorry the picute is fuzzy, but I was a bit shaky after reading the bear and cougar warning signs.

We did ok until she chased a squirrel into the river. They went for quite a ride, but were fine once the water settled after the falls.

Unfortunately, the squirrel must have been haunted, because now Belle is possessed. Sorry Schrocks. I'm sure she'll grow out of it. Hope your Halloween was as good as Belle's.

Happy Halloween!

Baby Van decided to dress up as a skeleton for Halloween.

Jackie got dressed up as well.

It Kicked Me!

While Jackie has been feeling the fluttering for weeks now, tonight I felt my first kick! And let me tell you, it feels great to be a dad! Below are pictures of our little kicker at 21 weeks, 5 days. I guess it's fitting that it kicked me. Earlier in the evening, I walked across our bedroom carpet to feel some kicking. Unfortunately, my socks collected some static electricity along the way and I shocked Jackie's belly. My first failure as a father! Sorry baby Van.

Half Way There

This week marks the half-way point. While nausea is no longer visiting, sleepiness has moved in. If Jackie is in a sitting position for more than a few minutes, you can expect the eyes to close and a nap to begin. Then again, as I'm constantly sleeping, I only assume she is too. Regardless, we are at 20 weeks, and everything is proceeding nicely. Baby Van (not to be confused with mini van) is about the length of a banana and weighs about 10 1/2 ounces. We won't be finding out the sex until the delivery, but we could have found out during this past Friday's ultrasound. All of the results from the ultrasound were positive, so Baby Van is trucking along right on schedule. It was a little weird to know that our doctor, ultra sound tech., and our nurse knew what we were having and we didn't. However, that wonderful surprise at the end will help Jackie through that one last push.

Jackie's commented a few times regarding how she's not quite sure what to feel since her body doesn't seem to belong to her anymore. It'll only get harder as from here on out she'll gain about 1 pound per week. Now she knows how I felt in college. And every year thereafter. But that's beside the point. Anyway, we've been kicking some baby names around, but it's a good thing we still have about 20 weeks to decide. It may come down to drawing one from a hat. I won't tell her that I just wrote my favorite name down 10 times and that's all that's in the hat. How can you say no to Hermanus Barinson Van Inwegen? It just has a ring to it. I'm sure after getting his butt kicked on the playground daily, he'll have the time to reflect on how wonderful it is to have a family name.

With the 20 week ultrasound going so well, Jackie gave me the green light on the nursery. I'm pretty sure that means I can watch football for the next 19 weeks and then work 24 hours per day the last week to get things ready. Then again, the pregnancy is affecting my judgement, so it could just be the hormones. At any rate, I'm going back to sleep now. I'll check back in next week.

Headaches and Remedies

Anyone have any good suggestions for our mom-to-be regarding headaches? Jackie needs some good advice as to how to avoid them or treat them once they hit.

Do I Look Pregnant?

This is a simple question, but has significant weight behind it (pun intended). We've all been asked, "do these pants make me look fat?" and no one answers that with a yes even if Dumbo is squeezing out the seems. So when faced with, "do I look pregnant?" I panicked. Noticing the look on my face, Jackie assured me the correct answer was "yes." Yes because she's been waiting soooo long for this to finally happen. Yes because it's such a happy time for both of us. Yes because there are lots of cute maternity close yet to be purchased. But most importantly, yes because she is FINALLY showing...

Labor Day Golf

My folks were up in Spokane over Labor Day, so after their babysitting gig, we hooked up for tee times at the Coeur d'Alene Resort and Circling Raven. You can see the famous floating green behind us at the CDA Resort in the picture below. Be sure to congratulate my dad on parring the hole.

Andy and Jackie at Circling Raven. All smiles in spite of the score card.

Kiel and Gloria from the tee boxes on the 13th hole at Circling Raven.

Here's a shot of the Putter ferrying golfers out to the green.

Making an honorary appearance on the blog - Eddie (below in white). Our beloved fore-caddie at the CDA Resort, Eddie had the patience of a kindergarten teacher to put up with our shenanigans that day. It was the first experience with a fore-caddie for the Van Inwegen's, and we've collectively decided to adopt Eddie.

Baby Van

At the 13 week ultrasound, we were able to snap these photos. In the first, you can see a hand. I think the baby is waving, but it could be a karate chop. Is Baby Van doing a little kick and chop action? Or maybe it's pretending to drink a beer. These are all likely inherited attributes from dad. Does that mean Baby Van is a boy? We'll have to wait until February to find out.

The second picture is a profile of Baby Van laying on his/her back looking up. On the left, you can see the large head (gets that from mom), a tiny little nose, a slightly open mouth, and so on. I think you can see a foot in there too. Either that or something mom ate. At any rate, we passed with flying colors and everything checks out normal. Well, as normal as my offspring can be. Poor kid is doomed from the start.

Miss Massage

Having a baby changes everything. Jackie has now added massages to her list of things she'll never do while pregnant after getting violently ill following today's Salish Lodge Spa package. The list now includes:

1. daily caffeinated Starbucks
2. boxing
3. raw egg shots
4. rugby
5. raw egg and vodka shots
6. Grecko-Roman wrestling
7. Russian roulette
8. fencing
9. massages

It's in the mail

First of all, let me welcome you to the Van Inwegen family blog. Before I begin "blogging" I should first take care of some house keeping details. As this is my inaugural blog, please expect some novice mistakes and accept my apologies for lack of zeal with the site. Hopefully I'll learn to enhance the site once I've traversed the myriad options in this new world of communication (new to me, that is).

In learning from friends and family, it appears the appropriate time to begin blogging occurs at one of two points: 1) you've got a political rant inside you that must erupt from the world wide web's version of a soap box; or 2) your family is doing something much more interesting than sharing your own viewpoints. Luckily, option 2 has control of my keyboard.

To get to the point, Jackie and I are expecting our first child, so we'll document the process through these web pages. Jackie's with child status included with morning sickness, with cravings, and with sleepiness. As we enter the second trimester, the sickness has subsided, but the sleepiness remains. For someone that tried to sleep in on her wedding day, this comes as no surprise.

As Jackie naps, I'll be occasionally updating this site. We'll need advice on just about everything, so we welcome your comments and guidance. We're in the process of converting the office into a nursery, so future blogs will most likely involve the trials and tribulations of nesting. Stay tuned, and thanks for your interest in our family.