Garrett's post: My first check-up

Today I accompanied Liesl to one of her regular check-ups at the OB's office. They wanted to see if they could hear the baby's heart beat, but after much tummy prodding and a lot of static sounds, they decided it might be a bit early to hear the heartbeat just yet.

So our OB decided to grab the ultra-sound machine to check up on the kiddo. Now, I have to say that our last round of ultra-sound imagery was cool because Liesl could see the little heartbeat flicker on the monitor. But this time, we could actually make out all the baby's major features! I was quite impressed, especially since I had never seen one these ultra-sound scans in person. When it's happening in real-time on the screen, you can easily make out the baby's shape while they move and jump around. I was amazed!

Anyway, I know it may seem like old news to some of you, but this was a pretty cool experience for me. :) I never knew they would be so limber at this early stage! That kid would jump up then float back down in reaction to the poking and prodding, I assume. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's a few stills from today's visit, which don't do it justice, but it's all we got. Can't they give us a movie file from the scan?? That would be nice.







This last image includes only the arm, hand, and fingers. Apparently the ultra-sound machine takes a thin slice projection area of the uterus so we couldn't see everything at the same time. Still, it was pretty amazing seeing such intricate features already in development.

Now it's just 8 weeks to go before we take a shot at finding out the gender!

4th of July Weekend Fun!

We had a full 4th of July weekend! I had Friday off from work so Garrett and I drove up to Abilene Thursday evening. My brother and his wife are moving to Abilene at the end of the month so we were able to help bring a SUV load of boxes to their new house. The trip timing couldn't have been better.

Friday my Mom took me shopping for maternity clothes! We had a great shopping trip and I now have some comfortable (and cute!) clothes to wear. Yay! Rubber banding my jeans still works but wouldn't have worked for much longer. :-)

Later, Garrett and I met up with his cousin Ryan and Ryan's wife Haley for dinner. It was nice to see them again and spend an evening catching up on everything. We also got the chance to go by and see their new house!

Oh, this was hilarious! When we got back to my parents house at about 11 pm, my sister Morgan and I decided to go for a walk up at the nearby elementary school. About half a lap into our walk we saw a Suburban full of teenagers park and jump out with rolls of toilet paper to TP the house that is two houses down from my parents'. The funny thing is that just minutes later when we had finished our first lap, we saw a car pull up to the teenagers- and then police lights turned on! Busted! It was too funny! During the rest of our 40 minute walk the cop was with them the entire time. First she marched them up to the door and when she saw that nobody was home she made them clean it up while she watched. Then it got even funnier because our neighbors came home! In the end it all got cleaned up and I believe the kids just got off with a warning. It made for a pretty entertaining evening walk!

On Saturday Garrett and I met up with Jordan, one of my friends from high school, and her husband Daniel. We went to a great Hibachi grill in Abilene and had some amazing food! Later that afternoon I met up with my friend GaBrielle and got to see her two little boys. It was great getting to catch up with friends!

Saturday evening we celebrated my brother's 23rd birthday as well as Independence Day. My dad barbecued some great brisket, pork tenderloin, and sausage. We also had grilled corn on the cob, watermelon, salad, cake, and homemade ice cream! It was a lot of fun. We had several of my brother's friends over as well as Garrett's cousin Ryan and his wife Haley. It was a classic Frazier BBQ full of tons of great food, lots of laughter and company. Later that night us "kids" had a blast "light painting" with sparklers in the backyard.

It was a great weekend!