A few glimpses...

Christmas at mom and dads house...

Baby Shower...

Nursery in progress...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

Loving December...

In our house we don't just have one way to count down to Christmas - we have three. :-)


Less than 10 days until Christmas!

December is halfway done, and I can't wait for all the fun the second half will bring!!
December so far has brought the end of this round of grad classes (well they will be for Ryan as of Saturday!!), a couple more things crossed off our list in getting ready for Baby Slagh, first snowstorm and snow days, and the countdown is getting very small until Christmas!

Baby Slagh is doing really well. We are 32 weeks now - with only 8 weeks left to go!! Heart rate was pretty steady from last time, 146-149bpm (he or she gave Dr. Z a good kick, too!). He or she is somewhere around 3 pounds already...and I'm definitely feeling that weight in my back! I'm thankful for a good back-rubbing-hubby. Hiccups are about a daily occurrence as well for baby Slagh - which I love feeling, although at the same time I feel bad for the little one!

Here is a little pic of our tree, all done up, with most all of our gifts done and wrapped underneath!

And... here I am at 32 weeks...


Hope everyone is having a fantastic December so far!! Gotta LOVE Christmas time!!!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!!!

Snowmen are in the house...


Ryan doing a very careful wrapping job of something green and bubbly...


The tree before....

The tree after....
hmmm...picture too blurry, going to try later :-)


Favorite ornament on the tree...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! Ryan and I had a fun couple of days in Battle Creek. Lots of really good food, a little game playing, we bought our crib (yay!!) and dresser (thanks so much mem and dad!), and we went to a Mannheim Steamroller concert to wrap up our weekend. Wish it would stop raining so we could go get our Christmas tree today and our holiday weekend would be complete!!

Beautiful looking turkey...dad doing the honors...



Getting ready to eat...



Speedo (our little Devon Rex cat) decided he wanted to play Scrabble with mem and grandma Betty...


29 weeks!!


Dinner before the concert...


It was a fun weekend!! :-)

28 weeks and still going strong!

I love this time of year. But it also makes me feel apprehensive as well.. I look forward to it so much that I am always afraid it is going to go too quickly and before we know it we will all be heading back to work after New Year's weekend and heading into the long, long month of January.

I think it is safe to say that we are fully into the holiday season. It has officially begun over at the Slagh house. Last night we went downtown to the Holiday Open House on 8th street. It is one of our favorite traditions each year. We accomplished some Christmas shopping...as well as unnecessary, but fun shopping as well!!

Here is a picture of me and Ryan on 8th street...

A couple of our "just for fun" purchases...

I LOVE this little monkey rug from Tip Toes!! So soft...

And it seems impossible that this could actually be big enough to fit on a little person's head! It is so tiny in person!
Our 28 week appointment was good, good, good all around! I passed my glucose tolerance test, baby's heartbeat was strong and beautiful (~145bpm), and I just need to make sure that I eat a little more red meat and all will be well! I was originally scheduled to start going in every two weeks for check-ups, but Dr. Z says everything is going well enough he doesn't need to see me for another four. I have scheduled all my appointments out to week 36 - it seems amazing that it is not that far away! Less than 12 weeks now! I was thinking in church this morning that it is possible that we will only be attending 11 or 12 more services before Ryan and I will have a little one with us!

Not a fan of this picture...but we will post more after Thanksgiving. (I didn't realize how much my shirt gapped at the bottom today.... :-P)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! I am counting the hours till I get to see the fam in B.C.!!

(P.S. Ryan and I are headed out to hang some lights...then some indoor decorating..the boxes have come up from the basement...fun!! :-))

A few nice things from this week...

First....




Second...
(Yay for mem visits!!)


Third...
Yay for sunny days!


Fourth...
Big grad project pretty much DONE...very ready for this semester to be over!!


Fifth...
95.7 W-Lite



Sixth...
40 days until Christmas!!
86 days until Baby Slagh!!

A work in progress...

Goodbye old, yellowy, peachy walls....
Step one in Baby Slagh's nursery... :-) Thanks, Ry!!!
Next step? Furniture!!!

Had to buy it...

Our only purchase at Babies 'R Us...but I couldn't imagine our Christmas tree without it! :-)



58 Days until Christmas!!

24 weeks and counting!!

Another fast four weeks!

Life at the Slagh household has not slowed down in the past month. Ryan and I are constantly working on grad school projects, exams or papers (is it December yet?!). Ryan is putting a crazy amount of work into budgets for next year at work, and has not come to bed before 11:30 in a week! I have been trying to get ready for parent-teacher conferences next week, which is proving more difficult this year with this flu outbreak! Frequent absences are making it difficult to assess everyone, and I only have a couple days left to try to get everything done! Crossing my fingers that we can avoid an actual H1N1 case in my classroom - it is in my school, but has stayed confined to the upper elementary kids so far! I am also trying to start getting organized for my maternity leave, and feeling like the clock is ticking with each day that goes by! And then, with all that is going on, we have been trying to plan out and find the time to start getting ready for baby Slagh's arrival in less than 4 months! Before we know it, Thanksgiving is going to be here, then Christmas and New Years, then we are only a few weeks away!!
Ryan and I did take last Saturday to start the process of getting ready for baby Slagh, and ventured up to Babies 'R Us. It was overwhelming, as everyone said it would be, but also gave us kind of a reality check of all that needs to be done in the next couple of months!

Speaking of baby Slagh.... :-)
Our little one is doing great!! The two of us had a great 24 week appointment, and everything is on track! He/she is measuring exactly at 24 weeks. When we found out we were pregnant, our little one was only the size of a blueberry, but now, he/she weighs about a pound and a half, and is about 8 1/2 to 10 inches long! And this is one ACTIVE baby. When I finally get a chance to sit quietly at school during lunch or when the students are at specials, I always feel movements and kicks. Most of the movements are strong enough that I can see my belly move when he/she is active. It is a little weird to watch, but also completely fascinating and heart warming. If someone walked into my room while this was going on, they would probably think I was nuts as I sit there with a big smile on my face. :-P

And again, for all my relatives who live far away and I don't see very often (which is pretty much everyone!), here is an updated pic taken this week.


And a picture of a cute little onesie that was given as a really thoughtful gift...thanks, Lisa!

A couple of my favorites this past week....

It seems amazing that it was already a week and a half ago that we had our ultrasound - and I still look at the pictures, amazed.

Favorite MUTTS this past week....I have LOVED some of the Mutts comics this week, and had to share them. I figure anything that makes a person smile is a good thing. :-)

(This is what I feel like sometimes when I am teaching - the students have that same look. :-))



And this just makes me feel happy....

I love mooch....


Favorite thing that happened this past week....I got a FUN, unexpected, very sweet gift from a wonderful friend (thanks, Jana!!!)...and I can't wait to meet the toes that will go into these fuzzy things...


Favorite nursery ideas this past week....after doing a little "baby shopping" with my mem, I realized how much I was drawn to anything with MONKEYS on it! So cute! But I still like a "pastel-y-Life-is-Good" neutral colors theme....so the question is, is there a way to incorporate both of them...hmmm....good thing we still have a few months. :-)


Baby S. is supposedly the length of a banana now....and kicking like a monkey sometimes. :-) 21 weeks and going strong!

Here is a little foot. Love it.

Twenty weeks and counting...

It was a big day!
This morning I was feeling a little nervous...definitely a few butterflies - could have been baby S, but I think that it was in part due to our ultrasound scheduled for today. There are so many little things that could go wrong, and the mind starts going to scary places!! :-)

Ry and I both worked a half day, and headed over to the doctor's office after lunch. Ry sat right next to me during the ultrasound, - and it couldn't have gone better. :-) When the first image went on the screen and we saw the little spine, and little heart beating - it was so incredible. I think I smiled the whole time. They were able to get all the measurements needed, we saw heart chambers, kidneys, fluid in the bladder and stomach, parts of the brain, legs, arms, lots of bone structures, two hands, two feet, a heartbeat around 146, and some serious kicking and moving. Baby S started out really curled up, then completely stretched out, then flipped around - and I felt some of the kicks during the appointment for sure. He/She was very awake and alert the whole time! We did NOT find out the gender - so everyone will have to wait about 20 weeks or so to know whether baby S is a boy or girl!! :-) We have an updated due date of February 14 - possibly a Valentine's Day baby!

Here is a not-so-good picture of the ultrasound picture that shows the profile - you can see the one leg stretching way up towards the head in this one as Baby S is curled up.

And for my relatives that live far, far away....a picture of the baby belly at 20 weeks. :-)

Been a bit...

Just to recap the last few weeks...

Labor Day was great...perfect weather!!


The first 2 weeks of school have gone by very fast! It's a fun group of kids, and I am really excited with how much they are already getting into the daily routine! We can all walk down the hall pretty quietly together! :-) It's the small things that matter in kindergarten.

Flag football season is going...has to be one of my favorite things to watch Ryan play.

As far as we know, baby S is still doing well! Certainly growing (supposedly somewhere around 6 inches long now and about a whole 1/2 pound in weight!), and making him/herself known through little pokes and flutters every once and a while. :-)

That's about all folks! Oh, and I leave you with a Mutts comic that highlights how I feel after my workouts now.

Duck, Duck, .....

Moose!! :-)

This is a picture of a little shirt my mom bought baby Slagh when we were up north last time. It is so cute! We may have to wait a couple years before he/she will fit into the little shirt, but we thought it was quite appropriate for this little one who will certainly be spending lots of time up north on the lake! By this time next summer, baby Slagh will be a little swimmer and boater for sure!

Latest check-up - everything is on track and heartbeat is around 150-152 bpm! It was loud and strong. Size of a large pear or avacado - and we are starting to see that! :-) Counting the days until the next appointment - ultrasound!!!

Rested...and ready...

In my mind there have always been two types of vacations. Both have a goal of taking you away from ordinary life and routine, but each have a different focus.

The first type of vacation is the adventurous kind. These are the vacations where you visit somewhere new, go to Disney World, travel the streets of Paris, go bare boating in the Caribbean, try snorkeling in Mexico, etc. These vacations are a blast, they broaden your horizons... and they tend to leave you feeling a little more tired and drained by the end.

Then there is the second type of vacation. The vacation where the goal is less focused on amazing experiences, and more focused on relaxation and rejuvenation. Where it is not so much about how much you see or do, but actually how little you plan and allow yourself to relax. This type of vacation is all about going with the flow - if you are up for doing something, you do it, if you want to stay in your pajamas until after lunch, you can do that, too. This was the type of vacation that I took for the past 8 days.

Ryan and I left last Friday for Charlevoix, and it was the two of us with my mom for the weekend (my dad was swimming at Nationals, and my grandparents (who live up at Charlevoix for the summer) were hanging out with my uncle in Battle Creek for the week). So it started out with just the three of us. Saturday and Sunday morning started out rainy, so we let that be an excuse to have lazy starts to the day. Saturday, we ended up heading out to Charlevoix for the art fair, going to Petoskey for dinner, and hitting up Boyne City for ice cream - it was fun, and we just planned our what we wanted to do as the day went on! Sunday we rode our bikes to Charlevoix (Ryan once again expressed how much he 'enjoys' the major hills we have up here by the lake), and we got lunch in town. Unfortunately, Ryan had to work Monday, and headed back to Holland later on Sunday. Bummer.

Monday, mom had a planned bike ride with family friend, Janine, so I had the cottage to myself for most of the day! It was wonderful. I stayed in my PJ's until 11:30, did a solo bike ride, and laid on the dock for the rest of the afternoon. Waves, sun, and quiet...perfect.

Dad came Monday night - and the three of us had the cottage to ourselves for the rest of the week. We did a lot, but we didn't do a lot. We were very flexible, and planned very little. It was full of...
Bike rides, boat rides, trips by boat to Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Boyne City and Charlevoix, dinner at the Landings, runs, swims, naps, fresh fruit for breakfast, fresh veggies for dinner, some work time, lots of play time, puzzles, games, book reading, no alarm setting, no tv watching, some movie watching, and lots and lots of float time out on the lake. It was a perfect week. It was hot, sunny, and in only rained in the late evening or early morning.

This was a vacation that was restful. And even though it would be easy to stay up here for another week or two or three, I also feel like I will be ready to dive back to work, and start getting ready for the new school year. Here are some pics from our fun week (when we remembered to break out the camera :-)).

Some mornings had amazing sunrises...

Some were a little more rainy...

And some were just beautiful...

Bike rides...
Quite happy post-bike ride and swim on Monday morning...best way to start a day... :-)

This was a typical early morning scene at the cottage...the computers stayed in those spots all week, and were only shifted for bowls of cereal, or plates for dinner... :-)

Heading back into Round Lake...Heading out for a day on the lake...

Mem, dad and me at the Landings...

Me and dad...

Mem and dad on the beach...

Reading...