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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Winter Break

I feel extremely blessed in that I've been on Winter Break from school in the past two weeks.  It has been perfect timing in my pregnancy because I've really needed the opportunity to rest and get ready for the baby to come.  I've done some cleaning, shopped for everything I need for my hospital bag, organized Tyson's room, and most importantly layed on the couch with my feet up.  It's also given me the opportunity to read Baby Wise,  a book that I've really enjoyed.

Outside of baby stuff, I've also been able to spend a lot of time with my two beautiful nieces Kailey and Ava.  We actually celebrated my niece Ava's first birthday on Christmas Eve. She was born last December, 20 minutes before Christmas.  She was a true Christmas blessing.  Kailey is two now (November 17th) and is so much fun to watch and listen to play.  She loves to play kitchen and put on make up (chapstick) and lotion. I love my nieces so much and can't even imagine what the love I will have for Tyson will be like. 

We had a perfect Christmas... it was so much fun watching the girls open their presents.  Tyson even got spoiled and he's not even in this world yet!  Can't wait for him to see his new stuff!

I go back to school on Tuesday which should be interesting.  It's been so nice being able to be on my own schedule, sleep in until I want to get up, and lay down when I feel tired.  My doctor has asked me if I'm ready to be off work yet and I keep replying with "no" because I'm not ready to leave my students yet.  I have the best class and hate that I have to leave them for a short time.   I will update with how it goes...

38 Weeks

I haven't given much of an update about my pregnancy, mostly because it's gone wonderfully and there's not much to blog about : )  Now that I'm at the 38 week/full term pregnancy mark, I'll give a little update of what's going on.  My blood pressure in the past few appointments have been incredible and my weight has stayed stable in the last month.

My doctor believes the baby is about 7 1/2-8 lbs currently and has encouraged me to continue to eat "healthy" so I don't gain much more weight.  She fears I might have a humongous baby.  I was a 9 lb baby and Adam was 8 lbs so big babies run in our little family. 

I didn't think I had a craving until I took a step back and realized I could eat a hundred cuties/satsuma oranges a day.  I literally eat about 6 of them a day and would eat more except they excite Tyson so much that he kicks, punches, and hits his head into my pelvic bone.  It's not the most comfortable feeling when he gets all that sugar so as bad as I want them, I can't eat them when I want.

We haven't had an ultrasound since the day we found out we were having a boy and we won't have one again unless we hit the 40 week mark... we shall see what happens.

Classroom Baby Shower

My students (and their parents) threw me an incredible baby shower on December 1st in our classroom.  The shower was not a surprise but I was very much surprised with everything the parents had planned and the amazing gifts I had recieved.  I really appreciated all the effort my student's parents put into throwing me such an incredible shower.  My students were so excited for the shower and couldn't wait to celebrate.  Many of them hadn't ever been to a shower so it was a special event for them.

One of my favorite things about the shower was that my students got to participate in so many activities.  They all cut a piece of string to guess how big my belly was and they got to guess how many hershey kisses were in a big bottle.  They also all guessed my due date, I'm excited to see who won.  The parents provided prizes for all the winners which was really great for the kids.

I received so many wonderful gifts and got to sit in an adorable white rocking chair as I opened them.  Tyson got some new clothes, a stroller blanket, some beautiful handmade burp rags, toys, blankets, hats, socks, shoes, etc.   The entire class went in on a class gift and got me a Graco Pack and Play and a Graco infant swing.

I was so overwhelmed by the love and generosity my students showed to me and Tyson.  They are so excited to meet Tyson and I am so excited for them to meet him.  I am TRULY going to miss my students when I'm on my maternity leave.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Starting our every 2 week appointments!

Adam and I have hit an exciting time, we are starting our every two week doctor appointments!  On Monday, we had our glucose test appointment. Many people warned me about having to drink the sugary drink but it wasn't really that bad.  I'm a strictly water drinker so it was kind of nice to have something "fruity" to drink 

Adam has been to every doctor's appointment with me, he's the best, so he even stayed with me at this appointment.  I warned him ahead of time that we had to wait an hour after I drank the "stuff" and he had no problem with it.  I feel very blessed to have such a supportive husband.  I couldn't imagine going to our appointments alone. 

I will find out my results in a couple days, I'm crossing my fingers (and praying to God) I don't "flunk" it because I don't want to have to sit in the hospital for four hours and get retested, and even worse, I don't want to have to cut out sugar!

Everything at our appointment was great.  I am gaining good weight, feeling healthy, and the baby's heartbeat is perfect!  Can't wait to meet the little guy that's kicking me like crazy these days!

I've got a bun in the oven!



Last Saturday my sisters, Melanie and Marci threw me the most wonderful baby shower with my mom's help.  The shower was held at my house so that everyone was able to see the nursery as well as our house!  Melanie and Marci did a wonderful job and decorated everything so beautifully.  They got a lot of great decorating ideas through Pinterest, I was quite impressed.





It was at 11:00 so they served a brunch.  We had a delicous egg/hashbrown casserole, greek yogurt, fresh fruits, bagels and cream cheese, and Cinnabons!  The food was so delicous, the decorations were gorgeous, but most of all, the love in my house was incredible.  Tyson was spoiled with clothing, toys, books, blankets, toilletries, etc.  We had a diaper raffle so we got many diapers as well.  It was so nice of everyone to come to the shower.  Tyson is extremely lucky to be surrounded  by such wonderful family and friends.
It was so great to see everyone, I can't wait for them to meet Tyson in January!  Below is a pictures of all the "Haugen girls." Melanie and her daughter Kailey, Marci, me, Nicci and her daughter Nicci, and my mom.

Laundry is so much more fun when everything is so small!

Today I did my first load of Tyson's laundry.  The crib skirt finally arrived so I decided that while the matress was off, I might as well wash the sheets and get the crib put together.  Everything is so tiny, I swear it all shrunk but it's just the size of what baby's are... hard to believe! Washing the first load of laundry got me even more excited, and even a little emotional thinking about being able to dress my precious baby soon.  I can't imagine him being so small, the newborn onesies are tiny!  Adam and I got an update last week saying our baby is the size of an eggplant now, after seeing an eggplant at the grocery store last weekend, I'd say the onesie will definitely fit him - right now.

I also washed a couple pairs of socks, some onesies, the changing pad cover, a few sleepers, and a couple robes.  The load of laundry was so tiny!  I already lost a sock, but found it in a  hood.  I learned my lesson, those socks are so small, I need to buy a lingerie bag to wash them in or Tyson's going to have a lot of mismatched socks!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

24 Week Dr. Appointment

Today Adam and I had our 24 week doctor's appointment.  I always look forward to the monthly check ups because we get to hear our baby's heartbeat.  It's amazing to feel a little kick and hear it at the same time!  Every time we go in and hear the heartbeat, they say we have an active baby.  We're not sure if this is a good thing or not ;)  One thing we do know for sure is that we have a healthy baby and mommy.

Everything so far has gone perfect and we feel so blessed to say that.  Next month is when we take the gestational diabetes test so the doctor told me I needed to lay off the sweets, this is harder than it sounds as I am a HUGE junkfood eater!  I also love fruits and veggies and she told me I need to eat less of that and more protein rich foods like meats and cheeses!  This might be a tough month!

My feet are starting to really hurt and my regular pre-pregnancy jeans are now going to have to stay in my dresser drawers.  I haven't vomitted in 4 week which is fabulous, although I get nauseas here and there.  I find that when a student drops a pencil on the floor, it's getting a lot harder to pick up!  I moved my class desks around today which wore me out a bit :( and when I went to get our COWS (Computers on Wheels) from down the hall yesterday, I almost broke a sweat!  I'm starting to get warm which is very unlike me so the classroom windows tend to stay open quite a bit.  I am so blessed to have the most wonderful students this year.  God has truly blessed me with an amazing husband, a healthy pregnancy and baby, and an outstanding group of students amongst so many other things.

There is a ton of movement in my stomach throughout the day and I LOVE it!  I can't help but want to hold my ever growing belly all day long but refrain from doing so around my students.  On Friday, Adam and I went to a movie.  Adam had his elbow resting up against my stomach and all of a sudden, the baby started kicking like crazying, it was cute to have Adam be able to feel the baby move throughout the movie (he informed me, the baby liked baseball movies). I tried on my Halloween costume a few weeks ago and it fit great... question is, how will it fit at the end of October?!

We scheduled the last of our appointments today, we can't believe how quickly time has flown!  The baby will be here before we know it, and we can't wait!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Adam's 31st Birthday

When Adam turned 30 last year, we had to have his big party at my parent's house because we weren't able to get into our house yet.  I felt like it was a little bit of a disappointment so I wanted to throw another party this year.  I decided to throw a Murder Mystery Dinner Pary based in the 80's.  The party was a blast.  Everybody that came was dressed in character of the role they played for the party.  We had a former Miss USA (me), Texas Billionaire that invented the Rubiks Cube and Atari (Adam), LaDonna (Marci), 80's workout girl (Erin), and many other great characters.  My girlfriend, Gelinda, opened a new company called The Cupcake Box and made adorable cupcake toppers for me.  They were old school 80's cassette tapes!  The house was decorated black, teal, and pink, true 80's colors!    '



On top of role playing all night, I served a lasagna dinner and finally used my dinner table.  I love our table because I can use it to serve dinner, and Adam can take off the top and play poker!  It's seriously the greatest invention ever created because it serves two purposes. 



Once we were done solving the crime and eating dinner, Adam and the boys played poker all night while the girls and I chatted the night away.  Me, being pregnant, didn't last long from working all day on planning the party and standing in stilletto heels so I crashed a little early. 

All in all the party was great! It was unique and fun! Thanks to Marci, Katie, and Nicole for the help!

Back to School

It feels so great to be back to school but I also miss sleeping in and doing anything I want all day long.  My class this year is wonderful, I couldn't be more blessed.  It's a bittersweet year for me - bitter because I will be on maternity leave during the year, but sweet because I will be spending time with my baby boy.  To celebrate going back to school, two of my teacher friends, Heather, Lisa, and I got our nails painted like pencils.  We had a great time and our nails looked great (until they started chipping a couple days later).


One of the greatest things about this school year is that my niece Kailey also started school.  She is 2 months shy of two and started the "2 Year Old" program at a pre-school.  She will be attending for 2 1/2 hours every Tuesday.  This is a bus she made for her mommy and daddy.  It melts my heart.  I am so proud of her and can't wait to see what it will be like when my baby is in school.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Fun Stuff - Decorating the Nursery!

Today we made our first furniture purchase that we were actually able to take home (the crib and dresser should be here in October and my glider and ottomon should be here this week).  We bought a beautiful five shelf bookshelf from Target (on sale might I add).  It will be a great place to store the baby's toys and books when he's younger and allow mommy to display some adorable findings (like my lamp I found on clearance) and some cute picture frames and such.  I couldn't wait to put the shelf together so we did it today!  It already looks great with the clearance baskets I found.

I have been shopping (not buying) a ton and wish I had a million dollar budget!  Adam's getting a little worried and said to me, "I can't wait to see how much it's going to cost when the baby actually gets here."  I have found some great quotes on etsy that I want to put on the wall and need to find the perfect letters to spell out the baby's name for above the crib (so cliche, I know). 

I can't seem to find the perfect crib set  yet.  I have found 3 that I love but they are all extremely expensive.  I know bumpers are dangerous for babies to sleep with but I can't help but want one for looks (that I will pull out when the baby is in his crib).  I'm looking for gray so if you find the perfect one... send it my way!
Here are my two options so far:

The nursery colors are beige, gray, black, white.  There will be a TINY hint of sports decor!  The furniture is Black!  Can't wait to make some more progress, hopefully this week!

It's a BOY!!!!

On Thursday, August, 25th at 1:00pm we had our gender revealing ultra sound.  I was so nervous all day (not sure why), and couldn't wait to get to there.  I was excited to find out the gender but didn't care if it was a boy or girl (although Adam was rooting for a boy),  I just want a healthy, happy baby.  When the doctor revealed the sex, Adam had the biggest smile on his face (he might have even given a fist pump). 



When we left the office, we both wanted to tell our families and friends so badly but had a surprise waiting for them at 5:30.  It killed us not being able to tell everyone but I had worked hard on creating a surprise and didn't want it to go to waste.  We met my family at 5:30 at Mazatlan in Bonney Lake.  Everyone was anxious to find out but I had to take a poll to see what everyone's guesses were first.  I had crafted mustaches or lips on a stick and everyone there had to choose which one they thought it was.  4 thought it was going to be a boy and 3 thought it was going to be a girl.
Once everyone made their guess, we were going to sit down and eat dinner.... but, everyone was too anxious and wanted to know the gender (and I can't keep a very good secret), so we decided to do the revealing.  I had ordered 12 chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a question mark on top.  From the outside, you couldn't see that the inside had either pink or blue frosting in it.  Once everyone bit into their cupcakes... they saw blue frosting... it's a BOY!!!!!



All in all it was a great night and we had so much fun telling our family and friends.  Now we can't wait to work on the nursery!

One House.... 5 Families.... 12 people... Sun River!!!!!

We went on a family vacation to Sun River, Oregon in August and it was AMAZING!!!!  It was the first vacation EVERYONE has been on in years and the first family vacation for Kailey and Ava!  We stayed at a family friend's house and all squeezed into one house (I say squeezed but the house was pretty big)!  The house was right on the golf course and very close to the Village.

We had a blast riding bikes, swimming in the pool (I even went down the big, swirly slide), watching Kailey bounce at the bounce house, going to the stables, cooking family dinners, shopping in the village, watching a high school golf tournament, and watching the boys golf also.

I am a very family oriented person and love nothing more than being with everyone.  Being together in one house meant more to me than anyone will ever know. I am so blessed.

We cannot wait to go back next year, hopefully with Gene and Sue Hahto!

(Sadly, we didn't take any pictures of the fun... next year when the baby is here, we will for sure!)

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

In Memory of Marian Genevieve Haugen

Marian Genevieve Haugen (June 10, 1918-June 1, 2011)
Last Friday (July 29th) was a very hard day for me and my family.  It was the day we celebrated my Grandma, Marian Genevieve Haugen's, life.  Although my Grandma had passed away in June, we waited to have a funeral so her family from all over could attend.

It was a beautiful Lutheran service and I was honored to read a bible passage that she had chosen herself, Psalm 27.  My sister, Melanie, stood by my side as I read it to our friends and family.  It meant a lot to me to be able to stand in front of everyone and read the passage as I know my Grandma would be proud of me.

I was very close to my Grandma.  I will miss her very much.  I am so honored to have been given her wedding ring which she never took off.

My favorite memories of Grandma:
  • Her cheating at Uno and any game we played against each other
  • Making lefsa with her (she makes it better than anybody)
  • Driving her car and realizing it doesn't go over 35 (because she never drove it over that)
  • Using phone books to boost me up in her car when I was too small to see
  • Hearing the story of her hanging laundry outside of her house in just her bra (she told my dad it's the same thing as a bathing suit)
  • Hearing the word Uff Da
  • Signing her guestbook almost every time we went to her house (at her request)
  • Staying the night at her house and seeing what she looks like without her dentures in
  • Mowing her lawn and seeing her cooking in the kitchen window
  • Picking raspberries in her backyard and eating it on top of vanilla ice cream
  • Her touching my hair asking if it was wet every time I saw her (back when the crunchy, curly, gelled/moused looked was in)

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Our Anniversary, a friend's Wedding, and a Football Coach in Leavenworth!

Last weekend we spent our 1 year anniversary in the beautiful bavarian village of Leavenworth, Washington.  Cody Hemphill, one of Adam's good friends, just so happened to have chosen our wedding day to get married, and to our luck, they decided to make it a destination wedding.  By making it a destination wedding, we were able to get away and celebrate our anniversary while celebrating the marriage of a beautiful newlywed couple.  Congrats Cody and Kacee!!



We rented a gorgeous cabin just outside of Leavenworth with 4 of our favorite couples: The Thompsons, Levenhagen's, Sehlin's, and Fealy's.  Most of the time was spent doing wedding "stuff" but we also had a great time playing poker, laying in the sun, golfing, seeing Shane in his speedo, and playing a new card game that I can't remember the name of.  On Sunday, we went into the village of Leavenworth to explore.  We shopped, ate, and ran into our Seahawks Head Coach, Pete Carroll.  He gave us inside information that we most likely wouldn't have Hasselbeck back next year and it was confirmed the next day.  It was a sad day for Seahawks fans, I hope we don't regret our season tickets this year.



We had a fantastic anniversary and weekend with our friends.  I can't believe how fast a year goes by.  It has been the best year of my life.  I married the man of my dreams, we bought a house together, and are expecting our first baby in January. I can't wait to see what has happened in our 2nd year of marriage and also can't wait to plan another vacation with our friends after the baby is due in January.

Baby Update: I had a bloody draw appointment today.  Next appointment, August 3rd.  Current Due Date: January 9th.  Last time I vomitted: Saturday July, 23rd

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Take Us Out to the Ballgame!


We went to another baseball game last night, only this time, we went to the Mariner's AAA affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers.  Adam and I had not been to a game since they did the new renovations at Cheney Stadium so we wanted to go check it out. It is a beautiful stadium now and was a ton of fun to be at! 

Brian and Nicole Levenhagen, our very good friends, joined us at the game.  We had dinner at a great little tavern in Tacoma named Parkway Tavern beforehand.  They change their 20 beer taps every day! Ironically Adam, Brian, and Nicole all had Bud Lights instead of trying something new.  The bar was really cute, if I was a local, I'd be in there every day (even though I've never had a beer before). 

The game was especially great because they gave away free Dustin Ackley posters (my sports crush).  The four of us bought the family of four package which included a ton of perks included the sweet Rainiers hats you can see in the pictures.  You can't beat a day at the ball game for $11!  The Rainiers won and so did I by getting a new poster!

Baby Barker has now been to five baseball games!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Our Second Ultra Sound

Yesterday Adam and I had our second ultra sound.  It is always so amazing to hear the heartbeat and see the baby moving around.  We got to see the heart, stomach, two sides of the brain, the blood flow, the umbilical cord, hands, feet, blood flow and much more!  It was very exciting to see a healthy baby that actually looks like a baby!  The ultra sound technician came up with a new due date which is January 9th, four day earlier than what we thought.  Being in our 14th week should mean the nausea should hopefully stop soon but as of now, it's still there!


Later in the day, we went out to PF Changs with Staci and a friend, then to the Mariner's game.  Knowing a pretty important person for the Texas Rangers, we were hooked up with great tickets right behind home plate and were surrounded by Rangers' family members.  We sat right behind CWU's former quarterback and last year's starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboy's Jon Kitna.  He flew under the radar without anyone really noticing who he was until about the 7th inning when Root Sports came down for an interview.  After that, nobody would leave him alone, poor guy! 


The Mariner's lost but seeing Jon again, getting  a McLemore/Cameron bobblehead, and being with good company made the night better.  It was Baby Barker's second Mariner's game but definitely not his/her last!