And the news is.....

WE'RE HAVING BOY!!! YAY! We're so excited to know we've got "a dude" (as Jon would say) on his way to our family!! So it turns out those chinese gender prediction charts online are totally right! (I'm kidding, but my coworker did make me look it up for fun, and it really was right, humorously enough). The ultrasound appointment was a lot of fun, but that kid has grown a LOT since we last got to check him out 8 weeks ago. I'm glad I still have 19 weeks to prepare for him coming out :). The doctor said that everything looked great, he's measuring correctly for his age, and everything was normal. We were so happy to see he's healthy, kicking, and moving nonstop in his little water home. We celebrated with frosty's at lunch--just trying to give the kid a jump start addiction to the good things in life.

Names are the first thing everyone has asked us about. Yes, we're thinking about a lot, no, we haven't finalized anything. We've got quite a few on our list, and we're still looking for more :). We'll probably make the final decision when he comes out and lets us get a good glimpse at his face, which we're sooooo excited for. It's still unreal that we'll be going to go from 2 to 3, and all the sudden we'll be responsible for this new tiny little life, but we couldn't be more happy about it.

In the sonogram pic you can see the big baby noggin with his matching baby belly, resting his little hand on his stomach. That was the best profile we got all day, and it was pretty tough because he was such a mover! I get this feeling we've got a mini Jon replica on the way...but if he looks just like his dad he'll be one lucky kid!

Montpelier—James Madison

James Madison, 4th president of the United States of America!

I don't think this man gets the credit he deserves...
He was only the "Father of the Constitution" I guess, no big deal (he was the principal author of the document). He was also responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution thus is also known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights". I think we owe this guy quite a bit, or maybe it's just me.

This is why we feel justified sneaking onto his property to get after-hour photos of his beautiful home, garden, "temple", and grave. Okay, we weren't sure if the sign reading that it closed at 4:30pm was right or not, even if it was 7 already, because the gate was open, so we may or may not have helped ourselves to seeing the big guy's land. All in pure innocence of course, and really quite harmlessly. But yes, we still whispered and tiptoed around the entire property. And we may have ran barefoot across his front lawn to avoid being sighted.

The garden and property is very England/Ireland-esque and well worth the visit. But if you come after 4:30pm just make sure there's a 50th wedding anniversary for the director of the board so you can just drive right in with no guards, no tourists, and great misty pictures. Besides, we already paid for this place many times over via taxes.

Thanks James :)

University of Virginia (UVA)

Thomas Jefferson was the founder and chief architect of UVA (the Cavaliers). At one point, while we were on the main quad area in front of the rotunda, there were 3 different weddings being photographed, which tells you how beautiful that place is.

I'd love to point out that we got SO LUCKY that day when it came to missing some serious rainstorms. It downpoured like Lake Powell just got dumped twice, and both times happened right after we had already gone indoors--the only 2 times we went indoors the whole day. We never cracked open an umbrella, and never even had to run for cover. We never knew we had such fortunate accidental timing.

The Rotunda (I can empathize with you Megan, all us, no top of the rotunda. Granted the photo-taker was a member of one of the wedding parties, and he was partaking in alcohol)


Photo of the day #2

TJ's world, VA (not Tijuana)

Better known as Thomas Jefferson, the guy who designed his own house (with his sick self-taught architectural skills) that is now on every nickel in the United States, but come on, a nickel? He wrote the document that allowed us to have the enormous blessing of independence, maybe his mug should be on like a hundred dollar coin or something a little heavier.

First of all we want to thank Lincoln and Ali for the swapping of photoshoots. Strategically positioning our camera on a rock with the timer gets old after a while. Not to mention all the kind passers-by who offer to take the picture for us that we have to turn down because our shot has already been set up and we don't want to tell them that we don't want their blurry picture anyway:) But really, we always do appreciate the offer. A tripod may be a nice addition some day, but for now, cruising with another couple is a great way to go.

This is a beautiful place to visit and we walked away with the true spirit of America as we learned that Jefferson felt bad about his slaves, but had many boatloads of them his entire life despite his feelings. Jefferson also left this life with so much debt his family was forced to sell his entire 5,000 acre estate, which was preserved well by a friend so we can see it much as it was back in the day. All the same, we're grateful for TJ, or "the Teej" as we affectionately called him this trip, for his efforts to make this a free country the best to his understanding and ability during that time period.

Monticello: TJ's house

Photo of the day

The promised belly shot and the "honeymoon cottage" where TJ first lived with his new wife



Rockin' at some revolutionary games with the Essigs


TJ's grave


























Showing our artistic side



The reflection pond

The garden/plantation and back of Monticello

Pregnancy update!

I'm 20 weeks pregnant! That translates to mean half way through, and I'm sooooo excited. I'm always getting questions about how I'm feeling, etc., so I thought I'd put up a little post to fill everyone in.

I feel incredibly blessed (and almost guilty) that I haven't had one day of being sick/nauseated to the point of throwing up. Ever. I find that a rare miracle, and I'm so grateful, since I think it would have made starting a new job 2 weeks previous to getting pregnant a real trial. I finally told my coworkers last week, and that was a HUGE relief. The girls were so excited for me, and the men will just find out through office heresay soon enough. :) It's so nice to have my big "secret" out in the open though. Telling them the rest of the story (that I want to stay home with my baby) will come when they ask about it, which they haven't. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous about their reactions, but I'm sure saying it will be the worst part, and then it will be over, and another big relief.

We found a doctors' office we love, after being totally turned off by another doctor we tried first. So we're relieved about that and are excited that I'll be having the baby at a hospital in VA that we've heard really good things about.

I'm finally starting to feel and look pregnant. I've got 'the bump', and while it's still totally weird to me, I love it. I can't get over the fact that there's a little person inside of me that is already perfectly formed, is trying out its facial expressions, and can respond to sound by covering its ears with its hands. It's SO fascinating to me. I've been able to start feeling it move, and that is seriously my favorite thing. It's so fun! I can't stop smiling when I can feel my baby, and then, again, I can't believe I'm having a baby. It's starting to become a little more real, and that's so fun to me, and to Jon. He gets just as excited as I do, and he always wants me to send the weekly update I get from babycenter.com. I love how involved he is, it makes it so fun. He's going to be the greatest dad, I can't wait to see him in action. :)

I'm posting pictures of the first hint of the prego bump, probably taken at 18 weeks (but just wait until we post photos from Monticello last weekend, it's at least doubled since then, I swear), and of Jon's Father's Day card I made to celebrate his first dad day.

As for the gender, we've had to wait the longest amount of time you could have to wait to find out what we're having (supposedly you can know between 16-20 weeks, so we should definitely get an award for holding out), but the good news is we find out on MONDAY! If the baby cooperates, that is. Our bet is on a boy, but we would be ecstatic either way.

What do you all think it will be?
Comment and guess before Monday!

An excuse to make my coworkers like me

Last week my relief society had an enrichment activity on cake decorating, where I taught the basic of the basics group, thanks to my Wilton 101 class 3 months ago that I took with my cute friend Maren. Since everyone brought their own cake items to decorate and take home, there was no cake eating to be had at the activity, thus I was stuck with my round, layered, filled, and base-iced cake. My coworkers had long since heard of my cake decorating class months ago, since the days I had it I had to run out the door the second I was off or I would never make it. Ever since then, they have been begging me to bring one in. Lucky day for them, I had a cake on my hands and no one to give it to.

So I spent Monday evening getting patriotic and creative a la vez too wow my fellow career people with my skills. Simple, but fun. I think it was a hit, they were hilariously excited about it, and I haven't stopped hearing about it since. I might think about making a cake again sometime in the future when I break the news to them that I'm not planning on jumping on the maternity-leave-and-then-return train...

Date Night {temporarily redefined}

Since my cute friend Rachel and I found ourselves husband-less and car-less on a Friday night, she invited me out for a date night, and we had a fabulous evening. Despite the fact that it took us an hour to get going due to necessary bike tuning and other such preparations, we finally figured out the bike pump, said goodbye to the Merkleys (I can't believe you guys are gone!!), and we were off for an evening of pleasant neighborhood bike cruising on our stylin' wheels.

After admiring every quaint and perfectly desirable house that we of course cannot afford, we cruised over to 23rd Street to pick out our dinner spot for the evening. We decided on the perfect little Italian restaurant that I have been eying since my internship summer 2 years ago (due mostly to the flower boxes that I love hanging over the open candlelit windows). We may or may not have dined at the most romantic restaurant on the block. Fittingly, we split a fabulous appetizer and entree, chatted, and just so you know James and Jon, we did in fact talk about how much we love our husbands and how absolutely fun it is every day to be married to you. Thus the need to date others to fill in the gaping hole whilst you're both away! :)

I had so much fun Rache, we definitely have to do it again! How cute are we with the hip bicycle in front of the romantical restaurant??

Strawberry Pickin'

We've been wanting to go strawberry picking ever since Melissa got here last year but we didn't know where to go until Melissa saw pix on a friend's blog recently, so she asked her and we went as soon as we could.

Not only was this the hottest most humid day of the year, but it's the same day we ran the 5K (below) and went to Grant's baptism and the Potomac river (also below). So it was a busy day.

For those of you who want to pick your own strawberries, this place is called Miller Farms, and it's a 30 minute drive from Crystal City, south east of the District, in MD. We picked 8 lbs and it cost us $11, so it's a good deal and you can pick the perfect berries. They also serve homemade soft-serve ice cream in the little store, and a large is about a foot tall, and it's GOOD!

Potomac River

We had the privilege of attending Grant Croshaw's baptism at the Mount Vernon building, which was an incredible program filled with the spirit. Grant even shared his testimony at the meeting which was a simple and perfect testimony.

After the meeting Melissa and I walked down to the Potomac River (about 100 yards from the building), and as you can see in the first picture, Melissa tried jumping a muddy spot of lawn in her heals and didn't quite clear it, so we had even more reason to go right down to the water to wash off her shoes and feet. Melissa is very cute, but she needs to work on that long jump :)

The fishermen were really reeling them in that day, so we took some photos of them out on the water.

Seeing PINK, smelling B.O.

We ran in the Race for the Cure last weekend. A 5K which had 50,000 people in attendance and raised $4.9 million to fund breast cancer research and community health programs for the medically underserved in the National Capital Area. Melissa and I were honored to run along side our friend Julie Brady who's mom JUST beat breast cancer in the last couple months. Julie we think that's awesome, thanks for letting us run with you. We feel blessed to be able to do our tiny part in society.

As far as the race goes...This was the hottest, humidest day of the year, and with 50,000 people running side by side for 3 miles, the mob of runners was a big, slow, pack of sweaty, B.O. swappers. Yum. We never thought 12+ minute miles was possible in a 5K, but sure accomplished it. I'm pretty sure we didn't cross the starting line until about 15 minutes into the run. That's a lot of folks. Fun times in the "greenery and humid air".

Food Foiled by Flood

Let's just say the California Pizza Kitchen has a little problem with flooding, and during a big rain storm has more water inside the restaurant than outside.

So we were sitting at lunch with Rachel Watson and the Allens when a massive rainstorm ensued. Our table was right up against the wall of big glass window. Nobody believed me when I said I was getting wet, then I told everyone that we needed to move our table away from the window. I guess every was wondering why I was taking the joke as far as I was, apparently I was the only one being rained on. After we moved our table everyone could see that water was coming down inside of the wall of windows. We finally picked up all our food and moved to a new table, and pretty soon the entire wall of windows was a waterfall, all on the inside of the restaurant. Since we weren't in the flood anymore we had fun taking pictures of the waiters who were attempting to squeegee water into trays that they placed on the floor, it was a weird method and didn't really seem to work, but at least they were trying to do something. We managed to walk away with a 20 percent discount, but we all would have paid more for the entertainment.

Before going out to our car in the rain, we enjoyed Shilow's Guitar Hero faces at Best Buy. The boy has skills!