House and Baby updates...

Sorry I haven't been keeping up on my pictures/posts.  It's been a pretty busy month.

For Danny and I, things have changed a ton.  We bought a house this past month!!  We don't close until January, so it isn't completely official, but it's a safe bet we will have no problems with it.  The house is in the northern part of Seattle, right at the top of the lake.  It is in a great neighborhood, and had everything we really wanted in a house.  The inspection went great, with only a few minor things that need fixed, and we're hoping to do all of those on our own.  There are a few changes we hope to make over the next year or two in order to make it into our dream home.  We will see what time and money allow! :)

This is the front of our house.  We aren't crazy about the color, but oh well.  That's the least of our concern.

Our Kitchen.  The window looks out over the back yard.

Our dining room, from the living room.  The kitchen is to the right of the light you see.  We want to rip up the carpet here, and put in a wood floor.

The bonus room downstairs.  That is a second fireplace off to the side.  That window looks out to the front yard.

This is our entry way from our living room looking down.  The bonus room is down the second part of the stairs.

Main bathroom upstairs.  Hopefully the glass doors will go away pretty quickly! :)

Master Bathroom.  We only have a shower in ours, but that's all we really need.

Those are a few of the pictures of the new house.  Once we're moved in and decorated a little bit, I'll try to post some new ones.  Everything is white at this point because it was a rental, so we'll be doing some painting right away.  The big investment we're saving for, is that we want to put in a nice theater room in the garage.  Depending on how much it costs we will try doing a little of it ourselves.  The rest will be done by a contractor.  We're hoping to make a room that seats 8-15 people, depending on how we work things.  There is a huge pole in the center of the garage, which is a load bearing pole as it's below the bedrooms.  We are hoping to find an engineer who can maybe put in 6 poles down the sides of the room and take away that one, but we don't know how much that will cost.  Danny wants the theater room within the next year, so the pole may be something we just have to live with.

We weren't able to travel home for Thanksgiving, but we had a wonderful time with a group of our friends who were also unable to be with their families.  We had tons of food and then ended up playing a rousing game of munchkin very late into the night!

Danny ran his first half-marathon yesterday.  He finished in under 2 hours and 30 minutes, and did amazing!  He was pretty sore afterwards, probably from the cold temps he wasn't used to running in.  I am so proud of him and I can't wait until we're able to run one together! :)

On the baby front, I can now feel BB kick quite regularly.  Danny is still unable to feel any movement on the outside yet, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks he'll be able to.  I have some days where I can feel him/her kick all day, and others where it's harder to feel the kicks.  Usually if I'm on my feet a lot and very active, I don't notice them.  When the doctor was listening to the heart beat yesterday at my appointment, she said the baby was being very active.  He/she has a strong heartbeat and seems to be quite healthy at this point.

I have my 20 week ultrasound on Saturday, so hopefully BB will not be shy so that we will know what we're having.  I still feel like my belly is HUGE already, and it's amazing to me that I still have months of getting bigger.  That being said, thus far I've only gained 8 lbs.  I feel pretty good about that.  Here are the past few weeks of bump pictures, since I seem to have forgotten those.

Me at 15 weeks pregnant!  

The 15 week belly... 

16 Weeks

16 week belly... It's starting to take up the entire picture.

17 Weeks

18 Weeks

I'm 19 weeks right now, and I'll take those pictures this Friday.  Hopefully I'll also have lots of fun ultrasound pics to post along with the bump pic.  Until then, for Danny's sake, think penis for us until Saturday.  He's hoping with some positive thinking, we can make sure we have a boy! ;-)

Halloween...

So a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, both baby related and not so baby related.  For Danny and I, we had our last of Brown's House of Horror, watching the original Halloween.  I think I was the only one in the room who jumped multiple times during that movie.  Sunday night, we got together with a lot of our friends to watch The Walking Dead premiere on AMC.  It was an amazing show, and hopefully we'll have a chance to watch more soon.  I was surprised at what they could get away with on television, even if they are pay channels.  The show definitely had more of the feel of a movie than a television show. It was great!

On the baby front, I really thought I was starting to feel better, but Saturday baby Brown proved me wrong.  So, I guess I'm not totally out of the morning sickness zone.  Soon I hope, but if not, I'll survive!  I had my second doctor's appointment on Friday.  I was only supposed to hear the heart beat, but BB decided to give me quite a scare.  The doctor couldn't find the heartbeat for quite awhile.  When she finally looked up at me, she must have seen a very panicked look on my face because she quickly pointed out that if I listened closely I could hear his/her little kicks going nuts in there.  So, I calmed down after that.  After searching for a good 5 minutes, she finally pulled out the ultrasound machine!  That meant I got to see my little baby again!  Last time I had an US, BB was pretty still.  I was so sad because everyone said he/she would seem like a little jumping bean in there, and I got nothing.  I was so excited this time to watch BB kick like crazy in there.  His/her whole body would shake with each kick! It was the most magical and adorable thing I've ever seen!  I have another appointment the Monday after Thanksgiving and hopefully shortly after that I'll be able to find out the sex.  At this point, I'm 15 weeks pregnant and have gained 5 lbs.  We are both healthy and growing!  Also, BB is sitting incredibly low right now, so if you follow those old wives tales, that would make the baby a boy.  We will see!

These pictures aren't really clear because the baby was so low and far back.  I love the foot in the air as he/she was in mid kick!

I feel like he/she has an alien head in this one! :)

And here is the growing belly!  I'm a whale!

I look like less of a whale when the belly is covered...

Okay, that's all for now!  More to come later!

Oh, and it looks like if we have a boy he will be the ODB... Old Dirty Brown is the name that won!  Wonderful... 

Speak Easy...

So, last night was the big party Danny and I had been looking forward to.  We had so much fun.  The party was great, and everyone's costumes looked so good!  It was fun to see some people's creativity in coming up with 20's costumes.  One guy showed up in a costume based on F. Scott Fitzgerald, coming in his 1920's pajamas.  Another girl came with a tommy gun!  Everyone had a wonderful time, and we all went out for food/drinks afterwards!  Here are some pics from the fun evening!

                               Danny and I in our costumes for the evening!  Danny loved his cane!

                                        One of my favorite pics... Danny and our friend Jared!

Best overall look goes to my friend Jen!  She pulled off the entire 1920s look from head to toe!!

We even got a dance lesson in the Shag!  Jen and Chris giving a lesson!

Our host and hostess, Pastor James and his wife Kat!  Celebrating a blissful 11th Anniversary!

The boys Enoch, Danny and Jared!

I was freezing all night so I am wearing Chris' jacket!  We were hanging out in front of the bar, were I got to drink a Shirly Temple... Danny had to come over and tell me he had discovered the most amazing drink that I would really love if I wasn't pregnant...  Thanks for not rubbing it in babe! :)

I hope you enjoyed a few photos from our fun and crazy night going back in time to the Speak Easy!  Next year's theme: Rock n Roll!  And we have the fun of dressing up baby brown as well! :)

Oh, and I did get one "bump shot" so that I'd have one the last week of my first trimester.  Danny wasn't home in time, so I was using a timer and trying to get this one.  It's not the best, but you can still see baby brown!

If you look closely, you can also see the Halloween lights that Danny worked so hard to hang, falling down behind me! :)  Poor Danny....

Week 13...

So, it is the night for me to take my next picture, and I'm just now posting last weeks pics.  Sorry about that.  Last weekend, I took my computer in to get fixed, and after I got it back, it totally slipped my mind to post again!

Danny's birthday went well I believe!  We had everyone over to watch Black Sheep, the gross out movie in the list for Brown's House of Horror.  I had ordered trophy cupcakes for everyone as a surprise to Danny, so I think the two of us had a nice sugar high from that along with the cherry pie and ice cream!  The movie was so disgusting, that I couldn't watch most of it.  It is about were-sheep that kill people.  It was pretty funny when it was gross, but my gag reflex could only take a little of the movie.

We also stood in line outside in the very cold temps for 3.5 hours to walk through a 10 minute haunted house.  I'm pretty sure poor baby Brown was pissed at me after that for freezing him out and for the horrible shake up he got from my shivers!  The next day I was very sick...

Tonight is the exciting Harleween!  This is the halloween/anniversary party thrown by our campus pastor and his wife.  Last year the theme was Venetian Carnivale and we all went in fancy ball gowns and masks.  This year, it is the Speak Easy!  Danny will look like the guy off of Mary Poppins, and I will look kind of like a flapper girl (my dress isn't super flappery, but it still works).  The directions to the location were given a little bit at a time and we were required to have a password to get in (the question: Who shot first? Answer: well, I'm not able to give that info out quite yet! But, if you know Danny's favorite movie, you'll know a famous battle in there that was changed when the new version of the film came out.  In the original, one person shot first, but in the second edition, it changed).  We have to bring a bottle of top shelf hooch as well, so most of the guests will get to drink and dance the night away... me, I only get to dance!  I'm not complaining though!! :)

I'll try to post pictures this weekend of us at the party!  Until then, this is my 12 week picture, taken last Friday.  A few more days and I'm officially out of my first trimester!  This pregnancy is going by fast already!  Oh, and I think at this point I've gained 2 lbs!

12 Weeks

Only a week and a half to go and I'm officially out of my first trimester.  It is a little amazing to me how fast this pregnancy is going considering how anxious I am to meet baby Brown!  I've still been feeling pretty sick on some days, but I do have some good days as well.  I'm hoping with the new trimester beginning shortly, I will really end the sickness and feel great like so many people I talk to do!

We had another installment of Brown's House of Horror last week, where we watched the new Nightmare on Elm St.  I will say, that I actually did much better with this movie than I thought I would.  I didn't have trouble sleeping at all after that!  That may be because I can no longer keep myself awake past a specific time anyway, who knows...

This Friday Danny and I are both off of work, and it is his birthday.  It will be nice to have the day to relax considering we have a jam packed weekend.  We have Film and Theology at our church Friday night, followed by the next installment of Brown's House of Horror, with our gross out film, Black Sheep.  Then Saturday we are going to go through the haunted corn maze with a group of our friends.

I also have the most recent bump shot to put up, at 11 weeks.  I'm also hoping to get into an ultrasound study and if I do, I may have more US pictures to put up at some point.

I am now wearing full maternity clothes for the most part.

Even with my shirt down, I think I look very preggo!

Bump Watch Pics thus far...

5 Weeks

6 Weeks - Do I not look significantly more pregnant in that one week...

7 Weeks

8 Weeks

9 Weeks

10 Weeks

I was still wearing regular jeans here, but I had to wear them below my belly to be comfortable...

First Blog Post...

So, now that there will soon be a third member of our family, I decided it would be a good time to start a family blog so that anyone out there who is interested in our life out here in Seattle, has a place to get all that information.  I'm not sure how often I will get on here to post, but I'll try to do so as often as I can.

Life for Danny and I right now is going quite well.  He was recently promoted at work to the production manager over all of Pyramide's productions, rather than the producer over just the studio.  While he knows this is a good position that will allow him to gain good experience for later, it's also a lot of added work and pressure, so he's still adjusting to it.

I am still nannying for Isobel and Rudie.  Isobel just turned 4 and Rudie is 1.  I still really enjoy working with them and still love working with their parents, Cindy and Stephen.  I've mentioned working for them after we have a baby, but I don't know if that is what will happen or not.  We will see at a later time I guess.

As for us together, we have really been enjoying our lives in Seattle.  We are involved in a church we LOVE, a community group that provides a great support system for us, and spend a lot of time out and together doing the things we love (going to lots of movies, happy hours with friends, etc).  We are especially excited about the arrival of fall!  If you follow our facebook posts, you may have heard us talk about "Brown's House of Horror."  Each October, we are starting a tradition of showing scary movies every Friday night leading up to Halloween.  We pack our living room, drink beer, eat lots of Halloween candy, and enjoy some of the best (and worst) scary movies out there.  It's always a really good time!   We feel that our time in Seattle has really strengthened our marriage, and we're both in a very good place right now.

We will be honest in saying that we were not planning on getting pregnant when we did.  If anything we were still on a 2-5 year plan, but apparently God had other plans for us. :-)  Still, we are both super excited about this baby and the joy and challenge of becoming parents!   We are currently looking into the cost of buying a house, with Danny's hope of a nice big basement to allow for a theater room! :-)  We've found some we really like and will hopefully start the process before the end of the year, though we have our apartment until March, so we don't want to move too quickly.  As for Baby Brown, we will be finding out if we are having a boy or girl, and currently we both would really like a boy.  Obviously we will be happy either way, but Danny is much more scared to have a girl than a boy.  Hopefully in about 8 weeks or so we will know one way or the other.  Here on out, until we do know for sure, you will hear me refer to the baby as he, simply because Danny hates for me to say "it" and I don't want to be forced to type he/she every single time.

Pregnancy for me so far hasn't been as bad as it could have been.  I have had some weeks where I've been very sick all week, while other weeks I feel great almost the entire time.  I've found some small things that work such as eating food every time I wake up in the middle of the night, and sitting down to eat crackers before I do anything else in the morning.  I have felt more tired than usual, falling asleep many nights on the couch much earlier than I usually would go to sleep.  I feel like both my exhaustion and nausea haven't been as bad as they could have been, so I praise God for that!  As for moodiness, I haven't been overly grumpy at all (even Danny agrees with this) but I have been WAY more emotional.  I didn't even make it 20 minutes into The Blind Side last night, before I was sobbing (not shedding a few tears but out right sobbing)!

I am officially 11 weeks pregnant today!  We found out August 25th that we were expecting, and while I was the one to freak out, Danny was the one who was more excited and happy at the beginning.  That is not how I would have expected it to go.  Last Friday we got to see Baby Brown for the first time, which was a more moving and joyful experience than I can really explain.  I have been so worried this entire pregnancy that something was going to go wrong, so just being able to see and hear a heart beat, and see the tiny baby growing in me helped relieve many of my fears and anxiety.  I'm really trying to hand it all over to God right now, knowing that at this point there isn't much I can do to control how this pregnancy goes.   In preparation for raising this baby, Danny and I are currently trying to get our lives more focused on God, living with a love for the Gospel ourselves so that our child will see that in us, and hopefully desire to have that as well!  We are lucky to be surrounded by some amazing and Godly parents as well as excellent teaching and support for anyone who is raising a family in this church!

I think that should get everyone updated on what's happening with us right now.  I will try my best to keep this updated as often as possible so that you can follow us through this journey!  I've never done a blog through this sight (well, really at all), so I don't know if you can leave responses/questions.  If so, feel free to do so.  Otherwise, you can always email me.  Okay, I'll post Baby Brown's first pictures and try to get the first few bump shot pictures we've taken up here.  We take one ever week to see the progression, so after this time, you should get to see them every weekend.

The first one is where they measured him.  He's 3 1/2 centimeters long!

You can see his hand up near the face on this one.

Here you can see his little feet up in the air!  So cute!! :-)