Yep, exciting isn’t it! I can’t believe Mark and I are expanding our little family of two!  It’s pretty crazy to think that I have a little baby growing inside me right now!  This baby is beyond a blessing! We are so grateful and excited for our baby!

How we found out baby Austin was coming into this world!

I felt ‘weird’ that is the only way I can describe it, just WEIRD (but weird different, like I was pregnant).  I decided to take a test. (Let’s be honest, I took two boxes). Nothing showed up, I was so disappointed! But I felt it deep down that I was pregnant. So I decided to save one test and wait until Saturday to test again.  Of course that didn’t happen….so here’s what did.

On Friday, we headed to Bend, Oregon, with the Compton’s for a race that Mark and Tom were running.  Jen and I were going to have a drink, but I felt unsure about it because I thought that I might be pregnant.  So, I agreed to take a test at the next gas station we found and then depending on what the test said, I would or would not have a drink.

We pulled over in the next town at the service station in Riley, Oregon.  (The whole town is the service station and archery shop—mark wanted to make sure I included archery shop, as if that makes it waaay cooler)!  I went into the bathroom and took the test, and didn’t look at it until I got back in the car.  Turns out there were two pink lines! 

When Mark got in the car I passed him the test with shaky hands.  The look on his face was priceless—shocked, excited, and terrified all in one look.  Then everyone cheered in the car, and Mark and Jen had a celebratory beer while Tom drove, and I sat prego and thirsty.

Over the course of the weekend I took 9 tests just to make sure! (Mark says we need to buy stock in these things!)

Waiting for the multiple tests....so anxious!

Mark’s grandparents were visiting Boise, so we decided it would be the perfect time to tell Mark’s parents and grandparents.  We knew we wouldn’t see his grandparents again until this summer, and it would be way more fun telling them in person.  It was close to Mother’s Day so we decided to tell them disguised in Mother’s day cards and pictures.

Here’s how we told them:

Here’s the video to show their reaction, the camera was not set to ‘auto’ so that’s why it’s blurry. :( 

Nancy, (Mark’s Mom), is laughing because she thinks we gave her the wrong card! 

We had our first appointment on May 4^th.  We went in thinking we were 7 weeks along, to our surprise we were only 6 weeks. Wah-wah.  Luckily, we were still able to see our little blob that was our baby. The ultrasound tech. told us that if we had been in any earlier we would not have been able to see anything.  She told us the baby was the size of a grain of rice, and the coolest and most amazing thing was that we could see the heartbeat! How incredible is that??  The heart was beating 122 bpm.  All is well and we have another appt. in a month.  
Oh, P.S. our due date is DECEMBER 27^th!  
**Side note, we always said we wouldn't have a Christmas baby due to the poor baby's birthday, but beggars can’t be choosers, so we’ll take it! And it will be the BEST Christmas baby ever born!**

We told my Mom and Bryan when they came into town for a visit that they’ve been planning since December. Perfect timing! It was right before Mother’s Day so we played it up again. J My mom and I have been pranking each other with this really ugly fake flower arrangement for years--Valentines, Christmas, Birthday presents since high school, so I wrapped that in a box along with a sign that said, “the only thing better than having you for a mother is my children having you for a Nana. Taped to the back of the board was our ultrasound picture.

My mom’s reaction was great, unfortunately our camera ran out of space, yes the same one that was blurry for Mark’s family, so we missed her reaction.  She opened it up laughed at the flower thing, and then read the sign and made a long and high pitched ‘ooooooooo’ sound and then hugged me and cried. It was great, too bad the stupid camera failed us! LAME!

Ugly flower arrangement, and sign with the ultra sound pic on the back.

The little white blob is the baby @ 6 weeks! Size of a small pea. 

At around 10 weeks we tole the rest of our family! Everyone was so excited for us! We feel so blessed to have such wonderful, supportive family... this baby is going to be one loved baby!

A typical 1st trimester dinner: 

Mark: mashed potatoes, wild rice, meat loaf, and salad.

Me: eggo waffle with peanut butter and syrup, strawberries, and watermelon. 

 Food Aversions:

ALL MEAT!!!!!

Banana tasted like tuna fish to me- weird I know.

A lot of textures grossed me out. 

Vegetables.

Food Cravings:

PICKLES!!!! I went through these like it was my job, I loved the saltiness and would even take sips of the juice (I could have chugged the whole jar). I am ashamed.

Fruit.

Baby @12 weeks. Size of a plum. Its feet are stretched out and kicking the top.
(The face kinda looks skeleton-ish and scary to me, although my mom does not like me saying this). 

 First Trimester = OVER!!!! 

Let's just say glad its in the past...

Top 10 BEST & WORST of the first trimester:

1. How I felt when I saw a positive test.

2. The incredible and priceless look on Mark's face when he found out.

3. amazing that I'm growing a baby, what a miracle.

4. throwing up every night around dinner time.

5. hearing the heartbeat for the first time. 

6. throwing up in a garbage bag in the car--it was an extreme low, I felt so pathetic.

7. sharing the news with family and close friends.

8. all of the crazy things happening to your body that no one tells you about, except maybe Jenny McCarthy in her book, "Belly Laughs."

9. seeing the baby for the first time and the 2nd time when it actually looked like a baby and was moving all around.

10. and the fact that it is finally over and I am feeling more 'normal' although, I am not sure what my 'normal' is anymore. 

2nd Trimester, we welcome you!


To date, I have bought 1 pair of maternity shorts, 1 pair of capris, and 1 pair of jeans. It's happening. I am officially getting a bump and no longer find it comfortable to do the ‘rubber band trick’ on my jeans.


I will say this is a hard part of being preggo because people can't tell if you are just fat, or if you are pregnant. 

14 weeks. Baby size of a lemon.

4th of July parade in Neskowin. Theme: Super Heroes! 

Mark and Hank rocked their costumes! Such good sports! :) I am pretty sure Hank stole the show, what is it about animals dressed in costumes that we all love? (exactly that!)

15 weeks as wonder  woman  mom! Baby size of a navel orange.