Merry Christmas

We had such a lovely (white!!) Christmas - the whole day was very relaxed and pleasant. It started off with the below scenes - another few inches added to the 6 that were hanging on from the last snow. Again, Lola was a bit unsure of the whole snow thing.

Family was kind enough to report on their "sympathy weight gain" over the holidays - both Grandpas claiming 5 pounds. Here is my week 34 profile...compared to Grandpa's.

Granny crafted us all new attire that we will sport to the reunion coming up this summer. Yes, Dad is "throwing gang signs" - and no, I have no idea what he's saying; I'm sure it means something like "these are the best hats ever, thanks Granny Pat!".

Happy Birthday

Welcome Carter Andrew Ward!! Congratulations Karen and Andy - he's very handsome!!

Snow Day

We've been snowed in...and we feel a bit like giddy school kids on a snow day from school. We so far have about 8 inches, and there is more predicted for tonight. We may get a white Christmas after all. Lola is hilarious in the snow - her running translates to prancing in the snow. She had us cracking up as she made her way around the yard. I took a video but made a rookie mistake and had the camera turned vertically...and I don't know how to fix it. But, it's funny enough I had to post it anyway - maybe just turn your computer screen around.

Baby 101

Avery was kind enough to let Brent practice last night!

Cookie Extravaganza

All the Knowles ladies got together last weekend and baked our hearts out. There was cider, homemade soup, Christmas music and lots and lots of baking. We even managed to squeeze in watching a little bit of Elf. At the end of the day, we were all exhausted (maybe once the sugar high wore off) and went home with dozens of cookies each.

The next day, the boys joined us for the annual tree hunting trek. In years past, there has been too much snow and too many unprepared mini-vans on the road to make it up to the trees. This year, rain was our biggest obstacle. Everyone dressed appropriately except Brent and I (we were maybe too optimistic about the weather) and we had to spend the rest of the day drying out. Everyone came away with a tree - some were arguably more desireable than others - some were more "artistic" as Jenny would say.

Notice the "artistic" curve in the Graham's tree (apparently it's a good idea to look at a tree from all sides before you cut it down). And jeans are not actually great at wicking rain water away - my jeans were a very different color when the day started.

Week 31 Ultrasound

All looks as it should - he's happy and healthy all secure inside! Here's a profile shot (arrow pointing to his nose).

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm already falling behind on my posting....here's a catch up!

This last week turned out to be a very eventful one. Brent and I took Lola to the cabin for a little R'n'R and to take our minds off of baby prep for a few days. We both were able to play hookie from work on Friday and packed it over the pass to Leavenworth. It was a fantastic long weekend - Brent managed to get in three days of hunting, I read two books, went on two hikes, and took a few naps and Lola tired herself out with all the running/hiking she got to do. It was nice to get away from the city for a bit.
But, I woke up Monday morning to my body telling me I hadn't relaxed quite enough - I had new cold symptoms and some mild contractions. I ended up spending part of the day in the hospital making sure that Baby Jones stayed put. All is well now, but I've been instructed to do a better job at hydrating and lay off the physical activity to some degree. That sure would be a lot easier if my restless legs would give it a rest!

I managed to make it into work one day last week and then off we were again for more adventures. Thanksgiving was a day filled with family, good food, and lots of relaxing. We made the rounds amongst our families in Buckley and rolled ourselves home and straight to bed, fat and happy, at the end of the day. The next morning we headed out to Yakima for the Redman's Annual Hot Dog Roast. Again, there was much gourmet food consumed...so much so that Brent ate no pie! It was a great time to catch up with friends we get to see too rarely. From there we headed to the cabin for a little Christmas tree hunting and stayed Saturday night snuggled in front of the wood stove. By the time we arrived back home to Seattle on Sunday, we were both very sleepy - I think we managed to stay awake until 9pm.

I am now 30 weeks along...and getting bigger every day. I had an appointment yesterday and all looks well and stable...no more contractions! We get to have one more ultrasound this Thursday just to make sure things look okay from the inside also. The nursery is coming along - I've washed many loads of hand me down clothes that are all ready to be organized into the new furniture we bought that we're staining to match the crib. We're on the count down...only ten weeks to go!

A belated Happy Halloween and Birthday!

Halloween ended up being a very eventful day. There was a carnival at work...all the nurses dressed up as bees and all the docs were bee keepers (thanks to Mom's crafting!!). And we welcomed the newest and cutest member to our posse - Miss Avery Grace Johnston. She might be the prettiest newborn I've ever seen. After some complications, the family is healthy and back home enjoying time together. And the spoiling by her aunties can now ensue!

Brent and I greeted about 125 trick or treaters at our house that night...we went through three Costco bags of candy. Lola didn't understand why she didn't get to go play with all the little monsters! Here she is watching sadly as the kids walk away from the house with their bounty.

Lola's Big Day

Lola got to go bird hunting with Brent and his friends this weekend. I was told she did quite well despite not being in the field for many months - remembering all her comands and showing off her nose for the birds. There weren't many birds to be found but fortunately, near the very end of the day, Lola got her chance to shine and came away with what you see in the above pic. Her Dad was very proud!

Fall Adventures

This last month has brought many gatherings of friends and family. We joined both families for a day of beautiful weather and catching up at the pumpkin patch. Evan and Ruby did a great job of picking out Uncle Brent's pumpkin. Thank you Shelley and Robb for hosting us for lunch on our way to the farm!!

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with friends from work. We've adopted this tradition with full force and it is going strong in it's seventh year!! It's grown in attendance every year but because of space, this year was a much more intimate crowd. There was much eating and laughter. I only made one extra large pumpkin pie this year...and as you can see, it didn't last long. As usual, there was stress over the cooking of the turkey and the gravy but all turned out well and all went home full.

I am officially 'nesting' - we are currently purging and redistributing all the items in our house that take up space or are generally unused. We managed to fit in a weekend of projects at the cabin to accommodate the furniture we moved over there - laying laminate flooring in the loft. And my car is full to the brim with donations for the Goodwill. We are on our way to an empty baby's room and will soon start the next phase of filling it back up! Here is the Week 25 baby bump progress. Baby Jones is quite active these days - He's getting stronger and Brent even got to feel him kick the other day. We've narrowed the name list...but have yet to decide on one!!

It's a....

BOY!

We just came from our ultrasound - we can now lovingly refer to our baby with a new and much more personal pronoun! We hadn't made any predictions but many others had guesses - I heard most often that it would be a girl because I'm "carrying high" or I've had an "easy pregnancy". And maybe because of that, the one name we were sure we liked was a girl name - the name picking will take some time. I was so nervous that he wouldn't be in the right position to show us the goods that I stopped at Jamba Juice on the way to give him a little sugar high. I have no pictures to post (we don't have a scanner); but we did come home with a few cute shots of his profile and his feet for the fridge.

The Harvest

Call us conformists, but we've jumped on the blogging bandwagon in an attempt to keep everyone afar up to date on our growing family. No promises about consistency - but I'll do my best!

This week marks week 21 for Baby Jones - and we will soon find out the gender so as the name-searching, room-decorating, cute-clothes-buying stage of things can ensue. Here is the obligatory side view photo. Only just this last week did I officially start sporting a baby bump. The baby is now the length of a banana and I can feel the dancing we keep seeing on the ultrasound. I'm still feeling good but have all but given up on running - I've decided a brisk walk through our hilly neighborhood is just as good for mom and baby! I'm hoping to get into the pool this week but that mean suit shopping - which is less than thrilling.

This week also marked the peak of our garden. With the loss of summer, I've made the mental transition to fall and with that comes a desire to cook all things hearty. We spent all day harvesting and preparing tomatoes, beets, carrots, green beans and garlic. We managed to stock our freezer for the winter with 2 different kinds of homemade spaghetti sauce, venison/moose stew, shredded zucchini, prepared corn, huckleberries, and squash soup. And I even got to use my labeler!! Brent arrived home from his hunting trip on Saturday evening with 2 liters (Nalgene bottles) of huckleberries he had picked during his mountain adventures. I'm sure he was dreaming of the pies that would come from his bounty!

The hunt was unsuccessful except a few delicious campfire cooked grouse (no Shauna, there were no rabbits harmed) but the country they traveled through was well worth the trip. The trip was a week long and Lola sure missed her Dad - she slept in the living room the first night he was gone, anxiously awaiting his arrival home!!



Shauna and I hosted a baby shower for our dear friend Amber this weekend - her baby girl is due the end of October. My camera was still away on the hunting trip but I managed to get a shot of the professional cupcakes our friend Melanie whipped up for the party. She really should go into the baking business.