Not my normal post

Today i feel in love with these dresses. 

And I had to share.

I found them here

This past week's favorites (in Picutres)

 

Planting Peas with Friends

We need to teach Gwenevere about personal space.  

 

 

 

She isn't kissing Papa she's talking to him.  hahahaha

Date night

On Friday James and I finally had our Valentines date.  IT WAS WONDERFUL.  Tanya let me borrow some maternity pants so I didn't have to wear jeans.  And that made it complete.  James and I went to C.I.  Shenanigans.  An expensive sea food place on the Tacoma water front.  We had great window seating and the food was delicious.  Thanks to a great gift card from my boss, James and I got to experience what a 100.00 meal tastes like.  It was great tasting and the experience was fun.  James enjoyed a cup of Lobster bisque, and I enjoyed a cup of clam chowder as we watched the sun set.

This picture doesn't give the view justice but it's as good as I could get

After soup, and soar dough rolls, James enjoyed his Pan-Seared Scallops | roasted poblano cream, spinach, chorizo purple potato hash  and I enjoyed my combo meal of Top Sirloin Steak and Basil crusted Halibut with garlic spinach and Sweet potatoes fries. 

Even though we where both very stuffed we couldn't leave without dessert.  Our waiter recommend sharing a Mud pie and I'm glad we did.  It was huge.

 4 inches in diameter and about 5 inches tall.

James and I did our best to make it disappear.

but the mud pie won.

So someday we'll go back and accomplish was we couldn't that day.  

This is James' I'm full face.

After dinner there was just enough light to enjoy a little walk at Point Defience.

Gwenevere's request

Gwenevere:  Sing a song?  Sing song about God?

Papa:  How does it go?

Gwenevere:  Singing a very unfamiliar tune, sings with all her might.

Mama:  "Is that 'I feel my Savior's Love'?"

Gwenevere:  Yeah!

Mini Adventures

This past week while James was on Spring Break, we watched a PBS mini series about the US National parks.  Learning about all the national parks really gave us a desire to go on more adventures.  We hope to someday take the kids to see many of the national parks, but since we're still in grad school and we won't be traveling far for a few more years we have found ourselves having many mini adventures to enjoy along the way.

We recently purchased a family zoo pass for the year and are loving the adventures that come with going to the zoo.

Saying hi to the tired old Papa Tiger before going to see the Mama tiger and her cubs

Watching the porcupines chase each other

 Having a staring contest with the clouded leopard.  He won

Eating a picnic in the aquarium

 This is the male cub looking at James and thinking "He looks tasty"

You may ask yourself, and how do they know the Cub was thinking James looked tasty?

Because he started licking the window right where James' hand was placed.

We watched polar bears eat their lunch

And watched seals play

Gwenevere did most of the walking, getting her prepared for our first family back packing trip next summer

And by the end we where all pooped.

I must mention,  Gwenevere has been asking to feed the giraffes at Jace's Zoo, so we just might need to take another trip to Colorado Springs sometime.  Good memories. 


On top of the Zoo fun we've been having, we also took Gwenevere to the movies for the first time.  We saw Tangled. 

We even got Papa to agree to go to the mall to buy Sees candies.

At home, our adventures have been.....

"making a belt" (as Gwenevere calls it) with an old Valentine balloon 

A photo shoot with Papa

Look at that poser

making "baby snakes" out of play dough

"aaahhhh Baby snake in my eyes"

Water coloring with Katie

Making a birthday cape for "Benjamin friend"

 And testing it out to see if it makes you fly high

Playing with papa and the "pliers"

"No more pliers daddy"

and on special occasions falling asleep in the parents bed.

Poor James, I think we kicked him out.

Someday we'll own a queen size bed. 

And although we didn't take any pictures of it, James biked a 100 miles in preparation for his 100 mile bike race in April.

I love the adventures we take each day.

Today Gwenevere and I walked to the store.

We didn't take the bike and bike trailer,

We didn't take the stroller,

We just walked.

Gwenevere found a stick, a rock and grass.

It took a long time but the walk was worth it.

Ideas for Baby Names and their Meanings

Alice-  A name Gwenevere called the baby once or twice. She's also called the baby Ashley and Ada before but we figured we would add Alice to the list just for fun.
The meaning of the name Alice is Of A Noble Kin (which I really like since we are the Royal Roemhildts, King James, Queen Elizabeth, and Lady Gwenevere)
The origin of the name Alice is English
Most popular in 1950
Ranked 258 in the US

Lynden Rose-  Lynden is little German settlement town we honeymoon at in Washington.  and Rose because of Rose Bowcutt one of the greatest women we know.  Besides it just sounds so good together.  Lynden Rose.  Lynden was not on the babycenter.com name list however Google suggests the name comes from Linden: A handsome tree (Tilia Europaea), having cymes of light yellow flowers, and large cordate leaves. The tree is common in Europe.

Evelyn- A name I really like.
The meaning of the name Evelyn is Beautiful Bird
The origin of the name Evelyn is English
Most popular in 2009 Ranked # 39
Today Ranked 39 in the US

Adelaide- Alice comes from Adelaide
The meaning of the name Adelaide is Of A Noble Kin
The origin of the name Adelaide is German (which I really like)
Most popular in 2008 Ranked 551 in 2009
Today Ranked 567

Grace Kahana- Kahana comes form Kahana Bay in Oahu, my personal paradise.  And my little sister is named Grace after my great Grandma Grace who was known for her energy for life, and her love for sweets.
The meaning of the name Grace is Grace Of God
The origin of the name Grace is Latin
Most Popular in 2009 Ranked 13
Today ranked 17

Moon Star Sunshine- James' number 1 choice  not found in the babycenter.com name search however Sunshine was
The meaning of the name Sunshine is Sunshine
The origin of the name Sunshine is English
Most popular in 1975 (ranked 537)
Today Ranked 805

Eleanor-
The meaning of the name Eleanor is Of Unknown Meaning
The origin of the name Eleanor is French
Most popular in 1950 (199)
Today Ranked 218
In an Australian Baby name book we had in Hawaii Eleanora means White sea shell.
Google suggest Eleanor to be of Greek orgin and mean Sun ray or shining light.


Nancy-
The meaning of the name Nancy is Grace
The origin of the name Nancy is English
Most Popular in 1950 (ranked #6)
Today Ranked 469
James' Grandma is named Nancy, she is his second Mom.

Olea-
Is found in the Pearl of Great Price Abraham 3:13 "Olea, which is the moon".
Wikipedia says
Olea (pronounced /ˈoʊliːə/)^[2] is a genus of about 20 species in the family Oleaceae, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australasia. They are evergreen trees and shrubs, with small, opposite, entire leaves. The fruit is a drupe.
For humans, the most important species is by far the Olive (Olea europaea), native to the Mediterranean region.


I'm sure we'll add more to our list before we pick.  After all Gwenevere wasn't on our list until two weeks before she was born.  But it's fun to think about.

Pregnancy Progress

Since I've been constantly thinking about my pregnancy and our baby girl I figured I should blog about it.  After all my blog is our family journal.

Before getting pregnant I weighted 127.  Now that I'm 20 weeks pregnant I weigh 135.9.  I haven't been good about working out and I really want to make sure I stay fit for the birth and recovery so I found a great workout program just right for me.  Usually I like to walk for my workout but it's been so rainy and with colds, I just haven't seemed motivated to take Gwenevere out in the rain to go walking.  Well, the other day I found a Leslie Sansone Walk at home workout DVD and I bought a pair of 3 lbs weights (which I've wanted since I return Jenni's wieghts.  Thanks Jenni for letting me borrow your weights.  I use the 3lb weights while I do the walking DVD and I love it.

The DVD allows me to walk 4 miles with a warm up and cool down in 56 minutes.  I know this isn't Zomba or Yoga, or P-90-X but I love it.  It's the prefect cheesy workout for the me, the woman who hasn't been working out like I should.

So now that I'm motivated to work out more, I have set a goal to stay under 155lbs for this pregnancy.  We'll see how I do but If I can stay under 150 that would be even better.  With Gwenevere I walked into the Hospital ready for labor at 149lbs and I walked out about 148 lbs. This gives me a goal of gaining about 1lbs per week from here on out.  Fingers crossed.

Other than weight gain and food intake which I could talk about for another 30 minutes I'll get to the really fun stuff.  Baby Clothes.

So we found out that we are having a little girl and yesterday I bought her a blessing dress.  My Friend Rachael knitted some cute booties for the baby and when I found the blessing dress it all came together.

I can see our baby girl in this dress with a beautiful purple flower in her hair and wrapped in a soft purple blanket being blessed by James.  Awe.  I'm so excited. 

The sale was buy one get one free so I got this cute dress 

It's hard to tell by this picture but the dress is a soft pink knit.  

I'm so excited.

And this is my first Maternity shirt for this pregnancy.

And now that we know it's a girl, it's time for a list of baby names.

Yippee

A list of names will appear on the side bar and you can vote for you favorite.