Getting ready for baby brother to come

My blog widget says we have 15 days until baby brother is due.  yikes!  Although I'm guessing I'll go over and we still probably have more like 20 days I figured I better start getting ready just in case.  

So I put pictures up in baby brother's room and pulled out all the newborn 0-3 month clothes for him to wear.  I still don't have a "baby's first outfit" picked out but I really can't decide if I should buy a newborn size or a 0-3 month size.  what do you think?  How big do you think baby brother will be?  I keep thinking he's going to be bigger but deep down I keep praying he's small.  I just love the newborn itty bitty baby size.  

To help visualize baby brother's arrival I inflated the birth pool and realized I'm still in need of several birthing supplies.  Today we hope to finish painting the sunroom and then go get the remaining supplies needed for baby brother's arrival,  I still need to make curtains for the sunroom but I'm waiting til after we finish painting.   (i'll post an updated picture of the sunroom once it's finished but I'm not sure if the birth pool will be in the picture so here is a picture of the birth pool)

Once the sunroom is painted and curtains are up our whole house will be complete.  At least all the items on our checklist for this summer's projects will be completed.  Yippee!  Then we can start saving for next years summer project list.  

Anyway, we're getting ready for our little guy and excited for him to come.  Let's start making guesses of when he'll be born and I'll add them to the blog.  

Happy Labor Day Weekend.  

Gone Fishing

After Grace's birthday party we volunteered Auntie Grace to clean our house and put the girls to bed while James and I went on a date.  I know I'm such an awesome sister.  Thankfully Auntie Grace agreed to be tortured and James and headed out to watch the sunset by the light house.  After a beautiful relaxing sunset we drove to Fred Myers and once and for all purchased a fishing license for James.  We've talked about doing this for years and just never got around to it.  Yippee he finally had his fishing license again.

The night before James' first fishing adventure, James was so excited that he stayed up until 3am in the morning thinking about his fishing trip the next day.  At 5am after only 2 hours of sleep James jumped out of bed and headed to the Puyallup river.  By noon James was back with two fat Pink Salmon.  Yumm Yumm.  He marinated one of the fish in a Teriyaki sauce and we ate it later that night with Will and Jenni.  The second fish was made into fried fish  or as Gwenevere calls it "Biscuit Fish".

James' next adventure took place after work, he only fished for a few hours but was able to catch one more fish.   James made a wonderful Salmon, lemon, garlic, sausage, ginger cilantro master piece.

Can I just say I love all the cooking that he's done lately.  Seriously he is the best cook.

The following Monday James got up early and headed to his sweet spot on the Puyallup river.  It wasn't even 8am by the time he had caught 4 large pink salmon, (the max per day).  James cleaned the fish and froze the last four for a later day. He figured as a pregnant lady that I am I probably shouldn't eat too much large fish so frequently.   Bummer.  hehehehhe

Tonight James went out once again, this time with Gwenevere at his side.  Unfortunately the river was very high from all the rain.  they had a good time but unfortunately weren't able to catch any fish.

Watching Papa fish

Gwenevere's turn to try

I think there will be more fishing adventures in the near future.

baby boy names

This post is mostly for me.  I've been thinking a lot about baby boy names and I've decided I needed to write my thoughts down, so here it goes.  I don't have a favorite name or one that I just love more than the rest.  I guess that just means we'll have to wait and see what fits our little man.  who knows maybe his name isn't even on the list.


Bennett- Little blessed one  Latin

Darwin- dear friend  English

Nolwenn-  Pure  Celtic

Llywynn- Leader  Welsh

Henrick- ruler of the home:  Scandinavian

Miles: Soldier  Latin

Andre:  Manly:  French

Eugene:  Well born:  English

Theodore: Divine Gift  : Greek

Reese:  Running   Welsh

Everett:  Wild boar herd: English

Leo:  Lion latan

Ike:  he will laugh, American

Gordon:  From Gordon Scotland

Clark:  Clerk English  (Gwenevere recommended this name)

Diego:  Learned person, footballer or James, Spanish

James:  supplanter  (A supplanter takes the place of someone or something that was there first and is often referred to in government):  Hebrew

William:  Strong Willed Warrior  English

Gavin:  White hawk English (Gwenevere recommended this name)



I may just keep adding to the list but at least I won't say "which name was it that meant .....?" anymore

Grandma Thomas comes to visit- Will Power- and Ensign Ranch

We picked up Gramma Thomas from the airport Wednesday afternoon.  Grandma brought with her presents from Aunt Alisha which were opened with excitement.  Thursday we cleaned the house and put up baby brother's curtains.  Then went to Dash Point State park to take family pictures.  After pictures James made fish and chips and we all fell asleep well fed.

Thanks Aunt Alisha

On Friday we make smoothies for breakfast and then went to Ikea to pick up some lights.  Gwenevere got to play in the play area and Grace enjoyed shopping with Gramma and Mama.  After Ikea we rushed to Issaquah to see the Movie "Planes" with Aunt Jenni, Preston and Taylor.  We ate way too much popcorn and had a dance party in the theater after the movie was over and the credits where rolling.  We then headed to Costco for lunch and a quick grocery shopping trip.  Then we went back to Will and Jenni's house to play and hang out till Papa got off work.

Taylor sporting his new Basketball clothes from Aunt Alisha

 When Papa meet up with us, we said goodbye to Gramma, Will and Jenni and drove to Ensign Ranch to join the ward campout.  It was dark by the time we got to the camp ground.  We set up camp and climbed into bed.  The next morning we joined the ward for Breakfast and enjoyed watching the kids play together.  After breakfast we packed up camp and drove to the start of Will's race.  Will was running the 100 mile Cascade Crest Trail.  It's always exciting to watch him run, he is amazing and I love seeing his determination.

What does it take to run 100 miles?  WILL POWER!  

Unfortunately we were unable to meet up with Will at his pit stops  because we needed to get back to Tacoma before too late but we cheered from online and anxiously awaited to here he had finished with his fastest time of 28 hours 57 minutes.

Meanwhile, back at Ensign Ranch,  Papa signed the girls up for Horseback rides but we weren't able to ride until 2:40 so we fed the horses, went canoeing and ate a picnic lunch while we waited.

These pictures where taken with James' GoPro camera and look best when zoomed in.

The girls loved riding horses and they can't wait to do it again soon.  

Making Memories last a Lifetime

It's been a while since we'd had family pictures taken and since our family will be changing soon I thought it would be fun to capture some memories of our family of four.