Number 3

I figure it's time that I tell friends and family that I'm pregnant. I think I'll always be reluctant to tell people I'm pregnant because of the perspective I've gained from Rowan's death and from Finn's not so easy beginnings.

I never want to be one of those women who shout it from the roof tops that they're pregnant. First, because you never know what another woman's situation may be. She may have just lost a baby, or maybe she isn't able to get pregnant (reasons why you should also probably never ask when or if a woman is planning on having kids).

Second, you never know what will happen. This baby could die tomorrow for all I know. Maybe that sounds a little pessimistic to some, but if you'd been through what I have, I bet you could see where I'm coming from. I've realized that where childbirth seems to come easy to some, there are many, many others that it doesn't.

Dennen and I feel excitement and hope, but at the same time, we also have feelings of apprehension and doubt. It's almost as if you want to protect yourself by not feeling at all because you don't want to get hurt again.

I'm about 19 weeks right now. Coming up on the half way point! I am due October 8th (but taking in to account my past track record... I'm guessing September sometime).  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I'll try to do updates here and there for our family and friends.

Pennsylvania and a Boston Wedding

My mom flew to Maine a couple weeks ago to help us start packing for our next move. Yes, to our dismay, we are moving once again. Dennen will be doing most of his rotations 2 hours north of where we live now, so we figured it would be wise to head north. We'll be close to Bangor which will be nice because we'll be by Acadia National Park, Moosehead Lake, and Mount Katahdin. We're just sad to leave because we really like the area where we live now, and we're going to miss the friends we've made here. In the 6 years we've been married we've moved 7 times.

After my mom helped us pack, she flew out to Pennsylvania with Finn and me to visit my sister. We had a lot of fun! Megan planned some awesome things for us to do. We went to Gettysburg, Hershey, Harrisburg, and Amish Country. Finn had a great time and enjoyed seeing his Aunt Megan and Uncle Josh.

Next, we hopped on a train and headed to Boston. My parents rented a house for us to stay in that was in the suburbs of Boston. It was in a nice area and there were a lot of parks close by that we could take Finn to. On Friday, we went to Tyler and Emily's wedding luncheon at an amazing restaurant. It was followed up by pedicures/manicures for all the ladies.

Saturday was the big wedding. It was amazing! I just have to say that Emily has great taste (sorry Tyler, you can't take any credit). They had it at a venue called Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts. It was a gorgeous wedding that took place in a New England, farm/ranch-like setting. They were lucky to have nice weather as well. The food, decor, and ambiance were perfect. Congrats you two!

And I had to share this picture that their photographer took. Here is a link to his fb photography page: Isaac Wu Photography. I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures he took, this one is amazing!

Our Easter

Dennen and I decided that Easter is probably one of the hardest holidays to explain to kids. First, you try to explain Christ's resurrection and that's so abstract to them that I'm sure they don't quite get it. Next, you dye Easter eggs and hide them along with candy. To add to the confusion, we didn't have an Easter basket so Finn used his pumpkin from Halloween (now we're mixing holidays). I tried to explain some sort of link between Christ's resurrection and the whole egg and candy thing. But... I'm pretty sure there isn't one. I just told him that Christ wants us to be happy and have a fun time on Earth, so that's why we hide eggs and candy (I know, kind of a stretch).

Winter Photos

Spring Break

Dennen had his Spring Break a couple of weeks ago and we decided to go on an adventure! The only requirements were, that there had to be a hot tub, pool, and continental breakfast. Dennen got on hotwire and found us a nice hotel in North Conway, New Hampshire (a small ski town). We just stayed one night, but it was a much needed vacation.

Later that week we went with some friends to a "sugar shack" for Maple Weekend. Basically they showed us how they made maple syrup and gave us lots of tasty samples. There was maple ice cream, maple cotton candy, maple butter, and or course a pancake and maple syrup breakfast.

Springtime Knitting

I have been squeezing in some springtime knitting before it gets too hot and knitting season is over (I think it's weird that there's a season for knitting, but there is). Also, I have a big yarn stash right now that I'm trying to use for projects. The patterns I used were all beautifully written and easy to follow. Don't you just love a well written pattern? Eventually when I start making more patterns, I want to make sure that mine are written as well as these.

First up is a light weight hat and mittens that I made for Finn. I came up with the hat design myself. Essentially, I used a garter stitch for the bottom of the hat with circular needles (size 5), added a couple of stripes, made it the height for Finn's head, and decreased with double point needles (size 5). The owl mittens were made from a pattern I found on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-owl-gloves. Although the pattern has directions for adding eyes, I decided not to. The little owl is cabled, and is an easy beginning cable project to start with for those that may be intimidated by cabling. I should have blocked the gloves because it would have given them a cleaner shape around the hand part. But once they're on Finn's hands it doesn't really matter.

I wanted to make some cabled finger-less gloves for myself and found the pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crossed-ribs-fingerless-mitts

The last little project that I finished is probably one of my favorite hat patterns to date! It's a baby hat with a little bit of fair isle knitting used and an I-cord to finish off the top. I really want to make another one with the yarns that were used in the actual pattern: http://sweetfiberdesigns.com/2013/02/12/golden-pear/, but I have to use up the yarn I have.  I made it for any of my friends or family who have a baby next!

Biking

I looked outside today and it was really sunny so I figured it would be a warm day. Not so. But Finn had already said that he wanted to go out and ride his bike so I bundled him up and out we went. He had a great time (it may be hard to tell with that first picture). He loves off-roading through the snow and frozen mud. It makes Dennen proud because he says Finn will be a great mountain biker because of it. Fun and all, when we got home he did have to thaw a bit.

Some Favorite Toys

I just wanted to take this picture of how Finn had set up his toys one day. The dinosaur was hungry, so of course only a pink micro machine car would do. Also, Finn often times puts his dinosaur on top of that blue lid and says, "he's swimming in a lake!" That snake car was Dennen's when he was a kid, and Finn will give it to me and say, "mom's favorite car." Yes Finn... How did you know I love cars that resemble snakes?! We also go to story time at a library and part of it is that they have a craft. He made this snowflake the other day, but insisted that it was a "spider" (it kind of looks more like that anyway). So the whole day he would tell people we saw about his "spider". And the last toy is one that plays songs when the buttons are pushed. Finn loves to dance around. Especially to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Finn LOVES cars (if you didn't know). His Oma and Opa sent us a package the other week and there were a whole bunch of Dennen's old micro machines included. He can line his cars up like this all day long.

Dennen made his first loafs of bread this weekend. They turned out perfect and tasted so good! Dennen has always loved baking and cooking (yep, I'm pretty lucky). For me, it feels like more of a chore. And most of the time I'd rather be doing other things.