the verdict.....

I have to admit that I was a little shocked when the ultrasound said girl (Bryan not so much)! I really couldn't believe it. Hence the last picture showing my hands saying what and bryan's saying yessss :)

We had my Mom and Dad, Elliot & Katie, Cindy & John, JJ, Calli, and Summer & Steve at the cabin with us.
Heather & Jeff, Aubrey, Brooke on Summer's phone and Dane & Karen on Dad's phone.
While Larry, Rae & Adam were on Skype.

Thanks for sharing this moment with us!

(and thanks for not opening the envelope while we were sleeping like most of you threatened!)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving began a little early for me and Katie. We decided to do the table scape. I found this really cute ornament tree on a blog. So, Katie and I decided to try it out. We were pretty impressed with the way the table looked when we were all done!

Katie and Elliot hosted Thanksgiving this year. We all headed over to their house early Thanksgiving morning to hang out and eat snacks.
Thanksgiving morning was especially good for me because I got a whole suitcase full of maternity clothes. Cindy gave my mom a bunch of her maternity clothes while my mom and dad were visiting them last month. (Thanks again Cindy Lou)

The crowd for Thanksgiving Dinner (Summer & Steve were with his family). It seems like we keep becoming a smaller and smaller group (everyone better stop moving away!). I think we were all anticipating a bigger group because we had tons of leftovers. I think we had 4 full pies left (yikes).

All of us doing the dishes after dinner. It's funny how fast dishes get done when you have 7 people working on them (Katie was taking the picture).

The day after Thanksgiving we all went to a movie. The boys and Katie and I went to The Next Three Days. The movie was pretty good - but we were in the second row and I paid for that the next two days with a headache and stomach ache! Mom, Heather and the girls went to Tangled.

I always love an excuse for my parents to come out. I think I am most grateful this year for my family and Bryan's family and our little baby bump. We are so excited to grow our family!

Boy or Girl Poll

We've had the ultrasound...the envelope is on our tree....so now it's just time to vote!

a pic to help you decide if the baby looks more feminine or masculine :)

will baby be a boy or girl?


You have until Christmas Eve to vote!

Boy or Girl?

The sex of the baby will be determined November 30th!

We won't find out until Christmas Morning though. We are copying the idea from Kim and Kyle. We're going to have the doctor put the sex in an envelope and open it Christmas Morning with the family. It was so fun to be there with Kim and Kyle and capture their expressions forever. So, we'll be following suit.

But, I've already started looking at the gender predictors to try and figure out what we're having.

• Heartbeat over or under 140: Girl

• Chinese Gender Chart: Boy

• Sweet or Sour: Boy

• Carrying High or Low: Girl

• Wedding Ring Test: Boy
  

• Mayan age and year at conception: Girl

I guess we'll see just have to wait and see :)

I'll be posting a poll in December!

Halloween Festivities

We had an exciting Halloween this year!

Our festivities began on September 18th and kept on going till October 31st.

We went to Nightmare on 13th with Bryan's family. They were in town for Kelli and Lee's sealing. It was hilarious going through a haunted house with Kim and Amy. They were both so scared. Amy started freaking out while we were just waiting in line to get in. We didn't know Kim was scared until we entered the first room and she immediately hid behind Kyle and would not move. Amy continued to entertain the group the whole way through!


Our next adventure was to carve pumpkins with Conrad and Kali. We all made very fancy pumpkins. We were all pretty impressed with ourselves.

(left: Bryan, Middle: Esther, Right: Conrad & Kali)



The next night we went to the Buells with the Carliles and Bagleys and made glitter pumpkins. I saw the idea on a craft blog I read and thought it would be fun for the kiddos. Heather made the coolest pumpkin. It was a spider in a spider web.



Next we went to Drew and Cassie's to have a costume party. Bryan and I dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But being Mr. and Mrs. Smith was not gory enough for Bryan. So, we were zombie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Our costumes were not the best, but I did end up winning best dressed. Drew had everyone cast a vote and then he put them all in a pot and picked one out. So, that's how I won :)


The night before Halloween we went to the Buells for homemade root beer and spudnuts and chili. It was delicious as always. Heather and the girls had a few more houses to go trick-or-treating to, so Katie and I went along. The girls looked so cute in their costumes and were the best little trick-or-treaters. We ended up staying at the Buells till midnight. I think all of the wives were in a silly mood. We started off playing real games with Aubreys and then starting making up our own games (while annoying the husbands). It was pretty fun!

On the actual Halloween evening we went to the Bagley's to play How to Host a Murder. The game was The Good, The Bad, and The Guilty. So, we all dressed up in western outfits. Katie got to be the woman from the saloon. Katie did a wonderful job as always. Everything we ate was Halloween themed - from jello rats to cheese ball spiders to eyeball desserts. I really do love the How to Host a Murder games. They are so funny and provide easy entertainment.





I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Playing Catch-up

I'm going to be posting things from a year ago up until now. And I'll be back dating them to when they actually happened :) Sad....I know. So, no need to go back to the past with me if you don't want to. I wanted to document the memories. Just wanted to give a heads up on why I have so many old posts!

I've been a little m.i.a.

So, I'll be recapping our happenings over the next week

But....first things first



The baby is due April 20th. I am just barely out of the first trimester (and I hope to see the effects soon). We are so excited and can't wait to find out the gender :)

Chicago

My office decided to send me to a professional conference this year. My boss picked the CUSP Conference in Chicago. I decided to take Bryan along since we would only have to pay for his flight.

Not only was the conference awesome but we got to tour Chicago too.

The conference was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Bryan and I decided to take advantage of the conference being in the museum so we toured it during all my breaks. The museum has one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants called Puck's. We had to try it out since it may be my only time to eat Wolfgang Puck's food. It was yummy!

Tuesday, September 21

We flew in, checked into our hotel and then headed to the Giants game.

We stayed at the coolest boutique hotel called The James. I would definitely stay there again. (especially because of the events on our last day - see below)

I found out that the Giants were playing the Cubs while we were going to be there. I of course had to get tickets. We weren't able to see Lincecum pitch but we did see Matt Cain and Carlos Zambrano.

We had crazy weather before the game started. One minute it would be down pouring and the next no rain at all. The poor workers had to keep running out to the field to pull up the tarp when the rain stopped and then put it back when it started again. After about an hour of waiting - the rain stopped enough that they were able to start the game.

The Giants pulled out a victory by scoring the only run of the game in the bottom of the 8th. It was a good way to start the trip.

Wednesday, September 22
I spent most of the day at the conference. After my last meeting we took an architecture cruise, then went to the Buckingham Fountain and then to dinner.

I really wanted to do an architecture cruise on the river and what would be a better time than at sunset. We were about a week late to do the normal Sunset Cruise where you see fireworks at Navy Pier. But we decided to go with the sunset cruise anyway. That wasn't the best decision because apparently sunset cruise really means open bar cruise. So, most people spent the whole time drinking. We did see some really pretty views of the city though.



After the cruise we walked around the city a bit on our way to the Buckingham Fountain. The fountain was so cool. They do a light show to music on the hour every hour after dark. I would suggest checking out the fountain at night if you're ever in Chicago.



After watching the fountain show we headed to dinner. Our taxi driver told us that the place to eat in Chicago was Lou Malnati's. So we of course tried it out. I for sure liked the pizza in New York better. Bryan liked Lou Malnati's. I was in my first trimester....so, maybe my taste buds were just a little off.


Thursday, September 23
I was back at the conference the whole day and then we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner and then to Billy Elliot.

While I was at the conference, Bryan toured Chicago. He went to the Rock-N-Roll McDonald's for breakfast. Apparently it is huge and people go their to just hang out. He said it was pretty cool. I wish I could have checked it out too!


Billy Elliot is definitely not my favorite Broadway Show I've been to. It was just sort of boring. We chose Billy Elliot because all of the music was written by Elton John. Sorry to say Elton sorta disappointed.
(I do catch Bryan singing the songs still sometimes)

Friday, September 24
Friday started out pretty good. As Bryan and I got in the elevator at our hotel to do our last chance touring of Chicago we were attacked by a dog. Not really attacked but the dog was excited and kind of jumping on me. The man with the dog was apologetic and kind of chatting with us about his dog. I never even looked the guy in the face because i was just looking at the dog. The guy left the elevator before we did and as I got out Bryan grabbed my arm and said Es, look at who that is, because he could tell that I didn't realize who we were just chatting with in the elevator. As soon as I looked over I saw that it was Josh Hartnett! I was so sad I missed my opportunity to ask him for a picture. I had such a big crush on him after Pearl Harbor. I regrouped myself and we walked out of the hotel while Josh was at the front desk. A few seconds later he walked out of the hotel and passed us on the sidewalk. Bryan decided to get me a picture. So, he pretty much chased him for a couple blocks. I was just the slightest bit embarrassed about stalking him and being so start struck but Bryan was like a seasoned paparazzi hiding behind garbage cans and trees and what not.

I held us back from getting a good pic. But this was the best we got
Josh with his dog after we left the hotel

here's a better picture of his face from the internet

We decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour to see some of the highlights of the city. Our first stop was Hancock Tower (formerly Sears Tower).

Here we are standing on the glass ledges at the top of the tower. It really is a cool view to be able to look down at the city without anything obstructing your view.
Bryan was a little hesitant to step onto the ledge at first :) Apparently he still is a little scared of heights!


Views from the bus tour

Navy Pier

We had a ton of fun in Chicago. I just wish we had a little more time while there. We may have to go back again!