Baby and His Name

I am now 37 weeks pregnant and feeling every bit as big as I ever want to.  It would be one thing if the weight were evenly distributed, but as it is, I find the constant jab to the ribs every time I sit down quite a nuisance.  Nobody ever told me that it would be excessively uncomfortable to sit up properly because the baby would lodge itself right under the ribcage.

Apart from the occasional discomfort things seem to be going well.  The baby is constantly on the move and I am feeling fairly prepared for him to come.  I have gotten all his laundry done, the crib is all set up, the car seat is in the car and we have finally chosen his name!  

The story of deciding on his name is an interesting one so I will share.  We spent the first couple months after we discovered he was a he trying a new name every week as we didn't want to spend the pregnancy calling him baby or just plain he.  Then we decided we really liked the names Benjamin and Samuel best so we went back and forth between the two for the last month or so telling ourselves that we would eventually come to an agreement.  This did not happen.  I liked Samuel just a little more than Benjamin and Michael liked Benjamin just a little more than Samuel.  We both agreed that no matter which we chose we would be exceedingly happy, because both names were great, but we still had our preferences.  On June 12th we decided that we had to make a decision by the following Saturday as his birth was getting awfully close and I was getting very frustrated at not having anything to call him.  We were to think about the names all week and then come together on Saturday the 18th to decide.  

Well, it didn't turn out exactly as we had planned.  No new revelation came to either of us and we still couldn't let go of either name easily.  At some point during the past month or so both of us have come to the other and said let's just name him whatever name the other person liked better, but this never stuck because one of us always felt guilty.  So after going over the names for about an hour and a half (meaning looking up facts about them online and talking about the pros and cons of each) we decided it had to be done.  Michael suggested we pull the name out of a hat and I had just the hat for the job.  So I wrote each name eight times on pieces of paper, folded each one very carefully and put them in the hat.  Then we decided that we would make it best out of seven since we were married on the seventh of November.  Michael began to draw the names.  He pulled out two Benjamins, then a Samuel, and finally ended it all by pulling two more Benjamins one right after the other.  So Benjamin Michael Perrone is due on July eleventh and we can't wait to see him!

This is me at 33 weeks.  I realize I am a little behind, but you can get the basic idea of what I look like.

Louisville, Here We Come!

 On May 13, in the early afternoon hours, we rolled into Louisville, Kentucky.  Our tour of the town began with a visit to GE Appliance Park.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that, but it isn't much to see unless one is really interested in looking at very large nondescript buildings all in a row.  

Michael and I went into one of these to meet his boss and get an overview of what he would be doing over the next three months.  His boss is Timmie and she is exceptionally nice and very understanding!  She asked us several times if there was anything she could do for us and made sure that we were aware that she was willing to be flexible, especially with the baby on the way.  She has helped us find furniture and even let us borrow a great deal.  

After our meeting with Timmie we started the lookout for own new residence.  We weren't sure exactly how to get there, but we found it and with little trouble.

When we first got here we enjoyed looking at all the amazing sights such as the White Castle.  We have yet to go, but we plan to venture there very soon :)

Below are some pictures of our apartment and the surrounding area.

This a little walk that is on the Mallard Crossing grounds.  There is a gazebo, a fountain, lots of geese and a little walking bridge.

Michael in front of our building on one of the first days it decided it wasn't going to rain.

Our apartment is on the second floor and has a lovely dogwood tree in front of it.

This is one of the views from our patio.  It is a fairly secluded place or the trees make it feel that way.

This is the view from the other side of the patio.  I like looking out and seeing the dogwood tree.  When the weather is nice this is the best place to be in the entire apartment.

Road Trip

After our journey home from Washington, we had about a day to get everything stuffed in our car and get on the road to Texas.  Unfortunately, the morning of the day we were leaving I had a lovely appointment with my doctors that consisted of being poked four times in a four hour period so they could check my blood sugar!  Needless to say I was happy when Provo was behind us.  

Since we got such a late start we only made it to Colorado springs, but we had a good trip and saw some pretty interesting terrain and weather!

These are some of the pictures we took of our first few glimpses of Colorado.  The mountains were, of course, amazing and the weather was excellent for getting some nice pictures.

Unfortunately, the weather thing did not last. As soon as we got a little further up the mountains we realized winter wasn't over everywhere.  Our poor car does not have the best get-up-and-go so it struggled not only with the incline of the road, but also the weather conditions, but it made it through like a champ!  Here is a short video of our adventure on Vail Pass.

We made it into New Mexico the next day and, I have to say, it wasn't the prettiest part of New Mexico (at least I hope not).  I was happy once we reached our final state for that leg of the journey.  However, I didn't realize how long we would be in that final state before we would actually reach our destination.  Texas is huge!  Along the way we saw some lovely small towns and some really desolate areas.  One of my least favorite parts of the trip was seeing this enormous windmill farm.  I couldn't believe how much wasted space there was!  Unfortunately, the parts of Texas that would have been great to catch on film were the parts we went through when it was too dark to take pictures.  But at about one in the morning we finally made it to Austin!

We had a lovely trip to Austin in May!  Here are some pictures from our two weeks of relaxation before the big move to Louisville.

This is a picture of the Texas History Museum they 

have on the UT campus.  It was pretty neat to see how

much the state has gone through in its history.

These are some fun pictures of the family! (Thanks Annette)

While we were in Texas we decided to make a trip to Houston to visit Tiffany and Geoff in their new place.  Their house was beautiful and they had just gotten an adorable dog Tina!  She is a chocolate lab and is so friendly and sweet.  Tiffany also told us about their exciting news... they are expecting in the fall!

That night they took us to Papasitos and then up to the Woodlands to walk around the small river they have up there.  Here are some pictures of the river walk.

It was very beautiful and the perfect weather to be out walking.  Plus, it was Cinco de Mayo so most people were partying somewhere else and we had the sidewalk pretty much to ourselves.

Tiffany at the Coy Pond.  Geoff wasn't able to come with us to the Woodlands due to some scout duties he had to perform that night.

My favorite fish in the pond.  I believe I named it, but I can't recall what the name was :)

After visiting with the Perrone family and enjoying our time off for two weeks we left early May twelfth for Louisville, Kentucky.  The first day we made it all the way to Nashville as we needed to be in Louisville by early afternoon the following day.  On our way up from Austin we saw a bunch of the major cities.

Although not a major city I thought it worth getting a picture of.  Sadly, I was mistaken.  It was not a very pretty town at all, very industrial.

This is Dallas!  We got to drive right through it and there was a lot to see on either side of us.  I told Michael that one day he has to take me back there so I can see some of the sites.

This is a faraway view of Little Rock.  We actually didn't get much closer, but it was neat to say we saw it.

This, as you might guess, is Memphis.  The Mississippi was about double its normal size when we rolled through.  This was right after all the flooding that happened there this spring.  It was crazy to see everything covered in water!  Below is the actual picture I took of the skyline.

As I said we made it to Nashville that night, but again it was too dark to get a good photo.  The next day we left fairly early and drove the remaining three hours to Louisville where we met Michael's boss and got to see our apartment to the first time.

Temple

On May eleventh Michael and I went with his mother to the San Antonio temple.  It was absolutely beautiful!  I was very excited to go as we had family names we were trying to get done.  Michael was able to go through for his mother's father, I was able to got through for one my great grandmothers on my mother's side and Annette went through for one of their distant ancestors.
After the session we all went into a sealing room and Michael and I sealed his grandfather and grandmother.  I was very happy to be apart of it.
I felt the spirit so strongly and it was wonderful to be able to do those ordinances for family... people that I had heard about and, in one case, met.  It was a great day!

Easter

Michael and I spent Easter in Wenatchee with my family. Ali and Chris came over to help set up the insane easter egg hunt.

They created an egg map as we hid each egg so we could make sure they had found them all. We had three separate egg hunts.

One was for the youngest, Lev. The eggs were in plain sight so we could easily lead him to each one. This sort of worked, but he would get distracted by what he found and not realize he was supposed to keep looking.

The next one was for Lucien and Yevnika. These eggs were still fairly visible, but a little more challenging. I would say we hid them in normal places and they were all found quickly enough.

The last egg hunt was for the two older boys Zhorik and Efrem. Zhorik had recently bought a very nice metal detector so we told him to bring it that Sunday. We decided bury some of the eggs with coins in them and throw some coins out into the grass so he could detect them and have to dig for them. We only did this with about five eggs so that there were plenty others for Efrem to find.
The rest were hid in very difficult places throughout the backyard. We left most in sight, but there were a couple that they just had to look everywhere for.
Unfortunately, our plans with the metal detector didn't work as well as we had hoped, because it would pick up lots of different metals and confuse Zhorik and in some cases us as to where exactly he was supposed to dig. We eventually decided to finish the hunt after lunch as it was taking so long :)
I don't know if these videos will work, but these are some that Michael took of the hunt.

April Showers

Before we even knew the gender of our baby my mother and sister began planning a baby shower for the little one. I came to Wenatchee on the fifteenth of April and on the sixteenth they had the whole house decorated and the guests were soon to arrive. The theme of the party was Horton Hatches the Egg/elephants in general.

The diaper cake seen in the picture above was begun about a month before we discovered our baby was a boy. It was the coolest cake I had ever seen. There were pacifiers, spoons, socks and, of course, diapers all topped with an adorable elephant.

There were the usual games and delicious food. Then Yevnika helped me to open the gifts when she wasn't too shy to be in front of the crowd.

I didn't realize I would have so much fun looking at that much baby stuff. Our little guy got so many wonderful things! Thanks to all! Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and I could tell my mother was very pleased with how it all went.

April 30th we had a second shower in Austin. Unfortunately, the day did not start off well. Michael woke up very sick and had to be hidden in the back room while the guests were in the house. His condition was rather distracting so I forgot to bring out my camera, but luckily others were able to take some and as soon as I get a hold of them I will post them and tell more about the party.

The party was lovely and the house was full. It was fun to see all the Austin ladies in the same room. They make such a lively bunch and they had plenty advice as well as stories of Michael when he was growing up (very fun for me to hear).

Michael was pleased to know that his family was thinking about him as they planned their gifts.  We were given several baseball themed gifts and, of course, some UT items.

Dee gave Annette this shirt and, as Nana was what Michael and his brothers called her mother, we were all agreed that it would be the perfect name for her!  This was one of the highlights of the day.

Beginning

I am finally doing it, I am finally going to start writing this blog.

Here we go...

It is April tenth and tomorrow is the six month mark! Our son seems to be getting bigger and bigger with every passing day (my stomach along with it). It has been an interesting adventure so far and is about to get much more exciting as Michael and I are about to embark on our month long trek across the country. I will be going up to Washington to visit family this week and he will meet me up there soon after. After what looks to be a wonderful visit we will head back to Utah and stay there a day and then begin our long drive to Texas!

Our car will be packed with all our needs for Kentucky so we can leave straight from Austin to Kentucky once our visit with the family is over (so excited to see everyone).