First trip to Cabella's with Dad

On Saturday Oct 25, we took Clayton on his first trip to Cabella's with dad. Matt showed him around and took pics by the huge display of dead animals. Matt said Clayton tried to buy a firearm and some bullets but got denied when they asked for his ID and he didn't have one. He told them his social security card should be arriving in the mail any day, but they would not sell him the weapons.

The Pediatrician

Clayton met his pediatrician in the hospital where Dr. Laycob checked him over. He said he was doing so great he didn't need to see him until 2 weeks, but as a nervous first time mom, I took him in last Monday at 1 week old. He was doing fabulous and had gained lots of weight. They said he was right on track. I think Clayton likes him because he pee'd all over 2 of the exam rooms and all over Dr. Laycob. He likes to mark his territory!

First trip out of the house

On Oct 18, almost one week old, we took our first trip out of the house to Babies R Us for some diapers and supplies. I was nervous to go but Matt thought we could do it no problem. Thanks to Matt, we did make it succesfully and have made a little bigger and longer trips every couple of days. We even changed his poopy diaper in the parking lot of St. Louis Bread Co. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was a big accomplishment for me since I was so nervous.

Clayton's Photo Shoot

Matt took some awesome pics of Clayton. I was the assistant photographer. It's not too hard to get a good shot though when he's busy being so cute and adorable. Click below to see the photos.

0810 clayton photo shhot

Visitors - Shelley and Elliot

We had visitors yesterday. Shelley and Elliot came and brought some really cool shoes too. Shelley had some ideas I had not thought of and an idea on my search for a baby wrap. I can't believe how big Elliot has gotten. I'm sure we'll blink and Clayton will be that big.

He's Here!

Well, I did not get a chance to complete my pregnancy posts, so we are skipping ahead now. You've all heard that he arrived on Oct 12. It was the best! I would not change a thing. It is so amazing to finally meet him. Now onto posting some photos as we get to know each other during maternity leave.

The places we've gone together...

So baby, these are some of the places you went with me in the womb...


We took pics of the pregnancy test result but I can not find them anywhere so maybe they were deleted. We basically found out we were pregnant with you when I was 3 days late and we took a home test on Jan 25th, a Friday night.

We were not telling people yet, but here we are in early February at a sales meeting I attended in Kansas City. There was a terrible ice and snow storm while I was there. Everyone at the meeting was drinking a lot of alcohol, but I drank water. This is when I first started to feel a little icky and very very tired. I did not feel like entertaining customers. I was there for a few days giving presentations, going to meals, and below I am pictured on their bowling night out. I think I threw one or two balls down the lane.

Below is March 14 at the March "Girls Night Dinner." Every month I go to dinner with the Super Siete chicas. It was Liz's turn to choose and we went to Robust Wine Bar in Webster Groves. Of course, a wine bar! I let the girls pour me a glass of wine but let it sit in front of me. I had told the girls I had a funny story about a threesome to tell them. When we get together everyone talks so much it is sometimes difficult to get through a sentence. So I told them to listen to my threesome story and that seemed to get everyone's attention. They were very quiet and excited to listen. They leaned in close as I told them that Matt and I were strictly having a threesome from here on out - me, Matt, and baby! They were all really excited and had huge congrats for us.

Here's Matt and I in Iowa over Easter. I was extremely tired, with nausea all day, and throwing up at least once a day until about week 16 or 17. Below we have just finished announcing to the Miller family about the pregnancy. I am about 12 weeks along here and not feeling so great. Cousin Brooke proclaims out loud "I won't be far behind you," and that turned out to be very true.

Before baby was conceived, the Super Siete had planned a trip to Florida in April. Michelle had the hook up with a very nice Florida home close to the beach in Jupiter, FL. Everyone was glad I would be prego so I could be the designated driver. We had a lot of fun and I think this was what started to cure my morning sickness. It was the first time I felt rested, relaxed, and started feeling a ton better.

The belly on the beach.

The super siete.

I stayed out of the sun and mostly hid under the umbrella the whole time, but the weather and beach were gorgeous.

Below is the volleyball team I played on called "Dig Dug" in April and May. We weren't very good or maybe the competition was tough? We didn't win any games but had a good time.

In June, Jade and I went to the Shakespeare festival at Forest Park and saw King Richard the III. It was the most boring of all the plays we had seen there, but still nice to go and relax in the park.

In late June, Iowa was hit by the big 500 year flood. Below is a pic of my drive up hwy 61 "Avenue of the Saints" which was about to flood. Cedar Rapids had just started clean up. I was there for KC and Raymond's wedding.

Me, KC, and Kelly

Hwy 61 sandbagged.

June, 2008 - Yuka's birthday

Here I am attempting to play Mario Kart on Yukari's Wii. It's tougher than it looks when you've never played before. I think I was only able to beat Yukari's mom who was visiting from Japan.

Yukari and I at her birthday party.

Baby Moon

Labor Day weekend 2008. We decided at the last minute to drive to Chicago for the weekend to enjoy one of our last long weekends together before the baby comes. We used my hotel points and were able to stay at any option of Hilton hotel but chose not to stay downtown since they wanted to charge $40 for parking per day. So we stayed by the Midway airport and took the train downtown.

The weather was gorgeous. Not too hot or too cold. We did a lot of walking around.

We walked through many shops including Lego land.

Our favorite thing was going to the John Hancock building and sitting in the lounge at the top where we relaxed and watched the sun starting to set.

The Hershey's store - a pregnant girl's dream? Actually I don't need to be prego to be addicted to chocolate and sweets.

Thank goodness we are not having a girl, for now anyway. There's a store called "American Girl" that has a beauty salon inside where you can pay $20 to have them style your American Girl doll's hair! And they had a 20 minute wait to get your doll into the salon. This store was crazy - you can also take your doll to the theatre, lunch, and buy matching outfits.

I had a list of a ton of things I wanted to do while we were in Chicago and we probably got about 10% of it done since I moved a lot slower than I thought and by the end of the day Saturday I was completely exhausted. So we just went back to the hotel room and ordered some Chicago pizza. We decided to head back to STL on Sunday so we could recover on labor day before going back to work. We stopped at IKEA on the way out and bought a bunch of stuff for the baby nursery at great prices. We both really liked that store and will be back some day. Why can't we have an IKEA in STL? They have 2 in Chicago!

It was great to get away as a couple one last time and just be with eachother. No it wasn't an exotic babymoon to a far away land, but it was fun all the same. It's really cool to think that this is our life before and everything else will be different after.

St. Louis Shower by Sister Barbie

Sunday Aug 24 - My sister Barbie threw me a shower with friends in St. Louis. Barbie is the queen of throwing parties and get togethers. The "Baby Shower" sign hung is from her own shower for my niece Jade 14 years ago - cute huh? Chicken salad sandwhiches, fruit lettuce salad, cake, and other goodies.

This was a game that Michelle made. Take a look at the 12 items on the floor: wipes, butt creme, lotions, diapers, onesies, etc. Guess how much all that cost? My guess was $42...eeeh - wrong! The winner guessed $72! Can you believe how expensive this little guy is going to be to support? But I still won, because I got to keep all the goodies! Thanks Michelle.

Plus tons more gifts from my friends....

And here we are: Laura, Barbie, Michelle, me, Angela, Kristen, Ursula, Lauren, Tiffany, Mireia, Jacqueline, and Yukari.