Ethan Lynn

Finally! Ethan is napping and I finally have a chance to update our blog fofr the first time in months. With all that we've had going on with the fire and then scrambling to pull things together before Ethan's arrival, I haven't been very good about posting "belly" pics. Here's the last one, taken as we were leaving for the hospital to be induced.

Our first moments as a new family

Some of Ethan's first visitors!

Home at last!! We were sure glad when we were finally released from the hospital!

Because of his jaundice, Ethan had to spend the first few days at home on this "bili bed". We jokingly called it his alien tanning bed, but it really was no fun. We hated that he was so lethargic and could hardly stay awake to make it through a feeding. We sure are glad that he has got his jaundice in check now and we can cuddle him whenever we want!

Bath time--he has grown to like baths a whole lot more since this first one!

An awake picture--finally!! This is one of my favorites so far!

Gotta' love baby hands and feet. Ethan is famous for his loooong fingers...maybe he will play the organ like his Grandpa Bernard did!

Lots of naps, although not necessarily when we would like them to be!

First tummy-time! He's not sure how he feels about it yet!

Another nap time photo-op! Tristan calls this his "Moses pose"..."Let my people go!!" Not only is he practicing stretching out his legs, but his arms as well.

Ethan's umbilical stump, or "belly button ring" as I like to call it, finally fell off at about 2 1/2 weeks. Here he is, showing off his new belly button.

I love this picture...Tristan and Ethan we tuckered out after church! Ethan is learning all about Sunday naps already!

O.k., so this was taken upside-down, but Tristan and I were cracking up. Ethan is our little "frog boy"--he likes to have his knees tucked up to his chest because he was so jammed inside of me! Lately he has been "spreading his wings" a little more. As you can see, he was really enjoying all the space he had to take an evening nap before bed. We love our little man!

We are so blessed to have Ethan as a part of our family. Thank you for all of the thoughts, prayers and hugs that have gotten us to where we are. We are so thankful to have everyone's support!

Trip to New Orleans

O.k., o.k., I know it has been way too long since I've last posted, but every time I've tried I have had problems getting our pictures to upload.  So finally here's an update!  A couple of months ago we made a day-trip to New Orleans to celebrate our friend, Rio's, birthday.  We had a full day planned, but had plenty of time to goof off before the festivities started!  It was a fun day!

We had some time to enjoy the beautiful sunshine along the Mississippi River.

The rest of our crew:  Becky, Rio and Eric.

We decided to take in an IMAX in 3-D.  We saw one about the ocean, which if you know me at all, is right up my alley!!

We stopped for lunch at the House Of Blues...no music but excellent food!

Our next stop was the new Insectarium that just opened in New Orleans.  It is basically a zoo that houses only bugs (living and dead).  I wouldn't have thought that a place about bugs could take up a lot of time, but it is definitely a whole day thing!  There were many rooms that were each dedicated to something different.

One room in the Insectarium was about Louisiana habitats...not sure it belongs with bugs, but at least he was cute (while he's small!!)

One of the rooms had all of these dead bugs in it, which should be gross but it was actually really beautiful.  This dragon is actually made of different beetles--it's amazing all of the varieties of animals that Heavenly Father made.

On of the last stops we made in the Insectarium was the butterfly house (it's a lot like the one at the Pacific Science Center for you West Coast peeps).  I always love all of the beautiful flowers they have in those rooms!

We had kind of a hard time getting any good shots of the moths and butterflies since they were being a little camera shy, but here's one of the many that were flying around!

The gift shop was the last stop at the Insectarium...Tristan was being silly, as usual.  I'm sure glad that I married someone who makes me laugh!  He doesn't have any monkeys on his back, but he does have one big spider!!

An updated pregnancy pic for the moms!  This was taken at about 24 weeks, I think, so I've grown more since then...I'll have to post an updated one soon.  I took my glucose test last week and haven't heard anything back, so I'm assuming no news is good news!  I can't believe that I'm starting my third trimester.  Time sure does fly and we can't wait to meet our little boy!

We've also made a lot of progress on our nursery and preparing for our little one's arrival.  As soon as the room is in good shape I'll post some pics!

It's A Boy!!

A couple of weeks ago Tristan and I finally got to find out what we were having when I got my second ultrasound!  We were so excited.  After a warning from several friends, I drank some apple juice before the appointment so he would have energy and not be sleeping and uncooperative.  Well, I might have overdone it by drinking two tall glasses of super-sweet apple juice, but I just wanted to be sure.  Let me just tell you--if our child is anything like he was on the ultrasound when he is born, are we ever going to have our hands full!  He was wild--bucking, rolling, punching and kicking, somersaulting and moving all around.  Poor guy, mom sugared him up good!  Well, the tech didn't even have to tell me it was a boy.  It was pretty obvious!  We are so excited to welcome our little boy to our family in August!

Here he is with his hand up at his face, which is the position he favored for most of the ultrasound.  Maybe he was hungry or something....isn't that what putting hands in their mouths mean?

These are a couple of profile shots of our sweet little guy.  As you can see, he is facing different directions--proof that I'm not exaggerating!  He was all over the place.

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's a side view with him looking at the camera.  It's amazing how clear some pictures are and how others leave me clueless.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't become an ultrasound tech!!

Here on the left you can see his little leg and on the right is a partial profile with his hand up to his mouth. See... he already loves his hands...we couldn't get him to keep his arms and hands away from his face during the ultra sound!!

Mardi Gras 2009 and Doctor Suess Celebration

Well, here we are at 17--almost 18 weeks!  Only 2 more weeks until we find out if it's a boy or girl...we're thinking girl, but we'll see!!  I have been feeling a lot better.  No more nausea (unless I try to lay on my back to sleep or go too long without eating or drinking) and my energy level has been better.  More energy means we actually have been able to go do some fun things lately, so I finally have something to post!  We have also been busy researching and hunting for things to put in our nursery, as well as cleaning out the second bedroom to be transformed!  We have definitely been busy the last month or so!

This week our school celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday.  The week was full of fun events for the kids and on Friday we had a costume day for the teachers.  We dressed up as book characters, and you know I had to be Horton!  Any chance to be an elephant can't be passed up!

A few weeks ago Tristan and I attended our first Mardi Gras parade.  We went to the South Downs parade in Baton Rouge, which is only about 20 minutes away.  We figured we have lived here for 2 years now and we really had no good excuse for not having attended one yet!  We actually had a lot of fun and are so glad that we did it!

This was a small family-oriented parade, so the floats aren't what you would see in some of the larger parades around the state, but here are a few that we saw.

This is just a taste of all the beads that we caught.  Tristan had a lot of luck catching toys and food, too!

Tristan found a street reflector and decided that it might add some more "bling" to his beads...he's so silly!  He was convinced that the backwards cap would help him catch more beads, too...my little gangsta'...

This is Tristan and our friend, Eric, showing off some of their loot from the parade.  We had two shopping bags full on top of this!  Now we have to figure out what we're going to do with all of that stuff!!

Baby Bernard

Well, it's official!!  We have to grow up--a little bit.  Baby Bernard will be making it's debut on August 11 (give or take a few days).  Tristan and I are thrilled and are so thankful to have the support of friends and family.  We couldn't be more excited to welcome the first of our children to our family.  Our family were the first to know--we told them on Christmas day and they, of course, are ecstatic.  My dad even cried (my mom was too busy screaming!).  Tristan's mom is also very excited to add more grandchildren to her family.  We are so glad that everything turned out well with the breast biopsy that I underwent in December.  That is actually how we found out I was pregnant.  As part of my pre-admission process they took a blood test to make sure they could put me under and it turned out I was pregnant.  Fortunately it all worked out I was able to be out for the surgery.  The lump came back as being nothing to worry about--an abnormal fibroid, but NOT cancer.  Which was a double blessing, since Baby Bernard was already baking in the oven!!  We had our first appointment about 2 weeks ago and got to check him/her out...it even did a little dancing around for us while we were watching.  No wonder that heart rate was up so high.  Thankfully I am feeling much better.  After being super sick over the holidays it feels good to eat normally again.  Check out baby's first pictures!!

Snow Days!!!

I couldn't sleep on Wednesday night, so I got up about 3:30 and decided to just get up for the day.  I was on the couch reading scriptures a few hours later when I started hearing some shrieking outside.  When I looked out the window I couldn't believe my eyes!!  SNOW!!  From what we heard, it has never snowed like this in Louisiana.  About 3-4 inches accumulated in some areas, forcing many bridges to shut down because they didn't have the equipment handy to de-ice the bridges.  The city of Baton Rouge was really paralyzed by the storm.  School was cancelled for 2 days because there were so many power outages...it was so fun to get some unexpected time off to play, especially since Tristan was home!

I haven't gotten to make and throw a snowball in a couple of years...so much fun!

It was so fun to be out playing in the snow together!  It was the perfect snow for building a snowman!

Here we are getting ready to go run some errands.  We aren't even used to having to scrape ice off of our windshields, let alone snow!

Winter scenery around Baton Rouge.

Fall is in the air--even in Louisiana!!

With fall comes Halloween and what else?  Football!!  Tristan and I decided we couldn't live in Louisiana and never have attended an LSU game.  Here we are all decked out in our LSU garb with our pumpkins (mine is the elephant, of course!!)  Don't worry, we aren't being completely disloyal to our Washington Huskies--at least it's the same colors!!  Besides, if you don't wear LSU colors, they assume you're with the other guys, which can be dangerous.
We made it!!  It was so crazy to see how seriously people take tailgating around here.  There were tents, t.v.s, couches and alcohol set up outside all over the campus where people had made camp to prep for the game. I guess people rent a spot for tailgating!! We even got to watch them try to load up their mascot (a live tiger) from his habitat on campus--must have been too cold for him, too.  Or maybe he had a feeling how bad the game was going to be!!  Our seats are behind us at the very top of the addition to the stadium.
Don't even think this is the craziest of the fans...the big story down here after a game the week before was that a man shot his friend and his friend's wife over a dispute over LSU tickets...they take their football seriously down here!
For awhile there we though half-time was going to be the highlight of the game!!  It was so amazing to watch all of the formations.  LSU's band is truly amazing.  They did a tribute to Aerosmith, so the music was upbeat and fun!!
I can't remember the last time I was this cold!!  I think I had on like 4 layers and two blankets and I was still freezing.  It definitely felt like home that night.  Here Becky and I try to help each other out with body heat.  Rio and Eric do the same.  Oh by the way, that is the very top of the stadium in case you were wondering...not the best seats, but it was still fun.
It wasn't pretty, but the Tigers scored 33 points in the 4th quarter to win it!!  I'm so glad we didn't sit through that freezing cold game for a loss!!