12 week belly picture

I can't believe how far behind I've been on my blogging. I finally got our Wisconsin vacation updated and we have one week left home and then we are off to the baptism and to Iowa before two-a-days start.

Here is my 12 week picture taken on Monday. I don't think I will have a 13 week picture. Tom is out of town this weekend and we don't know if he'll be back on Sunday night or until Thursday night. He has 2 days off in between reserve stuff and will probably just stay in Birmingham to avoid the extra 6 hours of driving.



I really think that I am starting to "show" now. My pants are getting a little snug to where buttoning them and sitting down is quite uncomfortable. I just got a thing called a "BeBand" that goes over your pants to keep them up so you can wear them unbuttoned before going into maternity clothes. I think that by next week I will be using it.

Thursday, June 25th, our vacation is finally here!!!

We spent all of Wednesday night finishing up with our packing and laundry and cleaning to get ready for our trip. Thursday finally came and I had to get up early and go to work at the clinic. By the time I got off around noon and made it home, Tom pretty much had the truck packed and ready to go. I decided to take the first part of the drive so that Tom would not have to drive the whole way like he usually does. My 4 hours that I was going to drive turned into 7. I decided I wasn't tired and I could drive most of the way except for the Chicago traffic so Tom took over and drove the last 2 hours in the dark and through the traffic.



The puppies were really good and slept most of the way. We rolled into Twin Lakes just after 11 and unpacked the truck, let the puppies run around the yard a little bit while the house cooled off and then headed off to bed just after midnight.

Our First Day in Wisconsin...

We got in so late on Thursday night that we pretty much unpacked and went to bed. Tom got up bright and early with the dogs and started doing all the yard clean up. The dogs slept so much in the car on the way and then all night that they were up at 5 as soon as the sun was up. Tom let them out to potty and they took off to explore the neighborhood. That is what gave Tom the motivation to stay up and work in the yard and let the dogs run off some of the energy they had stored up.


We have so many pictures of Shirley at the lake that I was trying to get a good one of Riley to frame and hang on the wall. Too bad she doesn't hardly stay in one place long enough to take her picture.

I think I'm gonna go with this one. I like how the sun is shining on the ripple that Riley is making in the water.

Riley really enjoyed her first day at the lake.

We got back from the lake and Tom took me to my favorite breakfast restraunt, Dillars in Richmond. It was just as good as I remember but I was sad not to get to drink coffee since they make the best there. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and getting the house and the yard ready for company by pulling weeds and trimming bushes and unpacking. Alan, Drew, Kendra and Joey took FOREVER to get here, but they had to wait for Kendra to get off work so I guess it was worth it. I was just about to call it a night and go to bed and make Tom wait up for them when they rolled in around 11:15. I decided to stay up with them and talk and hang out and we made it to bed around 1 or so. Wow, was I tired... two nights in a row up that late is not good for a pregnant lady.

Saturday get together.

Saturday the boys and Kendra slept in and Pat got in around 9am. She wanted to come up and see the family since she hasn't seen them since our wedding and didn't know when she would see them again. Mom and Dad rolled in with Daisy around 11:30 and the boys wanted to take the canoe down to the lake for a ride. After Drew got the canoe cleaned out from all the wasps nests they took it down. I don't have any pictures of that cuz Mom and Dad took most of the pictures on Saturday and haven't given them to me yet but it was funny!!! Tom gave Drew and Alan a push out and wasn't very nice about it... It only took him about 20 ft of pushing to get them tipped over!

The water was kind of choppy like I told them that it was going to be with all the water skiers and jet skis on the lake but they gave it the old college try anyway. Drew and Alan had a hard time staying in the canoe even without Tom "helping them out" Tom took Joey when they got back and they worked out a system where they figured out how to ride out the waves and stay in the canoe. After that Alan and Drew gave it another shot and even Dad got out there with Alan and took a ride. Kendra and I opted out for the day due to the choppy water.


The doggies enjoyed the beach later that day when we took them swimming. Riley decided it would be fun to roll around in the sand after she was dripping wet in lake water. Mmmmmm, sandy puppy!

Later that night we decided to grill out and of course it decided to start raining and put a damper on our outside plans. Joey and I spent a long time playing cards and everyone else was hanging out in the living room. Once it got dark we all headed into town and watched the fireworks from the car on a hill that Tom found for us. It was a good show. I'm glad that we got to see them fireworks are one of my favorite things to do for the year. It is weird how they were a week before the 4th though. But I am glad because I got to see them with my family.

Sunday family time...

Sunday morning Mom and I got up early and made our trademark breakfast for the family... Biscuits and Gravy and I also made some scramble eggs. The boys all had a lot of fun on the canoe yesterday so they decided to go out early this morning and have another go in the calmer waters. Drew took Kendra and Joey first and then Tom took Joey out for another ride when they came back.


I think everyone had as good of a time as I did hanging out together. We are really fortunate that Pat allowed us all to get together at her house for the weekend. It was a nice gathering place for us all to meet centrally and still have a vacation atmosphere.

Mary stopped by just before lunch to see everyone and hang out for a while before she had to go meet her Mom for dinner.

Ahhh, the family portrait!!! What a great weekend. I am so happy that everyone was able to make it up. Everyone headed out around 1 or 2.

Monday recovery...

Everyone had so much fun on the canoe over the weekend that I had to see for myself today. Tom took me out on the lake early and we enjoyed a very peaceful ride around the lake. The best part was that Tom told me not to paddle and to just relax and enjoy the ride. I put my feet up on the front of the canoe and leaned back and enjoyed the morning sun and the view of all the nice houses on the lake and it was just amazing.


We got back from out canoe ride and felt bad for the puppies for not getting to go so we had some breakfast and then headed to the park. Shirley of course new right away how to get there once we turned the corner. Riley loved it once we got there. They immediately took off and ran, and ran, and ran some more. Then Shirley ran some more and Riley just kinda trotted around all tired.

It's been a while now that our yard is fenced in that the dogs have been able to run all crazy like that, its too bad because they not only need it but they really enjoy it.

Shirley could stay here all day and play but we had to get back for lunch. Today was a good day. We were able to spend some quality time together and really enjoy our dogs as well.

Tuesday at Mary's...

Tuesday we got up early and Tom went out for a run with Shirley and Riley and I stayed back and slept in. When he got back Adam came over and he took us out for breakfast at Manny's Snack Shack in Twin Lakes. It was packed in there for a Tuesday morning. We had to wait a little bit to sit down but once we got our food it was well worth it. That was a HUGE breakfast. The boys made the pregnant girl look like a big piggy though. I order a 2 egg omlet and an order of hash browns and I swear the omlet had 9 eggs in it and the hasbrowns could have fed all of us. That along with the huge 2 pieces of toast that came with the omlet and my food took up half the table. It was really good though and I definately ate more than I should have. I'm gonna say that I still like Dillar's better but it's definately up there on my list of breakfast places.


Tuesday was a cold day and we had planned on spending the afternoon at Mary's lake house up in Waterford, WI, about a half hour north of Twin Lakes, but I had to make a trip up to the Target in Lake Geneva first to get some pants and some long sleeves for the two of us. I guess we didn't remember how cold it gets this time of year.

Troy and Mary have a really cute place on the lake and Shirley and Riley couldn't get enough of the pier and the lake water. Their pier had some rope up on the pipes to keep the geese off the dock and their yard so that was the only thing keeping the two from launching off the end. I think Tom is pointing at some ducks out there that Shirley was infatuated with.

Shirley sat on the dock like that for about 10 minutes without moving waiting for Tom to come back out there with her.

The puppies were confined to the spare bedroom downstairs because of the hardwood floors upstairs so we hung out down there with them. They were having some separation anxiety issues this day. We hung out over there until about 7:30 after Mary fed us some yummy Chinese food and then headed back home to relax for the rest of the night.

My first time golfing!

Wednesday morning Tom and I got up early and took the dogs out for a walk then had some breakfast and then Tom took me golfing for my very first time.


I don't know why I have never wanted to go before. I guess I have always wanted that to be something that I wanted Tom to have to himself to do with his brothers and his friends but I had a great time. It was not only fun to do, even though I was horrible at it, but it was so much fun riding around on the golf cart with Tom and having some quality time together to laugh at each other and talk and just be friends!!

Tom is a MUCH better golfer than me but it was funny because every time I was standing by him and especially when I tried to take his picture, he didn't do well at all. He especially liked it when I laughed at him when he didn't get the ball as far as mine. It was only once or twice though :)

I am sure my form is horrible and I was glad that we didn't keep score but I would have to say that this is probabaly one of the best dates that Tom has ever taken me on and I can't wait until we have another day like this...

Tom's mom, Pat, made it back into town later that day just after lunch time. She decided to take a couple of days off of work and hang out and have a little vacation of her own. She spends every day taking care of Grandma and this past year has really taken a toll on her both mentally and physically as Grandma continues to go deeper into her state of dementia. She really needed the break and we were so glad that Eileen volunteered to stay at the house with her while Pat took a MUCH needed break. I really hope that she is able to get back to the lake more often, she is definately a different person when she is away from home for a couple of days. Pat and I decided to go to the ski show since we haven't seen one in a while. It so amazing the things that they can do on water skis... WOW!

Thursday beach time...

This was clearly not only a vacation for Tom and I but for Shirley and Riley as well!!! The puppies got to spend so much time at the lake I am sure that they are missing it right now. Pretty much everyday except for Tuesday and Wednesday when it was too cold they were there at least once usually twice per day.


The water is pretty shallow, but where Shirley is at it is probably about 2 feet deep and Shirley is leaping over the water to jump for a rock that Tom was throwing. I wish we could do things like this with them more often, they have so much fun and we really enjoy taking them and watching them run around and swim. Tom calls Shirley his little German U-Boat because she swims with just her nose and top of her head out of the water.

Riley does more of a jump and splash kind of swim and when she gets into the deeper water she paddles so hard to keep her chest up out of the water... its so cute. Here is a serious of three pictures where Tom threw a rock and the puppies were racing each other to get to it first.

Riley has a pretty good leap...

And she was much more excited about getting there first and beat Shirley this time by quite a bit....

Thursday was still a pretty chilly day but we were able to make the most of it. Pat and I were very productive and were able to get all of the cooking done for the weekend so that we could spend our time with Baby Ryan and not cooking in the kitchen. I was definately glad I had help for this because it was a big job and we were able to get it all done in one afternoon.

Friday the next gang arrives

Everyone got stuck in the Fourth of July traffic coming up to Twin Lakes on Friday but they all made it eventually. Bobby, Mo and Jimmy were the first to arrive just before noon. Next was Mike and Lisa and their baby Ryan and finally Patrick and Soumya with their new dog Abby. We were excited to see everyone but most excited to see Ryan. He is now 5 weeks old and this is the first time we saw him. I couldn't believe how small he still is. He is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen.



You can see how proud Tom was to finally hold him. He was a little nervous at first as this was the smallest baby he has ever held but he caught on real quick. Every time Tom held him for the most part he fell asleep. So precious!!!

Tom is going to be the Godfather at Ryan's Christening on the 19th and he was just so honoured when Mike and Lisa asked him to do this. He had me make up a t-shirt that he could wear when he met him. On the front it says: "T-Bone is..." and on the back it says: "The GodFather" He is just so cute around babies, I can't wait to see him with ours, he is going to be the best father I could ever imagine for our children.

We spent a lot of Friday afternoon ooing and ahing over Ryan even though he slept most of the day, it was still fun to just look at him.

Tom shared him time equally with the baby and with his buddies. The boys got off to an early start. It's been a long time since all of them have been together so they kind of had a crazy night. The boys started to run out of beer so around 10 they decided to head over to the neighboorhood bar and then brought some beer down to the lake. They suprisingly made it home and to bed around 1:30.

Lazy Saturday...

After the boys crazy Friday night, Saturday was much more low key. I woke up early and made a nice big bisquits and gravy and scrambled eggs breakfast for all the drinkers to soak up the rest of the alcohol in their systems. That went over well, everyone ate and then went into a breakfast coma for a while. After everyone was up and alive for a while they decided around lunch time to break out the beers and bags and start at it again.



With the boys having their fun the girls were up on the deck with Baby Ryan... We just couldn't get enough of the little guy. He was awake a little more this day than Friday. He is definately a Grandma's boy!

Everyone stayed on Saturday except for Patrick and Soumya and their dog Abby. It turns out that Abby and Shirley and Riley don't really get along and Abby is not used to being around other dogs and got a little defensive with Riley and took a little bite out of her leg... our poor baby. The dog is from a pound and has lived most of its life in a cage so you can imagine how it socializes... Not well. It's just too unpredictable and aggressive and seems to always be on the defense.

We actually had a great rest of the day hanging out and catching up on old times. Tom and I made hotwings and hotdogs for dinner for everyone and then we watched the neighboors fireworks display from lawnchairs in front of the house. Ryan, along with the rest of us were pooped and everyone went to bed fairly early.

Sunday in Chicago

Sunday, everyone else packed up and headed out. Mike and Lisa stayed the longest along with Pat to help us clean up the house and pack up our stuff to head down to Chicago. It really didn't take much with everyone working together to get the place back in order. Tom, Mike and Lisa took the dogs to the lake to swim before heading out and almost got arrested by the Twin Lakes PD for having the dogs in the lake. Out of the 2 years that we lived there, we never had a problem, now all of a sudden people are going to crack down on the no dogs on the beach rule... Oh, well we didn't have to bail them out so I guess it all worked out!


Tom and I headed out of Twin Lakes around 2:00 and got to Pat's house around 3:30... We were glad to see that Eileen was still there and she had stuck around to see us! It's been since Lisa's shower since I've seen her and Tom hasn't seen any of them since Thanksgiving. We hung out in the back yard on Grandma's Mother's Day swing for a while until it started raining. We then headed in to say goodbye to Aunt Eileen and enjoyed some yummy Chicago pizza. We had to settle for Palermo's since Cipriani's was closed for the holiday weekend but it was still pretty good!!! And, there was enough for leftovers too, YEAH!

It wasn't long after dinner that the puppies were zonked out in the bed sleeping butt to butt, aren't they just the cutest in the world!!! Gosh, we love 'em!!! They had a long busy week and are ready for rest!

Monday's Ride Home

We got up pretty early on Monday morning and had breakfast with Pat as she was getting ready for work. After Pat left we took our showers and got Grandma situated in the living room watching her news and were out the door before 8:00am. We were pretty proud of ourselves by getting out the door in such good time. We really didn't hit any traffic on the way home. Tom drove the whole way and I was able to take a couple naps. I had a bad nights sleep the night before... my hips were really bothering me and I had to get up a lot to use the bathroom. You can see here how tired the puppies were... they slept pretty much the whole way home with the exception of the couple stops for gas and food and they also got to get out once for about 10 minutes to walk which they enjoy.


Shirley and Riley had just as much fun as we did on our vacation but I think they were happiest to be home though. Riley went right back to eating more regularly and Shirley has spent some time making sure the squirels are in check in the back yard, but I can't believe how much both of them have been sleeping, even Shirley, which she never gets tired. Tom and I are glad to be home sleeping in our own bed too but really found out how much we miss living closer to everyone and seeing everyone on a more regular basis. We are counting the days to get out of TN.

Catching Up, Again...

I have just started to feel better... I have been quite sickly for the past few weeks but just before our trip to Wisconsin I started to come around. This was good, because I didn't want to feel miserable on our vacation. But, because I was feeling so bad I had no motivation or energy to keep up with my blogging... Hopefully, now I will stay up to date.

Here is my 9 and 10 week pictures, still not much of a change.

At 10 weeks I was really starting to notice a change in myself but I don't think it is very obvious to anyone else yet here. This is when it started to feel uncomfortable to lie on my stomach because I could feel "something" in my belly. :)