Fun with henna

My very talented Sister-in-law drew this henna tattoo for me! Beautiful don't you think? Anna drew the design on my tummy free hand. The baby made things difficult for her by kicking and rolling around. Then, my other very talented Sister-in-law Rachael took some pictures.

Ultrasound

Here are the first pictures of our baby. We had the ultrasound last weekend at Birth Matters in Colorado Springs. A local midwife that John's mom knows graciously did the ultrasound for us on a Saturday without charge. We really appreciated the generosity! It was a very warm and friendly environment, what a great experience! John's parents came with us, which was a lot of fun. It was great to huddle together around the ultrasound machine and watch our little one.

We have decided to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender. Although, if we had wanted to find out we certainly could have! We had to look away numerous times because the baby was so willing to share! He or she was not as willing to let us get a good look at his or her face. We were also told that we have a very active baby. The little one is constantly moving, which I have noticed in the last week. After seeing our baby, we are definitely excited to meet the little one. Only 19ish more weeks!

I love this picture. The baby's head is in the lower left hand corner. In the upper right hand corner, you can see little feet!

A wave hello.

Profile shot.

This one is the baby's back. I love the spine and little ribs.

Spring break in Grand Junction

John and I headed back over to the western slope for almost a week. We stayed with my parents and we also went over to Delta to hang out with the King family. It was great to spend some more time with family and get to know our newest niece. Here are a few pictures of John and I holding little Sarah.

Later in the week we took a day trip to Moab, Utah with my parents. It was a beautiful day in the desert. We had a great hike to Fisher Towers, the weather was perfect. Later we ate pizza and then watched John do some climbing at Big Bend.

My mom isn't excited about her grand-baby at all!

John, me and baby

My parents, aren't they cute?

We had a really good spring break. We both feel really blessed to have such great families. Our time with them seems to go by too quickly!

Belly Pictures and a new niece!

John and I decided to take a last minute trip out to Grand Junction at the end of February. We spent some time with my parents and some of John's family. We spent Saturday evening at the King residence. John's parents were also there from Colorado Springs. Jan (John's mother) had already been in Delta for a little while waiting for Rachael (John's sister) to have her baby. For anyone who does not know, Jan is a registered home birth midwife. Rachael and I took some belly pictures, we didn't think we would get another chance. Here Rachael is at 38 weeks, me at 16 weeks.

We didn't realize how little time we had left to be pregnant together. Rachael went into labor just six hours after these photos were taken! John and I had headed back to my parents house in Grand Junction. I got a phone call from Rachael at four in the morning saying maybe I should come back over. Of course I jumped in the car and drove straight over.

Around an hour later, Toby and Rachael had a beautiful baby girl, Sarah Bernice. It was such an honor to be at my niece's birth. Everything went great, Rachael did amazing! Now I am excited to meet my baby! Below is a picture of little Sarah and one of the family that was at the birth.

*Belly pictures and picture of Sarah courtesy of Rachael King

What a wonderful sound!

We heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time on Saturday. We were pretty excited!

New Years 2009

This year for New Years Eve, we had a fondue party! The meal started out with Gruyere cheese fondue, next we had tenderloin beef and chicken, and for desert chocolate peanut butter fondue. It was quite delicious and we enjoyed spending the last day of 2008 with friends.

The spread.

My blueberry splash "Mocktail"

Happy New Year!

Section House

Just before Christmas, John and I went on a hut trip to the Section House. The cabin is located at the top of Boreas Pass about ten miles east of Breckenridge. The Section House was built in 1882 for the men and families that took care of the the section of railroad on Boreas Pass. By the 1930's the railroad was no longer in use, so the cabin has since been rebuilt. In order to get to the Section House, we skied to it from Como, Colorado. It was about a five mile trip ending at the top of Boreas Pass 11,481.

The cabin is quite large and is equipped with two wood burning stoves. We needed to melt snow for water. The bathroom is an outdoor vault toilet with a beautiful view! Thanks to a couple of the guys who were willing to pull sleds, we ate very well. This is most of the group enjoying some homemade pizza.

This is a shot of Boreas Mountain. The cabin sit above treeline, so it was very cold at the Section House. The ski in was a little challenging because it was almost entirely uphill. We also had a bit of a late start, so we didn't get to the cabin until after dark. By the time it was dark out, we were above treeline and the wind had picked up. Coming around the last bend and seeing the cabin was a great feeling.

Mt. Silver Heels

This one is looking towards Como, Colorado

Getting ready to ski out. We had plenty of downhill on the way back.

John and I next to the old rail bed with Silver Heels in the background. I felt pretty good about having made it to the Section House that weekend. At the time, I was seven weeks pregnant and dealing with morning sickness. It was a wonderful hut trip and we could not have asked for a better better group of friends to spend the weekend with.