Prego Glow

This past weekend Joo Lin, Baby Rice, and I were able to travel to North Bend to visit my mother and my sister Klorissa. My sister has been living in Arizona for awhile and her and her husband made a trip back to Oregon to visit. My sister is also prego! She is about 7 weeks ahead of us and they already know that they are having a boy, which is exciting for them. They are having trouble coming up with a name but they still have time. I personally like George. Klorissa use to call our Grandpa George while growing up so I like that name. Below is a picture of the prego ladies together. I think they have a certain glow to them. It's cute, enjoy!

Favorite Things!

I have a number of favorite things in my life but one of them has to be little kids artwork. This piece of art was made during Sacrament meeting last Sunday and it was done by our niece Amanda. It's a picture of Joo Lin, also one of my favorite things. I hope that you enjoy it.

Pregnancy Update #1

So far it seems my pregnancy has been pretty simple and uneventful. I was only queasy for a few weeks about the middle of the 1st trimester. Nothing more than queasy, thank goodness! Smells were terrible - not as bad now. Some of the rest areas while traveling got the best of me. For a few weeks I was tired enough to take naps after work and still go to bed at my normal time (between 10-11 pm). I feel like I'm hitting a phase of being tired again but I'm trying to get to bed closer to 10 than 11 these days to try and prevent that and keep me functioning at work. The worst thing is right now I have food aversions to all food. I gag just thinking about what I need to eat... especially chicken and salad. Huh. Two things I've always loved. Any suggestions on that one? I worry that I'm not getting enough food, but what I eat is relatively healthy. What else? Oh yes, the famous baby bump. Well, I'm only 14 1/2 weeks along so I don't feel like I am quite at the point of having one, but some say that they can see it since I'm not gaining weight anywhere but my tummy area. It is most likely just the clothes I am wearing that make the difference. I have only gained a couple pounds total (on a good day) and the doctor told me I need to eat more - ergh! I do know that I can't button my regular pants anymore and I love the one pair of maternity khakis I have (the kind you can make different sizes to accommodate the growing belly... I'm not jumping the gun! I just want to be comfy!).

Hesitantly I attach pictures for you to judge for yourself. Left is 13 weeks and right is 7 weeks.


Let's see... emotionally I think I'm pretty stable so far. I admit that I feel slightly more stressed at work and less patient with the phone calls at work. Other than that I haven't had any breakdowns or thrown anything at Kelley yet. Lucky guy - ha!

I do have to thank Kelley for being such a great husband through all this. He is always willing to get me anything I want to eat, takes care of the house, rubs my back every night, and compliments me. What a fabulous man I have! [Kelley will add any comments/disagreements to what I wrote...]

KELLEY'S ADDITION:
I love that Joo Lin is pregnant...or as I call it, prego! I love that Joo Lin lets me be quirky and talk to her stomach and the baby every night before we go to bed. It's my payment for giving her a back rub. I also love that she has cravings because I get to benefit from them too. I think most of her cravings results from my cravings though. My little sister is also prego, six weeks ahead of us, so I talk with her and she always tells me when she is extra cranky so I just remember those moments and I am extra nice to Joo Lin when that time rolls around. I also like that our Doctor is a Beaver Alumni too!

Da Vinci Days 2008

This past weekend Joo Lin and I were lucky to have both of our nieces come down to spend the weekend with us. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast swimming till we turned into raisins! The main reason for them coming down was to attend Da Vinci Days. The girls loved the parade and they loved doing all the fun kid stuff that they had. The only problem that we ran into was with the crazy balloon lady that was supposedly working for tips that made us tip her. It was quite awkward. She was even dressed up as a crazy looking clown, CREEPY! Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

New Calling

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to serve as ward bulletin guru. After contemplating whether or not I wanted to accept, I finally accepted. So I decided that I would come up with a Top Ten List of things that I shouldn't put on in the bulletin.

Top Ten Things not to put in your ward bulletin:
#10...OSU Football Recruiting updates
#9....Upcoming OSU Football Schedule
#8....Football betting lines
#7....Sports recaps
#6....Fantasy Baseball scores
#5....Pregnancy pool
#4....Baseball boxscores
#3....Corvallis Police beats
#2....Pictures of Joo Lin's belly

and
#1....Pictures of Kelley's belly

You all have been waiting and now the time has come...

... for a little baby Rice. We went to the doctor today and heard the heartbeat for the first time. It was the COOLEST sound in the world!!! (Kelley says better than any video game - amazing, huh?) We wanted to tell everyone from the moment we found out we are prego, and it's been the hardest secret EVER to keep. But now you know... we are 13 weeks 4 days along and we are expecting mid-January.

Kelley is hoping for twins, but realistically we will just have one little bundle of joy. The names have been picked already, even though we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet. For a boy, James Gresham and for a girl, Seoul Elizabeth.

More to come soon...