Feeling Blue ...!!!....

Baby #2 looks to be a ...... BOY!!!

We had a fun ultrasound with Debbie again this afternoon, and even though she suggested we perhaps wait with an announcement until after our appointment with a doctor at the clinic in 4 weeks, I have full confidence in her ultrasound skills, so here we go! :)

Baby was moving around like crazy which made it a little hard to get measurements initially, but everything seems to measure on track.

In the above two pictures, in the upper right part of the picture you see a half moon shape ... that's the butt with two legs sticking to the right, and, is that a little turtle in between?

Baby's profile with hand to his face.

A hand with fingers.

A little foot! It measures 2.3 cms long!

I thought this was a cool picture, it s where the umbilical cord inserts into the belly!

This is another side view of the baby, with his butt up in the upper left side, and then head down in the lower right corner.

We also got to see some great images of his brain, and got to see how different parts of his brain are developing! Such a miracle.

Big sister in training!

We have a little announcement ... :0) ... Most of you know already, but Andi is a big sister in training!! Wohoo!! Praise the Lord!

I'm currently 13+ weeks along, almost in the second trimester. Apart from a few minor things (let's just say prunes have become my friend), I have been feeling great. I have not had a single day of nausea which feels odd, and sure different than the pregnancy with Andi (maybe this one's a boy? ;) )

I actually found out on Halloween (October 31st), and Andi and I had fun 'telling' Ben: Even though I had already made her a Dutch milk maid costume, I had quickly made her an exercise outfit with tights, sneakers and a leotard reading "Big Sister" in the front, and "In training" in the back. I told Ben I made Andi a second halloween costume, and he replied "Why would you do that, you spent hours making her Dutch costume?" Then when Andi walked into the room, Ben's face was priceless :)
We had been praying for a sibling for Andi for quite some time, and feel so blessed with this pregnancy. We appreciate your prayers over this baby and pregnancy, and hopefully he or she will make his/her arrival sometime around July 9th!

Andi's 2nd costume on Halloween:



No explanation needed :)


Even though I'm only 13 weeks along, I've already had 3 ultrasounds. At 7+ weeks we had a fun-ultrasound at the Heart to Heart pregnancy center with Debbie. What a treat! Because I had been taking Clomid I was a little bit anxious to find out if I was carrying multiples. Thankfully, even though I think Debbie would have thought it to be fun to see twins or triplets in there, I was sure a tad relieved when it showed only one :)
He/She measured about 1cm, and had a heartbeat of 126 bpm.

Then at 9+ weeks we had our first ultrasound at the Women's clinic. Everything looked right on track. Amazing to see how much a tiny baby like that grows in only 2 weeks! At this point the baby measured 2.4 cms and had a heartbeat of 171 bpm.

Then this morning I had just a regular checkup appointment at the clinic. However, when the doctor put on the fetal stethoscope, he was not able to find a heartbeat, no matter how much he searched for one. Even though he said that that is not that uncommon at early stages of pregnancy, he did for sure want to perform an ultrasound. Definitely a 'Breath-in-deep-and-trust-in-the-Lord!' moment! A long 10+ minute wait later, the ultrasound image showed up on the screen (and Andi recognized it saying "baby"!), I saw the baby's arm move right away, and the doctor was able to see the heartbeat. Praise God!

This was a very quick ultrasound, no measuring or pictures of any kind, but still, it was again awesome to see how much this tiny baby has developed in just those extra couple of weeks.

On the first day of 2011 ...

.... the Bryans cut up their first Elk!
Ahh to be married to an Alaskan/Wyoming burly mountain man ;) Even though I had seen friends cut up their elk/deer/antelope, I had never had the privilege of doing something like that myself, and it is most definitely not a common way to spend New Year's Day in any Dutch household!
It was a female elk (NL: edelhert), and we spent a good 3 hours with 4 adults (Ben and I, and Tom and Marilyn) cutting and grinding it up into mostly hamburger and a couple of steaks: 65+lbs of hamburger, 11 lbs of hamburger with pig fat (for the flavor) mixed in, and about 14 packages of steaks! Now that'll fill our freezer and feed us nicely until next hunting season!

Ben posing with the animal:


We cut it up in Tom's shop, nicely heated, stove crackling with fire, tunes, and we had a fun time butchering on this otherwise fridgidly cold and windy (-34 with the windchill!) first day of the year.

Getting everything ready:

Tom, Ben and I on the cutting station, and Marilyn on grinding and packaging duty:

These pictures are taken mostly at the beginning, when everything looked nicely clean still :)

There we go, a nice chunk of meat!

Andi was also hanging out in the shop with us. We brought in some toys for her to play with, and she did so great entertaining herself, and watching the adults cut up that elk.

It was however the day after all that New Year's Eve, up late, partying, so she did get quite tired after 3 hours.

However, more, more, and more meat had to be cut still! ....amazing how much meat comes off an animal like that!

....

Marilyn rockin' the grinder!

Happy New Year everyone!!