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!!

Dec. 5th: Sinterklaas

Andi is lucky to be 50% Dutch living in the US, because not only does she get presents with celebrating Christmas with the American side of the family, but she also gets presents celebrating Sinterklaas, the traditional Dutch time to do presents, on December 5th (we celebrated a little early this year). My parents send us a box every year with presents. We play the CD with kids' Sinterklaas songs (to Ben's joy), and then the fun begins. As per tradition, Sinterklaas writes a poem (about the gift and person receiving it) to accompany every gift, so we read those out loud before opening the gifts.





A picture of the good old man with his black Petes. Sinterklaas comes in on a steamship from Spain, and rides his horse over peoples' roofs to drop off presents in their chimney. The black Petes hand out candies (pepernoten) to the kids as well.

Ah were we spoiled! Not only fun presents (a big sheep for Andi!), but also lots of yummy treats: pepernoten, the traditional chocolate letter (the first letter of your name in chocolate), stroopwafels, and ...Mmm, my favorite ... a honking piece of Marsepein (Marzipain). Thanks mom! :)




Andi opening one of her presents.

Reading one of my poems :)

I got party decorations!

Ben reading one of his poems with Andi.

Ben got some warm gear :)

The following are some video's (more for my mom, the official sponsor of this year's Sinterklaas)


Andi Dancing to the Sinterklaas CD - she loved it!


Some more Dancing :)

Opening the box (oh kom er eens kijken!)

Opening a present with dad....a big sheep! She loves it!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Jackson, WY.

Before Andi, our annual Thanksgiving tradition was to go camping together. Goal was always one of the national parks in the region. Since camping in zero degree weather with a toddler doesn't really spell out "fun" to me, but we still wanted to have a little adventure get-away as a family, we decided to go with a cabin in Jackson, WY. Still close to a National Park :)
We had a lot of fun walking through town, we went swimming in the pool, played in the snow in Grand Teton National Park, got to see a lot of animals (lots of elk, deer, moose, a couple of buffalo, foxes, bald eagles, and even two wolves, which was a total treat!), went up in the gondola of Jackson Hole ski resort, and did what every other American does during Thanksgiving break: be lazy and eat :).

The antler arches in Jackson square:

Our Cabin:

The traditional shot by the National Park entrance sign:

Ben is demonstrating where the Tetons got their name:

Gorgeous views:

The fam playing in the snow:

Tetons by sunset:

Andi enjoying the gondola:

Ben and Andi in the gondola:

Andi practising her snowboard-pose ... she's a natural!

Lots of snow to play in!

:)

Walking in the snow.

First big snow!

A perfect wintery day yesterday, with the first big snow of the season. Also the first time really for Andi to get to go out and play in it! Last year she was only crawling, so she didn t get to enjoy much of the snow then (though she ate a lot of it then....I would put it in a bowl for her to play with inside). We bundled up and went out on the deck to play:


Snowflakes in my face :)


It's hard to walk in that stuff!


Making snowballs with mom and throwing them for Sage to go after.

Halloween

For Halloween this year I decided to make Andi a Dutch Milk Maid outfit! She already had the clogs, so it was only the logical decision :)
I googeled some images for inspiration, went to walmart for the fabric, started cutting and sewing, and this is the end result:

The basket is lined with paper that has milk bottles drawn on it. One side of the "label" says "MILK", while the other side says "50% DUTCH" :)

Our little milk maid

With chocolate in her mouth...had to bribe her for the pictures.

Ohhh, more candies!

We had a fun time trick or treating at the clinic with a bunch of friends!

Look at all the candies I got!

After that we went trick or treating at the UW Union, but we didn t last long there...too busy.

Runnin'

On several weekday mornings I strap Andi into her stroller, and together with Sage we head out for a run. We have several routes through the neighborhoods we take, depending on what mileage I feel like that day. Andi is comfy in her ride with some juice and snacks, and Sage usually trots some 10 yards behind me, tongue dragging, but still I think she enjoys it as well.

Then on the weekends, either Saturday morning, or Sunday before church, Ben watches Andi, giving me some time to do something alone, and them some quality father-daughter time. Yes, I could go back to bed with a book, take a bath, or go shopping or whatever, but, you guessed it, that's when I head out for my solo long runs. I love it.

Depending on the weekend, this can be about 6 miles, or sometimes 8-10 miles. Sage can't make it that far (I know, lame excuse for a lab!), so either I bring her home about half way through, or I just go out completely solo. Taking advantage of being strollerless, I usually pick a route that includes the field by our house, or the area behind the golfcourse.
Last Saturday however, I got the ultimate strollerless experience, running a 10 mile race over some beautiful, mountainous trails at Happy Jack! Katie convinced me to do it, and I'm happy she did! It was a gorgeous Wyoming fall day, sunny and slightly brisk and windy.

* Some gorgeous fall running, ~ mile 3 (picture courtesy of Katie)

Since the course has a decent climb between miles 4 and 5, and I'm not used to running hills that much, I figured I'd pace myself for the first couple of miles, wanting this race to be an enjoyable experience.

* elevation map


* course map

I got to chat with Katie and Jason those first couple of miles, until nature called Jason to take a wee bit of a break, and Katie decided to stay back and stick with her man (cudos!).


(picture courtesy of Katie)

At mile 4 there was a little aid station with refreshments, and then the uphill fun began. Though it punished the buns a bit, it wasn't too bad :)


Beautiful views from the top (picture courtesy of Katie).

A little after mile 6 there was another aid station where I grabbed me a fruit bar to munch on, and realized that this run was going great, completely enjoyable and easy, and that I should probably increase pace a bit. After passing my old PhD advisor on another uphill section around mile 7 I was just having way too much fun, and decided to take off the breaks and open up those engines some more :) The last 3ish miles were pretty much all downhill, and I later described this to Ben (he declared me crazy) as the best roller coaster ride ever: running downhill over some beautiful rocky trails, underneath gorgous fall aspen trees....woheee! There weren't any other runners around me, so I was just having a blast! Yes, there are indeed people out running with a huge grin on their face, even when no-one is watching. :)
When I crossed the finishline in 1:43:50, I wished there was more of the course left.

I like me some runnin' ... always have, always will :)