Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was a very, very busy day but a fun one.

I had to go to work for a few hours while Andrea got the house ready for her family to join us. I got home around Noon or so and everyone was there already. Andrea's parents and also Jessica, Tim, and Bjorn were able to join us as well. It was a fun afternoon just having lunch and opening some presents that her parents brought with them. They all hung out for a couple of hours and then we were off to the Christmas Eve service at church.

The church was packed, it seemed like everyone had the same idea we did of getting to to the 3:30 service and then we could head out and do the family stuff later. This was Bruin's first experience being left in daycare at church. He seemed to do "alright". The ladies at the door said that a lot of the babies in the nursery started to have a melt-down about 5 minutes before the service was over. So when we picked up Bruin, he wasn't necessarily the happiest baby. The poor guy's schedule had really been thrown off. But it wasn't over yet. So we took screaming baby and all to Hillsboro to hang out with my parents.

Our Christmas tradition for the last few years has been to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and hang out at their place for awhile, then we would open presents. This year was no different. We got their at about 5:30 or so and ate dinner with everyone. Bruin did alright. Of course, he was polite enough to wait until we got to my parents to have a "blow-out". Andrea was well prepared though so we handled it like pros. :) Afterward, he was a little cranky just because it was encroaching on his bedtime. He ended up falling asleep at about 9 or so and the party was dying down. We did our gift exchanges with my parents and headed home.

We got home at around 11:30 or so and put Bruin to bed not knowing what would happen overnight. He'd been sleeping for a couple of hours so we were dreading that he would sleep till like 2 and then be up and rarin' to go. Is it too early to tell him that if he's awake then Santa won't come? He did end up sleeping really well and now I'm hanging out waiting for the family to wake up so we enjoy Bruin's first Christmas, and not just Bruin's first Christmas Eve. :)

Christmas already?

Well, so it’s been a little while since we’ve done any kind of an update about our lives or little Bruin. It turns out that I’m writing this by candle/flash light because the power is out. I’m using the laptop and typing this into a Word document and then I’ll just copy/paste a little later. So right now, the house is perfectly quiet and the family is still asleep. It’s incredibly serene – just Payton and I and that’s it. I wonder just how long that will last.

So, Bruin is 12 weeks old tomorrow. My goodness, it’s hard to believe that he is almost 3 months old! People say that the time just flies by and I’m sure this is only the beginning. It is awesome to see him change from day-to-day. I remember wondering when he would be able to focus on things and wouldn’t ya know it? He is totally looking around and locking his eyes on so many things! He’s even smiling deliberately! Yes, I’m sure it’s not gas! He’s gotten to the point that not only is he smiling, but he laughs too. It’s also so amazing to see his face as he’s focusing and concentrating on whatever. He looks so determined and deep in thought. Okay, so that may in fact be gas. But it’s cool to see anyway.

He is sleeping pretty well at night. He’s usually just up the one time. He sleeps for about 6 hours and then up for about 20 minutes, then back down for about another 3 hours or so. There have now been 2 nights that he has slept for 8 hours at a time. I have to admit, the first time that happened – I was the parent who sneaked into his room to make sure he was still breathing. Andrea and I went out on a hot date and left him with two great friends from work. We were just gone for a couple of hours and they said he did great. That was the first night that he slept for 8 hours. We told them that they definitely will need to babysit more often! The second time was just a couple of nights ago. My Mom wanted to watch him, so Andrea left him at their place for about 5 hours. Then he slept through the night that night when she got him home! Maybe there is something to leaving your child with someone else! She’s offered to watch him again on the day after Christmas. I think we’ll be taking her up on that.

We had Bruin’s 2 month visit and things are great with him. The doctor said he is in the 90th percentile for his length and weight. So he is just a really healthy boy. He’s probably about 16 pounds now, he’s just a beefy kid. But, he is healthy and that’s what is important.

Christmas is right around the corner and I think we’re ready. Andrea is finishing up the Christmas card. She is amazing to be juggling a newborn and still be able to create and mass produce our Christmas card. Pretty impressive. It’ll be cool to celebrate our first Christmas as a family with little Bruin, even though he probably has no idea what is going on. What do you get for a 3 month old? We’ll be heading to my folks’ place on Christmas eve and spending it with them. Last year we kind of got robbed of Christmas. This was the week of the big snow storm so I was working on a 12 hour shift rotation for about 8-10 days right through Christmas. It will be good to get back to normal and our Christmas tradition. Andrea and I have had the discussion of starting up our own Christmas tradition. That will be fun to do. Then on Christmas, I think we’ll do a whole lot of nothin’. Just relax and enjoy the day.
So, I think that’s all I’ve got. If we were to post more often – I’ll bet these wouldn’t be near as long! I’ll try to get a little better at that. No promises though!

The Whitakers sincerely hope that everyone reading this, and those that aren’t, has a Great and Merry Christmas! Be safe and do a little bit of extra lovin’ on your friends and enemies. Go ahead and let that guy cut you off on the highway, don’t get too irritated when someone jumps in front of you in line, and be the first to forgive. As cheesy as it sounds and as marketed as it is – don’t forget:

Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Sounds overplayed – but so very true.

This pic is of Bruin's dedication at church, he did really well:




This is the 4 generations of Whitaker, I'm really glad we got this pic at Thanksgiving:

What a Difference A Month Makes!

Well, Bruin turned 1 month old two days ago. Everyone always talks about how fast time goes by, but it really does. It's weird to think that Bruin is a month already!

I figured I would jot down what the first month with Bruin has been like. It's not been as super crazy as I thought it would be, but it wasn't tame by any means either.

It's definitely been an adjustment for Andrea and I. She is still home from work and likely will be till April or so. I went back to work 2 weeks after Bruin was born. That was a little weird. While I'm at work, I just think about getting home and seeing the little guy and hoping Andrea isn't climbing the walls. She has been doing great with him. It's amazing to see her patience as he is screaming his head off, or fussy, or just down-right uncooperative. I admire the fact that she is able to keep her cool and just keep trying different things to settle him down until she finds the one that works. It's pretty awesome! I do what I can to settle him, and for the most part he does settle down - there are times when he is just not settleable (yes, I realize that's not a word). During those times, I kinda feel my blood pressure slowly start to creep up a little. Not too bad, I just need to remind myself that he is just a helpless little guy and he's not intending to be difficult - he's just telling us that something is not right in his world at that point in time.

It is crazy trying to guess what it is that he needs. For the first month - the majority of what he needs is food. THAT BOY CAN EAT! I am always a little surprised at how much he can put away!

The big question that people are always asking is, "How much sleep are you guys getting?" The funny thing is that they don't just ask the question. There is a slightly sarcastic tone and even a smirk at the end of the question. :) Surprisingly though, Bruin is sleeping really well (as I am knocking on all of the wood I can find within arm's reach). His regime is that he goes down for the night between roughly 9-11pm. We try to have him down by 9, however sometimes it takes till 11. Then he sleeps for an average of 5 hours or so. Andrea, bless her heart, gets up when he does at sometime between 2-4am, feeds him, then puts him back to bed. Then he's down for another 2-3 hours. Pretty sweet gig. We did move him into the nursery around week 3 maybe? He grunts and makes sounds in his sleep that caused both Andrea and I (more Andrea than me) to stay up and listen to each sound, hoping that he is staying asleep. So Andrea made the decision to move him to the crib in the nursery instead of the bassinet in our room. Good decison babe. Sometimes I do/did have the irrational fear that I swaddled him so tight that he stopped breathing. :) I think it's more my paranoia that anything.

During the day, Andrea definitely has her hands full with him. Since he eats so much, she is constantly feeding the guy. Not overfeeding, just feeding (to all of you concerned moms that think we're on the road to childhood obesity). He also doesn't like to be put down so much. He is so strong though - definitely the strongest baby this side of the Mississippi river. He can lift up his carseat and put in the car all by himself! Okay, well maybe not. But he is strong though. He has been lifting up his head and looking around almost since Day 1. We tried tummy time and he kept rolling himself onto his back. Admittedly, I don't think it was intentional by any means - but still impressive to see. He did it maybe 4 times in a row! I think he's gonna be a bruiser. Bruin the Bruiser. Kinda has a nice ring to it.

We've gone a few outings since he's been home from the hospital. We went to Costco about a week after he was born - he did great. Andrea has taken him shopping a few times. He's been to Target and stuff. The most notable achievement was this last Wednesday, Ocotber 28th. We went to go see Michael Jackson's "This Is It" with him. Talk about stressful. We went to opening night at Bridgeport. We took him to the 9:30pm IMAX show. He cried at the beginning before the movie was on when the theater was still pretty quiet. I'm sure each person in there was getting their projectile ready to throw in our direction. When the movie started, he was fine. Andrea fed him and he was awake for about 45 minutes of the movie, then he konked out. It was stressful though because the movie was broken into segments where each one of his songs was a segment of the movie. Between these segments, the movie screen would go black and it would get deathly quiet for about 4 seconds. Each time that happened I was just hoping that he wasn't going to pick that exact time to cry out. He did awesome though. We haven't taken him to work yet since it's flu season and there a lot of people out sick or working sick. So, we're not gonna try it for awhile.

This Halloween, Bruin is going to dress up as MIckey Mouse and we'll hand out some candy. We're going to try and make it to the neighborhood Halloween party, but we'll see where we are at the end of the night.

Overall, it's been a great month. There was only the one time that I was wishing I had some hair so I could pull it out. Kidding, kidding, kidding. It's been awesome growing with him and watching him grow. Incredible to think that God trusts us enough to give us this blessing. Really, really cool feeling to know that what Andrea and I do now for this little guy - will shape him into the man he becomes. Well at least until the teenage years hit. :)

Here are some compare and contrast pics from when he was roughly a week old - to now when he is a month old.

***For those of you that skipped the huge important post just to get to the pictures...that's cool. I'm good with it. :) ***

How was the first week of Bruin's life?

I don't plan on doing this weekly, but I thought it a good idea to just put down to paper (or blog) what our first week of having a baby was like, and how our lives have changed. In a nutshell, things haven't really changed all that much. We're still going out to dinner and movies, we're in bed at about 9 - and we get up at roughly 7am or so. It's hard to believe so many people with their warnings of "Get your sleep now". Seamless transition...

Yeah - not so much.

First of all - it's great. It's awesome to know that God blessed us with this great child. I mean, how cool is it that we have this little person to raise and teach the ways of the world? It's a little overwhelming to remember that we have to do our best not to break him. Physically, or psychologically. :) For the first week - mission accomplished, I think.

We were in the hospital from Monday 9/28 (Bruin's birthday) - Thursday 10/1. By the time Thursday rolled around, we were definitely ready to go home. The hospital sent us home with a meal for the night and we were on our way.

Overall, it hasn't been too tumultuous. Of course there is the lack of sleep. Andrea and I are averaging about 4 hours a night - sometimes a little more than that. At this stage, Bruin does a lot of sleeping. He wakes up when he's hungry and eats - then once he's eaten he goes back to sleep. Sounds kind of like me as a teenager. :) I'm a little bummed that there isn't a lot of "play with daddy and mommy" time. But I'm sure that's coming. He hasn't been particularly fussy or anything - except when he's hungry of course.

We continue to get lots of support from friends and family and neighbors too. Not that the neighbors don't fit into the "friend" category, I just felt that they deserved an honorable mention. :)

Payton is adjusting really well. While we were at the hospital our good friend, Greg Rood, stayed the nights at our house. He was here from Monday - Wendnesday night. We didn't want to send Payton somewhere while we were at the hospital. We both wanted him to be affected as little as possible with the new baby coming. There were a couple of days that I brought one of Bruin's outfits home and a hat for Payton to smell and stuff. Hopefully, this prepared him a little more for Bruin's arrival. Since we've been home, Payton is a little bit curious but not a whole lot. He has smelled Bruin a couple of times (he hasn't licked him yet) :) Otherwise, it's been pretty uneventful in that regard.

Around the house, I tend to like everything in its place. Clutter is one of my #1 enemies. I am very A.R. about that. Probably even OCD. I have been able to let that go just a bit. I still don't like clutter and things everywhere, but I do understand that some things are just better left out in the open as they are much easier to reach and use. The house is still in good shape and things aren't all over the place (because that would make me a little crazy).

So for the first week - things have definitely changed in our lives, and definitely for the better. It's cool to think that this chapter of our lives is just beginning. Who knows what week 2 will bring.

The First Day of Bruin's Life

I thought it would be a good idea to just chronicle the events of Bruin's first day of coming into the world to meet us. Sorry in advance for the extra long post. If you're A.D.D like me - you might as well stop reading now.

Andrea was scheduled for a C-section last Friday 9/25. So we knew that it would be our last "childless" weekend. We made it a point to go out to breakfast the Matt and Kristi Craig (great friends of ours) and then we also went out to eat later Saturday evening as well. On Sunday night, we went out to a great dinner at "Manzana" in Lake Oswego. Again, knowing this would likely be one of our last quiet evenings together. We got home at around 9 or so in the evening and headed to bed at roughly 10 or so.

We both had pretty restless sleep. Andrea slept solidly till about midnight and me about the same. After midnight - we were awake about every 40 minutes, anxiously looking forward to Bruin's arrival the next morning.

On Monday morning, I was up at 4am (not too far from the norm) and I woke Andrea up at 4:15. We needed to be at the hospital by 5:30 for the prep work of the surgery. We made it out the door by 5:15am and got to the hospital just before 5:30. So far, not the most climactic of mornings. :)

We got to the hospital and got all checked in, this is when all of the fun began. Andrea had 2 nurses, one on either side of her, bombarding her with "stuff". One of them was getting all of her life history worth of anything medical, while the other one was taking her dear sweet time starting the "pic line" for the IV to go into her. If you ask Andrea, I think she'll tell you this was the worst part of the whole day.

Close to 7:15ish our doctor, Dr. David Johnson, came in to make sure everything was on track. He started his visit with, "What'd you think of that Bears game last night?". Have I mentioned that I love this doctor? Then we met the anesthetist who would be responsible for making sure that Andrea felt nothing during the C-section. He was awesome as well. Very relaxed, soothing, and confident. Great bedside manner to ensure neither Andrea nor I would get freaked out about anything that was about to happen. The theme for the day was "As Few Details As Possible". Andrea did NOT need a play-by-play of what they were doing to her. Everyone did a great job of accommodating this request.

At about 7:40 they took Andrea to the Operating Room and got her all prepped, numbed up, and attached to just about every machine you can think of. I was waiting patiently back in our room for them to come back and get me once she was all ready. I said a prayer for the safety of Mom and Baby, and then it was on.

I walked into the O.R. at maybe 7:55 and I swear it was the brightest room that I've ever been in in my life. Andrea was on the table and there were about 7 people in there to help bring Bruin into the world. I sat on a stool by Andrea's head as they got to work. I have to say that I have a very, VERY strong wife. She did outstanding throughout the whole thing. I kid you not, she acted like this was her fourth child! Good job honey. What seemed like mere minutes later (well, because it was), I heard Bruin cry! It was awesome! I looked over the curtain just in time to see him startled and purplish. What a sight!



They took him over to the table to get him cleaned up and I went over and looked at my son. How weird is that to say? My son! I took tons and tons of pictures to use as blackmail on prom night for him. He was great! I did catch myself counting his fingers, toes, umm ears, arms...you name it. He was perfect! It seemed like an eternity before they were finished poking and prodding him. When they did finish, it was time to meet Momma. After some more pics and bonding - it was time to go back to our room.


He was a cryer to begin with. For maybe the first hour?, he was crying - and you would not believe the set of pipes he has! Since he was born on a Monday, we didn't have any visitors until the early evening. I think this worked out for the best to be honest. It gave us time to just hang out with Bruin. After the initial cry, he wasn't bad at all. He would cry when he was hungry, or wet, or umm...not wet. :) Outside of that he would just either sleep, or lay in our arms just looking around.

My parents showed up at about 6ish or so and they were thrilled to meet their new gradnson. My sister had 3 children before she passed and they all leave in Kentucky, so this is their first opportunity to have a grandchild so close to them. It was great to see them! It was also great to see the big bucket of "Popeyes" chicken they brought with them! Yum! Then Mike and Stacy Gellner showed up with Jacoby. Later, Matt and Kristi Craig came over too. It's awesome to know how much support that Andrea and I have.




Once everyone had left, it was back to the three of us. We were very curious to see how the night would go. At about 10 or 11 or 12? We were still trying to see how the night would go. Bruin was perfect as long as he was being held. We tried to put him in the bassinet and he would be a little grumpy about that. Between feedings and changing and all of that good stuff - it was a pretty long night. This coming from a family that had gotten quite used to the 9pm bedtime. Yikes! Finally, at about 3am the nurse came and said she would take Bruin for his hearing test and then keep him parked at the nurses station for a couple of hours. Bless her soul! So Andrea and I were able to sleep for a good solid 3 hours and it was magnificent!

This morning - I woke up at 6am and left our room to get some coffee across the hall and saw little Bruin sleeping soundly at the nurses station and my heart melted a little. It's crazy how attached you can be to someone that you met barely 22 hours before. what an awesome time we're having discovering this new chapter in our life.



If you're still reading this crazy long post - I'm done. :)

Welcome - Bruin Deffie Whitaker

He's here! On September 28,2009 at 8:13 am, Bruin decided to make his appearance into the world. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 9 ounces. He is 21 inches long. His head size is 15 inches, which from what I'm told is about 2 inches bigger than average. Can't say that we're all that surprised. He was delivered by C-Section and it went very, very well.

Mom and baby and doing great! Seeing such a perfect little boy is just another testament to how great God is. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful son.

Short and sweet and I'll get to the part that everyone wants to see. Pictures! Trust me - many, many more to follow.

These aren't the greatest pics - but they're the best I could do for now. Keep checking back for updates!

I'm a TV Star!!

Well, maybe not a TV star but I was able to play an FBI Agent on the TV series "Leverage" It was such a great time. I think I might have even been in an important enough part that I won't get cut!

I signed up online to be an extra and they emailed me that they needed me last Sunday. I got up at 4am to arrive on "set" at 5:30am on Swan Island in N Portland. I had to bring my own dark suit and show up looking official. There was a lot of waiting around and doing nothing. I was basically waiting for them to come and get me for whatever the scene was going to be. When they did, the fun really began.

The scene I was in was towards the end of the show. The FBI comes swarming in to arrest the "Leverage" team (since they're technically bad guys). A real-life helicopter would take off, and then 3 FBI vehicles (An SUV, and 2 other black sedans) and a cop car would come barreling out of nowhere. I had to run on foot behind one of the vehicles and take cover behind the cop car and aim my MACHINE GUN at the guys. Good times!

Another was I had to run across the top deck of this freighter ship and aim the machine gun at the bad guys. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Take after take after take. I ended up being there about 13 hours getting paid minimum wage. What a blast though!

The episode I'm in is actually the Season 2 finale of the show. It's a two-parter and I'm in the second half. This may be my break into stardom!

HEATWAVE!!!

Man-o-man!

So there aren't any pics of the heatwave that we're at the tail-end of, but oh my gosh! It was HOT! Working at PGE you can see the direct effect of crazy hot temperatures. We had lots of customers lose power due to fuses in transformers melting. And inside transformers is oil that is used to keep the transformers cool - this oil was close to boiling point! What in the world? This is still Oregon right? Last time I checked we weren't living in Phoenix or something.

Last week, the temps topped about low 100's for 3 straight days. Who would have thought that living in Oregon, we would be excited to see the temperature drop to low 90's?! Luckily today, it will only get to 95.... (can you sense the sarcasm?)

We are so thankful that we installed the Heat-Pump a few months ago. After suffering through last summer without A/C - it is great to be able to feel the difference. Especially with Andrea being pregnant. Everyday last week we found ourselves very, very thankful for making the decision to buy the heatpump. I truly do feel bad for the people we run into that don't have A/C. My heart goes out to them since we were in that same position last year. Even though the hot weather only last for a couple of weeks - I think it was worth every penny.

I am a little curious to find out what August will hold. It was mid-august of last year that we had the intense heat. I'm wondering if we'll see 100's again this year. I'm bettin' we will...

Walking on Broken Glass

Well, maybe not quite that dramatic.

About 2 months ago there was a group of us from work who thought it would be a good idea to walk a Half-Marathon. We usually walk during lunch or something and we thought it would fun. As the day drew closer we were getting a little more nervous. However, when the day finally came we were in pretty good spirits.

We walked the "Lacamas Lake 1/2 Marathon" up in Camas, Washington, the weather cooperated and it was only up to about 80 when we finished. Unfortunately, since Andrea is pretty darn pregnant, she didn't make the trip up there with us.

Walking 13 miles tends to take a little while. I was able to finish in 3 hours and 18 minutes. It was a blast! I actually won a certificate for the top male finisher in my age group 30-39! Before getting too excited, it may be important to know that I was the ONLY MALE PERSON IN MY AGE GROUP! Oh well, at least I had something to show for it.

I've never been much of a runner, and now I have some ankle issues that more or less prevent me from running. I could get into this walking thing though.

Kind of a quick post - thought I would get this in there though.

READ THIS ONE - QUICKLY - IT WON'T LAST!!!

Andrea and I (and Payton) went and had our pictures taken on Saturday, July 18th. It was with a new girl, Kim Harris. She did a great job and was really nice. Since Mindy Strauss was busy with a brand new baby we had to venture out and find someone else.

We had a great time at the NIke Campus in Beaverton. Our growing family took a lot of pictures. Payton did especially well, especially after just having extensive mouth surgery and other stuff the day before.

Here is the website that a sample of our pictures is on. It's kind of a sneak peek. We really lile how they came out and are a little worried that the rest of them look this good. We may go broke buying all of the pictures from Kim.

Here is the website: www.blubelstudio.com . They likely won't be on there for long.

Our poor poor Payton!

So our little pup Payton had some pretty extensive work done at the vet today. I took him into the vet about a month ago and they recommended that we do a pretty serious dental cleaning. His mouth was pretty bad and they said they would likely have to pull 2 or 3 teeth. He also had two fatty masses on himself. One was on his rear right leg, the other was in the middle of his chest.

I took him back in this morning and dropped the little guy off. Knowing that he was going to have a bad day, we gave him some really good "wet" dog food last night instead if the same old "Dry" stuff. If he only knew what was in store for him.

I dropped him off at about 8am this morning. At about 9:30am, I had a message from the vet that his mouth had gotten much worse in the last month and she would have to do "multiple" extractions. I figured, okay, at least he'll have a healthy mouth again. Truthfully, his breath had gotten horrid in the last few weeks.

Well, at about 11am I get a call from the vet. She lets me know that Payton is fine and he is in recovery. She then goes on to let me know that he had to have multiple extractions. I figured, that stinks but now he's better.

I then ask the question, "So how many is multiple?"

The vet then thinks a moment and starts counting more to herself than to me..."12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18..." I'm thinking to myself. "Whaaaaa?!" She ends up saying that he had 29, that's right, 29! One more time - - - 29 teeth were pulled!!!

On top of that - he had the two masses removed. So this evening he is a hurtin' unit and he seems to be just miserable. Poor little thing.

"There are other things to do in Seattle than Football?"

Until the 4th of July weekend, I had only gone up to Seattle to watch NFL games. I would drive up there with friends, park the car, walk to the stadium, watch the game, walk back to the car, and drive back home. I had always heard that there were fun things to do in Seattle but never believed it. So Andrea and I decided to give it a shot and become tourists in Seattle for the weekend. We spent quite a bit of time up there, from Thursday, July 2nd thru Sunday, July 5th. It was a lot of fun. We were able to see many many attractions.

Andrea was a trooper. Our hotel was in the heart of downtown, we stayed at the Hyatt on 8th and Olive. We were able to walk to the majority of the places and attractions we wanted to see, unfortunately for Andrea. She did a great job though - we did have to walk MUCH slower than our well established "Disneyland" pace which was a little brutal for me. I'm sort of the type to get to the next place as quickly as possible. My thinking is that whenever we get to where we're going, there will likely be a line, so the faster we get there - the shorter the line. I'm a little bit crazy when it comes to things like that. However, we walked pretty darn slow and Andrea was quick to remind me that I needed to get used to it with the little one on the way. I just had to keep telling myself, "We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry." We persevered and Andrea had the aching feet and back to prove it. Poor thing.

We left work at 3pm on Thursday and after battling through Portland traffic got to Seattle at about 7:15 or so. We checked in and then took the monorail to the Space Needle. Being on a monorail and not headed for The Happiest Place on Earth, or Tomorrowland, or California Adventure just seemed wrong and a little confusing, but we got through it alright. We had reservations for dinner at the Space Needle and got there just in time for sunset. It was a great time. Luckily, we had a family about 3 tables away from us to keep our future in perspective. They had a number of small children with them who were at different times during the dinner, excited, angry, sad, really-really angry, and just plain loud. And they didn't have any trouble letting our side of the restaurant know about it. You would have thought they were trying to warn incoming planes not to hit the Space Needle itself. With that said, it was still a great time and a great way to start off the Seattle weekend.

On Friday, we had breakfast at Pike's Place Market at a restaurant called Lowell's. We could look over the water and just relax. On the way we saw the "Inn at the Market", and also the "Athenian Inn". Both places can be seen in the "Sleepless in Seattle" movie. It was pretty cool. From there we walked down to the ferry. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island where we walked and shopped for the better part of the day. By the time we got back to "mainland" we (Andrea) were pooped. So we had some dinner and turned in for the night.

On Saturday, we were able to do the Seattle Underground tour. This was really interesting to see. There was an original Seattle that was built about 10-16 feet below the Seattle we know today. We were able to go underground and see what it was like back in the day. Andrea was making the tour guide a little nervous. Everytime we stopped, Andrea would do what she could to alleviate some of the pain in her back (no, not me) and start stretching, or leaning on the railing, or squat down. I'm pretty sure that the tour guide was thinking she was going to faint on his tour. He kept looking at her to make sure she was still "with it". Anyway, that was a really good time. Again, Andrea was a trooper for walking around underground on the 90 minute tour.

After the underground tour we went to the "Experience Music Project" next to the Space Needle. This was a good time. There was a huge concrete open area before the entrance and there were hundreds of chalk sentiments in tribute to the late Michael Jackson. We took a picture of an especially memorable one. "I will grab my crotch and spin everyday in your honor". We were also able to play some intstruments and learn about the history of music in Seattle and elsewhere.

Saturday evening, we shopped around a little and had some dinner and then called it a day. We did however, visit the hot tub at the hotel. It was a very long day of walking around and it was so HOT in Seattle. A good soak is what both of us needed. I was a little afraid that we would boil the baby, but after questioning some friends I was assured that it would be okay for Andrea to sit in the hot tub for a few minutes.

On the last day, Sunday, we didn't do a whole lot. We went to breakfast at a nice little place called CJ's. Then we walked down to an Olympic Sculpture park or something like that. Walked back along the waterfront, and then grabbed a cab for the rest of the trip to the hotel. Andrea had clearly had enough of walking for the weekend, I can't say that I blame her.

Now we're back in Sherwood and the Seattle trip was just one of many, many busy weekends we have for about the next 2 months. Yikes! It was a good time though. If you're still reading this crazy long post - thanks!

Updated Ultrasound Pics

Here are some more recent ultrasound pics of the Baby Boy that is growing inside of Momma. Yep, it's a Boy! We're really excited about it! I might be a tad more excited than Andrea, since we won't be putting ribbons in his hair. Right, honey?................. Honey?

Anyway - these pics were from May 5th, 2009. Roughly at 19 1/2 weeks along.

Enjoy!

We're expecting our first!

We've told just about everyone, but I thought it would be worth putting on the blog as well. Just to create that official "record". Also, the little one can see how dorky his/her parents were by blogging about when he/she was still in Momma's stomach. Andrea is pregnant and it's pretty stinkin' cool.

Now, as most of you know (hopefully all of you know), the Whitakers are a Christian family. We believe in God and in his son Jesus. Something I will never be able to understand is that there are people (particularly parents) that don't believe in God. If I was a non-believer, looking at the first ultrasound in the hospital room, would change my mind in an instant! How in the world can someone look at that ultrasound and think that anything but God created it? To look at the ultrasound and see a miniature heartbeat, and to see this "form" molding into a person is amazing! Amazing! God is amazing at what He does, that's all I can say.

Andrea is 14 weeks along right now. The poor thing has been doing the morning sickness thing and we hope that she is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We have our next appointment on April 10. The due date is September 27th. We are finding out the gender around Week 20 which should put us in the first half of May.

We've been pricing central air-conditioning for the house. Andrea should be pretty pregnant during the hottest part of summer, so I think we're going to pull the trigger installing a heat-pump here in the next couple of weeks. It will go a long way to making the house a ton more comfortable.

Well, I think that's about it - I put up a couple of ultrasound pics so you could see our little bundle. These I think are Week 7 pictures. Right now, at week 14, the kid is the size of a lemon. :)

Albertson's - No longer accepting competitor coupons

What a sad day for me and my coupon clipping friends! I was shocked and so disappointed when I heard the news. Until now, Albertson's got most of my business because they accepted compeitor coupons, but I'm not sure I will be able to continue to do the bulk of my shopping there. I read online last night that someone talked to the store manager at the Sherwood store and he told her that they would be accepting them until the 18th, but when I just did my grocery shopping tonight, they told me that they weren't supposed to accept them at all but they would take them this one last time. I guess the positive side is I will no longer feel the shame in the checkout line as the checkers struggle with my coupons and their calculators to see how much to take off my order while watching the line pile up behind me. It was a little embarrassing at times, but I didn't mind when I was saving so much money.
And if that wasn't enough to throw my frugal strategy off - I heard today that Safeway may discontinue double coupons! What is the world coming to?

A Tale Of Two Parks! One Wet, One Dry...

Take a look at these pictures! The first picture is of AdventureLand in Disneyland on the first day that we were in the park. It was pouring! All of the Californians decided not to come! It was great, it was like we had the place to ourselves! We're from Oregon so who cares about a little bit of rain.

The second picture is on the 3rd day we were there. It was Sunny and 70 degrees, you could tell that who the fair weather Disneyland fans were. There are just a couple of more people in the same shot.

The Whitakers in Southern California

Well, we've been back from vacation for quite awhile. I figured it's about time we blog about our trip to southern California, and of course Disneyland.

It was a great trip, we had a blast with the Craig's and the Hoefer's! Who could ask for better company while on vacation? In the end we ended up having a great time and doing some new things this time around. However, the trip didn't necessarily start out really smooth.

We got to the airport very early in the morning on Saturday the 14th. What better way to spend Valentine's Day right? Well, we get there to learn that our flight was actually delayed for some unknown reason. They didn't have a lot of explanation as to what was going on. However, they neglected to tell Matt and Kristi that their flight was delayed. Which was odd since we were all on the same flight. They checked their luggage as if everything was absolutely fine. Then we let them know it was delayed and we were all able to book a different flight into LAX instead of John Wayne. It was a nice smooth flight, but we couldn't help but wonder if the Craig's luggage knew that we were going to LAX instead of John Wayne.

We were all pleasantly surprised to see that all of the bags made it to the same place that we did. On that first day in California - we went to Sprinkles - which is a cupcake store. I personally didn't see the draw for cupcakes, however - the 20 people in front of us in the line apparently did. I couldn't really get all that excited about it until I actually ate one! They were actually really really good!

After Sprinkles, we had lunch at an old fashioned diner and then headed down the coast to visit some friends in San Diego. After that, we decided that we wanted to go to the Griffith Observatory to take a look through the big telescope. What we didn't count on is that half of California wanted to do the same thing. By the time we got there, the closest parking place was easily about 1 1/2 miles away from the actual observatory. So we ended up just packing it in and heading back to Anaheim.

The next day we had breakfast at a great place that Kristi suggested and then we spent the day at Universal Studios! This was the first time I had ever been. Andrea was there like 25 years ago. It was great to see all of the behind the scenes stuff. We took the tour and saw Desperate Housewives street (whatever that's called) and we saw the wreckage of the plane from War of the Worlds, and the Bates Motel from "Psycho", Jaws, and lots of other things. We rode fun rides and had a great time all in all. Here are some pics from the first couple of days in southern California:

Ben's Blurb - what's up with the Whitaker's?

Well, it's been awhile since we've posted or blogged anything so I figured I would give a quick snapshot of what we've been up to for the last couple of months.

It seems like we have just been non-stop busy without a moment to spare. Honestly, we do it to ourselves. We've been hanging out with friends and having people over, going out to dinner every now and again. I'm buried in schoolwork from the two classes that I'm taking this term. It seems like I'm doing some type of homework every single day. Last weekend, I think I literally spent 7 hours on homework. That's not such a good time.

We did go to the Auto Show last week. It was kind of a drag. Not a whole lot going on there. Andrea was able to sit in her dream car, The 2009 Honda Odyssey Touring Edition. Someday, that will be our next ride. Maybe not the 2009, but some variation of it I would imagine. We had a good time, but there weren't a lot of cars to oogle.

We did just buy a freezer from Direct Buy (I know all of this is just fascinating stuff isn't it?). We're actually pretty excited about it. Andrea is a coupon clipping Queen and her only limitation is where to put all of the food. So she has yet to reach her full savings potential due to space limits. She finds some insane deals. Sometimes, I have a twinge of guilt - like we're almost stealing from the store. But that's only when I have all of the items protruding out from underneath my shirt. Kidding, kidding. She is pretty dang amazing with the amount of food she brings home from the store. I look at the receipt and think that it must be wrong. She gets a special joy when the Supervisor of the grocery store has to come over and override the register because she's saved so much money! I have to say though, I can't go with her because I just don't have that kind of patience. Doing the grocery store-saving thing - takes a special kind of person. And it most certainly isn't me. So anyway, we have a new freezer on the way and we're both pretty excited about it. I think that's one of the main indicators that you're old when you're truly excited about a new appliance. Yikes.

As most everyone knows - we are taking a return trip to California on Saturday. We're going with our good friends the Craig's. It should be a great time. We're going to spend Saturday driving down the coast to San Diego and basically goof off all day. Then on Sunday, we're heading to Universal Studios to spend the day there. On Monday-Wednesday we'll be in Disneyland! It's funny how I always think that our last trip was "the last time for awhile" until we're somehow headed down there again. It'll be fun though. We're spending the time in the park with the Hoefer's so it will be a great time.

Well, to keep you all from boredom - I guess I'll quit. It's a little after 5am and it's time to wake-up Andrea so we can go to the Gym this morning before work. Here are some random pics of the last couple of months from the Auto Show and also the SuperBowl party and Bj and Tracy's.

Stay tuned for Blog updates on the California trip!