Listen to the heartbeat!

We recorded the heartbeat today at our 20 week appt. You can't see much (the screen we could see is the box up on the wall in the middle), but you can clearly hear the heartbeat (143 bpm) starting about 5 seconds in (turn your sound up pretty high). SO cool.

The baby looked great - is looking a bit on the big side (measuring about a week ahead)...along with a head in the 98%ile. Yeah, really. But, ultrasounds at this point can be off by several weeks, so who really knows. I'm hoping for not such a huge head! :)

Starting to prepare for ChooChoo

We have spent the weekend figuring out how to rearrange furniture to make room for all the things babies need! :) We (and by "we" I mean Chuck and my brother) are moving the guest room into my former office and the guest room will be the nursery. I feel bad that I am giving directions and not helping much...furniture is heavy and I can't lift much! We did get the closets cleaned out in both rooms, and I was at least able to do that part!

There was quite a bit of furniture in the office that is mostly being donated to Goodwill. It's decent stuff, so I hope it will go to a good home. Our house only feels small when dealing with furniture!! We did find a dresser/changing table combo for the nursery yesterday, so we are on our way!

I have hopes of the nursery being done by early November since the craziness of the holidays will be upon us shortly thereafter - yes, I'll post photos once it is done! We're getting the furniture moved much earlier than we had planned - thank you to Michael and his truck (and strong self!!). My Escape treats us well, but doesn't have all that much cargo space when it comes to furniture.

The "results" of the gender poll at 50/50 - of course, just 4 people took the poll! I'll put one up again closer to the due date. :)

We get to "see" ChooChoo again next Monday at my 20 week appointment. I'm feeling the little train moving a bit - not enough for Chuck to feel just yet. I'm much less tired now (although I can still sleep...a lot...if given the option), and also much less hungry, so I'm feeling really good. :)

Choo Choo says hi. :)

Choo Choo at 15.5 weeks (9/24/2009)

Keeping up with Katie and Chuck...and Baby Nellis to be!

Although I think anyone who reads this is either on Facebook or knows already, Chuck and I are thrilled to announce on katieandchuck.com that we have a baby on the way! Baby Nellis is due about January 18th, and we are so excited to start our family. I know that cousins Maddie, Sofia, and Anastasia look forward to their very first cousin!! Zack (our very loved kitty) isn't quite sure about this whole "sibling" thing...

We won't know pink or blue until the baby arrives (Chuck's orders!), so our nickname for the little one is Choo-Choo (like a train). We heard the heartbeat a few weeks back (160 bpm) and we thought it sounded like choo-choo-choo...and the nickname was born!

That's the big news from here! In just 6 months this blog will forget all about us and will move on to all Choo-Choo, all the time. :)

Happy 4th of July!

I figured that it was time to post! :) Chuck is in CA working with Uncle Kirby on the fireworks in Mammoth. They had a successful show in town last night (finished up at midnight) and were done setting up the big show today about 3:30pm (another late night of cleanup after the show). I have missed Chuck being home - we realized that this was out first time apart since getting married. It's been a bit lonely. :( I've had some company though and I am dogsitting for Pete and Emily, so Oscar and I have been hanging out. Zack is none to pleased about this arrangement, however.

We had a nice time celebrating Nonnie's long and wonderful life in California with our family. We had a mass for Nonnie on Monday and then went back to my aunt and uncle's to look at photos and share memories. Many of my dad's cousins came for the celebration and it was nice to see all of the extended family.

We slipped away to Napa on Sunday (Father's Day) with the Hawthorne girls while "the parents" watched little Sofia. Many good wines were "tasted" and much fun was had by all!

The following weekend Chuck and I *finally* had a "date" with the Lackey family! The group of tailgaters has a hard time getting together outside of football season for some reason, and it had been since Chirstmas time that we had seen them! We headed to the Rio (big shocker, I know) and walked Pearl Street before topping off the evening with some ice cream. We won't wait so many months next time!

I had a DCB concert today and then headed up to Michael and Carrie's for a bbq and early birthday celebration for Michael (36!). Tomorrow is chores and relaxing for me. Chuck is back on Monday afternoon (yeah!!).

The Smith family reunion is quickly approaching! We are so excited to see Aunt Sabra, Uncle Jim, Aunt Linda, Uncle Cris, Matt, Tracy, and Hazel Claire and look forward to being tourists in Colorado with them!

Angelina "Nonnie" Garioto 1913-2009

I am sad to post that Nonnie (my father's mother) passed away on Tuesday (6/16). We are heading to California with my brother and his family on Saturday to spend time with our family and celebrate her long life. Nonnie turned 96 in March.

You may recall Nonnie and her sister, Marge, cutting a rug at our wedding reception. :) Her last few weeks were more painful then we would have liked, but we now have a spunky, beautiful angel, or Angelina, watching over us.

Should you care to read it, click here for her obituary.

Vi amiamo, bella Nonnie
We love you, beautiful Nonnie
We took this photo with Nonnie about a month ago when we visited her after our Hawaii trip.

Taken at our wedding.

Severe weather!

We drove home from the mountains today to see this (taken from our back deck)....YIKES!I know, it is a "small" one, which is good since we were on the deck and not in the basement...

We have kept busy since the Maui trip. We celebrated Chuck, Alex, and Brady's birthday at a bbq here last weekend which was great fun.

This weekend we went to Annie at the Boulder Dinner Theater with Mom and Dick. My childhood was well defined by Annie, as I frequently would belt out the tunes from my window accompanied by my Annie record. :) Dick cooked up some yummy breakfast for us and then we headed up to Vail/Beaver Creek for the night. My good friend Natanee and her family live up that way, so we got to spend lots of time with them, which was great!!

Ok, now to the chores....cheers!