Dear Baby Boy,

Oh son, whom we have not yet named... please stop kicking my bladder when its full, you have plenty of other places to play, it doesn't take up much of your space.

Went to the Doctor yesterday for our follow up ultrasound.  Our 19 week Ultrasound she couldn't see the outflow valves to his heart, so poor us, we got to go back yesterday and see our little guy again!  Yay!  We love watching him, I wish we could have an ultrasound every day.  He is so fun to watch!  And my has he got some big feet... maybe its just the way they develop, but he really has big feet.  Makes me wonder if he will grow into them before he is born or if he is just going to be huge.  Big feet makes me hopeful that he will be a big boy, I would feel rather bad for him if he got the Short gene his dad's family carries.  Those skip genes are scary to think about. We can save those for our girls, better a short daughter than a short son.

Anyway, back to the ultrasound.  So the doctor doing the ultrasound found his little heart right away and all four chambers still looking good, pumping away.  Baby was again very cooperative and he was able to find the Aorta, which is in proper position as well as the pulmonary arteries, which are also in proper position!  Everything looks normal and healthy for baby boy.  He is measuring right on track Feb 15 is still "the day".  This doctor was really informative and was also able to shed some light on my "different" placenta.  Although I just about had an anxiety attack due to the way he presented his material.  As he was checking the placenta, he showed me again the dark places that looked "different", he said they are placental lakes and basically its just my blood swirling around in little pockets from when the placenta attached to the uterine wall. Ok so that sounds ok... "you know, twenty years ago we used to think ultrasound was the cat's meow, but really thats go fish compared to ultrasound today, so really thanks to technology and a slim woman, we can see all kinds of things we never used too.... blah blah blah... birth defects.."  What!!!!  Ya, he dared bring up birth defects!  So after his scary little story I made sure to ask... so basically this is normal and he is fine?  "yes".  Ok good.  SHEESH!  

So next he asks me "is this your first pregnancy?"  Yes.  "I can tell, your baby is moving down into your pelvis as he grows.  which doesn't mean he'll come early, hopefully,  or have any complications or anything like that".   So... Its normal and he is fine?  "yes, he is just taking the path of least resistance and is pushing down into your pelvis because its easier than pushing out your abdominal wall."   Ok so baby is fine, and I'm going to take that as a compliment! ;)  Abs are harder to move than pelvis.  BAM!  And that would explain why my hips and lower back hurt.

Happy!

23 Weeks pregnant, officially 6 mo.

not the best outfit for a prego picture, I will try to be better about posting them.

So needless to say, our son is healthy and growing and he likes his "different" placenta just fine.  And for some odd reason thinks that only when my bladder is full (mind you) does he need to kick it.  Oh boy.  I should not complain.  I have seriously had the easiest pregnancy ever. He is a good baby.  I just wish he was here already!   Come quickly February!

Baby Boy

I am so excited!!!  We went to the Dr. on Tuesday and had our Ultrasound and... Its a boy!  I was so nervous once we were in the car and started driving, a nervous excited anxious... I don't know, it was just crazy that we were about to find out what our first child is going to be!  Its still so surreal to both of us.  I can picture my little family, but I can't get a feeling you know, when you look back on an old memory and you remember a smell or a certain feeling and that kind of makes it real?  I think because that is missing (since we haven't lived this yet)  It almost doesn't seem real.  I can't believe we're going to be parents!  I'm going to be a mother to this little Boy.  What an amazing opportunity, and not to mention huge responsibility.  I am again anxious, nervous, and excited.  After the Ultrasound Ben mentioned how the ultrasound was such a tease.  We got to watch our baby move (and boy did he move) and see him in human looking form (last time we saw him he was 8 weeks and looked like a dinosaur).  We both just fell in love, and now we have to wait another 4 months to have him!  Ugh!  We want him now ;)  Both of us keep wishing time would move quicker, I want to kiss his little cheeks already!  

This is the first picture from the ultrasound, he started out breech.

You can see his head and his little spine, and his femur, all curled up

And then he started to flip around...

quite the little acrobat we have here.  That is his leg clear up over his head.

He was hilarious, I was having a hard time not laughing.  He would point and flex his

 foot, Leggy baby.

This is after he was completely turned over, in the correct position

that is his little hand by his face, he was opening and closing his hand

A little wave for us ;)

 I know its just an ultrasound, but he think he has his cousin Gunner's nose

Good thing, its a cute little nose!

This is a top view of his head and you can see his arms and hands out in front of him

The Dr. asked us if we had any guesses on what we were having:  "we both kind of think its a girl..."

"Actually, I think its a boy"   Soon as she said that, he gave us 3 different views of his little man piece.

This is the cutest one, he puled his legs up over his head again and there was his little penis.

The cursor is pointing to it there between his legs.

 Dr. said he was very cooperative and gave her all the views she needed, and was able

to give us tons of pictures of him!  However, she couldn't see the outflow valves of his heart

so we get to go back in a month to see those, and him again!  Yay!  Thank you baby!

It was crazy, I know how an ultra sound works, but I guess something that never clicked is that

during your ultrasound you get to watch your baby move.  He was moving so much, he turned all the way

around in there, twice during the ultrasound.  I asked the Dr. if it was normal that they move so much

and she said yes, that some babies are more active than others but they all move.  Our little guy

is quite active.  She said it was great though because she was able to see so much, and we were able to 

take home so many pictures!  These are but a few.  We got to see his brain, all four chambers of his heart, and many different parts of his skeleton.  It was so fun ;)  Hurry baby and come meet us!

Half Way There

Hello all, I have yet to post a prego picture, that is because there really hasn't been much to see, but finally my pouch has popped and you can start to tell that I'm pregnant.  About time too, I just realized that I am halfway there to meeting my little bean!  I'm so excited and am more anxious than ever ;)  Its so amazing and crazy at the same time to picture myself as a mother.  I'm not just Aunt Karin anymore, I will be...MOM!  weird.  Ben and I talk about this often lately.  Its so hard to imagine.  The way I feel right now, if I wasn't starting to show I wouldn't even believe I'm pregnant!  Oh, except I finally felt "it" kick me!  Ben hates it when I call it "it", but honestly I don't think he would like me saying she either.  Oh well.  So onto the kicking, "it" always kicks me when I'm in the shower.  I'm thinking this baby likes to swim.. or hates it.  Other than in the shower, I get a random kick every now and again.  Its crazy!  I just can't stop thinking about what this baby is going to look like or be like.  I already know my baby will be the cutest baby on earth... thats a given, I'm sure every mom thinks that of their own child, but mine really will be the cutest haha! There is so much to wonder about it makes me so excited, I wish this pregnancy would hurry and be over already so I can meet this little babe!

So this is me at 17 Weeks, half way!

In other news, its funny how pregnancy can make you do crazy things.  This is true.  I have become victim to the pregnancy craziness and I decided Monday that I wanted to cut my hair.  Usually this means I set up an appointment with my aunt and decide what exactly I want.  Not this time.  I pulled my hair up in a ponytail and had Ben cut off the pony tail!  Seriously!?  Then I just went in the bathroom hacked away at it to gain some layers and voila!  

Oh my.

It was fun, and definitely crazy.  If you knew how anal I was about my hair you'd be very surprised.  I'm glad it didn't turn out too bad, though.   Anyways, I will try and take new prego pics every couple of weeks, and I will be updating you with baby pictures and gender in about two weeks!  We will know the 20th!  Cant wait ;)

Where in the world

Wow, it has been a really long time since I've been able to read up on my blogs!  It was nice to catch up on everyone's lives ;)  I shall catch you up on ours!  We have had an exciting couple of months and I am very excited to take you on a tour of what we call home.

We were finally able to move in June 7th, and did so in a day.  We didn't have much to move, although we had much more than we realized!  It seems when you put boxes in storage, they have babies and you end up with a butt load of stuff you forgot you even had.  Needless to say we were fortunate that a van and small trailer were sufficient in moving our stuff.  

Now on to the pictures!    Without further ado, Welcome to the Gardiner Home:

This is our cute new house!

The Living Room Before...

Bathroom/Hallway

Kitchen Before...

Basement Before...

This is my Laundry room, it looks the same :)  HUGE

This is our "weight room" that is at the moment weightless

Downstairs bathroom

Living Room after

Its kinda hard to tell with the lighting, but I textured the walls and painted a faux

it kinda looks like stone, there are veins and all that 

Kitchen after

We just painted and are planning on staining the cabinets to match our kitchen table

Basement after

Ben made this fireplace!  So proud, he is amazing

Our backyard, in my opinion very decent sized

I will continue to post pictures as we continue to update!  There is still tons to do, as you can see all bathrooms are outdated (3), and besides Tazia's room (yes she moved in) and the weight room we have 3 other bedrooms that need to be updated, one of which is a... nursery!!!  Yay!  I am now 4 months prego!  We are so excited and can't wait to find out what we get to have.  I of course would love a girl, and Ben has literally been praying for a boy.  Can you believe that!?  I guess we will see how hard he has been praying next month.  As far as being pregnant I am extremely lucky other than being sensitive to smells and losing my appetite I haven't had a sick day in 4 months!  I'm a few weeks into my second trimester now and I'm feeling great ;)  We are expecting this baby Feb 15!  Happy anniversary to us.

In other news, we are loving our neighborhood and ward.   We just received our callings I am now the Laurel adviser and Ben is the second counselor in the sunday school presidency ( what ever that is)

Well now that I have covered the basics in a crazy long post...

ta ta for now, we will update you on the baby soon, hopefully with little pictures

Delay

I'm just about to get to bed, but I thought I'd give an update on the house situation!  We are squared away, everything is approved, we're just waiting on HUD to close!  Unfortunately they are taking their time.  A lady who works for our Broker called today and said they will take around 6 days to close after they have all the paperwork.  So now instead of the 1st we're looking at the 7th or 9th.

It was kind of a downer to hear, a-whole-nother week to wait.  But we are just grateful that that is the only problem we've encountered through this process.  I'm really excited (believe it or not) to start cleaning and even more excited to start on projects.  We have everything lined up, and I've got some creative ideas up my sleeve that I am really stoked to try and to share.  I've run into some really cute blogs lately that have helped stir that creativity, check out the flea market trixie.  Her blog is so cute!

 Anyways, I have one fear about our moving date being moved.  My sister in law is having to stop and breath through contractions before she can finish a sentence.  or start one for that matter.  So-it could very well turn into quite a busy week for us as we will most likely be watching kids while they're at the hospital ;) Hold out just one more week little baby Ence! Or come now while we're still here!  I'm sure your mother would appreciate the latter ;)  I'm excited to meet yet another Ence child.  They are all so cute, and I've now seen 2 boys as babies, but I didn't really know Ali when she was a baby so it will be fun to see a little girl this time.  I think Ali needs a sister, yet again maybe she would rather remain the one and only princess of the house.  She's already terrified that her new sister is going to have a prettier name than her for heaven's sake.  Bring on the drama!

Anywho... I will do my best to keep updated, and hopefully return soon with pictures of either our house or our new niece!  Perhaps both...

Live long and Prosper
                                         Sorry, I just love Big Bang

I'm Back!

So... I'm back.  My computer for some reason was not letting me connect to the internet.  Holy frustrating!  Its sad how much we rely on technology to keep us occupied and happy.  Anyways so I'm back for now, and then in a WEEK, yes a week, when we move into our new house :)  I will be back to no internet.  Until we figure out installing it or whatever.  I'm not dreading the time away from the internet though.  I will be more than happy to spend any extra time working on my house and/or yard!  I'm so excited!  So basically thats all thats new with us.  Pretty much just waiting for our closing date.  I'm all packed up except the things we use on a daily basis.  It didn't take long.  We don't have too much to move.  I'm sure it will only take one load with a truck and trailer.  That will be nice!  Luckily I will have some time off work right when we close and I'll be able to get us all nestled in over a long weekend. Hooray!

Speaking of work... I am so stinking sore!  My sister in law paid to go do a 5K in Salt lake last Saturday and was unable to go, so she offered Ben and I to go.  We decided it would be fun...ugh.  What were we thinking!?  The last time I ran a 5K was a year ago at the Memorial Day one in WX.  We are so out of shape.  We weren't even half way through the first lap and mothers with strollers were passing us.  Ben just looked over at me and went "aw..."  We then busted a gut at our own expense.  Which by the way doesn't help you run faster, when you're laughing.  Any way by the end we had been passed by many a mother and stroller along with a paraplegic who kindly cheered us on as he passed us, and an old stinky grandpa (seriously, we could smell him.  That my friends does help you run faster, when you need to get up wind from stinky grandpa).  Although we are regretting it now, and trying to decide who's idea, and fault, it is; we had fun.  
So back to why work brought up the 5K.  I was working with Dr. Robins, Christopher Robins (haha cute huh, his mom named him after pooh's friend) and we always talk about food and how out of shape we are over our patients.  So naturally I told him about our idiotic idea to run a 5K without training... screw training, without being in shape and his advice was to make sure we keep stretching really well to help release the CITRIC acid from our muscles.  BAHAHAHAHAHA  the funny part is we both kinda stopped and  sat there for a moment.  I knew that wasn't quite right, and I could tell he was thinking about it too.  Then we both said "oh wait, LACTIC acid" at the same time.  Hilarious!  Oh I bet the patient was scared that our hands were in his mouth doing work when we had to stop what we were doing and think about that.  Yikes.  And even funnier, is that he said citric acid, considering we're always talking about food.  He must have really had food on the brain.  Good Grief!  I know that probably wasn't quite as funny for all of you, but you had to be there.  Picture yourself in the dental chair and reread that.  I absolutely love my job.  I work with the best people out there!  Woot Woot!

Drum roll please...

I just heard some wonderful news today and had to share!!!

We got a house! They have accepted our contract and we are scheduled to close June 1st ;)
I am so thrilled!  All this waiting has definitely paid off.  I must say all the credit goes to my wonderful husband.
I was ready to have a house, um... over two years ago ha!  Good thing he has so much patients.  I gotta say though, lately its been hard to tell who's more anxious to move.  We have really enjoyed living with the Ence's over all, and although it has been a great thing for us in some ways we are so excited to establish a place we can really call our own.

And the best part is, well not the best part, but a big perk.  I will have my very own kitchen!  I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.  Ah, I am on cloud nine right now.

As soon as we start projects, I will post before and afters, I'm sure they'll be amazing!  The pictures will be slow coming.  Money doesn't grow on trees you know.  but this place is totally clean so we have all the time we need to save up and knock 'em down one room at a time.  That is what Ben is most excited for.  He can't wait to do some work on his OWN house.  It gets really tiresome working for everyone else.

We were skeptical about getting excited over this one, but I feel really good about sharing the good news!  Tuesday we'll have an inspection done and then an appraisal and from there it is smooth sailing (probably not, I hear nothing is too smooth in this crazy process) through financing and on to closing.   Buying a house is so much more complicated than you'd think, and it doesn't even sound easy to begin with!  There is so much to do!  I am so glad though to be doing it.  We got a great house in the heart of Bountiful, where we wanted to be, for an outstanding price.  Plus we can grown into it.  I really like that there is a lot of room to grow.

I will definitely keep you people up to date on this awesome adventure!  Wish us luck :)