And baby Hall is....

A GIRL! Yep, looks like Kyle and I will be welcoming a little daughter come March! We're so excited, there hasn't been a Hall girl born in several generations so she will be really special... she looks really healthy too, the brain, heart, spine, all that stuff looks great. We feel so blessed! :) Finding out the gender makes the baby seem so much more real for some reason, I think now because we get to start planning! Pick out a room theme, a name... so much to do, and only about 5 months left to do it! It seems like such a long ways away still, but I can't believe I've already been pregnant for four months, and once you consider that the holidays are coming up... time is really gonna fly!

Here's what she's doing at 17 weeks:

Her skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord (the lifeline to the placenta) is growing stronger and thicker. The baby weighs about as much as a turnip and is around 5 inches from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are beginning to develop.

And in other baby news... I've finally started to get a bump!



Haven't felt any movement or anything yet, but I hear that it can take a while for first time moms... I've been feeling great though, only a little tired. It's hard for me to get a good nights sleep when I'm going back and forth from the bathroom all night! Maybe that's natures way of preparing me for life with a little one... :)

I spent most of Saturday with Elena, it was so good to spend some quality time with my best friend! I miss her a lot, we were practically attached at the hip in high school, but I'm so glad that we've been able to maintain such a close relationship long-distance... I went over to her house in the morning and she gave me a haircut and highlights, which was very badly needed and I love the look! She took off 4 inches and gave me lots of layers, it feels so much more manageable and cute now, instead of just long and blah... afterwards she had to make 4.5 pounds of meatballs for a big dinner that they were having for a friend's Moroccan themed birthday, and I offered to help! We made them from scratch, it was really interesting because Moroccans cook with a lot of stuff that I'm not used to... they put cinammon in their meat!

Unfortunately, this is the only picture of the day I got before my camera died...

Afterwards we went to lunch at Round Table (which is a tradition for us, we used to go all the time!) and then picked up my mom and saw Fame at the movie theater. All in all, a really great day!

Kyle and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Sunday. He came home early from his reenactment so we could hang out for a while, and then we got ready and went to a restaurant downtown in the Pearl district called Urban Fondue. If you've ever been to the Melting Pot, which is also a fondue restaurant, it's pretty similar... except this one was less expensive, so an obvious choice! We like to try new restaurants, especially since we don't plan on living in a place like Portland forever, gotta take advantage. Anyway, the restaurant was TINY, easily the smallest one I've ever been in, but very cute and cozy. How it works is you pick a cheese fondue to share, an entree, and a dessert fondue to share, plus a side. We had sausage and bread to dip into the cheese, and you cook your own entree in pieces in this broth. You have to let it cook for three minutes, they even give you a little timer! It's definitely a different eating experience for us, because it really forces you to eat slowly, something Kyle for one is definitely not used to! :) We had steak, lobster, and chicken, plus a side of mashed potatoes... it was really delicious! Then we topped it off with tiramasu fondue, which we dipped pound cake, cookie dough, donuts, cream puffs, bananas, strawberries, etc. in... needless to say, we were so full by the end that both of our stomachs hurt pretty bad!

Eating our dessert!

In fact, we were so full that neither of us could even consider eating one bite off our cake top, which my mom generously let live in her freezer for the last year... so we cheated a little and ate it the next night!

Our enormous cake top! Actually didn't taste bad, I love red velvet...

This weekend is our friend Pearl's birthday, so we're going to go out to dinner with a bunch of friends to celebrate, should be fun! Hope you're all enjoying the start of fall as much as I am! :)

Finally a new post!

I know it's been such a long time since I've blogged, I apologize for being so lame! Honestly, these last two weekends have been extremely laidback, not much exciting to report... lots of football! :)

Kyle and I have had time to just relax at home together, which has been really nice. This last Friday night Kyle's old high school, West Albany, was playing at Hillsboro High School, so we drove out to Hillsboro and met up with Tanner, his girlfriend Brittney, and Sue to watch the game. The Bulldogs (West Albany) won the game by 3 points, it was a pretty exciting game! Afterwards, we drove down to Albany so we could watch the Duck game on Saturday, which was also a great game (which we also won!)

Yesterday, I broke down and bought my first maternity clothes. I've been avoiding it, trying to make my clothes last as long as possible. But, you can't stop the inevitable! The exciting part is, I'm starting to show... and it actually looks like a little bump, not just a thick waist! :) I'm still wearing my normal jeans, and if I have trouble buttoning them I just use what's caused a BeBand, which is this piece of nylon and spandex basically that holds up my unbottoned jeans. I mostly bought some sweaters and shirts in preparation for fall, and I was excited that there was a lot of cute stuff to choose from!

I'm 16 weeks already on Wednesday, and it seems like although my first trimester couldn't get over soon enough, time is really starting to fly. I had another Dr. appointment, and this time Kyle got to come, so that was neat for him to meet the doctor... plus it was the first time we got to hear baby's heartbeat! I really love my doctor, but that office is really frustrating. My last appointment lasted over two hours because they were behind, so I figured I would call up to the office and ask them if they were on time before I headed up there, since I'm having to take time off of work to go. When I called up there, I specifically asked if my doctor was running on time, and they told me yes, so Kyle and I headed up there. We were called back about 20 minutes after our appointment time, but I figured as long as she wasn't behind, we would be out in no time. Basically, all they do at these appointment is weigh you, measure your belly and listen to baby's heartbeat, and answer any questions you have. Well, we waited in the exam room for almost an hour before she came in... we were so bored! I understand that's the way it is at a lot of doctor's offices, I was mostly annoyed because I'd called and specifically asked before I went up, and my 20 minute appointment still lasted almost two hours... oh well, sorry about all my ranting and raving, at least I only have to go once a month!

Since I skipped a week, I'll kind of combine what my book says for 15 and 16 weeks:

With a weight of 3 to 5 ounces and a length from head to bottom of 4 to 5 inches, baby is growing fast. The ears are positioned properly on the side of the head (they used to be in the neck) and the eyes are moving from the side of the head to the front of the face. The eyes are now complete with eyebrows and eyelashes, and they are finally working! Although they're still fused shut, it's eyes are making small side-to-side movements and can even perceive some light. Baby can also breath, suck, and swallow, all in preparation for it's big debut outside the womb. It's muscles are getting stronger, especially the back muscles, which enables baby to straighten out more. Baby is also becoming more sensitive to touch; in fact, if you poke my belly, he or she will even squirm away! I could start to feel movement in the next few weeks!

Kyle and I have decided that we're going to look for gender next week! We don't care at all what it is, we're just excited to be able to call it a he or a she... and finally buy some cute clothes! :) Our first anniversary is this weekend as well, so we thought that would be a special time to find out... we'll definitely keep you posted!

It's hard to believe that we've already been married a year... I can't believe how time has flown! It's been such a whirwind of a year, but also one of the best, and I look forward to many more! Kyle has a reenactment on Friday and Saturday, but he's going to come home early on Sunday so we can go to a nice dinner and celebrate!

Sorry no pictures this time, I'll definitely post one of my bump soon, and we will let everyone know gender as soon as we know! :)

P.S. Happy birthday Grandma, Grandpa, and Sue!

Labor day at the beach!

I got off work early on Friday and headed straight over to Seaside to meet up with my family; both the Halls and Casebolts! When I got there, everyone was hanging out on the beach, and so we relaxed and watched Tanner and Rick play in the water... they were brave, it looked freezing! We pretty much hung out at the condo for the rest of the night, eating dinner and playing games... if you've never played Apples to Apples, I guarantee it will give your abs a workout! :)

The next morning we got ready to go to the boys' reenactment at Fort Stevens. It was pouring on our way out there, which fortunately let up after a while and the sun came out.

Our view of the reenactment, very scenic! The only unfortunate thing about the view is it was very hard to pick out Kyle's unit... even my camera wouldn't zoom that far!

We finally picked them out coming in with the flag... Kyle is two people to the right from what I call the "santas", the guys in the red hats.

Kyle, Tom, and Bryan... you may remember Tom from our wedding last year; he may not remember though! :)

Eating their lunch... an apple and hard tack

After lunch, the girls decided to go shopping in Cannon Beach while the boys went back to hang out at Seaside. After a couple hours, we met back up with them at Mo's, a chowder and seafood staple. We were hoping to have a bonfire one night on the beach, but when we got back to the resort we were welcomed with wind and lightening; bonfire not gonna happen! The weather was so bad you could practically see whitecaps on the pool! So instead I just watched the lightening and worried about the guys at the reenactment... apparently the weather was so bad that one of their battles got cancelled (which has never happened before), but Kyle said they actually had a great time. He said the weather was so bad it was comical, and they got the chance to play around and just enjoy eachother's company.

The girls!

Brother and sister :)

I was sad when I woke up Sunday morning, because it was my last day with the Halls. The weekend felt so short! We had to check out at noon, but enjoyed eachother's company to the last possible second. My parents and I were going to head north a little ways to Long Beach to visit my aunt and uncle's house, but when we were all leaving, I get a knock on my window... Rick noticed when we were leaving the parking garage that my tire was flat! Luckily my dad and Rick were pros at changing it to the spare, but it was a Sunday... on a holiday weekend... not the best time to get a flat tire! I finally got a hold of Costco in Warrenton, so we said our goodbyes to the Halls once again and drove to Costco. It was at least a two hour wait, so we had a long lunch and wandered around Costco until I finally got a call; my tire didn't have a nail in it or anything, it was damaged and needed to be replaced. Apparently, they said the last time I had it repaired (which was only a month ago because I'm a nail magnet), the beading was damaged and air had been escaping through there. Since my warranty was with Les Schwab, I didn't want to get a new tire from Costco... if Les Schwab damaged it then they could give me a new one! So several hours later, we finally headed off to Long Beach... going very slow on my donut tire!

We finally got to Long Beach around 4 o'clock, and after a short nap we went out to dinner with Bob and Tanya and some friends of theirs that had stopped by...

... but not before stopping by the famous giant skillet!

After dinner we got some ice cream and went for a walk on the boardwalk. Even though it was a little chilly, it was a beautiful night!We spent the rest of the night chatting, although I admit I passed out pretty quick! :) They have done a ton of work to their house, and it looked great... but before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and (slowly being the operative word) head home. All in all, it was a great weekend!

Tomorrow is a big milestone; the start of my second trimester! I am officially 14 weeks! Here is what is going on this week:

The baby can now squint, grimace, frown, pee, and possibly suck it's thumb! The kidneys are producing urine, which is being released into the amniotic fluid; a process that will keep going until birth. Baby is starting to stretch out; from head to bottom it measures about 3.5 inches, or about the size of a lemon, and weighs 1.5 ounces. It's started to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair called lanugo all over it's body that will help protect it and keep it warm. The baby's liver starts making bile this week, and the spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Cute little fun fact: baby's little feet are measuring about 1/2 inch long!

We're going to lay low this weekend and just hang out, we can't wait! Hope you all have a good weekend as well! :)