Kach Crew

We were lucky enough to have our third 801 girl (and family) visit us in Idaho when Lish and Dan packed up the boys and made the long drive from Montana.  We had a fantastic weekend with the whole Kachmarik crew.

Lish and I took the boys to the Idaho aquarium.  Yes, folks we now have an aquarium in this great town.  It is new and it is pretty much what you'd expect from an aquarium in Idaho, but that did not seem to bother Connor much at all.  He loved putting his hands in all of the tanks with the fish, rays, little sharks and mollusks.  And we were certain to find Nemo about 15 times over. He was adorable.

While we toured the aquarium, the guys golfed and then they fished the next day.  With not much snow, it was definitely more of a golf and fishing weekend, although Chris' perfect record of catching no fish this winter also held up.

And what is a trip to the Johnson household without a few hops on the trampoline?

We had so much fun just hanging out.  I very much appreciated Lish's mom advice as she helped me navigate the car seat world and many other things.  I cannot explain what it meant to have her here to just talk and listen about all things baby and to do some shopping.  Thanks, Lish.  I miss you. 

And I love these boys!  Kids don't get much cuter than these two.

Thanks Kachmariks for the wonderful weekend!

Johnsons Cross Country Ski

Last week Chris realized that we would be in town with no plans this upcoming weekend so on a whim he invited his folks to join us for the weekend.  Lucky for us, they were up for a bit of a spur-of-the-moment trip and we had a wonderful weekend with them in Boise.  We headed to Bogus for some cross country skiing on Saturday.  Since I am not downhill skiing this year, it was really nice to get up to the mountain. It was sunny and beautiful.  Although I cannot say that I am the best cross country skier (I am more of a cross country walker) I still had a great time and I think everyone else did too.

We also enjoyed dinner with my Dad and Robin and breakfast with my mom, both of which were wonderful.  We spent time lounging on the patio in the unseasonably warm whether, relaxing with a movie in the new bonus room, and just hanging out.  Thanks, Kim and Eric, for making the trip down to see us.  We had an absolutely wonderful weekend with you!  We hope there are many more Boise trips in your future this year.

Handy Man

We recently decided that it was finally time to furnish our bonus room. Funny how having a baby forces you in to decisions you've been delaying.  We had so many ideas about what we wanted the bonus room to be that is was really hard to figure out how to divide up the space to fit all of our desires.  So instead it was an empty room with a workout bike and an extra desk for about a year and a half.

We bit the bullet in December and came up with a plan for the room, which included a custom built entertainment center built by none other than my wonderfully handy husband.  When he told me, "honey, don't worry I will make it look good,"  I bit my tongue careful not to damage his pride.  I am glad that I did because he put in about 4 weeks of hard work and built something better than I ever imagined. 

After knowing him for over ten years, this man still continues to impress me with his hidden talents.  Here is his design for the book shelf:

Here he is making his design come to life. These pictures are from my phone because for weeks on end when I opened the garage when coming home from work, this was the scene I would see.  So I'd just snap a quick photo on the way in.

Here is the finished product.  The bonus for all of his hard work, a 60 inch TV and new speaker system.  He is a happy man and we are loving our new cozy space.

I'll post pictures of the full bonus room when it is closer to complete, but here is the plan.

New year, New baby!!

We are thrilled to announce that 2012 will be the year that our little family grows from 2 to 3 . . .  or 3 to 4 if you count Bella, which I guess we must do because I have been told by everyone that after the baby comes Bella will quickly give up 99.5% of the attention that she now gets.  

You might remember that I cooked my Turkey upside down at Thanksgiving.  I may have been a little off my game on that day.  We found out on Thanksgiving morning that I was pregnant. We were thrilled, excited, and to be honest I was in a bit of a state of shock.  What a gift to find out that we would be blessed with a baby on the day that is meant for giving thanks.  Our poor kid will live every Thanksgiving down by hearing that on that exact day, we found out that he/she would come into our lives.  We are thankful indeed!

We had our second Dr. appointment this week and everything looks good.  We are due August 3rd, just 2 days before our 6th wedding anniversary.  I am sure that  Boise's 100 plus degree late summer temperatures when I am hugely pregnant will be awesome :)

Breaking the News:

Having the holidays and my 30th birthday while pregnant meant that we couldn't keep our little baby secret for long. 

We told our parents by wrapping up a baby's first Christmas onsie as a Christmas present.  My mom got it right away and screamed in delight, something tells me that she was waiting for this day.  My dad and Robin looked at us with surprise and my dad whispered the word, "Baby?" in a soft voice almost like he couldn't believe it was happening.  He then cutely asked when they could start telling people. We may have surprised Chris' parents the most.  They were playing with little Sophie on the ground and opened the present,  looked at it and said "Sophie, this must be for you."  Then they looked at each other, looked up at us and realized what was happening and again cheers erupted.

We told Chris' sister over a toast for my 30th birthday.  As we raised our drinks Chris said, "One thing, Ali cannot actually have that drink."  Elizabeth took a few seconds and then said, "Why because she is pregnant?"  I guess that Elizabeth caught Chris off guard by asking when we would hop on the baby train just a week or so before and Chris, who is the most terrible liar, gave her some answer that I was too career focused so not any time soon.  Elizabeth completely bought Chris' lie and figured that her kids would remain cousinless for a while longer. So telling her may have been most fun.

Of course I told my sister long before anyone else.  I sent her this picture and said, "I parked here today."

She quickly hung up the phone with her husband and called me asking "Does that mean what I think it means?"  Then we giggled together like little girls.  I have never been more sad to have Erin live so far away, but due to our morning chats I've already consulted with her regulalry. 

We've loved sharing our news with our friends across the nation, but if I go into those details this post will grow exponentially. Thanks to all for sharing in our excitement during this time.  2012 will most certainly be a wonderful year filled with blessings and major personal growth as we tackle the hardest (and hopefully most enjoyable) job on earth. 

Stay tuned for more baby updates along the way.

Christmas in Spokane

We spent a week in Spokane this year for Christmas and had the most wonderful, relaxing week filled with lots of family time and lots of overindulgent meals.

We snuck away for a lunch date at the Coeur d'alene Resort.   It was cold, but gorgeous there.

 

While, like much of the Northwest, Spokane did not have much snow, it did have an abundance of hoar frost (I learned that word on this trip), which made the city look like a winter wonderland.

Seeing Christmas through Sophie's eyes was pretty cool.  Although she just wanted an orange cat and a green hot mitt, Santa also knew she'd love a kitchen.  She made some delicious concoctions for us all.

 

We were also blessed with a beautiful snowfall.  The snow did not completely cover the grass, but it was still enough to use an excuse to take our snow loving dog for a game of fetch.  Bella camouflaged quite well in the spotted grass.

Thank you Kim and Eric for such a wonderful week!