Big birthday weekend! + 15 weeks

We celebrated 2 birthdays this weekend...Jason turned 33, and Kenley turned 2! To celebrate Jason, on Saturday we opened some great gifts (thanks, fam!) and headed out for mini-golf!
Here we are golfing at Interbay, where the heated rivalry between Michael and mom continued, Jason snuck in 2 holes-in-one to beat all of us, and Nan and Ron admitted they played a lot of mini-golf when they were dating.
Then we all piled in the car, shoved in some delicious cupcakes and Cupcake champagne, and headed to the waterfront to catch the Argosy boat to Tillicum Village! We've been having great weather, and it was a stunning day for a boat ride across Elliott Bay to Blake Island for dinner.

We were greeted by mugs of clams and baking salmon.

Nan and Jason checking out the salmon baking over an alder fire.
We make a pretty cute totem pole, don't you think?

Photo evidence of visiting PVA members!

Today we threw Kenley's big 2 party!! I'm sure Rachel will post more pictures soon at Kenley's Blog. :)

We celebrated another landmark recently...Baby's 1st trimester is complete! We did an all low-impact kickboxing this week (gotta keep the midwife happy!). Baby and I worked full-time last week, and lead 10 sessions of professional development for my fellow Bellevue teachers! Everyone is getting all geared up for the first day of school on September 6th! Jason has an official placement...he is going to be a 2nd Grade teacher this year! He had his first work day at his new school on Friday, where he unpacked tons of books and met lots of his fellow teachers. "September Experience" starts now, and then he will continue to spend a few days a week at the school leading up to his full-time student teaching in the spring. Very exciting! Our next baby appointment is on Friday, and we are looking forward to "checking in."

13 Weeks!

Things are going along swimmingly here! According to my books, Baby should be about the size of a peach...

or a medium shrimp...

...???

I'm busting out the maternity clothes lately, since the belly doesn't seem to fit in much anymore. Mom and I scored a pair of my favorite jeans at our local consignment store. I've never been so happy to have jeans!!

Meanwhile, outside the womb, we are both up to our eyeballs in school! Jason is deep in finals week, with only this week to go of the quarter! We just got great news that Jason will start his student teaching this month in the same district as me, in the next closest school! It should be a great experience for him, and a carpool buddy for me on some days. I'm trying to get a bunch of district and building projects done...when I'm not napping! Next week I'm leading professional development full time all week. Hopefully Baby will cooperate!

We took a break this weekend to go see our fabulous friends, Geoff and Kim, get married. It was a beautiful sunny wedding with a gorgeous bride and tons of band friends! We all got rooms at the Tulalip Resort where we were spoiled with late night friends, a fabulous shower, and an awesome pool (where we were joined by Rachel, Michael, and Kenley...that family does not pass up a chance to hit up a pool!). Our friend, Susan of Whimsical Photo was the photographer, and was sweet enough to take this shot of us at the wedding.

We also went to a Mariner's game with the fam! Did you know Jason joined the team?

We girls are big fans of the snacks. Kenley ate peanuts, popcorn, and milkshake non-stop before passing out on Rachel's lap!

I've spilled the beans now to my principal. She is super supportive and a great resource since she is in her 3rd pregnancy, and delivering at the same hospital as we are! She gave me all kinds of advice, including how to tell parents (via letter, with no room for input or personal-life digging) and when (she suggested before I start to show....I'll be 16 weeks by the time school starts and not sure that I'm going to be able to hide the belly for long!), as well as great new baby-wearing wraps and childcare options. I met with HR and got the scoop on Maternity Leave...sounds like we will be taking 6 weeks of maternity leave (paid since I can use my sick days) and 6 weeks of FMLA (unpaid, but I keep benefits for all 3 of us!) and then back to school in mid-May to wrap up the year.

We're also starting to think about childcare for the Fall. We'll definitely be applying to the district options (infant care at our local high school, then on campus with me at 1 yr old! I could visit at lunch!). We also toured a fancy local school. We liked that it is close to Bebe and Papa. We learned all about the "curriculum" for the infants (for example, the infants learn one new yoga position each week! And practice their colors! ???), and toured the beautiful building. We really liked the infant teacher, but we're not sure if the school (or the tuition) are for us. We're jealous of Kenley's Berry Patch, and wish we could drive to Ballard to take our baby there, too!

Our next job is to find a pediatrician...any recommendations???

We hear a heartbeat! - 12 weeks

On Friday, we had our second midwife appointment. We heard Baby's fast, strong little heartbeat! All our tests were clear, and everybody looks healthy, which was great news! We met a new midwife, who we liked just as much as the first. We feel like we are definitely on the same page as these women. Though she did say I may have to cut back on my kickboxing addiction...luckily pregnancy is temporary! According to my books, the baby is about 2 inches long, about the size of a lime. The baby is starting to look like a baby, move around, and develop reflexes like opening and and closing fingers.

We've been busy over the last 3 weeks. We got to work spreading the word about baby, and have had fun revealing our news to family and close friends. Jason announced the baby to his entire cohort at school! I've been feeling better and have more energy, which is nice. I feel like I can actually get stuff done without having to take a nap! Just in time for things to start ramping up at school. One highlight was last weekend at the Oregon Coast with the Friesen family. Here's a picture from the top of Neahkahnie Mountain, where we hiked with Nan and Ron. We lucked out with beautiful weather and an awesome view!

7/29/11 - 11 Weeks

We Get to See Our Baby! - 9 weeks

Baby F. - 7/15/2011 - 9 weeks

On Friday, we had the big appointment that we had been waiting for! We went to meet our midwives, and got actual confirmation that we truly are pregnant! The nurse did joke with us that "yeah, our stick is SOOO different from your stick." Haha! We were thrilled when the midwife ran to grab the ultrasound machine, and we actually got to see Baby! She's pretty sure there is only one baby in there (phew!), and we saw the little heart fluttering away. Reality is setting in...we are going to have a baby!! Our midwife said I have a "roomy pelvis" (sweet!!), and also feels confident that if my identical twin had a smooth pregnancy and delivery, then I will, too.

We've decided to deliver with the midwife group at the Center for Women's Health at Evergreen. The group is separate from the hospital, but their offices are in the hospital, and the deliver at Evergreen Hospital, of which we have heard nothing but great things! We will meet with a different midwife during each visit, and then the midwife on call when we go into labor is the one who will deliver Baby! We felt really comfortable with the nurses and midwife that we met. The midwives tend to lean towards natural and holistic medicine (just like us), and avoid medical interventions as much as possible. The hospital itself has been designated as a "Baby Friendly" hospital based on their success with breastfeeding, and has an award winning NICU, should we need it. Also, it's location in Totem Lake puts it smack in the middle between home and work. We think this is the spot for us!

We got to go on a hospital tour a few weeks ago. We had to wait until 9 weeks to see the midwife, but a hospital tour we could sign up for right away! Ron, Nan, and Rachel came with us on a quick 20-minute tour...this hospital better get used to our entourage! We got to figure out which parking garage to park in, which doors to go in, and how to find the Family Maternity Center. We got to see a labor and delivery room, and Ron and Nan have already picked out their comfy chairs in the waiting room. Rachel and I grilled the tour guide with all our questions about all the options, nurses, doctors, prep classes, etc. Luckily we have done this once before!

6/24/2011 - 6 weeks

Please ignore the fact that I already look pregnant...that's just the shirt. Or maybe our Greek dinner. Either way, can't blame it on a baby bump yet!

We have a couple more appointments this summer, but the next BIG one will be the 20 week ultra-sound on September 28th!! We are planning to find out if we are expecting a boy or a girl!

Big News - Baby On The Way!

On Sunday, June 12th, we got BIG news! We're pregnant!! We were not convinced by a faint + on the first test, so Jason sent me straight out to buy the digital kind. Seeing a plain old "PREGNANT" made it pretty clear!

We managed to keep it to ourselves until Wednesday night when we gathered the family at Ivar's Landing at Mukilteo, one of our favorite restaurants with a beautiful view (we recently celebrated my National Board passing there!). We told our parents that we were celebrating Jason's last day at his mortgage office, but we spilled the even BIGGER news as soon as we got there. We realized it was a little crazy to celebrate Jason quitting his job to begin his year as a full-time student and announcing our baby on the same day, but I guess we like to live on the edge. Everyone was very excited, including both sets of grandparents and Aunt Rachel and Uncle Michael (again, but this time on our side!), and Kenley (who really had no idea what was happening, but she sure loved clam chowder!). We called Uncle Justin and Aunt Kristin on the way home, and kept the news to ourselves for a few more weeks until we could get some official confirmation.

Baby Friesen's arrival will be sometime in late February. This baby could share a birthday with Grandpa Ron (February 20th) or Bebe and Great Aunt Cathie (February 26th), or have a pretty cool birthday of 2/22/2012. So far this baby has been very cooperative, appearing right on schedule!

A Dreamy Kauai Honeymoon

On our first anniversary, we headed to Kauai for our honeymoon. It was an amazing trip!!

Kauai has some amazing hiking, and we made sure to take advantage of that as much as we could! Our most memorable hike was the Kalalau Trail, of which we did a 4-mile trek and saw some spectacular views of the Na Pali Coast. The downpour right before we started made this "arduous" hike especially treacherous! It was definitely an adventure.

We signed up for a "Jungle Adventure," where we got to hike a Kauai cattle ranch, kayak, zipline across a ravine, and have lunch at a private natural waterfall pool.

We snorkeled every day. This spot is called "Queen's Bath." It's a protected pool, basically a tide pool that's big enough to snorkel in! Underwater tunnels allow the fish to swim in and out, but not the big waves. On the last day, Jason even saw a sea turtle in the bay right outside our Poipu hotel!

We also shopped the historic town of Hanalei, went to a farmers market, ate delicious food, barbequed ocean-side at our hotel, toured a coffee plantation, drove the impressive Waimea Canyon to the Kalalau lookout (where we did NOT see anything! thanks clouds!), ate shaved ice and Puka Dogs, crossed a swinging bridge, bailed on a "waterfall hike" and then drove to a double waterfall, spent lots of time at the pool, and had a romantic anniversary dinner in an orchid garden.

Our favorite thing was our Na Pali Coast Snorkel and Sail Adventure on our last night with Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures. We got to ride an amazing sailboat, we spotted dolphins, and got to see a different view of the Na Pali Coast. They also dropped us in the water and let us snorkel around a reef. We had an amazing dinner and had a perfect view of a Kauai sunset just as we pulled back into the dock.

Successfully romantic and tropical honeymoon!

The BIG Day - August 8th, 2009

We have some catching up to do on this blog! We loved loved our wedding and were so thankful to everyone who helped and were able to be there to share our special day. What an amazing event to have our friends and loved ones all in one place! Here are the photos by our amazing photographer, Kate McElwee. We love watching the slideshow, it's like reliving the day each time!!

http://katemcelweeblog.com/2009/08/15/court-in-the-square-wedding-michal-jason/

Don't miss the slideshow!

http://katemcelweeclients.com/clients/slideshow/Michal+JasonWedding/