Jon & Kathy

So, I finally managed to make some time for a post (Olivia is napping and Jon went riding)!

Last Sunday we had Olivia’s Birthday Party, we only invited family since she wont remember any of this!
Oncle Jeff and soon to be aunt Ashley came for a visit from LA and Olivia (and Mommy) enjoyed the entertainment.  Thanks to everyone for coming, this was a great day for all of us!

Here are some pics for everyone to enjoy.

P.s: If anyone has more pics please email them to us…..I don’t have any of Olivia eating a cupcake!

Here is a pic from our condo balcony

13 Sep

At the beach eating some sand!

16 Sep

Better waves today.

Our last afternoon at the beach… not looking forward to going home

I’ve been over in Scotland for about a week now and I’d like to post an update instead of posting one monster post later on. Today I’m going to just talk about the food. I think I missed my stop when I moved to Germany. This is the best food I’ve ever had. I am finally getting a little bit of appreciation for some very cultural/geographic cuisine. In the past food just had a prefix, like German or Mexican. Now it is finally clicking that it isn’t all some junk that you just throw together. If you have food properly prepared as it was intended, then it is delicious. I have not had one bad meal yet, and previous to coming I only heard horror stories about the food. I started with an open mind and it has worked out well for me so far. Now, on to the food.

I think I started out well this week by just sampling some beer and I felt a little timid about some of the food. It just isn’t what I normally eat. Here’s a rundown and quick rating of some of the food….

Fish and Chips – Freaking awesome when it comes from a real chippy.
Sticky Toffee Pudding – Its actually a chocolate cake. I’ve had it 4 times so far.
Battered Prawns – Shrimp do not taste anything here like they do in the states.
Pizza – Tomatoes & Bolegnese sauce. Uh… awesome.
Stella – Great beer in many varieties.
Becks – Both standard beer and Vier are great.
Lamp Chops – Jamie Oliver, the Chef, just opened a restaurant here in Glasgow. The chops were medium rare and I had some chips (wedge fries) along with them. I’ve never liked lamb before, and as it turns out people just can’t cook it correctly.
Haggis – Minced sheep heart, liver, & lungs. Whats not to like. I know this sounds gross, but as I said about keeping an open mind, this is by far the best thing I’ve had so far this week. I actually had Haggis, Neeps n Tatties. Thats Haggis with yellow turnips and potatoes. I’m not kidding, this stuff is great.

Beginning of June when Olivia was right at 7 months we had someone come out to the house to take family pictures but mostly take pictures of Olivia. Melissa from Powell drove all the way to our house on a sunday and took a bunch of pictures for 1 1/2 hours until Olivia was too tired. It was our first experience and it went great, we absolutely love the photos……now i have a hard time choosing which ones will go up on the wall (if you ever been to our house, there is not one personal/family photograph on the wall).
If you need a professional come by your house or meet you somewhere here’s a place to start www.mhillphotography.com.

We haven’t posted any pictures in a while, so here are some of her on the floor that I took tonight. She was sort of crawling toward me and tried to get the camera. Enjoy!

Kathy

Olivia has her first ear infection this month. I learned some things at the docs… babies can not get sinus infections because children do not have sinuses until about age 5. Secondly, the color of snot means jack. Darker snot just means a higher concentration of snot that is just more or less dirty. Pus that is in snot from infection or illness is actually clear.

And now for the important news. We went back to Children’s this week and Olivia has gained 3 lbs in less than two months. Thats awesome for her. She poops like “normal” kids now and is finally back on the growth charts again. She’s only at 3%, but thats better than off the bottom of the chart. She weighs about 12.5lbs now and is nearly 25″ long. Her head is still in the 15% range. Mine was 95%, still is, so I know where she gets it from.

Here’s some pics. Video will follow tomorrow. If they do not, blame Kathy.

Olivia is holding on to the paci (thanks JP and Liz) in these pictures. Jon walked around the house with her last night and she held on to it for a good 5 minutes.

This past Thursday we went to the doctor for another checkup. I had the diabetic test done and since they haven’t called today (tuesday) to call me back in for another test I should be in the clear. The babies heartbeat was in the 150′s and my stomach measured 28 cm. The big wow was the scale…..at 137 pounds!!!!!!! Which means I am up about 20 pounds now, and not sure where it is all going.

We are now doing appointments every 2 weeks until I’m 8 months, then we go every week!

Kathy

I was surprised by a package left at the back door today by the UPS man!
Turns out the Allen Family from Missouri got the baby a welcoming gift. We received a bouncy seat and bottle’s we registered for at Babies R us, I took a picture of it!

The three of us want to thank them for the nice gesture, we know it will be a life saver!

Thanks again,

Kathy