Wow, this basketball that I swallowed is getting pretty big.  This was taken this past Tuesday at 36 and 1/2 weeks.  It's amazing to think that we are now full term and this little one could show up at anytime.  Are we ready?  Hmm, we'll see. :) 

Here is our wonderful Halloween outfit.  We thought they were pretty creative to make 20 minutes from when we got home from work.  The pumpkin looks a bit better as a side shot. :)

This is the only below the waist shot we have since we wanted to be careful and not see what kind of muffin is in the oven!!!

Wow, it has been a really long time since we last got on this to update.  Lots has been going on.  In the last few months, we have moved, traveled to the east and west coast, worked on getting the baby room set up, started baby classes, more than half way through teaching this semester, and just growing each week with the little one inside.  In the midst of all the craziness, we have found some time to hang out with friends and just relax with each other before the little one arrives.  We are still sticking to our guns with not finding out what Lil' Cramer is going to be, and we are super excited to meet him/her.  Our trips to the coasts were both a wonderful time.  We really wanted to have a chance to see family before we became a little less mobile for awhile.  It was awesome to get to see family and friends back in Washington, especially because it had been such a long time.  I really enjoyed seeing familiar faces and finding out about all of the new arrivals coming out there also.

Matt and I both went out to the east coast.  He had a work trip and then I followed along.  It was a quick trip filled with visiting with lots of people and having a baby shower out there also.  It was a wonderful time and it was pretty awesome to have a chance to catch up with family and friends out there also.  Matt then stayed on after I left for a trip to the white house with the past Beijing Olympians.  This was a pretty cool experience for him.

I am now into my nesting stage, and feeling like we need to get things ready to go.  We have 6 1/2 weeks left until our due date, but who knows it might want to come earlier. :)  We can't wait either way.  There is lots still to do in preparation, so we are chugging along with that.  The pictures that we are posting are from the 3D/4D ultrasound that we got in week 31.  It is pretty amazing to get a glimpse of what our little blessing will look like.  He/she has got some chubby cheeks!  

The Olympic Mountain Bike Race was my first mountain bike race as a fan/spectator in over 5 years!

Everything about the Beijing Olympics was extravagent, including the presentation of the medals.

Bartering at the Silk Market!  Pins are the greatest international currency on earth.

The Olympic Rowing venue was in the Shunyi district of China northeast of Beijing.

Home Sweet Home

How sweet it is!  Home sweet home.  I arrived back in Colorado on Wednesday after 40 days in Beijing.  I was in China working for the US Olympic Team.  Jenny (and the little one in the oven) met me at the airport and literally our first stop was to Chipotle so I could get me fill on a good ol' burrito.  Chipotle, if you have not yet been enlightened, has the Worlds greatest burritos.

Fortunately there is no work travel in the upcoming months and only a few trips to see family before our lives change forever with the arrival of the baby in December.  I bought my season ski pass today to force me to still hit the mountains in between diaper changes and power naps!!!  Jenny is starting to get big and the baby is now about 12 inches long.  

Here are some more pictures of the little on.  One of me getting kicked and then punched.  It's an active one in there. 

Other things going on here, Matt is off in Bejing.  He will be there until the games are over - for quite some time.  We are hoping that during this time he gets to some site seeing and exploring.  We'll see how it goes. 

Look at the hand!

This is when the little one flipped on it's back and stretched and then it flipped back over and kept kicking.

I am actually starting to show a little.  Yea!  This picture is from last week - week 17.  I think that I might have felt something moving, but I'm not sure.  It's still pretty early.  Today, we went in for the big ultrasound.  It was amazing to see how much the little one was moving.  I think we have a soccer player in the making.  I was getting kicked and then it pulled it's arm backed and whacked me - a couple times.  This amazing little thing that God is growing inside of me is doing really well.  We were very happy to see that it looks like a pretty healthy baby.  

Mount Antero - 14,269ft

Mount Antero has become the Blodget Peak of the Colorado 14ers! For those of you unfamiliar with Blodget Peak, between Jenny and I we have attempted to make it to the summit 5 times and to date it eludes us. Let me also remind you that Blodget Peak is only about 1500ft elevation gain. Antero is about 4800 ft elevation gain and that is starting at 9400 ft in the little town of Alpine. Just a little bit different elevation profile but as elusive as Blogdet to say the least. The unattainable summit unfortunately for me was due to Bella getting severe lacerations to both of her rear paws during our ascent. At about 13,000ft I noticed blood on rocks and my initial fear was that Tully had opened up the artery she tore a month ago on her foot. Instead it was Bella. We had no option but to keep going up to crest the scree field we were on but that meant we had to descend for every step we took up.

It took a nano second to decide the best option was to abandon our summit attempt and get Bella down as quickly as possible. Bella is not the leanest dog anymore so my attempts to carry her did not last long. With six mile to hike down, she was on her own for about 5 of them. Every step was slow motion for her and with both rear paws shredded, each one laced with what I can imagine was unbelievable pain. The granite above treelline is almost like it has shards of glass imbedded so unbenonced to my booted feet, each step she took was tearing her pads to shreds. The great dog owner I am took 4000 ft of climbing to notice!!!

Bella with about 3 miles to go! What a trooper.

Long story short we made it down in about twice the time it took us to get up. I took Bella to the vet today and after 8 stitches to her feet and depbreeding of all four paws, she is now sleeping and high on pain meds. Between Tully severing an artery, me taking a face plant on my mountain bike, and Bella being a trooper on Antero, Jenny is the only one holding down the healthy fort. That is for the best carrying our baby and all! Jenny is in Nashville at Sarah Montgomery's wedding but I am starting to think that she won't let me or our dogs out of her site when she gets back! Again, probably for the best!

Week 10

I had another ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. The little one is doing wonderfully! We heard the heartbeat again which is so amazing to hear. I can't believe that I have this amazing little blessing from God growing inside of me. I am not getting queasy quite as much now, which has been really nice. I am not liking meat quite as much as I used to, so I am having to be creative with how I get my protein. Currently, the little one is about the size of a kumqat. I would take a picture to show you how big, but I don't have a kumqat sitting around. :)

What not to do when you're going to be a Dad!

I would recommend not doing a face plant into a rock on your mountain bike if you plan to be a Dad! If you do, make sure you wear a helmet. This picture is two days after I decided to kiss a big rock at Section 16. I would tell you what happened but I have no recollection of it...which is probably better.

Jeff, you can laugh now! Thanks though for not laughing when it happened.

Week 8

One of the first things I did when I found out I was pregnant was to sign up at Baby Center. It's been really fun, because each week I am sent an update on what lil' Cramer looks like. Here is the most current link for what the little one looks like.

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-8-weeks_1097.bc?intcmp=pulldown_preg

Progress

You can't tell in this picture but Jenny is prego! I guess a lentil bean with a heartbeat doesn't take up much space but each month we will show you Jenny's progress!

Baby Time!

Wow! We got to see the little one for the first time today. It was pretty amazing to see the little heart beat. Currently, little Cramer is the size of a grain of rice. When you look at the picture, the top circle is the yolk sac for feeding and nutrients for the little one. The one below that looks like the grain of rice is Lil' Cramer. Only 7 mm's long.

From the Ultrasound Technichian, she said the due date is December 21 (the doctor had said December 19th), so a little bit different. But who knows - the baby gets to decide when it wants to join us. We are currently 6 weeks and 4 days. I had a little bit earlier ultrasound for some cramping, but everything looks great.

So for those of you who don't know, we obviously are pregnant. We found out with a pregnancy test on April 10th, and then made it official on April 21st with our first Prenatal appointment. We are pretty excited to think about this little blessing growing inside of me. During this time, we also moved to a new home, completed selling our home and Matt's parents came out for 2 weeks. It's been a pretty insane, wonderful, crazy, blessed month. God has done some amazing things in our lives in making things happen.

We are currently living downtown in Colorado Springs. It's really awesome. We can get on our bikes and ride to Jack Quinn's (a get place to hangout) or go to the Sante Fe Trail (a great bike riding trail). We are also lots closer to the mountains and to our friends. We are very very happy!

We do have some Ultrasound pictures and some pictures of the tummy that we are going to post soon also.