Thanksgiving

We were fortunate enough to have been invited over to our friends' home, Evert, Keri, Evelyn and new baby, Corbyn for Thanksgiving this year. They are great people and Evert's parents were visiting. His mother is from Sweden, so that was fun for me. Great food. Great people. What Thanksgiving is all about...

With the recent adoption of Corbyn, and the miracle of modern medicine growing inside of me, we had much to celebrate and for which to be thankful!

Practice, practice, Daddy-O!

Karina, like her mother, loves whipped cream

Evert, his mom, and Corbyn

I tried to get a good shot of Karina and Evelyn, but everybody was tired by this point...

Happy Birthday, Mark!

For Mark's 40th birthday, I decided to surprise him with a trip to Las Vegas! It was his sister Lynn's idea, and unfortunately, she wasn't able to meet us, but I was thankful for the suggestion! Fortunately for us all though, Mark's dad (Mike), his sister, Ann, and her husband, Matt, all flew out for the surprise trip (Mike from Florida, Ann & Matt from Chicago)! I was SO excited, it was hard to contain it!

Friends of mine where kind and GENEROUS enough to loan us their loaded Toyota Highlander (drool)! It saved us since it had a built-in DVD player in it. I can't imagine driving 7 hours to Las Vegas with a 3-year-old and no DVD player. NO WAY. She called it "the movie car". :-)

When Mark arrived at home from work on Thursday evening and saw the Highlander in the garage, he was (needless to say) perplexed. I told him it was his "surprise birthday vacation transportation". It took him a while for things to sink in, then he kept calling me sneaky... and he was right! He kept trying to guess where we were going, but I wouldn't budge. The mystery was half the fun!

We had a GPS in the Highlander that kept pointing to Vegas, so he figured it out around St. George, which was fine. He also kept asking who was meeting us there (sometimes he's too smart for his own good), and although I thought I had done a good job of acting as though they weren't, he wasn't buying. Sigh. At least he didn't expect to meet up with people when and where we did, so I DID pull something over on him! :-)

We went straight to a park (for Karina's benefit, of course... wink-wink) where his sister and brother-in-law were sitting on a toy, and his dad at a picnic table. It was a glorious reunion and Karina acted as though she had just seen her relatives a couple of weeks prior.

Mark's sister, Ann, with Karina and Mark (nice park!)

We went to one of my father-in-law's favorite places on the planet, Red Rock Canyon. It's breathtaking!

I had a mild heart attack when Mark and Karina were up on this rock, but it certainly was gorgeous.

Uncle Matt

Uncle Matt and Karina the climber

All of us "party animals" on the strip... Matt's sister, Anne, also joined us from New York.

I would say watching Karina watch the fountain at Bellagio was a *major* highlight of our trip! She was so thrilled and giggled like we had never seen or heard before... we were elated!

We had fun walking around the Bellagio hotel. Karina loved all of the great sights (very much including this "talking" tree)!

Karina having a long overdue cuddle with Grandpa. She misses him and told us recently that she wants to live in Florida... :-)

Karina treating Aunt Annie to a free hairbrushing... What great smiles.

Mark and his "baby sister"....

Our last night there we went to Fremont Street downtown. What a light show!

Second Ultrasound

Being that the first trimester is volatile, my nurse practitioner wanted to do a second ultrasound at 9 weeks, just to make sure the growth and development were occurring on schedule. I love seeing the life that's growing inside of me, so she didn't get any resistance from me! It often makes the nausea and complete exhaustion more justifiable... ;-)

This one shows a better image of the yolk sac than that of the embryo. It's all so miraculous!

Here's decent shot of the little sweetie I was so convinced was a boy (they still look so alien at this stage)...

I'm not exactly sure what was going on here, but I think Karina was upset because she wanted to play "Doctor" with the equipment and wasn't permitted to do so. She always wants to help and participate... sweet thing. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories made up about this shot as the years go by. She really does want a sibling! Or at least she thinks she does... ;-)