Update on the baby progress

Everything has been going really good with the pregnancy...well almost. Lately since my stomach has been growing my balance is a touch off. I'm trying to compensate for the shifting weight, thus my back is starting to ache during the day. Despite wearing my compression socks, my ankles are still swelling during the day. I'm starting to feel like a basket-case. =) Honestly, it's not all that bad. The knot in my back is probably the worst of it.

Travis was really sweet last night. We went to the mall for a little bit. We stopped at Brookstone. Travis wanted to do something to help my back. We picked up an I-need lumbar massager. I must say it really helps with the knots. It provides enough temporary relief.

We've also been continuing to spruce up Mini's nursery. I was putting away some of the gifts from this weekends baby shower. It'll be interesting to see where we'll be able to fit everything. I finally put a crib sheet & blanket on the mattress, so it's starting to look like a baby will actually sleep in the crib. It's all coming together slowly but surely.

Here's a few pictures of my growing bump. I'm 31+ weeks right now. Down to about 8-9 weeks on the countdown.

Until next time,

Love Tiff & Trav

Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving weekend started on Weds at noon. We both were able to leave work a little early in order to try and get in front of the coming storm. Unfortunately even though we were able to pack the car and be on the road by 12:30, we didn't beat the storm. The storm followed us the entire way to Ripon.

The fun started about 5 minutes into our drive with sleet or hail, whichever you prefer to call it. From there the weather changed to snow. The snowflakes were so big and fluffy. It started off light and steadily began to get worse. A few times during the drive the snow was near white-out conditions because of the howling wind. The snow changed back over to rain the further east we drove. Although it wasn't as smooth as that because the temperature was flirting around 31 & 32 degrees. At times the rain would be a little bit slushy and slightly freezing rain. The worst of the drive was when we were on highway 23...the drivers were nice and slow. Despite all of the weather, the drive took us a little over 5 hours.

Thanksgiving morning - We spent a good part of the morning relaxing and watching the Macy's parade. Then we were all getting ready for dinner. Dinner was at 6pm. Aunt Peggy, Uncle Bruce, Andrew & Adam Lindsay came over along with Grandpa & Grandma Splitt and the neighbors Judy & Erin Maguire. Kenny unfortunately was still sick and unable to make it. We had a lovely dinner with family and friends.

Black Friday - I had mentioned to Sue that I was hoping to find some matchbox cars for my little brother Sean. She had remembered that there were 2 different stores with sales. So that morning the entire household was up around 4-4:30 am. Trav, TJ & Ron went out hunting, while Sue & I went shopping. Tiffany (TJ's wife) went out shopping with her sister. The first stop on our list was K-Mart. Nothing horrible or awful. We were in and out of the store in about 15 minutes. The second stop was Menards. The parking lot was completely full. All of the side streets and adjacent parking lots were full as well. The store opened at 6am, we got there around 6:40. The store was absolutely packed. People were everywhere. Sue & I were lucky enough to have walked in the exit door so we were able to scope out where to check out the fastest. We successfully found the cars. There were 5 big garbage cans full of cars to begin the morning, by the time we got there, only 3 cans had cars in them about 1/3 of the way full. Who knew so many people wanted cars. The check-out lines were all the way to the back of the store...I'm sure people waited in line for 1.5-2 hours. We winded our way through various aisles till we came out by the check-out. We were able to hop into a line with only 5 people in it.  Over all we spent about 35 minutes in the store. It could have been a lot worse in Menards. Lastly we wanted to go to Jo-Ann fabrics but the store didn't open till 9am even though it was posted online and in their ad that they opened at 6am. I think they must have lost a lot of business.
The guys came back and have 2 deer. It was great that they were able to get something. The rest of Friday was spent relaxing and recouping from being up so early.

Saturday was the Open house/baby shower & Christmas. Travis & I helped Sue in the morning get things ready for the shower. People started to arrive around 1pm. It was a great opportunity to see family and family friends that we haven't seen in a while. Both Trav & I were overwhelmed with the love and support we received from everyone. All of the gifts were lovely and wonderful. Our little girl has several new outfits, bibs, toys, and blankets to name a few items. After everyone left, we were able to set up for Christmas dinner. We had another round of presents after dinner. We received great gifts all around. Travis is excited because we will be able to get a new golf bag, since his bite the dust this year. Me being a book worm, I always love to get new books. After both the baby shower & Christmas we were a bit worried about how we were going to get everything home. Our car was completely full on the way home. We wouldn't have been able to fit anything more into the car. We did an amazing job to fit everything in, like one big jigsaw puzzle.

The drive home was much better. We had sunshine the whole way with weather in the mid 40s. It was great. We made it home in 4.25 hours, including stops. After unloading the car, we've just been relaxing all night. It would be great if we still had another day off to completely unwind from being gone all weekend.

Until next time, love Tiff & Trav

Holiday Tea!

Last night was the Ladies Holiday Tea at our church. It was a wonderful evening spent with friends! The church was already decorated for Christmas so it was looking beautiful. There were about 75 tables with 8-9 ladies at each one. So I spent a little time telling you all about our table before but it was inspired by gingerbread and fiesta ware. All of the pictures of some of my favorite tables and our table are up on my Facebook page. Don't worry, I'll put some pictures up on the bottom of this blog.

We had a beautiful menu put together by the men of the church. They served all of the ladies. It was great to see so many husbands and sons having a great time. Our senior pastor even served! The reception was great with Sparkling Cider, Assorted Cheese & Crackers and Grapes. It was a nice time for all of the guests to mingle while the hostesses made finishing touches. The tea started with Blueberry Streusel Scones and Pumpkin Pecan Scones served with Lemon Curd, Devonshire Cream & Raspberry Preserves. Next came the salad of field greens, dried berries, Feta cheese, almonds with a raspberry vinaigrette. We also had a sandwich of Italian herb & cheese focaccia bread filled with Smoked Turkey, Ham, Baby Swiss, Lingonberry Sauce and Honey Mustard. (On a side note, we were expecting small tea sandwiches...no we got a huge pie shaped sandwich.) Best of all the dessert was a Chocolate Mousse Torte adorned with Chocolate Curls & Raspberries. The tea that we had all night was Barry's Gold Blend. Everything was so beautifully presented and tasted just as wonderful as it sounds. Sorry if I made you all hungry now.

The guest speaker for the evening was Devi Titus. She's a very vivacious woman. She's an accomplished author, speaker and woman of God. Do me a favor and google her, she's pretty amazing. Her talk for the evening was based on the Table. She gave her opinion on why coming to the table for dinner is so important to the family. Scientists have proven that children who eat at a table with their family and engage in active conversation are better, more intelligent, more confident and so on. However scientist haven't figured out why. This is where Devi went to the scripture and explained where the table came from and it's importance to God. She's very passionate about preserving the sanctity of the home. She has all of this in one of her books that was just published this year, I think. Don't quote me on it. It was really fascinating to hear what she had to say.

The night was wonderful overall. As we head into the holiday season, I hope that you have a safe and blessed time spent with family and friends.

Until next time,
Love Tiff (& Trav too)

Our colorful table!

This just shows some of the detail from the centerpiece. Lisa made the Nativity Scene from Fondant.

The lovely hostesses. Myself & my two best girlfriends, Mary Kumba (middle) & Lisa Schulz (Right)

Weekend

Alright so you all know that is snowed here this weekend. The official tally from Saturday was 7.7 inches. It broke the record snowfall for the day. Basically it was a lot of fun because people turned into their usual paranoid selves and couldn't drive. The snow was really wet and heavy which did cause a few problems around the Cities. We had a lot of trees and branches down. A few power lines snapped under the weight of the ice/snow as well. We didn't lose power on the west side of Bloomington but a good chunk of east Bloomington lost power for a little while. It's much better today because the roads are clear and people went back to driving like normal.

Yesterday Trav & I went to the Mall of America to try and finish up some Christmas Shopping. We had a good time wandering around stopping in store after store. After shopping, I went over to my girlfriends house (Lisa) to put together our gingerbread houses and tree for the ladies tea this Friday. I'll post a picture of our table all put together on Sat. Lisa, Mary & I had a great time decorating the houses with frosting and candy. After we finished decorating, Trav brought pizza and soda over and we all watched a movie together. The girls decided that it would be fun to have a movie night, so we had all of our significant others participate as well. =)

Today was a great day. There was just a little dusting of snow, nice and fluffy. We spent the morning at church and the grocery store. After we got home, Trav watched football while I did some cooking. I made 2 loaves of Italian Panettone bread. It's a really yummy bread that makes the best toast ever. Traditionally it's a dessert bread but we've adapted the bread to our liking. I also made chili and corn bread for dinner. It just seemed like a good and hearty meal to have now that we finally have snow. Tonight we plan on just relaxing before another hectic week at work.

Until next time, Love Trav & Tiff

It's Snowing...

YUCK!!

(all the morons on the road need to learn how to drive, it's not like this doesn't happen every year!)

New Microsoft Store

Alright so I may not be the most computer savvy person but I consider myself pretty knowledgeable. I went to the new Microsoft Store at the Mall of America. I won a ticket to a VIP event with Mom's Like Me (MLM). MLM is a website all for mom and run by moms. Basically a social network just for moms. It's pretty cool. So back to the store...this is the 6th Microsoft store in the nation. It opened last weekend. We received a goodie bag with a stress ball, mints, pencils, t-shirt and something that I have no idea what it is. Pretty nice. They gave us a couple of workshop demonstrations about their newest products, Windows 7 & the Windows Phone. Both I must say were pretty sweet. The best thing we learned about was the "cloud" thing. If you've seen the commercial with the lady trying to take the family picture. They showed up a demonstration of it...amazing. Seriously anyone can use it by going to explore.live.com and going to the photo gallery area. Plus it's totally free. They also showed us how with that same site, you can link up all your different email accounts so you only have to check 1 site a day to get all of your email.

Now let me describe the store a little. Everything in the store is hooked up to Wi-Fi so you can play with everything. On the perimeter of the store, the lower half of the wall are shelves for the products. The top half of the wall is one big monitor/screen. Just like a TV, the wall changes and displays various products. On the right side, they have all of the different gaming systems set up so people can play those. A guy next to us was playing the rock band game for about 20 minutes. The store is one big game room.

We were in the back of the store behind a half wall. They have a bunch of benches with varying heights and high top tables to sit at during the workshop, but then everything can be pushed back and stored under the taller benches to make room for the newest game. We were able to demo the new Xbox Kinect. It was pretty cool. I think the system was a little touchy because you need to wait for the game to recognize you as a character. Also you need to ensure that there is plenty of space away from the TV due to the computer recognizing you. You have to stand in a certain space by looking at the TV, I would say at least 10-12 feet from the TV. Maybe it's adjustable for smalled spaces but I didn't ask, so I don't think we'd be able to play it in our small living room. Oh well I still love my Wii.

As the afternoon was wrapping up, the people from Microsoft surprised all of us by saying that there would be a drawing for 6 prizes. Five of the prizes were $25 gift card and a free PC tune up. The grand prize was a Samsung Netbook with Windows 7. It was exciting...I won a gift card! So not only did I learn some cool stuff about Windows, but I got a gift card to boot! Now I have to go back with Trav so we can pick out a new Xbox game or something like that.

Till next time, Love Tiff & Trav

Third Trimester...ready or not!

Hi All, so it's been a little bit since we put up a baby update. Things have been going very good. As a medical person, I continue to say that it's been an unremarkable pregnancy. I really only have 2 complaints. The first is some mild swelling in my legs, which I wear compression socks for and it's just fine. The second is a little bit more annoying. I've been having some lower and mid-back pain. The mid-back pain is more noticeable. It seems like it always hits me around 11am. Right in the middle of my work day. Oh well, I have high pain tolerance so I just grin and bear it till I get home where I can stretch my back out and use my balance ball. Trav has even been massaging my back to try and get rid of the knot.

I had another doctors appointment this week. Every checked out fabulously. I only had to have 2 needle pokes so that's better than last visit with 5. I was given another shot of RhoGam because I am Rh-. This shot will take me up to birth. (For those of you wondering what Rh- is, it's a factor in your blood. You either have it or you don't...that's why you'll hear people say I'm A - or A+. So being that I'm negative, I've been getting these shots to ensure that I don't create antibodies to Mini's blood. If I did create antibodies, my body would recognize Mini as an invader and attack her. All in all, every time the lab has checked my blood, I haven't built up any antibodies so that shots are doing their job.) Why I did I bring up the shot in the first place, I've already had 3 of these shots. Every time it's a large needle and I have to get it in a large muscle (aka. the butt). I knew that once I reached 28 weeks, I'd be getting another shot and was dreading getting it. The nurse made my day!!! She walked in and said "where do you want it...shoulder, hip, thigh, butt?" I avoided a shot in my butt and took the shoulder. Now why wouldn't all of the other nurses offer that??

As for Mini, she's doing really good. She's active all the time!!! Her kicks are getting much stronger, almost to the point of being uncomfortable. She is already head down, more on the left side of my stomach. Her favorite thing to do is push with her feet on the right side of my stomach to stretch out. When she does this, I push back against her feet and she pushes harder. It's kinda funny to see my stomach all of a sudden start pushing to the right. It's also funny to see my stomach when she kicks, because my stomach will bounce and you can see right where she hit. It's an absolutely crazy to feel Mini moving around. The doctor thinks she's about 2.5 lbs right now, maybe 14-15 inches long. All that movement from such a tiny baby.

Being that I'm in my third trimester, I should be visiting the doctor every 2 weeks...but since I'm doing so well I don't have to go back for another month. After that visit I'll see the doctor every 2 weeks for 2 visits, then it'll be every week in January. It won't be long now till we get to meet our little bundle of joy. The rest of the year is going to fly by because I'm looking forward to spending the holidays with family. We'll be in Ripon for a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas with Trav's family. Then Christmas in Duluth and Danbury with my family. Come New Years, we won't be straying too far from home in anticipation of Mini's arrival.

Till next time, Love Tiff & Trav

Opening Weekend Success

It has been awhile since I, Travis, have checked in with all of via the blog, but this weekend presented a perfect opportunity to write a little post for you all to enjoy. This weekend us Minnesotans don our blaze orange and welcome in the gun deer hunting season. Even though our season is a little earlier than many would like to have it, we usually have some good luck. Unfortunately the last two years haven't treated to any deer, so I really needed to step it up this year because the freezer was running on empty.

I go hunting with my best friend Kyle, who I met about 7 years ago now while I was framing houses, and his dad Wayne. We hunt near Zimmerman, MN on a property that includes about 20 acres of woods, corn fields, soy bean fields, and some marsh areas. We mainly hunt within the woods, as the deer will use that as a safe haven after escaping other wooded areas and running through the fields.

Saturday morning came a lot quicker than we would have liked, but much to our chagrin once we got out the property, the corn had been cut, which greatly helped us out. At about 7:50 Wayne had two nice does come walking his direction. He picked one out and shot her, but the odd thing was the other one stayed right there and so he was able to shoot her as well. With two deer down that early in the morning we felt like this could be our year to get a few. As I was sitting there waiting to go help Wayne get his deer out of the woods, I was blessed with sight of a buck walking my direction at 8:02. I spotted him coming from about 80 yards away. As he was coming in my direction, he stopped to eat and look around. I patiently waited for him to present me with a nice shot, and after about two minutes I took the opportunity to take him. I had a nice clean shot and he only made it about 20 yards before retiring!

So with three deer already taken, we figured that if we were able to get one more this morning we would be having a much more relaxed hunt for the rest of the season. Well Kyle decided this morning that only taking one deer wasn't good enough. At about 8:15 Kyle harvested a nice doe and a really nice buck.

I am betting most of you are reading this and thinking, well how big are these two bucks? Kyle doubled me up on the antlers for the year. I got a three pointer and Kyle's is a really nice six. I feel really blessed every time I get the chance to harvest one of God's creatures and I know that it will make for some good meals, so I couldn't be happier with how the weekend turned out! Hopefully we will be able to get a couple more next weekend, but if not that is alright as our freezer is already full!!!

Until next time,

Travis