Photos

Not much going on this week. It rained saturday so Jared and I took care of cleaning out the garage. Then we took Erin to see "Open Season". Here are some photos for the week... Erin in her new Dora outfit from Grandma Sue

We are Having a Girl!

Today Jared and I went for my level II ultrasound with an integrated echo. I am using the same fetal specialist that I used with Erin – he is phenomenal! The great news is so far the baby’s growth and heart development looks excellent. Right now her heart is about the size of the tip of your pinky finger, so I’ll head back for a follow-up scan at 26 weeks just to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

Baby Renshaw
Jared and I were both thinking it was a boy. Last week I had a really sweet dream that I had a little girl and named her Leah, but the dream was wrecked with Jared insisting that we name her Laya :) So I didn’t read much into it.

Erin has been set on a girl ever since we convinced her that Mom is only having one baby and not two. Long story short for some reason she thinks the baby resides in the breasts and not the stomach, so logically there are two of them, so there are two babies.

My due date is June 26. I am delivering downtown again in the medical center, unless of course I go into labor during rush hour. Then some bus driver named Eduardo will be delivering me on the side of I-45 and I will make the evening traffic jam report being the reason why traffic is at a stand still - which I must say is a huge fear. We have a hospital a few miles away, but you drive an extra few miles for a top-notch hospital. I guess that is the risk you take.

The very large feet
This time I am using a midwife and so far it’s been a great experience, much more personal. There are four midwives in a practice with five high-risk ob’s. Its a good mix a technology and old school midwifery.

Erin has her cardiology check up next week. If all looks well we’ll only have to go once a year, our insurance company is going to love us this year!

Till Next Time.....

There is a Reason for Expiration Dates….

Yes, this weekend after finally feeling good for a few days I got a good case of food poisoning. After that experience I will make sure to double check on the expiration date before succumbing to some funky late night cravings.

Bribes = Bicycle

Erin got her bike tonight after a successful week of potty training. Her best friend got one after she was potty trained and Erin wanted a bike so we took advantage of it. She still is wetting the bed about every other night, but during the days she is doing excellent. Tonight we went out and bought her a “hat.” She was very proud of the helmet she picked out. Then we came home and put together her bike. It’s still rainy here so she took a few spins around the living room.

The Erin Song...

Erin stated singing a few weeks ago, usually about nothing, but its cute. Here is a clip of Erin singing about the baby....

Fall in January

When we returned from our Christmas trip our tree had finally lost its leaves. Erin had a great time jumping in the piles.

Baby oh Baby!

We just realized that we have not told that many people that we are pregnant. I had a pretty rough first trimester with the morning sickness and all. But it has since subsided and has been replaced by the flu and a sinus infection. Right now I am 16 weeks along and my estimated due date is June 26.

So here is the big question is it a boy or a girl? We find out the 22nd. My feeling is that it’s a boy…because only a man would give me this much trouble :). Honestly my pregnancy has been a lot different. Erin is set on having a baby sister. For the longest time we would ask her and she would respond “two babies”. I was pretty happy to hear that one solid heartbeat, but then again with twins you only have to be pregnant once…hmmm…

Anyway we are really excited and thought we would share the news. Leave your best guess on the survey below!

Onward to Renshaw's

(I post this only because my SIL loves me...)

Grandpa & Grandma Renshaw


As for the Renshaw Christmas, we had the extended family Christmas on Christmas Eve at Jared’s grandparent’s house. Most of the cousins made it, which was great since we only get to see them once a year. We are the only ones that live out of state. The food was amazing – as always. We were laughing because Erin has no butt and is always running around with plumbers crack. All the Renshaw’s are built the same and Jared’s cousin’s kid had the same problem. So here are there two adorable little girls running around with their pants sagging way too low.

Christmas Day we got up for Jared’s family Christmas. Their tree was massive this year; about 13’ tall with an 8’ span. Erin raked it in again with lots of puzzles, books and baby stuff.
Jared’s sisters almost didn’t make it in form Provo because of the blizzards. They ended up canceling their flight and jumped in a car. It took them 31 hours to drive I-80 Utah to Iowa, but they made it safely.

We spent most of the week playing games and chilling out. Jared went paintballing with Devin one day. We took Erin to see Santa and she completely freaked out.

Finally it was time to go home. Jared and I amazingly fit everything in the car (expect the Dora car) – it was like a big Tetris game and then we drove the long stretch home.

Tradition

So it’s been a while. Life has been a whirlwind the last month and I finally have a second to sit down and blog. We jumped in the car and drove through to Iowa in the middle of December, just to make it in time for the Fenchel (my mom’s) Family Christmas. You often think of family Christmas traditions consisting of sweet lovable memories….for our family tradition we play spoons.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it’s simple, you place one less kitchen spoon than you have players and then when someone reaches four of a kind, the one without a spoon loses. So really it has nothing to do with winning, you just don’t want to be the loser. Most families stop there, a simple enjoyable card game. But here, spoons is a table breaking, arm biting, someone’s sleeping on the couch tonight because they ripped a spoon from their wife’s death-life clutch kind of game. The punishment for losing has changed through the generations, but there is always a punishment. The traditional punishment is the loser has to wear a clothespin on their ear or place their finger in a mouse trap for one round. Our generation is still found of the clothes pins, but thinks the mousetrap is a bit asinine (we like our phalanges).

We use to place a metal bowl or strainer over the losers head and then everyone would whack the metal object with a metal spoon (brings a new definition to ringing of the ears), but then lots of good pots and strainers were losing their shape from all the abuse and thus their cooking quality declined. From time to time people ran through the snow drifts of town half clothed singing Christmas carols or other freakish acts.

But this year was our year. The older generation has retired their spoons and has taken up coaching the youth. We decided since we were all young (and we couldn’t afford to break another antique oak table) we would play on the floor. The tournament started, everyone hunched together eyeing their spoon of choice. At one point I thought I had a broken hand. I saw my cousin bite into the arm of her college wrestling boyfriend (now fiancé) and almost draw blood…we marry too nice of boys. But Jared has learned to fight and we ended up in the finals and I won the tournament. Yes, the pregnant women whooped up, but then I am the oldest cousin and have years of spoons experience.

Anyway it was great to see the family, everyone made it to Christmas.

As for our Christmas at the Fenton household we had a great time. Erin got spoiled rotten, I think mom and dad bought every Dora item they walked by. She got Dora the bathtub doll, Dora slippers; Santa even brought her a red electric Dora Volkswagen Beetle. She really got into Christmas this year. Max got a bad eye infection when we were home, which was pretty sucky for him, but at the same time he couldn’t go to work so we got to hang out.

Dad bought us a .17cal HMR revolver to keep us safe in our hood. We went out for target practice one morning to try it out and it’s really a sweet little gun. Mom bought us a toaster oven which I love and we got some new Osborn pottery for the kitchen.

Sorry no photos yet, my camera was still in the shop and mom need to send me her. I will post some later.

Dad Fix My Car :)