Pregnancy Pictures

This past weekend Blair took some pictures of Jason and I now that I am showing. We went to a small park nearby where we live and the pictures turned out well. We are getting more and more excited the closer we are getting to August. Its been a fun few weeks since we have been back in Indiana. Love being able to see our families without taking time off work and booking flights! Now it just needs to warm up a little! We put all of our pictures from our "photo shoot" (at 21 weeks) up on our website: http://public.fotki.com/caskinner

20 Weeks

We are now about 20 weeks pregnant. On March 4th we had our 3-D ultrasound before leaving Arizona. It was amazing to see each organ in such detail when she is so small! At that appointment she weighed .7 oz. Who knows how much she has grown since then. I have been feeling great, especially now that we are more settled and school/ moving is over. I think I would be happy to not see any boxes for a while! The past few weeks I have been able to feel Bambina kick- especially when the dogs bark. Last week in the middle of the night the dogs heard a noise outside and started barking (since we just moved here the noises are still unfamiliar to them). It was about 4am. Bambina must have been sleeping, because she certainly woke up when she heard them. I felt the biggest movement I have ever felt on all sides of my stomach. Since then she has been kicking a little anytime she hears them. I think she is already a dog-lover. It is such a unique feeling! Hard to describe. I also noticed her kicking more frequently the other day after we went out to dinner with our friends to On the Border. I wonder if the salsa was too spicy for her liking? ;)

March Madness

Somehow in the past 3 weeks we survived the following: nursing school finals, graduation, Jason leaving his job, planning a graduation and going-away party for leaving Arizona, packing up our entire apartment, driving a uhaul and cars from Arizona to Indiana over 3 days (with lots of help from our parents!), finding an apartment in Indianapolis and moving in there... and everything in-between! We love our new living arrangements though and are happy to be living in the midwest... although we have had several "missing Arizona" moments (like realizing we can't do an inexpensive 3 day trip driving to Cali anymore on a few days notice) and I'm sure more to come. I would recommend to anyone to move out of state if they get the opportunity for at least a few years- best decision we have ever made!!


The day before we moved, the girls in my nursing program surprised me with a baby shower. I was shocked to say the least- I've never had a surprise anything and definitely wasn't expecting it. It was such a fun time and I already miss all of them dearly!
















Later that same day was our graduation! It was an outside ceremony and we had a beautiful day of 75 and sunny. There is no feeling better than graduating!!















All of us after my graduation at our going-away party. Now we are just looking forward to starting a new chapter! :)

Our last family picture in our apt. in AZ

After moving back to IN, Dakota and Heinz getting reacquainted with Indiana weather

Its a GIRL!

Thursday, February 24th was our last appointment with Dr. Sawyer in Arizona. We were not scheduled for an ultrasound, just a "tummy check". I was 16 weeks along at that point, and we already had an appointment scheduled for 18 weeks at another facility for an ultrasound there to reveal the sex of the baby and check each organ. Dr. Sawyer walked into the room and said, "Who wants to find out what you're having?!" We were so excited, especially since we didn't think we would find out for another few weeks. During the ultrasound the baby looked like it was running a marathon with the legs kicking non-stop. Finally our doctor got a good look and announced.... ITS A GIRL!

We had immediately agreed to not say anything to our families, as they were planning to fly out to Arizona the following week for my nursing school graduation and to help us move. We thought it would be neat to be able to tell them in person. Well that lasted for about 20 minutes. We also wanted to share the news with all our friends in Arizona before we left so by the end of the day I think we had called everyone we knew.

Jason and I have had fun looking around at things at Babies R Us now that we know the sex. We also found some discontinued baby bedding online in a cute print at a great discounted price. Once we get a chance to scan our recent ultrasound pictures I will post them. We are now officially "thinkin pink"! :)

Our Second Ultrasound

Today marks our second doctor's appointment and second ultrasound with Dr. Sawyer. We were really looking forward to getting another look at Bambino now that I am 12weeks along. (Our first ultrasound pictures were taken at less than 6 weeks). I think during the first appointment we were more in shock because I didn't "feel" pregnant, but this appointment I was teary-eyed from the moment we started the ultrasound until we were back out in the car. Hearing that little heartbeat is so reassuring. The pictures of Bambino turned out really clear, considering he or she was doing flips the whole time. We are happy to announce that Bambino no longer has a tail, and is starting to look a lot less like our puppy Dakota and a lot more like a precious little person! We could see the brain, heart, limbs, and systemic blood flow. Jason and I have decided that we are going to find out the gender. That appointment is scheduled around 18 weeks. I have not had any cravings although I do have a long list of things Bambino does NOT want. This list includes cheese its, saltine crackers (or any crackers for that matter), candy (ex jolly ranchers), chocolate, popsicles, lemonaide, and anything carbonated. I thought I would miss my caffeine-free diet coke but boy was I wrong. Luckily most of the things I eat on a normal basis are okay, especially salads, fruit, pasta, and chicken. Ok lets be real and ice cream!!

Some of my pants are tight but I'm unsure if I'm showing 100% of the time or not. Below is a picture we took before going to our doctor's appointment today.

12 weeks

Jason and I VERY excited for the doctor to come in

1st Doctor's Appt

Our first doctor's appointment was last month (12/20). We got to meet Dr. Sawyer and have our first ultrasound. We were beyond excited. At that point the baby's heart chambers had recently formed and the heart had been beating for 6 days. The heart rate was 145. Jason and I had estimated our due date to be the end of July, but our actual due date is August 9, 2011. During the ultrasound, Jason had mentioned that twins run in his family. Dr. Sawyer got excited and wanted to play a practical joke on Jason's family, and created a fake ultrasound with two pictures of the baby. I was so hesitant to send this to anyone !! Jason text the picture to his sister and of course she called us back immediately and we told her that it was just one. Blair did the same thing. :)

Since then we have been having so much fun discussing names, looking at baby items, and imagining what the next year will be like for us.

Bambino

Jason and I spent Thanksgiving with our good friends Jimmy and Ahmed and their families. The food was amazing and we had a great time. The weekend after Thanksgiving we got some exciting news.... we are expecting!! We were in such shock and I think we sat on the kitchen floor for almost an hour just taking it all in. As of now I am over 8 weeks and feeling great, not too many pregnancy symptoms yet. We have already had an apt with our doctor, but our first OBGYN appt is coming up on Dec. 20th. We could not be happier and feel so blessed.

For those of you that are Friends fans, Blair joked that this was Jason when we found out. ;)

Labor Day

We didn't do too much this weekend. It was very relaxing. We hung out with our friends Jimmy and Ahmed one day and another day went to Desert Ridge to have a dinner date and listen to live music. This week I start my first clinical rotation in med-surg. I actually thought I would be nervous but I'm just looking forward to start applying things I have learned. Several people have told me I should write down my experiences with my first patient so I can read it several years from now and remember how I felt. I'm sure I would get a good laugh out of that! Other than that, we are just looking forward to it cooling off a little here so we can be more motivated to do stuff outside instead of peaking out of our thick sun-blocking curtains wishing we could go out and still be able to breathe. Here are some pictures from our weekend:

The Golden Coast

Last weekend we took a roadtrip to San Diego. Our first day there we visited the San Diego Zoo- a first for both of us. It was absolutely amazing. Even with the map, we got lost several times. We managed to get some great pictures and see everything. We were lucky because a cold front came through southern cal last weekend so rather than highs in the 90s, it was 75 the whole time. After the zoo we drove up the coast a little and then ate dinner at Tony Romas. The next morning we drove through La Jolla and had lunch at a diner at the end of a pier in Oceanside. We saw dolphins jumping while we were eating- I didn't want to leave. Some of our friends were coincidently staying near Mission Bay that same weekend so we got to go on our kayaking trip with them. We paddled out from the beach in La Jolla. Our tour guide was really cool and gave us a lot of fun facts about the caves we kayaked through. Our friends immediately tipped their kayak in a big wave while we were paddling out and I have no clue how Jason and I didn't. We didn't see any sharks thank goodness. Sea lion families were swimming all around us and climbing up on the rocks. Several people in the cove were out of their kayaks swimming and snorkeling with them. Jason and I agreed it was one of the neatest experiences we have ever had. Definitely the best $30 we have ever spent. That night we went to a privately owned italian restaurant in a big house called Mama Mias. We had heard they have the "best" pizza in San Diego- and they totally do. And trust me, we have had our fair share of pizza to compare it to. The next morning before we left for Phoenix we went back to La Jolla and hiked down the rocks to see the sea lions again. Jason got some amazing pictures. I took a video too. If you hear some weird barking noises in the video, don't worry, that was me trying to communicate with the sea lions.

Monsoon Madness

This month has been kind of exciting with all the weather changes we have had. Last weekend we enjoyed two straight days of rain and cooler weather. When I say cooler, I mean 75-80. I have to note that Jason felt this was cool enough to use the heated seat in my car one day. LOL. I took this little video clip of one of the storms. We ended up with around 8 trees down just by our apartment.

Recently we got a webcam and have been skyping with our families and friends back home. I am so addicted! Its so much fun, I only wish we could have gotten one three years ago when we first moved out here. This week we have been busy with school and work blah blah but most importantly, getting ready for our roadtrip to California this upcoming weekend. Our friends from Phoenix are going to be in Mission Bay the same weekend, and have booked a kayaking trip for all of us in La Jolla. I have spent a lot of time googling shark sightings/attacks near La Jolla and lets just say I am not relaxed about this excursion!! My sister went on to tell me on the phone that she learned from shark week on discovery that sharks prefer to attack chubbier people. oh great! Maybe I could start working out now? Anyway we are planning to get a few disposable cameras to take pictures inside the caves. The other day we took a field trip with the Ruffies to Petsmart to pick up some more food and treats, and Heinz got a new friend. It has been a few days and now his friend has become a stuffing-less carcus. Here is the video of when he got "Puppy".

Summertime and Sunshine

Its hard to comprehend that 2010 is over half way over already. We have really been enjoying our summer out here, in spite of the 110 degree (and over) days we have been having. Evidently three years is still not long enough to get used to the heat. Last week was my first week back to school after having a three week break. My class finally got our much-anticipated clincial assignment for rotations last Thursday. I was given Paradise Valley Hospital which is great because I've heard all good things about it. We don't begin clinic until the beginning of September but I'm counting down the days to have my first official patient. Jason is really loving his job and has already been working for seven months which is crazy to think about. Seems like he was just taking his boards.
In other fun news, we finally planned a weekend to go to San Diego next month. We just realized we are actually going to end up being there on the 8 year anniversary of our first date!! (Our first date was to see the movie Signs, with Mel Gibson... who by the way has really gone a little crazy lately with those voice mails!! I feel like I can't watch What Women Want now, knowing how psycho he is.) Anyway, back to our Cali trip in August, we are planning to go to the San Diego Zoo because neither of us have been. Our good friends Shannon and Louie moved here to AZ from Newport Beach in orange county so they are giving us some ideas of things to do since they grew up there.
Also I wanted to include some other pictures from the highlights of our trip back home a few weeks ago.

Tinkhams!

Us with Jason's Grandma Stanley


Relaxing at the lake

Us visiting my sweet Grammy, recently diagnosed with Alzheimers. She remembered us and is doing so wonderfully.

Bocce ball!!

Sisters!!!!!!!!!!

Back to where it all started, Bloomington

Our Niece, Adelyn

Last week we finally took our much-awaited trip back to Indiana. I think we crammed about everything imaginable into the 7 days we were there. Emily and Joe welcomed their first baby, Adelyn Mae, on June 11 and we finally got to see her. She is so sweet! We were able to spend a lot of time with Adelyn, Joe, and Em and took some great pictures. She just turned three weeks old and is doing so well. Jay and I had such a great trip back home. We went up to northern Indiana to stay with Andy and Joyce for a few days, went to Bloomington with Christine and stopped at Oliver Winery, met up with friends and family downtown Indy, had a cookout at my Mom's house, and after high anticipation saw the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, at a midnight showing which was amazing!! I now have a two week break before my second block of school starts so I will have time to write more about our vacation. For now, here are some pictures of little Addie! We miss her already.

Addie

Joe took this photo of Jay, Addie, and I

Fur Appointment

Before

After

ROAST

At Jason's hospital, the ortho department challenged rehab to a softball game. They named it the ROAST- Rehab and Ortho Annual Softball Tournament. They've been practicing for about a month and today was the first game. We were contemplating if we should take the dogs or not because of the heat advisory... See Below...

And we still have another 10 degrees to go! Having this heat already in June is indicative of a nice hot three or four months to come. I think a trip floating down the salt river may be in order. We ended up going early for the cookout, then I went back home to pick up the Ruffs when it cooled down so they could participate. There were over 100 people there and about 20 dogs. Believe it or not, Dakota was getting fiesty with a bull mastiff! The Rehab Rebels ended up losing 12-17. It was an entertaining game and Jay played awesome! The dogs made many friends....

I only have 12 days left of classes before my three week break. Its time to kick it into high gear and start preparing for finals week. I can't believe how fast the program has gone by so far. So excited!!! Tonight we are having chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, and corn for dinner :).

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! On Saturday we had a mini babyshower for our friend Victoria who is due in just a few weeks. She ended up having the baby on Saturday night just hours after we left! They had a little girl and named her Maricela "Cela". She is so sweet.

This was earlier on Saturday at her shower

The next day! Welcoming baby Cela. I love these girls

This is definitely the month for babies, because my friend Sara is also being induced today with her little girl, Kennedy.

I have the day off from classes today and I've been enjoying every minute. I studied for a while this morning and then took Dakota and Heinz to the park for a while. I took a short video clip of them running around. They were huge dust balls by the time we left but they had so much fun. Here is the video: