Name is Decided!

Alright, so we finally decided on a full name, and it won't be the surprising.

Noah Hiroshi

Again, Hiroshi is Japanese and it means "Generous" and the meaning of names means a lot to me.

I know a lot of people were pushing for family names, but we really felt it important to stick to a Japanese middle name.  Naming Zoe after my birth mother wasn't because we were taking the family name aspect of it...We considered many other Japanese middles names for her as well.  But knowing everything my birth mother went through to give me life, I couldn't not name my daughter after her.  And I don't have any other way of thanking her or honoring her in my life.  

I've said before that there are many men we would love to honor by naming Noah after him...Tony's got a few Eugenes in his family, there is my maternal grandfather, my Papa Chip (I lost my grandpa and Chip within a few months of each other..It was a very hard summer..), or even Tony himself.  But since we gave Zoe a Japanese middle name we felt it would be weird to not give one to Noah.  And, it's a way for us to recognize their Japanese heritage.  (They need something to remind them they're Japanese, considering how 'white' I am!)

So anyway, I hope no one takes offense to us not naming him after someone specific.  But even if we had decided to not do the Japanese thing, there is no way we could choose between the men we love...They all mean so much to us.

Making a Marine

Remember Tony went to San Diego back in January to visit Camp Pendleton?

Well, their 3 part series ran the first of February (for sweeps of course) and so I wanted to share the videos and stories with you.  It's crazy to see 5 very INTENSE days crammed into 3 short news stories.  But they did do an amazing job and definitely gave you the 'gist' of it.  :)

Of course while watching these videos, I was thinking about my brother...Wonder if this is exactly what he went through.  And I never felt more proud of him.  My heart will always belong to the Marines.  :)

Please go here for part one: Making a Marine: 'It's a lot more intense then I was anticipating.'

Please go here for part two: Making a Marine: 'Every day feels like it's going to be the hardest.'  (In this part you can see the footage of Tony running one of the obstacle courses...Kinda funny.)

And finally, here for part three: Making a Marine: 'The day I became a Marine'.

I really hope you go and check out the videos.  He and Beth (the reporter) are so proud of their work-as they should be!  Tony definitely loves what he does.

sick baby (er, toddler) ...

Yes, out of the blue Zoe just woke up sick with a cold/flu thing.  She woke up Tuesday morning with a raging fever.  She went back to sleep for a bit and woke up without a fever but with a runny nose.  And it only got worse.

Then she got this awful sounding cough (phlegmy) and the runny nose got worse.  She ran a fever off and on for a couple of days but luckily nothing too major.  She's on the mend now, but had to miss a birthday party yesterday and Church today.  Still too germy.

Here are some new pictures!

Enjoying a snack with a monkey.

While sick Zoe did a lot of sleeping in our bed.

She's discovered more than one way to sit in her Elmo chair!

She does love to share...Hubby now has it!  I, by some miracle, have not caught it ... Yet.  I'm expecting to wake up one of these mornings all stuffy.  I'm hoping that doesn't happen, but I can't be that lucky.  Haha.  At least hubby can take medicine...Being preggers means no medicine! 

busy busy!

Last week was an oddly busy week...Good..But busy!

Thursday I had another appointment with my midwife.  I'm up 4 pounds total so far..Not bad considering I only have 16 weeks left.  Yikes.  Only 16?

My blood sugars are still not normal...Very borderline.  I thought after my last appointment and the test they ran, I was fine.  But apparently not.  Sooooo...Friday I had a 2 hour glucose test.  Which ended up being 3 hours because the lab was so insanely busy.  I hate the drink they make you take..It's like drinking syrup and it was orange flavored and you only have 5 minutes to drink it, on an empty stomach.  Not fun.  Then I had to have my blood drawn 3 times...Which isn't such a big deal except I have awful veins.  Luckily, I had a very nice and experienced lady who wasn't intimidated by my bad and uncooperative veins.  I'm a bit bruised, but once this test is over, it'll all be over.  If I pass this test, I'm fine...I should still be careful of what I eat, but I won't have gestational diabetes.  If I don't pass, then I do have it and I'll have to monitor my blood sugar.  At this point, I just want to know either way!

We hit a big milestone last week...Zoe is now sleeping in a big girl bed!  No more crib.  I really thought she'd have a harder time with it, but she slept just fine first night, no crying or anything.  She hopped right in and slept like a ... well ... baby.  This made me both happy and a little sad.  She's definitely growing up...Fast.

I've been cleaning out Zoe's stuff...Didn't realize how much of her clothes I kept.  But since I know I won't be needing them, I've gotten them washed and ready to sell.  I have a friend in Arizona who has a son that is exactly 2 months older then Zoe and she is pregnant with her 2nd baby, a girl, who is due just a few weeks before Noah.  We're going to do a trade since we each have things the other person needs!  We're doing flat rate boxes to keep it fair...I just wish we lived closer since our kids will be so close in age!

Papa and Grandma Gist in Indiana sent Zoe some fun stuff for Valentine's Day including an Elmo chair, which she loves.  Proof:

Her hair isn't so cute in this picture...I'm able to get it into REAL pigtails now, but it's kind of a fight to get her to sit still long enough to let me do it.  But she looks adorable with her hair done.  When it's down, like in the above picture, it looks weird.  It's still short in the front but long in the back and sides.  Kinda mullet like.  :)

Anyway, I guess that's it for now.  Feel like I'm forgetting something though....Hmmmm.

Pictures and other things...

If you haven't heard of Pinterest, it's amazing.  It's basically this 'pin board' (or multiple pin boards) where you can organize all the things you love on the web.  You follow your friends and when they pin something to their board, if you like it, you can pin it to your board.  I have discovered so many recipes and craft ideas because of it.  One of the items I have discovered are these adorable onesies that I'm making for Noah.  They are too cute.  And more importantly, very easy to make!

via here.

I'm going Monday to pick out the items I need to start making them!  :)

Here are a couple pictures of Zoe I took over the last couple of weeks...I finally remembered to crack open the Color Wonder markers and paper I got her for Christmas..She loved them.  As did I..NO mess!  Grandma, Papa, and Grams should expect a pretty picture in their Valentine's day cards!  :)

She took a break from drawing to have a snack and a little small talk with the dog...(The dog wasn't so much into the conversation as she was waiting for Zoe to drop a cracker.)

It has been an amazing couple of days here in OR.  GORGEOUS weather!  The SUN is out!!!  I see blue sky!!  It's a miracle.  And I can't tell you how happy the sun makes me. 

Hope you have a happy and fun weekend! 

Noah's Registry!!

Hey everyone!

On Monday we went ahead and did Noah's baby registry.  Of course Target is under construction because they're adding their new grocery section, so it was hard finding everything, but I think we managed.  :)

There are a few big items on the registry and I promise I wouldn't have put them on there if we didn't think we really needed them!  There is a great resale store in Salem that I love and I'm hoping maybe I can find a couple of things (like the swing and possibly a crib) there.  Zoe loved her swing when she was an infant but the one we had was given to us and had already been through 2 babies before Zoe used it...By the time she was done with it, it pretty much died.  The one on the registry is awesome because you can plug it into an outlet...I can't tell you how many D batteries we went through with Zoe.  It gets expensive!

The reason I asked for new bottles (instead of using the ones Zoe used) is because the pump I plan on using requires those bottles.  And the bottles we used for Z had the liners and that also got expensive but they were nice when we went to Salem or Portland for the day.  So anyway, that's that.  :)  And of course there are a million girl items out there, but not too many boy items.  Bedding was a little hard for us to decide on.

Here is the link to the registry online. 

http://www.target.com/baby/registry/emXAWR9GPsKh-AR9Z2Tzpw


You can also search by either one of our names (I used Tony instead of Anthony).


I also went thrifting this weekend and found some like new (and one outfit was new, still with tags on it from Gymboree) clothes that I'm really excited about!  I think the most expensive thing I bought was $1.97...Can't beat that! Zoe loves helping me pick things out..I'll hold it up and ask her if it's cute and she'll either say "No" or "Oh cute!".  She's a great little helper!


Tony's home from his work trip to Seattle...Must say I'm glad he's home for good.  No more work trips in the foreseeable future.  Zoe really notices when he's gone and she gets super clingy...Can't blame her though!  She wasn't so aware of it this weekend because it was kind of a quick trip, but she did peek out the back door and look for daddy and say "Where daddy go?" a few times. 


Well, I think that's it for now...Zoe's napping so I better get some cleaning done.