38 week photo shoot

Today we had the perfect weather and it was mixed with the most beautiful fall colors so we decided to do a 38 week maternity photo shoot. These pictures are really weird for me to see but I'm hoping, in the future, I will be grateful I took them. We were lucky to kidnap Max's cousin Danika as we saw her walking home from school, so she took most of these. Little did we know she's currently in a photography class!

Anyway, if nothing else we enjoyed climbing trees, rolling in the leaves, resting in the hammock, and playing at the park on this beautiful fall day. Enjoy the pictures.

We are so excited for baby boy to come!!

Chubby Grandpa

We got to see our baby's face again today. My new doctor needed to see some thorough anatomy ultrasound pictures and my previous Utah doctor was very lame and didn't check our baby's anatomy as thoroughly as needed ( he spent two minutes, and took three pictures with no written explanation) so good news to us, we got to see our baby again weeks before his grand appearance!

Here is one of the scariest pictures ever...he is just getting ready for Halloween! This is a straight on shot of his face. (36 weeks)
And here is our chubby grandpa baby. His cheeks are getting so big and I love his pouty lips! (36 weeks)

You can see how much he has grown, this was taken at 28 weeks.
We were so grateful to have this thorough ultrasound done, she spent a lot of time looking at all of the organs and we feel more confident about the health of our baby. I really am pleased with this whole doctor switch thing.

Anyway, Little guy, it looks like you are getting plenty chubby so we will welcome you into our family whenever you are ready. Please come soon!

Conference/Baby Shower/ Birthday

We had another fun filled weekend involving family and celebrations. Friday evening my brother and family got to come stay with us, our first overnight visitors in our new house. We feel so lucky that we've had so many opportunities to spend time with our lovely nieces. Friday we got to babysit them while their parents went out on a hot date. Gwenevere and Max made some cookies.
We learned that having two kids is difficult even with wonderfully behaved kids. Max and I were both home watching them and it was still hard. So I think it is good that we can ease into this parenthood thing one child at a time.

The next morning was conference and since Gwenevere had proved to us that she is a natural when it comes to baking she became my assistant for making homemade buttermilk pancakes.

She was really helpful!

We incorporated a mini science lesson on liquids and solids involving melted butter.

Overall, she was an excellent and enthusiastic helper...she earned that mickey mouse pancake.

We spent time watching General conference, one of the biggest lessons I learned was that conference is a little more difficult to watch with cute children around. I just got so distracted by their cuteness. Max and I have already been reviewing the talks to gain more enlightenment because we were a little distracted...or should I say distracting during conference.

In the evening my wonderful sister in law, Elizabeth, and cousin, Stephanie, put together an amazing baby shower. I felt overwhelmed with how many people were so generous to us and our baby boy. The food was great, the games were fun and the company was exquisite. Not to mention we got so much more of what we needed for our little boy, we can finally get his room set up.

Sadly, I was having so much fun that I took absolutely no pictures. I hope to steal some from some family members in the near future.

Our family members all went in on a great group gift, they got us this jogging stroller/carseat combo. We wanted it really bad as we are now is the most wonderful jogging/walking neighborhood. We couldn't wait for the baby to come to try it out so we went on a morning walk/jog with an empty stroller. There is clearly still a child inside me, luckily no one asked to see the "child" in the stroller.

We are so pleased. We feel that the baby can come anytime now that we have a carseat. 30 more days until my due date!!!

Random Interjection: Fall is here and it makes me even more happy to be back in the Northwest. I love the fall here!

So on Sunday was my birthday, of course it was spent watching conference like many of my birthdays. Max made all of us an amazing breakfast and we picnic-ed in the basement while watching conference. We just spent the day with my brother's family then in the evening we went to my Red Grandma's house for a family party and BBQ. It has been a long time since I was able to celebrate my birthday with the extended family. Then James and Elizabeth and family had to leave and go back to Tacoma with no set date of when we will see them again. It will probably be after "baby cousin" (as Gwenevere likes to call my belly) is born as I can't do much more traveling away from home. We just love that family so much and we're happy to be somewhat closer to them.

Since my birthday was spent with the extended family, Max decided that the next day would be our day to spend together. He really is such a gentleman and treats me like a queen all while not spending a ton of money which I really admire! I came upstairs to find this little surprise on the counter.
We then went out to a secret location which started with picking up lunch at Subway. We took it to-go so I quickly assumed we were going somewhere for a picnic. We ended up at the Portland rose test gardens in Washington Park. This is the location where we had a picnic together 7.5 years ago for my senior prom. We ate right there sitting on that stage both times.
We stopped to smell the roses while discussing our past, present, and future all while walking arm in arm. This is another reason I love being back in Portland, all the nostalgic memories!
Here we are May 22, 2004 before we officially had the boyfriend/girlfriend status

Here we are at the exact same location, with a much larger (or non-existent) waistline! October 3, 2011. I think we will need to have a family picture in this same location in a couple years.

After we wandered around for awhile and I became somewhat sore all over my oversized body. we headed back to the house and he had a couple more surprises for me.

First of all, I don't like him to spend money on cut flowers so he has found some creative ways to go about this. This year I got a whole large pack of tulip bulbs. I'm so excited this year to have a yard and now I can get a head start on the gardening because it is the perfect time to plant the bulbs.

Secondly, He got a new addition to the family, a beta fish who is yet to be named. (Names we have considered include : Spud, Stanley, Kartoshka etc. Please give us any input) This is the only pet I enjoy having. It will give some last minute parenting practice before our little boy arrives. He hope he survives. He couldn't eat right away because he is so small. This piece of food got stuck in his mouth for about 15 minutes. Don't worry, he is eating fine now. We will not let our babies starve!

We spent the rest of the day running errands and getting baby stuff with our birthday money and baby shower gift cards. Each day we are feeling more ready for this little guy to arrive.

A Tacoma Visit...

We got to go up to Tacoma for a second weekend in a row. Max got some feedback from the Tacoma fire department and they invited him to come do a practice physical and turn in a hiring packet. This is no guarantee of hire but it does mean he made it to the next level. Now we just wait to see if they want him back for the official physical, then the chief interview then an official position. Yup it's a long and competitive process but he has a lot of good things going for him so we'll just have to wait and see. He did great on the practice physical. he is supposed to do all these crazy strenuous tasks in 7 minutes and 30 seconds. He did them all in 6 minutes and 15 seconds. Thata boy!! He even slipped (it was raining) while hauling a huge fire hose across the fire grounds but was able to get back up quickly and keep going. A very difficult task seeing as he lost all his momentum. Anyway, I'm really proud of him.

A perk of our frequent visits to Tacoma and why it would be wonderful to eventually live there are these girls. My beautiful nieces. They are growing up so fast!

Grace Ligaya Roemhildt

5.5 weeks old!

Gwenevere Isa Roemhildt

2 years 8 months old

She already decided to start stealing her sisters clothes but realized she can't wear Grace's dresses without pants underneath. She is a little clown!!

So it was another successful trip to Tacoma, It would be exciting to live a bit closer to these cute girls.

Stripes

They say stripes make you look wider but seriously...this is getting out of control.

That's my big boy in there, nearly 35 weeks!

Some thoughts on pregnancy:

Max asked me the other...You like being pregnant don't you? to this I responded: "Yes I really do."

Feeling the little monkey jump and kick inside me never gets old. I find it miraculous that a beautiful little boy could be growing (so huge) inside me. If the opportunity is appropriate I almost always shout out to Max when the baby is moving and he never gets tired of feeling and watching it.

I have been relatively comfortable during this pregnancy. I don't really know what else to compare it to but I have only had minor back pain and I get tired quicker. I still try to keep myself busy which makes the time go by a lot faster.

My due date is November 3rd but I keep convincing myself that this little boy is going to be two weeks late. I was two weeks late and my doctor will not induce me earlier than two weeks so mid November is the likely arrival of this baby boy. I don't want to be induced anyway and while I'm enjoying this pregnancy I'll just enjoy each day whether my baby is in my uterus or in my arms.

I am enjoying my new doctor much more than my old one back in Utah and the hospital and other facilities are much nicer and a lot less busy! We only live a couple minutes from where I will deliver the baby so we feel good about that!

We get really excited about having our baby boy here. we have been setting up the baby gear, reading children's books to my belly and washing baby clothes. Life is good!

Most of my blog posts are just me throwing up a whole bunch of pictures representing some things we've been up to over a period of time. It seems that some events aren't worthy of their own personal post so I feel it is much more efficient to just put it all out there at once, that being said here are some of these lovely events.

We have a big boy on our hands...eeek. I never realize how big I am until I see myself in the mirror or in pictures. (And this is a whole week ago at 32.5 weeks)
We've been to a bunch of Justin's water polo games. Max has a lot of Pride in knowing that his little brother is playing for his high school team.
We spent a Friday Afternoon celebrating Oktoberfest with some other fine Germans and family members. We had never been to this event despite our strong German background. We enjoyed authentic Yodeling and genuine delicious German food.
Todd, Stephanie, and Lexi Lingmann, thanks for inviting us to get more in touch with our German roots.
Max has been growing a beard now that he is out of the fire academy and paramedic program. This is the longest it's ever been and he was pretty proud.
We got to take a day trip up to Tacoma to go to my beautiful niece's baby blessing. I just can't get enough of how wonderful these little girls are.

Here is Miss Grace

and Miss Gwenevere.

We then took a semi-pleasant sibling picture. This is the most natural I've ever seen my brothers smile.

And then there was the amazing birth of my husband which is well worth celebrating. He is a whole 25 years old!! The way to this man's heart is food and productive projects (usually involving cleaning) So he got some good homecooked food and a clean car for his birthday, (among some other surprises)
He also got to have a big family birthday which is what he has done since he has little and has missed it a bit since we've lived elsewhere. Justin and Jeff have birthdays the same week so we made it a great affair. Homemade pies for all.
And there is my blog throw-up. A little glimpse of what we've been up to over the last couple of weeks. We have also been working on many house projects. We have been doing tons of weeding. carpet cleaning, floor waxing, dusting, pest control, power washing etc. We are so excited to be living in this house and taking care of it while Jay is away. We have even started setting up some baby gear which makes both Max and me a little Giddy.

3 years

3 years ago I was reunited with this beautiful man after 3 years on opposite sides of the world! I never could have imagined how good life could be. Happy Birthday my Love!