Third Trimester Begins

Grand Marais, MN

----Well folks, the great summer time is upon us and I decided to post a few pics of our favorite places last year. We do not currently have a new pic of Danielle this week, but we will have one by this weekend.

----The past 6 months have just flown by and we are actually entering the third trimester this week. This has so far been a chill tempered summer, but I think Danielle is still hot at night. This is the first time in my life where I have ever seen Danielle with no blankets or sheets on her at night. I do have to admit, I love her body pillows though. There are times at 5 in the morning, we are spooning the same pillow and she reminds me who owns that pillow with a brisk shove to my chest. So I roll over like a good husband and wait for her to go to work so I can claim the pillow for the last 45 minutes of sleep.

----Last Saturday we decided to invest in a new camcorder from Best Buy and get ready for the new arrival in September. (Even though I have a feeling she will come in August). We decided to have the camcorder for our Baby shower in Michigan and start to record our family events. So get ready to be taped when we are home. Danielle will be having her baby shower on June 29th at the Saginaw Country Club. We are very excited to go home and see everybody and we are also very thankful for all of those who have helped organize this celebration of life. We have also decided to stay for the week, so we can enjoy the 4th of July with our families.

----Danielle and I discussed possibly going camping this weekend, so who knows if we will have any new camping pictures. Are favorite place to camp is Grand Marais (picture above), but with the chilly temp, I think we will stay south of the cities.

----I have posted a few of my other favorite pics and hope you enjoy them. Thanks for keeping up with us during this exciting time of our lives. Enjoy!!!!!!

----Ricardo and Sidney at Grand Marais :)

Is that a blackberry on a camping trip? Come on!!!!!! Danielle sticking her head of the tent at Mt Rushmore. Thanks Aunt Judy for the tent!!! Gianna and her uncle.

**Update**

Hey all! FINALLY got a chance to update this weekend myself...Sorry for the delays lately! Cardo's entry this week was more than sufficient and I absolutely love when he writes an update. Sometimes it's nice to hear what's going on in his head while all of this craziness is happening. Nevertheless, I wanted to add a couple of things in as some thanks are in order today.

First of all--Again, thanks Cardo for updating. Love you!

Second -- A HUGE, huge, GIANT thanks to Toto. He helped Germa Filly out with some hearing aids which is much appreciated. She has made the decision to move into an assisted living situation with Uncle Ray (her brother) and what a perfect time to hear well! She'll be making a ton of friends because after all, who wouldn't love to make friends with little old "Emiline"???

Third -- To Granny D and Mom T for putting together our baby shower. I received the invitation in the mail today and it is adorable! Thank you so much for throwing this for us and we are so thankful and lucky to have such wonderful families who we love so much. I snapped a picture of the invitation for memories:

And last but SO not least -- We received a wonderful and fun package from my oldest and best friend Kristi. She is "that girl" when it comes to being fun and thoughtful. Why can't we all be like her?!? I had so much fun opening the package! Of course, she had to give me a "key" to all of the gifts on the card so that I could identify which each item was. Everything was fun and kitschy...Check out this stash of fun stuff!: Some of the fun stuff included in this amazing package: A "Whoozit", a teether attached to a rattle so her hands won't get cold when she's sucking on it, a "Munchkin", a cool way to introduce solid foods into her diet! It's got a little mesh part that you put berries, ice chips, etc. into. "Shrimp Roll Bento Box", a cute sushi inspired Bento Box with a little Shrimp Roll onesie. Plus, all the fixin's are little non-toxic baby soaps! A "Boo Bunny", a cute little bunny-shaped washcloth with a little slot for an ice pack for when she gets her first boo boo. :( A "Taggie" blanket, someone was genius enough to figure out to make a blanket with "tags" sewn everywhere around it since babies seem to concentrate on the one tag on your everyday average blankies. A Hello Kitty doll...We need SOMETHING to remind our girl of Aunt Kristi, that's the best way to do it! Little Mary Jane socks and my favorite...A pacifier that says "No Hablo" on it. ALSO...She got something for yours truly too!! The white underneath all the goodies is an adorable baby doll tank and a tank top to go with it. Hooray for goodies!!!

An update on how I'm feeling this week: Still for the most part feeling pretty good. I must say though, as if on cue, third trimester has definitely begun with this here mother-to-be feeling, well...pregnant! As Cardo mentioned above, I am feeling hot a lot. I am also having trouble breathing and I must say that I believe I am starting to waddle. My bladder seems to be back in full force again and I find myself getting up quite often in the middle of the night to take advantage of the facilities. She's moving a ton now and it will for sure be one of the things that I miss the most post-pregnancy. My June prenatal appointment is tomorrow and I'm anxious to see how much weight I've gained. As of May, I had gained 18 pounds, so I am most definitely well over 20 pounds by now I presume. I started this journey at 114 pounds and to think of myself at almost 140 pounds is crazy! Soon I will outweigh even the manliest of men! Hulk Hogan, I challenge you! Here are this week's pictures. I'm kind of liking to see how I look in clothes and outside of clothes as this belly progresses, so I'll post both: