Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from the three of us!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their families and friends!

Belly Weathers Live Reporting For "Artic Blast 2008"

Arctic Blast Update from gregannie on Vimeo.

Local News Weather Reporter Belly Weathers is live to give us an update to the current conditions for 12/18/08. STORM WATCH!

Full term!

Yay!! The baby is officially full term (37 weeks yesterday)! He can safely arrive any day now (though we prefer he wait until the very end of the month and not arrive before Christmas). Thus far, I feel pretty great. I'm definitely starting to get tired but working tons of OT in addition to my regular night shift plus driving back and forth in the snow has probably contributed to the exhaustion more than anything. Thanks to those neverending, 3 times a week doctor appointments we know that he is healthy and according to a recent ultrasound already appears to have a head full of hair!

While the due date is still 3 weeks away (1/7) we anticipate that he will make an appearance sooner than that (though our dr. is not expecting him to arrive in the next few days or anything). Maternity leave starts next week (it's about time!) and then besides finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping, and festivities, we will finally get a chance to do some organizing for this little guy. Much like last time, we have yet to prepare the room or even get started. We still have to buy diapers, wipes, and baby care stuff before he gets here otherwise while we are enroute to the hospital we will have to make a stop at Costco! haha!

Any guesses on when he will arrive?

"Snowy snowman". Born 12/17/08 at 5:50pm.

And from a few days ago, at Chipotle...

Is it obvious enough yet how much we love this weather?!

Live, local, late-breaking, its M-TV!

Future newscaster?? from gregannie on Vimeo.

winter is here and its SNOWING!!!!

This household is on winter storm watch. Besides thunderstorms, nothing makes Greg obsess more about weather than the possibility of a snow storm. Since the beginning of last weekend Greg (ok- we) have been double and triple checking the weather reports as the local weathermen have been predicting quite a storm. Usually this means a dusting of snow and temps somewhere in the low 30s for a couple days.

This storm has been a little different. Our high temps have been in the upper 20s and low 30s; our lows in the teens; wind chills at single digits; and snow, snow, and more snow!! On Sunday (the 1st day of the storm) we had 5 inches of snow at our house (elevation 200') along with ice and wind. We actually bought chains for the car since all the metro area freeways required chaining up.

It's been a bit of an adventure the last few days. The storm has been off and on since Sunday, we are slated to have another winter storm with heavy snow and ice this upcoming weekend. Belly has been off school all week so far thanks to the snow days causing school closures. The chains are still on the car and probably not coming off till next week. We haven't been afraid to venture out, we still have work (less than a week for AM before maternity leave!) and random stuff to take care of.

The pictures below are from the last couple of days from our house as well as a few from around the local area when we have been out on drives.

Yes- Greg is actually wearing shorts. Your eyes are not deceiving you.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

on 12/5, we went out looking for our tree...

this one?... nope.

tree shopping with daddy

The M girls

the perfect tree has been selected and is undergoing tree beautification

Belly- official tree decorator

almost done...

Ah!

Nine years and counting...

Happy Anniversary to us!!

We celebrated 9 years of marriage on 12/4. Our original plans included a babysitter, a nice dinner at the Melting Pot in downtown Portland, and a movie. What transpired was decidedly less exciting. The babysitter was sick with strep throat at last minute and so the three of us ended up going to Round Table Pizza instead. While not as tasty as the Melting Pot would have been we had a great time out as a family.

We have much to be thankful for on our anniversary this year: our newest family member will be with us soon; Belly is healthy and happy; we have steady employment; and we still love each other and put each other first after almost 11 years of togetherness and 9 years marriage!

364 days to go till 10 years!

your scrollbar needs a workout!

Scroll down for a few new updates. They are out of order but are there.

Hope the start of the holiday and shopping season is treating you well. We'll post some newer new stuff later this week.

Adios!