Trip to the Beach with the Cahills and Morans

We were invited to Arch Cape by Todd, Natalie, and Ainsley and were joined by Jory and Shannon. We had a great relaxing weekend with good friends and awesome food. The boys caught razor clams, Natalie painstakingly cleaned them, then Natalie and Jory fried them up tastily. There were some intense horseshoe battles and Petie and Ainsley entertained us constantly. Gotta love the Oregon Coast!

We're outta here!

May in Review

Here are some May pics, kind of out of order, but you'll get the idea.


Afternoon snooze in the high chair. The first time he's ever done this at home.

Dozer Days

After Dozer Days, still in love with the hat, "for safety" as Petie will say.

At Oceanside Beach during our Memorial Day one night camping trip in Tillamook.

The Wellnitz and Kersens camping crew.

Best buds.

Kev's 32nd Birthday at Grand Central Bowl. Cic and Dam and Irish car bombs. Not a whole lot of bowling to be seen!

Again at Dozer Days with Molly.

May came and went quickly this year. I don't have much to report except that Petie and the baby to be continue to grow like crazy. I am officially 6 months pregnant and Petie is just about 2 1/2 years old. Craziness. Progress on the baby room continues. The sheet rock is all up and almost ready for paint. Summer is coming, I'm not ready for the heat, but love the rest!

She's a GIRL!

We are thrilled that the 20 week ultrasound showed a healthy, active, little baby who just happens to also have girl parts. Just the word pink scares me a little, but I will adapt.

Bob starts construction today on the attic to nursery conversion. Should only take a few days for the framing, then another couple of weeks for the drywall. So multiply that by the laws of remodel and the whole thing should be done by the new baby's 1st birthday.

Can't wait to decorate. Let the pink protest begin.

In response to Room: Yes, if I get around to it, I will post all the pics. And Chloe Suzanne is definitely the top runner right now, although I still can't 100% commit for some reason. Kevin is done talking about names and loves Chloe, and I love it too, so I really doubt it will change. The actual due date is still September 22nd. We told Petie, he is indifferent. He just really wants to paint his room "BLUE!!" now that we told him his new baby sister is getting a new room made upstairs. I think those are all the details for now!

Baby Wellnitz First Photo and other recent pics

Here's the ultrasound picture from March. (Due to repeated requests). A new one with gender specific parts coming soon!



Rocking the ma-tar (guitar) on St. Patty's Day

The Irish Pride Fam

Cousins chillin at the Mt. Hood cabin. Lily, Sara, Jake, Pete, and Sean

Sweet snowman Kev made

Happy Easter!

Drew and Pete shooting hoops.

Easter Morning. He loved this disgusting tasting yellow chocolate duck. Does yellow chocolate even exist?

After church, drawing on the porch.

Continuing the countdown

17 weeks down, 23 weeks to go. 3 more weeks to find out the gender. Starting to actually get more attached to this little one. Starting to feel some of the anxiety start to fade, as in this will actually happen and things might go okay. Might being the key word. Not to be all debbie downer, but after events over the past year, still on the cautiously optimistic side of the fence.

I have been more and more obsessed with names lately. Kevin is still stuck on Chloe for a girl. I like Chloe, I just like to keep my options open. As for boys, Sam (we don't like Samuel, is just Sam weird?), Isaac, Nathan, Benjamin?? Kevin still likes Patrick, but I think Pat and Pete gets us on the verge of becoming the Duggars. As if. 3 more weeks and we can at least narrow the choices down by 50%. Can't wait. Oh, and Kev is threatening to paint the walls of the nursery pink if we find out it's a girl. I would be scared if we actually had walls yet!

Going back to Cali

We spent a great weekend in the Bay Area this past week. Started with a Derm PA conference for me in the city, which gave Kev and Pete a couple of days to play tourists. Then we headed to the east bay to stay with Erin, Josh, and Abbie. There were also plenty of great meals with Kelly, Daniel, Joelle, and Kristina. A low key, yet truly enjoyable vacation with the fam.

Petie ready for the "jet."

The room at the Grand Hyatt. Petie of course could look out and see "doo doo trucks." The most expensive "motel" (as Petie called it) that we've ever stayed at. And the last one-room hotel we will ever be staying at again!

What good looking tourists!

Petie painting at the Discovery Bay Museum. Like the Children's Museum in Portland, only about 10 times as big and cool.

Erin, Josh, and Abbie on the ferry from Alameda to SF farmer's market. The kids loved the boat ride, running around on the pier, and getting blue balloon creations.

Abbie being sweet as always, running on the pier.

Come on in Mollie!


Party in my tummy!

PS - at week 12 in the pregnancy and starting to feel just a titch better!

Knocked Up

The Townhouse butter crackers have never tasted so good. The gagging for no appearant reason is however, beginning to wear on me. But most of all, we are just hopeful and happy to be back on the pregger wagon.

Baby Wellnitz #2 is expected to arrive in late September (9/22/09 to be exact). We haven't had the courage to tell Petie yet. Last night while visiting the latest arrival to the friend crew (little Penny Stevens) in the hospital, Pete kept yelling as I was holding her, "baby back in bed." So we are waiting for just the right moment to break the news.

The picture above is not our actual embryo (he/she will be a fetus next week), but just to give you an idea. Ours is about 2 cm or almost an inch long! Which begs the question how can something so small make someone feel so crazy different already!??

The plan at this point is to find out the gender. Maybe possible at the 12 wk ultrasound, for sure at the 20 weeker. I'm trying not to obsess about names until we know the gender. Will keep everyone posted! Send good thoughts the embryos direction.

In Loving Memory

Baby Moran happily and peacefully spent a little over 40 weeks in the safety of Shannon's womb. Unfortunately, it was not meant to go beyond that. On Sunday, Shannon's water broke, and with it came hemorraging that led her to the hospital via ambulance. The baby lost too much blood too quickly, and did not have a heartbeat by the time they got to the hospital. Shannon delivered a beautiful baby boy on Sunday afternoon, Liam Jordan, 6lbs 7oz, with great thick reddish hair. I had the honor of meeting him briefly and wow did he look perfect. It is strange thinking back to Shannon holding him, and yet it didn't seem strange at the time, it just felt like the right thing to do to be with them. And now they are home with very empty hearts. I can't even fathom how Jory and Shannon are feeling or coping right now, because, as just a good friend, I feel like absolute crap. I can't sleep (which is rare for me) and can't stop thinking about what an unfair situation this has become. It is always said that things happen for a reason, but I sure can't accept that right now. My prayers for strength and hope go out to the Morans and the Keenans. I am reassured that they have a very strong support system. Sorry for the dismal post, but I just had to say it all.

The condidion that caused all of this from what I can understand is called velamentous cord insertion and is a complete fluke. Still not fair. And donations can be made in Liam's honor to the photography service that took pictures of Liam in the hospital. Caution, the website for the photography is sad in itself.

Hope

I was able to catch some of the address today between patients. I really do love hearing him speak. It does give me hope for our nation.

Getting ready for vacays!

So excited to finally have some new vacation plans on the books. Our last real vacation was back in June 2008 when we went with the entire Wellnitz crew to Maui. So now we (the husband, kid, and I) are officially going to San Francisco in March. Technically, I have a medical conference the first 2 days, but then we get the rest of the weekend to visit with Josh, Erin, and Abbie, and have fun in the East Bay. We are staying at a swanky place in the city. We will probably make a little day trip on Friday, then a get together with the SMC girls Saturday night at Erin's. Thanks to Erin and Josh for letting us stay at their place for the weekend and to Kell for offering to pick us up at the airport and use her car!

The next trip we are looking into is to Denver to visit Monica, Ron, and girls in May. We thought about Mexico, but with planning to be preggers real soon, that just didn't seem to fit into the plans. And seeing as how I am a delinquent sister for not visiting in the years they have been in Denver, it should be a great trip.

Let the planning begin.

What a difference a year makes

Petie up at Mt. Hood in January 2008

Then in December during Arctic Blast 08

Being cute for the camera in January:

Now with his big boy look:

I can't believe how fast it's gone!

Birthdays and Christmas and Arctic Blast 08 Come and Go

We had a lot to celebrate this past December. Petie turned 2, we had a nice family party on the 27th. This was after much waffling and the decision to start celebrating his birthday with friends every June. Talking with other Christmas babies (thanks Natalie) this should be just fine. With Christmas Eve, Day, and then a family birthday party, then New Year's, another friend party just seemed like overkill. We'll see how it goes.

Here's the cake, yes, I got all home ec and made it myself:




The cake got rave reviews by a certain 2 year old:




Here's the fam on Christmas Eve at Jims.

And Petie enjoying Artic Blast 08 on the top of Greg and Shannon's car. We are beyond glad to see the white stuff finally leave.

For the rest of the pics, just go here: www.jillkevinwellnitz.shutterfly.com and enter password: wellnitz.

Jumping on the blog bandwagon

I am trying out a few different blog hosting sites to see where I want to start this thing. I figure it will just be a lovely little site for family and friends to visit if so inclined. Photos, video, the usual antics of the little guy, my own ramblings, etc. We'll see how it goes...