Fall Traditions

Halloween is almost here & Mark is giddy with excitement! He's taking tomorrow off of work just to prepare the house with all the necessary decor to scare the neighborhood kiddos.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Julian, CA to partake in our annual Fall Tradition - picking apples in the apple orchards & picking out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch that Mark went to as a child. Mark outdid himself this year & got a 126lb pumpkin! I will definitely post some pictures of the carved pumpkins soon! Meanwhile, here are some pics from our Fall Traditions trip - can't wait to do it next year with an 8month old!!

Can you tell which ones are pumpkins & which one is a preggo belly?

Our feet picture in the apple orchard.

The best dog in the world - the Ginge! She loved picking apples.

He's going to be such a great dad!

Ever since we got the email from our friends at BabyCenter.com, stating that the baby can hear sounds from outside the womb, Mark has started a nightly tradition of reading Goodnight Moon to my belly. It is quite cute & I am so lucky to have such a great husband/father-to-be by my side!

I'm sure this little nightly tradition will continue as soon as we get to hold our sweet baby in our arms & put him/her to sleep in the nursery ... and we can't wait!

The family keeps growing & growing

BIG news from the ever-expanding Lane family. My mom's side of the family seems to be growing daily! My mom's brother & his family live in Atlanta. Within the past few months, they've added 2 granddaughters to the family. My mom's sister & her family live in Seattle & are expecting a grandchild in March. I wish my grandfather (Pa) was around to see all of his great grandchildren. He would've loved having these 6 munchkins around!


Today, I'm happy to announce that my cousin Todd & his wife Michelle welcomed Harper Jane Lane into the world early this morning. Michelle had a quick labor & is recovering well. Harper is a healthy 6 pounds, 13 ounces & 21 inches! Isn't she beautiful?!?! Their oldest daughter, Cosette, is already loving being a big sister. We are so happy for them & wish we lived closer to Atlanta so we could see everyone.






And on the other side of the nation, my cousin Gregg & his girlfriend Elisa are due about 5 weeks after me. Yesterday, they found out that they will have a lil slugger on their hands! Gregg has worked for the Seattle Mariners forever, so I'm sure he's going to love having a son to take to the ballpark. The profile picture from their 'big' ultrasound is so cute, but the 2nd picture is what had me on the floor laughing. The lil guy is giving us the bird! HA! Too much :)

Pics from the 20wk ultrasound

This is a front view of the bean ...


This is a profile view ....


And this is our very own Jack Skellington. Just in time for Halloween!

"Normal" has never sounded so good!

I have to admit, I was a bit anxious before our 20wk ultrasound. Up until this point, all of them had been performed during routine visits at the doctor's office. For this ultrasound, we went to a Hoag Hospital Imaging Center so they could use some special equipment. The appointment was approx. 45 minutes & it was nice because there was a big flat-screen TV on the wall so we could see the images. Well, almost ...

As we were checking in for the appointment, we promptly told the technician that we didn't want to know if we were having a boy or a girl. She said that's was great & she'd just reference the baby as "he", since she was the mother of three boys. So I laid down, did the whole jelly-on-the-belly thing & got excited because we'd be able to see the baby much clearer with the flat screen TV. Well, Mark & I were are convinced that there was some sort of Divine Intervention because the flat screen TV was a bit blurry. Since we were nervous & didn't know any better, we didn't say anything & went along with the procedure. The technician took all the measurements she needed to & we were done. As she was wrapping up, she looked at the flat screen (it was to her back) & gasped at how out of focus it was! Mark immediately said that was probably God's way of keeping our baby's sex a secret! She apologized profusely, but we were just happy & relieved that everything was measuring normal.

All in all, the baby is developing normally & that is music to our ears!

PS - As we were leaving the room, the TV magically snapped back into focus. Hmmmm!