President's Day Weekend

My brother Bryce and his wife Cathi came to visit us over President's Day weekend. I had to go to Vegas for the day on Saturday and Chris went snowmobiling with his family up north so they went and saw Cathi's grandparents who live in St. George. I was glad they could come down and have something to do while Chris and I were both gone. On Monday we all went to Bryce Canyon snowshoeing. This is Chris and me on the left - you can see that my snowpants don't zip up anymore. :) It was a gorgeous day and by the end we had all shed most of the winter clothing we were wearing. This is Cathi and me on the right. We came down this canyon in the beginning and so of course, had to go up it in the end. I was so TIRED by then we had to stop every 50 feet. But I made it back up! We only lost 585 feet but it was all at once and so going back up was steep. The views are so incredible and it was really cool to see the red rock, green pine trees, and white snow. It was especially fun with snowshoes since we got to go off the trail and explore. The best part was sliding down the hills on your snowshoes or pants. No sleds required. Chris and I are already trying to figure out a day to go back and just slide down the hills all day. Chris and Bryce had fun going up the hills and coming down ones like this last picture. Bryce had just slid down it, you can see his trail and Chris was about to. Getting up there was the interesting part though. At one spot Bryce sank up to his chest in the snow. I would have loved to follow but thought I had better conserve my energy for the rest of the trip. With how beat I was at the end, I'm glad I did. Snowshoeing is definitely my favorite winter "sport".
By the way, Chris says the baby needs a name and since we aren't deciding until he is born, Chris has been calling him Buster Douglas. I don't know why Chris named him after the boxer but until we have a more permanent name, it's Baby Buster Douglas.

My Due Date

Right now, I am due May 13. However, the Gappmayer family has this weird thing about sharing dates. Babies are always born on someone else's birthday or anniversary no matter their due date. Three out of the last four babies have done this and it has happened previously. Here are some examples:
Jan. 26: Chris' brother's birthday; His sister Erin just had her baby three days ago Congratulations Erin! (due Feb. 1)
Jan 29: Chris' parent's anniversary; A niece was born five(?) years ago
Mar 12: Chris' birthday; Another niece (from the same family as above) was born last year (due Mar. 16 I believe?)
April 18: Chris' sister-in-law and nephew share this birthday
Oct. 16: Chris' sister's birthday; A niece was born last year (due in November)

So my due dates are now the dates in May that are already used by someone else in the Gappmayer family:
May 6: Chris' Mom's birthday
May 14: His brother's anniversary
May 24: His brother-in-law's birthday
May 27: Another brother-in-law's birthday (it better NOT come this late!!!)

Unfortunately, my midwife does think it will come late as most first babies do and because my mom was late with her's. I knew my mom had been late with all of the kids except for me (I was one day early) but I didn't know the specifics until a few weeks ago when I asked. Apparently my poor mom was two weeks late with three kids and three weeks late with the last one. She was induced three times.
I do not plan on being pregnant for 43 weeks, but my midwife said she really didn't want to induce until 41 weeks unless there are problems. And then only if the baby was under stress. We'll see what happens.

Here are some pregnant pictures:
This is 17 weeks. This is 23 weeks. I am now 25 weeks and was finally asked by a complete stranger (at the dog park in Vegas on Saturday) when I was due. I had no idea it took so long for your body to actually look pregnant.

A New Addition

Cute huh? His name is Thatch (though my vote was for Jack Sparrow - he's quite the character). He's 11 weeks old today and is a border collie/ Australian shepherd mix. Chris says he forgot how much work puppies are....

In other news, we went to North Carolina for the week of New Years and had an absolutely great time staying with my brother and his family. My parents and sister and her family live there too so it's great to visit everyone with one trip. His kids are so cute! Here they are holding wolf hybrid puppies - I love the look on Bryce's face! My car hit 175,000 miles on our way to the Vegas bowl (where BYU won!). This is me going 75 while I hit 175,000. :) Chris was holding the wheel - I think. Chris' car has 135,000 so we think we might have to be investing in a newer car sometime sooner rather than later. We really like not having a car payment though.

The picture below was just funny.

This is the dogs' set up while we're training Thatch. I'll post pictures of me pregnant and the dogs playing with the next post.

The Ultrasound

On Friday we had our ultrasound. The baby moved around a bit and we got some good pictures and a little movie clip. It was pretty obvious even to our unskilled eyes that it's a boy! I also measured 19 weeks which moved my due date up 4 days to May 9. I'm supposed to walk for graduation May 6th so we'll see how that goes...
We're excited!!!

I Love Craigslist!

I just got a whole new wardrobe for $40. Everything you see in this picture is from an ad on Craigslist from a girl in St. George. There are 6 long sleeve shirts (one is a sweater), 7 shirts, two pants, one pair of capris, and one pair of shorts (there were three but I can't wear two of them). The pants are great - they are comfortable and are really nice. Most of the shirts I won't wear for a few more months but it is nice to have a variety. It's weird to see the size be a small and the shirt to be three feet wide. :) Not a bad deal huh? I just wish more people down here would get on the Craigslist bandwagon.

Chris and I drove down to Vegas last Sunday for the afternoon/evening to see my friend Jess who was passing through. We've been friends since I was 16. She's in the army now and was on her way to Arizona from CA for training. I hadn't seen her since my wedding so it was awesome. We went to a dog park for Murphy (it was SOOOOO awesome!) and then went to watch the Bellagio fountains. I think I could watch those all day. It's absolutely beautiful. I think I'm so fascinated by them because never in a million years could I be that creative. Murphy freaked out at the loud noises from the fountains though so Chris had to take her away. Her heart was pounding so hard. It was sensory overload, as Chris put it. It was better than being stuck at home by herself all those hours though. And the dog park was a really good experience.

Trail Close(d)

We took a hike a few weeks ago. It was only 1.23 miles TOTAL so Chris says you can't even call it a hike. But it got us out of the house for the morning. And Murphy got to go with us!
It was beautiful scenary, as is most of southern Utah.
There was a small waterfall at the end that is bigger at other times of the year. Chris climbed over to it and went into the little cave but I stayed on the lookout ledge.This was at the beginning of the trail but we, um, disregarded it. There were two other people on the trail and they said there had been some rock slides and other trail damage but it wasn't bad.