The Nursery

The nursery has been.. an ongoing adventure. Honestly, with the moving and the unpacking, etc., we just have not had time to even think about it. However, with the due date coming at us quick, we decided to focus right before we left for Christmas and at least get the paint on the wall. It took us several weeks to decide and agree on a paint color, but the weekend before the holidays, we finally came to a consensus, and the fun began.

Chad labored diligently all Friday night to get the paint on the wall and then all day last Tuesday to get the beadboard installed on the bottom and the furniture moved into place. Don't get me wrong.. we still have a lot of work to do, but at least there is progress being made. Here are some of the pics of the work in progress...

Baby Shower!

While we were in Phoenix for the holidays, my family and friends there decided to throw me a baby shower. We had a great turnout and it was fun to see everyone!! We had people there from Tucson, San Jose and even as far away as Colorado and Maryland! There was yummy food and lots of 'catching up' with people I haven't seen in a while. It was a great evening and I want to thank all of you who made the time to be there and, of course, for all the lovely gifts! This little guy is definitely going to be well dressed and cared for! :-)

32 Weeks

Ok.. for any of you keeping track, I'm actually at 34 weeks on Saturday. However, I took some pics a few weeks back and had our 32 week ultrasound and I'm just now getting around to posting them. (I know.. I know.. I'm a slacker).

Thus far this pregnancy has been a very easy one. I feel great, I'm still taking Molly for 45 minute walks 3 or 4 times a week, and I don't have any of the evil symptoms I've heard so much about. I pretty much feel the same as I always have. I have 6 weeks left and I hope the trend continues (everyone keep their fingers crossed!).

Anyway.. here are the pics and the best of the 3-D ultrasound pictures. Enjoy! :-)

Molly

Introducing the newest addition to the Reed Family:



Her name is Molly and she's an 18-month-old Yellow Labrador Retriever. We've been wanting to adopt a dog since we moved into the new house, and finally had the time to actually sign up, get approved and wait for just the right one to come along.

We adopted her the weekend before Thanksgiving and she's definitely been a welcome addition to our home. She's mellow and loving and is pretty much content to sleep most of her day away. She loves people and follows us around like our little shadow. She's great with kids -- Tanner had lots of fun with her over Christmas and Steven and Nathanial have come to visit a couple of times and she's been great with all of them. Overall, you couldn't ask for a better dog.

For those of you still in shock saying to yourselves "Kathryne? Dog? What the heck?" (for those of you who don't know, I've been decidedly anti-dog most of my life). Chad has grown up with dogs and has been trying to talk me into having one since we got married. I had a convenient excuse at the old house -- we didn't have a back yard and no fence to keep it in. However, I've slowly warmed up to the idea over the years and once we got moved and settled, it just felt like the right thing to do.

Besides, I'm planning to be home by myself with the kids in this lovely house that has 10 entrances, most of which are glass, and I decided I could probably use the added security.

In just the short time she's been with us, she's made herself at home and we feel like she's one of the family.

Monterey Getaway

Two weekends ago, we decided we needed out of the AV for a day or two -- if just to escape from life.

We left on Thursday evening and drove up to Monterey where we stayed until Sunday afternoon. We didn't really do much while we were there other than hang out with Michelle and Sam, and work around the property a little.

On Saturday afternoon / evening we took a fun little trip down to go Tidepooling at Point Lobos State Reserve just south of Monterey. We wandered around the tidepools:



Saw some interesting critters:




And then went out to China Cove to watch the sunset:



Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

We only wish we could get up there more often..

Edward's Air Show

In Mid-October, Chad was invited as a 'special guest', due to his 'civic leader' status, to the General's Tent at the Edward's AFB Air Show.

We got there fairly early in the morning, had special parking with no line, were driven right down the Flight Line to our VIP tent and then were treated with free snacks / drinks / lunch throughout the day.

We explored all the planes on display, including the SR-71, F-22 & F-35 (the latter two are the planes I help build at Lockheed) along with the 747 that carries the space shuttles (we actually got to climb up and around in that one -- it's HUGE!!).

SR-71:


F-22:


F-35:


Shuttle Carrier:



We made it back to our seats just in time for the aerial demonstrations to start. The very first one was a double sonic boom from two F-16's who had two very special passengers -- General Chuck Yeager and General Joe Engle. (For those of you who are scratching your head wondering who those people are -- they are both famous test pilots. General Yeager was the first pilot to break the sound barrier and General Engle was one of the original X-15 Test Pilots and a former Space Shuttle Pilot). Once their flight was complete, they landed right in front of us on the runway and came in to hang out with us in the Tent. How cool is that? Chad shook Chuck Yeager's hand got his picture taken with Gen Engle.

Gen Chuck Yeager (He's the guy in the flight suit on the left):


Gen Joe Engle & Chad:


After their flight, there were a lot more demonstrations from a bunch of planes I'll never remember the names of.. it's all alphabet / number soup to me, but I know there were A-10's (Warthogs), F-16's, a bunch of bombers and some WWII-era planes. They were all quite impressive and, aside from the insane heat (thank goodness we had that tent we could hide under if need be!), it was a great day.

Since we had the little boys (Chad's nephew's) with us, we didn't stay for the entire day, but we definitely enjoyed the time we spent there -- we all agreed that there was no better way to see an air show!! It's rough getting spoiled like that..

Cake Decorating

I, apparently, didn't have enough other things to do, so I signed up for a Cake Decorating class at Joann's during the month of October.

It's been something I've wanted to do for a while, so I decided I'd probably have more time before the baby was born and went for it.

I had no idea how much work it was going to be!! Just baking / stacking / icing one cake a week took pretty much every free minute I had -- much less the 2 hours / week we were in class. However, it was a lot of fun and I did learn a lot. My cakes weren't the most impressive, but I thought I'd share them with ya'll anyway..

Enjoy! :-)

Grand Canyon (Only 2 months late!)

I know, I know, it's been forever. However, I'm really going to try and get this thing updated this week.. so look for LOTS of posts between now and Saturday (hopefully!)..

After our 4 day stint in Sedona, we headed up to the Grand Canyon for one evening. It was amazing and breathtaking as always:



We enjoyed the day staring at the canyon and then had an amazing dinner at one of the restaurants there on the South Rim. On our way out of dinner, we looked up and to our amazement, there were elk standing less than 15 feet away! Freaked us out a bit! We sat there and watched them for a while and they just seemed content to chomp away on the grass and didn't notice any of us humans milling around. So I braved a picture or two:





Then we heard a rustling behind us and we looked around and saw an entire raccoon family foraging for food in the garbage can..





It was like we were right in the middle of Animal Planet or something!! Then as we turned back around we saw a shadow moving behind the elk and then race across the parking lot. It looked almost the size of a cougar or jaguar, but we never really got a good look at it.. so it could have been anything. Crazy evening at the canyon.

We headed out the next day and made our way home via a quick visit to Kingman to see Grandma and Grandpa.

All in all, it was a fun trip and definitely a well-needed vacation.

Sedona Off Roading Adventures

We have just come to the end of our short three-day stay in Sedona. It's been AWESOME and we've had a lot of fun. Our entire intent on this trip was to get the jeep out to see what it can actually do on some of the 4x4 trails in and around Sedona.. We've spent three days taking all sorts of trails..

Trails through the desert..



Trails through the woods..



Trails up and over the Red Rocks..



And we even did one trail in the rain..



We've seen lots of cool stuff along the way, like the ruins of a Sinagua Indian Cliff Dwelling



and a quaint mining town (Jerome), complete with one guys random collection of 'stuff'



We stopped for a spell in Oak Creek



And found the perfect spot to watch the sunset.



Through it all, the little Jeep has performed like a champ. He's climbed some pretty insane red rock:



And, of course, what goes up must come down:



(Here's a view of that 'Devil's Staircase' from the bottom):

We were so proud of him (and his talented driver), that we got some pictures to record his achievements:

It was a lot of fun, and afforded us plenty of opportunities for Chad to practice his one handed picture taking talents



But best of all, we got to see some pretty 'epic' views (in the words of the terribly kind guy at the off-roading place who gave us all the maps to find all these places)



It's been an amazing three days.. we wish we could stay longer (especially since there are still a few trails we have yet to try..) but it's on to the Grand Canyon tomorrow for more adventures..

More Ultrasound Pics

OK.. so I know these aren't exactly up to date (sorta like my blog), but I've been busy moving and finally found the pics and got the scanner plugged in, so.. here are the ultrasound pics from our 12 Week Ultrasound (which was only 4 weeks ago..)..

The 3-D ones are the coolest -- even if he looks a little like an alien. The craziest part.. at this point, he was only 3" long!!

Technology is an amazing thing..

Enjoy! :-)

The Big Announcement

I've thought a lot about what I should say in this post, and I still haven't come up with any brilliant way to introduce it or ease into it.. so here it is.. our big announcement:

After many many months of trying, we are FINALLY expecting our first baby. We had to have a little help, but thanks to the amazing talents of Dr. Mor, we finally got there! :-)

We are actually 13 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow. Since we were considered a little higher risk during the first trimester, we've actually had ultrasounds every other week for the past two months, and just this week went to a perionatologist for a very detailed ultrasound that was amazing (especially for how early on it is) and found out that we're having a boy!! :-)

We are incredibly excited and are trying to enjoy every moment of the new experience. The ultrasounds have been REALLY cool as we've watched him grow from a blob with a heartbeat to a fetus that actually has fingers and toes! :-)

Here are some of the pics of the ultrasound at 9 weeks. Once I have a few minutes, between packing, I'll scan some of the more recent ultrasound pics and post them as well..

Home Sweet Home

After 6 1/2 months of diligent searching, we have finally purchased a new home.

Why in the world would we want to do that? Don't we already have a house?

Yes.. we already own a house. However, with the housing crisis, the Antelope Valley has seen a HUGE decrease in home prices (most over 50%), and so we decided that if we ever wanted to afford a home on some land that we could actually grow into, now was the time to jump IF we found the right property.

We have looked at the craziest houses.. and we've seen it all. Houses with zero appliances/light fixtures/etc. left in them. Houses with dead rodents. Houses with the MOST random floorplans you've ever seen.. after 6 1/2 months we've probably seen 30-40 homes of varying sizes, shapes and locations. I figured it out the other day and I think we've submitted at least 20 offers on 10 properties in that time.. every time crossing our fingers only to be disappointed -- bank didn't like our financing, beat out by $1000, etc.

The day I got back from Girl's Camp we went to see this one. It was amazingly clean, the previous owner still lived in it (which was a first!), and the price was incredible. So.. on it's first day on the market we wrote an offer.. and the very next day we got a counteroffer and we thought the deal was done. Nope.. the listing agent 'conveniently' didn't make it back to her client's place to get the final paperwork signed and several other 'more lucrative' offers came in in the meantime. She gave us the opportunity to up ours, but we said 'heck no.. you crazy evil agent'.

Then, two weeks later she called groveling asking if we still wanted it since everyone else had defaulted. We thought and prayed and felt like this was the place, so we resubmitted our offer, we opened escrow last week and I think it may actually happen this time. Our closing date is sometime in the 1st 10 days of August and we're hoping to be in by the 15th. Crazy..

It's a custom home on a 2.2 acre lot.. swimming pool.. nice big bedrooms.. it's in need of updating (built in the 80's and it shows), but we can do that in pieces through the next few years. It does have a wall or two that could do with being removed and a lovely wetbar in the family that needs to go... again.. one step at a time. However, all in all, it's a beautiful well-built home on some good land so Chad can one day live his dream of having a 40 x 60 shop in the backyard.

Anywho.. here are the pics from the listing.. I haven't had a chance to take any of my own yet:



So.. if anyone is need of a good house to rent in the Lancaster area.. I know of one.. and if anyone is dying to participate in an exciting move.. we'll be happy to accommodate ;-)

Girl's Camp

I survived!! :-)

After what seemed like an eternal preparation period, Girl's Camp flew by and is now a thing of the past.

It was an amazing trip that went WAY better than I could have even expected. The girls were awesome -- there was absolutely NO drama. I know, I know, hard to believe with 30 teenage girls, but I'm telling you we pretty much had zero issues. There was no drama with the leaders either, which is almost as miraculous.

It was ward camp, which means that, as Ward Camp Leader, my noble assistant and I planned and executed the entire thing. A LOT of work -- let me tell you.. just ask Chad. It seemed like weekend after weekend that we were doing something for camp. In spite of the work, I loved having just our ward together -- especially with all the leaders.

The food was amazing, the crafts were well received and well executed, the scenery was second to none (we were on a bluff overlooking the beach!!), the weather was cool in the mornings and sunny in the afternoon, which was perfect, the spirit was strong and the girl's really seemed to bond with the leaders as well as each other.

I have loved Girl's Camp my whole life -- both as a girl and as a leader. This year was definitely no exception.

It was a special week spent with some awesome people. Who could ask for more?

San Diego

The weekend before Girl's Camp, I hopped on a train from the AV down to San Diego to join Chad who had been down in San Diego all week at a convention.

We had a very eventful Friday.. starting with visiting the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Midway which has been docked in the harbor and turned into a floating museum. It was REALLY cool being able to explore the entire ship, climb down all the crazy ladders and experience what life on a boat that size must have been like. Definitely not anything I'm signing up for anytime in the near future.. that's for sure...

The deck is even loaded with planes and helicopters you can explore inside and out and there's a 360 degree flight simulator that Chad took advantage of (I was pretty sure that about the time I flipped upside down I would have lost my lunch)..

After the ship, we wandered around Seaport Village, where we borrowed a kite from the kite guy and had some fun although the wind wasn't terribly cooperative.

We then decided to head over to the Del Mar Fair, where we ate too much, spent way too much money and had an overall lovely time.

The next day.. well.. we ended up sleeping in, packing up and heading back up North. We did get to stop in Anaheim on the way and visit with Meesa, Trevor, Carter and Avry for a bit. We all went to Downtown Disney and had a lot of fun 'window' shopping and hanging out. It's always fun to see them!! :-)

It was then on to home for the final Girl's Camp prep.. I must have been crazy to take off the weekend before camp.. but I'm glad I went down.. it was definitely a needed break from the everyday craziness that has become life..

Facelift

So.. I was looking at my blog today and decided it needed a little summery facelift.

However, now that I'm all done, I'm thinking it might be just a bit too.. well.. festive? Pink isn't really my color.. hmm.. I dunno.. So.. we'll see how long it lasts..

In the meantime, I'm hoping to get caught up on blogging this week.. so.. stay tuned..

:-)

Baby Grand

I've always dreamed of owning a Baby Grand piano.

Don't get me wrong, my little Kawai that I've had for years is a good little piano. However, even as I was buying it I thought 'in five years I'll save up and buy my baby grand.. this is just an interim piano. That was 14 years ago..

So while perusing Craig's List about three weeks back I saw some interesting listings for an older baby grand or two at terribly reasonable prices. I thought to myself.. if they're in decent shape at all it would be worth it. So.. I watched the listings come and go and finally honed in on one. A 1934 Mahogany Kimball that was supposedly in perfect working / sounding condition with a few 'minor' cosmetic blemishes.

I thought and I figured and thought and figured. Then two weeks ago Saturday I needed to go down below (that's what we call 'the San Fernando / Los Angeles region) for a doctor appt, so I thought I would just call and see if it was available to be looked at.

It was, I went and saw it, I played it and in a rare moment of not-quite-insanity.. I bought it.

It was delivered to our house on June 9th. We then started working on getting it polished up (it has the original 1034 finish and looked it). A few coats of restorative wood wax (no worries.. it's all natural and safe for pianos) and all those 'minor' blemishes all but vanished.

It's a pretty little thing. The piano tech came and looked at it and is due back on Tuesday to give a good once over and then he says it will be in good working condition.

Now.. if only I had somewhere to put it in my house.. and a matching piano bench cover..

I guess that's just a project for my post-girls-camp recovery period..

First Piano Recital

On June 4th, I had my very first piano recital.. ever.

I never actually had to perform in piano recitals growing up and so I've never performed nor attended one. However, I decided to try it with my students. We had it in Joni Swindlehurst's (our music coordinator in the ward who loves to throw parties / events..) living room on her beautiful old grand piano. I had 5 of my 9 students perform and it lasted all of 16 minutes. They all did wonderfully for the amount of time they had been playing. I was proud of all of them.

Now I am enjoying a two month hiatus from teaching while I prepare and go to girl's camp and pretty much just rest. We resume up again in August.

With any luck we'll have a repeat performance come next May.

Unfortunately, my camera wasn't really being terribly cooperative and I have yet to obtain any pictures from those who have promised them. However, as soon as I get some, I'll post them.

Memorial Day Camping

This is the first of my 'catch up' entries. Yes, I know that Memorial Day was a month ago.. but I've been a little busy. I would like to appologize to all of you out there who have been faithfully making entries into your own blogs since I haven't had any time to read blogs either.. sheesh..

So.. back to the topic at hand:

Since it was around my birthday and I needed to go stake out the campground at El Capitan for Girl's Camp anyway.. we decided to go camping in the mountains north of Santa Barbara on the weekend over Memorial Day.

We drove up on Friday evening and found a campsite above Cachuma Lake down 'Happy Canyon Road' in a tiny little campground that had a creek running right behind it.



On Saturday we decided to do some exploring and, in an interesting 'side trip' ended up in Solvang where they just so happened to be having a Military appreciation day and were letting people climb on helicopters and humvees and such.. so.. of course.. we stopped and took some pics..



Since we'd already stopped, we decided to explore Solvang for a bit and sample the Danish pastries (YUM!)



Once we'd had our fill of the cute Dutch town with it's beautiful pastries.. we journeyed on up to Santa Maria where we were hoping to do some off roading. We were a little later than planned at this point, however, and by the time we got anywhere where off roading would have been an option, it was time to turn around. So.. we headed back to Solvang for some Danish meatballs for dinner with Danish pancake balls (that have some fancy Danish name I can't remember) for desert and headed back to camp. However, while the trip might have been short lived into the wilderness, it was beautiful up there



On Sunday we headed into Solvang yet again for church at what had to be the friendliest ward I've ever been to. Every person in that ward introduced themselves as they walked into church. Amazing.. After church we took the 'long way' back to camp and even took a tiny little four wheeling road as a 'shortcut'. It was amazing the differing landscape and vegetation on the other side of the little mountain we were staying on. Where we were looked like Central California.. where we drove through that day looked a little more like Arizona. Amazing..



We went back to camp that afternoon, hung out by the creek and were joined by Sam & Michelle in the evening. The next day we all headed down to El Capitan to stake out the campground I was going to go to and try out the 2.5 mile hike from there to Refugio beach. Both were beautiful right there on the beach. Unfortunately, though, I didn't take any pictures cuz I figured that Sam was taking enough for the both of us. So.. you're just going to have to take my word for it.

It was a fun little trip and we got to explore country we probably wouldn't have thought to explore otherwise. I just wish it had been a tad bit longer..