During the first week of January I had an appointment in Sacramento with a Perinatologist (high risk specialist). It was mostly just routine stuff to get an anatomy scan done on the baby and make sure all is well, plus some extra checks for me, given my history. I only have to see him once though, so luckily I don't have to drive all the way back down there to see him. Things are going just fine with my regular doctor up here so far. We're hoping it stays that way!
The appointment fell on a wednesday and it's 2 hours of driving each way, so we decided to have Ryan take the day off and take Grace out of school so we could go play in Sac-town instead. First was the appointment (which we had to leave home for at 6:30am...yikes), but they kids were in good moods and really good while we were there. That's probably the only time they were both happy at the same time the rest of the day, but at least we had that time. :)
This was a quick 3-D scan of baby boy's lips and chin. He couldn't get a good view of his whole face. I was sooo relieved we weren't looking at a cleft palate since I had to survive many weeks on Zofran.
3-D image of his feet and toes.
After the appointment, we drove across town to visit Old Sacramento. There was a little donut shop there we tried out (not that good...) and then we headed in to the California State Railroad Museum. We had heard it was a great place for kids, and it did not disappoint!!
We were able to walk through some old train cars where they have set up scenes of what it would have looked like in it's day. It was neat! One was even swaying back and forth to make it feel like we were actually on a moving train.
Ryan was really excited about all of the exhibits involving the Transcontinental Railroad. We tried to explain the significance of it to the kids (us being from Utah and all) but they didn't care. ;) We sure thought it was cool though.
They have a neat track set up for the kids to watch and they could have stayed for an hour watching the trains go back and forth!
There weren't an tour guides (at least we didn't ask anyone to be our guide) but there was one engine on display that had telephones with a recording you could listen to. It was telling details and stories about this engine. When Logan picked it up and listened for a few seconds, he looked at us and "I just hear 'Blah blah blah'". HA! We had a good laugh about that one all day.
Ryan got to test out the train "simulation" as if he was the conductor. The guide was very adamant that we didn't call it a video game (which I did when I was trying to explain it to my 3 year old). Whoops... ;) It was actually quite complicated but of course Ryan was a pro. Except for stopping the train 100 feet short. hehe
The rest of the day was spent at Chick-Fil-A, ToysRUs to spend the kids' Christmas money, Ikea for a few hours, and then Panera Bread for dinner before driving 2 hours home again - in pouring rain - in the dark. It was a looooong day and not exactly pleasant for everyone but I'm glad we had a good appointment and a fun time at the train museum at least.
January was an incredibly rainy month for us. I've never experienced SO MUCH RAIN before. Everyone knows California has been in a terrible drought for several years and I know our wards have been praying hard for rain and good snowpack in the mountains. Well we have been very blessed so far! I can't find the place online that will tell me how many inches fell in just January, or what the snow pack is. But the rainfall total was somewhere around 25 inches and the snowpack in the higher elevations (Ryan told me yesterday) was reported at 130% of normal. Miracles! I hope it pulls the state out of this dumb drought.
Our backyard, the mud pit.
The view out Logan's window (toward our backyard). Isn't it gorgeous?! Look at the moss!
This is the moss overtaking our front walk. It's also growing all our sidewalk and gutters. It's just so wet here right now, it can't help it!
I have absolutely been loving all of the GREEN scenery, which is something we hadn't experienced since moving here. Even when we visited last March it wasn't at all this gorgeous. The drive from Paradise to Chico has this overlook and I love the way the clouds sit low against the mossy cliffs. So pretty. These pictures are just from my iPhone so it doesn't even do it justice.
We've had lots of foggy days too. So eery.
I thought my front door area looks so happy and colorful now! It just needed a few things to make it look like a family lives here now.
I haven't quite gotten the mantle to look just how I want it yet, and we still want to paint it white eventually. But it's super fun having one to play around with finally!! Plus I love me some Valentine's Day decor.
At Ikea we got some much-needed kids' dishes. When I washed them it was the happiest load I've ever loaded into my dishwasher. :)
Ryan told me the local paper ran his info in an ad. I didn't get a copy of it to save, but I found this one on the paper's website. :) It's a fun thing to see! I actually took that picture in Ohio. ha! They really need to get him a real one.
We love our "sunday sundaes"! Especially with some (a lot) of whipped cream and some Joe Joe cookies from Christmas. Yummy.
When Logan and I leave Grace's school he insists on running along every single white line. It takes awhile, but he was proud and wanted me to take a picture.
Baby is getting big! Or maybe that's just me... Also, I practically live in these galoshes now, so it's a good thing I found some cute ones I like.
Logan felt the baby kick his hand for the first time a couple weeks ago and he couldn't stop giggling for a whole minute after! I think it's getting much more real for this boy. He can't WAIT to be a big brother.
Ryan was getting a bunch of meat prepped for the grill and I was baking cookies. I thought it was funny how stereotypical it was. :) And may I just say how incredibly grateful I still am everyday that I actually feel good? I really, really am. I should never take for granted my health.
Speaking of my muddy backyard earlier... I let the kids loose back there and tried not to care about what they were up to for over an hour because I knew they just needed to be outside for the first time in days. And of course they were covered in mud by the time they came in. I think they had fun.
