Because I promised. . .

Okay, so I promised to put pix of Gennie on here for all to see. And since I haven't done that yet, this whole post will be devoted to her. She and I went out to the FMC park where people take their dogs to run and the fourwheelers go ... she loves the playground out there ... and shot her 3 year old portraits. She was really good for me this time ... she actually posed and stayed put while I shot as fast as I could. Of course, I had to let her slide and run around in between every shot so we were there forever but it was worth it with what I got! She's turning into such a little girl, not a toddler anymore. She has a little attitude sometimes, and a mouth that gets her into trouble often but I'm told that she gets it from both sides! It's funny ... some of my earliest memories from childhood are from when I was around 3 - my mom says - so I figure she will start remembering some of the stuff we do with her.

Anyway, these were some of the pix that I didn't get printed to send out to the family and friends. Still cute, but I liked the others more so I'll put these on and send out the rest.

Kevin's birthday!

Kev's birthday was last friday and boy, did we surprise him! He has been saving up his "pennies" for a while to buy his own guitar. He's been playing on the worship team for church and loving it but had to borrow a guitar from one of the other guys. That's awesome for a while but he was always worried about getting it scratched or something with the dog and Gennie running around. So, he decided he would save up for his own. Well, he almost had enough for the one he really wanted, a black on black Fender acoustic/electric, and I had decided to make up the difference for his birthday this year. He was in Colorado last week up until his actual birthday so my parents and I went to Pickin' Palace and got the guitar and the hard case for it. He had no idea!!! He got some more $$ in birthday cards so he planned on going to get it on Sat. morning. But after we had birthday dinner at the Rocky Mountain Noodle (pasta, go figure!) we came home to open gifts and I got out the case. He was REALLY surprised!

Baby stuff - Teeth stuff

So, we had a whole day of dr appointments yesterday, but we got it all in without multiple trips to Rock Springs. We went to the periodontist (fancy dentist) first so I'll start with that news. Dr. Okano was very pleased to have found out that he can treat Kevin's situation the same way he would treat a regular case of gum disease. Basically that means that he is going to pull 8 teeth and start the process to protect the rest of them that are left. He'll have to have a partial denture that he'll wear from then on but he can eat with it in. Dr. Okano said he can't promise corn on the cob but he should at least be able to bite into a sandwich...which he can't even do now. There are several more things he plans to try on Kev but first things first. We were really encouraged to talk to him, tho, and hear that he believes that with treatment, Kev will be able to keep most of the rest of the teeth. Now we just have to harp on the insurance company to cover all this under medical and not dental because it's not at all to do with his teeth themselves...it's all because of his genetic bone disease Hypophosphatasia.

After all that, we went to the baby dr and got checked out. Everything's measuring right where it should be and the heart's beating fine...in the 150's per minute. I've heard that you can determine the sex of the baby (kind of) by knowing how fast the heart rate is but everyone who has told me about has forgotten if fast is a girl or a boy. Oh well, I'll just have to wait until the next appt and find out. We'll have our ultrasound on Mar 15 and this time we really want to find out the sex. We didn't find out with Gennie because we wanted the first to be a surprise but this time we want to know so we can plan....if we need all new stuff we'd like a little time to get it all ready.

So that's our news for today. Good news all around!

What's with the Peasoup thing?

So, I decided I'd better explain the whole email address and blog name, etc, and why we chose pea soup for everything. When I (Amy) was a kid, we took short trips around CA on the long weekends, just to get out of the Bay Area hustle and bustle. On several of these trips, we ended up going thru the Solvang/Buellton area and there's an Inn there called Pea Soup Andersen's Inn. On the sign on the side of the building there is a huge picture of their mascots Hap Pea and Pea Wee (above) splitting peas for their famous split pea soup. More back story -- my maiden name was McConnell, very often confused with McDonald, and as a kid I was teased for being related to Ronald McDonald (even tho that wasn't even possible) so I dreamed that when I got married, I'd have a last name that didn't even come close to being confused with a fast food clown. Back to the peasoup thing -- Every time we drove past the sign I thought that it would be great to have a last name that came with mascots, something like Andersen's pea soup. Well, when I got to college and met Kevin Anderson - hey, he has a great last name - we got married and I was finally an Anderson. Granted, it's not the Danish spelling but it all sounds the same and that's what counts! We were trying to decide on a family email address and chose peasoup stuff because it reminds me of my childhood and Kevin cracked up when I told him the whole story.

Anyway, that's the story of the pea soup. And the funniest part to us is that neither of us can stand the sight or smell of split pea soup!

Our first post!

We finally have a blog! I've been wanting to do this for some time but haven't had a chance to sit down and sign up for one. We thought it would be a good way for all our friends and family to keep up with what we're up to without having to wait for me to email or call. We'll be sure to put up pictures for you all, of both us and Gennie and the baby progress. I go to the Dr today so I'll have more info for next time, and at 20 weeks we can find out what it is! We didn't find out with Gennie, but decided this time we need to know if we should buy all new stuff or if we can use what we have!