We're in love...

Aubrey and I have been looking at our baby pictures trying to decide who Ainsley looks more like and we both noticed how much we grew between out monthly pictures. It scared us. We decided to take matters in our own hands and get some pictures of our little Ainsley before she moves into the next growth phase. We set up the front room to take some simple pictures of our baby...but as you will see, we got carried away. What can we say? We just love our little Ainsley.


Above was our first photo idea, a Christmas baby picture for her middle name - Noel. Below she's posing with the bear that Grandpa and Grandma Stout gave her. (Possibly against her will - but she was asleep so we didn't hear an objection.)

Here she is in her glorious splendor as a prima ballerina. She loves dancing with daddy already and loves music...wow does she love music. (We have discovered it's the only way to make her sleep all night long. Glad we figured this out with Grandma Winter's help early on. Thank you Sue!)

We love this girl. She's such a joy.

Welcome Ainsley Noel Stout

We were so pleased last night to expand our family with the addition of little Ainsley Noel Stout. She's simply beautiful. Aubrey and I are so in love with her, even when we're still getting used to not sleeping at night. She was 7 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long. She's got a little tiny bit of blond hair on back and long eyelashes. She already loves pouting out her bottom lip. She's our Christmas miracle. Merry Christmas everyone!

For Hilary

These pictures are from Saturday. Yes I'm still teaching. But I gave up on the tights and leotard long ago. I can still pull out clean singles!!!

Well here you go Hill. You wanted some pictures of how prego I am. I wouldn't do this for anyone but you. The thing is I know how if feels to be far away and miss out on little things like seeing someones big Santa belly. For those of you who don't know Hil is our sister that's been teaching English in China for the last four months. She left before we got home from Hawaii. So we haven't seen each other for some time. But she'll be home for Christmas and I'm hoping baby Stout will too.

Count down to Baby and Christmas!

Nate and I are so excited for this little baby to come into our lives. Nate has shown this in many ways but one big one that has taken allot of time and work he has preped this little room for our little girl. The picture above is the sewing desk he repaired and painted for me.

We've been so blessed. The crib was a gift from Papa and G.G. Stout.

Also they gave us this dresser that Nate painted. He's painted a picture in his painting class that will be hung above the dresser. We are so excited to fill this room with memories of us and the sweet new baby girl that, according to the dr. will be any day now.

I've been feeling fine. I'm still very healthy and happy. I'm just getting very large.
Christmas is my favorite holiday! So here are a few pictures of our Christmas home.

In Germany they celebrate St. Nickolas Day. That's the 6th of Dec. If you are good St. Nickolas will leave treats in your shoes. Apparently both Daddy and Baby have been very good.

Turkey Shoot

This year's Turkey shoot went great! Thanks Mom and Dad Winter for doing all the prep for such a fun day.

It's important to protect little baby's ears.
Man Nate, you are such a stud! I love you so much!

Trimming the Winter Tree

After the turkey shoot we got to help trim the tree. It was loads of fun. Later that week we got to spend time at the Stout home and help with their tree also. Sadly we seem to never have the camera when we are over there. It was lots of fun sharing embarrassing stories as we all just sat around and lets be honest watched Ginny finish up the trees.
It was so nice having my older brother Rob and his wife Kristen and there little boy Joel up for the Holiday weekend. I just love you guys!

Thanksgiving

This year we spent thanksgiving with the Stout/Steinfeld side of the family. It was so wonderful! The food was amazing and we all stuffed our selves full. Ginny and Chelsea made the cutest center peaces which I'm sad we didn't get pictures of. This side of the family always gos out to see a movie on thanksgiving. I've never done this but it was so fun to fill up two rows at the theater with family.
Rob and Kristen have been up to visit. I got to spend the day with them, Dad, and Emm. It's so nice to see them and to talk with them. Everyone needs an older Brother in my opinion. Especially if he happens to have an amazing wife whom I can totally relate to and a super cute baby.
All in all, so far this Thanksgiving week has been wonderful. I'm thankful for family!

I know it's only Nov. 9th

Just so you all know, I do know what month it is but I know I probably won't get around to changing the background again before Christmas and I wanted to make it cute because Christmas is my favorite time of the year!!!

Halloween.

Sorry I promise I flipped this picture before I put in on here but I must have done something wrong.

Jackson was Super Y from his favorite TV show.

Halloween was lots of fun. Nate and I spent the night with the Stout family which is always fun. Ginny had an amazing meal planned out. Afterwords everyone went out to trick or treat with Jackson. Nate and I stayed at the house to answer the door for trick or treaters. I needed to rest so Nate did all the work at the door. As for our costumes mine was inspired by my very cute little nieces Liezel, Quincy, and Ava. They dressed up like a Ballerina Witch, a Ballerina Kitty, and a Ballerina Mouse. They looked so cute so I dressed up like a Ballerina Hippo. Nate went as a big game hunter.

Our everyday lives are going well. Baby is getting big and she loves to move. She really responds to Nate's voice. I think she already loves her Daddy. As for the count down we only have about a month and a half to go until she is here! Nate is doing well in school. He's always keeping me updated on how many weeks there are left in the semester though. As for me I'm still teaching, and it's going well. It's keeping me moving. I'm learning I can't do nearly as much as I want to but to save my back I force myself to sit allot in my classes.

That's about all from us this week.

Let's Dance!!!

I don't know why I put these pictures up. It's just I haven't posted in a while and I don't like posts without pictures. It was just one of Nate and I's moments.

This picture dose show you all that are not in this state how much of a belly I'm getting. I'm glad baby is growing so well. Most of the time I'm okay with my mommy figure. It dose make dancing interesting. I sometimes forget when I'm teaching and I'll try something to show the girls what they need to do and of course it doesn't work and I suddenly remember oh ya I'm very pregnant. Nate's doing great with school and work. He got our first Pharm. school application in today!! That's what's going on in this Stout home.

Happy Birthday my wonderful Nate!

Okay first I'm going to play a little catch up. Sorry we haven't written for so long. The batteries in our camera ran out the week before my family got to Hawaii. We just recently found the recharger so now we have pictures again. But our trip to Hawaii was wonderful we were sad to leave such a beautiful place and dear friends but we were also so so so excited to be home and with family. Since then Nate has started school and working at the pharmacy again. I am back at the dance studios working and we found out that baby is healthy and happy and very much a girl. Yahoo! These pictures are of this last labor day weekend. We started it out with the Stout family and had a wonderful birthday celebration then we went up to the Frandsens for a family sleepover. Grandpa took us up in his plan.

I was crazy enough to go up too. It was fun. These are some of my favorite memories of my Grandpa Frandsen. He loves to fly!

This is Nate flying. Grandpa let Nate take the controls for a bit.

After the plane fun the slip and slide was set up for the little kids. But of course that means Nate and my Dad, my brother Brad, and cousin Johnny and Jackson where right in the middle of the fun.

Lastly Dad and Nate finished out the day with a bit of Labor. They did some jobs for Grandma winter.

But lets face it this guy right here is what this blog post is all about. NATE THE GREAT!!! It's his birthday today and sadly the day is full of school from 8 in the morning to 9 at night. We were still able to get a little birthday in this morning and we will have a great and grand birthday dinner tonight when Nate gets home. I'm so grateful I have Nate in my life.

Thanks to everyone, I had a wonderful birthday!

No pictures this time. Sorry, our camera's battery ran out yesterday morning. Good timing don't you think. Oh well. I had a wonderful birthday. Thank you to everyone for the phone calls and the well wishes. Especially thank you to Nate. He's the best. He made my day really special. Also the Diopolous Family made it eventful and fun. I like this birthday thing!

What's up with baby?

Some of you have asked about the baby and how far along we are. Well.... This week is my 19th week so we are well into the fifth month of pregnancy. Baby from head to bum is two and a little bit Nutter Butters long, also known as six inches. I started feeling things in my belly last week and this week I'm pretty sure it's baby moving and kicking around down there. If you have any other questions about baby let me know.

What we have been up to....

Well Eric and I have been having great times at the beach. Eric is the funniest to go to the beach with. He hardly gets his "slippers" (flip-flops) off before he is running full speed at the water and then belly flops into the on coming wave. After he has his fill of water he crawls onto the beach and makes a sand pillow and takes a nap. What a fun kid. By the way, Dad I'm expecting a similar reaction to beach time from you. As for me I've given up completely on the swimming suit thing. As you can see why in this picture. What a woman!

As for the boys Eric has been a great help making sure Nate is hydrated by getting him water. He's also shown a concern about baby getting thirsty. What a sweetheart taking care of us. Landric has been.... well.... sleepy.

But Nate is working hard and having so much fun doing it. The deck is a lot farther than it shows in this picture but I wanted a good action shot. Rena and I started painting it today. She's so nice to chill with. It's looking like we are going to be all done with these projects before the Winter family gets here. So sorry girls you will not get to work on your Hawaii vacation. You'll just have to do with lounging about at the beach.

Mangos and Ding Dongs please.... eat your heart out Brad

Nate thinks it's funny the kinds of things I want to eat sometimes. Last week I wanted anything not Hawaiian. That means with all the tropical juices here, the juice I just had to have apple juice. This week I'm on a Ding Dong and Mango kick. It's not like I'm having cravings so much as when we are in the store I see something that sounds good at the time and with a little puppy dog face...Nate gets it for me. I kind of like this pregnant thing. But the thing I am definitely in want of is a good tomato. I'm the kind that will eat tomatoes like apples. But I have learned Hawaii tomatoes hold nothing to Utah tomatoes. Oh how I long for that red, juicy goodness.

Valley of the Temple

Well, I'm getting close to finishing the Hawaii house project so I'm making sure to give Aubrey more time to sightsee between the few remaining projects. I just finished the stairs and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, despite having no idea what I was doing. One more clueless project then I'll be on the home stretch, just finishing up the back appartment. We took the weekend off and went around to places on Aubrey's list. It was a fun weekend, a good break. (Frankly I'm just glad to take a day from sweating and being covered by heat rash from the sweat + heat.) This is what the stairs ended up looking like. I used pine boards and stained them. Then caulked the edges cause I didn't know what to do with them.

These giant Koi were at the temple. I just included this picture to get my Dad's attention.

The gardens around the temple were beautiful and peaceful. It was a very inspiring place.

The temple we visited was called the Byodo-In. Its a replica of the Byodo-In in Japan, built in honor of the large number of Japanese living in Hawaii. The building was quite a sight.

We're loving being here but both of us are excited for the Winter family to get here, it will be fun to be with everyone.

Just A Good Day!

Today Rena taught me the fine art of pumpkin roll making. They were super easy to make and really tasty. She's such a fun lady.

This is Nate and I at the Japanese Obon festival. It's a summer festival that has dancing. I wanted to go so bad and Nate couldn't refuse the prise. FREE! So fun!

How old are Sea Turtles?

The other day we went to Turtle Beach and it was the coolest thing I've ever done in Hawaii so far! When we got there there were two big turtles chilling on the beach. They were cool to see but they were just sleeping so Landric, Nate, and I ventured forth to find more turtles in action. this beach is famous for having a lot of turtles. It's rumored that some native comes and feeds the turtles because normally turtles wouldn't be so friendly to people but for some reason at this beach they are. Well we swam around for a bit. Saw some fish but that was all. Nate said baby got a submarine adventure. But suddenly there were so many all around us. We were only knee deep in the water and they would come right close to us and nudge us out of the way or swim around us. It was so cool! One turtle started after Nate and Nate tried to get out of his way but the turtle just kept following him and nipping at his swim shorts. It was funny. I wish we had a picture of all of this but we didn't want to worry about a camera getting wet.
I even dreamt last night that baby was born with a turtle shell. "Baby in a Half Shell, Baby Power!"

What will Baby Stout look like?

Aubrey and I wanted to see what our little bundle of joy would end up looking like so we logged onto the internet and used a website to help us see just what we had in store. We're so excited to see baby! The first picture is what we got combining our two faces. This second picture leaves open the possibility that our baby is part dinosaur. Isn't the internet an amazing tool?!

Let us know what you think? We know that whatever we get: boy, girl, half-dinosaur; we're going to love that baby so much.

Here are the pictures...

I'm actually really pleased with this picture. We took it to show you all how big my belly is getting, but the picture actually kind of hides the belly. It's there I promise, I'm definitely feeling it. And Nate can definitely see it.

Is it me or was he made for the islands?

This is a bad picture, but we went and saw Harry Hotter. It was amazing!!! I loved it. Nate liked it but he wasn't a huge fan. What's with burning down the burrow? Did anyone else totally hate that, and wonder why they even put that in?

Nate took me too a botanical garden the other day. It was beautiful. I've always secretly wished to be a plant person. I honestly don't know the first thing about them and I hate bugs but hey I can dream.

This morning Nate made me eggs and toast in our little room. It was fun and I can't get over how lucky I am to have him. I love you Nate!