Spring Break!

Finally! After a couple of busy blocks of school and busy season, we have a spring break to help us regain our sanity! We arrived in Salt Lake and went to dinner with Nicole's family at Red Iguana, which was very tasty! The next day we got up early for Brian and Heather's wedding. It was a great day, the ceremony was amazing, pictures were fun, and the dinner afterwards was fantastic! We even saw Donny Osmond at the temple as he was attending another sealing ceremony.

On Wednesday we received another treat. Nicole's little brother, Mitch, received his mission call to the Donets'k, Ukraine mission. We are very excited for him!

On Friday we finished off the week with the reception which was awesome. Here are a few pics since they will do it a lot more justice than I could describe!

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day! Actually, we celebrated it on Saturday instead because it was easier for us on the weekend. Nicole and I split up the Valentine's Day responsibilities, she was in charge of the activity and I was in charge of dinner. Nicole debuted "Nicole's Spa" and she gave me a great spa treatment and massage! I didn't do quite that well but I did make a raspberry/oreo cheesecake for dessert and it actually wasn't that bad! Check it out!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Pictures and Packers

Disclaimer: Colby started this post (complete with a slew of pregnancy pictures), but is heading into test week and hasn't had time to finish it. I decided to finish and post and have strongly considered deleting all pictures of myself below. However, due to popular demand and since we really are far away from you, I consented and the photos remain. Enjoy!

January has brought a lot of changes--the most obvious probably being my belly. While the Energizer bunny keeps going, and going, and going, I just keep growing,

22 Weeks

and growing,

23 Weeks

and growing,

24 Weeks

and growing!

25 Weeks

When Halli saw the last picture of me, I think her exact words were "Holy Cow!" We still have a few more months to go, but Colby and I can't wait for our baby girl to be here! Colby is getting to be the pro researching baby furniture, discussing baby names, and even giving an occasional opinion on baby girl clothes. I love it! In the meantime, we are staying very very busy with school and work and enjoying our time in Milwaukee.

In other news... Colby and I are becoming true Wisconsians as we cheer for the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl next week. Go Packers!

The Holidaze!

December really went by in a blur, but it was such a good, full month and there is lots to catch up on! The first couple weeks flew by as Colb was studying like crazy for the last block of tests to finish up his first semester of medical school. I stayed busy working lots of hours to get all of my audits wrapped up before the holidays. As soon as we got to the night of December 16 the party began. Colb took his last final and I put in my last day at work (for the year). That night we celebrated with our med school friends making gingerbread houses, eating treats, and watching The Grinch. And yes, mine and Colb's house is not technically a gingerbread house. It's a gingerbread U-Haul. They are a gingerbread family in between homes.

Me and Colb

Trevor and Teresa

Sarah and Scott

Ashlyn and BK

The next day was one I had been looking forward to for months. It was our 20 week ultrasound and I couldn't wait to see our baby again and find out the gender. The baby was growing well and right on track. For the first little bit the baby decided to keep its legs crossed, but then SHE let us get a glance and we found out we are having a baby GIRL! We are so excited to be parents and welcome this little girl into our family!

I think she is so cute with her little legs crossed!

Another snapshot of our baby girl

Another fun and crazy thing is that one of the other medical school couples (Trevor and Teresa) that we are good friends with is having a baby and due the same day as us. They also had their 20 week ultrasound, and so we all celebrated our news together!

The next day had also been long awaited as we flew home to Utah. After a few delays, changes in itinerary, and missing luggage, we eventually made it to Salt Lake and even retrieved all of our three suitcases, two backpacks, and one duffle bag! Yay for holiday travel! We spent two weeks in Utah and it went by SO fast! That fact that our families live down the street from each other definitely has its benefits and we truly enjoyed spending time with all of them! We had fabulous food, company, and entertainment the whole time! We thoroughly enjoyed the holidays and the time we had to reflect on the ultimate giver of gifts--our Savior.

At the end of the two weeks we loaded up our FOUR suitcases, two duffle bags, and one backpack and flew back to Milwaukee. Now we are back to real life as Colb started into another semester of school and I am headed into busy season.

In all of that luggage Colb and I still managed to forget a camera to go to Utah. Here are a few holiday photos that we've been able to gather from other people. Sadly we don't have any pictures with the Duncan Family!

The growing Hales Family

The Lovebirds - We are so excited to welcome
Heather into our family and have a wedding in March!

The Swain Grandkids
The Swain Family Christmas Party is always December 26. We have a tradition that all the grandchildren line up along the wall to get their pictures taken. We take two pictures - one is oldest to youngest and the other is tallest to shortest. I am the OLDEST, but continue to move down the line as everyone passes me in height.

The Girls

Me, Mom, and Halli

19 Weeks
20 Weeks

21 Weeks
Us at the Hales Family Christmas Party

18 Week Progress Report

So... Just a quick progress report on the beautiful mother-to-be. She is 18 weeks along and doing great! I thought that I would post a few before pictures starting at 4 weeks and the current picture at 18 weeks for a little side-by-side comparison.

4 Weeks

5 Weeks

6 Weeks

7 Weeks

8 Weeks

9 Weeks

10 Weeks

11 Weeks

12 Weeks

13 Weeks

14 Weeks

15 Weeks

16 Weeks

17 Weeks

18 Weeks

I know that it might not seem like a big difference yet, but that baby has been doing some growing the last few weeks! And I am sure that anytime now that belly is going to start really poking out there! We are so excited, especially that in less than 2 weeks we will find out if it is a boy or a girl! If anyone cares to make a wager on what the gender will be, please feel free! (I am going to add my guess right after I post this.)

In other news, Nicole has been really busy with work, like crazy busy! I have one week left of class and then tests the next week. We got our first real snow of the season, only about 3-4 inches, but it definitely helps us to be in a more festive mood. We are plugging away for these next two weeks before finishing the first semester of medical school and we get to fly home to Utah for the holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful break this past weekend!
I have to write this one post really quickly because it was definitely the funniest part of the weekend. We were driving back from Thanksgiving with some friends when the two pregnant ladies in our car decided that they ABSOLUTELY had to have some sweet potato fries! We stopped to get some dinner when the following conversation occurred at our table:

Nicole (after our food arrived at the table):

Wow! I think my eyes are bigger than my stomach!

Me:

Yeah, but pretty soon your stomach will be bigger than your eyes!

(Laughter from the four of us at the table)

Complete and total stranger sitting at the table next to us with his little boy:

Wow! Did you really just say that to her?

Nicole:

Oh! It's OK, I'm pregnant.

It was really funny and we all got a really big laugh out of it, especially after the guy and his son left!

Family: Isn't It About Time?

Yes, indeed it is about time for Cole and I! We are so excited to announce that we will be having a baby in May! And it is ABOUT TIME we started this family, right?! Many of you may have already heard but we wanted to make the official blog post and to give the full story to those who may not have heard it.

Nicole and I moved to Milwaukee the first week of August. Nicole started work again for Ernst & Young in the Milwaukee office and I started medical school at MCW. After a few weeks Nicole started having the "feeling" that she might be pregnant so we made the long drive to Target to pick up a few tests before making the even longer drive home! When we got home she took the test and put it on the bathroom sink for the required 3 minutes. She went in first to look at it before I came in after her. She tried very hard to hide her expressions but I knew right away what it said!

Pregnancy Test

We were so excited for this news! After a few weeks Nicole made her first appointment with the doctor and we got our ultrasound pictures which were so amazing! I never really thought ultrasound pictures were anything too great to look at but it is way different when it is your kid that you are looking at! This was one of our favorites that they took at 11 weeks (4 weeks ago).

11 Week Ultrasound

And of course I made Nicole pose for a pregnancy picture this morning. There really hasn't been much to show up until the last few days. Nicole is just over 15 weeks along today! She wanted to keep her cardigan on but I told her that would not work for a belly shot so she had to hold it back. She looks great!

15 Week Pregnancy Photo