Another Year

Yesterday was my 26th birthday, and quite frankly, it felt like any other day at home. Which is fine, because we did the bulk of the celebrating the Friday before with the WHOLE family! (more on that later!) I've come to realize though, that once you're a mom birthdays aren't that different than any other day. (And maybe I'm realizing this because I'm pregnant and hormonal!) Anyway, being a mom, you're at home all day changing diapers, wiping noses, making mac 'n cheese for lunch, etc. Sure, people were calling or emailing sending me thoughtful and warm wishes. But days at home are quite different from when I was in the working world. I was used to getting flowers sent to my office, or me and the gals at work would go out for lunch. But you know what? I wouldn't trade my days at home for anything!! I LOVE being a stay at home mom!! But ON my birthday we did get to go out to Red Robin for my FREE birthday burger-so that was lots of fun! Anyway, here's some fun pictures from the birthday celebration that the Acker's so graciously hosted! (And I realized there are TONS of pictures once again-I just can't choose which ones so I post them all!)

The theme was going to be "fancy." My wish was to have appetizer/finger foods for dinner! Everyone pitched in and I didn't bring anything-the best! And the food was amazing!

Some of the family L-R: My sister Leandra, her friend Kevin, sis-in-law Andrea, me, my brother Joel and his friend Katie.

Lily drinking orange juice out of a fancy (plastic) champagne flute. She thought she was pretty special.

Birthday parties = game time for the party planner Andrea! She's so creative and thought of this fun "shopping" game (cause I love to shop!) for all of us to play!
The score sheet

Everyone listening well to our game host Andrea

Holding up an item that we were to guess how much it cost.

Just SOME of the presents-I'm spoiled people!

A new book from Andrea about the Gosselin family, a.k.a. "Jon and Kate plus 8" I love that show and I don't even have cable!

My dad and Lily goofing around

A new maternity shirt-don't have many summer clothes from my pregnancy with Lily-so this is good!

Lily hanging with her uncle Joel
And with her Auntie Lu

A cute sign from my mom-in-law Barb

The amazing cake my mom slaved over to make for me!! It was so fresh and so good! A true labor of love! Thanks mom!
So, I asked for this super cute hoodie before I knew I was pregnant. It fits fine, but as you can see, it's a bit tight around my plump belly. I'll still wear it, but just might need to not wear it zipped up! This was from AJ by the way-what a great husband I have!
Me and my brother

Playing some pool and Lily so badly wanted to play!

AJ and Katie playing foosball
And Andrea being silly with me and my preggo belly!

It was such a FUN night and a big thank you to my family for working hard to make it happen and for spoiling me rotten! Thanks for everything!

Lily is going....

To be a...

BIG SISTER!!!!!

That's right, we are expecting a little one on November 17th-the day before AJ's birthday! We are THRILLED, SHOCKED, and AMAZED at what God has done! Here's the story-and it's LONG, so skim it if you want-but it's good! :)

It was hard for us to get pregnant with Lily...we actually ended up seeking fertility help with a great doctor in Portland. Both he and my OBGYN said we'd never be able to get pregnant on our own. Well...were they WRONG! I have been feeling just fine this whole time. Oh yah, did I mention I'm 10 weeks today?! Did I also mention that we JUST found out a week ago this LAST SATURDAY?! Anyway, like I said, I was feeling just fine. It was Easter week and I had this small amount of uncomfortable pain in my left side of my stomach. I honestly thought I was getting an ulcer! I'm thinking I was just feeling my uterus start to grow or something! It's not painful anymore! But I had been just having little symptoms the weeks before, like my gums hurt (which never happened with Lily) I did get sick 1 day, but it was right after AJ had the stomach flu, so I just thought it was my turn to get it! My pants were feeling a "bit" snug, but I had been weighing myself and hadn't seen any pounds add on. Finally AJ said, "just take a test." We both knew it was probably false, but at least we could ease our minds. Friday of Easter weekend I bought a test (it was at night.) I took it as soon as I got home and the results were nothing. Not a positive, not a negative. Great. I thought I peed on it wrong or something!!! Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I go to look at it 2 hours after I've taken it, and it's positive. Of course, I assume the test is faulty anyway since results never showed up (not even after 10 minutes!) Saturday of Easter weekend I wake up and take another test. POSITIVE right away!!!

See, I told you!

I hope you don't think it's gross that i took a picture of my test and put it on here :)

I was AMAZED!!! I ran and told AJ (he was still in bed) and he immediately got up to come and see the results! You see, when I was pregnant with Lily I took a test at home and it was negative-so this is my first positive! Who knew such a tiny stick could bring me so much happiness! I call my fertility doctor up that morning because they do blood work all the time and I knew if something wasn't right, they'd be the best to go through before my OB. We went to the hospital lab Sat. morning and didn't get the results until Monday. It was so hard to wait! But it was nice that it was Easter, so we were busy with family and fun, and of course celebrating Christ's resurrection! Monday morning comes and they call and ask me when my last cycle was (again, sorry if it's too much info!) I told them and they said, "well, your levels are REALLY high, like what a baby at 9 weeks would measure!" Crazy. They wanted me to come in the next day for an ultrasound to see what was going on. I wish I had a picture to show, but my scanner isn't working! I'll try to fix it and post it later. But we got to see the baby and it's heartbeat beating away! Everything looks great and we are AMAZED. I can't say that enough. Doctors don't know everything, only GOD knows all! He is awesome, powerful, and AMAZING. We are so thankful for this miracle baby growing inside of me!

Back up to this last Friday when we told family. Waiting a week to tell them was torture on me! I was starting to pop out and was trying really hard to hide what I had. I'm HUGE now, and people say to me "How did you not know you were pregnant? Didn't you look in the mirror and see a belly?!" But really, I didn't start showing until a week ago. I'm quite scared actually,at how fast I'm growing. I don't want to be huge with this one like I was with Lily! Anyway, we bought the Big Sister t-shirt on our way home from the ultrasound. I had seen it months ago and mentally made a note that was how I was going to tell the family. We tricked the family into coming over early for pictures before AJ's hall of fame night. My sister was the tricky one because she wasn't going to the hall of fame banquet so getting her here was hard! But she obliged for "family pictures"! After pictures were all done, I quickly went and changed Lily's shirt. We taped their reaction:

(the beginning is the best, after that we're just telling the story that I just wrote, so feel free to stop the video!) **Update: The video should be working now! Sorry!**



Isn't my sister's reaction the best?! I love the look of shock on her face-and those tears of joy-such a great sister! :)

Anyway, here's the belly shot and I'm not promising that I'll post these too often :)

This was taken 2 days ago-almost 10 weeks! I told you I had a pooch! I'm hoping it's because it's my second so I just pop out sooner. (yah right.) Anyway, we are so amazed and in awe at what God has done. He deserves all the glory for this little creation He has made!

Hall of Fame

*FYI: I will be bragging throughout this post :)

This last Friday night, a banquet was held at Western Oregon University for 4 athletes and 2 coaches who were being inducted into their Hall of Fame. One of those athletes was MY husband!!! He had an amazing high jump career in high school and college. He's a 3 time national champion in high jump, has won meets, and STILL holds the school record of jumping 7 feet 1/2 inch!!! That is so HIGH!! We had such an awesome time at the banquet and I've got LOTS of pictures to show-so hang on!

The Acker side (and a pair of Thompson's)

The Uram side (with some Acker's)
AJ and his PROUD parents Dan and Barb!

After family pictures we all headed over to WOU for the banquet. For the first hour, they had hors d'oeuvres (not sure how to spell that! But it was cheese, pretzels, fruit) We got to stand around and chat which is always fun!
The ladies-I love these women!

AJ mingling

The banquet room

For each person being inducted, the school set up a display of every one's own memorabilia-medals, awards, etc. A few years ago AJ's sister made this awesome scrapbook for him of all of his track articles, awards, pictures, etc. Such a great gift to have forever!

And a close-up of this poster that was with his stuff-the school did all of this! We had nothing to do with it. But they did let us take it home! I love it and want to display it in our home-but I'm pretty sure AJ won't let me :)
The table with the Hall of Fame medals for each person

The emcee' for the night, director of athletics Jon Carey
Each person being inducted was to choose someone to present for them. AJ chose John Bartlett. He was one of the track coaches when AJ was at WOU. He said some wonderful things about AJ!
AJ accepting his medal
And making his acceptance speech-he said such good stuff too!
The school also had a slide show going of each athlete/coach when it was their turn to be presented. There were such good pictures of AJ, that I took pictures of those pictures! So, they aren't the best quality, but you get to see him high jumping:
He makes it look so effortless!
Such a baby face! :)
Receiving his first place award from his awesome coach, Berny Wagner. Berny was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, but couldn't be there due to his health. Just some track history for you: Berny coached Dick Fosbury, of the "Fosbury Flop" and Dick went on to win the gold medal in the Olympics in the 70's! Berny is a legend at WOU and AJ still goes to see him when he can. They have a great relationship!
I love him!!! (And I love this picture!)
The medal up close
The whole gang-except for AJ's brother and his wife and my brother and sister. They all wanted to be there but couldn't for various reasons (living in Texas! and other things :)
AJ and Jon
AJ and another John
AJ with another past track coach John Knight and Berny's son (who was there to accept his dad's award)
AJ with fellow track buddies Jeremy and Steven-with Steven's wife and daughter.
And the boys again

It was such an awesome evening! AJ is such a humble guy that he really wasn't telling anyone about this. Me, on the other hand, I was telling everyone! I just think it's a huge accomplishment for him and I am so proud of him! I know he gives all the glory and credit to God for giving him the strength, endurance, performance, etc. to achieve all that he's done. Congratulations to my Hall of Fame husband! Can you tell I'm a proud wife?!