Weekend in Muscatine, IA

The baby cake Alane made me; I forgot to post it last week.

This past weekend Ethan and I were fortunate enough to spend the weekend with family in Iowa. Ethan's mom, Debbie, rode with us and we stopped in Iowa City to see Erin (my sister in law) and have dinner at HuHot. We left Debbie there for the weekend and continued on to Muscatine to stay with my cousin Katie (and her hubby Shane) Struckman. Katie is due about three weeks after me, so we had a lot to catch up on! On Saturday Ethan had to do some research work at U of I so Katie and I relaxed most of the day. We did find time to do some baby clothes shopping though :). Sunday we headed back to pick Debbie up and have lunch at IHOP before heading back to Omaha.

Katie has a dog named Bella so she and Nima spent some time playing and sleeping. They didn't quite know what to do with each other, but they were fun to watch.

Updates on the pregnancy front...nothing extremely new (you will notice in the picture that I am continuing to grow). I went to the clinic last week for some sinus issues and a rash and according to their scale I have now gained ~7 lbs. This evening after walking at the gym I was sitting on the couch and the baby was moving non-stop. At first I could just feel it, but when I looked down, my whole belly was moving and so was my belly-button. I read that at this point the baby is about 7-9 inches (about half the birth length) and about one pound. We have our ultrasound next Thursday and I'm really excited!! Although we are not going to find out what we're having, I'm excited to see that everything is ok in there, God willing.

Anyhoo, below I posted a few photos.

Happy Easter!

Our hosts, Shane, Katie, 'lil bean', and Bella Struckman (we love you!)

Our "little girls" playing. They were fighting over Nima's squeaker toy.

Later that afternoon...sleeping. Nima took over the recliner for a while.

Cousins sharing some love...we have always been a close family.

The belly bumps (isn't mine growing?)! I promise I am not poking it out.

I couldn't resist buying these two onesies and booties. Besides a beanie, they are the first baby clothes I have bought. It's hard to find 'unisex' items. The orange one has a giraffe on the butt too. So cute! And the booties are so tiny...Ethan said if I have a 10 lb. baby they won't fit :).