Holiday Update 2010

The last three Christmases have been very, um, sparse in the ways of decorations. Levi and I were both too broke and too tired to put in any effort.
This has been the extent of our decorations:

Thank heavens for Grandma Katie! This year, with mom living with us, we have been blessed with all her decorations, plus the motivation to get some of our own and our house is looking more festive and cute than it ever has before! Thank you Mom! (These pictures don't do any justice, because our house now has little Christmas knick knacks everywhere and they are so cute. Santa door knob hangers, wreaths, bells, lights, etc. etc.)


This year we even splurged and got a tree! We didn't think a tree could fit in our little living room, but with a little feng shui we've found it fits perfectly! The smell is heavenly!



I haven't posted any pregnancy pictures on here because it's still too horrifying to me how much weight I've gained. It will be nice when the baby is born to get back on a healthier regiment and taking the baby for long walks every day. Until then, Fatface McGee will have to suffice.

Just about 22 weeks!




One more item: Having my mom here has been great for hilarious stories. Here are two of my recent favorites.
1. My mom told us a story about when she was three and she and my grandparents and her younger siblings Christie and baby Charlie went to a neighbors house for a Christmas party. She remembers Charlie was put on the bed in the other room, probably to sleep, and she got an urge to take his chubby little arm and bite it as hard as she could. She said she remembers that it felt REALLY good to bite it! Poor little Charlie woke up crying and it wasn't until later that night that my Grandma found the little bite marks on his arm. Glad to know that a little sibling rivalry hasn't stopped those two from being super close. Uncle Charlie is the best!
2. My mom's legs have been hurting lately and I suggested she use my electronic back massager on them. It worked great the first night and she was so excited she proclaimed to Levi, "Carly gave me her vibrator yesterday and it made my legs feel awesome!" Levi almost spit out his drink as I quickly explained that it was a back massager, not a vibrator......Yikes!

Well, I hope everyone is having an amazing holiday season. Only 19 more days to go!

Thanksgiving and more.

The carnage.
What an amazing Thanksgiving! Amazing food, great company and good times. The food was so good, in fact, that I can't find a single good picture of us where we don't all look sweaty and bloated. The last thing we need is another famous fatty Thanksgiving picture floating around, like the one taken in 1995. Ugh. That picture will forever live in infamy.
Anyway, Levi & I were lucky enough to enjoy two Thanksgivings. We first went to his aunt's house for the Gates' annual Thanksgiving feast, followed by a second feast at Heather's house a few hours later. Surprisingly, we weren't too full and enjoyed the food at the second dinner as much as the first. This year I took the five layered Jello-Ice Cream dish over to the Gates' family dinner and they loved it. I'm glad they could be turned on to the goodness of that Utah dish! Funeral Potatoes might be the next step :)

Levi & Sevy at the first dinner.


Before we ate at Heather's house. Isn't her house great?

After dinner, Mom, Levi, Sevy and I went to Harry Potter 7 at the Downtown Edwards. Oddly enough, the theater wasn't packed this year. We almost always go to a movie on Thanksgiving and it's usually super crowded. Must have been the crappy weather. The movie was fantastic and I can't wait for the second one to come out next summer!

At the movies.

Today Levi and I (mostly Levi) put together the baby's crib and a few other pieces. It's so fun to walk past the future nursery and see the crib. I can't believe she's going to be here in just a few (okay, four) months! We found an adorably soft baby bunny stuffed animal at Anthropology and scored another great baby outfit at Kid to Kid. I also ordered a cute pair of infant shoes on ebay and they are about the most precious things I've ever seen!





Well, I need to go lay down. Strangely enough, I find myself more tired this trimester than any point in my first trimester. What's the deal??

PS It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house and I'm so excited! This is the first time in years that I'm actually looking forward to it and want the house decorated and Frank Sinatra Christmas music playing all the time! What are your favorite Christmas songs? Mine are "O Holy Night" "What Child is This?" and "Silent Night" because I've never heard a bad version of any of them. They all make me well up with tears.

Girlie Girl.

(I think I'm gonna like shopping for a little girl! $4.99 bargain from Kid-to-Kid!)

It's official: We're having a little girl!
Yesterday we had our 20 week ultrasound which confirmed what I already knew. I never once, not even for a second, thought we were having a boy. It was so neat to see our little girl, cuddled up with her bum in the air, covering her face with her hands, looking as snug as a bug in a rug. What a little cutie!
We were lucky enough to have lots of family there with us. My mom, Levi's dad and stepmom and Heather and Eliza joined us, but unfortunately Heather and Eliza had to wait in the waiting room. I was told that up to eight people could join us in the room, so we invited everyone and it turns out they only let four people in at a time. So ridiculous and it was very frustrating to know that Heather and Eliza were probably dying of boredom in that stupid waiting room. I'm so sorry, Heather! It means the world to me that you were there and I'm sorry the doc's office screwed up!
It's been so surreal to know what we're having. Saying "she" when referring to the baby has been so exciting and I've already started window shopping for cute nursery stuff (I'm thinking a red & white theme with damask bedding...we'll see!)
I have just been smiling all day today and I can't believe how incredible this experience has been. I'm so antsy for this little girl to join us and she will be the most loved baby this world has ever seen!

Check out these cute boots Levi's stepmom already bought for her. Squeal!!

Thank You

As we approach our five month ultrasound and are about to learn what gender our wild little baby is, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I NEVER thought I'd make it this far in a pregnancy. Th idea of feeling a baby move around inside me was as much of a possibility as, say, learning to fly a UFO. In short, making it this far along is only due to the faith, prayers and positive vibes of all those who were rooting for Levi and me.
The outpouring of love we experienced when we realized we had fertility issues was unreal. I always knew that people cared about us, in the sense that family and friends always care about their loved ones, but what we felt was much more beyond that. When we were doing our fundraising with the homemade bookmarks, I had dozens of requests for them from our family and friends and we were able to pay our fertility clinic bill outright. The fact that people were so willing to help us and send a kind word our way is something our baby will know all about, we'll make sure the baby understands how many people were cheering for him/her to come to earth and join our family.
This baby being conceived after we had given up on all fertility options and stopped taking all fertility medications is, of course, hilarious, but also a testament that now is the time we have been chosen to have a little spirit join us. Levi and I couldn't even celebrate properly the first three months, we were so scared of another miscarriage, but I now see that everything happens for a reason and we are finally meant to become parents.
Thank you to everyone who ever said a kind word, included us in their prayers and offered unconditional love and support throughout our trials. It will never be forgotten and it will always be an example of hope and charity.
We love you all!!

Love,
Carly, Levi and Wild Baby Gates

Halloween, etc.

Wow, it's been a little while since I last blogged. I feel like, since everyone who reads this is on Facebook, that I end up repeating myself often. All the Halloween photos I have are photos that have already been on Facebook, so I'm not sure if it's repetitive to put them up here. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, Halloween was an absolute blast. Levi and I have always wanted to create the cannibal pumpkins that we've seen on websites so this year we buckled down, spent about $30 on pumpkins and created two of the meanest pumpkins man has ever seen!



On the night of the 30th, we hosted a Halloween party at our home. The Gates clan (Brad, Julie, Seth, Sevy, Avery and Chris) and Heather and her cute family came over and we ate chili, potato cheese soup, pumpkin muffins, cupcakes, witches' brew, sugar cookies and more. It was a nice gathering and I'm always in awe of what an amazing family I was born into and what an amazing family I married into.
We watched a scary movie that night (A Spanish horror movie called The Orphanage, perfectly creepy Hitchcockian tale) and then said goodbye to everyone and went to bed. I was worn out!


Levi was a hipster idiot. We have throngs of men who dress like this in Boise.






This fall in Boise has been beautiful. The geese are out, the leaves are changing and the weather hasn't been too bad (yet). I went to a BSU game with some of my coworkers and had a great time.



Everything with the baby has been great. I feel great, just tired sometimes, and I'm still in awe that I'm almost 4.5 months along! Our ultrasound is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and hopefully they'll be able to see what gender the little Boise spud is! I'm 99% sure it's a girl, but we'll see.
Having my mom up here has been great. We hang out on my day's off and our house just feels better having her here. She's so funny and I find everything is less stressful with her around.
Levi has been busy at work and has had plenty of honey-do projects around the house. Our house is 30 years old and is starting to show it's age. We're excited to get the backyard back to life this spring. We found a new home for Morty so we are now dogless. It's a little lonely without them, but it's the right decision.
Well, I better get moving today. The only thing we've done since waking up this morning is drive to get donuts and then surf the web. Nice day off!

Post 262

(For some reason, the spell check doesn't work on this laptop, so please forgive any gross spelling errors!)
Wow, these last couple weeks at work have been insane. We are doing more and more with less and less. I'm sure every retailer in the nation has been hit by the recession, but, man, it is exhausting to try to do the work of three people. I can only hope that the economy bounces back soon and I can find my sanity, which I think I left somewhere near the Cultural Studies section.
Other than work, things have been great. My sister Heather had a hysterectomy last Friday and has bounced back beautifully. She even came to visit me at work yesterday! The benefit of working somewhere like B&N is that people actually want to come see you at work. Anyway, Heather has done a great job following doctor's orders and I'm so excited for her to be healed and healthy!
The pregnancy is great, from what I can tell. I was feeling depressed about my clothing situation so my mom took me to Motherhood and she helped me stock up on some essentials. I got three shirts and one skirt and I finally feel ready to face the impending weight gain. This in-between stage sucks, not quite showing, but definitely looking heavier. I should have stolen the fake baby bump from Motherhood until the real one appears :)I have an appointment on Monday and then a few weeks after that we will find out the gender. So excited!
Well, I'm off to do some crosswords in the bathtub. It's the little things that make life great :)

Letters from Angels.

If you ever need your day to be a little brighter, have Sydney, Kate or Rachel send you a card. We got these gems in the mail last week and we haven't stopped laughing about them.


The bottom part reads: "P.S. We're coming up sometime this month year." My favorite part is the "I hope you have a great time without us." She's such a doll!

"Dere Grama Katie Thank you for the munee. Love Kate"




"Dere Gramo I Hope you have a gode day at Boysee. Love Sydney."


(This one was to me) "I hope you carray your baby Love Sydney"

Heather's surgery.

My dear sister Heather is going in for a hysterectomy on Friday morning. She's nervous, as we all are, but we have total confidence that she will be fine and will heal quickly.
Heather is the type of person who doesn't like to sit still for more than 20 seconds, so being down for a week or more will be a bit of a change for her. We're going to have to lock her in her room with a bunch of People magazines and a (Will Shortz-edited) crossword puzzle book. This may be the only way to keep her down :)
Heather, I know you're nervous and I know that this is a life-changing thing you're going through, but we're all here for you and we'd do anything to help you through this. You're going to be so much healthier and happier after this is all over. I love you to death and just let me know if you need anything!!
Everyone else, if you could please keep Heather in your thoughts and prayers, it would be greatly appreciated!

Go Braves!

My other favorite MLB team, the Atlanta Braves are in the post-season again, for the first time in five seasons. They previously made the post-season 14 straight times starting in 1991, so it's great to see them in October again.
This year is manager Bobby Cox's last year. For anyone unfamiliar with baseball, Bobby Cox is a legend. The man is fiercely loyal to his players and his team and holds the record for the most ejections. While he may seem like a crusty curmudgeon, he's actually a total sweetheart and every player in the MLB wishes they could play for him. I can't think of a better send-off than Bobby Cox winning one more World Series. Plus, anytime I get to see Chipper Jones play I'm a happy girl :)

Go Braves! Let's hope for a Braves/Twins World Series!
In other news, the pregnancy is going well, as far as we can tell. We have another ultrasound on Friday and until then I'll take my hardcore acne and greasy hair as a good sign. I feel like I'm fourteen years old again. I might have to go buy some Clearasil!
We've been having lots of fun with Mom here. On my days off we run errands together and then when Levi gets home we all usually eat some yummy food and hang out until she sneaks off into her nunnery room. Louie the cat thinks she is his new soul mate. He likes to give her massages and whisper sweet-nothings into her ear.


I'll update again after our ultrasound on Friday. We have Levi's dad's birthday on Saturday, as well as his cousin's wedding, which Levi is officiating. This reverend gig is becoming a regular gig for him! He even gets to be suited and booted in a tux this time. Mee-yow!

Mrs. Clean, Mrs. Clean.

Nothing like walking into a room and seeing this! Ha!! She's so funny.

Life and whatnot.

Today I got to hear our baby's heartbeat on the Doppler and it was a healthy 160 beats/minute. Our next ultrasound appointment is in two weeks. Right now the baby is the size of a kidney bean and I, luckily, haven't felt morning sick in over three weeks. Besides the fact that I'm eating like a horse and have lost all semblance of a waistline, things have been surprisingly unsurprising.
Now that I've almost made it to the second trimester, we can start thinking of fun things like baby names and nursery stuff. We have lots of boy's hand-me-downs, so for financial purposes, it'd be great to have a boy :) The problem is boys names. We don't have a single boys name that we both like...at least this early on. Hopefully we can come up with something by the time the baby is due!
Life with Mom is great. We've been eating amazing dinners with her and the house has never looked/smelled cleaner. She's so much fun and I love driving around with her and running errands. It couldn't have worked out more perfectly.
Tomorrow is the BSU/Oregon State game and ESPN Gameday will be in Boise, broadcasting from the Smurf Turf. I'm sure I'll see a few familiar faces in the crowd. The entire population of Boise turns into giddy teenagers for BSU football. It's so awesome to see.
We're still working on finding Mr. Morty a new home and we have one prospect that would be awesome if it worked out. We'll keep our fingers crossed! Oliver has now decided he's only an outdoor cat and he prefers to have his food on our front porch. I think he thinks he's rough and tough now and his fat belly is even a little slimmer. We're losing him to the world! Ha ha. Actually, he's such a little turd we don't mind having him gone from the house at all.
We're also still working on finding a new dining room table. I have my feelers out on craigslist and I'm hoping something will turn up. As long as we have a table by the Halloween party, I'll be happy.
Well, I'm off to eat some shortbread cookies!

Buster's New Home.

Our little (read: huge) Basset Hound Buster has a new home. We figured out that with my mom living here and with a baby on the way, the house is just too small for all these animals. We still need to find a home for Morty, but we knew that would take longer and we're prepared to find him the right home.
Buster is going to live with the best family in the world! Another Gates family! Levi's cousin Jason married a wonderful woman named Janice a few years ago and they are animal lovers with a beautiful home and lots of land in Ontario, Oregon. She has two other dogs, a beagle named Mr. Baggz and a Golden Retriever named Sarge. Apparently Buster is doing quite well there and has blended into the dog hierarchy, which makes me so happy.

Buster and his new BESTEST friend Mr. Baggz, with Sarge looking on.

Buster and Janice. I think he's already forgotten us, with such a wonderful new mom!

Speaking of Janice, she is going to be coming up in the news in the next couple of weeks. in October 2007, her son Sgt. Joshua Brennan was killed in Afghanistan during a Taliban ambush. The details of the attack were published in the Sebastian Junger book War, which is an amazing book, if you haven't checked it out. Levi and I, along with all the other Gates, went to the funeral and I remember thinking how grateful I was that Janice, who is the most supporting, loving mother in the world, had a body that she could bury. Well now the man, the hero, that saved Josh's body from being dragged away by the Taliban is receiving the Medal of Honor from President Obama, the first living soldier to receive it since the Vietnam War. Here is a beautiful clip that explains exactly what happened and why he is such a hero.

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There are no words that explain the pride I feel for my country when I hear about men like Sgt. Salvatore Giunta. The pain that Janice went through was lessened by the actions of Sgt. Giunta and for that the Gates family is forever in his debt.
Janice will be interviewed by 60 minutes in the next couple of weeks and she'll be flying to DC to watch the ceremony. I am so happy for her and I want everyone to know what a wonderful example of a military mother she is. She is heavily involved in Josh's battalion brother's lives and Sarge the dog has even had litters of puppies who eventually went to these soldiers. She is such an inspiration.
Well, now we definitely know that Buster is in a great home! We'll miss him, but couldn't be happier that he's with someone as wonderful as Jason and Janice.

Mama's here!

More than a couple of times this weekend, we quoted "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", particularly this quote, which worked well with us moving Mom up to Boise.


Levi and I flew down to Utah on Thursday night, getting in pretty late due to the flight getting delayed. Thankfully, Scott and Laurie and Bonnie had helped my mom a TON before we even arrived and all my mom's stuff was packed neat and tidy in the garage. We simply had to pick up the U-Haul on Friday morning, load it up and then hang out for the rest of the day.
Of course with all the time on our hands, we had to make the obligatory trips to Brick Oven and Ikea. Both are a staple for us when we visit! Brick Oven was fabulous and we found an amazing new chair at Ikea. Success!
Friday night Mom said goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma Allen (absolutely heartbreaking) and Bonnie (still heartbreaking, but we know we'll be seeing her more in Boise!) Saturday morning was tough. Mom had to say goodbye to Laurie and Justin and all five kids. That was tough, but I was impressed how well the kids held it together. With the exception of a few tears from Kate and a minor meltdown from Sydney (honestly, you've never seen anything so sad in your whole life) the farewell went as well as could be.
Mom and I followed Levi, who was driving the U-Haul and the trip was very uneventful, which is always a good thing. We were so lucky that Scott and his three cute girls were already in town for Wilson's baptism, because they were able to help us get the truck unloaded in about 20 minutes. You have never seen girls work that hard! I was so impressed!
After unloading everything, we quickly got ready and met at Heather's church for little Wilson's baptism. I still can't believe that boy is old enough to be baptized. It seems like just a few weeks ago that he was wearing his striped onesies and getting excited about the "Blue Truck Guy" driving through the neighborhood (aka the garbage man.) Wilson has grown into such a fine boy, thanks to Heather and Zane being great parents. You guys are the best!
So the last two days have been spent unpacking and organizing everything. Mom's little room is all set up (I like to joke with her and call it her nun's room, since she has now downgraded to a twin-size bed.) The kitchen has been the project of today and I think decorations will be tomorrow's project. After that, it will just be the little things like painting and teaching my mom how to use the DirecTV (there are many, many remotes in the house and I think I may end up typing up instructions, since it can get super complicated.)
We are so happy to have Mom up here and I hope you all know how grateful I am for all your help and support during this time. She is super happy and we're glad to have her in our home.
Love you all!


Required trip to Brick Oven!


The idea of Grandma leaving was tough on all of the Jacobsons. We love you guys and we'll make sure she makes it down there all the time!

Mom and the Pooh Bear Ryan

As this picture was being taken, Justin took it upon himself to lighten the mood by letting out the hugest fart. It worked, and we all laughed, until the smell hit.

This was right before Sydney figured out that Grandma was actually moving to Boise and not just visiting there on a trip. Poor little girl!

Wilson and Mom at his baptism!

Mom's little bed. Her bed is comfortable and she says she loves it. Someone else likes the bed too...can you see who?? Here he is...

It's Louie! He loves Mom and he loves her bed even more.

Gearing up for fall.

I'll say it: Boise State fans are nuts! And I LOVE 'em!!
Moving here six years ago, I didn't foresee myself becoming an obsessive college football fan....but you can't help but get caught up in the BSU madness when you live two miles from the stadium. It's too much fun!! As much as I absolutely hate fall and winter, seeing the BSU craziness helps make it more fun. Thanks BSU, and I hope we have many, many more wins like tonight!
In other sporting news, I think this may be the only time that Yankees fans are cheering for the Red Sox to win (the Sox are playing the Rays, who have been nipping at the Yankees' heels all season.) Hope we can help you boys out and deliver more whoopins' like tonight's game.
Another reason I'm tolerating fall is because Halloween stuff has started to hit the stores. I love Halloween and I especially love cute Halloween books at my work. This year I'm going to have some family over to our house for a Halloween dinner and a scary movie. I already know which movie we're going to watch and it's a VERY creepy one! A couple of days ago, I was going through our DVDs and saw it and decided to watch it. Alone. On a stormy day. Bad idea! I had seen it a couple of years ago, but must have blocked it out, because it was so much scarier the second time! When Louie the cat jumped on me midway through it, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I love a good creepy (not gory) scary movie. Alfred Hitchcock was fantastic and a lot of directors these days are taking their cues from him and making suspenseful movies that actually have a plot and tell a great story. Nothing is more fun than watching my mom or Heather watch a scary movie. Getting Heather to watch "Signs" took months of coaxing, but it was well worth it to see her jump!
Our next doctor's appointment is on the 24th of this month. I called to see if I could be seen earlier, because I'm so paranoid about everything going right, and the doctor said that I could be seen as many times as I want, but the insurance wasn't going to pay for it. Blegh. Once again I'm at the mercy of the almighty insurance. Oh well. It is actually a good thing that I'm not being seen every week because I don't obsess about it and I can actually live a life in between appointments. Also, I'm really just thankful to even have insurance. I can't imagine doing all of this and paying full price for it.
The crazy dreams are still coming, just not as frequently. The other night I had a dream that we went to one of those Fetal Foto places and the picture from the ultrasound looked like a Kiddie Kandids shot and the baby was a fully formed toddler, smiling and wearing a cute headband. Very, very strange.
Well, I hope you're all having a great week. I'm going to take a bath and get in bed. Only a couple more days until we fly down to Utah to pick up my mom!

Crazy dreams.

I've heard that when you're pregnant you have the most bizzare dreams, but I feel like mine are going overboard. Three nights ago I had a dream that I was going about my business and my uterus fell out. I was so embarrassed and I was trying to disguise it while trying to figure out how to get it back inside. Honestly, I don't even know what a uterus really looks like, so I'm not sure where this dream is coming from, but it ended with Levi helping me with duct tape. CRAZY!!!
The next night I dreamed (dreamt?) that Levi and I were the sudden adoptive parents of a two month old. In the dream, we kept forgetting to feed him and we'd forget that we even had him. We went to the grocery store to get food and we ended up spending hours there, meanwhile forgetting the baby was in the cart where we had piled groceries. What is going on with this dream?? The best part was my mom appeared in the dream and told me that since we obviously weren't in love with the child, we should just find a new home for the kid (as if it was a new puppy!) She told me that it wasn't worth it to let it destroy my marriage. How funny is that??
Finally, last night I had a dream that I met with my neighbor (who in real life is as far along in her pregnancy as I am) and she told me that she found out that she was having twins and that I should get checked because, "it's going around." I immediately saw my OBGYN and she confirmed that I was having twins, but one twin was draining the other twin's strength and would eventually deplete it. WTH is that about??
In other news, we finally sold the new table and chairs that were making me sick. Success! I only lost $50 on the deal, which is perfectly fine with me, so long as they're out of the house!
Anyway, Heather and I are heading out to run errands. Hope you all have a great day!

****Leave a comment with your weirdest pregnancy dream so I don't feel like I'm crazy :)****