Baby Barnhart

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Aug 27, and to our delight, we are having another BOY!! I am so happy to know that my little Ty is going to have a brother to pick on and rough-house with growing up. I can just see the two of them now out at the pond fishing or walking down to the creek with their fishing poles over their shoulders and crawdad buckets in hand. Although you don't have a name yet, Baby, please know that Mommy, Daddy and your big brother, Ty, love you very much. We can't wait to meet you!!

Ty's future wrestling partner....

Ty always had his feet crossed in his ultrasound pictures too. Two peas in a pod...

Wisconsin 2009

Aaaahhhh, good old Iron River in August, around which Justin's entire year revolves.... This year, the stars seemed to be aligning against us before we left. First of all, 2 weeks before leaving, the transmission began to act a little funny on Justin's truck. This was particularly concerning since we need to pull the boat with it, so we took it in to have it looked at. Justin thought it was just a part going out and not really a huge deal. Turns out, that particular part WAS the problem, but the mechanic said the whole transmission was not far from going out and was in desperate need of rebuilding (bear in mind, we just had it rebuilt last year). Talk about frustration!! So our options were either risk getting stranded out of town with a boat and no way to pull it OR buy a new truck. We reluctantly opted for the latter, taking into consideration the fact that this truck had 200,000 miles on it. Not what we wanted to do or particularly good timing, but what are ya gonna do, right?? So we are now the owners of a 2009 GMC Sierra quad cab (white, of course because I don't ever want to hear about how the truck doesn't match the boat).

Next, Reecie had been acting a little strangely for a week or 10 days before we were to leave. She just wasn't acting like her normal hyper self. She'd yelp for no reason, limp on a different leg every day, etc... But every time we'd think we should take her to the vet, she'd start acting fine. Finally, THE DAY we were leaving she had an absolute meltdown so we took her to the vet, only to find out she has a bad cervical disc and will have to be on steroids and strict cage rest for a month. Just what you need when you're leaving town for two weeks that very day. Sooo, we hurriedly made arrangements for Reecie to stay with Justin's mom during vacation. God bless Christy because Reecie hates that cage, as you can imagine. She seems to be doing much better now so hopefully this will get her healed up. I don't want to consider the alternative....

So, finally we headed out for WI (in our new ride) with Ty and Mom stuffed into the back seat. Turns out, Ty's really a pretty good traveler for a 1 year old. Just add that to the list of my baby's perfections. It's amazing how good of a time you can have on a vacation where to whole point is to do nothing! Two whole weeks of nothing, can you other moms out there imagine?? AND having Mammaw there the whole time for instant access to a babysitter. HEAVEN! Justin had an awesome year in the fishing department. He didn't get his ever-elusive Musky, but he came home with 4 fish to mount, thanks to Pappaw's suggestion that all 3 of the rather large largemouth he caught on the same night would look great mounted together. Not too shabby. Collin and Audrey came the first several days we were there, so Ty got to play with his cousins alot. After they left, Trista and "Shisha" (according to Ty) came up for the next several days. Ty must be just like his daddy (but how ISN'T he like his daddy) in that he thrives in the environment up there. Last year he learned to crawl while we were there. This year his verbal skills made a big jump. Don't get me wrong, he's never had problems in this area, but he started saying several new words up there including eagle (which he could properly identify, of course...everything else was just "bird"), yogurt, pappaw, ada, owen, audrey, collin, mammaw, daddy, and my personal favorite, "Mommy"! Before he always called me MomMom. I must say, there's nothing sweeter to my ears than hearing that little boy say "Mommy" and knowing he means me! Below are some highlights of the trip.

What we've been up to the past month...

The past month or so has been packed full of this and that, traveling, working, parties, and oh yeah tiling the kitchen and bathroom. Here's an overview of the month of June and first part of July.

Indy Zoo with Ty's buddy Stephen 6/4/09

My friend from optometry school, Melinda Trager, and her son, Stephen, came to the zoo with us. We had an excellent time. It was in the low 70's and sunny that day so perfect zoo weather. The boys had a good time. Ty went to the zoo once last year, but he was really too little to know that he was seeing anything out of the oridnary. This year, we saw the dolphin show, giraffe feeding, and saw an elephant get a bath. They let people come up to pet the elephant afterward, so I took Ty up to the elephant, but he wouldn't touch it...big surprise.

Birthday Weekend at Collin's 6/6/09

The weekend after Collin and I had our birthdays, we all (Justin, me, Ty, my mom, Trista and Elisha) went down to KY to Collin and Audrey's property to help lay brick for the foundation for the cabin they are building. We had a good time of just hanging out, grilling and riding 4-wheelers (of course, the guys had a few hours of hard work in the very hot weather).








Family Getaway to Gatlinburg, TN 6/10-14/09

It just so happened that in mid June I had a stretch of 5 days off in a row, so Justin and I decided to get out of town for awhile, so we took Ty to Gatlinburg. We got into town on a Wed in the early evening, so we decided we'd hit some shops near our hotel in Pigeon Forge. The weather looked fine when we packed Ty up in his stroller and headed out. We went to a few places here and there, when all the sudden Justin said, "Look at the sky..." and before we knew it we were sprinting (including jaywalking and crossing against lights like crazy) with the stroller back to the hotel in the midst of lightning and thunder galore. I was so scared because Ty was out in that. But we all made it back in one piece. The next day we went to the Dixie Stampede, and Ty was absolutely enthralled...he LOVED IT!!! We went to the Ripley's Aquarium the next day. Ty liked it OK but there were TOO MANY PEOPLE in there. We also went to the Comedy Barn that day...pretty funny. The next day we had to come home, and prepare to go back to work...yuck. Oh yeah, I forgot about our little snag (see below)...good thing Justin's very handy.

Fifth of July Cookout

Justin decided that we should have our first official function out at the property be a 4th of July cookout. Well, it got rained out...so we had it on the 5th, and it was a great time!! We had alot of people there from both of our families and we fished, played games, rode 4 wheelers and just hung out. I've decided to make it an annual tradition and re-instate the old "fish fry" that our family used to have on the 4th. I envision in the future having tons of people there from all sides of the family to eat, fish, explore the woods, play home run derby and mini golf with croquet sets and do fireworks...hope it works out like that. It sure would be nice to have a goal in Wisconsin for why we need to catch more fish...

Baby Barnhart

And now for pregnancy updates...I'm getting close to 14 weeks now, and have not really had too much in the way of nausea or morning sickness. The time for that should be over now, so I guess I'm in the clear of ever having to deal with morning sicknes...yeah. The baby is doing well. I had an ultrasound at my last dr visit and the baby measured 11w4d and heartrate was 163..everything is moving along as it should. As of now, my due date is somewhere around Jan 12, 2010. No real feeling yet on whether it's a boy or girl...should find out late next month.

baby 7 wks...

baby 11 wks..

Boys and their toys....

yummy!!!

Well, I became inspired by a friend on Facebook to start this blog. It's amazing how tech-y I've gotten in just the past few months. I guess the next thing I'm going to have to get is an updated cell phone. Mine drives Justin crazy since it has absolutely no bells and whistles. But back to the subject at hand...I have no idea if I'll actually keep up with this or if anyone will even read it, but it seems like a good way to vent, share thoughts (even if it's just with myself) and keep anyone interested updated on how things are going in the life of the Barnhart family. As you can see from my beautiful little boy here, so far the spring has been going along swimmingly (hehe). We've managed to avoid any major catastrophies so far this year (like a flooded house, knock on wood), so we'll see what the rest of the year brings. Next year, I'm sure, will be frought with setbacks and frustrations as almost all house building projects are, but I couldn't be looking forward to it more...and with a new addition to the family, it should be all the more interesting. While I'm on that topic, I had my first ultrasound today and am officially 7 wks along...got to hear a strong heartbeat, 140 bpm...can't wait to meet you, baby Wilbur #2.