Fiona, Kaisa & Nathan Judd

I have finally rounded the bend in my pregnancy where I feel great again.  I have (most of) my energy back and don’t feel sick anymore!  And I’m not big enough yet to feel uncomfortable.  This is the part of pregnancy where you just sit back and enjoy it.

One of the things I love the most about being pregnant is feeling the first stirrings of life within me.  It’s amazing.  I don’t really know why, but they call it “quickening.”  The other night, I told Nathan “I’m sure it’s great being a man and you really love it, but I feel sorry for you that you never get to experience feeling life inside you.  Do you ever wish you could feel that?”  He relplied, “I’m good.”  Pretty funny…I’m glad he doesn’t feel he’s missing out on anything.

Anyway, today was the first day I could really tell my baby was in there.  I’ve felt him/her a few times before, even as early as two or three weeks ago.  But today, I have felt the baby giving me little nudges and flutters almost constantly.  I wonder if it was something I ate, or if he/she is just wanting to let me know he’s/she’s there.  Either way, I love it and get a smile on my face every time it happens.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!!  On October 8th through 16th I will finally get to go to Hawaii!!!

We have been talking about going to Hawaii since before we were married.  I wanted to go for our honeymoon, but Nathan’s family was planning a trip there for Christmas the next year, so we decided to wait until then.  Well, that trip got canceled.  We were quite bummed.

After that we decided that we would just save up and go on our own.  Nathan had a bunch of flight miles from United when he was going back and forth to teach in China.  They kept sending us credit card offers and we finally realized that if we signed up for this mileage credit card and did a few other things, we would be able to accumulate enough miles for free flights to Hawaii pretty quickly.  Sure enough, by last fall we had enough!  However, since we had a new baby, we decided we would wait until she was old enough that we could leave her with Nathan’s parents.

Well, that time has finally come and we have this small window where we will be able to go before having another baby.  We were really discouraged because we are also buying a bigger home, and that is leaving us quite broke.  Luckily, my mom and dad have a timeshare and decided to go in October, so we are able to stay with them for free!!  We are going to spend 4 days in Oahu and 3 days in Kauai.  It’s going to be so wonderful!  Everything has worked out perfectly with getting the flights arranged, and I feel like this is the right time.  We are finally getting the second honeymoon we have wanted for 3 years now!

I was so excited yesterday that I even went online and bought this cute maternity swimsuit from Old Navy.  Isn’t it cute? The best part is, it was only $15!

Ok…now it’s time for your recommendations! What are the best things to do on Oahu and Kauai?  If you know of a must-see, leave a comment and let us know so we can make the most of our week in Hawaii!!

Here are some recent pics of our little toddler.  Since most of them involve Cheerios, I’ve titled this post accordingly.  Enjoy!

One morning daddy dressed Kaisa up in his Utah Blaze jersey for breakfast.  She had fun playing dress up and eating her Cheerios!

Before we could stop her, Kaisa had dumped her entire box of Fruity Cheerios all over the floor one morning.  Don’t worry…we made her help us pick them up. :)

I took this picture this morning.  This is what Kaisa’s hair looks like the morning after pigtails.  Hillarious!  Isn’t she so cute?

I have worked my butt off the past couple of days getting our house ready to list with our Realtor, Trevor.  Since Nathan has a hard time verbally expressing his appreciation for me sometimes, I’m going to do it for him.  Because I know this is what he would say if he could. :)

My wife is so amazing!  On Wednesday, she decided it was finally time to thin out our house and make it look more presentable to potential buyers.  She must have filled 20 boxes of our unused junk, pretty much by herself!  In fact, I think I’ve only done about 3.  She cleaned out things from our closet, Kaisa’s closet, the bathrooms, the kitchen, & even family photos and extra knick-knacks lying around.

As if that wasn’t enough, my amazing wife (keep in mind she’s three months pregnant) arranged to take all of this stuff over to our friend’s the Hollingshead’s, to store in their basement.  She lifted and loaded all of the boxes (some of which were very heavy) into the back of a truck! (Ok, she did have some help from the Dutson’s.)  But she did this in the hottest part of the day!  Man, she must have been pooped!  I didn’t have to lift a finger!

Then, my amazing pregnant wife spent all day Thursday cleaning the walls, doors, windows, baseboards, bathrooms, & more of our home.  She lugged a bucket full of dirty, gross water & smelly cleaner around the house and wiped everything down, from her tiptoes to her hands & knees.  By the end of this ordeal her fingers were raw & looked like little prunes!  She went through three rags!  Then she proceeded to thoroughly clean the bathrooms & vacuum the carpet, all while trying to keep a messy 15-month-old from tearing up the house.  She’s incredible.

Thanks, Fiona, for making our house look amazing. I love you!

I thought this would be fun.  I know it will probably also be a little embarrassing too! Oh well!

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don’t want to play on your blog, or if you don’t have a blog, I’ll leave my memory of you in my comments. I can’t wait to see what people remember.

While mapping a route to our camping destination I found this easter egg.

There are lots of reasons that I really like Google.  I have my job indirectly from them, they have a plethora of useful products and services, and the positive and creative impact they have on society.  But few come close to my love for their child-like observance of every holiday, even the very obscure ones.  And they do it in a myriad of different ways, not just the logo changing (remember April 1st’s Google paper?  or Virgle?).  Here’s Uncle Sam facing the direction on the street map view while I’m trying to map out directions to our camping spot.  Very Clever!  So along with Google and thousands of kindergarteners in papier-mâché something-er-others, Happy Independence Day!  Be safe and have fun!