Happy Birthday, Rufus!

Happy 6th Birthday, Ru Ru! Hope you enjoyed your double cheese burger!

Bowser's Halloween

Pumpkin

Chicken

Squirrel

Football

Exhausted

Bowser had a busy Halloween trying on all of his costumes this year! He loves this time of year, if you can't tell by his face... but all of the excitement makes him one tired pup!

Hawkeye Football!

I know this post is a little late since the pictures are from about a month ago, but B and I are having a great time cheering on the Hawkeyes this year (if only they could have pulled off the Northwestern game...). Sorry, Nick, but I don't think we are coming to Cali for the Rose Bowl after all.

Doesn't the stadium look cool though with the black and gold?!

Ben's New Job!

Benny got a promotion at Alberhasky Eye Clinic! He will be taking on more responsibility with running the eye clinic from the business side. This means he will be handling the payroll, employee schedules and the development of the new lens lab. He is excited for this new opportunity and I couldn't be prouder! Yay, B!

Bump Watch - Week 25

How far along: 25 weeks

Size of the baby: 13.5 inches long; 1.5 lbs. (about the size of a rutabaga)

Gender: Still a boy!

Movement: He is moving a lot more throughout the day, but mostly when there is music on or when I am laying down.

Total weight gain: I think about 15 lbs.

Maternity clothes: I have officially outgrown my normal jeans and am wearing maternity jeans and leggings. Still wearing a few of my normal shirts.

Sleep: Having a harder time getting comfortable, especially now that I have to lay on my side.

What I miss: Being able to easily bend over and put my shoes on.

Cravings: Sweets and carbs. I've moved on from cereal and apples.

Symptoms: My belly is tight and my ligaments are stretching and a little painful.

Best moment of the week: The baby kicked super hard one night this week for about a half an hour when Ben was home, moving my whole stomach...Ben got a good laugh out of it. I swore I was going to have bruises. :)

Week 20 - Baby bump

Week 19

We had our 19 3/7 week appointment on October 6th. We are happy to report all things looked great on the ultrasound! And...we are having a boy! We are so excited and had to share the news right away with our mothers at the hospital. They were surprised to open their blue cards and so happy! During this appointment, the baby weighed right around 12 oz. The ultrasound tech said the baby was about the size of a pop can. He was a real performer as well. He barely stopped flipping around to get the measurements. He even mooned the tech during her measurements! Sounds like we might have our hands full! :)

Week 18 (last week)

Head to rump, the baby is about 5 1/2 inches long and weighs almost 7 ounces. It has been busy moving around and I have started to feel little fluttery movements every day, especially if there is music around or lots of people talking. I think we either have a dancer on our hands or a very social butterfly. Only one more week until our next midwife appointment! Can't wait!

Happy Anniversary + a few weeks

We recently celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on September 12. We were so busy that weekend with working (me) and the Iowa State/Iowa football game (Iowa wins again!) that we decided not to celebrate until Monday evening. We went to a new restaurant in town called the Chef's Kitchen. It is a very nice French restaurant and it...was...AMAZING! We even got mini chocolate chip cookies for our second dessert...mmm...my fav!

Waiting at home for us was our top tier from our wedding cake (actually a remake of our top tier). What a better way to celebrate your one year than with 3 desserts and a good cake-in-the-face smashing! Sorry, I forgot to take pics of that one.

We have had a great and busy first year of marriage and can't wait to see what this next year brings... Maybe another trip to Hawaii... :)

California Love

Casey, B and I traveled to California in August to visit the ol' Nicky-poo. While we were there, we were able to visit with a few of my high school girl friends for dinner and a beach day!

We visited the Santa Monica Pier and all of Santa Monica and Venice Beach

We ate at a great sushi place...

The rolls were enormous!

Nick is a goof!

We went to a Dodger's game. Our seats had a great view...

Sweet, Nick.

We had a ton of fun hanging out, eating, playing shuffle board, eating, going to the beach, eating and did I mention eating? Thanks, Nick, for letting us stay for a week! We're coming back soon!

The Big Debate

We are debating whether to find out what gender our baby is at our next ultrasound. Before we decide. I just wanted to get your opinion on what you think we are having! Vote on the poll above!

Graduation

Me with one of my professors

YAY! The day finally arrived! I graduated with my Master of Science in Nursing degree in July! I can't believe I am done!

Graduation was great! My parents, Casey, B and my aunts and uncle came to cheer me on! Afterwards we went to a great lunch in downtown IC.

It's hard to believe I won't be attending classes or clinicals ever again, but believe me, I think I can cope. :) Now I just need to move on to studying for my Family Nurse Practitioner boards in October and start looking for a job!

*Boards are tentatively scheduled for October 8th. I have been studying my patoot off so hopefully I will feel prepared going into the test.

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day started off like any other day, except that I had not been feeling well for the last week or so. Just being funny, I thought I would take a pregnancy test and guess what? It was positive!! I was so excited and nervous I showed B the test right away. We were in complete shock!

Thankfully now, the shock has almost completely worn off with the bloating and nausea and has been replaced with pure joy and excitement! We are currently now 18 weeks along and I feel great! I just wear out easily and love naps!

We have already had a few appointments with the Midwifery group at UIHC and have had two ultrasounds that all looked fine and we passed our initial genetic screenings with flying colors. I am doing great! I have not gained that much weight yet and the midwives want me to start packing on a pound a week. Whew! It is a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. Actually, I think I am struggling with that assignment because I feel like all I do is eat and I just haven't gained more than a few pounds through the whole pregnancy. We have our next appointment at the beginning of October, so I guess we'll see how I do...

My belly bump is just starting to show, but it's enough that my jeans feel too tight when I sit down. So...I either just unbutton them or wear stretchy pants. My mom took me to get some maternity jeans this last weekend and talk about depressing. There are absolutely no cute 20-something maternity clothes in the IC area. I don't understand this, but it's true. So we walked away with one pair of pants and the plan to just order online as I need clothes.

Gone Fishing...

In June, shortly after B finished with coaching the West High soccer team for the summer, he and his dad packed up and went to Canada for a week of Man-cation, full of fishing and boating. While someday I would like to be a part of this trip, I am glad I missed out on all of the rain and cold weather they experienced this year. I guess that kind of weather makes for good fishing though as they caught tons of 'em this year. Unfortunately for me, they released most and ate the rest. They had a great time though and I'm glad B has been able to make this a yearly event with his dad!

B's dad

Their cabin

That looks like a small one...

B's A Soccer Coach!

B accepted a position to coach the JV squad at West High this last spring. This has been a dream of his for a long time, so was super excited to start! His team was a misfit team of boys from all grades, but they did a great job and had a great season!

Part of B's job was to be one of the assistant coaches to the Varsity squad. He stayed busy with all of their games and practices, but it paid off in the end. The team had an undefeated season and won the state championships! It was awesome to watch!

He is planning on continuing with the JV team this season as well! I can't wait to watch more games and see how the team does during this re-building year!

We're Back!

Hello all! After a long hiatus, we are back to blogging.

Why the long break after barely starting? Well...we've been busy! And Bowser has been lazy! But we're back at it and thought I would start by catching you up on all that has been going on in the Tweet world. So bare with me as we travel back to this last summer.

Should we? Relax... We didn't.

I have been in a debate with myself now for a few weeks. After my cousin's little girl got a hamster for Christmas, I decided I want one too. Not only for me, but so it can entertain Bowser by running on it's wheel while we are gone. Poor Buzz is so bored during the day... I convinced Ben to go to Petland today to check them out and see what kind of cages are out there. We found some really cute, really tiny dwarf hamsters that I could barely leave the store without, but I did. I am so tempted to go back and scoop one up now, but I want to know what you all think so please fill out my survey at the top of the page!

Our First Blog

Hi everyone! Ben and I have made it our New Year's resolution to stay more in contact with the people we love. So far we are struggling with our busy schedules, but we really enjoy reading and catching up with our friends through their blogs. For this reason, we have decided to try our hand at it. Yay for our first official post!