Megan had her first road trip this weekend. My parents bought a house in LaPine and we made our first visit this weekend to help move them in. She was a real trooper in the car, sleeping pretty much the whole way there and back.

We had her 2 month well child check today. She has a cold and happened to be running a fever today as well so they couldn't give her her 2 month shots. We'll have to go back next week once she is feeling better. She has grown so much. She is 13 lbs 8 ounces and 22.9 inches long. The nurse was amazed at how big she is getting.

House in LaPine:


While we were in LaPine the little girl needed a bath so she got one in the kitchen sink. It's so hard being a little baby!



I think I'm going to be posting a lot of bath pics because I think she is so freaking cute when she's all wet and chubby!

Okay, one last picture. Our friends Jay and Alia had their second baby on December 1st. His name is Henley and he was born at 8 lbs 12 ounces. Megan was 8 lbs 13 ounces so we were really excited to compare their size to see how much Megan has grown. Here is one of the pictures. Henley's big brother Campbell snuck into the picture too.

Megan is 8 Weeks old today!!

Megan with Santa!

Here are some better bathtime pictures. She doesn't look nearly so terrorized.

The last 6 weeks have gone by pretty fast. Even though we have had a stint of what seemed to be colic (also seems to be going away....knock on wood). Megan is getting so big. We have friends that just had a baby one ounce less than Megan at birth. We can't wait to see him so that we can see just how MUCH she has grown. She had her first real smile on 11/26. She was set in Great Grandpa Wyland's lap and she just smiled. The next day she woke up a really happy girl and was smiling at her mom like she knew how to do it all along. Now we can usually get one or two out of her on command.

We took her to see Santa today and we got a really good picture of her. We bought a CD thinking that we'd be able to take the picture to get more copies of it and post it on here but I think we got jipped. It doesn't seem to be it's intention at all. Just a way for you to spend more money on personalized mugs, etc. So...if I ever get around to it, I'll scan the picture and post it here. In the meantime, here is our Santa baby.....

Bathtime at 3:00 in the morning because someone didn't want to sleep.

Always missing a sock.

Megan is officially one month old. I weighed her last night and she is 11 pounds. She is just starting to outgrow her newborn clothes but still swims in the next size up. She definitely is keeping us busy....and awake. She has crying episodes in the middle of the night and I think I've chalked it up to her just fighting sleep. Sometimes it's gas but I think she already just doesn't want to miss anything and tries really hard to just NOT fall asleep. I wonder what it's going to be like when she is 4 and really doesn't want to miss any excitement. We'll see. But no matter how tired she makes me at night or how frustrated I get, when we wake up in the morning and I see her face for the first time I forget all of that and I just remember how much I love her again!

Pictures from Grandma's House

Mommy and Megan - One Month Old!

Grandpa and Teresa's Visit

Our Little Angel

After all of the waiting, she has arrived! My water broke on Sunday night at about 7:30. It was a little shocking but exciting. I had spent a couple of hours walking around the pumpkin patch with Kathy, Glen and Lesly. I was hoping it might send me into labor but didn't think it really would! After about 19 hours of labor (4 of which being pushing) she was born. She decided that face up was her way to exit so it made it a little more difficult of a delivery. She was born with quite the alien looking head and a bruise the size of a baseball. Within a day though the shape had returned to normal and she looked just great. The doctors say because of the bruise, she got jaundice and we have been treating her with light therapy since the morning of the day we left the hospital. She is getting better day by day.

I also had some complications in the delivery. Once she was out I guess I lost quite a bit of blood and the doctor worked to stop it as fast as he could. He was great though, during the whole thing, none of us knew how serious it was or could have been. He was very composed and professional and just did what he needed to do. The night before we left the hospital, they gave me a blood transfusion and it has helped immensely in getting my energy back up to be able to take care of Megan.

Josh has been absolutely wonderful. He was a great partner to have while I was in labor and he has been great ever since too. I knew he would be. He is totally in love with his daughter and she in love with him. It is so precious to see them together. He is already showing that he will be a wonderful daddy.

Thanks to everyone that came to visit us in the hospital and sent their well wishes.

Megan Amanda!

8 lbs 13 oz. 20 1/4 inches

All Finished!!

9 MONTHS!!!

Before - Kitchen


After - Kitchen, minus the fridge


Before - Living Room


After - Living Room


This is what Megan's room looked like before we painted. Look at the posts below for after pictures. Notice how dirty the walls are?

Before - Bathroom

After - Bathroom


Not sure if I mentioned it in my previous posts but the whole house was white. Well, it was painted white with brown dirt just about everywhere. Our paint job really made the house feel like a home, it's much warmer not to mention cleaner after all of the scrubbing, mopping and carpet cleaning. We were really surprised by the way the previous owners left it. They didn't even bother to vacuum before they left.

Josh putting Megan's crib together

9 Months and counting...............


We are at 37 weeks, counting down to 40. She is definitely growing out of her current living arrangement. Surely she'll get fed up of her tight quarters and want to come out soon. I finished working on Saturday and it has been wonderful. I'm not nearly as achy and sore as I have been. It was really wearing on me the last month. Now I'm just sitting and waiting.

As you could see from Stacy's pictures, we had a great baby shower on September 10th. There were so many people here, more than we expected. It was so nice to see everyone and especially for the people that made the long drives. You know, cause Cornelius is on the other end of the planet! Megan's room was practically overflowing with all of her presents. Thank you to all for coming!

Baby Shower Photos




Uploaded by Auntie Stacy

We are finally in our house! Well, we have the keys. We have been working all weekend to get it ready for us to move in this weekend. We have painted the entire interior, done A LOT of cleaning and thanks to all of the people that volunteered their time, we got a ton done in a very small amount of time. Now we are finishing up the odds and ends projects. It has been especially exciting watching Megan's room come together. Josh put the final touches up today and tomorrow I will finish the last painting that needs to be done and then it will be baby ready! I've been taking a lot of pictures of the progress that I will be posting soon.

We have our 8 month check up on Friday!!

A picture of the VanValkenburg home.

A new picture of Kristie and Megan.

Well, everything is going well with our house! Josh and I have been having fun finding things to furnish it with and making all sorts of plans. I still haven't had a chance to take a picture of it but hopefully soon. I feel bad because we are planning to paint the whole interior of the house but according to just about everyone, I shouldn't be a part of it. That leaves Josh a lot of work. So anyone interested in forming a work party the weekend of August 25-27, let us know! He could really use some help. I'm going to talk to my doctor about it though and see what my limitations really are. I'd really like to be able to help him since it's really all because of me that we are painting most of it.

We have decided on a name for our little girl finally. Her name is Megan Amanda VanValkenburg!! We are eagerly awaiting her arrival. It's not that I'm sick of being pregnant but I just can't wait to hold her in my arms. She is moving so much, it's almost like she's here already and I'm already having trouble sleeping so now we just need her!

We registered for our baby shower last week at Babies R Us. It was quite overwhelming. You never realize how much stuff you'll really need until you go through that process. Of course there are a lot of things there that would be nice to have but not a necessity.

Next week we will go in for the 7 month check up. It will be a little overdue because of my work schedule but it will be fine. They are going to give me the test for gestational diabetes then. I'm sure everything will be okay though. I'll keep everyone posted.

Well, we had the home inspection and everything is basically okay.
There are no red flags on the house so Josh and I are continuing the process. It still has to appraise okay but we aren't really worried about that. I haven't been able to take a picture of the house but will do so as soon as possible.









We just got back on Friday from camping at Tillicum Beach with the Rickett's. It was a lot of fun and the weather was good for the most part. I've never camped on the coast. Our campsite was right on the beach, well, just a short walk downhill to the beach. We could hear the waves splashing all night, very soothing. And of course....the dogs....they loved it.

I'm attaching some pictures of the trip, along with the latest belly shot. 6 months down!