Mystery

Ok...it's all back. Whew!

Missing Blog!

I just went to check my blog and all of my previous blog posts have disappeared...HELP!

It's a Girl!!

For those of you who don't already know...Ray and I went for our 2nd ultrasound back on February 2nd. We were so eager to find out the gender! But surprise, surprise....our little one was too modest and kept his/her legs crossed the entire time. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed. I am a big planner, and I really wanted to know if I should start planning on girl things or boy things - even though we're going with a gender neutral nursery (pale blues, yellows, and greens). After about a week of playing phone tag with my doctor's office to see if another ultrasound could be scheduled, I finally called a place in Costa Mesa that many people at work had told me about. You can go in with family and they do about a 10 minute ultrasound for $25. They don't do any diagnostic stuff - it's mainly to verify/confirm the gender.
So yesterday Ray, my mom, my sister, and I went in for the ultrasound. After checking around for a little while, the lady finally told us that she "didn't see anything hanging down between the legs." Ray wasn't convinced though and told the woman that "maybe he's just very small." Oh Ray! After a little more checking, we were told that we are having a girl!
We celebrated by going and buying some more baby books at Barnes and Noble, buying some maternity jeans at Old Navy, and walking around Babies-r-Us looking at all the fun things we'll be needing to buy. It was a little overwhelming! Then we went and had dinner at the Elephant Bar with friends and walked around The District. I think Ray's still in a bit of a shock that he's having a girl, but I know she'll have him wrapped around her finger in no time.
Now we just need to get going on the nursery, start registering, and start deciding on names. It's hard to believe little Noober will be here soon!

We'll try to post some pictures (especially of our house, Tracie) very soon!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Year of the Ox! Our Noober will be an ox and Ray just read that ox are not compatible with horses or dragons. Too bad that's what Ray and I are! Looks like we're in for some fun times with our little ox. :-)

Happy New Year!

Well, we're well under way into 2009. It was definitely hard to get back to school after the holidays, and I still haven't totally finished putting away the Christmas decorations. There's not much news to share. I'm going into my 17th week of pregnancy and feel really good, although tired. Ray is busy with the girls' polo team and once their season winds down, he'll be jumping right into swim season. No rest for coaches. We're excited to find out if Noober is a boy or a girl in just a couple of weeks. I have to call and schedule the sonogram. We're pretty convinced that it'll be a girl....but we'll see.

Other than that, we've been enjoying the NFL playoffs - even if the Chargers are out of it. :-( I don't know what I'll do after the Super Bowl - no football until August and no baseball until April. Blah! At least we can enjoy our new toy - a DVR. We finally broke down and bought one and already I've become addicted. It'll definitely be nice to have once the baby comes.

It's hard to believe that in only about 6 months, we'll have a new addition to our family. We can't wait!

Here's to a wonderful, exciting, and busy 2009!

Happy Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas 2008

Another Christmas has come and gone and Ray and I loved celebrating for the first time in our new home.

Our Christmas Tree



The week began rainy as Ray and I finished up some Christmas shopping. Luckily, Tuesday was beautiful because Ray had promised to take me to Disneyland. There's not much I can go on being pregnant, but we did go on Small World Holiday (one of my favorites) and then waited about an hour to see the Christmas parade. It was kind of sad to not have Sue there, since we've made watching the parade a sister tradition for the last several years. The plan was to stay for the fireworks, but after some dinner and hot chocolate I was just too worn out - I get way too tired way too quickly these days. We'll just have to make another trip specifically for the fireworks. I know I won't mind. :-)

Small World Holiday with Flat Stanley

Christmas Eve started off with the Hall family tradition of getting some hot chocolate from Starbucks. We usually follow that with a nice walk around the neighborhood, but since it was another rainy day, we decided to rent Mamma Mia and had a fun time singing along to the movie...or I guess I should say that I had fun singing along. That night we went over to Ray's Uncle Joseph's house where we enjoyed a HUGE meal with aunts, uncles, cousins, and little ones. It was fun getting to see a lot of Ray's family two times within the week.

Christmas morning we headed over to my parents to begin the Hall Christmas marathon. I don't know how we do it, but our Christmases end up lasting from 10 in the morning until around 5 in the evening. We had a delicious Christmas dinner - even with the turkey being cooked in the oven since it was raining...again! Being heavily hit with food coma, we all sat down to watch Wall-E. What a cute movie! I even cried, but then I seem to cry at everything these days.

Ray and I had our own Christmas the next morning and have been slowly cleaning up and getting things put away. Next year, we'll definitely have more pictures to share. I did take a picture of Noober's stocking. Since we don't know if the baby's going to be a boy or girl, we've been calling him/her Noober for fun.

The Saturday after Christmas we drove to Downey for the wedding reception of an old family friend of Ray's. Ray had fun getting to see the Holloway family and chatting with a friend from his mission.

Ray with Lee Holloway

We're looking forward to spending New Year's Eve with some friends, though I probably won't last until midnight this year. New Year's Day will be a sad one with no Michigan in a bowl game for the first time since before I was born. But I am looking forward to the Blackhawks/Redwings outdoor game at Wrigley Field!