Buster

Buster is the new addition to the Garner family. Jayna got a Puggle puppy over the weekend. He is really cute. He wasn't quite 8 weeks yet so he was still a bit wobbly on his feet. He was very affectionate and loved toes even if they were in your shoes! He has more of the pug face and the beagle body. The kittens were introduced but they were not liking him very much. Hobbes freaked out a bit. I really hope this is not their reaction to little Abigail. I am sure we don't have anything to worry about but little people can be scary sometimes too to animals =)

Honestly how could you say no to face like that?!

Hobbes was raring up to go. She was not quite as bold as Calvin which is a little backwards to their personality. Maybe it was Busters male testosterone that threw her off.

Buster chewing on Aunt Tina =)

We're Registered!!

We wanted to let you know that we finally had a weekend where we were able to register at both BabiesRUs www.babiesrus.com and
Target www.target.com . Enjoy our selections, and remember, spend spend spend, hehehe, jk.

A Saul Suprise!!

Christina and I were down in Bowie, MD yesterday doing some shopping for the babies room, etc. We ended up at Lowe's to pick up some cap stones for our retaining walls outside and we had a great surprise.

While we were in line, we see our good friend from Campbell come running up to us, Danielle. We knew that she just had a baby about 3 months ago, but she is tiny as a 2 by 4 now. We chatted for a little bit, got to meet her husband for the 1st time, Rob, but unfortunately we did not get to meet Anna, she was being babysat at the time.

We promised to keep in touch and to get together soon. They also have a blog if you want to check it out sometime: http://www.kukich.blogspot.com/

Bradley Method Class Vol. 2

Christina and I had our 2nd class last Sunday and boy was it a shocker. I have be warned by my friends that you will eventually watch a video on childbirth and you will see everything.

I was preparing myself for this time and hoping it would come much later, but little did we know that they decided to play us a portion of the video in this class.

We first watched a video on how to massage your pregnant wife. Let me tell you something, it was a straight porn video basically except no nudity. It was made in the early 70's, probably around the time that our youth pastor, Charlie Brown, was working at Giant. The video had the cheesy music and the two people that were in it, seemed awfully comfortable with each other. Christina and I just laughed most of the time, so it was hard for her to relax while watching it, bc she saw the faces I was making.

The next part about made me as with what Iron Maiden sang, "RUN TO THE HILLS". Our instructor is all about midwives and having the baby at home, since she did with her 2nd one. The 2nd video we saw was of women about to give birth walking around their room at the midwife clinic place practically buck-naked. At least some of the women wore a tee-shirt, but they must of forgot to put on their pants and undergarments for the video. A weird thing in the video I remember was one lady wanted to have her daughter in the room to watch her give birth to her soon-to-be brother. While the prego lady was walking around the room (let me remind you walking around naked) trying to speed up the delivery, her daughter would try and look up her mom's skirt to see if the baby was coming out, but remember the lady was not wearing any clothes.

We then saw another lady have her baby in a bath tub. You saw the head come out, she petted the babies head, then the rest just slid right down the water slide.

Our instructor was nice enough to edit out most of the labors, but she said will be see much more soon. Let me tell you I can't wait, I am going to bring popcorn next time, and a bag to puke in.

Youth are Awesome!

Today was the day the youth came to help us with laying sod and other miscellaneous stuff around the house. We had signed up to get some youth come and help us during their fund raiser/auction. We had Keith, Josh, Jordan, Daniel, Michael, Dean, and Tommy come and help us. Let me tell you, they were worth every dollar that was spent. They got most of the planned work done in less than 2 and 1/2 Hours. We had anticipated that it would take about 4-6 Hours but we were way off. They layed the sod, backfilled the retaining walls, spread top soil, put up a perimeter fence on the garden, chopped down a tree, helped the neighbors with their sod, cleaned railings, and more. There was nothing they couldn't or wouldn't do. It was really amazing and the outcome speaks for itself. Abby is going to be SO excited about having grass in the backyard she just doesn't know that yet. She and mommy are a little tired and sore though. So we might take it easy for the rest of the weekend... I think I bent down and pulled one too many weeds. =)

This is a before shot, with the patchy grass/dirt.

Joe aerated the ground Friday night so we would have some of the prep work done by the time the youth came over the help. The machine really pulled you along.

This is how the pallets of grass came when they were delivered. We went with 3 pallets this time which covered a large portion of the yard just not all of it. We were able to seed the remaining area with the help of Tommy and the youth!

This is a during picture, but it is instant gratification and change. I looks really great!

Keith was the brave soul that climbed the tree in order to tie a rope around the top which would guide the tree on where to fall. It was a rickety ladder but there were 8 guys holding it for him so he was covered.

This was everyone that helped. Our neighbors were in on the action as well because they were also doing the sod in their yard too. So we have a really nice backyard all over.

Fingers crossed this will help with the water problems! One of these days it will be able to rain and not flood our basements or wash everything away =)

Week 26/27 - Better late than never =)

I am a little late in my belly posting this week. The mornings have been hectic this week. Abby has been keeping me a wake the past few nights with acid reflux. All I have to say is she had better have some hair after all of this! They say that when you have acid reflux your baby will come out with a lot of hair... We will see if this wives tale holds true. Joe and I both didn't have a lot of hair. And I pretty much didn't need a hair cut until kindergarten!



I was so excited on Wednesday night because I went to bed at 9:30 but that was the night that I was pretty much up all night or uncomfortable with the gag reflex/acid reflux. So much for trying to get some sleep. I know that this is only preparing me for the inevitable... but come on, at least give mommy 5 hours of sleep prior to officially coming into the world ;) And the Bradley teacher has scared me away from pretty much taking tums. She said that they have aluminum in them and that aluminum is the new mercury. I guess when our parents were having kids the big scare was too much mercury and now it is too much aluminum. I read the label and couldn't find any aluminum but maybe it is found in all of those colored ingredients that get added. They were helping a little bit by the way, but I don't want to do anything that will hurt little Abby. So I will just try to eat light dinners, not shovel my food in, stay away from spicy or heavy (greasy) foods, etc. We will see how that goes for now. There are really less than 3 months left so I think I can manage that.



This morning I woke up at 4:20 because Abby decided to have a Tae Bo session inside of my belly. It was cracking me up! She was seriously either punching or kicking so fast. Normally they are slow and seem almost like stretches, but these were serious kicks. So I just laid there for the additional 10 minutes til I had to get up and just let her do her thing. She tired out pretty quickly.



There is the bump, I think I can almost call it a shelf because it literally catches all of my crumbs. I never really realized how messy of an eater I was till I get pregnant. Or else the hand to mouth coordination has gotten a little sloppy.

Peek a Boo =) She started moving when we were taking the picture but you can't really tell that yet.

Bradley Method Class

We went to our first Bradley Method Class on Sunday afternoon. I think that it will be a good experience. Our teacher is very intelligent, her personality is just not bubbly or excited, which is definitely not everyones personality. The first class was an introduction to the bradley method, went over health and nutrition, and exercise and relaxation techniques. There is only one other couple in the class with us. They are around our age and believe they are having a girl too! They seem to be a really nice couple. I was hoping to have a few more couples in the class for more interaction and questions, but it should be fine. One thing that scared Joe outside of just the class and topic in general was the fact that the teacher told us first thing that she was going to breast feed her baby if he needed to be fed during the class if necessary. So you are sitting in class trying to concentrate on what she is saying but at the same time her baby is strapped on to her. The class does promote natural childbirth, etc. but it can't wait or be worked around a 2 hour class just for the sake of the dads?! At least she has a wrap to cover but still I can understand Joe's uncomfortableness.