39 weeks, 6 days

I am 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced as of my appointment last night. I will try to post some last big belly shots this weekend!

39 weeks

Just wanted to update with a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. John went cross country skiing at Kelly Canyon which is just East of town. The yummy coconut cake was from Valentines Day and the picture in front of the crib is the most recent one from last night.

38 weeks, 5 days

Dilated to 3cm. Everything is ready to go, we're just patiently waiting!

37 weeks, 3 days

Not much to report from the Doctors visit today. Dilated 1-2 cm, gained 3 pounds. Uff. Everything looks great.

36 weeks, 6 days

Things are coming right along here. I think we have most everything ready for the little guy to get here. We are just patiently waiting. We feel pretty prepared! I'm getting ready to have my body back to myself and have that little one on the outside to hold onto! We can't wait to see what he looks like. Grandma Trish is planning to come out for the birth and wishes that he would just tell us when he would be here! Not much else new to report but I will keep you all updated as I'm going to the doctor once a week now.

Week 34

Well, we made it through John's 32nd birthday. We celebrated with a nice home made dinner of stuffed chicken breasts and wine (for him). That is the fake stuff in my wine glass, I just wanted to pretend. We got out the good dinner plates and lit some candles. It was a nice evening. John and his nephew Josh spent a weekend snowboarding at Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee. I'm thinking they had a GREAT time. John has just signed up for a race in June called the Wasatch Back. He is on a team of 12 and it is a relay race from Logan, UT to Park City, UT and then over to Salt Lake City. He's excited to get training and has been running a lot lately. Our birthing class has been going well and we are so grateful for it. It's really making us feel prepared for labor! We've been getting the baby's room all set up and are really anxious to meet him! I'm feeling great most days but get tired easily. Starting to feel ready to get rid of this belly!

31 Weeks

I've been a bad girl. Slacking on the blog, I know. We had a fabulous Christmas in Michigan and spent lot's of time with our families. We're getting excited to meet our little man! We've been spending most of our time getting things ready for the baby's arrival. We made a trip to Portland to visit friends for Thanksgiving and had a blast. We can't wait to do it again. I'm starting classes next week and should be done with my temp job by the end of January and will wait after the boy comes to find something else. Things are going well with Johns job, they are keeping him busy. He's gotten out to snowboard once and I think he's going to go up to Jackson Hole this weekend with his nephew Josh. We started taking a birthing class called The Bradley Method on natural child birth. I'm going to give it a shot with no medications and lot's of coaching from John. Should be interesting! That's all our news for now, I'll try to keep posting more often. Look for a new blog to come out soon as we no longer live in Alaska and the new one will be more centered around the baby because he is much more interesting than us.

22 weeks

I've just been feeling a bit on the larger side these days so I thought I would add some more pictures. My belly pic was taken this morning and the Ultrasound pics were from this past Thursday.

Snake River

The Snake River runs through downtown Idaho Falls. There is a nice paved walkway on both sides for hand in hand strolling.

Pics from the last Month

Most of these are from the drive between Fairbanks and Idaho Falls.

another picture

We finally got this scanned into the computer. It's from back in September before we left Alaska. We hopefully will have another Ultrasound done soon and will post that one also!

Settling in...

We have arrived safely in Idaho Falls! Have had beautiful sunny weather and even a bit of snow in the last week. John started work last week and seems to be settling in and enjoying his new job. I'll let him post more about that. I'm on the job hunt and plan to unpack our few remaining things. It's been a whirlwind two weeks. Around 4800 miles driven and a flight from SLC to DTW in there. Thanks to those who helped out with the packing and unpacking of the truck! Rachel, John, Jeff, Mom you guys were a tremendous help! So were our new neighbors who helped unload our entire truck when we got here and Mom and I hardly lifted a finger. Nice guys! It feels good to have all of our belongings in one place and actually some space to move around in. I will take the camera out this week with me and post some photos of town so you can all get an idea of what the city looks like. We would love some visitors this Winter! We have a spare bedroom all made up for someone just like you!
On the baby front, in case you haven't heard yet, It's a BOY! We are just so excited about it! I've been feeling some twinges but not sure if they are really baby movements or not. As you can see my belly is growing fast! We are at 19 weeks, almost the halfway point and are waiting patiently until the day when we can meet this little guy!

White Bird, Idaho and a visit from my parents...

I spent a couple weeks down in Idaho on a fire assignment. The Poe Cabin Fire to be specific. It was 110 degrees just about every day and I was fortunate enough to have a seat in the GIS trailor with air conditioning and a prime view overlooking the Salmon River. I was stuck behind a computer for most of the assignment, but I did get a chance to fly in a helicopter on four palm-infrared flights over the entire fire area (including Hells Canyon). I'll post a few pics on the flickr site.

My/Our parents and sisters family came up for a visit this past week. We shared most of their marathon tour of Girdwood, Hope, Seward, Homer, Anchorage, Talkeetna, Fairbanks, Chena Hotsprings and Denali. A few of the highlights that we were involved in were riding the air tram up over Turnagain Arm in Girdwood, watching the grizzlies wrestle at the wildlife sancuary, hiking up to Exit Glacier, soaking it up at the hotsprings while a bull moose wondered around a few feet from us, and watching the sun burn the clouds away from Mount McKinley as our bus crawled through the park. Of course, it wouldn't have been complete without my nephew (and the rest of us) panning for gold at Kantishna. There should be a few of those pics posted as well.

We're approaching the end of the first trimester and it seems like every day is filled with new questions and changes. The baby has a healthy heartbeat and both of us are trying to learn as much as we can about this parenting stuff... I'm not quite sure when reality is going to truly hit both of us, but we're definitely aware that some major changes are going to be taking place VERY soon.

12 weeks

So here's an updated belly shot. There is definitely something in there!

well, well

Most of you already know by now that I'm 8 weeks pregnant! We were very surprised because we didn't think it could possibly happen so soon! I don't have a doctor's appointment for another 3 weeks yet. I'm feeling well for the most part. I seem to be tired a lot and nauseous on and off all day. Not much of an appetie for anything which you all know is strange for me! I love all food! I'm keeping it all down though thankfully. I plan on adding pics of the belly every few weeks so you all can keep track of how the baby is growing! Not much to show yet except my normal pudge. We took a few pics the night we found out which I'll include. Hope you all are doing well and I promise to try to update often on here!

Wedding

We had the absolute best day of our lives!
Here are some pics to share!
http://picasaweb.google.com/traciehutchison/WeddingStuff

trip to Girdwood

We took a road trip down to Girdwood / Alyeska resort last weekend. They had record snow in December so there was still plenty left to board on. The bottom was a bit slushy but the top was nice. It was Spring Carnival weekend so there were events going on all weekend. We caught the dummy races on saturday where people made dummy's on ski's or sleds to go downhill. Most of them bit it at the jump but a few actually made it all the way down. Sunday there was the slush cup where folks dress up in costume and race down into some icky slushy water and see who get's the furthest. We missed these shenanigans though as we left early Sunday morning. The drive back to Fairbanks was AMAZING. It was a beautiful clear day and the views of Denali were breathtaking. We stopped off in Talkeetna for some lunch at a cool little pizza place. It was a great weekend! As usual, most of the pics are posted at our flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hutchison/

countdown

Well, the official wedding countdown is nearing. John and I both spent a little time in Michigan in March and it's been confirmed that we miss our friends and family. Most of the wedding prep is done, we are just getting anxious for it all to happen! I posted some pics on our flickr site from my trip home.

It's getting warm in Alaska, in the 50's most days now. Sunrise at 6 something and sunset I think around 10. It was still light out when we went to sleep last night. It's great to want to be outside! We are going down to Girdwood, which is an hour South of Anchorage this weekend. Hoping to get some last of the season snowboarding in. I think they've got some Spring Carnival going on. Should be fun!

The work day is winding down and i'm outta here!

Oh, the pic is from my last night in Ann Arbor when the gang hit the photobooth at Babs.

Christmas Morning

Well, we've survived the holidays as we hope you did too. The shoppers have been annoying as ever but hopefully the parking lot's will recede. It's been a busy week of eating sweets and hanging out with coworkers. One of John's coworkers had a solstice party on Thursday. That is the shortest day of the year. We gathered for a FANTASTIC fireworks display and a bonfire. The fireworks really blew us away. Last night we went over to one of my coworkers homes for a HUGE dinner. I'm not even sure I'm going to cook today because I'm still stuffed. It's bright and early Christmas morning and I'm wide awake because I forgot to turn off the alarm. Hoping to get a nap in later. Santa was good to us this year as he is every year. We are looking forward to a day of rest and skiing and maybe a movie. Hope everyone has a great Christmas! We miss you!

holiday weekend

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We went over to a co-worker's house and had dinner. It was nice to have people to share the day with. John and I both worked on Friday and now we're relaxing, getting ready to run some errands, and waiting for the next football game to start. I'll update more with some new pics soon!
tracie