Tacoma Half Marathon and Couples Baby Shower!

Garrett, Kyle, and Kelsey decided to run the Tacoma Half Marathon this year. We could't find Kelsey at the starting line. But they found each other after a few miles.
Where's Kyle?
Here I AM!

Looks like he still has a lot of energy!

Let's see what he looks like at the end of 13.1 miles!

YAH! All smiles at the end after they finished!
Trisha and I got our exercise in too! We had to walk 3 blocks uphill to the starting line, then walk 3 blocks back downhill to the car. It was tiring driving 9 blocks to the finish line, waiting in a warm cafe for an hour, then walking a block to the finish line. Even though the weather wasn't as nice and sunny as it could've been, we all enjoyed ourselves!

We were blessed by our WA/Hawaii family with a couple's shower. Here's just some of our cute decorations! Zoe made the very creative diaper cake! Cute huh!

Our favorite kind of cake! Chocolate with cream cheese frosting! YUMMY! One of the games we played was boys vs girls drinking sparkling apple cider from a bottle. It was hilarious!

I beat Garrett and we didn't cheat by cutting our bottle nipples, so it took us awhile.

But everyone after us was smarter, so they sucked the juice out in a very short time! It practically just drained out into their mouths! Here's Joy and Kyle racing each other. By the way, the girls beat the boys. :) Garrett is demonstrating the portagee way of swaddling a baby. Nah, he's getting ready for another game.

The girls were blind folded and had to feed the boys pudding. We had a good method of shoveling, but I guess I missed Garrett's mouth a little. :)

The boys were all good sport; they didn't even ask questions or grumble...just played along with the girls and all our silly and fun games!

Words can't express how truly blessed we are to have friends up here that have become our family. Our nursery is now overstocked with gifts and love from them all. Thank you Marina and Chester for hosting our shower! Thank you also to Ranelle, Mark, Joy, Trisha, Kyle, Zoe, Deb, and Kelsey who helped plan a fantastic, memorable day. Baby Yamada is already so spoiled!

Baby room curtains and pregnant Garr

Wow, I've remembered to do another post in May, within a week of the last one! Let's hope I can keep this up!

Since we've been doing small projects to the baby's room, I decided to get new curtains. I wanted darker curtains to help keep the light out, with intentions that it will help baby sleep better. Well, they were so plain...until today! Found these polka dot panels at Target, so I cut them in half and sewed them over the dark curtains. Apparently, Lisa was trying to tell me to do it this way, but I didn't understand. Then, as I was playing around trying to decide how to sew them together, this bright idea came to me! Low and behold, it was the same idea Lisa had been trying to explain. I guess great minds think alike, but not at the same rate. :)

They match the blue and brown theme we're trying to create. Plus, I love polka dots!
Here's also a pic of Garrett pretending to be pregos with Sporty. At first Sport was scared and didn't move. Then Kyle was teasing him from the outside with treats and Sport went crazy! It was so funny!

7 months BIG!

Ooops, I'm supposed to be keeping up with this blog, but I guess once a month is my quota. We haven't been that busy, but here's what we've been up to.

I am now 28+ weeks along, or about 7 months. I feel HUGE! Garrett wanted to take the picture outside, since it's one of the few nice spring days we've had. Plus, he wanted to show off his gorgeously mowed green lawn. He loves to just stare at it. No really...he looks out the window at least 5 times a day and comments on how nice his yard is compared to the neighbors.

Pregnancy has continued to go very well. I unfortunately had to take a 3 hour diabetes glucose test a few weeks ago, which consisted of fasting for 12 hours, drinking a VERY sugary drink, then having blood drawn on the hour for 3 hours. It was not fun, especially since I'm not like Lisa and enjoy needles or giving blood. The tech double poked me every time because she couldn't find my vein. Agh. Happy to report that it was all worth it and no gestational diabetes for me!

No cravings. Garrett has had more cravings, like food in general. Current weight gain is about 15 pounds, which luckily has been all belly and boobs. Garrett calls my belly a "torpedo" since it just sticks straight out.

In the last couple of weeks we've been preparing the baby room. We put together the crib and bookcase last weekend and painted the dresser.

Garrett already has a collection of Transformers started for baby. The deal was that he could get a new Transformer if I didn't meet my exercise goal for that week. You can tell I haven't been exercising. Also, baby has a nice collection of books thanks to all his loving aunties and uncles in Hawaii. I've been starting to read to baby, but I need to have Garrett practice too!

Sporty has been getting used to the word "baby". We try to pretend we're holding a baby as much as we can remember to get him used to seeing and hearing it. This green doggy stuffed toy is his favorite! He carries it all around the house and will do anything for it.

Lastly, Pika the bunny has been enjoying a lot of outside sunshine. The other weekend we were outside working on the yard and had her loose. Well, Sport usually keeps an eye on her to make sure she doesn't run away. But, she snuck under our fence and had a brief encounter with the "real world". She quickly came back; guess she figured she had it made here.

Prom 2008

For the past 2 years, we've enjoyed our annual "Prom", courtesy of our friend Trisha. Yes, you may be wondering, "prom, aren't you a little old for prom?" Well, it's our crazy and fun adult version that started when Trisha first moved up here and lived by a lake. So, the first prom was "Prom by the Lake" and we had to find the cheapest prom dress we could. Joy was the first annual prom queen.

Then last year, the prom theme was getting accessories from those little coin vending machine you see at the grocery store or in the mall. The catch was you had to wear anything you paid for. You'd be surprised at what $.25-$1 will get you! I was prom queen last year, (thank you very much) after we picked cards with different accessory names, and whoever had that type of accessory was left standing. I think these ridiculous false teeth I got were the winner. Til this day,we still glance at those vending machines and see what kind of "cool" stuff we can get. It's addicting!

Ok, so moving on to this year, the prom theme was to decorate slippers. Simple, yet fun. We each had a number and voted on the prom winner. Trisha's cousin's slippers won. They're the green ones on the right side with the tulips, daffodils, and grass coming up from them. Creative, huh!

Well, I thought it was simple a theme this year. Took Garrett DAYS and numerous trips to both Walmart and Target to decide what he wanted to do.

He finally decided on making it look like an airplane, or have "wings". He was reminiscing about how he used to wear his slippers on his hands during recess in elementary school 'cause "he tought would make him run faster." Yes, he's my baby's daddy...

I kept mine simple...decided to share the news of a baby boy arriving in a few months!

As usual, we always have way too much food to eat. We decided the stairs was a nice place to relax.

Finally, a baby update. We are 25+ weeks already (6 months)! I'm getting very anxious and nervous about the birth. Things are going great, except for a nagging cough I'm trying to fight off. Gained a total of 12 lbs already, which is normal. No cravings to report. The belly is starting to get in the way more; putting dishes away up in the cupboard and leaning over counters is getting hard. I can still see my feet, though! My students are also very excited to see me grow and are very respectful- they don't touch my tummy at all! :)

Darin and Erin's visit!

Our good friends,Darin and Erin, came to visit us and we spent Easter weekend showing them around Seattle. Thought it would be nice to show them UW's cherry blossoms.

Then we went to the Pacific Science Center and had fun being a kid!
Finally, had a great dinner at the Crab Pot on the Seattle waterfront. Darin, Erin, and I shared that large pile of seafood you see in the middle of the table. However, it was too much for the girls and Darin was the big eater of the night!
Thank you for such a great weekend! Erin fell in love with Sporty and we had to check her bags before she left to make sure she didn't sneak him in!

Quick trip home for Marina and Chester's wedding

Geez, time is really flying by! I told myself I was going to try to update this blog weekly. Not happening. We were fortunate to be able to go home for Marina and Chester's wedding in the middle of the month. Flew standby to Oahu in first class! It was awesome! Didn't have to wait in line to use the bathroom...which was a great thing since the flight was extra long (6.5 hours because of head winds) and I'm pregnant.

Decorating the reception area on Friday

Decorating the ceremony on Saturday. We spent less than an hour in the sun, but got BURNT! That's how haole we are! AGH. At least we have a little bit of color now.

Chaz boy (Kasey and Mark's baby) is 5 months now and we got to "practice"!

Isn't he cute!

Yamada family picture

Meet the Patocs!

Garrett stayed home a few days more than I did this trip. It's usually the opposite, so I was really jealous and not happy. A weekend trip home is not enough and just a tease. He spent more time with all the cuzins and their babies.

I love this pic! Chaz boy and Callie meeting

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New Car!

As we plan and prepare for the arrival of baby, we decided it wasn't practical to keep our beloved truck. Garrett was eager a few weeks ago to go look at used Highlanders; I wasn't. But, we ended up trading in the truck and getting a new 2008 Highlander! We love it! We still miss our trucky, but we know we were going to have to get rid of it sooner or later. Garrett just didn't realize it would be so soon!