What a Weekend!

This has been a special weekend for the Hillins household! On Saturday, Sara's sister-in-laws Annie and Dawn hosted a wonderful baby shower for Baby H. 16 friends and family members were in attendance. We are overwhelmed by people's generosity for Baby H, he received a lot of nice things that we can't wait for him to use. A few of the highlights of the shower included two fun games, everyone writing a little note to Baby H is the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, The Places You'll Go," the yummy food including Sara's favorite red velvet cake, and the cute candy favors that Dawn made. Thanks Dawn and Annie for hosting such a special shower!

After the shower, we had a 3D/4D ultrasound done. The neat part was that both sets of parents could come. Neither had been to an ultrasound before so it was great to see their reactions to the pictures and movements of their Grandson. We're sure a few tears of happiness and amazement were shed. We determined that he looks a lot like Brian did as a baby - his nose, his chubby cheeks, his length. He was sucking his thumb when we first saw him, then he was holding his hands up to his face (a little camera shy?), but then he was a little poser. What a cutie!!! We're excited to go back in a few weeks for another ultrasound. It will be fun to see how he's changed!

Last but not least from the awesome weekend was tailgating and a Vikings win!! Brian ended up getting the Valhalla Voyager and spent most of Saturday cleaning it out (we won't tell you what specifically needed cleaning, but a big thank you to Brian for the awesome cleaning job). It was fun to have the VV out for the home opener. A little different for Sara this year, not drinking, but she's always entertained with people watching!! We'll store the VV at our house so that we can use it on Monday Night Football on Oct 5 versus the Packers then drive it back up to its storage location. We'll just have to see if it makes it to another game this year, hopefully so since it was so much fun, but we'll play it by ear!

Skol Vikings!

We are so excited for the home opener for the Vikings this Sunday. But it won't be like years past. Most of the Valhalla Voyager crew won't be tailgating due to work travels (we mean seriously, who has work in Europe for 8 weeks during football season?!?) and babies (well, this one is excusable especially when he's as cute as Sam!). So, we're modifying tailgating for the meantime and not getting the VV out of storage...for now.

Instead, we'll be tailgating out of the back of Sara's Explorer like the common folk. HA! Just kidding! Anyone who is tailgating is automatically very cool no matter the vehicle. We have a feeling we'll be the first ones up on Sunday and the rest of the crew that will be tailgating will join us when they can.

Even Randle is ready for football season!

Gopher Game

Sara's brother Jim invited us to the Gophers game today and what a day for outdoor football in the great state of Minnesota. It was 81 degrees and sunny....perfect!! His season tickets are in the corner of the end zone, 3 rows up. We were right in the action! The Gophers didn't win against Cal State, but it was still fun to be a part of the excitement! Love, love, love the new stadium!

Sara even got to meet up with two of her old high school friends during half time for a quick chat!

Baby H is 31 Weeks! Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is Baby H's 31 week birthday! Thursdays are such great days as he reaches new milestones. He is definitely going through a growth spurt as Sara can't consume enough food to keep him (and her) not hungry. Oh well, bring on the ice cream...actually muffins hit the spot more these days! Weight gain to date is 22 pounds and the doctor said between 21-27 at this point, so we're doing just fine on that front. When we went in for our 30 week appointment, Baby H was measuring right on track (30-30.5 cm). We also learned that he is about 3 pounds and 18.5 inches in length. We're just not quite sure how he fits in Sara's belly. It's so tiny, he must really be crunched up. Poor guy!

The Roslansky's have a family tradition of giving little gifts everyday for about a week before birthdays. We have implemented that at our house as well, which will be a fun tradition to continue with Baby H! When the Roslansky's came up last weekend they had a surprise - a big bag filled with gifts for Baby H, and you guessed it...we get to open one a week until he's born, which we'll do on his Thursday birthdays! What fun!!

So, an update would not be complete if we didn't mention little Randle (aka Randini the weenie dog). We were feeling guilty that he's been holed up in his kennel anytime we leave the house since his whole blinds eating episode in June. Actually, two different blinds eating episodes. We left him out on Sunday once when we went to church and once while we ran to Target and he did great! No accidents or destroyed blinds! Since he passed those tests with flying colors we decided he earned the honor of staying out of his kennel all day Monday while we were at work. BAD IDEA! Sara came home to what she thought was a house in tact...until she walked past the vertical blinds and low and behold found 5 destroyed blinds. She wasn't even mad, her heart just sank knowing that Randle (aka craphead now) would officially not be trusted to ever be out of his kennel when we're not home. It's only his fault. And thank goodness, replacement blinds were much cheaper than a whole set. This time, we're "only" out $67.

Seriously, how does a dog this small cause so much damage?

Vote for When You Think Baby H will Arrive!

We've added a voting section on the right to see when everyone thinks Baby H will make his appearance. Be sure to cast your vote!!

Also, here is a pic of the quilt Sara's Dad and Brian hung for the little guy. It looks great!

Arizona and More

We had a wonderful time in Arizona with the Hillins! It was a very relaxing trip which is just what we needed. We were glad to not have driven to Las Vegas for two days!! You can see in the picture below that we spent most of our time floating in the pool. Grandpa Hillins even bought his daughter-in-law a new raft so she could float on her back and tummy. What a treat

that was ... Sara really misses sleeping in those positions. She actually contemplated sleeping in the pool on her new raft just to enjoy it even longer! And a big thanks to Barb for the swimsuit!

You know it's a relaxing weekend when not once did Sara put on makeup! It rained one day, but that was okay because it gave us an excuse to go shopping and go to a movie. Grandma and Grandpa Hillins bought Baby H an outfit he can wear home from the hospital and also bought Sara some outfits to wear in the hospital and again at home. Next will be packing the hospital bag - fun!!

One of the other fun parts of the weekend was going through Brian's old books and toys. We came home with quite a few goodies for our little guy including old Transformer and Star Wars toys, trucks, Raggedy Andy, and a lot of Brian's favorite books including Poky Little Puppy! It will be fun to have Baby H play with his Daddy's old toys and read the same books!

Funny that we didn't get a picture of the card game that we played. As usual, Sara won by a landslide every game! It's quite funny that nobody wants to sit to the left of her when playing card games.

The last item for this post is a picture of Baby H's closet. As you can see it is pretty full of clothes already, thank goodness the closet is very large - about 10 more feet total on either side of the door openings...room for lots more stuff! But, our favorite part of his closet is the storage units. That is where bibs, blankets, socks, shoes, etc. will go.

Speaking of socks...family friends the Fox's gave Baby H the most adorable socks. Check these out!! We can't wait for Baby H to wear these. He has a different color for every day of the week pretty much!

3 Hour Glucose Results

Sara had her 3 hour glucose test this morning. Not a fun experience for someone who needs to eat breakfast shortly after waking. The process of the test went like this:
8:05 am = Blood test after fasting for 9 hours
8:10 am = Drink bottle of heavily-sugared water
9:10 am = Blood test
10:10 am = Blood test
11:10 am = Blood test

Sara's results:
8:05 am = 95 (needed to be under 110)
9:10 am = 140 (needed to be under 160)
10:10 am = 151 (needed to be under 155)
11:10 am = 157 (needed to be under 140)

So, the last reading wasn't good, but the Doctor said you can fail one of the four and still pass the test. Woo hoo!! We are very thankful for the good results. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

We're off to Scottsdale in a few hours. Looking forward to some sun and relaxation with the Hillins!

Nursery 90% Complete!

We're excited to say that the nursery is 90% done. A few odds and ends yet to get, but overall we're very happy with the way it looks so far. Here are some pics for you (just a quick note that the blue that shows up in the pics isn't what it looks like in real life. The blue here is way too bright):



We'll hang the quilt behind the chair here:

Other big happenings here include a change to the Baptism time. Sara's brother brings up a good point that IF the Vikings are in the Playoffs and they play the 11:00 game, then a 10:30 Baptism really wouldn't work all that great. So, since there is the option to have it at the 8:30 mass we'll do that one instead. Therefore, Baptism is now on Sunday, January 10 at 8:30 am. We'll plan on having a brunch at our house afterward too.

Sara had her glucose test this morning and we're sad to report that she failed. The nurse was very surprised given that Sara's measuring right on track and she's only gained 18 pounds. Usually there would have been an excessive weight gain. Sara is headed back to the Doctor on Thursday for a three-hour test. We're crossing our fingers for good results. The nurse did say that sometimes people fail the 1-hour glucose test but pass the 3-hour. Please let that be us!!

Lastly for this update is our upcoming trip to Scottsdale. We will no longer be spending part of the time in Las Vegas. It would have just been too much....flying into Phoenix at 6:30pm, driving 5 hours to Vegas so with the time change we wouldn't get in until 2:00am (the time we are used to). Then doing the same 5 hour drive back on Saturday. After thinking more about it, and having Sara come down with a cold, we decided it would be best to just spend the whole time relaxing in Scottsdale. Maybe we'll do Vegas next summer, we'll see!

Food, food, food!

What a weekend full of yummy food! Baby H is very happy! On Friday we started the weekend at a restaurant we've been wanting to go to for some time. It's called Black Sheep Pizza in downtown Minneapolis. It's amazing coal fired pizza, we'll definitely be back there again!

On Saturday we got Baby H's room put back together after the painter was here on Friday. The room looks great! Pics to come after we hang up the art work. The other big event on Saturday was heading to the Minnesota State Fair where we 1) froze (it was 60 degrees) and 2) ate too much! We indulged in cheese curds, Gizmo sandwich, bull bites, ice cream sundae from the dairy building, fries, and mini-donuts. YUM!! We hope that all of the food processes before Sara's glucose test on Tuesday morning. :)

Speaking of yummy food, we went over to Jeff and Dawn's house for dinner tonight where they prepared a wonderful meal of pork tenderloin, real mashed potatoes (what a treat), corn on the cob, and salad. It was a delicious meal but it was made even better because we finally got to catch up! We had also brought over a new recipe that Brian recently was made aware of - cake balls. Basically you make a cake, let it cool, then mix a 1/2 can of frosting in with chunks of cake so it makes like a dough-like consistency. You then form that into balls and dip them in chocolate (think peanut butter balls but cake balls). They were great, especially with some vanilla ice cream. Again, did we mention Sara's glucose test on Tuesday? Uh oh!

28 Weeks – 3rd Trimester!!!

We’ve reached another milestone. Baby H is 28 weeks today which means we have entered the third trimester – yippee! Sara continues to feel great although she has been having a lot of back and leg pain, mainly in the mornings and evenings. She doesn’t sleep very well because she prefers to sleep on her back or tummy but the books all say to sleep on her side. She’ll wake up in the middle of the night laying on her back, then is up worrying for a while that she’s cut off circulation to the baby. So she’ll flip around and after being on her side for awhile she gets painful leg cramps and hip pain. It’s a no win situation! However, she’s not really one to complain because it’s all worth it for Baby H.

Last night we finalized Baby H’s Baptism date. It’s kind of funny considering he hasn’t been born and we don’t have a name or Godparents decided, but when we first met with the priest to start the Baptism process he had mentioned that Jesus’s Baptism was in January. That resonated with us and we thought it would be neat to have Baby H’s Baptism on that date as well. So, we locked in the date. It will be January 10 during the 10:30am mass.

It’s great that we were so decisive on his Baptism because we aren’t doing so well in another area. Yep, you guessed it – red paint. Nothing is easy!! However, six (yes six!) red paints later we finally have the one that we will paint the picture frames for Baby H’s nursery. Brian will finish painting them this weekend and the painter is coming tomorrow to paint the walls blue. We should be able to post a few pictures of the almost completed nursery this weekend!

For the holiday weekend, we’re looking forward to a few days in Vegas and a few days in Scottsdale with Brian’s parents. Vegas won’t be the same with Sara pregnant (ie no clubbing at the Palms until 4am) but that’s okay, we’ll still have a fun time lounging by the pool, gambling, watching the Bellagio fountains, eating wonderful food, and enjoying one another’s company. Sara has already requested some time for dancing at Toby Keith’s I Love This Country Bar! Not sure where her love of some country music came from, but she always loves to dance!