Update

Yes I know that I have not been blogging lately. Here are the updates:

1) Danica had her 15 month appointment. She is healthy and happy. She is still making us laugh on a daily basis. She likes to dance (the ABC song on her activity table is a favorite right now). She likes to sing--but we only have a few words that we can understand (hi, bye, me). She loves to play where's Danica (hiding until we say Where's Danica).

2) Work is crazy, and so is class. I am taking two classes and helping to TA another. I love TAing and I am starting to look at opportunities to teach in a college. Wish me luck.

3) Corey wants to go to culinary school. He is planning to start this month.

I would tell you all more, but I am in a class. I know--if my students did this I would have to get after them. :)

A True Fan

Those of you that know Corey well know that he is true Miami Dolphins fan. No matter if they are having a great year (like last season) or not (like the season before)--Corey follows them. They are his favorite team.

So it isn't too surprising that Danica is starting to show signs of being a Daddy's Girl--and a Dolphin's fan.

What I wasn't able to get her to do for the camera was play Where's Danica. She was hiding behind the hat until we asked Where's Danica and then she move the hat and laugh.

Toys!

Brandy was feeling a little left out of the toy buying lately, so while Danica was sleeping we caught Brandy playing with Danica's toys:

And then Brandy found Danica's long lost binky and well--lets just say that Danica won't be using it again:
But since I know that Danica is really the star of this blog--I had to show you Danica playing with her new toys. My friend Colleen gave Danica a few things that her daughters had outgrown. By far the telephone is the favorite--is that a bad sign?

And if you look closely, you can see her bottom teeth. The top teeth have to be coming soon.
And all of us want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. We celebrated Father's Day last weekend with Grandpa Yves, Grandpa Gary, and Daddy--and had a blast. This weekend though we may make Dad breakfast when he wakes up, depending on how cooperative a teething Danica decides to be. :)

Busy Day of Fun

Yesterday was definitely a busy day of fun.

First, Danica and I went to Jen's house to get my hair cut and colored. I don't have a good picture that just shows my haircut yet--but just trust me it is great. I love it!!

Then Danica and I went to Danica's first friend's birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. She had a little bit of pizze and cake. Since it was a Cinderella party, Danica gave her friend a really cute Cinderella tea party set. And as a special surprise the birthday girl and her mom gave Danica a big pink plastic ball. Danica loves it. She loves to sit with Corey and have him tap the ball and then she tries to copy his pattern. So we hear a lot of tap-tap-tap then a lighter tap-tap---tap. But it is so cute. The only tough thing is that she is trying to use the ball to stand up.

Danica and I at her first party:


After the party we came home for a little bit. Then my sister called and told me that she was playing softball at a park in Tempe. So Corey, Danica and I went to watch her play and hang out with Delfina and Jessica. Danica had a lot of fun, but we could tell she was getting really tired so we ended up not going out to dinner with everyone.

Danica and I at the game:
Playing with cousin Jessica:
Playing with Aunt Tammy:

We got Danica into the car and about halfway home she fell fast asleep. When we got her home she barely woke up when we got her out to put her to bed. Overall her busy day tired her out.

Where Have I Been?

My aunt Shirley stopped by today and reminded me that I have not blogged in a little while--okay it has been a couple of weeks. Here is a small run down of what has been going on:

Danica got over her first cold--which included a trip to a doctor office. Maybe I should have blogged a little sooner because I think she is in the process of catching number 2. There is a cough going through her sitter's house.

Corey got over pneumonia--walking pneumonia but still he got to spend a few hours at the urgent care.

I started another class in my masters program and I am thoroughly convinced that this teacher is crazy. She seems to think that three or four assignments all due in the same week--and most of them are a group project with different groups for each. Oh--and if that isn't bad enough she is not very good at explaining exactly what she wants--just really good and saying what she doesn't want. Oh it is going to be a long 8 weeks.

Danica is pretty much out of her 3 month outfits--she is getting bigger much faster than I expected. She is also starting to eat solid foods--so far she has had rice cereal, carrots (not a favorite), pears (favorite), bananas (not a favorite), and green beans (favorite)--oh and sweet potatoes which seems to be a favorite as well.

So as you can see we have been busy over here, but I am hoping to be able to tell you more a little more often. Oh and my walking to Sweden is going well for me--the rest of my team is not so well.

What Makes Us Stronger...

The past couple of weeks have really not been anything I wanted to write about--but now that I have a little hindsight I think I can share a little of what has been going on.

First, January 20 was the first day of school. This is normally a crazy and stressful time for us in the advising office. We get the people who have instantly decided they want to go to school but can't understand why all the classes are full--umm duh! And all the people who realized they didn't listen to us before and consequently don't have a particular class they need to graduate...again I say duh! And a plethora of other issues that normally come through our doors the first day/week of school. But this first week of school was particularly stressful because the Vice Provost was coming to campus specifically to meet with our school. So I was stressing for the entire weekend--the joys of being the low (wo)man on the totem pole with whispers of layoffs.

Well the meeting happened and overall the message was good. Our school was being disestablished and our programs were being combined with the teacher education college on the west campus. In fact the west campus college was going to administer all of the teacher prep programs at ASU. But our jobs were safe (for the moment) because they still wanted a full staff to help students on this campus. hurray!

And later that day we met with our new dean and she seems to follow the same philosophy that the advising office had--that the important thing was to make sure students are helped and that the campuses should not be in competition with each other.

But my lower stress level was not meant to last long. Corey went for a jog at midnight (his favorite time to run--I know he's crazy) and was jumped by three or four guys who wanted his ipod. So we got to meet the police at midnight and go to the hospital at midnight and all that fun stuff. Yes he is okay, but the experience in general left a bad taste in our mouths.

And then if that was not enough stress for just over a week period. ASU announced that in order to deal with the budget cuts that the state is requesting of the university all paid employees have to take a 10-15 day unpaid furlough. I fall into the category of 12 days. Luckily they are letting us spread it out--do a day or two a week between now and June 23. But still essentially it is a pay cut. And there is no promise that June 23 or thereabouts we won't get another message about the furloughs we need to take for the next fiscal year. If you live in Arizona and agree that higher education is important (or even if you just want to make sure I have a job), contact your representative and tell them that you don't want them to cut higher education funding as much as they are proposing.

And since I thought pictures were worth a thousand words--here are pictures of what the students put up on campus to show their feelings about the budget cuts. They had this up the day that the Vice Provost came to campus to talk to our school--and she actually said that she thought it was a great statement.

And just so you know, Danica is doing very well. She is sitting in her bouncy chair right now laughing at me. :)

Picture Day

Wednesday Corey and I took Danica for another set of pictures (since our last session had some trouble). Here are some of the pictures that we loved:

Me and my cuddle bug :)

Look how little her hand is :)

The family :)

And the reason we closed up--she was a little tired of taking pictures. :)

Day 3 (belated) with more pictures

Danica spend the majority of her time under ultraviolet lights in order to fight the jaundice. So the pictures I got were all from the special care nursery. It was the hardest thing in the world to see her in there and not have her in the hospital room so we could hold her and look at her whenever we wanted. But we both agreed that the only way we were going to get her home with us was to let her be under those lights as much as possible. So we were very strong and kept the feeding times to 30 minutes so we could get her back under the lights as much as possible. But we did take a few pictures--we looked at them during the times we couldn't be with her. :)

The thing that makes me smile about these pictures is that Corey was still trying to convince me that Danica was not going to have him wrapped around her little finger--but honestly you look at these pictures and you know Corey is a goner. :)

Introduction

Danica Mabel Bouchard was born on October 22, 2008 at 8:17 in the morning. She was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long.

And we have been telling everyone that she was delivered by FedEx. Corey had to drive me to the hospital in the FedEx truck because the contractions started coming while he was still working--and he wasn't going to have time to get back to the terminal and drive home.


And she has so much hair--that is the first thing that everyone notices when they meet her.

Here is one of her first pictures--Corey took some pictures as soon as they moved her to the warmer and started cleaning her up.

This seems to be one of her favorite things to do--put her hand in her face. We have been commenting that we have so many ultrasound pictures where she had her hand in her face in the exact same way. :)
Corey took this picture when I first got to hold Danica. Isn't she beautiful?
And this is Corey's favorite thing to do with Danica--hold her. When he is in the room she spends very little time in the crib. He can get her to quiet down and sleep quicker than anyone. And I am pretty sure she has him wrapped around her finger. :)

Waiting Game

I have to say that today I was really hoping to be busy--really busy--you know in the hospital. But alas as of 5:45 pm it does not appear to be our day. So instead Corey and I did a little bit of walking and took a couple of pictures. I guess this way we will always remember what we looked like the day we thought we would be having a baby. Of course I am not sure how I feel about the picture of me by myself--I feel like I am as big as the house behind me. Maybe thats why I don't have many belly pictures to show. :)

But I have another doctor's appointment on Monday, so I guess we will see what new information that brings. :)

Week of Good News For Corey

In case you didn't know--Corey is a huge Miami Dolphins fan. He has followed them since he was like 5 probably younger. He thinks Dan Marino is the most wonderful football player ever--or at least in the top 5. And to top this off--he despises the Patriots. With a passion he hopes they lose each and every week so he doesn't have to hear about them being a dynasty or wonderful or whatever. So this week started off fabulously for him--the Dolphins demolished the Patriots (38 to 13 in case you missed it). So Corey has proudly been wearing this hat all week.

Now in this photo you may also notice that Corey is wearing a new uniform. Corey has officially left Corrections. He wanted something safer and preferably closer to home now that Danica is coming soon. Today he officially finished his training--and got this certificate to prove it.

And starting on Monday he will be delivering packages for

He couldn't be happier. And that wraps up this segment of a week of good news for Corey.

Thank You to the Grandpas-to-be

Corey's dad and my dad each gave us the money to get a great gift for Danica--her infant car seat and stroller. So now we can take Danica home from the hospital!! Which is a good thing considering that she is due in just over a month. But it doesn't seem like she is doing much towards moving into a head down position--I swear her head is still invading my rib cage. But I will have more info tomorrow after my appointment. For tonight, look at her cute car seat and stroller that Corey got to put together on his day off. Wasn't he lucky?

Isn't she lovely...isn't she beautiful

Corey and I went to my ultrasound appointment on Thursday--we would have posted pictures earlier but our scanner was not behaving so Corey had to get it working first.

Danica is very healthy. She is practicing breathing. Her heart, brain, stomache and kidneys all look healthy. And as you can see from this picture her spine looks good too:
The person told us her placenta is in a good location and that her umblical cord looks very healthy as well. She was very thorough which was wonderful.

They took her measurements--she is currently 4 pounds 14 ounces. They expect that she will be between 7 and 8 pounds when she is born. And we could see that she has hair on the ultrasound (this is very exciting for me since I was the baby who didn't have hair until I was like 2 years old). But Danica has so much hair we could see a curl in the ultrasound--unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that.

We also got to see a great view of one of her feet--and we were even able to count her toes. It was so much fun but we didn't get a picture of that. We did get another very cute picture of her profile. Ahh we are in love.

Danica was also a lot more cooperative for this ultrasound--she was looking up instead of at my spine. And this ultrasound person asked our permission to practice using the 3D ultrasound machine since she was new to this office and not quite used to the setup. So we got to get a couple more 3D pictures--and these show that Danica probably has Corey's nose. And that she is the cutest baby we have ever seen.


Corey also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time--and his face lit up. I don't think he was quite expecting it to be as neat as it was.

The only downside was that Danica was full breech--so I wasn't making it up when I said her head was invading my rib cage. She still has a couple of weeks to start moving to a head down position before they really start worrying. But if she doesn't the doctor went over the possiblity of c-section. So we are hoping she is more cooperative and starts moving around.

Yum

I don't have any pictures but I had to share that Corey has become quite the chef during his time off from work. Tuesday night he made a yummy cajin rice with andouille sausage. Last night I came home to the biggest hamburgers you have ever seen filled with bacon, chorizo, sauteed onions, and cheese. They seriously were huge. But they were also seriously yummy. And tonight I get to look forward to chicken that Corey saw on the food network--the person called it Polish Chicken which peeked Corey's interest (he is half Polish). So I will have to update everyone on the yumminess of dinner tonight.

Corey's ahh moment

Corey got to have his second ahh moments related to Danica--the very first was the ultrasound pictures. But last night he got to feel the baby move for the first time. And you could totally see his face light up and a smile spread across his face. He was in love. :) I honestly think if it were possible he would have kept his hand on my stomach for the entire night he would have done it--but really I have to sleep.

But I thought everyone would like to know that Corey had an ahh moment last night--and he is totally smitten with Danica. :)

It's Like Christmas in July...well except for the heat

I am usually much better at telling all of you about the cute and adorable things that my wonderful Aunt Shirley has gotten or made for the baby--that's the Christmas part. But I am not going to lie--this heat is a killer so every night after work and dinner I am pretty much done for the day. So my blogging has been a little lax lately. But today I am catching up--thanks in part to a day off from work and getting my back popped by my doctor. I feel as good as new.

So now I will tell you all about the Christmas part. My wonderful Aunt Shirley made me--well more specifically she made Danica--two new receiving blankets. They are so cute--one has hearts and if you don't know I love hearts and one has cute little bees. So cute. And she also got Danica a couple of outfits to wear. And she was so excited about the ruffles on the back that I took two pictures so you could see the cute fronts--and the rufflely backs. And she also got Danica a pair of Pooh socks. So now Danica officially has the first clothing items that will match the theme of her room. I am so excited.

Also in all the fun of playing hooky from work today, I got to pick up another part of the decor for Danica's room. Today she got the blanket that goes with her bedroom set and the mobile. Now I would share pictures of the mobile but the company did not put a picture on the box--bad marketing--and I don't really want to open it until we get the crib. But as soon as we do--you all we get to see more pictures. And the best part of the blanket is that it is incredibly soft--at least I thought it was the best part. Corey and my dad just seemed to look at me like I was crazy when I was all excited about how soft the blanket was--hmm maybe boys just don't get as excited about fluffy and soft pink things?

So that has been my--well more correctly Danica's--Christmas in July. Has anyone else gotten to have Christmas in July?

The Ban Has Been Lifted

I just realized how long it has been since I wrote anything. Work has been crazy--the new buildings are finished and we are going to be temporarily relocated the beginning of next week. So my office mates and I had to have everything set up so we could work from a temporary offices. Not a lot of fun.

But I thought I would write today to let everyone know that my ban on chinese food--the one that was started primarily because the mere thought of chinese food made me nauseous--has been lifted. At least for today. Corey was thrilled because we were able to go to Mongolian BBQ for the first time in almost six months--for the record this is one of Corey's favorite restuarants that happened to open a location by our house, so Corey was not thrilled not to be able to eat at it.

We met Corey's mom and stepdad for lunch. And Corey's mom gave the baby a few more gifts that she had made--including a very cute matching hat, sweater and booties. :)

She also gave us Corey's baby spoon for safe keeping. You can't really see it well in this picture but it is engraved and very cute--oops I almost said pretty but I don't think Corey would like that. So I think between this spoon and the baby doll I have that my Granny Johnson made for me, Danica will have some very special items in her room. :)

After Much Ado

Yes I have read the comments from different cousins asking for pictures of me pregnant. But I have also been bouncing between "man I am getting fat" and "umm I am not sure anyone will believe I am really like 5 and a half months pregnant." Neither of these thoughts made me want to run out and take pictures.

But today I finally broke down and took pictures--okay only one picture but still it is a picture. In part this picture are to show everyone the first step we took towards turning our spare room into our baby's room. Corey had a license plate made with the baby's name on it--I guess that is one advantage to working in a prison?

So enjoy the picture and enjoy the cute sign on her door. Hopefully very soon we will be able to share more pictures of the plans we have for her room.

random updates and ramblings

First--my doctor changed his ultrasound days, so my original appointment to get my first ultrasound had to be moved. So instead of Thursday, June 19th, Corey and I will hopefully find if we are having a boy or a girl on Friday, June 13th. I have to say I find it ironic that we are hoping to find out what our Halloween baby is on Friday the 13. Does anyone think that is a bad

sign? hehe. I put a poll up asking what everyone thinks we are having--Corey's idea. :)One of my favorite things to do as a pampering activity is to go get a pedicure. And usually this event is not worthy of blogging, but for some reason Brandy decided that she did not like this particular color--can cats even see colors? Anyway she has been attacking my toes everytime she sees them. So much for flip flops around the house.

An old friend of mine (and the son of one of my dad's best friends) graduated this week from medical school. So we got to go to Pinnacle Peak Patio for the big party. We had a blast--and other then the fact they made us wait forever for them to start serving (at least forever according to me)--the food was wonderful. It was one of the best, most tender steaks I have had in a long time.

Corey and I also went out on a date Saturday night--thanks to suggestions from many of my friends who keep telling me it's much harder to do that after the baby is born. We had a nice dinner at Brush Fire Grill--a small restuarant right by our house. Then we went to Cold Stone Creamery to enjoy a discount as part of ASU appreciation weekend. I have to love that the founder of Cold Stone is an ASU alumni. :)

What's In A Name?

Corey told me to tell you all about what our wonderful (yes there is sarcasm in that) kitty did last night. And as I was trying to figure out what to write I realized that maybe we need to think of changing Brandy's name. I am thinking maybe Tornado-Kitty, since last night she went through the house like a tornado. I got up at like midnight (one of the wonderful side effects of pregnancy) to find many of the chairs pushed away from the table because Brandy--I mean TK for short--had run at them so fast so she could jump on them and claw the upholstery that she literally pushed them away from the table. Wonderful--I am just glad she didn't actually topple one over in all of her excitement.

Then I stepped on something that almost cut my foot. Huh? She had also hit our shelved lamp and knocked one of our knick-knacks off its shelf. It was broken all over the floor. Yep that is definitely what I want to deal with at midnight.

So I get that kind-of cleaned up, enough so I can go lay down again. Then I hear something in the kitchen. Brandy--no I mean TK--had gotten on the counter (something she really doesn't do often and knows better than to do usually) and knocked one of the small cutting boards and cups off of the counter (there may have been more but I was a little tired by this time.

So I had to clean up the broken cup and get the other stuff off the floor before I finally got to go to sleep. At which point she decided to jump on the bed to snuggle up with me. Okay I won't change her name, Brandy somehow just fits. But I could definitely do without another night where she decides to dismantle the house.