Naughty Baby!

Well, today was the big day for the ultrasound. We had our appointment at 7:30 this morning and I would love to tell you if we are having a girl or boy but I can't. Grrr... Someone wouldn't cooperate with the technician.
Don't get me wrong this little one was very active during the whole thing, kicking and punching most of the time. But when it was time to check between the legs he/she was camera shy. She thought she saw no boy parts but she couldn't be sure. Where have we heard that before, oh yeah, when we were pregnant with Zack. So don't go out buying any new clothes for baby yet. I guess this little one will be a mystery as well. Sorry!
He/She was also giving the tech. some trouble because the head was snuggled down by my bladder and wouldn't get off so she could take measurements of the head until after a lot of pushing, prodding and moving me around. Very uncomfortable with a full bladder!

The good news, everything looks fine. He/she, (I hate typing this) is measuring at 19 weeks like it should and weights about 11 ounces. All normal.

Candids of Zack

Figured I'd better post a few of Zack too...

Darin likes to call this Zack's chaps look. I think it looks more like a skirt. Needless to say his days of snap pants are over. :-)

I know Grandma and Grandpa Bartsch would like this package to have said, "return to sender" since their Easter gifts were in this box. A cute video will be appearing someday with this box.

Like Mother like Son. At least Zack's picture is "G"rated. :-)

I'm 16 months and Zack is 22 months in these pictures.

Think we look alike? Nah! :-)

We're Back...

...and at first we were wishing we were back in Sanibel! We flew in on Friday with rain and 46 degree temps. We left sun and upper 70's-lower 80's. We were tempted to hop on the plane next to us that was going to Orlando but we decided to stay. :-) We had a wonderful time and will definitely be going back to Sanibel.

We left this... taken on Sunday, the day we left

To enjoy this... taken from the balcony of our room. :-)


How can you not relax instantly looking out at this beautiful view? We were discussing the definition of "relaxing" on our trip though. To some of you our trip might not sound so relaxing. It might actually sound quite busy. But to us we can't sit around at a pool or a beach all day. We have to get out and see the sites. And as long as we aren't around work or have our "kids" in tow (Zack stayed with Grandma Trish and Grandpa Tom, Coko stayed at her "puppy club") we can relax.

Our first full day in Florida (Monday) we went to a Nature preserve that Molly needs to go to and I'm shocked my dad hasn't been to before. Birds, birds and more birds! Very fun to see all the varieties, multiple species of herons and pelicans, ibis', osprey, bald eagles and cormorants too. We even saw a gator swimming in the water. No worries, we were on a Tram taking a tour of the reserve when we saw the gator. We loved the experience.

Next we went to the island of Captiva where we began an unexpected trend... we became members of the "Sanibel Stoop" club. For those of you that know about Sanibel this might not be a surprise and we knew the lore of Sanibel. Sanibel and Captiva are known for shelling! These are a few pictures of the beaches we visited and you just can't help but look down as you are walking... and pick up a few shells to bring home.

I do have to say Darin started it! We thought when we went down there that there was no way we were going to get pulled into looking for shells. That was silly. Although I did bring a Ziploc bag with me just in case. But I did it more thinking we wouldn't need it. But we were sitting on the beach in Captiva and Darin dug his hands into the sand and starting pulling up all these cool shells. Well, then I started doing it and soon we had a bit of a pile going. Then walking along any beach we found ourselves looking down. We read the local tour magazine which had an identity chart and we started saying, "oh I hope we find one of those" or "that's the next one to hunt". It was quite interesting too because each of the beaches we went to (Captiva, our hotels, the lighthouse on Sanibel and another that has BEAUTIFUL sunsets) all had different types of shells not seen on the other beaches. It was very cool! The Ziploc came back used and we own a shelling net too. :-)

Tuesday was the coolest of the days, mid 60's and windy, so we went into Fort Meyers and went to the winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Edison's grounds were incredibly beautiful.

Wednesday was dolphin day! We first saw a dolphin while getting ready to leave our room. Then we went to the lighthouse beach and just walked the coast line and saw at least 4 dolphins of the beach from us and very close in. A couple of them were playing! Then back at our hotel while we were relaxing on the beach, (and looking for shells) we saw at least 4 more dolphins! It was so fun! Very hard to get a good picture though.

Wednesday night we went to a wonderful restaurant called The Mad Hatter and saw an incredible sunset. The sky had no clouds in site.

Thursday we shopped and spent part of the afternoon on the beach and then had a picnic on a beach near the Mad Hatter and witnessed another beautiful sunset.

Friday we returned home. I swear Zack has grown and had also learned a few new words including his first and middle name together, which I know means there were a few times our little angel may have been getting in trouble. Mom only used middle names when we were in trouble. But they say he was a good boy...who liked to escape from his crib a few times... Thanks again for watching him Mom and Dad! We really appreciate it!

16 Week Baby Update

So I had my 16 week Dr. Appointment last week. Everything is going well. Next month is the ULTRA SOUND! We've been asked if we are going to find out what the sex is this time. Our response is, "We're going to try!". We "found out" with Zack but the doctor told us she was 70% sure we were having a girl. Quite a bit of a shock in the delivery room! Luckily the 70% didn't give us warm fuzzies so we went neutral with the room and registry. We also had a boy's name picked out just in case. The funny thing was it took us a shorter amount of time to come up with a boy's name than it did a girls.

In regards to how I'm feeling the answer is pretty good. Still pretty tired. Hence the not blogging much. Already in maternity clothes. It's true, you do pop earlier with the second child. Sigh.... Already getting uncomfortable at night when trying to sleep. Getting more heartburn than I did with Zack. Either that or the hunger pains I thought I was having at night with Zack was actually heartburn and now I've figured that out better so hopefully I won't gain as much weight this time. OR we are going to have an ape for a baby, lots of heartburn they say equals a hairy baby. Not a surprise in our families if you've been noticing our nieces pictures. :-) All of our kids have a good crop of hair on both sides. Haven't felt the baby move yet but that is to be expected.

We'll keep you posted on anything else new when we can. Darin and I are taking our first big trip without Zack in a few weeks so I probably won't blog until after that.

Hope you are all well!

p.s. Check out the 3 Easter posts I also added today. There is also a new feature to the right. I have added a section called "Special Features". My sister Megan figured out how to organize posts by subjects. I've got videos and pictures captured to the left. This way Diane, you won't have to go searching through the blogs to find Zack's Peek-a-boo video. :-)

Happy Easter!

I know I'm a few weeks behind on this but what can I say. If you ever want up to date information you can check out my sisters' blogs (MoSchu Madness, for Molly and Trackin' the Treds' for Meg). They are very good at updating their blogs quickly. You can usually catch a glimpse of what Zack has been up to with his cousins too. :-)

We had a very busy and very odd Easter. Odd because it felt more like Christmas than it did Easter here in MN. You'll see what I mean in the Edgemont Egg Hunt photos I post next.

Our weekend began with "Easter Pizza" on Good Friday. My cousin Dan, his wife Sharis and their adorable 8 month old son Ryan were home from Chicago for Easter so we got together for lunch at my Auntie Annie and Uncle Dougs house. We had a wonderful time and it was so fun to watch the second generation of cousins interacting with each other. Here are some of my pictures.

Pictures above: 1 - Ryan Cooley, 2- Ryan & Great-Grandpa, 3- Adrienne & Great-Grandma, 4 - Zack Loves Canes

Pictured Above - 1-Ryan w/ Uncle Tim, 2- Ryan w/ Auntie Bear. Go Twins!, 4- "Money" rides w/ Auntie Meg

Pictured above - 1 - Me, Adrienne, Dan, Ryan, and Darin, 2- Second Cousins Playing Together, 3- The Brothers with Their Grandsons

Pictured Above,- 1- Riley & Uncle D, 2- Adrienne & Auntie Katie, 3- Riley's reading Ryan a story

Above, 1-Timmer and A-dee, 2- A full couch