This little piggy.....

This little piggy went, "Wee, Wee, Wee, all the way home."

Technically, this is the little piggy that didn't get any roast beef, but since Jenni made yummy roast beef sandwiches tonight for dinner, he got bumped down a toe.

I think I broke my toe yesterday. It was jumped upon twice while playing basketball last night against some anxious young men that were playing with pizza on the line.

Ouch!

P.S. No laughing at my little toe, it's just the way its always been. LOL

For all you inquiring minds...

No we are not actually going to name our son "Zippy Zap".

We DO have a name picked out for our baby boy. The name has just recently edged up on our list and has been at the top and it doesn't look like any other name is going to surpass it in the near future, but (disclaimer:) it could change at anytime if we feel impressed for one reason or another. We still have not chosen a middle name yet. We aren't holding back on telling people the name and we're not keeping it secret or anything like that - but we just simply haven't figured out the full name yet.

But the name for now that we have picked out for our son is "Preston ______ Thomas". (middle name unknown yet).

In case you want to know of where we came up with the name...

It was one night when Will and I were looking back at our family histories during FHE. My maiden name is Southworth, and my dad's family history comes from England. And the history goes back quite a ways, not quite as far as the Thomas ancestory but it does go back quite far. Anyway....we discovered that the very first Southworths came from a town in England called "Preston" in Lancershire. There is even a historic site there called the 'Southworth Manor' and they get about 60,000 visitors a year. I didn't know any of this.

So of course this all became very interesting to us and we kept researching more and more. We also learned that one of the early Southworths was killed for his religious beliefs (remember why people came to America - for religious freedom from Europe). Anyway he is buried at Westminster Abbey Church. And then one of his offsprings came to America on the 3rd ship over (the Queen Anne) and established himself in Plymouth Rock in 1637 I think it was. And thus my family comes from him. He helped establish one of the 1st churches there in Plymouth Rock. They were a religous family seeking religous freedom in the frontier of what would be America.

Anyway, we learned all of this because we thought it was odd that as far as we kept trying to go back, my Southworth family had lived in America for a very long time - whereas most of our other ancestors we can only go back 4 or 5 generations before finding their records in Scotland, England, Ireland, or Denmark, etc.

Anyway back to the name Preston. We also have had some other things come up with town, location, and things to do with it that have only further impressed upon our minds to name our son this. One of which, happened tonight - with the passing of dear Pres. Hinckley, we watched a video of his life and a good portion of it talked about his mission that he served in Preston, England and the good work he did there. And then in 1994, he went back and dedicated the Preston temple. Preston also holds one of the oldest branches of the church still operating today. It is the landing place of the 1st early missionaries of the church to England.

And also, as many different times we tried to come up with ways and reasons why the name Preston could be bad for a little kid - we just couldn't come up with any. It doesn't rhyme with anything terrible, you can't shorten it into a nasty nickname, and its just a good sturdy strong name for a boy.

Now as we have been trying to find a middle name for Preston, we have been turning to the Thomas family history. An interesting note, Will's grandma's maiden name is "England", and we have joked that wouldn't it be funny if we named him Preston England Thomas. But that is going a little too far on the Geographical side of things. So don't worry, we won't pull that one.

So anyway - just thought we'd share. Anyone from the Thomas side have any great family names that they can suggest for middle names - we're open to hear them! :)

Northwest Blues

Okay, so I know I have been in the mood for snow for so long, and we even have it in our forecast to snow this evening here in Seattle.

HOWEVER, a switch suddenly flipped earlier this week and I'm SOOOO done with winter!

I have been looking at pictures like this one above and dreaming of visiting James & Elizabeth in Hawaii. I keep seeing all of their photos of them walking around in shorts and flip-flops and being so carefree and happy....and then remember we're stuck in the NW with all the rain and cold weather for another 3 months...and I get sad. :(

I'm thinking maybe I'll decorate the baby's things in palm trees and beach stuff. Is that selfish of me? I know I'll be spending a lot of time in the "nursury" so might as well make it like a little vacation retreat right? Hahahahahaha.

Here are some more photos to help me reminisce of sunnier days..

(Will and I in Hawaii -left, and also bottom with Daniel, Dalynn, and Tessha - woohoo!)

(The other two are Will and I on our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico)

Last but not least - me relaxing in a hammock on a beach in Mexico. Ahhhhhhh. Waiter,eh hem, where is my drink with the umbrella please?

Ultrasound Pics

We finally got our 20 week ultrasound pics scanned in. NOT that anyone else cares, because these pictures are usually only ones that only a mother could love. LOL This first one is a profile shot. Notice the cute button nose, and his hand up to his forehead.

And then the next one is a cute picture of one of his feet, and below it is a head-on shot where he is looking right at us. Unfortunately in ultrasounds it usually only picks up its skeletal features - so he looks like a little Skelitor from He-Man or something. ;) Cute round belly.

For some reason the "boy" pictures missed the scanner. I gave them to my neighbor to scan in and I think she forgot those ones. Oh well! I'm sure our little guy would turn red if he knew we were showing everyone what a little man he was. ;)

Interesting!

First off, sorry for our randomness in changing our blog layout all of the time. I just can't find one that I'm 100% happy with. It will probably change again soon.

Second, Will and I were both totally surprised to find out how many people thought we were having a girl! Pretty much everyone! I was just curious why??? Is it because I like pink and so a girl would have been expected? LOL

Anyway I was just curious. Even when I called my Grandma and told her, her reaction was, "Really?? A Boy??" Hahahahaha.

We're having a...

Okay so we video-taped the ultrasound and was going to include a portion of that, but I'm a huge idiot and accidentally deleted the file from the memory chip on our camera. Argh I'm so mad right now!! Will even brought a tripod and everything and recorded the whole thing.

But anyway, we are excited to tell you what we're having though! So here is us waiting to go in for the ultrasound...


And here is where we would have posted the ultrasound video LOL ...

And here is where we tell you what we found out!...

Will said he would have been happy either way - but secretly I think he is excited to have a little boy to play with. There was no mistaking it. It's definitely a little boy. I was really surprised because I really thought we were having a girl and for the past 5 months have been having dillusions of pink in my head. So I will need a day or two to turn that around and think "boy...boy....boy" now. And we will have to for sure figure out this name thing. But we have 20 more weeks. Wish us luck! Oh - and the baby was very healthy. I'll write more in The Belly Diaries.

Fun in the Mud

I got to run my first race of the year last Saturday. It's not quite the running season, in fact it's considered the off season with all this rain. But one race prides its self on getting lots of rain: The Bridle Trails Winter Trail Running Festival.

I ran this race two years ago and I believe it was the first race I competed in that didn't take place on pavement, so in a sense it was my first trail race and looking back I haven't competed on pavement since. I love trail running.

This race also happens to be on my home turf. Bridle Trails Park is a network of about 30 miles of trails and it's located a mile or two from my work, so I usually run there during my lunch breaks.

This running festival has a few different races: A 5.2 mile, 10.4 mile, 50k pairs, 50k teams, & 50k solo. The 50k (31.2 mile) race takes place at night time, so not only are you running through the forest in the mud, but at night time with headlamps. Of course I wanted to run the 50k solo.

My personal trainer/coach (Jenni LOL) politely reminded me that I should get a physical from my doctor before running any more super long races since it had been about 5 years since my last physical. I didn't meet those requirements in time and so I ended picking between the 5 or 10 miler. I choose the 5 miler because that was the race I ran two years ago and I wanted to see if I could beat my time.



Here's the start of the race. Can you find me? LOL The race was a lot of fun and really muddy this year. I ended up beating my old time by about 45 seconds and finished in 43:24.

Here's the aftershot, mud and all.



I'm excited to try and compete in more trail running and ultramarathons this year and improve my time and see more beautiful trails. I guess I better visit that doctor first

New Song

I was practicing the piano the other night and was playing one of Bach's Prelude and Fugues, and had the idea that the Prelude would sound really awesome all spruced up. Its the first bout of creativity I've had in over a month, so it was fun.

Here is my version of Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude No. 2 from his Prelude and Fugue No.2 from the Well Tempered Clavier.

Enjoy! (I also included it as a widget on the sidebar).

5 months (20 weeks) - 1/2 way mark!

So...I've decided that I'm finally looking more pregnant than fat these days so it would be all right to take a belly shot. I will be 20 weeks on Saturday. I can't believe how much the baby has grown since my dad took pictures of Will and I at Christmas.

Anyway - So here's me!

Snow!!!!!!!!!

I'm a little excited because I've been wanting it to snow since Christmas. I finally got my wish. Here is what we woke up to this morning.

18 week Dr appt

I had my 18 week checkup yesterday. It was fun. Got to pee in a cup, get weighed, get my blood pressure taken, get blood drawn, and best part is got to listen to the baby's heartbeat again. Thankfully. I'm always afraid I did something to kill it or squish it.

I wrote more in "The Belly Diaries".

We get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl on Jan 21st! We can hardly wait. No longer will it be called "Zippy Zap"(our nickname for "it"), but it will be a HE or a SHE. And we FINALLY 99% agreed on a boy name if it is indeed a boy. We already have a girl name.

It's Payback Time

So for those of you who might not remember, a few posts ago Will wrote about our "boring weekend" and posted a lovely picture of me with a bag of ice on my head tied around with string (for a headche).

Well I thought of a way to pay him back.

I happened to get this really soft pink robe for Christmas. So did my friend Erika - except her's is white. She was telling me about how one day last week she called home and asked her hubby what he was up to, and ended up getting a confession out of him that he was lounging around in her fluffy robe because it was so soft. I thought that was pretty funny.

So last night, we weren't up to much. Just cleaning house, and stuff like that. I was putting away clothes and saw my robe, and said "Hey Will do you want to try on my new robe to feel how soft it is?" He said "Surrre." And then I said "While you're at it, you should try my fuzzy pink slippers - they match."

And on his own accord, he then went and found my fuzzy pink snow hat and put that on too. I don't know what he was doing after that because I was scurring to hurry and grab the camera before he took it all off. Funny enough, I came back in and he was checking himself out in the bathroom mirror. I think he was quite comfy actually.

All I said to make him turn around was his name, and FLASH! I got this picture.

The moments following involved a chase around the house with him trying to confiscate the camera and then I reminded him of the icepack picture he took and he was not allowed to erase this.

I told him "You look really good in pink, Will!"

Will replied, in a matter-of-fact tone, "I think I do too."

Hollywood Gossip & NFL Playoff Predictions

Yes this is Will, and yes I'm sharing juicy Hollywood gossip. This is for all you ladies that tune in here to read Jenni's fun blogs. Guys, sit tight for a second and I'll get to you in a minute with insider info for your NFL playoff brackets. Feel free to scroll down past all this Hollywood gossip if you wish.

So, ladies; Yesterday I was sitting in my office at work minding my own business, just crunching numbers, building budgets, scrutinizing all those small little details that go into building million dollar John F. Buchan homes (that's my employer). When I hear a voice down the hall ask, "HE didn't know who Jessica Simpson was?" HE, referring to the president of the company, a 60+ year old man. "So HE did an Internet search and up popped all these bikini clad pictures?" Then I heard a bunch of chuckles down the hall.

After hearing this, the mental image popped into my mind of watching our 60+ year old president of the company, searching the Internet to find out who Jessica Simpson is, this was enough to stop me in my tracks and poke my head out of my office to find out why in the world the president of our company while at work is googling "Jessica Simpson" and surfing the Internet looking at pictures of her stripped of all but the necessities of clothing.

Well, apparently he had a good excuse now that I have gotten the full story which is to follow. Mr. John Buchan is a very wealthy man. He has hobbies that only multi-millionaires have like yacht racing, etc... He likes to live nicely and in extravagant homes, for instance, he lives down the street from Bill Gates. He also has huge lavish homes splattered around the globe that would make MTV "Cribs" look like the ghetto. Most of these he has designed and built through his company, since that is his profession. From what I have seen, he doesn't like to stay in one place very long, he's always bouncing from one vacation home to the next and when he gets tired of a place, he just sells it and builds or buys a new one. Apparently, he decided to put his multi, multi, multi-million dollar "beach shack" in Cabo San Lucas on the market.

This is where Jessica Simpson comes into to place. It appears, she has just plumped down a big wad of cash to rent this "beach shack" for this upcoming 3-day weekend. This is to try the place out to see if it is something she would like to purchase. So, Jessica Simpson will be staying in my boss's Mexican retreat this weekend and might be purchasing it in the near future.

Okay, Guys, this is where you come back into the picture. Girls, stick with me, the gossip isn't over yet. Of course, Jessica wouldn't want to go spend a weekend by herself in this spacious waterfront resort-of-a-home. She'd want to take a friend along to enjoy the trip. Maybe somebody that didn't have to work this weekend, you know had the weekend off, because his team has a bye this weekend while the wild card picks battle it out. Yep, that's right Tony Romo is on the rental agreement as well.

You know what this means, bad news for the Cowboys. Tony's going to come back from his little hiatus and be hungover on love and once again screw up next week's game against the wild card winner whomever it is going to be whether it is the Giants, or Buccaneers. We all saw what happened a few weeks ago. It's doomed to be repeated, if Jessica is involved.

So Guys, if you have Dallas going anywhere in your playoff bracket, you might want to re think that. Just a heads up from an inside scoop.

Ladies, hope you enjoyed your gossip!

On a side note, don't forget to check Jenni's new pregnancy blog down below.

Update: Of course the Paparazzi was there to get the pictures.
http://www.flynetonline.com/2008/01/jessica-tonys-mexican-getaway/

Jenni's Pregnancy Blog

For anyone who is interested, I just created my very own blog to document my pregnancy. I have been wanting to write more about it, but not in Will and I's blog. So I created one just for me. And it's pink!

Here it is: http://bellydiaries.blogspot.com/

Ringing in the New Year

For New Years Eve, Will and I decided to re-create our 1st new years eve date (from 2003) and we went downtown Seattle, walked around Pike Place Market, the mall, and then ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

After a delicious dinner at CF, we headed over to the Nisbets' house and watched the 'Bourne' trilogy. This took ALL night long, and I think Will and I were the only ones that stayed awake for all of it.

The next morning, after sleeping in until about 11am, we got up and got ready to go snow-shoeing!!
Snoqualmie Pass was loaded with snow, and not to mention they also have a really fun little Family Pancake House up there by the ski resort.

So the four of us (from left to right: Erika, Aaron, me, and Will) headed out on our adventure. It didn't dawn on me until right before we left that I didn't even consider that I might not fit into my snow pants. I tried them on and sure enough, uh, they weren't going to work. So Will and I swapped snow clothes. I wore his pants and jacket, and he wore mine. LOL

For the most part, it was a lot of fun. Luckily this year the Parks & Rec service put Honeybuckets in the parking lot so we didn't have to all paint the snow yellow.

We hiked back into the forest on a little road that led into some cabins. We were passed by cross-country skiers and snowmobilers. By the time we got to the frozen lake, it was dark and we were using our headlamps. It was beautiful, quiet and majestic. Just us and the snow the mountains and the stars in the sky.

And also being that I'm 18 weeks pregnant, and this is my first pregnancy, I'm learning as I go. I was pretty excited that we were all going to do a sport that I could actually participate in! (I have been pretty sad that I can't go downhill skiing this winter). And learning I did. Note to self:

-It's never a good idea to hike that far from the Honeybuckets.
-I was completely out of breath and felt bad because Aaron & Erika were constantly having to stop and wait for us. (Sorry guys)
-I totally injured a muscle in my leg and today I can't lift it. (Darn relaxing ligaments!)
-The Family Pancake House was 10 times better after working up an even larger appetite for it. (As IF my appetite could possibly get any larger).

But anyway we had fun on the first day of 2008. We're excited for a brand new year and what it will bring.