It's official!

I think most of you know, but Markus and I are having a baby! I'm due on June 5, 2007, so we're starting to look into the types of things we'll need in order to prepare for a little one in the house. We're both excited about the news and looking forward to meeting our new son or daughter. We're not going to find out the gender of the baby; we have another ultrasound scheduled for January 2 but we just want to make sure baby is healthy. So far, everything looks great. At the first ultrasound, the heartbeat was 156 beats per minute and at my second check-up yesterday, it was 150 beats per minute. The ticker is working just fine! We'll keep you posted on baby progress as we have news to report. For now, my pants are starting to get snug, but I can still go incognito. :-) I don't expect that will last much longer, though. We're going to take photos throughout the pregnancy to track how my body changes, and though I won't release my weight, I might consider occasionally reporting how many pounds I've gained (unless it's an obscene amount!).

In other big news, Markus and I decided to take one final pre-baby trip. I think since more and more people are doing this lately, a new term has been coined: babymoon. So yes, we're taking a babymoon in February over Markus' birthday. We booked a 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise that departs from San Juan. I've always wanted to vacation in that area and take a cruise, so we decided this would be a good time. A 6 hour flight to Europe or the west coast wasn't sounding good to me, especially with the dollar conversion rates in Europe. Who wouldn't want to go somewhere warm in the winter? We'll visit some of the less traveled islands or ones that aren't on a lot of cruise routes that leave from Florida, like Tortola, St. Lucia, Grenada, Curacao, St. Maarten, Aruba and a couple others. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures, and with some luck, we'll be sporting suntans when we return.

We hosted Markus' father for his first visit to the US since he moved to Ireland. It was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with the other siblings, who we don't get to see as often as we like, and with Markus' Aunt Bea and Uncle Jerry. There were lots of family dinners and excursions and good times in general. We're hoping to see Markus' dad again soon, and were so glad that he enjoyed his visit.

Of course, we've also been getting ready for the holidays. Cards were mailed, the tree's been up since Black Friday (since we didn't get to decorate last year because of moving, I'm making up for lost time this year), and all the gifts we have are wrapped. We're not quite finished shopping, but almost. I haven't been into sweets too much lately, so I haven't decided how much Christmas baking I'm going to do. I had intended to try some new recipes, but I might hold off or just make one or two of our favorites. Besides, who needs the extra junk food at this time of year?

Oh, the last thing - today is the one year anniversary of buying our house. Our settlement was on this date last year. It's hard to believe that we've been here a year already. We're glad to be living here, despite the occasional challenges we've faced. Here's to a less challenging year two in our home!