Kayla's Wedding

Great Grandpa Seidler with Andrew

Family Picture

Kayla and Aaron with Andrew and Eden

The new Mr. and Mrs. Johnson

Family Time in North Dakota

Before Kayla's wedding we were able to spend some time with Micah's family. And Andrew got to meet his cousin Eden, who is three years older than him. He will also have a new girl cousin coming in October, we are excited.

First Flight

A couple of weeks ago we flew to North Dakota for Micah's sister's wedding. This first picture is of Andrew in the airport while we were waiting for our flight. We were a little worried how Andrew would do. But he ended up doing great! He slept most of the time, and ate at just the right times--take off and landing. He is already learning how to be a great jetsetter.

Daddy Turns 30

August 3rd was Micah's 30th birthday. We didn't get to do anything exciting since this has been such a crazy time right now. We did end up going to Grandma Galicic's and had a wonderful lunch.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Galicic

Andrew is the first grandchild on my side of the family, and the second one on Micah's side. My parents love being grandparents. My mom would always ask me when we were finally going to have kids. I always gave her the same answer--after we had been married for five years. And we were able to keep to our wishes. But my mom has been waiting to be a grandma and now she finally is. It is fun watching my parents with Andy. They love to hold, cuddle, and talk to him. I'm sure they are going to love spoiling him someday soon.
The second week we were home from the hospital my mom had the week off and was able to stay with me and Andy during the day. It was wonderful to have her help; and she made dinner every night for us. During the week we took Andy for a walk, gave him a bath, and packed boxes for moving. And since that week, Andy and I go over to Grandma's every Thursday after we go to Bible study. We spend the day with my mom, and it is nice because she gets to spend time with Andy and I get a nap.

Moving On Up

At our dr. appointment we found out Andy is now over 8 lbs. This means he can now move out of newborn diapers and into size 1, which is nice since size 1 are cheaper.
And 8 lbs. is the "magic" weight when he now fits into the cloth diapers we have for him. So we will switch over to doing cloth after we move. We wanted to do disposable diapers for a little while until we felt comfortable with the whole diaper changing thing. And it actually isn't as bad as we thought it would be. The only hard part about it has been when he has a blow out and gets his diaper and clothes all messy. And in the first week or two we were still learning when to change his diaper. There were a few times when we changed it a little too soon and either had to change his diaper again 5 minutes after the first change, or even worse was when he would be going while we were in the middle of changing him. But now we have a good handle on diaper changing and feel ready to go to cloth. The only thing holding us back is that we want to wait until we are settled into our new house. Speaking of which, we now have a moving day--it is this Friday, August 1st. We are so excited. We have been waiting to move for a little over a month. And we have been packing for many months. I can't wait to get moved in and unpacked. Then I will feel ready to switch to cloth.

One Month Check-up

Last Thursday we took Andrew in for his one month doctor visit. We found out he now weighs 8 lbs. 11 and one half oz. and is 20 inches long. (He was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 17 and one half inches long at birth.) We were excited to find out he had gained almost two pounds since leaving the hospital.

Fun with Andy

We are having so much fun being parents. It is fun to take Andy on walks, take naps, sit with him on the couch, and do other fun things with him.

He already likes being read to. Sometimes I just sit with him and read whatever I'm reading out loud to him. He quiets down and loves to listen. I hope he loves books as much as I do.
We are excited for when he gets old enough to interact with us more and respond to what we are doing. He is starting to seem more aware of what is going on around him. He can now track our faces when we look at him and then move from side to side. It is fun seeing him grow and learn new things.

Productive Day

I finally feel like I was able to get some things done. It is amazing how little I have been doing lately. It seems like all I do is feed Andy, hold Andy, change his diaper, put Andy to sleep and play with Andy. Don't get me wrong, I love doing all those things, but we are going to be moving in two weeks and I feel like I should be getting more done. Today was my first day all alone with Andy. I have been lucky enough to have Micah at home for two weeks and my mom helped out for one week, so this is the first week with no one else around.
Andy has been getting on a schedule and has started sleeping on his own, which means I now have time to do some of the things I have been wanting to do while he naps. This is a list of what I got done today: packed two boxes, wrote some thank you notes, watered the plants, read a couple chapters of a book, did my devotions, checked my email and wrote some blog posts. That may not sound like much, but it is by far the most I have been able to get done lately. It sure felt good to be able to be productive.

3 Weeks Old

Last Thursday Andy turned 3 weeks old. We decided it was time for him to learn to fall asleep on his own, we also thought it was time to try out the pacifier. Andy did not like sleeping alone, and always wanted to be held or sleeping on someone. It started the first night after he was born. Any time I tried to put him in the little bassinet he would whimper and then kind of cry, which meant I couldn't sleep. This continued to happen when we got home and we would try to have him sleep in his pack and play. So I kept giving in and had him sleep with us. However, it is kind of hard to sleep with a newborn baby right next to you. For one thing they make a lot of noise. So, when he turned 3 weeks we figured it was time for him to sleep in his pack and play, we needed to get some good sleep. And the first night went great. I think this was helped by us also starting to give him a pacifier to help him go to sleep. He loves to suck! At first he didn't know what to do with the pacifier, but I just kept sticking it his mouth and he finally caught on. And he was able to fall asleep in about 10 minutes and slept the whole night in his pack and play (other than the times I fed him). And now he has been sleeping in it every night since then. Whoo hoo! Now we just need to get him to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. :)

Two Weeks Old

One of our friends from our small group is a photographer and loves taking pictures. She took some of us when we were still pregnant, and now she has taken some of Andrew when he was 2 weeks old. It is fun to look at the pictures of him and see how he is growing little by little.
It is also fun to see him develop new skills. He makes the most hilarious faces. He can already smile, raise one eyebrow, make a Popeye face and many other funny faces. He gets these skills from his daddy. Micah loves making funny faces at him, it is cute to watch them together. Another skill is that he can already lift his head pretty well. When we put him on his tummy on the floor he can raise his head and hold it up. Sometimes he even turns it to the other side. This amazed us. We did not know babies could do that so soon.

A Week of Firsts

Tomorrow Andrew will be three weeks old. Hard to believe. Time is already starting to go by so fast. His first week he had a lot of firsts. We went on our first walk around the neighborhood and used our Moby wrap. He loves it. He falls asleep almost the instant we put him in it, which is great since he does not always like to go to sleep. Another first was giving him a sponge bath. He wasn't too thrilled with getting it. But since then we have given him a couple real baths and he loves it. He likes the feeling of floating we think. We also took him to his first doctor's appointment. He is doing great, and even has gained some weight. We go in again next week for his one month check up, so we will find out if he is still gaining. We think he is. He already looks bigger to us.

More Pictures!!

Okay, Since we don't quite know what our schedule will bring in regard to Blogging. We have uploaded a bunch of pictures into my Facebook Album for you to see. Just follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24757&l=c3ab7&id=519528554

Jared's Blog (he's my cousin)

My Cousin Jared posted some more pictures of our departure from the hospital on his Blog. http://jaredstorer.blogspot.com/2008/06/newest-baby-storer.html

Leaving the Hospital

We left the hospital at noon today. My cousin Jared, his wife Carmen, and their son Liam came to see us off.
It is a beautiful day here and it was wonderful for Andrew to have such a nice first time experience of the Seattle weather.
The morning was filled with doing paperwork and getting everything ready for departure. Grandma Caroline came earlier in the morning to help out too. I really think that she is just looking for more excuses to hold Andrew. (and I don't blame her). It is so wonderful being a Daddy. I now understand what other new dads have tried to explain but couldn't. I too can't explain the joy it brings to hold my son.

Andrew David Storer

Here he is. The most beautiful baby in the world.
Andrew was born at 7:30pm on June 26th 2008
7.1 lbs 17.5 inches


We will try to update as we adjust to this new blessing in our lives.

Almost There

Well, we are now in our 40th week of pregnancy. This may be the last week, or we may have a couple more weeks to go. It all depends on when Andy is ready to come meet us. Everything is still going smoothly. We went to the doctor last Thursday and she checked to see if my body is getting ready for labor. And she told us that I am dilated 2 and 1/2 centimeters! That means that I only have 7 and a half more to go. (You have to be dilated 10cm before they let you push in labor.) So that means my body is getting ready and we could go into labor anytime now. We are still bracing ourselves that Andy will come late because there are many women who walk around dilated for weeks.
This last week we also decided to have a doula (a labor coach) help us with our birth. Her name is Autumn and we met her at church. She is a doula in training and needs to get more birth hours and so she is doing our birth for free! What a blessing! And it is definatly a plus that she is a fellow Christian and will help us remember that God is with us and in control.
One of the annoying things about my pregnancy lately has been my swollen feet. With the warmer weather and Andy pressing on my veins, my feet have started to swell. Sometimes it gets worse than other times--like when I've been standing awhile, haven't had enough water to drink, or haven't been putting my feet up. I can't even fit into most of my shoes. This has made me want to be done with pregnancy and have Andy out so my feet can go back to normal.
We are looking forward to meeting Andy and seeing what he looks like. He is due to arrive this Friday, but we shall see. To help keep our minds occupied we have planned some fun things for this week while we wait: lunch at Cheesecake Factory, shopping, going to see Disney/Pixar's new movie Wall-E, and lunch at Spiro's.

Playing Catch Up

2007 turned out to be our travel year. And since we had our big Europe trip to blog about, and then our pregnancy, our other smaller trips did not make it to the blog. Until now.
In October Micah and I went to Disneyland with my parents and brother to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday. It is her favorite place, so she wanted to spend her big birthday with her best friend, Mickey. It was a great trip, and the weather was even nice for us. We always love to go to Disneyland; it is such a fun place to be. We were excited to go on the new Finding Nemo ride. And I finally got my picture taken with Cinderella, it only took over 20 years and seven trips to a Disney park. We celebrated Mom's birthday by going to dinner at the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland. It was a fun trip! And we later found out that I was four weeks pregnant while we were there.
Our other vacation was to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Micah was awarded a trip from work for being employee of the quarter. We decided to go in December for my birthday. We stayed at an all-inclusive hotel and all of our meals were paid for. It was a nice relaxing vacation, even though it never got really nice out. One day we tried to lay out on the beach, but I got too cold. Even though we couldn't soak up the sun we still enjoyed relaxing, doing some reading and eating at the great restaurants.

Teresa's Wedding

Micah's cousin, Teresa, got married this last Saturday. A series of events and complications made it so that they could not get married at the place they had planned on, but they instead had their wedding and reception at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel in downtown Seattle. It was gorgeous! We really enjoyed the reception, especially the food-it was amazing. It is one of the nicest weddings we have been to. While we were there we enjoyed visiting with family and friends. It was fun to see some people we haven't seen in a while. Teresa and Kenny looked fabulous and happy. We pray God will bless their marriage.

Busy Thursday

This last Thursday we knew was going to be busy so we made plans so that we were ready to be away from home all day. However, it turned out being very different from what we had planned. Some of our plans were canceled, which turned out to be a good thing. After my Bible study group Micah called me to tell me my friend Lyndsay was trying to get a hold of me because she was headed to the hospital. We found out she was not in labor, but was having trouble breathing. The doctors might decide to do a C-section though so she was wondering if we could watch their son Owen for the night. Micah and I went to our doctor appointment and then I dropped him off at a bus stop so he could head to our small group while I drove to Lyndsay's house to babysit Owen and take over from Michael's mom.
Watching Owen, who is seventeen months old, was good practice for us. On Thursday evening I fed Owen dinner, we played for a couple of hours and then it was time for him to go to bed. Micah came over after small group ended. We tried to go to sleep around 11pm, but I had the hardest time falling asleep. I had adrenaline pumping through me. I think I was worried about Owen and didn't want anything to go wrong. I ended up getting maybe 5 hours of sleep. In the morning we woke up, got Owen ready to meet his new brother, Jackson, and fed him breakfast. We heard from Lyndsay in the morning and found out her C-section went well and Jackson is a good, mellow baby and they were doing well. Lyndsay's mom and dad came in the morning to pick up Owen and take him to the hospital. Micah and I figured this was a good practice for what we are in for when Andy comes. And really, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Of course, a newborn will be different from a 17 month old, but it was a good learning experience.

One Month To Go

Well, we are now in our ninth month of pregnancy. Andy's due date is at the end of the month on the 27th. However, we are expecting him to come late, hopefully on July 4th! But we shall see, he will come when he's ready. We went to the doctor last week and it was the first time she checked to see if I have started to dilate. I was not surprised to find out that I am not dilated at all.
I am getting bigger and more uncomfortable. It is getting harder to sleep and change postitions while sleeping. At the end of the day the bottom of my stomach starts hurting and I sometimes hold it up the help ease the discomfort. I tell Micah that I turn into an 80 year old woman at the end of the day since it takes me longer to get up from sitting and I feel so stiff. Overall, though I feel very blessed to have had such an easy pregnancy so far. The discomfort isn't all that bad, and I figure it could be a lot worse.

My Wonderful Husband

Micah has been so helpful and great during our pregnancy (and always has been). He has been doing the dishes, helping sweep the floors when my back hurts, helping me indulge in my cravings, and even cooking dinner sometimes. A couple weeks ago I was busy all day on a Saturday, and it was the day it was 90 degrees here. I came home and Micah was making tacos for dinner, had a bouquet of roses for me along with two bags of Doritos (I have been craving them for over a month) and he said we were going to get dessert later--warm chocolate melting cake. We also stopped by Coldstone Creamery to get some quarts of ice cream with a coupon and gift card. Then we headed to Olive Garden to get our chocolate cake to go. It was fabulous and went well with some chocolate ice cream. What a nice way to end such a hot day!

Baby Showers

So far I have had two baby showers, one with family, friends and people from church and one with students I have had in the past. They have been lots of fun and we have been blessed to get most everything we need for Andy. Baby things are so cute and fun! My first shower was at my mom's house and it was hosted by my friend Lyndsay who is also expecting in June. I got some handmade blankets, lots of cute clothes and other fun baby things. The shower with my students was also nice. It was fun to see my students, especially since there were a few of them I haven't seen since last year. We had cute jungle animal cupcakes and other goodies. Andy got some great books, toys, clothes and other useful baby things. I am looking forward to moving into our new house and setting up Andy's room and getting everything organized in his nursery. Hopefully we will be moving at the end of the month (right before he comes).

Pregnant Friends

My friend Lyndsay is about three weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy. It has been fun having a close friend who is also pregnant. And she is pregnant with her second boy. She has a son, Owen, and is going to have Jack at the beginning of June. So hopefully Jack and Andy will be good friends! It has been nice to have Lyndsay to go to to ask all my pregnancy questions.
Here is a picture of us with our bellies at her baby shower a couple of weeks ago. I was 32 weeks along and Lyndsay was 35 weeks along.

Beautiful Day in Seattle

We just finished having a gorgeous weekend in Seattle. We skipped spring and went straight to summer. Friday was in the 80s, Saturday broke records at 90, and Sunday in the 70s. It was wonderful to have nice weather, although Saturday was too hot for this pregnant girl.
On Friday Micah and I went to Alki to enjoy the day. We ate fish and chips for lunch at Spud's and finished with an ice cream cone for dessert. Then we walked down to the end of the boardwalk and back (about 3 miles). It was nice to be outside and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. And Alki is a special place for us since it is somewhere we used to go rollerblading together when we were dating.

Hijacked Blogging

Halow, my nam is Inigo Montoya... Actually my name is Leo. But Inigo sounds so ominous and with this picure of myself with squinty eyes I think it fits. I have successfully hijacked Kim and Micah's laptop. When they were typing in their password, I pretended that I was wanting them to scratch my head but secretly I was writing down their login information on my "Scratch pad."

It is of my opinion that I don't get near enough face time on their blog so I am taking matters in to my own paws. I am sick and tired of all this fussing about my Mommy getting a belly and these new things in the house. I thought for sure that Kim and Micah had purchased a new bed for me and were setting it up in the guest room. It was just my size and everything. But then they get a play-pen, and all these little clothing outfits. And they have the audacity to close off the room so I can't even go in there to investigate.Their attention has been oddly transfered from me, to Kimberlee's belly which is not nearly as comfortable to lounge on. They even talk to it and whenever it moves, they get really excited. What's the big deal? I mean really, my stomach makes noises and moves too when I am hungry. All of this attention would be much better spent on me. For example, see this picture of me. Doesn't that just make you want to take a cat nap. Well, until next time I hijack the computer, I will see you later. Don't get too caught up in this whole "Baby Thing." They just grow up to be toddlers who pull hair and throw food. I on the other hand will remain very predictable - calm, cool and collected. I'm not demanding, I just need a few simple things, feed me, pet me, let me outside, let me inside, let me outside again, let me back inside, scratch my neck, scratch my back, feed me again, stir my food so it appears fresh, and give me catnip, don't forget the catnip...

Weekend to Remember

This past weekend Micah and I went on a Weekend to Remember. It is a marriage conference put on by the Christian organization Family Life. We had a fun time at the conference. Micah and I felt like we already knew a lot of the information they went over, but it was a good reminder. We also really enjoyed the projects they had us do. They gave us a few assignments that we did and then discussed as a couple. It was a good time to try to understand each other better and strengthen our marriage before we become parents. We have heard that two thirds of couples go through some marriage problems after having kids. And we know that to be good parents we first have to have a good relationship with each other. The best way we can love our kids is to love each other.
It was nice to get away for a weekend. We stayed at the Hilton in Bellevue for Friday and Saturday. On Saturday night they have a date night so Micah and I decided to go to Cheesecake Factory, one of our favorite restaurants, and then we walked in a park for a little while (that is where we took the above picture). Then we went back to the hotel to do one of the projects before heading to bed (with a fire alarm thrown in for good measure). On our date night we enjoyed talking over some of the things discussed during our conference sessions. We talked about what expectations we have about being parents and what roles we want each other to do after Andy comes. We also talked about our upcoming move and how we are going to do that.
We feel very blessed to have such a great relationship, and we know that God has helped us be a better husband and wife. Micah and I enjoy learning new things and how to become a better spouse. We came away from this weekend feeling better prepared for becoming parents, and that our marriage has been strengthened.

Tulip Fields

Micah had some days off from work this week so we decided to go up north to Skagit County to see the tulip fields. We left Wednesday afternoon after helping a friend of ours and arrived up north in the late afternoon. When we first got to Skagit County we found a place to get a map to where the tulips are. Then we stopped at the first tulip field we found. I love the tulips, they are so beautiful with all the colors spread out like a big carpet! We walked around the field and tried to take pictures with our digital camera, and then found out our memory card had gone bad so we could not take any pictures with our camera. It was a big bummer! All those pretty tulips and no good pictures. :( Thankfully we both have cell phones that have cameras, so we were at least able to take some pictures. They just aren't the best quality. We spent an hour walking around the field enjoying the beauty of the tulips.
After our time at the field we drove around and looked at other fields, but none were as good as the first one we stopped at, and we didn't have a working camera so we didn't see any point in stopping at other fields. When we were done looking at tulips we drove to La Conner, a cute little town close to the fields. While we were driving through the town we got a call from my aunt Anna. Before we came up north we set up with her to have dinner at her place and she was going to let us spend the night at their house. So we drove over to her house, ate a yummy dinner and then went to my cousin Caleb's baseball game. He is in first grade and it was fun watching his little league game and cheering him on. My uncle Alan is one of the coaches for Caleb's team. We also got to see my aunt Joyce and visit with her at the game. Afterward we went back to Anna and Alan's house and had a great time chatting with them and eating ice cream with their family. It was fun to stay with them and see what a normal weeknight was like for their family. We also enjoyed just being with them.
On Thursday morning we drove back down south. It was a fun time for Micah and I to be together and enjoy God's beautiful creation and our family.

Micah's Work Schedule

Starting in January Micah went to a new work schedule. He is still working for Alaska Airlines, but his job did change a bit when he changed schedules. He was the parts guy and worked only day shift. In January he became one of the technicians and went on the rotating schedule. So now his schedule changes each week. He works five days on one schedule (either day shift 6am-3:30pm, swing shift 3pm-midnight, or graveyard shift 11:30pm-7am), seven days on another schedule, and then gets some time off for the third week. Then the pattern starts all over. It has been an adjustment for both of us, especially when Micah switches between shifts. But the extra days off sure are nice!

Point Defiance Park

On Saturday it was a gorgeous day, it got up into the 70s! Micah and I decided to enjoy the beautiful weather by going down to Tacoma to Point Defiance Park. We had a picnic lunch on the grass and then walked along the beach for an hour. It was a fun day. It really felt like spring is here. I loved looking at the flowers and the great views.

Mom and Dad's New House

My mom and dad are having a house built. This has been there dream for as long as I can remember. They kept their first house and used it as a rental house, and now they have torn down the old house and are now building their dream home. The Powell Brother builders are the ones who are working on it. They broke ground at the beginning of February and already have a lot of work done. It is fun to go over and see what has been done each week. Here is a picture of the house that was taken last week. We also went over yesterday and they already had all the windows in, the roof shingles done and some of the plumbing done.
Micah and I are excited that it is coming together so quickly. When my parents' house is finished they will move in and then we will move into their old house, and then Justin will move into ours. We are all selling to each other. It is kind of funny, but the housing market is so crazy this just makes the most sense.

Pregnant Pictures

Here are a few shots that show how my belly has grown over the last few months. The first picture was taken when I was four months along. The second picture was taken two weeks ago when I was six months along. And the third picture was taken last night, I am now 27 weeks along--starting the third trimester, yikes! It is weird for me to look at pictures because my tummy seems bigger to me that it looks in pictures. Maybe that's because I'm not used to having my stomach stick out, so it seems bigger than it really is.
Also, we are able to feel Andy moving more and more. It is fun to sit and feel him kick and hit. Micah has been able to feel him a couple of times. We find it works best when I lay down and Micah just leaves his hand on my tummy for a while (it can take up to 10 minutes or more before Andy will cooperate).

Andy's Room

I cannot believe how fast my pregnancy is going by. We only have about three more months until our due date. Micah and I have been busy getting things ready for when Andy comes. So far we have the crib, mattress, bedding set, changing table/dresser and a pack and play. It has been fun putting his room together. We decided to decorate Andy's room with a jungle theme. There were a few reasons we chose this: it is gender neutral so can be used again for when baby #2 comes, my mom and dad's house that we will be buying this summer has a room that already has a palm tree border on the walls, and I have been give a couple of gifts that fit the jungle theme. I have also started loving giraffes, the ones on the baby things are so cute! We got our bedding set from Babies R Us, I love it, it is so cute! And on the comforter the animals are different textures (the elephant is a kind of corduroy, the monkey is a soft plush, etc.). They are fun to touch. Hope you enjoy the pictures!