Exciting News! And Time to Guess!!

First the exciting news!!  Scott's Uncle Guy works for Auto Drive Magazine in the Greater Columbus area.  Well, a week or so ago we had one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen.  I sent the picture to our friends and family including Uncle Guy! To my surprise he sent me a message to say that he was publishing my picture in his Auto Drive Newsletter!!

Here is what Uncle Guy wrote:

A Sky on Fire
This is a photo of a sunrise taken by Kristen Adkins recently near Powell, Wyoming. Kristen is married to my nephew Scott. She has a real knack for photography and has captured numerous nature scenes, magnificent sunrises and sunsets. I thought this might get your mind off of the brutal cold weather we have been enduring.Guy Patrick

And here is the picture:

Thank you Uncle Guy!!! You put the biggest smile on my face:)


House News
Scott started working on plans/ideas to finish our bathroom!!!  First up, framing in our shower - it will be a large walk-in shower with cubby holes built into the wall.  Ah, just thinking about taking a normal shower! I hate to admit it, but for me, it's been since August of last year that I've had a REAL shower.  No worries, we take 'sponge' baths every week, but it's still not quite the same.

Baby News!

On a not so good note....

We had a bit of a pregnancy scare a little over a week ago.  On 3 occasions I was spotting/bled.  After a complete freak out on my part and an emergency trip to the doctor, it appears everything is OK!  The doctor told me that this happens to some women for no apparent reason.  I am not having pains or cramping (a HUGE plus!) and to relieve my nerves, the doctor put the Doppler on my belly and Scott and I both heard the heart beat.  We are not at all worried and the doctor is not worried either.  However, I’m taking it VERY easy just to be safe. 

This is kind of fun!  About a week ago, Scott started talking about doing different things to our property for our new addition!  To hear him talk about it and get excited makes me that much more excited too!  He's talking about adding a functioning train around our property.  We have also talked about creating a series of trails all about our property so we can ride 4-wheelers, dirt bikes, bicycles, and take walks.  We are just imagining a little one on his/her own little 4-wheeler while mom/dad follow behind on the big 4-wheeler!  Ah! Can you tell we are getting excited!

Today I had my 4th doctor's appointment (I'm 15 weeks 1 day).  For the most part it went well.  The baby is doing great, but they did a test on my to check my glucose levels and discovered I'm dehydrated! So at the moment I'm working on my second 33.8 oz bottle of water since my appointment. 

The exciting part!! I have another appointment in 3 weeks and on the same day (in 3 weeks) I will have my first ultrasound when I'm 18 weeks.  AND we will be finding out the sex of the baby!! I am SO excited! It feels real, sometimes, but knowing what we are having and seeing that visual of the baby will make it all that much more real to me!!  And I think it will set in even more with Scott.  I doubt Scott will get off work to be at the appointment, so I'm going to do just like my sister-in-law Jenna did - I'm going to have the nurse/technician write it on a piece of paper and then after my appointment I'll head straight to Scott's work to share the news!!  But don't worry!! All my friends and family, you will be included too!  I'll be sending a special reveal to you all in the mail.

We thought we’d have some fun and see if you all want to play along and take your guesses.  Here is some family history on both sides plus the answers to many old wives tales to help you make your decision on what you think we’ll be having!!  I haven’t had an ultrasound yet, but we are pretty sure that Daryl is going to be an only Daryl this time around as I gained several inches around my waist the first month, but since then I’ve stayed the same! Of course this is just my opinion… but we’ll find out for sure when I have my ultrasound.

Family Facts:

                Kristen’s immediate family:  girl, boy, (16 years later), girl, boy

                Scott’s immediate family: boy, boy

                Kristen’s mom’s family: girl, boy, girl

                Kristen’s dad’s family: boy, boy/girl twins, boy

                Scott’s mom’s family: 6 girls

                Scott’s dad’s family: I'm not positive...

                Kristen’s siblings:  Rhonda – 2 boys; Darren – girl, boy, boy, girl; Ty – boy (on the way)

Old Wives’ Tales!!

How am I carrying the baby – high is a girl, low is a boy (I’m not really even showing yet)		Both?
Skin blemishes? (no) Acne? (no)	Boy
Dry hands? (yes)	Boy
Ring Swing! I did this with my engagement ring tied to my ear buds (it’s all I had!), but it swung in a circle!	Boy
Heart Rate (over 140 it’s a girl, under 140 it’s a boy): my first Doppler it was 180, second Doppler was 168			Girl
Craving Sweets? (girl) Craving Salty/Sour (boy) – I’m not craving either… I am craving fruit flavors but not actually fruit – orange juice, apple juice, and Starburst is also doing the trick.  No cravings for chocolate, but like normal, if it’s offered I’ll probably eat it:)			Girl
Chinese Gender Reveal (based on age of conception (29) and month of conception (November 2014))			Girl
Mayan Gender Reveal (age at conception (29), year of conception (2014)) – one is even, one is odd	Boy
Has Hubby packed on some ‘padding’? YES (about 10-15 lbs!!)			Girl
Morning sickness? Not really, but I have felt queasy at times.	Boy
History of Parents Kids: Kristen’s side – Boy; Scott’s Side – Boy	Boy
Moodiness? I’m not moody at all! In fact I’m really enjoying being pregnant.	Boy
Dreams of the baby’s sex? All I’m having are nightmares of crazy off the wall dreams about our cats and Scott.		Both
Clumsy? Not more than usual.			Girl
What side do you sleep on? Both sides! I toss and turn all night long.		Both
What does the mom think she’s having?	Boy
Craving meat and cheese? Yes!!	Boy
Feet colder now that I’m pregnant? No, I don’t think so.			Girl
Hair on legs growing at record speeds? No – considering I have barely any hair at all on my legs in general, I’m not sure about this one!!			Girl
This one’s a little TMI – bright pee (boy), dull pee (girl)	Boy
Headaches – YES, almost daily in the last month!	Boy
Names? We have like 10 boy names but only 1 girl name (which can also be a boy name!)	Boy

Time to place your bets!!!  Feel free to comment with your guesses below! I'd love to see what everyone thinks!

Fun Pictures!!

It's been quite a while since I shared pictures with you all! This is a fun mix - gorgeous sunsets, fun adventures, and our crazy cats!  I'm going to be explaining the pictures.... but if you don't want to read about them, just click on the first one and scroll through!

First, this is our Christmas tree!  One night in January ( think around the 15th or 20th) I told Scott when he got home from work that I was ready to get the tree out of the house!  So, his idea, open the front doors and chuck it out!! It was pretty funny to us, but we find silly things pretty funny!

 

Here come the cat pictures!!  Tiger is my sewing buddy! 

And below, Tuffy was zonked out!  He's the cutest when he sleeps!

 



 

It must have been cold! They all wanted to cuddle up! Actually I think they just like to hang out with me:)

 

Below is my little buddy, Tuffy!  Ever since I found out I was pregnant, he seems to be super attentive to me!  Everyday, he wants to sit on my lap, he massages my belly and then takes a nap on me.  Here he is in his sleepy stages... he gets a glaze over his eyes and then finally lays down.



 

Over this past weekend, we had some CRAZY winds!!  I'm talking gusts of 60-100+ mph!!  If you look, you can see the dust blowing up from the field.  that field is about 5 miles from our house.

Tiger and his nap buddy!!  He has to have 'tiger-time' everyday with Scott and I both.  And he likes to lay all over us!!  In fact he just started doing this in the middle of the night too... he likes to get between Scott and I both.

We had one of the prettiest sunrises this past week!!! Scott had left for work and I was sitting on the couch with the cats.  I looked over my shoulder and caught this sunrise!  I jumped up, ran outside and snapped some pictures!  After I went back inside, within just a few minutes it was completely gone! I feel lucky to have caught it with my camera!

 More of Tuffy! He always wants to nap on me!

 

 Last Saturday, I went to town to run a few errands, and on my way back, I saw this little bit of a rainbow in front of the Beartooth Mountains!!

 

 Last Sunday we went on an adventure!!  Yellowstone park is closed (at least our Cody entrance is) this time of the year.  However, the drive down Northfork toward the entrance is just stunning!!  We were on a mission to see the big horned sheep, which neither Scott or I have ever seen before!  We found them!!!  Here are some pictures of them, plus we also saw a single buffalo, lots and lots of deer and even a huge herd of elk too.

 

Looking at the mountains below, look closely!!!  Can you spot the big horned sheep?!?!?

Here's a close up for you!

Our lonely buffalo!!   

Hello February!

I’ve been bad… I’ve not updated the blog as often this winter as I had hoped to!  But I’m going to take the time to give a pretty thorough update today.

We haven’t made any improvements this winter on the house.  Scott’s job is from 8am-5pm but with the extra hour of drive time (and errands he runs for me too) he doesn’t have much time after that.  But the days are getting longer and we are looking forward to getting our electric wiring and plumbing all ready so we can have real electricity and running water this spring!!!  Try going without running water for almost a year (will be a year in April) and just imagine what it’s like!  I’m not complaining…. I’d much rather live like we are right now, if I had to, but just the thought of finally getting to take a real shower or to flush the toilet every time gets me excited!

We’ve had a lot of people ask us how the weather is out here!  It has been a very mild winter for us!  Most of the time it’s somewhere around 20-40 degrees.  We’ve not had any snow accumulation since I think early December.  Now it does get pretty cold at night, usually in the single digits or teens unless there is wind where it may go just under zero.  But the interesting part is with there being very little humidity, when it is cold outside, it doesn’t feel that cold.  Scott only wears a light weight winter coat and I’m even worse… I usually only wear a sweatshirt and a fleece jacket over that.  We definitely can’t complain about the weather – no freezing rain, no snow accumulations, and bearable temperatures. 

We always get asked about the wind out here!! We have been pleasantly surprised that we don’t have the high wind days very often.  I would say just a few days a month we will have high wind through part of the day.  And otherwise, it’s pretty calm here!  A light breeze occasionally, but it’s been wonderful here!

An update on our wood stove!!  This one is a fun update!  Back at the beginning of October, we purchased all our wood bricks (and our wood stove).  We initially spent $300, then twice, while I was in town, I purchased an additional $30 on 2 occasions.  In total, we spent $360.  Just this month, we have dipped into the second stack of them! We’ve used just over half of the wood bricks we purchased!  Now we’ve supplemented with cut up wood pallets (mostly for our kindly/fire starters).    But from October – February, we’ve only spent approximately $45/month to heat our house! 

A few exciting/interesting things… This one was funny for us!  Our neighbors cut down a Christmas tree for us just after Thanksgiving.  We put it up right away and kept it well watered.  Well, we anticipated it dying, but it never did!  And a few weeks into January, it actually started sprouting new stuff on its branches!!  But I was ready for the extra space in the house, so one night we decided to get it out.  Our concern was making sure none of the cats escaped (it was dark out).  Scott’s idea – ‘Lets chuck it out the front doors!!’  And I was like, ok I guess!   And that’s just what we did!!  I realize this probably isn’t very funny to most people, but to us it was hysterical!  Once it warms up a bit, I’m going to cut slices in the trunk to make decorations and/or a Christmas ornaments to always remember our first ever Christmas in Wyoming and our first real Christmas tree.

The cats are all doing great! We never did figure out what made Tuffy get so sick, but he’s back to normal, being as crazy as ever!  And, even though the Christmas tree is no longer in the house, the tree stand just had to remain! All the cats decided they didn’t want to drink out of their cat bowl anymore!  The two big cats only drink out of a mug in the shower stall while the two little ones drink from the tree stand! They crack me up!  There’s always something interesting going on with them!

Last weekend, our wonderful neighbors Rich, Jackie and Brian, treated us to dinner at Bearcreek Saloon which is maybe 25-30 min from our house just across into Montana.  It was incredible!!  Even I tasted Scott’s steak and it was really good! (I’m not normally a steak person)  The fun part, during the summer tourist season, the Saloon has pig races on the weekends! It’s such a hit that you have to have a reservation to get in. 

Scott’s job is going great! He is happy with it and doesn’t even mind the drive at all (only about 30 min).  But each morning and each night, he gets to see herds of deer and antelope, not to mention the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen!!

Now our Bronco decided a few weeks ago to not start anymore… Scott’s been working on it every weekend with no luck.  I was driving it to get the mail and as soon as I got to the mail box it completely died!  Well, I tried restarting it and it wants to start, but it’s as if it’s not getting gas.  Yes, it had plenty of gas; yes, it had ‘spark’ to the spark plugs…. And all the research Scott did suggested it had something to do with some of the sensors.  Well, he replaced them all and still no luck.  Luckily, after I had gotten the mail that day, our neighbor Jackie had just pulled in the drive.  She sat with me for about 15 minutes to see if we could get it started and when it wouldn’t, I went back to her house till Rich and Brian got home (Scott had to stay the night in Billings for a work thing).  Rich and Brian actually pulled the Bronco back to the house!! And they insisted I stay for dinner with them.  So that Friday night I treated them all to Pizza Hut for their hospitality!  I have to say, all our neighbors are amazing!

OH!!! I keep forgetting! I’ll have to get a picture to post of it soon, but in October, I entered a custom drawn belt buckle into a contest to try to win for Scott for Christmas.  The belt buckle looked like a combination of a few of his coins.  Although it was supposed to be a surprise, I wanted to be sure that #1 I drew it correctly and #2 that he would like it – so he did help me design it.  However, for weeks I put in the time to get as many ‘votes’ as possible!  And thanks to everyone who ‘liked’ the photo on Facebook, we won!!!  We got just over 1,800 votes!  While the next person had about 400 votes.  Well, the exciting thing, just about a week or 2 ago we were surprised to receive the buckle in the mail! And let me tell you it is STUNNING!  And Scott was speechless!  He loves it and is excited to wear it this summer.  I’m just so happy I could do something for him for Christmas!

Ok, Ok!!  Now to the baby stuff!!  As of today (2/4/15), I am 12 weeks and 2 days pregnant!  I’m almost out of the first trimester!  Last week I had my first OB appointment and it went great!  The doctor went through all my family history, did an exam and I had to get my blood drawn (I hate that!!).  But here’s the kicker… he used a device on me (no clue what it’s called) and I heard the heart beat!!  It was so surreal!  There are days where I feel pregnant, and days where I don’t, so having that opportunity to know ‘for sure’ that something’s going on in there was really fun!  I’ve been asked a lot if there was just one heart beat or 2…. Well, as far as I know there was only one.   The doctor didn’t have any concerns with the pregnancy.  Although he said I am not allowed to gain any weight.  It’s one thing to not be pregnant and be trying to stay the same or to lose weight, but try being pregnant and not be able to control what your body does and be told NOT to gain weight! AHH.  But I guess the good thing is, I really don’t have much of an appetite.  I’ve actually lost about 13 pounds now (not intentionally) but I guess that’s better than gaining weight!  However, I have gained 12-13 inches around my waistline (it’s getting pretty evident that I’ve pregnant!).  I haven’t had an ultrasound yet.  The doctor told me that between 16-20 weeks they will schedule my first ultrasound.  My next appointment is when I’m at week 15, so I’m sure that I will be scheduling my ultrasound then.  Now unfortunately, Scott wasn’t able to go to my first doctor’s appointment because of work, but I’m really hoping it works out that he can come to the ultrasound!  If not, I’m going to do what my sister-in-law did and have then put the sex of the baby in an envelope so we can find out together. 

Now, because of all our circumstances this year (finishing necessities in the house, Scott’s new job, and now being pregnant), we won’t be coming back to OH in 2015.  However, we have so many wonderful people in our lives that we want to celebrate our exciting news with, so I’ll be sending a baby reveal to all our friends and family!  And some other exciting news!  We’ve finally agreed upon a boy’s name and a girl’s name!  But you are all going to have to wait! 

I hope you all have a wonderful February! I’ll try to post another update or two this month, but if I don’t, that just means all is well and nothing exciting is going on with us!  We miss you all!