13 Weeks

This week marks the 13th week of our pregnancy and the baby is the size of a peach. The first trimester has really gone pretty fast, and I can't believe that I am already at the beginning of the second trimester. Things have been going so smoothly, sometimes I forget that I am pregnant, other than feeling like I need a nap all day. So far, other than craving waffles with strawberries all the time, I haven't had any strange cravings. We have pretty much told all of our friends and family and can't wait to go back to the doctor in 2 weeks to hear the peanut's heartbeat again.

In two weeks, we are heading to Las Vegas for a long weekend. We are looking forward to getting out of town and most importantly away from work for a couple of days. This will probably be one of the last vacations we will take before Baby Toay makes their arrival.

This is one of Baby Toay's first photographs from our 11 week ultrasound.

Exciting News

I have been absent for quite a while, but with good reason, I have been growing a baby. Garrett and I are excited to announce that in Spring 2013, we will be expanding our family. We are due April 18, 2013 and are almost officially out of the first trimester. We are very excited about this adventure and will be documenting the journey through our blog. The first 12 weeks have gone super fast and have been pretty uneventful. I have been blessed to be feeling very good. I haven't had any morning sickness (knock on wood), and the main symptom I have had to deal with is extreme tiredness. It seems that I sleep more than I have ever before.

To go along with the football theme......

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge Iowa Hawkeye fan. It's my alma mater and I spent 4 crazy, fun, and oh so memorable years there. Iowa City is a great college town with so much to offer. My husband went to Iowa State University, however no one would ever accuse him of being a superfan. While he cheers them on, his heart is definitely with the University of Wisconsin. He grew up not far from Madison and grew up a huge fan and his love for the team has probably grown exponentially through the years. I still haven't convinced him to go to a Hawkeye game with me, but somehow he has convinced me twice to go watch Wisconsin play. The first time was at the Rose Bowl 2 years ago and then again last year for their season opener in Madison.

I am not going to lie, Wisconsin fans know how to party. They live it up and while you will never convince me that Iowa City tailgating isn't the best, I will say that Wisconsin comes in at a close second. Here are some photos of the Labor Day game last year against UNLV. It was hotter than hot and it was a blow out, but it was fun to see the stadium and get to participate in the infamous "Jump Around".

Maybe one of these days I can convince my husband (an admitted Hawkeye hater) to come watch my team play. It might be the next time they play Wisconsin, but mark my words, it will happen.

Are you ready for some football??

Garrett and I are huge football fans. Garrett has had a love for the Greenbay Packers since he was a kid and since I married him and he took me to my first NFL game at Lambeau Field, I have loved the Packers as well. Garrett isn't convinced that my love of them isn't stemmed from Clay Matthews. (I will neither confirm or deny that) We have been able to go to a couple of games to watch them play in the last few years. Last season, when our beloved Packers were on a winning streak and everyone thought they were on their way to a perfect season, we went down to Kansas City to watch them play. Apparently, Garrett and I were bad luck charms and unfortunately they lost.

Arrowhead stadium is a beautiful, newer stadium. We had club seats so there was a cozy indoor lounge to go in and warm up. Despite the fact it was winter in the Midwest, the day was beautiful and I wore a jersey and was HOT! This winter was crazy warm in the Midwest. Let us hope that we will be that lucky this year. Despite the fact that the Packers lost, we had a great time and would definitely go back there to catch a game. However, if I had a choice from going there and going to Lambeau, I would definitely go to Lambeau, it is so full of history and such an impressive place. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that Arrowhead has to offer, but it is very rich in history. Here are a few pics of the day in Kansas City.

Look, Clay Matthews wormed his way into my photo, how did that happen???

As fall approaches we are getting excited for football to start in our house. Garrett is ready to cheer on his Wisconsin Badgers and I am ready to cheer on my Iowa Hawkeyes. Every relationship needs a healthy rivalry. And of course, we are both ready to cheer on our Packers.

You and me go fishin' in the dark

So we didn't really fish in the dark, but we did go fishing this weekend. We went back to Illinois to visit family and Garrett wanted to sneak a peek of our beans. We are going through a terrible drought and we were prepared for the worst but were happy to find that our beans weren't looking too bad. A few months ago, Garrett's parents and us decided to go in on a lot at a lake down the road from his parents house. His parents purchased a pontoon and we got to take it out on the lake this weekend.

As you can see Garrett thought he was pretty cool as the Captain of Ship. The land that we bought a few months ago has a pond on it. We were excited because it is beautiful but we weren't really sure if it was stocked or not. To our excitement, some friends of Garrett's parents informed us that they have been fishing there for years and there are indeed bass in there. I had tried fishing there the last time we were back but on that particular trip took Yogi to show him the pond and couldn't keep him out of the water. He scared any and all fish that day. So Garrett and I went down and fished Saturday afternoon and were able to catch a few blue gills and a bass. I am excited to go back and catch some more.

We had a great and relaxing weekend and are planning on spending a little bit longer here in a couple of weeks now that our Vegas trip has been postponed.

Happy Birthday Yogi!!

Today is Yogi's 4th birthday. I honestly can't believe that we have had Yogi in our lives for four years. He is such a good dog. When Garrett and I first moved in together, we decided early on that we wanted to get a puppy. After a few arguments of what kind of breed,girl or boy dog, etc., we came to an agreement to get a labrador. We found a place in Kansas that sold yellow labs and from the pictures we instantly fell in love. We picked Yogi out because he was the only dog that could have cared less about us while the rest were jumping and playing with us. I had actually fallen in love with a female named, Sissy, but Garrett was concerned with her hyperactivity. Needless to say, we picked the best dog there. He has been a good dog and the best friend a girl could ask for.

Pistol Packin Mama

A few months ago, Garrett saw in Bass Pro Shops ad that their AR-15 was on sale. So of course, what household is complete without one of these bad boys? After a long wait, we picked it up last weekend. Today we decided to take it out to the shooting range over by Big Creek. This was my first time at the shooting range, but can definitely see myself going back in the near future. I am trying to talk Garrett into a hand gun. (just what this girl needs) Here are some pics from our afternoon.

Color Run

A few months ago, my sisters and I read about the Color Run. For those of you that are not familiar with it, its a 5K race where along the route people throw powder paint at you. Everyone begins the race with white and by the end is full of color. It was a lot of fun and we were very colorful at the finish line. This isn't a competitive timed event, it's more about having fun. My parents came with us and we made a weekend out of it and did a road trip to Kansas City. The race was held at Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium. There were 14,000 participants the Saturday that we did the race. Here is the before picture of us before we started the run.

This is the group after:

Here are a few of the photos from the race and the finish line.

If you are lucky enough to live near a city that hosts the Color Run, DO IT! It was so much fun!!

Has it been a year?

Turns out, I haven't been much of a blogger lately. I have no excuse really. I can't say that my life has been so busy that I haven't had an extra 10-15 minutes a day to post a little something. I guess things just got away from me. I am going to try to make a better attempt at keeping things up to date. What has changed in the Toay household?? To tell you the truth, not a whole lot. One thing major that has happened, is that we purchased a farm in Northwestern Illinois. We have been back a few times helping out on it, but we are blessed to have the farm just a few miles from Garrett's parents and his dad has been fantastic in helping us with everything. I don't think we could ever repay him for the work he has done for us. My mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer. These last few months have been trying and stressful and sad. My mom has been a trooper. She has gone through surgeries, chemo, and heart ache, but through it all she has been a trooper. We all love her so much and to see her going through hell and back is so hard. The best news is........today is the LAST day of chemo. It has been a horrible road with many bumps and bruises along the way, but we are happy to report, that she is DONE!! Well at least she will be by the close of the day. We have a few trips planned for the remainder of the year. In August we are going to Las Vegas with a few friends for the KISS/Motley Crue concert. I can't say that I am a huge fan of either, but they are definitely legendary and will be a fun concert. Everyone that I have talked to says that KISS are definitely great entertainers. We are probably going to the Dells where we got suckered into a timeshare thingy. Last time we did that, I nearly got sucked into a timeshare at Atlantis in the Bahamas. Luckily, my rational husband was able to put his foot down and say no. I will be giving reports of what we have been up to the last year as well as what we are doing in the present and promise to get better and update more often. This weekend, my sisters, parents and nieces are going to Kansas City for the Color Run. This race has become quite the craze lately. We signed up for this months ago and at that time Kansas City was the closest race to us. Since then, they have announced a race in October here in Des Moines. oh well. We will be able to do it before all of our friends here in Iowa. It sounds like it should be a great time. Pictures to come.