Tarleton Nathaniel Thiessen

8 lbs. 4 oz.

21 in.

9:10 a.m.

July 20, 2009

Pictures...

Ok, so I know I posted the "Sneak Peak" and got you all excited to see the maternity pictures...I don't know if I'm going to publically post them.

I haven't decided yet. The photographer can privatize certain photos but so many of the ones I think came out beautifully and would want to share, I'm self-conscious about giving an unknown amount of people access to see. I guess I'm more modest than I really ever thought I was!!

Right now, I'm going to keep them private. Luckily D was able to access the private gallery from "over yonder" so I was really happy that we could share in what we thought about them and which one was his favorite.

What I'm probably going to do is post the link and password a couple days before it's set to expire so I can limit, at least, how long people will have to view them...so check back closer to the beginning of August!

Sneak Peak!

Go here to see a "sneak peak" of my maternity photo session!

Pictures from the far East...

Over the last couple of months D has sent a few pictures of his grand adventure in the great big sand box. Unfortunately he can't log into our blog himself or otherwise I'm sure he'd have much more interesting things to say with these pictures (and probably more pictures) than the captions he sends to me. For the time being I'll do the best I can. Maybe when he gets home I can convince him to sit down and do a post all about his trip.

The dates over the photos are the dates he sent them to me, not necessarily the dates he took the picture. For the ones with dates and locations - again it's the date he sent the picture to me and the location he says it was taken. If it happens to be the same date as another picture that has a location attached, please don't assume it's in the same location! I have no idea and if D didn't specify it's probably not the same location!

5 May

landed at Ranah

24 May

24 May

24 May
"Me after a long flight in Tal Afar"

24 May

30 May

30 May

10 June

"Me after 7 hours flying at 43 degrees C"

(109.4 degrees F)

10 June

17 June

"Seemingly typical day at around 1700"

Luna and T updates...

Luna - bloodwork came back and she can't safely undergo surgery, just like I kind of thought. So I can stop feeling guilty about not being able to afford it and debating whether we'd have it done even if we could afford it. So for the meantime we're going to keep her on anti-inflamatory meds to help with swelling and hope that nature helps her little knees grow some scar tissue that will actually aid in her ability to walk as normal as she possibly could. The vet would still like to address her heartworm issue, but at least is understanding that 1. can't really do that expense either at the moment and 2. even if we could life is going to be too hectic over the next couple months and heartworm treatment requires an animal to be completely immobile for several weeks. Depending on the treatment cost, it may be possible once life settles down into a "routine" of sorts. But in the mean time, we'll just continue to give her Heartguard and hope for the best. She seems to be as happy as she's ever been since I've been paying her even more attention than she normally gets. :-) Not to mention all the extra treats so I can hide her meds in them.

Baby T - I went in for my 36 week appointment on Tuesday and T is just about as head down as he could possibly get without making his grand entrance! I was pretty excited to be able to relay that news to D and nervous since this means that we're really hitting the home stretch now!! I keep having discussions with him about timing...any time after July 16th is okay with me. We'll see how well he "obeys" mommy's first request of him!

The Nursery!

Hopefully I took enough pictures and posted enough to satisfy all you curious minds out there! :-) Enjoy!

View from bedroom door.

Crib and bedding set. The mobile is handcrafted by D, finished just before he left. There is a different version of the CH 46 helicoptor representing each of the four military branches - because we're fair people. :-) Each is a scaled replica model of an actual helicoptor - D pieced together each and painted them. He'd want me to be specific about the different helicoptors but I can only remember the CH 47 (Army) and obviously, the CH 46 (Marine Corps).

When I saw this crib bedding set in the store, I knew if we had a boy I had to have it!! I chose to focus on the "Adventure Around the World" as the main theme of the room, not just helicoptors and airplanes...

Baby bag slowly getting put together for the big trip to the hospital!! And a couple puppy dog friends and T's "First Mickey Mouse" that I picked up for him at DisneyLand. When you pull his pacifier out it plays a lullaby.

View standing in front of the closet door. Slightly better picture of the mobile. It's not motorized but with the fan on and the window open it gently moves around which is really cool. The picture on the wall is of several Land Rovers chilling out in the African desert on safari. See, that's where the "Adventure" comes in...that and D is pretty excited about his Rovers. ;-) Oh and that is a little palm tree in the corner. I'm trying really hard to keep it alive...so far, so good!

Another view from the closet door. Second Rover picture, rocking chair, super awesome National Geographic map I had framed and mounted so we can stick little flags in it of all the places we've lived and visited (I haven't picked up the flags yet). And the wonderful "bookcase" my friend and neighbor H basically stained for me (I helped a little.) It came out matching everything so well considering none of his furniture is an actual "set" of any kind!

Better picture of the rocking chair and glider - a gift from my daddy.

Close up of the "bookcase" and map! The picture is one S took of D and I at the lake before he left; there's a little grey/black puppy dog bank I painted for T at the base hobby shop; the stuffed monkey is one I got at Disney's Animal Kingdom back in high school; the panda bear and teddy bear were D's when he was little; and the lamp was actually a wedding present that used to be in our room but had to move when I pulled the pack -n - play into it, so I figured it'd be a nice "night light" for the time being. :-) Some of the books are new and some are actually D's when he was little. Somewhere in our garage is box full of my old Dr. Seuss and Little Golden books that I'll have to pull out in time. The containers are full of more stuffed animals and some little toys and I think one of them has bath towels. I have a couple more containers he can use for toys later when he's bigger if he wants to move the books somewhere else. Gotta say, love IKEA for their innovative storage ideas!

Little wall space between the bedroom door and closet door. I'll be honest the little table is one that I couldn't find any other place for it and it used to be the bedside table in our guest room so...I decided to leave it in the room and it works for holding picture frames and T's first rosary, which I believe was D's first rosary. The framed picture is of D's grandfather flying a plane - I forget what kind, during his time in the MC back in the day. Pretty cool, huh?

And this is how exciting Luna and Boo thought finishing the nursery was! Luna actually has taken to laying under the dresser/changing table while I'm in the room and Boo tends to move from in front of the crib to just outside the door. I'm curious to see where their "spots" will be once T arrives!

And arrive he will any time between now and hopefully 4 weeks from now (let's all pray for nothing more than 4 weeks!!) Here's his "coming home" outfit I got from Strasburg Children! Just because my son will be born in California doesn't mean I can't dress him as though we were still in Charleston!

Cotton onesie with overcoat, little booties, hat, and blanket. And even if I have to leave the bottom unbuttoned, he will come home in this outfit, despite whatever size he may end up being! I'm getting really excited now!!

Quick Update...

I am not purposefully neglecting this blog! I've been having problems uploading my pictures to the posts. I'm working on resolving the issue and then there will be several posts probably all done on the same day!! It's been frustrating but I haven't just stopped posting, I promise.