Thanksgiving in Iowa

We traveled back to Iowa for Thanksgiving and were able to stay 6 days...our longest stay in a while! We divided up our time with both of our families and were fortunate enough to take part in some great things while we were back including Abby's cousin's wedding, a baby shower for Abby, our niece Leah's first birthday, and of course time just enjoying the company of our family. All of Paul's siblings and their families were able to make it back to Iowa so we really enjoyed seeing all of them. We have great admiration for Paul's grandma as she bravely hosted about 50 people in her small ranch style house for Thanksgiving dinner!

We stayed with Abby's brother and his family for the second half of our time home and loved spending time with our niece, Leah. She turned one December 1st so we got to be a part of her first birthday party while we were back. Nick and Erica provided great hospitality with many yummy foods and also managed to host a baby shower and birthday party while we stayed with them...quite impressive!

We were sad to make our journey back to Colorado, especially knowing we won't make it home for Christmas. Still, it was fun to think the next time we'll see many in our family, Baby Girl Hovey will join us!

Paul and nephew, Christian.

This is what happens when Uncle Paul has to deal with 5 lovable nieces!

Abby and niece, Brittney

Our niece, Gracie Our niece, Alyssa. She was really into giving everyone massages this Thanksgiving which of course nobody minded. Maybe she's inspiring to be the next PT in the family!

Abby and niece, Leah at the wedding
Abby and Erica. Erica went out of her way to make our time home extra special with not only hosting us but also arranging the baby shower and Leah's birthday party!

Leah the morning of her birthday celebration. She LOVES balloons!

Leah wasn't so sure what to think of her first birthday cake. Still, she enjoyed trying a little bit of the frosting!

Leah feeding her baby. She got 3 strollers for her birthday so I think she'll have plenty of opportunities to play "mommy".

Baby Showers!

Paul and I have been so blessed to have had two baby showers to help prepare for Baby Hovey. The first one was put on by Abby's friend, Sheila (a seminary friend) out here in Denver. The other was put on by Abby's sister in law, Erica, and cousin, Melissa. One of the neatest gifts Abby received at the family shower was a book her cousin Melissa had put together of words of advice/encouragement from everyone attending the shower. Thanks, Meliss! I know you spent hours and hours of time putting this together! We have been overwhelmed with the generosity shown to us by family and friends as we prepare for Baby Hovey.

We are now at 31 weeks pregnant and everything is looking good! Abby is feeling great and we've enjoyed watching/feeling Baby Hovey be VERY active. She seems to always be throwing a party! :) We had our child birth class yesterday and were surprised to leave the class feeling more excited than overwhelmed. We're getting more and more excited to meet this little one!

Some of Abby's seminary friends that helped put on the shower (L to R Marissa, Amber, Megan, and Sheila)

Abby's grandma made this cute little wall hanging for Baby Hovey!

Abby's aunt Pam made these colorful bibs for Baby Hovey.

Abby's cousin's wife, Carmelle, is also expecting and they are due on the same date! We also already share a wedding anniversary with them...we'll see if we have the same name picked out too! :)

Precious time with family

Last weekend Abby's brother, Nick, his wife, Erica, and daughter, Leah came out for a visit. They flew in on Thursday night and stayed through Sunday afternoon. We were so blessed by their visit and treasured every second of it! We haven't had that much time with Nick and Erica since Leah has been born since we live so far away so it was so neat to see her in action for 3 days! Leah wil be 11 months old November 1st. She is already walking all over and babbling up a storm, with some of it definitely sounding like "ma-ma" and "ball".

During their visit, the weather was beautiful! Upper 60s and 70s the whole time. We went to the Denver Zoo one day and then went to this huge pumpkin patch/corn maze called Anderson Farms just northwest of Denver another day. We enjoyed our time just at home with them too, watching Leah play with toys, look at books, eat, smile, giggle, and chase her around. She is such a joy...as well as her parents! :) We sure wish we could see them more often! Atleast it was a little easier to say good-bye knowing we'll see them in a month for Thanksgiving.

Leah's all time favorite pose over the weekend! She loved to turn around in her car seat and say "hello" to the front seat passengers before buckling up.

At the zoo. Leah wasn't so sure what to think of those big elephants!

Leah and Erica! This is such a great picture of both of them!

Leah with Aunt Abby and Uncle Paul taking the giraffes in

Not sure what we were looking at here but Leah was trying to get Aunt Abby's attention pointing out something.

Look at this little girl walk! Hand holding is optional...she is really already on automatic pilot with the walking!

At the corn maze. Paul and Nick had fun trying to direct us through the maze with the maps we were given. We were impressed with their navigation skills!

A beautiful fall picture of Colorado.

Leah can't decide if she's more interested in the dirt or the pumpkin

Showing off all the pumpkins she found

Sunday morning before church, Leah was reading the book Aunt Abby and Uncle Paul got her from the zoo. She sure seems to like her books more and more all the time!

It's a girl!!!

Thursday we had our 22 week ultrasound and found out we are having a girl! We really enjoyed the whole day together. Our appointment was in the morning and we had the ultrasound tech write down the gender of the baby on a card and put it in a sealed envelope. We then went out to breakfast and opened it up together. We will forever remember that moment! We enjoyed calling family to let them know the news and also started registering that afternoon...which was a bit overwhelming! Good thing you can do lots of editing online! This will make the 6th grandaughter on Paul's side and the 2nd grandaughter on Abby's side. Paul is beginning to wonder if there will be anymore boys besides his one nephew to carry on the Hovey name! Oh well, we are very excited to be having baby girl Hovey!

Out to breakfast...we had just opened our card and found out!

Proud future Daddy...I think we may be having a daddy's girl on our hands!

Abby 22 weeks

Fall in Colorado

We love this season of crisp, cooler temperatures and the beauty of all the yellow leaves on the Aspens. Just wish it lasted longer! Last weekend, we got a chance to take a drive up into the mountains and take in some of the fall colors. Most of the leaves were already past peak so we were glad we got there when we did.

Abby is now at 21 weeks and we will find out the gender of the baby in one week! We are getting pretty excited and everyone has been making guesses so it will be good to finally know. Baby Hovey is also becoming more and more active, which has fun for us both to feel!

We're looking forward to our upcoming visitors for the month. Abby's brother, Nick, his wife, Erica, and their daughter, Leah are coming out mid-October and Abby's mom is coming out at the end of the month. We can't wait to have some quality time with family!

Abby at 20 weeks. Half way through!

Labor Day Weekend Trip

We were fortunate enough to be able to make a quick trip home over Labor Day weekend. We had planned this for quite some time as we knew this would be the weekend we would celebrate Paul's Grandma and Grandpa Hovey's 60th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, we've come to find out that to fly anywhere into Iowa at any given time costs an average of $500 a plane ticket! You would think we were going to Europe! Since plane tickets into Omaha were 1/5th that much, we opted to fly into Omaha and drive across Iowa in a rental car. Hey, at least we got to skip driving through Nebraska! We saw Abby's brother, Nick, his wife, Erica, and our niece, Leah as we drove through the Cedar Rapids/Marion area. They were headed out of town that same night so it was a quick visit but we loved every second with them! Uncle Paul even got to help teach Leah how to eat some puffs. We then headed onto Clinton where we saw Abby's parents for a couple hours and enjoyed going out to eat and doing some maternity clothes shopping. We then parked at Paul's parent's house that evening where we stayed most of the weekend to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Hovey's 60th anniversary. We had a great time seeing all of Paul's siblings, their spouses, and all of our nieces and one nephew. We enjoyed bon fires, good food, great conversations catching up with everyone, and the beautiful Iowa countryside! We even got a professional family picture taken outside that turned out very well! It was hard to come back to CO after such a short visit but we are always grateful to see family no matter how long or short our visit is.

Abby continues to feel great in her second trimester! Hard to believe she is almost 20 weeks along...that's half way through! We continue to have fun brainstorming names, reading books, taking notes from well experienced parents, and feeling the baby kick for the first time! We plan to find out the gender of the baby October 8th if Baby Hovey decides to cooperate.

The leaves are starting to turn colors out here and that crisp fall weather is beginning which we both love! We have tried to take a lot of walks on the trails close to our apartment to enjoy the season and hope to schedule a weekend getaway trip in the next few weeks.

Grandma and Grandpa Hovey 60 years and going strong!

Our niece, Gracie, playing outside

Our niece, Alyssa, getting help from Uncle Paul while she tries getting around in her flip flops at Maquoketa Caves.

Our niece, Leah. Nick, Erica, and Leah plan to come out for a visit in October and we can hardly wait to have more than a couple of hours with them! We think Leah may be walking by then so we're anxious to see all her tricks!

We met Abby's parents at Flapjack's in Maquoketa Monday morning before we began our trek back to Omaha. It was hard to say good-bye after such a short visit!

16 weeks and feeling better!

Abby is officially at 16 weeks pregnant and is greatly enjoying the welcomed changes of the second trimester. She has noticed a return of energy and the feelings of nausea have greatly decreased. Abby has even been inspired to do more cooking, cleaning, and finishing unpacking boxes to get settled into our new apartment. Paul has embraced these changes, to say the least! We continue to have fun looking at baby names and reading up on parenting books and what to expect. We met with a group of 4 other couples from our church last night who are expecting within the next 6 months so we enjoyed sharing notes on our experiences with pregnancy! Abby noticed the presence of her first "baby bump" this last Monday. Her patients have also been pointing it out. Abby was able to go "shopping" for maternity clothes at a church friend's house last Sunday and found some great clothes to borrow. She is very thankful for this as we have had our eyes open to how expensive all the maternity clothes are! We toured Littleton Hospital a couple weeks ago and have decided this is where we will deliver Baby Hovey. This hospital is only a couple minutes from where we live which puts Paul at ease. As of now, most of our friends and Abby's patients have guessed that we're having a girl, but of course they have nothing to base that off of! Still fun to get everyone's opinions. We will find out in October! Here are some pics of the Hovey's baby bumps...

Abby at 16 weeks...not too much to show yet but the pants no longer fit the same!
With all of Abby's food aversions, Paul tries to make up for it having her lacking cravings and working on his "baby belly". No, he really hasn't put on weight...he's just got a flexible tummy I guess! :)

Paul and I went on a hike at Mt Falcon Park last weekend, a park only about 25 min. from where we live. We tried to get an early start as it warmed up quick that day and the trail wasn't too shady! We have also enjoyed going for some bike rides together and are thankful Abby feels up to doing these things again!

Mt. Falcon Park

We saw this friendly little guy on the trail we were on. You have to watch where you're stepping as these snakes blend in pretty well!

Paul and I on the trail

We're headed home over Labor Day weekend for a quick trip. Paul's Grandma and Grandpa Hovey are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary! We are very excited about going home and celebrating such a special occasion!