20-week update

I mentioned in my 16-week post that I didn't really look any different...well, four weeks makes a big difference. Here are a few photos of my growing belly in Costa Rica:

Pura Vida

The day after Thanksgiving, Adam and I along with Adam's best friend Zack and his wife Anna traveled to Costa Rica on vacation. The journey to this amazing place started with a drive to DC, flight to Miami, flight to San Jose, and then a four hour drive through the mountains on the craziest, tiniest roads you've ever seen to Manuel Antonio and our rain forest bungalow.

Our two weeks in Costa Rica were great. We spent most of our time on the beach enjoying the sand, sun and the surf. Zack and Adam rented boards down on the beach and rode some consistently nice waist-high waves a few days. We would relax and rest and pack our lunches of veggie or peanut butter sandwiches and plenty of fresh fruit. Our bungalow was nestled up on a hill amongst a few other bungalows and a nearby pool. Our A-frame unit was screened in and had enough blinds for privacy and security bars to keep the monkeys from stealing the kitchenware. We woke every morning to beautiful blue skies and monkeys crashing through the trees and fell asleep every night to the sounds of frogs and chirping bugs. Our bungalow was three miles away from the beach down the very hilly main street. Driving on the roads there kept us always on edge. That being said, driving there was pretty easy and as long as we followed signs and were aware of everything around us and generally took it slow, it was a breeze.

After the first week in CR, Zack and Anna left and Ashley and I were itching to see more places that we could take day trips to. We spent nearly a whole day in Dominical, a small surfing town, and enjoyed the laid back lifestyle. The road to Dominical was recently paved and is arguably the best road in CR. It is wide, flat and smooth with no lines and relatively no speed limit, although 100 km/h seemed to do okay (about 62). While in Dominical, I had the chance to rent a surf board for 8 bucks and left Ashley nervously waiting on the beach as I charged out into 6-10 foot waves. I spent an hour and a half out in the water and caught two waves the entire time while dodging the dozen or so that seemed intent on pummeling me into the sand. But man, those two waves were worth it, although Ashley might disagree. Our last few days there we focused on relaxing and taking life slow and left sunny weather in the 80's for 30 degree weather and a foot plus of snow. Costa Rica is definitely a great place to visit and after being there for two weeks in one place, I would definitely recommend the traveling tours that we saw available as well. There is plenty to see and do. Enjoy!

Check out Zack's flickr photos

Pups to the Beach

After living much of their lives in the midwest, our pups had never seen the ocean or a beach. We spent a couple days before Thanksgiving down in Nags Head and took Nina and Nixon to the beach a few times. We really hoped they both would love it. Our first 10 seconds on the beach were like pure ecstasy to the dogs and then Nina realized that a huge ocean with angry waves was after her and she bolted to the highest dune she could find and refused to budge. Meanwhile, Nixon resumed his obsession with anything that moves and darted after every bird on the beach until it seemed like he was a mile away. So there we were...one dog stuck on the dunes with posted signs all over prohibiting anyone from walking on them for fear of erosion and the other dog running mad down the beach. After we somehow got them both within arms length, we put them on their leashes -- not that it made that much of a difference as Nixon pulled and pulled to go after everything in sight and Nina put on the emergency brake and refused to make a single step. It was cold and windy but we decided to come back a day or two later to take some beach pics hoping for a Christmas card pic...so much for that, but at least we got a family portrait of sorts. Maybe their next trip to the beach will yield better results.

Melou's Baby Shower & 16-Week Update

I am so incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends. My Highrise girls orchestrated a surprise baby shower for our lovely Melissa Coleman (who's due with the first Highrise baby on Christmas Eve) last weekend. We all met in one of Melou's favorite breakfast spots in Harrisonburg and waited for her awesome hubby to bring her to us. We spent the day traveling around the 'burg and sending Melou on a scavenger hunt to gather her baby shower gifts. Our stops included the JMU bookstore (where Melou was to pick out a baby outfit), the farmer's market, and her new house. It was great to see them (Lo and Liss were missed!) and just spend time loving on Melou.

The girls also took a few "bump" photos of me and Melou (see below). I've been getting grief for not posting any bump pictures, but the truth is, I really haven't looked any different until this week. I've gained a little weight (okay, 8 pounds to be exact), but other than that, I'm still fitting into my clothes. From all that I've read, I'm expecting this to change a lot in the next few weeks and I promise to keep you posted.

Melou, we can not wait to meet your new addition! Holls and Erin, thanks for the pics. Love you girls!

Halloween

We hosted a little Halloween costume party for our friends from the team. Nina and Nixon even dressed up, much to their dismay. We enjoyed a ton of food and had a lot of fun as each family and group of friends rolled through the door in increasingly laughable costumes. Present were a safari family, Hugh and his two bunnies, GI Joe, two British rock stars, Alice in Wonderland, and several others. Enjoy our pics!

Sharing our good news

To inform our family that they were soon to be Grandparents we decided to get a little more creative than an awkward phone call. We made a label of our ultrasound pic and attached it to the back of a wine bottle and included a mysterious note simply stating "Congratulations." Then, we sat back and waited for the phone calls...

Ad & Ash + 1

The Cristman family would like to announce......we're expecting a baby!
We couldn't possibly feel more blessed or more excited. We didn't really let this cat out of the bag until the end of October when I was about 12 weeks along. This whole ride has been wonderful. I think I'm extremely lucky as I really haven't experienced any of the yucky symptoms I know so many women go through. We've had two Dr's appointments and all is as it should be -- baby Cristman is healthy and growing fast! That's all for now...I've included a photo of baby at 12 weeks and will post a few more "bump" photos as we progress.

Nina's 1st birthday

The day after Adam came home from surgery (October 4th) was Nina's first birthday! I think I was way more excited about this day than any of my own birthdays and we intended to spoil her rotten. We began the celebration by taking both pups to the Plaza on a long walk on a beautiful fall day. (On a side note, fall is absolutely beautiful here! I only wish we could go apple-picking!) We ended our morning by stopping at Nina's favorite bakery (Three Dog Bakery) and getting a few "boo tarts" and "pup cakes". The rest of the afternoon was filled with Nina's favorite things -- napping in the hammock outside, napping on Adam's lap inside, chasing Nixon, etc. For dinner, Nina enjoyed pieces of our sirloin steak (from our homemade Vietnamese pho soup) and finally, to end the celebration, she donned her birthday hat and enjoyed her first pup cake! Happy Birthday Nina bean :)

What a year for injuries...

Well, after getting over the flu, and working insanely hard to rejoin his teammates, Adam sustained another injury...this time in his abdominal region. He tried very hard to avoid surgery by going to the chiropractor about 5 times in a week and by lots of rest (believe me!), but surgery was inevitable and really what he needed. The team flew Adam to see one of the best docs for his type of injury in Philly early last week. Adam tends to talk every injury down (probably so I don't get freaked out), so I wasn't sure how serious it was, but I was pretty upset that I wouldn't be able to go with him. Luckily, his dad was able to take a train from Richmond and spent a lot of time going to doctor's appointments and keeping Adam company. I was so so thankful that Adam and his dad could spend time together and especially that Adam had someone there watching his back! Adam's surgery was Oct. 2nd and he was flown home the following day...the first few days at home, he was in a lot of pain, but it's only been a week and he seems a lot better. He's been walking a little over a mile or so everyday and that seems to be helping. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! We're crossing our fingers that this was just a bad year of injuries and that next season will be much, much better.

September recap

So it's been a month since I've written anything on here! Reason being is that not much has happened. Our anniversary was September 1st and I wish I could say we did something fun, but unfortunately, Adam and I both came down with the flu that week! Adam started experiencing flu-like symptoms on Monday and it just progressed throughout the week...I didn't really start feeling bad until Wednesday, but it didn't take long for the full effects of the flu to hit me hard! Needless to say, we spent the entire week hunkered down in our house. On the positive side, we were together for a whole week (no work for Adam all week and no work for me for about three days)! Other than that, we've explored a few more dog parks with Nina and Nixon and that's about it! So far, we've been to Stoll (which is right down the street from us), Shawnee Mission, and our favorite, Heritage Park. If Adam were writing right now, he'd tell you that September has been uber eventful -- at least in the realms of fantasy football. Checking on available players, schedules, projected points, etc. has become a part of his daily routine! I'll admit, this drove me crazy at first. But, I spent ALL of last Sunday watching football games with him (which I've never done before...one game, yes, but not three) and I actually kinda got into it! My fantasy team kinda sucked, so now I find myself checking projections, available players, etc. so that I'm not the loser of the family. Anyway, that's about it! Hope everyone is enjoying this transition to fall :)

Fantasy Football Draft 09

It's hard to believe the summer is almost over and that football has already started! This year, Adam decided that a bunch of our family members should create a fantasy football league. So, he promptly set up the league, sent invitations for each member to participate, and scheduled a draft date for the teams. One of my uncles questioned Adam on how we'd pick the order for the draft -- how it'd be fair/how we'd document the process. So, Adam came up with the unique idea of letting our dogs choose the draft order. We wrote out all the team names on small pieces of cardstock and then tied each team to a milk bone. The cardstock pieces were placed, in random order, into a basket with the milk bones and string lined on the floor. One at a time, our dogs were released to make their pick. This was possibly the funniest process thing I've seen in a long time. Adam and I could not stop laughing. We had the NFL theme music playing in the background and Nina and Nixon were definitely taking their jobs very seriously...What was kinda funny was that they ate the milkbones in order, oh and our video camera ran out of juice so the whole draft picking thing isn't even legit! Oh, but it was so worth it :)

Last-minute cookout

After Adam's debut for the Wizards (last Saturday yay!), we randomly decided that we should have a cookout and invite the whole team. A few months ago, I'd probably panic at the thought of having so many people over in such a short amount of time -- when am I going to clean? Plan a menu? Cook? But, after living with Adam for a while, I've kinda come to appreciate all of his last-minute shenanigans. He's always reminding me, "Don't sweat the small stuff, Ash," and he's so right....who am I kidding, the house is clean and I'm not sure a bunch of hungry soccer players really care if I've cooked something with 27 ingredients or just one. Anyway, point of the story is that even though I knew I'd have a bunch of people arriving at my house mid-afternoon on Sunday, Cat and I decided to head to the Plaza, have a leisurly breakfast and shop. We got back to the house with an hour to spare, just enough time to half-way set-up and when all was said and done, we had such a fabulous time. Here are a few photos from our little cook-out :)

House Updates

Here are a few photos of decorating updates in our living room/kitchen area (The before & after)! We're hoping to put in a stone fireplace in about a month so I'll definitely post a few more then! Enjoy :)

Adam's handy work

As promised, here are a few pictures of the retaining/garden wall Adam built. I have to give Catherine (Adam's sister) some credit, too -- she did all the heavy lifting ;) Also, be sure to note Nixon's handy work on our diminishing hydrangeas!