Happy 27th!!!

On Wednesday Cody celebrated his 27th birthday!  I think that officially moves him from his "mid-twenties" to his "late twenties."  That's a pretty big step.  We celebrated by ordering stuffed crust supreme Pizza Hut pizza the night before.  This is Cody's favorite food.  Then on Wednesday we went with 10 American friends to the bowling alley and food court to eat dinner. Cody ate Domino's pizza (the guy LOVES pizza) and I ate fried rice and avocado/cucumber sushi rolls.  


Here is Cody's professional bowling stance.  He's pretty competitive (with himself) and gets frustrated when he has a bad night.  We usually only bowl one game because it's pretty expensive.  
Here's my "professional" bowling technique.  Pretty fancy, right?


Here's me and my two bowling balls.  I don't think our Baby Girl liked bowling very much.  I was so sore the next day!  (I never read anything about not bowling starting your sixth month of pregnancy :)
Then we all came back to our house and ate tons of cake, cookies, peanut butter bars and more goodness.  Cody knew from the start they were trick candles b/c they were sparkling :)  We then played some games.  On Saturday night we went to a really nice steak restaurant in a nearby city with friends for another birthday dinner!  We each had the filet that you could dip in one of four sauces.   SO GOOD!  The baked potato was incredible too.  Oh great...Now I am hungry!


This week Cody and I went to his friends house for cous cous and to give him a guitar that someone from the States donated.  This is the friend that Cody has been teaching how to play guitar.  This family was so super sweet and the best part is they didn't make us keep eating until we wanted to throw up.  That was a nice surprise.  
If you are wondering why we are sweating profusely in all the photos it's because things have really heated up this week.  Right now it's 93 degrees but the humidity is so high it feels like a 123 degrees!  There is no relief since we have no air conditioning.  BUT I get to swimming in a real pool this week with some friends!  Anyway, back to the picture at hand.  As Cody and I were sweating the afternoon away at some different friends house we went for a walk only to discover this dancing Coca Cola polar bear.  Complete with igloos and everything.  I can't download my videos right now to show you but the dude wasn't moving very much.  He was probably afraid he would pass out.  He just sort of waved his arms half-heartedly in the air.

Remember my friend Phyllis from the village that lived here for awhile and we've gone down to see several times?  We'll she MADE me this gorgeous rug!  I love the colors and she knew that crosses were special to us.  The brown part is dyed with henna.  

BG Update:

-BG weighs a pound!  I can feel her more and more active in there.  Sometimes she gets so close to the front I think she's gone pop through.  Other times I can't feel her at all.  Her kicks are still really light.  Maybe she'll take it easy on her Mama the whole time!  I already have people telling me, wait 'till she gets big and kicks you in the ribs!  

-This week we were at a family's house and the guy was telling Cody (with me sitting right there):  "You need to take your wife for a walk every night to make sure she doesn't get fat.  Don't let her sleep too much, either."  The weird thing is they keep saying "EAT, EAT...the baby needs more food!"  Really? 

I really enjoy how he talks ABOUT me to Cody when I am sitting right there.  After we finished gorging ourselves at lunch he told us it was too hot to go outside because of my fragile pregnant state.  Instead, we roasted and dripped sweat for the next three hours while being forced to take a nap and then drink hot coffee and milk!  Ahh...cultural relevance.  

As a comparison shot:

Can you believe what a difference two months makes!  I keep putting on clothes in the morning and realizing they no longer fit!  

Beach and Desert Trip

This week we took our summer group down south to a desert city and then we took a day excursion to a beach/fishing port city.  (about 3 hours by bus)  We stopped at this place where old women make Argan oil from Argan nuts.  I thought this lady was so precious.  

Here is the fishing port.  We watched the fisherman come in an unload their catches for the day.  They still do it the old fashion way on these small boats.  You can eat the best fresh seafood here.  Last time I bargained em' down to whole crab for $5!

Me and BG enjoying the ocean breeze.  She did so well on this trip.  I didn't get sick at all and had the energy to walk for hours on end.  When we got home on Saturday it all caught up to me and I was EX-hausted!  The only inconvenience was my incessant need to use the bathroom. Especially on the train...deee-sgusting.  

I bought a little painting on sand stone for BG's room.  She's gonna have a North African themed nursery, now everything I see I want to buy for her room.  

Enjoying the sights of the market.  This is our favorite beach city to visit.  Its sister city is in the mountains (we went to for our third anniversary...remember?) and that is favorite city in the country.  

These kids were jumping off this bridge into this nasty port water.  They really started showing off when the foreigners started taking pictures.  

Here is the desert city.  It was SUPER hot and dry, reminded us of Las Cruces.  This is the main square and market at night.  All these food vendors come out and start cooking on the grill and then performers will come out and try to make money by doing various acts.  There are acrobats, snake charmers, palm readers, ladies doing henna, storytellers, belly dancers and more.  They will also try to put monkeys on your head so you will take a picture with them and pay them.  It's nut-so and stressful but a must see.  


Around midnight after a long, sunburned day at the beach.  

BabyG Update:

-BG has pretty much taken the form of a newborn baby, only skinnier.  Her skin is still wrinkly because she has a lot of weight to gain to fill it out.  

-Last night as I worked on the laptop I felt her moving around as  and I was looking at my stomach I actually saw where she kicked!  Two times she pushed out, it was crazy but unfortunately it was 2 a.m. and Cody was asleep.  The kicks aren't hard yet but they are positions I put myself in and she goes wild.  

We go to an international church and everybody was commenting on I grew and I look pregnant.  Here is us yesterday after church.  So far I love being pregnant and I am feeling pretty good.  

She's a Cutie!

Big week in baby news.  We went to our 20 week ultrasound and finally discovered BG is a girl! Woot Woot!  No more he/she/it questions.  I realize I am sitting very awkward in this picture but it was taken on a timer below us and we only took one.  I really grew a lot these last two weeks. People are starting to tell me this week that I am showing and they can tell I am pregnant. And somebody finally asked if I was pregnant...yes!! I will have to wear a fitted shirt for my pic next week so you can see my Garrett Gut better.

Weird pregnant lady food.  Here are my parmesan and garlic salt tomato and bell peppers.  Random lunch, I know.  Cody wasn't home so I could fix whatever I wanted.   

BG's first outfits!  My friend Sherry gave us these onesies the day we found she was a girl!  How sweet, I can't believe she's going to be that small! 

We strolled the old city with some friends yesterday.  It was HOT and I was sweaty and swollen...pretty right?  Cody absolutely would not let me go ice skating even though I had a buy one get one free coupon.  But fortunately my friends were able to use it and they had fun!

Okay, on to the ultrasound day.  At first BG was showing us her bit again.  But then she decided to "relieve" herself when the doc was switched back to 2D and we were able identify.  I absolutely knew she was a girl for several weeks now.  I was so positive and would have been shocked if it was a boy.  I love this first pic.  It's a great profile pic of her nose and lips.  You can clearly see the umbilical cord and her tiny fingers.  As soon as we saw her face the Doc exclaimed "She has your nose!"  

Cody was able to get some video of her moving around but for some reason I can't get video off my camera right now.  Here is a pretty good face shot but her hand is front and she's moving.  

Look at her ribs!  Right now she only weighs 11 ounces (a  pound is 18 oz) but she is already half of her birth length (10 inches)!  So in the next 20 weeks she's gonna put on a lot of weight.  (hopefully no more than 7 pounds :)  I can't believe we are over half way there to meeting her!  

I realize I am like one of the crazy moms already posting tons of pics but I think these are so cool.  So much detail and I can't wait for my next one!

Anyway, Happy Father's Day to all you dedicated Dads!!!  I know Cody is going to be a fantastic Dad to his little girl because he's such a fantastic husband already!  

the Grande Mosque, leftovers, and one inch feet

Okay, okay...I know I've showed ya'll pics of this things SOO many times but I didn't take many photos this week.  This is about an hour away and sits right on the edge of the ocean.  It holds 25,000 prayer's, of which 5,000 can be women.  Plus 80,000 more can fit in the courtyard.  

Here are twin boys that I was talking with as we walked around.  The younger twin was more developed and could walk and and run around but the older was still crawling.  The taller one in front couldn't stand on his own.  Aren't they beautiful!

So, as to include Cody here is a picture of him doing our financial report today.  Every month we have to turn in an expense report in and it's super long and complicated.  I have never even looked at it and couldn't do it if I had to.  Luckily, my husband is good at that stuff and I don't have to worry about it.  
We made a stop at Kentucky Fried Chicken in a nearby big city.  The literal translation on the sign is "Chicken Ken-tacky."  (pronounced djaj kn-tacky)  I guess "fried" wasn't very catchy so they left it out.  

Here are some wedding pics from Kelly's camera.  Aren't our parents adorable!  

And...I just thought this one looked cool with the sparklers.  Shell and me about to see the happy couple off.  

BG Update:

-Four more days until the next ultrasound!  I can't wait to finally know if lil BG is a boy or girl!

-My uterus is currently at my belly button...and it's definitely starting to pop out now.  Some outfits you can really tell I'm pregnant and others I still just look a little full and bloated.  

-BG's nerves that connect the muscles to the brain have grown into place and now BG's moves are consciously directed.  

-My favorite fact of the week is that BG's feet are one inch long...how sweet!  I can't wait to tickle those little feet!  


Here's my Garrett Gut as we pose at the grande mosque.  

Second Half of Wedding Trip

I didn't get many photos of the wedding with my own camera but I did get some from Cody's Mom. Obviously I don't have any of the ceremony because I was in it but when they get the pics back I can post some nice ones of the whole fam. Here is the blushing bride before we go out. We had a pretty relaxing day getting our hair and makeup done and hanging out.

The wedding cake. Aren't those layers huge?! Don't be fooled, when you cut into it, it actually was two layers in each one.


The groom's cake...mmmm....so much chocolate.
Me and BG before the festivities began. Won't be wearing that dress again until after the baby is born!

The three of us. This is Cody's new suit that all the groomsmen bought. He looks so good!

Cody hanging out with the boys.

The Hendo's came down to the wedding! I have known this family since I was 8 years old! This is Michelle (Shell) and Kelly. So great to see you guys!

Awww...bride and groom's first dance. The band was super good. The singer sounded like the girl from Elf, you know the one that sing's in the shower?

Here is the Garrett fam. I'll have to wait until we get the photographer's photo's to get a pic of the Johnson fam.

As Sarah and Jason were leaving we lit sparklers for them to run through. It was so pretty! The next day the took off on their honeymoon to Venice.

Giving Cody some lovin.' I love how the girl did my hair. It was so summery and fun. Well that's all I got for our trip to America. Wal-Mart was like a dream come true and I brought back a suitcase of granola bars, cereal, peanut butter, and oatmeal for our last two months.

See you next week!