I love my firefighter!!

Yes, it has been quite some time, but I am here. For now anyways! :)

I know I posted about John graduating from the Houston Fire Academy but I wanted to post some pictures from his graduation. He has officially started at his station and is loving it. I am so proud of him! It's really different with him working 24 hour shifts. It will take some time for me to get used to.

The official graduation day was January 8th. To start the day, we met at the Fire Academy where some of the cadets demonstrated some of their firefighting skills. After that, we were given a tour of the academy by John and then had some bbq for lunch.

The Christmas Tree fire.

Can you see the guys on the other side of the fog pattern/water?

After John gave us the tour, I made him stop and take pictures.

John and his parents.


Before eating some BBQ.

After experiencing the fire academy it was time to go home and get ready for the graduation ceremony at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

John taking his oath.

Kuohui, Jim, Jeannie, and Joseph

Holly came to support John too!! :) She's such a great sister and SLAW!!

The yummy cake after the graduation.

John and his parents after the graduation ceremony!

Christmas Pictures!!

My computer FINALLY let me upload pictures from my camera. Here are some pictures from Christmas!!

Just before we went to the Christmas Eve service.

Our stockings!! Even Hope has a little stocking. The other small stocking without a name is for Baby J. But no worries, he will have one just like ours for his first Christmas!

Putting presents under the tree. If you look closely you can see my baby bump!

I love my husband so much!! :)


BLAW and SLAW together!!

Christmas at the Suchecki's (John's parents)

My Mother-in-law! Love her!! :)

Holly's awesome stocking stuffer from John.

Christmas at Gam's house. (you can see the baby bump again!)

Holly and Tyler :)

I love my Daddy and his silly t-shirts!!


My Grandad! :)

Precious Grandma and my hubsters!
I love my Grandma! :)

Way too long

So I realize it has been way too long since I have posted. I thought since I had two weeks off for Christmas break that I would get some blogging done. However, I was not on the computer nearly as much I usually am. But no fear, I am back and with some updates on the Suchecki family! :)

Since the belly update, I am obviously getting bigger (and I feel bigger every day!!). Baby J is moving around like crazy! John is able to feel him moving around as well. Over the Christmas break, I had a doctor's appointment where my doctor decided to tell me that since week 16, I have been measuring 2 weeks bigger. So here we are now at 24 weeks, measuring at 26 weeks! Crazy! No wonder I feel big!! :) In a couple of weeks, I will be going in for the glucose tolerance test, which I hear isn't too bad.

Over the break, my sister Holly Jo came and stayed with us for a few days. We spent time with John's family here in Houston and then made our way to Greenville to see my side of the family. We also got to meet Holly's boo, Tyler. Such a sweet guy! I approve! :)

After visiting with the families, John and I headed to the deer lease for the last weekend of hunting season. We still had 3 does and a buck to get between the two of us. John had already gotten his buck, so I was on the look out for mine during this trip. In the end we ended up with 3 does and 3 pigs. No buck for me this year. At least there's next year! :)

Since then, we have been back to work. John is finishing up at the Houston Fire Academy. He actually graduated last Thursday! :) I was able to take the day off for the fire demonstration and luncheon at the Fire Academy and then graduation at the George R. Brown Convention Center that evening. I am SO proud of my firefighter!! :)

I will be posting pictures soooon!! I was unable to get the pictures loaded on the computer for some odd reason. I will attempt again this weekend!

Belly Pics

So I haven't been really good about taking any belly pics. However, today I decided we should probably take some since my belly is growing so much!! Here are all the pics we've taken so far.

Here we are at 5 weeks! Gosh... I didn't realize I was that thin!

Somewhere between 12 and 15 weeks. I can't remember for sure. But you can definitely see the thickening of the waist. **Side note: ignore the stupid face I'm making.**

So here we are now at 20 weeks. Baby J is growing and some am I!!

A little wiggle worm!

I am attempting to post a video we got from our dr appointment last week of Baby J wiggling around. :) I know he's moving because I saw him moving like CRAZY last Friday. At one point he turned 180 degrees. However... I haven't felt him move. I'm beginning to think, I just really don't know what I am supposed to feel. Or maybe... I am just that visual of a person that I need to see him move to know that he is really moving. Who knows!! :)





The next video is one of Baby J sucking his thumb (that's what it looks like he's doing anyway). But you can also see his heart beating. WOW!! Also the black circle is his stomach!! It's so amazing what technology can capture these days. :)

DONE!!

Things I can do now that my research paper is complete:

• Catch up on my missed Grey's Anatomy
• Christmas cards
• Finish Christmas shopping
• READ for enjoyment :)
  
• Have Monday nights off (no more class-til January anyways)
• Stop stressing about my research paper and portfolio
  

I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to my mind right now!! :)

Reinforcement and Motivation

Sadly, today John is working a 24 hour shift. :( However, since he is gone, I have no excuse for not working on my school work. Now, you may say, "Kari... you are blogging right now and NOT working on your school work." This is definitely TRUE!! BUT... since I got up this morning I have been working on school work. I told myself when I finished my portfolio which is due tomorrow, that I can blog. **Katrina- I'm bribing and motivating myself with internet instead of food this time. :)** Using reinforcement strategies so I can do the things I really want to do!! :)

So here I am... portfolio is finished, so I am getting to update you guys on the BIG day we had on Friday. As most of you know, we were had an ultrasound scheduled for Friday for our baby's anatomy scan. Not only would they look at the development of all of the baby, they would also tell us the gender, which we were VERY excited to find out. Since I am in there by myself at first, I chose not to look at the screen until John was able to be in there with me. I wanted to share that moment together. And WOW... what they can see these days using technology is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! Neither one of us could stop smiling. Thankfully, our little baby decided to cooperate today and did give us a little show! :)

From the poll we had on our blog, 54% thought it would be a boy while, 45% thought it would be a girl. Thanks to EVERYONE who voted in our poll. I loved watching the poll! It made me giggle to think that most of the time it stayed 50/50 since ultimately those are the odds! Thanks again!

I am leaving you with a picture of our baby! I'll let the picture doing the talking! :)

John's favorite picture because you can see his entire spine! So incredible!

I will post more pictures and video of our little baby boy wiggling around!

Now off to work on my paper!
Next bribe: Finish paper, then I get to catch up on the Grey's Anatomy episodes I have missed. :)