15 Weeks

We had our second midwife appointment on Wednesday. All is well. Got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, which was great. Beating in the high 150s. Won't share my weight gain with you. That's a nice little secret for me and Noah. Ha! But as you can see below, there is something to show...and I can really tell because I'm down to 3 pairs of pants I can wear. Mom and I are heading out this weekend to do a little shopping. Hopefully I won't have to spend a fortune to find some clothes for work.

Combine Derby - Only in Iowa!

So Noah's farming partner for the second year in a row participated in the Boone County Fair Combine Derby. It's like a demolishion derby only with combines! Only in Iowa would something like this could be considered entertainment! Talk about farm life at its best! (Totally kidding.)

Last year, Caleb finished 2nd! This year, a disappointing 5th out of 8. But we had fun watching. Enjoy the photos below...

Caleb in his combine...specially decorated. "Thug #1" is my dad's knickname for Caleb. Noah is "Thug #2".

Caleb going head to head with the guy who won last year in Round 1.

Following Round 1 - participants gets 30 minutes to fix what they can and get back in the ring. So Caleb had a full pit crew there to help. Here, John Henry is welding something back on.

Here, Caleb also doing some welding.

Cousins' Weekend

Over the weekend was our 2nd Annual Sandquist Cousins' Weekend. We head north to our cousin Mary's cabin, near Cross Lake, Minnesota. 7 of the 9 of us cousins were able to make it. Jill traveled from Pennsylvania, Todd from North Caroline, Jodi & Lori from Twin Cities, and my sister and I from Iowa. The only two missing were Mark in New York and Sarah in Pennsylvania. We hope they can make it next year.

We had lots of fun, lots of food and beverage (alcoholic for everyone but me!), lots of laughs and lots of memories/stories of our family. We are already looking forward to next year's. Some highlights include:

• Jodi's Pink Panty Pulldowns - a new drink of vodka, pink lemonade
• Amy's orange slushy drink - even I enjoyed this one as she made me a virgin one!
• Lori getting Mary & Jill addicted to the Bud Lite Chelada (beer with tomato juice)
• Mary's acrobatics during a wild game of Guestures
• Todd's fireworks shows & wakeboarding skills
• Jill's attempt to waterski on one ski for the first time while some young boys used binoculars to observe
• One surprise baby shower for me! All gifts were in celebration of our G'ma Lorraine
• Learning about "Whiskey Plates" - special license plates for Minnesota residents who have had 3 DUIs...the plates all start with the letter W
• Mary's great new fire pit
• Jodi's "slide" into first base in a mean game of wiffle ball
• Amy's graceful jump serve that landed her face down in the sand during a volleyball match

Some photos from the festivities:

The stash of candy we enjoyed all weekend.

Lori spotted "whiskey plates" so we had to do a quicky u-turn and go see for ourselves!

The beautiful campfire...courtesy of our firemaker - Todd!

Lori displaying the wonderful Chelada!

Bump Debut

At nearly 12.5 weeks...there's a little something to show - already! The second photo shows it even better. This is only the beginning!