Picture of the Sommerhauser Cutie!

The ultrasound went well this week and the doctor says that Joella continues to be doing very good...so without any further delay, here is a picture of the cutie!

Springtime

It is nice to finally see the grass green up and various trees starting to bud. We have been trying to plant more perennials every year in order to cut down on future maintenance, but we are lucky if 2/3 of them survive the whole year. We have also been trying to keep the Lowes receipts for our perennials so this year we will take them up on the 1 year guarantee. I will have to add some more pictures of the front and back yards once I finish the various projects, but Joella just laughs because she says that once I'm done I will just change my mind and add some new projects. This year I will have to get the outside project done soon because there is still plenty of indoor work coming up.

We are all doing well and we have several big doctors visits over the next couple of weeks. Once again, I will remind everyone that we are not finding whether we are having a boy or a girl, but we really appreciated everyone's prayers and good wishes.

For your entertainment, below is a video clip from the First Robotics Regional in Minnesota a couple of weeks ago. The Lee's Summit North team is the Broncobots - #1987 with black bumpers that launches the ball. The organizers archived video clips from the entire competition on their website so if you want to see more just Google Minnesota First Robotics Regional.

Oh yeah, and I made sure that I added the video clip where they were singing "Cotton Eye Joe" just for Matt and Mia...makes you feel like you're sitting right there at a Blues game.

Robot Competition News

Although the Lee's Summit North Highschool robot team lost in the first round of the playoffs last weekend in Minnesota, they succeeded in winning the Engineering Inspiration award which automaticly qualified them for the national competition in Atlanta two weeks from today. Joella is excited to be going with them on another trip, but this time she will fly and instead of taking the bus. Wish them luck as they compete against the best robots from across the country. NASA will be broadcasting the competition on the web so you are welcome to watch from the comfort of your own home like I will be doing.

Another Weekend Goes By

This weekend we managed to start cleaning out our spare bedroom which will eventually become the nursery. The giant corner computer desk that we have is still only partly cleaned off and we really can't put it out for sale until we get all of the miscellaneous stuff packed away somewhere else. We did take some time out today to register for more baby items at Target. Maybe next week we will go back to Babies R Us and finish off the list. Those are the two stores that we will register at, but we assure you all that we will love everything that we receive wherever it comes from.

All of our doctor visits have continued to go well and we will have the 20 week ultrasound during the first half of April. Ultrasound pictures will be cropped before they are shared with everyone because there are many resourceful people out there, and no, we will not being finding out whether we are having a boy or a girl.

More Accomplished This Weekend!

With clothes washing/drying going well and daylight savings time inspiring us, we ventured out to Babies R Us this afternoon and started registering. Joella took it easy on me and we only registered for a few things. We did want to pick out several major items, especially the bedding set so we can start thinking about how we will paint the nursery. I am sure that people will be looking at the registry faster than this blog is read, but for a quicker sneak peak, here are some pictures of the highlights...

The puppies certainly don't understand what is coming, but they have been pretty good around babies in the past. Mollie's snout pokes and Lucy's barking are fairly harmless, but it will definitely be different when the baby does not go away after a few days. Mollie and Lucy are still our spoiled puppies, though, and to prove it here is a link to a doggie calendar that I made for my mom earlier this year:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/project/2BaOGrFq3Yu0A/landing

The calendar has plenty of cute pictures of Mollie and Lucy along with their doggie cousin Cocoa. We will see how Lucy responds the first time she gets to meet Cocoa. I am sure that they will all get along, but with Lucy you can bet that there will be some barking involved!

A Somewhat Productive Weekend

The weekend has gone fairly well so far since Joella successfully fixed our dryer this morning. The heating element went out on the dryer earlier in the week so the mountain of clothes was getting quite big. It was nice to pull the washer and dryer out from the utility closet because we were able to give the whole area a good cleaning. We finished all that work by lunchtime so we went downtown and watched the Kansas City regional robot competition. Joella worked with the Lee's Summit North team and they were not in the local competition, but we did see some other local schools and several people from her work who worked with those schools. You can look at the Lee's Summit North team website at http://www.teambroncobots.com/ ...everyone is looking forward to the Minnesota regional later this month.

I will stay home with puppies and Joella will be partying with the students and mentors on the team bus. We will have to see how many time Joella has to use the bathroom on the bus during the roadtrip.

Below is a link to more pictures from our ski trip last month. There are plenty of good pictures to look at so enjoy...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24485358@N07/

Ski Trip Update and Pictures

Several weeks ago over the President's Day weekend we had a great ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. Joella and I went with my brother Karl and his family - Loretta, Maggie, and Amelia. Our friends Adam and Angela actually planned the trip and they traveled with their children Allison and Andrew. Joella and I are actually the godparents of Allison and Andrew so we get to see them fairly often. Angela is also currently pregnant and she was extremely excited to hear our good news.

Amelia had a chance to play in the snow and all of the kids got along together very well. Allison and Maggie skied the second day and all of the guys skied the first and third days. The house that we stayed in was very nice and within easy walking distance to the gondola which took us up the mountain to the ski area.

We were able to find a nice man who took a group picture of us all and the kids picture that we took at the very end of the trip turned out great.