A Fun End to the Summer of 2012

About another month has come and gone so we thought we'd give you an update on our lives!

As we write this Amber is 26 weeks pregnant (only about 14 weeks to go!) and so far the pregnancy could not be running any smoother.  Amber is feeling great.  She will now start OB appointments every two weeks and chiropractic appointments every week.  Very soon we will start heading to birthing classes once a week for the next two months.  Lots of things ahead!

Since our last post we have made sure to live up this last summer of being a family of two humans and one cat because we know that very soon our family will expand!  

During the last weekend of July John had to work a lot during the Janesville City Golf Tournament, but Amber was able to head to Appleton for a few days to spend with her family and attend her family reunion.  She also did the Packer 5K Walk/Run with Mike, Mary and Michelle Okray (Amber and Mary walked while Mike and Michelle ran).  The cool thing about the race is that during the last part you get to walk around Lambeau Field.  Amber and Mary walked the 5K race in less than an hour (which was their goal).

Mary and Amber in the bottom right of the picture. (Mary in pink and Amber in green)

Michelle, Amber, Mary and Mike after the race.

John and Amber headed back up north two days later, however this time they headed to Stevens Point to visit with John's Aunt Nancy and Grandmother who were in town.  It was nice to catch up and chat for a few days with Aunt Nancy and Gram as well as with Mike and Mary.  We also got to visit with our good friends Greg and Ellen Kaye who recently moved to Stevens Point (technically Plover...) from New York.  We finally got to meet their son Charlie too!

Amber, Gram and John (Gram is making sure that we all know Baby Girl's in the picture too!)

John and Charlie (Greg and Ellen's son)

Amber and Charlie (Greg and Ellen's son)

The very next week we headed to Milwaukee to visit Amber's brother Adam and his girlfriend Becky for a few days.  We tailgated and went to a Brewer Game and then spent the next day eating our way though the Wisconsin State Fair.  We also took in the pig races, shark exhibit, walked through the animal barns and bought some fun stuff for the house in the exhibit hall.

Outside of Miller Park before the Brewer Game.

Enjoying the ball game.

Becky and Adam at the Brewer Game.

Pig Races at the Wisconsin State Fair.

John looking for a new car at the State Fair (he didn't buy it though)

We headed back home for two days (just enough time for a few workdays for John, an OB appointment for Amber and a vet appointment for Lambeau) and then headed up north again.  This time we spent a night in Appleton with Amber's family and then made the even farther trek to Marquette and Big Bay Michigan for the wedding of our friends Jen and Tyler.  They had a wonderful Catholic Mass at Jen's home church in Marquette and then had their reception outside at Jen's parents home on Lake Superior in Big Bay, Michigan.  We had a great time catching up with friends, taking in the beautiful scenery and dancing the night away.

Jen and Tyler after the ceremony.

John and Amie by Lake Superior.

Amie and Brian by Lake Superior.

Eric and Sam by Lake Superior.

St. Norbert 2006 Graduates (John, Eric, Jen, Amie, Amber and Nikki)

Amber and Amie by Lake Superior.

By Lake Superior.

Still taking in the scenery.

On our way home from Michigan we stopped for the night in Crivitz, Wisconsin to visit Amber's paternal grandparents and family.  We went out for a very yummy prime rib dinner and then spent most of the evening catching up and watching the London Summer Olympic Closing Ceremonies.  After a short stop at the Packers Pro Shop in Green Bay we finally headed home.

The next week Amber's mom Diane came to visit for a few days.  John had to work most of the time that Diane was in town, but that gave Amber and Diane a lot of time to chat, find some maternity clothes for Amber and find dresses for upcoming Baby Showers and Diane's 50th Birthday Party!  It was a nice and relaxing visit.

The next week we decided that we wanted to have one last hurrah before Amber headed back to work for the school year so we took a mini-vacation to Chicago and stayed with John's Aunt Nancy who lives in a beautiful high-rise condo right across from Museum Park by Lake Michigan.  We meet up with John's cousin Jimmy and his fiance Jen to take in a Brewers vs. Cubs game at Wrigley Field (Brewers dominated!)  We also took a walk by Lake Michigan and spent some time at the Shedd Aquarium.  It was very nice to have one last fun mini-trip to end the summer!

Infront of Wrigley Field.

Inside Wrigley enjoying the game (Jimmy and Jen had seats behind us and you can see Jimmy above Amber's head and Jen just right of John's head.  Double Photo Bomb!)

Finishing up our tour of the Shedd Aquarium.  That's a big fish!

So that basically sums up the last part of our summer.  As we said before Baby Girl is doing well.  We had another ultrasound on August 27th and things are still looking good!

Baby Girl's face

Baby Girl's profile

This ultrasound showed that she's still a girl!

Baby Girl yawning!  (So cute!)

And now pictures of Baby Girl and Amber

**I don't know where 24 Weeks went...

The house building process is coming along nicely.  Most of the outside things are finished so it is mainly inside things that are being worked on now.  We went to our builder about two weeks ago to pick out the last of the finishings such as flooring and countertops and yesterday the drywall was delivered to the house site.  We haven't had a chance to check to see if they were able to install the drywall yet, but as of a few days ago the insulation and vapor barrier was all up.

Here are some of the latest pictures of the house:

All framed and roofed.

Front Door

Front door looking into the house (fireplace straight ahead)

Framing within the house

Siding starting to go up!

Siding, shutters and trim complete.

Thanks for reading once again.  Until next time...Go Pack Go!

Growing and Building!

Well it's been about a month since our last post so I thought that I would update you on the progress of the baby and the house!

First a baby update:  On July 5th we had an appointment with our new OB Dr. Okocha.  She is very nice and really made us feel at ease after our old doctor left for Australia.  We were able to hear the baby's heartbeat again and were assured that everything seems to be progressing well with Amber and with the baby and we were told to schedule our 20 Week Ultrasound.  On July 16th we went in for our ultrasound and were able to find out that Baby Okray is a girl!  We are so excited!  Amber cried and John fist pumped :)  It was wonderful that she was willing to co-operate so that we could see her in all her womb glory!  At the end of the ultrasound she was punching at the ultrasound machine (we think that she was annoyed will all the movement!)  She is currently about 12 oz and growing like a weed and everything is looking good so far!  Anyway, here are some pictures of Baby Girl Okray:

 It's a Girl!  (no boy parts to be seen)

 Heart is looking good!

 Waving at Mom and Dad

 Profile of her beautiful head.

 Whole body profile.

Moving around a little bit.

John's Pre-Father's Day Cake!

 Now pictures of Baby Girl Okray and Amber:

 We swear that we do not make him do this!  

After each picture session Lambeau has gotten into the habit of sitting on the weekly picture.  

He's such a great cat!

Halfway there!

Finally have to use pregnancy clothes...

Now the house update:  They have been officially building our house for 1 month and 4 days and they have made A LOT of progress.  Since digging the basement on June 14th they have poured the basement, added the gravel for the driveway to come as well as framed the house and garage and added the egress windows.  We don't have pictures of this yet, but as of yesterday (July 17th) they added the framing for the roof!  Things are progressing very well and we are very excited to see all the progress so far.  Here are some pictures of the process since groundbreaking.

 Materials ready for basement framing and pouring.

 Basement is poured (hard to see, but it is)

Materials are ready for framing.

House is in the process of framing.

Anything else...well since our last post we celebrated our 3-Year Wedding Anniversary on July 4th.  We celebrated by heading to our favorite Mexican Restaurant El Jardin where we had a wonderful dinner and drinks (non-alcoholic for Amber) and then meet up with some friends to see the Janesville Aqua Jays Waterski Show and then fireworks on the Rock River.  

The Saturday before our anniversary we went over to our friends Sue and Jerry's house for a party and Freedom Fest Fireworks.  Freedom Fest is an annual festival at New Life Church in Janesville that has awesome fireworks!  The fireworks are shot off across the street from our new home!  Which Amber is very excited about, however, John is a little nervous about...I guess we'll see how things work out next year when we're able to see them from our house!

Amber has been working summer school where she is teaching math and munching on books to 1st Graders.  She's enjoying the experience as much as possible, but is ready for this hot weather to be over with!  Only 7 more summer school teaching days left and then she'll get to rest for the month of August!  Also, Amber was able to get together with her "Music Girls" at the end of June.  They were together for 24 hours and only stopped talking when they were sleeping!  A tradition that the "Music Group" will have to continue every year!

 The "Music Girls" (Amie, Mallory, Cristina, Amber and Justine)

Now in a goofy pose!

Well until next time!  Go Pack Go!

Our New Home

Since our last "baby news" post in May we have had a lot more happen in the Okray household.  During our house hunt the past few months we found a floor plan that we really loved.  There were two of these houses available in the neighborhood that we wanted, but one was sold to someone else :( and the other was very over-priced so on the recommendation of our realtor we decided to talk to the builder of those houses to see how much it would be to build a new house with that floor plan.  We were very excited to find out that it would be much less expensive to build this particular house with all the features that we wanted than to try and negotiate with the over-priced house on the market.

So on May 30th we signed a contract with Preferred Builders in Janesville, WI to start construction on our new 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home in the neighborhood in Janesville that we've been wanting to locate to.  On Thursday June 7th they officially put up the sold sign and on Thursday June 14th they began to dig the basement.  It is guaranteed to be ready by November 30th, but will hopefully be done ahead of schedule (we're keeping our fingers crossed!)  Once the outside shell is built we will have a better idea of when our closing date will be because at that point the build will not depend on the weather.

Us by our Sold Sign on June 9th, 2012

Digging out our basement on June 14th, 2012

During the past month we had our last appointment with our wonderful doctor of three years :( She will  finish her residency here in Janesville and will be leaving at the end of June to practice medicine in Australia!  We are really going to miss her, but we wish her well!  Don't worry we are in good hands with another doctor for the rest of pregnancy.  

Speaking of Baby Okray he or she is about 16 weeks along and doing very well.  Strong heartbeat and during this past week Amber has started to feel the flutter of baby movement every now and then!  Amber's clothes are starting to get a bit small, but she's still in the in-between-regular-and-maternity-wear right now.  Here are some pictures of Baby Okray's progress.

 We don't want Lambeau to feel left out!

Other than house building and baby news we've managed to have some other fun events during these last few weeks.  The weekend of May 27th, 2012 was spent in Milwaukee celebrating our good friends Amie and Brian become husband and wife.  We both took part in the wedding with Amber being a Matron of Honor and singing during the sand ceremony and with John reading a passage during the service.  We had a great time during the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding, party bus and reception.  It was great to catch up with our college friends as it gets harder to do with all of our busy lives.

Us at the rehearsal dinner on May 26th, 2012

Amie and Brian during the sand ceremony on their wedding day:  May 27th, 2012

Us at the reception on May 27th, 2012

The day after Amie and Brian's wedding we met up with Amber's grandparents (Betty and Norb) and Amber's brother Adam and his girlfriend Becky for lunch and to let balloons go at the cemetery as May 27th, 2012 was the 12th anniversary of Amber's Dad's (Vern) death.  And as Amber types this on June 16th, 2012 it would have been her brother Kyle's 26th Birthday.  Some bittersweet moments along with all the excitement in our lives.  

Sending ballons to heaven in honor of Vern on May 28th, 2012

So with those events came the end of May and during the next two weeks Amber wrapped up the 2011-2012 School Year.  She is now getting ready for the start of the six week summer school session which starts on Monday.  John is going on an eight day stretch of working (sometimes 12 to 14 hour days!) and we're both trying to beat the heat of the already hot spring and summer that we're having.

Well until next time!  Go Pack Go!

Baby Makes Four

John and I have had a crazy two months since our last blogpost.  At the very end of March we found out that Amber was pregnant with our first child.

Positive pregnancy test on March 31st, 2012

Two days later we confirmed the pregnancy at the doctor's office and then a week later we got to see the first picture of our little one.

Baby Okray's first photo on April 9th, 2012 (6 weeks and 1 day)

Baby Okray is due on December 2nd, 2012 and we couldn't be happier to be parents in a little over 6 months!  A few weeks later we got to hear the baby's heartbeat and that was pretty amazing!

Baby Okray's heartbeat on May 9th, 2012 (10 weeks and 3 days)

As of today we have made the announcement "Facebook Official" and are very excited with all the congratulations and well wishes as we embark on this new phase of our lives.

"Facebook Official" Announcement on May 19th, 2012 (11 weeks and 6 days)

Baby Okray is starting to "sprout" on May 19th, 2012 (11 weeks and 6 days)

In addition to the awesome baby news we received some other wonderful news.  Amber's school district (the School District of Beloit) passed a $70 Million referendum and will be building a new school within the district and adding onto eight other schools within the district.  Since this referendum passed Amber will be getting a music room and most likely not have to travel from school to school or room to room to teach music!  Because of this referendum passing we have decided to stay in Janesville and have begun house hunting.  We are very excited to make Janesville our permanent home where we will raise our first child and can't wait to find a home to call our own.

In the past two months we've also gotten to celebrate our friend Avery's 30th Birthday (it was a surprise and we definitely pulled off the surprise!)  We also went to see "Avenue Q" with some friends in Janesville and if you ever get a chance to see that musical it is awesome!

At the end of March Amber helped plan an awesome bridal shower for one of our best friends, Amie, and had a wonderful time the next month at Amie's bachelorette party.

John's trivia team "Festivus for the Rest of Us" won the world's largest trivia contest which is hosted every year by WWSP Radio Station!  They have been working on winning this contest for 11 years and are very excited to be champions!

My that's a lot of stuff!  We'll leave you with that for now!  Until next time!  Go Pack Go!