Big Announcement!

Louie and I are very excited to announce that we have a baby on the way! My due date is Aug. 8th and I am 19 weeks along. We went today for the "anantomy screening" and "growth screening" and we have a very healthy little baby in there.

Watch the video to find out what we are having!!

We have not decided on a name yet but we will keep you guys posted. It may be kept hush-hush until Little Stryker arrives. :) Here are some pictures:

A profile shot

Being a little dramatic! The back of the hand is resting on the forehead.

A perfect little foot.

Another profile picture

We will post again soon! Love, Catherine & Louie

Misc. Jan/Feb 2009

I put together some random pictures from Jan./Feb. that I thought you all might get a kick out of. The first set of pictures in the slide show is from this year's Polar Bear Plunge. In case you don't remember from last year, the way it works is teams of people get together and raise money for the event (similar to a marathon). This event benefits the Special Olympics. Then on Feb. 14th they head out to a small lake, cut a hole in the ice and the teams take turns jumping in the water. Crazy!! This year was actually a lot warmer than last year. Last year, the windchill was about -20 and this year is was a tropical 10 degrees. Because of the "warm front" there was a much better turn out this year and the costumes were in full swing. Brrrr!

The next couple of pictures are from our friend Emily's Golden Birthday. What you ask is a Golden Birthday?? Well, evidently the people from the north have an extra special celebration when you turn the age of your birthdate. For example, my Golden Birthday was when I turned 18 because I was born on Feb. 18th. Darn! I missed the opportunity to dress in gold! Emily took dressing in gold to a whole new level. I had no idea they made gold spandex!

The last few pictures are just random pictures. One from a hockey game and two of my students from school. Enjoy!!

This was a video clip I took of a very creative group just before

they plunged into the water at the Polar Bear Plunge.

Mini Vacation

Due to Louie's crazy schedule, he was scheduled to have only one weekend off during his 3 month rotation of trauma, we decided to take a mini vacation at the end of January. The sad thing was that the weekend off was scheduled by mistake and he actually was not supposed to have any weekends off. One is definitely better than none.

In honor of the occasion, I booked a room in St. Paul and we headed to The Cities for the night. This happened to be the same weekend that Winter Carnival 2009 was going on. Here is the scoop on Winter Carnival:

In 1886, Saint Paul was America’s fastest growing city. Growing from 39,000 residents in 1880 to 120,000 residents in 1886, Saint Paul had also become America’s third largest rail center. To celebrate their city’s success, Saint Paul business leaders produced the inaugural Saint Paul Winter Carnival, which was held during the first two weeks of February in 1886.
In addition to showcasing Saint Paul, the business leaders wanted to disprove a New York newspaper reporter who had described their beloved city as “another Siberia, unfit for human habitation in the winter.” Patterned after Montreal’s Winter Carnival, the first Saint Paul Winter Carnival included parades, skiing, snow shoeing, a blanket tossing contest, and push ball, a game played with giant balls. The most successful attractions were its ice castle and six large toboggan slides.

I love the part about being "another Siberia." A few weeks prior to our trip to St. Paul there were two "Cold Days," which meant it was too cold for school so they canceled. My friend Danielle discovered that it was actually warmer in Siberia those two days than in Rochester!!

Anyways, I put together a slide show of our trip. Enjoy!

PS The windchill was in the negative single digits that day. Fun!