Merry Christmas

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas Day. Our parents came over to help us celebrate Jacoby's first Christmas which was nice since we haven't been out of the house in days due to the weather. Hope you enjoy some pictures from today.

Mommy and Jacoby

Jacoby (notice the writing on the shirt)

Grandma & Grandpa Gellner

The Gellner Family

Snow sucks...and more baby photos.

Seriously, worst storm in 60 years or something like that. I have tried for several days to make it to work, but the two snowplows that the city own and nowhere to be seen. My latest hobby is watching our digital thermometer to see if we can get closer to freezing. today it has gone up 5 degrees in 2 hours, so hopefully the thaw is on and the weather forecasters are off on another snowstorm tomorrow. Hopefully it is all rain and we can be done with it!

The kid? Oh he is doing pretty good I guess. His latest hobby is fussing through the nights again, so it is a little frustrating because we thought we had a good thing going last week when he slept for three consecutive nights. We'll figure it out, but man, seriously...how many outfits can a baby pee through in a day. Maybe that should be our next poll.

Keep you fingers crossed for the big melt so we can make it out for Christmas Eve. in the meantime, here are a couple more photos of my little boy...

Our little dude quietly contemplating his next move

Cousin's Johanna and Adelle and their real-life dolly.

Uncle Travis and our little Pope.

We spend many long evenings staring at our Christmas Tree

Pooh Bear after a pot of honey

Snow please go away!!

I really wish this snow would go away. I am starting to go a little stir crazy from being home so much. The highlight of the day has been getting the mail. Too bad it is Sunday and there is no mail today. I don't ever remember a time having so much snow for so many days. We got 8 inches of snow on Saturday. It was snowing when I got up at 5:30 (thanks to Jacoby) and snowed for over 12 hours.

Speaking of Jacoby, he did really good for 3 nights only waking up once or twice. But the last 2 nights have been a different story. In fact he is crying right now. Here I thought he would sleep for a while, oh silly me.

Dr Jacoby and Mr Hyde

Well, just a day after Stacy and I celebrated our first evening where Jacoby slept in his bassinet soundly through the night, he decided to change the rules on us again last night. Fussing, hungry, tired, wants to be held, does not want to be held, kicks his socks off?? So basically 7 hours of sleep Friday and 2 last night gives us and average of 4.5, so congratulations to those of you chose 4-5 hours sleep this month.

Still though, the kid is gosh darn cute and I just can't bear to sell him to the gypsies just yet, but we shall see how tonight goes. So far he seems pretty mellow. Fingers crossed.

On another note, even on lack of sleep and a driving snow storm, we still found a way to get ourselves a Christmas tree (thanks to Megan and friends for picking one up for us and braving the stupid Portland drivers). Lights are up and we will slowly add ornaments as the mood strikes us...at 4 am.

Well, off to bed, gotta find a way to get to work tomorrow!

Mike

S

Jacoby is 5 days old....

So in a way it feels like it has been a lot longer. We are all adjusting to each other and managing to get some sleep. The last few nights Mike and I have slept in shifts. So far it seems to be working. Mike sleeps for 3 hours while I am up with Jacoby and then I get to sleep for 3 hours while he is awake.


Today's goal is to work on getting Jacoby to sleep in his bassinet for more than 30 minutes. Yesterday I tried laying him down on the floor while he slept in the living room. He actually slept for over an hour. I was so very happy, it allowed me to go thru all the mail that was piling up.


Thank goodness for Grandmas. They came to our rescue on Friday and Saturday. Mike's mom was here on Friday and then my mom was here yesterday. This allowed me to take a nap on both days and for Mike to sleep and play a little Call of Duty. I think he is going thru game withdrawals. Thank you for all your help Grandma G. and Grandma O.


Jacoby is actually sleeping right now on a blanket on the floor. Yeah!!! What a wonderful experience this has been. There definitely have been some frustrating times but all well worth it.

Daddy, Lilly and Jacoby all chillin' on the couch watching a basketball game. Yes, Jacoby has already watched a game with day even before we left the hospital.

This is one of the nurses, Kristin, that helped bring Jacoby into the world. This was taken on the day we left the hospital. She was awesome. She really fit our personalities and was so helpful. Mommy and Daddy have to admit the we miss her. To be honest all our nurses where great.

This one was taken this morning. I needed proof to show Mike that he can sleep without being held. :)

It's a boy!

Hi everybody,
sorry for the delay in the updates, but as you may have guessed from the title, Stacy and I had a little baby boy, on Tuesday the 2nd of December at 5:14 pm. The whole event started at around 4:45 am when Stacy woke me up and told me she thought she felt contractions. Talk about natural caffeine! Contractions were only 5 minutes apart at that point, so we high-tailed it to the hospital and got the party going.
Here are the vitals: Jacoby Dustin Gellner, 7 lbs, 5 3/4 oz, 21 inches. He definitely has his daddy's skinny arms and legs and pointy elbows, and big feet! More to come, here are some photos to whet the appetite...

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39 weeks and 3 days....

and still counting.

No Beanie yet. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and there has been progress so it should be anytime now, but just in case my doctor went ahead and scheduled for me to be induced on Friday, December 5th. This means that I will have my original doctor back who has been out on maternity leave since September. Now at least there is an end date in sight. I really am hoping that I go into labor on my own, being induced doesn't sound like much fun. Oh wait, the whole labor and delivery doesn't sound like a walk in the park. :) But getting to meet and see our baby boy or girl will all be worth it. Plus we are ready, well Mike and I are. Who knows about Lilly, the cat. She will adjust.

The nursery is all done and the bassinet is set up in our room. All the clothes and blankets are washed and put away. Now it is up to Beanie to decide that he or she is ready to enter into this crazy world that we live in.

The picture below was just taken today.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Can you guess what the "pumpkin" is?? Well, I guess it really isn't that hard to tell that it is my tummy. When Mike and I found out I was pregnant, he said. "You should be a pumpkin for Halloween". So I made a "pumpkin" shirt.

We hope that everyone has a safe and happy halloween. Tonight we are staying home and passing out halloween candy to all the ghosts and goblins that stop by. Of course tonight is the home opener for the Portland Trailblazer's so Mike has a busy night planned of watching the game.
Here is a full view picture. I do have a green hat that I wore as a stem but I didn't have it when this picture was taken.

And of course here is a picture of our pumpkins. Mike's is the Snoopy one and mine is the simple, smiley face. Every year I carve the easy design and Mike picks the more difficult one.

35 Weeks and counting....

I can hardly believe that I only 5 weeks before "Beanie's" arrival. I know it could be more or less. Baby's room is almost ready. Just missing some bassinet sheets. Who knew how hard those would be to find. I am sure if I would measure the bassinet it would help, but that would be too easy. I must do things the hard way!

I am feeling pretty good. I am controlling my blood sugars with diet and exercise and my doctor is pretty confident that I won't need to take any medication or insulin. I guess I did learn something from Carrie and my mom, since they both where blessed with diabetes. Today, has been kind of rough since I really want a donut!! Darn sweet tooth.

Well, Rob the following picture is for you. Sorry it took so long to get one posted. It was taken today, October 26th. Cara posted that you wanted to see a recent picture of me so here it is.


The following pictures is an actual picture of the crib in Beanie's room. We have a jungle theme going on in there. The monkey face is my favorite. You can't really see it much in this photo, just the top of the eyes. Oh I am sure that there will be more photos to follow.

OMG!!! Sell!!! Sell!!

...just kidding. Got your attention though, didn't it. This blog is to let people know that through blot clots and gestational diabetes and a failing economy, that yes, we did indeed reach our second anniversary on Tuesday! Each year (well, at least so far) we return to Salty's Seafood restaurant, the same place where we had our wedding dinner two years ago. I gotta tell you that this is a hidden little gem in the city, and the food is AMAZING. It can be a bit spendy, but sometimes you just need to treat yourselves. This year Stacy dined on the Fresh Halibut with potatoes and green beans, while I had a green Thai coconut curry covered halibut and scallops over a bed of rice. We both had the amazing chowder with Sherry poured in it (don't knock it till you try it) and the best coconut prawns, well...anywhere!



Anyway, Stacy and Beanie and I got all spiffed up and did our anniversary up right...we hope that if we keep going back on our anniversary, we might score a free entree some day!

My second baby shower!!!

On Sunday, two of my longest, best friends threw me a baby shower. I had a great time and I can not thank Toni and Cara enough of all of their hard work. They made a wonderful meal and Cara's mother-in-law made a beautiful cake. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends. Thank you Toni and Cara!!

Some of my former co-workers from Roth's where there too. I haven't seen them in years and it was nice to have a chance to chat with them and catch up. Boy how time flies. I have been gone from Roth's for over 8 years now. Plus a few of my current co-workers from PGE made the trip to Silverton. I hope the drive wasn't too long for you. Plus I got to see some friends from high school that I haven't seen in a while. We always seem too busy to try to get together but hopefully after "Beanie" gets here we can find some time.

Not only did I see people I hadn't seen in a while but they gave me some wonderful gifts for "Beanie". Below is a picture of a knot tie blanket that my friend Jana made for us. I hope I can keep Lilly away from it.

This is a picture of my mom, Betsy, me and Mike's mom, Petra. Plus the cake too!
Some of my friends from grade school and high school. Kimberli, Toni, Karen, Cara and me.

Here is a picture of some of the guests. SMILE!!

Baby Shower!!

Well, I had my first baby shower last Sunday. Darcie and Trish, my sister-in-laws, hosted the shower for me. It was lots of fun and lots of hard work went into preparing for the shower. Thank you Darcie and Trish, I really appreciate it!!! Darcie prepared all the food and Trish was in charge of the games.

This is what the cake looked like. It was white cake with raspberry filling. It was made by Roth's. Yes the same store that I worked at for 12 years.

The next picture is from one of the games that we played. Inside each diaper was a melted candy bar and we had to try and figure out what kind of candy bar it was. We could smell it, look at it or even taste it if we wanted. I am sad to say that out of the 10 different "diapers" I figured out 8.



Here we are trying to figure out what type of baby food is in each jar. Not easy....who know that Macaroni & cheese looked like applesauce when blended.

Thank you everyone! I love all my gifts and I know that once "Beanie" gets here they will all be used with love.

Baby Fund Garage Sale

As I type this, I continue to defrost from our joint family garage sale. It is amazing that on Monday it was in the low 90's and today it barely cracked 60 with no sunshine all day. Figures. Anyways, this was something we have planned for many months and had about 6 families involved, so a lot of crap was hokked today for bare-bones pricing! It amazes me what some people will pay for, and the things they avoid. We came back home with several unopened new items, while old vhs tapes and used t-shirts sell like hotcakes. The important thing is that after a long day of hard work (and a lot of negotiations) we have a little extra money for baby fund, and we have more space in our garage again. Not a bad deal.

The story of the day for me was when some kids were digging through a box of beanie babies that a neighbor brought over. At one point a kid pulls out a baseball in plastic wrap and shows it to me and asks how much for it. I look closer and I see a signature on the ball. I look even closer and realize the signature was that of Nolan Ryan, all time Major League Baseball strikeout king. The ball was from 1988, had a printed signature with a collectors number, and was completely in mint condition. I immediately told the kid the ball was not for sale (They did not even know who Nolan Ryan was...come to think of it, how many of you know who Nolan Ryan is)? Anyways, I brought it to the owners attention, and his eyes got really huge as he almost lost the ball for 50 cents!

Best deal of the day? Two words....Robo Raptor!

Hot Hot Hot

Okay, so I am aware that this blog was originally intended to be about the adventures of Stacy and myself as we get ready to welcome little baby Beanie into the world, but lets be honest, too much baby talk day after day, and you will likely get baby lash. So tonight, we are going to talk about...Tabasco.

So Stacy and I were watching "Unwrapped" on the food network. Beanie was there as well, so I guess this is kinda a baby story also. Lilly went downstairs for a bite to eat. ANYWAYS, for you tabasco lovers out there (and we know who you are) here is some fun facts about Tabasco.

So, basically all ingredients for Tabasco (too many to name) are added into 20 gallon oak whiskey barrels. These barrels then ferment for 3 years. The secret warehouse stores about 50,000 of these 20 gallon barrels. Once they are ready, garlic and vinegar is added and is stirred up for another 28 days. Then, specially dug salt from a secret island is added in raw form to the Tabasco, and then it is stirred for ANOTHER 28 days! So basically by the time you get a bottle of 2 ounce Tabasco at your table, it has been in process for over 3 years and two months! Take THAT Tapotia and Chalula!

For extra credit, how many ounces are in the national Tabasco supply?

Each cup contains 8 oz

Each gallon has 16 cups

Each Barrel has 20 gallons

There are 50,000 barrells in the national supply

so......there are 128 million oz /2 oz bottles or 64 million bottles of tabasco that stacy will never go near!

I gotta get me one of those barrels. you in Ben?

Tomorrow we talk about Peeps...marshmallow treats, or comfy shoe insole substitutes?

Hello everybody, and welcome to Gellner Nation.


Stacy and I decided a little ways back that we wanted to find a way that we could communicate all of our exciting stories and adventures to you, our friends and family. Stacy is currently 29 weeks pregnant with our first child, and we know that when baby time comes, it is going to be increasingly difficult to communicate with everybody as sleep deprivation sets in.

So...

This blog's for you! We promise to faithfully update our blog in an effort to share our latest family adventures with all of you. Please feel free to leave messages, we love to hear from you all!

Without futher ado, let's introduce the cast of Gellner Nation!

Stacy Gellner - Wife, mother-to-be, Queen of all things stamping...Zuma master.

Mike Gellner - Future dad, sports fanatic, champion of the five-day beard, Guitar Hero flunky.

Lilly Gellner - Princess of sleep, recently graduated to "mature" cat food. Currently unemployed.

And the star of the show...

BEANIE!!!

So Beanie is what we affectionately refer to as the unborn wonder child. We decided not to find out the sex of the baby, so everything is going to be a big surprise on or around November 30th.

thank you everybody for taking the time to check out our blog. We promise to be proactive with updating information, so check back often for new info. Seriously folks, we can read as many books and take as many classes as we like, but nothing is going to prepare us for the actual experience . Buckle up, its going to be a wild ride!