Now I can die in peace!!

(disclaimer: this photo is not one of my own. I borrowed it from the internet. My lint is white.)

Thanks Georg Steinhauser! You've solved the biggest mystery or all mysteries! Because of you, I can now live with myself and understand why my belly-button refuses to stop collecting lint.

I only hope you are able to recover from the financial and emotional strain sustained during this trying time studying 503 samples of Navel Lint. I especially feel for your many friends and family who endured your navel gazing in the name of science.

I hope that the government will be kind enough to fund your research in the future as you continue to dive further into the mysteries of the belly-button. God Speed my friend. I only hope we will have the opportunity to meet and have many dialogues that will produce wonderful insights like...

"Abdominal hair is mainly responsible for the accumulation of navel lint."

...or this...

"Lint might ... fulfill a cleaning function for the navel."

Please Mr. Steinhauser, come to America and enlighten us further.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504067,00.html

David After Dentist

Our eventful month!

IT'S A BOY!!
So, Dallas wins. And the rest of you that voted boy. (Editor's Note: It's not that I didn't want a girl, I had a dream many moons ago and it was a boy, so that was my prediction... And yes I'm a "visionary" man!) I just guessed it was a girl to see if I could prove Dallas wrong but really had no clue. (Editor's Note: Yes it's very uncommon for Ashley to ever prove me wrong.) Isn't our little man adorable?


It looks like he's sucking his thumb in this one. (Editor's Note: Yes it's true that his father sucked his thumb until the age of 4 when his mother weaned him of this habit with candy corns. This explains why I am still addicted to candy corn and sugar in general.)


The 3D ultrasounds are the coolest. I love how he looks in this one!

And there's his....as Aidan would call it: PeePee Dude!

So here's the story of the ultrasound. A coworker told me about her friend who had an unfortunate experience with her ultrasound. Apparently her baby had some problems, but she wasn't informed until 3 weeks later.

So...As soon as I walked in and got on the table, the sonographer put the jelly and ultrasound thingy on my belly and I started to ask some questions. I proceeded to tell her the story about my coworker's friend and let her know that if there were complications, or concerns she had about the baby, I wasn't going to leave without having as many details as possible.

MEANWHILE...there was a monitor in the upper corner of the room and Dallas was standing under it watching. All of a sudden the sonographer and I hear, "IT'S A BOY!!!!!" It caught us off guard and the sonographer laughed and said, "He SURE is!! There you go!" Everything else was visible and healthy and I was amazed at how detailed those things are. She had to poke my belly a few times to get him to move around a bit and I don't think he liked it, cause he kicked right back. I think he gets his fiestiness from me. (Editor's Note: I confirm this theory.)


IN OTHER NEWS: Dallas is no longer blind! (Editor's Note: No really, it's true.)

Dallas got Lasik Eye Surgery done on 01/29 and this is a sexy picture of him with his lunch lady hat and booties right before the surgery. (Editor's Note: Why do people have to denigrate the lunch lady?! These were my favorite people in elementary school. They introduced me to steak fingers, rectangle pizza, and chocolate milk!! It doesn't get cooler than the lunch lady.)


Here's the "After" shot. He only had to wear the goggles for the night and by the next morning, he tested 20/20. Amazing right? (Editor's Note: The goggles were for my protection while I sleep. You see, my wife tends to "flail" in her sleep and try to gouge my eyes out. I think this is hereditary because I hear my mother-in-law has done this as well.)



Here's the picture of the computer during his surgery. I don't know what any of it means and I took the picture through the glass. (Editors Note: This is actually a picture of my brain... I don't know where the other 2/3 is located) (Editor's Note: Okay, it's really a scan of my eye ball.)

Here's the laser. Each eye took 52 seconds. He was only in that room for like 10 minutes and that was it! (Editor's Note: This is the laser that cuts the flap on the outside of my eye. If you look close enough, you'll see my nose to the right of the laser. Just ignore the hairs sticking out. This is also a hereditary condition.)


Dallas and his special stuffed puppy to keep him company (Editor's note: Puppy provided by the surgeon. Dallas' stuffed animal is actually a panda bear named "Rolly" after the 101 Dalmation puppy. True story). He was so brave! (Editor's Note: Of Course!.)

Seriously though, I don't think Dallas ever stresses about anything, and this would've been an ample opportunity to do so. This was just another day in the life of Dallas Stahle. The optomestrist kept asking if he was tensing up or nervous and of course he wasn't. (Editor's Note: Well they gave me Vallium, what did you expect?) I was more nervous than he was. (Editor's note: The doctor was a UTE and that freaked me out! He told me he used the laser to leave a UTE insignia on my retina. This is similar to how circuit board manufacturers leave small microscopic signatures on their boards. I might sue...)


HAPPY 28th DALLAS!!

I bet you'll never guess where we celebrated Dallas' 28th birthday.
Dallas never got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's as a kid and one day while I was talking to him on the phone while driving past one, I mentioned that I saw it. He asked if we could go there for his birthday. We totally did. Seriously. It was a blast! (Editor's Note: I was the "big" kid that bullied all the smaller kids. I hogged all the video games and ate all the pizza and cake!! Hahahahahahahaha... that's my evil laugh.)


Dallas and Ivan racing cars, obviously focused. (Editor's Note: We were posing for the picture, I normally don't look like that when racing cars on video games. I swear.)

I didn't realize they were going to announce Dallas and his age as part of the whole celebration. Amongst the other balloons that said "Tasha - 6" and Nicholas- 8" was "Dallas-28"
It's a good thing we don't care much what other people think because we got a whole lot of puzzled looks. Lol. (Editor's Note: I like to think of them more as "Looks of admiration".)


Val with Joey and Haylee eating their pizza and rootbeer.

They actually show all the Birthday Stars on the big TV screen and recognize each one with a huge picture of Chuck...I bet there isn't one person that reads our blog that is lucky enough to have their name on the Chuck E. Cheese screen for their 28th birthday. :) (Editor's Note: Chuck E. Cheese was actually a little creepy. He wouldn't even give me a hug! What a jerk. I'm never going back there... at least until my 29th b-day party.)

Scott and his amazing balloon artist talents. He made Dallas his own special birthday hat. It was a hit. Not to mention, none of the little "Birthday Stars" even had one.

Natalie and Tate were experts at this game.

Brian and Natalie on a little daddy daughter motorcycle ride.

Little Ruthie bouncing around in the Chuck E. mobile

Denmark, Addy, and Ellie

Dallas' Orange Dreamsicle cake made by Val and me. It was super tasty. (Editor's Note: Holy Crap it was tasty!!.)

I think the triple-decker strawberry cake was Dallas' favorite. (Editor's Note: Holy Crappy Crap it was tasty. I can't wait till my 28 1/12 b-day party so I can have another cake like this.) (Val has this book called the Cake Doctor that had this recipe...Dallas has since ordered the book.) I asked Dallas how he felt about having his 28th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's and having a pink birthday cake...He's totally fine with it. AND he loved both. (Editor's Note: Who cares what the color was, the cake was The. Best. Cake. Ever. Created!!!)

THE INTRUDER

We were having a hard time keeping Zee's fur from getting knotted up. Dallas could tell she was uncomfortable, but we let her go too long without brushing her, so we took her to the vet to get her shaved...Is this not the most hilarious picture of a cat you've seen. (Editor's Note: We actually used to do this to our persian cats when I was younger in the summers. The first time we did it, they walked around all embarrassed because they felt "naked". It was quite comical. Zee however, had no shame walking around the house like this and I think she felt quite liberated. She gets this from her name sake.)

I was hoping that a haircut like this would humble Zee and she would be a little less snotty, but instead she now prances around thinking she's all that, just like before...

Love the tail. (Editor's Note: The sad thing is that this is a "male" haircut. We haven't told Zee that yet.)

Updates!

Well, I've officially reached the 21 week mark!! We are finding out what we are having on Tuesday, the 20th (Sorry, Maria!) I'll post as soon as I can, but we've gotta have a better poll debate going on, so vote for whether you think we're having a girl or a boy!!

Pregnancy Update:

• None of my normal clothes fit except for a few shirts, but most of the full on maternity shirts are too big, so I've got some good in between clothes to wear for now (thanks Kyndra).
• I feel great! I have been craving really spicy food. Over Christmas break I think I added Jalapenos to everything I could. I've since purchased Tabasco sauce, Cayenne Pepper and crushed red pepper for my own kitchen. I've also been craving V8 juice and Bloody Mary Mixes (which is why I bought Cayenne Pepper...Although not as tasty, if you add Cayenne Pepper to Low Sodium V8, it almost tastes like Mr. T's Bloody Mary Mix!) Pepper Beef Jerky is also wonderful.
• Dallas will have to post on whether or not my hormones are insane. I can definitely feel that my brain to mouth filter is a bit dysfunctional, but I think that's more in relation to work, than to home life. I feel like I've been able to keep most of my emotions in check and realize when I'm being overly sensitive or if I'm overreacting. If that's the case, I just say, "Babe, I'm totally overreacting right now, but...." Dallas has always been great, so he can handle everything and lets me know when I'm out of line.
• I've been running and using our elliptical a few times a week which helps me feel more energized. (Keeping my heart rate under 140 of course for all who are worried...lol.) Although I feel like a trip up the stairs alone probably takes my heart up to 140, which is frustrating...lol. Dustin and Rachelle have motivated me to figure out how to use our Wii Fit, so maybe I'll tackle that this week!
• I'm starting to have a much deeper appreciation for my mother every day for all the sacrifices she made to have 5 of us! I don't think I've met anyone who is so positive about being a mother than my mom. We 5 are pretty intense individually, so I'm extremely grateful for her patience and example. AND, I can't imagine what 5 pregnancies were like for my Dad. WAY TO GO DAD! They both lived through them all and love each other even more!

This picture is all I've got sorry. I am not very good at having my camera ready, so Dallas took my 20 week picture so I've have one for an update!

Since it's a month later and I still haven't updated the blog about Christmas, here we go!

Jett, Dallas, Dallin and Jimmy set up the intense racecar track we gave Jett for Christmas. We thought it looked pretty cool!


Dallas' sister Afton had Maverick on the 23rd and then a full house on the 26th! What a trooper! I forget how little newborns are (gratefully), so I stole Mav a whole bunch just for practice! :)


This is Freya, Jay and Ashley's puppy. She is adorable and they've taught her well. They've inspired us to take Jackson to puppy training, so we start tomorrow in an 8 week program. We're excited!


So I realized I didn't really get a real game picture. This is at halftime with the carolers...lol. Anyway, Dallas and I decided that since we were going to be by ourselves on Christmas Eve and Day that we were going to bag the normal traditions and do whatever we wanted. After seeing what Santa brought us and having a hearty breakfast, we talked to Heath in Argentina on the phone for a while with the fam, and then took off to the Mavericks vs. Blazers game on Christmas Day. It was a close game, but our Mavs prevailed!!

Dallas in his Mavericks paraphanalia, surrounded by mostly Blazer fans, (we do live in Portland).


Nice face, right? This is our AWESOME Christmas Dinner! We got Nachos, a Hot Dog and Dr. Pepper! Seriously, don't feel bad, it was FABulous! And, I added Jalapenos to my Nachos, which is where I discovered they should subsequently be added to everything else I ate later that week in Texas.

He's a babe.

Like I said, he's a babe. Instead of driving all the way back to Newberg and having to wake up early to catch our flight to Texas, we just stayed the night at the Sheraton after the game. It was right next to the airport, so it was perfect! Dallas always supports his Mavs.

So this is our crazy weather. I worked from home for almost two weeks straight due to Portland not knowing how to plow roads and use salt instead of sand to melt the snow. Spending 4 years in UT makes this weather look pretty pathetic, but since no one really knows what to do, I stayed indoors for protection! :)

This is our neighborhood. It looks like everyone else decided to stay in too!

We shoveled a little bit around the driveway and made a little area for Jackson to use outside. Poor little man. He's so short, his belly drags in the snow when he runs and it was preventing him from "relieving" himself outside and encouraging him to do so INSIDE. Which is not ok.

White Christmas!

Our trash can was frozen shut for a little while and we got to test how sweet the Audi really is with it's all wheel drive! It handled the snow like a champ! Not so much on ice though, which surrounded us.

We got a lot of snow for the Portland area!

So we watched the BYU bowl game at the Stocks with some friends and they have this sweet Elmo futon. Ruthie wanted Kyndra to snuggle!

This is an action shot of Jackson on one of the first snow days. He was hilarious.

This is Toby hanging out on the window sill in our bedroom trying to figure out what the heck all this white stuff is!

Thanksgiving!

The whole Simmons clan, minus Heath of course came up to OreGON to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. The best part was that Dustin, Rachelle, Aidan and Matty coming was a TOTAL surprise for mom's birthday! (Serious brownie points dad, if you were one of us, you would've gotten the Favorite Child Award for sure!!!) Dustin and Rachelle flew in Monday afternoon. Around midnight, we woke up Aidan to surprise "Brie Gramma" (Aidan's title for mom). Mom and Dad and the girls borrowed Grandpa Simmons' RV and arrived around 12:30am. Everyone knew about the surprise but Mom, so it was AWESOME!!! We mostly just hung out and enjoyed everyone's company, but here are pictures from the week. By the way...I TOTALLY forgot to take pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner. Monumental I tell you. My mom and I both had never cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving, so we googled, "How do I cook a Turkey?" I must say, it was the BEST turkey I'd ever had. Mom, Dad and Dallas all said so and they have no problem being honest about those things, so I believe them...super moist and very flavorful...we followed a recipe from a guy who took 56 years to perfect cooking a turkey. Yay for the internet. Thanks to Selonna, we had amazing mashed potatoes, and thanks to Rachelle those rolls were AMAZING. The rest was good, but those were my highlights. So...here are the pictures. Warning, most are of Aidan because he was really the entertainment all week. He's 3. When I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up, he said, "An excavator, so I can dig!" Are you serious? What 3 year old can say Excavator. He's a genius. We also made him recite this cute little rhyme that his nursery teacher taught to him:

I had a tiny turtle, his name was Tiny Tim,
I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim!
He drank up all the water and ate up all the soap
And now he's stuck in bed with a bubble in his throat!
Bubble, bubble, bubble,
bubble, bubble, bubble,
bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, Bubble, POP!!!!
Adorable....

Aidan enjoying the RV!

Aidan and Dallas on the Elephant Trike at the Zoo

Brie and Me...and Brookie!!

I love my sister!

Us and the cuddly bears.

Seriously Dust, I hope you guys have this one framed!
This is Matty, don't you just wanna squeeze him?!

Aidan is almost as tall as the bears!

Brie and Aidan trying to keep warm!

Brooke being affectionate with the big friendly stuffed bear. (Actually, we live in Oregon, it's probably not stuffed, it's probably just fake.)

AND...we have a new addition to the family. Please help us welcome Jackson our new...DOG!!! He's crazy. We love him. The cats don't. He's a little over a foot long and about 6 inches tall. We got him from some of our friends and the poor little man just got his manhood removed a week ago. But he's still super cute, he just has awful breath. But, we are doing well with being consistent and he is doing pretty well with potty training. Good practice eh? :) Here's a video Dallas took of Jackson and Toby...lol...sibling rivalry begins.