Here Comes the Boom

After waiting patiently for months and months, it's finally here... 

The Seattle Seahawks Home Opener!

After becoming season ticket holders in 2012, spending our Sundays tailgating and attending football games together rapidly became one of our very favorite activities. And although we do plan to include our baby Seahawks in the festivities someday, for now Stew and I cherish our "adult" time cheering on our favorite team.



But that doesn't mean we don't still deck out the littlest Hawk fans in their game day finest!



The first tailgate of the season always feels a little bit like coming home again. We love our Hawkwagon Tailgate Family so much!

Also, tailgating gives us the opportunity to get a babysitter and act like kids again ourselves for a few hours... This particular Sunday featured keg stands!

And sitting back in our seats, it always feels like we never even left as we rise with the 12s to cheer on the Hawks.

We have high hopes for the Seahawks this year, and we know that they won't disappoint.

Either way, we're looking forward to spending our Sundays with some of our very favorite people.

Let's do this, Hawk Fans!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!

I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating with all your nearest and dearest.

Merry Christmas from the Getchman Family!
Sometimes it's just impossible to get a 2-year-old to cooperate for the annual family Christmas photo. This is the best we got...

We typically celebrate Christmas in my home town at my parents' house, and this year we arrived a couple days early for some extra quality time and relaxation. 

Almost as soon as we arrived, my brother and his beautiful wife revealed some super exciting news!

YAY! Ryder is getting another cousin this August!

After a day of lounging around doing nothing except eating, napping, and watching Christmas movies, Stew and I left Ryder with my parents for the day while we headed up to Seattle for the Christmas Eve Seahawks game versus the Cardinals.

Bundled up and the icy cold tailgate. I forgot how much colder tailgating is when you're sober...

It was an awesome day out with Stew and our friends, but unfortunately the Christmas miracle we prayed for at the end of the game just didn't end up panning out... 

However, Ryder had a fantastic Christmas Eve at home, baking cookies with Uncle AJ and Aunt Morgan, and making a gingerbread house with Nana. 

After the game, we went home to enjoy our traditional Christmas Eve meal of Chinese take out before we all settled down for our long winter's nap. Of course that was after Stewart stayed up until almost midnight putting together Ryder's Christmas present. 

Christmas morning was quite a blur, at least for the littlest Alway.

Ryder got a three story wooden fire station, complete with all the accessories. He was thrilled and literally hasn't stopped playing with it since.

Sometimes you just really gotta get in there...

And not to worry... Santa brought him his blue dump truck.

Later that morning, we had our traditional Christmas brunch with my dad's side of the family.

Heck yeah, we rock those Christmas jammies ALL. DAY. LONG.

My lovely, adorable grandparents.

Cousins!

Christmas Night family snuggles. Check out that amazing Paw Patrol quilt that Aunt Morgan made for Ryder!

On the day after Christmas, we always go over to Grandma Sally's house. 

My mom has 14 brothers and sisters, and I have almost 30 first cousins, so we typically like to avoid the chaos that ensues over there on Christmas Day. Instead, we head over on the day after for a nice, quiet visit with Grandma. 

Ryder gets an epic fail for his cooperation in family photos this year. This is the best I could get...

Once again I was blown away by the generosity and thoughtfulness of our friends and family this year. 

And a HUGE shout out has to go out to everyone for all their lovely holiday cards! We almost ran out of room on the fridge!

From our family to yours, we hope that you had yourself a merry little Christmas and that from now on your troubles will be miles away.

Adventures with Baby Sister | Second Trimester

I love the second trimester!

I can finally understand why so many people claim that being pregnant is no big deal. 

Everyone finally knows I'm knocked up, I've gotten a ton of energy back, I have a legit baby bump (rather than just looking like a slightly chubby girl with a beer belly), all of my nausea is gone, and for once in my life I'm not consumed with portion control and dieting (because this baby girl needs calories)! My only minor complaint is heartburn, which is quite easily dealt with.

Basically, I feel great!

I haven't been taking weekly "bump" photos this time around, but I do have a couple from the second trimester, the first of which Patty took during our annual trip to Priest Lake when I was around 16 weeks. The last time I was pregnant, I had just barely started to show at this point... 

It's been quite a contrast to my pregnancy with Ryder!

During the second trimester of my first pregnancy, I continued to puke multiple times a day until at least week 17. I had horrible skin problems and grew weird hair in all sorts of strange places. I experienced scary heart palpitations that eventually uncovered an underlying heart condition I've apparently had my whole life. I had to take supplements for terrible anemia. And right in the midst of the joy of finding out that Ryder was a boy, we also learned that he had some concerning cysts in his brain that required extensive and stressful genetic testing to determine whether or not he had a serious, life-threatening developmental abnormality (clearly he didn't). I suffered from excruciating back pain, and by week 25 I had already started to experience pain, swelling, and numbness in my hands and feet. Oh, and I failed my first round of glucose testing (luckily I passed the second time).

Every pregnancy really is different!

This time around, I really find it difficult to find a single thing to complain about.

We've actually been having a lot of fun.

Somehow I always end up pregnant during football season. I think Stewart plans it this way so that he can ensure himself a sober driver for the duration of the season. 

Luckily, this year I had some partners in crime. 

My fellow Hawkwagon Tailgaters, Jessica and Haley, are also pregnant this season!

Besides going to football games, quite a few exciting events went on during the past three months. 

We ended the summer with a couple fun trips to Mayfield Lake and Priest Lake, and took a super fun "Babymoon" trip to the ocean with Brett and Haley.

My sweet Grandma Sally turned 90 years old, Halloween was a blast, and we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Alway Family. 

First family photo with all four of us (if you count the bump)...

I also got to see one of my very best, lifelong friends, Brooke, over the holidays. Remember her from our trip to Denver when I was pregnant with Ryder? 

And back at home, we started nesting and preparing for Baby Sister's arrival...

Stew and I got to work on transforming Ryder's nursery into a baby girl's room, starting with the installation of a chandelier. Although I LOVE the final result, I don't necessarily recommend doing electrical work with your spouse.

I've been trying to spend as much quality time with Ryder as possible while he's still my only baby.

He's pretty darn excited to be a Big Brother!

We're working on potty training, because I'm not necessarily thrilled about the idea of having two kids in diapers at the same time. Ryder does love his Paw Patrol Big Boy Undies, but he hasn't really taken to using the toilet yet... we'll see how things progress (fingers crossed)!

Oh, we're halfway there!

We were so thrilled to really get to see Baby Sister at our 20 week ultrasound! She is perfect, with ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes, and her sweet little profile sure does look a lot like Ryder's did, I think. We are loving feeling her kick and move around, and can't believe that in just three more months we'll get to kiss her sweet cheeks.

22 weeks pregnant with Baby Sister.

I'm feeling anxious and excited all at the same time. 

I'm so excited to meet her I can hardly stand it, but I am apprehensive about how I am going to handle being a mother to TWO children at the same time! This pregnancy is flying by crazy fast, and with so many events and holidays coming up, she's truly going to be here before we know it. 

We sure can't wait to meet our sweet little angel!

An Alway Family Thanksgiving

We have many things to be thankful for this year, but I must say that I am most grateful for my (so far) easy, breezy pregnancy! Now I just have to hope that Baby Sister will be just as calm and easygoing after she's born... 

Like most years, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Alway Family. 

I love how they stick to classic Thanksgiving traditions like football, beer, and a delicious turkey feast with all the trimmings. And this time Ryder was a year older and extremely well-behaved, unlike last year, when I spent the entire day chasing him around to make sure he didn't eat kitty litter, fall down the stairs, or break precious family heirlooms (next year will clearly be another story with Baby Sis...)

 We had a wonderful Turkey Day visit with Stew's extended family (I think we had about 16 people for dinner), and stayed over on Friday as well to watch the Huskies kick butt in the Apple Cup. 

I'm so thankful for these two that my heart could just about burst. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Baby Seahawks

The last time I was pregnant during football season, we won the Super Bowl.

So naturally, I have high hopes for this season.

Luckily, I'm a little further along in my pregnancy this time, and don't have to blame any first trimester tailgate puking on faux hangovers from the night before. 

And even better, I have not only one, but TWO partners in crime at the Hawkwagon Tailgater Association!

Jessica and Haley are both knocked up, too!

Jessica (due in October) is currently winning, with Haley and I lagging a couple months behind. But by next year, three new little baby Seahawks will have joined the gang!

This season I quickly discovered that it's much more fun to be sober at a drunken tailgate party when you have a couple friends to share your non-alcoholic champagne with. 

Of course none of this means that our guys are standing with us in solidarity. I think they just see it as an excuse to drink our share of Fireball from the Shot-Ski.

Real. Women. Love. Football.

Stew can always be counted on to photobomb an otherwise great group pic.

Stew and I really don't get out much anymore, so football season consists of some of our main social activities for the year. We feel so lucky to have made such great friends over the years as part of our Hawkwagon Family!

Now let's do this, Seahawks!