Happy Halloween!

Life is good with our Brenna Bean. Things are getting in order in our apartment, mostly thanks to Momma Blaxton staying with us for the past week. She was a basically a life saver, but it was a good deal for her too because she got to spend some time with Brenna.

Ruth is recovering very well, she hasn't taken any Motrin for two days. We took a little shopping trip yesterday and went to church this morning, our first trips as a family! We hope that everyone has a spooky Halloween and a great All Saints Day!

One sweet little skeleton

Sorry it is sideways, still cute though!

Brenna Jean Leikert

Our blessing arrived at 7:29 PM on October 19th! She was 6 lbs. 5 oz. and 18.5 inches, a pretty good size for staying in Ruth's "hot tub" for only 35 weeks. The last 5 days have been such a whirlwind physically and emotionally. Wednesday was a very anxious day because of the two extremes that the doctors presented: It was possible that Ruth could have an emergency C-section or we could end up just going home. Even though Ruth ended up having a C-section, everything turned out so well. I continue to be impressed by how tough Ruth is, so much has happened these last 5 days that she could have totally freaked but she has been amazing. I think Brenna has taken after her mother in this respect, she is well above average in terms of her health after only cookin' for 35 weeks. It is tough to put into words at this point exactly what we have experienced since Brenna joined us, maybe that will become clearer in the next couple of weeks but I know three things:

1) My wife is is absolutely amazing.
2) Holding Brenna is indescribable.
3) Our family is so generous and loving, we could not have done this without them.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from today. Go ahead, try not to smile when you see this little miracle!

She likes to be held to fall asleep

Brenna, ladies don't pick their noses!

Ruth & Brenna napping



Well hello Brenna Bean



Her first "bath" at home


We will try to keep the pictures coming the next couple of weeks!

Victory in the Fall

As a lot of you know, yesterday I ran the Grand Rapids Marathon for the second time. It turned out to be a really nice day after the forecast predicted rain and 20 mph winds. I had the best cheering section on the course: Ruth, Mom, Dad, Karlie, Mom Blaxton, and Dad Blaxton. Here is are some the highlights (and lowlights) of the race:

Miles 1-5 -- My friend Nate ran the first 5 miles with me on his way to doing the half marathon. It was great to have someone to talk to for at least a portion of the race.

Miles 10-12 -- This part of the race was in Millennium park, which is absolutely beautiful in the fall.

Mile 15 -- I panicked a little bit at this point in the race. I was starting to feel bad and compounded that with thinking "I still have 11 miles to go." After another 10 minutes, things got better and I found a good rhythm again.

Mile 17-18 -- I got to see my cheering section twice during this section of the race as it was an out and back portion. It was so nice having them out there to keep me going!

Mile 21 -- My feet started hurting terribly at this point, a problem that I ran into while doing long runs during my training. I tried to just gut it out and they actually started feel better by mile 23. It was also at this point that I got passed by a guy in basketball shorts, which Ruth keeps reminding me about.

Mile 25-Finish -- This was the best part of the race, I felt pretty good considering I had been running for over 2.5 hours. I got seventh place overall with a time of 2 hours, 44 minutes, 16 seconds. After the race, Karlie had to put my pants on for me which was quite amusing.

Overall, it was an awesome race. I was hoping to run a bit faster and maybe have a chance at winning but I just didn't have it. This is only my second marathon so I am not disappointed, I can only get better.

Finisher Medal


The man with his arms raised in the maple leaf is titled "Victory in the Fall"

It is the logo for the GR Marathon


Awesome shirt thanks to Mom & Dad Blaxton

Sorry, there are no action shots because no brought their camera as it was supposed to rain the whole time.

I am enjoying a day off from work today to recover. Ruth and I are quite the pair now that my legs basically don't work and she is 8 months pregnant. Let's just say we aren't quite as mobile as we used to be.

I am hoping to run the Chicago or Detroit marathon next fall, so I will be training again before you know it. Thanks again to all of my great cheerleaders and thanks to everyone else for your prayers!

A yummy snack

When we were in Amarillo this July, we had the honor of sampling Julia's homemade hummus.  We love hummus, but it's so sinkin' expensive that we usually only got it when it was on sale.  So, inspired by Julia, we attempted to make some ourselves.

This was the first batch that we made and I have to say, once we figured out that Tahini and Turmeric are two very different things, it turned out pretty good!  The night we made this, Chris ate close to the whole bowl and woke up tasting hummus and smelling a little like it, too.  

Since our first batch, we've pretty much gotten the recipe down and we've found that the blender does a better job producing the desired consistency than the food processor.  It's fun to make and much more cost efficient.  Soon we're going to try making some spinach, artichoke hummus...we'll see how it goes! 

Yay, Fall!!

Fall is seriously the best season, in my opinion.  The sports in the fall are fantastic, the weather is beautiful and refreshing, the food and drinks that are abundant during this time of year are delicious.  Plus, in Michigan (especially northern Michigan), we get to watch the trees transform into breathtaking colors before our eyes.

Emily and I went adventuring around Aquinas' campus the other day to take some pictures of these great fall colors.  Our timing wasn't the best and we'll probably have to schedule another outing in a week or so when more of the leaves have turned, but we did get a few good shots.

Combine romping around taking these pictures with my best friend, and Chris bringing home some pumpkin cinnamon/sugar doughnuts from the apple orchard, and that makes for a pretty dang good week :)  And to top it off, Chris is running the Grand Rapids Marathon on Sunday!  He's been training so well and he's in fantastic shape.  We're so excited to see how the race goes!  Say a prayer for him at about 8:00 on Sunday morning and maybe he can bring home a little hardware! 

Nuggetta Has a Name

The decision has been made!  We're naming our little lady Brenna Jean.  Brenna - a small tweak from Brennan, a Blaxton family name and my dad's middle name.  Jean - after Chris' mom.  I'm feeling very at peace with the decision.  We were tossing some other names back and forth for quite some time and nothing seemed exactly right, but then we came back to Brenna and we're convinced that this will be the perfect name for her.

She continues to grow and squirm more and more every day!  While writing this post I'm trying to catch her moving on video to post.  Of course every time I grab the camera she stops moving.

We've moved to doctors appointments every two weeks now instead of four.  At my last visit they did the glucose test and apparently mine is on the "high end of normal".  They say I don't need to come in for further testing for gestational diabetes, but I need to start avoiding carbohydrates and sugary foods.  Every time I want some pretzels or a different salty/carb snack I think about how much I don't want to deliver a 9lb baby and it usually works to diminish my craving.

We also started our baby classes this week.  Last night was the breast feeding class and the next three weeks will be the labor/delivery class.  We learned a lot of really cool things about the benefits and the whole process of breast feeding last night!  Chris was talking about how surprisingly interested he was in all the information and concluded that he wants to become a lactation consultant.  He was obviously joking, but I'm glad he's so interested and supportive :)

The nesting instinct has started to kick in for me and I've taken on a new project to satisfy my urge to get ready for Brenna.  A couple weeks ago I picked out fabric and a pattern to make all the bedding for her crib!  I'm confident that following a pattern consisting of mostly rectangles will be easier to follow than a dress pattern.  My friend Emily came with me to the store to help pick out the fabric (with Chris' permission) and it's a good thing she did because I would have been there for literally HOURS if I had gone alone.  Here is a picture of what we chose...

I'm really excited to get started on it and see how it turns out!

Well, that's all I have for now with Baby Brenna updates!  Now we just have to wait it out until we get to meet her!

Sugar and spice and all things nice

That's right, baby Leikert is A GIRL!!  We had the ultrasound this morning and it was so cool to see our little girl!  The tech. said that she was measuring a few days further along than we originally thought.  She weighs 14 ounces and we got to see her heart, brain, arms, legs, stomach, bladder, kidneys, spine, and face.  Here are some of the pictures...

The little arrow at the top right of the picture shows that she's a she!

Her head is on the right and body on the left.  The bubble is the umbilical cord.

And her sweet little face! 

She was throwing punches throughout the ultrasound so I know she's my kind of girl!  Get ready Colette, your best friend is on her way!