8 months down, 1 to go!

Baby got his own update, but I figured I should post a little blurb about what the other two Wheelers are up to these days. Mark's in the second week of his externship with a Federal Court judge (do you capitalize that sort of thing?) in Las Vegas. I won't say too much about it, since I think you can look forward to a post about from him soon. He seems to be enjoying it and getting a lot of experience. If he were getting paid for the experience, it would be a lot sweeter of a deal, but I guess we'll have to chalk this one up to paying one's dues.

I'm just hanging around Woodland Hills, growing a baby and trying to get things in order for his arrival. I was worried I'd be bored and lonely, but honestly, I have so much to get done that I use up pretty much any available energy I have every day! Mark gets to come home on the weekends, so the separation isn't as bad as we were dreading it would be (up until now, in 3 and a half years of marriage we've spent a total of 4 nights apart). Plus, to be fair, at this point, me and the army of pillows I surround myself with every night to get comfortable, take up most of the bed, so there's very little room for Mark even when he is in town!

Since Christmas (which doesn't really count since I wasn't showing at all), I realized I had absolutely no pictures of Mark and I together. I mean NONE. I brought my camera with us whenever we went somewhere looking halfway decent, but something always got in the way and we never ended up getting someone to take our picture. It was seriously bumming me out, so over the long weekend when Mark came home, I decided we were going to take some pictures, come hell or high water! Sarah was going to come out for a visit and I'd asked her if she'd take pictures for me, but she had to cancel at the last minute. I didn't know when we'd have the chance to get pictures again so we just decided to give the tripod and self-timer option on the camera a whirl.

It ended up being so much fun! We didn't get as many pictures as you might with someone actually manning the lens and the running from camera to position was tiring, but it was kind of fun to be alone, just the two (and a half) of us. The light was terrible, since the weather didn't want to cooperate and we had to shoot later in the morning than I would have preferred and I have very meager photoshop skills, but all in all, I'm happy with the results. There are more pictures on facebook, but here's a few with explanation.
I love this picture because it makes me feel like we were standing on the edge of the world, even though we're really in the middle of one of the largest cities on earth.

I'm obsessed with these red barn doors. Mark here is attempting to tickle the baby (I think it's just an excuse to try and tickle me and get away with it)

The tractor pictures confused my mom. We took all these pictures at the Pierce Community College farm that's right behind our apartment complex. We had goats and cows for company the entire shoot :)

This is great picture of us (at least I think so), even though I realized later that it doesn't look so much like a maternity photo, as an engagement shot, but that's ok. We look happy and that's all that matters.
Nothing more dynamic than silhouette shots.