BABY BROKAW (BB)-6 Weeks!

How Far Along: 6 Weeks

Baby Updates: Baby B is about the size of a sweet pea this week. Within this week, the heart should begin to beat. The facial features, kidneys, liver, and lungs are also taking shape this week. Big week in the development department!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: We need to get a scale so I can keep track of this! I am starving so I am trying to eat healthy so I do not gain too much weight during the first trimester! (Update-I bought a scale so I can keep my ravenous appetite in check)

Maternity Clothes: Not yet! Hoping I can wear some of my work clothes into early fall.

Gender: Don't know-we will find out late September.

Movement: Nope

Sleep: Horrible-I wish I could fall asleep and stay asleep!

What I miss: Mountain Dew this week, especially when I have to go to work.

Cravings: Blue berries and salty food!

Symptoms: Hungry and tired. Thankfully not sick... yet!

Best Moment this week: Getting to see the baby on the ultrasound (even if it was a scary moment of how we ended up getting the ultrasound)

Rusty's New Toy

Its been so hot here these last few weeks we decided to get Rusty a pool! Here is a video of him playing in the pool and a bit of Frisbee...his favorite past times.

May/Early June life update

Well once again I managed to not update the blog for the last month!
With good reason, we have been busy busy busy. As I spoke of in my last post, Robin came to visit Clarksville for a week, we had so much fun! I can't wait for her to come back and visit!
One week later, my parents came into town for a week and spent time with us and went to Gatlinburg, TN. Logan and I also attended the unit's formal for the second time. This time it was down in Nashville so that was fun that we got to stay down there for a night!
Here is a picture with my parents, before they left:

Here is a picture: Nightstalker Formal-May 21st, 2010
During the time my parents were here, I was also awarded the Fort Campbell Enlisted Spouses Club scholarship for school. I won the first place scholarship and there were three other scholarships given out for the Fall 2010-Spring 2011 school year. Since I won first place, they asked if I would read my essay that was the reason why I had the top scholarship. The essay topic I wrote on was why I felt that all American citizens should be required to serve at least one year in the military or civilian service for our country. The picture below is me reading my essay:

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went camping again at LBL. We spent two nights on the lake, enjoying good times with friends and overall just fun times. With Rusty still recovering from his heart worm treatment he wasn't allowed to do as much as he would like, but he did a good job overall. We were ready to come home by the time Sunday rolled around, but it was nice to spend some time on the boat! We went fishing, tubing, and wake boarding-or I should say Logan did those last two-I watched from the boat!
After we got home from camping, Rusty ended up getting a hot spot-a gross wet dermatitis. It smelled horrible and looked awful-no wonder he was acting funny. So now he is on 10 days of antibiotics and get sprayed with anti-itch spray 3 times a day ha ha. What a money pit! So we are hoping that he stays healthy the rest of the year!

In other news, I start summer school tomorrow! I am ready to get these next 9 credit hours over with, so that way I only have 12 credit hours total of classes left to take. I should have my Masters degree May of 2011-but I am still deciding on the route I want to take for my certification-student teaching vs. alternative license. I have a while to decide-so no need to rush my decision!

Logan is busy as usual at work-training, training, and more training! He is off golfing with some friends this morning! Some things have changed, so it looks like I will get to keep him around a while longer and spend my favorite holiday of the year with him and my family this year, which I am excited about! We have some fun projects to do when my Mom and Aunt come for a visit over the 4th of July-possibly painting the man cave (if Logan can pick a color) and building Logan's fire pit!

Well I should probably get moving on the things I need to do today before Logan gets back from golfing after lunch!

Love,
Nicki and Logan

Bird visits the South!

Well as most of you already know Robin came to visit Tennessee this past week!! She had a warm, or wet, welcome to Nashville as she flew in during the worst rain/flood Nashville has ever had!! After making it into town and surviving the drive back to Clarksville our adventure began! Logan was gone this past week so we had a full week of girl time! I will give you a day by day run down and then some pictures!
So Monday: We started off the day by visiting the local winery, Beachhaven. We did a wine tasting, which was free YAY and ended up buying two bottles of wine. We then ventured to the Land between the Lakes area in Kentucky for a picnic and a visit to the Homeplace 1850. The Homeplace is a living farm so everything you see dates back to the 1850's, the clothing, housing, and even the animals! Here is a picture from that day!Tuesday: After deciding that Nashville wouldn't be an option until later in the week, we decided to venture back to the LBL area and go horseback riding!! In the morning we went to the Mennonite bakery in Guthrie, KY. This is a bakery that is run by a Mennonite family and they sell all their homemade goods. We ended up with cinnamon rolls, bread, and strawberry jam-everything was delicious. On our way to LBL we randomly came across the Jefferson Davis Monument is some small town in Kentucky. Apparently the only confederate president is big stuff around these parts. After our minor detour we ended up horseback riding at LBL. It was just Robin and I and then two trail guides. Part of the trail was flooded, so we had to turn around at the point it was flooded, but we still had fun. On our way home we stopped by Fort Donelson in Dover, TN. It was a major turning point in the Civil War for the North. It was very interesting-the driving tour leads you all around Dover showing you different parts of the battle.

Wednesday: This day was fairly low key for us. I had to work the midday shift at work, so Robin got to experience the life of Curves. After we decided to go out shopping for accessories and shoes for the unit's formal which is May 21st. We were pretty successful and I am all set for the formal stuff. We went out to dinner this night, but Robin chose to eat at Chic-Fil-a-of all places ha ha.

Thursday: I had to work this morning but was off around 11. We ended up going to the pool that afternoon at APSU! We were soooooo white, I am pretty sure we blended with the pool chairs ha ha. Apparently, we didn't get the memo that we needed to be tanned in a tanning bed and be orange before we went to the pool like the other girls lol. All the people also seemed fairly fascinated by Robin's tattoos. I guess they are not used to seeing people with them-which I find hard to believe.;
Friday: I had to work this morning also-but we had a busy busy day. After work, we decided to head up to Fort Campbell to show Robin the military life. We also found the museum that they have on post about the 101st and the other units stationed there. They have an indoor and outdoor museum so we explored both of those-it was actually extremely interesting to learn about the history of the post and when it was created. Friday night we ended up at the local Speedway-we had a blast from the past and went to watch Drag racing. It was as much fun as it was before! We however decided that in order to fit in a little better we needed to wear ghetto tank tops, have mullets, no teeth, smoke, and def have beer. So we felt a little out of place but it was still enjoyable!

(This is the only picture of us the ENTIRE time-I would also like to add it was sitting on the airplanes tail on a self time which is why its lopsided)

Saturday: We slept in after out late night at the track. We woke up and went to this BBQ place that was pretty much a hole in the wall but really good. This is the upside to working at Curves because the ladies are an endless group of information. You ask and you will receive-they recommended this place. If I didn't ask we would never have found it ha ha-it doesn't even really have a name from what I can tell. After we went and got Robin the book she wanted (it just came out) and then we ended up at home depot. We decided to take on some gardening/yard projects. We mowed the lawn, planted flowers, and then did some landscaping. After this we decided to have a fire in the fire-pit and drink some of the wine from the winery!

Sunday: Today we ventured to Nashville to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was fun, but expensive. Part of the museum was still closed off because it was damaged by the flood, but for the most part it was open. We quickly realized we had no idea who most of the people were in the museum so we were happy when we got to the wing we recognized the names ha ha. After the museum we walked around down town Nashville. It was interesting and sad because of the flooding damage. I was impressed by how many of the businesses were open though-hopefully people slowly start coming back to downtown so the businesses can get back to the normal routine! After this we slowly made our way to the airport for our goodbye!

Angry Tennessee Weather

Yesterday some severe storms blew through Tennessee and the surrounding states. Luckily, nothing too severe came around our house. Logan was gone the majority of the day taking his oral exam and practical for his class he has been in the past several weeks. He got home right before the most severe storm hit that included these nice green/dark looking clouds in the picture above. Shortly after this picture the skies opened up and the rain started coming down. We even got a little bit of hail; thank goodness both cars were inside by this point! Our NOAA weather radio was out of control yesterday...between tornado watches all day, tornado warnings, and severe thunderstorm warnings I think we made out pretty well and should feel lucky there was no damage to our house or surrounding areas!

Today we woke up and the sun was shining and beautiful, its just a tad windy out! Hopefully we won't have anymore severe weather in the next few months! We have been extremely lucky to only have that one day of bad storms, unlike last year where tornado warnings seemed to be a weekly event!

Ok off to study for my last final, run some errands, and possibly mow the lawn for my love =).

Love,
Nicki and Logan

Two posts in ONE weekend? Amazing I know

So here are some pictures of the last month of all my flowers and the trees blooming. I got some planting done today but I would have to admit that it is not as fun to do alone as it was last year with the Moms here!

Ok here we go:


The little tree we planted last year actually lived and bloomed beautiful white flowers (for about a week)! It is now full of leaves which I will take extra good care of this year and hopefully the dreaded little Japanese beetles won't eat them again!



Tulips and Hyanciths. The Hyacinths have died off, I cut them back today. The tulips much to my surprise are still blooming! They were HUGE and they are moving on to there third week. Someone at work made the point that tulips are a flower you look at every chance you get because before you know it they will be dead-well not in my yard. I am quit pleased these bulbs even came up at all actually! I think I will add some buttercups (daffodils-down here they are buttercups ha ha) next year by the mailbox!


Here is the first flower pot that I have planted. I discovered Sunday mornings are a bad time to go to lowes because there was everyone in the entire world out and must have had the same idea. Not to mention carrying 3 bags of dirt and flowers alone was really not fun or easy-next time I will go during the week and hopefully convince Logan to be my muscle =). So here we are-I am hoping my impatients will remain shorter this year instead of getting leggy like last year. I have two more planters similar to this one to plant-take suggestions for color choices (I am avoiding pink tho-MOM ha ha).


Here is the mailbox-so far. I am probably going to have to get some more green things if they decide to live. They are for part sun-this front area gets sun throughout the day...so we shall see. I decided with yellow and red Gerber daisies this year. I have a soft spot for them because they were the flowers we used in our wedding! I am just hoping that because they are not in a pot they will continue to flower throughout the summer instead of like last year I got one bloom and the impatients took over! Lesson learned...

I also planted tomatoes, peppers, basil, and parsley in the back. I was so hoping Logan would build me a garden but we are just too darn busy-not to mention he will be gone a portion this summer and I don't want veggies going to waste! You probably don't really need to see pictures of these considering they are green plants in pots-really not so exciting I know!

Ok off to examine the blackberry cobbler.

Monthly Life Update-April?

Has it really come to this? Blogging once a month (if you are all so lucky) is a new norm for the Brokaw family...or maybe just me. I must be going even crazier if I think Logan will EVER write a blog.ha. The thought alone makes me giggle lol...

Sometimes I think Logan and I could have our own reality TV show. Anyone that knows us, knows that we aren't your typical couple. We bicker like best friends, wrestle, hit, punch...you know the usual stuff right? I am sure Logan would like me to make a side thought here-all the 'fighting' is playfully not for real! He worries about this ha ha...Ok back to the point-then I think back to how common place our married life has become and just laugh-work, school, house, mowing the lawn, washing the cars, 'our' shows...I always wonder what people think when they see us coming. Lately we have become that old boring couple that doesn't do much more than watch tv and go to bed and read together...sounds fun right? Ha occasionally.

However, we are still the goofy little odd couple that has weird quirks. I think if someone recorded a daily conversation they would be like oh my god...from nicknames to the way we speak to each other reminds me daily that we are far from the normal boring couple. Latest example-the brownie point game. Whoever reaches 10 brownie points first gets a massage. The other person will receive a brownie point awarded by the person they do something nice or out of the ordinary for. So far I am in the lead-5 to 4. However, before I get my massage I had to pay up to the one I had been promising Logan for 3 weeks (I know, I know-bad wife) but something always came up-school work, tired, just felt lazy ha ha. However-after putting that off for so long he is now convinced the brownie point game needs a new prize-he says massages are dumb because I never pay up-WOOPS. Perhaps by the next blog I will have given Logan a massage that he won with the brownie point game! We are weird-I think.

Life has been unusual for us the past few weeks. Logan has been in a class for the past week that occupies him all day long and he actually has hw! It works out well with my finals coming up that he has to study too but I find I am more willing to help him than do my own work (sigh). I guess the only good sign is that I enjoy helping him which means I am in the right profession-TEACHING! His class ends tomorrow, Sunday, and then he is headed to another school for the Army-busy man. My school is done April 29th (YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY). For 5 weeks that is-then the awesomeness of summer school starts!

Well in spite of the fact that I thought I had many more profound thoughts to update y'all on-I don't. My brain just realized that I am making it think but just not about school and its shutting off. I think this is my sign that I need to go check on the chicken broth I am making for homemade chicken and noodles tonight. I have fallen in love with The Pioneer Woman....check her out-My new Obsession! Amazing but fattening food-so much for the Brokaw diet plan =).

Love,
Nicki and Logan