We're so excited to welcome our new son into our family! William Kindel Cunningham was born on August 4th at 3:15 pm weighing 7 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 19.5 inches long. Here are a few pictures of our little man:

Nursery

I am officially considered full term! Which means baby could come any time in the next four weeks or so and they wont stop if from happening.  (Such a scary and exciting thought) I can't wait to meet our little guy. I already know that he is going to be a hand full or at least very active based on how much he likes to kick me and do somersaults in my stomach. Oh well, he is going to be so much fun at the same time.

We, finally, bought and put together his crib! I love it so much and now his room is actually starting to look like a nursery rather than a place that we can store extra things that we have.  Here are some pictures of what it looks like right now. The theme is Paddington Bear.

Above the crib is a quilt that my Grandma hand quilted.

The Crib and Blanket that my Mom and Grandparents made

 

 

 

 

 

The one window in the room, I made the curtains at the top.

There is also a dresser that will be the changing table and storage of things. Also another cube bookshelf type thing that has his clothes and such in it.  These things are completely done yet so I don't have pictures of what they look like yet.  And a closet that holds some of his clothes and other things that don't really have a home yet.

More pictures to come when things get done!

Stream of Consciousness...

I have no idea if a single person will find this interesting or worth reading. I have no expectations of that at all. This is an unedited, unplanned stream of consciousness piece I wrote tonight that may or may not make any sense. I wasn't sure whether to post it or not since it a.) probably isn't very exciting and yet b.) it is very personal. But I decided to do it anyway. So, if you want to read a sample of what is going through my mind, great. If not, our next post will probably be about baby stuff so come back later! Here it is:

I am admittedly a terrible journal writer. And blogger. And Facebooker. I like the idea of it and the benefits of it, but I have just never been good at consistently sitting down and writing out what I am doing, thinking, or feeling. It usually comes to me in bursts. Certain nights when I almost HAVE TO put my thoughts down before I can sleep. Today, the trigger was looking back through all of my Facebook messages starting back in 2006 when I got one. Some people’s names I hardly recognized. Acquaintances through a mutual friend trying to coordinate group events freshman year. Old crushes that lasted for only a week or two that I had all but forgotten about. There are also the long lost friends who were close to me at earlier times in my life but have become almost completely separated through the sieve of time. Others are those whose friendship has survived years of no contact, living in different states, or being oceans away. I almost got to re-live past years of my life through snippets of vivid memories captured in Facebook messages. I wish I had more so that I could paint the picture of the past with greater detail. This all got me thinking about my story. I wouldn’t trade the current chapter of my story for anything in the world, but part of me wishes I could go back and either re-live or at least watch memories of my past. I know I will be thinking about this exact time in my life with the same fondness in the not too distant future. Living in a new state, starting a career, and poised to welcome a son into the world in the next month or so. His story is about to start. It seems like mine has only just begun, and yet major sections of my story are about to be about somebody else. A major purpose in my life is to help write a new story’s beginning even though mine is in full swing. This makes me feel a little bit selfish in how I have always considered the narrative of my life. Being in this position now makes me realize how little I have considered how I am a role player in the story of Glenn and the story of Vicki. Parents seem so steady, wise, and infallible. I suppose it always seemed to me that they had their stories already figured out and things moved along at a fairly predictable pace. I never realized until now how cloudy of a future it seemed at times to my parents. Even though I can probably be classified as having a “predictable” future with a steady job in a company and an industry I may be in for the rest of my life, the future still seems so unknown to me. I guess I never realized before how much my parents probably felt this. In a way, though, I think I was right. Parenthood is about sacrificing for love of a child. It means no longer viewing my story in the context of ME and ME, but viewing myself as a key role player in his story. It doesn’t mean my story won’t continue and progress, but I can already feel a change in how I will view it. When he looks back at pictures of his birth and his early childhood, he won’t see it as MY story of raising a child. He will see it as his own. The foundations of the rest of his life. I suppose all this reflection on my life and my story is to make sure to make it a good one moving forward. Make memories and do the things that matter most. Make my story one worth living and help my son’s to be the same.

Start "Real Life"

About a month and a half ago, Cory and I both graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. We are both super excited to be done with school. I graduated with my BS in Statistics and Cory graduated with his BS in Manufacturing Engineering and a minor in Math (he does plan on doing some grad school starting in about a year).

A few days after graduation, we moved to start Cory's new job at Boeing in Auburn, WA (which is just south of Seattle).  It was a really easy move. They sent professional movers to pack up our entire apartment. So, all we had to do was clean it once they were done. Boeing also shipped our car for us and flew us to Seattle. They provided a rental car. All we had to do was find a hotel to stay in until our stuff arrived. 

About a week and a half after we got to Seattle, our stuff came and we moved into our new apartment in Puyallup, WA.  We moved to the same apartment complex that we lived in last summer when Cory was an intern at Boeing. This time a two bedroom, since we will be having a little one joining the family soon.

One of the best parts about someone else moving you is that they use an amazing amount of paper. We had so much we filled the entire baby's room. 

That's Cory hiding in the paper. We had a good time playing in it. But it ended up being a pain to have to clean up. Haha oh well. 

I want to be a tourist (The Crab Pot)

After grabbing our ticket for our cruise through some of the area (more on that later), we went to get some lunch. As we walked past one of the piers, we had seen a few seafood restaurants and since we were in Seattle right on the waterfront, we wanted to have some. One place close by was called "The Crab Pot" and it looked good. Now, for those of you who don't know her quite as well, Katy usually likes to have familiar things off of menus when we go out to eat; furthermore, in general, Katy is not a big fan of seafood. So, I was curious what she would order and how she would like it. We waited for only a few minutes, and then were seated at a table outside under an overhang. We ordered this:

The table is full of Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab, Shrimp in the Shell, Steamed Clams, Steamed Mussels, Andouille Sausage, Corn on the Cob, and Red Potatoes in their jackets. Additionally, it came up that Katy had NEVER had salmon before! She didn't ever think she would like it since she doesn't really like fish, but I convinced her that it is not a "fishy" tasting fish if that makes any sense. So, we spent an extra few dollars to get some grilled salmon on a skewer. She liked it! She actually liked everything, though the shrimp not as much as everything else. She said she likes her shrimp deep fried and couldn't get over having to break off the shrimp heads and peeling off the shell. We both loved the crab, but we already knew that. I am a big fan of seafood, so I loved this fresh medley. About an hour later, we were left with this:

All in all, it was a great place. It was definitely a lunch we'll remember!

I want to be a tourist (Seattle Aquarium)

The Seattle Aquarium was the second place that we went on our CityPass of Seattle.  It was super fun! We got to see all kinds of animals, including ones that we would see just outside in the Puget Sound.  While it wasn't the biggest aquarium that I have ever been to, it still was really nice.  My personal favorites were the otters, both sea otters and river otters.  Cory's favorite part was the giant octopus which come directly from the Puget Sound.  We learned that since octopi are so smart, they have to catch a new octopus from the Sound every once in a while so that they don't get bored living in the tank.  The Giant Pacific Octopus, the kind found in the Puget Sound and in the museum, is the biggest species of octopus in the world.  We learned later that the largest one ever caught was over 30 feet long and weighed more than 600 pounds!  One of the other cool things that happened while we were there was the feeding time.  We just happened to be at the sea lion exhibit when the trainer came out with a bucket of fish.  So, we got to watch it do tricks and other cool things for food.  It was so fun to watch.  Here are some of the many pictures that I took while we were there.

I'm touching a Sea Cumcumber

Cory tired but he didn't really measure up.

The Giant Octopus

Fun colored fish that we saw

A puffin that is about to jump into the water right in front of us.  After he did jump, he ran right into the wall just in front of us.  It was so funny.

Star Fish

Sea otter.  He is eating his lunch.

Sea otter mommy and baby.  While we were watching we saw the baby getting milk from its mother.

River otter.  Just posing for us. haha

Sea lion working for its food. haha

I want to be a tourist (Pike's Place Market)

One of the most famous farmers markets.  It was awesome to be there.  We walked around and saw all the great things in the market, including the famous fish market where they throw the fish.  There were many shops and other places that sold handmade crafts and also many flowers.  They were some of the prettiest flowers I've seen and I've seen lots of flowers working at a flower shop.  Cory bought me a beautiful bouquet of peonies and irises.  They are gorgeous!