Week of the Eggplant (26 weeks)

It's hard to believe, but Baby Mangum is now 14 inches long and weighs 1.7 pounds! Her ears are becoming more developed and can now hear noises outside of her womb. Her lungs are developing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid. 

26 Weeks

Baby Mangum is definitely growing and I can regularly feel her kick. Cody has been patiently waiting to feel her kick and one night decided to put his ear on my belly. A few seconds later she kicked as hard as she had kicked up until that point and Cody certainly felt it! It's so nice when I get a break at work to sit down and she starts kicking. She reminds me that my job is only temporary, but we get to keep her forever. We are excited that she will be a big part of our lives very soon and we are so grateful for her!

My parents and my brother Ryan were able to visit us in Minnesota last week and we had a great time showing them around the Twin Cities and spending time together. I need to collect pictures and then I'll make a full post about it later...

Cody has been working hard applying for Fellowships for after he graduates in May. He worked his tail off and sent out 16 applications and has already had a first interview and has another planned for tomorrow. I'm so proud of him and all of the hard work he has put into his schooling and future job! I'll keep you posted on the application process!

Week of the Papaya (23 weeks)

Apparently Baby Mangum is going to be a papaya for a few weeks. This weeks the bones inside her ear are starting to grow and she can hear loud noises outside the womb. Cody better be careful what he says during the night- he only swears in his sleep and on the golf course :)

This week we headed to the Minnesota State Fair with our friends Anna and Mitch Ryan. They are fair veterans so they were able to show us around the fair grounds. The MN Fair is the largest fair in the US and has the most fried food on a stick (talk about something to be proud about :) We spent the day walking around, visiting booths, and of course eating! By the end of the day we had consumed an ear of corn, fried cheese curds (twice), chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick, a cone of cookies, 8 glasses of milk, a corn dog, a frozen apple cider pop, apple cider, and a steak and buffalo kabob. I know, we eat really healthy :) I think the cheesecake and the milk were my favorite fair foods. The milk was great because we bought a cup for a dollar and then we got free refills and it went great with our cookies! We had a great time and were a little sad that we probably won't be here to go again next year :( 

Fried Cheese Curds

Chocolate Covered Cheesecake

Apple Cider and Apple Cider Pop

Stopped by to see some of my relatives

This was also Cody's first week of school and he survived! This semester should be easier for him school wise but now he is applying for fellowships for next year so that will keep him plenty busy! 

This weekend we attended the annual MHA Fishing Trip in Brainerd, MN which is about 2.5 hours north of Minneapolis. There was a bonfire, volleyball, watching football games, playing Yahtzee, sitting by the lake, and meeting lots of new people. I wish I would have taken pictures, it was beautiful and we had a great weekend.

Week of the Papaya

 Baby Mangum is now 11 inches long and weighs 1 whole pound! She has formed eyelids, eyebrows, finger nails, and her brain in rapidly growing. I also felt her kick for the first time this week! Very exciting :)

22 Weeks

After our trip to Oklahoma, Cody and I drove back to Independence and loaded our stuff onto a trailer. We then drove to Des Moines, Iowa and stayed the night with my cousin Mark and his wife April. They were in Minneapolis last year and we were able to spend some time with them so it was fun to see them again. We got to see Mark's top secret job site and then Mark made us enchiladas for dinner. We then went to a frozen yogurt store (Cody's favorite) and filled our tummies with yogurt goodness :) We finished out the night by playing games and watching Brian Regan. Our stay was short and we wish we could have stayed longer, but the next morning we drove to St. Paul and moved into our apartment.

I went back to work this past Monday and had a whole new crew of kids to meet this year. We are waiting to see if any more new students come and then we will finalize our schedules for the year. Right now it looks like I will be working with a couple of middle school students as well as the first grade class. This should be an exciting year!

Cody enjoyed his last week of freedom and was sweet enough to clean the house :) He also got in a couple rounds of golf, a trip to Goodwill to search for treasures, and he and Michael stopped by a few estate sales but didn't buy anything. If you don't know, Cody loves to find a bargain and hopes to find hidden treasures on these outings. 

Saturday we attended the MHA BBQ and were able to meet some of the first year students. It is crazy how fast this past year has gone by! I remember being in their shoes not so long ago! After the BBQ we went to Vanessa and Michael's house to play games (Michael is in the program with Cody). Our favorite game to play is Ticket to Ride and Vanessa beat us all this time! If you haven't heard of this game, you need to look it up! 

Next up: The Minnesota State Fair on Labor Day

Week of the Banana

I'm a few weeks behind on blog posts, but I will try to get everyone caught up! Last week our little girl was 10.5 inches long and weighed 12.7 ounces. Her heart is developing and getting stronger.

21 Weeks

After our weekend in Branson, Cody and I drove to Muskogee, Oklahoma to spend a week and a half with Cody's parents, his brother Jay, Jay's wife Brit and their two kids Michael and John. Our time there was part relaxing, part exploring, and lots of spending time with family :) 

Poor Cody hasn't played enough golf this summer (it was really hot and he was pretty busy!) so we were able to play a round of golf while we were in Oklahoma. Unfortunately the course wasn't in the best shape, but at least we can say that he made it out to play. 

We also took a picnic to Robbers Cave and went on a hike to explore. We should have read the sign before we set out because we went around the cave, but never actually got to see the entrance. Next time we will follow the orange flags :)

We took another picnic to Lake Tenkiller and the kids got to play in the lake while we fixed lunch. We could see the storm clouds rolling in and finished eating just as it began to rain. The rain cut our afternoon short, but Oklahoma and almost everywhere could use some rain right now. 

Cody's parents have two horses, Buster and Sandy Bob, and they live a few miles away and need to be fed twice a day. Cody and I got to go feed them a few times and Cody was able to ride them early one morning. I obviously can't ride a horse so I slept in while Cody went riding with his dad. I hear that Cody was all decked out in cowboy stuff but they forgot to take a picture :( 

We also got to babysit Jay and Brit's kids, Michael and John. John is 6 months old and Michael is 2 years old and is very intelligent. Cody asked him once if he knew how to do a pushup and he looked at Cody seriously and said in his cute voice "What's a pushup?" Cody showed him and Michael did something close to a pushup, it was pretty funny to watch him :) He even remembered how to do it the next day when we asked him. We had a fun time chasing them around and tickling them a lot :)

Cody bought a ladder golf game from Goodwill while we were in St. Paul and we took the yard game down to Oklahoma with us. It is meant to be played outside, but we were careful and played inside most of the time. We witnessed many battles and I had more fun watching others play than playing myself. 

We had a fun visit and hopefully we'll be able to come back for Thanksgiving (it will be a month and a half away from my due date so we'll see what the doctor says...)

Week of the Mango

Baby Mangum is a GIRL!!!

Here she is laying on her back with her legs crossed on the left side of the picture and her head is on the right side. Her arms are crossed over her chest- Cody says that I sleep like this sometimes. 

In this picture she is taking after Cody- bum in the air :)

Here is her side profile- I can tell she is going to be cute!

This week we moved out of our apartment in Independence, Missouri. We moved all of our stuff into a storage unit where it will sit for 2 weeks while we take a vacation to Branson and visit Cody's family in Oklahoma. 

We started our Branson trip by heading to Ripley's Believe It or Not. There we saw...

A stagecoach made of matchsticks, 

A carving made out of camel bone, 

Nail polish paintings, 

A furry fish,

and a replica of the first scuba diving gear. 

That night we enjoyed a steak dinner at Fall Creek where the staff walks around with a bowl of rolls and throws the rolls at you. After dinner we saw the Chinese Acrobats in action. They balanced on top of each others heads, jumped through hoops that were 8 feet high, hulu hooped on a tight rope wire, spun and threw tables using their feet, and much more! 

Cody with the Chinese Acrobats

Katie with the Chinese Acrobats

We also went mini golfing while we were there and I finally beat Cody! This is a rare feat because Cody never lets me win at anything. He says that when I win against him I will know that I really beat him instead of him letting me win. 

Holding the winning score card!

We also saw the Animal Circus in Branson. We weren't allowed to take pictures but they were sure cute. There were cats that walked the tight rope, cats that climbed ladders, dogs that walked on their hind legs, and a cute little dog dressed in a tux that introduced the show. I think that Cody and I were the only couple there without kids but we enjoyed it just the same.

What a fun week!

Week of the Sweet Potato

I have made it to week 18 and the baby is supposedly very active moving its arms and legs, but I haven't felt anything yet, or at least I think I haven't... 

 

I daily go through phases of thinking that my belly is huge and then thinking that it's not big enough. Either way it is definitely growing so that is good news :)

The other good news is that we find out the gender of Baby Mangum in 2 days! I can't believe how fast it has gone and how slow at the same time. I guess I have a hard time making up my mind :)

Cody and I have been talking about going to a Royals baseball game while we are here in Missouri. The stadium is about 10 minutes away from our house and we could get tickets for $10 but the parking costs $20 :( We decided to bite the bullet and then a couple of days later someone told Cody that we were able to get free tickets and parking passes from the corporate office of the hospital - sweet!

 

The seats weren't too bad either! We got to sit up close to the boxes behind home plate. It was really nice because we were in the shade and could feel a breeze the whole game. This was especially important because it was 95 degrees with humidity at 8 pm. 

The fountains were a fun addition across the ballpark. 

Please ignore my evil eyes, I really did have fun at the game :)

As part of Cody's residency, he has to write a paper that tells all about the project that he has been working on at the hospital. The paper is due this Friday, which also happens to be his last day at St. Luke's East. Cody says that if it weren't for this paper he would have really enjoyed his residency, which is good because hopefully he won't have to write a paper like this again!

Cody needed to go in on Saturday to work on the paper and I told him that I would bring my laptop and come with him to keep him company. I read all of the news sites, watched some Olympics, visited Pinterest several times, checked my email, and anything else that I could think to do- I didn't realize that we were going to be there for 5 hours! In the end, Cody says that he now thinks that he will finish on time and his paper so far is a grand total of 60 pages! There is no way that I have ever written anything that long! Now I remember why I chose a grad program that did not require a thesis or major paper.

After that lovely experience, we drove to The Plaza in Kansas City. It is basically 10 blocks of shopping stores and restaurants that sit along a small creek. We walked around and window shopped and then ate an early supper at the Brio Tuscan Grille. 

 

After dinner we took a ride in a Venetian style Gondola down the Brush Creek River, complete with a rose that Cody gave me.

I've always had the idea that it would be fun to go to Italy and stay in a hotel on the waterway and take gondola rides everywhere. We enjoyed our ride and a few people stopped to take pictures of us.

Unfortunately this is the end of our summer in Independence, Missouri. We did some fun things and Cody enjoyed his residency. Now on to Oklahoma for a few weeks and then back to Minnesota.

Week of the Potato

Baby Mangum is now 5.12 inches and weighs 4.94 ounces. Baby's skeleton is hardening and sweat glands are starting to develop. We will soon find out if our little potato is a boy or a girl (1.5 weeks until the ultrasound!).

17 weeks- I don't look that big in this picture, but I feel huge!

 

It's hard to believe but Cody only has 2 more weeks of his residency left- the summer has gone by surprisingly fast! I am enjoying my last days of summer freedom before I go back to work but am looking forward to being back in Minneapolis with familiar surroundings and friends. 

Holidays and traditions are a big deal in my family so I was a little disappointed when I didn't feel well enough to do anything fancy for the 4th of July. This week I decided that I would make up for it by having an Olympic party complete with Olympic rings and red, white, and blue. 

The Official Olympic table

Red, Blue, and White Rice Krispies

Olympic Deviled Egg Rings

Star Cookies and Chocolate Covered Strawberries with Blue Sugar

Strawberry, Blueberry, and Feta Salad

Olympic Rings Pizza

We had quite the feast and then settled down to watch the Opening Ceremony. Unfortunately we tuned in an hour late so we'll have to catch the first hour another time.

Cody's parents made a quick trip up from Oklahoma to see us on Saturday. We went to breakfast and then drove to Liberty Jail. When I was in primary my family and I took a church history trip to Nauvoo and also stopped in Missouri to see the church history sites around here. Cody also went to several of the church history sites around Missouri while he and his family were living in Oklahoma. I never would have thought while I was on that trip that I would now be living in Missouri. 

Liberty Jail. When my family and I visited we were only allowed to look at the jail from behind a fence, but this time we were allowed to walk around to the front and also walk up close and take pictures. This must have been a hard time for these members of the church. I can't imagine being held for no reason in a cold cellar with minimal light. They must have had great faith that Heavenly Father was watching over them and aware of their situation.

Next we ventured to Far West to see the four cornerstones that were laid for a temple. The saints were not able to complete the temple, but the cornerstones remain.

A plaque that stands between the cornerstones

It was a quick trip for Cody's parents but we are glad that we were able to see some church sites and spend time with them.