Break out the Stretchy Pants!

I think I'm going to like these elastic waistbands!! Stephanie, Avery, and "Gram" took me on my very first maternity clothes shopping spree. We hit Destination Maternity in Dallas and had so much fun. It started to all feel very real when I tried on the full-bellied clothes with the padded baby bump tied on underneath. What an amazing 6 months I have ahead!

Sneak Peak at Baby Bear Bossen

We had our first ultrasound on June 21. There's really a baby in there!! It's surreal and so exciting. Here's what Baby Bear looks like at 6 1/2 weeks. At 10 1/2 weeks, Baby Bear had a heart rate of 160 beats per minute. The little one is working hard and growing strong. The "big" ultrasound is scheduled for September 7th, so we'll let you know whether to start thinking pink or blue very soon!

The Stork has Landed

Our Bible Fellowship class has a traditional way of announcing new babies. The Stork does it, of course! Andrew and I announced our pregnancy to the class (with the help of the Stork) on July 1st! It was so much fun. After watching many of our friends have Stork visits, having one of our very own was incredible! The Stork even gave me a beautiful red rose.

We took the rose home to Kobe and broke the news to him too. He said "What do you mean you're having a baby? I'm the baby!" He'll get used to it, hopefully!

We're Pregnant!!!

Andrew and I brought back the best souvenier ever from our summer vacation to Hawaii!! We found out at the end of the trip that we're going to have a baby. The "keiki" as children are called by the Hawaiians is set to arrive in early February. The baby bump watch is on. Here's a picture at the beach in Lihue, Kauai where I'm about 1 week pregnant!

Dedication Day

Avery Elizabeth was dedicated at First Baptist Church Dallas on November 5th, 2006. Andrew and I headed up to Dallas Sunday morning to be able to see the dedication and stand with the family and promise to help raise Avery to know the Lord. It was a wonderful gathering of family and friends to celebrate the blessing of Avery's life and Collin and Stephanie as parents. After church, the family was invited over to Collin and Stephanie's house for lunch and to play with Avery. We all took turns holding her....she was quite the show stopper!

Happy Howl-o-ween

We started the costume festivities this year with a pre-party costume fashion show with Bailey and Kobe modeling their Howl-o-ween outfits. Bailey wore a purple spider web t-shirt & Kobe had a black Halloween hoodie. The dogs had fun posing for pictures and gobbling treats.

Kobe had a great time dressing up in his "Boo" hoodie and helping hand out candy. This year, we gave out chocolate candy wrapped to look like eyeballs (perfect treat from the Ophthalmologist's house). Kobe did really well and didn't bark too much at the trick-or-treaters at the door. We also found snack packs of doggie treats to hand out to any dogs out on the candy trail....but we didn't ever have any at the door. So, we opened a package and gave a treat to Kobe every time he sat nicely on the carpet when we handed out candy to the kids.

At the end of the evening, Ryan and Emily brought Bennett over to trick-or-treat at our house. He was a train engineer for Halloween this year. He posed with Kobe and Andrew for a picture before heading home.



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Viva Las Vegas

Andrew's Ophthalmology convention took us to Las Vegas from November 9-14. We traveled with our friends Ryan, Emily and Elizabeth and had a wonderful time in the glitz and glamor of Sin City! We arrived late Thursday night and had time to walk up to the shops at the Alladin where I promptly purchased the most overpriced pair of tennis shoes that I've ever owned. But, after walking what felt like 10 miles in high heeled boots with no support, I would have paid anything for a pair of comfy shoes!! We ate dinner after a quick shopping spree and then headed back to our hotel.

Friday, we decided to rent a car to explore and see what existed in Las Vegas beyond the strip. Emily, Andrew and I went to explore Mt. Charleston while Ryan and Elizabeth attended Retina classes. It was amazing to see the landscape of Las Vegas. In less than 45 minutes, we went from barren desert to mountains with pine trees and ski lifts! There was even a little bit of snow already on the mountain tops. The weather was cool and windy, and you would have never known that you were in a desert.

After the mountains, we headed out to explore Hoover Dam. Wow! What an amazing sight. I didn't know what to expect, so my first peek over the dam wall made my stomach do circles! It was a LONG way down!! We got there 6 minutes too late to catch the last tour, so we just walked over the dam and hoped the engineering really was as good as they say it is! It was fun to walk all the way from Nevada to Arizona in about 10 steps.

That night, we loaded up and explored Lake Las Vegas. We found the resort community of Montelago (where Oprah Winfrey and Celine Dion are rumored to own houses). There were quaint shops along cobblestone streets with chiminea fireplaces to warm your hands. We stopped and had a fine Italian dinner before heading back to the strip.

Saturday, Andrew headed off to the convention and the vendor expo where he cashed in on all sorts of freebies from shoe shines to jump drives with his name engraved in them! He even performed "virtual cataract surgery" on a computerized eye. Emily and I met up with a highschool friend of hers from Sioux Falls who now lives in Vegas and hit the shops at the Alladin again.

Saturday night was our big night out. We had tickets to Mama Mia, which was a really cute musical incorporating the popular 70's hits from ABBA. By the end of the show, we were tapping our toes and ready to hit the town. We went to Pure Nightclub in Caesar's Palace for a reception hosted by one of the Ophthalmology drug companies. Wow!! What a place. The terrace overlooked the strip with beautiful views of the Bellagio fountains and the Eifel Tower at the Paris Hotel. We danced and had a fabulous time. Around midnight, we were all hungry, so we headed across the street to the all-night diner at the Flamingo Hotel. Wouldn't you know it, when we were feasting on hamburgers, Nick Lachey and Vanessa Manillo arrived at Pure (where we had just been) to celebrate Nick's birthday! So, we had a "near encounter" with a celebrity!

Sunday, Emily and I hit the fashion mall and explored the Wynn Casino while Andrew, Ryan and Elizabeth were in meetings. We had another drug company reception that night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. There was an hour long presentation about different developments in Ophthalmology and I got to see what Andrew actually does at work during the day! They had actual videos of different aspects of cataract surgery. It was a lot for this non-medical person to stomach....but I regained my appetite just in time for the fancy dinner reception that followed the presentation.

Monday, Andrew took me up to the expo to see all of the displays, and then I had to head back to the real world to get ready for work on Tuesday. He stayed for the remaining conferences on Monday and that night the gang went to another drug company reception at Tsunami at the Venitian.

Vegas is a great city for a convention...and a wonderful place to have fun with friends!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a fun time picking out the perfect pumpkin at the Methodist Church Pumpkin Patch. Kobe came along to help sniff out the scene...and he stole the show. We were trying to get him to pose for the camera, but he was flirting with the girls working at the popcorn machine! We finally had to pass the camera off to them in order for him to actually pose for the picture!

Call us Aunt Jen & Uncle Andrew!

She's here!! She's finally here!! Avery Elizabeth Poage was born Friday September 29th at 6:48pm after 15 hours of labor.

As I was hitting the snooze button not wanting to leave my cozy bed Friday morning to get ready for work, the phone rang. I had a sneaking suspicion that this might be "the call", but after a few false alarms in past weeks, I didn't want to get my hopes up.

I needed some motivation to wake up that day, so the phone ringing was a good start. I said "hello" and sure enough, it was my mom on the other side. She said that Stephanie had been having contractions since 4am and that they were heading to the hospital just as soon as they could get ready.

When Collin & Steph arrived at the hospital, it was the real deal!! They were in labor. We were all thrilled and full of anxious concern and excitement. We would hopefully be greeting the newest member of our family before the day was done!

Mom and Dad packed up the car and picked me up in Temple. We headed up to Dallas praying and hoping the whole way that things would go well and that we wouldn't miss the big event! When we arrived, Stephanie was in good spirits. She had some really painful contractions for a few hours and was thrilled that the anesthesiologist had finally stopped by and done the epidural. We watched the monitors, chatted with the nurses and tried to let Steph rest as much as possible.

We headed to the waiting room and found Steph & Collin's friends Glen & Lydia, along with Glen's mom. Around 5:30 we got word that labor had progressed and it was almost time to push. Shortly thereafter, Janice arrived. Then Kendra and Errol.

Kendra suggested we circle up and say a special prayer for Collin, Stephanie and Avery. We prayed right there in the waiting room for the perfect miracle that was about to happen. About 3 minutes after we were finished with our prayer, I saw Collin run down the hall to greet us and I knew Avery was here!

He said "she's beautiful"! He was full of emotion and said he could barely talk. But, he had pictures. So, we saw a few pictures of Stephanie and Avery. 10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes. She was completely healty and amazing.

We were able to see Steph and Avery for a few minutes before they took the baby to the nursery. Avery was bundled up and Stephanie was holding her. We all flooded in the room and rushed to their side. Avery was calm and quiet, but wide-eyed and surveyed the room full of people staring at her. She took it all in as we oohed and aahed over her -- and flashed all sorts of bright lights at her as we all wanted pictures.

Collin, Stephanie and Avery were all reunited in the hospital room around 11:00pm. We then had our first chance to hold their precious little bundle of joy.

We're Online

Well...it's time for us to join in with the rest of the world and jump on the blog bandwagon!! More updates to come.....