Congratulations Mike & Rachel

Our good friends Mike McNeive and Rachel Pfeifer got engaged last week. Mike (of 365 Shirts fame) went to high school with me at Baltimore Lutheran, but was in a grade below with my brother and our good friend, Dustin. Rachel is Dustin's younger sister. We have all been good friends our entire lives.Laura and I are very happy for both of you! Congratulations!
-Bert

Introducing....

We have our first picture! The whole sonogram experience was very exciting! Our little peanut is about 2.65cm long right now. We got to watch it move around quite a bit inside of Laura's belly. It was being really active for a little while there! We got to hear it's heartbeat, which at 189 beats per minute, sounded like an angry neighbor pounding on a door. The due date is set between April 22-25, 2009... just after tax season!

Here is Kinzie, posing for her very first picture with her new baby brother/sister.
She and Nanny even got to come into the examination room with us to see the baby move on the screen and hear it's heartbeat. It was a great day all around, rounded out by Kinzie getting her blood taken for the state-required lead paint test and she didn't even cry! She was very brave!

We would especially like to thank Nanny for sitting with Mackinzie in the waiting room while Laura and I were in examination room. We hope that getting to be the first to see the baby and getting to hear it's heartbeat made the trip worth-while. Thanks Nanny!
-Bert

Kinzie Being Cute

The next few days and weeks ahead are big ones for our little girl. She starts attending her new school on Friday. Then Mackinzie begins her very first ballet class on Saturday morning. She is taking the class with her friend, Sophia, from church. Last night, she tried on her dance body suit and tights. She's not crazy about having to have her hair pulled back for class, but I think she'll be able to handle it.

A week after ballet begins, Mackinzie will be turning 3 years old! She's having a litte princess birthday party on October 4th with a few friends and relatives.

I took this picture of Mackinzie napping the other day. It was funny to see her leg hanging over the side of her little bed.

The biggest news of all for Mackinzie is the excitement of becoming a big sister! We go for our first sonogram tomorrow. She is very excited to see a picture of her new baby brother or sister for the first time!

Potty-training has been going exceptionally well and she wears real underwear all the time except for when she's sleeping! She even has a new favor book to read while she sits on the potty. ... just like daddy!

Our sonogram appointment is tomorrow at 4pm. I'm sure one of the first things we'll do when we get home is scan the picture and start posting it on Facebook, MySpace, etc... Please check back at the blog soon to see it!

-Bert

YouTube Fun

Its a quiet Tuesday afternoon in the Rode house. I'm working, as usual, and Mackinzie is playing, also as usual. I took a short break to add some creativity to our morning and here are some of the results:

Mackinzie loves to play the games on NickJr.com. For a little girl who isn't even three years old yet, she's quite to computer whizz!


She's also a little Star Wars geek. (daddy's little girl :) In this short clip, she demonstates who to active a light saber.

In Beltway Fantasy Football news, my team, the Camo Pirates improved to a 2-1 record with an 87-68 victory over 2007 BFF Champions, Michael Motorcycle. It was a rematch of last years BFF Championship Bowl, only this time I won!











-Bert

An Apple A Day...

Mackinzie visited her new pediatrician today for her 3 year old check-up and to have the doctor fill out her paperwork for Day Care. She won't turn three until a week from this Friday, but she passed with flying colors. She currently weighs 30 lbs and is 37 inches tall. The best part about the whole visit was that she didn't have to get any shots! Although, because we live in the 21234 zip code, she'll need to be tested for lead paint. Its pretty ridiculous, in my opinion, since she just moved here a few months ago, but apparently its a state law. She'll have her first day at A Family Affair Day Care this Friday.
In other news, Laura and I went to the Ravens game yesterday. It was great to see the defense blow the Browns out of the water in the second half! It was very hot in the upper deck though and my poor pregnant wife practically baked in the hot sun! I think that will be the last time we sit in Will & Brittany's seats.
It also looks like the Camo Pirates have beaten Michael Motorcycle in fantasy football, but I'll wait till tomorrow to post more on that... when it becomes official.
-Bert

An Evening In Federal Hill

Last night our church's Young Adults Group held it's monthly get-together at Mark Weaver's house in Federal Hill. Mark's front porch made for a great location for a Mexican-style cookout.
We had one of the bigger crowds that I've been a part of.

Mackinzie entertained everyone with her stories.

... and when Isaac wasn't busy running around trying out his newly-abled walking legs, he and Kinzie were playing together.

Even Ian got in on the playtime fun!

Apparently Mark likes to play with block too? Or did somebody bring those to his house?

Our little girl had so much fun with everyone, as did we.

It was a lot of fun together with everyone. Thanks to Mark for opening his home to our group.

In other news, the pregnancy continues to go well. Laura feels great on some days, while not-so-great on others. Please keep her and our family in your prayers. We are counting down the days until our sonogram appointment next Thursday!

-Bert

No Sonogram Yet

We had our first appointment with Laura's doctor yesterday afternoon. We were expecting a due date, sonogram, ... the whole sha-bang. Instead, it was just a basic check up. They weren't doing sonograms in the office that day, so we have set an appointment for next Thursday (Sept. 25) to see our little baby for the first time. For those blog readers who were expecting to see a picture today, here's what it probably would have looked like:
We did hear an approximate due date of April 22, 2009, but that will be re-confirmed after the sonogram. In the meantime, we wait.....

Our mornings and afternoons at home consist of Kinzie playing NickJr.com on the laptop....

... and me working back in my office.

In fantasy football news, the Camo Pirates lost to Zac's Fishers 116-106 this week. It's always tough to score over 100 points and still lose, but I was happy with my teams performance and we're looking forward to a 2007 BFF Championship rematch against Michael Motorcycle next week.

-Bert

Dancin' Queen: The Sequel

Yesterday afternoon we signed up Mackinzie for her first ballet class. The best thing about it is that she'll be taking the class with her friend, Sophia, from church. She'll have Saturday morning practices starting on Sept. 27th and then after a few weeks, there will be a recital with contumes and everything! She is very excited!

This past Monday evening, I started back at class at Towson University. This semester I am taking ACCT 303, Intermeditate Accounting 3. Mackinzie played photographer and took this picture of me in my Towson t-shirt next to my truck.

... not bad for a little photographer!

In Beltway Fantasy Football news, my team (the Camo Pirates) defeated Dustin's Berrywood Bombers 80-50 in Week One. Next week, we'll take on Zac Fisher's "Zac's Fishers".

-Bert

Baby Announcement!

I got a picture message to my cell phone this past Saturday (Sept. 6) from my good friend, Danny Flynn, just 40 minutes after the birth of his and his wife, Michaele's first child, Aiden Daniel Flynn. The healthy baby arrived at 7lbs, 5oz and 21 inches long.The new Flynn family say they're doing great and they look fantastic!

Here are the newest great-grandmother, Miss Violet Flynn; the newest grandfather, Mr. Jerel Flynn, and the new dad, Danny... with little Aiden.
(Thanks to Mr. Jerel for emailing the pictures to us!)
Congratulations to the entire Flynn family! Laura, Mackinzie, and I are looking forward to meeting Aiden soon!
Our good friend Mike Maiste also celebrated a birthday on Saturday... but he's old... 31!
Happy birthday Mike!

-Bert

BFF Back In Swing

I act as the commissioner of pretty much the best fantasy football league around. The Beltway Fantasy Football League (BFF) was started over 4 years ago and has progressed into one of the most involved league I've ever heard about. We make use of a team salary cap with individual player salaries, franchise tags, injured reserves, rookie drafts, etc... We have a large league trophy which gets engraved each year with the new champion's name and it becomes their personal possession for that year. Last season, we started awarding the champion with a gold league blazer (You can kind of see Mike's in the picture below). We have two separate conferences based on each owners geographic location around the Baltimore Beltway. There is the Outer Loop Conference (OLC) and the Inner Loop Conference (ILC).
We held our annual BFF Draft/Auction at our house on Wednesday evening. It was another huge success!

Across the front from left to right we have myself, Will Rode, Zac Fisher, and Mike Maiste. On the couch from left to right there is Chris Walbert, Justin Smith, Dustin Pfeifer, Jared Pfeifer, and Greg Armstrong. Mike McNeive (last year's champion) is laying across their laps.
... here is last year's league photo...

The NFL season started last night, with the Giants beating the Redskins 16-7. My fantasy team is called the Camo Pirates. We're up against Dustin's team this week, the Berrywood Bombers. As of today, we're still tied 0-0.

-Bert

WE'RE PREGNANT!!

As if you couldn't figure it out from my easy hint on the last blog post...

... we are pregnant!!

We had our suspicions for a few weeks and Laura took a home pregnancy test two Fridays ago to confirm it. We are thrilled! It is definitely something we wanted. Mackinzie is very excited to be a big sister and the next few months are going to be great! We have a few other friends who are also expecting, so come spring, there will be a lot of new babies around. Please keep us in your prayers that this pregnancy can go just as smoothly as it did with Laura's first time with Mackinzie. We visit the doctor in two weeks to find out an approximate due date and we will continue to update the blog with pregnancy news week-to-week.

In other news, the blog has been dominated this past month with a countdown to the Jimmy Buffett concert. This past Saturday, the day finally arrived. Me and Laura, Will and Brittany, Katie, and Tana all had a great time! Our little tailgate was a great success. There was plenty of food and drink to go around, some comfortable shade under the canopy tent, lots of Buffett music!

Here are Katie and Tana relaxing in the parking lot outside the Nissan Pavilion.

Will and Brittany had a great time at their first Buffett show.

This part was so cool: Jimmy recently re-recorded three of his classic songs for the video game "Rock Band" (the songs were Margaritaville, Volcano, and Cheeseburger In Paradise). Part of the tailgate experience now includes a Rock Band Golf Cart that goes around the parking lots outside each venue with a large flat-screen television, a booming sound-system, and a Playstation 3. Me and Will got to play a few times on the customized Landshark Rock Band Guitars! (I took this picture with my cell phone camera)

It was a blast and Jimmy was awesome!!
(I took this picture with my cell phone camera too.....)
Jimmy played all the hits (of course) with some other random songs thrown in too. Some of my favorite highlights were "Mañana", "Last Mango In Paris", "A Pirate Looks at Forty", and "Fins".

We were at my parent's house yesterday for a Labor Day Office Work Picnic. Around 6pm I looked at the clock and thought, "we could get in the car now and make it to Nissan Pavilion in time to see Jimmy one more time...." but that didn't happen. I guess I'll just have to wait till next summer.

At the office picnic, my Uncle Dave passed down a family heirloom to me.

This little pin is over 50 years old. The letters EFC stand for "Expecting Fathers Club". My grandfather (Albert E. Rode, Sr.) got this pin when he and my grandmother were expecting my father (Albert E. Rode, Jr.). My Uncle Dave was born next. When he became an expecting father (with my cousin Casey), he was given this pin. Then when my dad became an expecting father (with me), Uncle Dave gave him the pin. It got passed back to Uncle Dave just before my cousin, Ryan, was born and he has had it ever since. (I think Ryan is 21 years old now). Since I am now the next Rode man to be an expecting father, the pin has been passed on to me and I will hold on to it until my brother, or my cousin Ryan become an expecting father.

Its pretty cool and I just found out about this yesterday! I never knew anything about any heirlooms or traditions like this in my family so I am honored to keep it going.
The rest of the picnic was great! There were plenty of huge crabs and steamed shrimp to go around. I took a jet ski out for a little while and some people went out on a short pontoon boat ride. Kinzie really liked feeding the ducks. There were a whole bunch of them and they all came right up to her to get some bread.

It was a great Labor Day weekend, but now it's Tuesday morning and we're all back to the grind. Laura is teaching her first day with all her Kindergarten students at once (13 kids in her class this year). Kinzie is spending the day with Gigi and I'll be working at home all day (except for a short visit to the dentist this morning)
Keep checking back to the blog for more baby news as it develops!
-Bert