Wanted to Share...

My friend Lindsey posted this quote on her blog a couple of weeks ago and it has really stuck with me. I thought that since so many of us either just became a mom or are about to become a mom I would share it with all of you also!

"There is no way to be a perfect mother,
and a million ways to be a good one"
-Jill Churchill

Merry Christmas!

Wow! What a busy week it has been! Our Christmas was a very busy but nice one. We started with the traditional Mexican food and Margaritas and my mom's house Christmas Eve, and then Christmas day we managed to make it back to my mom's in the morning, then to Robert's Uncle's to see his mom, dinner with Robert's Dad, and then we even made it over to Josh and Christine's to see the kids. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of actual Christmas. I know that will change next year with our little one!

Here is a picture of our little Christmas Tree.

I really like our little tree. It is our first Christmas Tree and we got it back when we were living in the Town House. As much as I like it, I am thinking that it is time to get a bigger one!

Another kind of unexpected thing that happened this week is we got a new couch! We have talked about getting a new one for awhile. We saw a good advertisement in the Sunday ads and off we went to look at it. We wound up finding one that we liked and it was delivered Christmas Eve day. We love it! It is so comfy. It is a sectional with a chaise lounge, micro-suede, and chocolate brown. We also got a rocker/recliner. The only thing we weren't expecting is how BIG it is! It takes up one whole wall in our house! Furniture always looks so much smaller in the store! (We had the same problem when we bought our bedroom furniture!) Oh well. The good thing is, is that we have plenty of room for people to sit when they come over!

Before...

After...

Unfortunately, the recliner didn't come in a chocolate color. The colors are a little off in the pictures. They don't look so far off from each other. But I am also going to look for a light weight blanket the color of the chair for the couch to help tie the two together. We will also look for a different coffee table that goes a little better. We just didn't see one that we liked.

As far as everything on the baby front, things are moving right along. We will take a new belly picture this week and I will get it posted. I am now 21 weeks and feeling good. She definitely lets me know that she is there and we are pretty sure that Robert has gotten to feel her also. I think he is still waiting for the big strong kick so he knows for sure what he is feeling. I don't think I mentioned it in the last post, but we already have her name picked out. It is Emma Grace. Emma got lots of cute things for Christmas. She is not even here yet, but this little girl already has so many cloths and cute hair bows! It's so fun to think about what she will look like in all this cute stuff!

That's about all that is going on here for now. We had a great 5 days off of work and we are sad that we have to go back to work tomorrow. The bright spot is, it is another short work week! We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

19 Week Ultra Sound

What a big day it was! I have to admit I was nervous all day. In the end everything was great! We have had another doctor's visit where both myself and the baby were give a clean bill of health. We did the big ultra sound today and everything looked great. The brain, heart, spine, face, and stomach were all perfect! The baby is very active and seemed to always be moving. Every time a hand or foot would come in perfect view, it would move again just as quickly. This made it very difficult to get pictures, but we were able to get some good ones. The baby also seemed to always be moving its mouth. We would watch it open and close as well as take a drink. This kind of looked like fish lips!

And for the big reveal......it's a girl! We were very excited. Robert is already thinking ahead to how spoiled this little girl will be, and in the far future of when boys start coming over! I have to admit, the baby was not the most cooperative when it came to trying to find out if this baby was a boy or a girl. The ultra sound tech worked hard and getting the baby to change positions and even had me roll over to see if that helped. In the end, she didn't get the perfect look that she was hoping for, but the lack of body parts is what made her say girl. She even gave it a 95-99% chance that this little one is a girl. So we are pretty confident that we will be the proud parents of a beautiful, healthy, baby girl. Let the fun start of cleaning out the baby's room, painting, decorating, and of course shopping!!! Here are some of the pictures from today.

A good look at the spine

Profile view. Mouth is open and you can see the heart. If I remember right, that big weird looking thing is the umbilical cord.

One of my favorite! This is her little foot!!!

18 Weeks!

Here are the newest belly pics! I think my middle is getting thicker instead of the belly getting rounder!

Yes, We're Still Here!

I know, I know. It is been WAY too long since our last post. We don't really have an excuse, the days just seem to be flying by. We have had a lot of things going on, but if I was to try and update everything, this post would be entirely too long. So I think I will just hit some of the highlights.
First, we have to say CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Amanda and Regan. They had their beautiful baby boy, Aidan, on November 20th. He is absolutely adorable and everyone is doing well. I'm having trouble posting a picture of Aidan for some reason. I will try again later.
Our other good friends, Seth and Jessica just moved into their new house in Vegas. It is GORGEOUS! We are hoping to make a trip out to see them in January or February so it will be fun to see their new house also.
I also got to see our friends Becky and Brian and their cute little one Carly. They were in town for Thanksgiving and it was fun to get to see them and ooh and aah over Carly.
I feel like I am forgetting something else that happened...if I did, I apologize. It wasn't intentional!As far as new things here...things are going well. I still haven't had any cravings. But I do think that I am finally feeling the baby move! It started this week. Nothing too frequent, and it feels like I'm being poked. We are both excited about it and Robert can't wait until he can feel the baby.
We will take a picture this weekend of the ever growing belly. I can't believe we are at 18 weeks. The time is really moving along!

Quick Update

Hey everyone!
We had our 15 week doctor's appointment today and everything went great. The doctor was very pleased with all the results and progress so far. He said the baby has a perfect, strong heart beat! We even got to hear the baby move. It sounded like someone kicking a microphone. I have decided that the baby doesn't like it when I go in for ultra sounds and when we listen for the heart beat. I never feel the best afterwards and I think hearing the baby kick the instrument said it all today. At 15 weeks this baby is already letting us know what he/she doesn't like. We may be in for trouble!
When I go in for my appointments I always see a different doctor. This practice has the belief that you never know who is going to be on call when you go into labor, so they want you to see everyone at least once. I really liked the doctor we saw today. He was a little quirky, but really nice and personable. He said that he believes in due months, not due dates. So he said that this baby could come anytime between April 18 and May 18. Meaning that if I was to go into labor before April 18, they would try to stop it, and if it hadn't happened by May 18 they would start it. It was kind of shocking to hear the baby could come as Early as April, but I really think that as long as we are ready by May 1, we will be ok!
Our next appointment is a big one! We will make sure that everything finished developing correctly, take measurements, and if the baby is cooperating, we will find out if this is a boy or a girl! It will also probably be the last time we get to see our baby before the big day! The appointment is set for December 17. What a great early Christmas present it will be!
Hope everyone is having a good week!!

Baby Showers, Pie, and Landscaping

In a nutshell, that is what our weekend consisted of. On Saturday I went to my friend Heidi's Baby shower. It was at Cathy's house, and Cathy, Jessica, and Cassie were the hostesses. As always, they did a wonderful job. The shower was a lot of fun. You can see pictures from it here.
Then on Sunday I decided to be adventurous and bake my first apple pie. I have always wanted to make my own pies from scratch and always used the excuse that I didn't have my Kitchen Aid Mixer so I couldn't make one. These mixers are kind of pricey and with the baby coming, I'm sure our money can be better spent elsewhere. I also thought that people have been baking pies long before Kitchen Aid had their mixer so the search was on for a recipe. Little did I know that every recipe I found gave instructions for making pie crust in the mixer or a food processor. Since I didn't have either, I had to resort to the fact that I was going to by pre-made pie crust.
I got the pie baked and I have to say it looks pretty good. We haven't tried yet so who knows how it tastes. If it turned out, I think I will making more for Thanksgiving. The only thing I didn't like was that my pie-crust was flat. I didn't have a mound of apples for the pie crust to go over. I am thinking my pie dish was a deep dish one, so before I make again, I need to get a regular dish. Here is a picture of it.



And as many of you know, our back yard is the next big house project that we were going to work on. Robert has been working on it all weekend. We soon discovered that it was going to take more time then we thought. I think the problem is, is that for the past couple of years nothing has been done to the yard, so the ground has just gotten harder and harder. And the rock keeps getting buried deeper and deeper. Robert was able to get all the rock moved, (it is now sitting on our patio!) and is working on getting most of the hill leveled out. He is soaking the ground to hopefully help soften it up. I offered to help him yesterday, but he said that moving rock was too heavy for me since I was pregnant. I have to admit, I didn't push too hard to help him!


The pile of rocks on the patio. Brandy decided she was now a mountain dog!


Clearing out rocks.



Trying to soften the ground.


A lot of work got done, but there is still a lot more to go!

14 Weeks!!

It's hard to believe that I am starting my 14th week! Here is the first of many belly pictures to come. I definately feel a lot bigger then this picture looks. But the tired look and messy house says it all!
Things have been moving along pretty smoothly. We got the results back from the blood work part of the genetics testing and everything looks wonderful! We go back to the doctor next week and we're excited to hear our babies heart beat again. Then just another 4 weeks until the big appointment and we find out if this will be a little boy or a little girl!
No food cravings to report. Instead there is food I definately don't want!
Everthing else is moving along. Work for both Robert and I is going well. We (Robert) is starting to work on getting the backyard done. It is going to be a big project. He has to lay the sprinkler lines, do some brick work, plant some trees and then of course the grass. I will take pictures of the progress along the way.
We are getting ready for a busy month! There are a lot of things going on with both work for me and home. Then before we know it Christmas will be here. Such a busy but fun time of year!
Hope everyone has a good Monday!

Amanda's Baby Shower

On Saturday, Cathy and I with some help from a couple of girls at work had a shower for our friend Amanda. Amanda is due on Thanksgiving and we can't wait to meet her little guy.

As always, Cathy did an amazing job. She tied in fall decorations with Amanda's nursery theme of Turtle Bay. It was a fun shower and everyone had a great time. Somehow we used my camera for all the set up, and Cathy's camera for the actual shower and guests. So I have no pictures of the mom to be, but thought I would share the decorations!

I decided to do something a little different for a gift, and made a "Baby's First Year" scrapbook album. I can't take full credit for the idea though. My friend Jessica has made several of them in the past couple of years. Each monthly section has a calendar of that month so you can mark special things that happened and then 3 pages to display pictures or items from that month. It's fun because you can personalize it for the couple. Amanda and Regan are taking the baby to Hawaii in June, so that was the theme for that month. And Regan LOVES St. Patrick's Day and Amanda LOVES 4th of July, so I made sure those months were all about those holidays. For it being my first one, I think it turned out pretty well. Here are a couple of pages plus the card I made.

Happy Halloween!

Our theme this year at work was decades. I decided to dress in disco/70's attire. My brother and I had a Halloween box growing up that mom would put old clothes in for us to make our own costumes. The shirt I wore today was actually one of hers from the 70's! The funny thing that I wasn't expecting, was everyone LOVED it. They kept asking me where I got it and kept saying that I could wear it today. It was very comfortable, but I don't think it will be making a repeat performance unless it's Halloween or a theme day!


I set up different stations around the clinic and took all the patients trick-or-treating. They had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy! Their parents were saying that they wouldn't need to go tonight! It has been fun all week long seeing the kids come in their costumes.


Our plan tonight is to have a quite night at home and pass out candy to any trick-or-treaters that come our way. The only thing we haven't figured out is what to do with.....


JD and Brandy do not do well when someone comes to the door. We are also worried about them running out when we open it. I know, we trained them so well! Robert's idea was that we could pass out candy drive through style and hand it to them through the window in the den. I don't think that will be happening! We will figure out something. Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

12 Weeks!

Here is the most recent picture of our little one! We had our genetics appointment today and everything looked great. This appointment looked for heart defects, downs syndrome and Trisomy 18. From looking at the ultra sound alone, they said everything looked great and we have a 70% chance that our baby won't have these. They also did some blood work and as long as that comes back ok, we move up to 85% that the baby won't have these birth/chromosome defects.

The people at the doctors were very nice. We got some really great views of our little one. The baby seemed to always have one hand waving at us and the other behind it's head. The legs pretty much stayed crossed at the ankles until the ultra sound tech made the baby mad by pushing hard on the ultra sound wand and moving it back and forth really fast. She said they did this to make sure the baby has movement in it's arms and legs. And boy was the baby mad! The arms started waving, the legs became outstretched, and the little body moved up and down! Not only did we get to see our baby move, but we also got a really good look at one of the legs. We could see the upper leg, the knee, and then the little foot. It's amazing the difference in just 5 weeks. No longer our little gummy bear!

The place gave us quite a few pictures (my favorite are the profile), and even a video of the whole visit. When you look at the picture, the thing that is above the belly, close to the nose/mouth - that is the hand!

Happy Birthday!

Dr's Appointment Update

Hey everyone!
We had our next doctor's appointment today and everything looks great! All they really did was check the heart rate (which felt like forever to me for them to find!) and answered any questions I had. The heart rate is 160 which is normal. The doctor said that all babies heart rates are about 160 in the first trimester. It isn't until the 2nd trimester that we can use it to guess if it is a boy or girl. So we should be able to start making guesses in 4 weeks!
The other good news is that we get to keep on the same schedule that we are on right now, so that means we should find out if it is a boy or girl in week 19. That puts it the week before Christmas! What a fun Christmas present!
We go next week for the genetics testing and we get to have another ultra sound. Watch for a new picture in about a week!
Everything else is going well. I can't believe we are already a week away from being done with the first trimester! Time is going so fast!

Congratulations!

Our friends Becky and Brian had their beautiful baby girl last night! Mom and Baby are doing great! We are so happy for your guys!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 2nd Anniversary Matt and Jessica!!!

Updates and Happenings

Yes, it is 68 degrees in our house. But the amazing thing is, we have the a/c off and all the windows open! We had a cold front come through this weekend and our highs have been in the upper 70s/lower 80s. By the end of this next week we are suppose to be back lower 90s and I am anxiously waiting to see what will happen from there.
We have had a pretty productive weekend. We have been cleaning, doing laundry, working outside, and watching some movies. Our neighbors across the street from us got us a cute baby present. It was a bear and a rattle. The baby's first toys! Our neighbors are very sweet and we really like having them as neighbors. They are about our age and just got married a couple of weeks ago. Sarah is a 1st grade teacher and Shawn is a pilot. The sad thing is, they are renting the house across from us and are trying to buy a house right now. We will be very sad when they move.
On the baby front, things are moving right along! I have my bad days and good days, but for the most part really can't complain! I'm still very tired and can't wait for the burst of energy everyone talks about starting in the 13th week. I will be 10 weeks on Monday. Time is going by very quickly. We have our next appointment in another week and then a genetics testing the week after that. (nothing to worry about, just something they have started doing for all expectant mothers.) We are excited to get to hear our baby's heart beat and see our baby again! Starting at 12 weeks we will start posting "belly" pictures every 4 weeks!
I think the agenda for today will be going to the grocery store, target, the bike shop, and working on some scrapbooking projects. I am going to start cleaning out what will be the baby's room. It right now is just a room that is being used as a catch all for things that we didn't know what to do with. That should be a fun project!
Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Jamie!

I'm Dreaming Of.....

FALL!!! Ok, so technically, fall is already here, but I am ready for the cool weather and the holiday season! I can't wait for sweaters, (if they fit!) boots, coats, hot chocolate, pumpkins, and seeing my patients in their Halloween costumes!
I was getting excited because we had a cooler weekend(highs in the upper 80's). I thought FINALLY it is here! But we are going to be back to the high 90's this week. Oh well. It has to come sometime....hopefully sooner then later!
We had a pretty good weekend. Robert and Matt went fishing on Wednesday, so we went over to Matt and Kristin's house for a fish cook out. Everything was really good. I even made the crock-pot cake that Jessica had made. It was a hit. You can find the recipe for it HERE.
Sunday was spent "cleaning" the house, making some cards, paying some bills, and b-b-qing cheeseburgers.
Somebody finally bought the house next door to us. They have been moving in all weekend. Not exactly the young couple we were hoping for, but they have 3 younger boys, and seem to be clean and normal. I guess that was all we could have asked for.
Well I have some vacuuming to do and cards to write. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Cards, Cards, and More Cards!

Fun Surprises!

So part of me being tired means that I haven't checked our mail in the past couple of days. The second I get home, I change out of my work clothes, and into clothes that I don't want the neighborhood to see me in when I go to get the mail! So the mail goes unchecked. This is very unusual for me. I LOVE to get the mail. Robert has no idea why I am so excited to check it, because he says that there is never anything in there except bills. I tell him he is right usually, but you never know what COULD be waiting for us. Today was a fun day for the mail! It was very full and of course it had the usual bills and credit card offers. But We also had two packages and two very sweet cards! (Thanks Mom!)


We each opened up one package and here is what was in them....

So CUTE! My mom's best friend, Shelly, got us the adorable outfit, and my friend Jenni got us the cute photo album. Thank you both so much! You guys are so sweet! It definitely makes me want these next 8 months to fly by! (I know, May will be here before we know it and we will be saying where did the time go?!)

Meet Our Little One!

Here is our baby! He or She is so tiny right now. About the size of a Blueberry! If you look REALLY hard, you can make out the round head at the top, the little body, and little stumps sticking out for the arms and legs!

Our first appointment went well, but they did need us to come back the next day for an ultra sound so we could figure out exactly how far along I am. The ultra sound was a great surprise because we got to see our baby, the heart beat, and hear the heart beat. They said everything looks great and the heart rate is completely normal. From measuring the baby, they are pretty sure I am 7 1/2 week along and due around May 11. We go back in 4 weeks for our next appointment.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes, thoughts and prayers! We love you all!!!

Updates

Hi everyone! I know, I know. It's been a while since I last updated. Everything is going great. I just have been EXTREMELY tired! I haven't done ANYTHING (including house work or laundry!) It has been so bad that the other night I went to dinner after work with some friends and within 5 minutes of being home, I was asleep on the couch.

Other then being tired, I have been feeling pretty good. Nausea comes and goes, but nothing horrible. Eating has been kind of an experience. I'll feel hungry, but nothing really sounds good. I think I also have become sensitive to salt and spices. I will eat certain foods and think they taste like someone dumped the salt shaker on to it, but Robert says it tastes like it always does. Robert and I have both been reading pregnancy books. We went to the bookstore and each got a serious one and a funny one. Robert is already convinced it is a boy and lets me know it any chance he gets. We go to our first doctor visit on Tuesday and both are excited to hear/see the heart beat, and I'm anxious to find out exactly how far along I am.

Robert finally got to do his discover scuba diving class on Saturday. He has always wanted to take lessons and the Sports Chalet by us offers them. Before you sign up for the class you can take a free discovery class to see if it is something you think you would like. We both signed up for it, but I will have to wait and do it after the baby gets here. Studies are inconclusive when it comes to scuba diving and pregnancy...but between the pressure of being in that deep of water, and something that happens to the oxygen you breath when you are that deep, the general consensus is no diving while you are pregnant.

Robert loved it and can't wait to start taking the class. He said it is a little different at first, but after about 20 minutes he had the hang of it. The only thing he isn't sure of is if he should go ahead and take it now, or wait and take it together. He is already trying to figure out excuses to take the discover class again. So if anyone is interested, you wouldn't have to ask him twice to take it with you! Here are some pictures from the class.

Wedding Album

Here is the album from the wedding I made for Robert's mom.