Catching Up with Good Friends

Last night I got to catch up with my friends Jessica and Jenni. Jessica is also pregnant and just about 3 weeks behind me, and Jenni is getting married so we had a lot to catch up on. Jenni had found her dress and it is beautiful! It is definitely "her" and she is going to be a beautiful bride!

Jessica and Matt have been working hard on getting their scrapbook room/guest room/computer room transformed for the baby. The got an organizational system from Ikea for their closet and it looks so nice. Jessica was able to keep all of her scrapbook stuff neat and organized, plus have lots of room for the baby. They also had their crib all set up. It was fun to see and makes thing feel even more room. Here is a picture of us. (me at 26 weeks, Jessica at 23)

One of the girls at work told me that Baby Style was going out of business and everything was 50% off. So off the three of us went to check out the bargains. The store had just made the announcement on Wednesday that they were closing, but things were already pretty much gone. People were buying EVERYTHING, even the fixtures! We found out that all the baby cloths were 50% off, but the maternity cloths were 75% off! This was great for Jessica since she is finally needing to get some! They pretty much only had winter cloths (which I am pretty set on) so instead of buying cloths for me, I bought for Emma! I decided to get her a couple of outfits that she could wear when the weather got cooler, and she got her first pair of tights! Here are the two outfits she got.

While us girls were out shopping, Matt, (Jessica's husband) was busy at home cooking dinner! We had Spaghetti, green beans, and yummy bread. It was a great way to end a fun night. There were also cookies and ice cream to be had, but since our house is closer to New Mexico then to Phoenix, I needed to take my cookie to go!

Thanks girls (and Matt) for a fun night! What an exciting year it is going to be for us!!!!

An Amazing Gift

I met Carie a couple of years ago when I was working on the in-patient hem/onc floor at PCH. She was a nurse and not long after we started working together, she left to spend more time with her little girl at home. I was very excited to find out that when I transferred over to the out-patient clinic, she was also there working a couple days a week. She is a great nurse and a wonderful person. As much as she is an amazing nurse, her true passion is photography. Before moving to Arizona she had her own photography business and took beautiful pictures of children. Carie was able to merge her two loves of photography and working with our patients/families when she started the Arizona chapter of Flashes of Hope. It is a great program that brings photographers into the hospital and clinic and takes amazing black and white pictures of our patients and their families. The families receive a portfolio of 2-8x10s, 4x6s, and a CD of the images with permission to make re-prints. All at not cost to the families. It is a little way to have a beautiful memory during a not always so beautiful time.
Carie decided to leave the hospital so she could start her photography business up again full force. Luckily, I still get to see her during the Flashes of Hope photo sessions. If you or someone you know is looking for someone to take pictures of little ones she is your person. She has such a gift. Check out her website here. (Once the page pops up, click on her name and then look around!)
Robert and I were very honored and so excited when she told us that she wanted to take newborn pictures of Emma as her gift to us! Of course we said yes! She said the only catch is that she needs to shoot her when she is between 4 and 7 days old because that is when they are the most sleepy/cuddly. So I will be calling her from the hospital to set up an appointment! Thank you so much Carie for this amazing gift!

Pink, Pink, and more Pink!

Robert and I went up to Lowe's this weekend and looked at paint samples for Emma's room. Who knew there were so many shades of pink! I think the hard thing is, is that we don't want you to walk into the room and feel like you have walked into a bubble gum factory, or be so overwhelmed by the pink! So I think we have it narrowed down to a couple of shades that are very light and have a beige undertone to them. Lowe's does this thing were you can by a mini paint can for $3, so I think we are going to do that to make sure we like it!

We had our 23 week doctor's appointment today and everything is still going great. Emma's heart rate is good and strong. They said she is a very happy baby! My blood pressure is still good, and other then some back problems everything is great! They started to measure me today, and wouldn't you know that I measured bigger then I am suppose to. The doctor said I am carrying extremely high, so she thinks that could be the reason I am measuring bigger. She didn't seemed concerned about it, she just said that we would keep an eye on it, and probably have to get a couple of ultra sounds if I keep measuring bigger. My mom got to go with me to the appointment today. She got to hear the heart beat and had an added bonus of being sneaked in for another quick peak at Emma. (We just wanted to confirm that Emma really is a girl, and we got the confirmation today!)

Everything else is going great! I am taking grandma shopping on Friday so I'm looking forward to having a short work week as well as spending some time with her!

Oh ya! I almost forgot! Finally here is a belly pic!

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a good end to the holiday season. We played many more games of Mexican Train, watched movies, got the house clean. We sadly went back to work today not sure how we were going to get through 5 actual days of work!
We ended the weekend by celebrating Aiden's 2nd birthday. We went over to Josh and Christine's for yummy pasta and birthday cake. The kids had a good time opening their presents (they still had Christmas presents from Grandma Mary to open) and it was fun to hang out with all of them. At one point in the night I was helping Anna with something so we were both standing and she was eye level with my belly. In a very loud excited voice she exclaimed "I can see the baby growing!" My belly has popped even more in the past week since she saw me. It was pretty cute. Here are some pictures from the party.




The icing was blue and it got everywhere!

A new basketball hoop!

Anna helping Uncle Bobby by holding it

Happy 2009!

Wow! It is hard to believe that it is already 2009. Time is going so fast! We had a good New Years Day. We both had the day off of work so that was nice. We spent the day relaxing, eating junk food, and playing Mexican Train. It was a nice way to start off the New Year.
So many exciting things happened for us in 2008. Between buying a house and getting married, it was a big year for us. But 2009 is going to be even bigger and more exciting with our little girl coming! We were talking about how this time last year we were getting ready for the wedding, and now we are getting ready for a baby!
We are excited and anxious for what is to come in 2009. We hope every ones 2009 will be as exciting and memorable as ours!