gender reveal

These are about 10 weeks late... but I wanted to share some of the pictures of us sharing with our families that we are having a little princess. We went to eat at a restaurant that has been my family's favorite since Terra and I were little. I bought pink onesies and put them in gift bags and had everyone open at the same time. Everyone had thought we were having a boy, so everyone was so shocked. It wasn't any big party, but it was such a special night for us.

catching up on the bump

I fell a little bit behind with all of my belly pictures (with Christmas and all of that), but we have continued to document the growth of my belly (which means the growth of our little baby).

25 weeks:

26 weeks:

27 weeks:

This week was the shower at my parents' church, so this is me and Baby Girl in front of my parents' Christmas tree.

28 weeks:

For this Sunday, we were actually on the high school retreat and forgot to take the weekly picture... so this is me on a Tuesday morning before work... looking sleepy and kind of puffy. Ha.

29 weeks:

30 weeks:

I cannot begin to express how thankful I am every single day. I love feeling Baby move, and I love the aches that remind me that I'm carrying somebody around with me, and I love that every doctor's appointment has gone so great, and I love seeing Lance's face light up when he feels her move, and I love that I cry every time I try to pray for her by name. I'm humbled and grateful and blessed.

oh... the comments

For posterity's sake, I wanted to record some of the comments I've gotten lately:

An older lady at my office told me I looked really small for 6 months pregnant. I told her I appreciated hearing that I look small because I always feel huge. She replied with, "But your doctor seems to be okay with the size you are? He's not worried?"

This was quickly countered by...

A brand new attorney who is a couple of years younger than I am asked me how far along I was. I answered that I was about 6 months. She stared at my stomach and said, "Oh wow! You're that big and you still have THAT far to go?!"

Then today, another older lady at my office told me that the baby had dropped. I said no, I've just been carrying her pretty low--low enough that I still have a waistline because she's down so low. She just raised her eyebrows and shook her head and said, "I think that baby looks REALLY low," as if I should be concerned.

I was also told over Christmas by an extended family member that I needed to remember that I'm not REALLY eating for two since I'm pregnant... And then this same family member commented on our picture from Vegas (the one where I'm wearing a white shirt and a colorful scarf and standing out in front of some waterfalls and such), "I didn't know you were already wearing maternity clothes at that point." Umm... that's just my shirt. A normal shirt. A size XS shirt, actually.

And I was told by an individual from church that she never remembered being as big as I am right now. Awesome.

But lately, people at church have stuck with the, "You look great!" which I love. Why can't everyone just tell me how awesome I am and how jealous they are of my smokin' bod? Clearly that's the best choice!

pretty!

I love seeing this first thing in the morning!



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super speedy

We have had a busy but productive season 'round these parts! Brief update... readysetgo:

1. We are about 75% done registering. I need to make one more pass at Target, but otherwise... nearly done!
2. We are down to only a handful of gifts to buy for Christmas! I have about half of the ones I have purchased already wrapped and under the tree, which leads us to...
3. All of our Christmas stuff is up! Except the wreath I decided to make, which is still IP. AND I just ordered our Christmas cards, which is SO much better than when I ordered them on December 19th last year!
   
4. We are secretly testing out a baby name this week. We aren't sharing it yet, but we're both stewing on it this week. This is MAJOR progress for us!
5. We went Black Friday shopping and got some awesome deals... including... (drum roll please...) a DYSON! I have wanted one FOR.EV.ER. People were extra nice to me thanks to my belly. I was in the checkout line and on the phone with Lance and told him how much I needed to potty but that I would/could hold it unless Baby kicked me... and the nice guys behind me held my spot in line so that I could go to the bathroom! That HAS to be because of Baby--no one is that nice on Black Friday.
6. I have my glucose test this week. I am a little nervie about it because my dad is diabetic, and I have heard that increases the odds of gestational diabetes... but when it comes right down to it, the condition is either already there or it isn't, and I would rather take care of myself and Baby like I need to if that is an issue. Although I am praying it won't be.
7. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I love how homey our house looks right now. And I love buying gifts for people. And I love opening gifts from people. I just love Christmas.
8. I will admit though... one thing I am not super fond of is that we are constantly getting things asking for donations... which I understand... but my hormones are making it hard to deal with. I cry at some of the donation solicitation things. It's ridic. I'm ridic. No denying.
9. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We celebrated with Lance's fam because mine was on a cruise that we were supposed to go on before Baby popped up in all of her joyousness. Instead, we basically lived in pajamas and spent a ton of time together and a ton of time sleeping. It was awesome.
   
10. I'm trying not to be stressed over all that's coming up: my company Christmas party is Friday night, our birthing class is Saturday, my parents' church is having a lunch/shower for us on Sunday, then NEXT weekend is a high school retreat... and then it's nearly Christmas! And our nursery still isn't painted, and Baby remains unnamed. Eesh! I'm trying to just enjoy the moments because I know they're going to pass SO fast. I feel unbelievably blessed to be preparing a nursery and coming up with a name for our healthy baby girl. I don't want to complain or whine or grouch my way through these times. I could not ask for more. So I will be busy among my blessings with a smile.

Summary: I am blessed. I am thankful. I am so happy. And I love Christmas. The end.

more belly!

I'm so thankful that everything is going great and looking just like it should. I'm so amazed and humbled by this whole experience. I'm finally starting to feel the baby moving quite a bit, which is awesome (and brings me peace that things are still okay in there!). Lance has been able to feel several times now, and I love that too. I must admit... I cry a lot... just because it seems impossible to put all of the emotions into words, so sometimes I express them through tears. I know, I kind of pity Lance. :)

I'm also realizing that I wore the same denim skirt 3 out of the last 4 Sundays. It might be time to branch out....

Here is 21 weeks:

22 weeks:

23 weeks:

Here we are at 24 weeks:
Also, one of my dearest friends (and my college roommate) is pregnant as well--about 5 weeks behind me. She went to the doctor this week to find out her baby's gender, and they found some major developmental issues with the baby... as in possibly not survivable developmental issues. I am praying daily for a miracle for them. I ask you to take a moment to lift up my sweet friend Erin and their baby. They are seeing a specialist on Tuesday, and my prayer is that all of the issues will miraculously be gone and that they will have a happy, healthy baby in another 20 weeks. Our God is still the God who has power over life and death and the ability to bring healing in seemingly hopeless situations... and I am praying that He shows us His power and brings glory to His name. Erin and her husband are so faithful to the Lord and are already praying that He will bring glory to His name regardless of how things turn out. I am blessed to be her friend. And I am looking forward to witnessing a miracle!

girls weekend!

My goodness, things have been busy around here! Last weekend, my mom and I drove up to Hot Springs, Arkansas to visit my sister. Somehow, I didn’t manage to take a single picture while I was there, so this will be an imageless post.

We drove up there on Thursday after I got off work… but I’m not 100% certain that was a great idea. It took me over an hour and a half to make the (usually) one-hour trip to my parents’ house thanks to rush hour, and then we ate a super fast dinner and hit the road. We left around 7:30 (which I think was nearly an hour later than we’d hoped). It was already dark at 7:30, and we had a great talk on the way… then just 15 minutes short of the Arkansas state line, my mom got pulled over for a bogus reason (driving in the left lane instead of just passing, despite the fact that there was a police car on the right shoulder, and the law says to move over, but whatever…) but only got a warning… but then couldn’t find her license. We even stopped to look through the car for it and couldn’t find it… so that added another 30ish minutes to the trip by the time we got stopped and then searched the car. I started getting really tired around 11:00, so I yawned for the entire last leg of our trip. We finally got to what we thought was our hotel, only to find out it wasn’t our hotel… and our hotel was one block away. Gracious. On the upside, my mom found her license, but we were so tired and cranky AND it was 1:00 in the morning before we got to bed. Rough start.

Friday, however, was great! Mom and I got up and ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove to my sister’s apartment, where we hung out until lunchtime. Sister and her husband treated us to lunch at their favorite Mexican restaurant, and then we walked around their little mall. It reminded me of Abilene’s mall but with Razorback paraphernalia everywhere. Then we dropped Sister’s husband off at the apartment, went to get ice cream and then Sonic, and then went on a driving tour of Hot Springs (including showing us their church). All the trees up there looked so beautiful! The colors were just gorgeous. After that, we went shopping at an antique mall and found some really fun stuff! I bought a bunch of old books to decorate the house with (I will probably never read any of them… except maybe Moby Dick… but honestly, I bought them only for their looks.). Mom and Sister found some fun stuff too… and just about everything was priced really well. I bought six hardback books (plus a book for Baby) for $21, which is much better than the hardback books I almost bought at Anthropologie for $16 apiece! After our antique mall excursion, we ate dinner together and then went back to Sister’s apartment for awhile longer.

We started off Saturday the same as Friday—eating at the hotel and heading to Sister’s apartment. Then we went to lunch with Sister and her husband and hit the road to come back home. It was a super speedy weekend, but we had such a blast! I feel so blessed to enjoy time with my family so much! --and I love that we are dramaless!

This is the longest I have ever been out of town when Lance was home, and upon my return, he told me that he has a new respect for me and how long I stay alone during the stretches of summer when he’s gone on trips and such. Ha.

I've been working on a million different things--I'm now half done shopping for Christmas!--so hopefully I'll have time to update more soon. I think it's about time for another belly update... just as soon as I have a free minute!

lookie what i did!

I usually don't take much time to be crafty, but I made this wreath!



I totally stole it from a blog I follow, but I am just so excited at how cute it turned out! I love how it warms up our front door.


I have so much more to write about... But for now, I will just share my lovely fall wreath. :)

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a whole month of belly

I can't lie--I'm super excited that people can actually tell I have a baby belly and not a chubby belly these days. It's hard to believe that there's an entire little person in there. I love it though.

Also--as a side note--I am noticing that my photogenic-ness varies greatly from week to week. Ha.

Here is the 17-week belly:

Here is 18 weeks:

Here we are at 19 weeks:

Here is week 20 (which we took at the end of the day instead of in the morning before church... I usually dress a little better than this for church!):

it's a girl!!!!

Me oh my! I was so sure it was a boy. We are so excited! More to come....


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no good at secrets

We had our big ultrasound today and found out our baby's gender... And we aren't sharing until we can tell our families at dinner on Friday night. Why did I do this?! I stink at secrets!

On the upside, our little lovie looks wonderful and healthy. I'm so thankful.

I never thought I'd be so excited about a tiny femur. :)



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you can tell?!

I walked to the mailbox today, and my across the street neighbor yelled out, "You have a bump! Oh my goodness!"

It's the first time that someone who didn't already know I was pregnant knew I was pregnant. It made me smile. Every step of this journey makes me so excited.


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bump pictures

I have been taking pictures, but I'm not sure there's a ton to see yet. I really think I'm starting to get bigger now.... so hopefully the next round of pictures will be more distinct.

Here is 13 weeks:

Here is 14 weeks:

Here is 15 weeks:

Here is 16 weeks (although this shirt hides it more than the others):

So excited and thankful for growth and progress and health and a belly. :)

some firsts

I have had some exciting firsts lately:
-I bought my first maternity pants. They are much comfier on my tumtum, but they kind of fall down right now. I'm sure I'll grow into them...
-I received my first gift for baby! A sweet friend in my Bible study gave me a Bible storybook. What a great first gift for our little lovie!
-I bought a Doppler and have been listening to baby's heart beating away every couple of days or so.
-We saw ACU play at Cowboys Stadium!
-We are about to replace all of our carpet, and this is one of the most daunting tasks we have faced as homeowners. It rather overwhelms me. It's the first time we have made this kind of purchase for our home. It's scary!

I have lots of pictures of almost all of the above, but I've been too busy/tired/whatever to post them yet. But get excited. They exist and will be posted soon... :)


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lovely

My current state is no longer a secret at the office, but I am doing my best to be as "normal" (or how ever normal I am anyway), so I don't talk too much about it.

Well, apparently a girl I work with noticed my not-so-flat stomach and asked a coworker if I was pregnant. My coworker informed her that I was.

Today at lunch, the girl who noticed my stomach congratulated me... and then said, "I was afraid to ask because I wasn't sure if you were pregnant or just REALLY bloated."

Awesome....


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annivegabirthaversary

We had a fabulous time celebrating our 5th anniversary as well as both of our birthdays in Vegas! We saw three wonderful shows, ate all kinds of food, and just had a blast hanging out with each other. A few of my favies (before each of our three shows):

It's kind of fun that Baby P is hiding out in these pictures... like a teeny tiny Where's Waldo. I mean, at this point, there wasn't even a bump... but it's fun when you look back and know the bump's on its way. :)

back and better than ever

Admittedly, six months is enough for anyone to give up on ever reading my blog.

It’s been quite a six months.

We started off this year pretty rough. We suffered a loss, we owed a lot of money to the IRS during tax season, I found out that I had some health issues that had to be resolved asap… Basically, it was a very hard time for us. I cried a lot, honestly. I wrestled with the Lord. To be fair, things weren’t all bad—I have a wonderful husband, loving family, and supportive friends that walked through all of it with me. We even took a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our 5th anniversary during June, and that was wonderful.

And here we are six months after my most recent post: our hearts have healed, our bank accounts have recovered, my health issues have been 100% taken care of, and we are closer than ever.

And we’re expecting!

And that’s the best news of all.

We found out about Baby P’s existence the morning we left for Vegas (yikes). Thankfully, I felt good throughout our trip (overly emotional though—I cried during the Bellagio fountain shows. What the what??). I had blood work and a sonogram done a couple weeks later, and we got to see our little blobbie with a little heart flicker. And I bawled my stinking eyes out on the table in the sonogram suite. Poor ultrasound lady. Everything is looking really good. I’m at about 12 ½ weeks right now, and we just started sharing our news with people other than family.

Yes, I have felt icky—nausea pretty much all the time, major fatigue, other lovely symptoms. However, everything looks great, so I will take every moment of feeling bad. Totally worth it.

As always, I'm so thankful for God's faithfulness.... and excited about this new journey!

some house decor pics (finally)!

I've been meaning to get some house pics up here. There are only two areas of my house that are done-ish, so here they are:

This is on the wall in my kitchen (sandwiched between the pantry and the fridge).



This chest of drawers sits right where you enter the kitchen from the garage.




Hooray! 2 pictures!

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testing 1 - 2 - 3

Well, I downloaded the app so that I could blog from my iPhone, and I really thought it would help make me a more regular blogger. No such luck so far. Oh well. I thought I should at least give it a try so that I can convince myself to do this more often.

Here's hoping...


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