21 Weeks!!!

Today I'm 21 weeks pregnant!!! 

How I'm feeling:
I've been feeling pretty great and my energy is starting to come back! I think I'm in nesting mode because I've been obsessing over cleaning the house and working on nursery details lately :)

About the baby:
The baby is about the size of a large banana! On Tuesday the sonogram tech said the approximate weight was 15oz.

Doctor Appointments:
We had our big sonogram and doctor appointment on Tuesday! Our tech checked the brain, spine, heart and other organs to make sure our little one was developing properly. She also said she knew the sex of the baby if we wanted to find out (it was so hard to say "no"!!!)

Food:
Current favorite foods: green grapes, lemonade, Arby's (what a combination!!?)
Current food aversions: still can't even bear to think about avocados or eggs but I did eat Mexican food for the first time since November recently.

My body:
I'm wondering if strangers can tell I'm pregnant (?) because I think I'm starting to show a little more. I also have been feeling little movements in the past week - which is my FAVORITE thing ever!!

The nursery:
Most of the furniture we ordered has come, we've started painting and we've ordered the bedding (from etsy.com). Big progress!!

Baby gear:
We still need to research strollers, car seats and all the important gear before we go register.


Happy Friday!!

Wednesday

There is lots of excitement going on in my neighborhood right now because Extreme Home Makeover is filming a show here this week! The house the show is building is less than a mile from our house and it just cracks me up because we've seen all kinds of signs for "spectator parking" and I told Joe that you can tell that not too many exciting things happen like this here in Kansas! haha! I guess tomorrow is the "move the bus" day and I asked Joe if he needed to take the day off work to go watch!!

I also thought y'all might get a kick out of this. You know, I have not bought ONE piece of baby clothing since I've been pregnant. Not knowing the gender makes it too hard to shop for things but I was at Hobby Lobby today buying a gift and I saw these adorable socks and I just had to buy them. I know I'm probably cursing myself to end up with a boy (I would LOVE a boy so I'm totally kidding!!) but I have at least two good friends who are expecting within a month of me and I know I can give them as a present if I can't use them. Could you not die of all the cuteness???

Hope you have an EXTREMEly great day! ;-)

Baby, Lately

This morning we had a delivery truck at our house bright and early to deliver the baby furniture! I had to have everything put in the garage and covered with sheets because we aren't finished painting the nursery yet (oops). I want to do a full review of the furniture itself and of JCPenney (where we ordered from) as soon as we get it all set up, for anyone who might be in the market for baby furniture soon ;-)

The furniture store we ordered the chair from (thanks, Mom!) called us last week and told us we had to choose a new fabric for the glider and ottoman we ordered. We decided to pick this color that's really close to the color of the walls. I'm hoping it will hide spit up well - and if not we got the extra-super-duper stain shield! Ha!

Also, my sister is starting to book things for my baby shower which will be on May 28th! Here's the room she booked (she let me go take a peek at it this weekend!). I think she's going to use a Dr. Seuss theme because Cat in the Hat was one of our favorite books when we were little. Isn't that cute??

Happy Monday!

Valentine's Day 2003...

The first Valentine's Day Joe and I ever celebrated was in 2003. We were both 19 and freshmen in college and somuch in love (I miss that puppy love stage sometimes but the worn-in love is really, really good too). I think we celebrated that night by eating in the cafeteria (ha!) or, if it was a really special event we would always go to Red Lobster in college. Neither one of us had any money but Joe gave me a ring that night that is so special to me. He got it at Walmart and both of us thought that was big time!

I remember I called my mom and said "He got me a ring!!" and she said "A WHAT??" Haha! I wore my ring every day until we got engaged and eventually it was retired to my jewelry box. I thought today would be a good day to get it back out. Every time I look at my little opal ring I can't help but smile :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

What I Love About Being Pregnant

1. Seeing the baby on sonogram. I think every little thing he/she does is adorable :)
2. Seeing all the pregnant celebrities

3. Planning the nursery

4. Talking about parenting with Joe

5. Watching my belly grow

We Are Such Grown-ups

Last night Joe and I had an appointment with a financial firm to sign up for disability insurance and life insurance. I sat at the conference table while the advisor went over numbers and we talked about retirement and wills and all of a sudden I started to feel like such a grown up (and old! ha!)

We went to Olive Garden afterwards and I told Joe and up until now I've felt like we were playing house and now we're bringing a baby into the world and we are talking about retirements and college funds! He said as long as we're on our way to Millionare Estates rather than Countryside Acres we're doing okay (please tell me you have played the game of Life!) ;-)

I had to share that I finally broke out my souvenir from our Hawaii trip last November. I bought an oyster with twin pearls inside and had them made into earrings. At the time we knew we were pregnant but I told Joe that probably meant we were having twins (I think I gave him a mild heart attack)! 

We're having a major snow storm again today so I'm planning to stay inside and get some studying done. And hopefully a nap in front of the fireplace!

Happy *snowy* Tuesday!!

Meatballs and Maternity Clothes

Did you watch the Super Bowl last night? Joe and I went to a watch party but as the guys watched the game the girls chatted and I think I watched a total of 29 seconds of the entire game. Which is totally fine with me because I'm not a huge NFL fan. I randomly wore a green shirt so I guess I was rooting for Green Bay! Ha! Honestly, I had to ask Joe on the way over to the party who was even playing. I wanted to make a really easy appetizer to take because we were running errands all day.

I guess it doesn't get any easier than TWO ingredients! Everyone knows that if you melt down equal parts of grape jelly and BBQ sauce you get the best meatball sauce! And of course I had to break out my football crockpot that my mom got us. It gets used about 3 times a year but it's always a big hit!

I need some advice about maternity clothes. Next week I have a conference I have to go to and I'll be meeting our state government about the research I do as a graduate student. The attire is "business/formal". I really don't want to buy a maternity business suit because I know it would never get used again. Do you have any ideas on how to make it work (like Tim Gunn would say)? Do you think I could get by with a dress, tights and a suit jacket? What about this dress I wore to a Christmas party? (obviously I wouldn't wear my hot pink heels for the Senator! Ha!)

I think we've finally made a decision about what color to paint the nursery walls! I know I originally said I wanted a dark teal blue but one of my blog friends commented on one of my posts a few weeks ago that she thought I should consider a grey color and I'm glad she did! So we decided on this cool, taupe, mushroom color from Behr called Ashwood.

Happy Monday!!

18 weeks!!!

Today I'm 18 weeks pregnant!!

How I'm feeling:
I'm feeling good!! I'm not having any of the bad symptoms I had in the first trimester except being a little tired (but maybe that's because I stay up way too late??)

About the baby:
The baby is the size of a mango!

I just went to Google search mangos and got totally sidetracked. And hungry...! But look at this:

And then I was trying to figure out why when you Google "mango" there are so many pictures of Penelope Cruz that come up (?) and I figured out she endorses a store called Mango. Which seems to have super cute dresses!

ANYWAY.

Doctor Appointments:
Our next appointment is on February 22nd for the big sonogram. We're still not planning to find out the gender but it's getting SO hard to wait!!

Food:
Current favorite foods: Girl Scout cookies, oh, and Girl Scout cookies, and sometimes Girl Scout cookies too
Current food aversions: still can't even bear to think about avocados or eggs, or really any breakfast foods.

My body:
I can definitely tell I have a hard little bump below my belly button. When I lie down it's *really* noticeable!

The nursery:
We're still in limbo with the paint color and my friends Jacki and Jill have both sent me ideas on bedding. I've got to start making some decisions!!

Baby gear:
My mom surprised us and offered to buy us a glider and I'm SO excited for it to come! I know I'll like it because I pretty much refused to get out of it at the furniture store. And then I got hungry for some Girl Scout cookies and was able to leave... ;-) It will look like this but not this color:

And I had to show this to you because Joe was cracking me up when we were trying to get our 18 week picture. I hate my double chin (and let's be real honest: don't I look like I'm about to pee my pants?? Ha!) but I love that I married someone with a good sense of humor. awww!! :)

Happy Friday y'all!!!!

Snow Day!!

If you live in the Midwest I bet you probably have lots of snow on the ground at your house right about now! We definitely got hit here in Kansas! The news keeps calling it the "Blizzard of Oz" which I think it pretty catchy. We got so much wind that we can see ground in some areas and we have huge 3 foot snow drifts in others. We actually have a few cars stranded on the road outside our house right now.

 View out of the back of our house

Joe has been able to get to work every day but my graduate school classes are cancelled so I've been home. I told my Mom that it's not quite as fun as snow days when I was a kid because professors still expect you to email your homework in on time! Ha!

I admit, I did my homework from bed with my PJs on!

Last night Joe and I made dinner and we were bored enough to watch a movie in bed. We saw He's Just Not That Into You. I thought it was cute and Joe kept saying "that's soooo true!" about how a guy will call you if he's really interested! haha!

Happy snowy Wednesday!!!