Thanksgiving

Last year at Thanksgiving, I was anxiously awaiting Nick coming home. I had originally thought that he'd be home by Thanksgiving. It turned out to be awesome, nonetheless, as I was able to spend the day with a brand new friend. And, Nick came home about a week later, yay!

Anyway, this year's Thanksgiving was fantastic! We were able to go spend the holiday with our surrogate "Southern family" in Alabama. Their son is one of Nick's good friends from college, and is currently in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they recently had a death in the family, but I think we were a good distraction from that and their son being deployed. It was so nice to just have a relaxing couple days, watch some football (woo, Auburn!) and eat some delicious fried turkey and fixins'. I totally neglected my camera (sorry M!), but hopefully we'll be hanging out with them again soon, especially since their son comes home for R&R in January.

Also, my sister, Whitney happened to be in Alabama as well visiting her new boyfriend's family. So, we got to meet him, which was long overdue since they've been dating for a few months now. Whitney also brought us these absolutely adorable shoes for Baby D:

Cuteness overload!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

17 Weeks!

I have officially reached 17 weeks! The baby is now -quite appropriately for Thanksgiving- the size of a sweet potato and can yawn and hiccup (can't wait to feel that!). Also, the nervous system is developed, as well as the sweat glands, and the skeleton is starting to harden. It's still moving and kicking like crazy. It's pretty funny too, it actually responds when you push or tap on my belly. Nick tried it a couple times & got some good kicks in response. We definitely have a feisty one on our hands!

Here's the belly picture of the week:

17 weeks pregnant!

Also, in all of the excitement of taking pictures of cute baby clothes (although who wouldn't be excited about that?), I completely forgot to mention that my mom brought me a whole bunch of maternity clothes, yay! I got some hand-me-downs from my sister, Hillary, and some new clothes from H&M, where my mom went shopping with my other super fashionable sister, Whitney. It's nice to have some pants that button again, ha ha. Here's a taste:

The high waist really accentuates the baby belly, but I love it!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Baby D and I are definitely excited to eat some turkey and gravy tomorrow, mmmm!

No Pictures

So I tried something new with uploading pictures, and apparently the pictures didn't even show up in my last post. Sorry about that! Let's try that again:

The view out my back door the day my parents arrived

Adorable duckie onesie and hat


Cute little duckie feet!

Doggie outfit

And apparently I completely forgot to put this picture on last time, lucky you! Ya, this one pretty much states the obvious about our little one

Visitors!

So, my parents came out for a visit this last weekend and it was so much fun! We explored all over our new town and post and they got to see our new house. And, all of the leaves have been changing and falling like crazy around here, so they got to see some gorgeous fall colors:

Out my back door the day they arrived

I'm also really excited that they got to visit our new church (we officially became members last week!) and meet all of the wonderful people who are a part of it. We also ate tons of delicious restaurants, and the baby did cooperate and give my parents a couple of good kicks. We also checked out some baby stores, and my parents bought a few things for Baby D! I don't know how something in the womb can already be completely spoiled! Here are the adorable outfits on cute little baby hangers (one they sent a few weeks ago):

Adorable duckie onesie and hat

How cute are those little duck feet?!

Of course, we had to get something with a doggie on it!

Nick said today that he can't wait until there's a little baby in those little baby clothes. Ahh, so cute!

So, thanks Mom & Dad (or should I say PapaDan and GramMary?) for the wonderful visit! Can't wait to do it again in May when there's a little one! Love you!

16 Weeks or 4 Months!

We have officially reached 4 months pregnant, woohoo! In another month, we'll be halfway done. Totally crazy! Here's the belly picture of the week:

16 weeks!

Baby D is growing from the size of an avocado to the size of a turnip! Some major developmental milestones this week are fingerprints, the circulatory system, baby fat and toenails! Very exciting!

4-Day Weekend

Nick had a 4-day weekend this past weekend, and it was marvelous. We really didn't do a whole lot, but I think that was what was so nice about it.

One of the fun things we did do was go shopping for and pack boxes for Operation Christmas Child. This is something we've done the past couple years, and I know I really enjoy putting together a gift for a kid in a 3rd world country who might not otherwise get anything for Christmas.

We also went to a really awesome worship night at our church. It was nice to have the lights turned low and just focus on singing. And the baby apparently really liked it too. It was moving and dancing a lot! Then, it did it again on Sunday during worship too. I think it's ears are definitely developed. It likes to squirm a bit when the dogs are barking too. I think it's just practicing all it's tricks for when my parents come to visit this weekend, YAY! It knows it'll have to perform for it's grandparents!

I've found myself thinking a lot lately about what Baby D is going to look like. I can pretty much guarantee that it will be very blond with blue or hazel eyes, since that's what Nick & I looked like as babies, but, you never know. Otherwise though, I guess we'll have to wait until it comes out to find out! I think we'll get a little taste at the next ultrasound. It looks like you can see a lot! Although we'll be praying it won't reveal too much.

I'm officially 4 months pregnant tomorrow. Which seems totally crazy. A lot of people said pregnancy would go fast, and I didn't believe them because the beginning seemed so slow. But, now we have a little avocado-sized baby who is moving and kicking like crazy and is just going to keep growing and growing. I'm trying to enjoy every second, and I know Nick is too.

The baby has been fairly cooperative still, although apparently it really doesn't like peanuts. I'm just going to avoid those from now on though. I'm still feeling pretty good, definitely better than 1st trimester at least, although I have been pretty dizzy lately and have to sit down a lot. Supposedly my blood pressure drops pretty significantly until the 20th week though, so that would explain it.

Belly pictures to come tomorrow!

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day! Because I have my favorite veteran here with me this year and I'm feeling all lovey dovey, I thought I'd list some of my favorite things about my amazing husband.

My favorite veteran

1- He makes me laugh, soooo much. The other day, he threw a fake temper tantrum like a 2 year old and I was positively dying with laughter.

2- He is the least technological person I know and he loves it that way. He has the most basic cell phone and regularly has me text for him.

3- He's going to be an amazing daddy. He already talks to my belly pretty much every night and went above and beyond when I was feeling yucky in the first trimester.

4- He is an amazing cook (which I'm sure he got from his dad). We had shrimp tacos last night, and oh my goodness, DELICIOUS!

5- He adores his dog, Rufus. He has referred to him as his son before, no lie. As a total dog lover, myself, I can't imagine not having dogs, and it is awesome to be married to someone who loves them about as much as I do!

6- He loves Jesus and is so dedicated to leading me and our future family in Christ. And it's not always in blatant ways. Just seeing him reading his bible or quietly doing a daily devotional.

Just a few reasons my hubby is awesome.


Also, this week I have officially reached 15 weeks pregnant! Here's the belly picture:

15 weeks!

I think it looks like my belly is smaller this week, but it might just be my outfit. I wasn't originally planning on doing a belly picture every week, but since I'm so far away from my family (although my parents are coming to visit next week!), I thought they'd enjoy seeing the weekly progress.

I had a check-up yesterday and the baby is doing great! I got to hear it's heartbeat again and it's holding strong at 150! That's pretty much my favorite sound, I love it. I got all set for a midwife and an un-medicated childbirth- I just have to go to one class that they hold every other month. Pretty surprising though, I have gained very little weight so far. Waaaay less than I was expecting! My jaw pretty much dropped when I saw the scale. They're not terribly concerned yet, since I had a lot of nausea in the first trimester and my appetite was pretty low. Thankfully, it's picked up significantly. I definitely wasn't denying myself before, or anything, but I was trying to make healthy choices in what I was eating. Now I think I'm going to treat myself to a bunch of ice cream! It's a good source of calcium anyway!