{Baby} 17 weeks

It's taken me a bit longer to do this next belly post due to a couple of busy weeks with the Browns (friends from high school) visiting Utah and us, our trip to Denver, and recovering from that trip. My belly hasn't changed too much since the last post, but all of a sudden in the last couple of days, I can tell that things are really going to start growing pretty soon!

I've been feeling stronger and better, although I was incredibly exhausted from our trip to Denver and all the driving that went with that (8 hours one-way). Thank goodness for my Zofran to help with car sickness and for a husband who understood when I just needed to rest and find something else to eat that wasn't what we packed in our cooler. I guess you could say that's where the hot chocolate and Coke cravings came in. Those are always my comfort foods during long car rides when I don't feel so well. Maybe it's the caffeine?!?

Lately, I've been having a few funny and weird dreams. Usually, I don't remember my dreams (or even recall if I have them), but I had a pretty vivid one the other night. I had to tell Michael about it, because of the sheer unrealistic qualities it possessed. The basic premise was me and Michael at the doctor's office a few weeks after having twins (I'm only pregnant with one child). Anyway, all the doctors and even Michael were "oo-ing" and "ah-ing" over one of our twins, while I was stuck trying to worry about and take care of the twin that came out less than perfect. And by less than perfect, I mean the baby had two heads! Hahaha, makes me laugh just thinking about it. Anyway, I spent the dream trying to get everyone's attention because of this deformed baby in my arms, because this baby was the one that needed medical help and attention, not the picture perfect sibling. I was a little stressed about it all in the dream and woke up thinking, "Whoa...that was crazy". Good thing something like that happening is VERY unlikely, impossible even!

Haven't felt the baby move yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time (seeing as I'm new to this whole pregnancy thing). Will all these updates comes emotional highs and lows. I find myself breaking into tears whenever I get stressed about something. Not too often, mind you, although I've always been a crier and tender heart....but it surprises me at times and I usually end up thinking, "Why am I crying over this?"

As usual, we feel very blessed and are looking forward to finding the gender out soon. I think things will fly from then on. Crazy to think we are almost halfway!

Denver Zoo

 This past weekend, Michael and I took a trip to Denver for his cousin's wedding. We decided since we hadn't gotten out of Utah in a while, that we would use the opportunity to make it a mini-vacay and spend a long weekend there. We stayed in a nice hotel that gave us warm chocolate chip walnut cookies, swam in the pool, and spent some quality time with the Randall (Michael's mother's) side of the family. 

On Saturday, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Denver Zoo before heading to a family barbecue that evening. Most of the pictures we took are from the zoo, because I'm afraid that's when we actually remembered to take out the camera. And besides, nobody really wants to see pictures of us just bumming around in the hotel room at other times, so enjoy these photos of our zoo adventure!

 Michael told me to stop in front of the entry sign to the zoo because he needed to document "Baby's First Trip to the Zoo". That man is pretty cute and thinks of everything!

 We watched the sea lion show when we first arrived, which was incredibly cute. They clapped, imitated different species' swim patterns (the human version was hilarious...lots of splashing), and the fat guy in the bottom picture bounced around on his tummy. It was a hot day and all I wanted to do was jump in the water with those animals and swim with them!

 You can tell we're not even close to being the height of a polar bear when it's on its hind legs!

 We loved the giraffes.

 And this camel's humps were not standing upright. Not sure why, but let's just say that our dirty minds made some funny jokes about that fact.... ;)

 We saw the elephants, and this one I affectionately named Dumbo. Can't help it every time I see one.

 We almost missed the rhinoceros, but caught it just at the last minute, while it was eating a late lunch. I'm still in so much awe at that animal. It's the closest thing we have to a modern version of the dinosaur.

 Hungry, hungry hippo!

 I know it's blurry, but this orangutan was inside his pin for dinner and while we were sitting by the glass decided to come all the way across from the back wall, to look right at me and Michael! Everybody in the building became really excited and crowded around to take pictures. Mr. Orangutan would just look at all of us with the sweetest eyes. Pretty cool for it to come that close!

 I told Michael that we HAD to see the penguins since we missed their show a few hours before. We found them at the end of the day (finally) and couldn't help but hope that they would start dancing like in Happy Feet!

 Leopards just hanging out.

The coolest part of the Zoo day was us finding out that a new baby snow leopard was born just 3 months earlier. The lady who volunteered at the zoo told us that this was incredibly rare for a cub to be born in captivity, especially since the species is endangered. What a miracle for this to occur and for us to watch the adorable little Misha (cub's name) play and pounce around with her mother. There were moments where you could just tell the mom was thinking, "calm down little one...don't pounce on and eat my tail!" It's funny the similarities between parents, no matter what species they may be!

{Baby} 14 Weeks

Let's see, we've had some fun updates since 2 weeks ago. First off, my belly is starting to poke out more, especially when I wear the right clothes (hence the dress picture this time). If I wear jeans or other shorts, mostly I look a little pudgy, but I am starting to have to use the rubber band trick from time to time. It is so fun to finally see things growing! Some women freak out about getting bigger, but I can say I am excited for these changes and watching what my body can do to support this little baby inside. It really is amazing to think about!

We had our 14 week appointment the other day with Dr. Rasmussen, who was filling in for Dr. Hebert while she was on vacation for a week. A little history about Dr. Rassmussen, he was one of the founding members of the IMC Ob-Gyn Practice and has "retired" but basically comes in every once in a while to help out in the office. He was the cutest older man and sweet as can be. He had amazing things to say about Dr. Hebert as he knew her throughout her entire residency. He told us that she is very "old school" as in she prefers women to have vaginal deliveries and doesn't get "c-section happy" like some other doctors out there. Of course, if c-section is needed, I can't be in any more capable hands. But, it was so validating to hear this from one of the founding members of the practice that our doctor is going to be in-line with what I'm wanting to do.

Here follows a few more updates from our appointment. Once again, I am "super healthy" and everything looks great. Basically, they expect this to be a very normal pregnancy based upon all the test results and info they've gathered so far. My blood count was excellent and I have Rh-positive blood, so there will be no need for the antibody shots in my behind during my pregnancies. Also, Dr. Rasmussen talked about how active our little one is already, basically paraphrasing from Dr. Hebert's notes at the previous appointment. He said that is a very good sign and that I might be able to feel baby moving around sometime soon. But, of course, since I don't really know what to feel for as I've not had a baby before, it might take a few weeks before I really can tell when it's the baby moving in there! Michael actually kissed my belly last night and said, "I got to give the baby its first kiss!" Yeah, that was way cute!

We got to hear that cute and fast little heartbeat again...I can honestly say that I yearn to hear/see our baby at every appointment and fall more in love each time it happens. We scheduled our 20-week ultrasound and will be able to see much more detail and find out the gender in about 5-ish weeks from now! I'm so looking forward to it. I have my feelings about what the gender will be, but I'll wait and see before I let my suspicions be known!

As for me, the nausea is beginning to subside and I've gotten a good bit of my energy back, especially this week. I'm currently in the process of doing "pre-nesting nesting" as I like to call it. Getting the house all organized to prepare for all the baby things to come so I can decorate and put together the nursery. We are so very blessed to be in the situation we are in, to have a nice home to bring the baby home to, and to be able to feel comfortable in this new journey of our lives!

{Baby} 12 weeks!!!

And so begins the profile pictures which will show the growth of the baby belly! I figured it was about time, now that we finally reached the last bit of the first trimester. Whew, it feels like I've been waiting forever for this moment, even though I know it is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure the rest of the pregnancy will fly by and then the baby will be here before we know it, but I've been so looking forward to getting past the nausea and (hopefully) starting to look pregnant, not just feeling pudgy. I'm really ready for that cute bump to just "pop" on my tummy and for the moment when I can actually feel the little munchkin inside me!

As you can see, I still am experiencing all the typical first trimester symptoms, which I'm pretty much grown accustomed to now after so many weeks living with them. What has been nice is that I've gotten some more of my energy back and actually was able to start going to the gym a couple weeks ago, and Michael and I are also starting to take evening bike rides around our neighborhood (don't worry, I'm not at the "off balance" stage yet, and we're being extra careful until then too). It's been nice to be able to feel like I can get back out of the house more and to just get moving. I've missed exercising, although I'm still having to take it easy because my stamina waned over the past several weeks without much movement!

All in all, we're doing well and just trying to stay cool and active in this hot desert Summer weather. Yay for that! At least I have Otter Pops to help me out in that respect!

Little Beginnings

 I thought I'd take the time to share some of the fun facts surrounding our finding out we were pregnant and a few other details from the beginning of this journey.

We found out we were pregnant on May 28, 2013. And if you remember the significance of that date, it just happens to be our anniversary...our 4-year anniversary! We had just started trying in May and I was pretty sure I was pregnant, but wanted to wait until our anniversary to find out. What a happy little reveal for us to find out on an already special day for our family. We found out our family was going to grow!

This is one of the ultrasound pictures from our 10 week appointment, the first appointment where we were able to see our baby and hear the sweet (and appropriately fast) heartbeat. It was wonderful to hear that for the first time and even though Michael and I had been joking about the "alien baby" he had infected me with (as the sickness has sometimes felt that way, lol), we definitely could tell that it was a very tiny human inside me! Although, once I heard the heartbeat, I did say, "It's ALIVE!". Yes, we're weird that way...this baby is going to definitely have a sense of humor of it gets anything from us!

We really like our OB, as she's from Texas, so there is some Southern common ground there, which makes things fun and enjoyable. We talked about gumbo, crawfish, and Cajun food at our appointment (along with many baby-related things too). Apart from that, she is really smart, personable, and informative. She has answered all our questions happily and kindly and I look forward to building a relationship with her as the pregnancy continues on.

All in all, I've been told that I am "super healthy" and everything looks to be perfectly in order with me and the baby, even in these early stages. We shall see how everything grows and develops as time goes on! I'm starting to feel things changing with my body and the sickness is reducing a bit naturally (although, I'm still taking the wonderful prescription for nausea I was given by my OB). Things are wonderful and we're happy!

It's a Baby!

We already announced this on facebook, but I want to start blogging more frequently, especially now that there will be many fun updates to come in the future....so, it's official! We're pregnant! 

Little Baby Black is due to arrive on January 31, 2014!

Needless to say, we are very excited and look forward to our lives being changed forever, for the better. :)

Front Yard Before and After

 Time to show you what our front yard looks like and how far it's come since the land of "all grass and nothing else".  I thought I'd give you some pretty flowers to look at first before we delve into the ugliness that once was!

 As you can see, more sod that had to be removed, along with a couple bushes that weren't really doing anything for that little space by the front door, so we transplanted them. You'll see where in a second. 

 These are the front flower beds after the mulch was put in, along with feather reed grasses planted, and a border placed around the beds. The grasses are the same as in the backyard and they're going to look awesome once they grow to their full potential!

 These were the boxwood bushes from the front of the house, transplanted to in front of our shed on the side of the house. As you can see, this area is a little boring and needed some love. 

Plans we have for this side shed area:

• Scrape off old, peeling paint and repaint
• Plant some sort of trellis to grow upward and cover/protect the shed from the hot afternoon sun (roses?)

Front Flower Beds

 Now you can see what they look like since flowers have been planted. I mixed some perennials with annuals and they've already grown a lot compared to this picture (which was taken over a month ago). The grasses have really grown tall and are seeding right now. It's starting to look really great!

Plans for Front Flower Beds:

• See how the annuals fair and how the perennials grow, most likely plant even more perennials next year for less upkeep
• Remove window covers and replace with the metal grate type
• More mulch for the little corner spot by the front door

 Pretty flowers once again. Enjoy!

View from the Street

You can see, we moved the mailbox over to make room for the tree now planted in the park strip. Apparently that was the original location for the mailbox, but the old lady who lived here before us kept running it over, so the neighbors helped her to relocate it. We moved it back as I don't believe we'll risk hitting it as often as she once did! ;)

Anyway, the tree was transplanted from Mike's parent's house because it just did not fair well there, so we wanted to see if our sandy soil would be a better fit than their clay soil. It's doing wonderfully, so we're going to buy one more tree like it and plant it to the right, also in the park strip!

Plans for the View from the Street:

• Purchase and plant 1 more Eastern Redbud tree in the park strip
• Rework some of the sprinkler heads and such so we can plant a nice big shade tree (sycamore/london plane) in the front yard (our house faces full west so it gets a beating in the afternoon/evenings)
• Mulch for the trees
• Eventually expand the flower beds to wrap around the sidewalk
• Window boxes
• Shutters

 Front Porch

Yeah, this area needs some love. The planters and flowers have helped, but I've got big dreams for this front porch, such as:

•  New front door to go with the shutters we'll eventually do in the front (maybe paint the door an accent color before we can buy a new one?!?)
• Make a cute house number sign to go underneath the light fixture
• Update the light fixture, along with all the others on the outside of the house, so they match and look nice and fit our "style"

As you can see, more BIG plans for our home. We've got our hands full, that's for sure! But, we're loving being homeowners and enjoying this journey! What do you think? Any other fun ideas now that you see what we have before us and the potential for the space?