Whoa Baby!!!

OK, so I've definitely felt that I've had another growth spurt in the last month or so. All of a sudden I just feel ginormous :) Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it! I had Kurt take another picture so I could compare.... Yep, this baby is GROWING!!!! This was taken Aug 23rd.

And this was taken just last month on July 17th. Wow, what a difference a month can make... I put on the same outfit for the picture since some shirts make you look more prego than others... this is definitely not the shirt that's popping out :) To think, I have 3 full months to go. I wonder what I'll look like then? Haha....

This is my friend Melissa. Her little boy is due just a couple weeks before our baby girl. It is so much fun being pregnant at the same time as a good friend. We can compare stories, Dr visits, what kind of ice cream we had for dessert, and all that fun stuff. Her and her husband were married 11 days after Kurt and I, so we thought it would be perfect if our babies were born 11 days apart as well. It could happen, our due dates are only about 15 days or so apart. We shall see :) Doesn't she look fantastic!!!

All in all, I've had a terrific pregnancy so far. But just as I was boasting about how great I felt and not getting morning sickness or any other ailments... I ended up catching a cold this week. And let me tell you, that's no fun at all when you're pregnant and can't take a whole lot to make it go away. Worst part was, my birthday was this past week (on the 27th) and I've been sick so couldn't really do much.

Kurt was awesome though. He surprised me in the morning with a birthday gift, a new camera. I didn't even ask for one. My other one has been on the fritz lately and irritating me, so he picked up on that. He made me a nice birthday dinner and we laid on the couch and watched a movie and went to bed early. I felt bad because I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere, but he still managed to make my day special. I just love that man!!!

I was hoping to be 100% better since we're leaving this afternoon for Colorado for the week. This cold just won't seem to go away though. Oh well, it'll give me a chance to relax anyway. I can't wait to get out of the heat for a little bit. It will also give me a chance to test out the new camera!!!! Yeay!

Staple Items in this Pregnant Wife's Kitchen!

I was doing pretty good last year not having junk food around the house, but now that I'm pregnant, it's a whole new ball game! This has been my favorite treat lately. Kurt was out of town last week helping his mom, which left me home alone every night with this....

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! And I didn't have to share with anyone either. I was in heaven. Nothing like ending a long day w/ my feet propped up and a nice yummy bowl of ice cream and oreos. What more could I ask for? I did miss Kurt though. Even though he was only gone for a few days, it made me realize just how lucky I am to have him around every day. It also made me appreciate all the things he does around the house since I had to take care of everything while he was away. I guess I've been spoiled :)

My parents were out of town last week as well and left me with one of their puppies (my brother took the other). I had forgotten what it was like having a puppy around. She's 6 months old (Bailee is almost 6 years). This little puppy was cracking me up all week. She's a little stinker. If it wasn't tied down, she carried it all around the house and ended up taking everything out the dog door and into the backyard, including toys, kitchen rugs, dog beds, etc. She's too funny.

One day they decided to bring sticks into the house! We have a small fire pit in the backyard and have small logs piled up on the side of the house. Bailee has NEVER touched these logs. Apparently the puppy helped talk her into it because they were both running around the house chewing these up as if they were bones.

I was picking up after them all week.

Bailee ended up stealing everything from the puppy and tried to hide upstairs. That little puppy always wanted to play and ended up finding her wherever she tried to hide. Let's just say it was an interesting week.

I'm glad things are back to normal now!

EEEWWWW, WHAT'S HE DOING?????

Oh, it's just Kurt grouting the tile in the bathroom. What did you think it looked like? :)

I couldn't resist posting this. Although it's a nice light pretty color when it dries, the grout looks like he's playing in poo when he's doing it. And it was even worse when I came around the corner and saw this in the bathroom. I thought it was funny! Good thing it's only grout!!!!

Happy Birthday Tanner

I'm a little behind in this post. It's hard to believe that as of last week, this little boy is one year old. My nephew, Tanner, just celebrated his first birthday on July 25th. Where did the time go?

It seems like just the other day this little sweetheart came into the world. He was 8 weeks early and only weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces. He was such a fighter!

He spent the first 4 and a half weeks of his life in the NICU, but had lots of visitors to keep him company. It was so hard to stay away from that little guy for very long. I still can't get over how tiny he was.

A week after he was able to come home, Kurt and I got to babysit him. Kurt was a bit nervous since he was so tiny, but I have proof that he held him. (even though it's only because I put him in his lap and walked off). Kurt gets nervous around new babies. He has a "you break it you buy it policy" but says that it will be different when our baby is born.

Here is Tanner growing up. Almost crawling in this shot.

I am just so in love with those baby blues. He has the prettiest eyes!

For Tanners 1st birthday, he had a pool party at his house. Here he is in the pool w/ his big sister Sage. He just loves hanging out in the water. Who would blame him in this heat?

He even had a pinata for his party. He didn't really show much interest though. Maybe next year.

He did, however, know what to do w/ the birthday cake. Did any of it even make it in his mouth? :) MMMMM, Chocolate! I think all in all, he had a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday Little Tan Man!

Getting Ready for Baby!

It is so much fun getting ready for this little girl!

We bought our nursery furniture a couple weeks ago and Kurt put the crib together last week. Here it is in pieces. It actually wasn't too hard to get together. I think we had it up in under an hour.

And this is the final product. I just LOVE this crib. We looked at so many and this was the one I kept going back to. I just knew it was the one and I am so happy it's what we ended up with!

Rather than the slide down side, this one just has a drop down top. The top 9 inches or so fold over so you don't have to bend over so far to reach the baby.

And here is the changing table. I thought this was the neatest idea. It's reversible. When you're done using it as a changing table, it flips over and the drawers flip too so you can use it as a 3 drawer chest. We also bought the dresser that matches, but at the time I took these photos, it wasn't upstairs yet. I left my camera at my brothers house last week so can't get the recent shots I took. I'm sure I'll post more pictures in a couple months when the paint is done and all that fun stuff.

And for those of you who want to see the prego belly... Here it is! I am getting HUGE these days. I've seriously gone through a growth spurt in the past 3 or 4 weeks. It's crazy! But so worth it. I still can't get over the fact that a baby is growing inside of me. I just sit and rub my belly amazed about the miracle inside. We are so blessed to be bringing this little girl into the world. I can't wait to meet her and find out who she looks like. 4 more months!!!!

Oh... one more thing. She has a name!!!! We have decided to name her Brooklyn. We're still working on the middle name, but it will most likely be Brooklyn Renee. That's what we like best so far.

Floor Update

OK... the floor is not quite finished yet as planned. Kurt is doing a WONDERFUL job though. It's really looking fantastic. I am very pleased so far. I am so impressed with what he's done. It has totally changed the look of our house. I absolutely love it! Here are a few of the in-between shots to give you an idea. Should be finished hopefully in the next few weeks! Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

This was taken the first day Kurt actually started laying the tile.

I just had to include this shot. It seemed like every day I came home the refrigerator was in a different spot. It was cracking me up. I'm happy to report that the kitchen is complete now, grout and all... so the fridge is back where it belongs.

It's coming along. This room is also finished now too. It was the biggest room and the easiest since he could lay full tiles instead of having to cut each piece.

Here is "supervisor" Bailee making sure Kurt did a good job... Little to the right she says! :)

And after a hard day's work, she's always up for a nap. It's tough being the boss!

Final pics will be up in a few weeks. Thanks Kurt for all your hard work!

Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound on Thursday. My "feeling" has been that it was a boy. I've been totally thinking that for about 2 months now. Boy was I WRONG. She's all girl. I was a little shocked to see that. Boy are we excited though!!!!! We're having a baby girl!!!!!!

When we first got to the ultrasound, she was all curled up in the fetal position w/ her legs crossed tight. She did not want to cooperate. Then she got the hiccups and I think that's when she loosened up and gave us the shot we were looking for. She never let us see her face, but we definitely know she's a girl now. I'm so excited to not be calling her "it" anymore!

She has a strong heart, organs look good, spine looks good, she's measuring perfect for her height and weight so far... All in all, everything is great! She's in a breach position right now, but obviously she'll be moving all around in the next few months. She was sleeping in a spot where her head was being bounced by my aorta pumping. It was so cute. It looked like she was dancing like those SNL guys w/ their heads bopping to the side. It must have been soothing to her though because she was not wanting to wake up and let us take her picture!

I just love getting a peak of that little baby growing inside. It really brings things into perspective and lets me feel closer to her. We feel so blessed and could not be more happy about bringing this little girl into our family!

She's going to have Kurt wrapped around her little finger. He'll be surrounded by females now, including the dog!!!

Under Construction!

Kurt has decided to do some remodeling before the baby comes.... Our downstairs was all carpet in the living room and den, and linoleum in the dining, kitchen and bathroom.

Since our dog is an indoor dog, she sheds all over the place and the hair just works its way down in the carpet. No matter how much vacuuming we do, we can never rid it of hair.

Here are some before pics:

Well, we can't quite get rid of the dog just because we're adding to the family... so to clean things up a bit, our whole downstairs is going to be ceramic tile. Kurt is doing the work himself which will save us a ton of money.

Here are some of the inbetween pics... Kurt has ripped up all the flooring and our whole downstairs is concrete now.

It's kinda messy in the meantime, but will be so nice when it's finished.

Stay tuned for the "after" pics. Hopefully it won't take too long to complete. I want my house back to normal so we can start thinking about working on the baby's room next :)

Colorado Getaway

My parents had a summer house built in Delores, Colorado last year. Kurt and I haven't had a chance to get up there until now. Last week we spent 8 days in that beautiful place. It was so relaxing. No schedules, no rules, no alarm clocks... We were in heaven. Not to mention having my mom there to cook 3 meals a day. I'm not used to that!

I think out of all of us, Bailee may have had the most fun. There are no fences to block her in and she had the run of the land. We definitely brought home a wore out dog in the end.

As for weather, we had a little bit of everything. It was warm and sunny when we got there, then windy, then rainy, then it hailed, and it even snowed on Saturday, then the sun came out again for the rest of the trip. Yes, that is snow in the picture. Since the ground was so wet from the rain the night before it didn't stick, but it sure was pretty. We were having such a hard time keeping all the dogs out of the mud during the week.

My parents have a 5 acre lot. This is up at the house overlooking the meadow below.

This is down in the meadow looking up at the front of the house.

This is the back of the house. (and Kurt standing by the area where they are putting in a 30 foot by 40 foot garage for the motorhome, pontoon boat and all the quads).

This is the view off to one side. Bailee just loved running through the field. On the other side is a pond, but I guess that picture didn't make it on here.

At the end of the day, this was Bailee's favorite spot... laying down in front of the door. And that's my parents' new puppy they got while we were up there for the week.

During the day we'd take the quads out w/ my dad and grandpa. There are a ton of deer and elk in the area and every year they shed their antlers. We'd hike through the brush looking for the antlers lying on the ground. While we were out one day I found this 5 point elk skull. My dad was so proud he hung it on the pole in the backyard for all to see. He was wishing he scored a find like that! He asked if I wanted to take it home with me. What would I do w/ antlers around my house? I don't think so. It's a much better fit on his gate!

This is the sign at the bottom of the road leading up to the house. My dad put a "deer crossing" sign there since just about every evening the deer come up right through his property. It was so neat to be sitting at the kitchen table and look out to spot deer in your yard.

Every night after dinner we'd get in the car and take a drive looking for deer that come out of the trees. Since there's no hunting in that area, they're not scared of the cars and don't run when we pull up. We were getting within 6 feet of them on the side of the road. This picture is dark, but it's a doe starting right at me (in the center). Not even joking, we'd see at least 50 to 100 deer every night, just a few miles from the house. And usually 5 or 10 of them would come right up in our property and we wouldn't even have to drive to see them.

This little waterfall is in the neighbor's property right behind my dad. We took the quads back there to let the dogs run and take a dip in the water.

This was such a beautiful stream winding through the country.

We of course couldn't keep the dogs out of the water. Especially ours. Bailee just loves to swim.

All in all, we had a wonderful time. Even when it rained us in for a couple days it was so nice just to be away. We got some reading done, got to take NAPS, woo hoo... Played games with my mom. It was so nice to be able to spend time in Colorado. I think after the baby is born and I'm not working we'll be able to take more of these trips. And with it only being about 7 hours away, it's not too bad!

Oh Baby!

Well, I am 12 weeks now! Yeay! We had our first ultrasound last week. And as many of you know, they were going to be looking for twins... but it was only one baby in there. It just has a lot of extra room to grow in there in the next 6 months!

Here is what a Baby Bucy looks like. I love this little profile :) I didn't think we were going to be able to see so many features this early on. It was great!

Here you can see the eye sockets and little mouth forming, and its little arm curled up by its face.

And this is just my favorite... the baby turned and was waving "hi mom" right to me!!!

The baby was sleeping when they first started the ultrasound (with both arms right up by its face). The ultrasound tech pushed on my belly a bit and got the little guy to wake up. And then it was moving all over the place. It was so amazing! It really made things seem real for me now. I knew I was pregnant, but seeing that little baby growing inside of me just put everything in place! I of course got a little teary eyed when I saw the baby. I cannot wait to be a mommy!

In 6 weeks we'll have another ultrasound and be able to tell if it's a boy or a girl. I'm thinking its a boy... Kurt has said boy all along... We shall see soon enough!