Random happenings

Not much has happened around here but we're on the verge of lots of fun stuff.  I recently got lots of fun maternity pieces from motherhood maternity: a swimsuit, cover-up dress, couple tanks, flower top, and some pregnancy leggings.  Needless to say I can't wait til I have a full-length mirror again and I won't have to strike crazy poses that throw me off my balance.

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This weekend is General Conference, it's a mormon thing, which happens twice a year where the prophet, twelve apostles, and other church leaders all come together and give prepared talks on tons of different subjects.  I can't wait.  There's nothing like getting spiritually recharged.  Plus I love to hear about all the new temples that are being built/planned.etc.

This weekend looks like we'll spend it watching the above at my parents' house and then it's back to our ward sunday evening for a choir practice-which I'm greatful for since I'm conducting one of the pieces for easter sunday and while I've been practicing conducting an empty room it would be nice to do it a few times in front of the real thing :)

It's kind of fun to conduct an ensemble...like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time but it becomes easier the more you do it.

Next week is Code's birthday!!! It actually falls on easter this year so we're going to san antonio for friday/saturday to check out the river walk and the alamo etc.  I'm excited to give him his presents. 

Well, I'll be 22 weeks tomorrow and keep shifting between feeling really big/uncomfortable and just fine.  For those who didn't see on facebook I got a onesie for our little guy that was just perfect for code's son:

more random happenings to come I'm sure...

Man of the House

So it's official, we have a new little man of the house.  We went in Friday morning and it did not take long for the ultrasound tech to find that we're having a boy!  It's funny cause I didn't have a gut feeling along the way at all so I picked my vote for a girl, but the last few days as I imagined going in and the dr saying it was a girl just didn't feel right.  Sure enough we got a boy.  Cody is very excited and I am too-I enjoyed growing up with older brothers. 

I made a vow that I would not show the proof of our little guy being a little guy online cause...shrug, who wants to see that?  Plus now I can later remind him that he owes me for not posting embarassing pictures of him online-see? not even born yet and we already have such a healthy relationship :)

There were some others but they are kind of hard to tell what they are-random hand, foot, etc so I won't bother posting them but I we do have a the whole ultrasound on dvd which is cool to watch-the little guy yawned at one point and chewed/swallowed at another so it's pretty cool to watch-don't worry grandparents, we'll make copies of it for ya.

Since we were rushed for time with cody's oncall shift and racing off to see the hunger games (I give it a one thumb up not two) we didn't have time to go out and buy the little guy's first outfit so we did that this morning after the temple:

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We liked the orange polo and jeans cause it's the type of shirt cody would wear- in fact he may have a similar one in his closet as we speak....hmm....future photoshoot in the making here...and the dinosaur one is just awesome cause it reminds me of some of my favorite movies which, now that I think of it, have a lot of useful quotes once our little guy comes on the scene: "you are going to wash your hands before you eat anything?...." etc.  and we couldn't pass up on the adorable lil pjs-all of them say they're for a newborn so i'm curious if he'll be swimming in these or not.

The Dr did say that he was measuring a week ahead percentage-wise so it's highly likely that we can have him in late july rather than aug 3 (his due date) which I'm hoping for-gives us a little more space between his birthday and school once he's older :)  Anywho, the doc didn't seem to think it was a tall order by any means to start the process early in late july so here's to hoping.

We're so excited for our little man!  We have names that we like but I doubt we'll pick a name 100% until he's here just to make sure that he looks/feels like a insert name here.  It's hard for me tho cause I want to refer to him as a name not just "baby boy, little man, etc" but I don't want to risk getting sentimentally attached to a name only to realize we aren't going to name him that-I get very attached to names/nick names so I have to be careful just ask frida or henry (our cars)

That reminds me!  We just payed off Henry so for a few months we will be debt free....until Steve comes home, gets frida back, and we have to buy another car for me :)  But it's nice while it lasts.

Hunger Games

So tonight my friend Katie Browning invited me to a Hunger Games pre-showing party that she and a friend put on.  I've reread the first book in the past two days so it was all pretty fresh and it sounded like a lot of fun-even though I wasn't going to the midnight showing with them-code and I are totally going tomorrow night and can't wait!

I wasn't sure how it would be since I didn't know a soul there but it turned out to be really fun-all the people were way cool and there were great treats and amazing games.  My treat, rather than picking a specific dish mentioned in the books-which I figured everyone would do, I created arrows since they are Katniss' weapon of choice.  Plus it was easy-chocolate dipped pretzel rods with hershey kisses attached by dipping chocolate at one end and chocolate graham crackers attached at the other end.

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Easy being a relative term cause it took awhile to hold the fins in place until the chocolate dried, but Code was a trooper and helped me out :)

After extricating myself from Cody's grasp I was on my way

"please don't go!"

Here's some of the decorations: posters/movie quotes

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There was TONS of food on the table but I didn't get a pic of it later in the evening when it was full of stuff but here's a sampling:

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Mockingjay cookies, mellark bakery cupcakes, nightlock cupcakes, katniss' arrows, fiery cupcakes-it's a theme.  later there was a literal dish from the books- an orange chicken dish over grains-way yummy, someone brought pitas with ceaser salad in them (peeta is a main character in the book), etc etc etc.

It was way fun and we played some games too-there was a trivia quiz in which I did ok on but def not the highest score-who won a hunger games bag, then there was the matching game-matching the different districts with their industries (that was way hard and the winner only got five right so you can imagine the average scores on that one haha).

Then there was a challenge where there was two teams and strips of paper with objects written on them scattered on the floor.  Different things were written on the paper like water, knife, medicine etc. but we didn't know which items would be important.  one person from each team at the same time would run to the middle and pick one and tag the next person who would hurry and grab one etc etc until they were all gone.  Then they read a scenario where having certain items were worth different ammounts of points and whichever team had the highest score at the end won.  We barely lost 175-170 and that was with us getting docked 15 points for having something that wasn't good so in my mind we still won cause the other team didn't have any points docked and only managed to beat us by five points.....yes, I am my father's daughter-competitive much?

Anywho, it was a great way to spend the evening and now I'm all excited for the movie tomorrow night!  Also just a little excited....ok a LOT excited to find out the gender tomorrow morning!!!!! I can't wait plus it's been so long since we've seen the little one in an ultrasound-the last one was at 12 weeks and I'll be 21 weeks tomorrow!

Stay tuned :)  (officially I think it's a girl and Code thinks it's a boy but neither of us honestly has had a strong feeling either way)

It's here!

so I've been excitedly awaiting the first major baby purchase-not knowing when is too soon but wanting to get everything early enough to where we have plenty of time to send it back if there are problems etc...well amazon helped me decide on the first purchase-really the most important- our baby's first bed/bassinet.  The price recently dropped 15% and that was good enough for me. I think we'll try to have something small and portable near the bed for the first little while to make it easier on me not having to get up and having to go to the nursery multiple nights etc (tho we'll see cause if it disrupts code too much who has to get up SUPER early every morning we may have to tweak the plan). 

 I also didn't want to get some fancy shmancy bassonet thing that we would be done with after a month or two....Enter the Graco pack-n-play with built in bassinet so even when the kid outgrows the bassinet and moves into the crib perminantly-it'll still be useful cause it's still a pack-n-play for the kiddo to play in when I don't want to give him/her full reign of the house and is a portable crib when we travel-blam.  so awesome.

It was funny cause the UPS guy must have been the same one to deliver my other smaller items we have ordered-car seat covers/slings etc cause when I opened the door he smiled and said, "more baby stuff!" hahaha I have a feeling he better get used to delivering us baby stuff in the upcoming months haha.

It was SUPER easy to put together-already have it down and all that's left to do (other than have the kiddo) is order some specific fitted sheets for the mattress/pad that apparently graco also sells-whoops forgot about that little detail, but that's why we do these things plenty in advance :)

I love it and it's green which is one of the neutral colors I'm leaning towards that I feel like I will like despite the gender and can use it with all of our kids

I was especially excited and surprised cause the little toy attachment it came with was a giraffe and two leaves which is right on theme with what I was thinking as far as themes-not safari, just giraffes :)Im thinking it'll be a subtle theme throughout the baby's stuff though, not over the top.

This came at the perfect time cause in re-reading the hunger games I just got to the part where little Rue dies-sooo so sad, so this was the perfect little pick-me-up and distraction :) Who's excited for the movie this weekend?!

 

3 days and 1500 miles later...

I guess we'll be playing a little catch up today.  We've been having a pretty fun time over here the past few weeks.  First of all we went to the Houston livestock and rodeo show for the first time this year.  It's a pretty big deal around here-held in the relient stadium (though used to be held in the astro dome).  There's tons of stuff to see from crafts to animals, rides, competition and GREAT food :) 

Nate and Andrea came down from college station for the day and after playing a little ticket to ride we drove down to the rodeo.  We sort of left a little late in the day so traffic was bad and parking was hard to find-now we know it's worth it to go earlier in the day I guess...but we made up for lost time fast.  We hit up the barbeque the second we got there, followed by a curly fry loaf, then we tried the famous fried oreos (actually REALLY good!) and topped it all off with some dip-n-dots.  My body was in shock with the variety of food I managed to find in quick succession but was also very pleased.  The rodeo food seemed to agree with baby. 

Then it was off to watch some events like bull/bronco riding, barrel racing, and mutton busting-so cute! (where kids basically hold on to sheep and ride across a 20 foot area and see how long they can stay on.)

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After the rodeo we saw the Band Perry perform.  It was ok.  I mean, don't get me wrong-I like the band perry but the acoustics were just awful in that arena so it was impossible to really understand what they were saying or hear the music really well....plus I only know like 3 band perry songs so it was very different from say a concert where I know every song and am a super fan.   But still, it was fun and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Next on what's been going around here-this past weekend we (mom, dad, code,and I ) drove to Manhattan,KS where my brother and sister-in-law, mike and jess, and their five kids live for a family weekend.  Ben's birthday was on Thursday and we drove down on Friday to be there for his baptism on Saturday and his new baby brother's blessing on Sunday. 

It was a looong drive.  I mean, the backseat of the chevy equinox isn't my favorite seat when it comes to comfort, plus I'm pregnant.  Enough said.  My back was the biggest culprit-ugh, but I survived and we enjoyed some family fun.  Here are some pics from before the baptism-benson (my nephew) was baptized along with another boy from their ward so that's who's in some of these pics.

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After the baptism everyone went to a cool habatchi grill where they cook the food right in front of you and put on a show.  My youngest neice jillian was sooo stinkin funny and would start dancing and smiling everytime the chef started to beat out a beat with his cooking gear etc.  Afterwards we had some cupcakes and icecream in honor of benson's bday/baptism:

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And then the next day we went to their church building for baby Harrison's blessing-he was so cute.  I got to hold him a lot and he basically slept for like an hour and half in my arms on friday night as we were all talking-too cute.  Hard to believe code and I will have a little one to hold 24/7 in just a few short months-really doesn't feel real.  Especially when I see how big this little guy is and he's only 6 weeks! how do these things fit in us?!

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all and all it was a fun trip and we survived the long drives thanks to ticket to ride, gilmore girls, sleep, and some yummy treats.  There were some pretty funny quotes on the way too that code and I found hilarious such as "He was so excited he was doing nip-ups" (we're still not sure what that is)

And finally I'm 20 weeks!!! half way through-and will be 21 weeks on Friday when we will find out the gender!!!!!! so feel free to leave any predictions :)

 I promise I look bigger in person:

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p.s. can't wait for the Hunger Games to come out this weekend!!! I'm considering rereading it before then...

Sit down you're rocking the boat

Well this week has been...to say the least....interesting.

It started out normal enough, but Wednesday morning I woke up with Vertigo.  I noticed it immediately upon getting up.  It wasn't like my vision was messed up but whenever I turned my head left/right or leaned it forward or back and returned it to a center position I would feel like the room was spinning even if I didn't see it.  It was AWFUL. Oh man...don't get me wrong, I liked vertigo the movie (hitchcock/jimmy stewart) but all positive associations end there. 

I got progressively worse throughout the day and eventually started throwing up.  Code came home early from work to help cause I basically didn't trust myself to get anywhere fast in the apartment by myself, and even mom came over to help at one point.  What sucks about having any sort of ailment during pregnancy is, it KNOCKS YOU ON YOUR BUTT.  I mean, sure I would have been miserable no matter what but your body just cannot handle, it seems, anything out of the ordinary very well when pregnant-prolly cause it's already working overtime as it is and has no room for error.

I called the obgyn to let her know and according to them it didn't sound like anything that would be caused by pregnancy (like dizziness due to low blood sugar/pressure/dehydration etc), but an inner ear/head thing.

That night when it didn't seem to be getting any better we decided to go to an urgent care nearby, but as it turns out they can't really do anything with internal issues cause they don't have a lab etc (so what do they do???) so we then settled for the ER at the methodist hospital right next to where we live. 

After checking blood pressure/heart rates-of me and kiddo and everything was normal they simply confirmed that I must have vertigo-that they don't really know why this happens and people can get it, it'll go away in a few days and they'll never get it again, or it can hang around for months.  Well, if you know me, you know that you don't tell me if there is some sort of possibility like that-I have enough to worry about/be anxious about thank you.  They prescribed me some anti-dizzy and anti-nausea pills and sent me on my way. 

They had given me an anti-dizzy pill right then and there so we went home and planned to wait it out and see if it got better over night.  I woke up the next morning pretty much back to normal.  I was so greatful! every now and then I'll have slight pressure headaches but the actual dizziness brought on by head movement is gone to which I'm so grateful!

I was so grateful for Cody.  He came home early, stayed by my side, brought me things to eat in between my bouts of sickness, literally was my support when I needed to walk somewhere, and even put on my shoes when it was time to go to the ER-I was really out of it.  He even stayed home the next day to make sure that I was going to be ok (it's nice having a job that can technically be done at home so he didn't have to use a vacation day). 

All and all it was awful but we're excited to put it behind us :)

In other less gross news we are working on our baby budget-I won't say what it is for fear already parents will scoff at it but to basically get us started I think it's doable.  We're going to go look at some gliders/rockers today at some regular furniture stores instead of baby stores so hopefully we'll see more variety/quality. 

2 more weeks til we know the gender!!!!

flutterings

I think I've felt the baby move upwards of 5ish times now?  Notice the question mark.  It's not easy to tell if that is in fact what I'm feeling but I don't know what else it could be and I haven't felt these exact movements before so I'm pretty sure it's not my digestive system etc.  It's pretty cool but it's also pretty fleeting though and the second I notice it and start to pay attention to it and want to feel it again to confirm that that's indeed what it was, it stops.  I'm just over 18 weeks though which apparently is right on schedule for this sort of thing.  I've felt slight flutterings at least once a day since starting my 18th week so if it's regular I'm guessing it's a good thing and that it will get stronger.  I have no doubt that as I progress I will feel our kiddo all the time cause at our last ultra sound it was moving around so much the tech called him/her a "rascal".

(2 1/2 weeks til we know the gender btw!!!!-no we're not excited or impatient at all...)

Life is good.  Life is crazy and not always expected but life is good.  This week is really relaxed as far as code's and my schedules go so we're excited to have a liesurely week.  Like tonight- we went on a nice walk to enjoy the beautiful weather we're having, had dinner, family night, played ticket to ride on the ol' ipad, and now are working on entrepreneurial endeavors (in code's case) and I'm catching up on blogs and will prolly watch some GG (gilmore girls)...and it's only 8:30!

We have to soak this relaxing week up cause next week is full of stuff: going to the rodeo with nate and andrea-yee-ha!, and going to Kansas for the weekend for my nephew's baby blessing at church.

In other news, we're trying to make 2-3 meals a week that aren't meat centered.  It's hard at first to conceive of a meal without meat cause I always grew up with some sort of meat-main dish with sides etc.  But since being pregnant-I have an aversion to meat (not eating, but preparing) plus we want to be healthier and there are plenty of other ways to get our protein in and it'll make our meat we buy go farther.  So tonight we had tacos with rice, beans/corn/taco seasonings added to tomato sauce, lettuce, cheese, and some watermelon on the side (it was actually pretty good for march)

And....we loved it! we felt so good afterwards-not all weighed down etc and I LOVED throwing it together in ten minutes without a huge messy clean-up that I get so often with cooking meat etc.  Awesome.  Highly recommend it and I'm glad to come up with some ideas that give me more variety cause I've felt in a rut when it comes to meals etc.