29 Weeks

So, Erin pointed out that I hadn't posted any new belly pics recently... So here they are! We've only got 11 weeks to go!

In the black shirt, I'm 25 Weeks.

In the purple, I'm 28 weeks, 5 days.

Hope this finds everyone well.

God Bless.

Happy Tuesday!

I apologize for letting this go so long without an update. These past few weeks have just flown by and we've been quite busy.

Our birthdays were at the beginning of the month, which most of you know. They were pretty quiet compared to some previous years, but still wonderful. Thanks to many relatives, we were able to purchase a video camera. We're both excited about being able to capture the little one in the future.

Josh starts his new job next Monday. He's definitely ready for something new. And thankfully, just last week we found out that Beaumont found a way to keep us on their insurance so we won't be having to pay for COBRA for those first five weeks. We are both so relieved about that. His first five weeks of training will be unpaid but that isn't such a scary thought anymore since we'll have insurance.

About a month ago, my company moved my location again. I'm now in our Saint Clair Shores office. It is a little closer to home, and is all expressway so I'm not on the road so long, which is nice. Unfortunately, they cut my hours again. I'm back to three days a week with no benefits, which means if I have to go on bed rest early or when I have the baby, I won't be paid. Kind of sucky, but we're trying to make the best of the situation.

Speaking of baby, we're only three weeks away from the third trimester already. It is amazing how quickly the time goes. We've been busy figuring out our registry and deciding how to decorate the nursery. I've been rapidly growing over the last few weeks, as well as the baby. My belly button is nearly flat, which I find fascinating for some reason. It's quite an experience so far. Josh has been able to feel the baby kicking a number of times already, but the little one doesn't want to cooperate around the grandparents at all. I've also been able to see the baby moving around and kicking which is just awesome. I've been feeling great... I even think that whole nesting thing might be starting to kick in a little bit... And I say that because I have never had the desire to scrub our bathroom floor (sure, I've used the wet jet on it, but I've never gotten down on my hands and knees to scrub it).. I just haven't pulled the motivation to actually do it. I figure it's right around the corner. Haha. :)

I'll leave you with some pictures, I took some today just for you! :)

23 Weeks, 4 days

Our Little One!!!

Here is our baby's first picture!!! :)

Happy Almost March!

Hi everyone!

I know it's been a while since I've been on here. I'm officially terrible at updating this thing!

We've had a busy week or two here at our house. We're quite excited because Josh was officially offered the IOM job that he had interviewed for back in November/December. He starts that job in April, which is a little later than we wanted, but we'll make do.

The baby is doing well. I am officially 18 weeks today! I saw my doctor on Tuesday and he is super excited for us and told me that so far I have a perfect pregnancy! Hopefully that stays the same after our first ultrasound this coming Tuesday! We're so excited to see our little one! :)

In other news, Josh's brother Nick proposed to his girlfriend last week! (She obviously said yes!) We are so excited to be gaining an awesome sister!

Also, my little cousin (though he's not so little anymore), Mark, has joined the Army. We are so proud of him! He will be going off to boot camp at the beginning of July and coming home for a couple of weeks in September.

I guess that's it as far as big news goes. Our birthdays are right around the corner now. I'm actually kind of excited about turning 25... I'm not sure why, but I am!

I caught a cold on Tuesday night and I think Josh is now getting it... So needless to say, I'm exhausted and off to bed. I'll leave you with a belly pic that I just took today. I promise that I'll try to start taking more and posting!

Hope everyone is well!

The First One

I can't believe I'm doing this, but here are two baby bump pictures. I guess I'm growing more than I though I was.

This is at 14 weeks, 5 days:

And this is today at 15 weeks, 6 days:

So there you have it. Two belly bump pictures. I'm still quite amazed that I'm showing as much as I am.. I really thought it would take longer.

I hope that if you had to travel in the snow today you made it everywhere safely. And if you were one of the lucky ones like me, I hope you enjoyed the day off! (I spent my day reading and napping!)

It's Facebook Official

All of our family and close friends have known that we are expecting since Christmas. A special few got to know before Thanksgiving. And now it's facebook official, and to be honest, it's scaring the crap out of me.

I never really expected to get to a point in pregnancy that I actually could share it with the facebook world. It was just safer in my mind to prepare myself for the worst while hoping for the best. But here we are, into the second trimester, a little past 14 weeks along and everyone knows.

Besides being terrified about everyone knowing, I'm doing pretty well. I'm not feeling nearly as sick anymore, which is a blessing. The all day sickness was really wearing me down. And I am finally getting my energy back. Although, if I do too much I immediately need a nap. Thankfully I married a wonderful man who has been nothing but understanding from day one.

I have been thankful that for the most part, I can at least eat whatever I want. Some days it may not taste good, but if I wait a day or two, no problem. The only thing I can't eat is Italian food. I'm not sure what it is, but it makes me feel so sick. I can handle pizza sauce, so it must be something in the herbs and spices or something. I was hoping it would be a first trimester thing and I'd be back to normal by now, but it's not looking promising. :(

I finally got my Christmas decorations down today. I know, total slacker, right? I always have my decorations down on New Years Day, but with being exhausted and feeling sick, it just wasn't happening. After taking down the decorations, I got to take a two hour nap while Josh cleaned the house. Did I mention how wonderful my husband is?

Outside of pregnancy news, Josh spoke to the lady who would be hiring him for the IOM job at Beaumont. They are now hiring three new people and Josh is still their number one choice. She pretty much said that he'd have the job which is fabulous. The only down side is the fact that the new start date would be the first Monday in April. I feel like this is cutting things really close to when the baby is due, especially since we'll be going those first five weeks of training without pay and insurance. Obviously, we'll go on cobra for the month and we do have lots of time before then to save for the no pay part, but that won't make the situation any less stressful. We will get through it, obviously, but it's just difficult for me because I feel like everything is up in the air. I'm a planner, I need everything planned. This being so far away does not allow me to be able to plan.

My job is going okay. Kind of the same as always. I hate the drive, but I'm at least starting to enjoy it out there a little more. Maybe it was my lack of energy that had me hating it, but it's definitely getting better. I still haven't made any decisions about what I'm going to do after the baby comes. Ideally, I'd love to go part time, but as I work four 10 hour days, I'm not sure what the bosses would say to that. That's something I'm hoping I won't have to worry about though for another couple of months.

Sydney turned three at the beginning of the month. I can't believe we've had her for three years already (okay, almost three years). She's finally calmed down a lot.. Not sure if it's because she's just getting older or if the pregnancy has anything to do with it. She's definitely noticed the changes in me and she has become a lot more cuddly (I really didn't know this was possible). Don't get me wrong though, she's still a little turd when she wants to be. Just like a child, right?


I hope this finds everyone well.
Until next time-
God Bless.


PS - Our due date is July 22, 2011!

Happy New Year!

Well, I've finally had some time to sit down and update this properly, instead of just whining about how my blog isn't pretty. (Sorry, it was a weak moment)

I hope everyone had a great New Year! We had our 2nd Annual New Years Eve party and I like to think that it was a success. :) When the clock struck midnight we had 15 of our closest and best friends and family with us (though we were missing a few who couldn't be there!). We spent the evening playing some Rock Band, eating, drinking and catching up with everyone. It's really nice seeing people together who we haven't seen in months since they live 500+ miles away.

I had a lot of people asking for the recipes of all the snacks I had out, so this post will include those! (I know, finally, right? It only took me two weeks!) If you have trouble reading them, just let me know and I can help clear things up. I think they're pretty easy to read, but I grew up reading my mom's writing, so I'd understand if you couldn't read it real well.

And again, just because I've been lazy, I apologize if you haven't gotten our Christmas card yet, I swear it's in the mail as we speak! (Or read. Or whatever.)

Anyway, enjoy the recipes and I hope 2011 treats everyone well! I know it's been kind to us so far. :)

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

Chicken Dip

Cheesy Nacho Dip

Sorry, it's ugly...

As I'm becoming more familiar with the blogging world, I've realized an awful thing with my blog. It is butt ugly! So then I thought, I could do something cute with it...

Wait, no I can't.

How is it, with a husband as nerdy as mine, I am completely clueless? If all it involved was dragging and dropping a picture, I'd have no problem. It makes me miss the days of livejournal how easy it was to make your journal cute...

Erin - teach me how to make mine cute like yours!!! Hahaha.


On a completely different note... Only 195 more days to go! woot!

Merry Christmas!

Josh and I have a busy couple of days ahead of us (four family get togethers in three days!), but I just wanted to take a minute and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas weekend and (if we won't be see you) a fantastic New Year!

I'll try to check back in after that!

Happy Christmas & Merry New Year! ;)
Love to all & God Bless

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

It's a little late, but I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was as always, wonderful but tiring. I have a feeling this will be the last year that we travel between three families. We really love seeing everyone and we really hate to break traditions, but it's becoming really difficult to schedule everything, on top of having to work the next day.

November 1st marked us being in our house for a year and a half now... We feel like the time has just flown by. Being married for three years? It feels longer than that. Being in our house? I could swear we just moved in a month ago. The joys of owning a home! It seems there is always something to work on or fix, and of course, it doesn't help that when you go to fix something, it turns into a four step process. I had wanted to paint our full bath several weeks ago, and when Josh took down the mirror we found a hole in the wall. Needless to say, he's still working on that project and it still hasn't been painted yet. He's also still working on our half bath in the basement. We're hoping they'll both be done by New Years.

Josh is now happily (and maybe slightly bored) back at Beaumont. And now instead of filling his gas tank 2-3 times a week, it's 2-3 times a month and we've both felt such a relief from that. He's also been interviewing for a inter-operative monitoring job with Beaumont (don't ask me too many details, it's got something to do with the nerves during surgery!). He had his first interview nearly two weeks ago now, and he was basically guaranteed a second one within the next week or so. This would be a brilliant career move for him so we do ask for prayers. We will keep everyone updated on it.

My job is currently in a good news/bad news situation. The good news is the fact that I'm back to full time. The bad news is that I'm still out in our Macomb location and it looks like I'll be out here until at least February or March. I was really hoping to be back to Warren before the winter weather got here. But I'll just keep on keeping on because really, what else can you do?

Josh and I got all of our Christmas decorations up yesterday (minus our lights..) which was really nice. I really enjoy this time of year. It's always nice to remember how fortunate we are. And I tell Josh this all the time, but I feel like it becomes more obvious over the holidays, that we really are truly blessed. I am so thankful (and I know he is, too) for the way our lives have turned out so far. Sometimes it hard not to get wrapped up in the little things but we have a wonderful marriage, a home, full-time jobs and of course our faith in God. Could we really ask for anything more?

I think this is where I'll be ending for now. I'll try to get back here and give an update before Christmas, but if I don't and I won't be seeing you, I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!