Time is flying by!

23 weeks

We're officially 23 weeks in at this point! Hooray! We had our last appointment on Friday of last week, and everything went well. My blood pressure was good, and I'd gained 4 pounds, which they said was right on track. I dread getting up on that scale every time, but I guess it just has to be done! Baby's heart rate was in the 140s, so that was good. My doctor said I could keep "running" right up until the baby comes if I want to, so I took her up on it Saturday...haha. More on that in a minute...

After the appointment, we hit the road for Cookeville, TN. Travis's cousin Megan got married there Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful wedding and a really nice reception. Glad we got to go!

It was great to see Katie and Jon there! 

The happy couple! :)

Settlers of Catan cake...so cool! :)

Saturday was the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run, so Travis and I woke up early for it. He ran first and did great! His time was 22:16...he was really moving! I ran with Alisha and Melissa, and we were just a tad bit slower than that :) I did manage to jog the whole way without stopping, which I think was a pretty big accomplishment considering the extra load I'm toting! We had a lot of fun, and it was for a great cause...beating breast cancer!

Before we ran!

Sisters!

Travis getting close to the finish!

Tyler...almost there :)

Love my mom!

All the sibs...minus Emily...

Alisha and Tyler

Me and Mayra...my friend from work! 

This week has been pretty busy so far. I've worked every day but yesterday, and yesterday I spent a few hours in the morning babysitting Brady Hester...the cutest 3 year old ever. We had fun playing Candyland and playing outside. He is SOOO cute!!! Travis and I both work tomorrow, and then we are heading to Trussville for a belated birthday celebration with my family and then Tuscaloosa on Saturday for the game. Roll Tide!

I guess I'll blink and Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here, and then not too long after that, Baby Grant will arrive!! Eek!! Time to get busy picking out her name and starting on her nursery!! :)

Quick Notes

• Today I'm 22 weeks along! We're one week closer to February!! :)
• I've been feeling lots of movement this week. I've noticed that she is especially active in the evenings sometimes. Wonder if she's going to be a night owl?? 
• Travis has already decided that she is "stubborn and unruly!" He has been trying all week to feel her move when she starts kicking around.....and every time he puts his hand on my belly, she quits moving and won't for a while! Poor Daddy...
• Tomorrow is our next doctor's appointment, and then we are heading to Tennessee for Travis's cousin Megan's wedding. 
• Saturday is the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run...and unless my doctor says otherwise tomorrow, I'm planning to jog part or hopefully most of it. This week I've "run" 1.85 miles without stopping on two different days. Surely I can do 3 miles with maybe one or two walk breaks, right? It's a far cry from a half marathon, but when you feel like your bladder is being bounced on with every step, I think it's a pretty big accomplishment...haha :)
• Saturday is also my 26th birthday! I've been joking this week that I'm on the downhill slide to 30, but no one is feeling sorry for me. Actually, I'm really enjoying my mid-twenties. This is a really exciting time, and I'm trying to soak it in!
• We changed our minds about buying the carseat/stroller system on Craigslist, so we're back to going with a brand new system. Mom and Dad (and possibly others in the family) are going to give it to us as a baby shower gift (thank you, thank you!!), so we're excited. We actually found a pretty good deal online, so it didn't cost as much as I originally thought it would. Yay for deals!
• So far, 2012 has been a really awesome year with a lot of exciting times. 2011 was a tough year between the April tornado and Mom being diagnosed with breast cancer, but it was an opportunity to grow. I'm starting to see how life just goes like that....good times and hard times. I hope I'm making the most of these good times while still remembering the lessons I learned last year about faith and hope...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." ~Proverbs 3:3-4

Busy October!

Yesterday marked 21 weeks along, so I guess we're officially PAST halfway there. Pretty exciting! I guess I'll blink, and it'll be February. That's about how fast it seems like this has gone so far.

Other than sleeping and shopping a lot this week, so far I've felt pretty normal. Note: I am normally NOT a big shopper, but apparently having a baby changes that quickly. Since Monday, we've bought a glider off Craigslist, made plans to buy a travel system (car seat, 2 bases, and a stroller) off Craigslist next week, and I've gone BACK to Kids Market for the 50% off sale. This is a terrible time to be shopping so much because I have NOT been working much lately. I know Travis just shakes his head at me :) I'm lucky to be married to a pretty understanding guy! I really am trying to be frugal about all of this stuff...there's just so much to buy! I knew I did not want to pay full price for a glider, and this one was pretty much in brand new condition. I don't think it's ever been sat in..seriously. Hopefully it'll hold up good once we're using it every day! This week, it's been hanging out in our room, but I'm hoping to make room for it in the nursery once we do some furniture rearranging...

The travel system I found on Craigslist is the Chicco Cortina KeyFit 30. According to Consumer Reports, it's one of the safest and most user-friendly car seats out there. Brand new, the system costs around $300-$350, and buying an extra base for Travis's car would be an additional $85. Yikes! So, Craigslist to the rescue again. I know you have to be careful buying things off CL, but hopefully this will be a good decision. It's $100 for the whole system plus an extra base. Now, we won't be able to use the car seat as long because it will expire sooner than a brand new seat would, but I think we'll still be getting a great deal. Here's to hoping at least! We're going to look at it next Friday, so wish us luck :)

And, much to Travis's dismay, I went back to Kids Market today for their 50% off sale. But get this...smart husband of mine decided I should meet him at 11 AM to drop my car off at Firestone for an oil change/tire rotation, etc. Then, he would take me back home on his way to Meridianville for work for the afternoon. He's so sneaky...he knew I would spend all morning and afternoon shopping if I hadn't had somewhere I HAD to be! So....I really didn't have as long as I would have liked to spend looking at everything, but that's probably a good thing. I got MORE baby clothes (oops) and a maternity dress, khaki pants, and lounge pants for me. Baby's closet is filling up quickly, especially since Travis's stuff is still in there! :) We'll fix that eventually...

Speaking of Baby Grant, no (Mom and everyone else who keeps asking) we still haven't decided on a name...haha. Y'all should all know by now how slowly we get things done around here! :) She'll have a name before February though, so as soon as we know, you can all know. She apparently weighs around 0.75 lbs and is about 10.5 inches long. No wonder I've been feeling some pretty good kicks this week! I'm sure she's going to have big feet thanks to her mom and dad, so there must not be much room for them in there anymore :) Our next doctor's appointment is a week from today, so I'm looking forward to that. After that, I think we'll start going every 2 weeks instead of every 4.

Between this weekend and next weekend, Travis and I have been invited to one wedding, and I've been invited to three bridal showers. Whew! I thought wedding season was in the spring/summer, but apparently not this year. We also just went to Andrew and Stephanie's wedding in Pigeon Forge this past weekend. Yep, we drove there and back in a day. It was fun but tiring!

Next weekend is also the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run, my birthday, and the Tennessee game. I guess our weekends won't ever slow down before February, and definitely not after that! :) I've been "running" (if you can call it that) a few times a week lately, so I'm going to attempt to "run" part of the 5K at least. Running = a slow jog for me these days, but that's ok. Maybe it's at least offsetting some of this Halloween candy I've been sneaking...

Speaking of running, Travis has officially signed up to run a FULL marathon in April! That's 26.2 miles!!! He's going to run the one in Nashville...the same race we ran this year when we did the half marathon. I'm excited for him....I know he can do it!

We've also officially decided on going to Orlando for our 5 year anniversary trip/one last "just the two of us" trip. We knew we wanted to go somewhere relatively warm, so that eliminated a lot of places right away. We were looking at San Diego at first, but it got scratched once we realized how much the plane tickets would cost. Phoenix was also on the list, but according to our *spreadsheet*, driving to Orlando would still be cheaper than flying to Phoenix (even though the price wasn't bad at all to fly there). We'll just have to save Phoenix for another time. We're actually going to go on our anniversary trip a few weeks before 12/22 just to be practical about the holidays and family time. We're going the week after Thanksgiving because it turned out to be the cheapest time to get a hotel room. We may do Disney for one day while we're there, but we're also planning to do a lot of non-Disney stuff that we've never done before. We're looking forward to it! :)

I didn't realize I had that much to say! Maybe some of you made it to the end :)

Hope your week is going wonderfully!

OOHH...we're halfway there!

Today marks 20 weeks along.....halfway there already!!! It seems like the time has really flown by. Travis was saying the other day that it has been 3 1/2 months since the day I came home and told him he was going to be a dad. Pretty crazy how fast the days have gone since then. As you can tell from the picture below, I think this baby is going through a growth spurt! I'm definitely getting comments from just about everyone these days. It's hard to imagine how much bigger my belly will get, but I guess it happens so gradually that I'll just get used to it. Anyway, I'm still feeling great! Never had any nausea (minus one day last week when I threw up during my morning jog...but I think that was from not letting my breakfast settle long enough!). I'm feeling a little more energetic these days I think. I'm still doing the injections every day, and they are going fine. I'm really thankful that everything has gone this well so far. I just hope the last 20 weeks go as smoothly as the first 20! :)

20 weeks!

I got the shirt I'm wearing in that picture from Kids Market, a two week long consignment sale in Huntsville that they have twice a year. (By the way...it was $3.00....brand new WITH tags still on it). It started Monday, so of course I got there right when it started at 9 AM. Gotta get those deals, right? Well apparently lots of people are even crazier than me. This was the line 5 minutes before the doors opened!!!

Looks like Black Friday, doesn't it??

Luckily for me, most people headed right for the kids stuff when they got inside. I went straight to the maternity clothes. This store was as big as Wal-Mart and full of stuff....clothes, toys, books, games, baby gear, etc.!!!! It was INSANE! I ended up spending about $45 on 10 items of maternity clothes (dress pants, skirts, shirts). It was awesome! I decided to check out since I was finished before the long check out lines started, and so I put my stuff in the car, and headed back inside to look at baby stuff.

I could've spent all day there just looking at everything! (Travis is sure glad I didn't though....haha). My arms were sore just from moving clothes on the racks..haha. I ended up buying the cutest diaper bag. It looks brand new and it's made of material that can be easily wiped clean. I'm excited about it!

Isn't it cute? :)

I know Travis was hoping for a more "manly" bag than that since he'll be carrying it around too, so I told him I'd be on the lookout for a cheap black one too :)

And, of course, I couldn't leave without buying some cute clothes for our little girl!!! So excited about these! Most of these were $1-2 a piece, so I spent about $20 total. Not too bad since they all look brand new!

Can't wait to dress her in those clothes!!! :) Kids Market lasts through the end of next week, and on the last two days, everything is 50% off. I'm strongly considering going back to see what's left!! I can't resist :)

Hopefully when I go back next weekend, the checkout lines won't be this bad...

This was AFTER standing in line for at least 20 minutes already...

Today was my only day to work this week, so other than shopping, I've been staying busy with a little painting project at home. Several months ago, I bought a nightstand for our guest bedroom from Encore Furniture, a consignment furniture store in Huntsville. (Noticing a theme here? I'm thrifty!!) It was $25 I think. My plan was to repaint it and turn it into something that would match and look more modern. Well I finally got around to painting it this week, and I'm so happy with the way it turned out!!

Not the best quality picture, but this was taken at the store before I bought it...

It had been sitting in the guest bedroom for months, so Travis took it out on the back patio for me, and he took the hardware off.

Ready to be transformed!!

I sanded it all over and wiped it clean before we took it back inside. Then, Travis primed it for me with Kilz. I'd read that you shouldn't paint with oil-based paint while you're pregnant, so he did that part for me. Such a sweet husband! :) Next I painted it with two coats of light blue paint from Home Depot. After that dried, he carried the nightstand back outside for me so that I could sand it again around the edges. Then it was time to distress it with some dark brown paint. This was the part I was most nervous about! When I first started, I did NOT think it looked good. But, I kept going with it, and by the end, it really did look good! I also spray painted the hardware to cover up that ugly brassy gold color! After painting two coats of polycrylic to seal it, the nightstand was finished!! So...check it out!

So excited about it!! Next up...I'm going repaint an old chest of drawers that Mom is letting me have. It will go in the nursery when I'm finished. I'm seriously considering painting it pink or green to match the bedding I ordered. We'll see :)

Anyway, that's about all the news around here. We're heading to Andrew and Stephanie's wedding this weekend, so we're looking forward to that. Monday is Columbus Day, so Travis has the day off. Maybe we can book and plan our anniversary trip this weekend.....and maybe we'll even pick out a name for the baby. Is that being too optimistic?? :)

Hope you're having a terrific Thursday!