showers!

We have been so blessed by friends and family celebrating our little boy with us over the last couple of months.  Our first baby shower was in Denver and was hosted by my closest friends here.  They put so much thought into it and made it so meaningful and fun!  My sister came up from Dallas to celebrate with us, along with Matt's mom and my mom.

hostesses: Sarah, Christi, Liz, Pattie, (me), Gretchen, Mary Jackson, & Sarah 

 Sarah, Judeanne (Matt's mom), me, and my Mom  :)

 delicious cake made by Sarah C!

 so thoughtful - they handed out pansies which were all marked with a set of dates to remind friends to pray for us.

 yummy.

My sister stayed in Colorado for a few days, so I got to hang out with her and my precious nephew, Henry, which was such a treat!  He is seriously the cutest little baby boy and we had a blast.  He went for his first Colorado hike, mastered his rolling over skills, and belly-laughed at his Pops (my dad) all weekend.  :)  such a fun time.

My office also had a book shower for us!  This was so helpful - such a great idea.  The bookshelf in the nursery is now fully stocked with wonderful books for our kiddo.  Most of my co-workers are moms as well, so they know all of the good books. ;)

me with the awesome medical assistants & front office gals

our front office staff on the left and my two favorite docs on the right  :)

Last but not least, this past weekend the Chandler's hosted a lovely couple's shower in Colorado Springs.  Matt has known the Chandler's forever and grew up with their son, Garrett.  They were so kind to host this shower, with both sets of parents and many family friends who live in the Springs.  We had such a fun, special time.

with the Chandler's!

 Matt's excited to wear this onesie.  :)

awesome super-hero cape and mask that my friend Sarah made!

with the (grand!)parents  :)

In other news:  less than a month to D-day AND the nursery is almost done.  We just need this little man to have a name.

third trimester!

We're well into the third trimester around here and things are going well!  We're thrilled to be getting so close to meeting our little boy!!!  Baby seems to be perfectly healthy and I still feel pretty good on most days.  Sleep doesn't happen as much as I'd like, but I've managed to be pretty productive in the middle of the night. (i.e. writing this post)  ;)  My doctor said that the sleeping difficulties that happen in pregnancy are just preparing me for when baby comes.  I don't think I found this to be as reassuring as she intended it to be.

Work is challenging, but it keeps me busy which I'm thankful for.  The weeks fly by.  It's also very entertaining.  I don't know what happens in the doctor's office to make people just say whatever they are thinking....  the comments have been hilarious...
-  "I almost didn't recognize you!  You used to be so skinny!"
-  "I didn't say anything the last time I was here, I thought you had just gained a little weight..."
-  "You're a pretty good size for 29 weeks ... you're going to get bigger, you know."
-  me: "I think it's been about a year since you were last here..."
   patient:  "Yeah, I don't think you were pregnant the last time I was here, were you?"
   (is it possible some people don't know it only lasts nine months?)

and my personal favorite:  "How much weight have you gained???"

I got my first "You're about to pop!" comment the other day.  I'm only 31 weeks, people.

We celebrated our 4th Anniversary in Vail a few weeks ago.  Apparently Matt had possibly the best meal of his life at Sweet Basil that night.  It was a really fun, relaxing weekend!

28 weeks!

29 weeks?

31 weeks

The nursery is coming along!  We are still far from being finished, but here are the best before and after photos I have so far. :)

the first photo was before new carpet, after new paint, and obviously while I was trying to decide on fabric for curtains...

after!  new carpet and two of my favorite things in the nursery so far:  My mom made these fun green and white striped curtains that turned out perfectly. I love them! (the color isn't this dark, but it was a nighttime iPhone photo).  And the rocking chair was Matt's grandmother's.  She gave it to us around the time we got married and I finally had it recovered.  I absolutely love it!  (there's a before shot of the chair below - quite an improvement).

There you have it.  We're making progress.  More to come, soon!  :)

growing!

So, apparently I need more motivation for blogging other than just being pregnant.  I suppose I didn't realize that I would find even more to occupy my time after finding out we are expecting.  :)  This nesting instinct won't let me sit still! 

We are growing rapidly around here - 25 weeks now!!  The last few weeks have been consumed by painting baby's room,  choosing new carpet for the upstairs part of our house, registering, and most recently, moving all of our stuff from upstairs to downstairs.  The new carpet comes this week, so we can actually start putting the nursery together after that!  :)

Here is a photo from about week 21ish.  Funny how I felt huge back then...

We did find time to get away for a few days for a "babymoon".  We went to Phoenix and had one of the most relaxing weeks of our lives.  We stayed at a resort and our daily routine consisted of: going to Starbucks, going to the pool, working out (feels so good to get back to a short jog here and there), going to dinner, and watching movies/catching up on our tv shows.  :)  It was 80 degrees every day so we definitely spent the majority of our days at the pool.  It was wonderful!!!

 These pics are all from 23 weeks.

We got to celebrate Matt's birthday while we were there.  We went to a great restaurant in Scottsdale which was so yummy and made us feel special.  

 Matt with his marg and me with one of about seven virgin mojitos I had on this trip.  For some reason they were tasting SO good. 

yummy birthday dessert :)

We had a fabulous time.  Such a relaxing and rejuvenating break from our busy lives and what was seeming like a never-ending cold Colorado winter!

We're now back to work and getting ready for baby!  Hopefully soon I can post about some actual progress in the nursery! :)

It's a BOY!!!

We are so excited to announce that our baby is a sweet little boy!!!  It has been so fun to find out and get to share it with everyone.  I had my ultrasound yesterday at almost 19 weeks and baby boy looked healthy and happy.  :)  He was moving around like crazy, but I still can't feel anything.  We're both excited about having a boy and it was fun to get to go to lunch with Matt after the ultrasound to celebrate.

I highly recommend "finding out".  The first half of pregnancy is far from glamorous and doesn't always feel very rewarding, so having a reward half-way through is so much fun!

We took cupcakes with blue sprinkles to our church community group last night to share the news.  :)

Now we have the daunting task of deciding on a name... I hope we can decide soon!