36 weeks

At my 36 week appt last week everything was going great with baby girl. I am measuring just right (36 cm) and she is head down. I was dilated 1 cm, 50% effaced, and -3 station. I remember similar stats with Henry every visit for the last 3 or so:) I don't put a whole lot of stock in any of it since it can change so quickly, but it is nice to hear there's a bit of progress I guess! I actually feel very well. I would take the way I feel at 8 months pregnant to 6/7 months pregnant with pneumonia any day. My energy is good and I have no major complaints. I continue to have heartburn, occasional back pain, and occasional numbness in my right leg, but nothing unbearable. I had swelling one night a few weeks ago, but it has not returned thus far. The last week or two with Henry I remember swelling quite a bit (feet, ankles). I am still sleeping well except for 2-3 potty breaks in the night!:) I am so thankful for a healthy pregnancy, BUT I will be thankful when it's over! It's not my favorite state of being, but I know it will be worth it in the end! I go weekly now for checkups-I can't believe we are to this point!!

Baby Shower #2!

My wonderful Huntsville friends showered me with the sweetest party this weekend to help welcome our "Little Lady"! Just look at that adorable invite!! I can't believe that we are getting so close to the due date, and this helped me feel more ready. I got great gifts and had so much fun visiting everyone. After the party, my family kept commenting on what a wonderful group of friends we have and how lucky we are to have such a great support system around us as we raise our family. I agree wholeheartedly! God has blessed us in so many ways, and we are thankful!

My family came earlier in the day and had some Henry time. My mom came from TN with my youngest niece Mary Ellen and her cousin (on the other side) Hailey. Henry was SO entertained by them and was such a show off. Diana came in as well and she stayed til Monday.It meant a lot to me to have them there!

Lots of friends came and got to partake in some awesome munchies!!

Just look at that spread!

There was pasta salad, chicken salad sandwiches, Texas caviar and tortilla chips, fruit galore, pretzel bites, and cute cupcakes! YUM!

I loved the ladybug theme!

More decor

Robin made me this super cute diaper cake-so creative!!

Everyone put their fingerprint and name on a matte to frame for the baby. What a sweet keepsake!!! I love it!

My attempt at a group shot-forgive the horrible editing and crookedness! I had to put the camera on the mantle, and I'm not best at the camera timer deal. Anyway, from L to R starting at the top is: Jessica Stubbs, Diana DeWitt, Sara Willhite, Vivian Sherrod, Robin Busch, Karen Burns, Elizabeth Holt, Me!, Julie McInnis with Marley, Sarah Rollins, Lindsay Jenson, Jenn Andrews, Magen Gilmore, Meg Nolan, and Jen Potter. Thank you ladies for coming!!

My WONDERFUL hostesses and friends: Sarah, Robin, Julie, and Karen. You ladies are the best. Thank you!!

Baby Shower!

Can I just say that I have the best friends ever? I have been showered and loved yet again by them as they have helped me welcome baby girl into the world-before she is even here! My first shower was on March 29th in my hometown with my wonderful high school girlfriends. We were a tight group back then, and it is neat to be able to still get together and enjoy being with one another. I pray for these kind of relationships for our daughter someday! What a wonderful support system I have.
I wish I had gotten to visit with everyone a little more, but I was so happy to at least touch base with these special gals! My other regret was that I did a terrible job getting pics for the evening. I don't know what I was thinking-not even a group shot?? Ugg. I guess I was distracted. Well, just so I don't forget, we met for dinner on Saturday night at downtown Maple Street Grille and in attendance were: Abby, Laura N, Heather, Ashly C, Allison, Laura C, Sydney, Julie, Ashley T, Sydney, and me! It was the perfect intimate, tasteful shower, and I loved it. Thank you, ladies. I can't wait for our little girl to meet each one of you.

Heather's crew was on spring break, and since she could not attend  my AL shower, she joined in on this one and brought an adorable cake, of course. I don't think the pic does it justice, but the soft colors and little details of the clothesline around the edge were adorable!

Heather and me with the cake

Julie and Ashly

Laura C, Sydney, and Julie

Daffodils the girls brought to decorate the table

I'm learning that having baby #2 means gifts get a whole lot more frivolous and fun...it probably helps that baby #2 is also a girl! Having much of the essentials already means people are more willing to give just what they want you to have, which I love!

I loved the unique gifts from each friend. So sweet and personal.

Easter 2014

We had a great time celebrating Easter! Henry and I made these bunny hand prints to send to family last week. Steven and I both had Good Friday off, so Steven headed to golf with a friend while Henry and I went to a play date. We normally can't participate in these because of school, so I was excited to get to take him to one. It ended up being our only true egg hunt, which made it all the better we went! After nap, we met Steven in Guntersville to camp for the evening! We wanted to take Henry before baby sis comes along, and this ended up being the perfect wknd to take advantage of it since we had an extra day. We had a lot of fun! On Sunday we enjoyed church and time together. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend celebrating the Resurrection! 

Henry was interested in picking up the eggs at the egg hunt, but his motivation was piqued when he realized there was chocolate in the eggs!!

"Look. Look, Momma, Look."

There was a big crowd!!

Tons of kids were there...thanks, Rachel for hosting us!

Henry's "cheese" face-sigh.

We got our site all set up and grilled dinner over the fire. Henry was pleased! He loved exploring and being able to stay in his favorite place-outside!

Steven does the majority of the "grunt" work when we camp. While it is a lot of work for us both, it is also a great way to be together just to hang out, so it's worth it! "The family that camps together, stays together!" so they say!

Here we are heading to the playground-beautiful sunset and lake in the background!

The slide was Henry's favorite part, but it was super fast and high (one of those old school metal ones), so we had to help him (even though he didn't want us to!)

 

We roasted marshmallows after the playground, which Henry loved. He sat next to the fire in his chair like a little man and waited on his treat. 

 

I wasn't so sure, but Henry did great sleeping while we camped. He slept his normal night despite unusual noises and being with us in the tent in his pack n play. The next morning, we cooked a big breakfast, explored a little, and packed up to head home-exhausted of course! Luckily we had the rest of the day to hang out and recuperate.

On Sunday morning, Henry woke to a full Easter basket! He got the book "I am a bunny", window clings, a goldfish "carrot", 2 eggs with stickers and a piece of chocolate in each, and a little white chocolate bunny. He loved it!

A little chocolate first thing in the morning just sets the day off right, doesn't it?

Here he is working with his stickers.

Window clings on the face is funny!

Decorating the window was fun, too!

Before church, we attempted some pics out back of our bow-tied boy!

Handsome!

Steven and I weren't necessarily loving ourselves in this pic....but our boy is lookin good!

One more of the Easter boy!

On Sunday we dyed some eggs.

Henry had fun watching the eggs change colors, then point out which was his favorite. Happy Easter, everyone!

33 weeks

I'm about to hit 35 weeks, but I'm trying to keep up with this pregnancy and document some milestones as best I can! At my 32 wk appt, everything was great. My doc was a bit concerned at my previous appts that I had regressed in weight gain, so he wanted to do an ultrasound for this appt just to make sure the baby was growing like she should be. We got to see some great shots of baby girl, and her estimated weight was 4lbs 5oz, which was right on track. I was measuring perfectly and had gained 3 lbs (ha!) which the doc was happy with. The tech tried and tried to get a good pic proving baby girl is in fact a girl, but evidently she was being modest. While we got some glimpses, she couldn't actually capture it on film (?), so she did switch over to 4D for a sec to give us a treat! It was SO crazy to see the details in these shots. It made us even  more excited to actually meet her!

This was taken on 4/7, at 33 wks and a few days

This was taken at my 32 week appt. This is a picture of the actual picture, so it's not quite as good as the real thing, but you can still get the idea! Pretty amazing...she's a full blown person in there! Look at those cheeks:)

Birthday Celebrations

Well, now that Henry's birthday celebrations are 6 weeks behind us, I figure I need to blog about it! I have felt so behind on the blog, but I just have to give myself permission to run late on it! It is better than not at all, right? We had such a fun time celebrating Henry's second birthday. His actual birthday was exhausting, because we had been at the allergist the day before and the day of for his egg allergy testing that lasted all the way through his afternoon nap. He was a trooper, and we made it through with an all clear on his allergy, so it was worth it in the end! Then on March 1st, we had his actual birthday party with friends and family. Henry had lots of fun!!

                        We took Henry for pizza and afterward to get his very own ice cream at Baskin Robbins.

Henry was a BIG fan of getting his own serving with a cup and spoon!

Big two year old!

Afterward we came home and opened gifts. Henry was totally enthralled with the tool set we gave him.

He especially LOVED the electric drill he got. Look at that sweet little smile.

I was surprised at all the tool names he knew! He loved talking about them with Steven, and we felt bad tearing him away from the to make him go to bed right after he had just opened them!

We tried to get a family shot, but in each one he wanted to show off his drill and would put it right in front of his face!

The next morning, after I got Henry ready for school, he and I were going downstairs (our regular routine) to get breakfast. He seemed to be racing down them and I commented on how fast he was going! He also kept saying what I thought was "new diaper", and I kept saying, "No buddy, we already changed your diaper!". When we got downstairs, he ran straight into the living room and to his "screw driver" which made me realize that is what he was saying as he was racing downstairs! I let him play instead of eat breakfast for as long as I could, then he took a few tools into the car with him, and we ate breakfast on the go! Too cute! He doesn't get t-erribly excited about too many toys, so it was fun to see him get excited about them. The pic above is Henry playing the next afternoon with his tools with Steven-just look at that face!!

On Saturday, March 1, we had a Winnie the Pooh themed party! We invited friends and family to help us celebrate. The guests were welcomed with the sign above. Henry kept patting the sign and saying, "Dada do that! Dada make that!" He had watched Steven nail it all together several weeks before!

 Above is the decor I put above the table on the wall. The Pooh book in the middle is one of Henry's favorites and is opened to the page where the characters are celebrating a birthday, and the quote to the right is from the House and Pooh Corner that says, "Your just in time for a little smackerel of something."

This is the dining room with dessert table and food table:) I had lots of fun decorating for this!

For lunch we had "hunny" ham sandwiches with "hunny" mustard, pasta salad from Rabbit's garden, and Tigger tails (cheese puffs).

For dessert we had owl cupcakes. Henry kept calling them "hunny cakes" and begged for one from the moment he saw them the day before.

We also had a Pooh bear cake made by Aunt Mae...super cute!

I set out his other Pooh book on an end table.

The mantle was decorated with his name, lanterns with bees, 2 framed pooh prints I had, and even a little "hunny" pot I happened to have!

Celebrating with our 2 year old!

When the kids got there, I had a bee hive craft set out that they could do.

An up close version of the craft!

The kids also played pin the tail on Eeyore. Here is buddy John Lane giving Henry a big hug! They promptly fell over after this...it was more like a hug tackle!

Here is Henry's buddy Ellis pinning the tail on Eeyore.

Cousins from Lexington came in to help celebrate of course. Isn't this a great pic?

I got this shirt made for Henry to wear on his big day.

Henry has loved every present he got for his birthday from friends. He was so big telling everyone thank you after he opened them, and we have gotten tons of use out of them since!

Checking out his card!

Posing with nieces Kaia and Mary Ellen

Above is the action packed sunroom! We are blessed to have so many friends/family who are involved in Henry's life and are watching him grow up!

Buddy JL with momma Janelle.

Buddy Bennett with BRAND NEW baby Clayton and our wonderful friends Ryan and Robin. Thank you for braving one of your first outings as a family of four to a 2 year old's birthday party!!

One of the cutest things at his party was how into the Pooh cake Henry was. He took the fondant hunny pot and pretended to feed the hunny to Pooh, then would feed himself a bite, then wold go back to pretending to feed Pooh. So sweet!

"Want some?"

"I think I'll have a little smackerel myself!"

Next he got his own owl "hunny cake". This was his first cupcake ever, and he devoured it! Here he is blowing out the candles.

He loved his first ever bites of real cake!

He kept trying to feed us bites of it, too. Here Steven is trying to take care of being fed by a 2 year old!

We also played "Hunny Toss" where we tossed bean bags into Pooh's mouth. The kids had lots of fun with this!

Guests/neighbors the Potters

The Swanners

The Burns

Henry with his two Grandmas!!

And his two boy cousins!!

Here's the exhausted birthday boy with my parents....he was begging to go to bed at this point!

And here he is with Grandpa and Peggy...all partied out and ready for a nap! Thanks everyone for making our celebration so much fun! We love each of you!