30 Weeks!

WOW! 10 weeks (at most) to go!! Although I'm SO excited for this baby girl to get here, I can't exactly say we are "ready". We still have lots to do/buy!

The nursery fabric came in last week so I sent it home with Mom this past weekend to have it made in Sumter. Hopefully it will be finished within the next couple of weeks, I can't wait to see it all together! Joseph and I are (hopefully) ordering the nursery chair this weekend. And my first baby shower is next weekend so we need the nursery to be painted and completely cleaned out so we can start loading it with cute little pink things :) Here are my first two shower invitations...super excited!!

Joseph and I agreed that I have, once again, gotten noticeably larger in my tummy area! Baby girl is a growing!! I start my appointments every 2 weeks this week so I'll be interested to hear/see the measurements. She is quite good at morphing my stomach and wedging her little body into my right rib cage but I still like the feeling of it all. I'm really enjoying being pregnant...ask me again in 5 weeks and that could totally change depending on my size/ comfort level ;)

An update on the past week:

We went for our 2nd 4D ultrasound last Wednesday. We were all crossing our fingers that baby girl would cooperate and give us a pretty picture of her face...not so much! She was sleeping, completely turned into my stomach so we could only see the back of her head. Oh well! Guess we will see her little face in real life within the next 10 weeks!

Friday was a bittersweet day for me. My trusty Escape was sold! Craigslist came through and a nice lady bought it but I felt sad to say good-bye to the car I've had for so long. It's been in the family since 2002!

Soo when that happened, I was left carless! Luckily, Joseph had been talking with the Toyota dealership in Wilmington about a Camry that I really liked. After about 2 weeks of negotiations, the salesman called Joseph on Thursday with another price drop so we thought it was meant to be! Joseph went out of town for the weekend but luckily Mom was here so we made a trip to Wilmington and I bought a new car!! It's really nice, fully loaded, even has touch screen and voice activated navigation, and gets very good gas mileage! I think it'll be a good car for Baby and me :)

Joseph went to Georgetown to duck hunt all weekend so Mom brought Wells and Sarah Sloan to visit Aunt Morgan. I love those kids but they never run out of energy!!

Friday we had dinner and then Mom had the pleasure of sleeping in Wells' "fort" made with couch cushions until 4:30 AM...still can't believe she did that!!
Saturday, we met Kim at the Baby Expo in Murrells Inlet mall. And I can't believe it but I WON a door prize!! They called yesterday to let me know I won a newborn photoshoot session!! Yay!! That was the one thing I really wanted so I am ecstatic and can't wait to set it up :) After the expo, we all enjoyed a nice lunch at Chic-fil-A and then Mom, the kids, and I headed up to Wilmington to buy MoMo's new car! Luckily, the Toyota dealership had a kids' room so they were able to play and watch cartoons while they waited.
Sunday we waited on JoJo to get home to take a golf cart ride down the beach. Coldd on the beach!

It's always fun to spend time with Mom and the kids! I can't believe we will have one of our own so soon. Wells will even tell you who is in MoMo's tummy...Baby Taylor (he was a little confused at first..."my Daddy is Taylor"... It's my Mom's maiden name and my brother's name but I've always liked it for a girl so thought we'd carry on the family name. And her middle name is Elizabeth which is my middle name, my mom's middle name, and Joseph's grandmother's name. Luckily, Joseph and I both like the idea of using family names for our children!

29 Weeks!

29! Hippy's not sure if she's ready for a baby sister... 

Baby showers scheduled...check!

Nursery fabric ordered...check!
Registries completed...check!
4D ultrasound...check (#2 tonight)!

Things are moving along! Excited to count down the weeks of this last trimester!

The week in review:

Friday morning I had my glucose test. I really like that my doctor's office let me take the "orange juice" home after my 24 week appointment so I could drink it at home and just be at the office within the hour to get my blood taken. I have not heard anything yet, but they said no news was good news so let's hope that all is well and no gestational diabetes for me!

Friday afternoon Kim, Zach, Joseph, and I packed the car and headed to the NC Mountains for our annual ski trip. Dale, Brandon, Meg, Whit, and baby Summer were waiting on us when we arrived after our long 6 1/2 hour trip! We had so much fun!! This year was a bit more tame than last but it was great to relax and have lots and lots of baby talk! Meg was great to give us so much advice because Kim and I drilled her with questions all weekend long ;) We can only pray that our baby is as sweet and laid back as Summer.

Monday (Martin Luther King holiday) we got up early and headed back home. Joseph and I were very grateful that my friend and her husband, Kate and Dave, graciously offered to keep Hippy for the weekend so we picked her up when we got home and had a relaxing evening...traveling will wear you out when you're prego!

Today we get to go back for another 3/4D ultrasound and hopefully get some better pics of baby girl!

Third Trimester!!

28 Weeks has arrived!! Ahh only 12 weeks to go if she decides to stay in for the full 40 weeks!

Yesterday, we went to see sweet baby GIRL (confirmed) in 3D/4D! It was really neat watching her squirm and move around in there. She is definitely a mover and I can attest to that with all the jabs and kicks I feel constantly! Happy to have an active baby though because it's so much fun/reassuring to feel. Baby girl kind of cooperated but she had her hand/elbow in front of her face for the majority of the ultrasound so we couldn't get a very clear picture of her face. She was also playing with her umbilical cord right in front of her nose and apparently the blood from the cord interferes with the ultrasound and makes the picture less clear. Sooo we are heading back next week to take another peek :) The nurse was so sweet to offer that and we would never turn down an opportunity to see baby!! She did look completely healthy and like a real baby with long legs (we'll see about that...) and her cheeks are already filling out ;)

Sweet little face:

Hand covering face:



Little ankles crossed (she did this at our 20 week u/s also...such a lady):

I have my glucose test appointment this Friday morning so I'm praying that it goes well and no gestational diabetes for me! After the appointment, I'm going to work a half day and then we're off to the NC mountains for an annual ski trip weekend with friends!! No skiing for pregnant girls/new moms but I'm sure we'll find a few stores to spend some time in while the guys hit the slopes ;)

27!

27 weeks! Hard to believe next week is 7 months & the start of the 3rd trimester!! Excited for this baby to get here!!

This past week has been pretty uneventful. Joseph and I went to Sumter Saturday for him to get the new iphone 5, had lunch with my parents, and headed to Columbia to register at Buy Buy Baby! Fun but slightly overwhelming!! There are lots of choices for anything baby you can think of in that store. It was nice to get that taken care of though and I'm excited about some of the things we picked out. After registering, I talked Jo into taking a quick walk-thru at Car Max, which was fun. Not a lot caught our eyes, but the few that did were, of course, way too expensive but fun to dream about :)

With my third trimester sneaking up on me, I've decided it's time to start working on the nursery!! We have a crib and dresser but that's about as far as we've gotten. I picked out some fabric but want to be 100% sure that this sweet baby is a girl at our 4D ultrasound next week so I'm waiting to order the girly part of it. However, I did order the skirt fabric that can be used for boy or girl and I love it!

I'm going to go look at paint samples today and hopefully I'll order the coordinating fabric next week: I can't wait to start putting it all together!!

Christmas & 25-26 Weeks!

Christmas has come and gone yet again! ...and so has our vacation and break from work :( BUT I'm actually okay going back to work because I have an even better vacation to look forward to in just 3 months...time with our sweet baby girl!!

25 & 26 Weeks pregnant:

We had a busy but fun break!

December 23rd: Enjoyed Christmas celebration with the Powell family in Florence with dinner and the annual games of Bingo!

December 24th: Went to Sumter. Visited with my Dad and Jane, attended Christmas Eve church service, celebrated Christmas with Taylor and Caroline's family. So much fun watching the kids open all of their gifts!

December 25th: Christmas with my family in Sumter and then hit the road again for the beach to celebrate with Joseph's family.

December 26th: Happy 28th Birthday Joseph!!! Joseph doesn't exactly love the date of his birthday and I can understand why but we try to make it semi-special every year. Next year I am going to make him wait and open his birthday presents on his actual birthday so it's a little more exciting!

December 27th: New York City here we come!! We left early Thursday morning and flew out of Myrtle Beach to NYC for a little anniversary trip. My sweet sister allowed us to use her Hilton hotel points so we stayed in the super nice Double Tree suites located in Times Square. I have been to NY recently but Joseph hasn't been since elementary school and didn't stay in the city so it was a good experience to stay in the crazy, touristy part of the city! It was a wonderful trip!

We visited: Times Square, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and skating rink, American Museum of Natural History, 9/11 Memorial, China Town, Wall Street and the Bull, Central Park, and various shopping locations :)

December 30th: Flew back home and lounged around recuperating from our trip and getting ready for the new year!

December 31st: Packed up Christmas, cleaned our house, and celebrated New Year's Eve via a very low key evening. Kim, Zach, and Jeremy came over for grilled steaks and we watched the Clemson bowl game before watching the NYE ball drop in NYC (Joseph & I both agreed we were very glad we were not still there in the mix of that chaos ;)

January 1st: Mckenzie and I did a little New Year's shopping while Joseph stayed home and watched the Carolina bowl game. I got home in just enough time to see the amazing ending! Proud of the Gamecocks this year!!

And today we returned back to work. It's hard to believe that it's actually 2013 already! We were engaged in 2010, married in 2011, got pregnant in 2012, and will welcome our daughter into the world in 2013! What a great few years!! We thank God for blessing us so richly and ask that He continue to do so and work in our lives throughout this next year!

SO much to look forward to in 2013: Our baby, Morgan and Adam's second baby, Kim and Zach's babies, Rebecca and Branford's wedding, Lyndsay and Breck's baby, hopefully a diamond for Mckenzie ;), and I'm sure there is much more to come!!