Carlee's First Birthday Party!

Last Saturday we went to Keller to celebrate the 1st Birthday of one of my closest friends precious little girl! Susan planned a fabulous and very fun birthday party for Miss Carlee and we were so glad that we got to share the day and celebrate with The Cheyne's!

Carlee entered this world on June 15, 2009 after her Mommy spent over 7 weeks in the hospital on bedrest. (I personally loved those weeks because the hospital was on my way home from work and I got to spend a lot of time visiting Susan while she was there!) She was a few weeks early but was feisty right from the start, had no problems and went home in just a few days. It has been so incredible watching Carlee grow into the adorable little girl that she is too today and watching Susan become such a wonderful Mother! I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with this angel!!!

The Birthday Girl

Stylin' in her new glasses!

Ladybug cake in Carlee (and her Mom's) favorite colors!

She LOVED the cupcake!

all worn out after her big party

20 Week Pregnancy Update

Today officially marks the half way point for this pregnancy!!! These first 20 weeks have been amazing and I have loved every moment so far but I am really looking forward to the next 20 weeks and everything else that is still in store for us!

I'm 20 weeks pregnant!!!

2D and 4D sono views (not of my baby)

Total weight gain/ loss: I have gained about 5 pounds so far.

Maternity Clothes?: I can still fit into most of my pre-pregnancy clothes but much prefer the couple of pairs of maternity pants that I have to my regular ones. I can still fit into all of my scrub pants and love that I can wear those to work most days!

Sleep: Still sleeping pretty good overall! I do wake up 2-3 times each night to reposition myself, use the restroom and get something to drink (probably why I wake up so much!)

Best Moment this Week: Meeting my new nephew, Landry Lane, on Saturday!!! We had a great time in Lubbock this weekend and loved every moment that we got to spend loving on Landry and hanging out with all of Gregg's family!

I just LOVE this picture of him with puckered lips!

(I kept kissing him while holding him and he would pucker his little lips)

Have you told family and friends?: Of course!

Movement: YES!!! I felt movement for the first time at about 17 and a half weeks but it wasn't consistent. I started noticing the movement everyday on June 10 (18 weeks 3 days)! I feel the most movement during the evenings and at night while laying in bed. Gregg hasn't been able to feel him move yet even though I am always putting his hand on my belly and trying to get him to feel. Hopefully the little kicks will get stronger over the next few days to week and Gregg will finally be able to feel the movement!!!

Food Cravings: I am still craving ice and ice cold water as well as cold fruit and popcicles! I have noticed an increase in my appetite over the last week or so and am interested to see if new food cravings start appearing!

Anything make you queasy or sick?: The kitchen!!! Gregg thinks that my random bouts of nausea are all in my head and a ploy to keep from doing the dishes :) but honest to goodness if I try to clean up after we have had dinner then I get sick!

Have you started to show yet?: Yes!!! (See "Randomness" post for a picture from last Friday!)

Leakage: Nope! Not going here for at least 14 more weeks but preferably 19 more weeks!

Gender Prediction: No longer a prediction- It's a BOY!!! We are over the moon to be having a little boy and cannot wait to meet our little one!

Labor Signs: No, and again not going here for at least 14 more weeks!

Belly button In or Out?: In!

Wedding rings On or Off?: On!

Happy or Moody most of the time?: Happy! I am very emotional at times and cry even more easily than normal!

Weekly Wisdom: "If you keep reaching outside your comfort zone, you'll make it!" (I saw this saying on a little plaque that sits on my Mom's vanity while at her house this weekend and really liked it!)

Milestones: The biggest milestones that have occurred since my 16 week update were finding out that this little peanut is a boy on June 8, naming our sweet boy (Cade Allison Groves), and starting to feel Cade's precious movement!!!

Hope you have enjoyed reading this 20 week update as much as I enjoyed writing it! Stay tuned for my next update at 24 weeks!

Weekend in Lubbock and meeting Landry

We flew to Lubbock Saturday morning to meet our new nephew, Landry! The weekend was VERY quick but so much much fun! Landry is the first grandchild on Gregg's side of the family so everyone has been over joyed with his arrival. (We especially enjoyed the chance at getting a little test run in before the arrival of Cade!)

Meeting the new little one!

Gregg getting a little practice!

me getting to hold Landry for the first time

Sweet boy!

Aunt Wendi and Landry

Cody and Misti got to bring Landry home on Sunday right after lunch. (Pretty incredible first Father's Day present for Cody!) We wanted to make their arrival home really special so we bought some fun decorations for their yard on Saturday.

Sign for the front yard
balloons by the front door

Landry all tucked into his new play yard

I gave him a little mohawk!

(which I think is absolutely ADORABLE and I cannot wait to do this to Cade's hair!!!)

Picture frame that I had my Mom make as a gift for the new double Grandmother (Gregg's mother)

Randomness

So, we didn't get any other pictures of Landry yesterday but did get a couple of cute new ones this morning! I can't wait to get to the hospital tomorrow and love on this little one and take plenty more pictures of him to post on here!

The newest Red Raider!

And because my friend Ginny complained about the absolutely terrible quality of the bump photo that I posted on FB earlier this week, I decided that I should take a new one this morning as I was getting ready!

My almost 20 week bump!

I am going to see Wicked tonight with my Uncle Rod and 2 of his friends! They have all seen it several times already but this will be my first and I am so excited. I have been listening to the soundtrack this morning to get in the mood and can't wait to get out of the office and head to the show!

Cade has a new cousin (and we have our first nephew!)

Misti, Gregg's younger sister, and her husband Cody, welcomed their first son into the world this morning! Landry Lane Smith was born at 7:46am, weighing 7 lbs 5.5 ounces and is 20 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing wonderful (Dad is too!) We are flying to Lubbock Saturday morning to meet this new little one and see the proud parents!

(More pictures to come later in the day as we receive them!)

Weekend with Mom

My Mom came to town this weekend to hang out and to help me shop for fabric for Cade's nursery! We had an incredible time together and really enjoyed getting to share this special time with each other.

Mom flew in Friday afternoon and I picked her up at the airport and then we went to the grocery store to pick up a few things before heading home. We grilled out Friday night and Gregg made some incredibly yummy hamburgers! After dinner we sat around talking about everything and enjoying being back together. Mom brought Cade a couple of adorable new outfits that we hung in his closet with his other little clothes!

Gregg worked overtime on Saturday so Mom and I had the entire day to ourselves! We went to Chiloso's for breakfast and then headed to Childress Fabrics to do a little shopping! I had found 2 different mobiles that I really liked and wanted to match fabrics to each of those mobiles and decide which I liked better. The mobiles were completely different- colors, themes, looks and so I was really torn with what I wanted for the nursery. We spent a couple of hours walking up every isle in the store and picking up samples. We collected over 90 fabrics total to choose from!!! After we left Childress we stopped by The Fabric Yard real quick to see if we could find anything else. We were pretty tired and overwhelmed by this point so we quickly browsed the isles there. After a quick lunch we went to McKinney to my Aunt's house to sort through all of the fabrics and pick the ones that we would use in the bedding. We finally picked our favorites from each group and figured out how we would put it all together but I still couldn't make a decision and so I took everything home to show Gregg. I took Mom to dinner at Houlihan's Saturday night. We ate off of the small plates menu and so we got to try several new things. (Plus I had a card for a free dessert!)

Our dinner (chicken nachos, pickle fries, grilled shrimp azteca, and a pot roast slider)

dessert (snickers crunch ice cream dome)

On Sunday we met my Uncle Rod, his friend Gary, and my Great Aunt Cleacy at Razoo's for lunch. I haven't been to Razoo's in forever and was really excited about going there except normally I order something fried to eat when there and the thought of fried food makes my stomach turn right now. Luckily, crawfish are in season right now and so I ordered (and ate) 2 pounds of spicy crawfish for lunch!

After lunch we took Mom by the furniture store to show her the nursery furniture that we had picked. We still love our furniture and Mom really loved the recliner that will be her new bed every time she visits! We took our fabric samples with us to compare them with the accessories for the 2 collections that I liked and I finally made a decision!

I picked bright primary colors to go in this little one's room with a few jungle accessories. I really love this mobile and all the colors that are in it and love the fabric that we picked! (Plus this was every one's favorite choice also) The fabric that will be used have several different textures and are all bright also. My Aunt and I met at the fabric store again Monday and I bought all of the fabrics and sent them home with her. We drew out exactly how I wanted everything and I cannot wait to see what it all looks like!!!

The mobile

fabrics for Cade's bedding

(the giraffe print is minky and has green in it and will be one of the crib sheets and the cheetah print is only being used on the top of the bumper so it is very sparingly added into the mix!)

We had an amazing weekend with my Mom and I am so glad that she was able to come and help me out with the bedding! Can't wait till her and my Dad come back next month to help us paint and put the nursery furniture together!

Naming our Boy!

Our little one has a name! His name will be Cade Allison Groves. We have know that we would use Allison as the middle name for our first son since we started talking babies. Allison is Gregg's middle name, and his Dad's middle name, and his Granddad's middle name and so on going back about 15 generations so it was only natural for us to continue on with that tradition. (It is also my Grandma's middle name and so I am glad to be passing it on.)

I read an article a while back that talked about naming your baby and the importance of picking a name. It said that you should think of all the ugly nick names that kids could come up with and also look at the initials that you were giving the child and make sure they were "safe". Using Allison as a middle name limited first names that started with letters such as B,F, G, H, L, M, N, R, S, and W. There are a few other letters that spell words also but they didn't necessarily imply a negative connotation (to me) and so I left those on the list. (I have been a little obsessed about the initials!)

We talked about names a couple of times before our sono and the boy name that we both kept mentioning was Cade. We thought about it a little after the sono and tried it on for size and decided that we really love the name and can't wait to meet this little boy and call him by his name!

Sweet Baby of Ours

Today was our big anatomy sono! We got to check out and learn about every part of this sweet baby growing inside of me from the top of the head to the tip of the toes! I am still amazed every time that I see a sono. To think that we were seeing inside of me and looking at the ventricles in the brain and the chambers in the heart of the tiny 9 ounce baby that I am carrying is mind boggling! God is good and we are so blessed by this angel already.

Sweet little one

I can't wait to kiss those little toes!

It's a BOY!!!

We are overcome with joy knowing that the little peanut growing inside of me is a precious baby boy! I love now being able to refer to this baby as a him instead of "it" and to soon be able to call him by a name! Every stage of this journey is more and more amazing and I am so thankful that God choose us to be the parents of this little one.