We bought nursery furniture!!!

We decided to stop and look at baby furniture Sunday on our way home and ended up buying furniture on Monday! I have been looking at different cribs on-line and have looked at Babies R Us the last couple of times I have been there. We were in the vicinity of Lone Star Baby and so we stopped to take a look! I originally planned on just buying a crib and then re-finishing an old dresser that my parents have and re-covering a chair that is in our living room but Gregg thought that we should start this little peanut off with an entire collection of furniture of his/her own! We found 2 collections that we really like and took all of the information on both collections home to think about over night.

We went back to Lone Star Baby on Monday and looked at the furniture all over again and did lots of thinking and pondering over which we liked better. We finally decided and purchased the furniture in the following pictures! I am so excited about our new furniture and cannot wait to get the "nursery" cleaned out so that we can paint the walls and put the furniture together!

Baby Groves' new crib

what the big boy/ big girl bed for this wee one will look like someday

new dresser and chest with hutch

While we were contemplating which furniture to choose we sat in a lot of chairs to look, think, and talk and I kinda fell in love with one of the chairs!!! This chair is amazing- it is so comfy and reclines almost all the way back and best of all it reclines electrically by a remote! Gregg really liked the chair too and since all the furniture was on sale this weekend we decided to splurge on the chair! We got it covered in a light brown microfiber that has a little bit of a print to it and will look good in a boys room or a girls room plus will be perfect in our living room later down the road.

not great quality but this is what the chair will look like (different covering)

Special Olympics 2010

This weekend was the Texas Special Olympics Summer Games held in Arlington. Gregg and I have been volunteering on the Medical Team for the last 3 years and absolutely love this weekend and spending time with all the athletes! The main Medical Team Coordinator is an Assistant Chief for Irving Fire Department and a lot of the volunteers for Medical are IFD Firemen and UTSW Paramedic students from departments around the DFW area.

This year Gregg and I were assigned to basketball (thanks to my pregnancy and inability to be outside all weekend) and Gregg was in charge of the medical teams in all the gyms. Gregg worked on Thursday and then we both worked Saturday and Sunday. Along with basketball the athletes competed in cycling, gymnastics, soccer, tennis, softball throw, standing long jump, running long jump, shot put, turbojab, and all sorts of track relays. Saturday was the long day for us and we were there from 7:30am till 5:30pm, ran to eat supper at Mercado Juarez and then were back for the dance that night from 6:30pm till 10:00pm. We had so much fun watching basketball all day and getting to cheer on all the players! We have formed special friendships with several of the players that we see each year and enjoy getting to catch up with them and meet new friends.

not our best picture ever but the only picture that we took all weekend

basketball

Hollywood and Rusty

Daniel and Josh

The closing ceremony dance is always held on Saturday night and is so much fun for everyone! The athletes all love the chance to celebrate the weekend and show off their medals and we have a great time dancing and interacting with everyone!

dancing

Denny vs. Nick the Wrestler

After everything was over on Sunday we all went to Mama's to have pizza and celebrate the weekend! I LOVE pizza and especially LOVED Mama's pizza!!!

eating pizza

no more pizza!

Volunteering for the Medical Team for the Summer SOTX games has become such a special part of our lives and is something that we look forward to and love doing each year. The athletes that we meet and the lessons that we learn each year have touched both of us in so many ways.

"I promise to give of the time in my life so that Special Olympic athletes can have the time of their lives. I promise to support Special Olympics not just as an expression of charity, but as a form of respect for my fellow human beings.I promise to spread the word of volunteerism because, in giving, I receive so much more in return."

16 week Pregnancy Update

A close friend of one of my close friends is also pregnant right now and she has a blog as well that she gives weekly pregnancy updates on. I'm not thinking that I will be doing weekly updates but thought that an update once a month might kinda be fun so, here it goes!

I'm 16 weeks pregnant!!!

This is what a 16 week fetus looks like on the inside- totally AMAZING!

Total weight gain/loss: I am at a gain of 2 pounds right now. I have gained and lost over throughout this pregnancy so far but am really trying to watch myself so that I have a reasonable weight gain during this pregnancy and don't get out of control!

Maternity clothes?: I have quite a few maternity shirts that I wear around and to work all the time. I still fit comfortably in my scrub pants and am praying that I can make it until the 3rd trimester before I have to go up a size in those. I do have a couple of pairs of maternity capris that I wear because they are actually cute and pretty comfortable but the stretch top of them is still too big.

Sleep: Better some nights than others! Overall I have been sleeping pretty good but I do wake up frequently and have to change positions and occasionally have trouble going back to sleep. About once a week I wake up between 3am and 4am and don't ever fall back asleep.

Best moment this week: Gregg and I had a stay at home date night this week where we had dinner and then watched "The Blind Side". I managed to stay awake through the whole movie and until 11pm which is several hours past my bedtime these days!!!

Have you told family and friends: Most certainly!!! I had to keep that secret for long enough and am so glad to be able to share this excitement with everyone now!

Movement: Not yet :( I am looking forward to that big milestone!!!

Food cravings: COLD foods! I am loving ice cold water and fruit right now- especially grapes!

Anything making you queasy or sick: For the most part the constant nausea has passed and I am not sick near as much. But, I do still get queasy and sick in the mornings if I drink too much water and don't eat. I also have random moments of sickness usually occurring right before or after I have eaten.

Have you started to show yet: I do have a little baby bump now that is more noticeable in the afternoons and evenings!!! It is still easily hidden in my scrubs and in some of my regular clothes that I wear on weekends.

Leakage: I am going to assume that this is referring to amniotic fluid and will be more appropriate when I am closer to term so NO, no leakage for at least 20 more weeks!

Gender prediction: We both really want a little boy first to be the older and protective big brother. Plus, Gregg's sister is having a boy and several of my other cousins have all had boys over the last year so a baby boy would be lots of fun with all the other little boys! Naturally though I am drawn to all things girlie and have so many ideas for a precious little girl. I have been referring to our little peanut as a "he" recently so maybe... (Gregg says he is trying reverse psychology and refers to it as a "she"!) We have our next sono on June 8 (2 weeks from today) so the countdown is on!!!

Labor Signs: NO and again those must stay away for at least 20 more weeks. (I would really like them to stay away for at least 23 more weeks so that we can have us a November baby because I like November's birthstone A LOT better than Octobers! Plus we have a ski trio already planned in February and I need that to fall into my maternity leave!!!)

Belly Button in or out?: Most definitely in still and hopefully will stay that way for quite a while longer!

Wedding rings on or off?: ON, ON, ON!!!

Happy or Moody most of the time: I think that I am mostly happy (hopefully Gregg does not disagree about this!) I am still tired and feel pretty useless most of the time but my wonderful and loving husband has been so very helpful and supportive of me through everything!

Weekly Wisdom: I don't really have any "words of wisdom" to share right now so instead here is a poem that I found and I really like!

Before I Knew Your Name

Before I knew your name,

Before I saw your chin and your nose,

Before I counted your fingers and toes,

I asked heaven for someone as wonderful as you,

And ever prayer and wish came true.

I dreamed of you...

Before I knew your name.

(We don't know this little one's name yet but our dreams have come true already and we are so grateful!)

Milestones: Not so much fun for everyone else but this last weekend was the first time that I have felt like doing any kind of housework. I managed to get our bedroom, both of the upstairs bathrooms, and the living room cleaned!

There you have it folks! Hope you enjoyed learning a few things about me and this pregnancy! I'll update again when I am 20 weeks!!!

Fill The Boot

This week/ weekend in Irving is the Fill the Boot campaign benefiting Jerry's Kids and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Last year IFD raised over $87,000 for MDA and this year they hope to top that donation. Gregg was asked to help out with the marathon fundraising this year and was out working Thursday and Friday in addition to being on shift Wednesday and today. Basically what happens is the guys on duty are stationed at various street corners around Irving and they walk up and down these streets with boots collecting money from people as they drive by.

Yesterday after I got off work I went to hangout with Gregg on his street corner. It was HOT out there and even hotter on the pavement where the guys were walking. Gregg had a tent set up where they could take a break when needed and spent his time walking around emptying out the boots into the bucket where they collected all the money and giving out water to all the tired guys. It was a lot of fun to get to see the firemen at work raising money for such a worthy cause and to see how many good people there are in the world that will roll down their window and give a dollar or two!

Fire Departments all over the country pick a week to collect money for MDA each year and I urge you to donate to these guys and the awesome cause that they are collecting for!

Hico Steak Cook-Off 2010

Last weekend I went to Hico for the 7th Annual Texas Steak Cook-Off. This was my family's second year to enter the cook-off and we were really looking forward to it! Last year in the cook-off we won 10th place out of 80 teams and so we were hoping to do good again this year

I was off work on Friday and so I left town after lunch and headed to Hico. It was great to get to see my Dad and brother again and also Doug and Lance. We found our spot on Friday and started setting up and then practiced making some steaks and other things we had brought to cook.

Setting up the grill

Saturday morning started bright and early and the guys made breakfast for us out on the grill. After breakfast it was time to get serious and make our appetizer to turn into the judges. The appetizer is normally my Mom's job but since she wasn't there this year I got to be the driving force behind the appetizer this year! We really didn't have a great idea of what we wanted to do and came up with the plan as we were making it. We decided to take a piece of pork tenderloin, a chunk of yellow bell pepper and a piece of jalapeno and wrap it in bacon and then put it on the smoker.

Getting our appetizer ready to go on the grill

We finished it off on the grill and then also grilled a slice of tomato and removed the skin from the tomato and put that as the finishing touch on our creation. It tasted really yummy and the colors and presentation were pretty great and so we sent them off for judging!

Turning the appetizer in for judging

We had a couple hours wait after turning in our appetizer before our steak was due and so we went to cooking various things to serve to the public (over 5,300 people) that was out walking around. We made pork tenderloin, some of our bacon wrapped appetizers, stuffed jalapenos, green chili beef stew, and a veggie and sausage melody.

Pork tenderloin we grilled to serve to the public

making stew
Seth chopping vegetables
a few veggies we made to go with all the meats

While we were working on the stuff to serve the public Dad and Lance started working on our steak. The cook-off supplies the cut of meat to cook so that everyone has the same quality of steak to start out with and then it is up to each team to make the steak their own. Each team gets 2 steaks to cook and they choose the best one to submit for judging. This year they broke the 84 teams that entered up into 3 groups and each group was assigned a different time slot to turn their steaks in. The top 10 teams are then picked out of each group to move on to the final round.

My Dad makes a great steak and is very serious about getting everything just perfect. He cooked both the steaks but wasn't happy at all about how one of them cooked and so we decided to turn the other in and sampled the one he didn't like. We did not like the one that we sampled at all and really hoped that the other one was better.

our steak headed to be judged
The top 30 teams were announced and we did not make it into the 2nd round this year so we were pretty disappointed. We were really shocked though because the team that won the competition last year didn't make it through the first round either this year!

Despite our disappointment we had a lot of fun in Hico last weekend and are already planning and looking forward to the cook-off next year! Dad is already planning on practicing and perfecting the timing on cooking the steak so that the "Double T Heat Slingers" can make a come back next year!!!

Making a comeback and sharing our news!

So, as you can tell, I have been MIA from the blogging world for the last few months! I still look at friends blogs on here frequently but just haven't had it in me to actually write a post. But don't worry- there is a reason that I haven't had it in me and it is that I am PREGNANT!!! I am 13 weeks and 4 days pregnant and we couldn't be happier! It has been the hardest thing to keep a secret over the last couple of months. We told our parents when I was about 6 weeks pregnant but have waited to share with the rest of our family and friends until I was beyond my first trimester and after my Sister-in-laws baby shower. I really wanted everything before now to be about Misti, Cody, and baby Landry and the excitement of our family for his arrival!

We found out that I was pregnant in early March. I had gone to dinner with some of my girlfriends and had mentioned to my friend Susan that I was so tired! (I had driven to work one day and then crawled into my backseat and taken an hour nap before I had gone into the office because I was so exhausted and had struggled even making it to the hospital!) She looked at me and immediately told me that I was pregnant. Sure enough that weekend when I took a pregnancy test it came up positive!

We have had 2 doctors appointments and 2 sonos so far. (I have posted a couple of earlier blogs that I have been saving with information about our earlier appointments.) We had our 12 week sono and Nuchal Translucency Screen last Friday. Everything still looks to be right on track for this little one! The baby was very, very active, measured 7 cm and the heart rate was 165bpm. This sono was a lot longer than our first one and it was so much fun to really get to look at the baby!

Looking like a real baby!

Good look at the skull

My first trimester has been a little rough! In addition to constantly being tired I have also been very nauseated- and it is a constant thing and not just a morning thing! Poor Gregg has had to help clean up after me so much here lately. I am starting to feel much better though and have regained some of my energy. I still like a much earlier bed time than what used to be my normal but haven't gotten sick near as many times over the last couple of weeks.

I am so happy to finally be able to share this news with everyone! We are anxious, nervous and terrified but more than anything excited about this blessing and looking forward to the journey!

Weekend in Lubbock

I went to Lubbock this past weekend for Misti's (my sister-in-law) Baby Shower! I flew in to town on Friday, amidst terrible winds and a pretty severe dust storm. Dad picked me up from the airport and we went out to the Wolfforth Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. I had a great evening and got to visit with a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while and finally got to meet Cason, Chris and Liz's baby boy! My Mom will be the President of the Chamber of Commerce next year and so this evening was pretty special and exciting for her. The little town of Wolfforth is really growing and it is really fun to be a part of this time of change and expansion!

Saturday morning I treated myself to a mani/ pedi before getting ready for the shower. Mom and I went to the shower together and had a great time. Misti got so many great presents- lots of super cute clothes and several big ticket items that they were still in need of. It was great to see everyone again and to get to celebrate with Misti and Cody the impending arrival of our first nephew!!! Can't wait to meet Landry Lane!

bibs for Landry from Uncle Gregg and Aunt Chelsey

super cute firetruck blanket
My Mother-in-law is making this personalized Cowboy blanket for Landry

Saturday night Mom, Dad, Seth, Bailey and I went to dinner at Gilbert's! I love that place and hadn't been there in so long!!! We ate lots of great food and just enjoyed spending the evening together. After dinner we walked over to one of my favorite little shops. I didn't spend any money on this trip but did get some great ideas for a couple of upcoming gifts that I am in need of!

On Sunday, we all got up and went to Church. I love the Church that my parents attend and always enjoy hearing Curtis preach. After church we went to eat at Market Street and then did a little shopping. Mom, Bailey and I then went up to the hospital to see Wendy and Kyle and meet their newest addition, Archer Mathew. I just love getting new cousins!!! While we were visiting Brody, Loren, and Wade brought Brooke up to the hospital to visit her parents and new little brother. It was so special to watch the interaction of Brooke and Archer. She already loves her little brother so much and is going to be such a great older sister! After our fun day of running around Mom, Dad, Seth, and I met Gramps and Grammy at Rosa's for dinner! I miss getting to see my Grandparents so much and always love when we can get together! We had a great time catching up on everything and laughing about things going on around my grandfather's farm! After dinner I shared our exciting news with my grandparents and gave them a picture of our first sono. They were so excited and we all just hugged and cried together!

Big Sister Brooke and Archer

I totally enjoyed my weekend at home with all of my family! It was so special to get to be a part of Misti's shower and to share this incredible time with them. I can't wait till Gregg and I can return to Lubbock to meet the newest Swift!!!