ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Well, Nick and I have some news!

We are going to be parents...

(3D Image: a profile view with his right hand in front of his face)

...to a little boy!

We found out we were expecting at the end of May and held it in until my birthday (June 7th) when we told both of our parents. We waited until we had gone to the doctor to tell our siblings...so on Nick's birthday we spread the news to them. We kept it pretty quiet until I was out of the first trimester, but now the news is out there!

I am 18 weeks along and feeling great- no real sickness or anything, just feeling a little extra tired and I know where every public restroom is. I am still running in the mornings and teaching dance in the evenings...and will until who knows when. I haven't had any big cravings or things I can't eat yet...most things seem pretty normal still!

Last week I think I felt him move; everyone describes it as a "flutter" and I think I am starting to feel it, especially in the mornings.

Yesterday I had the "big" ultrasound, so Nicholas took the day off and, after my morning run, we headed to the doctor. I didn't have a regular appointment, just the ultrasound, so it actually went pretty quick.

(Even I could get what this one was! No need to count when he comes out...he has 10 toes!)

The first thing we saw was his feet...then she moved around and we got to see everything from his kidneys to his spine to the four chambers of his heart. He was breech at the moment and thus it was very clear that he indeed was a boy- we had kind of thought he was a boy, but didn't really have any reason to justify that feeling so it was nice to confirm our suspicions. He looked completely healthy and weighed 8 oz. and was 6 inches long yesterday.

(Proof he is a boy: there are two thighs sticking up...at about 10 and 12 o'clock. Then there is a little arrow pointing to a little something between the two legs!)

Nicholas couldn't be happier :) He subconsciously wore blue to the doctor and I told him that was what sealed the deal. And even though bows and ruffles are fun, I am excited for Nick to finally have a little boy to play with since he never had a brother! He will be a great dad :)

(His head is on the left- you can make out a skeleton head right? Two dark spots are his eyes and the big dark spot at the top is his brain. You can kind of make out his ribs in the one too)

After the doctor we headed to Target and each picked out an outfit- I guess trying to make this feel a little bit more like a reality. I found a perfect onesie and Nick picked out a really cute sleeper.

(The outfits we picked out for Tiny...mine is on the left, and Nick's is on the right)

Then we ate lunch at Pei Wei and went bowling...I had a bowling coupon that expired today and since Nick was home we figured we might as well use it...but yes, bowling was kind of random. Then we came home and I gave Nicholas a much-needed-and-wanted haircut and then took a quick nap before putting on something blue and heading to work for the evening. Nick got to enjoy fiddling with the budget and watching Lord of the Rings while I was gone :)

(3D Image- he is looking right at us in this one...the dark spot is his eye)

I am definitely starting to show now- I held it in for 16 weeks, but now that my "Dancing with the Managers" performances are over it is like my belly knows it doesn't have to get into any more costumes and can just stick out...and stick out it does! We haven't got a name picked out yet- I am pretty sure "Nicholas" will be his middle name, but we haven't really thought of what will go in front of it yet. His official due date is February 1st, so of course I am hoping for the end of January :)

(Profile shot- head is on the left, looking up)

We are very excited for our little boy to join us...and anxious to see how Koshka responds to him as well! :)

At Last!!!

Ta-da!!! I am finally completely finished with our bedding! I had wanted to make a lighter duvet for some time now and a hot Houston summer seemed like the perfect motivation (not to mention the "sewing bee" my fellow bees instituted- everyone pick a project and report progress to help motivate those that don't usually sew!)

I began earlier in the summer and finished the duvet before it got really hot. These are the fabrics I chose- Nick's favorite is the top left while I prefer the bottom right. The back in plain white.

Unfortunately our bedding was incomplete for months because I hadn't finished the pillowcases- I know it is a stupid reason because pillowcases are the simplest part...but it is what it is.

I finally made myself just bite the bullet and finish what I started- the teal pillowcases just weren't worthy of any bragging pictures! So today I took an hour and made the pillowcases...so simple, especially with my mom's serger! We had plain black ones, but I made white ones with a cuff of each of our favorite fabrics...a definite "his" and "hers" set!

It feels great to finally have this project completely checked off my list; now I won't feel guilty every time I start another one! Now if only I had my own sewing machine....maybe for Christmas!

Okay, okay...

...so there were two pictures taken from my birthday- from my mom on the day before my birthday when I opened all of the presents from them.

As you can tell, like mother like daughter- I made Nick pose for his birthday pics just how I have been posing for 24 years!

And to answer Mikelle's question, I am not a huge cake fan. I mean, who is really going to pass up a piece of cake if it is offered? But it is not what I would ever choose for a dessert. So every year on my birthday I have a dessert that we know in our family as "the next best thing to Robert Redford". It is a pudding dessert with 4 layers- much like dirt cake, but made with pistachio pudding and nuts for the crust instead of oreos. (layer 1: a nut crust layer 2: a cream cheese mixture layer 3: the pistachio pudding layer layer 4: whipped cream)

We had a birthday, shout hooray!

Okay, so here are a few more pics of the June birthday celebration. First off- this is the new shelf thing that we got from my parents...it was a combined gift to the both of us. I have been wanting a place to hang my keys, as well as something to fill this spot on the entry wall so it was perfect! (I still haven't put pictures in so we continue to look at the nice Hobby Lobby paper that came in it- whoops!)

Next, here are some pictures of the birthday cake I made for Nicholas. Of course, it was a skittles cake- yellow cake, chocolate icing, decorated with skittles candy...I did make it different this year by using double flavor "crazy core" skittles.

Nick only got 3 candles- one for every 9 years of his life.

It was a smaller cake this year as I used some batter to make cupcakes for his sunday school class as well :)

His big birthday gift this year was a new suit! (Don't worry, I have made enough "birthday suit" jokes to last him a lifetime!) He looks very nice in it, don't you think? He actually reminds me quite a bit of his dad, Paul, in this suit. It is a nice color for summer down here too :)

And he was getting so tired of me making him smile that I finally just told him to frown or make a face or something and this is what I got!

Anywho, that is about it on the birthday celebration...we didn't really take many pics- like any of my or Koshka's birthday celebration...so until next year!