Happy Holidays to You!

Christmas was great this year! We had fun celebrating our first Christmas with Becca, we ate lots and lots of yummy food, took plenty of naps, and “Santa” spoiled both of us absolutely rotten. Even though this year was lots of fun, we are greatly anticipating Christmas 2010 as it will be 100 times better having a baby to celebrate with! =)

As if becoming parents here soon didn’t make us feel all big and in the grown up world enough as it is, we constructed our wills and received them officially in the mail yesterday. Some life decisions are hard to make, but we made it through and got things in order (hopefully) – 9 pages later! It’s crazy to see your “death” right in front of your face……

Doctor appointments have still been going great! Nothing new to report. Noah’s heartbeat has stayed within normal range, Jen’s weight has pretty much stayed the same, and no increases in dilation have been made. Here’s hoping for a 2010 baby!

Jen started her maternity leave yesterday. She’s been trying to relax as much as she can, (like playing the new Super Mario Bros for the Wii) but there always seems to be something that needs to be done around the house. She IS taking time out though to pamper herself this week and get things done to look decent while in the hospital. Today was haircut and pedicure day, and boy did THAT help her to feel better!

Here will be the last of the belly pics – until we have another baby, of course. ;)

Pregnant Jen and her "pregnant" brother - yes, that's his real belly (crazy!).

Pregnant Jen and her "pregnant" husband - he must not be as far along as Brian. ;)

Pregnant Jen and her pregnant friend Erynn! Noah's gonna have a cousin in July! =)

Growing Noah both inside and soon-to-be outside with Chick-Fil-A. =)

We’re SO excited for Noah to come!!! As you can see, only 3 more days to go – or more!!! =)

Still Chillin' In There

38 weeks today!

Actually, as of last week (week 37), Jen was considered full term and could have Noah at any time and he'd be OK - but, the doctor visits seem to indicate that Jen is nowhere near delivering. Whew! Let’s hope the doctor says that next week too. Maybe our prayers of delivering late will be answered!? =)

14 more days to go. Excited? Definitely. Ready? Hope so! Nervous? Absolutely.

Grandma’s Don’t Know Everything……

(By Jen)

I got this hilarious email from my Mom and I just HAD to pass it along. Maybe she’s trying to tell me that something like this is bound to happen at some point or another on the days she watches Noah???? Great….. =)

This is for all you Grandmothers - or Grandmothers in the making!! Learn well - you too will be tested!! Grandma’s don’t know everything…….

Little Tony was 7 years old and was staying with his grandmother for a few days. He'd been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked her: “Grandma, what's that called when two people sleep in the same room and one is on top of the other?” She was a little taken aback, but she decided to tell him the truth. “It's called sex, darling.” Little Tony said, “Oh, OK,” and went back outside to play with the other kids. A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily, “Grandma, it isn't called sex.

It's called Bunk Beds.

And Jimmy's mom wants to talk to you.”

Maternity Photo Shoot

A good friend of ours blessed us with one of the best baby shower presents ever - a free photo shoot!!! We had the most incredible time and just got the pictures back earlier this week. She did such a fantastic job and we wanted to share just a few of them with you – check it out!!! =)

For those of you who are wondering: yes, we also took some of the “obligatory” naked belly pics and they turned out gorgeous!!! But we feel those are more personal to us, so we’ll keep those at home instead of displaying them all over our blog. ;)

34 Weeks!

(By Jen)

Here is how the pregnancy is going:

Wardrobe:
* Still not completely in maternity clothes. Yay me! However, I do borrow Greg’s shirts once and awhile since they feel so good.
* I am (and have been) done buying maternity clothes – even though the temptation arises at times to “just buy one more thing that will make me feel cute.” ;)
* ALL of my shoes still fit. Fortunately for me, my feet haven’t changed sizes!! =)

Cravings:
* Still crave fruit quite a bit of the time. Jamba Juice and I have become BFF’s. =)
* Still can’t stomach the thoughts of homemade salads and dressings, but LOVE restaurant salads – weird, I know.
* No smell or sight of food has made me get sick thus far. I am fine with everything except homemade salads. ;)
* Crazy thirsty for water, but I’m not ravenous most of the time, nor do I eat everything in sight like they say all prego’s usually do.

Physically:
* Haven’t really gained a whole lot of weight.
* My hair HAS gotten thicker on my head, and has somewhat ceased to grow everywhere else on my body.
* I just don’t bend over anymore if I don’t have to. I tend to kick things around and hope that someone else will pick them up for me. =)
* Pregnancy has been an absolute breeze for me except for that horrible nausea phase at the beginning (no throwing up though, so that was a blessing!), and tiredness when I am used to going, going, going – maybe labor will be an absolute breeze too?
* Still have a bladder the size of an elephant and don’t have to go 8 million times a day
* People are telling me I am FINALLY looking pregnant. Woo hoo! =)
* No emotional mood swings so far. In fact, I have been a lot more laid back. I have to say, I have felt almost 100% normal this whole pregnancy.

Noah:
* His room is about ¾ done now. We just have a few loose ends to tie to make it look all “pretty” for him.
* We met with and established his pediatrician this past week.
* He really loves my right side and likes to wad himself up over there. Lately it’s been fun to see how many different shapes my belly can take on.
* He gets hiccups quite often that last for a long time – kinda like his mama.
* Greg reads to Noah every night out of his “Little Boys Bible Storybook.” He does a good job of paying attention, but then likes his “playtime” with Greg afterwards. =)
* Greg can now hear Noah’s heartbeat without having to use my stethoscope!

Advice:
* I haven’t really had too many people come and give me unsolicited advice or tips like they say people will try to do. Although….. when I ask for prayer that I’ll be a day or two late when delivering Noah, that’s when people feel like they need to step in and say something to the effect of: “that is the silliest thing they’ve ever heard,” or that “I will change my mind.” I’ve even heard other comments criticizing me for praying for lateness. Just keep in mind, most of you don’t know the whole story or the whole reason behind praying for this…..
* I myself have been solicited for pregnancy advice and tips though. It’s fun to finally be on the other side of the fence. =)


Just 6 weeks till d-day!

Baby Shower!

This past weekend was the baby shower for Noah! Jen’s 5 hostesses (one of whom was unable to attend at pretty much the last minute) did such a fabulous job planning one big shower, and made it everything and more that she had ever wanted. It had been scheduled, probably a little earlier than the normal time you give a person a baby shower, but with the holidays coming up, people’s calendars tend to fill up fast! Even though it was still a busy weekend for a lot of people anyways (and a lot of people were sick too – definitely didn’t want to catch their germs!), we still had an awesome turnout, and we sure got blessed with a lot of nice things! We were told on more than one occasion that this shower was the biggest one they had ever attended in their whole life. Yep, we most definitely feel loved. =) But it doesn’t stop there...... the presents STILL keep coming! We went home from church on Sunday with tons of bags of presents, and even to this day, they still keep coming! =) Jen came home from work on Monday with presents, and it has even become fun opening the front door (and the mailbox) and seeing what packages await us that day too. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, and this is making us VERY excited for Noah’s arrival. =) Our living room looks like a disaster right now too, thanks to a friend of ours who dropped off 2 HUGE garbage sacks, stuffed to capacity, of baby clothes for us . Baby clothes of all sizes, in perfect condition, everywhere. We’re pretty much set for almost the first 2 years. We consider ourselves to be very much blessed and very loved. Have we mentioned that already!? =)

Thank you to everyone who came and for all the wonderful things you brought to help us prepare for Noah. Thank you to everyone else who sent things in your absence. That was so thoughtful and very sweet of you to think of us.

52 more days to go!

4 out of the 5 hostesses

Adorable cupcake cake
Adorable "flower" arrangement (made out of baby socks)

Presents!

Jen’s 28th Birthday!

It was a great birthday weekend, full of extreme relaxation and fun surprises.

It all started last Friday night (a week before her birthday) when Greg surprised Jen with one of the first of her birthday presents. Total surprise. He loves to do that kind of thing. =) This past Friday night, when he called to say he was on his way home, he had another surprise up his sleeve. He said, “start packing – we’re going away for the whole weekend!” So we packed up our stuff and headed up to Denver – one of our favorite places to get away. First stop, dinner at Landry’s. He had researched seafood places in Denver (since Jen has been craving seafood lately) and decided on Landry’s since it had the best ratings, and also because we had been wanting to go there for a long time now. Amazing food. Definitely will go back. After that, we headed to our room, where we had fun staying huddled in our room and shutting out the rest of the world for the next 2 days...... well...... sort of. Greg had yet another surprise up his sleeve for Saturday night. The only thing he would tell Jen is that “we had to be somewhere at 5:00 for dinner.” So, on Saturday, when we got to the restaurant, he had arranged for our friends David and Ali to surprise Jen and have dinner and celebrate with us! It was SO much fun. =) Sunday (yesterday) it was such a bummer to have to go home. However, we made a couple of stops on the way home that made it quite exciting! Jen got some new “fat clothes” (as she likes to call it) from Gap Maternity, and Noah got a HUGE sack-full of clothes from The Children’s Place outlet store in Castle Rock. We hit the mother lode for him that day with all the good sales they were having! We hope that store stays open for a very long time as we plan to hit it up quite a bit! Next week we’ll celebrate the rest of Jen’s birthday with her family. Since Greg hogged her all weekend, they want their turn too. =)

We’re now past the 30 week point! 7.5 months along and both Jen and Noah are getting bigger all the time! Here is the latest belly picture.