And we shall call him...

We have officially decided on a name for our little guy. We have been set on Maddox for a while but haven't been certain about the middle name until now. I came up with the name Austin yesterday when I saw it on a website that sells wall decals. I jotted it down and asked Collin about it when he got home from work and he liked it as well. We think it goes well with Maddox and it gives him a little piece of Texas :D (not to mention it's the home of our beloved Longhorns...although that played no part in us choosing it). Picking a name for your child is such a big deal because it's their name forever so we wanted it to be a good one and I think we are both very pleased with our choice. Hopefully, Maddox feels the same way ;D.

How big is Maddox and Mommy? - 22 weeks

We are moving right along. I can't believe we only have 18 weeks left. I'll have to admit that I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed because we have so much going on right now. It doesn't seem possible that in the next 18 weeks we will have a baby, new car and hopefully a new house. That's a lot of big stuff and all at the same time. Granted it's is all really exciting stuff but a bit stressful none the less.

But of course that isn't the point of this post. The point is to see how big our sweet Maddox has gotten and also to see my new belly picture :D. At this point, Maddox is about the size of a spaghetti squash. He is about 11 inches long and weighs almost a pound.

His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

And now on to belly pictures...I really think I have grown over the last 4 weeks. I've started getting comments from strangers about being pregnant, which is nice because it means I don't just look fat anymore I actually look pregnant. So yay for that!! I'll be honest and say that thus far I have loved being pregnant. I am so thankful that things have gone so smoothly. Just within the last couple of weeks have I started feeling at all uncomfortable. My back is starting to hurt when I sit for too long but laying down and standing don't cause me any problems at this point. And, thankfully at this point I see no sign of stretch marks. I am taking preventative measures though and using the stretch mark lotion once or twice a day. Hopefully, that will be enough to prevent them. But enough talking...here is my 18 week picture from last time and my new 22 week picture...What do you think, have I grown??

Change of Plans & Shower Date

YAY...we have a date for our baby shower!! It is going to be April 26th and I can't wait!! I am so thankful to have a church family that wants to shower us with gifts during this special time!!

As for the change of plans part...I told you a few days ago that I had decided on bedding for the nursery but I started having second thoughts as soon as Susan (the wonderful lady hosting my shower) asked if we had chosen colors and bedding. I started thinking that maybe that set looked a little too girly for our little boy. So, I have decided to nix the paisley set I showed you before and look for something else. I am still certain the main colors of the room will be blue and brown but I just want something a little more "masculine" if you will :D. I found one last night that I really like that is a lot more simple but still very cute that I am leaning towards now. Here is a picture of it...


This set is a lot more of what I had pictured in my mind as far as little boy bedding goes. It is obviously boy bedding, it's blue and brown, and still super cute. So as of right now this is the front runner. I'll let you know when a definite decision has been made though :D.

Financial Peace University

Tonight, Collin and I are starting Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program. For those of you that don't know about it, FPU is a program that is supposed to help you better manage your money, get out of debt (if you're in debt), stay out of debt and increase your savings all with a Christian spin on it. I still haven't decided if I'm excited about it or not yet. I know it is going to make me change my spending habits but like it or not I know it will be a good thing; especially since we have so many big purchases coming up in the very near future (car, house, baby, etc., kinda stressful)!! I have heard so many good things from people who have already gone through the program, so I am hoping it is as helpful for us as it has been for others. I will definitely let you know how it goes :D

I've picked out some baby stuff...

I have made a decision on our bedding and also our car seat/stroller set, pack & play, and swing and wanted to share...so here are my choices :D

How big is Maddox? - 21 weeks

Today marks 21 weeks so lets see how much Maddox has grown this week. He is now about the length of a banana. He gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for hydration and nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And, these days, those taste buds actually work! He probably weighs 12-13 oz.

Next week will be 4 weeks since my last belly picture so I will be posting the 22 week picture next Tuesday. Yay for that.

Hysterical

Collin and I love "The Amazing Race." We have watched it for several seasons and season 14 started last night. Every time we watch a reality show that has a winner we both pick who we think will win the show based on first impressions. My pick this time was a couple from San Diego.

They finished the first leg in the middle of the pack and are safe for another week. We'll have to see how they do. Collin picked 2 ladies who are flight attendants thinking they would do well with all the traveling.

They just barely made it onto the mat as the next to last team, escaping elimination by a split second. They will have to step it up if they want to win. :D

But our picks aren't the main point of this post. The point is one of the tasks they had to complete. They were in Switzerland, I think, and had to hike up a hill and carry down 200 lbs. of cheese on these rickety wooden things. All I can say is it was absolutely hilarious!! People were falling all over the place and the cheese wheels would go flying down the hill. Watch this video to see for yourself...Collin and I were dying laughing.

So Refined...

HAHA...


(and don't worry, that cup went right in the dishwasher after he was finished :D)

Happy Valentine's Day to Me

I'll admit that I am not a huge fan of this holiday. I don't know why but I just don't get into it. I'm just not all about going and waiting 2 hours to eat at a restaurant that I can wait 5 minutes to eat at any other day. Collin knows this about me and I think feels guilty that every year I insist on going to Wendy's (a story in and of itself that I will share later) for Valentine's day dinner but instead of letting him take me out for a nice dinner. I do appreciate that even though he knows I'm not huge on V-day he still cares enough to do something special for me. Last night as we were sitting and talking with a friend at our apartment we heard a knock at the door, which is very rare. He went and answered the door and said we got a package. I wasn't expecting anything so it was a lovely surprise to receive a box with these inside...



Aren't they pretty?!? I love tulips, so it was a nice surprise. Thanks babe for the beautiful flowers and here's to our 9th Valentine's Day together...and 9th extra special dinner at Wendy's :D. I love you!!

How big is Maddox? - 20 weeks

Halfway!! Can you believe it?? I can't!! It seems like time has flown by. I am changing the day I do this post to Tuesday because like I said our due date was moved up at our ultrasound.

So how big is little Maddox now? He is about the size of a cantaloupe. He is about 10 inches long and weighs about 10 ounces. He is moving around ALL the time and my belly is definitely getting bigger!!


It is such a fun time and I can't wait to start registering and get more baby stuff!!

And here are the pictures of my scrapbook as promised...I haven't started working on it yet but plan to soon!!

10,000 Blog Views

I noticed this weekend that I had hit a big milestone in the blogging world. I have passed the 10,000 views mark on my blog views counter. How exciting :D. I mean 10,000 is a lot!! Thanks guys for reading my blog...it makes me feel special to have that many views :D

Coming up later...I have had a request to put a picture of my new baby scrapbook on here, so after I finish my homework for my Esther Bible Study I will get right on that :D.

Baby Bedding Help

So since we now know we are having a boy, I have started looking at stuff for the nursery. I'm not really into stuff like animals, cars and planes which makes it kind of hard because pretty much everything has those one it. I really just want like stripes or dots or something like that. I do know I want blue and brown though. I went to Babies R Us the day we found out just to look and see what they had but was a little disappointed in the selection. After I got home I decided to look online and found some that I really like. I thought I would put them on here so that you all can help me out. I would really appreciate you taking a look at the choices and then leaving me a comment about which one you like the best. So here are the choices...(there are 6 of them)

#1

#2
#3
#4
#5
#6

I have a favorite out of the 6 but I won't share it right now.   Just tell me which number you like in your comment!!  Thanks so much for your help :D.  Hooray for picking out baby boy stuff!!

Blog Facelift and New Scrapbook

As you can see I have redesigned my blog...again. I'm really bad about that. But, I guess since I know how to do it myself now it's not that big of a deal...I mean it's free :D. The main reason I decided to redo it this time is because I use Photoshop to make the header and unfortunately I can't afford to actually buy the program so my 30 day trial expired yesterday. Saddness. I guess I'll be sticking with this one for a while.

I am also really excited because today I am heading to the scrapbook store because I finally know what color book to get for my sweet little baby. I have been dying to start a baby scrapbook but I wanted it to be color appropriate and didn't know whether to get pink or blue until now. I received my coupons to Archiver's in the mail a couple of days ago so it worked out perfect. I love scrapbooking and can't wait to get started on this new book!!

Ultrasound Pictures

I've finally gotten home and gotten the pictures scanned from our ultrasound today. I will say that the tech told us that our little boy might be the winner of the most stubborn baby of the year award (lovely :D), so she wasn't able to get a good face picture or a good profile picture but here are the ones we got...

Just up and to the left of where it says foot is Maddox's little foot.

Poor little guy isn't even here yet and he already has his privacy invaded ;).

I think this one is my favorite...you can see his sweet little hand so well.

This is the best profile picture we could come up with...he had his chin tucked to his chest but you can see his head just to the right of center...he is looking up and you can see his little nose pointing up :D.

Bring on the Blue...It's a BOY!!!

We could not be more excited to announce that we are having a baby boy (although we would have the same amount of excitement if it had been a girl). I don't have the ultrasound pictures on the computer yet and I am blogging from Collin's computer at the church so I guess you will get three posts today because once I get home I will scan the pictures and put them on here.

The ultrasound tech said that everything looks good, which we are so very very thankful for!! She said based on the measurements our due date is June 30th, which is a few days earlier than we have been saying but exciting because it means that we might get to meet our little boy a few days sooner. She looked at all the organs, measured fluids and body parts and made sure the umbilical cord looked good and everything checked out just great. Praise God for the miracle He is doing inside of me!!

And the first thing everyone wants to know after you find out the sex is whether or not a name has been chosen. We are 99.9% sure that our sweet little boy will be named Maddox. We have had this name picked out for as long as I can remember (like since we were engaged...lol) We both love this name. As far as the middle name goes, we are still working on it. My choice is Aiden but we haven't discussed whether or not that is what we are going to go with. Thankfully, we still have a little while to figure it out!!

Thank you all for your continued prayers. More than anything we are just so thankful to have a healthy baby and pray that God continues to bless this pregnancy and our precious little boy!!

(Check back later this afternoon for the ultrasound pictures :D)

Anticipation

It's killing me!!! It's 8:50 am here and I am just going nuts waiting for 10:00 to get here. I honestly have NO idea if Sweet P is a boy or a girl. The guesses from others have pretty much gone 50/50. I did have a dream last night that it was a boy but about a week ago I had a very vivid dream that it is a girl so I guess the idea about you dreaming about it is out. The only guesses I have heard that have any logic are those that have guessed girl because the heartbeat has been faster. But my mom said my heartbeat was really slow so I don't know if that theory works either. Thankfully in a about an hour we won't have to guess anymore!! WooHoo!!!!

How big is Sweet P? - 19 weeks

I know it's a day early to be doing this post but with tomorrow being the big ultrasound day I knew I would have a different post to do so I'm doing it today. So how much has Sweet P grown this past week?? He/She now weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and is about 6 inches long (although my doctor says around 8 inches long), about the size of an heirloom tomato.

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! His/Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that he/she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to him/her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you. His/Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. His/Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on his/her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on his/her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

I can't believe how much our little baby is changing on a weekly and even daily basis. It truly is an amazing miracle. It is so crazy that we will be able to know what we are having in less than 24 hours. I'll let you know as soon as possible tomorrow!! :D

G-RRREAT DAY!!!

Today has been a WONDERFUL day filled with exciting things. First off the weather is beautiful, which I love. Secondly, I got the new Fray CD this afternoon and what I have listened to so far is really good!! Thirdly, I got some more things for the baby. I got a really nice glider rocking chair and two car seats (one for each car). Oh and did I mention, all three of them were free?!?! How awesome is that!!! Here is a picture of the glider...I think it will look great with our crib and changing table (which Collin is going to pick up tonight :D)


I don't have a picture of the car seats but they are those that are the 3 in 1 that's for infants then toddlers and then converts in to the booster seat for the older kids...very handy!! I am so thankful to have received these things. We have a lot of big purchases coming up so it is really nice to have gotten everything we have thus far for little to no cost!!

And I think the most exciting thing that has happened today is I got a call from my doctor's office a little while ago saying that some people had canceled their ultrasounds this week so they were able to move mine up to this Thursday. They only do ultrasounds every other Thursday so that is why mine was on the 19th but with these cancellations this week I now get to go at 10 am on Thursday. I was so excited. Now instead of having 17 days until we find out if it's a boy or a girl we only have 2!!! I cannot wait!! Obviously, I will post on here as soon as I can after we find out. But more than finding out the sex, I just pray we find that we have a healthy little baby who is growing and developing as he/she is supposed to be. We appreciate your prayers as well...check back on Thursday afternoon to find out if Sweet P is a boy or a girl!!!