The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I might be a little early on this one, but I'm extra excited for Christmas this year! I think it's because I know that just a few days after Christmas we will get to see your picture on an ultrasound for the first time! I cannot wait!

Anyways, your Dad said I had to wait until after Thanksgiving to get a Christmas tree ... so I patiently did just that... and then on Saturday I promptly dragged him to Kingma's to get our tree! We picked out a beautiful one and decorated it yesterday.

We also decided to get new stockings this year... and we made sure to get one for you too!! I'm excited to fill it with some cute goodies for you!

I know it's still a month away, but sometimes, I just can't help myself! Either way, the house looks lovely with all the lights, and the tree smells wonderful! You'll see :)

All my love, Mom

Secret's Out & 6 Weeks.

Well, you're no longer our best kept secret! Over the long Thanksgiving weekend we told your Grandparents, Great-Grandpa, and Uncles Scott and Brian about you!! Everyone was very surprised and excited :)  We made sure everyone knows that they have to stay quiet about you now - Grandpa E. was not thrilled about keeping a secret, he already has a list of people he wants to tell!! Soon enough, the world will know!

And in other news - you're six weeks already! This week's picture looks pretty much the same as last week's... I'm sure it won't be that way for too much longer!

How far along? 6 weeks 2 days
Maternity clothes? Not yet
Stretch marks? Nope!
Sleep: Never been better - I just wish it was socially acceptable to sleep from about 8 pm to 7 am!
Best moment this week? Telling your Grandparents about you - they are so excited!
Miss anything? Still miss enjoying a drink with friends.
Movement? No way
Food cravings? Still loving the bread and carbs and you can add chocolate milkshakes to that list.
Anything making you queasy or sick? Sometimes just thinking about certain foods makes me a little queasy, but nothing specific.
Have you started to show yet? Nope, still hiding it I think!
Gender? Still no clue.
Mood? Getting more and more excited with each day, but still anxious to see you for ourselves.
What are you looking forward to this week? I'm glad to spend some time with Eliza tonight, and then I'm looking forward to seeing Les Miserables on Saturday with your Dad.

All in all, it's been a great week! Here's to many more baby!

All my love, Mom

Won't Be Long Now.

Hey Baby! Happy (almost!) Thanksgiving! I'm finishing up my workday here with you and then we'll head to your Grandma and Grandpa E.'s to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow. Your Dad will still be working a little later, but I'm planning on going home and going for a run with Leo, then doing some housework and packing the car up so we can hit the road as soon as he gets home.

The house where I grew up is a long way from home now - almost a 4 hour drive, so hopefully we won't get there too late. The reason I'm anxious to get there is that we'll be spilling the beans about you to my family! We are only going to tell Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, Uncle Scott and Uncle Brian about you and hopefully they can keep our secret until Christmas time! I'm a little nervous because you are still so tiny, but I just can't hold it in anymore!

Then, when we get back home we will tell Grandma and Grandpa P. about you on Saturday! Since Aunt Jenni and Uncle Nick won't be home until Christmas, we are going to wait until then to tell them about you :)

So it won't be long now until a few more people will be loving and waiting for you!!

All my love, Mom

Baby's First Home Improvement Project.

 We had quite a busy weekend with you - and we tackled a pretty big project too! We drove to cousin Kim's house on Friday night to help her gut the basement of her house - what a job! It was pretty hard work, but Dad and I helped her take down most of the walls in the basement and moved all the garbage to the dumpster outside. Luckily your Uncle Scott came and helped too, otherwise we never would have finished!

It was so hard to not tell Kim or Scott about you and I had to pretend to drink beer so they wouldn't suspect anything - and I think it worked! Phew!

Kim and I have had lots of adventures together and she is going to be so excited to find out that you'll be joining us in July! Even though Kim is my cousin, she feels more like a sister and definitely a friend - you're gonna love her!

Here is a picture of Kim and Mom last August - we walked 60 miles in 3 days to raise money for breast cancer research - what a great experience!

And the next picture is of your Aunt Jenni, Kim, and Mom's other cousins Jessica and Stephanie at our last girls' night out at Mojo's Piano Bar, we had lots of fun :)

Anyways, I'm a little off topic now, but I wanted to tell you about your weekend - I hope you aren't too tired, we worked pretty hard!

All my love, Mom

5 Weeks.

Yesterday marked 5 Weeks pregnant with you - even though you've only been really there for about three weeks... they do the counting weird. So I'll take 5 weeks!  I told your Dad the other day that we need a nickname for you - and we came up with Squirms :) I can just picture you in there, squirming around, getting comfortable, and growing like crazy!

Dad took our picture again yesterday - you still aren't quite big enough yet to give yourself away, but you certainly have made my belly a little bigger anyways :)

I want to keep track of how everything is changing week-by-week, so I found these questions on another mommy-to-be's blog.

How far along? 5 weeks

Maternity clothes? No maternity clothes, but I did buy some looser shirts to try to hide my belly at work, I've been pretty bloated the last week (yuck, right!?!).

Stretch marks? None yet!

Sleep: I can't get enough! You have made me feel very tired lately. Dad said he read in the baby book that I'm using more energy laying in bed than he is running! But you need lots of energy from me to grow big and strong, so I'm happy to share!

Best moment this week: Going for a run for the first time since I found out about you - I was very nervous at first, but it felt great and I hope you enjoyed it too.

Miss Anything? I do miss drinking a glass of wine with dinner or sharing a new kind of beer with Dad.

Movement: Nothing yet!

Food cravings: BREAD! Any type of bread - sliced, buns, biscuits, rolls - you name it, I would eat it. And I still have been craving KFC and ribs a little bit - I'm beginning to wonder if you might be a southern baby :)Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing specific, but little bouts of nausea have been hitting me here and there - luckily ginger ale has seemed to help calm my stomach down.

Have you started to show yet: Not showing baby yet, but my bloated belly is sticking out!

Gender: We have no idea, but both Dad and I made our guesses that you're a little girl - we'll see in about 35 weeks!

Labor Signs: Thankfully - no!

Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On if I could - I just found out I'm allergic to the nickel in my wedding ring, so we had to order a new ring which I'm waiting to get
Happy or Moody most of the time: Very happy, but still a little nervous until we can see you for ourselves on the ultrasound.

Looking forward to: Telling your grandparents about you next week on Thanksgiving! And I'm also anxiously waiting for our first appointment - December 7th.

Happy 5 Weeks Baby Squirms!

All my love, Mom

Special People.

Baby, you've already got a lot of special people in your life - and they don't even know about you yet! We are blessed to have a wonderful family and equally wonderful friends. I know you're just dying to meet everyone so here we go!

Here is your Grandma & Grandpa Empkie, at Mom & Dad's rehearsal dinner before our wedding - they were very happy that day!

And now meet your Grandma & Grandpa Patterson - on the day your Dad graduated from college with his doctorate degree, we are all so proud of him!

And there are loads of special people in this next picture! Your Uncle Scott, Uncle Brian, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Jenni are all here - they will be thrilled to hear you are on your way! And they aren't the only ones - cousins Kim and Mike and Amanda, and lots of Mom & Dad's friends - Jessica and Emily and Brandon, Mike, Ryan, Tim, and Brian - will all be excited to meet you too.

And here is your Great-Grandpa Empkie (Mommy's Grandpa) with Uncle Ozzie and Aunt Linda and Cousins Kim, Mike, and Amanda. Great-Grandpa will be very excited to hear of your impending arrival, we can't wait to tell him!

And there are so many other people who will be a part of your life, but there isn't enough time in the world to tell you all about them - you'll just have to take my word for it until you can meet them yourself!

All my love, Mom

Our Little Secret.

As much as we want to brag about you to everyone we see, Dad and I are waiting until the right time to tell everybody about you. For now we kind of like having you as our little secret. But, we just couldn't resist telling two people we know won't spill the beans! Your big brother Leo (the doggy!) and Eliza (Mom and Dad's god-daughter) now know about you too!

Leo already loves you - he is very protective of Mommy and he will do the same for you once you are here. Leo loves to play with his dumb-bell toy and chew his rawhides. He also likes to cuddle on the couch and have his belly rubbed. But his favorite is when we go running together - he will go and wait by his leash while I put my running shoes on - and then out the door we go and we both come back home feeling better! So meet your brother Leo:

And Eliza will also be a very good friend to you as you grow up. She is already almost 1 year old and her birthday is the day before Christmas, so she was a very special baby when she arrived! Mom and Dad love her very much and we know Eliza's parents will love you just as much :) Eliza likes to listen to music and dance, and look in the mirror, and most of all read her books! We can't wait until you can meet each other - for now here is a picture of your Dad and Eliza watching tv together.

So even though you are still our secret, we are glad that Leo & Eliza know about you too, and hopefully they won't start talking now :)

All my love, Mom

Dearest Baby.

Hi! It's me, your mom :) We found out about you just one week ago, so it's still a little strange to think about myself as a mother, but I know you're in there and I love you already. That's the first thing I want you to know today and for every day of your life - I love you! You are a blessing and my life is already better because of you - that will never change, I promise.

Your Dad and I have been hoping you would join us for a couple months now, and then last week we got to see our dreams come true. On Tuesday night, I called your Dad on his way home from work and said I wanted KFC for dinner - especially the biscuits and mashed potatoes. Looking back this was a little strange - I haven't had KFC in a LONG time, but I was really craving it that night. Fast forward - Dad gets home with the food and I nearly cried because I thought they forgot the mashed potatoes (you'll soon find that out - Mommy loves her potatoes!). They hadn't actually forgotten them, but still - it was a bit weird to be so upset about food. So, on Wednesday morning I decided to take a pregnancy test (this will probably be super embarassing for you someday - sorry!) and lo and behold - two beautiful pink lines!

Dad was still sleeping, so I thought I would be clever and set up the camera to get his reaction on video. Well your Dad woke up as I was fumbling with the camera and looked at me strangely, then asked "Are you pregnant?". And I just nodded and we both started laughing and crying and hugging! It was quite wonderful! Going to work that day was very difficult - I had this great secret (YOU!) that I couldn't tell anyone about. When I got home that day, your Dad took the first pictures of you and I together. I was four weeks pregnant with you by then, but you were still very tiny - only the size of a poppy seed!

From that day on, I knew my life was changed forever and I have never been so proud or so happy to be your mom. I hope you grow happy and healthy in my tummy for the next nine months - we can't wait to meet you in July!!

All my love, Mom