Showered with Love

This past weekend was our first baby shower. It was given by friends here in Charleston, one living in GVL and one living in Raleigh. Mom came and Nat came from Chicago, Thad's mom came too. It was a fun afternoon, women really do like to get together to eat and socialize! Thanks to everyone for coming and to the hostesses for hosting a wonderful shower!

The hostesses!

The cake! It was delicious! Baby carriage theme!

The cutest pink tree decorated the table with little socks, bows and pacifers!

Nat, Mom and I

Crib bedding update

So after searching high and low, and experimenting with the idea of having bedding custom made, I have finally found some bedding I like. You can see it in the link below, just beware that when you look at it, it's a little overwhelming with all the various pieces and with a cranberry painted wall. I got just the bedding, a couple of pillows and the valences, none of the other stuff. If you zoom in, you can see the pattern, just pinks and greens. It should be here in 4 to 6 weeks!

http://www.cocalo.com/item.asp?id=183&brand=6&g=1&coll=&cat=1

I have also ordered a chair from Baby Bloomers in Mt. Pleasant from the Best Chair company. I can't wait for it to get here, it's 8-10 weeks! Let's hope baby girl Tuten doesn't come before that!

Ice Cream at work!

So I work for a pretty cool company, they had a ice cream truck come to work yesterday afternoon. Everyone got to pick either a sundae, a cone or sno cone as a afternoon treat...for FREE! I love soft serve and my chocolate and vanilla swirl cone hit the spot! Our event coordinator snapped this picture as she walked by my desk.

Belly pic and THE shed

Sorry I have been a little slack with the bloggin recently. We've been busy, I have been out of town on the weekends quite a bit for weddings and Thad has been hunting and working on his shed. I've posted some pics for you to see what he's been working on. The idea is we'll clean out the garage and the move some stuff in the house out to the garage to make room for baby girl tuten, who is going to be here in what seems like no time.

Here's a pic of me at 24 weeks, although now I'm 25 weeks. Making some progress...

And then here are some pictures of Thad's shed. I'm proud of him, he's never built anything like this before, he drew out the plans and has done all he research on how to build it. Yes, it's bigger than I thought it would be and No, it doesn't have electricity or running water, although he might change that once the baby comes home :)

Securing the foundation...this was several weeks ago.

This was two weeks ago, it now has tar paper on the sides and roof and doors, which Thad custom made. Next is siding and then shingles, hopefully he can wrap in up in just a couple of more weeks.

Working in GVL and Crib Bedding

So I'm here in Greenville, SC for a couple of days for work. Once I get home I promise to take some "tummy" shots, maybe you'll think I look more prego these days, the bump is still small but it's growing. I'm in the search for crib bedding or should I say a nice bumper and some sheets, as I'm not sure if I'm going to get the comforter, as it seems a little useless, someone out there correct me if I'm wrong. I went to this store in Charleston and the bedding, while beautiful, was outrageously expensive, I'm talking $350 for the bumper alone!! I've found these choices online that I like, experienced moms out there let me know if there are other resources I should check out. I haven't browsed Target yet....

Land of Nod

Womb with a View: http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=167&f=122&pc=67

Full Circle: http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=167&f=3907&pc=67

Pottery Barn Kids

Sophie Nursery Bedding: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/su442/index.cfm?pkey=cgirls-nursery-beddingb

Organic Floral Matelasse Bedding: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/nb150/index.cfm?pkey=cgirls-nursery-beddingb

It's a Girl!!

So much for my motherly instincts, I truly thought we were having a boy, but when the tech told me I was wrong, I said, "Really, are you sure?" She laughed and said she was! The tech was able to get all the shots she needed of her heart, stomach, kidneys and spinal cord that she needed without much trouble. Our baby girl was facing my spine, so she wasn't able to get great face shots with the 4D ultrasound and when she poked and tried to get her to move then she just covered her face with both her arms, it was really cute! By the end she was sucking her thumb and still had the other arm over her face. It was amazing and flew by so fast! I wanted to stay and watch her longer, but our time was up.

The biggest question seems to be "What does Thad think?" He's excited and says he's looking forward to having a girl, although he says girls require more "supervision" longer than boys. I guess he means until she's married off for someone else to take care of! He has also said we are having children until we have a boy!!

Thanks for your prayers and excitement for us during this time! Here are some pictures!

This is the one where she covered her face:

In this one she has her hand over her nose and is sucking her thumb!

Cast Your Vote!

So we have decided to find out the sex of the baby. I could have gone either way, but Thad was all for finding out, so we are going with his strong desires. Our appointment for the "big" ultrasound is Wednesday, Oct. 1st at 9am. I have my opinion about what it is and I'm excited to see if my "motherly" instinct is correct or if I'm totally wrong. I have no real evidence as to my opinion, it's just what my gut is telling me. So, I'm polling all of you out there, the whole 5 people who read this blog, to vote on the left hand side as to what you think we are having. It will be fun to see who's right! The vote closes Oct. 1st at 9am, the same time as our appointment. You have a 50/50 chance of being right! :)

This weekend

We are headed to Beaufort for the weekend. I'm getting my hair cut, yes, I still drive "all the way back" to get my hair cut. I love the way Lynn and Elizabeth highlight and cut my hair, you girls out there know how hard it is to find someone who cuts your hair the way you like it. Thad has a full day of hunting planned, so I'll be on my own most of the day. I was hoping to have lunch with some friends while there, but the weekend is a busy time with most spending time with their families.

I'm 18 weeks today and probably feeling the best I have so far. I've felt the baby several times, which is exciting. I still have just a bump, but it's definitely enough to make getting dressed challenging. I'm using the bella band, but am finding my shirts aren't long enough to cover it up. I need more clothes, maybe I'll hit the outlets this weekend in Hilton Head.

I'm going to post more pictures of the house next week...stay tuned!

16 Weeks

Several of you have asked me to send pictures of my growing belly so here's one from 16 weeks. For those of you who haven't asked...I'm sorry. Clothes are definitely tight and I'm hoping I can get buy with a bella band and some longer shirts for a while. I'm not big enough for true maternity clothes just yet. It's weird to take pictures of yourself like this...Thad thinks I'm crazy :)

Tropical Storm Hanna

It's Thursday just around lunch EST. As of right now it doesn't look like Hanna is going to be any sort of "event" for the Charleston coast. I'm sure we'll get some wind and rain, but thankfully nothing more exciting. We've spent all week at work making alternate plans to keep the things running, but it looks like we won't need them, at least this week. Talk has already shifted to IKE, let's hope that turns out to be as "uneventful" as Hanna seems.

A weekend of rain would be good for us, I'm embarrassed to say we still have some boxes in our guest bedroom, the room that we will move our guest furniture into, and have the nursery where the furniture currently is. I think we need to make some progress while we have a free weekend.

Outside Photos of the house

We don't have too many great pictures of our house before and after the renovations, mostly because most of the work we did was on this inside. You'll see it's just a traditional brick ranch, built in the early 1950s. We put on new shingles, it didn't need a full roof, our inspector said it was one of the best built roofs he had ever seen. It was before there were pre-fab frames, so each support is custom built.

Here's a few of the house before we bought it:

And here it is now, the photo is blurry because of the condensation from bringing the camera from the air condition out to the humidity:

I want to cut down the azaleas in the front that are hiding the porch, but then part of me says no as they've been here about as long as the house, but I think it would open it up so much more. The bush to the right of the front door is a gardenia, it put out tons of blooms in the Spring and smelled heavenly. Every house from here on out is having a gardenia, they are the best!

We have an extra room so please come visit!!

Photos to come soon, I promise!

I had plans to post pictures of the house starting this week, but it's been one thing after another every night this week after getting home from work. Not to mention that I've been tired and haven't felt like pushing on to get photos up on this site once dinner is over and cleaned up. I'm not as tired as I have been in my first trimester, but I'm still ready to go to bed about 9:15. Last night we stayed up to watch a DVR episode of Oprah about the Cosby show. We love the Cosby show. Didn't you?

I'm headed out of town for work this afternoon and then to Asheville to visit with mom and dad for the weekend since Thad's on-call. With Monday off for Labor Day, I'm sure I'll find time to start posting pictures. Until then...I hope you and your family have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!

Hello!

So I've been saying for a while I wanted to start a blog. I read about dozen blogs off and on myself and always thought it would be fun to start one. Then I told my sister I would wait until we were going to have a child, that seemed to make more sense and everyone would find that more exciting that just reading about two people with a dog who work a lot. So...since we are expecting our first child in February, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get started.

I'll be posting random stuff and will keep you updated as the next 6 months progress as we prepared for baby T's arrival. Oh, and we completely renovated most of our house 6 months ago and people have been asking for months for me to send pictures, so we'll walk through the house renovations too.

This should be fun. I hope you all enjoying reading as much as I know I'll enjoy writing. Woohoo, I'm a blogger!