Monday, March 30, 2009

BabyCenter

An excerpt from babycenter.com's synopsis of this week in pregnancy:

As your baby fills out even more of your belly, lots of things might start to change: Whereas before you were sashaying, you may find yourself waddling.

That is SO. ME. I'll do my best to maintain my femininity, but I'm losing the sashay rapidly.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Nursery Progress

Step 1: Prepare walls Step 2: Prime walls

Step 3: Paint walls Cotton Candy Swirl

Step 4: Determine where stripes will go
Step 5: Tape Stripes

(Steps 6,7,8,9 of painting stripes, repainting stripes, calling Heather, re-repainting stripes have been omitted to spare you our incredible frustrations)


Step 10: Paint stripes (camera died during process)
33 week photo in front of newly striped walls! (And a change of apparel to fit the previously-mentioned expanding bust)
We've hung curtains and replaced the queen bed with a twin. Now, we wait for the crib and dresser to be made. There will also be more painting required, but it involves an artist. Stay tuned!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Baby Mama Love Languages

For Christmas, Mike made me a coupon book relevant to the Baby Mama Love Languages. These are similar to The Five Love Languages, one of my favorite books, but with a twist. These are mainly acts of service that he gave me coupons to redeem as I need them throughout the pregnancy. I've thoroughly enjoyed using a few, including "Gourmet Dinner," "Food Run," and "Shoulder Rub." This week I cashed in a "Wild Card" to have my toenails painted.

The ever-expanding belly makes keeping my toes pretty a challenge. So, my sweet and thoughtful husband tried his hand at painting my toesies. He could have dumped a bucket of paint on them, and I would have been happy. But he did a great job, and I feel much better about breaking out my sandals as the warm weather approaches!
What a sweet sacrifice! (It was also good training for Miss Anabelle's nails that will definitely need painted along the way)

Friday, March 27, 2009

Books Galore!

Last month's book club was at Heather's house. I pulled up at 7 to see pink balloons and streamers on her front porch. It's typical that the host puts one balloon on their mailbox, so I thought Heather must have gone overboard. Turns out, they were throwing me a suprise baby shower!! I was so surprised, I had no idea what to say when I walked in!

Each of the food items on the table were themed to a children's book, like the meatballs, themed from "Cloudy, with a Chance of Meatballs" and the veggie pizza, themed to "Mr McGregor's Garden." Katie, being the teacher that she is, came up with a quiz for our game that had multiple choice, matching and fill in the blank questions about children's books. I, apparently, haven't read many in a while. I failed terribly. But it was so much fun! She even laminated the quiz so I could keep one as a keepsake!

After we briefly discussed the month's book, I opened gifts that ended up being a wonderful start to Anabelle's library! The girls wrote messages to her in the books they brought, and we now have a bookshelf full, just waiting to be read to our babygirl. THANK YOU to everyone for such a sweet surprise!
The beautifully decorated table, complete with books to go with the food.
Heather's incredible diaper cake. I still haven't been able to part with it. I have it displayed on a cake plate on our kitchen table!
My sweet & thoughtful friends!





Saturday, March 21, 2009

I love this man!


Thursday, March 19, 2009

Small Group Shower

On Sunday, Amber and Sonya had a shower for us and our friends from Small Group. It was such a fun afternoon, enjoying time with our friends and celebrating Anabelle!

The guys got to play cornhole outside since it was a beautiful day, but first they had to play the baby bottle game. Each bottle had 4 oz. of water in it, and they had to race to finish their bottles first. The guys were all talk until they started sucking on the bottles, realizing how challenging it actually is. Too funny!! Here are Mark and Cam trying to suck that water out.
And here is the champ, daddy Mack! It wasn't easy, but he managed to win.
And Sarah thought this was the greatest game in the world! She walked around double-fisting her bottles the rest of the afternoon.

Kathryn, Jaime & Katie on the couch.
Opening our adorable whale bath tub from Amber & Michael. Bath time will be so much fun!
Love the clothes... Mike even looks like he thinks they're cute!
And a little jumper to match Sarah's! (It'll go perfectly with the silver ballet slippers I bought)
Thanks, friends, for such a wonderful shower! We feel so blessed.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

32 weeks - Big as a Buick!

Since my parents are in Florida for so many weeks, I keep them updated with belly pictures and such via e-mail. I sent them my 32 week photos today, and here's what my dad quoted from Uncle Joe in Madea's movies (one of Tyler Perry's character):

"Girls, you is gettin' huge. You is as big as a Buick"

Thanks, dad!


The tape on the wall is step one toward the finished nursery walls! Our part should be done by the weekend, and the finishing touches will come in the next month. Stay tuned for more belly and more updates!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Auntie Rachie visits!

Rachel was home for a couple of days visiting Shaun before she headed down to Marco for Spring Break. She and Shaun came by for dinner Friday, which was so much fun to catch up!

We had to make sure Auntie Rachie got to feel Anabelle, because it's probably the last time I'll see her before Anabelle is actually here! This is them feeling her perform.


And she kindly took a few photos of dad with Anabelle's warm home.

And I just love this classic belly photo! Anabelle is already so loved!!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

She has a name!!

It's official! After months of discussing and dreaming about what our beautiful baby girl's name will be, we have made a decision! Here is the photo we used in a card to tell our parents and sisters what her name will be....
And this will be her full name!
Over the past few months, Mike has come to affectionately nickname her "A.B." It's been his way of committing to the name without calling her by it prematurely. It was a good thing too, because Mimi (my mom) has been listening unbelievably closely, just waiting for one of us to 'accidentally' say her name.
The three days between mailing the card to Florida and my parents receiving it were torturous for Mimi & Papa. They texted me daily asking for hints. But we held out, and now the whole world gets to know our sweet girl's name! Now, we just count down the remaining 60 days until she is due to arrive!!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Irrational Worries

Thus far, I've been really good about staying level headed with all things pregnancy-related. With most things in life I'm that way. I am more analytical and prefer to think things through before reacting, especially dramatically.

In the past week or so, I've had several worries pop into my mind that seem silly when I really think about it, but I can't help worrying about them! In no particular order, they are....

1. We have 9 1/2 weeks before babygirl's due date. In the past month, I know of at least 5 people who have given birth, ALL of them prior to their due date. What will I do if she comes in 6 weeks? I'm not prepared for 6 weeks! I'm prepared (sort of) for 9 1/2 weeks. Holy crap, I'm not ready for a baby in 6 weeks!!

2. My babygirl may be chunky and not the tiny little baby doll I have envisioned all along. -- This occured to me this weekend when I was shopping with my girlfriends, Katie, Heather and Sonya. I found adorable outfits, including a Ralph Lauren romper and a dark teal and pink floral ensemble for the summer. I imagine my tiny little girl looking so sweet in them. Not that chunky babies aren't so stinkin' cute, but that's just not what I envision my daughter to look like. And I could be completely wrong about that!

3. Where will I be when my water breaks, and what if I am sitting at my desk at work?? The majority of my office is men, and only half of the women have ever had children. How would they react? I would be mortified! I won't know what to do. I can't even imagine that happening and how everyone else would react. In fact, one of my male coworkers asked me this morning, somewhat jokingly, to not go into labor in the office.

4. How on earth are we going to have all of the baby gear we need? Who on earth buys the $300 travel system that will protect my babygirl in the car and roll her around on our walks? and Why would anyone spend $280 on a breastpump? Baby stuff is expensive! Some of it's fluff and totally unnecessary, like the adorable socks that look like mary jane shoes. But some of it is 'necessary,' and I just don't know how we'll end up with it without writing a check to Babies R Us that equals our mortgage payment.

Well, those are the thoughts creating the pretzel in my head. Laugh if you will... or if you're a mom already, you might sympathize with me. :)

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Celebrity Run-In

While waiting at the DFW airport during our delayed layover, we noticed a bit of commotion from a table of women, and then one of them walked over to the table behind me for an autograph. I knew I recognized the guy, but I just couldn't figure out from where. As she left the restaurant, I asked her for his name. "Larry Miller," she said. So, I did the logical thing and called my dad to google him!

Turns out, he's been in a ton of small roles, including the boutique owner on Pretty Woman, the dad on 10 Things I Hate About You and the neighbor on 8 Simple Rules. Plus, he does a lot of stand up comedy and Leno appearances.

So, I decided it'd be cool to get his picture. The guy was nice as can be and appreciative of being noticed!
Here's my celebrity run-in moment of the year.

30 weeks!!

The scenery has changed because we now have a PINK nursery!! Cotton Candy Swirl, to be exact. It's only step one of the decorating... but we're taking advantage of it.



Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Winner's Circle continued

This is the coliseum pool at our resort. It is 136 feet in diameter, covered entirely in hand-laid Italian glass tiles. Just look at it!
The elevator is larger than our nursery, I swear. I could literally do cartwheels in it. What you're seeing is just the opening through the doors... it's even wider than that!
For the awards banquet, I hired "The World's Worst Waiter" to provide some entertainment. He did everything a waiter shouldn't, especially at a 6-star hotel! He filled water glasses over the brim so it was impossible to pick them up, handed out rolls one at a time with his hand, talked on his cell phone while serving, ate bread while walking around the room, etc. etc. Here, he filled Mike and Dave's wine glasses over 3/4 full. Basically, half a bottle of wine is in his glass. The guy was a riot!!! He made the night.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Winner's Circle

My event for work, the Winner's Circle, went wonderfully! It was an incredible four days of luxury at this six-star property that is only three months old. Our customers had a great time, my general manager was thrilled, and Mike and I managed to have some down time somewhere in there, too. What a relief for it to have gone so well and to be done with it for a year!!

Here are a few highlights from the trip:

We took a boat trip for dolphin/whale watching.

We managed to see several sea lions.

And really cool clouds.

And some beautiful boats. And just as we were headed back with no dolphin or whales in sight, the captain heard dolphin on his hydrophone! So we headed that way.
They were incredible! We saw probably 25 or 30 of them. They just swam with the boat over and over. Some of them even performed for us.
This boat is the only one in the world with an underwater viewing area. It was tiny, just big enough for two of us, but we were swimming along side the dolphin under water! I absolutely LOVE dolphin (thus our perfect engagement), and this underwater viewing area was too much!
The sunset on the second evening was unbelievable. Here it is, overlooking Catalina Island.

The Californian sunset with my gorgeous husband and my ever-expanding belly.