The Nursery

Creating our baby's nursery was definitely a labor of love. More labor on Ev's part than on mine! I thought and second guessed every decision I made. From the bedding, to the furniture, to the wall color! Poor Ev silently suffered through all of it and constantly reassured me, that in the end it would be perfect!

The whole process started once we knew we were having a baby girl. Although we knew the gender of our lil one I was opposed to going the traditional route of having a girly cupcakey pink nursery. So I started my internet search for the perfect non-pink baby bedding. This turned out to be a much harder task than I thought it would be. Finally I found this amazing yellow/gray bedding at Target and even better Evan loved it too!

Furniture was the easy part. Evan and I picked out a crib and dresser from the Toy House in Jackson. We are both so thankful to our moms and Ev's grandmommy who graciously chipped in for these large purchases! We had the Toy House deliver the furniture once the room was painted and then Ev had the fatherly duty of assembling the crib! It was so much fun watching this room slowly come together. Evan was pretty adamant that as the daddy-to-be, he wanted to paint and put together the room himself. He did such a good job and I am so proud to have such a hard-working and caring husband!!!

To complete the room I found some artwork from a shop on Etsy and Evan refinished a mirror we found at TJ Maxx. I love how this room came together. It is by far my favorite room in the house and it will be even better once our baby girl is here too! Thank you to everyone who helped create our special nursery! Enjoy!!!

26 Weeks

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy seems to be flying be and how fortunate I am to not have had alot of the normal woes most women complain about. So far this second trimester has been a breeze! My doctor keeps telling me this won't last forever, but for now I'm truly enjoying the moment! I just can't believe I only have 1 week left in this trimester!!!

This week it really hit me just how quickly our lil' one will be here. This past summer two families from Ev's work both announced their pregnancies within about a month of each other. I had no idea at the time I would be joining the RNT winter baby club! One of these women recently had their baby this past week and the other has already announced the date of her scheduled C-section!!! Which means our lil ones arrival is just around the corner!!!! See the ticker above and you will see what I mean. I am trying not to panic but I can feel myself getting the urge to nest more and more as the days tick by! Ev himself as even started to make some headway in the "Projects to be Done Before Baby Arrives" Department. This weekend he painted 3/4 of the downstairs living room all by himself. We didn't plan on tackling this job until after the holidays, but I am thankful the job is almost done. I tried to help, but my efforts were not wanted. After hearing me say "oops" 3 times in less than 5 minutes and hurrying to clean up spilled paint before it dried, I was kicked off the job. Even after I was fired and Ev was showing me his handywork, I still managed to goof up......I blame the hormones!

It also seems my belly grows more and more everyday!!! And our lil one is getting stronger to. Just the other night I was telling Ev about how force full her kicks and jabs seem to be lately. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when we both watched my belly rise and fall with a big flip! I love feeling her move around in my belly.

18 Weeks

21 Weeks

26 Weeks

Meeting our Baby

Three weeks ago today we got to meet our baby via ultrasound for the very first time! Ev and I were giddy with excitement the night prior to our appointment. It was hard to relax enough to sleep, but I knew I had to get a few zzzzz's in before our 8:45am appointment.

That morning, while getting ready for the appointment, Ev followed me around like a waterboy making sure I drank all of the required 32oz of water an hour prior to the test. By the way it is no fun being 20 weeks pregnant with an enormously full bladder and then on top of that told you can't pee!!! The drive to the doctors office was interesting as well! We had recently purchased Ev's new truck the day before, so of course the "new" car was our vehicle of choice for the day. Also, our lil one decided that my full bladder was their new bouncy house. I was happy to feel our lil one move around, but the added pressure was much less amusing.

Once in the ultrasound room we anxiously awaited to meet our lil boy or girl. Unfortunately, our baby was being such a flutterbug we weren't sure we were even going to find out! Even the ultrasound tech was having trouble just getting our peanut to stay in one spot long enough to capture an image for measurements! Finally after what seemed like forever our lil one settled down. The tech confirmed that we wanted to know and told us we were having...... a baby girl!!! I looked over at Ev with tears in my eyes to see him grinning from ear to ear back at me!

For the rest of the day we couldn't stop smiling. We are both over the moon to be having this baby and thrilled to have a lil girl soon. We now know that all the results from the ultrasound came back perfect and we are still on schedule for a March 10th due date!

Second Trimester

Today I am 16 weeks and 5 days pregnant!!!! Only 163 days to go till our due date!!! Right now the baby is about the size of an avocado (4 1/2 inches long and weighs roughly 3 1/2 ounces) Grow, baby grow!!!

What I'm feeling: My energy level has definitely picked up a bit. Although with my work/sleep schedule some days are better than others. My only complaint so far is that when I do sleep it's hard to get comfortable. I know this will only get worse as time goes on unfortunately :( Poor Ev has to deal with my tossing and turning more than usual....sorry sweetie!

What I'm craving: The cravings the last few weeks have died down. A few weeks ago it seemed like I had a new food craving every day. Now it comes and goes. But as of lately I have wanted; PB&J sandwiches, Watermelon Sour Patch Kids, Twix candy bars, and chocolate milk. Apparently the baby has a bit of a sweet tooth this week!

In other news we have another doctors appointment next week to hear the heartbeat again!!! And we plan on scheduling our first ultrasound in the next 2-3 weeks. Also I'm looking forward to feeling the baby move soon. I know they say some women can feel the baby move as early as 16 weeks, but from my research I've found that most feel that first "flutter" between 18-20 weeks for first time mommas!!!

13 Weeks

Today I am officially 13 weeks pregnant and we are finally in the last week of our first trimester!!! This week the baby is the size of a peach, weighs about .81 ounces and is about 2.9 inches long.

Things I'm craving: lemonade, Crazy Cowboy chimichangas and Evan's lasagna!

What I'm feeling: TIRED!!!! Although I have noticed a slight uptick in my energy level the last few days, I am tired of being tired! Ev would tell you that he has noticed a change in my mood swings, the lucky guy. One minute we will be laughing together and the next he will be looking at me bewildered wondering where all the tears are coming from!

We have another doctors appointment this week. During this appointment we have hoping to hear the heart beat again. And we are anxiously waiting to find out the sex of the baby in the next 5-7 weeks. I have been eager to get the upstairs office squared away. We are hoping to get this project tackled during the long Labor Day weekend. All we have to do is paint and really organize this space effectively! I know once we get that room done we are one more step away from working on the nursery. So that is a huge motivator to get it done!

We haven't been very good at keeping up with our growing bump photos. We are going to try to get better at this, I promise. Below are the only bump pictures we have so far. Enjoy!

7 weeks

11 weeks


13 weeks

Disney 2011

Well our Disney Getaway did not start off exactly as planned. We ran into a few travel snags the first night. And by snags I mean, waiting until 11:20pm to actually get our shuttle (which was the full 30 minutes of the 5-30 minute wait they told us) and being the last people to be dropped off. We actually didn't get to our hotel until midnight!!! After we checked in we were sent on an expedition to find our room. It took 15 minutes of wandering past signs with room number ranges that didn't have ours in the range! Finally, we stumbled upon it (must have been some Disney Magic) and were relieved. Well, relieved until we opened the door and turned on the light. Let's just say I was very disappointed. Ev immediately called the front desk. Unfortunately because of our late check in and the high occupancy of the hotel, we weren't technically in the correct type of room and the hotel couldn't correct the problem until Sunday night. We decided to make the best of it, I mean after all we were in Disney and as Ev kept pointing out we only had to sleep there!

The next morning, we had a much better outlook. After getting some sleep and a good breakfast we were ready to start our adventure. As soon as we made it to the Magic Kingdom, all the worries and stresses of traveling faded away. I was instantly mesmorized by the magic of Disney! Ev was so attentive to me, asking every few minutes if I was feeling okay in the Florida heat and if I needed anything! I took full advantage of this and we got all sorts of great things. We had Mickey Mouse shaped cake-pops that had marshmallow ears, rice crispy treats shaped like Mickey, and I even asked a lady where she got the most delicious looking fruit tart...so I had that for my breakfast dessert! Ev's favorite part was his turkey leg, which he claimed was the only reason he came to Disney. It was almost the size of his forearm! Suprisingly, it was delicious and we were able to share it for lunch.

The Magic Kingdom was by far our favorite park. We loved simply walking around and taking in the sights! It still amazes me how intricately detailed every little shop and attraction is. Even though Ev had been there when it he was younger, he was too young to remember. He was really getting to see and experience Disney for the first time and I was happy to get to share that with him.

We ended our day with a quick trip to Hollywood Studios and were able to see their night time show of Fantasmic. It's a live production of a Mickey Adventure where you see many of the Disney Characters and and there are cool special effects, fire and fireworks, lasers, and stunts. It even had parts of the Sorcerers Apprentice, which is Ev's favorite.

Day 2 started off a little less quickly, which was fine by us. Epcot was our first stop. It was fun to walk around the different nations. Ev even found a draft German beer cart in Germany and was happy to walk around with it! We also stopped at a fancy Italian cafe and had an amazing lunch (don't worry Bob, Ev said your meatballs were much better)! When we finished the tour at Epcot we decided to escape the heat and head back to the hotel for a quick nap. After getting fully rested we headed back out to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy our last night at the parks and to see the castle at night. The fireworks display on the castle was amazing. I was sad when it was finally time to say goodbye to the Disney castle. Ev was quick to remind me that the next time we visit Disney we would have our little boy or girl with us!!!! That idea put a smile on both our faces.

Our final day in Disney just so happened to be my birthday. We slept in and Ev surprised me with a Disney charm for my pandora bracelet, which I absolutely love!!! We spent the day walking around and shopping at the all the shops at Downtown Disney. I bought a dress and Ev spent a bunch of his time at the Harley Store. After an amazing dinner at Fulton's Crab House we ended with dessert at Ghiradelli's Chocolate Shop (for the second time that day)! As we walked around, we decided we were not ready to call it a day. We saw that Disney Quest was having half-off prices for the rest of the night, so we decided to check it out. This place is a giant intreactive arcade. We white-water rafted through the age of the dinosaurs, fought enemy pirate ships with our canons, and even participated in a virutal reality comic-book, because Ev wanted to play with the lasers.

Overall, we both had an amazing vacation. Although it was action packed we are glad we went. We just wish we could have had a vacation after our vacation!!! I can't wait to go back to Disney with our little one and build new memories with my family!

the First Ultrasound

7/18/ 2011


We got to see our baby today! It was an amazing experience that I can not put into words. Let me start by saying that I was a nervous wreck this morning. I had no real reason to feel anxious. This was a new experience of us and had no idea what to expect. I just replaying that old Friends episode in my head, the one where Rachael and Ross go for their first ultrasound and Rachael cries the whole time because she can's see it!



As we arrived at the doctor's office and got situated in the ultrasound sound room, I asked the tech what did they hope to see today. She was hopefull that depending how things were going we would definately take some baby measurements and maybe even hear a heartbeat!!! When the test got under way, I was shocked at how clear and easily we were able to see everything. There on the screen was our baby! We could even see the tiny heart beating away! I was overwhelmed with emotion! I expected myself to cry a little, but I was laughing! I couldn't believe how blessed we were with our own little miracle.



The ultrasound went on amazingly. Everything was measuring right on track. We were put at 6weeks and 2days exactly (which is right where we thought we were) with a due date set for March 10th 2o12!!! The heartrate was measured at 116 beats per minute. Ev says the baby looks like a lil jalapeno and is going to be a runner like his daddy!!!



We can not wait to meet our lil sweet pea and are very excited for everything 2012 has in store for our family!!! We can't wait to meet you Baby Stuart, Love Mom & Dad