Happy Birthday Momma!

Our furniture came in today! "Baby furniture?" you might ask. No. Mama furniture. Long awaited mama furniture. We have been using a collection of furniture since forever, including my nursery chest, an end table from Target, and donations from old roommates. No longer. Get a load of these beauties!

Hopefully the walls will be painted by the end of next weekend as you can see it is a mural of paint swatches at the moment. We haven't decided what we'll hang over or put on the chest and dresser. In the meantime, Madame Curie elegantly looks out the window.  She was recently moved from the dining room. I wonder if I'll wake in the middle of the night and get weirded out that she's watching me. She may get banished back to the dining room :o)

Just after Justin took this pic, I was scrolling through my camera and thought, 'Self, you are looking rather round these days...and not just pregnant round.' Then I flipped to the next picture, last night's dinner and I quickly realized why...

Grilled cheese and guacamole sandwiches...holy smokes they were amazing! I got the recipe off pintrest (my true love). That's all for now, more to come after a busy birthday weekend in Aiken! Happy Birthday Momma!!

Around here lately

Haven't posted in a while so thought I'd catch up on what's been happening at the Archie house lately.

We have been super busy getting this little condo ready for our big delivery. We have until November but there is a lot of work to be done around here. We are painting every square inch, changing hardware, changing light fixtures, purchasing furniture, etc. It's exciting.

For starters, I ordered Justin a new grill for his birthday. Lowe's, however, had other ideas and decided they would change my order, take forever, not update me on the status and not return my phone calls...No, I don't think so. In the end, after much polite "discussion," we were upgraded to the Weber Genesis 330 and it was delivered just in time for father's day. Justin was a happy fella. We went to the grocery store and spent a small fortune on meat (poor things). Justin now has his own meat drawer and I'm pretty sure the only edible species not in it is turtle. 

Master of the grill hard at work. It is such a fantastic grill. It has a searing station and gets super hot but the heat is all contained in the grill so you can stand right beside it without pouring sweat. Totally worth the money Lowe's spent on the upgrade ;o)

And what's a post without a few baby bump pictures?

 First was around 13 weeks, nausea is almost gone and I feel much better. At the 12 week visit, I had gained 4 pounds. It was a little depressing but likely could be contributed to the Chinese food I had eaten the night before (i.e. water retention)...at least that's what I'll tell myself!

Next is around 15 weeks, we're not great at remembering to take every week but I don't suppose there would be much of a difference. No cravings but the energy is back and nausea is gone!

Finally, at 17 weeks, Kramer and Sadie wanted in on the baby love. Still no cravings but you can certainly see a bump now. At my 16 week visit (this past Tuesday), I had only gained a pound. I'm trying to do better with the eating. Before, I would eat anything that didn't make me feel like I was going to barf. And that was pretty much just greasy food (weird, right?)...my favorite of all time being cheesefries with lots of ranch! Yum!!

I am pretty certain I felt baby Archie squirming around in there last night after I laid down. I had been really active before bedtime and there was an unmistakable flutter or rumbling in the exact spot the OB found the heartbeat. It was so cool but definitely makes me panic that there is a human almost halfway done growing in there that I will be responsible for. Yikes!

Hopefully I can post more pictures of the outdoor furniture and paint after this weekend.

Evie the birthday girl!

I can't believe that Evie is turning one. This year has flown by and our (i.e. Britt's) littlest one is not a baby anymore. I flew up to visit her when she was only two weeks old. She was the sweetest little baby and has such a wonderful temperment. She is calm and happy and really the easiest baby I think I've ever met.

 Britt has done such a remarkable job with her. I always knew she would. Britt was born to be a mother. She is a natural and I think Evie has really brought out the best in her. I'm so glad I could be apart of this sweet girl's life and look forward to watching her grow up! Happy Birthday Evie, Aunt Jes loves you!

CBR 2012

This is an incredibly late post but I wanted to finally post the few pics I got from the Charleston Bridge Run this year. I opted not to participate, which worked out well since I ended up being around 6 weeks pregnant and not feeling well that weekend. We had a lot of fun though!

Coffee helps when you have to wake up at 4:30.

Runners are ready...

This was Luke's first year running the big race. He did a great job and I think will be joining the adults again next year.

Way to go!!

Guess what?!?

1/18/12

I have a secret!! This morning, I found out I'm going to be a mommy!!! I don't know what came over me to take a pregnancy test but I sat there all blurry eyed and watched two little lines come up on the test. I had to  look several times before I believed it. I wanted to run into the living room and tell Justin but I'd always imagined telling him in a special way. It was so difficult to keep a secret!!

I went into the kitchen to make coffee (which I didn't drink) but I couldn't figure out what I was doing. I just kept turning in circles, looking for the coffee, trying to remember how to set up the machine. I was so excited I couldn't think straight.

I thought of so many ways to tell him but knew I couldn't keep it a secret long, especially since he is going out of town tomorrow night. I thought about a personalized fortune cookie but that would take too long to get here. I considered a baby item (bib, pacifier, cute onsie) but I could never figure out an excuse to sneak away without him. Plus we were going to church...which leads me to a side story. At church, we always get the soft mints they have in the foyer. Justin picked them up for us and handed me mine. In the package, there were two mints, a big one and a little one (a mama and baby!). Corny but so cute!

We wanted to go to the beach after church. I decided I would wrap up a pregnancy test in our beach neat-sheet to surprise Justin. On our way to the beach, it started to thunder and pour rain. I had to scratch that plan. Earlier in the day, Justin said that if he could do anything today, he would get a glass of champagne on the top of the Eiffel Tower again. I couldn't do Paris, but I could get the champagne, a lasagna dinner, and a great surprise!

I made dinner and while it was cooking, I made a short video of photos of us and toward the end, added a few pictures of the positive pregnancy test. I put it together, and after some difficulty getting it to save to where we could watch it on TV, asked Justin to come in the living room. I had set up our camera on video to capture his reaction but he was on to me. Apparently, he heard the camera turn on and realized I was trying awful hard to make today special. He just grinned and sat on the couch. When the moment came to the pictures, he was all smiles and hugs. He was so excited! There was even a few happy tears. I took two pregnancy tests just to be sure.

It was so much more fun after I told him. We got to talk names and discuss ways we would share with our parents. We honestly can't wait but since I'm like two seconds pregnant, figure it is a good idea to wait a few weeks. Justin wanted to drive to both parents house next weekend and tell everyone! He is so excited and I'm almost sure he wants a boy. I would take anything so long as it's healthy but if I were being totally honest I'm drooling for a girls. But I've always thought having an older brother would be nice.

I can't believe it! So often we just sat there with these stunned looks on our faces saying, "Can you believe it?!?" We are so lucky and I just hope the next few weeks go by without a hitch.

Long time, no see

I haven't posted in forever. I knew that would happen eventually but so much has happened in the last month that it is time to catch up. Besides finding out I'm preggo and announcing it to the family, we had our first appointment. Got to see sweet little Archie; only one, thankfully, and hear a healthy heartbeat of 176 beats per minute. The old wives tale says it's a girl and so does the Chinese calendar, which I know would make my mom SO happy but we'll just have to wait and see. :o) Below are pictures from the first visit and the next several posts to follow will be the ones I wrote but couldn't publish until we told everyone.

In these pictures, the baby is only 8 weeks along. At two centimeters, s/he already has arms and legs.

18.88mm (or 2cm) means the due date stayed exactly where we suspected...November 25th.

You can see the yolk sac (i.e. balloon looking thing that feeds the baby until the placenta is well established).

Look at that round little belly, isn't it cute!!

Happy Birthday John~

John turned 20 on Monday the 26th. I can't believe it. I remember turning 20 and it doesn't seem like he should be that old yet. Being 9 years older, I remember so much of him growing up. I remember the day mom told me I would be a big sister. I was in my room, she told me she had to tell me something and I thought I was in trouble. I leaned against my bed post uncomfortably and then she said, "Momma's going to have a baby, you're going to be a big sister and I'm going to need your help, okay?" I was more than ready for the challenge. A few months into the pregnancy, everyone thought mom miscarried but turns out John was a twin. I remember being devastated thinking all that excitement was lost and there would be no baby. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Just a few of my favorite memories of you, John...

1. You and I would ride my bike, you in my lap. You were no more than three (how dangerous!!) and you would make me peddle really fast and then stand up on the bar in the middle of the bike as I sped up yelling, "to infinity and BEYOND!"

3. I taught you to make a really funny face that still makes me laugh. You would open your mouth in a circle, drop your head, and then look up. Hard to describe but oh so funny!

3. When I asked you to do anything, you would say no but you didn't just say no, you would hold the 'N' sound for at least 15 seconds followed by a quick 'O' and then run off laughing.

4. Swirlies.

There are so many more but those are some of my favorite. Love you baby brother!