Baby Love... In 3D

After filling our home with baby girl clothes and toys, and after painting our nursery walls pink, I started to feel a little nervous about delivery day. Not the typical delivery day nerves... But the fear that our baby girl would come out and (surprise!) be a baby boy! So, after much persuasion on my part, I convinced Nick to go for a 3D ultrasound. Not only did I want to confirm that our girl was, in fact, a girl, but I wanted one more glimpse at our baby before her arrival. This ended up being an awesome experience and I'm so glad we did it. Here are some of our favorite images of our sweet baby (girl!) taken that day.

Nashville Ya'll

In June, I was able to take a trip down to Nashville to visit my best friend, Jana, and her family. We had the best time and it only made me wish that we lived
closer to one another. Here are some pics from my trip.

Also, 2 of my favorite pregnancy moments happened during this trip...

1.) One of the first things that is said to me when I walk into the Fowler's...

ELLA: Jen, how did that baby get in your belly?

ME: God

2.) Ava would sweetly rub my belly and exclaim, "Hi, Baby! Hi, Baby!". Precious.

Showered With Love (Part 1)

On June 22nd, my dear friend, Alisa threw a baby shower for me at the clubhouse in our subdivision. She did such a perfect job and everyone had a wonderful time. The food was fantastic, and she even provided a photo booth (complete with props) and served root beer floats (a pregnancy must-have for me over the past several months). At the same time down the street at our house, her husband, Bob, was throwing a "man shower" for Nick where guys brought diapers/wipes and hung out. The fellas were given "Daddy Dollars" for the amount of diapers/wipes they brought, then were able to use them in an auction of some great (and some hilarious) prizes. They had a great time! Nick and I were overwhelmed by the love from all of our friends that day.

The Evolution of a Nursery (Part 1)

Our nursery is coming together! A couple of weeks ago, Baby Kate's room looked like a guest bedroom without any purpose (and without any design). Last night, our friend John finished painting the room and I am just in love with it! After hours upon hours of looking at paint color swatches, we finally honed in on 3 colors that we liked: a gray, a pink, and a navy for accent. Holy cow... could there possibly be any more shades of pink to choose from?! We changed our minds on the pink at least 3 times.

I was scared to death that I would walk into the nursery when he was finished painting and hate at least one of the colors we picked out. Thankfully, I loved our choices! We didn't do too bad for being rookies at this nursery thing. Now we are just waiting for her furniture to come in and to be delivered... hopefully not too much longer! Here are some photos we have snapped over the past few weeks as the nursery has come together, bit by bit.

After the guest bed was removed... before the new paint.

Kate's ever-growing pile of "stuff"... there's more in the room next door.

Eek!

We found these letters and shelves at Hobby Lobby. Going to incorporate them into the nursery somehow.

Finally! A final selection of colors: Fog, Cavalry, and Silver Strawberry!

 Painting is FINISHED! :)

Celebrating 6 Years at 25 Weeks

Last weekend (Sunday, May 26th) was our 6-year wedding anniversary. Where has the time gone?! I cannot believe that we have already been married for 6 years and, even crazier, have been together for 10 years now! The best years of our lives have been with one another and it's so exciting to see how far we have come over the past 10 years. 

To celebrate, we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Cincinnati, Jeff Ruby's The Precinct. This is one of our go-to spots for special occasions. It is a steakhouse in Mt. Lookout in a building that used to be a police station. The food is unbelievable... we joke that if we ever win the lottery, we will be dining at The Precinct weekly instead of yearly... I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. Here are some photos from our anniversary date.

This weekend also marked my 25th week of pregnancy. Moving right along with only 15 weeks left to go! I feel like I'm getting bigger by the day, but ever since that first trimester sickness/exhaustion has passed, I have loved being pregnant. 

The past several weeks have been filled with lots of movement! I knew to expect to start feeling the baby kick, but I did not know how awesome it would be! I first started to feel her little flutters around week 18. But I felt them once or twice and then nothing for the next couple weeks. Then one night I was laying in bed reading and I felt the first kick! Forget the flutters, this was a full-on karate kick! This happened around week 20 and ever since then, the kicks and movements happen more often. Any time I sit still (or especially lay down), I get little reminders (sometimes big reminders) of our sweet baby girl. This has been my favorite part of pregnancy. I love feeling her move because it reassures me that she's doing good. Nick has already attributed her strong kicks to her seemingly strong legs which, of course, come from her dad and which, of course, means she will be a runner. We will just have to wait and see. :)

20 Week Ultrasound - 4/17/13

Finally posting the pictures of our 20 week ultrasound. Some of the first (of many) pictures to be taken of our baby girl. How can wavy lines be so pretty?