It's like Christmas, only much, much better!

Right now I can't help but feel extremely excited! We have finally learned that we are having a little boy. I am not really sure why, but knowing the sex of the baby has made it seem more real to me. I was excited before, knowing that we were pregnant, but now, I am much, much more excited. It's like Christmas is coming, in like 4 months, and I already know what I am going to get. I can't wait. Now we can finally pick out colors for the babies room and start buying stuff for the baby. A while back we went to Babies R Us and I have to admit I got a little overwhelmed. The fact that we were in there for over 2 hours didn't help. I mean Annalise won't even let me stay in an Electronic store for over an hour. This is also our first baby so we have absolutely nothing to begin with. And walking through the store, looking at everything you can get (not all of it is needed, I know) but looking at all of the options and realizing how much that you do need started to overwhelm me. So Annalise let me use the register gun to try to keep my interest peeked and maintain a participation from me. But if any of you know how I like to shop I like to compare products and make sure I am getting what I want for the best price. I like to print out or write down features, look at buyers comments, research the heck out of what I am going to buy. Annalise knows this and many times won't have anything to do with me when I am making purchases, (remember the TV honey?, or the entertainment center?) Good times for sure. Anyways, there was no way that I was going to be able to do all of that with the amount of things that we need, and truth be told I couldn't see the difference between a lot of the products either, so how do I choose? That and when I started to realize how much all of this was going to cost us I have to say I lost my appetite, and that almost never happens.

Then came yesterday. What a great day. I am working mids shift still and try to get my sleep in during the day. I say try because a lot of times it doesn't happen. I end up starting projects, or at this time of year can't help but watch the basketball games. Then my wife comes home from work and I want to spend time with her so I end up getting like 3 or 4 hours sleep before going to work. Yesterday I have to be honest, I was a little excited, ok, a lot excited. I love basketball and there were so many options of games to watch, and ok, I have to say, I couldn't help but keep thinking that in a couple of hours we had a doctors appointment that would change our life. I won't give you a play by play of my day, but I will tell you about the best part of it. Standing in a darkened room, holding my wife's hand as she lay on a bed. Both of us staring at a monitor showing an absolute miracle on the screen. My little boy as he stretched and rolled around. Covering his face with his hands, and denying us the privilege of seeing that he was a boy for like 45 mins. Stubborn little guy already. As I watched him open his mouth I couldn't help but add up the days until I could meet him. Hold him close and tell him how much I love him. That I will do anything and everything I can for him. He has yet to even take a breath of air, to open his eyes to the wonders of the world, to simply learn how to hold a bottle, yet already he holds my heart.

We have tried for awhile now to get pregnant and are so blessed that we finally are. And I say we because with the sympathy weight that I am gaining I am sure that we both look pregnant. It's weird but I think I have had more food cravings lately than she has. Anyways, we are so excited to be able to have the chance to be parents and raise more than just puppies. Don't worry Tobey and Baxter, we still love you. We also love all of the family members that have shown us support and encouragement. A many thanks to all of you. I am sure its a wild ride ahead, but we look forward to it all. Especially our Christmas in July!

Patience

I have always been aware of a few of the traits I need to work on. Patience would fall into this category. Ever since I can remember I've never been one to wait. For anything. I have told Andrew on several occassions that if he is planning any type of surprise he shouldn't tell me about it because 1) I'll bug him about it til he tells me, or 2) I'll snoop around til I figure it out on my own. Someone should have passed this information on to my doctor and baby. I have been waiting patiently for the last 16 weeks to find out what we are having and now that we are about 36 hours away, I don't know if I can stand it! (I know I am childish and I don't care at the moment. HA!) Now that I know I am far enough along that we'll be able to see all the parts, I am dying to get in there and see what's up. I am so excited to see the baby and make sure that it's healthy and growing and happy in my belly. There's just so much to look forward to! 2 o'clock on Thursday just can't come fast enough!

On another happy note, Andrew has about finished his midnight shift. Let me tell you what a blessing this is! He's been stuck on this zombie shift for the last six months and it's not been our favorite. While we've enjoyed seeing each other at night, he's found it extremely difficult to work all night and then try to sleep during the day. Shocking right? I just don't think humans are meant to sleep while the sun is up. Hence while we call it the zombie shift. He never feels totally rested and he gets maybe 3 or so hours of sunlight a day. He is happily switching to a day shift in about two weeks. We'll be glad if we never had to go to mids again but chances are he'll do it again next year sometime. Other than the crappy work hours, work for Andrew is going well. We've had a few interesting experiences over the last few months that have caused some stress but fortunately all has worked out so far. This has been a great change for him and I know he is much happier here than anywhere he could be. That alone makes all the garbage that goes along with it totally worth it.

The dogs are, well, they're dogs. :) Tobey is still a puppy and he reminds me of that fact almost daily. He has the potty training thing down pat now, but he also likes to go outside only to torment the neighbors dogs. So his adventures outside are a little more restricted than they used to be. Baxter is still recovering from having two healthy teeth extracted. He broke both of them on the cinder block wall (tormenting the same dogs mentioned above) and unfortunately he broke off enough tooth that the vet pulled both teeth. He seems to be adjusting well, just a little more wary of playing too much tug-of-war with Tobey. He's our little couch potato and loves to snuggle. Tobey is crazy and Andrew says he's on "perma-crack." He just goes and goes and goes. They keep us busy and laughing. It's going to be an adventure bringing a little baby into this chaos, that's for sure. These two have tried my patience multiple times, but I have a feeling I haven't seen anything yet!

Well, the next update should be about the baby's gender! As long as this little one cooperates and shows us what God gave him! :)

I'm so lazy..but I have a good excuse

I've been meaning to post some pictures from our Utah trip for the last couple of weeks, but it seems like everytime I sit down, I fall asleep. lol. I didn't realize that I would be tired the entire pregnancy. Anyways, just a random sampling of some things we did while in the land of Zion. Ate at Wing Coop with the Baty fam, got a good reminder of what real snow was like, did some bowling, ate at Cafe Rio (which sounds SO SO good right now, this picture is KILLING me!), amongst many hours of playing games, hanging out and laughing. We had a great time and are so grateful to the generous people who made our trip out there happen. It was great to see family and share our exciting news with them.



Oh, Cafe Rio pork enchiladas, how I miss you.

Debbie (Andrew's Dad's wife), Mitchial, Andrew and me bowling at Fat Cats

Andrew....I don't know what to say!

We went with Jeff, Wendy and Austin to a little ghost town called Ophir. It was covered in snow but really pretty. Don't miss snow.

Eating at Wing Coop, Andrew's favorite UT restaraunt. This was right after we told my siblings and parents about our pregnancy. Me, Krista, David, Erik, Karyn and Andrew. Good times!



We're almost 19 weeks along now and everything is going really well. We have our next appointment on the 16th so we'll be finding out soon if it's a boy or a girl. The baby's heartbeat at our last appointment was 156 beats per minute and everyone I've talked to said it's a boy based on that number. Whatever. I just want a happy healthy little one.

I am feeling movement down there and it is one of the most amazing things ever! I complain about being tired but feeling the baby move makes everything so worth it! I can't wait for Andrew to be able to feel the kicks and jabs. He'll love it. :)

We're going to get started on a nursery soon so if anyone has any suggestions, we are definitely open to some ideas. Please share! We're headed out this weekend to pick up a crib and changing table/dresser and a couple other pieces. YAY! It's getting more and more real all the time.

On a side note, our little Baxter dog will be losing a canine tooth tomorrow. Sometime yesterday he broke his tooth all the way up to his nerve bulb, causing the tooth to die. It has to be extracted and he's on pain meds right now, leaving him tired and pretty clingy. It's just sad to see our little buddy hurting so bad. And it's making Tobey crazy that Baxter won't play with him. So hopefully after this tooth comes out tomorrow, Baxter will be feeling like his old self. We can hope. :)