House Guests :)

Yesterday my mother-in-law, Susan, and her sister, Lynda arrived. We are so excited to have them! They came bearing gifts and our crib, too, so that was really fun to see all in Conner's room. Jason put the crib together last night, and I took some pictures!

 The man with the plan!

 Such a hard worker!

 Building the crib around himself. Good thing he's got long legs!

Finishing touches...

 Checking out the dust ruffle and bumper .... It is exactly what I was going for and I LOVE IT!!!! :)

Stella chilling out in the wrapping paper. She loves paper.

I'll take a pic of the "loot" later this week.

What we've been up to lately ...

Hello. It has been a while since my last update ... we've just been so busy with getting ready for Conner, and trying to really enjoy this period in life before kids. I'm 28 weeks this week and officially in the 3rd trimester of my pregnancy. I cannot believe how fast the time is going by ... and at the same time, I am a little bummed and overwhelmed that I still have 3 more months to wait to meet our son! My pregnancy has been going great! My back has been bothering me some, but as long as I don't overdo it, I'm golden.

 On September 17 we went to the Plano Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was an early morning, but it was pretty cool to see all the balloons all blown up.

This is the balloon that was being blown up right in front of us. It was really cool to watch.

 Ladybug balloon! So cute.

 On September 24 Jason planned a fun date for us - Downtown McKinney Oktoberfest! It was so sweet of him to plan a date and it was nice to walk around outside and enjoy some good quality time together. Jason loved all the German food - I tasted it and was pretty impressed! Then he agreed to eat at Sauce on the Square for lunch and it was nice to sit in the cool restaurant and have some good conversation. I love spending time with him and I kind of feel like our time together has an inevitable ending (in December), but I just have to remind myself that having a baby will be an amazing addition to our family and that we will just have to make the effort to continue to keep our marriage fresh. It's not the ending - just a new and different beginning!

 I don't know if Stella senses the baby in my belly or not, but lately she's been sitting on my stomach a lot more. If I'm relaxing on the couch, she'll sometimes come sleep on me. I think it's awesome - since she has never been a lap cat at all. I'm a bit nervous how she'll react to the new baby, but I just hope that she'll just be curious and keep her distance. Ha! :)

 Last week we had an ultrasound to check on the growth of our little man. My OB had said I was measuring a little big at my 24 week appointment and wanted to just check on how our boy was growing. The tech said he was in the 59% on size, which sounds pretty average to me - so it was music to my ears! He was so cute and we got another updated picture of him. Sweet little face!

Jason and I were at the store shopping for my mom's birthday present and we passed by this aisle at Target and I said, "Hey Jason, you want some Jason?" He laughed at my hilariousness (I'm so humble, I know), and then insisted I take a picture. 

 This is a belly shot of me at 27 weeks. We were headed out the door to church and it was so nice outside. I love this dress - it was SO comfortable. (Thanks to my friend January for loaning me some maternity clothes!!)

 On Thursday, my friend Jessica came over and we worked on some arts and crafts. We are always talking about new projects we want to work on ... so we decided it was time for a craft day. I decorated the letters for Conner's room - using Mod Podge and scrapbook paper. I think they turned out great so far - the next and final step is to paint the borders dark brown and hang them from ribbons. I hope they look great in his room.

Jessica made the banner for my baby shower and it turned out SO CUTE!! I absolutely love it and love the little owls on each letter. Look close and you can see them. Ahh, so cute.

Speaking of Conner - Jason's mom will be here on Wednesday and she is bringing the crib with her. I simply cannot wait to put it together and transform that room from frumpy futon-ville to baby room! Her sister is coming with her and I'm really looking forward to the girl/family time. It will be awesome to share some of this pregnancy with them. Maybe they'll even feel him kick! :)

Hip Hip Hooray!

Today is the day we get our AT&T U-verse installed and finally will have a DVR! I am so excited and can't wait to record shows and watch whenever I want. :)

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

This is what's for dinner tonight ... Bon Apetite!

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can diced green chiles, finely minced
1 onion, minced
1 (6 oz) pkg corn tortillas, cut into strips
6 Tbsp margarine
1 (8 oz) pkg sour cream
1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Instructions:
In large mixing bowl, combine soup, salt, pepper, green chiles, and onion. Stir well. Add tortilla strips and chicken. Melt margarine in 9 x 13 casserole dish. Pour in chicken mixture. Spread sour cream over top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with crushed chips and bake 5 more minutes.

It's a BOY!

  

Source: etsy.com via Alina on Pinterest

And boy, oh boy are we excited! I'm so glad we found out and it's just been so fun looking at and picking out all things boy. People had been asking me if I felt like it was a boy or a girl beforehand, but I really didn't have a feeling either way. The morning of our appointment, I asked Jason if he had to say what he thought it might be and he mentioned our typical disclaimer first, "I'll be just as excited for either..." and then said "but I really think it's a boy." I told him I agreed. It was our first time verbalizing a prediction. So we headed to the doctor's office and it was the most amazing experience! The ultrasound tech was so nice, and you could just tell she LOVES checking up on babies. She called our little one "little munchkin, little sweetheart, etc" and was very thorough and told us a lot about the development and how everything looked. They checked the brain, heart, kidneys, bladder, umbilical cord, and checked for 10 fingers, 10 toes, and confirmed there was no club foot, no cleft lip and that there was skin fully formed behind the spine. Everything looked great and so then it was time to determine the sex. She said she could tell, but tried to get a good picture for us to be able to see. She joked that the baby was doing jazzercise and moving around like crazy.

The proof! :)

It took a while to get a profile and this is the best of the bunch. Sweet little face!

When we saw that it was a boy, I just started crying, and then the sweet teary eyes turned into a blubbering tissue-needing mess! I was just overwhelmed with emotions and thrilled that it was a healthy baby boy. Then of course the tech was cracking jokes left and right so then I started laughing so hard I was wheezing! I was a mess!! It was just such and exciting thing to see and we're hoping to remember to take a short video the next time we have an ultrasound. So fun to see him move around and practice his jazzercise! Ha!

After the appointment we texted/called family and then headed to Panera for a late breakfast, and to talk about our very eventful morning. We talked about names again, this time was so much more real since we knew it was a boy. We had basically picked the name at that point, but were still hesitant to just commit to start telling everyone. So, since we've now picked the name, it's no secret anymore.

CONNER GARRETT SMITH

This past weekend my mom and I went to Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us to just basically go down every aisle and talk about everything you need when you have a baby. It was so helpful, and at the same time, very overwhelming. There are just so many things you need, that you have never needed before until you are expecting a baby. Mommy-hood from experience is the best information to have, because you can read all the reviews you want, but the advice based on experience of people you know will always trump the internet.

While at Buy Buy Baby, we picked out a stroller and got to talk to the sales guy who was uber helpful. Yesterday, Kylee and I put it together (it was SO EASY) and put it in Conner's closet (our new baby storage).

http://www.chiccousa.com/gear/travel-systems/cortina-30lb-systems/travel-systems-30-romantic.aspx

It's been fun trying to figure out what all we want his room to be. I've taken the simplistic approach to bedding, and am hoping to add pops of color and interest to the wall decor and accessories. And I'm pretty much in love with every single piece of boy baby clothing I've seen. It's all just so adorable!

I can't wait to get the crib in his room all set up and arrange the furniture how we want it. Jason's mom and Aunt are coming in mid-October and bringing the crib with them. I cannot wait!

So for all you moms out there ... what are some of the must-have items, or specific brands you love?

Halfway there.

This week is the official halfway point of this pregnancy! While I can't believe I'm already halfway there, I'm thankful for 4 and a half more months to get everything ready for our little bundle of joy!

Only 2 more days until we find out whether it's a boy or a girl!! :)

A lot has happened in this past month...

We went on a New Mexico vacation with our friends, Chris and Kylee, and had a fabulous time. I definitely learned the hard way to take nausea medication any time I'm planning on driving for long periods of time, but once I found out, it was an easy fix. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it got cooler in the evenings (which I love). We were able to meet a lot of their friends and spend some time with Kylee's family. It was a great time with our friends and a great trip. Looking forward to our next vaca with them!

One weekend I organized my laundry room finally. Of course I couldn't do it without help from my mom and Kylee. It was great to have someone to bounce ideas back and forth with, and in the end I think it was hugely successful. I'll do a post soon about the details of that project - it was a big one.

I also bought curtains for our living room, dining room, kitchen, and master bathroom - all from Ikea - along with a rug for our living room. My project for this week is to hem the curtains in the master bath, living, and dining rooms. I'll take pictures once they're done - my house looks so much more homey with curtains!

 Kitchen curtains

 Rug for living room

 Master bathroom curtains

Living & dining room curtains

We also went on a beach vacation last week to Orange Beach, Alabama with my family. We stayed in an awesome condo, ate lots of seafood, got some sun, and just relaxed. The 12 hour drive was rough, but totally worth it. It was so nice to get away from our regular responsibilities, and just spend time together. The next vacation Jason and I will have will be the last one before the baby is born - our "babymoon" - in Dallas. That's another thing on my list of things to do soon - book our hotel and make restaurant reservations for our weekend getaway. I'm super excited for that.

That pretty much brings us up to date! I got The Help from my mom (she read it on vacation), and I can't wait to start reading tonight. I'll probably end up reading all day tomorrow, too. It's just been too long since I've sat down with a good book and just read. I've heard great things about it and can't wait to read it and then see the movie with my mom. Hopefully we can see the movie sometime this week or early next week - that would be awesome.

Our next OB appointment is Monday (the 15th) and we have our 20 week ultrasound. I am so hoping we can find out if it's a boy or a girl! I can't wait to start picking things out and talking more seriously about names. We've narrowed some down, but are keeping it to ourselves until we decide. It's just too easy to get hurt feelings about names. And other people never realize that they are saying things that hurt my feelings, which makes it even harder. So ... we'll just let you know when we decide. ;) I also still haven't felt the baby move yet ... so I'm hoping that happens soon, too. I hear it doesn't happen until much later with your first baby - so I'm hoping in the next few weeks I'll be able to feel it. It's probably going to be one of those things you wish for and then when it happens all I'll want is for the baby to just settle down and stop kicking me! Ha! Maybe it's just me, but I think it will be so cool to feel and experience I don't even think I'll mind.

A little birdie told me...

We are expecting!! It's true - and we are so excited. Baby Smith is due December 29, 2011, which means I'm officially starting my second trimester tomorrow! I'm feeling pretty great most days, just mostly tired and can smell everything. Sometimes that leads to a little queasiness, but for the most part no morning sickness, which I am so thankful for. So since I've known since early May, I've been keeping this secret for way too long. It was hard to blog about anything when I had this great news I wanted to share, so I just didn't blog. No worries - I'm back!

So early May we realized I was 2 weeks late on my period (normally I'm very aware of when I'm due, but since work was incredibly busy and stressful at the time, it totally slipped my mind), so we decided to pick up a package of pregnancy tests and just see. It made me super nervous and anxious to think that I could be pregnant. We had talked about it and decided to stop trying not to get pregnant and just see what happened. I was expecting it to take several months to get the timing right, but clearly I was wrong. So we got home and I took the pregnancy test and we waited in the bathroom watching it ... and lo and behold...

Jason was super excited and I was instantly freaked out. I kept telling him to go back in the bathroom to see if it changed to "not pregnant." I think my main reason for feeling freaked out was that it was so unexpected, and I had lots of nervousness, worry, and anxiety about whether the baby was in the right spot, healthy, and not twins. (A little story about the twins speculation ... over Christmas my mother-in-law, grandmother-in-law, and aunts-in-law kept saying it would be so great if I had twins. To the point where I was thinking "I want a baby someday, but I don't know if I can handle twins....") So we called and scheduled our first meeting at the doctor's office which was with the pregnancy coordinator - it ended up being the day after my last day at work. The pregnancy coordinator was so sweet and full of great information. It was fun for Jason and I to get the bag of "goodies" and information and ask some questions and schedule our first appointment with the doctor. That first appointment was actually on our wedding anniversary (June 2, which was 10 weeks), so that was pretty cool. We had an ultrasound and got to see the little baby and hear the heartbeat. It was so cool for Jason and I to experience together and at that point the worry was gone, and excitement was in full force.

So then we had another appointment at 12 weeks to get me on the schedule the doctor uses to see pregnant women, which right now is every 4 weeks. At the 12 week appointment it was very short and easy. Blood pressure, heard the heartbeat, and asked some questions. The next day we did our Sequential Screening and that appointment was so cool. We had a sonogram and the baby was dancing around like crazy! It was very cool to see and we haven't heard anything back from that appointment, and no news is good news. Very happy for that!

My friend Tayler offered to make pregnancy announcement cards for us to send out to family and I definitely took her up on that offer! She did such a great job and I LOVE how they turned out! 

 

If you want to check out more of her work, check her out at

http://etchcreativedesign.com. She's a very talented designer!

It was so fun to tell family and friends and everyone is so excited which is awesome. Next on our list of things to do is pick out a crib. We've looked at Crib 4 Life and like the Infinity, Kathryn, and Legendary Curve beds in Espresso. It will be nice to make the decision and check it off our list.

Next up is our 16 week appointment on July 18. It sure does seem like a long time from now, but I'm sure it will fly by. :)

New Fence

Since moving here, our fence was completely rotten and was practically falling over. We had it propped up with a 2x4 in the back and the side gate only had one hinge attached. Needless to say ... we needed a new fence.

So, a few weeks ago the fence guys came to tear down the old fence and put the new posts in. The next day they came and put the new fence up. It extends further into the front yard to make the backyard bigger. We are so excited about this awesome upgrade to our house.

 Old fence pics...

 Real classy... Ha!

 New fence!! :)

Who said you need to travel the world to Eat Pray Love?

My husband and I recently made the big decision for me to quit my job and start a new phase in my life. I just realized that there were so many things that I was putting off or just simply not doing because I was so exhausted/overwhelmed by my day job, like reading my bible, working out, cooking at home more, organizing my home, and getting a handle on the responsibilities at home.

I work for a construction company as an administrative assistant - and the job required a lot of multi-tasking and involved juggling several projects at one time. I rarely stay late, but when we've got big projects due, I have to stay until it's done (two weeks ago I had to stay until 11:20pm working on a project ... not fun). It's not that it's too much work or that I can't handle the requirements of the job - it's that I brought my work home with me and worried about it during the evenings and checked my email outside of work to give me a general idea of what I would have to face when I got back into the office. My stress level was higher than I'd have liked, and I was just so exhausted by the time I got home that all I wanted to do was sit on the couch. For me, a job is something to keep me busy and to add to the family income, not a career to build upon. After a lot of conversation, prayer, and planning, I gave my 2-4 week notice last Monday. I basically said that I understand the value of training and that I'd be willing to stay to train my replacement if they'd like me to do so. I've been compiling my "how-to" document that will serve as an "Instruction Manual" for my position over the last week, as well as tying up loose ends. It will be sad to leave since I've been with the company in my current position 2 1/2 years, but also have worked here since my college days and started in 2004. My co-workers are like my family and I will miss them a lot when I'm gone, but I am confident in my decision and look forward to this new phase in my life!

So, today as I was blog hopping, I was doing a little research on the Money Saving Mom website.

She is all about couponing and saving money, which is something I'd really like to get better at - especially now that I'll have more time. I know I'm not a mom yet, but I think the principles are still great and incredibly useful. I'm excited to see what all I can learn and apply to our family budget.

The specific article I started with was this one. I'm really looking forward to starting with these baby steps!!