Silly dog

So just when we thought Spring was here, a cold blast of air hit Houston and brought on 4 solid days of rain. I am in no way complaining though...we needed the rain in the worst way!!!

Scout hasn't seen this much rain since he was a small puppy. I, not thinking about this, decided Friday after I got home from work, that he had too much energy to stay inside and that he would like being in the rain.

He loved it, running back and forth in the back yard as fast as possible, tearing around corners of the house at top speed. Well he was enjoying himself so much I decided to leave him there (usually when he wants in he comes to the door and lets us know.) Well, I got busy messing around online and forgot about him. He never came to the door. So about an hour later I go to check on my sweet sweet dog and see that he is no longer black...but soaked and covered from head to tail in mud! He managed to find the only hole in our backyard and dig basically to China!!!

Poor Clay did not know that when he got home he would get to give this wild thing a bath outside!

Its a....

(Many of you already know this...I am terribly late (2 weeks) in posting, but I had to do it anyway! :)

Clay had a great (but anxiety-inducing) idea of how we should find out if baby Graham was a boy or girl. He/We decided to wait and not have the sonographer tell us. Instead, she put a picture of the baby with the words "Its a ____" in a sealed envelope. That envelope sat on our mantle taunting me for 5 days. That was so tough and made me quite anxious!!! We invited our families over on Saturday for a little celebration and we had each of them wear blue if they thought baby was a boy, and wear pink if they thought baby was a girl. (In case you are wondering, Clay is wearing navy and I am wearing pink shoes!)

Finally, once everyone was in the same place at once, we were able to open the envelope. We were about to bust.

Cute cake from Aunt Kristi!!

It's a Girl!!! How much fun we had!!! Let the shopping and celebrating begin!!

Can you tell we were shocked! (And don't worry, that is Clay's wine!)

Baby Graham already has a name...Riley!! (No middle name just yet, we are still deciding) It is so wonderful to know its a girl and I already feel more connected to the baby!! We can now call her by name and start planning the nursery!! So so so exciting!!

As exciting and suspenseful as this was, I have already put my foot down for next time. We will not being doing this again. I want the sonographer to be able to show me and tell me exactly how she knows it is a girl/boy. (The picture in the envelope was not every reassuring...though I trust our sonographer completely...it would still have been nice to see more than one angle.)

Half way there!

Wow so this week I am 20 weeks pregnant! Clay and I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by.

Monday we had the "big" ultrasound. How exciting it was to see how much baby Graham has grown and changed. I was so worried this sonogram would be too short for me to really get a good look at the baby, but it was the opposite. Our sonographer (?) was wonderful and spent so much time with us. She checked out every single body part of our little one and let us ask millions of questions. How cool it was to see the 4 chambers of the heart and to see it pumping!!

A foot with some fingers just above it.

The best part of the whole thing was when we were seeing the babies' legs on the monitor, suddenly baby G kicked. I felt it and saw it all at the same time!! (Until then I had thought I was feeling kicks, but wasn't 100% sure, so it totally confirmed it! Apparently baby G is quite the mover and shaker, the whole time moving arms, legs, flipping around. Too funny!!

Head to the left, hand to the right.

Clay and I asked the sonographer to not tell us if baby G is a boy or girl, but to place it in an envelope (sealed envelope.) We will be opening it this weekend with both of our families!! :)

Profile. Its amazing the images a sonogram can produce!!

We can't wait and are both totally wanting to take sneak peeks...

Love my neighborhood!

The other day Clay and I were cooking dinner, getting ready for Clay's best friend Joe to come over with his fiance when Clay said "what is that taped to our door?" I brushed it off thinking it was just another lawn service advertisement. Then I heard "aw" followed by laughter. It is not often my large hottie of a fellow says "aw" so I knew it would be good. Taped to our door is this letter...This love letter of sorts was from Scouts "girlfriend" Ruby. Scout has loved Ruby since about 4 months old and he gets so excited and wound up when she comes around. Ruby just happens to be a giant Mastiff that puts up with all of Scouts naughtiness (including bites to the ears, lips, etc.) And when she's had enough she is able to toss him to the ground and puts her giant jaws on his neck. I will try to get pictures of this play date in action.

Daily, Scout goes on a scavenger hunt. This is his newest treasure. A massive stick. He carried this thing around the whole block, approximately 1 mile. Many neighbors stopped their cars when driving by to laugh and comment at his sillyness and one even asked if he could take a picture with his cell phone. :) The stick looks smaller in the picture, it is actually taller that I am. He so proudly held his head up high carrying his prize down the road.

And lastly, here I am at 16 weeks. This picture was taken yesterday. The students at school are starting to notice and touch my belly, rest their heads on it to listen, and are asking for it to get larger. I, myself am in no hurry. I have seen the size and uncomfortable proportions of a third trimester belly. :)

Congrats!!

My dear friend, Miranda and her husband Chad, were blessed Monday night with the birth of their baby. Ranger and mom are doing great!! To see precious pictures, go to their blog :)

Not so exhausted

Whoops, it has been awhile but lots has happened!

First, Clay and I had a wonderful Christmas! We spent most of our time at my parents house. It is so relaxing there and it was great to get a lot of rest. We got our first baby and maternity gifts!! Yea! Lots of Tech things from Mom, Dad and Kristi, and a few onsies too (I have heard you can never have enough of those.) I also received some soon to be heavily used Bella bands and a couple of maternity shirts. Thanks so much, ya'll really spoil us! We also had Christmas with Clay's parents, it is always nice to get up to Kingwood, unfortunately we just don't do it enough.

On December 29th, Clay and I had our second doctor's appointment and got to hear the precious sound of the babys heart beating. I have never been so excited and relieved. (Unfortunately the moments before the joyous sound were incredibly stressful...the doctor was having a tough time with a new machine and had to get out an older one to hear baby Graham it seemed to take like 20 mins but Clay claims it really was only about 5 minutes.) The nurse declared that since the baby was hiding it must be a boy...haha we shall see.

We have our next appointment early February and we will get another sonogram...but I don't think we will get to know the sex of the baby until early March.

I am starting to get a small baby bump, most of my jeans are very snug. But thanks to Bella Bands and Tummy Sleeves there is no need for maternity jeans yet.

We don't have before pics of my belly but just picture same as above minus the small pouch. This picture was taken at 12 weeks. I won't be fitting into these jeans much longer...squeeeeze.

Bun...

in the oven!!!!!!

Yes!!! Clay and I are having a baby! We are so thrilled and excited, and are grateful for this wonderful blessing from God. I am a little over 9 weeks pregnant and due around July 19th. At 7 weeks, Clay and I had our first doctor's appointment and saw the heartbeat. What an amazing thing, it really hit home then that this was real! :)

The doctor said the bottom part of the blob is the head and the upper part is the body (she knew this because of where the heartbeat was coming from.)

I have also been so blessed not to have morning sickness or nausea of any kind. However, I have been so totally exhausted. So I am really looking forward to starting my Christmas vacation tomorrow...rest, relax, rest, relax, that's all I want to do!

Please keep us in your prayers in this exciting time!

Snow and Joe

Yes, this is a week late...but it snowed in Houston!! It didn't stick but it was so fun for everyone including Scout. It is pretty rare here, so people tend to freak...especially the news reporters and weathermen.

Also, last weekend we attended an engagement party for Joe and Melissa. Congrats you two...we are so very excited for ya'll! :)