Growth spurt

All of a sudden my belly bump has become quite obvious! I love it now that strangers are able to recognize me as a "with child"! :)

18 weeks

21 weeks

25 weeks

Ariel

My sister, Kristi just got the cutest puppy ever!! Ariel is a 10-week old miniature dachshund and has the best and feistiest personality ever. She is so tiny and wrinkly and at first was terrified (and rightfully so) of Scout. Now she is nearly leaping from my arms to play with him, although if he comes too close she runs for cover under Kristi's legs.

It was neat to see how Scout reacted to such a small thing...oh but he has no idea what he's in for in a couple of months.

John and Allison's wedding

The weekend after spring break, Clay, Scout, and I went back to Ft. Worth for a fun fun wedding. John is one of Clay's good good friends from high school. I love seeing Clay's friends get married, especially when they are blessed enough to find amazing wives like Allison.

Well, John and Alli ended up getting married at the same church as my good friend Allison Gilmore...it was neat to be back there and relive their moment too! We were just out of college and it was only my second time to be a bridesmaid. It is amazing how differently I view wedding ceremonies now that I'm married! The words and prayers mean so so much more. I also loved watching my handsome husband from the pews as he has done many times for me.

The reception was at a neat restaurant called Lonesome Dove in the stockyards. We had a blast and danced the night away, but my favorite part was the firepit complete with blankets and smores! Yumm (way to win a pregnant ladies heart!)

Spring Break

Whoa, it has been a long time since I blogged! Lots has happened over the last few weeks and I will be slowly updating and catching up.

Starting with my spring break, it was soooo nice to have an entire week off from work! Scout and I made the short road trip up to Ft. Worth to spend some time relaxing with my parents. I love where they live, it is always so relaxing!

While in Ft. Worth, I was able to meet up with some great friends, Allison and Paige! They are both such amazing moms and I hope I handle motherhood as gracefully and wonderfully as those two have. They both have precious daughters so it was really fun for me to see them in action.

Me at 22 weeks with Paige 31 weeks!

Allison and Me

The rest of my time was spent by my parents pool, it wasn't warm enough to layout but I had fun just being in the sun and constantly throwing Scout the ball. Here he is begging for the ball to be thrown (see how polite and patient he is being!!)

That doesn't last long, he wanted his ball badly, about an hour and a half of ball time and I was soaked with cold, cold pool water.

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. :)