Have you ever seen anything so beautiful??

All hail the..........

Portable dishwasher! We just got it last night! (Thanks to the help of everyone for the birthday money!)

It's one that is portable now but can be converted to a permanent one when we are able to re-do the kitchen.

This was probably one of my BIGGEST problems with the house when we were even considering buying it was that they didn't have a dishwasher or garbage disposal. I am not really sure why since they had obviously redone the kitchen at some point. But who ever really knows what previous homeowners were thinking sometimes :)

I LOVE IT! It had it's maiden voyage last night and it worked perfectly and we didn't end up with water everywhere so I guess we used it right :)

I am sooooo glad that I won't have to hand wash everything anymore (or baby bottles when she comes) or use paper plates every time we have company. Plus, lately whenever I am washing the dishes, I end up washing my belly too!

God bless the person who invented these things :)

Abby's Nursery

Well, we went and bought paint for miss Abby's nursery yesterday and I hope to get that started this week.

Her room is going to be done with Ladybugs which I am really hoping will turn out at cute as I envision it to be.

I am planning on putting some of my own personal touches in the room as I go, but you will just have to wait until it is done to see what they are :)


We got her furniture in several weeks ago and have it all put together and we are both really happy with the way it turned out! (you just never really know when you order something from a picture)

All we have left to get is a rocker and a small chaning table.

Here is her crib which is convertable to a toddler bed, a day bed and a bench so we are sure to get plenty of use out of it.

Here is the dresser that will no doubt be filled with tons of clothes before long. :)

And here is our other baby making sure we know that he is the most important thing in the room :)

How we told everybody :)

We probably waited about 6 weeks or so to tell everybody because those first couple of weeks are so uncertain and we didn't want to "jump the gun".

For Joe's 30th birthday I threw him a surprise birthday party with the help of our friends and family. Everyone was at the house waiting for him to come home from golfing and I had been trying all afternoon to not make it too obvious that I wasn't drinking. (which isn't too big of a deal since I really don't drink much)

I knew when Joe got home and realized what was going on he would eventually want to just tell everyone since everybody that was at the house were all people that we would have told first anyway.

Of course, Joe got home and we had the big surprise (which he almost ate it coming down the stairs). After settling in we were both upstairs and he asked me if we just wanted to tell everybody and I told him that it was his party so it was up to him if he wanted to make it about the baby too. So we decided to spill the beans :)

The best part was that we hadn't even told our parents yet :) They had no idea that we were even trying and so I think they were a little blind-sided. On top of it for my parents was that my sister was due with her first in only a couple months. :)

So Joe and I went downstairs and he just made a little speech thanking everyone for coming to celebrate his 30th with him. Joe then said that we had a little announcement to make and he said that we were expecting a little one. So I guess he got the last laugh :)

It was so neat to see the reaction on every one's faces, especially our parents who were in complete shock. (my mother didn't close her mouth for like 10 minutes) I guess we could have told them separately but we are both happy with just surprising everyone.

The next several minutes were filled with hugs and congrats from everyone and then we all just enjoyed the rest of the evening!

How we found out

I just realized that I never put anything on here about when we found out that God decided to allow us to reproduce. :) (crazy I know)

There's not a whole lot to the story, we decided to start "trying" but that we would just let happen what would happen and not put a whole lot of thought into it. Of course there had to be some planning because of my medical issues over the past year. I went to all of my doctors and told them our plans and discussed everything with them before we even tried. That way we were assured that all of my drugs were okay for me to be on in case I got pregnant.

So about 3 months later I hadn't really noticed any difference just that I'd had some heartburn but I didn't really think anything of it. Because of crazy woman hormones I had no idea when would be the time that I would need to take a pregnancy test.

Well one night, crazy as this sounds, I had a dream that I took a pregnancy test and it came back positive. So, when I woke up that morning for work, I decided to go ahead and take one. Right away it showed up that I was pregnant! I couldn't stop shaking or looking at it and then looking at the box to make sure I was reading it right. :)

I immediately turned off the shower and rushed into our bedroom. Joe was still sleeping but startled when I came rushing in so fast. He woke up and asked me what was wrong and I just blurted out "I'm pregnant!"

It took him several minutes to wake up totally and he just kept asking me if I was sure and how the test worked and all kinds of other dumb husband questions. And all he was concerned about at the time was that when I was hugging him, the little stick was just a little too close to his head :)

So, then we collected ourselves, I somehow managed to get myself ready for work and made it through the day.

We had a doctors appointment later that day for me to talk to Dr. Ramos about his diet plan (the one that Joe has done so well on) Joe was just coming along to hear about it so he could decide if he wanted to do it or not.

So when the doctor came in I told him about our news and he of course said, "well, no diet for you". And since Joe still had some reservations about how excited he wanted to get because he wansn't too sure how accurate those tests are, the Doc did a blood test for me.

The doctors office called the next day and said that there was no denying it that I was pregnant. Joe finally let go of some of his denial and the rest is history! :)

24 Weeks!!!

She is growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

She is constantly kicking and is even kicking hard enough for not only Joe to be able to feel it, but sometimes you can actually see my stomach move when she's doing her acrobatics.

She has pretty apparant sleep and wake cycles now so I have a pretty good idea of when she is going to be moving around.

It's A................

GIRL!!!!!

Abigail Ann (Abby)

We went for my ultrasound on Thursday last week and found out that most importantly she is nice and healthy. However, the little booger wasn't real cooperative and so we didn't get a good look at her. The tech said that she thought it was a girl but couldn't really commit to it. She was sitting with her legs crossed and her chin tucked into her chest so they couldn't get a profile shot of her either so they need to do another one when I go back in 6 weeks.

Well, you know that I am no way patient enough to wait another 6 WEEKS to find out for sure, so I found one of those places that does just ultrasounds for fun so I went there on Friday.

Luckily the first thing the tech looked for was gender because she didn't give us a good shot the rest of the time. But they said definitely a girl. (This time you could actually see little girl parts, where before they were going on just not being able to see boy parts)

It was very cool to see her moving around in there though. She was really active the second time. She was kicking those little legs and moving around, putting her hands up by her face and even opening and closing her mouth. At one point she moved her head back and then opened her mouth up really quick so it almost looked like she laughed. :)
(figures, she's already laughing at us)


Here is the "money" shot to show us she's a little girl.









And here is a shot of her looking at the camera with her little hand in front of one eye.





I have no idea if I can figure out how to put up some of the video but I will try.

Now we get to do all of the fun stuff like buy clothes and get her room ready!!!

Joe is already setting dating guidelines and has been making plans for us to move to a one room hut on an island with no boys. :)

20 weeks and Big Ultrasound tomorrow!!!!!

The baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He/she is also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a bananna. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his/her torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his/her head to the bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he/she is measured from head to toe.) The baby is swallowing more these days, which is good practice for its digestive system. He/she is also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

We go in for the big ultrasound tomorrow at 1:00!!! I can't wait to find out what this little one is, and more importantly to find out that the baby is healthy and developing right on track.

We ordered the crib and dresser over the weekend and they should be in on the 10th. I can't wait to start decorating the room once we know what flavor this munchkin is.

I have been getting kicked on a very regular basis. This little one moves around quite a bit. Joe even got to feel him/her kick a few times the other day. :)

I will let you all know tomorrow how everything goes at the doctor.