Busy week!

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

My countdown began long ago, but we're FINALLY only a few days away from finding out the sex of Baby Bird. Everyone has their guesses, obviously. Mine is boy - however, I have no reasons to back this up. If I go off of old wives tales, then it's a girl - but I'm still saying boy. Here are some of the old wives tales that predict it's a girl:

1. I'm craving sugar, not salt - which means girl
2. The wedding ring test went in circles, not back and fourth
3. The heart rate is over 140

I felt bad because I always hear pregnant friends say they just "know" or "knew" what the gender of the baby was before birth. I don't have a clue! I prayed one night that God would reveal it to me in a dream - I did dream about a boy, but Christina Aguilera was babysitting, so I think that voids the dream. I have also had dreams about a girl - it's driving me nuts.

Jonathon says it's a boy, but I think it's wishful thinking as opposed to what his gut is saying. We'll be happy either way, we just want to know that Bird has all of it's organs and parts - which we'll get to find out also on Monday.

The lab screwed up my blood work, which was horrible because you can only do certain tests at certain times through out the pregnancy. So - luckily, completely by pure blessing - I was only a few days away from my window of opportunity when I found this out. So, I just had to go donate more blood for analyzing and in May we'll find out those results.

We found out I'm NOT immune to the cat disease, and since we have a cat, I am not allowed to change the litter box. Jonathon has been such a trooper with handling that. Really, he's done a ton! Those first few months were really bad with me being sick, and he really handled a lot for me. He is however back to asking me to lay out uniforms and make his doctor appointments - so everything is back to normal. I'm feeling really good, just hungry!

Mexican food is my weakness. I lay in bed sometimes dreaming of burritos and salsa. I've also come to really rely on french fries. No odd cravings, just intense ones.

I will say that we picked our boy name. It's the ONLY name Jonathon and I agreed upon, so that's why it stuck. It's "J" name, and so is the middle - if it's a girl, we'll have to go back to the drawing board.

To make this post even longer - I finally found the bedding and gear we like. It took TONS of research, which I love doing. I have to read up on everything - and with safety reports now, I get even more info! I was bummed at first that Babies R Us seemed to be the only mass market for a lot of this stuff, but Bed Bath & Beyond has an entire section of baby things that I was unaware of. Everything we like is from there or Pottery Barn - so now we just need to find out the gender so we can order it!! I'm so excited I made that discovery because I'm a huge fan of Bed Bath and Beyond. The boys bedding is Eddie Bauer - tools...and the girls is dragon flies and butterflies - oh goodness it's adorable, but not cheesy. Our travel system is also there, by Chicco. I suppose this is more information than anyone probably cares about - so I'll end with that. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend - new post on Monday!

Happy April!

It seems like our week has been very busy, but looking back we did a lot of relaxing! I returned to Maryland last Wednesday. I had a great time in Colorado - I ate so much good food that I find myself obsessing over the the restaurants there! I have been craving Mexican food like none other. Too bad we don't have anything other than a Taco Bell here in Maryland.

Jonathon and I went to our baby's doctor appointment on the 30th. We heard the heartbeat for the first time. They couldn't find it last time, but since that was so long ago they didn't have any trouble this time. The doctor gave me a pill to settle my stomach more. She's worried about the lack of weight gain, but confident that it's all normal so far we just want to see more.

We did MORE blood work. So far all of our results have been good, so I pray that this new set will be, too! We still have to make our appointment with radiology to get the "BIG" ultrasound. They will check all of the baby's organs, and fingers and toes, etc, make sure it's all there and functioning. We tried to make the appointment when we were already in the hospital, but for whatever reason we have to call.

We have decided that when we find out the baby's gender, we will tell everyone - we just won't release the name until the baby is born. I'm sure that will kill some people! I know it would for me.

My mom is being so amazing and throwing a baby shower this summer. I'm excited because I love parties, and in our family, we have the best get together's.

My mom is planning on making a trip out here when the baby is born, which is great because Jonathon and I are kind of on our own way out here. Plus, she has raised six kids, so I figure she may know what she's talking about.

In other news, we are hoping to move out of Maryland soon. Jonathon really wants to take a job at Lackland AFB, which is in San Antonio, TX. We're pretty much over the whole Maryland gig, plus, there's Mexican food there and that's seriously all I want! :)

I hope everything is going well for everyone! Here are some CO pictures!

February wrap up

It's been too long since my last post! I got emails from various people that didn't know we were having a baby and found out through the blog - SORRY! We hoped we had made our rounds, and thought the domino would take effect - and for the most part, it did. We're heading into our 4th month here in a week, and the doctor is sticking with a very late August/early September baby.

I have promised to email my Aunt Michelle first when we find out the baby's gender, which should be in April. All the old wives tales says it's a girl, but I still have some doubt. Only 3 people think it's a boy, but those people are hardly ever wrong. We'll see! We just had our first ultra-sound and it's amazing how our little bird already looks completely like a baby. Seeing him/her move was the best part. Our child is active - which leads me to wonder if this gives any insight as to how wild they'll be once they are born.

Jon and I were secretly hoping for twins so we never have to do this again - but it doesn't appear that way. :) Jonathon has been so funny - he loves the "supplies" part of this process. He always picks up the bottle liners when we're at the store and we often look online for all the product reviews. We have been discussing names a lot. When we watch tv, we always turn to each other and ask about a name we just heard. So far, we don't gravitate towards anything really traditional for first names. Taylor Grace and Jackson James are the newest additions to the list.

Since Jon is adopted and we don't know his family medical history, the doctors have been poking me with needles non stop. I actually need to go in again next week for more testing! My arms are starting to hurt! So far, everything is fine, however we have some major tests coming up. We know the Lord will take care of this baby though and cover it in blessings.

I'm headed to Colorado to get my braces off! It's a nice time to go since Jonathon will be in Texas for training. I'll be there for almost a month - which I can hardly believe.

We hope everything is going great with everyone out there!

And baby makes 3

I'm pretty sure Jonathon has called everyone, so I think it's safe to let the cat out of the bag... We're having a baby.

No really, we are. We're in our fifth week and we already have doctor appointments set up.

This was completely unplanned and came as a huge shock to us, but we're welcoming it and glad we get such a great blessing. Jonathon and I both are adjusting to the reality that in 8 months we'll be more tired than we ever have been.

I'm trying to convince him to still go to Colorado for the holidays, but since we just got back from traveling SO much, I think both he and I are still mentally worn out. We're still thinking about it, but with a new baby, how could we not show him/her off?

My mom thinks it's a boy - Jennifer thinks it's a girl - Emilie wants a girl - Matthew wants a boy - Ricky changes his mind - Jon wants a boy and I am now leaning towards a girl. Those are all the predictions so far...but I'm pretty sure there is going to be a pool going.

So far all I want is peperoni pizza - which I have yet to have. Giving up Diet Coke was horrible, but I did it and haven't had one since we found out we have a baby bird. (That's what we call it, for whatever reason)

Jonathon is back to work now, after having so much time off. I was so sad to see him go. I hate sleeping alone, but I'm getting more used to it. I know he likes being back, and that's what matters.

I hope everyone had happy holidays!

Winter

Here are the pictures that our wedding photographer took while we were in Colorado for Christmas. (Steve Glass)

I'm only posting a few because there was like 151 of them or something!

After the holidays

I think I'm still trying to catch up after all of the excitement of the holidays. Jonathon graduated from ALS December 17, and we were off to Omaha on December 18. However, my connecting flight was late resulting in us missing our plane to Nebraska. After spending a VERY long night in the Minneapolis airport we were on our way again. We spent a weekend with Jonathon's family. They had arranged a little Christmas get together with their family so they could celebrate with Jon and I. I enjoyed having little kids around again - as the ones in my family seem so old now.

We took off for Colorado the morning of the 22nd and my dad and little brother, Matthew were at DIA waiting for us. My cute little brother brought me taffy - my favorite. We were so exhausted from the 5 planes or so we were already on (and hours of driving to and from airports) that my parents arranged for my dad's side of the family to come to my parents house for Christmas Eve so that we didn't have to drive to Denver. It was amazing to see everybody and definitely made our night special. As usual, my sister, Jennifer and I wrapped all the gifts together and on Christmas we got to open our own.

I keep getting asked what we got so - - Here's a break down of some of the favorite gifts: Emilie got a new TV, computer games, the DS cooking game thing...Ricky loved his Hulk game, a Wii thing...Matt and Emilie got Guitar Hero World Tour with all those weird instuments...Jon and I got a Sony Handycam. That was my favorite gift for sure. We have already started filming our dog and cat doing funny little things. It's so small and has this touch screen thing. We also got a lot of kitchen items, and some other fun stuff. Thank you!

We truly had an amazing Christmas. It was great so see everyone that we don't get to see too often. (And it was great seeing the people I am so used to being around) I'll be back there in March to get my braces off!

Thanksgiving

I was a bit worried at first as to how I would deal with being without family for Thanksgiving. As it turned out - it was completely fine. I don't eat meat anyway, so I didn't miss the turkey part. Jonathon watched football ALL day, so I was in and out of the living room with him. Jonathon made snow crab for dinner, with some pasta, corn, etc. We took Bella on her walk, and went to bed. We are so old!

We're getting super excited about going home for Christmas. We leave Maryland the 19th of December for Omaha. Jonathon graduates from ALS on the 18th, so we need to be here for that. We leave Omaha to go to Colorado on the 22nd. I'm so thankful that this year we will be with family for Christmas - especially since we can't guarantee that for next year. We'll be back in Maryland just in time to ring in 2009. I can't believe how fast this year has gone!! I'm looking forward to next year starting - hopefully we won't have quite as much going on as we did this year! It's great to just have the deployment over with, and moving over with - and finally just breathe.

My best friend, Shawna, is getting married in June. I'll be going to Texas for that by myself. Jonathon and I are planning on going to Michigan in July to visit his friends and my family. It's so great that we can see so many people in one trip. I'm looking forward to just going boating and relaxing! We're hoping to train the dog not to bark so that she can come, too.