It is hard to believe that another Christmas day has come and gone! We had a wonderful Christmas, surrounded by family, lots of good food and of course, rain. It is Washington, after all! We missed all of the family we weren't able to celebrate with this year.
We are now in the home stretch of time until baby girl arrives! We have about 9 weeks until I am full term, and less than 12 weeks until she is due. We've got a lot to do in that time, but we feel like most of it will get done in January. Mario is going to paint the room this week, and then we are going to start organizing her things in the room. Mario has off work this week, and we are looking forward to spending some time together. We realized today that the next time we have extended time off together, it will be that Mario took time off work for the baby's arrival!
We hope you all have a wonderful start to the new year. I'm not sure I can stay up until midnight, as I'm usually pretty exhausted by 8 or 9 pm. I'm not as excited about being awake when 2011 arrives as I am about other events in 2011, so I may just give in and go to bed early. :)
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
December!
Happy December! It is hard to believe another year has flown by, and it is again holiday season! We've had a busy but festive couple of weeks, starting with a big "November storm" in which the area received 2" of snow that basically shut down our entire area. Just two days later, Mario and I arrived at the airport extra early to fly to Chicago on the busiest travel day of the year. After checking in online, bypassing the baggage area because we only took carry-on luggage, and waiting behind (only!) 10 other people in the security line, we arrived at our gate 4 hours early. Mario was a good sport, and he watched a movie while I read a book. I definitely wasn't stressed about traveling after we had all that extra time, and it made for quite a good story!
Thanksgiving in Valparaiso was a fantastic time. We crammed in a lot of wonderful family time, great meals, bridesmaid dress shopping, a Christmas party, football game, shopping, and lots of games of "Signs", including the game that debuted Nathan's new signature move, the pants shimmy. :) We returned home with a lot of wonderful memories!
The day we left for Chicago, Mario received the news that he passed his first CPA exam, the auditing section. He now has 18 months (from the date of that first test) to complete the other three sections of the exam. His next test is scheduled for the end of February, hopefully before baby M&M makes her debut sometime in March!
Baby M&M and I are doing well. People have started to tell me that I'm "finally looking pregnant", which I figure would happen eventually, especially since we only have approximately 3 months until her arrival! She is at that stage where she is very strong, but still has a good amount of space to move and pack some power. She can stop me in my tracks these days with a well-placed punch or kick, although for the most part she is a fairly calm baby. We've gotten paint samples for her room and will be hopefully painting it before the new year, so we can start putting some furniture in there!
I just have one week of school left until winter break. I haven't been doing too much holiday preparation this week, but I have big plans to do lots of baking and fun holiday things once I start vacation.
Thanksgiving in Valparaiso was a fantastic time. We crammed in a lot of wonderful family time, great meals, bridesmaid dress shopping, a Christmas party, football game, shopping, and lots of games of "Signs", including the game that debuted Nathan's new signature move, the pants shimmy. :) We returned home with a lot of wonderful memories!
The day we left for Chicago, Mario received the news that he passed his first CPA exam, the auditing section. He now has 18 months (from the date of that first test) to complete the other three sections of the exam. His next test is scheduled for the end of February, hopefully before baby M&M makes her debut sometime in March!
Baby M&M and I are doing well. People have started to tell me that I'm "finally looking pregnant", which I figure would happen eventually, especially since we only have approximately 3 months until her arrival! She is at that stage where she is very strong, but still has a good amount of space to move and pack some power. She can stop me in my tracks these days with a well-placed punch or kick, although for the most part she is a fairly calm baby. We've gotten paint samples for her room and will be hopefully painting it before the new year, so we can start putting some furniture in there!
I just have one week of school left until winter break. I haven't been doing too much holiday preparation this week, but I have big plans to do lots of baking and fun holiday things once I start vacation.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
A week of thanks
Happy Thanksgiving week! We are having a wonderful year this year, with a lot to be thankful for. We are both extremely lucky to have each other, as well as wonderful family and friends. This year, we are especially thankful for baby girl M&M, who will be joining us sometime early next spring.
In other exciting news, we got our first snow of the season earlier this week. It snowed a little bit on Sunday night, then throughout the day on Monday. We both love snow, even though this area pretty much shuts down for snow. We go for a walk around the neighborhood anytime it is snowing, even with the 40 mph winds we had last night! We are hoping for a very snowy winter this year. Everything looks so beautiful covered in snow!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are thankful for your presence in our lives!
In other exciting news, we got our first snow of the season earlier this week. It snowed a little bit on Sunday night, then throughout the day on Monday. We both love snow, even though this area pretty much shuts down for snow. We go for a walk around the neighborhood anytime it is snowing, even with the 40 mph winds we had last night! We are hoping for a very snowy winter this year. Everything looks so beautiful covered in snow!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are thankful for your presence in our lives!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Baby M&M is a...
We found out last week that baby M&M is a beautiful, healthy little GIRL! We are absolutely ecstatic and so excited to be welcoming a little girl into our lives. We've (mostly Maran) already had a lot of fun shopping for little girl clothes. They are all so cute!
Our ultrasound was fabulous. M&M cooperated right away, and the tech was able to tell us from the beginning that she was a girl. She is growing right on track, and weighs about a pound now. She is somewhere between 10"-12" long, with extremely long legs and arms. (We told her we weren't surprised, since she is getting height from both of us!) She was being a gymnast the whole time, with her knees most often seen right above her nose. She doesn't like being poked and prodded, and tries to move away when the ultrasound or doppler gets too close to her. The tech showed us that she has a lot of space, but she seems content to stay bent into a ball in a small section of space. At one point during the ultrasound, she was turning around and playing with her hands and/or fluid, which was adorable. It was almost surreal to see her kicking and punching on the screen while being able to feel it at the same time! We were also able to see both of her kidneys, both sections of the brain and all four parts of the heart. It is amazing how much detail shows up on the ultrasound!
Here are some pictures of me, 21.5 weeks pregnant:
Our ultrasound was fabulous. M&M cooperated right away, and the tech was able to tell us from the beginning that she was a girl. She is growing right on track, and weighs about a pound now. She is somewhere between 10"-12" long, with extremely long legs and arms. (We told her we weren't surprised, since she is getting height from both of us!) She was being a gymnast the whole time, with her knees most often seen right above her nose. She doesn't like being poked and prodded, and tries to move away when the ultrasound or doppler gets too close to her. The tech showed us that she has a lot of space, but she seems content to stay bent into a ball in a small section of space. At one point during the ultrasound, she was turning around and playing with her hands and/or fluid, which was adorable. It was almost surreal to see her kicking and punching on the screen while being able to feel it at the same time! We were also able to see both of her kidneys, both sections of the brain and all four parts of the heart. It is amazing how much detail shows up on the ultrasound!
Here are some pictures of me, 21.5 weeks pregnant:
Thursday, October 28, 2010
M&M is a kicker!
I've been feeling the baby's movement from about week 16, but the most exciting moment so far was when Mario was able to feel the baby's kicks just shy of my 19th week. I feel the baby strongly when I get home from work and at night, so either I'm too busy at work to notice or the baby's schedule is a bit different than mine! :) Mario walked in the door just as a new round of kicks started, and I excitedly called him over to see if he could feel. They felt pretty strong to me, and sure enough he was able to feel the baby! It was an amazing moment. We were even able to see my stomach jump and move around while M&M was kicking. Sometimes the kicks stay centered in one place, but other times I can tell the baby is really active because the kicks/punches come from all areas, so I know the baby is moving around. This feels to me like a big milestone in the pregnancy!
We have just one week left until we find out the sex of the baby, and we are both getting anxious to know! We are excited to learn a little bit more about the little person in our lives, and are ready to start buying things and planning for M&M's arrival.
In news not related to the baby, Mario is taking his first CPA test the first weekend of November. The test is one of four, and this test is specifically focused on auditing. He says he feels prepared, and is just reviewing at this point in anticipation of the test. Baby M&M and I will be cheering him on the day of the test!
Here is a picture of me and baby M&M, 19 weeks along:
We have just one week left until we find out the sex of the baby, and we are both getting anxious to know! We are excited to learn a little bit more about the little person in our lives, and are ready to start buying things and planning for M&M's arrival.
In news not related to the baby, Mario is taking his first CPA test the first weekend of November. The test is one of four, and this test is specifically focused on auditing. He says he feels prepared, and is just reviewing at this point in anticipation of the test. Baby M&M and I will be cheering him on the day of the test!
Here is a picture of me and baby M&M, 19 weeks along:
Monday, October 18, 2010
5 months until our due date!
We only have 5 months left until baby M&M's due date of March 18, 2011. The time has been going quickly and we have less than 3 weeks left until we find out the sex of the baby! We are very excited to find out and start on the nursery. We finished construction on our house about a week ago, and have officially moved our "extra" bedroom downstairs, so the baby's room is now empty and ready to be painted. We are planning on picking out paint in November and painting the room in December.
School has been going well for me so far this year. The students still haven't figured out that I'm pregnant, but a couple of parents of previous students know. I'm prepared to tell the students whenever they ask, but they seem oblivious so far! I've been feeling good and luckily haven't had much morning sickness at all, so that has been a blessing. I have been fighting a cold the last couple weeks, and I'm hoping it goes away sooner rather than later. Having a cold while pregnant is a new experience, with the restricted medication I can take and having to still eat and drink normally for the baby. Mario has been wonderful about taking care of me though, and I finally feel like I'm on the tail end of the cold.
Look for updates as our due date gets closer. We are almost to holiday season, and after that is finished we'll just be a couple months away from baby's arrival. It will be here before we know it!
School has been going well for me so far this year. The students still haven't figured out that I'm pregnant, but a couple of parents of previous students know. I'm prepared to tell the students whenever they ask, but they seem oblivious so far! I've been feeling good and luckily haven't had much morning sickness at all, so that has been a blessing. I have been fighting a cold the last couple weeks, and I'm hoping it goes away sooner rather than later. Having a cold while pregnant is a new experience, with the restricted medication I can take and having to still eat and drink normally for the baby. Mario has been wonderful about taking care of me though, and I finally feel like I'm on the tail end of the cold.
Look for updates as our due date gets closer. We are almost to holiday season, and after that is finished we'll just be a couple months away from baby's arrival. It will be here before we know it!
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