We are Alive...

Just in case there are people who check in on us here... we are alive and surviving parenthood well. The time I do find available to add to the blog isnt because I have others things to do or am totally exhausted, even though both are true most of the time, its I cant tear myself away from our sweet little girl. I just want to hold her all the time!! And I can because they she will only be this little once, right?
Hallie is such a sweet little girl. She has us wrapped around her finger already. She is smiling all the time and talking/cooing more and more each day. She is totally a mommas girl but this past week daddy was able to take some time off of work and spend some extra time with us and sense then she stares at him each time he walks in the room and waits until he acknowledges her before she does anything else.
Just wanted to update quickly... I will post a more elaborate update on Hallie and our family and maybe include a little bit of her BIRTH day on here at some point as well.

Shakin her booty...

I didn't want to forget this small memory... so I decided to blog it! Its Friday Night Date Night... since those will be far and few between soon, so we went to dinner then in and out of some of our go to stores. Well I wanted to stop at Old Navy to see what stuff they had on sale. As soon as we walked in the doors I got a huge kick on my right side that made me stop walking and gasp, then the rest of our time in there maybe 20-30 minutes or so she just kept moving and rolling around, not kicking but just moving. So I told James her big kick was so that she could get in a good position to shake her booty, I guess she liked what was playing at Old Navy because it just felt like she was dancing the whole time. She is pretty active throughout the day now, which is kinda of fun sometimes not. Before she was calm and still most of the day and it was at night she really got active. Now when we wake up at 6am!! I know right!! She is already moving for the day and then slumbers off for a while then gets going again around lunch then she moves off and on and then starts back up around 6pm until we go to bed! Silly girl... but so fun! I can't wait to enjoy her sweet little personality NOT inside my already stretched to the max belly. I keep telling James I can't imagine getting bigger, YES I know it will happen but I just can't imagine it. The only way I can describe how it feels to James is when you try to blow out your belly to see how far you can stick it out and it kinda aches and you can feel your skin pulling/stretching and usually thats about the time you suck it back in well I can't suck it back in so I just feel stretched out all the time. I have alot of people say your small for 7 months but I think they are being nice!
We also went to Hobby Lobby, yes he comes in with me to Hobby Lobby only because I walk around Best Buy about 20 times with him! Well when we were in HL I had to go pee, I know go figure! Well when I went to wash my hands another lady was in there cleaning something off her shirt and she started chatting with me then asked when I was due... REALLY!? I walked out and found James and told him I have finally reached the Pregnancy milestone where I look pregnant and strangers ask! HA! Well it was bound to happen one day, I guess I should be happy I made it all the way to the 3rd trimester before it happened.

Fightin' Texas Aggie!

Well we are a very excited and proud family, who has finally closed the book on this long awaited envelope to reveal that our Juween is going to be an Aggie! She has been looking forward to this moment since my oldest sister, Jen, first went to Texas A&M...
She applied earlier this year and received notice that the university had mailed out a letter to her on Wednesday... well Friday came and went and there was still no letter... She has always had a back up plan to attend Blinn, the junior college down the road from TAMU, but we knew that was her great positive outlook in case what she really wanted didn't go as planned. Which this plan has been in the works since she was 4 years old!!!!
Well we had our family dinner that Sunday evening and still no later but still words that it will be okay that she will just go to Blinn for a litte bit. I applaud her for being so calm and positive about... but in the back of all our heads everytime she said that it would make us sad because that has not been the dream 14 years in the making! Well Julianne had a friend over Monday afternoon and also had to take a midterm that would take about 2 hours. Mom checked the mail around 3 or 330pm and when she did out came a BIG envelope from the Texas A&M University. She immediately got on the phone with my sister, Jen and tried to explain to her what this envelope was: BIG and had some kind of pamplet...Jen told her right away that that was GOOD news... well I got a phone call shortly after that saying we are going to have a celebratory dinner for Julianne that evening, that mom has not given Julianne the envelope because her friend was over and that she still had to take her midterm... Julianne adds in later that she felt something was up because mom was being super nice! Well mom made a few fake phone calls about going to dinner that night. Which at that time the whole gang was at Chilis waiting for the arrival of our AGGIE! Mom still hadn't told Julianne about the mail and Joel informed her to have Julianne open it up at the restaraunt.
Well when she arrived and saw all of us she knew what was going on, and she is our more emotional sister and well... so we try to get her to open this envelope with cameras rolling but she was being stubborn and saying she wasn't going to do it... so I turned to our trusty 2.5 year old nephew who will get into anything to open the envelope well he got the envelope and tried his best but mom didnt want him to rip it so she unsealed it, the hard part was over right... Well Julianne took out the papers and preceded to read all of them EXCEPT the formal letter. So she finally got to that and read it to herself, while she started to get emotional again... we love her!!! Jen took it from her and read the words we have all been anticipating for so long CONGRATULATIONS!!!! She is in!!! We couldnt be more excited for her and the dream she has had of being an AGGIE come true... she has been bleeding Maroon for a while this just made things official!
There is no other place I can imagine sending my baby sister off to except for this fun and memorable place. She has worked so hard for this, every assignment, test, and even putting herself in clubs and extracurricular to show that she is a hard working, involved individual... even if she is the President of the chess club and doesnt even know how to play!! WE LOVE YOU JULIANNE... AND ARE SO PROUD WE GET TO CALL YOU AN AGGIE! I hope you make tons of memories and GOOD grades, and of course a DIPLOMA! Now off to purchase some Maroon and white for the family, and a few cute bows... we have to be decked out when we go see Juween!

99 days to go...

WOW!! It has gone by so fast, yet we still have a ways to go. James is constantly, especially when bored, saying I wish she would just get here all ready... me on the other hand I would love to see what hair color and eyes she has, and what she will look altogether, but at the same time really not looking forward to THAT process! So she can bake as long as she wants as long as I go to the bathroom at normal hours and not frequently, I still can bend over, still get at least 8 hours of continuous sleep, and she doesnt get too big. Which I dont think any of the above is possible so we shall see when she makes her debut and hopefully its an non dramatic one.

Here lately James has started his new job at Peterbilt and so far likes it. I am still working at Sally and its going well. My belly is definetly noticable now and sitting in a chair most of the day like I do isnt comfortable for the two of us. But we make the best of it. I felt her start moving around Christmas and James first felt her move a few weeks ago. About two weeks ago I first saw her kicks or punches, who really knows, from the outside and from them on its been pretty non stop. She is quite the active lil girl! We wouldnt have it any other way really... I have my next appointment on Monday, the 14th, and Im kind of dreading it because its the wonderful glucose test. So no chocolate covered strawberries for us, well until after the test :) We are also meeting with a doula we are considering being there during the birth for that support and knowledge us first time parents just dont and wont acquire between now and then. So hopefully she is a keeper.

Last week we got a winter storm. It was not fun. First came inches of ice then snow. The snow quickly vacated and left us with the inches of ice. You cant go to far safely on that even at 15mph. But its mainly melted now thank goodness and we expected 60 degree weather this weekend. TEXAS FOR YALL! Even though the weather was not ideal we were fortunate to SAFELY travel to the funeral serviec in east Texas for my great- aunt Maurine aka "Mammarine". Even though when we left at 4am to travel 3 hours it was already snowing and had about 3 inches already on the ground, it didnt stop until probably 9am. I think she just wanted to see who of "her people" were actually dedicated enough to come see her :) I would like mention just how strong of a woman she was and how she always had good advice to give and always found just the toes to pop. She had a strong testimony of the Savior and made sure we knew every time we visited. I hope that I can be somewhat as strong, funny, outgoing, and loving as she was. Im sad that she will not be able to watch my daughter and any other children I have grow up on this side but Im sure she will thoroughly enjoy watching from the other... and I would like to think she will keep an eye on their sweet spirits while in her presence and give them great advice like she did for me. And I will wake all of them up most mornings but singing "Get out of that bed and wash your face and hands"

Inie becoming an Outie

I am on a roll with this posting business. I am not getting obsessive like I have said this is mainly our journal so I am suppose to write daily right?. Well today I went to the ladies room and while tucking in my ever shortening shirt and pulling up my high waisted MATERNITY work pants I noticed something different about my belly, other than the fact she has definetly decided to round me out, but she has also managed to ALMOST not fully make my cute inie belly button disappear. It freaked me out I wont lie, I cringed. Then looked again yep my belly button is sooner rather than later going to be non existent... Well thats the update :)

Sonogram (Attempt)

This is our sonogram at 17 weeks 5 days (12/17/2010). I could not for the life of me figure out how to get the cd upload so I had to record the video. When you see a big hump and two straight things to the side of it, that hump is the placenta that she is using as a saddle and was not moving off for the life of her. This is where the doctor takes several attempts to shake her off. And around 5:40 if you look towards the bottom right hand corner you see a big circle(her head) and a little bit of motion from some long white things(fingers), yep she was sucking her finger! I know you may not be able to tell and its pretty hard with the clarity not being so great... but we figured its better than nothing :) Enjoy!

Baby Update

Yesterday we had another doctor appointment for the little one and me... Same as usual blood pressure-check, weight-check, talked about my glucose test for the next time :( -check and then Dr Rost checked her heartbeat. It was hard to hear for a while with all the static, which is the machine picking up her moving. Which he said it could be her arm or whatever. And he made the comment, well she is MOVING. She apparently is a very active child which I can feel more and more each day! But her heart beat is strong and steady, so that is great news. He then got a really hi tech tool to measure my belly, the tape measure :) And she and my belly are measuring where we are supposed to be.We then asked a few questions and talked about the test a little more and we were on our way. James was a little disappointed we didn't get to see her but that's okay. James cannot feel her kicks from the outside quite yet but Dr Rost said in a few days or weeks he will be able too. I feel them all the time! Her favorite time is 10:30pm, when James has just left(maybe on purpose who knows) and I have usually settle down in bed. I usually don't feel any of her kicks except on the left side by my hip bone so I have deemed that her favorite spot. At this point she is around 11in and weighs around a pound! She obviously is moving around a lot and can hear all the familiar noises, my voice, James' voice, the dogs barking, etc. I can't believe how fast this has gone but I hear that the last months go by very slow so Ill take in the fast months while I can. That's the baby update!
We are doing great as usual. Nothing really exciting going on or changing. Work is good, church is good, family is good, so we are doing well! James did apply for a job at Peterbilt to work on there assembly line and has taken there written test- passed, then took the tool test-passed, and now has an interview on Saturday which will hopefully go well and then he may be on his way to a new job! We were talking about him having 3 jobs in the past 6 months :) but they have all been great opportunities at the right time. This job will give us the opportunity to be together more often, and will potentially allow me to stay at home with the new addition. So that's exciting. We are grateful for all the opportunities and blessings we have received since moving to Texas. We miss the other half of our family a lot and hate missing out on many events and things they are doing but haven't regretted this move yet! I don't know if he will ever read this or even if anyone will, but like I said before its more for our record but if you enjoy reading then go ahead. But thank you Dad, for helping James throughout this Peterbilt process we really do appreciate it!
Well that is all for now. Love ya!

NOWS, OWNS, WONS, SNOW!!!

It snowed! About 2am on Sunday it started pouring rain and didnt let up at all. When we woke up at 9am it was still raining and starting to flood out the lawn. Then at 11am I looked out to see it SNOWING! Not like light snow really heavy snow. It wasnt sticking at first( like usual Texas snow its more slush than snow) but it didnt take long. We probably got an inch or two. So we took the dogs to the park to play and loved it! You have to excuse us here in the south we dont get this often and when we do its TOP NEWS... well we woke up this morning and it still is here and beautiful. It snowed briefly this morning around 930am but that is it. I guess we will enjoy it for now!