Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Quickie

We have had the craziest, busiest, exciting last 10 days!

We had a great time in Alabama. We shopped, ate good food, laid out at the pool, toured the University of Alabama campus, played games, and enjoyed each other's company!

We were home for 2 days and headed to Kansas City for our anniversary weekend! It was filled with great food, wonderful Michael Buble (he was amazing!), and a hot baseball game where the Cardinals lost:( We absolutely loved our time together, but we couldn't help but notice that is our last anniversary as just the two of us. Our family is about to grow and we couldn't be more happy about that!

On the actual date of our anniversary, we got to hang out with the Kern cousins! It was amazing! All 11 of us were there together with our spouses. No kids (except beautiful Emery) and no parents! It was so fun:) I don't know the last time the 11 of us were together in one place. And it's never happened without parents. We lauged, sang, ate good food, watched home videos, and cherished this rare time to be together.

We've had a wonderful ten days, but the reason this is a quick recap: we left our battery charger and battery at Becky's when we had a cousin get-together, so I have no picture proof of the weekend:( I'll get it soon and very soon and I'll have a picture post!

Until then...a little update with the pregnancy. I still have had no morning sickness (continuing to praise the Lord for that), but I have had to start wearing the Bella Band. Not all the time, just with certain pants or shorts. Apparently, I have no where for my stomach to go, but straight out! This is okay with me. I'd rather be showing in my stomach than anywhere else:) We have our next doctor's appointment on July 9 where we'll finally get to hear the heartbeat and have our first ultrasound:) I'm so excited! It's starting to feel a little real because my stomach is sticking out more than it ever has in my life, but it will really feel real when we hear the heartbeat. I know I've said this a million times, but I'm so ready for that!

I'm so sad I don't get to post any pictures today, but we are back safe and sound and we finally get to stay home for a while without travelling:) I love vacations and road trips with my husband, but it's true what they say; "There's no place like home."

Friday, June 18, 2010

Headin' Out

Tomorrow, Nick, his mom, his sister, and I are heading to Alabama to visit Nick's brother and his wife.

We're driving...in the car...for 11-12 hours!!! We are leaving at 7a tomorrow morning and won't be there until dinner tomorrow night!

I have lots of magazines (of the pregnancy kind and others), books (of the pregnancy kind and others), puzzles, candy, and am going to make chocolate chip cookies, as well:)

We won't be back until Thursday of next week and Saturday of next week, Nick and I are heading to Kansas City for our 2nd anniversary! We're seeing Michael Buble (his present to me) and the Cardinals vs. Royals (my present to him). I'm so excited, but that means I won't be here to post until about June 29th or so!

I should have lots of pictures and lots of stories by then and I'll be 10 weeks pregnant! So far, I still haven't had any morning sickness, so for that I'm so thankful. Hopefully it won't start on our roadtrip tomorrow! Please pray;)

Until then...I'll leave you with my 8 week pregnant shot. It's not much, but I've never had a belly AT ALL! So, this is significant to me:) Enjoy and have a fantastic Father's Day weeekend! We visited all three "dads" in our lives this week. Monday night, dinner with Nick's dad...Wednesday night, dinner with Nick's step-dad...last night, dinner with my step-dad! We love each and everyone of them so much and I'm excited to see how my own husband becomes a dad in the coming months:)

P.S. I'm copying my lovely cousin-in-law, Erin, and will be taking all my pics in front of my fireplace:)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

My Ever Changing House

When Nick and I first got married, I had no idea how handy he was. Since we moved into our home two years ago, he has taken on many projects.



He has learned how to hang fans and light fixtures. A few months ago, I posted about how he was going to take on replacing our interior doors. To turn them from this...



to this...



He has now finished this project. He also has learned how to install laminate flooring. He turned our "office" from this...



to this...



This past weekend, he took on another new project. Tiling my bathroom. It had linoleum in it. It was a very light color and when we moved in, the finish was already coming off. Since we've lived here and I've gotten ready in this bathroom everyday and used hairspray, the finish had all come off! It was sticky, sticky, sticky. What was worse, it wouldn't clean. If you tried to sweep up hair, the bristles on the broom would come off and stick to the floor. You couldn't mop or scrub. It looked dirty all the time. I tried many times getting on my hands and knees and cleaning it, but the grime wouldn't budge. So, this weekend, Nick took my bathroom from this...



to this...





Obviously, I painted the first few weeks we lived here, the trim is still not one, and my rugs and basket for towels are not in there yet, but it's finished! I absolutely can't wait to begin using it. Tomorrow, it will be all back tomorrow because the grout has to dry overnight tonight, but it's finished!

I'm so proud of my little handy man!!!

Now our next project is to turn this...



into a nursery! Oh, where to begin?!!!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Come and Gone

So, my first OB has come and gone.

I was so nervous! Of course, I had a ton of paperwork to fill out, but we waited in that waiting room for an hour before they called me back! I thought it would never end.

When we finally went back there, we met my OB for the first time. He was so nice! I prayed for an OB that I could relate to and would make me feel very reassured, and the Lord answers prayer! He was so calm, cool and level-headed. Just the doctor I need. He answered all my questions and eased all my nerves and fears.

We didn't get to hear the heartbeat today...still too early. My next appointment is July 9 and I'll hear it then. I did have some blood work done and he gave me tons of books and pamphlets to look over. There's so much to fill out.

One thing that is insane to fill out is the Advanced Medical Directive. It's strange signing a form saying what should happen to me if I die or am too sick to live. It's a little scary, but I have faith that the Lord will take care of me and my new little family during this entire pregnancy.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

My First OB

So, tomorrow is the big day...my first OB appointment!

I went to my gynecologist the day after I took my first positive pregnancy test and did a blood test just to confirm this whole crazy thing, but tomorrow is the big day!

I am a nervous wreck, but I am excited beyond words! I will hear a heartbeat and not my own! A new tiny heartbeat coming from my body! The tiny heartbeat that means that my husband and I (along with the Lord, of course) created a baby! An amazing baby. A tiny heartbeat that means all this is real!

I have a million questions for my OB, but I want help from all you mom's out there. Were there any questions you wish someone would've told you to ask at your OB appointments? I feel I know nothing about having a baby or being pregnant, which technically I don't. However, I have been around pregnant women before and a million moms, but when you are faced with the actual job, you all the sudden feel clueless.

So, help me out! Give me some questions I should ask my OB when I see him tomorrow!!!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Telling of the Parents

So, since we found out the week before Memorial Day, we decided Memorial Day weekend would be the perfect time to tell the parents.

Nick's mom hosts a family reunion at her house every year. It's just a little barbecue with about 15-20 relatives there. This year, Nick's great-aunt invited my parents to join in. When we found out we were pregnant, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity. So, I began talking my mom into coming. They never do anything exciting on Memorial Day weekend and Mom, Cassie and I were all wanting to watch Sex and the City 2 together, anyway. So, when I mentioned the idea to Cassie of them coming up here, going to the reunion, staying the night, spending Monday at our house, and going to the movie, she was hooked. So, Mom was now convinced, as well:)

Nick had been researching all week on creative ways to tell your parents, and we finally decided on the winner.

Sunday night, everyone had eaten and we were all just hanging out in Nick's mom's backyard and Nick started taking candid pictures of everyone. Then, we decided to take one of my whole family. You can see it at the top of my blog.

Then, Nick decides to take one of just the girls. He says, "Say Cheese!"



Then, he says, "Say Audra's pregnant!" and we got a whole series of pictures:)











It was so much fun telling them like this, because we will have these pictures forever and they are a great reminder of that special day:)

Then, Monday evening, we had to go tell Nick's dad. We couldn't figure out what to do. We went to Wal-Mart thinking they had a grandpa bib we could put on Jovie and see how long it would take him to notice it and figure it out. Then, we looked for onesies to give him or just anything. Then, we decided to go look at picture frames. We found one that says somthing about grandkids on it and we decided to put a picture of the pregnancy test in there. We aren't going to be here for Father's Day, so we told him we were giving him an early Father's Day present. He didn't understand at first. He asked, "What's Clear Blue?", then he saw the Grandkids quote on the frame, and then he saw where it said "Pregnant". He was thrilled! Here is a picture of Rock and his fiance Mary Ellen. They are pretty excited! This is the first grandkid on both sides of our family. Well, Mary Ellen has some, but she's not technically in the family, YET!!



All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful celebration! We are very excited to get this show on the road:) I'm ready for our first doctor's appointment where we get to hear the heartbeat and I'm ready to start looking (a little bit) like I'm pregnant, so this will all start to feel real. Right now, it just feels like I'm living a dream:)

That is the case, however. My dream come true:)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

So, Here We Go!


Our new adventure began on May 24, 2010!

I was a week late and knew I had to take a pregnancy test, or I'd just go crazy! We took it that evening and were just in total shock when we saw that it said pregnant! I took another one Tuesday morning, then called my gynecologist. She told me to come in for a blood test to confirm everything. Wednesday morning, I took another test and she called Wednesday afternoon with the blood test results and told me I was FOR SURE pregnant:)

I'll post the stories about telling the families tomorrow!