Weekend Visits

In the last month we have had the chance to visit with some of our favorite people, both to the north and to the south. Early in June, I went up to Portland and squeezed in time with all of my favorite ladies. My wonderful hostess and I got to spend the whole weekend together, and we had so much fun just hanging out, walking around Portland, and of course squeezing in a few baby-related activities. (Love those baby legs, thanks Auntie Nicole!) To recap the weekend, on Friday we met Merissa and Mo for lunch and walked around the pearl afterwards. Saturday I helped one of my oldest friends, Jessie, at her studio's annual dance recital. To wrap things up, on Sunday I celebrated the graduation of a fellow teacher and great friend as well. I LOVE my visits to Portland and am always sad to leave, but I was excited to return home to my man who couldn't make the trip up do to work (boo).

Auntie Nicole makes me smile big!

I can blow bubbles now

Baby legs project

Good thing my auntie can sew since my mama can't!

Nicole, Baby Simmons (in belly), Maddie and I :)

The following weekend we went down to Central Point to visit Jessie, Lukie and Wyatt. We were looking forward to one last visit before they became a family of four, but were delighted by the serendipitous timing as Jessie went into labor just as we arrived! The next morning Jessie gave Luke the best father's day gift a guy could ask for- a beautiful baby girl. While Jessie and Luke were at the hospital with Rowan, Joe and I had a practice round as our own little family of four while watching Wyatt. He is so much fun but a HUGE ball of energy! And although we are looking forward to having more kiddos one day, we decided we'll stick with one for at least a little while longer :) Congrats to the Newton-Neal family on the addition of beautiful baby Rowan!

I love Aunt Janelle because she feeds me bacon 

Sooo happy :)

Jack made a new best friend

Haha... not quite bacon there buddy

Uncle Joe makes a great jungle gym

Having fun

Ha! Love Joe's expressions in these

 Beautiful day for a walk with our "kids"

 Proud papa Luke with Rowan

 Joe and his little niece

 She already has eyelashes and eyebrows, so pretty

 Smitten

 First family pic

 Daddy and his little boy

 Mama and her little girl... good work Jessie!

Progress...

While there are SO many things I want to blog about in the last couple of months (the holidays, our trip to Maui, baby showers, our weekend trip to So Cal, etc.), the biggest news is quite literally, well, BIG. As in my belly. Our baby is 34 weeks old and should be making his/her debut into the world sometime next month. I am feeling very pregnant these days, and as one of my students so eloquently said, I look as if I "swallowed a basketball". Oh the joy of working with 14-16 year olds every day, you know you are jealous ;)

On the medical side, so far everything seems to be going well. I feel our little baby squirming around every day and all check-ups have gone smoothly thus far. (Please keep your fingers crossed this continues!) I am getting a little anxious now that we are getting closer, but super excited as well. We still have A LOT to do before the baby gets here, but two recent baby showers (which I hope to blog about soon) have helped a ton, and we still have one more. The baby room is pretty much non-existent, but that is going to be my spring break project. Currently our weekends are simply too busy to spend much time to prepare  the "nest", so that is something I look forward to doing over break since Joe will be stuck working. Then it's back to work for 2 weeks after break and then it will be showtime! I can't believe we will have a son or daughter next month, but ready or not here it comes :)

 30 weeks

 32 weeks 

(I know I look bigger in the other pic, but I think the black slims the baby down :)

34 weeks

And how could I forget the sweetest daddy and big brother to be! They are also getting very excited for the arrival of our newest little buddy :)

Our lil' kicker

It is crazy how quickly things have progressed in this pregnancy. Tomorrow, I will be 25 weeks pregnant and our baby is due in 3.5 months. My belly is getting significantly larger, and I feel him/her move every day now. In fact, our baby moves so much that Joe gets to feel it daily too. One thing is for sure, he/she is a mover and a shaker, and judging from all of the kicks I get we have a little soccer player on our hands :) (Well, if it is a girl. Joe says if it's a boy he'll be a football player because "there's no such thing as 6'7" soccer players.")

Anyway, a few weeks ago we had our 22 week ultrasound. Although we are waiting to find out the gender, it was still so much fun to get a sneak peek at our little baby. The doctor says that he or she is doing well and growing nice and big :) Here are some pregnancy pics below- click on the video to see our baby's heartbeat, so cool!

Me at 21 weeks (I am much bigger now, btw!)

Hi baby

His/her arms and legs were all over the place!

Foot :)

Profile shot, my favorite

Press play on the video to see our baby's heartbeat. Coolest thing in the world. 

Just in case...

you were starting to worry, yes, we are still alive. Just busy. Very, very busy. Here is what's been going on in our lives in the past two months.

Joe: working crazy hours, including most weekends in September. (I'm talking 60-70 hrs. per week here.) When he hasn't been working, he has been helping coach a 5th grade football team, taking a woodworking class, supporting my team at our soccer games, cooking me dinner, and traveling to Beaver football games, both near and far.

Me: Also working crazy hours- just as much (if not more) than Joe. Apparently being a 1st year full-time teacher and 1st year head soccer coach doesn't leave a lot of free time. With the exception of a weekend filled with food-poisoning and all of the fun that brings, I literally haven't taken 1 full day off since Labor Day weekend. Mon-Fri is teaching/coaching, Saturday is grading day, and Sunday is lesson planning for the upcoming week. However, the end (of soccer season at least) is almost in sight. We finished our last league game on Thursday (we are 7-5-2) and ended up 3rd place in our league. We have a play-in game next Thursday, and if we win we are in the state tournament. It has been a blast coaching and I love my girls, but I'd be lying if I said I am not going to enjoy having more free time whenever soccer season ends. Then I can go back to working just 50 hours a week, instead of 60-70 :)


Other news:

• Joe turned 27 a couple of weeks ago. I wish I had fun pics to post or a fun night to blog about, but in all honesty this was the evening I got food poisoning and it was miserable. We had a reservation for the one good restaurant in Roseburg, and then had to cancel when I starting puking 15 minutes before we should've left the house. I continued vomitting all through the night, and had to go to the hospital the next day to receive IV fluids because I was so weak and dehydrated. At least I got to make him a nice breakfast before the sickness set in (see pics below).
• Apparently October is a busy month for preggos! One of my bestest friends in the whole world welcomed her first baby into the world on Oct. 7th. Brynn Lorene Richards is doing great and I can't WAIT to get up to Portland and meet her soon. Aside from Merissa, some of our friends from the Seahawks also welcomed a son recently. Congrats to both the Richards and the Carlsons :)
• While I'm on the subject of babies, I should probably include that Joe and I are expecting our first baby as well :) As some of you already know, we are 16 weeks along and our little baby is due on April 14th. While it has thrown a lot of challenges our way in this already chaotic time for us, we are VERY excited. I can't say it's made teaching/coaching any easier, as I have been very tired and experienced a consistent dose of nausea so far, but it is worth it to know I have our little baby growing inside of me. Can I just be honest for a minute though? Those women who claim they just "loved" being pregnant and would do it their whole lives... what are they smoking? I am exhausted, nauseous, can't eat half of my favorite foods/beverages, and feel the most unathletic I have EVER felt in my life. (I am serious- I am pretty sure my 7 year old self would kick my ass in a race right now.) Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to make sacrifices to know I have a happy and healthy baby. But let me just say I am glad this state of being is temporary, and I can't wait to eat sushi, drink coffee, run at a pace that isn't pathetic, and not feel sick on a daily basis come next spring/summer.

Ok. That's all I have for now. It is time to get started on my grading, so I should go. I will leave you with the few pictures I have taken this fall...

Preggo wife, making pancakes at 5am for her man on his birthday... I must really love this guy!

Finished product... so delicious!

First pic of our baby, 8 weeks old

It has little nubs for legs :)

Seeing its heartbeat for the first time was the most amazing feeling ever

There he or she is... all 15mm :)

11 weeks

Starting to look like an actual human :)

Looks like it's sucking on its thumb here

View from the top

43 mm long. The doctor said it was a little long for this stage, which made Joe really happy and me a little nervous :)