5 months already?!

I am 20 weeks and 3 days pregnant today! I cannot believe we are more than halfway through this pregnancy! Time is really flying now! The baby is already the size of a small cantaloupe and weighs about 10.5 ounces and is around 10 inches long from head to heel!

To celebrate such a milestone in the pregnancy we went to a local park and took some maternity pics!

The Nursery is coming together!

Wow! What an exciting week we have had! We basically spent the whole week narrowing down cribs, bedding and most of all a name for this baby!

Finding a name for baby has been the hardest of all! We have had the name Ethan picked out for boy and Juliana for a girl for years. Since we found out we are having a boy, we decided to look through names only to find out that Ethan has been in the top 10 category for boys names for almost 5 years. I had no idea Ethan was so popular! As you know, Justin and I grew up with very popular names and we always said that if we could avoid naming our children extremely common names, then we would. So we have done some additional searching and we have narrowed it down to a couple, but we are still deciding. No monogramming yet! Darn! :(

We ordered our glider/recliner this week and we cannot wait until it comes in! It is big and comfy in a neutral creamy taupe color that rocks, swivels and reclines (which is a feature we will get a lot of use out of I'm sure at 2 a.m.)! It's very practical and something that was can use with our future babies.

We have looked all over for baby furniture that converts into big kid furniture for months and we found a collection we love! We had picked out a few pieces at USA Baby, but it didn't come with a dresser that we liked and in our budget. So, we started looking harder at BabiesRus and found a very functional set in espresso wood that will take the little guy from babyhood to his teenage years! The crib actually converts into a toddler then a full size bed, and the dresser and combo are both great sizes which will work well as he grows older.

We discovered on Friday night BabiesRus was having one of their Bi-annual Be Safe and Save trade in sale. Basically you can bring in old unsafe baby gear like a car seat or stroller and save 25% on participating individual items! So we went to an old, nasty (and I mean NASTY) thrift store and we purchased 4 items: 2 strollers and 2 high chairs for under $20 and transported them to BabiesRus where we purchased our 3 piece baby furniture along with the crib conversion kit. We were so excited and felt so well, thrifty!

This week we also chose the bedding for baby! We both were not real into a "theme" for the baby's room, but just wanted nice colors and planned to accent the room with boyish elements. I did not know how hard it would be to pick out bedding for a boy! There are about 1/2 the options for boys as there are girls! After searching every possible website for something we liked and in our price range we finally found bedding we love! It is from the Serena and Lily Henry collection, which we purchased on sale! The colors in the picture look yellow and blue, but it is actually green and blue.

Thank you to both our parents for helping us put together this special nursery for our "little guy!" We know he will LOVE it! :)

It's a Baby Boy

We are having a baby BOY!!! We are so excited and cannot believe we actually know the gender of our precious little baby! We love him so much already!


The gender party was perfect! We are so lucky to have such an amazing and supportive family! We love you all! We cannot wait until you meet our little guy!

Sweet Baby!

The ultrasound wen't great today! We were both a little nervous and excited for the appointment we could barely stand it! It's not every day you see your first unborn child for the very first time! The baby was beautiful! When I saw that sweet little profile I could not believe my eyes! I cannot wait to meet you precious baby!

We saw the little heart pumping hard inside the chest beating a healthy 143 beats per minute. The doctor said the baby measured everywhere perfectly and is weighing 9 oz.! We forgot to ask how many inches the baby was, but we are sure it will most likely be a long one! When the Tech was searching for the sex, she had us turn out heads. She said the baby was being a little uncooperative on that part, but she still knew instantly what it was!

The Ultrasound Tech thought we were a little weird asking her to call a bakery for us, but she did it anyway! Rick's has already called us and confirmed they know what it is, they said they are so excited to be apart of this experience! The whole office said they were talking about our plans to find out the sex, because they had never heard of the cake idea before, and Dr. Grounds made us promise we would call on Monday to tell everyone if it's a Boy or Girl!

We have the baby's sex in an envelope that we will use to make sure they got the cake right! We both want to open it so bad that we even thought about mailing it to ourselves because we are so tempted to open it now!

Before the appointment we were thinking Girl all the way, but now we kind of could see a baby Boy in our future!

1st Ultrasound today!!!

I cannot believe it but today is the day! We finally get to see our precious little one for the first time! We really do not know what to expect, but I am sure we will both be amazed by what we see on the screen! I cannot wait to get our baby's first photos!!! Today we will not find out the sex, but we will actually find out together with our family this weekend. We saw on a baby blog months ago of how a couple had the brilliant idea of having a cake made and the filling define the gender. We always planned to do it this way since all of our family is back in AR and we wanted to share this special experience with everyone.

We called Rick's yesterday and ordered our cake with yellow icing and green polka dots. We will have the nurse call Rick's today after the appointment to tell them to either fill it with PINK or BLUE filling! We also will have the nurse place a note in an envelope with the gender as well so we have back up to keep! The gender party takes place Saturday night August 21st, 2 more days!!! I can barely stand the wait, but we both have a strong feeling it is a baby Girl!

I am officially 19 weeks today, that is if they do not change my due date today after measuring everything. I feel great so far, this has been a very easy pregnancy and I have loved the whole process! I think I was meant to have babies! I cannot believe the baby is the size of a Mango!

Date night to Babies-R-Us!

I had been anxiously waiting for the time we can actually go to Babies-R-Us and not feel silly because we were not expecting a baby (yes, we had done that in the past)! We set a date night and went to one of our favorite restaurants, you may have heard of it....Chick-felt-a? LOL, we are obviously on a budget these days and the food is yummy! It was pretty funny actually, Justin and I wen't inside to eat at one of the tables by the window accented by a few fresh daisies. On the way out, he even opened the car door for me!

Anyway, so after our romantic dinner of chicken nuggets and fries we headed to Babies-R-Us! It was so much fun! I think we were in there for an hour just looking at everything! Justin was of course interested in all the technology like the high tech monitors with hand held remotes with a t.v. of the baby. However, I was more interested in the little things, like the baby jacuzzi set! There were a lot of things we want to put on our wish list!

Sunset at Lake Ontario!

We spent time up-state in Oswego, NY for the second family reunion. This was the Terminella side of the family and it was a blast! As the ending of our NY trip approached, we spent our last night at a beautiful park, called Camp Hollis which was right on Lake Ontario. We have seen many beautiful sunsets in the past, but this one was one of the best! It hit me while we were taking this photo that soon it will no longer be just me and Justin, but our family picture will eventually consist of three!

Baby's 1st T-shirt!

While we were in NY we had a Kostuck family reunion in Long Island. The Kostuck's are Justin's Grandmother's side of the family and I was very excited to see the 100 year old house right on the Bay where she grew up. We were able to meet a lot of the family and had a great time. We all had reunion T-shirts and we made sure to order one for baby! Of course he/she could not wear it this year, but next summer it should be a god fit! It was just so cute imagining our little one will be wearing it soon!

Prayer for Baby

Justin and I ventured out to the Ground Zero/ Wall Street area and came across the beautiful Trinity Church. Being lovers of the art and architecture of historical cathedrals and churches in general, we knew we needed to experience this one. It was right in the middle of the chaotic city and once I walked through the historic wood carved doors a sense of calm instantly came over me. Before we left, we lit a candle for baby and said a prayer wishing baby to grow healthy and strong.

Baby's first helicopter ride!

Justin's parents were nice enough to take the whole family on a helicopter ride over Manhattan! With a family infatuated with aviation, I am sure this will not be baby's last experience in the air!

Our first baby purchase!

We went to New York July 2nd- 11th for two separate family reunions. We spent a few days in NYC while we were there. It was extremely hot, the hottest I have ever been in my life! Besides the heat, I did pretty well on the trip. My nausea for the most part was gone, I just couldn't stand the thought of eating any meat. Walking past the hot dog stands in NYC made me instantly sick to my stomach.

I had wanted to see F.A.O. Schwartz so that was one of our very first stops in the city because I wanted to buy something for baby. After searching the whole store for an hour for something small enough to fit into the suitcase, we decided on these mini blankies. We obviously have no clue what we are having so we bought a PINK and BLUE one!