Our Hopes and Dreams For You

Dear "Baby M",

Today, June 1, 2009, is your due date and you have yet to arrive.  We have both imagined about what you may be like and I want to share with you our hopes and dreams for you, our precious daughter.

We hope that you always feel free to be your true self.

We want you to understand that inner beauty never fades and always shines through.

We want you to be our little princess and fun tomboy.

We want you to have an opinion, but always listen and be willing to learn from people who think differently than you.

We hope that you will love with all of your heart and never feel the need to build any walls.

We hope that you know that we will always be in your corner, cheering you on.

We hope that you will follow your dreams no matter how difficult they may seem to conquer.

We dream that you will never stop dreaming.

We can't wait to meet you, watch you grow, and be a family!

With Love Always and Forever,

Mom and Dad

Baby Shower #2, April 18, 2009

My dear friend, Michael, hosted my second baby shower, with the help of Melanie and Sarah. It turned out beautiful, as I knew it would. All my amazing friends were there - it is so nice to get everyone together! The food and the flowers were awesome - if you weren't able to make it, you really missed out! Thank you to everyone for showing how much you support and love Brian, me, and our soon to be baby girl! Here's some pictures:

Baby M's Nursery is Complete!

Slowly but surely our baby girl's nursery is now complete!  We changed a few of the original ideas, but the end result is better than I expected!  Her room is super feminine complete with a chandelier, but we were able to keep a modern feel.  Be sure to check out the "icing" of her room - the amazing trees on each side of her crib (thanks to Lexi, Simply Said Wall Decor) and the hanging rose pomanders above the crib.  You gotta love it!  I know I do!  =)

Our Last Ultrasound

Yesterday, we had our last ultrasound for "Baby M", as some have been calling her! =)  We wanted to make sure she still had a healthy weight and that all was well.  We had the "pleasure" of having a student work on us . . . ughhh!  I totally understand the need to real/hands-on experience, but gaining this experience really wore on my very thin patience!  I felt like her training session took forever and she kept on pressing on the sore parts of my belly.  But finally, the real tech took over and all was good.  We found out that our little lady is weighing in at 6 pounds 1 ounce and her heart rate was 144.  Of course, everything couldn't go smoothly.  "Baby M" was sleeping most of the time and we needed her to practice breathing during this checkup, which did not happen.  We tried to bounce her around to wake her up, but nothing worked.  So we were sent over to get a Non Stress Test.  This consisted of me sitting in a recliner, with a heartbeat and movement monitors strapped to my stomach, then we had to wait 30 minutes.  I also had a clicker to track the movements.  The baby's heart rate need to raise significantly while she moved.  Thankfully, we passed the test with flying colors!  Yay!

You might be asking if I have pictures to share . . . and the answer is yes.  But I'm working from home these days and I don't have a scanner here.  So everyone will have to wait to see the real deal! =)  But you aren't missing too much because the pictures do not come out very well when the babies are so big in the belly and "Baby M" had her hands covering her face most of the time.  She did give us a "thumbs up", though!  So cute!

My Family Baby Shower - March 28, 2009

I had my family baby shower on March 28th and it was so much fun! It was great to see everyone. I was surprised by how many people from out of town were able to make it - it was awesome! I love you all and I am blessed to have so much support! Thank you!

P.S. I have a bunch more pictures that I'm waiting to get from Ashley, so once I get those, I'll post them.

David and Jen's Baby Shower

I wanted to post some pictures from David and Jen's baby shower that was this past weekend. They are about 6 weeks behind us and our family is so excited to be adding two little girls to the roster this year! Who would have thunk it!

Arizona

The beginning of this month, Brian and I took a trip to Arizona. We stayed with my long time friend, Michele, and visited with Brian's brother and sister-in-law, David and Jen. It was a relaxing trip and we were able to visit two amazing places, The Desert Botanical Gardens, and Sedona. When we went to the Botanical Gardens, a famous hand-blown glass artist, Dale Chihuly (http://www.chihuly.com/), had many of his pieces displayed through out the garden - it was amazing!







Sedona, as anyone who visited will tell you, is absolutely breathtaking! We stayed the night with David and Jen. They were gracious enough to be our tour guides, since they had been there several times. My pictures do not do the amazing backgrounds and scenery any justice. One side note, is that at times I felt that I was a very funny picture to laugh at, especially when we were at Sliding Rock. Everyone around there had coats on and looked like hikers, but there I am climbing around rocks, with my big belly sticking out, with a tank top on and flip flops. =)