Thank you, BES!

My BES family gave us a baby shower this week & as always I felt incredibly loved & supported by my sweet coworkers! Here's the cake! I'm pretty sure it's the coolest cake I've ever seen! :)

Punch! There may have been some jokes about the ducks drowning...but I think they all made it.A diaper 'cake' made by my teammate! Adorable! :)Baby clothes! I like this one because it has little monsters on it who seem to be destroying a city, or at least cars & stuff. I find that amusing. Oh yeah, I almost forgot my favorite moment: Some of the other outfits had long pants with snaps for diaper changing. John's reaction when he noticed the snaps: "Ha ha! That one has tear-away pants!" Did I mention he's never changed a diaper before? ;o)

Lastly, I already posted a pic of the room decor & bedding we picked out, but thanks to the generosity of everyone at school, we were able to go home & order the bedding & many of the other items in this picture. Our little man is going to have such a cool room - I can't wait to get started - in fact that's on the agenda for next week!Thank you again to my BES family! I am so thankful to go to work every day with such a kind & caring staff - you guys rock!

Belly Dancing

There are definitely some milestones during pregnancy that I have looked forward to from the beginning: 1. The sonogram to find out the sex of the baby, & 2. Being able to see/feel the baby move & sharing that with John. I already blogged about how amazing our sonogram experience was a couple weeks ago, but over the last week we've also reached milestone #2. :) The first time I noticed my tummy moving, seemingly of it's own accord, was last week as I was talking to co-workers after school. It was so cool & that was the first time I was able to touch my belly & feel a kick. It's taken several more days, but John was finally able to feel the baby move last night. Today our little guy has been even more active & I've been caught several times standing in the middle of the hall at work just staring at my stomach. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but right now I'm completely mesmerized by this little life who is making his presence known more and more each day.

Baby Notes @ 21 Weeks

I realized that the blog is steadily becoming the place where I record thoughts, feelings & happenings in relation to our little guy, so here are some things I've been thinking about over the last week or so...

• Afternoon seems to be little man's favorite time to wake up & get moving. Everyday around 2:00 I feel him start jumping. I usually feel him a lot throughout the evening too, but the 2:00 hour is definitely his favorite at the moment.
• Craving of the moment: dairy. Ice cream, milk, cereal with LOTS of milk, anything in the diary category really - that's what I want. I've never been a big milk/cheese person before, (in fact I usually hate milk) but it's what I want lately. I've already gone though a lemon/vinegar/pickle phase where I guess I just wanted anything with a strong flavor - oh yeah, that included salsa too.
• I'm starting to get some back pain,which isn't so fun, but it's just one more sign to me that we're moving right along & my little guy is getting bigger. (Thinking about it that way makes it worth it, right? ;o)
• I'm super excited to meet our baby & probably just as excited to see John as a daddy. He's so awesome & I know he's going to be an amazing daddy!

I think that's enough words for one day, so here are some pics to finish it off: Here is the quilt my mom gave me for mother's day - I love the bright colors & I can't believe how quickly she made it!

Here's another blankie mom made - our little guy will have no shortage of soft blankies to snuggle with - thanks to my mom!

Here is my newest Willow Tree Angel. I wasn't expecting anything for Mother's day, so I was totally surprised when John/the baby gave me a gift & a card. The inside of the card has a sonogram pic saying "I can't wait to see you! Love, Your Baby Boy". John said he knew this angel was kind of a step ahead, but he also knew it is what we are both imagining right now - & he's right. I love it & of course I cried (cheesy, but true.)

Finally, here I am at the halfway point!

Junk on Display

Today's the day! We went to the doctor for my 20 week appointment & sonogram & got some great pics of our baby! Here's the cute little alien face (& abdomen):

If you can't tell what's what, the head is on the right & the baby is 'looking at' the camera. The mouse arrow is pointing to the right eye...I think. ;o) Other than the sonogram, we also got all the test results back from bloodscreen/etc. & everything looks great! We are so thankful that we have a healthy & active baby (it was going crazy flipping around, doing the running man, & waving at us the whole time) - God is good!

Now for the big reveal!

This is the 'sitting on the copy machine' view with the booty on the upper left, legs sticking out at 3:00 & 6:00, and there in the middle - well, we've got some boy parts, y'all! In case you missed it, the ultrasound tech was nice enough to point it out with the mouse arrow! Ha ha! So, there ya go! It's a boy! :)

We are ecstatic! It was the definitely the most emotional event of the pregnancy so far for both of us. I think it finally made it 'real' for us & we're thrilled to be able to say HIM instead of IT all the time. We're working on names & we think we have one ready, but we're still thinking & praying on that for now.

Speaking of praying, as I was driving from work to pick John up for the appointment, I was praying a "Thy will be done" kind of prayer. I felt that amazing peace that only God can give & Psalm 139 came to mind (especially verses 13-16). It's one of my favorites & it definitely became special in a new way today. I just keep thinking about how God already knows & loves our baby boy even though we haven't met him in person yet.

On a fun note, John had to go back to church/work after the appointment, so I celebrated with a pedicure:

I had to go with blue! Also, we found this bedding a while back & knew if we had a little boy, he would have this theme for his room! My favorite part is the drumset rug & quilt!

I think that's enough for one day! Can you tell I'm excited??? :)