The Home Stretch... Pun intended ; )

Let me first apologize for the delay in updating the blog!!! I knew the closer we got to the end, the busier and crazier things were going to get, but man oh man, I never could've imagined everything we would do in the last two months!! I will just begin where we left off, and try not to leave out anything!

Just a week after our 3D ultrasound, we had another basic ultrasound on June 23rd... The perinatologist estimated Noah's weight to be right on track, weighing in at 3lbs 1 oz! He said everything was still looking perfect, both Noah and I were the picture of health!

Our sweet smilin' boy @ 30 weeks

A tiny foot @ 30 weeks

Two days later, our friends and family gathered in Houston to shower Noah with love and gifts! The shower was absolutely beautiful, and we had an amazing time visiting with everyone. There was delicious food, fun games, and a virtual mountain of gifts. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family, and Noah has been so lucky to have so many people who love him and have prayed for his safe and healthy arrival!! While myself and all of the ladies showered Noah, Jared and the men enjoyed a round of golf in The Woodlands, and wrapped it up just in time to put in an appearance at the end of the shower... It was a perfect day, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again who came and made it all possible!!

Noah's Baby Shower

Just some of the beautiful decor

The awesome food table

The adorable party favors

The Amazing Shower Hostesses

The Old Dancin' Bluebonnet Crew

Me and my family

Jared's Wonderful Family

The day after the baby shower, we attended the wedding of a dear childhood friend. It was great to catch up with old friends, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful! We all had a great time, and I'm so glad we were able to make it!

Meghan May Brown's Wedding, with Meghan and Tara Ratliff

Jared and I with Mom and Dad at Meghan's wedding

After returning home from Noah's baby shower, we decided that instead of continuing to rent we would take the leap into home ownership!! So in the next week, we gathered every minute detail about ourselves for the mortgage broker, and began the process of purchasing our first home!

Our New House!

Closed on July 22, 2011

Jared and I had agreed to dog sit for Mom and Dad while they celebrated their 30th anniversary with an Alaskan cruise, so I made a quick trip to Waco to pick up Bogey and Bentley... The boys stayed with us for two weeks while we began the daunting task of packing... Once we were mostly packed, it was time for Bogey and Bentley to go home, so we met Mom in Waco again and reunited the boys with their Momma!! I returned to Abilene for the next step, MOVING....

Bogey and Bentley playing fetch in Abilene

Bogey making himself right at home

Bentley stealing Chico's bed

Happy 30th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!! We Love You!!

Moving went about as well as one could expect at eight and a half months pregnant. I certainly wouldn't call it fun, but then again, I've NEVER referred to moving as fun. Nevertheless, Noah and I survived without incident. Jared's Grandaddy, and brother, Jace were kind enough to help us with the heavy lifting, and spent the whole day in 100+ temperatures loading and unloading a Uhaul to get us into our new house. Thank God for them, because Lord knows I couldn't lift anything, and Jared needed all the help he could get! Jace stayed another three days, and helped Jared paint the nursery so that Lacey and I could get it all set up that weekend when she came to visit. Thanks to Lacey and Jace, Super Star Aunt and Uncle, we were able to get Noah's room mostly set up within three days of moving in! We had a blast getting settled into our new home with Lacey and Jace!

Daddy and Uncle Jace painting the nursery

Jared and Jace assembling the crib

Peeling stickers.... I do what I can.

After Lacey and I worked our magic

Mommy and Daddy with the almost finished product

Lacey came just for the fun of setting up Noah's nursery

Jared playing with his newest toy

Lacey goin' all green acres on us...

It took about two weeks to get completely settled into the new house. While there are still some finer details that are in the works currently, we are satisfied that even if Noah decided to come as I'm writing this, we are prepared enough for his arrival now! We have been enjoying everything about the house for the time being, and are looking forward to our new roommate's arrival any day now!!!

Our New Home

Living Room

Kitchen

In the last few weeks, Jared and I attended breastfeeding class and childbirth class. So we can officially say we are prepared, or at least as prepared as we're going to be for Noah's arrival... I must say that enduring my third trimester in the hottest summer on record has not been quite as bad as I would have expected... I'm not sure if its that we are so thankful, and grateful just to be here after having suffered such a loss last summer, or maybe I'm just tougher than I thought. ; ) We have just been counting our blessings here lately, and I would do it all over again given the opportunity!! I have been very lucky to have such a smooth pregnancy, and we pray every day that it continues to go smoothly even for what little remains of it. We would like to thank all of you that have kept us and baby Noah in your prayers as well... God is good!!!

34 Weeks

35 Weeks

36 Weeks

37 weeks 4 days

I had two appointments today, an ultrasound to check on Noah's size, and a checkup with my OB. My OB said I was measuring big a few weeks ago, and due to the history of big 'ole babies on both sides of our families, he ordered an ultrasound... The perinatologist estimated Noah's current weight at 6 lbs 15 oz, and expects that if he reaches his due date he will weigh in around 7.5 lbs. Everything else is still looking great, and he added that he believes Noah has lots of hair! Just another thing we are anxious to lay eyes on as soon as he decides to grace us with his presence! Upon examination, my OB said I'm dilated to 2 cm, and about halfway thinned out. So things are moving right along, and we are dying to know when the big day will be!!! I will go ahead and post Noah's most recent pictures, but they are nowhere near the quality we have gotten in the past. I was there, and still I'm unable to interpret what exactly these pictures are of.

Noah's face... Laying on his side, top of head on the right side of picture

The arrow is pointing to a squiggly line that is supposed to be the hair on his head

A foot??.... Maybe?

Assuming we don't go into labor sometime in the next week, my next appointment is on Tuesday, the 23rd. I will try to do my best to stay more up-to-date here in the home stretch, but I guess it is a distinct possibility that my next post could include pictures of our little angel!!! Until then, we love you all, and can't wait to introduce you to our son!!

Engaging Hyperdrive... Destination: Due Date!!

This month has gone by in a flash, as I'm told the rest of our lives will from this point on... And it seems there is no slowing down anywhere in the near future. Our calendar seems to be getting more and more crowded everyday, and I'm beginning to wonder how in the world we're going to get everything done before Noah's big debut September 2nd!! As if there is not enough to do before his arrival, we are also moving throughout the next month... We have been set up to move out of our current house by the end of June for several months now. Unfortunately, our new house will not be ready until mid-July so we are having to move into a storage unit temporarily for a few weeks before we are able to get settled in. So essentially, we are moving twice in the next month... I can think of about 100 better things to do in your seventh month of pregnancy, but we are very excited and thankful to have found our new house! We are really going to be down to the wire getting prepared, but at least it will keep us busy and there will be no time for impatiently waiting for Noah...

Our New House as of Mid-July

After our last post we headed to Houston the next weekend to meet my family for the Crawfish Festival! We also got a visit in with Jared's family in Beaumont while we were in the area.

The Crawfish Festival was a good time, as it always is! We had made plans months earlier for all of my brothers and sister to meet up in The Woodlands for the festival, and everyone but Ryan was able to make it. We were even able to catch up with Jared's Grandma Jean and Pa while we were there! The crawfish was spicy, and the weather was hot which is exactly what we expected!! Now if you know my mom, then you know there are not very many occasions where we don't have an abundance of pictures, and believe it or not, this was one of those occasions.... Following are the only pictures we have of all of us at the crawfish festival.

Me and Dad at the Crawfish Festival May 21, 2011

Daniel and Bre suckin' some mudbugs

Bre and Angela post chow down

We found a bench with a breeze.... Thank God!!

Dad enjoyed the people watching... ; )

After returning home from Houston, I had another visit with my OB on May 23rd that was completely routine... They sent me for my glucose test, and we have yet to hear anything back, so we can only assume that means that everything looked great! I was so relieved a week after the test, assuming that means I can avoid the nasty needles and testing that come with gestational diabetes!!!

Last week we drove to Dallas for our maternity pictures! The session went exactly as we had planned, and we were so happy with the photographer! Her work looks absolutely beautiful at such an amazing price, and we are so anxious to get a peek at some of our shoot! For those of you in the Dallas area, we highly recommend KT Photography... Thanks again to Lacey for finding the photographer!! Lacey has been such a HUGE help in so many ways throughout the pregnancy... Not sure what we would've done without her! She is definitely a Super Aunt already!! Lacey accompanied us to the session, and helped us carry around wardrobe changes and all that fun stuff! Lacey joked that I was a diva and she was my personal assistant for the day.... ; ) Thanks again, Lacey!! We love you!!! Following is just a sneak peek of our maternity session... We can't wait to get our CD with all of the images!!

Photo by KT Photography~Dallas, TX

Photo by KT Photography~Dallas, TX

While it was a very short trip, 24 hours from Abilene and back, we still managed to squeeze in a trip to the delicious Los Cucos!!! ; ) Los Cucos NEVER disappoints!! At least not in this pregnant chica's opinion....

Lunch at Los Cucos... Yummmm!!!!!!!

We are now two thirds of the way through Noah's journey in utero!! Friday, June 10th, marked the beginning of my third trimester! While I still consider myself extremely lucky, the aches and pains of pregnancy are definitely starting to make themselves known at this point. I am still trying to keep up my workouts, but I'm slowing down a good bit in order to make that happen!! I can see where this last leg will for sure prove to be the most difficult... I am keeping my eye on the prize, and just dreaming of the day we finally get to meet little Noah!!

28 Weeks 4 Days : )

On Sunday, just three days shy of our 3D ultrasound, I started to feel some unfamiliar movement.... Although it was movement I had been anticipating for a few weeks, and was just discussing with Lacey a few days earlier, it took me a few minutes to realize that Noah was having the hiccups!! I had read that around 26 or 27 weeks, you might start feeling the baby having hiccups and was wondering why I hadn't yet... Noah has been having the hiccups three or four times a day ever since!! Yet another milestone that we are happy to see Noah hitting!

Today, a year from the day that we went into our OB in Utah for an ultrasound that was the beginning of a terrible nightmare, we returned for another ultrasound in Texas that is the beginning of a dream come true!! Just a few hours ago we caught our first glimpse of Noah's face!! It almost looked like we weren't going to get to see him at first because he was hiding behind his arms, but eventually we were able to get him to move and give us a sneak peek of his cute little face! While we haven't yet decided who he looks like, we agree he has my nose, his Daddy's chin, and is absolutely adorable!!!! Today has gotten us all the more excited and anxious to meet our son in person, and kiss that sweet little button nose! ; ) Following are some of the still shots that best show his likeness...

Being shy... Hiding his face, and sucking his thumb

Finally letting us see his precious little face!!

He got his Daddy's cleft chin : )

Profile shot

His sweet tiny little hands

It has taken me all day to figure out how to load these videos, and I was determined to do it because I promised y'all I would have it!! What I didn't realize until today was that this ultrasound, while they are always exciting, isn't quite the same as the regular ones... The video is basically a record of the technician trying to get to the end result, being the still 3D shots of Noah. It is still really interesting to see how it works, and I wanted very much to share it with you despite its somewhat repetitive nature. There are some bits and pieces where you can see him moving around, and his tiny heartbeat. There are portions where the screen appears to be shaking, and that is the technician poking and prodding in an effort to get Noah to show his face! At one point she even got what she called a 'buzzer' which made a loud buzzing noise at my belly to try to get him to move... Thank goodness it all worked out in the end!! Enjoy the videos... It was too big to post in its entirety, so I had to break it up into two parts. There is a portion on one of the videos where the technician left the room for a minute or two, so it will pick back up again when she returns...





We have another ultrasound scheduled for next Thursday, June 23rd. It may very well be our last peek at Noah before we meet him in person!! I'm sure I will have some new pictures to post soon after our trip to The Woodlands for Noah's baby shower next weekend, but not sure I'll have time to get them up before then! Until next time, we love you all!! : )