Meet George!!

Chris and I are on day 3 of home confinement because of the weather (church was canceled today). We're starting to get a little stir crazy, too. The snow stopped yesterday, and we got about 6 inches of snow on top of about an inch of ice. The drift in front of our front door measured 9 inches...crazy! I've definitely not seen snow like this in my lifetime. Yesterday afternoon I tried to go out and build a snowman...the snow was WAY too powdery. I couldn't get it to pack at all. Chris, with his infinite snowman building wisdom, said it needed to warm up a bit so the snow would melt a tad and pack better. So I figured today was my day! So I layer up and head out back. As I'm working on my base, Chris comes out and says 'I can tell you've never built a snowman before.' Ha! I did tell him about this one time when I was growing up, me and my friend Ashley had to scrape up ALL the snow in the front yard (which obviously wasn't much in south Arkansas) to make a tiny little guy. Haha! So he gives me a little guidance and I get going. Base...check! Mid section...check! Head...check!
Time to accessorize him! Chris was a big help here! He brought me a carrot for a nose, paint stir sticks for arms, an old pair of gloves (Laura, you should recognize these! :-) ), and I told him to bring me a scarf and an old Big Bird hat me and brother wore when we were little (can't make a snowman without that hat making an appearance). The eyes and mouth were a little more tricky. He ended up cutting eyes and a mouth out of a cardboard razorback coaster. It worked. So without further ado, meet George!
Isn't he cute?? :-) I'm pretty proud of him!

And now here are some other pictures of the great snowstorm of 2010!
I took Kacie outside to see what she would do. She was like, I don't think so!!!!!
The dogs, on the other hand, have had a blast playing around, especially Cody (as the video evidence from my last blog shows)!
I look forward to Sara Kate being old enough to go out and play in the snow! :-)

Dogs + Snow = Fun!!

So our winter weather arrived with a vengeance! It started with freezing rain about 3 pm Thursday afternoon, then transitioned to sleet maybe around 7 pm, and then finally to snow about noon Friday. It's been snowing pretty hard and isn't supposed to stop until tomorrow. We took video of the dogs running around outside a little bit ago...they run around like puppies in snow. It's cute!

28 Weeks and Introducing.....

28 weeks means welcome to the 3rd Trimester! We're still hanging in there. I really don't have too much to report this week. Baby girl is still a movin' and a shakin'. Every night she gets pretty active between 8:30-10:00. Chris has a teacher friend whose son was the same way...turned out when he was born he had his nights and days mixed up. Ouch! I was thinking about that early this morning at 2 a.m. when a certain dog (who shall remain nameless...*cough*Cody*cough) just HAD to go outside. Well, I was awake for a little while and baby girl was moving around the whole time. Hopefully she doesn't come out with her nights and days mixed up but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Our fruit of the week is still an eggplant (think this is the last week for that).

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!
Baby's lungs are mature enough that, if born right now, she has a pretty good chance of surviving (with help from medical technology). Her skin is still pretty wrinkly (one byproduct of living in amniotic fluid) but will smoothen as fat continues to deposit.

And here's the obligatory belly shot. Not the best picture, but you get the idea.

The other thing I thought I'd do this week is 'introduce' our little bundle of joy! So here she is... Sara Katherine Michaels!

This is her at 20 weeks...I'd love to have another ultrasound to see her again! Unfortunately, insurance only pays for one. And yep, she has a name. Lots of people already know, but I thought I'd officially post it on here. Sara was the name of Chris' Grandma Michaels, and Katherine was the middle name of my GG (grandmother Greer). We plan on calling her Sara Kate. Yep, we're doing a double name. My dad made the comment that double names are a southern thing and we live in Northwest Arkansas...yes we live in NW Arkansas, but I was raised in south Arkansas, and I would definitely say Arkansas is a southern state. We think it's very classic name and one that will grow well with her as she grows! Sara Kate has been our girl name for 5 years, and we decided we just couldn't give it up. A couple years ago, Chris actually had a Sara Kate in his class and fortunately, she was a good student and a very sweet girl so the name didn't get ruined. Ha!!

In other non-baby news, NW Arkansas is supposed to get hit tonight and tomorrow with an ice/snow storm. We've had freezing rain falling for a couple hours now and it's supposed to do that and sleet all night and then snow all day tomorrow and into Saturday morning. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the ice storm of 2009!! I keep saying I'm gonna build a snowman so maybe I'll actually do it this time! :-)

27 Weeks!

Baby girl is 27 weeks! And actually, today is January 23, which means exactly 3 months until my due date. Kinda crazy! A couple of people have asked if I'm nervous. My answer right now is no, ask me again in April. Haha! I feel like things are pretty much under control. We have the room painted, the crib put together, we're going to order the bedding and the dresser/changer this week, we are signed up for birthing classes (the end of February), I've signed up for a breastfeeding class (sometime in February, I forget exactly when), we have an idea of what car seat/stroller we want and we're looking at crib mattresses, we need to check out pediatrician's at some point...I'm sure there is other stuff, I just don't know what it is. Thoughts? Suggestions?

This week has brought a tad bit of discomfort while sleeping, actually just the last couple of nights. Probably around 18-20 weeks, I was waking up at night with some hip pain if I'd been sleeping on my left side. Then it kind of went away. The last 2 nights I've been waking up with pain in my right hip, along with the same pain in my left hip. I woke up around 5 this morning and just couldn't get comfortable and ended up just dozing off and on for the next 3.5 hours. I'm sure this is nothing compared to what's to come, but it's still annoying! Also, I've started noticing that when I roll over at night it's not as simple as it once was...I have to almost sit up and turn over. Guess that belly is getting in the way. Ha! Speaking of the belly, here's my 27 week picture. Turns out the best picture we took today was one where I was being goofy. So goofy belly pic it is!
And our fruit of the week is still an eggplant, it just has different info.

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!
Baby's lungs are going through some major developments these days, which (combined with the opening of previously plugged nostrils) means she's now able to practice inhaling and exhaling. The lack of air in your womb means every "breath" is filled with amniotic fluid, but hey -- it's progress.

Ok, now for a funny story. Yesterday was my mother-in-law's birthday (Happy Birthday, Sharon!!). Today we went up to Rogers and had lunch with the family to celebrate. Afterward we went to Chris' grandparents house to hang out for a bit. We were sitting there and Jenny (sister-in-law) had been patiently waiting to feel baby girl kick. She started kicking and I went and layed on the floor. Jenny was pressing on my belly and felt some pretty good kicks. We called Sharon over so she could get in on the action. So Sharon and Jenny had their hands on my belly trying to feel kicks and they told Hannah (our niece, who turns 2 in February) to come over and feel the baby. So she came over, knelt beside me, and put her hand on my boob. We all cracked up and Hannah was just as serious as she could be. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. It still makes me giggle! Hopefully the humor of the story comes through in this post! :-)

More Progress!

Progress!

Hope ya'll had a good weekend. We had a nice long weekend, thanks to Martin Luther King Day today. Mom and dad came up, and dad and Chris got baby girl's room painted! It looks so great! I have to say, Winter Amethyst is a beautiful color. :-) It matches the bedding perfectly, and is dark enough that all the white will really pop! All that's left to do is touch ups, which Chris has on his agenda. Here's a little sneak peak!
These pictures make it look little blueish-purple, but it's definitely not.

Chris and I went and ran a few errands this afternoon, and we came home to a big box at the front door.
I am beating myself up that I didn't order this one day sooner so that dad and Chris could have put it together, too! Oh well. Putting the crib together is on Chris' agenda, too. Lucky boy!

And for a little cuteness...mom and I went to the mall while the painting was going on and I found 2 adorable outfits on super sale for next fall and next December that baby girl will look oh so cute in!

26 Weeks and Good News!

So the 3-hour glucose test SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!! I just felt blahh all day. The girls in the lab said that if they called then it was bad news. No phone call on Tuesday, that's good, I thought. Then Wednesday I had a message on my work phone (weird!) to call the doctor's office. Crap! That was my thought. So I called the nurse back and she said I PASSED my glucose test! YAY!!!!! She said everything looked good. I told her I was relieved with that news b/c the lab girls said no one would call if I passed...she said she likes to call no matter what. I forgot to ask what my levels were, but I'll ask at my next appointment on Feb. 1. Baby girl seems to be doing good (I know I said that last week...not sure what else to say!). The other night, Chris said she's likely to come out orange b/c I seem to be loving foods that are the color orange....naval oranges, goldfish crackers, and macaroni and cheese are current favorites! According to my 26-week email update from Fit Pregnancy, the baby has gone through a growth spurt in the last couple weeks and she will double in height from 20-28 weeks. I'd definitely agree with the growth spurt. I feel bigger and her kicks are stronger! Crazy to think there's only 14 weeks left in this pregnancy. It seems like time is flying by! Here's my belly picture this week. Compared to 2 weeks ago, it certainly looks like I've grown. Also, these maternity shirts accentuate the tummy!
Our fruit of the week is an eggplant! Gross! :-) She was an eggplant last week, too. Is that a fruit??

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!

Baby's soaking up your antibodies, getting her immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and she'll soon be practicing the blink...perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes.

Other exciting news is we ordered the crib! It looks a little something like this:Yep, it's a convertible crib so she can use it for a long time. Seems to be the best bang for your buck, but it also seems really practical. We are also going to order a dresser/changing table but it's out of stock everywhere so that will wait until next month. We were hoping the crib would be in by today (Friday) so my dad and Chris can put it together this weekend after they paint the room...unfortunately it won't be here until Tuesday. Oh well. I'll post pictures next week, assuming I remember to take some, of baby girl's room!

25 Weeks

Today is Thursday, the day I move up a week! No belly picture today b/c I've been working at home in my pj's all day because of the weather. Hopefully I can get one taken tomorrow and will post it this weekend. One bummer thing that happened this week is that I found out about my diabetes test...I didn't fail my 1-hour glucose test but I didn't pass it either. Boo!!! So I have to go back to the doctor on Monday at 8 for the 3-hour glucose test. I have to drink the sugar drink, and then they have to take my blood every hour for 3 hours (hopefully they do better with the blood draws Monday or I'm gonna look like a drug addict...my arm looks AWFUL from where they took blood this week!!). I'm not allowed to have anything to eat or drink after mid-night Sunday so I'll probably be starving by the time I get to leave. I'm pretty bummed that I have to do the 3-hour. I don't crave/eat sweet stuff often...actually, I tend to crave salty foods, but I don't give in to cravings much...can I blame it on eating excess sweets over Christmas? :-) Anyway, I'm praying I pass on Monday. Baby girl's kicks are getting harder. She was going crazy the other night before bed and Chris got to feel some good ones! We were laughing and were wondering what she was so worked up about.

So I said earlier the weather has been bad. We had snow Saturday overnight (which I mentioned in my post last time), then it snowed again Sunday night, and then last night we had some snow/ice and huge drops in the temperature. Today I think we got up to 12, with negative windchills all day. Here's our 7-day forcast...focus on the next 2 days!! I don't think I've experienced weather this cold! I'll definitely be doing no field work until next week!!!!
Doing field work this week has been interesting! It's looked a little something like this. Temperatures have been way below freezing, but believe it or not, I was actually able to take soil samples. Snow acts as an insulator...who knew! I've definitely stayed bundled up! Guess I'll go check out the Alabama/Texas game...the game certainly isn't going Bama's way right now! As an Arkansas fan, we ALWAYS root against Texas!! And if baby girl were here, I would allow her to use one of her Alabama pacifier's from her great aunt and uncle. This one time! Haha!!

Happy New Year...a few days late!!

We had a thoroughly exciting New Years Eve!! It consisted of this (which was very good):
And taking down this:
Thrilling, don't ya think? It's ok. We know we are a boring old married couple. Haha! We didn't need to stay up way late b/c we left early Friday morning to head to Memphis for this:
Actually we attended the 51st Liberty Bowl, but this was the only logo I could find. :-) We had a great time, but the weather was FRIGIDLY COLD!!!!!!! My Razorback Snuggie sure did come in handy! Ha! We visited friends, which is always fun...Vanessa, my college roommate, and Tamara, a college friend of Chris'.
We went to a very interesting Liberty Bowl parade...it was no Macy's but it was amusing!!

This is the cleanest semi I've ever seen!!!

I don't even know what to say about this!!!
McGruff, the Crime Dog, kinda looked like McGruff, the weird homeless dog
One of the 2 Corvette clubs in the parade. For some reason I took tons of pictures of these cars...I don't even care about cars. We got a kick out of that later. I'll only post 1 here. :-)
And finally, what we were waiting for....the Razorback mascot, cheerleaders, and band!!

Saturday was game day. But first we had to go here and I was oh, so excited! My first time to a Super Target!!!!
It kinda worked out b/c Chris picked up some long-john pants and we got some hand warmers while out. Ok, now game time!!

Chris, me, Phillip, and Holly...the beads came from the parade...no I didn't wear them to the game!

Eddie Money was the half-time entertainment...interesting.....
Hogs win...yay!!!

Our trip home was quite eventful. We left right after the game, went and dropped Phillip off at his car, and got stuck in serious traffic trying to get back into the state of Arkansas! So that put us back an hour. Around Little Rock I decided to check the weather on my phone...what a surprise I saw! We had no idea it was snowing in Fayetteville and would be all night. Things just got more interesting! When we got on I-540, north of the tunnel, that's when things got tricky...and they got worse the farther north we went. We finally made it home about 3:45. This picture is kind of bad but this is what we saw:
After about 2.5 hours of sleep (*yawn), going to church was kinda treacherous...snow packed on top of ice. Good times! By the time church was out the roads were just wet with slushy areas. Here's a picture of the church when we got there, and then one I took when we got home from church.

Overall, we had a good trip but are glad to be home. Going to bed early is definitely in store for tonight! Hope everyone had a great New Years!!!