Its a BOY!

Well I've been really busy with work so I haven't been much of a blogger but for those of you out there who don't know, we are having a baby boy.

It was so cool and fun to see his little hands, feet, arms and legs. It became real to me in that moment. I really feel a connection to my baby boy now which I can't say I really did before. Jer and I have known since before we were married that we would name our first son Scott after both of our dads. So, little Scotty it is! I hope he grows up to know how special the people are that he is named after.

This is me at about 17 weeks. It's funny because some days I look at lot more pregnant than others. I'm almost 18 weeks now and excited to hit the halfway mark soon! Now that we know the gender I'm excited to get things going. November will be here before we know it!

May

I'm excited to update my blog today! It feels like I've been totally neglecting it. Here's what we've been up to.

Jer had a birthday!

 The big 2-5!

 Jer's little bro Cam had his 12th birthday in March and my MIL told us what they did for his party and I thought, "Jer would LOVE something like that!" So I copied. :o) We threw Jer a "surprise" party but Jer actually surprised me and showed up at home early before ANY of the guests arrived. Sigh. Oh well.

 Everyone came over and we had pizza, breadsticks and salad and then the boys went over to the church to play basketball while the gals stayed and chatted. After bball they came back and we had cake and ice cream.

 We have the most wonderful, supportive friends. Jer had more than 20 people there showing him love. :o)

 J-Rad.

 Honored guest Anabelle. :o)

One of Jer's gifts and our new friend Sam (not pictured, his wife Brittany.) I didn't seem to grab a pic with him but that's ok.

Next item on our May agenda was Mother's Day! Everyone was so sweet to me and gave me gifts celebrating my impending motherhood. I couldn't be more excited. :o)

 The day before we did a combo Jer's b-day Mother's day gift and golfed 9 holes. It was my first time and Jer said I did pretty well! I didn't want to get a cart because I wanted some exercise but it was dang hot and around hole 5 I was slightly regretting that decision. Although we made it through!

 After golf we used Jer's free Tucanos birthday meal. They did a Mother's day special which ended up being really special when Jer threw it all up that night.

 Despite being sick the night before, Jer had a card with a gift card in it, flowers and breakfast ready for me when I woke up Sunday morning. What a stud!

 My mom sent me my early gift, a bag full of Burts Bees stuff and body butter, a gift card to Cold Stone and a book that I am thoroughly enjoying. My sweet sister Katie was so thoughtful a bought me some maternity clothes! And my in-laws wrote me a sweet card and got me a gift card to Babies R Us. I definitely felt spoiled!

And of course, we've been doing some serious baby growing over here. Before I got pregnant, I knew I didn't want to be one of those people with overloads of pictures of their growing belly and nonstop posts about pregnancy but I decided its high time to let you guys see the progress. Not much from the outside, really.

Took this photo today at 15 weeks, 1 day. not much of a belly yet, just feeling fat, I still wear my normal clothes but I'm starting to feel more and more uncomfortable. The baby is the size of an avocado: 4-5 in. long from crown to rump and about 3-4 oz. We will find out the gender in a couple weeks and can't wait!

I was very nauseous all day long from about 5 1/2 weeks till 10 1/2 weeks and then the nausea cut down to just evenings. I'm still nauseous at night but I think that should go away soon.

We are really so very, very excited. We feel that this is such a blessing and cannot wait to hold our baby in our arms. We already have names picked out, one for a boy and one for a girl. We decided to stick with family names (we've got a lot of great ones in ours :o)).

Jer and I are both still working our butts off. We both work full-time and then in the evenings and on Saturdays Jer tutors and I coach private lessons. Its kinda killin me to be honest so I'm contemplating cutting down to part time so I can give my students more of my energy. Jer has been a rock star husband through this pregnancy and has helped with everything from laundry to cooking meals and has not complained. It has been really hard for me to feel like I can't do much due to nausea, lack of energy, etc. but i'm hoping I will hit a second wind here soon.

Granna

This Mother's Day is a little different for me. For the past week or two I have been reflecting on the fact that my Mom will not only be Mom to me but Granna to my little baby. As I was shopping for a gift for my mom I came across a lot of plaques that say cute things about Grandmothers, some cheesy, but one I really liked said, "The only thing better than having you as my Mom, is my children having you as their Grandmother."

Here's the thing, my Mom is going to be the BEST Granna/already is (to little Ella-Boo). And here's why:

-When she came out for Easter and we told her we were expecting, she doted on me ALL week. She spoiled me, made sure I was feeling OK. Told me I was normal, (even though I clearly was NOT) and kept foods away from me that made me gag.

-When she found out she would have a second Grandchild, she couldn't stop talking about it. What it would look like, what gender it would be, when we would visit, when I would come home for a baby shower, counting down the days till I could hear the heartbeat, find out the gender, etc.

-She had already started making our baby a blanket and had bought some newborn clothing (before she even knew we were expecting). And then when she found out, she started making another blanket!

-We talk on the phone everyday (nothing new) at least once. And we always talk about how I'm feeling and she is always excited to hear what item from the produce department our baby resembles that week.

Those are just a few recent things that make me know how much she already adores her Grandbabies. But I'm not her only child and I'm not carrying her only Grandchild either. I don't know how she does it, but she somehow has just as much love for each of her other 3 (4 with Shana) kids and grandbaby as she does for me.

I don't know how you do it Mom but I better start learning now! Love you Mommer! Hope you have a great one!

Growth

Guess what?!

That's right, we've got a...

That means...

 This little one will have her first Houston cousin!

 These two will have their VERY FIRST Grandbaby!

 These two will have their second grandbaby.

 These 4 will be GREAT grandparents for the first time!

And the above folks will be great-grands again!

 These kids will be aunts and uncle for the first time!

And these siblings will be aunts and uncle again!

We are so excited to welcome our new little bundle of joy in early November! (5th)

Stay tuned for live video footage (on our Facebook pages) of our loved ones' reactions to the big news. :o)