16 Week Belly Shots

So, today we are officially 16 weeks pregnant. We were really horrible with Olivia and only took a few belly photos, but I was supposed to have maternity photos professionally taken at 36 weeks, but as most of you know, I never made it. So, we decided with this pregnancy, we are going to do the belly shots. Even though we do not have that many belly shots with Olivia, she does have a lot of Ultrasound Photos, so that should make up for the lack of photos, right?

And, without further ado, here are the belly shots:





On a side note, Olivia and I attended a free gymnastics class at The Little Gym today and she had such a blast, I signed her up. Jonathon is going to go with us every Thursday morning, so he can be the one to help assist her and I can take the photos. Today, he was unable to do so because he was extremely busy at work, but he will be there next week. As many of you know, Olivia is rather shy and takes a while to warm up to people and to activities, but today, she was the ring leader. When the instructor would show us a move she wanted us to help the kids with, she used Olivia as her example and she loved it. The great thing about The Little Gym is that even though we are signed up for the 10 a.m. Thursday Beast Class, we can really go any time, and all of the scheduled Beast classes work within my work schedule...awesome! So, next Thursday Jonathon will be with us and I will be able to take some pictures, so look for those next week.

PS--I know my belly is really white compared to the rest of my body and after seeing these photos, I will be correcting that soon :)

I know you've missed me!

I know, I know, it has been a while since my last post; I apologize and hopefully it will not happen again, but no guarantees.
Let's see, what has been going on. Jonathon has been working a ton, and by a ton, I mean going in early, staying late, working from home at night and on the weekends. I can't wait for the company to move and be finished. He has been such a Rock Star while working for his new company and he loves it, so I guess that is pretty cool in and of itself.
Olivia and I have been enjoying the warm weather lately. A couple of weeks ago we bought her a $5 pool and she loves it. We have also had the opportunity to go to a couple of our friends' houses who have pools, and she loves swimming. She doesn't quite understand she isn't big enough to swim by herself, but she still has a great time.
I have started planning her second birthday party, can you believe she will be two in just a month, and we are having the party at the local pool. I decided that our house isn't big enough to host all of our family and friends inside, and I do not want to deal with several two year olds fighting over toys (did that recently and Olivia didn't handle it very well), and figured there is nothing better to do on a hot summer day than go to the pool and have cake, too. So, we have already booked the Partybrella now I have to make the invitations, order the cake, get some finger foods and drinks, and make the party favors. So much to do, so little time.
What else? Oh, Jonathon and I have agreed on a girls name, finally. We find out at the end of July what we are having, and we are so excited. I have heard we are having both sexes, and usually I can figure out what other people are having, but I cannot figure this one out. I have a feeling, but I am not going to say it out loud, for the fear that I have terrible mother's instinct, but we will be happy with either a boy or girl; we just want a happy and healthy baby.
Everything is going much better on the pregnancy front. I am finally starting to feel good. For those of you who do not know, I have been struggling with staying healthy so far with this pregnancy. When I first found out I was pregnant, I had Strep Throat, then I hit my knee in Florida and a condition called Erythema Nodosum flared up (I hit a balloon pocket in my knee just right and because I had Strep Throat, those two factors caused this thing to flare up...I still have a small case of it left, but it is much better. My knee and lower left leg had these huge, goose egg, painful bruises all over them and it took weeks for them to go away and it was swollen, red, and heat radiated from them. Fun? I think not.) Then, at the beginning of June, a Cold hit our house. I got it first, then Jonathon and then Olivia. Of course I was the first to get hit and the last to get better. Since I am pregnant, I am too scared to take anything, so I just suffered through. I did go to the doctor though because my throat hurt so bad I thought I had Strep Throat again, but alas, I failed the test. She said my throat was just irritated and raw from the sinus drainage. So, now that I am over my Cold, I feel fabulous. I have started eating a lot more, which is good because since I found out I was pregnant, I have lost about 15 pounds.
What else? Oh, this Thursday, Olivia and I are going to a free trial gymnastics class at The Little Gym. Lately, she has been putting her head on the floor and it looks like she is going to do a somersault, but she doesn't kick her feet off the ground. She has also been hopping around the house like she is a frog so we thought it was time to get her into a gymnastics class. I hope she really likes it. We think she will after a couple of sessions, so we will see.
I have a doctor's appointment this Thursday. It is just a routine checkup. At the last appointment, we were able to hear the heart beat through the Ultrasound machine, so I hope he puts the doppler on my belly and we are able to hear it. I wasn't able to see my doctor at my last appointment because he had to fly out to Denver the morning of my appointment to run in a marathon.
Jonathon took some pictures of his garden earlier this afternoon and while downloading the pictures, we found some we had forgotten about. They are from our trip to the Dallas Zoo and swimming.

Names, names, names

So, now that we are thirteen weeks pregnant, and seven weeks away from finding out the sex of the baby, we are really starting to think about baby names. We have already agreed on a boy name, which if the baby is a boy, I will reveal, but we cannot, I mean CANNOT agree on a girl name. Jonathon hates every name I come up with and I hate every name he comes up with. I really appreciate him thinking about names and helping out, but I wish he would come up with one we both love, and vice versa.
With this said, I am challenging you, blogger friends, to help us come up with a girl name. Some guidelines:

1. We do not like trendy names
2. But, we do not like too traditional names
3. We would like to keep the spelling normal, nothing too funky
4. We appreciate any and all suggestions, but please do not be hurt if we do not choose your name

So, bring on the names, friends. I am very excited to see what you all come up with :)

PS--I got a call from my nurse and she said everything came back normal from the Down Syndrome testing...yay!