Fun baby things!

We have been MORE than blessed by all of the gifts we've already received for our little miracle baby girl. We have drawers full of items and have barely had to buy a thing! I can't wait to get everything washed and hung in the closet. :) We are just blessed beyond measure. We have also received tons of items for our little guy in Ethiopia. He has about 1/2 a closet full of fun stuff! :) God is sooooo good. :) It warms my heart to go into the nursery and hold the items close to my heart. BOTH of these babies are our PLAN A. God has no Plan B. Both are equal in our hearts...

Since I have shared little Africa baby's stuff in previous posts, I'll choose to share our bio baby's goodies in this one...I have been thinking of quality items that BOTH kiddos can use, so lots of this stuff will do for two! I LOVE that!

Daddy went to Disneyland in June and got this onesie for baby!
Onesie from Rachel and Mike and Mckayla DeVenuto. (I used to live in the condo below Mike and helped hook them up through church in Scottsdale. :) I absolutely LOVE looking at this and thinking about our baby in Africa. I can't wait till our little girl wears it in honor of her brother and hoping he can wear it too! :) I JUST LOVE IT!
Our crib. :) We love the furniture we scored on a great sale!

Lots of loot! Books, teething ring, Bumbo (from the Gunnells)

Our neighbor Lauren Gunnell brought over all her NICE baby clothes for us! Our baby is set! Two drawers full of skirts, shorts, dresses, jeans and shoes! OH. MY. HEAVENS.

ADORABLE SHOES!

I could cry these are SO cute!

Our dear friends the Cruz family sent us several packages over a few weeks. Each had a card with advice or a theme.

These shoes are to die for! Their ties are black ribbons!
This is her Diva outfit. I cannot wait to see our baby in this one! :)

LOVE this...the shoes match perfectly! The card said "Jesus loves little girls in pink!"
The card on this one said "every girl needs some DKNY"

Shoes from the Cruzs

The first gift was baby necessities. Onesies, bibs and sockies.

The second gift was from Gabby. She loves ducks so this was a duck themed gift. Adorable ducky layette.

This gift was handmade by Lee's co-worker's wife, Julie Stahler. It is a carseat cover and works on both sides. It is so close to our nursery colors! I absolutely LOVE this gift!

I could fill up a ton of pages of blogs with all the gifts we have received. We could not be more blessed. Grammy and Grampy gave us tons of sleepers and wonderful outfits before we knew we are having a girl. Grammy also bought some adorable baby girl outfits. Our dear adoption friend Tracy gave us some ADORABLE onesies and a travel bottle bag. Our friends the DeVenutos gave us an adorable onesie (see below) and a prayer book that Rachel authored! It is amazing! You should get one!!! http://www.amazon.com/Praying-Baby-Rachel-DeVenuto/dp/1615793399/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316489531&sr=8-1

Kristi Perry (and Steven and Emma Paige) gave us "Goodnight Moon." Our neighbors, the Gunnells also gave us a Bumbo and Winne the Pooh and other books!

It is SO MUCH FUN to receive such wonderful gifts and dream of the day our baby girl will wear and use them! I have to admit I feel so blessed to be having a baby girl. I think baby girl stuff is just the most fun!

Second Trimester update!

The second trimester has been oh-so-much better than the first. My morning sickness subsided at about 14 weeks. It has been soooo wonderful to come home from work and be able to enjoy my evening, plan meals, and not lay on the couch with a trash can, trying to figure out what to eat that wouldn't make me sick. I also bid farewell to my "puke pine" at work. Yes, this is the tree that I frequented to toss my cookies (or water for that matter.) The one set back is that my headaches have drastically increased, and after an MRI, 4 doctors have been unable to determine what "that thing is" on my brain. Some sort of cyst or dark spot exists, so I'm in the process of finding a different doctor for another opinion. I was diagnosed with chronic migraines, so hoping to tackle treatments once baby comes...Other than that, I have enjoyed the increased energy. I have been able to enjoy gym workouts and powerwalks, although with each passing week my lung capacity decreases. I'm grateful for renewed strength, the return of my healthy appetite (no more Taco Bell or McDonalds! EWWW!) and feeling like "me."

14 weeks

16 weeks

For our 20 week ultrasound, we got a CD with over 30 images! It was sooo much fun to look at each body part of our little miracle. We had an AWESOME ultrasound tech, who said she was perfect and everything measured wonderfully! We saw the four chambers of her heart, the blue and red blood flowing between mommy and baby, and her face, spine, legs, feet, "goods" and little fingers. At one point she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue! The tech joked that she was already being silly but also said that it showed excellent tongue control because she has to control her amniotic fluid intake. The better babies are at doing that, the less indigestion and hiccups they experience. :) Yay Baby T!

My heartbeat next to hers. LOVE IT!

My fave' picture! My arteries feeding Baby T through the umbilical cord!

Little arm and fist-kickboxing already!

Fist bump!

Yep, its obvious. :)

Little bum and bladder :)

Legs. LONG and strong!

She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue

BEFORE

AFTER! Ha Ha Mommy and Daddy!

Blue and Red blood in the heart :)

A random pic of us at the lake with our church group

20.5 weeks

Definitely can't wear heels much longer! :)

21.5 weeks at the doctor's office

I cannot believe how fast this trimester is flying by...The first one was SO LONG since I was SO sick and now I wish time was slower...only about 15 more weeks until she comes!

We finally registered this past weekend. I first enjoyed a mani, pedi, facial and massage (courtesy of Groupons! Love them!) and then we hit Babies R Us. Despite the fact that I had researched products for hours and days prior to our trip, it still took us 3 hours! We really tried to register for quality/safe items that we can use for BOTH our babies. This is very important to us! We were utterly exhausted by the end of that trip and I fell asleep on the couch at 8:00.

SO. MUCH. TO. DO. Nesting has begun!

Next post: FUN BABY STUFF!

GIRLS WEEKEND!

My three very best friends in the entire world surprised me with a visit to Salt Lake City! They had wanted to come for awhile, and we were in DIRE need of a girl’s weekend. Holly lives in Los Angeles, Jenny in St. Louis and Amy recently moved from San Francisco to Denver (darn we left CO right as she was moving there!) The weekend could NOT have been more perfect (unless I was able to enjoy a glass of wine with them). We laughed until our sides ached, danced like no one was watching and cried together at miracles in life.

Getting ready to go shopping! Hanging out on our deck.

I could not be more blessed to have these three in my life. We’ve been close for the past 15 years and shared sorority life, college and adulthood. I have lived with these girls, traveled to see them and cannot imagine getting through life without them! IMPOSSIBLE!

The weekend was filled with shopping, chatting and fun! We had fully planned to do some sight seeing in Park City and around the canyons of SLC but we got so wrapped up in chatting and catching up, we stuck around our house. We loved using the deck and enjoyed our backyard reconstruction! Thanks Lee! He waited on us hand and foot and cooked us wonderful breakfasts!

Amy

Jenny

Holly brought me like 15 books. I seriously think I'm a pregnancy expert!

First night photo. My wine is non-alcoholic! :)

Took the girls to din din at one of our fave' hang outs. This is the pre-dinner photo. My girls are HOT! :)

Dinner at Porcupine Grill

After dinner we ventured over to the bar next door. I had never been there but it was fun. The girls thought this sign was funny and began to learn the nuances of Utah very quickly :)

Holly cuts a rug!

Funny sign! :)

The highlight of the weekend was when the girls suggested we venture to “Fetal Foto” for an ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby. I was about 16 weeks so we decided to go for it! I will NEVER forget having those girls with me to find out what we are having… It was a time filled with laughter and tears! I likened it to having my very own “Sex And the City” moment. These girls are my family!

It took awhile but we saw the goods!

Its. A. GIRL! :)

Proud Mommy and Daddy

Waiting to find out!

Daddy hugs mommy! :)

C'mon baby...show us something!

Mommy always knew. :) GIRL!

One of my life's favorite memories...Me, my baby girl and her Aunties!

What a WONDERFUL weekend. It could not have been more perfect! I had the BEST time and was truly sad when they left. I had withdrawals for weekends to come!

VOW: DO THIS EVERY YEAR! WE NEED IT!