Getting Bigger!

Here are some belly pictures. We'll start off at 16 weeks when I apparently had the energy to blow dry my hair (of course, AFTER the first trimester was over). I look back at that innocent smile as I was just starting off in the pregnancy. I thought I was big back then. :-)


No longer blow drying my hair, it's the natural look for me at 20 weeks. This was when we found out we were having a little girl!


Here I am at 24 weeks. Getting bigger, of course. :-)


And finally, here I am at 28 weeks (this was just last week). I laugh when I compare this picture to the first one. I like getting bigger because I know she's growing! And no, if you see me out and about, I'm not "about to go at any moment", like many strangers seem to think. Pregnant woman get big, ok??? I still have 11 more weeks of growing, for crying out loud! :-)


It's all worth it because I have this precious little girl growing inside of me!

The Nursery

So we've been working on the nursery lately. And by working, I mean painting! Lots of painting. I got a little fiesty with Todd and ended up painting his side. It was really punishment for making fun of me. We won't go into why he was making fun of me. No one really needs to know about my paint in the outlet mishap. :-)



Once we got the walls painted, we turned toward our mural. Watch it grow...


Growing...

Ta da!

We still have a ways to go with getting this room ready for our little girl this October. We'll keep posting our progress!

Baby Luke!

On May 23rd, we had another little miracle added to our family - Luke Christopher McKenna. And to make a long story short, he really was a miracle. Luke wasn't due for another 3 weeks. That particular day, Rachel realized she hadn't felt Luke move all morning. She called the doctor thinking she'd tell her to just take it easy and call back in 24 hours if she didn't feel anything. Instead the doctor asked her to go to the hospital. A few short hours later, the doctors decided to deliver. God was really watching out for Luke that day because after he was born, the doctors realized the umbilical cord was wrapped around his little neck FOUR times, which is something the doctors said they had never seen. He was born at just the perfect time!


After almost a week in the NICU, multiple tests and time for Luke to wake up from the whirlwind of his birth, he finally got to go home. He's healthy, growing and adjusting to his new world. Here's big brother Max who is really gentle with his baby brother. :-)


The first time I got to see and hold my new nephew - nearly a week after he was born! They only let parents and grandparents into the NICU at the hospital.

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Todd was one of the heroes of the day. He watched Miles and Max at our house while everyone else was up at the hospital waiting for baby Luke to arrive. Here's a picture of Miles finding out that his baby brother was born that afternoon. What a proud big brother.


And because Rachel and Josh missed our "Finding Out" party while they were in the hospital, Todd and I made a special visit to Shawnee Mission Medical before our party to let them in on our baby girl secret before anybody else.

Our Finding Out Party!

It's about time I posted a new blog entry! I know it's been forever. I have many back-log entries to add, but I thought I'd first start with our "Finding Out Party", which is when we announced to our families the sex of our baby after keeping it a secret for nearly two weeks!!! It was very fun to go to Party City to pick out LOTS of fun pink decorations.


Of course we kept that we were having a girl a surprise until everyone arrived. We asked everyone to wear blue or pink based off what they thought we were having. Since I thought we were having a boy from the very beginning, I of course wore blue and since Todd guessed girl from early on, he obviously wore pink!


Our little nieces and nephews - Max, Emri, Miles and Ava - and Wrigley, who is wearing a blue lei because he also thought we were having a boy. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking because he wants a little brother to play with. :-)


Part of the pink decorations were fun flamingo straws. There were so many fun pink decorations to choose from - I love the whole girl theme. :-)


Between our parents, looks like there were an even number of boy and girl guesses. But lo and behold, the pinks win! Todd, mom and dad - nice guessing!!!

We're having a.....

Last Thursday marked 20 weeks in my pregnancy. Halfway there, unbelievable! 20 weeks is kind of a big deal because you can finally find out the sex of your baby. Which we did! We had the sonographer write it down and place it in an envelope for us to open up later.


Todd had a great idea to go to Loose Park (where he proposed almost 2 years ago, ahhh...so sentimental!) to open the envelope. Oh the suspense began to build as we opened up our little secret...


I was literally in shock when we pulled out the little picture that read GIRL!!! I had tears of surprise, excitement and joy start pouring down my cheeks.


If you couldn't tell from the pictures already, I wore blue that night because I really thought we were having a boy. Here are my reasons: 1. the Chinese lunar calendar said we were having a boy 2. I had two VERY distinct dreams that we HAD a little boy and 3. the sonographer said the baby was really hyper moving all around in my tummy and he/she had long legs. All of which meant we were having a boy because boys have long legs and because my husband is hyper and so it must be a boy. :-) Oh well, I was wrong. That's ok because it was a win-win situation. When in your life do you get such an amazing surprise where BOTH outcomes are wonderful???

All Things Pink

Since my sister Rachel is having her third little boy in June (most likely any day now, really), Kerri and I wanted to throw her a special party. So in lieu of a traditional baby shower, we decided to throw an "All Things Pink" party since Rachel is about to be out-numbered 4:1 in the boy girl ratio at home.


We asked guests to leave all the boy stuff at home (or in the stores!) because all they needed was a pink outfit and their game face because we were playing PINK POKER!! Yes, bringing back the grad school days of pink poker. :-)




We had a fun night of pink boas, pink drinks, pink food and of course pink poker, which I must admit at this point that I did NOT win a single round. Or maybe I might of and just folded early because let's be honest, I like to play this particular game because it's pink and I honestly know very little about it. I'm sure if anyone who actually knew how to play poker was watching us, they'd get a big kick out of our "interpretation" of how to play.


Hopefully this was enough pink to last Rachel for the next few years!!! :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

We had such a fun and memorable weekend celebrating with our moms. My mom gave a Mother's Day gift to my sisters and me, although I'm not technically a mom yet. :-) She took us to get manicures on Saturday afternoon. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a morning.


And later on Sunday, we enjoyed a delicious strawberry shortcake made by my darling sister, Kerri.


Mommy of three boys (or will be in just a few short weeks!), mommy of one darling little girl, mommy-to-be (yay!) and mommy of the three of us. :-)


This Mother's Day was also very special because my sister-in-law, Holly, and her husband, Mike, announced the sex of their baby. It's a girl!! It was really cute how they told us. Ava, Holly and Mike came into the living room wearing pink. Ava ran in with pink balloons as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" played in the background.


My preggo partner, Holly, who is due just 12 days before me!

After the fun announcement, we had a great afternoon of celebrating our moms AND looking forward to another little girl! Hmm...wonder what we'll have?? We'll know in two more weeks!

The Heitshusen and Ashley women - Happy Mother's day ladies!!