What a Big Week!

What a busy, wonderful week we've had! It's been a tiring one, but fabulous. To start, almost all of my family (just missing my sister, Genevieve) was able to come to Wichita to visit us. We celebrated the 1st birthday of our niece, Emma. She's just amazing... and a fantastic birthday girl, I have to say. She was SO excited about her presents and her cake. She's so much fun. It seems like most babies I've seen at their 1st birthday's are pretty clueless about everything that's going on. Emma was all about the birthday celebration! We just got a new video camera that I have not yet figured out how to work, but once I do, I'll post a video of her present-opening extravaganza. Here are a couple pics, but without the squealing and spinning around in circles, it's hard to really get the full effect. :)

We also had our 2nd baby shower this weekend! We really weren't sure if we should have one or not, since we know so few people in Wichita, but we figured it would be a good chance to the family to get together, if nothing else. My sisters-in-law had a great idea to make a scrapbook instead of doing the usual baby shower games, so it didn't matter how many people came. As it turned out, we did have a few neighbors and ladies from Ian's work come by, which was so nice of them. We also received a ton of gifts from people here and from our friends & family all over the country. We are SO thankful for everyone's generosity! We're especially thankful to Jill, Mandy and Cortney for all their hard work to make the shower happen. You girls are the best!!

Last night, I went to a meal swap with the moms' group I've been getting involved with. I really am so thankful and feel so blessed to have found this group of women so quickly. I've only had the chance to go to a few events, but each time, I'm amazed by how warm and welcoming everyone is. Someone asked me recently how this move has compared with our move to Charlotte and it's really incredible to think of how different it has been. In Charlotte, I felt very lonely and isolated for the first several months and had a hard time meeting new people. I really wish we had family or friends close to us now, but I've also found it relatively easy to meet people and start making friends at least.

On the baby front, things are moving forward very quickly. It's hard to believe how fast the time is going by now! It really was great to see Emma this weekend... it's helped me to focus more on being excited to meet our own little girl and get to know her. Everything's been very smooth with the pregnancy. The baby's moving well (especially ramming her bum into my ribs) and I've been feeling pretty good, all things considered. I actually start my every-week OB appointments this week, so the time is coming close! Not too much longer and we'll be able to share pictures and her name with everyone! Until then... here's your letter for this week (and a little nod to the Bears fans out there)! (And I promise to stop with the alphabetical order after this one.) :)

Letter of the Week

Here's your letter for the week! And I'll even give you a clue... The baby's name is NOT Abba Baba, as my sister-in-law, Mandy, guessed. :) It's an exciting weekend around here... almost all the family is in Wichita for our baby shower and my niece's first birthday. She's such a big girl already! We're looking forward to lots of family fun this weekend. Hope you all have a great weekend, too!

The Name Game!

This week is sponsored by the letter...

As our due date approaches, we've been getting more questions about what the baby's name will be. We've decided that something should be a surprise and you all already know it's a girl, so we're holding out with the name. BUT, we're getting close to the end now and I thought we could play a little game to see if you all can guess what her name will be. I realized that if you put her first & middle names together, there are enough different letters to tell you one each week.

Here's what I was thinking...

• I'll only give you a letter once, even if it might appear in her name several times
• You'll get the letters out of order, so you'll have to do a little unscrambling to figure it out
• You'll get the whole name earlier if she decides to make her arrival before we actually hit week 40 :)

How's that sound? Ian said way complicated, but I think you can handle it. :) We'll see! So, in case you didn't figure it out from the picture, your letter for this week is "A." Good luck!

Heads or Tails?

It's hard to believe how quickly our due date is approaching! I'm starting to freak out a bit because I feel like we are so not ready. I know that we're not going to have the house completely furnished before she comes, but it would be really nice to have it a bit further along than it is now. I'm getting tired of our "sofa" (aka air mattress). In real life, it's all coming along and we have some plans in place that will help us get everything ready. It just all takes time and it's getting harder to be patient. I was thinking earlier today that if we were still using our original due date, we'd be expecting our little one within the month. Yikes! I'm so thankful that ended up not to be accurate. We do have a lot of the immediate necessities (thank you, Midland shower hostesses!)... plus, the crib arrived earlier this week (thank you, Lola!). I know we don't need it right away, but it'll make the nursery feel a little more "ready."

I'm growing very quickly! Here's a picture from the wedding we went to last weekend. It's an awkward pose - I didn't have time to figure out how to squeeze myself in properly before the pic was taken - but it is a good belly shot. The other day, I was eating dinner and tried to lean forward and couldn't. It was weird - there was something blocking me from bending forward at all. I felt the top of my belly and there was a very distinct, very hard, round thing on the right side by my ribs. I'm not sure if it was a head or a bum (I think head), but it was definitely some end of the baby. I was just saying to my sister-in-law last week that I've never understood how people could say, "Oh, here's the baby's head." I'd just felt harder spots on my belly, but nothing I could identify at all. Now I get it. Today there was a kick that was definitely some limb. I still haven't figured out the heads and tails of everything - butt or head? arm or leg? - but it's very interesting to have a clearer mental picture of what's going on in there!