Baby Boy!

Baby's profile. Isn't he sweet??

On Friday, Ray and I got to see our sweet baby. He was beautiful, and healthy and perfect and... a boy! We're so happy. We have an appointment to see the doctor and go over the sonogram images on Wednesday, but from what we could tell, everything is just as it should be. I've thought of him as a boy from day one (literally- the day after our wedding..), so it wasn't much of a surprise when the tech told us. It was pretty obvious from the images on the screen as well. What was more surprising and more amazing was seeing his sweet little body, jumping and kicking and sucking just as I'd pictured him. It was so much fun to see him moving and feeling it at the same time. Thank goodness for ultrasounds! I'm even more in love with him now and I can't wait to get to know him more through the next few months of the pregnancy.

Friday evening we had a little gender-reveal party with a few of our friends. Our friend Rachel is the queen of themed parties, so she got me excited about the idea of doing a little gender-reveal. It was a lot of fun and I really loved sharing our happy news with our friends. Here's a few pics:

Pink & blue cupcakes. Our friends chose pink in they thought we were having a girl and blue for boy.
 All but one chose pink. :)

Rachel hanging the surprise lanterns.

Just pull the string and the paper stopper pops out to release the colored confetti!

 And here's a  little video Rachel took of the big moment:

And just to make you all jealous (and hungry!) I thought I'd show you what Ray and I made for dinner last night. DELICIOUS.

Just the cheesiest, creamiest Mac & Chz anyone's ever made. No big deal.

18 Weeks and Counting!

I've been meaning to post for some time now, but sometimes I feel like I have so much to share, I don't even know where to start! So today I thought I'd write a quick post to let you know what's been going on these last few weeks.

1. I'm 18 weeks along now! Baby is the size of a bell pepper- pretty big, right? These last couple weeks have been really wonderful. I've started to feel like my old self again. My energy is back and I'm not as achey or tired as I have been before. I'm still starving though, pretty much all the time, and I've definitely started to gain some weight the past couple weeks. 

Belly pics of 4 months! (16 weeks)

2. My cravings are getting stronger. I mostly crave a few specific things- Thai food, Chinese food (mostly Pei Wei), PIZZA, and cheeseburgers. Give me cheeseburgers all day long. When I crave a cheeseburger though, not just any will do. I always want a specific burger- either In & Out, 5 guys, or sometimes a Habit burger. It's silly, but this girl (and apparently this baby) really loves her burgers!

Micah and I at the airport!

3. I had a birthday this week. I turned 28 on Monday, and it was definitely a mixed emotions sort of day. Ray and I had plans to spend the weekend before my bday up north in Flagstaff, which is a sweet little mountain college town. I just love the idea of being snowed in in the mountains, I think it is just so romantic. But then Friday morning I found out that my sweet brother Micah was coming to visit as a surprise! We picked him up from the airport Friday afternoon and it was just such a happy day. Micah is just a year younger than me, and he has always had my heart, so it was the sweetest gift having him for the weekend. I wish he could come and live with us here- it was just so nice having him around and I miss him so much. So when he left Monday morning, I was pretty sad and homesick. I had a great birthday, but it was tinged with a little sadness. Days when my family leaves after a visit are always a little bit rough.

A few pics of Ray playing volleyball over the weekend.

4. Baby has started moving! Or at least I've started to feel him. I've been feeling his little movements for a couple weeks, but I wasn't really sure until this week that what I was feeling was actually baby. But the last few days his little kicks have become so much stronger! I love feeling him move- it's like I'm finally getting to know him and his personality, at least a little bit. Ray and I love to imagine him jumping and twirling and flexing his little muscles in there. I can tell he's a happy little thing and he seems to have plenty of energy.

5. Tomorrow, we have a sonogram! We are so excited, we've been waiting for this for weeks! We can't wait to see our little baby, his little nose and fingers and his sweet little bum- I don't know how I'm gonna sleep tonight! If he cooperates, we'll also get to find out if he's a girl or a boy. It's gonna be so nice to know! Then we'll be able to start really picturing our life with our sweet little one, and I can start thinking of the nursery! SO MANY EXCITING THINGS.

6. Rachel and I are planning a little gender-reveal party for tomorrow evening. We've been working on a little craft to help us tell our friends what kind of baby we're having. I'll post again really soon to show you pics and let you know how it turned out!

7. Just a little gush about my sweet husband- One day I'll do a whole post devoted just to him, but for now, I just want you all to know that Ray is the sweetest husband. I love him more every day, and I'm so so grateful for him. I pray every day that my sisters and single friends find men who love them as well as Ray loves me. I'm so very blessed!

Oh, The Holidays..

It's been a very busy couple weeks for Ray and I. We spent our very first Christmas together, had a lovely week off of work, and had my sweet sister and brother for a visit. We also hosted a BIG New Year's Eve party, and I heard our sweet baby's heartbeat!

I expected Christmas to be a hard day for me, since this year was my very first Christmas away from home. I love Christmas at my parents' house so much, and the thought of a quiet Christmas alone with my love, while sweet, made me so homesick. But it turned out to be really really wonderful. Ray spoiled me with sweet, thoughtful gifts (he's so good), and I really loved waking up and opening gifts together in our PJ's. We spent the day with Ray's family, which was really nice, and I was able to Skype with my family while they opened gifts and celebrated together. In the end I missed them very much, but felt like I was just where I was meant to be. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

How thoughtful..

Ray torturing Bagel.

Poor guy.

Ray's favorite gift!

Just kidding, this is his favorite.

Baby's first book, from his sweet Daddy.

My brother Luke and my sister Shea came to stay with us for the New Year's weekend. They are both so much fun and so cute! It made me so happy to have them around for a few days. We somehow ended up hosting the party this year for New Year's Eve. It was a Murder Mystery, set at a Chateau in the Alps, slash dance party that went on well into the morning hours, so Lord knows I was exhausted the rest of the weekend. Thank goodness we had Monday off of work to recover!

On Wednesday I went in for a check-up and got to hear our sweet baby's heart beating for the 2nd time. It's so special and so exciting. The happiest sound I've ever heard.

I hit my second trimester and started feeling A LOT better just in time for Christmas. I have my old energy back, so life is pretty good. It's probably going to take the week for me to recover from New Year's, but that's another story. I am 15 weeks along today, and noticing lots of changes. My belly is growing steadily (finally!), and I'm dying to feel that little one moving in my belly. Any minute now, they say. He's about the size of an apple- about 4 inches long! I can't wait to see him during our sonogram this month and find out if he's a boy or a girl. Then we can choose a name! So so exciting.

Also, on a side note, I came across this on the interwebs recently. Can't wait for this to happen to my stomach! (Notice the missing stomach in the 3rd trimester diagram...)