there are lots of things that have gone unblogged for quite some time. Candi's birthday, our packing, pictures i took while experimenting with my new camera in the snow.. etc. So here are some things that are worth noting:
First day of school April 2011
And now to more crucial news, which seems fitting with Mothers Day being tomorrow:
This news came in January. And our baby will arrive come September.
Happy parents after seeing this:
We decided to celebrate the day by going to the Olive Garden and going to see a movie at the dollar theatre. Both i don't have pictures of, but these pictures are both from that day.
And here are some pictures of my growing belly - mostly for my records.
15 weeks.
I have since enlisted Luke as my photographer..
19 weeks.
And at 20 weeks (and a few days) we went and got an ultrasound.
Baby Allred happens to be Baby BOY Allred.
The sex of the baby was quite obvious, the pictures aren't quite as cute as this one:
If you can see that is our little baby trying to suck his thumb (just like his Dad used to). His head is on the left and his arm is coming up into his mouth area on the right of the picture.
Because of our great news, and my growing body and new aches and pains, sleeping position, lack of sleeping etc we bought this:
It is a pregnancy pillow
Here i am demonstrating one way to use it.
It is actually REALLY comfortable, and Luke loves to steal it in the mornings after i get up. it is so comfortable that he did, infact, sleep in one morning and almost missed his class (a great story in itself as he got up quickly, ran his hair under the bath, broke the towel rack off the wall, ran to school and got a blister on his heel from not tying up his shoe, sat down in class only to realize he had gone to the wrong class, races to the right class, remembers he needs to print something, etc etc.. )
Here is my 'bump' at 21 weeks. I am more than halfway done now!!!
I don't know how apparent it is, but i do feel like i am growing at an alarming rate. I have got some cute (which is hard to find) maternity clothes that i have so far avoided wearing, because i know that soon that is all i'll be wearing.
We are more than thrilled for our family to continue to grow, and we are SO grateful for all the blessings that we have seen in our lives already. It is interesting to see how answers to prayers aren't always what you expect them to be, or what you think you are capable of. We have learned that when we follow those answers, we see doors open (like things working out with our Doctor down here, so we don't have to end up paying tons of $$$$$, me getting my green card in record time, being able to go to Phoenix AND Hawaii.. the list goes on) and we are just so grateful to always feel so taken care of.
Because it is mothers day tomorrow, Luke took me out for lunch to Olive Garden (i guess that is our place to go to celebrate - i think it is the cheap soup, salad and breadsticks). We had the best service we have EVER had at a restaurant i am pretty sure, and Luke is a raving fan. He told me he even wanted to blog about it on my blog - i'm still working on him actually doing that.
If anyone else is like us, one of the best things about Olive Garden is the chocolates they give you at the end of the meal - well Benji (our server) hooked us up. he brought us this 'to-go' box and told us not to open it until we were out of the restaurant.
We were beyond happy, and even more impressed with this service, when this is what we saw:
I feel bad for any server we have in the future - there is no way they can measure up to Benji.
Afterwards we got our groceries for the week and headed home. I enjoyed the evening by getting some chicken enchiladas ready for tomorrow and some chocolate chip cookies. It's been a great first (day early) mothers day.
So in closing, I just want to say Happy Mothers Day to my own mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers and all those other mothers in my life. I am only pregnant, but i can see that it's not as easy being a mother as i always thought.