Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2015 already! And that I am finally in the same year as my baby's birthday. I am beyond excited to meet this bundle of joy.

I know I am a little behind on the Holiday post but Christmas was so hectic with seeing family, showing off the bump ;-), running around to see everyone, and trying to edit all the awesome pictures below :).

We spent Christmas in AZ with Max's family this year and it was super busy but fun. Max's 16 yr. cousin Katie (Yes this is the third Katie in our family; My sister, his cousin, and my best friend. Context clues are key lol) from CA stayed with us since we are slightly cooler than Max's parents. Though I'm not sure a pregnant cousin-in-law who falls asleep at like 9-10PM is really that cool :).

Christmas Eve we opened all the presents from Max's family over at their house and had a small gathering that night for dinner and a movie. Of course we watched Christmas Vacation, a classic. Max's parents got me "Mommy-and-me" swim lessons and I am sooooo excited!! I love swimming and it will be a great way to meet other mommies and babies. And I wanted to start the baby swimming young since everyone and their mother has a swimming pool in Phoenix, gotta keep the baby safe!

Christmas morning was just Katie, Max and I. Opening all the presents on Christmas morning is my family's tradition and I am unwilling to it give up. So I carved some time out before leaving to see the rest of the family for just Max and I (and Katie of course since she was staying with us) to open presents from each other and Santa :).

Pictures to come soon! Work has gotten in the way of editing and deleting the ones that are not as flattering :)

That night we went over to Max's Aunt's house. The whole extended family was there and children everywhere. And we finally got to meet the newest addition to the clan, Aaron! Max's cousin had her second baby on December 18th. He was the cutest little one week old. Until our baby arrives of course ;-).

Our New Years celebrations were much quieter which is how I like it. New Years is probably the worst holiday ever in my opinion. I love my old year. The end of the year festivities are my favorite; Halloween, Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas. So New Years, which basically rubs in my face that the fun parts are all over, is not really my favorite. But I had a good time anyway.

We went over to a friends house to play an Oregon Trail drinking game. This may sound stupid but it was pretty epic. We all grew up with the old Oregon Trail game that had terrible god-forsaken graphics and awful music. It was a staple of our childhoods. Well recently one of our friends had found the game on the internet and we were all dying to re-live those glory days...with a little adult humor thrown in. So a drinking game was born. Of course I played the game with rootbeer. It has "beer" in the name after all :). We all remember this game being impossible; some of us never reached Oregon when we played it as 6-10yr olds. But apparently we are better as adults because we won on our second try.

The Oregon Trail claims its first victims

Max trying to decide where to go next on the trail

Max made it across the river safely!!

Beau showing off his scarf after he died on the Oregon Trail

Taking a drink for something bad that happened on the trail :)

Showing off the bump in a sparkly dress :)

Victory!

At midnight we clinked glasses of champagne (sparkling grape cider for me) and kissed our loved ones. Max even rubbed the belly at midnight to make sure it felt included :). What a sweetie.

I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

24 Weeks

The yoga pants that I usually wear in these pictures have finally been retired. They no longer fit without taking 20 min to get into and then uncomfortably digging into my belly. So maternity jeans it is. Luckily the shirt is still working :).

Also the location of these pictures has changed since the shelf I usually set the camera on in the baby's room has been relocated. So Max has graciously agreed to take the remainder of the pictures :).

Hopefully I'll be able to show you the progress of the baby's room soon! I work on it a little each weekend and it's progressing nicely!

How far along: 24 weeks
Total weight gain: 16 lbs.
Sleep: My hips suck. And terrible leg cramps.
Sickness: Nope
Cravings: salt, chicken wings, hummus, chips
Make me queasy: Yogurt of any kind, anything too sweet.
General Symptoms: General stretching pains but nothing terrible.
Miss anything: Red meat, sandwiches and, seafood
Maternity Clothes: Just the same jeans and tops and I still mix in some old stretchy favorites
Movement: Quite a bit! Sometimes the kicks to the rib cage are not quite as cute. A few weeks ago we were finally able to see the movement on the outside. I showed Max one night as we were on the sofa and his immediate response was "IT'S ALIVE!" which was pretty cute :)
Gender Prediction: I go back and forth. I think I'm back on train girl. It's weird the closer we get the less I seem to care. I just want to see my baby already!

Names I like at the moment:
Girl: Claire, Olivia, Alice, Eloise (Ellie), Charlotte (Charlie), Lucy
Boy: Jack, Edward (Ed, Eddie), Milo, Nathan (Nate), Ethan, Neal, Luke,

The baby is now the size of a cantaloupe. It's skin is becoming less translucent and more opaque which is good thing lol.

The Kaechele's stop by

Last night Max and I met up with my family friends the Kaechele's. I have known them since I was a baby but haven't seen them in a while since they live in Oregon. But they are down here for a week on vacation so we had to meet up.

We went to one of our old favorite restaurants, O.H.S.O. It was so nice to get to see them again and show them the baby bump in person. We talked about what all they have done and seen so far and Max gave them some tips (maybe too many lol) on places to go and things to do outdoors since he is the Arizona backpacking expert and they love to be outside too. They are enthusiastic bird watchers and are heading down to Tucson to do some watching so hopefully I will get to see some great pictures soon :).

 I hope we get to see them again soon once this little babe pops out :).

22 Weeks

How far along: 22 weeks
Total weight gain: 13 lbs.
Sleep: My hips suck.
Sickness: Nope
Cravings: cheese, salt, chicken wings, hummus
Make me queasy: Yogurt of any kind, anything too sweet.
General Symptoms: General stretching pains but nothing terrible.
Miss anything: Red meat and sandwiches and seafood
Maternity Clothes: Just the same jeans and tops I got a few weeks ago for my birthday
Movement: Quite a bit! It's the most around lunch and at night. I love feeling the baby in there :). Max has also finally been able to feel it. Which was so amazing.
Gender Prediction: Boy. While we didn't find out the sex at the 20 week ultrasound, the nurse found the gender and confirmed it was doing well pretty quickly so I have a feeling it's a boy now :)

Names I like at the moment:
Girl: Claire, Olivia, Alice, Eloise (Ellie)
Boy: Jack, Edward (Ed, Eddie), Milo, Nathan (Nate), Ethan

The baby is now the size of a papaya. It's facial features are now more prominent and it's sleeping in regular cycles. Maybe this will continue after it's born, huh, huh, huh ;-). Some how I doubt it.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So I know this is a bit late but I had to wait for some free time to get all the pictures together :).

Thanksgiving weekend was amazing but such a blur! I am from the Bay Area in CA; which is where all my family is currently. Max and I trade which family we spend the holiday with each year, so this year is Thanksgiving with my family in CA and Christmas with his family in AZ.

I was nervous to fly on the plane, not because something was going to happen to the baby but more worried about me! Was I going to have to get up and pee every 5 minutes; was it going to feel weird, was there going be a lot of pressure. But sure enough it was no different than a normal flight. It's also only 2hrs so it couldn't be that bad anyway :).

We landed Wednesday night and had dinner with the family. After that my mom and I started in on the pies, we are the pie ladies in the family. While it may suck to get off the sofa to make them we always have a good time talking and laughing while we bake.

Thursday was awesome per usual. We watched the parade, ate appetizers, watched some football and of course cooked delicious food. Between dinner and dessert we all got around the table for a re-match of Munchkin. Even though this game mysteriously took twice as long as the first Pat still ended up winning. Clearly he is rigging the game ;-).

Now since Black Friday is basically the spawn of Satan I stayed home and watched tv and hung out with the family. However, my mom had to work a 10hr shift! Which totally sucked but we got to hang out later. We of course watched the ASU v. Arizona football game; I'd rather not talk bout it. Boo. The lucky baby clearly feel asleep on the job.

Saturday was a huge day! It marked the 1/2 way point in the pregnancy, 20 weeks, it was my 25th birthday, and it was the fist baby shower for all the CA people who can't travel to AZ! It was a big day :). My sister Katie did an AMAZING job on the shower. She had so many cute decorations and actually really fun games. It was really nice to get to see some family friends and my best friend Katy (yes this has always been confusing).

Auntie Katie!

The girl cake! It was chocolate chocolate chip and the boy one was Pecan.

I guessed most of them right haha

20 Week Ultrasound

Today was our 20 week ultrasound! This is the ultrasound where they do all the anatomy checking. And where you can find out the sex if you want.

Max and I decided to keep the sex a surprise! Sorry everyone you will have to buy us all gender neutral items. Let the predicting begin!

We saw all 10 fingers and toes, two strong legs, and two cute arms. The head and brain are in good shape, thank god. And the heartbeat is at 140, nice and strong. Both kidneys are there and the bladder and stomach are looking great too.

The baby is now just under a pound! Getting bigger each day.

All in all this little baby is doing great in there! It's nice too now that I haven't failed as a mom already :).

Now for the fun part. Pictures!


Torso, leg, and foot. The head didn't make it in the picture, little creepy :)

Face, leg, foot, and hand. Look all 5 fingers! :)

Face, torso, arm, and hand.

20 Weeks

How far along: 20 weeks
Total weight gain: 10 lbs
Sleep: This is not getting any easier. My hips KILL me in the morning.
Sickness: Into the second trimester so all is good :)
Cravings: cheese, salt, chicken wings, hummus
Make me queasy: Yogurt of any kind, anything too sweet.
General Symptoms: General stretching pains but nothing terrible.
Miss anything: Red meat and sandwhiches
Maternity Clothes: The soon to be grandparents couldn't let a present opportunity like my birthday go by without buying me some cute new maternity clothes. So I have 3 pairs of pants (jeans, red and black skinny jeans) and 7 tops. And the best nursing bra from Target.
Movement: Quite a bit! I love feeling the baby moving around in there. It is stronger and stronger each day. I can tell it's getting bigger because it started first lower near my groin and now its up around my belly button :)
Gender Prediction: Girl. Our 20 week ultrasound was today where we could find out the sex if we wanted but we decided to keep it a surprise!

Names I like at the moment:
Girl: Claire, Olivia, Alice, Eloise (Ellie), Hailey, Lynn, Amelia
Boy: Jack, Edward (Ed, Eddie), Eric, Milo, Nathan (Nate), Ethan

The baby is now the size of a banana. It is now gulping down several ounces of amniotic fluid a day! This seems too crazy.