Abby Update

I've now started going to the Dr. every week. Yesterday at the appointment, I actually got the ever so lovely "internal exam" to see where I was. I'm in the middle of my 36th week right now. I have been feeling a few different things lately, so I was quite curious.

We found out that my cervix is 60% thinned, and I'm dilated to a 2. I was excited to hear this news, although I do know that some people may stay at this point for many weeks. The Dr. said she definitely doesn't think I'll make it to my due date, and she said it could be in the next few weeks that we'll meet Abby.

Obviously, we're on God's timing--so whenever He wants her to be born is when it will happen :-) We just wanted to share the news!

Scrapping Baby Shower

This is the most unique idea I've ever seen! My friends at school decided to throw me a scrapping shower. I really do love to scrap, but I haven't been very good about actually sitting down to do it lately. I first got introduced to scrapbooking by Cathy at school. She is a "Creative Memories" consultant. I loved to scrap instantly!

Stephanie, who is in the Technology department with me, asked me if I would be interested in having a scrapping shower. I really had no idea what it might entail, but I was definitely interested! It was planned so perfectly. They split everyone up into different tables with different pages assigned to each. For instance, one table was in charge of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas pages--while another table handled Valentine's Day, Easter, and Abby's first birthday. Because Cathy is a Creative Memories consultant, we had TONS of awesome tools to use, and she got me several cool things to keep and add on to Abby's book with.

Even for those people who had NEVER scrapped before, I got some really amazing pages! It was such a fun, girly hangout time. I feel like when I go on my next vacation, I want to have another one of these "showers" so people can come up with unique ideas for my pages!

To all the ladies who attended: I had such an absolutely WONDERFUL time, and I'm so glad all of you were there. I have such great memories of that day, and ya'll made me feel so incredibly special!! All the food was fantastic, too :-)

Look at everyone's hard work!! (This shower was planned from 10am-1pm, but some people actually ended up staying until 3pm!)

Abby's 1st Birthday page

Christmas page

Easter page

Father's Day page

Halloween page

Thanksgiving page

Valentine's page

Sonogram pictures page

Talk about some really creative work, huh? Abby's book is going to be AMAZING!

Fantastic 3

April 17th was Josh and I's 3 year anniversary. I will definitely say it has been the most amazing 3 years of my life! We've had SO many awesome times, and that boy makes me laugh like NO other! Especially now, with this big 'ol belly of mine, I have to make him stop making me laugh because it hurts!!! God couldn't have made anyone more perfect for me...we seriously mesh so well. I am so extremely blessed and so very thankful for such a loving and caring husband!! I love YOU, Josh :-)

I wanted to capture the moment of us on our "special day" before Abby arrives. Obviously, no one else was around to take a picture of us, so I stretched out my arm as best as I could and snapped the picture! Oh yeah, we look like goobers!
I just found this picture on our computer that I thought would be a good one to post, too. This is Josh and I on our 1 year anniversary with the top of our cake. My, my..look how young we were back in the day! :-)

My School Shower

The people at my school are absolutely AMAZING! My school shower was April 12, and I had such a wonderful time!!! Another girl at school is due 3 days after me, so we were able to have a "joint" shower. Everything turned out just awesome, and I got some of the cutest things!

Our Cakes My friends The diaper cake Katie made for me The Art teachers are amazing! Here is a bag Michelle made for me. Inside the bag, was the switchplate and picture frame Sandy made for me. They also included a white plate that had a little poem on the front that said I am to bring Abby back to them, and they will put her little footprints on the plate, and they'll paint it. Too cute of an idea!! Perfect gift from a Language Arts department...a tub full of books! Just wonderful! Abby's first little backpack (Is that not precious?!?!) The two ladies in my department (Stephanie on left and Teresa on right--they gave me the backpack for Abby) My preggo buddy--Anne Margaret

A-B-B-Y

As you've seen from a previous post, my friend Sandy at school painted the flowers on the walls in Abby's room. Besides just that, she has now done the letters spelling out "Abby," and she made me the most adorable switchplate cover and frame. Have a look--it's so adorable!! I also wanted a small "something" to hang over Abby's changing table, but I didn't have anything particular in mind. It was one of those things where I would have to go shopping, and once I saw it--I would just know! One of my new favorite home decorating places is Kirkland's Home. I've always liked this place, but now we have one close, and I don't have to go the mall to get to it (which is a HUGE plus to me!), and I found this super cute plaque. The other wonderful part is it was on sale....so of course, I HAD to get it :-)

The BIG 2-5!!

Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen...I have officially reached my "mid-twenties!" On April 5th, I turned 25 years old. (And my dad turned another year older as well on the exact same day, however, I won't reveal his age! haha!)

This post is totally for my mom because my parents had flowers sent to my school in honor of my birthday. My mom has desperately been wanting to see pictures of these flowers, and I haven't posted them quickly enough.

They are beautiful, and they are all PINK (in honor of Abby, of course!) I realize, as I get older, birthdays are great but they definitely don't hold the same significance they did when we were kids. I'm more looking forward to finding out when Abby's birthday will be than anything else in this world :-)

Here are 3 great pictures of the flowers. The vase is even pink with little butterflies on it! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Houston Shower

This past weekend, on March 31st, I had my Houston Shower. Four of my friends hosted this for me. It was wonderful! They had the cutest decorations, and we played some funny games.

For those that remember, my wedding theme was Precious Moments, and the ladies had a Precious Moments theme for my shower. Obviously, I didn't know these girls when I got married, so this tells me they listened really well when I talked about my wedding day :-) It was too cute!

Then we played the game where everyone takes off as much toilet paper as they think would be needed to go AROUND my belly! Anyone who wasn't there...want to take a guess how many toilet paper squares it would take to go around me?? (You better not over estimate it! ha!) I'll put the answer in a later post. The other game was between new moms (me), and "seasoned moms" (my mom and Jasmin) to see who could change a diaper the fastest on these stuffed animals. Now, I lost, but please know that my stuffed animal's diaper was the ONLY one that was very very dirty. The other ladies had NOTHING to clean! It was really funny!

To my hostesses--if you read this, please know it was a great shower, and I have a lot of great memories from it! Thank you for taking the time and energy to plan it. I'm so thrilled and blessed to have each of you as friends!!

Here are a few pictures before I arrived at the shower. Josh wanted to get in on a picture with me (taken in Abby's room of course!) The next few are of the cute decorations and my cake. This is a special surprise from Baby Caleb (Kim's son) to Baby Abby. It looks just like a flower bouquet, but the flowers are actually onesies and bibs. (TOO cute!) I still don't have the heart to take it apart...it's so neat! Finally, here is a picture of me with my wonderful hostesses!

Holy Mama!

I'm so big! Can you believe I still have to add another month to this belly? Yikes! This picture was taken in my 32nd week, and I'm now in my 33rd week! Time is flying. My last day of school is May 4th, which leaves me just 21 days left ther(not that I'm counting or anything), THEN just a week more, and I can meet my baby girl. HOORAY!

Pregnancy is wonderful, but now I'm truly beginning to understand why people say they are so "uncomfortable" at the end. I just feel stretched to my limits. I don't see how she can get any bigger. It's amazing to see her move in my belly now. She distorts my belly quite often, and Josh always says "I can see that bulge in your belly." She totally lop-sides me. When Josh feels on my tummy he always says, "What body part do you think that is?" It's the most incredible and crazy thing.

Side belly poses for all to see :-)
One normal--the other..the "Prego Pose"