New Pictures

We have three more pictures of our daughter today!!! Boy was she moving around! It was actually really funny and it was fun to know she's growing just the way she is suppose to. She's about 1 pound and 7 ounces as of now. We also got to see her legs and they seemed so long! The technician also loved her feet again so we got another picture of her feet...well, one foot anyway. I wish we had one of her legs so people could see what we saw! Her face is getting a little bit more humanlike too.






Also, Candy, my sister-in-law, told me about this book called, Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go! It's a Dr. Seuss book sort of like the Oh, the Places You'll Go! and it's meant to be read "in utero." There something about the rhyme and rhythm of it that babies are suppose to be able to remember after birth, so of course I went out and got it and I've read it to her everyday since then. I love the last two pages:

You'll find that this world's
a great place to begin,
but it could use some help-
which is where you come in.

So now, as my voice
burble-urps in your ear -
with a bump-thumpy sound
that is not very clear -
the words I am saying
you hear in your heart,
and know that I wish you
the very best start.

It's a scrumptulous world
and it's ready to greet you.
And as for myself...

well...
I can't wait to meet you!

Caleb's graduating!!

My brother-in-law, Caleb, is graduating this weekend - graduating. That's amazing to me. He was in the fifth grade when Cody and I started dating!! I can remember going to Pope to pick him up a few times with Cody. That was fairly early into our relationship and we actually took Caleb along with us on lots of our dates. I guess it made it more comfortable for us and it was a more relaxing way to get to know each other. It also made me fall more in love with Cody because I could see just how important family was to him. Caleb became like a little brother to me. I've always had a brother in Tony, but we were so close in age that he was never truly a "little brother" to me. That's what Caleb turned out to be for me. That kid was amazing back then and now...I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him! Caleb has grown up into such a smart, kind, and compassionate man. He has musical talent that is beyond most normal people in this world. And now he is about to go off to college and become even greater. Caleb will be going to East Texas Baptist University and playing baseball. He has also been called to the ministry - he's just waiting to see exactly which type. I know ETBU will be a great place for him to explore his many options, but my guess would be youth or music. Whatever he chooses to do with his life I know he'll be amazing at it! It's just going to be weird to not have him around as much now. I know Cody and I (and Kaitlyn!) will be making many trips out to Marshall to see him play.

Here are some seniorish pictures I took of him.

20 Weeks?!?!

Gosh - are we really there? Yesterday was officially the 20 week mark. I have been reading my prenancy book week by week - well, sometimes I peek into the next week, but for the most part I stay on track. Yesterday when I read the 20 week chapter it started out, "You have officially reached the halfway point!" I can't believe that's already here! Of course if you had talked to me about two months ago I thought the first trimester would never be over! Now I'm past all the morning sickness and yucky feelings. I have a TON of energy during the day which had been missing there for a while. The only big problem now is sleeping - I just cannot get comfortable! I'll lay on one side for a few minutes and then I start to hurt. So then I'll flip to the other side and the vicious cycle just keeps going!! I wake up each morning to find the sheets almost pulled off the bed from all my tossing and turning. Thank goodness Cody is a heavy sleeper or he'd never get sleep! And of course I have had to cut my wardrobe choices down because over half my stuff won't fit over the baby bump...oh the joys! :)

But 20 weeks just doesn't seem possible. I just keep thinking, "Wow, that's only 20 more weeks left until she's here!" We're not even close to being ready! We had said we wanted to move before she got here - the two story thing isn't working for us. We have two bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. We would like to go ahead and move into a one story house with more bedrooms, but now that it's almost June and we only have 20 weeks to go until she gets here (and that's assuming she doesn't come early!) I just don't see that happening. So if anyone knows anyone that really wants to buy a house....let me know! :)

Oh, and we went ahead and started our registries - we've already had someone say they wanted to throw us a shower in July so we thought it would be fun to go ahead and get that going. Talk about overwhelming! Sure, I was the typical me and researched consumer reports on the strollers, car seats, etc. but when we got to the bottle section I just stared and stared. Who knew there were so many types of bottles? Not me for sure! I literally almost cried right there in the store. My loving husband just put his hand on my back and led me away saying we could read up on all that and come back later. So the next day I started asking everyone at work which bottles they used and I got about four different answers...solved nothing. I guess Kaitlyn will just have to let us know what she likes and doesn't like! All I know is that my first objective for the summer is to read and read about babies, but something tells me I still won't feel as prepared as I want to be - and I've only got about 20 more weeks to get myself ready!

Nursery

We have decided on the nursery colors and bedding. I'm not too big into "themes" such as frogs, butterflies, etc. I've seen precious baby rooms done in themes and if that works for them then great - but that's just not me. Cody and I decided on pink and brown. I searched at a few places before I found a bedding set that I loved. I finally came across this one. (This is from the website...we don't have her room ready yet!) I hope Kaitlyn likes it! :)

Her Name

We decided on a name!!! We had a few that we were playing around with, and then we decided on one and thought it best to sleep on it before we started telling people. So, we slept on it and still loved it so we are going to name her...

Kaitlyn Grace

There is no particular reason for Kaitlyn - we just really like the name. It's an Irish form of Katherine which means "pure." Grace was always our middle name we had picked out - just to remind us of God's grace. So basically the name we picked means pure grace and I don't think it can get much better than that! :)

Right after we found she was a she we told our parents and then Cody had to go back to work. I had taken the entire day off (I knew I didn't want to go back to school after such exciting news) so I did what any crazy new mom would do and went to BabiesRUs. I knew Cody had been hoping for a boy - and really, what guy doesn't want one? So I found a pink Rangers set complete with booties, hat, onesie, bib, and blanket. I also found Kaitlyn a little camo outfit so she can match her daddy during hunting season. And I just couldn't resist the Daddy's Little Cupcake outfit. I had to make myself stop though...I could have stayed in there forever! I was excited before, but knowing what she is and now having a name it makes it just that much more real to me and I cannot wait to meet her!!

Kaitlyn also got her first present from someone else. Linda Denson, my junior high principal, bought her a dress that is just too precious! I promise I won't keep taking pictures of everything, but since it's her first I just had too! :) (If you think the pictures are bad now just wait until she actually gets here!)








Kaitlyn's first official present :)

We're Having a Girl

Finally we know! Today the sonogram told us that our little one is a girl! It was so incredible - as we were in the waiting room, "Isn't She Lovely" came on the radio and I thought - we are so having a girl. It was like God trying to tell us one last time before we found out for sure. :)

It's strange too because so many people have stopped us lately and told us they thought we were having a girl. One of my teammates just stopped me in the middle of lunch this week and said, "You're having a girl. I just know it." Yesterday when I told my class I was going to be gone because I was going to the doctor to find out if the baby was a boy or girl one of my little ESL kiddos came up to me and said, "My mom say you have a girl baby." I guess both of them knew what they were talking about!

Now, we just need to agree on a name.... :)

Everything else is going great too. We got to see the heartbeat and saw the four chambers. All the major organs were right where they needed to be, and all the fluids and such were good. That part is so relieving! The pictures weren't as great this time, but I know soon we'll have a little one to stare at in person - and she'll be perfect to us!



Not so modest this time!


The head is looking a little less like Batman...I was told she has my chin already. We'll see!

Still Waiting

Well, we went in for our sonogram on the 23rd...and no luck. We still do not know the gender. Our stubborn little baby kept his/her legs crossed the entire time. S/he was pretty much doing flips and waving his/her arms around like crazy, but those legs were not coming apart! So we go in again on May 21st - keep your fingers crossed...or maybe not crossed...that just seems to encourage the wrong thing. Just hope really hard for us! :)

We did get some really neat pictures - the face ones do look a little creepy though. My dad is now calling our baby batman because of them.


This one is my favorite - I love him/her so much already!!!



Look at those perfect little toes!


BATMAN!