16 Weeks: March 3

Baby's the size of a: Avocado and can hear our voices!

Sleep: Still sleeping pretty well, but I'm getting a little uncomfortable. Maybe it's time to justify buying one of those insane maternity pillows!

Best moment of this week: IT'S A GIRL! Revealing the amazing news to our family and friends was so fun!

Miss anything: Nothing really this week.

Food cravings: Nothing in particular.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Still not feeling so hot since I went off Diclegis, but each day gets better!

Symptoms: Just a sore belly from all the growing that's happening!

Have you started to show yet: Ugh, I still just look fat.

Gender: Sweet baby girl!

Happy or moody most of the time: Still can't stop smiling since we found out it's a girl!

Looking forward to: Shopping, shopping, shopping! We started our registry at Babies R Us this past weekend, which makes it seems so much more real.

17 Weeks: March 10

Baby's the size of a: Pear and her heart is now regulated by her brain - no more random beats!

Sleep: Pretty much meh.

Best moment of this week: We had family in town from Texas and the weather was beautiful, so it was nice to get outside and be active. And hang out with family!

Miss anything: Sushi!

Food cravings: This weekend I just had to have Taco Bell - oops.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Ugh, I'm still sick! Can't figure out any rhyme or reason to it, and really hoping I'm not one of the lucky few who are sick the whole time. (However, I will happily take it for a healthy babe!)

Symptoms: Still just feeling blah and my nose is stuffy (apparently that's a symptom?).

Have you started to show yet: I think I finally popped! Thoughts?

Gender: Baby girl. Still can't believe it! :)

Happy or moody most of the time: I haven't been moody much! (At least, I like to think so.)

Looking forward to: Getting the nursery started. We moved out the guest room furniture, so it's now a blank slate!

Also, Hank decided to take it upon himself to start "nesting". Ay yi yi.

18 Weeks: March 17 (Happy St. Patty's Day!)

Baby's the size of a: Sweet potato and is hiccuping and yawning!

Sleep: Meh, as usual.

Best moment of this week: I'm starting to feel her move around! Still nothing consistent, but it's a fun surprise to feel the butterflies every once in awhile.

Miss anything: Sugar Free Red Bull.

Food cravings: Comfort foods: french fries, chicken tenders, hot fudge sundaes... the real healthy stuff.

Anything making you queasy or sick: I haven't gotten sick since Friday (March 13). This is serious, people. We may be officially OVER "morning" sickness!

Symptoms: Nothing really.

Have you started to show yet: Ok, for real. She popped! I don't care if you can tell or not, she did. And I'm sticking to it.

Happy or moody most of the time: For some reason, the past couple weeks I've had this feeling like 18 weeks was going to be the best week. Maybe it's because my favorite number is 8? Or she's due on the 18th? So far, I'm just so happy and it's the best!

Looking forward to: Everything! I'm just so happy right now!

Out and About

This past weekend we had absolutely beautiful weather (and it hasn't stopped since!), so Adam and I decided to take advantage. It takes a lot to get me (showered/put together/etc) out of the house these days, but since I've been feeling pretty good we went for it.

Saturday we headed over to Red Hare Brewery for a little pre-St. Patty's Day festivities with Evan and Dominica.

Since when?? (Just kidding.)

Adam and Evan kept the party going at Mulligan's and 120 Tavern, but I called it as day after the brewery. I'm so glad Adam finally went out with friends!

Sunday was a super fun-filled day! After church, Adam thought of the genius idea to go putt putt at Mountasia.

After our game of putt putt, we took the pooches to the dog park and it was basically the greatest day of their lives! (But everyday is the best day of their lives.) For the first time in forever, we also menu planned for the week (gasp!) and went to the grocery store. Weee! It's fun to be old!

I lost at putt putt (but only be one hole!), so I've promised Adam a week of home-cooked dinners. I really was on a cooking kick prior to getting pregnant, but now it's the last thing I want to do at night. Here's the first meal I made on Monday.

Cast Iron Sausage and Green Peppers

-3 green peppers, one diced
-1 cup heavy cream
-1 lime
-1 package (of 4) chicken sausages cut into 1/2 inch slices
-1/2 pound rotini pasta (I just used half a box)
-1.5 pounds mozzarella cheese
-coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Place two peppers on a small baking sheet and broil until charred and black all over (about 10 minutes)
2. Place in a plastic bag and let steam for 10 minutes
3. Remove the skins, stems and seeds
4. Places roasted peppers in a food processor along with the heavy cream and a good squeeze of lime juice, a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
5. Cook the pasta
6. Saute the chicken sausage in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, until browned all over.
7. Add the diced peppers and saute another minute.
8. Add the cream sauce and simmer on low for a couple more minutes.
9. Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and toss to combine. Sprinkle the mozzarella on top and slide skillet into over (on Broil) until the cheese is browned and bubbly (about 3-4 minutes)

And voila! I have to say, it turned out real pretty and even tasted pretty good!

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day and the Taste of the Nation chef photo shoot. Even though I don't work at Share Our Strength anymore, I still got roped into being the Restaurant Committee Co-Chair, which I love. It's always a fun morning! (Plus, I was able to demolish a couple Sublime donuts. Yummm!)

We followed it with a festive lunch at Fado Irish Pub - and baby girl finally popped out to say hi! Allison is due with her little girl in 7 short weeks, so there are actually 5 girls in this picture!

Family Fun Time

This past week, we were lucky enough to spend time with some of our fabulous family!


Adam and Nathan have been brewing beer and it was "bottling night" Thursday, so I tagged along and we were treated to a delicious meal by Meagan and Nathan (and Jude!). Jude is just getting cuter and cuter! He sat in amazement while they bottled the beer.... and may have drooled into the sanitary water. It'll just add flavor!

(I don't know why this picture won't crop for me. Thanks for taking it, Meagan!)

Saturday morning I really wanted a doughnut, and who can turn down a Krispy Kreme? We grabbed a dozen and headed over to the Bakers to share (and pick up the truck.)

I had to attend a Fashion Show for work on Saturday night, so Dominica was kind enough to join me. It was an experience, to say the least!

The weather was beautiful on Saturday, and even though I didn't feel so great in the morning, I rallied to take advantage of it.

Adam is playing singles this year, and I was able to attend one of his matches. He lost, but it was really fun to watch!

After, we headed up to Lake Arrowhead to meet up with some of my family that were in from Texas. My parents bought a couple lots up there, and it was our first time seeing the place. Definitely a cool area - golf, tennis, batting cages, hiking, fishing, boating…

I volunteered to take Brody and Christopher "hiking" with Michelle. That was.... neat! The trail just kind of abruptly ended and we had to cross two streams (plus the way back, so a total of four). We finally gave up and headed to the playground with the other kids.

After all day in the sun (and water) we headed back to my parents for dinner! It was such a fun day, and now I'm really antsy for the weather to be consistently nice!

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to tag along on a Behind the Scenes tour of the Georgia Aquarium. Seriously, one of the coolest things, ever! It was so interesting to hear about all of their conservation efforts around the world.

Our initial meeting was in the room with the beluga tank. This is Maris and she's one month from her due date! I kept hoping she would have her baby while we were in there, but no luck. At one point, they had four scuba divers just sitting in her tank watching her, so I figured she was definitely about to give birth. Turns out those are just volunteers who sit in there to get her acclimated to having divers in the tank with her, since they'll be in there when she has her baby.

Penguin Party! Penguins get very attached to their mate (they have one mate their whole life!) and their handlers. This woman said her favorite part of her job was coming in everyday, because this little guy loves her! He brightens up and immediately waddles right over to her. They've been paired for 7 years now!

Ocean Voyager tank from the top

We were there just in time to see them feed the whale sharks. Each shark knows who their "feeder" is and knows not to go in the others' lanes. They are also the biggest fish and can't eat anything bigger than the size of a quarter!

Top of the Tropical Diver tank

Baby penguins! They were hiding, but you can kind of see their furriness poking out. They are only 10 weeks old and almost full grown! Also, it's someone's job to sit in there everyday and just pet them. JEALOUS.

The pump room. If they had used a regular hose to fill the Ocean Voyager tank, it would have taken over a year. They opened up fire hydrants and all sorts of stuff to do the initial fill and it still took over a day! Once it was filled (with Atlanta tap water) they just added a product called "Instant Ocean". Kind of hilarious.

Total nerd out!! It was so much fun!

Photo op with the penguin! I highly recommend the Behind the Scenes tour! I only got a glimpse of it and was hanging on to every word. I will definitely go back and pay for the experience.

We'll wrap this up with mom's birthday! We celebrated with a delicious dinner at Kyma. Happy birthday, mom! Here's to the best year, yet! (But seriously… you're getting a granddaughter.)

Gender Reveal

What initially began as a super casual get together for our family and a couple friends to learn the baby's gender turned into quite the shindig! As I mentioned in the last post, we planned to share our exciting news on Saturday, February 28 if the baby cooperated. After basically forcing the stubborn little one to cooperate, we finally found out!

This is going to be a huge photo/video overload, so let's go ahead and get started…

We purposefully arrived about 15 minutes late, so we could immediately do the reveal. I knew if we had to sit around waiting for people, we would somehow spill the beans. Luckily, our amazing friends and family were all (very impatiently) waiting, so we got right to it!

We really lucked out with the weather! It was turned out to be such a gorgeous day!

Here's a video of the reveal: https://vimeo.com/121030918

We've watched the video over and over since Saturday. It's overwhelming to think about all of our friends and family that took the time to come out and celebrate with us!

In case you're wondering, that is a knife connected to a Swiffer stick that Adam's holding. His original ideas were a dart or BB gun, which were quickly vetoed by me. What an embarrassing way to die… Pregnant Woman Dies by Dart at Gender Reveal.

My dad took his sweet time getting outside, and thank God my mom said something! He almost missed it, which would have been so sad.

Allison picked up some of the confetti for me to keep for the baby book - GENIUS!

We still can't believe it!!! August can't come soon enough!

Natalie drove all the way down from Charlotte to celebrate with us!

And she brought this amazing onesie! Baby Taco!

Kelsey also drove up for the festivities from Milledgeville!!

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate!!!!! Adam and I are truly overwhelmed by all the love! We can't wait to meet our daughter in August!

Mom did a great job decorating! (With the help of Dominica and Alysa!)

Adam has been dying to make his @BabyBaker8 Twitter account live, and this weekend he was finally able to! Watch out world, she's gone social.

After a day of fun celebrating, Adam and I decided to have an impromptu Sunday Funday the next day! I promised one of my clients that we'd stop by for brunch on Sunday, so after church we did just that. It was Stoney River's first brunch service, so we knew it'd be off to a pretty slow start. What we didn't know is that we would be the very first people to eat their brunch (shouldn't we get a medal or something?). And oh my goodness, it was amazing. All of it! So good. I don't typically take pictures of food, but this was just too impressive.

After brunch and Adam's last tennis match of the season, we decided to head out to do some exchanges. Now that we know it's a girl, it's time to take back all the boy stuff that had been purchased!

My dad is adorable and was so proud of himself for going to Gymboree to pick out outfits for the Gender Reveal. These are the swaps Adam made for the boy outfits - too cute! (Quick, hide my credit card!)

We decided to go ahead and start our registry, so Babies R Us was next. Thank goodness they give you a guide - who knew there was so much to get?! And don't even get me started on all the bottles and nipple sizes - mind boggling.

Needless to say, it was one of the most special weekends of our lives!! Now we just have to wait 6 more months to meet her!