wordless wednesday

20 down 20 to go

On Saturday, I reached a milestone in my pregnancy... Half-way! Josh was not here to take a picture so, you will have to wait for a later time. People still say that I don't look pregnant and can't believe that I am 20 weeks. A lot of my students parents have no idea, which is kind of nice. I have felt really good the past couple weeks with the exception to an increase in heartburn. I currently have no cravings and no aversions. Last night, as I was laying on the couch watching tv, feeling Ava kicking all around, I began to wonder if I would be able to feel her kick by placing my hand on my lower abdomen. Ava is sitting really low, at times i have to give her a nudge because she is laying in a position to make my left thigh fall asleep. Anyways, I pushed my hand in a little and was quickly kicked, I had invaded her bubble. I laughed so hard, it is an extraordinary thing to feel your little one moving around. I can't wait to see Josh on Friday and let him be "kicked" by his daughter :)

ava's christmas stocking

I began working on Ava's Christmas stocking in June. I have done cross-stitching before, when I was a little girl. My mom cross-stitched our stockings, so it is like a tradition that as a mother I felt should be carried on. My mom had a theme with our stockings: teddy bears. David's stocking has 3 bears in a gingerbread house like scene. My stocking has one bear on a rocking horse surrounded by presents. Alex's is covered in tons of bears and Adam's has a boy sleeping, holding a teddy bear. I decided to do a theme with snowmen. After searching all over the internet to find a stocking that wasn't to complicated and that was suited for a girl or a boy, Josh and I finally agreed on one: Trimming the tree. I have been spending majority of all of my free time working on her stocking especially now that she may be here for Christmas. Not that she will know, but I will.

Here is the progress so far:

I have to complete 2.5 more snowmen, the top decoration, Ava's name and all of the outlining. Then it will be ready to be sewn into a stocking!

dresses, ribbons, bows... and cute shoes

We will be expecting a baby girl around my new due date, December 24th! Here are a couple of baby's first pictures.

Her fingers

Already head down

top view of her head and legs

profile shot

3-D shot of her feet (thigh, knee, calf, ankles crossed, little toes) 

easy sausage pasta

one of Josh's favorites

- about 1lb. of ground italian sausage (I buy the turkey italian sausage and cut off the casing)
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1 can drained diced tomatoes
- 3/4 jar of spaghetti sauce
- your favorite choice of pasta cooked
- 1/3 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown sausage in a deep skillet.
Add in diced onion and cook until soft.
Pour in tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.
Mix in your favorite pasta.
Pour into a pan. (picture was taken at this step)
Sprinkle on cheese.
Place in 350 degree oven for about 10 min. until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Baby Harrison has furniture!

Josh and I have been on the search of baby furniture for awhile. I have had no issue with getting used furniture and we scoured Craigslist every night in search of the perfect furniture. We were not having very good luck and I started having dreams that the baby would come and we wouldn't have anything, granted I still have 23 weeks to go however, if you know us you would understand. On Saturday we decided to begin our baby registry, my mom is hosting a "virtual" shower for me when I go to visit in August and I wanted guests to have the opportunity to get something we have chosen. So we went to Target and discovered that a lot of their inventory was gone and were told that they would be restocking Thursday just in time for us to come back later to register for more things. We decided to head on up to Ikea to see if they had gotten in any new baby furniture, the style of our apartment is Ikea-ish and their furniture is affordable. We made our way to the Children's section and were shocked to find no cribs- none- they all had vanished. My heart sank a little and we asked one of the workers what had happened to the cribs. She stated that their cribs were not up to 2011 USA standards and that a new set of cribs would hopefully be in around December. Ummm... No thanks. We then ventured to a couple second hand children's shops who informed us that they are no longer able to sell cribs to to all of the various standards. In my state of shock and sadness we passed another Target and I decided that I just wanted to go in and see if they had anything. We found a crib that was more than 50% off its original price, they also offered a changing table, dresser and matching glider. But..... this store no longer had any of the furniture. A customer service rep helped us tremendously by searching all the Target's in the area for all of the pieces of furniture. We grabbed a lemonade, sat down and began making calls. Only one store had the crib, 2 stores had the dresser, 1 store had the changing table and no one had the glider. We hoped in the car and drove from Middletown to Fields Ertel collecting our pieces of furniture. On Sunday, after church and grocery shopping, in between loads of laundry we put together the furniture.

           The beginning

 The baby room setup

the past 5 weeks...

Since my last post I learned all about morning sickness, well mine came at night right as I laid down for bed. I have been fighting nausea, headaches and massive fatigue, the last thing on my mind was getting on here to blog about how yucky I felt. I am hoping that I am on the up-swing of things. The past 2 days have been fairly good to me. My clothes are slowly getting tighter and a small bump is now visible, however friends who have been pregnant say they can't tell that I am 15 weeks pregnant. 15 weeks, crazy! Last week we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time, all I can say is amazing. It was the first way our little one was able to communicate to us that everything was just fine. We go back August 1st for our ultrasound and to see if I am carrying a boy or a girl! All in all things are going well, our current mission is finding the right baby furniture and to continue working on the baby's Christmas stocking which I am cross-stitching (more on this later).

In the past 5 weeks, we celebrated our 2 year Wedding Anniversary. This year we kept it very low key. All I wanted was a cake that tasted like our wedding cake. Josh ordered one from a bakery in Dayton and had strawberry filling added.

In the past 5 weeks, we took my dad to a Cincinnati Reds game as his Father's Day gift. It was one of the hottest days ever and completely wore me out, but we had a great time.

In the past 5 weeks, Josh started (and now has just about completed) his summer course for Xavier. It has been a lot of information to cover in only 4 weeks but he has been doing awesome and is ready to begin Grad school as a full time student.