The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What a fun time of year! I love spending Thanksgiving with wonderful family and friends and then decorating for Christmas. We had a great Thanksgiving up at Charles and Debra's house. I love that my parents come there too, it is really nice to be together. Emily enjoyed the Thanksgiving feast, and I did not deprive her at all :)
I will be 37 weeks on Tuesday, so we are T-minus 3 weeks to meeting Emily. I have her bag all packed and everything ready, so I am just ready to meet her.

We got the house all decorated inside this weekend as well. We went with white lights on the tree this year and I love the looks of it.

Another fun thing we did over the break was go to the Falcons game today. Charles won a Community Quarterback award for his work at the clinic. We were able to go down on the field and watch warm ups, sit in some wonderful seats, and see Charles get recognized on the field and jumbo screen!

Aaron Rodgers and Tony Gonzalez

Happy Halloween!!

I guess it's time for an update, huh? It has been a busy few weeks, but I like it that way. This last trimester is FLYING by!! I cannot believe that we only have 7 weeks left. I am getting so excited to meet her and see her sweet face. We went back for take two of the 3D ultrasound and Emily was even more stubborn than the first time. She rolled over so we could only see the back of her head and wouldn't move. Oh well, it was still fun to watch her breathe and see her little heart beating. I went to the doctor today and she said everything was looking great. Emily was head down (which explains the sore ribs from her little kicks).

I had my first shower at Katie's last weekend. It was so nice to see everyone and get some goodies for Emily. I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life!

 For Halloween, my team and I dressed up as the characters from There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat. Guess who the lady was? I didn't go overboard though because we had Fall Festival that night also. Highlight of the day... one of my students was dressed up as a doctor. He walked in first thing in the morning and asked, "Mrs White, you ready to have that baby yet because I can help deliver her." HAHAHAHA... I love my job!

our stubborn baby girl at 32 weeks

Well, we went today for our 3D ultrasound. It was really awesome to get to see Emily again and see how much she has grown. And when I say grown, I mean it! She is measuring 4 pounds and 12 ounces now, which is in the 69th percentile. We could have a big baby on our hands! As with all of our other ultrasounds, she decided to be stubborn and not let us see much of her face. She had her hands up covering her eyes and kept hiding behind the placenta. We did get a couple of good shots though. We also got a DVD of the whole ultrasound. My favorite part was watching her practice breathing. It was so neat to watch her little tummy move up and down! They let us reschedule again for next week, so we will see if she wants to be any more cooperative then!

You can see 1 side of her face and her little hand covering the other side

Her profile. She is sucking her thumb :o)

This is her skinny little leg and big ol' foot... Looking more like her daddy in this one!

waiting for fall...

Well, Miss Emily is certainly growing. Here we are at almost 27 weeks...

I feel her moving around ALL the time now, which is pretty awesome. She seems to stay pretty low and in the center of my tummy. I went and had the gestational diabetes test and it came back negative, yay! We go back on October 1st for another ultrasound, so be looking for some pictures of Emily soon! I have been feeling really good lately. I am tired all the time and have tried to go to bed earlier to get a little bit more rest. I have also become best friends with my body pillow, I don't think I would get any sleep without it. If the old wives' tale is true, Emily is going to have a head full of hair because I have had nonstop heartburn.

Here are a few pictures of what we have been working on in her room. It is coming along well, we are just doing a little at a time.

Maybe my favorite spot in the room... I LOVE the flowers, they are so cute and girly!

Emily's bed (those letters are her monogram and will hang over the crib eventually)

Chris relaxing in the new recliner. I am still searching for a white slipcover...

Speaking of Chris, he is officially the best husband in the history of the world. I came home to a FABULOUS surprise tonight...

 

A foot massage machine! I have had sore feet most days after work, and he ordered this for me as a thoughtful surprise. Let me tell ya, it is the best gift a pregnant girl could ever wish for!

August in review

Sorry it has been SO long since my last update... going back to work and starting a new school year is always a little overwhelming! We have had 17 school days to date and I am loving my new class. They are super sweet and pretty well behaved. I always forget how little they are at the beginning of the year and how hard it is to "train" them in my classroom routines and procedures. Here is the 2nd grade team on our "Reading Ranch Kick-Off" western day.

We have also been working hard at the house. Earlier this month, my Uncle David was nice enough to come up and tile our kitchen floor. He did a wonderful job and the kitchen looks so much better! Here are a few pictures of the work in progress and the finished product.

We have been working hard getting ready for the baby too! We decided on a name and it is set! Our little girl is going to be Emily Kate. We painted Emily's room and put together her furniture. We still have a long way to go, but here is the start:

The crib is done too, but the picture wouldn't upload for some reason...
Speaking of Emily, here we are at 22 weeks:

More to come... sooner rather than later this time!

SHE is perfect!!

Well, I haven't updated in a while because I was waiting on some news. We went to the doctor last Thursday and got to see our sweet baby girl!! The ultrasound was so neat. They measured a lot of things and showed them to us. We got to see her little heart beating (SO cool), her bones, her stomach, her sweet little face, and her hands and feet. She must have felt all my anxious energy, because she was moving all around... doing flips and throwing her hands up over her head. The technician wasn't able to get a good profile shot of her, so We will try again at 28 weeks.

it's a girl!!

This is her spine and ribs... her little head is off the screen to the right

She is laying on her left side facing us. You can see her left arm going across her chest above her tummy

 

 

 

 

We went and picked out the bedding we wanted for her room. It is so girly and we LOVE it! This is the picture from the catalog, ours is just sitting in the empty room.

July so far...

Okay, I've gotten a little behind on my blogging... there has been a lot going on! We spent another fabulous 4th of July up at Charles and Debra's with wonderful friends and family. It was so nice to sit out by the pool and relax with great conversation.
I went to the doctor at 16 weeks and all is well. I met the midwife in the practice and she was very nice. Now I have met everyone who could possibly deliver Baby White. I also got to set my appointment for the 20 week check-up and ultrasound. It is July 29th. Yep, this is when we get to find out if Baby White is a boy or a girl... I can't wait!! We also haven't had an ultrasound since 8 weeks, when the baby looked like a blob, so I am excited to see how much our little one has grown!
My birthday on the 7th was nice and relaxing. I had lunch with my mom and Chris took me to Umi for a yummy hibachi grill dinner. He got me some very thoughtful gifts as well. I am a lucky girl!
This past weekend we went over to the Pittman's for Carter's first birthday. It is amazing how fast this year has gone by and Kristen is such a wonderful mommy! It was fun to watch Carter dive into his smash cake face first. He had blue frosting up his nose, but his hands were spotless!

We also have been continuing to work on combining the office and the guest room. The closets are finished and the future nursery is totally empty except for Chris's computer. We have a nice little office space set up in the guest room now, but the cable isn't run yet so I am using it for my laptop. The new guest room looks pretty nice and I only have a couple thing left to do (fix where the stuff is hung on the walls, get a little TV, etc.).

I do wish the curtains were floor length but these are 98 inches, the longest I could find without taking out a loan. It is just a HUGE window...

Chicken

I did it! After about 15 weeks of being repulsed by the sight, smell, and taste of chicken, I finally ate some last night. I decided to face my aversion and made some BBQ chicken in the crock pot and it was delicious! We decided to take a picture of the moment...

I have been grappling with whether or not to do "belly pictures" throughout the pregnancy. I figured I might as well, I will enjoy having them later in life. So here is the first one, I am exactly 14 weeks here. It is not much of a bump, but there is a little one there.

Oh summer....

Oh boy, it;s HOT!! I haven't been leaving the house much. It just really wears me out. We went to Montgomery this past weekend and it was so nice to be around the whole family. Of course all the talk revolved around the baby. Everyone is so excited and it really makes us that much more excited. I have finally started gaining weight (NEVER said that before...) and have been working hard to eat well. Starting today, at 14 weeks,  I have entered the window of when first time pregnancies feel the baby move. My book says the average is more around 18 weeks though. I am really excited for that, but have no clue what to look for.

I have been working on getting the room cleaned out for the nursery. I am having to combine 2 closets and that has proved to be quite a task, as both closets were full of junk. This is as far as I have made it....

This is the almost empty closet in the baby's room...

and the almost full closet in the guest room.

Not too bad right? Well, these are the rooms. You can see where all the junk is now. The only question is what in the world I am going to do with it all?!?

BABY WHITE!!

YAY!! This picture is about a month ago, but it is the only one we have so far.

I took the pregnancy test on April 16th. When we went to the doctor they tried a dating ultrasound, but couldn't see anything. I kept going back for bloodwork and we tried another ultrasound every week. Finally, we got this one at 8 weeks. The secret is out now and I am just about out of the first trimester!

week in review

We went up to Chris' parents house last weekend. It was a nice relaxing weekend, as usual. Saturday, I decided I wanted to go to the new Babyland General. As a little girl, I LOVED Cabbage Patch Kids and my parents used to take me to the old Babyland General in Cleveland every year. Last year, they built a new, gigantic house about 5 minutes from Charles and Debra's house. It was a nice trip back in time.

       
not world's best picture, but you can see how big it is...

This week at work has been pretty enjoyable. It is nice to have a normal week finally! Tuesday, I left work around 4:30 and was getting on the interstate for trek across the world when, BAM! I hit a hole in the road so hard it made my windshield wipers come on. Needless to say, I had a blowout and had to pull over. Chris was in Stockbridge, Dad was at work, and I was super annoyed. Luckily, Daddy called Robert and Todd to come to my rescue. Here's a thought... what's the good of knowing how to change a tire if you are not strong enough to get the lugnuts off??

Mr. Fantastic

So today at school, a boy in my class said 2 things that made me laugh out loud. He is such a charismatic kid...
I asked him to grab the paintbrush from across the table and he said, "I don't have super stretch arm Mrs. White. I mean, I'm not Mr. Fantastic." I don't know why it was so funny to me, but it was. Later in the day, I was giving my class a pretty firm lecture about taking care of materials (after I found a center set strewn ALL across the floor and lidless markers laying around as well). I was trying to remind them that someone spent money to provide those things for our classroom. I asked them how their parents would feel if their child could not go onto 3rd grade until they paid a bill for damaged materials. The little boy raised his hand, with the most serious expression, and told me, "My parents don't like bills. I think it is something that runs in our family... no one likes getting bills in our whole family." HAHA!

Snow Day!!

Oops... I forgot I was going to start blogging! I really am going to try adding this into my routine. I got out of school early because the snow was really coming down in Villa Rica! All my kiddos made it home safe and so did I, so I am going to consider it a success! I was going to use this time wisely and do homework or conference forms, but I snuggled on the couch and watched Law and Order SVU instead.

I have to share this picture Chris took of sweet Winston. He is getting so big! We weighed him last night, and he is up to 33 pounds now. We have really loved having him and he is a great addition to our family.

Needless to say, Chris is the better photographer. I can't ever get him to look at me when I try to take his picture. I have convinced myself that I am just going for the "photojournalistic look"...