Parrett Family Gathering

Our family get together was fun on Sunday! It was great to see my cousins, it has been several months too long. Their Grandmother's and Mother's home has been kept in their family for many years. Just recently the people that Jim, my uncle, was renting to decided to move out. Meggan, her husband Scott, & Mandy decided to move in! The girls decided to host Christmas this year - with all their newly acquired space! I haven't visited the house for so many years, it was so awesome to walk through the door again. It looks simply adorable! It is cozy and eclectic but still feels like my Aunt Judy.

We had a wonderful time visiting, looking through the "new" old house, and reconnecting with family. Mandy gave me belly kisses and got me all excited with talk of the future baby shower - she is eager to plan the festivities and I am eager to party it up! The next few months will hold lots of fun :)

We had a wonderful beginning and a wonderful end to this Christmas Season 2009! It sure it going to be hard to get back into our old routine!

Nursery Ideas

We've been searching around for what we want to do with the nursery. I know we don't want to do super neutral colors - we want something bright and cheery! It makes it tough to decorate as we are not going to find out the gender of our little bellybean, but I know we can make it work!

I found a few ideas along the way that led me to a nursery I just love - it is simple and whimsical with just the right amount of vintage. We are hoping to recreate our own version of the collective rooms we have found! Here are some rooms as well as white cribs that we both agreed on:

17 weeks - An Onion!

My little blueberry sure has grown...we are up to an onion this week - can you believe it? The baby is sucking their thumb, swallowing, hiccuping & blinking! I sure can feel the growing happening, I can feel everything streeeeetching inside and making room! My most favorite thing that is happening this week is that baby can hear the outside world!! Talking, singing, music, Chloe barking - all of it! I think its time for Daddy to start reading some cool books to my belly :)
I also found these super cool "bellyphones" called BellyBuds...You can split the wire so you can plug your headphones into your iPhone and another wire that attaches these sticky speakers to your belly so you can both enjoy your tunes together! Cara wants me to start playing Mozart ASAP! Pretty neat :)

16 Weeks - Avacado!

We've officially set up the tripod to take belly pictures!! We meant to do it so much earlier and sweet Ryan asks me almost every week if I'm ready to get it set up, but my "not feeling so wonderfulness" has made me not want to be in a single picture! Just in time, I feel so much better and my belly is starting to show!! So "CHEERS" (Ryan keeps accidentally saying cheers instead of cheese) to the first installment of belly pictures.

I'll add the fruit or veggie of the week just for giggles :)

Baby's First (Kind of) Christmas

Merry Christmas!! This holiday season was just wonderful. Our house is sparkling with lights and ornaments - I wish they could stay up all year long! Ryan helped me lug all the stuff down from the attic and decorate to the nine (he did the lugging, I did most of the decorating!) We watched The Jerk while we decorated - Ryan's first time!!

I took off several days from work and it has been a fantastic weekend of fun, love, excitement & relaxation. Wednesday night Sarah and her Daddy invited us to join then on a Christmas Light Trolley! Ryan & I met Sarah, her Ryan, Cara & Sarah's awesome family (like 20 of them!) at the Reasors at 41st & Yale. We took a two hour trip - everywhere from Rhema to Jenks to Sapulpa. The lights were beautiful - but mostly it was so fun to catch up with everyone. Ryan and Ryan chatted the night away & Cara, Sarah, and I had our heads together the whole two hours. They asked me a million questions about Baby and the nursery ideas and our birth plan. It was so fun - sometimes the reality of it all slips away from me...I know I am pregnant but I just can't believe it. Conversations like the one I had with them really get me so giddy and excited. Sarah's sweet sister Andrea is 8 months pregnant and it was so fun to touch her belly...she poked around and found her little girl and let me poke in and say hello :) It was a great start to the Christmas season!

Christmas Eve Ryan and I woke up and snuggled up by the fire to open up our stocking stuffers. We cleaned the day away - listening to Christmas music and dancing like dervishes all over the house. Cleaning has never been so fun! We watched the morning rain turn to hours of sleet and then non stop snow. A white Christmas we were going to have indeed!! They are calling in the blizzard of '09! The second blizzard in the history of Oklahoma. Chloe wanted to go in and out and in and out...she LOVES the snow! We took several videos on my handy dandy new video camera (thanks honeypie!) We stayed up way too late and decided Santa was just plain going to skip us this year if we didn't hurry and get to bed.

The blinding morning sun reflecting off the snow woke us up on Christmas morning. We had planned on hosting a lunch, and the weather sure didn't look permitting. We talked to our Mommas and it seemed pretty up in the air if it was going to happen at all. I got another phone call from Sherry and her and Bob had decided to go get my Mom and Grandma!! It just warmed my heart that they would do such a thing. I wanted nothing more than to share Christmas day with the four of them, and they were going to make it happen!! The red chariot arrived and we spent the late afternoon eating a wonderful dinner, each bite made with love from someone at the table. Ryan prayed over our meal and it was so beautiful it made me secretly weepy :) We talked, laughed, opened awesome presents, and it all too quickly came to an end. They needed to get home before it got too dark and re-froze. Thank you Bob and Sherry for going and getting them - that kind of kindness made the day even more wonderful. Ryan and I collapsed on the couch with Chloe then we played a few games of Jenga! We tried out my new baby heart monitor - super cool gift from Ryan! You put the headphones on and the monitor on your belly and listen...all we heard was my tummy rumbling! It is made for the third trimester - but we had to check it out!
The Christmas weekend has flown by in a flash as it always does, but it has been so joyous. Tomorrow Ryan reads at Church then we will meet my family at Meggan, Scott and Mandy's house. I look forward to seeing everyone for one last get together of the year!

14 Weeks

Ryan and I met with Dr. Howerton on December 7th. We had our fingers and toes crossed that this would be an ultrasound appointment (pictures just in time for Christmas?) But alas it wouldn't be until the next appointment. Ryan got to meet Dr. Howerton and watch me get gooed on (brr that stuff is cold!) We had to wait in anticipation again to find the little stinker's heartbeat again! Baby likes to play hide and seek on heartbeat days. We listened to the pitter patter - it never gets old. The Baby's heartbeat is slowing down a little each week (as it is supposed to.) The heart rate was at 160 bpm.

After talking to Ryan and consulting both our Mom's we decided to tell Dr. Howerton that there will be no inducing! I knew that would be how we all felt the second she told me last appointment, but I needed to gather myself first! I sicked Ryan on her and she said it would be no problem. There will be a doctor on call the weekend she is gone, and as research proves - most Mom's don't deliever right when Baby is due anyways. I'm pretty sure I can make it a few days after. She said there would have to be talk of inducing if it was medically necessary and of course we agreed. I am so happy to be on the same page! I want more than anything for her to deliver my baby - we did so much research to find her and her reviews are spectacular. But we will just have to see!

Meeting Dr. Howerton

I was scheduled for a physical with my doctor's nurse practitioner on November 9th. All my appointments have been on a Monday - what an awesome way to start our week!! I've never loved Mondays so much :) Since it was going to be a routine physical, i.e. weigh in, pap n' such, Ryan decided to skip out on this visit. Big mistake mister!

We were so bummed he didn't make it because they surprised me with the first real Doctor's visit! Dr. Howerton doesn't meet with her OB patients until they are at least 10 weeks pregnant. This bubbly, quirky woman came bounding through the door and I knew it was her! The physical went great - I am a healthy Momma and Baby is doing great too! It was a milestone visit for me because I got to hear the heartbeat through my BELLY!!

I got the inaugural cold goo squeezed all over my belly! She searched and searched for the heartbeat while I held my breath in anticipation. I had been going through a weird worry spell lately, wondering if this was all real, is the baby healthy, is something going to go wrong? I read online that tons of first time mothers have trouble enjoying their first trimester (not only because they were too nauseous to function - I understand that from experience) but also beacuse of worries that this is too good to be true. She stopped at the top of my belly button and we listened to a deep drumming and my eyes got wider..."aaaaand there is Momma's heartbeat!" Geez! She kept searching until way over on the left side she stopped and we heard our little hummingbird heart! There baby was, heart beating as healthy as could be. The heart rate was the same as the weeks before, 170 beats per minute. I broke into giggles and she lost it, she laughed and told me to hold still :) She was so sweet, she let me listen for what seemed like 5 minutes! She could see the relief and joy all over my face I'm sure.

The appointment came to an end and she sort of blindsided me with a conversation about delivery. Apparently her niece is graduating out of town the same weekend that I am due. She nonchalantly told me we would be inducing a week early to avoid a time conflict. I whispered a confused "okay" and she said she would see me next month! Uhh...
Aside from that weirdness, it was a fantastic appointment!

Halloween Bean Spilling

Halloween was an absolute blast. We had waited SO long to tell our friends and this was the night we were going to share our big news! Our good friends Scott & Devan were throwing a party that night and we knew all of our nearest and dearest would be there. Our outfits had arrived (Bun in the Oven and The Bun Maker) and I had ironed on the finishing touches to his chef's coat. We were ready to tell everyone! We pulled up to the house and sat in the truck for about 10 minutes gathering our (my) nerves. We finally went in and had the most wonderful night!

Everyone had different reactions to our costumes and they were just hilarious! Devan & Scott were the first we saw when we walked in the door. Devan said "cute costumes!! You wouldn't happen to have a real bun in that oven would you?" (she was completely joking) We both exclaimed "YES!" and they screamed and hugged us both. Nate and Sirikit came a little later while were in the kitchen. They came in and gave us hugs and chatted about the past few weeks and went on as everything were normal. They both looked at our costumes and didn't say a word about them. Ryan and I were squeezing each others hands in anticipation for their realization! Nate finallllllly said "wait a second, what are you two again?" We broke into laughter and they immediately knew what was going on. They were so sweet, Nate kept apologizing for not getting it immediately. It was so funny! Jared, Chris & April came in and immediately knew, Jared pulled me into a big bear hug & congratulated us both. April just barely glanced and me and exclaimed "You are pregnant aren't you??" She knew all along...I just couldn't tell her she was right until now! Dave, Kylie & Aisley weren't going to come but Ryan called and begged them to show for just a minute or two - and they did! They met Ryan and I outside when we went to get the camera from the truck. Dave said "We can't wait till you have a real bun in that oven!" "We DO!" Ryan exclaimed! I said "It's baking!!" Kylie suprise attacked me with the biggest hug and nearly knocked us both to the ground. We were giggling and screaming. Dave was hugging and jumping around - it was awesome! It was such a loving, pure reaction to our news.

The night went great, lots of joy and congratulations & an overwhelming relief to finally share the big news with our second families!