We Have an Avocado...

According to babycenter.com our baby T is about the size of an avocado! My next appointment is this week, but we won't find out the gender of our little guy/girl until next month. I have absolutely no idea what it could be but Brandon and I have narrowed down the names and have a boy's name and a girl's name we really like, but it will stay with us until we're sure the name will work...so don't try to get it out of us, we won't tell until later. Tummy pictures will be posted later, too and let me tell you this tummy is GROWING! I'm hungerier than a bear after hibernation and I'm always eating it seems, but apparently baby T is growing a lot more during this and the coming weeks.

Brandon and I have also decided we want to do a 3D ultrasound later in the pregnancy so we can get a sneak peak at our sweet baby and we'll be sure to post that as well.

Other than that, things have been really quiet here at our house.

Heartbeats...

Wednesday morning, I went for my third (of many to come) appointments at the OB. I was expecting a check-up consisting of questions and answers, but to my surprise it also included a chance to here the baby's heartbeat. I know I won't be able to give the moment justice. But when the white noise was all of a sudden broken by the woosh, woosh, woosh sound I felt my breath leave me. "Holy crap! That's our baby." was all I could think. My eyes got misty because I wished Brandon had been there to hear it, too. It is truly a remarkable sound to hear (as a friend called it) the life of our baby. I was told by a girlfriend that they do that at all the appointments, but I think I'll call ahead any way and see if we could do an encore for Brandon.

What a sound!

PS: I'm including a picture of our sonogram from a few weeks ago. Baby T is the gray "peanut" inside the black "peanut"
.

We're EXPECTING!

I know by now a few of you already know about our happy news, but I just wanted to confirm/fill everyone else in, that I am pregnant. We're expecting Baby T around the beginning of February!

Right now, I am having some morning sickness, but thankfully only nausea, I'm starved all the time and I think I could take a nap almost every hour of the day! I had my first appointment yesterday and will have my first UltraSound in July.

Brandon and I are so excited and it took all we had to keep it to ourselves (family and some friends).

From SC to OC...

Four days after Brandon's return home from deployment, we left for a one week trip to California. So, basically he was leaving one desert for another...have to laugh at the irony!

Our first item on the "to do" list was to see our brand new baby niece, Capri. When we arrived at Mama and Papa T's house, Melissa was waiting for us with the sweet bebe. Aaron joined us after work and we all enjoyed a family meal, together.

The following day, Brandon and I met Melissa and Capri in Laguna Hills and explored Balboa Island where we had our first "Balboa Bar". It's an ice cream bar that is freshly dipped into chocolate, then into any topping you'd like. I couldn't decide, so I went with the "everything dip", which included oreos, almonds, and sprinkles (just to name a few), Brandon had the "heath dip" (crunched up Heath bars) and Missy had almonds. It was amazingly delish and very messy, but so worth it! That night, Brandon's extended family came over and a large meal and lots of talking and catching up ensued.

On Saturday, a group (13) of us went to a Dodger's game where our Dodger's played the Giants and won 8 to 0 (sans Manny)! I enjoyed a Dodger Dog after a 13 year hiatus and Brandon got to see some of his great friends from high school, Corey and Scott (and also got to meet Mason, Scott's baby boy). It was a great day and our seats couldn't have been better; we were in the shade the whole day. After the game (and 2 hours of traffic--I really don't miss that part of LA), Brandon and I went to Warehouse Pizza in downtown LaVerne for dinner, where we were able to hang out with some of the Higgins' family and Bree (Corey's gf).

Sunday was Mother's Day and Patty was loving the fact that both her kids (Melissa and Brandon) were able to spend it with her. We started the day with church then enjoyed the day as a family and ate some fabulous ribs. It was a nice relaxing day.

Now, I have to tell you that whenever Brandon and I go west, we must go to In-N-Out. This burger joint is a staple to Southern Californians and in my opinion, once you go In-N-Out; you don't go back. Every other burger is cardboard! So, Joe, Patty, Brandon and I went to our burger mecca and devoured every morsel as we sat at the Cable airport and watched as little planes landed and took off. When we had finished we decided to take in a movie, the new Star Trek. I was very impressed and liked how the characters were the same but in a different "future"...you have to watch it! After the movie we trekked ourselves to Corona to visit with Brandon's aunt and uncle, Candi and Dave, where yet again, we enjoyed a large family dinner.

Tuesday, was date night for us, but beforehand we needed to update Brandon's duds so he'd be California cool. Those of you who follow the show Burn Notice, know that the character, Michael Westen is a snappy dresser. He was our muse for Brandon's shopping spree and if I can brag, I'd say Brandon is well on his way! To accomplish this Brandon, his parents and I went to Victoria Garden's mall. It was a really pretty outdoor mall where we updated B's wardrobe and got some yummy crepes, too. For our date we went to 5 Crowns in Corona del Mar. It was a quaint British looking house set up as a restaurant. The cocktails that began our night were, Brandon's usual Cuba Libre and I had the best Mojito ever! We started with a cheese platter and a ceasar salad which was followed by our entrees. I had Beefsteak Neptune (Butterflied filet with Dungeness crab legs, Yukon gold potato, asparagus and sauce bearnaise) and Brandon had the Rib Eye (A broiled 16 oz. bone-in slice of their slow roasted prime rib, with the crust and a bite of a steak, topped with crispy sweet onions). Ohmygosh, my mouth is watering just thinking of it. The steak was like butter...if you're ever in the area I highly recommend you check out 5 Crowns!

Wednesday was our last full day in California and we enjoyed it with Patty and Joe as we explored the Crystal Cathedral, an amazing glass and iron structure used for worship. After this we walked around historic old town Orange County, then joined Melissa, Aaron and Capri for some great Chinese food (there was even a flaming pineapple).

All-in-all, I'd say our trip was never at a lack of things to do or people to see. It was great to catch up with everyone and I wish we all lived closer so we could do this more often. Here's to family and friends!!

Brandon's Home...

May 3rd, Brandon finally landed in the states from his deployment in Southwest Asia! He landed two hours earlier than expected, which meant lots of calling to the other spouses of our squadron. By 9 am we were all at the Passenger Terminal on base, waiting for our loved ones! One of my friends brought the makings for mimosas, which a few of us enjoyed. Around 10am our Lions had landed and the anticipation for the hugging and kissing was quickly dissolved and replaced by the real thing!

I'm so excited my hubby is home! (Big thank you to Deanne for snapping all the great pictures!)

Yesterday, April 4th was the 32nd annual Cooper River Bridge Run. It's a 10k (6.2 miles) race for which people travel from all over the globe to participate. And B was able to participate in the 10k race at their location (they even built a Ravanel Bridge to cross as the finish line) and completed in 55 minutes! We laughed because we figured out that they finished their race before we even started ours...so theoretically they finished before the Kenyans!

Anyway back in Charleston, the day began very early I rolled (reluctantly) out of bed around 4:45 am and donned my running gear and put my hair in the designated pigtails that our group had decided on. A group of us met at Michelle H.'s house where we decided on the caravan and left for downtown Charleston. Once we were parked, we made our ways to the shuttle pick-up location. The shuttles were rows-upon-rows of school buses, it was very well organized and kudos to those who kept all those buses moving. While our driver took us to the start area, us girls tied the ribbons around each other's pigtails. The ribbons were a menagerie of colors and designs from bright pink and white polka dots, neon stripes, yellow flowers to cheetah spots.

When we arrived at the start location and had used the portable facilities we separated into our classes. Jen, Rachel and I were the orange class (aka the walk-joggers). After the national anthem had been played on the trumpet and sung the race began at 8:00 am. The three of us walk-jogged the whole race and stopped periodically to take advantage of photo ops. We did a really good job motivating each other and each person took the lead at some point in the race. We finished really strong on Meeting St. at around 1:43:00 (15 minutes better that my last bridge run).

It was a wonderful time and we eventually met up with our group and then some. Once we had congratulated each other and caught up with others, we walked our tired bodies to Mad River where we enjoyed great food, mimosas and bloody mary's.

I'm a little sore today (the day after) but a good sore. Cheers for next year's bridge run!

I need a hug...

"The kind of hug that you can completely relax into. The kind of hug where you are exactly who you are without any self conscious discomfort. The kind of hug that comes with familiar husband neck smells, synchronized breathing, and maybe a whisper in the ear. The kind of hug that softens everything in the world- that’s the kind of hug I need."

~Joy The Baker