Boy, oh Boy!

Just realizing as we go to post about Christmas vacation that we never posted about our last ultrasound visit.  I guess things just got a little busy between packing for vacation and finishing up Fall semester finals.

We went in for a check-up at 14w 5 days.  Being really close to 15 weeks, we knew the chance of finding out the gender was slim to none but they figured they'd give it a shot.   

The verdict surprised even our doctor that she could tell so early.  

Baby cooperated and the doc was able to get several good views of our...

little boy!

We asked her how sure she was because if it was just a "pretty good guess", we weren't going to say anything.  But she said she was 99.9% sure it's a boy!  He was sleeping when we first saw him, but then started jumping around and moving around a ton.   Which, as a side note, is super weird to see happening because that early, I can't feel it!

Here's some shots that we got:

 This is apparently an upside down frontal face shot of the face.  

The round/oval part is the head and the two white spots are eye sockets. 

Looking kind of alien-like... but it's pretty cool.

 Side, upside down, profile with the head facing down and the body on the top.

We have our "official" 18-20 week ultrasound at the hospital on Jan. 15, where they look at each and every little part of the baby to check development and everything.  We're excited to see our little guy again and hopefully get some better ultrasound shots this time :)  Not that we're not grateful for the last pictures we got, but I'd like a nice, normal, side profile picture.


We're so excited to meet this little guy!

Getting Excited

I'm just about 14 weeks along.  So, we've still got quite a ways.  But today reminded me how unbelievably excited I am! I guess I haven't really been around a new newborn any time recently! And especially, not a sweet little baby girl.   But yesterday, our good friends Conlon & Rachel finally had their baby girl Jane a week late.  We had the opportunity to go visit her today and she is just amazing.  There's something so special about the little miracle you're holding and it just kind of refocuses everything in life.  I was so worked up just from my friend's little girl, I can't even quite imagine what it's like for it to be your own.   You seem to forget just how little everything is.  

Here are some snapshots of Jane:  

She was very awake and attentive the whole time, more than pretty much any baby I've seen! Not once did she even make a squirm, fuss, or cry.  She's such a good little thing! 

I realized today that I haven't really been around many girl babies all my life.  Obviously there was Meg, which I don't remember too well.  Then there's Nate, Evan, Alan, and James.  Kaci and Nikki were pretty much the only baby girls I spent time around and even most of the younger cousins on the Tucker side are boys!  I'm realizing as I look at both Jimmie and my family lines, there haven't been too many girls (aside from me and my sisters).  I'm thinking more and more that we will maybe have a boy, which is fine.  But it sure would be a sweet little blessing to have a little baby girl in this family for a change :)

In other pregnancy news: I'm feeling a lot better.  Not nearly as tired and not nearly as sick.  I've gone a few days here and there without taking my nausea medicine.  Some days I can handle it, and somedays I can't.  But that's loads better than where I was originally.  Many have asked about a "baby bump".  I don't really have a defined baby bump... more like the awkward in between stage where I just feel fat and my pants to fit very comfortably.  But if you saw me, you wouldn't really think I'm pregnant...you'd probably just think I'd had a little too much at Thanksgiving.  It'll get there soon enough!

Since I've been doing a lot better I've decided to go back to work!  I wont' be working as a baker anymore, but I did get a job back at the Cocoa Bean as a barista for next semester just working evenings.  I think baking would still be a little much for me... lots of physical labor, non-stop, early morning, lifting, and very hot.  But serving cupcakes and making drinks for a few hours at night, I can handle.  So, I'm excited to get back out there and work again!! And I'm gonna count that as my daily exercise.  Yay! 

Well, I guess that's enough rambling for tonight.  Kind of a random, unnecessary post, but I was just really really excited :)

Love you all! Excited to see many of you at Christmas time.

Thanksgiving Week Part 2

For Thanksgiving this year, we went up to Idaho Falls to visit some family.  We left Wednesday evening and got to stay until Sunday.   My brother Geoff drove with us and we met up with Megan up there at Grandma and Grandpa Tucker's house.

We had a wonderful time with family while we were there.  We had Thanksgiving on Thursday-delicious as usual.  Black Friday that night--crazy obviously. And then Friday-Saturday we celebrated the marriage of my cousin Rebecca to her new husband Spencer--beautiful, fun, and touching of course!

Mom asked me before I went to take lots of pictures.  So I think I definitely did :)  Mostly, I'll just share the pictures with some words here and there since there are so many and let the pictures do most of the talking.

This is our readers digest version of our vacation:

Thanksgiving Dinner

 Pre-Dinner (1 of 3 tables)

 Megan, the proud helper

 Grandpa carving the turkey

 Megan and Abby

 Loading up the food in 1 of several food lines

Nut cup place settings

Obligatory after dinner naps

Black Friday

I'm normally a huge fan of black friday, but I haven't gone in a while.  There wasn't anything in particular that we completely had our hearts set on but there were several things that looked like some pretty good deals.  Megan really wanted to go so I figured I'd take her and it'd be a fun time together.  Then if I see anything else I want, I could just grab it.  Here's something new: Black Friday is a much nicer event in Idaho Falls than in New Jersey.  Shocking, I know :)  

This year, some stores opened on Thanksgiving evening.  Meg & I tackled Walmart AND Target before heading home for the night.  We had every intention of going to JC Penney's in the morning, but then we realized, we'd already gotten plenty and who wants to wake up again for a 6 am sale anyway. 

Aunts looking through some ads.  Grandma had saved us a huge stack of ads so we could find our stores and plan our course of action.  That we did!

 Running into Wal-mart for some craziness

Waiting  in the check-out line at Target

I wish I had a picture of everything we got! Megan got quite a bit more than us but I was showing a huge amount of self restraint :)  I got a diaper bag, a jacket, all of the Harry Potter DVD's (for $15.68 total!), Land Before Time, a 28-piece Rubbermaid set, & Meg bought my Christmas gift which is a Sassy's developmental playmat that was on sale for the baby :)  (The kind with lots of colors and pieces that go over the top and toys hang from it)

Here's the diaper bag...how cute is that?!

And of course, we played a good amount of late night games.  Our favorites this trip: Rook & Password

Friday

On Friday, after the temple, we had a luncheon at a really yummy place that I can't remember the name of for Becca & Spencer.  I wasn't feeling so hot on Friday, but we had fun regardless. 

 I was trying to get some pictures as directed... apparently this is what "give her a kiss" means!

Haha! It was pretty hilarious.

Anyway, there's Frank and some of Jeri!

 Brian & Annjannette 

Me & Meg

Grandma & Meg

That night, the Bruce Tucker family came up and the Bruce Himes family also arrived!  We had a pretty big get together at Grandma and Grandpa's filled with food, fun, and giant rounds of the name game.  The boys (Geoff, Jimmie, Jake, Austin, Frank, and Brian) played racquetball all night.  Wish I had gotten some pictures of this fun night!

Rebecca and Spencer's Wedding

Saturday was the big day!  We started the day with the beautiful sealing of the couple in the Idaho Falls temple.  We then went to a big luncheon to celebrate & came back for the reception that night.  Becca was looking gorgeous of course and the two of them looked so happy together.  Everything turned out beautifully and was a lot of fun!  So happy for those two.

Here's a sneak peak of the happy couple at the temple:

 Here they come!

 First public kiss as the newlyweds

 Some excited cousins!

 Becca with Mom, Spencer with new father-in-law

 The Egbert Kids

 Geoff & Meg

 Idaho Falls Temple

 Becca & Spencer with Grandma & Grandpa Tucker

 Becca & Spencer with Jan & John

 The Strobel kids being silly!

 Becca's lovely bridesmaids

 With all the groomsmen

Luncheon: 

 Our favors were personalized decks of cards--fits this family so well!

 Gorgeous centerpieces

 Meg & Geoffrey

 Marci entertaining the little ones!

Evening Reception:

 Personalized hot chocolate & candy totes from the hot chocolate bar & candy bar

 Lots of mini cupcakes from--you guessed it--the Cocoa Bean!

 Megan & Abby being funny

AND... there was a photo booth!  As you can tell... we had a lot of fun!

Meg-Geoff-Jim-Me

 Succeeding at being totally and hilariously creepy!

Jimmie sat out on this next one so he took bigger pictures of the photos as they projected on the screen outside:

(Geoff-Me-Grandpa Tucker-Meg)

 (Best photo ever. )

 Geoff, Grandma Tucker, Megan

 Hot Chocolate Bar

 S'mores Bar where you literally roasted your own marshmallow

 Some of the remains of the cupcake tower!

 Life size cut-out of Nick since he is on his mission right now!

 Gifts

 Welcoming area

 Relaxing before the real party.  

There was a huge dancing part towards the end of the reception.  We left when the dancing started because I was feeling very tired and slightly sick after a long day and had no energy to dance.  Apparently it was great fun and pretty crazy! Megan stayed, so you'll have to ask her :)

Also, I learned that though I've always been emotional at weddings, I've learned this trip that my emotions really are swinging to extremes! Lesson learned: weddings while pregnant are nearly impossible if your goal is not to cry.

Overall--it was a wonderful day and awesome vacation. It was so fun to be able to see all of the family on my Mom's side and know that we get to see all of the rest of the family next month!!

And Nala had her first stay at the kennel.  They said she did really well even though she was nervous at first.  They said she was very playful and got along great with the other dogs.  

However, I think they wore her out a little. 

As fun as it all was, I think we're all feeling a little bit like this now: