Dr. Appt. and Shopping

My doctor appointment went well today. Hooray! She said his heartbeat is really good. It is always so nice to hear his heart beating strong. My appointments are now every 2 weeks. She said that the ultrasound that I had on Friday looked well. She said that they want to do another ultrasound in 4 weeks to see how the baby is growing, since he is measuring 2 weeks earlier. So at 36 weeks we’ll be having another ultrasound. I can’t believe the time is going by fast. There is still so much to be done!

After my doctor appointment I did some Christmas shopping (yes, I’m still doing it). I went to babies-r-us and found a great diaper bag. It has so many compartments inside the bag and outside the bag. It’s also lightweight and it has a strap that can be adjustable. It is a chocolate brown color with baby blue inside which will make looking for things easier. On the outside there is also an insulator pocket for 2 bottles. I’m just so happy about the bag! I also went to Kohl’s and they were having a great sale! I found a cute outfit for Carson and it was only $4.00!!! I also bought me 2 gowns for the hospital (I don’t want to wear the open back one). I found me some tops too. I also bought Travis and I an ornament for our first home. Now I’m tired from all the walking I did and relaxing at home.

Here is the ornament I bought. It has a heart at the top and then a key under it.

Here is our lovely Christmas tree.

No chimney for our stockings, so I put it by one of our windows.

Here is the $20 outfit I got for $4 at Kohl's. It's so cute!

Here is a picture of inside Carson's closet. I haven't washed them yet, so the tags are still attached.

Here is the diaper bag I got. It's so great!

Update on Carson

December has been a crazy month...that is for sure! So many things have been happening. We had the baby shower on Sunday, December 14th. It was really nice. We got a lot of really cute things! We had some fun games too and I have some funny stories that some of the ladies wrote.

I had a phone call from my doctor that said from my last ultrasound it was showing I had too much amniotic fluid. They wanted me to schedule another ultrasound so they can take a look at it again. They said if I did have too much that they would have to start monitoring me. I of course was worried on that happening. I had my ultrasound yesterday and found out some interesting things. First, she double checked my amniotic fluid twice and said everything looked good. So I'm thanking God for that! She said that Carson is doing a good job of practicing breathing. She also said that I'm measuring 2 weeks earlier now. Carson has been growing a lot too. She said he was 5lbs and .25 ounces!!!! I was like, "WOW!" I wasn't expecting him to be that big. She said he is a healthy baby and has a good heartrate. I have a doctor's appointment this coming Tuesday. I'm interested to see what the doctor has to say about my ultrasound. Travis and I are thinking Carson will be coming at the end of January...so we'll see if that happens or not.

Travis has been busy with Carson's room. He has it painted and the crib is up. We still have things to get for the room so it's not officially done yet. When it is all together, I will post a picture.

I'm on my winter break now from school. I'm going to be getting some baby stuff together and relaxing. I'm really glad break is here. I'm hoping I'll be able to go back to work after break so we get some more money before I have to take off. Well that is all for now. I will update more after my doctor's appointment.

Showing my ultrasound pictures of Carson.

Me holding my belly.

Me with the cake.

Dr. Appointment

So this Thursday I had a dr. appt. just for a check-up. At school my kids drove me nuts and I told my colleagues that at my dr. appt. I bet I will have high blood pressure from today. Sure enough at my dr. appt. I did have high blood pressure. I told them about my day and they said it's procedure that I need to get monitored every 15 minutes on my blood pressure and get blood work done. So they said I needed to go over to triage. I'm glad Travis was with me. We went over to the maternity ward and I had to get into a gown and everything. They hooked me up to monitors to check my blood pressure and check the heart rate of the baby. They also took my blood. I had to lay on my left side for 2 hours. Everything came back normal so I was able to get released. My feet have been swelling lately, so I'm trying to elevate them more. They said I need to continue to watch the swelling to see if I start swelling in my hands and face. They said I could be put on bed rest...so I'm really trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. So keep me in your prayers that I don't need to do that.

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving we went over to my sister's house. We had a LOT of food! We stayed at my parents house for our Thanksgiving break. It was nice to relax and be with family. On Friday we started the day with car shopping. We looked for a car for Travis since he totaled his car in an accident. We found a car and were able to negotiate until we were happy with the price. After the car shopping we headed to my sisters. Us girls went and got a pedicure. I hadn't had one in such a long time. It was really nice being pampered! I think I will be going more often, especially with being pregnant. On Saturday, it was the OU vs. OSU game. It was a close game, but OU won in the end! Yahoo!!!! OU got picked for the championship game so we are all very excited! On Saturday, I also visited my friend Eva. It was nice to chat for awhile with her. Below are some pics to enjoy!

Here is a pic of me at Caylor's Salon. She gave me a lot of different hair-dos. It was fun.

Movement

This weekend I've been feeling Carson move around a lot more. I sat on the couch and lifted my shirt over my belly and just watched it. It's pretty funny seeing it move every time he kicks. It also makes me feel better feeling him move around. I have my next doctors appointment Dec. 4th. We'll see what the doctor has to say. He says I'm measuring a little bigger than my weeks. At my ultrasound they said the baby is measuring about a week earlier than my due date. So I'm pretty sure Carson will be coming earlier than Feb. 16th. I also took my glucose test and they said my results are normal. :) So I was very happy to hear that. Things are going pretty good and I'm just excited for Carson to be here.

Doctor Visits

Here is a pic of our little Carson at 26 weeks. He looks upset. I think we woke him up. He gave us a wave and a thumbs up during the ultrasound which was cute.

Here is a profile pic of Carson.

Here is Carson and his two feet. He was in the middle of doing kicks.

Before going for the ultrasound today, I had to get the glucose test. I was expecting a little drink, but it was in a water bottle. It wasn't that bad, but not great. We had to wait an hour after drinking it for them to draw some blood. The lady that drew my blood had no clue what she was doing. She had to wiggle the needle in me to finally get the blood flowing. So now we're waiting to see what the results are.

Oh yea...Travis finally felt baby Carson kick. He said it feels like if I just did a hiccup. :)

Family

Here I am at Target. Travis and I went to visit my family out on the west side. I had my mom and sister come with me to look for baby stuff. Since this is my first and both of them have experience, I needed their expertise. I'm super glad that they came along. They showed me a lot of stuff I wouldn't have known on my own.


After church, we all went to Arby's for lunch. Here I am with my two neices. It's always fun seeing them.


Here I am with all 3 of them. Yesterday, we got to watch my nephew have his first practice fo t-ball. He was super at it. It was really cute watching him. He was very serious about it and did a great job.

The last two pics are of us before leaving to go back home. Here you can see my belly! I know some of you have been asking for belly pics. This is in front of my parents house. My nephew decided to join us in the other picture. He wanted to be near his cousin Carson. :)

Craziness in our neighborhood

So while at school today, I found out that craziness is happening in our neighborhood. Here is what I found out on the abc15news:

Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies have arrested three people involved in an East Valley pursuit.They are now searching for at least one other suspect in a Queen Creek neighborhood near Schnepf and Combs roads.Sheriff's office officials say one deputy has been injured as a result of the situation, however the deputies injuries are unknown at this time. They also say at least one school is on lockdown in the area, Jay O. Combs Middle School.It's unclear what sparked the pursuit. Air15 video showed the arrest of one man, caught hiding between two homes.Deputies continued the search of nearby homes and yards in the area before taking two other suspects into custody.

CRAZINESS! I didn't think anything like this would be happening in our neighborhood. When driving home in our neighborhood, I saw a lot of police cars and news people. I'm glad it didn't happen on our street. I'm just glad that they caught the people.

Carson's Room

After church today, Travis and I went to look for what bedding we want for Carson's room. We thought we would go with a sports theme, but didn't really like any that we saw. Then Travis spotted this Jungle bedding. We both like it and now I'm excited to get Carson's room going. Travis is almost done with the hallway, so he'll be getting to Carson's room soon. Here is a picture of the bedding. Isn't it cute! Once Carson's room is all done, I'll post what is looks like; but this will have to do for now.

Weekend Visit from Mom and Dad

My parents came down to our house to visit Travis and me. It was very nice to have them stay at our house. While with us they helped us with getting some things from Lowes. Travis and I don't have a truck, so it was nice that my parents have one for us to use. We got a grill and some piping stuff for Travis to set up a sprinkler system in our backyard. While the guys loaded the truck, my mom and I decorated the back with red flags. I think we went overboard! :) But we had fun doing it. We wanted to make sure everyone could see the pipes sticking out so that no one followed to closely. I think it worked.

Everyone, but I, chipped in and unloaded the truck. I took the pictures.
Here is Travis getting the grill out of the truck bed. My mom is back there trying to help Travis.
Just a little bit to go and we are finished unloading the truck.

Here is our lovely grill. I'm super excited to start grilling! I'd rather grill instead of cooking on the stove. :) Now that the weather is getting a little bit cooler, it will be nice to be outside grilling too.

The following day, we all decided to make their drive a little shorter by going to eat lunch and seeing a movie. That way some of the driving time was already shorten by 30 minutes. Travis and I have to drive about 30 minutes to go to a movie theater. So we went to TGIFridays. Here is my mom and dad...aren't they cute together. :)

Here is Travis and I on the other side of the booth. After lunch we went and saw Eagle Eye. That was a pretty good movie. After the movie we bid farewell to my parents. We look forward to another visit from them. My mom took some pictures of Travis blowing out his birthday candles, so I'll have to post those when my mom sends them to me.

It's a boy!!!

So we went for the ultrasound visit today and found out that we're having a boy! I was excited all day waiting for the appointment to come. I haven't told my students yet and I'm not sure how much longer I can go without saying anything.

Here is a profile shot of Carson.

We went out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate. We hadn't been there in SO long. It was yummy! After dinner we stopped by Target to get some clothes...now that we know we have a boy to shop for. Since we found out we're having a boy, I saw this onsie and had to get it. I can just picture Carson in it. He is going to be a cutie pie. I'm SO EXCITED! I'm halfway there and can't wait to hold him in my arms.

Conference with Principal

Today I met with my principal to talk about my lesson he observed. The first question he asked me was, "1-4 how do you think your lesson went." I told him a 3 because I felt it went well, but there is always room to grow. He said that he usually would agree with me, but that in my observation he didn't put any suggestions for improvement. He said that my lesson has been the best he's observed so far. :) So that felt great. He said I did an outstanding job and moved well around the class and that he heard me give a lot of positive praises to my class. He says it is very obvious that I have my routines established in my classroom and that if I were absent, the kids would be able to know what to do because of the routines I've established with them. So it was a very nice conference and now I know I need to make sure my lesson in the Spring is as great or even greater. :)

My Teacher Evaluation

So today I had my first evaluation. As always I get so nervous the day of and my stomach has tons of knots! You would think I would feel easy about it after teaching for 3 years. But I always feel so sick the morning of. Well I have my post conference with my principal on Thursday to find out how I did. He left me a note saying, "Great Lesson!" So that made me feel better. So we'll see what he has to say on Thursday.

A side note....I have an ultrasound appointment scheduled for this Friday!!!! :) I'm SUPER excited. I get to hopefully find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. So I will be letting you know on Friday what happens! Yay!!!!

Weekend with the Ashbaugh's

This past weekend started off nice with meeting Ian and his wife Deborah for dinner at Olive Garden. Yummy! We were then invited to go over to their house to play a game. We decided to play Phase 10. It was pretty funny because Deborah picked up on how competitive Travis is when it comes to games. He was wanting to know the score every round and where everyone was. He was ahead for awhile until I was in the lead. He fell behind but in the end he actually won the whole thing. It was fun getting to know the Crittendens and hopefully we will get together more frequently.

On Saturday morning we got ready to head to Sedona. We stopped for lunch at Black Angus. I've been in the mood for their ribs for a long time! We met Sherry and she gave us a gift card to Lowe's and paid for our lunch! Thanks Sherry, you're so sweet! We're excited to use the card and get some things for our house. After eating lunch we drove up to Sedona.

The directions were kinda confusing, but we made it to our room. The reason for the trip was to go to a timeshare presentation. Yuck! We really didn't want to get away since we just moved into our home. But we thought it would be nice to go up North were it is a little cooler. When we got into Sedona it was very pretty!

It's weird how a couple of hours can take you somewhere that looks so different. They are known for their red rocks. We had beautiful views from our bedroom although the bedroom wasn't all that lovely. We did have a fireplace though. Isn't it beautiful!

Around our hotel they had a lot of little shops. We walked around for awhile to look at all the shops they had. In our hotel lobby they had a "cave" set up with a bear!

We just had to stop and take a picture. This is what happens when I try to take the picture. I never know if Travis is paying attention or not. When a nearby fellow saw me trying to take a picture he offered to take a picture of the both of us.

Here you get a better picture of the whole cave and bear. I really like how this pic turned out. Thanks to nice people willing to take pictures for us. They always come out so much better than my one hand holding the camera in front of us trying to stretch it out as far as I can without making it look too obvious.

While waiting to cross the street, I decided to take a pic of me with the mountains behind me. On both sides of this street there were a ton of little shops. There was one shop that had really pretty crystals that you hang up and the light makes all these prisms around the room. I wanted to get one but it was SO expensive.

We stopped in this shop where Travis got a chocolate milkshake. I couldn't decide what to get so I decided to take a few sips from Travis' milkshake. It was really good.

After looking at the shops we went over to the main resort where we would have our meeting. We had special bills that could be spent over there. So we decided to do putt-putt and eat dinner in their restaurant. The grounds for the resort were really pretty. They had a lot of trees and a creek. It was nice to walk around and enjoy the nature.

I wanted to walk through the creek but being pregnant I didn't want to take the chance and fall! It was really pretty though. Travis went out into the brook and reminisced of his younger days and going to creeks like this. I'm sure if I wasn't pregnant we would have walked down the creek. But we decided to go and start putt-putt. It wasn't what we expected at all. It was very puny. We played only to 10 holes. I had putted two hole in ones. We were getting really thirsty and a little hungry so we decided to go into the restaurant and eat.

Here is the water we guzzled down. I noticed I'm starting to love to chomp on ice...bad habit I know! But it feels so good. :) Travis got a grilled cheese sandwich and I had chicken strips. Travis and I weren't impressed with the restaurant at all. The service was really slow and the food was not good. We were spending their money though and not ours, except for the tip. I forgot to mention that they gave us $60 of their money to spend while we were in Sedona. We could only spend it in places they told us though.

Awww....aren't we cute together. :) Even though we weren't experiencing the resort feeling, we still enjoyed each others company. After our dinner we decided to head back to our room and get some shut eye. We had a long day ahead of us with having to attend the timeshare meeting. When we got up we got ready and headed to an food court type of area. I wanted to make sure that I had some homemade ice cream before we left. So in the morning before eating breakfast I had cookies and cream homemade ice cream. It was delicious! It tastes so much better than ice cream you buy in the grocery store.

It even tasted better than my fav ice cream brand Blue Bell. Here is a pic I took...doesn't it look yummy! Travis decided to have some of my ice cream. It was too good to resist! After having the ice cream we headed back to the resort and used their dollars for breakfast. Again, service was slow and food not that great. We were hoping it was just that night, but apparently we were wrong.

While we waited for our food to arrive, I decided to draw a picture. Isn't it nice. They didn't have many colors to choose from, so I had to do with what they had.

Travis was happy to see that his football team, the Bengals, were on T.V. They weren't doing so well though. But that kept him busy and coloring kept be busy.

After breakfast we had to head to our meeting. We wish we could have just left, but we wouldn't have gotten our gas card and our deposit back. We would have also been charged for the room we stayed in. So they told us our meeting would take 90 minutes, but could last up to 120 minutes if we fill out paperwork. Well we told them we weren't interested but we still stayed there for over 2 hours!!! They were rude and we were ready to get out of there. Although we enjoyed the scenery, we were really ready to go home.