Disappering Bellies and Baby showers

Is it just me, or has my baby bump been slowly disappearing over the last few weeks? I saw my sister, Liz, on Sunday and the first thing she said is "Where is this belly I keep hearing about on Facebook?!" I've had other people comment on my severe lack of belly, to which I respond "Lily is trying to show...but failing miserably." All in due time, but now all I feel is extra chunky around the middle...

Please excuse my puffy eye... Pink eye got the better of me!

Baby Lily seems to have stopped migrating upward, and has retreated back toward my spine a little. It will be interesting to see where she ends up!

On an exciting note, SHE'S KICKING! Yes, I officially felt a real kick this last Sunday! I had felt her moving around before then, but nothing so defined. Now it happens once or twice a day, and is so fun to feel. She must have hit a dandy growth spurt because my poor uterus is just too small for her now. I've spent the last few days stretching, and not enjoying it one bit. Oh the joys of a growing baby in the tummy! I've been sick almost non-stop for the last two months, bouncing back and forth between colds, sinus infections, bronchitis, and asthma. I can't wait to be out of cold n' flu season! 

Last week I had the pleasure of throwing a little baby shower for my friend and neighbor, Natalie Tams. We had 5 girls show up, and had a blast! She got the cutest little home-made onsies that were super creative, along wtih some fun bath supplied. Their little boy is going to be super spoiled by the time she's done with her other showers. It's fantastic!

Look at that cute tummy. You'd never guess she's in her 3rd Trimester!

Christina Taylor helped me make these cupcake toppers. Lifesaver and jelly bean pacifiers :)

Yay for Zurchers baby shower decorations!

We had our 18 week appointment on Wednesday and got some fun new ultrasounds. She was just sleeping upside down the whole time. The doctor had to poke her around a little bit to get a good view, but she is OFFICIALLY a girl.

Can you see her?? You can just see her face and hand. So exciting!

Chillin' upside down. Good view of her heart!

Still chillin' upside down, and you can really see her spine.

After seeing that 3D Ultrasound, I can hardly wait to see her sweet little face in person. 21 more weeks to go. I'm almost half way there! Thank you all for your continued love and support. It means the world to us.

Guns, Babies, and a New Year!

When I plugged my camera memory card into my computer today I realized that I haven't posted some of these pictures since Christmas Eve. So here we go :)

Christmas Eve
We had the opportunity to eat Christmas Eve dinner with my side of the family this year. My sister Tiff and her family had just moved back to Utah from Florida a few days prior, and offered to make us a traditional Italian Christmas feast! How could we resist? While they were preparing the food a few of us decided to go up the canyon a little ways further and try out my brothers new shotgun.

Me and my sweetheart up in Echo getting ready to go shooting. I love this picture of us!

My brother, Matt, waiting in line to shoot some skeet! Todd is geared up and ready to go :) 

Todd did great this time, he averaged about 4 out of 5.

I got 4 out of 5 my first round, but didn't do so hot my next rounds...but I look pretty awesome, so who cares! ;) Not bad for being preggo, I guess.

My sweetheart again, waiting patiently for his next turn.

We had a fantastic dinner that night, and enjoyed time with each other. It was a perfect Christmas weekend!

New Years Eve Eve :)

Our friends Kayla and Trevor came and visited us on Friday. We had a blast! We made home-made pizza, attempted to make a "dessert pizza" that didn't turn out horrible, but not great either, and then played a rousing game of Farkle and watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It was a great night! And of course, we talked baby stuff all night too :) We always have such a great time with them.

New Years Eve

On New Years Eve we got together with Matt, Krysta, and my Dad and decided to go shooting again. Although the sun was a bit warmer this time, the wind was freezing! Atleast there wasn't any snow on the ground.

Don't we look GREAT? The wind was so cold we had to figure out some way to cover our ears. Fashion was not our goal :)

My Dad's 357 Magnum that he's owned for about 45 years. I LOVED shooting this gun! The kick-back wasn't too bad, and it didn't even hurt my hand. I did pretty well with it, too.

Krysta's new 38 Special, the "Lavender Lady." I loved shooting this one too! Very easy to handle, and very stylish :) If you can't tell in this picture, it is purple!

Me shooting the magnum. My target is a single skeet propped up in a tree. I got it on my first shot. Woohoo!

Todd shooting my Dad's 30 ot 6 (30-06) hunting rifle. We had a few skeet propped up in some trees about, I don't know, 100 yards or so? He got 2 of them on his first round. It was awesome!

These are the skeet they were aiming at.

We took some video that I'll post later.

After shooting we enjoyed a great lunch at Taggart's Grill and shot off some INSANE fireworks at my brother-in-law's house. Although it was absolutely freezing outside, we had a great time! We got to spend a little bit of time at my Mom's house too, sipping hot cocoa and talking about baby.

After talking to my Mom for a little while, she helped me realized that I've already felt Baby Lily moving around!! On December 23, while driving, it felt like someone slid their finder right down the inside center of my belly. I wasn't sure if that could be her or not, but my Mom through it was most likely baby. Since then I've felt little tiny movements or flutters here or there, but only when I'm really paying attention. She's not much of a mover yet! We'll see how long that lasts :)

New Years Day

I am now 14 weeks, almost 15 weeks, and am feeling great!

We enjoyed a fun New Years night with our friends, Chris and Christina Taylor, sipping sparkling cider, playing Farkle, and chatting. Perfect way to greet a new year!

A New Year calls for some new organization, right? My sister in law lined a picture frame with screen mesh to hang earrings and necklaces from. I finally put it up and organized my stuff!

Now just to keep Fanta away from it... :)

Happy New Year!

It's a GIRL!!

To all who have been waiting anxiously for the news:

As Todd and I sat in the room waiting for our doctor to come in, he asked me if I had any final guesses as to our baby's gender. He said boy, and told me that I therefore had to guess girl. I consented, but was not convinced. I had been feeling that it was a boy very strongly, but the thought of having a girl kept creeping up. I thought it was just me getting my hopes up. Who knows, maybe it was! Well, I kept thinking boy until the second he put the ultrasound on my stomach. I knew instantly that we would be seeing a little girl. It looks like my instincts finally came through last minute! (Phew!)

We found out that we were having a very modest little girl! She had her legs crossed almost the whole time. However, as the doctor pointed things out and told us that he was certain enough that we were having a girl that we could start spreading the good news. I called my mom right after and told her, while Todd called his parents and siblings to tell them as well. I had deliberatly changed our appointment time to today before our family picures so that we could tell the rest of my family while we were all together. Everyone was so thrilled, supportive, and happy for us.

Our little girl is already so precious to us, and we can't wait to meet her. We got to see her little face, nose, hands and feet today. She was definitely squirming around in there! It's amazing to think that I can't feel that much movement when it's right inside of me. But the doctor told me that she's getting big enough that I should start to feel her in the next couple of weeks. That feels like our next big milestone, feeling her move. I can hardly wait. 

We have had a special name picked out for her since we got married:

 Lily Fay Parris

I hope she loves it as much as we do! (Spelling of Lily is still up in the air.)

We feel so blessed and grateful to have this sweet little girl on the way. We are very nervous, but even more excited to see her cute face in person! Only 26 more weeks to go :)

Boy or Girl? Our greatest Christmas present EVER!

Hello all! So, as you may have heard, we have our next appointment on December 29, at which time we should find out our baby's gender! Although it's a couple of days late, we couldn't ask for a better Christmas present.

I've always wanted to be one of those moms who just KNEW what they were having even before the doctor told them. So, I've done a few things to help myself along, as sill as some of them have been :) Here's what I've done so far:

• Listen to my family and friends. I truly believe that some individuals are very intuitive (or just good guessers?) when it comes to guessing the gender of up-n-comin' babies. The final consensus of ALL OF THEM (Mom, sister, aunts, co-workers, best friend)? GIRL!
  
  
• Dangle a necklace over my hand and belly. So, this has been an interesting prediction test. My mom and sister helped me do this originally, and it went slightly back and forth (boy). Then, at work, my two co-workers both did it on me and it consistently went in HUGE circles. Consensus? GIRL!
  
  
• Chinese Lunar Calendar. I've heard from a few people that this calendar has proven fairly accurate. So I thought I'd give it a shot. You take your age at conception, and the lunar month you conceived, and find the cross-section on their chart. What did it say? You got it, GIRL!
  
  
• Old Wives Tales. I found a fun little thing online that combined a bunch of old wives tales and made a cute little quiz out of them. Final results? GIRL!
  
  
• Heartrate prediction. Our baby's heart rate was a whoppin' 160 bpm when we saw the doctor. According to this site that means? GIRL!
  


• JustMommies.com quiz. This silly little quiz also says? GIRL!
  


• Parents.com quiz. Another silly quiz that, you guessed it.  GIRL!
  


• Last but not least, Mother's Intuition. Ever since I was little I have known I'd be blessed with a little girl someday. When I first got pregnant I knew it was her! Then, I had a dream about a little boy, my friends found out they were having boys, and I felt like we were having a boy at our 10 week ultrasound appointment. So, I switched to thinking it was a boy. Well, I think I'm ready to stick with my original feelings. So, along with popular vote, I say GIRL!

Now that is a LOT of pink! :)

DISCLAIMER: I reserve the right to continually change my mind about the matter!

As I was looking through my pregnancy pictures today I had fun noticing the little changes that are happening. Although it's not much, I am showing! Well, it's more of a "filling out" then anything, but that's completely OK. Wanna see comparison pictures?

 

Me at 3 weeks (left) and 13 weeks (right).

Anyways, I've just had fun with this pregnancy the last few days (not being so sick helps with that). I'm in the last week of my First Trimester! WOOHOO! Baby is growing fast and is very healthy. We couldn't be happier for our little munchkin.

Happy Holidays!

A Perfect Second Anniversary Weekend

We did it! On December 16 we made it to the TWO YEAR mark in our marriage. These last two years have been extremely eventful, and extremely wonderful. All marriages have ups and downs, which we definitely have experienced, but what matters is coming out of them with more knowledge and experience than we had before. We have a long ways to go in our marriage, and hope that we can enjoy every mile-marker as much as we have this one.

Todd picked me up from work on Friday and we headed down to Salt Lake City. Fortunately, we beat the traffic of all those heading to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, the John Schmidt Christmas Concert, and other various events being held. We checked in to the Little America Hotel, then decided to walk over to the Grand America Hotel to see their lights and play their window game. Although the game was really meant for little kids (you go window to window trying to find a star in each display), but we loved it! Their lights there are very beautiful as well. They are all white, but use various sized bulbs to give it a "twinkling" look.

We still had time before dinner started, so we walked over to the Trax station and took it to Temple Square. Todd bought us some nummy hot cocoa (not to hot, not to cold!) and we walked around and looked at the lights for a little bit. We were attempting to take a picture of ourselves under the tree where Todd proposed to me, and cute girl asked if she could help us out. We figured it was for the best, as our self-portriat skills were a little lacking :)

Our attempt at a self-portrait :)

Todd proposed to me under that tree on 9-9-09 :)

So beautiful!

After walking around a bit longer we headed back to Trax and took it to our dinner destination... Ruth's Chirs Steakhouse. It was AMAZING. The atmosphere was perfect, the services was wonderful, and the food was beyond perfect. They even put rose petals on our table for our Anniversary. I can't even count how many times we were told Happy Anniversary! We enjoyed our time there very much.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to rest for about half an hour before taking off again to see Sherlock Holmes at the Gateway. The movie was great! Todd and I both absolutely loved it. By the time the movie finished it was after 12:30 am...WAY past my bedtime :) The only downside to all of this was that my cold slowly got worse as the hours went on, so by the time we went to bed I could hardly breathe out of my nose. Good times! But the rest of our experience made it way worth it.

Fresh country air does the soul good!

We had the chance to visit my Dad at his new ranch house in Hennifer. For those you who don't know where that is, head East on I-84 about 30 minutes and hang a right. It's BEAUTIFUL land up there. The house is on 22 acres with a gorgeous river running along the edge of the property. The best part? There's HORSES. I was in heaven! When we arrived on Saturday we were pleasantly surprised to see my brother, Matt, was there with Krysta and his daughter Paityn.



We decided to take the little munchkin down to see the horses. Really it was just an excuse for me to see the horses...but you all guessed that, didn't you? :) Here's Todd holding Paityn on the way down to the horses.

When we got to the fence Paityn was a little nervous. I crouched down in front of the fence with her leaning up against my knees. Once we got there, all 7 or so of the horses in that pasture gathered around us to take a look.

If there's anything in this world that makes me happy, it's horses! Todd and I have an ultimate goal of owning a horse ranch. We'll make it happen someday! (Kind of an odd picture of me...oh well!)

 When we got back to the house we began decorating my Dad's humongous Christmas tree. 18' tall and beautiful! Jen and Tim and their son Jayden came, along with Liz, Steve and their daughter Noelle. It took a few hours, but we finally got it done.

We ended the night with a fabulous dinner from Taggarts Grill. If you haven't been, GO! The food is amazing, and the service is even better. This weekend definitely put me in the Christmas spirit. I can't wait! We get to spend Christmas Eve with my family, and Christmas Day with the Parris family. Best of both worlds. Hope you all have a relaxing and fun-filled holiday :)

Cooking with the Parris family... :S

Todd and I got quite a shock while cooking dinner for our neighbor tonight...

We made a chicken casserole and put it in the oven. As we were standing in the kitchen talking we heard a huge CRASH. We looked in the oven and the baking pan had cracked and crumbled! It gave us quite the schock. We couldn't help but laugh because we'd never seen anything quite like it.

Just had to share!