Yay for...

being 16 weeks pregnant

no longer having morning sickness

being able to eat.....almost anything i want

a healthy, growing baby that is now sensitive to light and poking. and can also hear our voices

a mom who has already supplied the baby room with plenty: a crib, a changing table and about 1000 diapers
(and a coach diaper bag for me :))

grandparents who surprised us and the little one on Christmas with a car seat and stroller

a husband who loves holding my tummy and talking to our baby

only 2 more weeks till we know if this little one is a mini me or austin jr.

for sisters who argue over who will be the best aunt. I know they will both be great

And POO for the cold that doesn't allow me to get outside and exercise!

our days off

Austin had a wonderful 3 days off for Christmas, which never happens. Our weekend of Christmas was pretty packed. We had dinner at the Farris Grandparents house on Christmas Eve. It was nice to see my aunt, uncle and cousins from Kansas City and also my great Granny. Christmas Day we opened presents at home and enjoyed some traditional sticky buns. This was the first year I made them right in 3 years!

Later we went to my mom's for lunch and presents. Following that we stopped by Austin's dad for a few hours before heading to dinner at Austin's mom. The day was jammed packed and we were ready for bed when we got home.

The next day Austin went hunting, big surprise, then we hung out all day in our pajamas and watched movies which we had received for Christmas.

Monday was Austin's final day off before heading back to work. He spent most all of his day in his gaming chair playing his new videos games.

I spent the hours working on crocheting a hat for myself. I have tried a hat before and couldn't seem to get the pattern just right. On my first attempt this time I completed the hat and it actually looked decent!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break full of fun and family!

Gingerbread Build-off

We met at mom's for our newest tradition; the ginger-off. Last year the only two participants were Brooke and Austin. This year we had a few more teams.

Zach and Brooke teamed up

Austin was his own team

Emily and Daniel



and Andrew teamed up with my mom and dad

 Everyone had a great time. Poor Andrew worked and worked on his house and upon finishing it collapsed ! Luckily his only response was "oh no" and then he proceeded into the living room to have a dance party.

Here are some pictures of everyone putting together thier houses and the final looks

Andrew put Santa on upside down and he almost fell off the roof!





and yes Austin gave Santa a bow and arrow and then let him shoot a reindeer

Taking a Moment

I haven't been on here in awhile so I thought I would take a moment to let you in on ALL the things happening; both good and bad.

Lets start with the bad so by the time we get to the end of this post we are happy again!

Austin's truck got broken into......again. This is the second time since July. They took the only thing they took last time, the cd player. Only they don't just take the cd player they take the whole center dash, vents and all. This leaves all the wires hanging everywhere and you can see the engine from the inside of the truck! Not a fun situation.

To make matters worse I am losing my job. The company I work for is shutting its doors as of the new year so I will be unemployed. Maybe this is a sign I need to be a stay at home mom?? Nah, that is not my plan. I am looking for part time work as we speak, well after this post :)

Now for the in between news.

Itty

Austin brought home 2 more geckos a few weeks ago. I asked him not to bring home any more pets since we have a baby on the way but he thinks bringing them home when I am at work makes it ok since I can't do anything about it at that point. To tell the truth I was sick when he brought them home so I didn't fight him over it. He hasn't named them but I call them Itty and Bitty. They are so small.



Bitty



 Good News!

I made our Christmas cards again this year. After the time and effort it took last year I had decided just to order some this year. BUT when I went into the office a few weeks ago and saw all the scrapbook supplies and materials I had already I knew I didn't need to purchase anything to make them so why not send out free cards?? Again they took a good chunk of time but I really like how they turned out.

Pregnancy has been going super well lately. Morning sickness has completely vanished, hopefully for good (knock on wood). The baby has to be growing by all the food I eat, it seems I barely go 30 minutes without cramming some sort of food down my mouth. I should probably start watching how much I eat. I am 14w 3d and we are planning to get a sono at 18 weeks to make sure everything looks ok and hopefully tell the sex of the baby.

I have started dreaming up ideas for the baby room. I can't wait to get the crib up and the room decorated. We have discussed names and Austin is set on Mason D. or Rylee Elizabeth. One of these will probably be the name since he is so hardheaded and I have mentioned 100 other names none of which he will agree on.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

It's Finally up

Christmas has finally made its way into our home
and
the tree is up!

I spent most of the morning putting up the interior decorations while Austin was at work.

Later we went and got a Christmas tree. Normally we buy a living tree but for some reason this year Austin wanted to get a fake one. I was a little bummed but still had a fun time setting it up and decorating it.

My cinnamon ornments I made last year. They are my favorite!

It's exciting thinking about how we will have a little one helping next year!

Just for fun

I found this link on Baby Center this morning and got a physic prediction for the birth of my baby

Madame Zaritska, using her mystical powers, has the following prediction:

The day you deliver, outside will be rainy. Your baby will arrive in the middle of the night. After a labor lasting approximately 35 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 15 pounds, 11 ounces, and will be 18-1/2 inches long. This child will have medium brown eyes and fluffy black hair.

 

Although this is just for fun, I really hope my child doesn't come out 15 pounds and my labor is not 35 hours!!

Boy or Girl?

Lately Aus and I have been really interested in what we are having.

 We still have 8 weeks till we find out but it's fun to imagine and talk about what it would be like with either a boy or girl.

Of course Austin is set on having a little boy, someone to do "man stuff" with him.

In my interest I have taken some gender prediction wife tale tests. I found 2 on Kalinda's blog and I took 3 on facebook (and if its on facebook it has to be right).

Unfortunately they are all divided.

I had 3 boy results and 2 girl results.

I guess we will just have to wait till February to find out!

12 Weeks

A little update on the baby growing going on around here.

I am 12 weeks!

Slowly my all day sickness is fading. I still have bad days here and there but good days are in the mix which is quite nice.

No foods ever sounds good to me. Austin will name off 100 different things when I am hungry and I will say no to them all,  on the other hand if you just place food in front of me I will eat it :)

I am not sure how much, if any, weight I have gained.

I don't have a baby belly yet, more of a bloated ate too much tummy

And some photos so I can look back and see what I looked like pre-baby

Pregnancy...this far

So far pregnancy has been an experience.

I thought I knew what to expect when we found out we were expecting but I had no idea.

Being sick has been the roughest part.

I felt great up until my 7th week.

I started out at 112 lbs and today I am down to 106. Hopefully when I feel better I can start putting back on the weight.

I felt extremely tired weeks 5-8 but I think I am getting use to the feeling and it doesn't bother me as much, as long as I am in bed by 9 :)

I am so grateful and excited to be growing this baby.

We rented a doppler and love listening to the tiny heartbeat in the evenings.

Here is a picture at 8 weeks.

 Tuesday I will be 10 weeks but I still haven't grown so I didn't take a new shot.

Bows and Arrows

Austin has taken an interest in bow hunting this fall.

He likes to practice in the backyard while the dogs like to sit right in front of the hay bales.

He has gotten quite good and hopefully he will bring home a deer this winter.

I love deer meat!

and then there were 3



Only about 5 weeks but super excited!



st. louis- day 2- the arch

Before we headed home on Monday there was one thing we had to do; take a trip to the top of the Arch.

Was I nervous?

You bet

We paid our fee and sat in little (and when I say little I mean LITTLE) cars for the 4 minute ride to the top. Once at the top the experience was not as frightening as I thought it would be. Austin wanted it to be windy so the structure would lean as we heard it did in the wind.

Inside the top

Beautiful Mississippi ;)

Awesome shadow

Looking out was awesome! You could see forever it seemed. Looking down... not so cool.

Favorite view captured, standing under the arch

Arch at night

Once we returned to the bottom we walked around the underground museum and learned the history of the arch. There were also a brief introduction about the west. The displays caught my interest; they were life-like, moved and talked

We also had to stop at a Bass Pro Shop on the way home. We saw 4 on the way up and I promised Austin we would stop at one on the way home. We spent a good hour in the shop. After all the looking around all Austin got was two can coozies and a frog. The whole way home he kept giving me a hard time saying, "We finally got to go to a Brass Pro Shop and all you let me get was a couple of coozies and a frog!"

Please note I told him he could get whatever he so desired.

st. louis - day 1

I won't even get into the long 7 hour drive that may or may not have turned into an 8 hour drive because I took the wrong route. Not that we were lost, just on a more scenic route. AND I won't even tell you about how the hotel messed up our reservation, sent us to a room already occupied and the how it took 45 minutes to get worked out and put in a new room. AND I am not even going to tell you how the hotel told us their parking was free in the garage across the street when in reality it was $15 a day.

I will tell you that we had a blast in St. Louis.

The first day we were there was baseball day. 

They had a bald eagle fly in before the game!

 We, I was super excited to finally attend a game at Busch Stadium.The weather was amazing. We got a bit chilly when the sun wasn't out but that was better than sitting in 110 degrees!! The view around the stadium was perfect. We could see the court house and arch. 

The game was slow and Austin was more than bummed his favorite players didn't play (it was the last game of the season and it pretty much counted for nothing so they let a lot of no names play).

We did see my favorite player; Colby Rasmus

And the great Pujols

We also strolled around downtown for a bit, the hotel we were staying in was across the street from the stadium, downtown, and the arch. It was relieving to walk everywhere and not battle traffic.

Mini arch