Over the 4th of July weekend Derek and I traveled to Pickwick Lake to check out my parent’s new toy, and to relax and enjoy the 4th with some friends.  This boat is awesome!  It’s not a yacht or anything, but for the average Joe, or even the non-average Joe it’s quite the beast.  Their old boat was plenty, but finding that they were loving the boating lifestyle my parents decided to upgrade to make more room for themselves and the gaggle of friends Derek and I always have in tow.

Here’s the new boat.  It’s name is Phish Food II, because the previous boat was named Phish Food.  Get it?!  (Yes, it still says Sassy Lady on the back…that is what the previous owner named it.  Yikes!)

Here is a little peek at the cabin.

We invited our good friends Rachael and Jeremy along for the day.

We also met up with the normal crew we tie up to,  (Palf, Amy, Matt, Beth, and Carolyn….Meredith was at home resting cuz she has a baby in her belly) and had a good ole time floating in the water and catching some rays.

(my super adorable nephew)

Since this may be my only summer as a pregnant chick (I may be big during the winter for the next kid) I wanted some wacky pictures of me and my big ole belly in my maternity swim suit.

This next picture was just for laughs.  Well, for me to laugh at anyway.  (Honey look we are real rednecks!)

Oh, and here is my daddy.  El Capitan!

Pretty much everyone, but me got to go out on the jet ski.  Boo!  I still had a wonderful time.  Wanna know why.  It was the first time since I can remember that I have been able to lay on my stomach.  I took the opportunity of being in the water, on a raft, to get all that tummy time out of my system.

The next day we spent at my in-laws nursing our over sunned bodies, eating hamburgers and homemade ice cream, and enjoying the fireworks the neighborhood put on.  I love the 4th of July!

This past weekend was a fun yet busy weekend for us.  To start the holiday weekend off we picked up our friend Amy’s dog, Ellie.  Amy was headed out of town for Memorial Day weekend and we typically jump at the opportunity to spend some quality time with one of the cutest and most loving dogs on the face of this earth.

On Saturday, Derek started working on painting the exterior of the house.  Painting the exterior of the house has been an on going project since last summer.  We are trying to complete this monumental task ourselves, but started a bit late in the summer last year.  Then Derek was back in school, and I got knocked up.  That kind of made things come to a screeching halt.

Right now Derek has a little time in between semesters so he started back up.  I mainly just sit and watch from the window.  I’m a pretty big help.  I know.

On Sunday, Derek got back to painting.  We took a wonderful trip to Home Depot and decided on tile for the bathroom remodel we are about to take on this weekend.  We are attempting to knock a few partially big projects out before Grayson moves in.

Sunday evening we went to a ball game with Davis, my brother-in-law, and our friends Scott and Allie.  Not being smart and remembering it was Memorial Day weekend and the ballgames are pretty busy on these type of holidays we decided to buy our tickets at the gate.  You would have thought we were at Wrigley Stadium it was so busy out front.  The line wrapped all the way to China.  Not really, but it was massive.  Since we all had a brain fart when we decided NOT to buy our tickets ahead of time we decided to use our brains now and called the ticket office while standing in this never ending line of torture.  Derek got though and bought tickets over the phone.  All he had to do from that point was walk on up to the itsy bitsy teeny tiny Will Call line and pick our tickets up.  That quick thinking saved us about 40 minutes of standing in line.  And 40 minutes of standing to a pregnant woman can see like a life time.  Did I mention the game had already started?

After the game and a HUGE bag of cotton candy (yummy in my tummy) there was a fireworks show.  It was a wonderful show, but the wind began to kick up and we got caught in an ash shower from the blowing winds.  We were lucky none of the ash was still lit.  Grayson didn’t like the fireworks.  I’m pretty sure they were the loudest noise he’s ever heard.  He didn’t move the entire game, but when the popping started he moved to the back of my stomach and started kicking my kidney.  Ouch!  I felt horrible for my little guy so while I enjoyed the fireworks I bent over and hugged my belly, hopping to muffle the loud pops and bangs for my little man.

Since I’m tired of being a pastie  preggo I told Derek to take me to get some sun.  So, Monday we headed to my in-laws pool to catch some rays.  We took the two girls with us.  Wrigley is not at all interested in swimming or any water for that matter, but since Ellie is part lab and in love with tennis balls we thought that we could bribe her into the pool.  She made it down the first two steps, but on the third her face would dunk in the water, and she was out!

After a nice dip in the pool we headed home so Derek could finish up the three windows he has been painting all weekend.  He showered up, and we headed off to a romatical dinner at Steak n’ Shake.  We even split a shake.  Ahhhh, romance.  Actually, that’s just my style of romance.  Relaxed, casual, and quality time with my boy toy.

In an effort to learn more about the history of Easter our church group holds a Seder dinner each year during Passover.  Derek and I decided to attend this years meal, because we were very interested to learn more about where our traditions and teachings come from.  And being 1/16th Jewish myself, I figured I owed it to my ancestors to learn more about my heritage.  (My great grandfather on my mother’s side was Jewish.)

Here are a few pictures from the evening….

Even little Nolan joined us for his very 1st Seder.

12/31/09 :: day 56

Everyone at work has been really wonderful and constantly checking in on me.  Everyone seems so excited, well except one.  She just walked by me and gave me an eat sh!t and die look.  Whatever.

I feel like I am hungover…minus the headache, and nausea.  However, I do still have a headache , just not the hangover kind.  Ouch!

Tonight we are supposed to have dinner at maccaronni grill w/ everyone (2 other preggers), but I still need to shower, decide what to wear, and stay awake long enough to not fall asleep and end up face 1st in my dinner.  We’ll see if I make it past 10pm.  I’m betting 9:30pm before I tap out.

1/1/10 :: day 57

Happy New Year!  This morning @ 12:30am I decided to ring in the new year by barfing in the kitchen sink.  My 1st pregnancy barf…yea!!!!!  We got home around 12:20am and the overwhelming smell of our newly refinished floors made my stomach want to jump out of my throat.  What a way to ring in the new year.

1/4/10 :: day 60

Wow!  I’m enjoying some lovely cramping today.  Trying to drink plenty of water.  The doc said that sometimes the cramps are just due to dehydration.  Let’s pray this works, cuz I need to focus today.  Now that I think about it.  The blasted cramps may have something to do with the big bowl of fiber cereal I ate just before going to bed last night.  I told Derek I wanted grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, and green beans, but instead he offered cereal…and I accepted.  That’s what you get for not listening to your cravings.  PAIN!  Good news is that since we cleaned the wood floors with water & vinegar I can stand to be in other rooms of my house besides my bedroom.  I can’t hang out in the living room for more than an hour though.  The smell eventually builds up and banishes me to my bedroom.

12:19am - my stomach still hurts.  I did a little research on the web and it appears to just be growing pains, but I would still like it to go away.  This makes it really hard to concentrate at work, and I am testing an upgrade on our system today.  I need to be focused.  Please, please…go away!

1/5/10 :: day 61

I’m in super high spirits today minus the sore throat I have developed.  I just heard back from our wedding photographer, Lindsey Lissau, about having her pencil us in for some baby pics once this little guy or gal pops out.  I told Derek yesterday that after looking at pictures of a sweet little girl named Alanna that I was kinda Jonesin’ for a little girl.  I’m sure his heart dropped a bit.  Not that he doesn’t want a girl, it’s just that we both have always been so Pro-Boy.

Yesterday, I officially hit the 2 month mark of my pregnancy.  How cool is that?  Only 220 more days to go.  Derek laughs at me when I share these stats with him. He tells me that my iPhone apps tell me way too much information.  Well, duh!  How in the heck do you think we wond up in the situation we are in today.  Dude, must I remind you of a little post I wrote about this whole debacle?

My sore throat has officially become a head cold. Yippee!  Sometimes I feel like the baby in this situation.  When you are pregnant for the 1st time…everything is a brand new experience.  So for situations that you normally wouldn’t go see or call you doctor for; you find yourself doing just that.  Wow.  Tomorrow I am call my doctor to see what to take for a head cold.

So, Christmas day was the big reveal.  Derek and I thought it would be a great idea to record our family’s reaction to the news.  We figured that we would all be so wrapped up in the excitement of it all that no one would remember how it all really went down.  This is the video from my in-laws house.  We’ll the two videos from their house.  Derek started up the camera again when they checked out the ultrasound.  ENJOY~

For my parents house we used my dad’s video camera to film. However, the file he gave me of the day’s events is in a format that I can’t upload to the web. So, once we get that little hiccup fixed I will then post that video.

I  started off the New Year off with a bang…well more of a BARF!   On New Year’s Eve Derek and I went to dinner with some friends and were planning on going over to their house with everyone from the dinner group to ring in the new year, but my belly had other plans. I was suffering from a sinus headache that just kept growing and growing.   I was having a wonderful time chatting with everyone. (seriously, there were probably like 25-30 people we had crowded into the little side room at Macaroni Grill)  Since I wasn’t feeling well I went to my friend Allie’s house, and crashed on the couch with her around 9pm.   The guys stayed out for a bit longer, but made it back in time to ring in the new year with their barely awake wives.

We arrived home shortly after midnight and I headed strait to bed, but I guess my stomach had other plans for me.  The smell of our newly refinished hardwood floors makes me wanna BARF….constantly.  But up until this moment I have only been queasy.  At 12:30am January 1, 2010 I lost my morning/all-day sickness virginity.  I guess it was the combination of my sinus headache, fatigue, and the overwhelming poly odor that whacked me in the face upon entering the front door that got me.  What a way to start the year.

I am officially pregnant!

I just wanted to share with you a few moments from our joyous little Christmas.  I hope yours was wonderful as well.

1.  posing with the davenports after the big reveal

2.  sprout onesie from gymboree

3.  me and the hubbs with our “phish food crew” (phish food is my dad’s boat) jackets on that my mom had made for the whole family

4.  the cutest little monkey nephew walking through the door on christmas morning

5.  the beautiful quilt derek’s grandfather had made just for me

6.  the ultrasound (i got to hear the heart beat at only 6 weeks!)

7.  my new snowflake ornaments from the nesta home etsy shop (i’m in LOVE with them)

8.  my family passing around the ultrasound and giggling (what’s with my face?)