Our Baby!!!!

So today I had my first OB appointment. Huge milestone, I know. I was excited, nervous, and fortunately, mostly nausea-free! Thanks to "What To Expect When You're Expecting", I was fairly well informed (I thought) on what to expect but I was surprised that I got to do an ultrasound! Little did I know I'd get to see my baby for the first time today.



The other surprise we got was that I'm even further along than we thought. No more is the February 14 due date. They've moved it to January 25! That puts me at just past 9.5 weeks (woot! that means I'm closer to the end of the first trimester and, hopefully, morning sickness). The baby was all squigly-wigly and moving around (soo cool to see) and I could see his/her little heartbeat too. :) Seriously, it's such a cool, weird, exciting feeling.

I've been sometimes sick, sometimes fine for most of the time now. I have days that are mostly great and then BAM! - I'm sicko for 2 days and it's miserable. I still have major food/drink aversions - coffee mainly (though I'm happy to say some forms of chocolate are back on the menu), beef, most meat, anything spicy, etc. I basically live on fruit, cereal (thank goodness milk is fine!), and a few other staples like potatoes. Btw, "morning sickness" is a TOTAL misnomer for me. When I get sick, it's either all day, or only at night. The fatigue is definitely pronounced, but Hashimoto's definitely helped prepare me for that part of it. It's a little bit different fatigue too - it's not so dehabilitating, but more like, all the sudden I just really wanna take a nap or at 8:30pm I just know I'm ready to sleep for the night. Crazy, but not horrible.

It's still crazy to think that there's a little life inside of me but Preston and I are really really excited and happy. And totally scared that we'll be responsible for another human being. But mostly excited.

For those of you who are interested, YES we intend to find out the sex of the baby AS SOON AS WE CAN! Lol. It's killing me that we don't know already, but we'll have to wait until at least 12 weeks and probably 15. Assuming the baby cooperates. And we'll probably let everyone know the name choices too, but in the mean time, we're just glad that everything is going good, it's looking like I will NOT be classified high-risk (WOOOOHOOO!! no amniocentesis!) and all is happy and healthy so far!

Please continue to keep us in prayer (all 3 of us!) - it's always appreciated!

Here's one more of the cute little peanut!

Website WONDER

As I mentioned previously, my website has been having....issues. But that is soon to be a thing of the past (already you at least don't get the silly "oops" message)!



Once it's for sure up and going, I'll share more about how it came about and how my super cool fully-editable up to date website works! In the meantime, here's a few sneak peeks!





I can't wait!!! Woohoo!!!!

Website Problems

Ok, so I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but if you've tried to visit my website in the past day or so, there have been major problems (thanks to everyone who contacted me to let me know!). I've spent some serious time on the phone with GoDaddy, my hosting service, and I still don't have an answer. I'll be updating as I get more info, but in the meantime, feel free to stick to the blog for a while. I'll get it fixed. Or be moving to another service. :( Wish me luck!

~B

Family Portraits - Courtney, Justin & Jack!

As promised earlier, here are the rest the teasers from the gorgeous family portrait shoot from last Friday (the 13th). Nothing but GOOD things on this Friday the 13th.

We met up at the absolutely stunning Montage Resort in Laguna Beach and got started right away. I should mention, Courtney and Justin were one of my fav couples from early 2006 so it was a real pleasure to meet there little guy Jack and do a shoot with their family. Here are some of my favorites (btw, there's a lot! their family is just TOO cute!)!





I love that he kept this hat on for so long! Usually they rip 'em right off, but he totally seemed content (for a a little while anyway) to just leave it on. Yay! Don't you just love his dimple!



What kid doesn't love it when their dad tosses them in the air?



Ok, this is one of my favorites. Jack totally blew me away when he managed to put on his own shoes all by himself and they were even on the right feet! Of course, it's hard work when you're that little, so sticking out the tongue is a necessity!



Isn't the beach at the resort GORGEOUS!?





I love this one. So sweet.



And the whole family version. Such a cute family.



A few seconds later. Jack didn't much care for the "big wah wah" because it was so cold. He totally loved the sand though!



And one final cute one of just mom and dad. Still in love and going strong. It's not hard to tell where Jack gets his "adorable" from. ;-) Btw, I thought the coolest part of shooting weddings was getting to be there at that incredible, beautiful moment when they say "I do" but I might have to rethink my position. Being there to shoot the family portraits with the same couple a few years later... THAT is truly awesome.



Congrats again Courtney & Justin (and Jack!) - and thanks so much for letting me work with your family again. It was a true pleasure!

~B

A Very Special Happy Father's Day!!!

Today is a very special Father's Day. First of all, happy Dad's Day to all the dads out there! But I want to wish a VERY special Father's Day to MY HUSBAND!!! It's his first. ;-)

Yup. It's true. I'm pregnant. And if you know my husband and I very well, you know that we were pretty shocked. We certainly weren't planning this, but God has his own agenda sometimes. So, let me share some of the specialness with you.

As previously mentioned, I have an autoimmune disease known as Hashimoto's Disease, which primarily effect the thyroid. The thyroid effects everything in the body, including the reproductive system, so we knew I was less likely to get pregnant as it was. Add to the Hashimoto's the birth control aspect and our plans to wait another few years, and you'll start to get a picture of just how shocked we were.

However, since the first time our doctor told us of possible complications, we placed it in God's hands. We figured He's bigger than us (and a pill) and knows what is best. We decided to trust His timing and continue with the plans we had originally made, allowing Him to change our minds if He decided to. Well, He did. And we feel very blessed.

Since we found out about a week and a half ago (doctor's confirmed on Tuesday, but we waited till today to tell our parents - story on that to follow) we have been continually impressed at God's timing. One significant aspect was the medical insurance. Some of you know my husband changed jobs about 8 weeks ago. We had medical insurance through his previous job, but it specifically excluded pregnancy (for the first year). His new job immediately gave us medical coverage, and it covers EVERYTHING, including pregnancy from the get go (even if it's determined a "pre-existing condition"). The timing couldn't be better. ;-)

We decided, after doctor's confirmation this past week, to tell our families on Father's Day. We figured we couldn't pick a better time and got a couple of "Happy Father's Day GRANDPA" cards for our dads (along with cute "I Love Grandpa" bibs). We had lunch with my family and dinner with Preston's and snuck those cards in all sneaky-sneaky. And boy were they surprised! Needless to say, everyone's happy all around (my grandparents happened to be out too, so we got to tell them as well) and the phone calls have started to the rest of the family. It still feels a bit surreal, but we are truly truly happy.

I'm feeling pretty good for the most part. I spent about 10 of the past 12 or 13 days pretty sick, but after going through 3 different kinds of prenatal vitamins and discovering what I can't and can't eat (or smell), I'm finally feeling pretty good - just exhausted. Strangely, the smell of chocolate and ESPECIALLY coffee make me extremely sick - which was our first giveaway something was off. But all in all, I'm doing pretty well. We'll get a more firm date from the OB in a few weeks, but for now they're estimating I'm due sometime around Valentine's & Preston's birthday (his is February 15).

Sooooo..... thanks for bearing with me during my last couple weeks of craziness (and the ones that are sure to follow). And if you see my husband, or have a chance to email - wish a happy Father's Day too. ;-) More updates to come!

~B

Sneek Peek from Today's Portrait Shoot

I'll be blogging the whole thing later on, but for now here's a few sneek peeks from today in Laguna Beach!







Tons more fun images to come later! Now for some beauty sleep before my wedding tomorrow!

~B

Lame-oh Lame.

Lame-oh lame. That's how I'm describing myself currently. I can't tell you what a crazy whirlwind I've been on this past week, but I can tell you it has been intense. I'm in the process of picking up all the pieces and desperately trying to get organized again, but WHEW, a girl gets overwhelmed easy these days. Look, here's my overwhelmed face:



So, in the spirit of Becker and Mondays, here are a few miscellaneous thoughts.

#1 - What the HECK is up with the officiating on the Lakers vs. Celtics games? It was annoying the first game, but last night? Holy cow. That was just plain horrid. I don't care if you hate both teams, it's obvious something is wrong when one team gets 38 free throws and the other gets 10. Powe had more free throw attempts than the entire Lakers team. Lame-oh.

#2 - Why do dogs shed so much? I know we're going into summer here, but MAN. Keeping up with my pets and their hair right now is ridiculous. Maybe it just shows up more on tile or something, but for crying out loud. I'm tempted to teach them to sweep or something.

#3 - Sometimes church ladies impress me to no end. Not always, but this weekend, at our new church, I was so impressed with the love and generosity the "church ladies" showed to our Pastor's wife. They went in together for her shower and got her the crib, mattress, swing, car seat, AND stroller. How awesome are they!?

#4 - $200 for the 3G iPhone (8g)? For Reals? That's ALMOST enough to tempt me to go over to At&t. Not quite though. They'll have to build a tower near my home since At&t and Verizon still don't get service here.

#5 - I stink at organization. For those of you who know me best, you know how much I have prided myself on this in the past, but the time has come for me to admit I stink at it now (with the exception of certain areas). If any of you have organizational tips or feel like coming over for a few hours, I need some serious help!

Ok, that's all for now. More updates, info, and craziness coming soon. I actually have tons of photos I need to blog and a wedding coming up this weekend, so there is definitely more coming to the blogosphere. ;-)

~B