Baby Shower: Roots & Wings Style!

We call ourselves "Roots and Wings." I know it may sound silly, but these are my high school friends- a group of 11- and we all still stay in touch. We have "wings" because we live all over the country: Chicago, Fort Wayne, Boston, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Michigan, and Alabama, and “roots” because we always get together at least once a year in Fort Wayne to reconnect. Plus, we stay in touch via phone and email all year long, it really is an exceptional group of women and unique that we all still like each other!! :-)
Well, this year, three of us are pregnant…all due within a 2 month window…so we had a super fun “Roots and Wings” shower this past weekend. Megan is due Dec 3rd, I’m due Jan 6th, and Heather is due Jan 30th! It was so great seeing everyone and getting to celebrate together!
The icing on the cake….Jody’s mom is doing so much better! She is out of ICU, sitting all day and even standing for short periods of time, talking clearly and making progress every day! Answered prayers for sure! She is still struggling with phenomena and she is in some pain, plus in the next few weeks they’ll put in a pacemaker to keep her heart in rhythm so this won’t happen again! I know I’m missing specific details, but the bottom line is that Julie is a miracle! Praise God but please keep praying!

We're all having boys....plus, 6 months ago Jody had her 2nd boy, Eli.

The three sets of blue booties...so cute!

The gift table

Preggers...Megan, Heather and Jenae

Roots and Wings: From Left Standing: Zehra, Jody, Angie, Nicole

From Left Sitting: Janelle, Heather & Daughter Macy, Jenae, Megan, Mandy & Jody's son Eli.

I can't decide which pic I like better!

There's one with Noah peeking his head through in the middle...so cute!

Megan: 33.5 weeks. Jenae: 28.5 weeks. Heather: 25 weeks.

Angie's mom got all of us these adorable Colts onesies...so cute!

Opening Gifts

Super Soft blankets and rattles

The Wee Blocker!! That's right...a little "cup" to guard our poor faces during those boy diaper changes. Machine Washable! Jody has 2 boys and thinks these are essential!

We played the string game...where you guess how big each Mommy to Be is around by cutting a piece of string. Well, Janelle, Angie, and Nicole were a little off...the strings they cut were taller then they are! Come on guys...we're not THAT big!

Angie's guess was so overly big, we all fit into her string. Yikes.

Zehra and Jody

Angie, Eli and Nicole

Some of the gifts up close. Thank you all, they are so beautiful! Steven and I can't wait to use them with our little guy.

Prayers needed and other news...

There has been so much going on these past few weeks, most importantly is the need for prayer for Julie Orendorff. Some of you may remember one of my best friends, Jody (Orendorff) Trent, we went to high school together…well her mother, Julie, had a tragic incident last week. She is a nurse and was found on duty completely unconscious, they had to bring her back via CPR and was one of the most critical patients in ICU last week. The scary thing is…no one can figure out what happened or how long she was without oxygen! All of her stats and symptoms don’t match up with anything the doctors can figure out…and last week they didn’t know if there was any hope.

We were asked to pray for a miracle…well let me tell you…prayer is a very powerful thing! She has greatly improved over the last week, but she’s still not out of the clear. Please keep Julie, her husband Greg, and their kids Jody, Jessica, and Megan in your prayers. Also, I obviously don’t have all the technical terms down for what’s going on, but Jody is a nurse practitioner and updates this blog daily with Julie’s progress. If you’d like to keep up with her, just follow this link and click “become a member”. You’ll be sent and email every time there is a new status update. https://www.carepages.com/carepages/julieorendorff. Please pray.

In other news…I’m unexpectedly traveling back to Fort Wayne this weekend! In my group of 11 friends from high school, Megan, Heather and I are all pregnant right now, due within a month of each other! Our friends are throwing us a shower…plus we just need an excuse to get together...it’s been too long! We were going to have the shower in Indy at Megan’s house, but with everything going on with Jody’s family, we want to be in Fort Wayne. It will be a super quick trip, and I really hope Steven is able to come with me, he might have to work. If not, I plan on staying with Greg and Sarah in Bloomington on Friday and Sunday night to break up the trip…I better ask them if I can! :-)

Here are some pictures from this morning; I’ll be 28 weeks tomorrow! This pregnancy has flown by. Baby Funny is probably going to be either a soccer player or a punter the way he’s been kicking me lately! It’s such an amazing thing! The last picture is so ridiculous…Steven made me laugh and wouldn’t take another one…oh well…I am so happy…we are so excited!

Getting Huge!

I'm almost 26 weeks! We took these pictures yesterday, so I'm actually only 25.5 weeks...like it really matters! I keep growing, so baby must be doing well! I have my monthly OB appt this Wednesday, and hopefully my flu shots as well. Schools around here have been closing because more than 25% of their kids are out sick...and I coach at a high school!! I'm trying to not get too worried, but I'm making sure to wash my hands like crazy and keep germs off me :-)

Steven and I had a crazy weekend. I spend Friday and Saturday in Nashville at a volleyball tournament, and Steven worked all day Saturday from home. Yesterday we had a nice day together though, the sun was actually out for the first time in 2 weeks! We went to church, organized the bonus "man" room...which I invaded with my scrapbooking stuff because my craft room is now a nursery...cleaned out the garage, and I actually cooked a real meal for dinner for the first time in a while!

Steven's commander gets back this week, so hopefully he'll be able to focus on his XO job and not both his and the CO's. Maybe that will mean less work for him in the evenings...I sure hope so!
Have a great week!

25 weeks

Birthday Fun!

I have some of the best friends around! For my birthday we went to our favorite sushi restaurant, Kohana, on Wednesday night. The food was delicious and the company was great! We always order about 8 different rolls and pass them around...yum...just writing about it makes me hungry...but that's pretty normal these days! Thanks ladies for your generosity and such a sweet celebration! Love you guys!

Around the table from the left: Jenny, Erin, Holly, Lisa, Regan, me, Mary

Family, Fun and Fondue!

Another great weekend to put in the books! Mom and Dad came down on Friday night and we had such a fun weekend. Saturday started with a delicious breakfast (thanks to Erin's cream cheese croissant recipe..so good!) then the men went Truck shopping while Mom and I hit the stores as well. Steven's mom gave us this beautiful cradle that all of her kids slept in as infants, and my mom is going to make some bedding for it. We shopped and found some beautiful eyelet to make it classic and pretty...we can't wait to see the finished result!
After shopping, we loaded up, went to Nashville to check out a few more car dealerships, then hit the Melting Pot for dinner. That is one of our favorite restaurants...it's fondue...and it is a treat! Mom and Dad loved it and hopefully we can make it a yearly tradition when they come to visit!
Sunday we went to early church and then they hit the road for Ft. Wayne. It went by so quickly, but we had a great time. Thanks for making the trip!

The Melting Pot...as you can tell by our empty plates...dinner was delicious!
Mom and Dad...couldn't get a pic without dad blinking, so here's the best one! :-)

23 weeks pregnant!

Labor Day Festivities

We had a wonderful and restful weekend at the cabin this past weekend. The cabin was even more beautiful than we imagined and the company was fantastic! I didn't get many pictures...my girlfriends are much better photographers than I am, so I'm waiting to copy all of their photos. Until then...here are just a few!

Our Beautiful Cabin

View off the back deck

Fog through the mountains on Saturday morning

Sunset

The men before their mountain bike excursion...wish i had a picture of them all sweaty and smelly when they returned! They went to Sallee (sp) which is some famous biking park and had a great time!

The girls! This was just before we went to the Cirque de Chine show in Pigeon Forge.

Steven and Sofia. We both had a fun playing with the kids, they were so good all weekend!

Daniel, Erin and Claire Hubert

Erik and Lisa Wright

Me, Steve, and the baby bump!

The Movie Theater

22 Weeks

I'm 22 weeks...5 1/2 months already!! Feeling great! I had an OB appt. yesterday and I actually measured 1 cm larger than average. Also, I've FINALLY started to feel the little man kick...it hasn't been a whole lot, but he's definitely in there. I guess he's just going to be laid back, like his dad! :-)

We've had an insane couple weeks. I've been swamped with work, and volleyball. Steven's new job has kept him crazy busy...waking up at 3:00am, working til 6:00 at least, then coming home and working until 10:00pm or later at home! He's been in the field and trying to keep his Company organized and working. We need a vacation!

Good think we're taking one...starting in less than 24 hours!! We're going to the Smoky Mountains/Gatlinburg this weekend to stay in a chalet/cabin with 4 other couples. Here's a link to the place we're staying...it looks amazing and with 5 couples, it's pretty cheap!! http://www.yourcabin.com/824AGrandView.aspx The guys are going to this famous mountain biking place and us girls are going to hit the outlet malls! We're also all going to a Cirque show on Saturday afternoon in Gatlinburg, and just planning on taking it easy, playing games, and relaxing with great friends. We cannot wait!

22 Weeks

20 Weeks

I finally have a little baby bump! It's exciting! I'm 20 weeks and 4 days in this picture, and I'm still feeling great. Last weekend after we found out it was a boy, we went down to Nashville to the HUGE Babies R Us, it was awesome! We realized that there is way too much stuff we want to buy this little guy...we're feeling the pocketbook pressure already...yikes! We registered for a bunch of stuff, and it was so fun watching Steven get so pumped about little boy gear, it just warmed my heart :-)

If any of you have been to our house, the room we have for the Nursery is TINY, and frankly there isn't much room anywhere in our house for a bunch of extra baby stuff. We're trying to get creative about storage options and went to Lowe's yesterday to look at closet organization units. We're coming up with some good ideas and hope to get some of that sorted out in the near future. My exciting news for the day...we bought a glider yesterday from this amazing website www.hayneedle.com , they have tons of household items at pretty reasonable prices. We think we're going to get a storage ottoman for the living room too...the one we have now is looking rough and not very baby friendly! So many things to do, so little time! Oh, we picked out a paint color for the nursery yesterday, too...our project for this weekend!

In other news, my high school team has their first official volleyball match tonight. Go Hawks!

20 Weeks

The Fundingsland Name Continues....

That's right....It's a BOY!
I had my Anatomy Scan this morning, and it was really an awesome experience. Even though Steven wasn't there, I saw him right after and delivered the good news! The Tech didn't tell me what it was...I had him write the sex down on a card, but it was pretty hard to miss when I was watching the ultrasound pictures! I could see a 4 chambers of the heart beating, the kidneys, the spine, the brain, the belly and bladder, and the special boy parts!! At the Army hospital, the OB does not do the anatomy scan, you have to go to the X-Ray and Ultrasound Lab, so I had a technician that I'd never met before, but he did a great job. He was very friendly and told me everything I was looking at. He is not a radiologist, so he is not legally allowed to say how things look and if they are measuring correctly...but he pretty much said that Baby looks like a healthy boy!

I was a little worried that I hadn't felt the baby move yet, and he actually brought that up...he said my placenta is on top of the uterus, so it's blocking me from feeling much of anything. He said I should begin to feel some kicking in a week or so...can't wait!

Here are some pictures!

Face Profile

In this one, (above) both hands are up at his face, one is on his chin.

Another face and body profile...who does he look like? can you tell?

It's DEFINITELY a Boy (above)! Hopefully you won't have any problems telling.... :-)

Body Profile. You can see the black circle in the chest...that's the heart! It was 130 BPM today.

IT'S A ....................

BOY or GIRL!

Yes, I know, that was our reaction too! Bummer. I had my OB appointment and my doc did a quick ultrasound just for fun. Steven wasn't able to go with me (he's just got the XO position for B Co. in 2nd Infantry Batt!!!! yay!) he had lots of meetings that day he couldn't get out of. So, we asked the Doc to write down the sex of the baby in a card so that we could open it together and still have our little "we're having a..." moment.

well, Doc thinks it's a girl, and his assistant thinks it's a boy...that's what they wrote in the card. :-( We'll just have to wait until next Thursday when I have my big Anatomy Scan. There they will check out all of Baby's bones, organs, and hopefully SEX.......so until next week, we still won't be purchasing any baby clothes. :-( pout...