So Much to be Thankful For

We have so very much to be thankful for! Did you know that Scooter loves dressing up? :) We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday and another wonderful time with Scott's family on Sunday. Before gearing up to eat a lot of food, Scott even ran a 4 mile race on Thanksgiving morning. The Fox and the Turkey run was in Batavia and boy was it cold! He did a great job though and I am so proud of him!


We had another good check-up on Friday. Baby's heart rate seemed like she ran a race too! It was up to 178 but the doctor said that it was because I had been sick all week. Luckily I'm feeling better...unfortunately now Scott is sick. At least I share. :)

Now onto the highlight of my week. This requires a little background information - so be patient. For those of you who don't know, I am originally from Florida. I still have my family on my Mom's and Dad's sides that live there. (I am lucky to have a lot of family! I am fortunate enough to have been a part of my Illinois family since I was 11 too.) Now my Dad, and his parents, passed away a long time ago and they were laid to rest in Winter Garden, Florida. My cousins (on my Dad's side) still live near there. Here comes the special part!!! My cousin Kristin, (who happens to be my favorite), :) had a birthday this past week on the 22nd - she is 2 months and 9 days older than I am. This is from an email that my aunt sent to me about how Kristin chose to spend her day.
"Thought you would like to know that on Kristin's birthday she wanted to go to the cemetery and send balloons to meemaw, (my grandma) grandpa, and Uncle Jack (my dad). On Jack's she wanted me to write on the balloon that he was going to be a Grandpa. What a girl."

I didn't have any words at first. The only thing that I can come up with even now is that she is such an amazing girl. I hope and pray that our little girl will be as kind-hearted and thoughtful as Kristin is. What a way to choose to spend her birthday - remembering others and even letting me in on that too - just a few states away. Kristin, you amaze me. I am so very thankful for you and I love you so much!

Showered with Blessings

This past weekend my mom and my aunts gave us an amazing shower. We are so very blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives! Our baby girl is already so very loved. It was held at a cute little restaurant in Barrington, Francesca's Famiglia, fabulous food and service! We were surrounded by family and friends and it was a wonderful afternoon!




I knew that a baby needed a lot of stuff - but holy cow! Our baby received so many things that she will need (and us too!) I will post a few pictures below. There were lots of cutie outfits, 3 beautifully handmade blankets and so much more! We are so grateful to our family and friends for giving us a great start for our baby girl! And for those of you keeping track, no we did not decide on a name for our girl by the shower deadline. However, we have it narrowed to 2!!! I am very excited about that! Stay tuned and hopefully we will figure it out soon.










Did I mention that Scooter has found that all of "his" areas are being taken over? He is taking it in stride though. Here he is trying out his sister's new headband. He is such a good sport! I know that he will be thankful when his sister arrives because that will mean less costumes for him! (Or will it?) Maybe they will just match. :)


Scott and I are absolutely overwhelmed by the love and care that our friends and family have shown us. We are so blessed to have you in our lives! I know that Baby Girl Adams, whatever her name may be, will feel the same way!

An Eventful Few Days

Finally a picture of the bump! Well much more than a bump now! This is me at 26 weeks. Seeing an actual picture of yourself as compared to looking in the mirror offers a bit of a reality check. Scott took the picture for me and I asked him, "Is that what I really look like?" We joke around about a "Wide Load" coming through. I just make sure to make the beeping noise of a truck backing up. I am totally fine with it - at least I can rest assured in knowing that it is for a very good reason. :)

So onto the latest news. We went in for our regular appointment at my doctor on Friday. It was for my glucose screening so I was anxious to get it over with so I could eat breakfast! (Nothing like a bowl of Multi Grain Cheerios while in the car.) Unfortunately that was delayed longer than I had anticipated. After having my blood drawn and listening to baby's heartbeat (154) the doctor said he had some questions for me this time. He will always ask what questions I have and I will rattle off a list of the things that keep me (needlessly) worrying at night. He will answer them with the kind, common sense answers that, as a first time Mommy(or anytime Mommy), I'm sure sound ridiculous to have to answer, but if it makes me feel better I don't care, and then we are done. So when he told me he had stuff to talk about I was immediately on guard.
To make a very long conversation short, he told me that he will be out of the country for 4 weeks in February and wanted to know how I felt about this. (Did I mention that I am due February 18th?!?!?!) Well I had a ton of things hit me all at once. Of course, being me, panic was the first to set in. I was totally shocked. I know that you really can't bank on anything for sure when it comes to childbirth, but for some reason I had always imagined that I would not have to worry about my doctor not being there. So along with the panic came my worry and, true to form, tears soon followed.

Now as a side note, I have to say that I am pretty stinkin' proud of myself because I tend to be an emotional person so I thought I would be over the top while pregnant, but that has really not been the case. I can really only think of a few of occasions where my tears have gotten the better of me: 1. Towards the beginning of my pregnancy I cried because broccoli smelled so bad and I was trying to eat it - which by the way, I think that had little to do with the fact that I was pregnant and more to do with the fact that I think it is yucky! 2. I felt super guilty for buying maternity clothes when I knew that I needed them (Scott by the way, being so true to his form, just hugged me and told me it was ok - and showed extra interest in what I had bought...he is so amazingly good to me!) 3. This situation.

I think this was the most justified my tears have been - as far as legitimate reasons go. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that doctors are people too and have real lives and need vacations - that just wasn't something that had ever entered into my mind, that this might occur. My doctor told me that he has another doctor, also an independent practitioner, that he has worked with for the past 25 years. They cover each other when they go out of town and such. He said that he wanted me to meet him and see what I thought and that we would go from there. Now I was pretty level headed about this, and in my mind and heart I was really calm about it - the only problem was when I opened my mouth to ask questions or talk about it, my eyes and water works didn't really follow the game plan. So Scott and I went to the other doctor's office that morning. As we were in the waiting room ready to be called in I found myself looking at all of his pictures-you know, the ones they put up holding babies they just delivered and such. I told Scott that it looks like he has a kind face. I began to feel more at ease and by the time we were finished talking with him I felt as though we had planned for this doctor to deliver our little girl from the beginning. So from here on out, I will still see my regular doctor (every 2 weeks now) and he will keep my delivery doctor up-to-date with how I am doing. I will see my delivery doctor a couple of times before baby arrives and then call his office when she is ready to make her debut. I am truly ok with this - no joke! At least my eyes and water works are on the same page as I am now. :)


Scooter, ever my faithful shadow has been getting excited for his little sister to arrive too. While he doesn't look so thrilled in this picture, he is always right near me - usually somewhere near my belly. I am so excited to put her in this little outfit when she arrives and let her sit with her big brother. :) Our baby girl is going to be so blessed with such an amazing group of family and friends! Speaking of which, I am super excited for our shower next weekend! I can't believe it is here already! Now remember, the goal was to have a name picked by that day. We narrowed it to 3 names but it may take more time than I had initially hoped. My favorite name is his least favorite and vice versa. Haha! Of course! What makes it even more difficult is that we both really do love all 3 names - so it will be a tough call. I'm not so sure we will have one picked for Sunday - but maybe we will be inspired by one of them. I suppose that I should not be so anxious to have a name - she has to be stuck with it for the rest of her life, so it had better be a good one!



To round out our busy weekend, Scott ran in a 5K to support Helping Paws. I am so proud of him! The last time we ran a 5K was last December and he decided that he wanted to start running again. He has been training for a while now and is doing great! He is even going to do his next race on Thanksgiving. Our common hope is that once baby is born that we can both run together with her and Scooter. (Scooter may take a little more training for running than she will.) I always find it easier to run with motivation, and you can't ask for better motivation than to spend some time with my family. :) I will update after the shower with pictures!

Making Room for Baby

Well, I am 25 weeks today and have a crazy urge to get the nursery looking like it's ready for a baby! Here you can see a picture of the crib and bedding set. No, the bumper and blanket will not be in the crib when baby is ready to go in there. Sleep sacks all the way! As it gets closer to the time for her to arrive, we will be adding on to the nursery set. We will be getting a laundry hamper, lamp shades and a couple of wall decorations that match the bedding. I am a sucker for frog stuff! The only thing that we did not like from this particular set was the mobile - the frogs on it were super creepy looking! We are going to find a different one with frogs that will not scare our little girl (or us) as she looks at it. I am still trying to decide if we are going to get wooden letters that spell out her name for the wall. In order to do that, we have to decide on a name first. We have it narrowed to four, so hopefully we will have decided by the baby shower. That is my goal, a name for the shower. We will see how that goes. :)




This is the finished dresser that Scott worked so hard on. It is a beautiful match to the crib and he did such a great job! We have been so blessed to have friends giving us some of their baby girl items to use. The dresser already has some cute sleepers and onesies in it. Our little one is going to have a better wardrobe than we do! Next is to finish the toy box, I am so excited for it! Scott is finishing the staining now and will put on the legs very soon. Then all that will need to be done is a cushion top for Scooter to lay on. As soon as it is ready I will put some pictures up. It's a bit hard to tell from these pictures, but the walls are a light green color - fresh guacamole. Scott picked it out and it is a great match to the colors in the bedding set. It gives a very calm feeling to the room.



I have been feeling great, I am really so fortunate to have had such a great pregnancy so far. My most common side effect is that I am always so tired! Scott likes to kid me about the fact that I am usually asleep by 8:30. I, however, am fine with that. :) As baby is getting bigger I am feeling her movements more and more. It is the most amazing thing! I love just laying in bed while it is still and quiet in the house and feeling her move all over. I think this is my favorite part of pregnancy so far. Scott has tried to feel her move once but he says it just feels like gas bubbles. I hope that her movements will get stronger soon so he can tell it's a whole lot more than gas, ha ha. I am so blessed with all that is going on now. I will continue to do more updates soon!

Baby, Baby...

I suppose that I should really start writing on this more regularly, especially now! Scott and I are so excited to be having a Baby Girl in February! Here is an ultrasound picture from last week. Since the beginning, Scott has said that he thought it was a girl. Both he and the Chinese Gender Chart were correct! Our official due date is February 18th (although I am hoping she takes a little longer!) I say that now, but I'm sure I'll be ready to go when the time comes. I just don't want to have to leave her to go back to work - so the later she is, the less time I have to go back to teach before summer. :)

We have already started getting the nursery ready. We have a crib that is a dark cherry color, walls painted a soft green (Scott picked fresh guacamole) and a bedding set complete with frogs in the same hues of the paint color. Scott has been busy at work with projects as well. He completely sanded and stained a dresser to match the crib and is in the process of finishing up a toy box that he built and designed. It is beautiful! I will make sure to put up pictures when it is finished. The main reason that Scott decided to build a toy box was for Scooter. The nursery used to be Scooter's bedroom - complete with a large bed for him to lay on and look out the window. We are hoping that he will take to a window seat (toy box) where he can still lay and look out the window. At any rate, it will be a great place to keep lots of Baby Adams' toys. Scooter is my constant shadow. I really believe that he knows I am pregnant. He is by my side and rests his head on me (usually my belly) any chance he can get. I know that he is going to be so good with the baby. In the meantime, I can still dress him up in his costumes. :)


Next on our agenda is to narrow our list of 10 names down to 5 by the end of this week. We'll see how that goes. :) I have a definite favorite right now but that usually changes from time to time. Right now I am enjoying feeling her movement - usually in the morning and in the early evenings. For so long I was worried because everyone would always ask if I could feel the baby move and I would say that I didn't know because I wasn't sure. A couple of weeks ago while sitting at parent/teacher conferences though, I knew without a doubt. It was the best, most surreal, coolest feeling ever. I am so excited for when her movements are strong enough to feel from the outside. It should be in the next couple of weeks!

More updates will be coming regularly - I promise! :)

Goin' to the Chapel and we're gonna get married...

We did it! Our wedding day was perfect! We were so blessed to have an unseasonably nice day- a bit chilly but sunny and clear. We were surrounded by family and friends that love and care for us so much. Scott and I were (and still continue to be) so humbled by the care and affection shown us that day and since that day.


After the whirlwind day we left for our honeymoon the following weekend along with 20 or so family members and friends. We had an amazing, week long cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. We stopped in The Bahamas, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and Grand Turk. The trip flew by and now we are settling into married bliss.

Long Time Gone...

Talk about absence making the heart grow fonder. It has been a while since I last wrote anything, mainly because the photo hunt ended in May and so ended my visual commentary on lyrics. It is starting once again so I thought I would get warmed up with a post.





Over the weekend I ran in my first 5K. I was talked into it by Scott who thought it would be a fun way of getting in shape for the wedding. His sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Kevin, ran with us too. It was in Geneva, which is where they live, so it worked out nicely. While I was not too excited about the prospect of running (not one of my favorite things AT ALL) I must admit that I did enjoy it. My competitive nature took hold and helped me push through. Considering that the course was snowy and slick after our first snow of the year, I feel good about what I was able to do. My splits were 11:05 at Mile 1, 22:30 at Mile 2 and I finished at 34:52. I think that is something I can be proud of! We are all considering even doing another one on Super Bowl Sunday - not too sure how I feel about this yet!

I will now be posting on a regular basis again as the Photo Hunt begins this week! Look for the next post by Sunday. :)