Our Baby BOY!

So I alluded to all this in my last blog, but I figured a whole posting would be more appropriate for the exciting news of our soon to be SON!

On July 5th, we headed to my doctor in College Station for the special 20 week/half way point ultrasound. A lot of people don't realize the medical importance of this ultrasound because its always associated with the gender reveal, but I went into it excited yet anxious because I knew a lot of bad things could be revealed as well. As of this point, we are beyond blessed to have a healthy, 4 chambered heart, all vital organed, slightly above average sized boy. :) We walked into the ultrasound lady's room and she said "Are we finding out today?" and I said "Yes please!" I've always known I'd want to find out but Derrick was the one cracking me up as he just COULDN'T handle not knowing.

We spent about 20-30 minutes with the ultrasound lady and Derrick was in awe..."how do you know what that is?" "How do you know what you're looking at." "Wow, I'm impressed you can tell what's on the screen." lololol....Babe, she does this EVERY day!

They measured his femur length, head, abdominal cavity, heartbeat, etc and identified all his major organs as well as a healthy, beating heart. And somewhere in between, we found the evidence of his manhood after he stretched out a bit for us.

I was thinking boy (I had 2 vivid dreams that we were having a boy and never dreamed we were having a girl). Derrick thought girl....but then I expected girl just because I was thinking boy. Ha... well we got a baby boy and I'm thinking Derrick is just a little bit excited about that fact.

Once we knew, we set up some pics that I had planned in my head for the reveal. I didn't want to just text out the news...I wanted something cute to go along with it so we took a progression of photos that I just love. We had to head to Fredericksburg very soon after so we took the pics then I downloaded them onto my laptop on our drive, then I did all the photoshop work, then we pulled into McDonalds to get wifi so I could email the final photo from my laptop to my phone, then I downloaded it onto my phone, and then I texted and emailed it out as we drove. :) What a fun day it was!

In the waiting room 

After we found out... 

And the proud father!!

Our photo shoot...I ended up splicing all the photos together but figured I'd post them individually here

Notice the blue ribbon around my waist. :) We had purchased a pink polka dotted one too but the blue won the day!

Our precious little baby boy! (lying on his back looking up. Silhouette of his face on the right. Cute lil button nose!

The 2nd and well defined spotting...he's definitely a boy! :)

His 4 chambered heart and healthy heartbeat...always a precious sound. 

His little leg...up on the top rightish area of the ultrasound photo. You can see his foot pointing northeast. 

July 4th Festivities

This blog was written like 2 weeks ago but Picasa decided it didn't have any more room for photo uploads so I had to delete a bunch of stuff...but first I had to make sure they were all backed up so it took me a while to complete that whole process....so here goes July 4th! :)

Last week was the 4th of July and since it fell on a Wednesday, it screwed up a lot of people's vacation plans. Derrick and I had made a Drs appointment on the Tuesday before the 4th thinking that we could head to College Station on Tuesday afternoon and then take off Thursday and Friday and have almost a week of relaxation. However, due to Derrick's vacation schedule, he didn't have enough vacation days left to do that and still have some left for our vacation in August, so we rescheduled the doctor's appt for the Thursday morning after and it all worked out just great.

Tuesday night after work, we packed up for the next several days and headed to my Uncle Doug & Aunt Laura's lakehouse for an evening of talking and fun with my cousin, Kyle. The next morning, we had breakfast together and then headed out on the lake. I couldn't ski for obvious reasons and the last time Derrick skied was when he really really hurt his back badly so he didn't want to risk it, so instead he fished, I swam, and we watched my brother ski. We had a wonderful brisket lunch and played games during the hot afternoon sun and stayed late playing more games.

Beautiful lotus flowers we found on the lake!

Derrick enjoying the boat and the fresh air

A little jealous watching Jason ski...I wanted to! But I can wait :) 

One of the most awesome Settlers of Catan games every played!

From the lake, we headed home for a good night's sleep and then left for College Station early the next morning. We had tons of errands we needed to run and then the very special time came at 1pm to find out our destiny....would our firstborn child be a strapping young lad or a beautiful lil lady??!?!?! I know its become kind of trendy to not find out and a lot of our friends are choosing to not find out, but we just couldn't handle it...especially Derrick. For me, the 4-5 months of getting to "funly" prepare for a baby boy OR girl made up for the 10-15 seconds of blissful adrenaline you get when you find out at birth. So we chose to find out and are glad we did. Our "it" became a........

I knew we were both open to either gender...would have been thrilled, but afterwards I asked Derrick, 'OK, how did you REALLY feel now that the pressure is off.' He said that he was super chill with a girl and would have loved having a girl and it would have been great and he was very accepting of the idea, but that he is REALLY excited about his little boy. :) Made my heart smile. I know he sees antique cars and guitars and football and hunting in their futures. God knows what everyone needs first and I'm thankful we're getting a little boy!

From College Station, we headed across the state to Fredericksburg where our very dear friends, Trent and Kelley, were waiting for us with this very special little surprise:

How cute is that?! Kelley's mad embroidering skills!

Of course we chose the green and brown :) Derrick tried to dress him....that's the direction he was laying during the ultrasound ha

We had been wanting to plan a "real" vacation with the Phillips for months and had explored a lot of options but nothing just came together. So we finally decided to do a long weekend in the hill country mixing someplace we've never been with some place we had been that would be cheap. :) So we headed to Fredericksburg to explore the cute little town and then on to High Places Ranch. In Fredericksburg, we ate at Hondo's upon a couple of recommendations and enjoyed some of the best burgers in the state of Texas as you can see:

Smile Trent! Nevermind...just eat ;)

We stayed up late at the Fredericksburg Inn & Suites talking and then enjoyed a complimentary breakfast which included "kolaches" which I more commonly know as pig-in-the-blankets...because to me, kolaches have fruity filling in them, not sausage. But who am I to argue with a town full of Germans! We then ventured into the town to explore lots and lots of beautiful shops. I love all the stores there, but they are indeed expensive so nothing was purchased but it was fun to look!

Welcome to Fredericksburg!

Kelley and her M&Ms! So very in love with them that Trent actually used them to propose years ago :)

OK even a pregnant lady can't quite get into those....ick!

We then ventured over to the Nimitz Museum, which we of course had to do with Trent on board. :-) Wow....talk about one of Texas' hidden gems (if you like history of course). That museum is most definitely on a national level as far as quality and quantity. It was HUGE! We spent over 3 hours there but easily could have spent 6-7. It was quite impressive.

Where Admiral Nimitz grew up

All grins

Awesome Pearl Harbor exhibit...that was a full sized submarine inside!

And full sized planes and so much more

A whole nother section of the museum complex...the Pacific Combat Zone

In between the several hours at the museum, we took a break and ate at the Auslander.

Thanks to Trent, he suggested a German meal considering we were in a German town. Me and Kelley wimped out and ordered sandwiches and fries haha but the boys went for it and got the whole sausage, sauerkraut, traditional food.

We left Fredericksburg around 4pm and headed south. We got to High Places a couple hours later and the relaxation began. We spent a weekend playing games, eating, hunting, fishing, swimming, and enjoying the peace and quiet of God's creation.

Our ranch neighbors painted this on their barn...we couldn't help but stop for a quick photo op

Welcome to the ranch!

The guys on a not so sneaky stalk

Can't go to High Places without shooting guns off the front porch :)

It was so great to have a few days off...it was much needed. We got a lot done in a few days and it was so good to spend quality time with such incredible friends!

Father's Day On

So today I've been giving my friends heck about not blogging enough because I like to read blog posts! So I decided in lieu of being a hypocrite, I best blog as well. :-)
Let's see where to start...

June 17th was Father's Day and because Derrick decided to surprise me with a beautiful Mother's Day gift on my "1st Unofficial Mother's Day," I decided to get him back! He needed a Daddy's Day gift as well to prepare him for the future. Lately, he has become a little OCD over his 1950 Chevy truck that he and his dad began rebuilding when he was in 7th grade. They bought it out of a pasture with a tree growing up through the middle of it. He has restored bits and pieces of it over the years and it was good enough to drive "illegally" on our wedding day in 2007 as our getaway vehicle. Now, he is SO close to having it legal (minus the crazy bureaucratic process that its going to take to actually get it titled and inspected and such). So this is what it looks like now, and he's so proud....

1950 Chevy 5 Window....aka, Derrick's baby that will always and forever be a part of our lives :)

Well he's been spending many an evening in the garage with his baby and at one point he mentioned that he should really get a fire extinguisher to have permanently in the cab. I queued in on that and figured that someday sooner than later, our child will be riding along with Pops in his pride and joy and that the security of a fire extinguisher was a pretty good idea. So while Derrick was shopping in Harbor Freight, I pulled a sneaky sneaky and found an automotive fire extinguisher. I thought that would be a special gift for him. In his Father's Day card, I wrote about security and how that's so important for a Dad to convey to his family and especially to his little ones. I also gave him the book Service by Marcus Luttrell. Luttrell's 1st book, Lone Survivor, became an instant classic as he wrote about his experience being the only survivor of the most devastating special forces tragedy in US history. If you haven't read it, its totally worth it. Opens your eyes to the true life of the US special forces soldier and the gratitude that we owe them for our cush lives in the USA. Soon after that, Chris Kyle's book, American Sniper, came out which was also excellent followed by the movie, Act of Valor. All redeeming, patriotic, excellent choices for reading and viewing entertainment. Well anyway, Service was just released and again I made a connection between a Father's job and service. He loved both of his gifts and I just started reading Service to him last night on the way home from our fun date night in New Braunfels. We ended Father's Day evening with a wonderful filet mignon dinner at my parents with my Mom's parents, Grandpa and Grandma, and my Dad's dad, Daddy Don. (no pics from that evening darn it!)

His fire extinguisher and new book. 

So speaking of our date night in New Braunfels, Derrick and I headed that direction yesterday to support an organization called Ropin' Dreams. They are based in San Antonio, and our company, Ranch Hand, supports them financially every year as they are doing incredible stuff in the community. They are kind of like the Make a Wish Foundation, but more local, and tend to be more involved in the rodeo community. They basically make wishes come true for kids who are terminally ill or chronically sick. Their annual rodeo fundraiser was last night and we wanted to go to check it out and support them. Last night was their mutton bustin' and bull riding. Rodeos are such a fun environment. Rodeo people seem to have patriotism, hard work, and love for the Lord running in their veins.

The Ranch Hand truck on the grounds

This rodeo is all about and all for kids even though its a true CBR sanctioned event....check out these cute lil mini clowns! Don't worry...they were only there for the mutton bustin'...not the big bulls!

tried to get a pic of the kids riding a sheep...but this poor lil girl or guy didn't last long :)

Look at all the bull riders! Never seen that many at one rodeo before!

The Top 3 CBR bullriders. Last year's world champion, this year's leader, and the guy that holds the most world champions total. 

After the rodeo was over, we headed over to Gruene to go to the Gristmill, which may officially be the coolest restaurant in the world. Its an old restored 1870's cotton gin that's been turned into a restaurant. There are 3 stories of eating areas along with tons of outdoor seating overlooking the river. There were hundreds of people waiting on a table, but somehow, they crank them through there fast. They told us it'd be an hour wait for 2, but it turned out to be only 30 minutes. We both got beef tenderloin salads which were excellent, and now we plan on recreating the salads tonight for dinner with buffalo steaks (so amazingly good!).

Welp, I guess that brings you up to speed. Have a great week! (darn it, tomorrow is Monday!) :-(

Baby Update - June 10th

Its about time for a baby update...its been such a special time and yet its kind of an odd passage of time. I am 17 weeks which means there are only 23 weeks left. Rarely in life are there such defined deadlines. Sometimes we want to change jobs or move homes or plan special things, but its odd to actually have a D-day....November 18th it is! I must admit that I think that I have had a blessed first 17 weeks. Of course when you tell people you're pregnant or when you google things about pregnancy, you always hear the worst case scenarios, so maybe that isn't normal either, but I feel like its been a pretty easy 17 weeks.
I was close to feeling nauseous maybe twice during the first trimester. :-) Weirdly though, some nausea kicked in only first thing in the morning during weeks 13-14 but then it was over.
The worst part about being pregnant is clothes. Its natural to think that when your clothes get too tight that you are getting fat, but then you have to remember that that's just part of it. I have a lot of cotton skirts and even got a couple pairs of maternity shorts, but its still hard. There is that in between time when people can't tell you're pregnant if they don't know already so then you still feel fat...even if you know its not reality. Anyways, its totally all worth it! My sweet cousin sent me 2 full boxes of maternity tops that she wore a year ago, which was a huge blessing! I'm not a huge shopper anyway so spending a lot of money on clothes you can only wear for a little while is a depressing thought for me...so I really appreciated her generosity!
The most exciting thing is that I THINK I felt Baby R move for the first time last night. I'm still not 100% certain, but I was laying on the couch working on my laptop and I felt what my friend accurately described as a little muscle spasm. I waited thinking it was just a fluke but I felt it again at the same spot. I told Derrick and he immediately came over and tried to feel, but I told him it'd be a while before he could feel anything. :) It was cute anyway though. Again today, I was on the couch and felt the same thing repetitively in the same spot except it was more of a singular thump then another and another....so I'm pretty sure I am right! I know it will continue to get even more exciting as the whole thing becomes even more real and tangible.
We will find out the gender on July 3rd which we're very excited about! After that, we will start to pick things out for the nursery and register and stuff. That'll be super fun - except the amount of products and options out there for babies is overwhelming. I'm going to have to enlist the help of my "been there and done that" friends for the best choices for baby gear. If you're reading this and you have a list of favorites and "must haves" - PLEASE share!! :)

Fun Weekend in Boyd

2 blogs 2 days in a row! whoop! :) This past weekend was super fun. Derrick had Friday off so I arranged things where I could too. We left Thursday night and got to Boyd at like 1:30am. We slept in the next morning and then the fun weekend began. For some reason, Boyd is so very relaxing for us. We always have a wonderful time hanging out with Derrick's family. Derrick's parents just finished a humongo hand laid patio on the side of their house and its awesome. We spent a lot of time out there BBQing, S'moring, eating outdoors, playing with the dogs, and installing Linda's Mother's Day gift which included a squirrel powered bird feeder and 2 birdhouses. We then went to the Weatherford trade days the next day and looked around there. Austin found some tin signs with Thor and Captain America that he was psyched about and the most exciting moment is when we got to play with a sugar glider! :-) I don't know if they make cool pets or not, but that was one awesome little animal. It was downy soft and the guy who had it would roll it up in a ball and then chunk it in the air where it opened its wing legs and soared back down to him. We kinda want one now haha...but we hear they are super high maintenance so not sure - but it was awesome. 

Saturday night, we went with Austin to the local auction barn where there were 550 items up for sale! We previewed all the stuff, bid on a few things, but only won one which I can't reveal because its my brother's Christmas gift. :-) 

The other cool event of the weekend was the handmaking of the most awesome maternity pillow you've ever seen! One of the hardest things being pregnant is that I'm not supposed to sleep on my back and I'm a total back sleeper. So I've been researching maternity pillows wondering if that would help me stay comfortable on my side. I was telling my mother in law about them and she recommended just making one. Derrick talked me into going to Wal-Mart to look at fabrics and batting and such and sure enough we came home with all the goods. My MIL is an awesome seamstress and she did an amazing job with a little help from me. :) Pics below. 

Topping off the new outdoor patio...it was SO pretty! 

A wonderful afternoon topped off with Blue Bell ice cream!

Derrick & Austin installing MIL's new squirrel/bird feeder 

The squirrel learns that when it moves the wheel, it releases bird and squirrel food onto the platform. So fun! Happy Mother's Day gift...a month late. :) 

They rescued an orphaned lamb and 2 orphaned goat kids. Gotta bottle feed 'em every day

Yum Yum....mountain dew! 

That's Ruby, Opal, and unnamed Sheep. He's not allowed to be named because he's a male so he won't stay around forever....but I still named him Stein (after a Holstein). This was an accident as she didn't think about it when she named them, but Ruby and Opal are me and Derrick's birth stones. :-) I told her she needed to name the next one Citrine...after our soon to be November child haha

And now on to the maternity pillow....Derrick sleeping in angel fluff :)

Needed to get a feel for how big we needed. 

S'more time!

More goat feedings

The really great auction we went to...it was so cool! 

Final product...Austin showing us how it is to be used...it is so awesome! Austin wants one for his college apartment :)

Sunday night I headed to the Maders because I had a doctor's appt the next morning. I had to show Brittany my new pillow and the girls thought it was the coolest thing ever too! 

Pretty much the coolest bean bag ever!