Almost there...

Need a baby bump update? Here ya go!

Just kidding, but that is how I feel these days. Especially since August is upon us and we have 100+ degree weather forcast for at least the next week.

Today marks the completion of 37 weeks officially! This means we have exactly 2 weeks until our scheduled delivery, but lets hope little Peanut decides to make an early appearance. Kyle is a little disappointed that I've already begun negotiating with the baby. I keep trying to coax Peanut out by telling him/her about all the wonderful toys we have and there are so many people that can't wait to love on him/her. And of course, Trudy can't wait to meet the little bundle! But according to my doctor, he/she seems to be locked in there pretty tight at least for the immediate future.

Ah well...countdown is on. 14 days!

More showers!

Kyle & I have been so blessed by the outpouring of love and support from our friends and family. We have been showered and showered and showered with gifts and parties and all kinds of wonderful things.

Our good friends Brian & Caroline, Mark & Brittany, Lynn & Harold and Gay & Greg threw us a very fun couple's shower in Waxahachie a few weeks back. Our Waxahachie friends are extremely generous and we are very grateful for the great party and wonderful gifts!

Kyle got a little Aggie outfit and a Hawaiin shirt that will match his extensive collection.
















This is my dad and uncle Bill chatting it up.
















Here's my sister Lindsay, my MIL Cindi, sweet cousin Maddie. And taking notes is Brittany who was kind enough to throw the shower and even opened up her own house to do it!
















From L to R, Aunt Susan, Sherry and my Mom (Lynne).

















This past Saturday, the wonderful ladies in our Sunday School Class threw a shower too. Everything was so pretty! And these ladies know what a new Mom needs. Since our class has produced about 15 new babies in the last 2 years, there were lots of wonderfully practical gifts that will get plenty of good use!

All of the beautiful hostesses!
















If I'm being honest, the best thing about each of these showers...CAKE! And look how pretty this one is!















And here is an adorable Diaper Cake that my dear friend Sarah worked very hard on. Seriously, as I was diassembling this (which I HATED to do) I could see how much work she put into that. And did you notice? It matches the nursery perfectly!
















My dad and hubby. Is it just me, or are they practically wearing the same shirt??















Thank you again to all of our family friends for all the generous gifts that you guys have given. It won't be long now before we are able to introduce everyone to a bouncing new bundle of joy!!

Belly Update!

Wondering what my belly looks like these days? Here you go.

Basically, it's just big. Big all over really. But not much longer now!

And here are some updated photos from the nursery. Mom finished all the bedding, and it looks so great! She did such an amazing job!

You'll notice some clutter in the background. This is all the stuff we've been receiveing from all of the generous people throwing us showers. Now I just have to find a place to put it all!

See, clutter. Lots and lots of stuff. But what's that furry thing, you ask?

Just the cutest lampshade ever! If you know Kyle at all, you can guess this is not his favorite thing for the nursery. Especially if this baby turns out to be a boy!

Fun with Family & Friends

So once again, it has been far too long since I've posted. But we had a very exicting weekend so there's lots to tell! First off, my wonderful girlfriends and sister decided to throw me a shower, for which Kyle & I are extremely grateful. It was a lovely affair complete with a LEMON-FLAVORED CAKE! If you know me, you know i love cake and lately cannot get enough lemon (see below) so this was like a dream come true! Here are the lovely ladies that threw the shower.

From L to R, Kathy Abbott, Sara Abbott, Stephanie Curs (formerly an Abbott), Baby Momma, Lisa Nelson and Lindsay Tolles.

I guess I should probably back up a bit though. Turns out, my other sister, who currently lives in South Africa was planning to be in New York the week prior to the shower b/c her boyfriend had some business there. I was so excited b/c I thought she would get to come to Dallas that weekend and be at the shower and all. Well, she told me that she and Simonn just couldn't work out a way to get down to Dallas in such a short amount of time. I was bummed, but understood. HOWEVER, what I did not know, was that is was all a sneaky trick to surprise me! Turns out, Simon had a little surprise for Courtney too, though. That's right, he proposed in NY last Thursday night.

Wanna see the happy couple?? Here they are!
Ohhh...you want to see the ring. Here's one closer.
Still can't see? Alright fine, here's the ring!

It's really beautiful and we are VERY happy for Courtney and Simon! They hope to have the nuptials somewhere in Texas Summer '08.

So anyhow, needless to say, I was thrilled that she was here and we had another something to celebrate. We had a very fun weekend full of family and friends.

Here are the sisters: Lindsay, Casey & Courtney

These are many, but not all of the Wilson Women. (Those are the women from my mother's side of the family - onry, every last one of them.)
Here we have 3 generations (4 if you count the baby in my belly).
L to R: My grandma (actually from the Tolles' side), Cousin Staci, Great Aunt Mitzi (The Matriarch), Cousin Debi, Aunt Susan, Mom Lynne, me, Sister Lindsay, Sister Courtney.
Thanks to all for coming to the shower!

Simon, my brother-in-law to be and me. So excited to finally get a brother!

Here's daddy making an impromptu toast to the Happy Couple. Seriously, next time, give the man a little warning.

Here are my sweet grandparents who traveled all the way from Nebraska to see Cork, meet Simon and bring me a beatiful baby blanket my Grams quilted!

And finally, for all of you wondering about Kyle? He's still around!

See?

Haha. Just kidding. I do need to take a minute to brag on him for being the best Baby-Daddy-To-Be ever! He is so excited about this baby and really does a great job taking care of me! I'm very, very lucky to have him and Peanut is very lucky as well!

Thanks for all that you do, love. I am so grateful for you!

Peanut's Room

Wow! Two posts in one week. Don't expect me to keep this up! Just a fluke happening.
Last weekend we were able to pick up the baby furniture. And I must tell you, I am now so in love with the nursery! It's turning out to be so cute.

Here's the crib. This is where Peanut will sleep. Mom still has to make the bedding.



This is the view from the doorway.



That's the table I/we'll use to change Peanut.



Aww, Trudy. She's can't wait for Peanut to come home. And she really loves the new fluffy rug.



This is my rocking chair. It's the same chair that Kyle's mom used to rock him. Of course, my mom still has to make cushions for that as well. She's got work to do!

Baby Moon!

Kyle & I took our last official trip as a married couple with no kids! Sad, yet exciting all at the same time. We visited the beautiful Lake Tahoe, compliments of our cousins Marti & Robert, who have a lovely home there that overlooks the lake. This is the view from the cabin and these are our friends who went with us, Sarah & Jason.






The first day, the boys went fishing with their "colorful" fishing guide, Captain Bob. They set out at 4:30 AM and caught 2 fish each. These fish are makinaw trout they fish them out of 200 ft. of water. And they are huge! We ate them for at least 3 meals. Hopefully, I'll have photos of the fishing excursion to share later.
After the boys returned and we had breakfast, we set out for a day around the lake. We stopped every so often and took lots of pictures. Tahoe really is a beautiful place, for those of you who haven't ever been.



Here's our day tour:

On the beach! People were actually beaching in the bathing suits and everything. It still felt a little chilly to us, but what do we know.

The water at Tahoe is so crystal clear, you can't even believe it.







This is the view of Emerald Bay. We were so impressed with this place, we literally stopped every 50 yards to take photos from another view. I'll spare you all the details, but this is one. You can see the island in the background. There's actually a castle on it and the woman who owned this property, had a home on the shore, but would row her friends out to the castle for tea parties!






This is another view of Emerald Bay. You can see the waterfall coming down behind us.




The rest of our time was spent relaxing, going to the spa, playing golf and hiking. Unfortunately, we did not see any black bears despite our efforts. It was a great and much needed vacation, that's for sure! And we even think its a place we'll take Peanut back to some day. Maybe when he/she is old enough to snow ski! Thanks again Marti & Robert!










P.S. Peanut must be one of the luckiest unborn babies ever. So far I've taken him/her on a 1/2 marathon, to San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, Lake Tahoe and even a Gwen Stefani concert! Hope you enjoyed it, Peanut. I have a feeling we'll be staying a little closer to home for the next few months!

So far, so good!

Alright, so I'm not very good and keeping this blog updated. But it's been sort of hard since my pregnancy has been so easy so far. I really thought that I would have more stories to share of all the crazy things that are happening to my body, but so far, so good.

Everyone keeps asking if I have any weird pregnancy cravings. And really, the only thing I want, are lemons. Lemon in my water, lemon yogurt, lemonade, lemon-lime gatorade. I even made lemon-iced cookies for a friend the other day. My sister has been advocating that this is not actually a pregnancy craving, rather me turning into my mom. I must admit that my mother confirmed that this weekend when we went to lunch and she immediately ordered extra lemon for the table. Ah well!

The only pregnancy side effect that I can't seem to escape is the ever-growing belly. Below you will see belly pics from last week, which was the 24 week mark. That means we are on week 25 this week and only have 15 more to go! Which is crazy! If I'm lucky, it may only be 13 or 14 weeks which is even MORE frightening! Anyhow, Peanut is definately growing as evidenced by my expanding waistline!

Best wishes to all!

The Peanut Gallery

So yesterday was our 20 week sonogram. This means we are 1/2 way there! YAY! Since we're not finding out the sex of the baby, the technician had to ask us to look away from the screen from time to time so we didn't see something we were not supposed to. It was much more difficult for us both than we anticipated. I just kept thinking, If I just turn my head to the right, I can know the sex of my baby! Alas, we refrained, and the sex of Peanut Ballard is still unknown to all except the sonographer. I told her to beware, because my mom might try to track her down! While we were looking at Peanut, he was yawning real big and sucking down lots of fluid. I guess it was time to eat. It was fun to watch her reactions when we would poke my belly and it hit her in her head.

The doctor says everything is really healthy and there's not a thing that she's worried about.

Below is The Peanut Gallery. These are all of our sonogram photos from 8 to 20 weeks.

This is Peanut at 8 weeks. It's a bit tough to make out, but if you look closely, you can see a big round head and little bity body with short arms and legs. This is actually how Peanut got his name. While looking at this photo, my sister Courtney said she looked like a little peanut because her head is as big as her body. So, it stuck!

This is at 12 weeks. It's a surprisingly good photo considering it's only 4 weeks after the first one. You can make out his mouth and nose and everything!

This is one from yesterday. It's looking down at Peanut's face from the top.

This is the side view of Peanut's head. It looks like she's even making a kissing face. And you can see his hand in the backgound.

This is my very favorite. It's Peanut's teeny, tiny footprint. Look at the little toes! How cute! Don't you just want to kiss it?!

So things are progressing as they should. I feel great and Peanut is starting to kick so that I can feel it which is a good sign!

Thanks for all the love and support from friends and family. We can't wait to introduce you to Peanut once he/she arrives!

Nursery!

Thanks to some serious help from family members, we managed to get the hard labor for the nursert knocked out this weekend. And I must admit, I am very excited about. It really has turned out even cuter than I imagined. And thanks to the hard work of some other family members, we've ordered Peanut's furniture. It should arrive early June, giving us just enough time to finish everything else before Peanut's arrival!

Guess what?! I can sew! Who knew?

Daddy in his famous coveralls getting the first coat on the wall.

Kyle, Daddy & Lindsay figuring out how to get the border and chair rails up on the wall. Very clever, those three!

We've got the paint and border on the wall. And mom finished the valance which is hanging.

The hard work is done. Now we just have to get Peanut here!

Baby Bump!

In the spirit of documenting the many stages of pregnancy, we're taking pictures of my baby bump along the way! This first pic was taken at about 15 weeks. Not sure if you see it? Trust me, it's there!
This photo was taken last week at 19 weeks. You can't tell me you don't see growth in those four weeks!