Peanut Is A Mover And A Shaker!

Oh this week has been so special. Christmas was outstanding. I have a tiny little belly and Peanut is moving regularly.

Let me rephrase that... I can FEEL Peanut move regularly. A few weeks ago, maybe two or three, I felt a tiny little pop in my tummy. I blamed it on gas. Two or three days later, while sleeping, I felt a couple more pops. In fact, it woke me up. I blamed this one on wild dreams. If you keep up with this blog, you know that is quite common for me.

This week, He/She has been moving and shaking. Peanut is a little dancer; I feel him/her almost everyday now. OH, it is so magical. When I am sitting down and baby starts moving, I stop everything and just feel the baby move. I look forward to the baby getting bigger and Cullen can feel Peanut move too.

I am so lucky to have such a great pregnancy. I am excited that I am getting to the point that Cullen can enjoy this pregnancy with me.

If you are keeping a countdown...goodness I am; We find out the gender of Peanut in 5 days!!

What A Treat.

My best friend came to Austin for Christmas. To my dismay, she was leaving two days later to go to New York for more Christmases. GUESS WHAT...she ended up not going to New York, and I got to spend another great day with her yesterday.

I sure do love having vacation time. Besides sleeping in, not waking up to a horrible alarm, being able to get up and go whenever and where ever I want sure is nice. :)

Cullen and I are going to Austin for New Year's Eve. We will spend it with Kelly and Friends. I couldn't be more excited.

I hope everyone's new year celebrations are fantastic, and safe. See you all in 2010!

Christmas Wrap Up...{This Will Be A Long One!}

There is so much to catch up on! So much!! Christmas was so delightful this year. I feel like we had a week FULL of events. It was filled with friends and merriment, family and reminiscing.

Cullen and I kicked off the season with decorating our tree. Of course, the pups helped...




While decorating the tree, Brodie decided he needed a little attention - so, he jumped on Cullen and they had a daddy/dog moment...




And, the final product:


Saturday, December 19th, I picked up an early Christmas present for my daddy. {Side Note: Each year, someone gets a HUGE surprise... this year, my dad was the big winner.} Cullen and I had the privilege of keeping Miss. Edna Louise for a week leading up to Christmas before she was taken to her permanent home. That night, we joined Billy, Carol, Courtney and Natalie for the Mills' Family Christmas. It was such a fun Christmas AND we got some great things. One of my favorite gifts: An ice cream maker and ice cream recipe book. I am so excited for Summer (or a hot day in Spring!) to make some homemade ice cream.






My best friend came to town December 23rd.

We toured Killeen, visited Cullen at work and just caught up {something we do quite well!} That night, Kelly unselfishly let Cullen and I do our Christmas Exchange. I gave Cullen a Kindle, a gift card and a few little things. He gave me the MOST beautiful Sapphire and Diamond ring:

A tempurpedic matress, and a few little things! CAN YOU SAY BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!??!?! Here are some pictures from Cullen's and my gift exchange: (thanks Kel for being our Photographer!)








Christmas Eve, Cullen and I drove to Austin to join my dad's extended family for Christmas. It was great to catch up with everyone... but it was a quick night. I was asleep by 11:30 (which was great - except I woke up at 5:30 excitedly awaiting Santa's arrival.) I managed to fall back asleep until 7:15 when I just couldn't stand it anymore!! I got out of bed and waited for the rest of the family!!

Christmas morning is always so special for my family. My mom spends a month shopping and preparing to give her family the best Christmas. She always out does herself and we are ALWAYS exhausted after opening gifts. Look at the massive pile of gift wrap and boxes:


Here are a few other shots from Christmas Morning:





I sincerely hope your Christmas day...or week was as Blessed as ours. Merry Christmas to your family and a VERY Happy New Year!!

All I Want For Christmas Is....a Belly?

Christmas 2009 was incredible!! Peanut was so blessed with sweet stuffed animals, plush pillows, and sweet little picture frames (one of which brought me to tears!).



I sat on Santa's lap and asked him for Peanut to make his/her grand entrance into the world {via: a cute little belly}. Guess What? I was on the "good" list this year, because Santa filled my list. I have a tiny, unmistakable little baby bump. THANK YOU SANTA!

One of the running statements this year was, "Next year, Christmas is going to be very different!" So true. This year's Christmas was just outstanding. I don't know how it can be topped...I guess we have a year to wait and see. :)

Speaking of "wait and see"... T-minus EIGHT days until we find out what the gender of little Peanut is. I AM SO EXCITED, and slightly surprised that this last month has gone by so quick. At our November 15th appointment, I remember them telling me we would have to wait until January 4th to find out the sex of the baby. JANUARY 4TH??!?!?! That is light years away from now. Turns out, it is just around the corner.

Our moms are coming with us to the big appointment. I am so excited to share such a special moment with Cullen and our Mom's! Turns out, you are never too old to want your Mommy with you for the big moments in life!

Appointment Day!

I had a baby appointment today. Unlike my last appointment, I was calm, only asked a few questions (not a dozen), and got to hear our beautiful baby's heartbeat (without a nervous breakdown).

This appointment went swimmingly. It started with the weigh-in in which I had great results and ended with a heartbeat. A strong, loud, heartbeat. Halfway through the doctor listening to Peanut's heartbeat, we heard a LOUD thud; Doctor said, "Oh, your baby has a strong kick!!" Awe, our baby is already a superstar. That will make both of his/her grandpas very happy.

Here are the stats from this appointment:
How far along: 17 weeks.
Heartbeat: Around 150 beats per minute. Down from 160 beats per minute last appointment. Not good or bad, just different than last time.
Weight Gain: +3 lbs. Jackpot. I feel better than I ever have, in my life.

A final note to all my pregnant friends: At this appointment, the doctor asked me if I could feel the baby moving yet. I told her I THINK I have felt the baby twice. She said that was right where I should be with how far along I am. However, a little insiders trick... If you want to feel your baby, but are having a semi-difficult time, here is a sure-fire way:

Make sure you have a full bladder. Lay flat on your back, and rest either a heavy book or a kitchen put on your tummy. (don't worry, this will NOT squish your baby...yes I asked.) Between the full bladder pushing on the baby and the pressure from the book/pot, your baby will kick or punch at you to relieve the pressure. You will be able to feel the baby kick at you. :)

I tried it tonight. It didn't work yet. But, the bladder wasn't full and I was too impatient to sit still long enough to feel the baby. We'll try again tomorrow.

One final note: The BIG appointment is January 4th... anyone have a prediction?? I do; but I am keeping mine a secret!

Pregnancy Dreaming.

My good friend, Danielle, has blogged and told me about some VIVID dreams since she has been pregnant. Holy mother of dreaming, she is right! Not only am I having dreams that NO one should have, they are crystal clear and I can remember them for days. I have NEVER been able to remember my dreams past the two minutes after my alarm goes off and I get out of bed.

Now, good luck getting rid of these dreams. Here are the two recent:

1. A couple nights ago, I had a dream I went to the OB to have an ultrasound. It was a regular check-up. We were going to hear the heartbeat, ask questions and be on our way. For this appointment, she had to perform the sonogram on my back through my spine. (Weird, but okay.) We started the sonogram, she put that cold goop on my back and started to run the wand around to find the heartbeat. However, instead of finding the heartbeat, she was able to tell me (through pictures she was getting in her head from the sonogram)the sex of our baby. She turned the machine on where I could see the baby on the monitor and through the monitor, I was able to see Cullen's and my future. We had three children who were all playing TOGETHER (without arguing) around our pool... I woke up quickly, but I'm excited to see if my dream baby and my real baby are the same sex!

2. Last night's dream: I was in Dallas at Schlitterbahn (yes, Schlitterbahn had moved to Dallas. I was there with a group of people I went to high school with*. (weird #1: In high school, I didn't hang out with this group regularly). I had just left Cullen through a note, which read: "Dear Cullen, due to the unfortunate scene I have witnessed, I have no choice but to leave. Do not contact me, I cannot be persuaded." As I walked through Schlitterbahn, I contemplated life, marriage, and babies. I was so far away from achieving life, marriage, and babies (which I have to assume means Cullen and I were not happy, married, and expecting a baby). The rest of the details are fuzzy...but the walls on one of the rides told me that I would be married at 32 and I would have children by 38. Super.

Moral of the silly stories: I am so glad these are just dreams. Although I would love to be able to see my future, see how many kids we have and that they all get along, nothing makes me happier than where I am right now. Married. In love. Expecting a perfect little baby. I have the best family, and I couldn't ask for better in-laws.

I have to disagree with Cinderella; dreams are not a wish your heart makes when your fast asleep. My dreams come true every day.

*Mom, before you comment, I do realize I ended this sentence with a preposition...I couldn't figure out how to change the sentence for it to make sense. Let's let it slide this one time. :)

They Happen In Threes, Right???

Doesn't the old saying go..."Bad things happen in threes???" If so, we had our last of the three last night.

A while ago, Cullen had a small accident, where he ran into the bathtub, and the tub cracked. Whoopsies. Tuesday of this week, I was in a car accident. Yep! My fault. That's number two. Last night, Cullen started a load of laundry, and the water OVER FLOWED out of the washer, out of the laundry room, INTO THE HOUSE. That was three.

While I am very annoyed by our misfortune...let's look on the bright side, cracks can be fixed, cars can be repaird - and NO ONE was injured, and the house...well, shop vacs are the best invention. We are all still here, the house is still standing, and life will go on (pending bad luck has moved out of the Mills' household.) :)

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

This weekend, Cullen and I decorated the house. (Pictures will be added tonight) We had so much fun (scratch that, I had so much fun decorating the house). I would leave up Christmas lights and decorations all year long if I could. I get that from my mother, who I believe may have direct relation to Santa himself.

When we got all the decorations from the garage, I found a box that is full of carefully wrapped ornaments. Each of these ornaments has special meaning to me or me and Cullen. It is my favorite box to go through. I sat and admired each one before handing it to Cullen to put on the tree. We have an "Our First Christmas" ornament, a groom holding a bride, an ornament from my childhood, one from Cullen's grand father, and a few other ones. It reminded me again that this time of year is so much more than gifts. It is family, memories, traditions.

Songs Move Me

I don't know if it is that I am a product of this generation or if music just speaks to me...but, here is my latest: Taylor Swift's Best Days.

I appreciate the words in this song, party because I am an expecting momma and want these memories with my own, but also because this is exactly what my mom gave me.

Mom, listen to the lyrics. I truly "have the best days with you."

Trimester 2

What's been going on in the land of pregnancy??? Not much, friends and family. Not much. I am still not showing (which is fine). I am still not sick or feeling bad (which is great).

I wish I had more to report. However, I do have a ton to be looking forward to. We have two appointments coming up soon. The first, December 15th is just a regular check-up and the second is THE BIG APPOINTMENT. We find out what our little bundle of joy (who is as big as a large naval orange this week) is going to be!!