13 weeks and counting...

On Saturday, February 23rd, I turned 13 weeks pregnant!  Last week of my first trimester and I can't say that I'm sorry to see it go... nope, not even a little bit.  The only thing that has made these past few months even remotely okay to deal with is Justin.  Without him, I'd be hidden underneath a pile of laundry to the ceiling, dirty dishes all over the kitchen and I'd most certainly be eating Ramen noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Can you sense the amount of thankfulness I have for my husband?  Anywho, here are few quick pictures to show that my stomach hasn't "popped" yet but apparently, my arms have gotten very fat instead.  Bummer!  I hear the baby will be all worth it though...

Here's to the second trimester! Yahoo!

12 week appointment

Justin and I have eagerly awaited our 12 week appointment so we could finally hear this little baby's heartbeat and see him/her move around in there on the ultrasound.  Lo and behold, my insurance company won't pay for ultrasounds (what the heck?) and therefore, one was not covered for the 12 week appointment.  I was pretty bummed out as it has been 6 weeks since the last time we saw the little round blob on the screen.  We also learned that the testing we had decided to go ahead and do (NT testing, Trisomy 18, etc.) was not "scheduled" during this last appointment so we have yet another appointment to go this week for the ultrasound and blood work.  I can't help but really feel like my doctor's office dropped the ball.  Such is life, I suppose.

On the bright side, after what felt like an ETERNITY, my doctor found the heartbeat on the doppler! 163 beats per minute and it was worth every second I had to wait to hear it.  I was so nervous I kept laughing, and I'm pretty sure every time I did, the doctor lost the heartbeat again.  Apparently the baby is hiding somewhere very deep inside my abdominal cavity on the right side.  Hopefully he/she makes a much better appearance on Friday morning for the testing.  Keeping my fingers crossed the ultrasound technician will print out a picture or two :)

Other than that, nothing exciting to report!  Justin and I had a laid back weekend and celebrated a beautiful Sunday with friends and family at a BBQ in our backyard.  Ladderball was set up in the backyard and the guys grilled steaks, pasta salad and my yummy salted caramel butter bars definitely hit the spot! I also watched Meghan's little guy Chase during the day on Sunday and we had a wonderful day.  We went for a walk through the neighborhood and played for hours and hours until he crashed out for about an hour.  It was fun practice for the arrival of our little one some time in August/early September 2013.

I'll post pictures when I have some :)

Gestating, gestating, 1, 2, 3...

On Sunday, Justin and I announced our big news - we are expecting a baby! Since a large majority of our close friends and our family already knew, we decided to announce on Facebook in a fun way.  We had our friend Shannon Lee take a cute photo of us (pictured below) to tell the internet world a baby was on the way.  We are both over the moon and so excited to start this journey together!  Justin is thinking pink and so am I.  He really wants a boy, but he has a "feeling" it's a girl.  I'm completely fine with that "feeling" as I'd love to dress up a little girl in ribbons and curls and spend my time at ballet practice instead of Little League! I guess we'll see, right? We will be ecstatic no matter what and I'm sure, with time, I will find myself enjoying dinosaurs and T-ball more than I thought I would!

Baby Smith is due August 31, 2013.  I am 11 weeks 3 days today (2/12/13) and we have our next appointment on Monday.  It seems like it has been such a long time since our previous appointment and I'm extremely excited to hear the heartbeat.  We will have a gender ultrasound at 18 weeks but we might just shell out the extra money and go to an ultrasound center at 15-16 weeks to get a sneak peek.  I don't know if I can wait another 3 weeks!

I'm not showing as of yet but I wake up every morning wondering if my clothes will start feeling any tighter - so far, nothing!  I experienced some morning sickness (which is actually more like all-day and all-night sickness) for about 3 weeks, and had some pretty serious food aversion (gagging at raw meat, the smell of leftovers).  I'm happy that is starting to subside and I can enjoy life again.  I'm even getting part of my energy back which is wonderful because we have so many things we want to do to this little nugget's nursery!

I'll update again soon.
xoxo.

Mom's 60th Birthday

After months of planning, preparing, creating, worrying, stressing, collecting, calling and inviting, my mom's birthday party officially went off without a hitch (except the major haboob that hit Chandler right at about the moment she was supposed to walk through the door). 

We had about 35-40 people show up through the night to wish my mom a Happy Birthday and celebrate her 60 years of life.  She was touched and shocked to have so many people show they loved her, and she had a wonderful evening with all her friends and family. 

A Journey Down Lily's Memory Lane... we found this great company who actually took real live memories and turned it into a "Memory Lane"and printed it off in a frame and matted. It looked great and she loved it!

Oh No the Big Six-Oh! cake and pictures of her as a baby/toddler.

After months of work, we finally collected 60 memories for her 60 years of life from all her friends and family and put them together in air mail envelopes and tied them up for her to read, laugh and remember when she had the time. 

We hope she loved the party as much as we had fun planning it! We love you Mom!

Chronicles of dieting nightmares...

Being a bride is hard.  Not only is there an immense amount of pressure to look like absolutely perfection on your wedding day, but add that to an already insecure image of your body and a never-ending battle with your weight and you've got a nasty mixture.  Enter: Diet #23423.  (Slight exaggeration.)  I figure at this point, I'll give anything a shot.  Between P90X, spinning and a meal replacement shake or two a day, I'll certainly lose the 15 pounds I need to lose in less than three months, right? One can hope.  I'm just thankful Justin thinks I'm pretty no matter what, but it's hard not to compare yourself to the perfectly proportioned women in the magazines with bright smiles, manicured nails and waists as big as my arm.

I'm trying USANA for meal replacement shakes.  If nothing else, I'll be adding more calcium to my diet because I hate drinking milk by itself.  Everyone wish me luck as I make my way through the next 11 weeks.

If only I could look like the girl on the right after 90 days of this program..

My last resort.

Welcome Savannah Kate Fiedler!

On July 18, 2012, my niece, Emilee, was induced. After a long, painful labor process, she had a relatively smooth delivery and Savannah Kate entered the world!

7 lbs. 4.9 oz and 20 inches of perfect baby cuteness! See for yourself :)

The onesie I had made for her hospital stay!

First time she was held by her favorite Aunt :)

Thinking hard!

I love wrinkly baby skin!

As she grows, more pictures will be added. We are so blessed to have this sweet girl in our life now and can't wait to watch her change and grow over the years.

4th of July

While the rest of the world geared up to celebrate America's 236th birthday and their independence, the ladies of my office geared up for...well...Magic Mike.  Justin gave me his blessing to have a girls night out on Tuesday and so I did!

The invitation we printed and handed out :)

Ten of the girls got together and we had DELICIOUS food at the Brick in downtown Phoenix, accompanied by delicious drinks, shots and sangria! It was absolutely hysterical and perfect girl bonding time!  Some of the girls took a shot called the "Justin Bieber" which was fruity, pink and fantastic.

Some of my favorite ladies in the whole
world with our Justin Bieber shots!

Red cherry sangria.. yummy!

Eunice, Kara and I taking no-hand shots!

Eunice's first try :)

After dinner and drinks, we headed out to see Magic Mike.  The movie wasn't as great as we had hoped it would be, but the men were definitely pretty to look at!  Overall, it was a really fun evening and I'm so happy I got the chance to hang out with some of these girls outside of work.  I can't wait for our next girl's night out, whatever it may be.

On a different note, July 4th in Arizona this year officially sucked!  It hasn't rained here in, oh, 5 months.  Not even a single drop.  Today, we were overcast, cloudy and it rained on and off all day! Of course, the one day every American expects it to be hot, sunny and perfect for fireworks.  We barbecued anyway, made pasta salad and had Meghan and Christopher over to swim in the cloudy weather.  Aside from the fact that it was sorta chilly in the water, we had a really fun afternoon.  It was nice to have a break in the middle of the work week, but Justin and I are not excited to head back to work and the gym tomorrow.

Our pathetic pooches, sleeping soundly
next to each other on the bed!

Until Justin and I decide to have kids, our dogs are our life
and we love our little Fergi so much!  She's our princess.

Look at this happy boy :)  Sweet man!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  Hope it was safe and that everywhere else in the US had great weather!

xoxoxo