Happy One year Anniversary, 1114 3rd Avenue

This week marked the one year anniversary of when we closed on the house. My how our lives have changed. When we bought the house I was still in school and unemployed, but it was our (okay MY) dream house, so we jumped in head first.

So, here's to:

- A year of being real adults, with real responsibility. We OWN a house. It's ours. It doesn't belong to our parents, a friend, or a landlord. We pay a real mortgage and real bills and it feels very adult and very grown up.

- A year of surprises. Who knew that two months into homeownership the plumbing would back up on a Sunday. Did you know Roto-Rooter charges much more on a weekend? Who knew that for our end of summer party the pipes would clog and our house would smell like shrimp for three weeks. Literally, Lofton will never let us cook shrimp again. Who knew that that on the first cold morning in October when our heat wouldn't work, it was because our heat is GAS not Electric. Oops! Baby Reese better bundle up. It is very cold here in the winter.

- A year of wonderful family and friends. Thanks Mom and Dad, Sally and Lee for dropping everything to spend a weekend painting every room in out house last June. I'm sorry, I couldn't live with a purple dining room or gray walls. Thanks also for coming back two weeks later when I decided on a Thursday I wanted to move Friday and Saturday. Thanks for buying our washer and dryer, for donating furniture to our bare rooms, and for planting flowers outside. Thanks for loving our house as much as we do. Thanks Wes and Wendy for being fabulous neighbors and amazing friends. I feel in love with your family three years ago, and I never dreamed I would one day live across the street. Thanks for cutting our grass, Wes, even though we don't pay you. And for turning off the water when the pipes froze and busted. I hope you enjoy your free newspaper every morning! I can't wait for Will and Reese to be best friends.

- And finally, a year full of anticipating the future! Lofton has finished painting Reese's room. It's green, but I love it. And I love that this is the house we will bring him home to in October.

new picture

The new picture of Reese is from our ultrasound photos May 7th. It was hard to post a new picture because he is positioned so oddly that I don't have any that are of his full body. I think this new one is my favorite though.

Lofton and I often talk about how Baby Reese is going to act, whom he is going to look like. But really, it's hard to know those things now. When I look at this picture though, I know without a doubt he is a part of Lofton. On any given night, if you were to peep at Lofton when he is sleeping, he would be sleeping just like Baby Reese. Face down, arms outstretched and above his head- basically sprawled out, taking up as much room as possible!

It's so funny to think that at twenty weeks along Reese already resembles his daddy.

First day of vacation

My first task for summer vacation was to spice up the blog. What do you think?

My second task is to shower....

YaY! We have a name!

It's official. Baby B is now Baby Reese. James Reese Beasley to be exact. As many of you know, I was not satisfied with the original name we picked out for our sweet baby boy. In fact, as soon as the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy, I knew that the original name had to go. It only took us a short twenty minutes to come up with James Reese. We knew James would be the first name, as it's Lofton's first name, as well as his dad and grandfather. Coincidentally it is also my grandfather's first name. Reese wasn't hard to decide on either. I adore my dad, and Lofton likes him a lot also. We just had to tweak the spelling a little. Daddy spells his name Rice because it comes from Maurice, his middle name. As parents we felt it was our repsonsibility to the baby to make his name a little more user friendly. We didn't want people thinking we named our child after a grain.

In other news, school is over for the summer! I'm excited to have a few weeks off to nest and get Reese's room ready. Actually Lofton is painting as I type! There are already lots of cute outfits to hang in his closet and the bedding is here and ready to be put in the bed. I'm so excited!!!!

It's a BOY!!!!

What a day! I was up at 3:00 a.m. brimming with anticipation and excitement. Above all I really just wanted a healthy baby, I had no preference either way. Knowing that it's a little boy just makes this feel so real. Clearly, being pregnant feels real, but now the baby is a person!

The important part of the doctor's visit was that HE looks healthy. His kidneys looked great, his brain was developing properly, and the heart was pumping away at 143 beats per minute. She even checked his arm and leg growth to make sure he was on track, and of course, he is.

As excited as I am I think Lofton is even more excited. I knew before the tech told us that she was going to say boy because I saw his little penis in the pictures she showed us of the legs, but when I looked at Lofton he looked so happy and relieved. I think he was scared to have a little girl.

I'll post the pictures later, but it's a little hard to see him because he was face down with his head as low in my pelvis as it could go. We couldn't see his face. We do have the sweetest pictures of his little arms with his fists balled up.

Don't worry, I've already ordered the bedding! I was SO ready for this! I can't wait to decorate and shop... but for now, the paper man is ready to go to bed!

Belly Pictures

March 2008

May 2008

It moves...

I feel things in my stomach. Strange, rolling type movements that tell me there really is another person in there. It's odd, but exciting. I first realized I felt it on Wednesday night about an hour after we ate dinner. And now, pretty much anytime I'm still after eating I can feel baby B move. I am eagerly awaiting when Lofton can feel it also. He feels a little left out.

I'm excited to be in this stage of pregnancy. Although I'm still sick, the medicine helps tremendously. I'm also not as tired after work. And speaking of work, we have fourteen more school days. Can you believe my first year is almost complete! We are also very excited about Wednesday's doctors appointment. I'm anxious to hear a status update on the baby; they'll check the kidneys, fluid levels, and length to make sure we are growing properly, and of course we will FINALLY find out if baby B is a she or a he.

Of course, I'm totally prepared either way. I have bedding and a room plan for both a boy and a girl. All I need is the news. We will not, however, be sharing the name just yet. Our girl name is firm, but our boy name doesn't feel the way I want it to, so we may have to change it. Either way I will be giving the news to my parents IN PERSON, so everyone will have to wait.

My eating habits have definitely changed since I've started taking the Reglan. After one ill-fated grocery trip last weekend when Lofton was at work, I'm now not allowed to go by myself. I bought a few things that weren't on the list!

A few of my (current) favorite things:

1. Pineapple- I eat copious amounts of it. And i only like the fresh kind I cut myself.

2. Pizza- This isn't really new, or current, but if Lofton would let me I could eat it three meals a day.

3. Balsamic Vinegar- Weird, I know. I like to dip bread in it. Or put it on...

4. Tomatoes- I've never eaten tomatoes. You can ask my mom. Never. But, evidently baby B likes them.

5. Bean and cheese burritos- I actually can justify this as semi-healthy because beans have a lot of fiber in them and cheese is full of calcium.

I'll update on Wednesday with the big news!