20 WEEKS!

Well we made it!

Today is exactly the halfway point in our pregnancy. I can. NOT. believe. it! On the one hand it seems an eternity that we have waited to get this far, and on the other hand I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. I'm sure being cautious has made everything seem a little less real.

We are so thankful to be celebrating yet another week of being this little baby's parents! Each Monday is the start of a new week in my pregnancy and each Monday I have a little message waiting for me on our refrigerator (since Daddy is always up before Mommy these days!) [oh yeah...and each week the baby is compared to some fruit or vegetable in the produce department. This week baby is as long as a banana! This is also the first week the measurement changes from crown to rump to head to feet! Baby is growing!!!]

Here is this week's:



And this week's a big one. On Friday, July 1st, we will have an ultrasound (and I'll be almost 21 weeks!) (It's also the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so we are hoping to find a precious heart beating healthy and strong). We are also hoping to find out if this baby is a little Gary or a little Christine. Oh my goodness. I promise to post when I know :) And I'm sure I will change the background on this blog from yellow and neutral to pink or blue!!!!

Father's Day

Finally: the day I have been waiting for - to celebrate this wonderful man. I was literally up most of the night so giddy with excitement that I could hardly sleep. Upon Gary waking, I pretended to be sleeping, only to jump out of bed a few minutes later to say, "Happy Father's Day!!!!"

We were going to meet my parents for Mass and then have breakfast here. Later in the day we were hosting a second meal here at our home: BBQ with the Hubers. Even though we had a long day ahead of us full of cooking and entertaining...I wanted to take a little while that morning to celebrate Gary as a Father of course. I couldn't wait to give him this:





And inside: a letter from his child. What an amazing moment it was to hear him read those words.



And I had found some great sales on some of his favorite clothing...just a few new outfits I knew he was going to need once baby comes. Also I found him the perfect, classic Father's Day shirt. It is so wonderful to see him in this role.







Time to get the grill fired up for Gary's famous ribs. What a delicious meal! He even made the BBQ sauce this year. YUM.











It was a really nice day. Lots of yummy food and celebrating with each of our Dads...we couldn't be more blessed! We love you, Dad. Thank you for giving us life and for giving us one another.

Readying your room...Phase 2

It has been quite a process to get this nursery ready. And we aren't there yet. If you remember, phase 1 was just trying to figure out how to store/eliminate all of my teaching supplies. What a daunting task as I have so much stuff and such a love for teaching. But I do feel God calling me to be a full time Mom which means I won't be heading back to the classroom for awhile.

Once we found those bargains at Babies 'R Us and then Gary revealed the changing table treasure he had found, it was time to start arranging things-if only in my mind at least.



This blue recliner has been in the Huber family since Gary was a kid! It is still comfy and just needs to be recovered.

As we all find when we start cleaning one room, it affects the other rooms. So I began moving stuff and organizing things. This is our den closet now after several days of reorganizing (and recently picking up my cleaned wedding dress-what a delight it was to see it again...)



Here is the view from the nursery closet (still a bit scary)...where you can see the changing table and the recliner and in the middle there will be the crib and the dresser (also bargains from our day at Babies 'R Us)...



And some of my girly books, picture frames, photo albums and other stuff has a very nice cozy home in the den:



What a change from before!

I guess my iPhone didn't understand the overcastness of today so the yellow comes out a bit orangy in the pictures, but it is very refreshing in reality!

We're just waiting for that little piece of news before we continue with the next part of decorating....pink or blue?

What do you think? Everyone keeps saying boy, but Dad and Brandon say girl.

Anyway, it felt so good to finally do some of the nesting that I've been wanting to do! Plus it's all ready now for some company. We will have both sides of our families over for Father's Day and then Alex comes next week for a wedding here in Ave. He can see his "old room" a little more like the way it was when he used to live here before I moved tons of stuff in.

OH....wondering where all that stuff went?



The garage! And it looks FANTASTIC! That huge white armoire fits very nicely in the garage and also is covered storage. Thank you, honey, for moving it all and helping me to get organized. The garage looks so nice!!! (Okay so maybe you don't want to look in the armoire just yet.) We are slowly still organizing our lives into one life but it takes time. Once we got married we had lots of things separately and no time to really do these sorts of projects. We have really enjoyed organizing our home and preparing for baby.

And what about those birdies of ours? Louie and Kramer are very content in the den now, which used to be their original room. They grew to love the yellow room, but here they are back in the den:



They seem pretty happy!


As you can see there is still more to do, but we're on our way. More to come soon!!

That White Elephant

I had no idea how patient my husband was when I married him. You see, for as long as he can remember, he has loved children. The oldest of five children and 50 grandchildren, he has certainly fallen in love with watching babies grow. He searched and searched for the woman who would one day (hopefully) be the Mother of his own children, but you just don't know God's plans when you stand there on that altar. But he hoped and he prayed that he would one day be a father. And I got a glimpse of just how much he loved children and how much they loved him when this little girl came into our lives:



Not long after we were married he found a great deal on a treasure he could not pass up. You see he would often go to "The White Elephant" to browse what items they had for sale that week. (This is not the first time this has happened.) Anyway, it's one of those stores that constantly receives new items from estate sales and often there are very nice things for a great bargain. But you have to look. And you have to go at the right time-as the true gems don't last long.

Well he must have gone at the right time all those months ago (over a year actually). He found something he just couldn't resist and then arranged with one of our neighbors to store it in their garage until the "right time." See he didn't want to show me this too early because he knew we both longed to be parents but as we waited each month to become parents there was a tinge of sadness that the time was not "yet."

Even though I've been pregnant for some time now, I think he has been waiting to "make sure" (who can ever be sure...but at some point you just have to leap!)

We came upon some real furniture bargains at Baby's 'R Us a few weeks ago, but they only came in a certain color. So when he hesitated at buying them, I knew something was up. His explanation: "Well, I sort of have a surprise at home but it's in another color."

That night he showed me this. And he explained just how long he had it (he's waited over a year to reveal this) and then showed me how it matched the piece he stained and gave to me for my birthday. I think it's just perfect:



Through tears, he told me: "I knew this day would come. I knew we would be parents again!"

Babies 'R Us-18 weeks

We headed over to Gulfcoast Town Center to do some errands, and of course had to go in Babies 'R Us. We both wondered if it was too soon, then decided we would just "look." We ended up finding some great deals on some essentials and saved tons of money by locking in the prices. We had so much fun picking out a stroller! It's amazing how one little purchase takes so much thought. How heavy is it? How durable? Will it withstand rocky surfaces? Is it safe? How easy is it to fold up, steer with one hand, adjust the steering height for Daddy? And the questions went on and on. The sale made it much easier to just choose since the one we wanted was $100 off! yay! Total savings on a crib, dresser and travel system (stroller AND carseat): $650!! Even the people who worked at the store said they have never seen a sale like this and that if they even knew anyone pregnant, they would get these items. We left pretty happy!

Here's a shot of me trying out a stroller. This isn't the one we chose, but hopefully all the items will be on the blog soon!