Baby bump....

I know I only posted a few pics before of my growing belly...and with just one week until my due date I guess I can post some now to show the progression of the second half of my pregnancy....we have been taking them, just not posting! I am definitely ready to post some pics of the actual baby, not just my expanding stomach!!!

26 weeks

30 weeks

34 weeks

38 weeks

Baby Sophia's Room

Another accomplishment in the last couple of weeks has been getting the nursery ready for the coming of our little girl. Everything is now ready for her arrival, clothes all washed and hung up or folded neatly, everything in its spot, just waiting to be used when she comes home.
Changing area....still need something to hang on that wall.

Sleeping area....above her bed says "Goodnight moon, goodnight air, Goodnight noises everywhere" from the book Goodnight Moon.

View from the door

Where mommy and daddy can relax....

Yes, both the closet and the wardrobe are FULL of her clothes. :-)

I am so excited to bring her home to her new room...it smells so nice and is so neat and clean (for now, haha) and I think she will really like it. Now that everything is finally ready, all we need is for her to finally get here!!!

A great week.....

Besides getting a new car last week, my birthday also happened to fall on one of the days. My sister, bro-in-law and nephew came into town and me, my sis and mom did a good bit of shopping. :-) We also all went out to Maggianos (yum) to dinner to celebrate. On the actual evening of my birthday Michael and I had a relaxing evening of dinner and presents and he surprised me with flowers and delicious cupcakes from a new cupcake store near our house (which I didn't know about but will definitely be visiting more often!). Despite being 9 months pregnant (and not celebrating with the usual adult beverages/activities expected on a birthday), it was a wonderful day and I am so happy that I had my whole family here to share it with and my wonderful husband to spoil me and make the occasion great.

Here are a few pics:

With my amazing husband!

Beautiful flowers!

Yummy cupcakes!!

Something new.....

This last week was my first official week of no work....I envisioned sleeping in late and lazing around the house in my pajamas all day long watching tivoed shows....that sure didn't happen! I was as busy as if I had put in a full 40!! But a lot of things got accomplished and it was a very good week.

At the very beginning of the week, Michael and I got a new car (well, used, but new to us). We have been looking for the better part of the year and just haven't found the right thing at the right price and had been worrying a little bit about how to make either my 2 door car or his truck work for an infant. We really hadn't come up with much. After two almost purchases of 4-door sedans (thankfully, with the help of our awesome mechanic, we found out they had both been wrecked and not worth the asking price) we saw a nicely priced SUV and decided to check it out. I will backtrack a little to mention that I might be a tad of a car snob...as in, I drive a 6-cylinder, leather seat, sunroof, 2 door car that I LOVE and pretty much just wanted a bigger version of that car....turns out all those little extras add up on the price tag of any larger or newer version of my car. Michael was only concerned with the safety and price of whatever we got, and in that order. Since he was (probably) right about what we needed to focus on I had pretty much dropped all criteria except leather (haha....wouldn't that be so much easier to clean up if a baby threw up on it??!!) and we were looking at Accords, Altimas, and the like.

Anyway, we go check out this SUV on a whim and it was immaculate and the price seemed decent. But I was so nervous that our mechanic would once again say no way. Turns out the thing was taken care of like a baby and in excellent shape. Ok, that was good news....now the other issue of price....Michael did a great job of negotiating and the best part is we ended up getting it and not increasing our payment (of Michael's truck that we traded in) at all! We stuck to our plan of only having one car payment (my car is paid off) and we are even saving on insurance a little bit! Here are a few pics of what we ended up with......and I couldn't be happier!!!

In the end we got something that we both love, I didn't have to drop any of my criteria and we didn't go over our planned budget on this Acura MDX...it's got leather, V6, loaded with all kinds of features we haven't yet figured out...tons of room and low mileage....plus not one single mechanical issue and great safety ratings....I will definitely be driving this for a long while and am glad that we didn't just settle and ended up finding the perfect baby-mobile for us!!

My Wonderful Baby Shower

This blog is a little late but on July 24 my sister and mother threw me a fabulous baby shower at my parents house. I am so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends who gathered to "shower" me with gifts for our little girl...who will be here so soon! Only about a month to go, I am definitely ready for her to make her arrival.
Here are just some pictures that I had on my camera of the wonderful day (see my sister's blog for many more great pics).

With the party host, my sister!

Wonderful spread of food

Beautiful cake (thanks Tracey!)

Everyone was SO generous

Love this from my bro...we'll see
if I share it with the baby, haha!!! :-)

The day was really wonderful and made me so excited for the coming of baby Sophia. Thanks so much to my sister, Sara, and my Mom for making the day so wonderful!

Another Birthday....

Today is the birthday of my wonderful husband, Michael.

Unlike my sister, I have not known him since the second he entered this world but I am very, very grateful to his parents for bringing him into the world and raising him to be such an amazing person.

I have been lucky enough to know him for about 4 and a half years...I had already been working at the credit union and he was brand new...I remember the day that he walked by my desk on his "new employee" tour. He was dressed really nice, I did think he was a good looking guy and seemed very friendly (in the few seconds of just saying hello). I remember then that I just thought of him as "off limits" since he was a co-worker. :-) Once we finally had the chance to hang out (after work on a Friday with a group of other co-workers) I also liked his personality and knew that we would be friends at the very least.

After a year and a half of friendship and getting to know each other (and finding out that he was a really genuinely nice and caring person) I finally ditched the notion of us just being friends and it was probably the best decision I ever made (well, we made it together). I am so happy we ended up together, married, and now have a little girl on the way. I wouldn't have wanted to end up with anyone else, he makes me happier than I have ever been in my whole life. He is an incredible husband, takes care of me and loves me so much and I feel like I love him more every single day of our lives together. I can't wait to see him with our daughter, I know he is going to be the best dad.

I'm not sure if in my life I have always been a believer in 'soul mates'.....but the moment I realized that Michael was the one for me, I realized that there can be no other way to explain it. I definitely could not make it without him and I am so glad that I don't have to.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, amazing, caring, loving husband! I hope that your day is wonderful and I look forward to a hundred more birthdays with you!

Twenty-seven years ago today....

This blog post is a little shout out to my sister, Sara Lynn Mercer Watkins....today is her 27th birthday!!
I was only 4 years and 11 months old when she was born but there are a lot of things I remember about the day of her birth...actually even a thing or two about my Mom being pregnant with her. Once I remember sitting on my parents bed with my Dad as my Mom threw up over and over in the bathrooom....haha...apparently she was sick the whole time she was pregnant with my sister!!
On the actual day of July 10, 1983 I remember that my Dad got me out of bed pretty early in the morning, wrapped me up in a blanket and carried me a few houses down to some neighbors where I was going to stay while they went to the hospital. I sort of woke up and he told me I would be a big sister soon....guess it wasn't quite interesting enough for me to stay awake because I think I just went right back to sleep. Before I was able to go up the hospital to visit, my Dad called the neighbors to say that my sister was born...and to get my opinion on her name. His choices?? Sara or Jerri (with an "I" specifically). I am sure that my sister is quite thankful that I went with Sara. :-)
When I finally got to go in to see her I was interested for a minute....until I realized that my Mom had a tv with cartoons on it in her room! Even some of the pictures of me holding my new sister show me looking up and into the distance...surely watching something on the tv, haha. What can you expect from an almost 5 year old??!!
Over the last 27 years I would say I have had much more interest in my sister....in that she has become my best friend. Now, there were some rough years when we did more fighting that getting along....but the second I went to college I missed her being around and I think that really made us closer....we'd talk more, she wrote me hilarious letters (which I still have in a box in my closet), and when I was home the fighting was less and less. I wish she lived closer now, I know we wouldn't make it a week without seeing each other a few times....I am very happy she at least lives close enough to visit often and we have the phone, texting, chatting online, email, our webcams, facebook and various other ways to stay in touch every day of the week.
I was thinking that wow, if she is 27 (which sounds old for my "little"sister) then I am really getting old!! But we are still just 4 years and 11 months apart and the age difference really doesn't seem like that much anymore.
So, Happy Birthday, Sara! I love you, little sister!! :-)

On a side note: my Mom's birthday is tomorrow so Happy Birthday to you too, Mom! (Not that you will get on a computer to read this...I'll just call ya!)