Almost of out my first trimester! I just want the baby to be here, but at the same time I am saying "that was fast!" All of our baby's organs are there and now everything will start to run on it's own and continue maturing. The placenta is still developing and will be mission control for the baby for the next six months.

This weekend, I was bushed so I layed on the couch for a breather. Connor came over and wanted to see the baby...and patted my belly and said hi. Actually, what he really said was "this is your fatness"! Haha! It's a good thing four year olds don't offend me!

Spray On, Spray Off...

I went yesterday, amid my stomach aches and light headedness, to get air brushed tanned! I feel as though I must share this story. For the better of all fake tanner-kind. This was actually my trial run for the Cancun trip next weekend. I thought I had better make sure it looked good in Dallas before I set sail for the beaches of Cancun. The salon was by appoinment only and was historically quaint, with it's hardwood floors and exposed brick walls. The "sprayer" did not greet me, though, as she sat visiting with a friend. She opened the curtain to one of two little spray areas and finally looked my way and said "Ok, go ahead!" I guess I am not cool anymore since I am not in the know of how these things work. Forgive me Miss Spray Lady! I said that I had never been there before or been airbrushed and didn't know what to do. Gasp!

So, moments later and a "few" instructions later, I was on my way to being sprayed. She zipped right around me and I feared my streaky, orange, stained hands/feet/elbows days were returning before my very eyes! After only minutes, I moved (under cover) to the next area to stand and oscillate before a fan to dry me up. It's official...I was scared! Oh and by the way, she forgot to do my face until I asked her if she does faces too. That might have looked funny!

At 9:30 last night I was well on my way to being tan! I liked it so far and almost thought that maybe I should go against her advice and go ahead and shower to knock that crap off. This morning...for the MOST part...everything looks very nice! My only complaint, and exactly the reason I would never do it again, is my hands and feet look horrendous! It looks like I did it myself! My elbows are big dark streaky spots! OH the humanity! Seriously, the face is way better than I could have ever done, but the feet and hands are simply NOT vacation material. Not for $35 it cost me anyway! Back to au natural!

**Love and Tans to All!**

And a Happy Mother's Day It Was!

We met yesterday at Pappasito's Cantina with the whole dang family. What a bunch of crazy's we are. I bet waiters see us coming and get that deer in the head lights look. I mean a party of 10 adults with a bunch of little kids should rightfully scare any waiter. The highlight of the lunch was when the waiter was leaning over Lil' David's head to hand a coke to Josh. David started laughing at Jessie and threw his head back, unbeknownst to him there was the tray there. So he smacked his head (pretty hard) on the tray causing the waiter to spill the tray with three other drinks on it! The glasses shattered and Big David, who was sitting next to Lil' David, got a tray full of ice and Sprite down his whole back and in his shorts! A poor little toddler at the table behind them even got it in his booster seat, too. Oh my god, as bad as we should've felt over the whole thing...we couldn't stop laughing! The whole bunch of us was rolling!

So, a change of clothes and a delicious meal later, we made it through lunch! Everyone was so excited to be celebrating Mommy-to-be-Day with me for the first time. Or maybe I was so excited I just couldn't tell the difference! I got some beautiful homemade earrings from Tammy and a What to Expect the First Year book. Shannon and family gave me a Starbucks gift card and What to Expect the Toddlers Years book. And Mom gave us all albums to scrap in! Josh got me lovely BIG new purse that I wanted. Yes, the more space to fill up with crap!

We got the baby's room cleaned out this weekend. Now we (we=Josh) can re-texture to match the rest of the house and "we" can paint soon. I am ready to start hitting up the resale shops and garage sales for baby furniture that we can paint or refinish. But I guess that will be about it until we know what sex the baby is. We are debating waiting until birth to find out! In the meantime, we have a nice big recliner that rocks to use in the nursery...I just need to clean it up real good.

So, here we are on Monday everyone. Hope I can make it through the week without bitting anyones head off! I about had a seizure on the train this morning willing the guy next to me to stop tapping his fingers!! Crazy preggo!

See ya!

Day 48, Week 9, 218 Days to Go!

Hey ya'll! I thought I take a break from my morning gossip websites to fill you in on the babe in my belly. These days a lot is happening. The structures of the baby’s eyes are now well developed, although not strong enough to do any visual processing yet. The tongue is beginning to develop. The external ear canal is present and the ears are set low on the baby's head. They will not stay low set though, as everything progresses structures get moved around from one place to another. The ears will move up and eventually the eyes will too, as now they are set to the side like rabbit's eyes. Our baby measures almost 3/4 of an inch. And even though our baby is sitting in my amniotic fluid, the baby won't drown! Our baby is getting it's oxygen from me through the umbilical cord. No wonder I have been so out of breath lately! Ha!

In other news, we have been getting TONS of rain, praise Mother Nature! I've been keeping up with the Army Corp of Engineers Lake Lavon levels and we are looking good! Last week we were not quite 10 feet under and now we are only TWO FEET under the conservation pool level. Not that I want to go and waste a bunch of water, or not have to feel guilty about our bathroom leak...but this is really a relief with the Texas summer coming up. It stresses me out wondering if we have enough water in this day and age. We should really be conscious of our water usage and other environmental issues. And all the rain must explain the burst of growth from all my plants. The ferns and begonias are particularly beautiful right now.
Tre magnifique!

Signing off for now,
Love to All

The Grump and The Prince

I am going through a lovely grump stage right now. I hate doing anything and everything. I am in a really bad mood in the morning which may get better by afternoon, but usually not. I couldn't smile if someone paid me to. But ofcourse, I would do it again in a New York minute!

In the meantime, Prince Josh has jumped into action. Offering to move around night lights for me in the middle of the night when I claim it's too dark in the bathroom. One of my favorites is how he will be sure and close the bathroom door since the dripping facuet has "apparently" amplified in my 8th week and I cannot sleep with it dripping. It sounds like a freaking waterfall! And he is really good at just being there when I start crying because I don't know what I want for dinner. What is wrong with me??!! AGH!

So, I believe our trip to Cancun at the end of the month will be much needed. Especially since it is all I can do to get up for work in the morning. I can sleep in late and lounge at the beach, and hopefully this grump phase will be over ASAP! Yes, that's it...I needed a perscription for a big dose of Mexico! Now, if dinner made me cry, I wonder how it will be going shopping to find a bigger bathing suit?

Because of all the rapid development, our baby's head is now much larger than it's trunk and bent over a bump of tissue that contains the developing heart. Over the next two days, the neck and trunk will begin to straighten (remember, prior to this point, our embryonic baby has been shaped like a C). Also, within the next two days, the hand plates will develop ridges indicating where our baby's fingers and thumbs wil be. As the process of forming the digital ridges continues, the baby's hands will look like the shell of a scallop.

Fun quote of the day:
There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
--Old English Proverb

There Was Only One in There!

It was a success! We saw the heart beat! And for Josh there was a sigh of relief as we only saw ONE heart beat! Actually we joked about twins a lot but I would be all for it so as to knock out two at once. We got little pictures of the little bean but no video tape. Apparently, "they don't use that technology anymore"! First I was and little offended because I still have "that technology" in my home, and second...what do they mean?? How on earth was it ok with everyone to stop taping the sonograms?? I want to be able to watch that whenever I want for goodness sakes! I think that they forgot that this is my first little baby and I should get what I want! But I'm starting to come to terms with it and little still life pictures will be fine. I just want the little guy or girl in my arms already more than anything.

I got to snuggle up Alicia's new baby, Carmen Jules. Lucky for me, she was born the day before my appointment at the same hospital! So, I ran over there when I was done. She has the sweetest little lips and fingers and big round eyes! I can't wait to watch her grow with our little one. I've known Alicia since elementary school days...so it's becoming more and more clear, we are all grown up!

Real quick--shout out to Grandma Pankratz who had a total knee replacement on Monday. She is doing well and already starting physical therapy. I think nights are rough due to the pain, but Mom is there with her so her support team is the best there is! Our prayers and thoughts are with you.

**Best wishes to all!**

Raspberries are Good!

How's our baby measuring up this week? At a length of about half an inch right now, our baby has graduated from blueberry-sized to raspberry-sized. But weekly growth is getting a bit hard to estimate, and here's why: Growth occurs at about the rate of one millimeter each day, but that growth isn't necessarily just in height. Spurts can occur in the arms, legs, back, and other parts of our baby's body. So, big changes will be occurring every which way in the coming months.

What else is changing right now? A close-up view of our little embryo (say cheese!) would reveal a more baby-like appearance (and thankfully, a less reptilian one). You'd see an upper lip forming, the protruding tip of that cute button nose, and tiny (and very thin) eyelids. And check out those hands and feet! Our baby's webbed fingers and toes are differentiating now.

All this growing is exciting for our baby too. His or her heart is beating at the incredible rate of 150 times per minute. (That's twice as fast as our hearts beat.) Our baby's digs are growing, too. Amniotic fluid increases at a rate of about two tablespoons per week to accommodate my womb's growing tenant. (Gotta drink lots and lots of water!)

We have an appointment today at 1:00 and we will see the heart beat! I have my video cassette all ready to go so we can record this madness to share with everyone!

**Love, Heather**