It's a....

Boy OR a Girl!

Josh and I stayed strong yesterday in our ultrasound and did not peek when they were scanning the lower half of baby's body!  We do know that we have one or the other though...which is enough information for me to know at this point!  Honestly, I don't have a burning desire to know the baby's sex and I'm pretty positive it's going to be the greatest surprise over when Josh (or the doctor) announces what this sweet baby is in June!  Even though we're not yet able to call this baby by name quite yet, we both feel quite bonded to baby and know that the love we already feel is only going to grow as pregnancy continues and of course when baby enters this world.  

Besides gender news (or lack thereof), the baby's measurements all looked great.  When we spoke with 

Dr. Lafitte (I realized yesterday that this Dr. Lafitte is related to the doctor that delivered Banks and I...how cool!), he showed us a picture of the baby's heart and said that there were two "bright spots" on it and that we would need to go to maternal-fetal medicine for a high-tech ultrasound and to speak with a specialist in the area of fetal abnormalities.  Of course, I immediately went into panic mode--no matter how hard the doctor tried to assure me that this is common and most of the time it means nothing.  We were very fortunate to be able to get an appointment that afternoon with Dr. Mabie.  I called several close family and friends to ask them to please pray for the baby and us as we went in that afternoon.  God truly did provide an overwhelming peace in us as we were covered in prayer.  Dr. Mabie took a look and immediately assured us that these bright spots were no cause for concern and that the baby was growing and healthy.  Praise the Lord!  There's no way we could have made it through yesterday without our hope in God and remembering His promises to us to protect us and lead us through whatever  He brings us to.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to those of you that prayed for us.

So...without further ado....here are some images from our ultrasound at Piedmont.  We actually got great 3D shots at our afternoon appointment, but haven't scanned those in yet!

giving us a little smile :)  

one of my favorites...love the sweet profile pictures

Josh said this image is a bit alien-like.  Agreed.  Baby only weighs 10 oz right now so still a bit bony!

Thanks for indulging me with taking a peek at our precious miracle!

Half-Baked

Today is the 20 week milestone!  Baby is the size of a banana...crazy to think about since we started with a grain of rice.  We have much to do in the 20 weeks to come but looking forward to June with much excitement and anticipation!
Please pray for us Thursday morning as we go for our big 20 week ultrasound!  We haven't seen Baby since 12 weeks so I'm anxious to see how much "it" has grown the past 8 weeks.  By the look of my belly, hopefully a lot! :)
PS...the only thing that bothers me about not knowing the gender is calling the baby an "it".  I wish there could be another pronoun I could use until we give it a he/she in June!

Iced In

This week led to no school Monday through Thursday and a lot of time around the house.  Josh had to go to work, unfortunately, so Gracie and I had much bonding time throughout the week.  By Wednesday, I was nearly going nuts so I ventured out to do a couple of therapy sessions and check out fabric swatches for the nursery glider.
I am not a good driver in the most perfect driving conditions.  I feel as if I have improved as I have aged, and I am proud to report I have not gotten a speeding ticket since my first year in graduate school (2005), nor have I gotten in a wreck (other than parked cars--one of which was Josh's, the other was at Sportsclub).    I however am sending thanks to God that He led me through the horrible road conditions that I had no business driving on on Wednesday.  I just can't control the inclination to hit my brakes...and brakes and ice do NOT work.  I slipped into a ditch on the way home from glider shopping, was able to reverse the car back onto the road, but then the wheels started spinning and the Tahoe was not budging.  I start getting really nervous about holding up traffic and people starting at me, so I get out of the car.  WHY?  I have no idea--I really am not sure what I thought me getting out of the car was going to do, but I did...and slipped on the ice in the middle of the road at 18 weeks pregnant.   Not my proudest or finest moment in life.  Luckily, as southerners do, a nice gentleman came to my rescue and drove the car up to dry road.  Praise the Lord.
As far as slipping...I wasn't too concerned as I fell on my behind and had braced myself with the car door before falling, but I did decide to call the doctor the next day just to make them aware of what happened.  Of course, they wanted me to come in and check me out (causing me to have to drive AGAIN--which led to more slipping and sliding down my driveway) and everything was fine.  Baby's heartbeat was strong in the 160's and Dr. Moore sent me along on my way.  Josh and I had decided to have the first trimester screening done at 12 weeks, which basically checks for Down Syndrome and neural tube defects.  We had already heard that all results were negative from the DS screener, but I was able to go ahead and find out that the neural tube screening (that was done at 16 weeks) came back negative as well--so that was a comfort and we didn't have to wait until our next appointment at 20 weeks to hear the results.  Pregnancy is moving right on along...and the weeks seem to be going by much more quickly since the 2nd trimester has started.

Hunkered Down

This weekend we truly did "hunker down".  Saturday morning we woke up to get our free delicious spicy chicken biscuit and made a quick trip to Target--then, we stayed in our warm home for the remainder of the day.  I felt incredibly lazy but it was blissful.  The fall season is always so busy for us with football season and so I always greet winter with open arms as we typically don't have much planned for our weekends.

We did watch Clemson secure its first ACC basketball win of the season (on our laptop)

 Gracie was thrilled to be in her home and not in her crate

 We both had on our pj bottoms and sweatshirts on the majority of the day.

 and again...Gracie Lou loved extra snuggle time!

Due to the massive amounts of snow we had last night, I highly doubt we'll be back in school until at least Thursday...we shall see!  Here's to more "hunkering down" and hoping I don't get cabin fever!

There's a First Time for Everything!

 The past week we have done a lot of things around here for the first time!

 I wrote "due date" in my agenda.  On June 14th.  Five months and 9 days away...but who's counting?  As a sidenote--also realized that that week is Father's Day too!

 I practiced putting Mr. Sock Monkey in the car seat.  Granted, Mr. Sock Monkey is not moving (and non-living, for that matter), I think he is snug as a bug and safely secured.  (We got the travel system for Christmas--and put it together all by ourselves, in approximately 2 hours!)

We played the lottery.  It's Steven's fault.  He got us hooked.  We'll only play when the jackpot hits some ridiculous number, but it was fun even if we didn't win.  We bought 3 tickets last Friday night and 5 on Tuesday--spending a total of 8 dollars.  Josh also bought a $2 scratch off ticket and won 10 dollars...so we broke even! :)

And this isn't the first time Gracie Lou got her picture taken, but it's sure a cute way to end a blog post!

Christmas Break 2010

Seeing as how Christmas Break is over, I guess now is a good time to reminisce the past two weeks!  I actually worked several days of my break doing private therapy, but it was still heavenly not to have to go into school.
I traveled to Lexington once to spend time with mom and Banks, mom and I went to Charlotte to do some shopping, met friends out for lunch in Greenville, enjoyed a wonderful Christmas holiday--starting with Christmas Eve service at John Knox Presbyterian (our new church home), driving to Anderson for Christmas with the Vickery's, driving back to our home for Christmas morning, Christmas day lunch with my Granny in Saluda, dinner at my mom's, and Christmas night with my dad.  It was a whirlwind two days--but probably the last Christmas we're going to be traveling quite so much, so we enjoyed the time with family.
For the New Year, we traveled to Atlanta to spend a couple of nights with Mary Alice and Steven.  It was a great way to end 2010 and to welcome with open arms 2011!
I do hope to improve with the quantity of pictures I take in the New Year--I took a couple of our Christmas tree and Josh took several of our first White Christmas, but other than that--the camera didn't get much action (nor has it the past several months).

Our home covered with a blanket of snow!

Miss Gracie didn't know quite what to think of all this snow!

O Christmas Tree without a topper...maybe one year we will come up with one we like!

New additions to our tree...our Boston ornament from our trip in October!

and our 2009 Christmas Card Picture. 

I actually was on top of it this year and got the 2010 on there as well-not on top of it enough to get a pic!  

Happy New Year, Everyone!