It's a......

BOY!!!! Nate and I are so excited! I had a feeling all along it was a boy too! And I'm so glad that he cooperated with us last week on our first ultrasound. This is how awesome my Dr.'s office is: So we weren't scheduled until 20 weeks (January) but they called me and offered to do an ultrasound just to find out the sex before Christmas. How nice was that? I was only 17 weeks here but they were able to get some pictures and determine that we're having a boy! I will post Christmas pictures later but we were able to wrap up the picture in a frame and surprise both of our parents.
Now I'll be honest, when my friends show me their ultrasound pictures, I generally can't see what the huge deal is because I feel like I'm looking at a blob of some sort really. But now that it's my own it's so different! I think seeing him on the ultrasound screen moving around, doing a few backflips and sucking on his little hands has made it all so much more real! I thought he was just the cutest thing ever! I think Nate is excited that our first is a boy too although he said he was fine with either one, he was pretty happy! I'll have to update later on all our Christmas happenings...I'm still trying to catch up from being out of town!

December get-togethers...

Every December it's been a tradition for us to head to Lexington for the Clem's annual Christmas party/weekend where we get to catch up with our college friends. This year was so much fun just seeing everyone again.
Gina, Becky and Aaron....last year Aaron and Becky were in Guatemala so it was good to have them only a mere 6 hours from Kentucky this year!
Lindsey's worst nightmare may have come true when the guys (accompanied by Becky on the violin and Gina...I was only there to photograph!) went caroling to her neighbors. Most of the girls hid in the house and laughed at them.

Practicing before going out...
Lily provided entertainment just by being there:)
Lily got a present from "Ga-Ga" (aka: Gina)...
And loved her sweater! How cute is she?
Saturday afternoon, some of us went hiking to an overlook of the Kentucky River.
Which was a little sad and muddy in the winter but was still fun!
Lindsey, Becky and me trying not to freeze to death!
We always end with Cracker Barrel for brunch on Sunday morning.
One good picture of all of us some stranger was nice enough to take!

In other Christmas happenings, we celebrate with my family tomorrow and head up to Nate's house Christmas Eve morning. Even though the Christmas season is crazy busy, I'm loving it! Traveling can be kind of tiresome but it's so worth it to see everyone. Just another reason why this is one of my favorite weeks of the year!

Pictures of November

Before I forget the entire month of November...I did take a few pictures so here goes!
Berneheim Forest...it was 75 degrees outside just a few short weeks ago! Today it is 25. So sad.
So we went hiking and enjoyed the last of the warm weather for awhile.

A couple weeks later, we had to bundle up for hiking at Jeff. Memorial Forest. And I had to hold Sadie back from wanting to take a swim. Just a tad bit too cold! Oh how I miss summer!
Thanksgiving we went to Ohio for a long weekend...as always it was so good to be able to spend a lot of time catching up with Nate's family.
This is what the boys did...
And here are the girls...I'll leave that open to interpretation:)
Sitting down to dinner, minus Joe who was the photographer. Nate's mom cooked the best dinner EVER!
Last week, we headed to the waterfront to pick out a Christmas tree. I don't think it's necessary to go into explanations about how much I love Christmas. I did that last year. Let's just say that I do think it is the most wonderful time of the year! Nate finally let me put on the Christmas music and decorate the house last weekend.
He did most of the work setting up the tree...
Sadie did her part...
All finished!
Later that night we headed to "Light up Bardstown Road"...basically where all the shops and restaurants stay open late, they have Christmas carolers, free cider and hot chocolate, and we even saw some bagpipers heading down the road playing Christmas tunes.
A perfect way to end the evening!

In other news, I had my 15 week doctor's appointment yesterday. It is crazy to me how little they do at these check-ups but I did get to hear the heartbeat again which is always fun. Now I am just dying to know the sex but we still have a bit before that. I'm officially into the second trimester though and am definitely feeling less tired and not sick at all. And I'm still waiting for the baby "belly" to pop out so that I can actually feel (or at least look) pregnant already! I'm sure I'll be eating those words weeks from now but this is all still new to me. I am so grateful to all my friends who have gone through pregnancy already and have answered my hundreds of questions:) I'm kind of an over-analyzer about these things!