It's the Holiday Season...

And I feel like these past two weeks have been busier than ever, in a good way. We've gotten to see lots of friends and family, which is one of the main reasons I love Christmas of course!
We started Christmas Eve Eve at my parents house where Erin and Mark came in town for a couple days.
Opening gifts that night after dinner.
We gave my parents this picture of the ultrasound as a surprise...they didn't know we had an ultrasound the day before this was taken so we got to surprise them with the news that we were having a boy!
Then we headed up to Ohio where Nate's parents spoiled us completely! Nate and his mom hanging out by the tree on Christmas Eve...
Nate's mom wraps EVER gift she puts in our stockings! It's fun to watch everyone open all their little stocking gifts on Christmas morning...she always gets you exactly what you want (still don't know how exactly she does that!)
Christmas morning
Dee Dee and Darryl finding out they are having a grandson!
When we got back from Ohio, Casey and Jeremy (with Lily) stopped by to stay the night on their way back to Tennessee so we had a friends over to dinner.
It was a hoodie kind of night I think...we seriously didn't try to coordinate this!
Moving on to New Year's Eve (I take way too many pictures I think!)...Jessica, me and Annie at Annie's New Year's party (first stop that evening)
Moving on to Justin's house where Molly and precious little Gracie stopped by for a short bit.
Nate gave the disclaimer that babies always cry when he holds them....sure enough, Gracie lost it!
Rock band...I do NOT sing but thank goodness you really don't have to!
Brooke, Sarah, me and Robin right after midnight...a bit tired!

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!

A little announcement...

So as it turns out...We're pregnant! And definitely couldn't be more excited! Since most of our friends and all of our family knows, I think I'm safe to start a sort of "documentation" of this whole pregnancy process. Most people will likely not care about all these details, but I am afraid if I don't write down some of these things then I will soon forget them!
And sadly I don't have a cute little ultrasound picture to share! I do have one from about 6 weeks ago but let's face it--those first few weeks it just looks like a little blob anyway! A cute blob, but not too much to look at! My doctor said the next time she'll be doing an ultrasound is around December, when I'm about 20 weeks or so and can definitely determine the sex. I really don't want to wait THAT long but at least we DO get to hear the heartbeat at each check-up. Monday was the first time for that and my doctor told me that I'm in the clear for telling people. It was definitely a beautiful sound! Plus, it was so hard to keep a secret for that long! So here's some of the details:

• I'm in my twelfth week
  
• Due date is June 5th
• I have only felt sick during weeks 7 and 8 (Praise God!). I mean, it was pretty rough going those few weeks...I have a new found appreciation for my pregnant friends who deal with that for the entire first trimester and beyond! I can't imagine...I have nothing to complain about compared to them!
  
• The only other symptoms were EXTREME exhaustion during those first few weeks. I think I might have scared Nate with my ability to nap like it was my job! I'd come home from work, take a 2-hour nap on the couch and still head up to bed at 9:00! Thank goodness that's over with because I was worthless to get anything done, which brings me to my next point...
• Nate has been SO great to me during this (and I really can' complain because as I said, I haven't been THAT sick or anything). But he would make sure all the dishes were done, dog fed, laundry, etc. All that stuff that needs to be done, he would just let me rest:) And he'd deal with my weird food turn-offs and cravings...
  
• Cravings so far: well, this is different every day! I would word it this way: I could think of things that I definitely did NOT want to eat but rarely anything I wanted to. A lot of things, just at the mention of the word made me feel sick. But usually I could think of at least ONE thing that I wanted. But it's so unpredictable! This week I'm all about fruit, especially strawberries and apples. I mean, who knows how these things work...The other week, it was pizza, one week ice cream, and the week before anything spicy and Mexican. So one day I'll think I will DIE if I don't get pizza at that moment and then the next day I'm like "Don't even TALK about pizza!" It's very weird really. Luckily I have a husband who is not picky so he just goes with it! And I would like to add that I have only made him run out to the store on ONE occasion to pick up ice cream because I HAD to have a milkshake at that very moment!
  
• Other than the weird food issues/exhaustion, nothing feels too different. I mean, I know people start "showing" at different stages but I've been worried until we heard that heartbeat last week because in this first stage you just don't "feel" pregnant and I'm not showing yet. I'm the kind of person who needs a visual or proof or something...I'm weird like that! But all of my previously pregnant friends have re-assured me that it is normal to feel that way and now that I heard that little heartbeat I feel a lot better.
• So there's the details for this first trimester. I'm ready for this so-called energy surge that accompanies the second trimester! I've been trying to keep up with my running throughout and let's just say that 3 or 4 miles feels like a marathon. In fact, I came back from running the other day and told Nate that I had, indeed, completed one. I think he's ready for the second trimester too so my ridiculousness stops!