36 Weeks & Counting...

Well, here we are at 36 weeks...I feel like she's grown a BUNCH over the past week or so. Here's a picture taken before church yesterday:

Last week marked my last week of work at Immanuel. I'm going to miss my co-workers there a lot! On Thursday, they did a "good-bye/baby shower" luncheon for me....it was so nice of them to do that. The food was yummy, the cake EXCELLENT, the table decorations adorable, and the fellowship with my co-workers priceless! :) John was able to come and we had fun visiting and opening gifts. Once again, we are so blessed to have such wonderful, loving, giving friends. The IBC staff went in together and got us our pack & play....this is above and beyond anything I ever expected! Here's a picture of it:

Here's a few other pictures from the shower @ IBC:

The yummy cake--it was strawberry, my favorite! :)

Getting Avery's book collection started

One of the cute diaper cakes (there were 2!) and some fun "accessories" for Avery!

We head to the doctor Wednesday morning, so hopefully I will be able to update after that with something new! :)

August Babies Bring July Showers!

We are getting closer and closer to Miss Avery's arrival!! On Friday of this week, we'll hit 36 weeks and we are now on weekly visits to the doctor and on this past Monday's visit, he told us that she is in the head down position, but that's about all the progress we have at this point. We go back next Wednesday, so we'll see what he has to say at that appointment.

We've been busy around our house trying to get things ready for her arrival...we are nearly finished with her nursery...just have a few more things to get on the walls. I think my "nesting instinct" kicked in and so I've been cleaning things out and getting rid of stuff we DON'T need! I even got J in on it this past weekend and he helped me clean out all the kitchen cabinets and re-organize them....I'm sure he was "thrilled", but he never complained about it! :)

On July 11th, some of my dearest friends threw a shower for Avery. It was WONDERFUL! I had so much fun and really enjoyed visiting with everyone who came. We received lots of great things for Avery--bathtub, bottles, lots of diapers, stationary entertainer, and LOTS of other stuff. Here's a few pictures:

Opening presents

LOVE this frame!

My wonderful hostesses and some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for: Amy (& Evie); Mary (& Caleb); Alicia; Allison; Jennifer (we missed Michelle & Elizabeth!)

On July 15th, John's co-workers gave him a "Daddy" shower. I got to go and be a part of it, but since I've been doing all the present opening, I let him do all the opening at this one! :) He also received some good "Daddy advice". :) It was a lot of fun and we had some YUMMY strawberry cupcakes! Avery received lots of fun presents--a stroller, diaper bag, cute outfits & bibs, and quite a few other things.

Opening presents

The wonderful diaper bag we received--I love it!

Umbrella stroller--this was my pick on the registry! :)

A fun picture from the shower on the 11th...my friend, Mary, is due with little Caleb, on July 3oth--We can't wait to meet Mr. Caleb, Avery's future playmate & nursery buddy at church, next week!!

We are so very blessed to have such wonderful family & friends who are supporting us and praying for us during this new transition in our lives!! Avery is already one very loved little girl...we can't wait for her to get here so we can physically love on her! :) I promise to update next week after our doctor visit...maybe we'll have some new info!!

Sneak Peek...

Yesterday, we had a checkup with the OB...After measuring, he said that Avery was measuring about 1.5 weeks ahead of schedule, but everything is looking great as we head towards week 32. We go back in 2 weeks for our next appointment, which will be July 6th.

After our OB appointment, we headed over to BabyViews to have a 4D ultrasound done of our sweet baby girl. I was hesitant about doing the 4D to start with...mainly b/c it's not a medical necessity and so of course insurance doesn't cover it, but oh my....I'm SO glad we did it! We spent nearly an hour with Shae, the ultrasound tech, and she covered every square inch of Miss Avery. Shae measured her leg bones, spine, head, etc and based on the measurements, we might just have a chubby little girl on our hands! According to the 4D, Avery is already weighing in around the 5.25lb-5.5lb mark...putting her at somewhere close to 34 week size. So we might just have a "sooner than Aug. 21" arrival, if she continues with this growth pattern! :) After doing lots of measuring, Shae looked at many of her internal organs...kidneys, lungs, heart, & brain to see how things were functioning...everything looked perfect. Avery already likes her hands...she had her right one not far from her face pretty much the whole time. She would suck on her hand and/or fingers occasionally. At one point, she stuck out her tongue at us! :) Pretty stinking cute! We have lots of pictures...both printed and on CD and we also received a DVD of the entire session, so you can actually watch her moving around. Pretty amazing! Like I said, I'm SO, SO, SO glad we did the 4D! :)

This past weekend we picked up our Chicco car seat/stroller travel system from Pickles & Ice Cream. Nana Linda & Papa Bart got this for Miss Avery...she will be traveling in style now! John got it all put together Sunday...Gretta's not too sure about the stroller...makes her very nervous! HA After seeing the ultrasound yesterday, I'm really glad we already have the car seat...I'm starting to think we might need it sooner than Aug. 21! :)

Here's a few pics from our session yesterday:

A little bit of a smile!

Telling us what she thinks about being disturbed by sticking out her tongue!

Fingers/Face shot

No Longer Nameless....

I've been told I'm taking too long between posts...Guess I'll have to do a better job!!! :) We've been busy over the past few weeks.

First and foremost...Baby Girl now has a name...Avery Elizabeth! We had it narrowed down to two names with Elizabeth being the middle name for both, but when it came down to it, we both had fallen in love with Avery, so Avery it is! :) It's nice not to have to call her baby girl all the time.

Second, we took Avery on her "first vacation"...or as some people told us, the easiest vacation with a child we'll ever take! ha! We spent 6 days in Destin the week before Memorial Day and it was wonderful. Destin is one of our favorite locations and we made the most of our "babymoon"....resting, being beach bums, shopping, and of course EATING! That's by far my favorite thing to do in Destin! We even got to see those sweet Spicer girls (and of course their mommy & daddy too!) while out shopping.

We made in home the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. J then spentSunday & Monday painting the nursery. It looks great! I'm so pleased with the color! We got the furniture arranged and it looks beautiful. The glider/rocker that we ordered from Pickles & Ice Cream came in right before we left for vacation and we finally got it setup and in the nursery after we painted. I love the chair! I imagine I'll be spending a "few" nights in it...it's covered in a super soft chocolate brown fabric. Thanks JuJu and Grampa Larry...I know Avery will love rocking in it! :) When we get all the bedding on and pictures hung on the walls, I'll post some pictures of the finished nursery.

This past Sunday, some of my sweet, sweet friends from Cabot hosted a baby shower for me. I love these women...they are like family to me and I truly do miss working with them each day at CHS. I was so excited to get to visit with all the people who came to the shower...I haven't worked at CHS since December of 07, but my former co-workers are such good friends and have huge hearts. The hostesses truly outdid themselves on the food and Miss Avery got some GREAT presents--a highchair/booster seat, boppy travel swing, bottles, bibs, toys, LOTS of cute clothes, and many other things! She is such a loved little girl already! I'm putting a few pictures from the shower below...you can definitely tell that Avery is growing DAILY! :) haha

The food spread...YUM!






The super cute cake



Getting ready to open presents!

24 Weeks

Well, here's the "belly picutre" I promised....of course Gretta had to get in on the action too!

Moving Right Along...

We're now a little over 23 weeks along and things have been going great! We go back to the doctor for our next visit on May 6th when I'll be nearly 25 weeks along. This will be the appointment that I have to do the gestational diabetes test, which I'm not real excited about...maybe it won't be too bad! :) We are making progress in baby girl's room....her crib and dresser/changer came in a couple of weekends ago and J got it all put together. It's beautiful! Once we get the room completely done, I'll post some pictures. For now, here's the bedding we have chosen:

Our baby girl already as a closet FULL of cute little clothes...between her grandmothers, great grandmothers, & aunts she will be one STYLISH little girl. I also have some of the best girlfriends a woman could EVER ask for and they have been extremely generous in passing down clothes (baby & maternity!)...just tonight I came home with a huge arm full of outfits for the baby! Thanks A!

I keep getting told that I need to take some "belly pictures" so that our family in MS & other areas of AR can see the changes...I'm not a picture person, like to take them, just not be in them, but I'll see if I can get J to take some this weekend to post.

It's a...

GIRL! Baby Girl Clinton was quite cooperative this morning and pretty active. It is so amazing to see her moving around in there. Here's a couple of pictures: