I’m posting some pictures to keep you all updated on our lives… since apparently Andy is too much of a slacker to post on this blog any more!  He leaves all the work to me!  Or maybe he’s just jealous that my posts get more comments than his?  Yeah, I think that’s it.

We bought this Mazda yesterday.  It’s really nice– practically brand new.  Driven for only 3 months.  And it’s a manual (Andy’s #1 criteria).  As for me, I need a little practice to get back in the swing of driving a stick shift.

Oh, and leave it to me to spill Taco Bell in it on the drive home from the dealership.  🙁  New rule: no preggos eating in the car!  I am such a klutz these days!

Yep, it’s a girl!

So yeah, I was totally wrong about having a boy but that’s okay with me. 🙂 Little Natalie has already managed to surprise her mom, which is NOT easy to do!

The ultrasound was a lot of fun! The still pictures don’t really do it justice, it’s so fun to see everything moving around. I think she was sleepy (my caffeine/sugar drink plan backfired because we had to sit in the waiting room a while!), but at one point she threw her arms over her head and stretched her back– so cute! We could see her little mouth opening and closing, even on the regular 2D. We also did a couple minutes of the 4D ultrasound, which was REALLY neat. Like I said, the baby was sleepy so she was all snuggled up and hiding half of her face, but we still got a pretty good shot.

Everything looks perfect as far as development goes, so that was really nice to hear as well.
Soon we will have more pictures to post. We recorded the whole thing onto VHS and once we get it onto DVD we can do more with pictures/video… so keep checking back if you want to see that! 🙂

This week something very important happened– I bought my first piece of REAL furniture! A pretty seafoam colored suede sofa. I love to decorate but I’ve never really had the money to get the things I want. I saved my money all summer and after much searching found a couch that I really like.

But before you see a picture of that, you have to see what our place looked like in the beginning. When we first moved here, the walls were covered with ugly, outdated wallpaper. It only took a couple weeks of putting up with that for us to ask the landlords if we could tear it down and paint. They loved the idea– no surprise there.

BEFORE:

So that’s what it looked like when we moved in. Except that as you can see, I’d already started tearing down the wallpaper border when I decided I should get before and after pictures. 🙂 Pretty “blah”, right? And not at ALL my style. Actually these pictures don’t do justice to how ugly the paper was, at least in my mind. Weird orange and blue with pinecones/pineapples… we never could figure it out exactly. I told Andy it was opressing me.
AFTER:

What an improvement!

I really like the pillows that came with the couch. 🙂

To make things fit nicely, my desk had to get banished to the funky little space right beside the front door. But it works, since now I can’t store random junk there like I was before.Then I have also planned to avail plumbing services by finding a reliable plumbing contractor .

What a difference, huh? I feel like I finally have a grown-up living room! Next project: bedroom. I will probably start ripping out wallpaper there this weekend.

Since the topic of baby gender came up after my last post and I have nothing better to do. 🙂
First off, I’ve had lots of really realistic dreams (unusual for me). However the boy dreams are always after the birth and the girl dreams are always of an ultrasound. A month ago I was positive it would be a boy.

1st trimester: 3 boy dreams, 1 girl dream
2nd trimester: 2 girl dreams, 1 boy dream

Now for the old wives tales:
-The “string test” says girl. They swear by this method at JC Penney Longview- it worked every time but once!
-The Chinese Lunar Calendar says girl.
Here’s some other info I found online:

You will have a boy if:

-baby’s heartrate is under 140 beats per minute- NO
-you are carrying low and in front- NO
-your urine is bright yellow- NO
-you don’t experience any morning sickness in the first trimester- NO
You will have a girl if:

-your baby’s heartrate is 140 or higher- YES (155)
-you are carrying high and all over- YES (I think, anyway)
-your urine is clear- YES
-you sleep on your right side- MOSTLY YES

So that’s a pretty obvious girl! Okay, so they are pretty darn goofy, but I’ve found over the years that I am rather superstitious. We’ll see if that wins out over my original intuition that it’s a boy in… 10 days.

If anyone has any other silly ways of predicting or wants to make a guess, leave a comment. I like hearing what everyone has to say.

It’s been a while since I posted because nothing much has been happening and I don’t like to post without pictures. At least I’ve been feeling lots lots better lately! I can cook again without feeling sick to my stomach, so I’m taking advantage and trying lots of new recipes.

So here’s what I look like these days– 4 months pregnant.

I hang out with friends and family whenever possible. Everyone but me is so busy! But this weekend Jamie (my sister) and I hung out with Melanie for a Girl’s Night. We’ve been friends with Melanie about 12 years I think, and dress-up is just as fun now as it was back then…

Pedicures are always good too. Yes, we all have the same Reef flip flops! Note my bump getting in the picture:

We also nearly got attacked that night by two giant spiders while on a walk. Sorry, no pictures. We weren’t about to go back to that spot!

Last week I made some autumn decorations. From scratch even!! I’m very proud of them.

That’s coffee beans and a pumpkin scented candle inside. Smells so good!

Here’s the swag I made for the front door, complete with quail:

And finally some fall foliage in my pretty pitcher. Nothing fancy but it adds a nice seasonal touch to my desk.

That’s all for now, but I hope you enjoyed the pictures. More to come later I hope!