Thanksgiving for Two!

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already! It seems like this year has flown by!!! I feel like I was just sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner last year and yet a year has passed. This was probably the easiest Thanksgiving that I'm ever going to get as far as timing of family dinners. My mom's side was early Thursday and my dad's side was later Thursday. Drew's family dinners were both on Friday at two totally different times. It was great to be able to go to all four family celebrations; this is probably the only year that they will fall like that. That's the joy of married life though. Haha. Having to choose which side of the family to celebrate which holiday with. As long as I'm with family, I'll be perfectly content.

Dinner Thursday with my mom's side was great! The baby didn't really like the fact that her space was taken up by my full belly. She started kicking almost immediately after dinner. I got to spend some time relaxing before I had to go to my dad's side's dinner. I got there right in time for dessert. My Aunt Debbie makes amazing desserts so I didn't really mind. It was great sitting around with them telling stories about the baby and my cousins and me as babies. I heard a lot of funny stories that I had forgotten. My grandma got to feel the baby move around. She really really enjoyed that. Thursday was a great day.

Friday morning I got up and left for Bluffton with the Kipfers for the Kipfer family Thanksgiving. I had a lot of fun relaxing with the Kipfers. Rafe was getting a back massage from the baby when I was holding him. She wasn't a fan of getting smooshed by another baby. I guess she doesn't do competition well. Lunch was amazing, as usual. It was really funny watching Gwen pass out in a tryptophan coma!! Haha. I probably would have too if I had sat down for more than a few minutes. Then we went to the Isch family Thanksgiving. It was wonderful meeting some more of Drew's family that I had not met before and seeing many of his relatives that I had seen before. Dinner was great and Jayla and I decided, against our better judgement, to keep eating even though I think we were going to explode. I had a great time talking to Drew's sisters and cousins. Overall, Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful this year, except for my missing fiancé.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. They're going to help so much with the last month and a half of Drew's time on the ship.

Bluffton Baby Shower

This past weekend, my mom and I went to Bluffton for a baby shower that was hosted by the ladies on Drew's side of the family. It was great getting to meet everyone in his family that I haven't met yet. Being able to put a face with a name now for most of his family is really great. The decorations were beautiful and the food was amazing! Grandma Judy made me some pumpkin cookies that were probably the best tasting cookies that I've ever eaten in my entire life!!! I love pumpkin anything: pumpkin bread, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie, etc. So to have some pumpkin cookies made by the lovely Judy Kipfer was WONDERFUL!! The advice that was given to me by these ladies was invaluable and I treasure all of it. It was also very nice being in Bluffton, since I've only been there one other time since Drew and I have been together. I'm sure we'll be going there a lot to visit family and stuff once the baby gets here, so it was nice to get to visit and see where everything is now.

I just wanted to thank all of Drew's family for the lovely gifts that they gave us. They were wonderful and we treasure all of them. Thank you all so very much!!

Thank you all for all of your thoughts and prayers. It is only through God and your prayers that we are making it through these long six months. Thank you so very much.

visiting with drew

Well, this past Sunday I got the chance to see Drew for a few hours. Other than port security being a HUGE pain, it was a great day. Supposedly they weren't letting the crew off at a certain time because it was too windy (that's what I was told at least so don't quote me on that one...ask Drew for more details). We got about 6 hours together. It was definitely better than no time at all but the hour or so that port security took from us would have been nice to have also. He did get to feel the baby move, although she decided it was going to be a quiet day and she didn't move around quite as much as she has in the past week or so. She does things that way though, everything in her own time and the way she wants it, so I guess I wasn't that surprised. His face was priceless though when she did decide to move. Drew said that it was absolutely awesome to feel her move and roll around. She definitely recognized her daddy's voice though. She really likes it a lot! I have the distinct feeling she's going to be a daddy's girl, but he'll have to share her. Haha. After relaxing for a little bit, we all had lunch together, Drew's parents and grandparents and the two of us. It was nice having him there in person and be able to talk to him in person and not just over the internet. It definitely was a mixed blessing though. I loved having him there in person and seeing him and knowing he was ok, but it was very very difficult to put him back on the ship. That was definitely a very hard thing for both of us. I was able to deal with it a little bit better than putting him on the plane 4 months ago, but definitely wasn't a cake walk either. Luckily, we only have 2 months left. That's a positive thing. It definitely made it easier that I got to spend a few days with Drew's parents and grandparents before I had to come home. I had a great time with them in Fort Myers. Overall, it was a great weekend and I loved seeing Drew!!!

Thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. It is all truly appreciated!!!

1st Trimester, Check. 2nd Trimester, Check

Well as I sit here thinking about it, my second trimester has flown by. I feel like I was just writing about being done with my first trimester and now I'm writing about being done with my second trimester. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened in my second trimester. She has gotten a lot bigger, as she should, but I love to sit around and watch her move and kick and punch. I'm ready for the third trimester and I'm ready for her to be here. I hope she doesn't come early, but I definitely can't wait to meet her. I'm finally starting to show. It's nice to have a belly and not just look like I've eaten a pretty decent sized meal. I know that one day soon I might regret saying that I'm glad that I have a belly but for now I love the fact that I do. I've been unbelievably fortunate with not gaining a whole lot of weight and not having a whole lot of swelling. I hope that it stays this way for the rest of my pregnancy. Being active has definitely helped with that.

It's been very nice to be at home. Not working has been very relaxing. I've been running errands for my mom and doing chores around the house. Even though our house is a mess at least I feel like I'm nesting a little bit before she gets here. The upstairs is still a wreck but it's moving along. I'm still hoping that it's going to be done before she gets here.

Thanks everyone for all of your prayers. They are all greatly appreciated!

Fall in Love with Baby Kipfer

My cousin hosted a baby shower for me this weekend for everyone who lived in Southern Indiana and most of my family. It was beautifully done. Because it was in October, she had the idea of having the theme be "Fall in Love with Baby Kipfer". It was fall themed with apple cider and fall colors and stuff like that. It was great!! Julia made such amazing food! A pregnant woman's dream come true! Haha. A lot of people were there. We all just barely fit into her cute little house, but we did. The shower started off with mingling and socializing. Time for everyone to get to know each other. There were a lot of people from different sides of my family that didn't know each other. And Janean had only met a few people before the shower, so it was a great time for her to meet some other people in the family too. After that we ate all the delicious food. Some of the best food I've eaten in a long time. Then we played some games. The first one we played was a questionnaire about Drew and I as babies. My answer sheet didn't count (neither did the two grandma's answer sheets. that probably wouldn't have been fair), but if mine had I totally would have won. I only missed one question out of all 18. It was hilarious!! The next game we played was a baby food guessing game. My aunts, Pam and Debbie, volunteered with my cousin's girlfriend, Amanda, and one of my family friends, Maria. They were pretty brave souls. I got to feed them baby food!! It was hilarious watching their reaction to the taste and smell. I fed them things like carrots, apples and cherries, chicken noodle dinner, and butternut squash. I loved it!! Haha. After that I opened presents. We got a TON of blankets...that was kind of the joke of the shower was the crazy number of blankets that we got! The shower was so much fun though. I loved having everyone all there to celebrate our little one.

I wanted to say thank you for all the gifts and for everyone who came to the shower. It was so much fun and I loved having everyone there together. It was great having everyone meet each other and share some time together. I also really want to thank my cousin, Julia, for hosting such an amazing shower. Her devotion at the beginning of the shower was a great insight into living my life as a mother through God and His word. I really loved it.

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts. It is all very much appreciated.

man! she likes to move!

i have discovered just how much she loves to move. the other night i just laid in bed and watched her roll and kick and punch. it was probably the greatest feeling in the entire world...well at least until she gets here and then i'm sure i will have a million more great feelings. but watching her move was pretty great for right now. so watching her move and roll around is by far my new favorite pastime. it definitely blows rugby and cycling out of the water!! she definitely LOVES to move around. i can definitely see her constantly being on the move whenever she gets here. it makes me really curious to see if she'll be interested in dancing or sports or what will make her happy. but i'm that it'll be probably be something where she'll constantly be on the move.

all of her movements and just all of the stuff she does absolutely amazes me. i can't even begin to describe the feelings that i get whenever i watch her move around in there. she really is one of God's little miracles and i am so grateful to be blessed with the ability to carry such a beautiful little being. i love her so much (sorry drew, still love you, but i definitely love her in a very different way. can't help it. i'm the mom and i spend every day with her. haha).

all of your prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated. thank you so much. we love all of you.

22 week appointment

today was our 22 week appointment. her heartbeat sounded absolutely great! it's still very strong and constant. she measures exactly where she should be for how far along we are, even though i haven't gained that much weight since i've been pregnant. this will be good in the long run for losing weight after she gets here but it definitely had me worried for a minute about how big she is. other than that it was a pretty routine appointment. we met a new doctor in the practice today and i liked her a lot (i like the other doctors a little bit better but she was very nice and very attentive so i have absolutely no complaints. she just wasn't quite as thorough as the other doctors normally are). the baby also didn't run away from the doppler this time, so it was nice of her to cooperate; i was very proud that she decided to be nice to the new doctor. haha. 

we have developed a new game to play when she decides she wants to really move around (i'm sure this is something a ton of mothers before me have done before me and many will do after me but i find it fascinating!!). when she kicks i will push back on her to get her to kick again. she seems to like playing this game and does it for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. she usually moves around quite a bit. the last few days she was a bit sluggish and didn't move around that much, but in the short time that i've been writing this out she's decided that this is one of the nights that she's gonna kick around in there like crazy. maybe i do have a little soccer or rugby player on my hands (if she turns out to play rugby drew might kill me. haha). people can finally start to feel her too. i was sitting on my couch with my mom writing some emails and checking on some stuff online and the baby started to move around. there was one particular kick that made me laugh because it felt like she was kicking my entire right side. it felt crazy. so i wanted to see if i could feel her by putting my hand on my belly and i could. i told my mom and she put her hand on my belly. after a few minutes another strong kick came and she felt it. her reaction was AWESOME!! i can't wait to see drew's reaction when he feels her in november. i really hope she decides to be active that day or he might be a little more than disappointed. 

i want to thank all of you for everything that you have done for us. it makes it a lot easier while drew is away. all of the prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

my little swimmer

so i've been to a few doctor's appointments now where she decides to do the same thing...swim around and avoid the doptone. she really likes to hide from that thing!! it's kinda funny. the doctor will find her and then she'll quickly run away from it. she's a very very active little one. she always does that! it really does make me laugh. 

she moves around a lot now. i can feel her move every few days or every other day. it usually depends on how i'm sitting or laying down and what her position is. it's a great feeling whenever she decides it's time to punch or kick mommy. she's not big enough or strong enough yet for anyone else to feel it (kelly, one of my best friends, really wanted to feel her the other night but definitely didn't get the satisfaction of feeling her move around. haha. sorry kel. love you though). feeling her move or kick or punch is by far the best thing that i've ever felt. it amazes me that i have a tiny little life growing in my belly. having a baby is a blessing from God and one of His little miracles. 

another thing that amazes me is that i have never loved someone so much in my entire life (drew i love you and you are my everything but i'm not gonna lie i might love our little one a tiny tiny tiny bit more. it's only because i'm growing her in my belly and have a very different connection with her. but dont worry you're still my everything and i can't wait for you to come home so we can start our life together. i love you i love you i loooove you!!) she's so amazing to me. i'm in awe of her and all that she's doing in my belly. growing, swimming, rolling, punching, kicking, and just really existing in there. it's all a miracle to me. drew and i are so very very proud of her and our new family. it will be a blessing for him to be home and for us to be able to start our family together. 

love all of you and thank you for your prayers and support.

our beautiful baby is a GIRL!

the doctor's appointment on wednesday went great! we took a ton of pictures of her. she was moving around a lot so it was really fun to watch her. it just amazes me how much she has changed over the past few months. and how much she will continue to change until she's born. her heartbeat was at 154 beats per minute. it was very strong and healthy. you can see her cute little profile in some of the pictures and her entire spinal column. her little legs were crossed but she was kicking them like crazy and it was nice to see she was moving so much. my mom said that she's gonna have to pay for dance lessons because she is such a mover. i feel like when she's bigger and moves around more i'll probably want her to calm down a bit, but for now i can't feel it too much so i think it's great! the doctor said that she looks fantastic and very  healthy. i've felt her move a few times. at first i didn't know if it was really her so i didn't want to assume anything. but now i've felt it a few more times and i'm pretty sure it's her wiggling around in there. i can't wait until i feel her everyday.  she is continuously amazing me. the doctor says that right now she weighs in at about 8 ounces. this is a healthy weight for how far along i am. 

drew was very excited when i told him that our baby was a girl. i had told him all along that it was but he didn't believe me. so he said he was pretty amazed whenever i was right about her. just kinda funny. everyone was pretty much split as to what their guesses were. so our little one will either be tess marie or lola jane. we'll wait to decide which one until the baby is born and we get a good look at her. we love all of you and thank you for your prayers.

16 week video YAY it loaded!

ok so here goes trying to add this video to my blog...hopefully it works

wow this took FOREVER to load!! hahaha. i hope everyone enjoys it. love you all!

16 weeks...almost half way :)

i had another doctor's appointment this past wednesday. nothing too exciting. we didn't get an ultrasound, they'll wait for that until about 20 weeks when we'll find out what the sex is. the baby was moving around like crazy when the doctor was trying to find the heartbeat. he'd catch it for a few seconds then the baby would move so he'd have to go searching for it again. this happened a few times before we got the baby to stay in one place. haha. it's a little swimmer. other than that it was a pretty routine appointment. soon enough i'll have to be at the doctor once every two weeks but for now it's just once a month. 

i've been feeling pretty good. the heat isn't really agreeing with me too well though. i get tired pretty easily when i go outside on hot days and it makes me feel kinda weak or nauseous. other than that though the morning sickness has gone away, which is great. work is going well (they still don't know yet. i'm gonna tell them in about another week or so). i'm on my feet all day moving which stinks sometimes but others its nice because i'm not just sitting around. my days fly by. drew's already been gone a month and it seems like he just left. hopefully the next 5 months will fly by like this first one has. the baby and i still miss him a ton though and wish he could be home. 

i couldn't get the video uploaded today but i'll try again soon. i uploaded the video to facebook though so anyone who wants to watch it can watch it on there. sorry guys. love you all and thank you for keeping us in your prayers. 

comparing baby bumps

so i got really bored the other night and felt the need to document my ever growing belly. haha. having been an athlete for most of my life i feel like i'm pretty in tune with my body and have noticed my little baby bump getting bigger. the first picture is of me at 12 weeks. not really much of bump at all. i really didnt notice that i had much of a bump recently until i wore a t-shirt to work that was kind of tight on my belly. i looked in the mirror at work only to realize that yup, i definitely had a bump starting. again, not much of one but enough that my boss is either gonna think i'm pregnant or i eat a little too much during my lunch break. haha. i still haven't told them yet since i'm still trying to settle into the job. i think they'll take it pretty well since i plan on staying there for awhile even after the baby is born. the people that i work with are great and the job is pretty fun, except that i have to stand on my feet for about 9 hours a day with very little opportunities to sit down. i feel like i'll get used to it the more that i work there. anyways....back to comparing the baby bump. 

the next pictures that i've put in this one is of my belly a few days ago. this would make me 15 

weeks along. i've got a little bit of a bump. i'm pretty excited to start showing. i know that sounds weird but since this is my first i feel like i'm excited for everything (including my b

elly...haha). i'm just trying to enjoy everything about being pregnant. i didn't enjoy the morning sickness so much so i feel like i can enjoy everything else. it's been a blessing so far and i know this baby will be for the rest of my life. the baby is going to be beautiful and i can't wait to meet our new little one. (i know that i kept calling it a girl but every time i do drew keeps reminding me that it could still be a boy so i feel like i should call it "baby" or "it" for right now). 

anyways...i will post another update after i have my next appointment in about a week. no ultrasounds at that appointment just a doppler to hear the heartbeat. i should have a video though for drew so everyone can enjoy that too. i'll keep everyone updated!! keep us in your prayers. love everyone.

demolition day

well it's official...there is no drywall and very few walls left in the upstairs of my house. between my 4 uncles, aunt, cousins, janean, jenni, jayla, jesse, and brent we completed stripped the upstairs of all drywall. you can stand in the kitchen and see completely to the back of the house. i was instructed to not do anything after i started having cramps from lifting some drywall, i felt kinda useless (but it was better to not hurt the baby). i would go upstairs every hour or so and more and more was gone each time. it should be done around november...hopefully. 

if anyone has any framing experience and wants to help out in two weeks please let me know. 317 610 6369. it would be great to have more hands than just me, my  mom and my uncle. (we're the only ones who are planning on being there as of right now)

i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came to help yesterday. we really got a LOT done and it meant a lot to have everyone there. so thank you so so so much!! i was really excited that so many friends and family could come out and help. i love all of you for that!! janean, jenni, and jayla worked ridiculously hard and got soooo much cleaned up. jesse and brent might have broken through the wrong wall but destroyed the old laundry room. my mom didn't care about that too much because she wanted to re-do that wall anyway but i don't think she wanted to re-do it right now. haha. my uncles and cousins destroyed all the walls and are now making room for the the baby. i just keep praying it gets done by the time that i'm big and pregnant and can't/don't want to move around a whole lot. 

thanks again to everyone that helped!! love all of you!

ugh...drew's on a boat...blah!

so it's official...drew is off on a boat somewhere and i'm missing him like crazy. the baby is not liking it very much that daddy is not here to say goodnight every night. instead, the baby gets to hear tracks of drew from the spring show (thank you jason for those...shaun you tried and i'll give you credit for that one. computers break and it wasn't your fault). today was a pretty good day and i'm just trying to stay positive and focus on the best for the baby. it doesn't need to feel anything but love and contentment for the next 6 1/2 months so me being sad is not gonna go over well with it. i'm just kinda taking it one day at a time, hopefully the days will start to fly by once i get into a routine. not really showing at all yet and i've lost any cravings that i had in the first trimester (no more pickles and buffalo chicken. probably a good thing, at least with the pickles). nothing too exciting going on with me or the baby right now. we have our next check up in three weeks and as of today i'm officially 13 weeks, still not half way : ( so much more time to go. i can't wait to meet our new little one!

i love you drew. and miss you very much. i can't wait for you to be home. don't worry i'll try to keep the little one in as long as possible so you can have time to tell her how much you missed her and tell her all about your fun adventures on the ship. i can't wait to have you home. i love you. i love you. i looooove you : )

FIRST TRIMESTER = DONE!!!

so glad to be done with the first trimester. it went by fairly quickly and the baby is doing great! we had our 12 week appointment today, which was pretty short and sweet. they did a doppler on my belly to find the heartbeat. it was beating strong and fast...both good signs that the baby is healthy. such a blessing to hear the heartbeat. drew loves it!!! i wanted more ultrasound pictures but we won't get anymore of those until 20 weeks whenever we find out the sex of the baby. i really just wanted to see the difference from 9 weeks to 12 weeks, but we'll just have to wait for another two months : (

the morning sickness is pretty much all gone (thank goodness...i really do enjoy eating on a regular basis). it's really nice not having to worry about how i'm going to feel during the day. the last few days that i get to spend with drew before he leaves should not be filled with nausea and motion sickness. so i'm thrilled that i'm done with that for right now. i can actually start to move around now instead of spending most of my time on the couch. i missed being able to walk my dog and kinda just move in general. i hear that morning sickness can come back in the third trimester and i'm not really looking forward to that one, but it all comes along with being a mom. i can't wait to see the baby and all of this is totally and completely worth it.

i'm gonna miss drew a lot but i hope he has a FANTASTIC time while he's away. he has a blog for his cruise which is:

www.drewscruise.wordpress.com

hopefully he'll keep it updated more than i've been with this one over the past month. i'll probably get better about that once he leaves for the cruise.

love everyone and thanks for all the support that has already been given and keeps coming. it truly means the world to know that our family and friends are standing beside us as we embark on this amazing journey. we love all of you!!

9 week ultrasound pictures

we got these taken at a follow up appointment at 9 weeks. lots of changes for me and the baby

8 week ultrasound pictures

these are the 8 week ultrasound pictures that we got at our first appointment.

the first few months...hmmm

well the first two and a half months have been a little interesting. i started out in morocco and spain not having any idea that i was pregnant. i had horrible morning sickness in spain, but didn't know that's what it was. no throwing up, thank goodness!! just nausea, which was bad enough. now that i am ending my first trimester, i feel a WHOLE LOT better. i get nauseous sometimes but it's definitely tapering off. i'm just thankful that food finally sounds good again.

our first doctor's appointment was on june 16th. we had our first ultrasound and the tech took pictures (which i will post next time since i don't have a scanner around me at the moment). the babies heart rate was 164 (yes i know this makes it a little girl...that's my vote anyways). we saw the baby move its arm (well arm bud to be technical about it). drew's face when we heard the heart beat was priceless; i wish i could have had a camera.

the baby is healthy and doing very well. keep praying that the baby keeps growing and stays healthy!!