23 Weeks and Our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary!

This is what's going on with Lil' Lil at 23 Weeks:

At this point you’ve pretty much adjusted to the fact you’ve got a moving little gymnast inside of you, but now they’re going to kick up the party a notch because they can hear and react to sounds from the outside world. Sounds from your alarm clock, a thunder roll, or that darned car honking at you across the intersection can actually jar their little ears enough to elicit a kick or violent bout of squirming. Of course this also means that their little ears are picking up the sounds of your voice and those near you. So go ahead, sing a lullaby to your little angel—if they start kicking, it’s likely they just want you to stop… or maybe it was a kick of approval? You decide. Your baby's tiny taste buds are still growing and their bones are continuing to ossify (harden), their tiny veins are visible through their translucent yet wrinkly skin. (Think of it this way: they’ve been swimming in the equivalent of a long hot bath for the past 23 weeks, so you can’t blame them for being a little prune-like.)
LILY'S POV on 23 WEEKS:Loud noises get her riled up! We were watching 3:10 to Yuma and the train scene at the end got REALLY loud. She started squirming and kicking... it startled me because the movie scene was so intense too. And she sure is squirrley, especially at bedtime... just like Daddy! Now I got Lily, Jerad & Kaiya to contend with in the bed. They all take forever to settle down and fall asleep. Poor Mom! All and all everything is great in our pregnancy! I have no pregnancy maladies, except for a hurting back. No stuffy nose or nose bleeds, no swollen ankles, no trouble sleeping or anything like that! I feel truly blessed!!

1 WHOLE Year:

Jerad and I also celebrated our FIRST Year Wedding Anniversary yesterday. Hard to believe a year has gone by already. It has been QUITE a weird year for us both. But finally everything is looking up, and we both are in a really, really great place in our lives! We went to the 3rd Floor Fish Cafe for dinner. That restaurant means a lot to us, as that was our first nice dinner together, many Valentine's together and where he proposed to me! It is SO yummy there! I realized I am on a Creme Brulee kick lately. I just can't get enough of that stuff! I got Jerad a compound miter saw he has been eyeballing for months... he was SO excited! It has all the bells a whistles on it. He (and I) are looking forward to new crown and wall moulding very soon! I also wrote him a poem and framed it. I think he was touched I wrote it just for him! Jerad got me a watch I had been wanting for months. It is beautiful and I love it lots. I feel very special that he got it for me. So we had a very nice mellow anniversary, just what we were wanting. What great love we have for one another... through everything. I feel so lucky we met, I couldn't imagine my life without him. We are looking forward to many more loving years ahead.

Baby Bumps...

Mama and Lil @ 22 Weeks

So here is Lil' Lil at 22 weeks in Ma's tummy! She sure is wiggly in there! I have to say I love it though because I know she is doing good. I can't wait until Jerad can feel her little karate chops and kicks. It should only be a couple more weeks. I should have known she was a girl... I never crave sweets, but as soon as I was pregnant I had a wicked sweet tooth! Especially pastries and sweet fruits. It sure worked out good for our friend Danny that eats over during the week, he helps me eat it so I don't eat too much. And those 100 calories packs of mini cupcakes are a great invention too! Maybe there is some truth to that wife's tale after all. Hmm...

Well, as you might have read already Grammy helped us in buying our nursery stuff. We got an amazing crib and dresser/changing table (thanks so, so, so much Grammy V.). Grammy also bought the crib bedding too! There was a small baby bump there because we bought it when we thought Lily was a BOY! We decided on an outdoorsy themed nursery. We wanted bears, moose, birds and fish pictures! Pine trees and lakes, etc. I even found a really cool wall border that is dancing bears! Grammy has a hand sketched picture of a moose dancing with a squirrel that was in Stacey and I's room when we were little and she wanted us to have it too! I was SO excited. So Jerad and I picked out blue camo bedding. Then we learned Mini Mazen was gonna be a GIRL! Well... it really wasn't too big of a deal to Jerad and I! It took no more than 2 seconds for us BOTH to decide we are keeping the bedding. Neither my sister or I were girly girls, so it still seems SO right! Growing up Stacey's favorite color was BLUE and mine was GREEN, so we don't see why it wouldn't work!! We love our picked theme and that is what counts!!

Baby Lily's First Bedding...

Home Sweet Home!!

Like I said earlier we sure have been nesting! My sister kept telling me we'd be doing it soon, and boy was she right. Actually too it's just been lots of little stuff, but helps tremendously! We got our new cabinets in and we were majorly impressed at how much more room we have for our kitchen stuff. Jerad still has to anchor them in, but then we get to fill them up!! We also found a great deal on quartz counters for our kitchen and breakfast bar, so we are hoping to have them installed in a couple weeks... also we are putting in recessed lighting instead of the icky flouresence, then our kitchen will be on it's way to done! We will still have a bit of things left to do in the dining room (we are putting in more cabinets there too) and then drywalling the rest of the living room, but it's all easy stuff I am sure we can do in one weekend.
Below is a picture of our new dining room table and chairs. Jerad absolutely loves it, and was a champ putting it together. And today I picked out a 3 new washer and dryers I liked! Tomorrow I take Jerad to pick which one he likes. He always tells me, "you do good picking stuff out, I'm sure whatever you go with will be fine." But I really do like his opinion too on making the bigger decisions, so I usually just narrow it down for him and then we go with his pick! We make a good team that way, as he can be a bit indecisive at times! ;)

The NEW dining Room Table

Shocking Wonderment of it All!

So sorry for the delay in posts... we both have been really busy as of lately! It has been pretty crazy in our world as of lately, and the nesting had begun... we have so much furniture in our garage that needs to be assembled. Crib, dresser/changing table, dining room table and chair. Poor Papa is getting crowded out of his workspace! We also have had some wild happenings and we'd love to FINALLY share.

First of all you might have heard that Jerad and I have a wee baby boy on the way. We picked the name Mazen (pronounced Mazz-In) Issac Matthai. We love the idea of Mini Maz! What a fun name to say!

Well... Jerad and I hit a little bump in the road in regards to our growing sprout. I got some test results back that raised some 'yellow' flags with my Dr. He was apprehensive and referred me to a high risk OB for a 4D ultrasound. We were so nervous the last week. I just kept praying and praying! I know Jerad did too. We already love this baby so much, and we just have that parental protection going right now. We want to protect our little one from everything bad and damaging in any way! Lisa is for sure a Mama tiger lately, she just loves our wee one more than she ever though possible!

So we had the 4D yesterday, and all was just fine. We can not express our relief! Mom burst into tears of joy, and I certainly have not been emotional at all during my pregnancy, so that was a surprise to me! Dad too was ecstatic that baby was okay.

But there was one thing that took us aback quite a bit. As we were taking all the 4D pictures my Dr. says, "Well there is a discrepancy... looks as though you got yourselves a baby GIRL." HOLY MOLY!! My mom just about lost it... she was SO in awe. The Dr. pointed it out again, "you see that little baby butt there, well that is a little girl baby butt." My mom started laughing and got all teary. We know it was a special moment for her! She is SO excited to have a grandson (my twin sister is having a little boy in May... Bane Palmer) and granddaughter on the way! We too were so happy to have her there supporting us. She has done SO much for us by buying our nursery stuff and supporting us through it all. Jerad and I could never, ever thank her enough for all she has done. She is the BEST grammy ever and we can't wait for her to meet our daughter!

So I guess Mazen will just have to wait to be the little brother. In the meantime Jerad and I are getting everything ready for our daughter LILY ISABELLA MATTHAI'S arrival. We feel so blessed and are happy no matter the sex, because as Jerad says, "The most important thing is that she is healthy."

So below are some 4D pics of our Lil' Lil! She doesn't really have fat or muscle yet... so she still looks like a little molding of clay! Most people that do the 4D do it at around 30 weeks when the baby is more developed. But proud Mama and Papa still think she is the cutest thing we have EVER seen!

Lil' Lily's Precious Face

Here she is again...

Look at that cuteness! (That's her umbilical cord by her face)

Here she is giving us the "Thumbs Up"! She is telling Ma, Pa and Grammy she is OKAY!

We love you so much Lil' Lil! We can't wait to meet you! Love your Mama & Papa!!!