3d/4d ultrasound

We took my family in for a 3d/4d ultrasound the Saturday after Thanksgiving.    Wyatt wasn't cooperating and when we tried to get a look at his face, we got some really great pictures of his hands.   Little guy had both hand completely blocking his face.

 So we decided to see some other parts of him.   The picture below is his little foot, lower leg and thigh.   He has chunky thighs already.

 This one is his ear.

 Here is one of his little foot and ankle.

 Hoping for better luck, we went back to try to get a face shot and got this one of both hands again.

 The technician decided to take a break, so I walked around, used the restroom and did some stretches.   Luckily we got Wyatt to cooperate after that and we got some great shots of his sweet little face.

We are so in love and cannot wait to meet our little man soon!

2 more months

We made a trip home at the end of September for my baby shower.   It was so good to celebrate with friends and family.  Thanks to everyone that came to celebrate our little miracle.  Here is a picture of me and my sisters from the shower.

 

We also made a trip to Virginia to visit the Phipps side of the family and for James' dad's retirement party.   

 

Amongst our trips, we completed the nursery.  It's not a big room but we are excited with how it turned out.  Thanks mom for helping me get everything put together!

 

We made a quick trip to the pumpkin patch while my mom was in town for the weekend.   This place was super cool and had lots of stuff for kids to do.  I wish Wyatt could have seen how cool it was, but James was the big kid instead :)

 

A few weeks ago we got a tour of the family birth center at the hospital we will deliver at.   It reassured both of us that we will have the best care available when Wyatt arrives.   It also made everything very real and made us both look forward to when Wyatt is here.

How far along: 30w6d

Baby is the size of a: pineapple

Symptoms: achy and trouble sleeping

Food cravings:  Panda Express

Anything making me queasy/sick:  nope

Sleep:  is hard to come by these days.  I consider a night where I remember waking up only 3-4 times a success.

What I miss: being able to sit, stand or sleep for any significant period of time without hurting

Wedding ring on or off: off.  I've been wearing a fake one.   I get claustrophobic when my rings are at all too tight.

Movement:  He is one active little guy.  I even caught a quick video of it one night.   You can see sometimes that he is laying to one side.

Labor signs:  nope

Best moment of the week: spending my 4 year anniversary with my 2 favorite boys!

What I'm excited about/looking forward to:  having family come visit for Thanksgiving and getting the house ready for Christmas.   He will be here before we know it!

 

I can't believe it is 2 months until my due date.  We are so excited to finally meet our little man.  I  included this last picture just because I think James looks so cute. 

 

Halfway there!

I wrote this almost 2 weeks ago and forgot to post it...oops!

Yesterday we had our 20 week ultrasound.  Not that we would have been able to tell if something was wrong, but it was really interesting to watch as they checked everything from his brain to his heart.  The doctor commented that Wyatt is "a mover and a shaker" as he kept moving throughout the ultrasound, making it take longer for them to get all the images they were looking for.   He started out belly up, flipped spine up, and then flipped again to belly up before they were done.    Sounds like we will have our hands full when he arrives!  The doctor said everything looked good and he is already 12oz.   We are so thankful that we have had a normal pregnancy so far.

How far along: 20w2d

Baby is the size of a: a banana

Symptoms: mostly tired

Food cravings:  sweets and French fries :)

Anything making me queasy/sick:  not at the moment

Sleep:  I get tired easily and go to bed early but my sleep has gotten a little more comfortable with the addition of a few extra pillows

What I miss: feeling in control of my emotions

Wedding ring on or off: on.  haven't noticed any swelling

Movement:  I feel him move daily now.   sometimes it is subtle and I have to pay attention to notice, other times it is not so subtle

Labor signs:  nope

Best moment of the week: getting to see him at the ultrasound and being told that everything looks good

What I'm excited about/looking forward to:  getting the nursery all put together.  Now that we know what crib/changing table we will use, I just want to get everything put together.

It's a boy!

We were so excited to go in for our first 3-d ultrasound on July 20.   It was absolutely the most amazing thing to see this little baby moving around and I would go every week if we didn't have to pay for it.   The ultrasound tech purposely waited until near the end to reveal that we are having a boy!   We would have been thrilled either way, but it was so much fun to know what we were having.   Here are a few of my favorite shots from the ultrasound.

I love this one because you can see so much of him.  As he grows, we will not be able to see this much of him in one shot.

I think he was getting tired of the pictures.  If you look closely, you can see his little fingers spread on the side of his face, as if he is pushing.

Silly little guy was blocking his face with his fist.   Even these 3 pictures show how much he was moving his arms around.

 

A little survey I stole from a friend about my pregnancy so far:

How far along: 16w5d

Baby is the size of a: Avocado

Symptoms: Crazy emotions, super sensitive sense of smell

Food cravings:  sweets and chipotle.   This kid is going to be made of guacamole

Anything making me queasy/sick:  Too much milk, certain smells

Sleep:  I get tired easily and go to bed early, but sometimes have a hard time going back to sleep when I wake up

What I miss: deli meat, although my doctor told me yesterday that it's fine to eat as long as its fresh

Wedding ring on or off: on.  haven't noticed any swelling

Movement:  although the pictures show he is active, I cannot feel it yet

Labor signs:  nope

Best moment of the week:  hearing his heartbeat again at my checkup

What I'm excited about/looking forward to:  getting the nursery all put together

 



And baby makes 3!

As you all know by now, we are expecting a baby.   We are so excited to be starting our family and feel blessed with this amazing gift.     My due date is January 9, and we look forward to meeting our little one.  We had our first sonogram 6 weeks ago, here is the picture.    So amazing to see the little heartbeat and realize there is a child growing inside of me.   We go this weekend to get a 3d ultrasound to find out what it is.   I have felt like it is a girl, but the vast majority think it is a little boy.   Either way, we will be so excited to know and be able to start planning.

Being the over achiever that I am, we already have 1000+ diapers stocked up.   I have to say, I love looking for deals on all the baby stuff.  It has become a game to see how cheap we can get diapers and what we can get discounts on.   So far we got a new baby carrier for less than half price (thanks for the tip Annie) and a gently used stroller. We are blessed to have such an amazing family and be receiving so many hand-me-downs that will save us $100's.   Baby Phipps is spoiled already!

Pacifica Pier

Since we were new to town and didn't know anyone yet, we decided to drive around town on Superbowl Sunday and ended up at the Pacifica Pier.   It was a cold but pretty day on the coast.   We also tried a great little Mexican restaurant while we were driving around town.   It is so nice to live near authentic Mexican food again.

 Some nice lady stopped and offered to take our picture.

 Looking out at the pier from the boardwalk.

 I thought this one was cool because you can see a hint of the rainbow that the waves caused.

 Looking back at Pacifica.

We feel lucky to live less than 10 minutes from here.    

Family Pics 2012

The Montgomery side of the family had family pictures done over Christmas and here are a few of my favorites.

 All the females of my generation.

Sisters!

 A good picture of our relationship.

 James couldn't resist the tractor.  You should have seen him playing with the shifters.   He is 30 going on 5 ;)

 This is my favorite picture.   Love this man!

James Surprise 30th Birthday party

James big 30th birthday party is coming up on May 20.  I decided the big 3-0 needed to be celebrated, so with the help of my sister Lisa, I threw him a surprise party yesterday.   I got him to Lisa's by telling him we were babysitting Emma, and he had no idea what was in store for him.   This was when we walked in the door.

Lisa made this awesome cake for him!

These guys are the closest thing to family (besides our actual family)  that James could ever hope for.   Note that both guys are wearing there Phipps Engineering shirts that James had given them.

Dixie (more to come on her later) made an appearance at the party.   It was so much fun to have a day to just celebrate how awesome James is.   We played games in the yard, hung out and enjoyed some great food...Thanks to Matt for bbqing!   I hope James realizes how special he is and how much we all love him!

Need your opinions

We are planning basement projects for this winter. The "big 3"things we need to do are paint, buy a sofa and flooring. We have three paint samples that we are deciding between, all neutral tan shades. For the sofa, we have decided on one from Ashley Furniture that is similar to the one we have already but with chocolate brown cushions that look almost like corduroy. This isn't exactly it, but gives you an idea. The one we picked is definitely more chocolate and doesn't have the fancy polka dot pillows.

So here is where you can have some input, we decided on laminate wood for down there, and these are the 2 favorites:

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=7060

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=6962

They are so different but both really pretty.

This is an example of what it would look like with the darker floor, except that we have natural wood trim. These sofas are the fabric and color of the sectional we picked.

Lake Phipps

So it stormed like crazy yesterday and this is what happened to our yard. It reminds me of the Monty river we used to get back home.

And this picture per James' request.

Home Improvements

So we are doing lots of work around the Phipps house. We laid floor in the first room in the basement last week and are painting the kitchen this weekend. The floor was just concrete, so flooring makes it look much more finished. The kitchen is this horrible mustardy color which we hate. We are painting it a light blue and the dining room will have a chair rail and tan on the bottom. We also plan to put in this sweet glass tile backsplash in the kitchen. It is fun to make this house we bought into our own home.

For those of you that don't know, I started a new job May 9 as a contract engineer at Zimmer. It took some faith to step into a contract position, but I look forward to what God has in store.

Sorry I'm so bad about blogging. I will try to post pictures of the projects soon!

update

James and the dog. James has taken to giving Harley "hugs." Even though he is a husky, he shivers outside in the snow so we bought him a Harley Davidson sweatshirt. Turns out it was more like a muscle shirt on him.

We had a great trip home for Christmas. It was so much fun to spend an entire week with the family, celebrating together. We also managed a trip to the zoo, where james was finally able to see Pandas! This picture is a perfect description of our relationship. haha.

We have learned the real meaning of cold this winter, with the high yesterday being somewhere around 9! The coldest temp we have seen so far is -2F.

We are looking forward to a good year here in the Phipps house. Hopefully you are all doing well!

Oops...

I posted my most recent blog to my old blog site, so instead of retyping it, here is the link:

http://meganmonty.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

1 week in, 1 week to go

So we have been in Indiana for 1 week now. We each drove our vehicle out here, James pulling the trailer and me with the cat. The "relaxer" the vet gave the cat made him crazy and the first 6 hours of the trip were constant meowing and trying to claw his way out of the crate. Since James was pulling the trailer it took us 14 hours to get here! I'm so glad we don't have to make that trip again.

The temporary house leaves a lot to be desired. Thank goodness we close a week from tomorrow or we might both go crazy!!! Somewhere between the house's smell and the fullsize bed it just isn't meeting expectations. I guess this will ensure that we appreciate everything about our new home.

James is enjoying his job so far, getting to know people and figuring out what his role will be within the team. My days consist of lots of time spent with Emma and Lisa to avoid the temp house. It is great to live near family again! We will be open for visitors starting with mom and dad in September, so we'd love to have you visit!

Taking Indiana by Storm

We are so excited that James has accepted a position as a Senior Engineer 1 at Zimmer. It is an orthopedic design company where he will be working in the post market department. His start date is August 16 and we will be moving into temporary housing on August 13.

Yesterday we went house hunting and made an offer on a great property. The family was camping so we were left hanging until right before our offer expired. They countered and we came to an agreement we are very happy with. So we bought our first home!! We will be closing on August 27 and can't wait to get moved in. Here are some pictures of it.

It is 3 bed/ 3.5 bath with a finished basement. It has 3 storage sheds and a great shop out back. It sits across from a cornfield on 2.4 acres. We are REAL country people now!!

The living room into the dining area.

The beginning of James' dream shop.