Guess who else is pregnant?

Kerry and Brad!

Kyle's parents are going from 0-3 grandchildren in a matter of 8 months, isn't that crazy?? We've known for a while now, but we just found out the gender last weekend! It's so fun going through this pregnancy with so many best friends and family, Kerry and I are exactly 7 weeks apart!  Congratulations you two, we are SO EXCITED about the arrival of our little nephew in April! 

Pumpkin Apple Bread Recipe!

My co-worker, Gina, makes the best Pumpkin Apple Bread every fall, so this year I got the recipe and tried it out myself!  Oh man it's just so good!

Pumpkin Apple Bread

Items you'll need:

Flour

Baking Soda

Ground Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Salt

Ground Cloves

All Spice

16 oz can Pumpkin

Oil

4 eggs

Sugar

2 apples

Butter

Directions:

Sift together in large bowl: 3 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp all spice.

In seperate large bowl whisk: 16 oz can pumpkin, 3/4 cup oil, 4 eggs slightly beaten, 2 1/4 cup sugar.

Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture.  Stir well until combined.  Fold in 2 apples, peeled and chopped (approximately 2 cups).

Make topping: 1 T flour, 5 T sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 T butter crumbled into coarse meal).  Set aside.

Divide batter between two, 9"x5"x3" butter loaf pans.  Sprinkle with topping.  Bake in the center of the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Cool in pan on racks for 45 minutes.  Remove and cool completely.  Can be kept chilled in fridge for 1 week or in freezer for 1 month.

Adding attic storage project complete!

Last week when my brother was in town, Kyle took advantage of having a work partner to get a project completed (since I'm pretty useless carrying anything these days-- let alone huge sheets of plywood)!  Our storage room in the basement is completely going away (will post this week on that project), so we desperately needed to put flooring down in our attic for storage.  Unfortunately before there was only a 4 foot by 4 foot section that was floored, and look at what a mess that was!

Kyle mapping out where the new flooring was going to go:

And another picture.  It is a pain with all the trusses but definitely worth it:

Nick and Kyle finishing up the flooring section:

Smiling at their hard work:

And the finished product:

I know it doesn't look like much, but we've already moved shelves up there and have bins stacked very neatly. This was our first project that we had to complete before we got moving on all the others, so be prepared for lots of project blog posts soon!  Thanks again Nick!!

25 weeks!

We had a GREAT doctors appointment yesterday morning!  Kyle went into work at 6 am, came back to meet me for the ultrasound, then rushed to a meeting at 10... what an incredible husband I have!!

We were scheduled for an ultrasound because during our last visit they couldn't get a great view of how the umbilical cord was inserted into the placenta, and a blood vessel in her brain looked on the larger side of normal.  Immediately, the ultrasound tec showed us her brain and let us know everything looked perfect.  Kyle and I both let out a huge sigh of relief, Praise the Lord!

The next was looking at the cord insertion.  She still couldn't get a real detailed view of it but to be on the safer side she did record it as "marginal".  This is not the norm, but in no way is it bad as long as the baby is growing.  She measured our baby's weight and she's ahead of schedule still weighing in at almost 2 lbs (1 lb 15 oz!).  She's in the 69% for size, so we will not have to closely monitor the cord insertion since she's getting plenty of nutrients!  Another huge praise!!

It's always so fun to watch her move around on the ultrasound.  This time she was looking straight at us, so it was harder to get a profile shot but we did finally get one after jiggling my stomach for a bit.  Her heartbeat was at 152 and we were able to watch the blood flow going in and out of the umbilical cord again which is so cool.

She was looking at us the whole time straight on like this:

So we had a great appointment, thank you for all your prayers!!  It is sad that this is the last ultrasound that we'll get from our doctor until she's born though.

NOW onto the survey:

How Far Along: 25 weeks! 

(She's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.)

Size of baby: About 13 1/2 inches long, and 2 pounds (the size of a rutabaga)!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 1 pound this week.  Total, I have gained 15 pounds.  I finally asked the doctor about my weight gain (since she hadn't said anything to me about it) she said that it's perfect, I have nothing to worry about.  I'm right on track to gain 25-35, but she thinks I'll be able to keep it under 30!

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!! 

Movement: Not as much this week because I haven't been sitting down to watch tv and feel her! We've been working so hard on projects every night, since we're traveling every weekend.  When I do lay down for bed I can feel her though, and on the ultrasound she's a little wiggle worm!

What I miss: Mountain Dew!!  (YES I know I can have caffeine but since I didn't drink much before I got pregnant it's been so easy to give it up cold turkey)

Sleep: Pretty good, tossing and turning a lot more now.  Starting to get hard to roll around.

Symptoms: Starting to feel BIG even though I know I have a ways to go!  Numbness in a spot on top of my left rib where the baby must be pinching a nerve.  When it's not numb it feels squished like I need to stretch to relieve the pressure.  Acid reflux some nights too.

Notes: Belly button is not so deep anymore... my boasts about it staying an innie might be false in a couple weeks haha.  We're going to go "fake ring shopping" soon as my wedding band is getting pretty tight during certain times of the day!  My emotions are pretty stable except for when I think about how much I love Kyle.  I immediately tear up and am filled with an unbelievable amount of joy, seriously!

"To-do" items checked off our list:  

- Kyle & Nick finished the attic project and we have started moving our storage bins up there. 

- I finally finished re-organizing/narrowing down my craft closet and the office is ready for the guest bedroom furniture!

- The guest bedroom is all packed up and the furniture is ready to be moved to the office.

- Bought our crib and changing table for the nursery!

- Our stroller & car seat were delivered this week! 

- Scheduled 3D/4D ultrasound! 

Cravings: Not anything crazy.  At the moment a slushy sounds fantastic!

Best Moment this week: Watching her wiggle around on the ultrasound and finding out that she's growing ahead of schedule even with the marginal cord insertion.  The most exciting thing is knowing that everything in her brain looked normal!

What we are looking forward to: Seeing all of our family over Thanksgiving even though it means a lot of driving.  Love spending time with family, we have so much to be thankful for this year!!

The Riverhouse!

Saturday after the ASU vs. FL game we headed to the Cato's riverhouse!  Uncle Bob's cousins own the house, and luckily it's only about a 10 minute drive from their house!  IT. IS. AWESOME.

The bottom level doesn't have much there incase of flooding, but the upstairs is so cool.  I didn't get any pictures of the inside, but it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and a character filled kitchen and living room.  The best part of all was the view of the river though, so relaxing!

We took a lot of pictures infront of the water and fall leaves.  Too bad my fingers look stubby :)

I love this picture with my 2 boys.  It was so fun having Nick join us all weekend!

Rachel, Mike and Gunney drove down for the FL game too and stayed with us all weekend.  Here is a group picture of all the kiddos:

We ate dinner out on the dock, then sat next to the fire Bobby made for a couple hours and roasted marshmallows.  It was so relaxing!

Sunday morning we woke up and went to their church, then came back and ate a quick lunch before heading out of town!  Thank you again Aunt Sherry & Uncle Bobby for entertaining us all weekend!  We had a wonderful visit and hope to do it again!

Gator Bait!

Last Friday, Nick, Kyle and I drove down to Gainesville, FL for the Appalachian State vs. Florida football game!  My Aunt Sherry (my dad's sister) & Uncle Bob live there and are season ticket holders for the Gators, so they were able to get us tickets to the game!

Saturday morning started off with Uncle Bob giving Kyle coffee in a Gator cup.  As you can see below Ky wasn't happy about drinking out of that!  We then headed to the stadium since the game started at 12:30.

I have never been in such a big stadium before, it was HUGE!  It was senior day so they introduced all the Gator seniors and gave them flowers.  It was really cool to hear all the fans scream for their favorite players and be so involved in the entire game.  I've never heard fans that dedicated to sing every song the band played WITH hand motions!  We all decided being a gator fan is a way of life for sure.

Unfortunately App couldn't hold a candle to the Gators... and got KILLED! (48 to 10).  The next day the paper said that we were the "APP-etizer", pretty creative in my opinion!  We still had a wonderful time though being at the game and watching our players go up against one of the biggest teams there is!  Thank you so much again Aunt Sherry and Uncle Bob for getting us tickets and letting us come to a game IN THE SWAMP!

Happy Friday!

Our bags are packed and we are heading to Gainesville, Florida this afternoon for the Appalachian State vs. Florida Gator game!  It's going to be fun to attend a game in "the swamp"!  Go Mountaineers!!

We finally have a washer & dryer again!

Did I ever mention on here that we haven't had a washer and dryer for the past 3 weeks?

About a month ago Kyle's boss Tim told Kyle that he was getting a new washer and dryer.  Our front-load washer had been leaking since we bought it, so Kyle immediately offered to buy Tim's set.  To say we got a deal from Tim is an understatement... not only are Tim's w&d nicer, they don't leak AND they came with pedestals :)

Kyle sold our set within a day... he is the master at Craigslist!  We ended up selling ours for $100 MORE than we bought Tim's set for... I told you it was a steal!  The only snag was that Tim's new set was back ordered so we spent 3 weeks without a washer and dryer.  It was a pain, but not a huge deal, as Chris and Kathleen and the Guenthers let us wash clothes at their house, thank heavens!!

So here is how our laundry room looked before with our white set that leaked:

And here is how it looks now with a much nicer gray set!  They just barely fit underneath our cabinets, but the pedestals are such a treat... no more bending over and we have extra storage space in the drawers!

A little closer of the washer & dryer:

I have to give a HUGE thank you to Chris for helping Kyle move these into our house.  The new washer was by far the heaviest thing they have ever moved, and at one point I thought it was going to come down the stairs and crush Chris!!

24 week survey!

How Far Along: 24 weeks! 

(Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long, she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help her air sacs inflate once she hits the outside world. Her skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.)

Size of baby: An ear of corn! (Almost a foot long and about 1.4 lbs in weight!)

 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 1 pound this week.  Total, I have gained 14 pounds. (As I predicted I have gained the exact amount of weight my mom did at this point carrying me!)

Gender: A Sweet Baby GIRL!!  We have officially decided on her name too, but are most likely not sharing until she's born! (We'll see how strong we are at keeping that claim!)

Movement: All the time and still loving it!

What I miss: This week a frozen margarita sounded really good to go with Mexican!

Sleep: Sleeping pretty good, probably only wake up once a night to go to the bathroom.  I do wish I could sleep on my tummy or back though, as I toss and turn a lot!

Symptoms: Stuffy nose every morning, some acid reflux and tight back muscles.  2 nights ago, I had my first foot cramp where my toes flexed down and looked like they were possessed- ha. Kyle rubbed it out very quickly for me though, thankfully!  I count myself as lucky to just have had my first leg/foot cramp!

Notes: No stretch marks, still applying the lotion and tummy butter every morning!  No swelling and my wedding band still fits!  I read in one of my books that you might be able to hear the heartbeat from the outside of my tummy so Kyle tried it over the weekend!  It worked, and was so cool for him to hear her heart pumping away!!

"To-do" items checked off our list: We have been working in our basement every night trying to reorganize the office into our guest bedroom.  (I am what Kyle likes to call "an emotional hoarder" for an example I kept every single card we were giving at our wedding, along with all the extra bubbles, programs, rsvps and invitation scraps.). I threw so much stuff away, and we have huge piles for Craigslist and Good Will.  Kyle has started measuring out the attic to put down flooring for more storage space.  We also had a professional come out and quote our plan for the basement.  Looks like it's a go (YAY!), I'll post about this soon!

Cravings: Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes!

Best Moment this week: Without a doubt, watching Kyle run to the finish line of his first half marathon!

What we are looking forward to: Our doctors appointment this coming Tuesday and seeing our baby girl again!  We will get another ultrasound to double check the placenta insertion and the blood vessel in her brain that looked a little large.  Please pray that they do not find any abnormalities and that our baby is still growing perfectly!

Nashville Half Marathon!

Last weekend we drove to Nashville, TN for a half marathon that Kerry, Brad and Kyle were running. We took half days on Friday so we could make it to TN in plenty of time to eat dinner and head to bed early to prepare for the race.  Kyle had just gotten home that morning from Seattle and poor Kerry was flying straight in from the UK.  We split a hotel room, slept great and woke up ready to "run for the party" (that's the company that hosted this race).  I broke off from them a bit before the race started so I could walk a little ways down and find a seat.

Here are the three runners before the race started.  Kyle ordered "dominate" shirts for all of us to wear to support my dad and raise awareness for Multiple Myeloma.  It meant so much to my whole family that they wore these during the race!

I walked down a little ways and realized I was the only fan who was not at the start line.  I quickly posted up right next to a police officer to make sure I was in a safe spot :)

Before I knew it, Kyle came running down the street.

And Kerry and Brad followed not too much later.  Kerry immediately yelled "are we winning?!" (being sarcastic of course :) )

I then had a little under 2 hours to kill before seeing them again, so I went down to the finish line, took pictures, then camped out in a field nearby and read a book.  The weather could not have been more perfect with blue sky and comfortable temperatures.

 

An hour later it was time to try and spot Kyle coming in to the finish line! Luckily, the gray shirts were not that common of a color (unbelievably) so I was able to pick able to pick him out easily!

Here is my man coming into the finish line:

And here is a fun animated gif that I made so you can see Kyle in action!

If you can't tell, he was actually limping into the finish :(  His IT band flared up around mile 11, and on top of that his right leg started cramping about half a mile from the finish line. BUT he did it, and I was relieved that he had no cramping until the end!

I immediately started crying watching him come in, as I was SO PROUD of him for finishing this.  He said at one point he looked down at his shirt and thought "A half marathon is nothing compared to what cancer patients go through... I've got this".  Bring on the water works...

We got Kyle some water and bananas then sat for a little while waiting for Kerry and Brad to come in.  I think it is so cool that they run these together, it's truly inspiring to watch all these people push their bodies in this way!

And here is a picture of all 3 half marathoners together after finishing the race!

And here is one of the four of us with our dominate shirts on.  Love you daddy!

After the race we headed back to the hotel to take showers, ice knees and rest for a little bit.  Our room was actually getting cleaned when we got there, so we took up an entire couch in the front lobby looking like this... classy I know :)
After showering, we headed back out for some lunch.  All the restaurants downtown are so charming, with brick on the interior walls and so clean for the most part!  I liked this downtown a lot better than Atlanta!

We walked back to the hotel, took naps (okay unbelievably I was the only one who took a nap) and watched football then headed back out for dinner.  We went to a bar and listened to 3 men sing country for a while, then picked up pizza and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to breakfast at 417 Union Street.  It was DELICIOUS and only a block away from our hotel!

Kyle ordered chocolate chip pancakes and the waitress even made them in the shape of a smiley face haha

We checked out around noon, dropped Kerry & Brad off at the airport, and started our drive back to ATL.  It was so much fun getting to spend an entire weekend with Kerry and Brad, and watch them all finish their half marathon.  I was so inspired that I might have told Kyle I would do a 5k after I have the baby :)  We'll see how that goes!

Just checking in!

We are back from Nashville, TN, where we went for Kyle's first half marathon (13.1 miles).  We had such a great weekend, but until I have some time to edit the photos I'll leave you with this one.  It's really blurry but it makes me smile!  Have a great Monday :) 

Visiting Grammy & Pop Pop in Black Mountain!

Last weekend, Kyle and I traveled up to my grandparents house (on Dad's side) in Black Mountain, NC (I've posted about it before here).  We met my mom, dad, brother and Grandma up there too so it was a really fun weekend catching up with everyone.  My Pop-Pop always has a long list of projects for the guys to complete for him, so Nick and Kyle were outside all day Saturday with chainsaws cutting firewood.

My dad would normally be heading up the chainsaw activity outside, but had to take it easy this year as we are focusing on him being cancer free and healing that sacrum so he can sit!  We were able to walk some laps around the driveway and talk for a while though, which I loved.

Here's a picture of my mom and dad with their moms.  I love that Grandma came up with us all to enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

Unbelievably there were still leaves on some of the trees up there!

On Sunday, Kyle wanted to practice shooting so Pop Pop got one of his guns and they went down to shoot at targets.  Nick, Grandma, Mom and I all gave it a try too! First time Mom and I have ever shot a gun before!

And I have to share this last one... remember how I said I married someone just like my brother... here is proof. Tara-- I know Jamie would be doing the exact same thing if he was in this photo too. haha

It's truly a different world up there, but it's so great to get away and relax with family!!