Christmas

Christmas in CT was wonderful! While it didn't snow while we were there, we still had a white Christmas from the previous storms. We had a family baby shower on Sunday before Christmas which was very nice. We had not seen a lot of the family since last July so obviously the belly was much bigger and the baby was kicking away like the little soccer player they will be! Lor, Mom and I had our annual pieroge making party on Christmas eve and we enjoyed them with Patty's family, Uncle Ray and James. Dad even bought Polish beer! Santa was good to everyone on Christmas morning and then it was off to Aunt Maryann's for Christmas dinner. It was a busy day as Rob and I then had to fly out that night. The visit was short but sweet.
Now we are coming down the home stretch...only 9 more weeks to go!

Baby Room & First Shower

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. Things have been busy with the holidays coming up! I am happy to report that at least half of our Christmas shopping is done now. Considering just 2 short days ago we had NONE! So the weekend after Thanksgiving my mom and dad drove down from CT to help us get the baby's room all painted and set up. As you can see they did an awesome job. It took a lot of tape and hard work but turned out beautiful. We got the crib all set up and the furniture all in the room. We had a bit of time for play. Ma and I took dad to the lake for lunch, we found a new restaurant, now all we have to do is be able to find it again via the water! So now that the room has been painted and furniture set up all we needed was baby gear. This past weekend Rob and I went to Cleveland for our first shower. Rob's family gave me a wonderful shower. Rob's cousin Alyson, her friend and Auntie Judy took care of the decorating and food. The theme was rubber ducks and was too cute. Rob's other cousin Nicole made the cake from scratch and as you can see she should be a professional! We got a lot of cute things including a good start on the baby's library as all of the guests brought at least one book. We went to Cleveland with 3 suitcases and came home with 5! And now our nice clean baby room looks like it was hit by a hurricane :) I am slowing trying to organize...
Ok well thats all for now. This Friday we are off to CT for Christmas! Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Hawaii

Our trip to Hawaii was wonderful! The flights were a bit long and we had some trouble on the way over but once we got there it was beautiful. We went to Maui first for 5 days and then back to Oahu for the last 5 days. Maui was very picturesque and more mountainous than i thought. We had some beach and pool time and did a lot of site seeing. We went up to Haleakala which is the volcano 10,000 feet above sea level and watched the sun rise. We went to the Lavender Farm, the winery and the Maui Ocean Center. The first two photos above are of the crew at dinner one night and the view from our balcony on Maui.
We then caught a flight to Honolulu and drove up to the North Shore (pic of Rob & I). We ate dinner at a great Mexican restaurant and Rob bought me a black pearl pendant for our anniversary. Its beautiful! We then checked into our hotel in Honolulu (Hilton Hawaiian Village). It was more a small city than a hotel with tons of shops and restaurants. The fourth photo above is the view of the beach from our balcony. We visited the Dole Plantation which had the best pineapple ice cream, saw Pearl Harbor (the Arizona and the Mighty Mo'), went to a flea market, and then drove up the east coast of Oahu to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We had a luau and got to see a great show. In between all the site seeing we spent time at the beach and the pool. The weather was awesome the whole time. The trip went by entirely too quick but it was worth it. The scenery over there is amazing, i definately recommend it!

Halloween

Every year our office does a Halloween contest. My department won the contest last year so we were hoping for a repeat performance. And of course we delivered. Since there are 12 of us we celebrated a special event for each month of the year. As you can see I was a May Flower. Not the most flattering photo but you can see the tummy is getting a little bigger. This photo was at 23 weeks.

FYI this will be my last post for a few weeks. Rob and I are off to Hawaii next Wednesday with our OH neighbors. We are so excited, can't wait to share our photos when we get back!

Baby Pics!!!!

Our first real baby pictures! How exciting and awesome it was to see this today. The baby was very active during the ultrasound and had her (no we didn't find out the sex but I don't like calling the baby "it") hands/arms up around her face the whole time. The first pic is obviously the profile you can see nose, mouth etc. The second pic is the 4 D ultrasound where they tried to get a face shot but only got the nose, mouth and chin because of those arms in the way! The neatest thing I thought was the spine and the heart. They estimated the weight at 1lb 3oz at 22 weeks and 1 day. All is fine and healthy!

Pregnant...

So here I am 19 weeks into my pregnancy. I just started taking photos as my tummy is starting to get bigger! I'm feeling great so far...a bit tired but that's to be expected I guess. Starting to feel the baby move a little bit. Rob keeps waiting to be able to feel the baby as well. We are both SO excited...

Tommy's Visit

Tommy was in town this weekend. The three (or four) of us went to the Daughtry concert last night. The baby was definitely active with the loud music. Tomorrow Rob and Tommy are off to the NASCAR race in Charlotte, NC. This is Tommy's first race and says he's going to cheer for Jr. just to make Rob mad. Should be a fun time!