25 weeks!

I really cant believe how fast this pregnancy seems to be going by!

Here is me at 25 weeks!

Weight gain: around 15 lbs

Baby is moving around like Crazy all the time!

Food cravings: Chipotle, still... cafe rio, still... nothing really new or exciting.

I have had the weirdest things that happen to me now, like weird allergic reactions that cause rashes on my belly. Luckily its gone now. For a while I had the worst pain in my shoulder, I couldnt even lift up my arm half way!

Other than that pregnancy so far has been pretty good to me. Hopefully it continues that way!!

I picked some fun patterns for the nursery, my grandma is making two quilts. Im not really doing a theme so I can interchange them for the crib.

Here are the patterns.

Which one is your favorite?

Also we have decided on a name! We werent going to tell until we had the baby but decided to go a head and tell anyways...His name will be.........

Tatum James Howard

Design Dilemna solved

Remember when we moved in the house and we couldnt decide what to do with the living room?

It looked like this...

Well we had to move some things around for the babys room so we made the movie room the new office and now the living room looks like this....

Hopefully we will be adding a fan and another light fixture in there (sooner than later...) and also a chair for the sitting area.
What do you think?

half way!

I cant believe how fast time seems to be going by!!

At 21 weeks :

still craving salads (cafe rio chicken specifically, which I have had 2x this week!! yumm!)
Pink lemonade is my 2nd drink of choice next to Water of course!
Gained 9 lbs
Definitely feeling some stronger kicks! I started to feel him and know what I was feeling around 18 weeks but it was very subtle. Now I feel quite a few strong movements after I eat good food and when I lay down for bed! Colby has yet to feel them, but I have a feeling it wont be long before Im being kicked constantly!
Bought my first (and second) pair of maternity pants! They are so comfy I may never wear real pants again!!
Had two strangers actually ask me how about my pregnancy! I guess I am noticeably pregnant now!

This week I am missing Colby! He is in Mexico with my dad and a whole bunch of other people doing a Baja run! Basically driving dune buggies and motorcycles down the mexican coast! I cant talk to him until he gets back on saturday, although I do have confirmation that he is alive :) and is having a blast, thanks to wifi!!

I also went to do a 3/d ultrasound with my mom, grandma, brother and sister this past weekend! It was fun to get to see some of baby boys features and share that moment with my family!

Here is my 21 week pic and some pic from the 3d ultrasound!! Who do you think he is looking like??

Its a boy!

After what seemed like a forever wait we finally had our first ultrasound/anatomy scan yesterday!
Baby was being active and playing with his feet! Our ultrasound tech was very nice and walked us through everything she was doing and why. I had read a whole bunch of horror stories about techs that wouldnt talk to you but that wasnt the case for us!

Baby was measuring 19w4 days (I was 18w6 days) but they dont change the due dates unless it is an 11 day difference.
Baby's estimated weight was 10 oz and was 8 inches long and is in the 86th percentile.
Heartrate was 162 beats per minute
and baby is a BOY!!

We are so excited for our little boy! We were a little bit surprised, we had been thinking it was going to be a girl, but the Howard tradition held strong!

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the ultrasound!

And here is the video of him trying to grab his feet!!

weekend!

This weekend we wanted to something fun. We considered heading up towards Flagstaff, but the weather turned crazy so we stayed in town. We ended up going to the desert and testing out the trucks off roading abilities.

Anyways we had a great time!

You can see the north side of Surprise from here.

15 weeks here.



Also, Here is an official picture of me at 14 weeks .

A little bump is starting to come out!

New Years Eve

We have had this problem lately where we cant figure out anything to do! Mainly its my problem, because it seems to take all my energy to even get ready, but at the same time all I want to do is get out of the house!
We made an actual decision on Saturday and headed up to the Salt River! It was a beautiful day, and almost 80 degrees outside! Believe it or not Colby and I both wore shorts!

We hiked down to the river, and Colby did some fly fishing. He caught one! It was a suckerfish and not the trout he was hoping for, but a fish is a fish to me! :)

 This fish had the weirdest lips I have ever seen!

The rest of NYE was pretty uneventful, we had dinner at Dennys, and then went home watched a movie and were in bed by 10:30. I wanted to watch the ball drop in Times Square but they cut out right at midnight eastern time to the 10 oclock nightly news. I guess the news was more important!

2011

2011  was kind of a crazy year! It was also the longest year ever! I am excited for what 2012 will bring!
Heres a rundown of what we did this year!

January

We went on a last minute trip to Washington DC! We made it there right after a snow storm and it was beautiful! Even though it was freezing outside there were no crowds and we were able to do everything we wanted to! I love DC and already miss being so close to so much history!

February
We were tormented this month with the news of the Greensboro Call Center closing and having to make a decision on whether Colby should find a new job, work from home, or transfer to a new place!
That pretty much sums up that month!

March

We made a trip out to Phoenix with AMEX where Colby was offered a promotion if we transferred. Looks like our decision was made for us!
It looked like our new scenery was going to change from heavily wooded area to this:

April
We enjoyed one of our last months in Greensboro by spending time with family and driving around Greensboro! Nothing too exciting!

May

We started to finish up our packing and then headed on a 7day 8 night cruise through the Western Caribbean! It was the perfect break from all the chaos!! We also experienced our first crash while we were mopeding in MExico! Definitely something we will never forget!!

June
I left my job of 3+ years! We packed up the Budget truck and made our way to Arizona! We miraculously made it in 2 days! We got all settled into our house and tried to gain our bearings! Oh and enjoyed our new pool!! My sister also graduated from High School and we were able to be there to celebrate! Colby also bought a new truck!

July
My family came down to celebrate the fourth of July with us!

August
I was able to spend a week in Las Vegas with my family and was also able to catch up with lots of friends!
We also went up to Slide Rock State Park in Sedona with the Coltons!

September
 We took our first camping trip and went tubing down the salt river!

October
We went camping again, I endured a treachurous (sp?) hike straight up a mountain! We went to Vegas and went on a double date with my brother! And went to California to go to Disneyland and a quick stop at the beach! It was quite the busy month!

November
We found out that we were expecting! We went to Greensboro for 10 days! and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Arizona with my family!

December

Mike and Dalene came to visit us and we went to see the Mesa Temple Christmas lights! We relaxed! and we went to celebrate Christmas in Las Vegas!

Happy New Year everyone!!