22 weeks!

I am 22 weeks...18 more to go! Hayden weighs in at about 1 pound now and is about 11 inches long! He is definitely having recess time quite often! I love feeling him move around. Today was the first time I saw my stomach move on the outside. So exciting!!

I can't believe it is almost Christmas! Reality has set in that it will be our last Christmas...just the two of us. We are so excited though. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas with your friends and family. Much love...

In case you were wondering where this beautiful pink wall is...It is Jen's mom's dining room.

Name Reveal...

Hayden Luke Smith

Where did it come from? Jeff and I have always talked about loving the name Hayden, even before we were pregnant. Luke... Jeff has two older brothers, one named Matthew and one named Mark. I have always told Jeff he should have been named Luke to go with the pattern of the books of the Bible. (Hayden will also love being named after his friend Barrett.) :-)

Being an educator you can always think of the names you don't want. We absolutely love our baby's name. We were really struggling coming up with a girl name, so I guess it was meant to be!

17 hour shopping day...WHAT?

YES!!! Yesterday my best friend Jennifer and I had a 17 hour shopping day! Well, I guess I should say I left my house at 7:15 AM and got home at midnight! We started off in McKinney thinking we we would just hang out in the McKinney/Allen area...but we ended up leaving Rockwall about 10:30 PM! Here is a rundown of our day...Chick-fil-a for breakfast, Bath and Body Works, Office Depot, Ross, Michaels, Petsmart, Target (to do my registry!), Belk, Kirklands, Old Navy, Home Goods/TJ Maxx, Babies R Us (to do my registry!), eat at P.F. Changs for lunch at 4 pm, Lone Star Baby in Dallas (what a fun store!), Mesquite to get Jeff a gift card (they were "sold out" of gift cards....WHAT???), then to the Rockwall Target, Scrapbook Store, Old Navy, Bath and Body Works, JC Penny, Belk, Chiloso for dinner (SO GOOD!), and finally to Wal-Mart. We still kind of wanted to get to Kohls and to Belk in Greenville, but we were officially WORN OUT!! I seriously would consider this a marathon shopping day!

Bad part...my body hurt so bad by the time I got home and I was so exhausted I could not sleep!!!!!!!!!! I went to bed about 12:45 AM, woke up when Jeff got home at 3:00 AM, talked to him about our day, couldn't go back to sleep for a while and finally got up at 7:00 AM. I am thinking I might need a nap later or it will be an early night!! :-)

The good thing is we didn't spend much money and we had so much fun!!!

It's a...

It's a BOY! It's a BOY! The Smith's are having a BOY!!

We are so excited! Jeff literally jumped out of the chair. I made them go back and check again to make sure and sure enough...no denying it is a boy! Yes, I have to admit there was a little piece of me that wanted a girl, but I could not be more excited. After the appointment, Jeff had to go to work and I went straight to Babies R Us to look around. I could hardly stand it. It is so real now.

It was a little bit of an emotional roller coaster today. My appointment was for 1:00 and the doctor's office called me today at 11:30 and left a message saying they had to cancel my appointment. Of course, I was devastated. Jeff was already on his way so I called him and told him to go back home. Then, I called the office back and they told me to go ahead and keep my appointment that another doctor was going to come in and help out. YEA!!! So, I called Jeff back and told him to turn around again and the rest is history...

The doctor I went to today specializes in sonography. It was not my regular OB-Gyn. They looked at every part of the body make sure everything was progressing as normal. They check the lip, parts of the brain, heart chambers, spine, counted the toes, looked at the kidneys, used infa-red to look at the blood flow in the umbilical cord, etc. It was amazing even though half the time we had no idea what we were looking at. Our baby was a little bit uncooperative at times and was constantly on the move. Maybe that was the Starbucks on the way???

We were able to get a DVD of the sono, so I will see if I can get some of it on here. The doctor told me he and my OB-Gyn wanted me in to get a sonogram every month due to my chronic hypertension and a procedure I had previously had to remove pre-cancerous cells. So, as the schedule is now, I will be going to either my doctor or the sonographer every other week.

I will keep you posted! :-)

Is that the baby moving?

I think I have really started to feel the baby moving! I love it!! Every time I feel movement I reach down to see if I can feel with my hands. One time I got so excited and realilzed it was the pulse in my finger. UHG! :-) I know soon enough that I will be feeling the baby all the time. I can't wait for Jeff to feel it too!!

Only two more days and we will hopefully find out what we are having. We can hardly stand it! Keep your fingers crossed that Baby Smith will cooperate! I will keep you posted!

Thanksgiving Break!

For Thanksgiving, everyone on my moms side of the family was able to be together at my grandparents home in Fort Worth. This is definitely a rarity! It was great to see my Aunt Kathy from Vegas and my cousin and her family from Lake Tahoe, CA. I was so proud of myself...I got up at 5:30 that morning to start cooking the ham and I also took a fruit salad (delicious-a staff members recipe!).

Jeff and I both missed Thanksgiving on his side of the family the Saturday before. He was out of town on a hunting trip and I attended a wedding that evening. So sad! I did get some leftovers the next day. Yum!

So, after thanksgiving dinner my dad and I packed up Thanksgiving leftovers (yum!) and headed West to our deer lease again for the next 4 days. Jeff worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so he wasn't able to join us. It was nice to spend that time with my dad. My dad killed another nice 8 point on Friday and yes, baby Smith and I killed a 9 point on Saturday night. I had to include the last picture of our deer lease transportation get-up. It just makes me laugh. We call this vehicle our "Exploder". Let me tell you, it has heat, comfy seats, lots of room for our stuff, and a rack for our deer on the front. What more could you want? I am sure you are all dying inside too thinking that you can't believe there is this side of me! I am a country girl at heart...what can I say?