25.) Baby bumps!

14 weeks...

15 weeks! (almost 16 weeks, actually)









Baby is growing!!!!

24.) Sweet gifts from thoughtful friends.

How perfect is this?!?!  Words can not explain how in love I am with this book, and the concept behind reading to children as soon as possible (including in utero!).   Love, love, love this gift!

23.) Time spent with family and friends.

We spent a week in our shared hometown to visit with family and friends during the holiday season.  It was the first time that our loved ones had seen us since we found out we are expecting, and I'm sure that Baby felt the love!  We even received some really sweet and special gifts for Baby, including this book, which we can't wait to read to our little one.  In fact, we also looked through many, many children's books, set aside from my own childhood, and took a trip down memory lane while setting aside the potentially re-usable books (some were tattered from so much use!) for the future. 

We also visited the city we were married in five years ago and took some gorgeous pictures of the chapel, which I may to post later. 

We were very lucky to have a chance to see numerous friends throughout the week, many of which probably squeezed us in amongst holiday parties, Christmas shopping, busy work schedules, and family responsibilities.  We love our friends and hate being nearly 20 hours away, but thankfully, the distance is only physical - we still feel so connected despite seeing each other only once or twice a year. 

Our families were thrilled to see us, and it was one of the best visits "home" I think I've had in a while.  We took each of our parents out to dinner and spent time with 2 of our 3 brothers/brothers-in-law, as well as their long-term significant others.  We are all so lucky to get along and I can really see us all enjoying each others' company in the future, and hopefully doing fun things together like taking vacations with all the kids, etc.  So much fun stuff to look forward to!

We returned home last night (no delays in either direction - can you believe it?) and we are now ready to spend what should be our last Christmas as "just us two".  Hard to believe!!!!  Finally!!!!

22.) Seeing a tiny baby dance inside of you.

We just had our NT scan this morning, which is an ultrasound done on a high-resolution machine that looks for soft markers for genetic disabilities such as Down's and other trisomies.  It was awesome!  We got to see the baby flipping and flopping, and moving all it's limbs.  We were able to count 10 fingers and 10 toes, and we could visualize some of the organs (including the brain, stomach, bladder, and heart). 

My eyes started to tear up during the scan, as I have seen many of these pictures before (friends babies, mostly) but I've never looked at one and known "this baby is ours".   Life is amazing!