My first baby shower!

So my friends are smart and they planned my baby shower for a time that I was still mobile and at a time when the Texas heat was not daily reaching 100! Three of my gals--Traci, Summer and Morgan put together a great party at the Into My Garden Tea Room in Plano. We had tea, of course, soup, quiche, pasta salad, chicken salad--and a delicious cake to top it all of! And the best part--Kristy came into town from Tennessee to celebrate with us. Little Harrison was showered with cute outfits and ultimately with his under-the-sea themed play gym (I have a feeling that Bella--my morkie--will be equally interested in this apparatus). It was great fun and definitely needed to be limited to a girls-only event...we had much more opportunity to talk about all the weird and strange stuff that comes with pregnancy. I'm so grateful for my friends; we are all learning and figuring this mommy thing out together!

The rest of the weekend was great too! Kristy and I received a very sweet present from my super fantastic husband--a hotel room (two Queen beds since I still have that pregnancy snoring syndrome) all our own so we could spend some quality girl time together. In his own way, perhaps Mark was giving himself a gift--his own bed, his own home and the absences of all the girl gab that ensued. Smart husband. Well, we definitely spent that time catching up and catching the sights. We spent some tourist time at the 6th Floor Museum learning all about JFK before Kristy had to head out of town. And yes, apparently my snoring is not as 'meek and mild' as I thought it was...but I look forward to that magical day when all these weird symptoms stop (apparently this occurs practically right after you have the baby).

All in all, we're still doing great. We're at 7 3/4 months right now and coming up on that home stretch. Harrison is kicking and moving more often now or maybe he's just getting huge and every little move is more apparent. My feet are a funny sight most days--little puffy sausages wrapped in shoes. I'm still waiting for that 'lustrous hair and nail' growth that everyone raves about; that actually seems like a great symptom! Why can't I have that one?! I don't have any particular cravings, although I would never turn down any sweets and avocados look good on all sandwiches at this point. Maybe I should take that last comment back...sweet tea is an absolute joy! Sorry Harrison, you may be a little adhd...but we figured with both Mark and myself, you'd probably be that way anyways. Speaking of the little guy, his kicks are now actually making my belly visually jump! Mark got a big surprise the other day when he put his head to my belly to hear him move...and he got kicked in the face! That's my boy! What have we gotten ourselves into?!

We have another appointment in about a week and we'll keep you all posted.

Love, Steph

Getting there!

Steph and I have continued remodeling just about everything in the house. To date we've updated the following:

• New Hot Water Heater
• New Stove/Oven
• New Mounted Microwave
• New Paint in all rooms
• New light fixtures throughout the entire house.
• 3 New Ceiling Fans
• New Sink
• New Disposal
• New kitchen faucets
• New fence (That was a beating as it was built in the middle of July. Thanks for the help Ralph!)
• A fixed AC Unit (fingers crossed it doesn't break any time soon)
• New inner workings of 3 toilets
• New closet shelves in two rooms
• New shelving in the laundry room
• New Laundry room French Doors
• New eco-friendly Back Door (Thanks Kevin! That was a whipping.)
• Most recently, and with the extremely generous gift by Ralph and Anita, we have brand new carpet! It makes the house smell brand new and it looks amazing!

What we have left:

• Finish the guest and half bathroom. We're taking off the wallpaper and retexturing/painting the walls. (Probably the worst thing ever in the history of remodeling). This needs to be done before Harrison is born as the guest bathroom will be his!!!
• Retile the master and guest bath tubs/showers as well as the kitchen backsplash.
• Possibly paint the cabinets. At the very least we will put handles on them.
• Do something about the countertops in the kitchen.

We've got a lot to do, but we've gotten a lot done. The house looks great though. Steph repainted the banister recently and it looks a lot better than it did. I scrubbed the tile floor in the kitchen. It was gross how dirty it was! We can think our dogs for that.

Thanks to our parents for the continued help. Most of the financial backing is from their pocketbooks and we are forever grateful for their support.

Maybe one of these days we can people over and show off some of the work we've done!

Harrison Update

We've been to the doctor twice since the last post so we wanted to send out an update to let everyone know what's going on.

Everything seems to be going well. Harrison is growing normally and is somewhere between 3 and 3.5 pounds. Steph seems to be having a hard time understanding how something so huge can fit into her belly. I usually just show her my ultra lean, ripped torso and explain that the organs don't need that much room, that the baby is taking up much of the space.

Interestingly, we've gotten a video and a picture of the sonogram in which we've been able to see a very clear image of Harrison's little face. We've seen his mouth opening and closing as well as his fist. He threw up the traditional A&M "gig 'em" sign which obviously disappointed me, though this was quickly changed to a Texas Tech "Guns Up" sign and that of course made me smile a bit more.

Steph is doing great. The third trimester has hit her a bit and she's found herself a little on the tired side. Otherwise there aren't too many things to complain about. Although, I'm sure Steph might not agree with that statement.

I've included a picture we captured from a video at 28 weeks. Currently we're at almost 31 weeks, but you get the picture (no pun intended).

Mark

PS: We are very aware that Harrison's picture looks a bit like Skeletor. Thanks