17 Week Valentine's Bump

I found this questionnaire on a few other pregnancy blogs and thought I'd give it a go this time:
 

How far along? 17 Weeks

Total weight gain: up 4 - 6 lbs (although it looks like more--I feel like these pics make me look sooo much bigger than I actually am...the camera adds 10 lbs. right??:))
Maternity clothes? I have bought a few things, but am still wearing regular clothes too--regular jeans are definitely not working as well anymore!
Stretch marks? none so far, and please pray for me that it stays that way!
Sleep: not terrible, just a lot of running to the bathroom constantly at nighttime
Best moment this week: stopping at target with J.R. to pick up my V-day gift, a.k.a a nice body pillow that makes sleeping that much easier since apparently I am supposed to only lay on my sides from this point on
Miss Anything? I missed wine for the first time this past weekend--everyone was enjoying a glass but me:( (don't worry, I will live!:)) 
Movement: I feel something, just not sure if it is baby movement or just weird stomach gurgling
Food cravings: sweets (surprise!), J.R. took me for a cupcake after our Valentine's Day lunch salad--gotta balance out our meals:)
Anything making you queasy or sick: just when i don't eat at least something small every three to four waking hours
Gender: can hardly stand the anticipation I feel for our next ultrasound!!! it feels like a girl to me, but a boy could be in our future--who knows:) 
Labor Signs: no, and thank goodness...praying that the baby is healthy, happy, and stays put!
Symptoms: lots of pains in my lower back, especially when I try to take a brisk walk with Max--frustrating
Belly Button in or out? in and I don't see how it will ever pop out, it's keeping me from looking like those women that have the cute rounded out bump--mine has a gaping hole in the center where my belly button resides
Wedding rings on or off? on.. I can't imagine swelling that much, but it could very well happen, hopefully towards the end
Happy or Moody most of the time: maybe J.R. should answer that ;)
Looking forward to: THE 20 WEEK ULTRASOUND!!! and knowing everything is okay with the baby!!! probably won't be getting much sleep the night before!

Happy Love Day

New Addition Cooking!!!

Yep, you read that right! We are expecting a new addition (of the human variety) to our family at the end of July! We are as thrilled as you'd imagine first-time parents can be! Although you wouldn't gather it from the picture (that's about as much excitement as I can pull out of fur child unless there is food involved), 

Max is excited too!

We had planned to start a family around the time I turned thirty, and we were lucky enough to have it happen very quickly. In fact, I decided to take a test on a whim one day and...

And just to be sure, we tried a couple more...

What a crazy feeling it is to see those two lines appear, and know there is a baby growing inside of you! It doesn't feel completely real yet. I hear it will once we can start feeling it move, 

and hopefully that should come soon.

 

Just in case you were wondering, I feel like a beached whale already:)! It will be nice when a more prominent bump starts forming, rather than the tummy protrusion/one-too-many cheeseburger belly 

I am currently sporting.

 We have our 16 week appointment next Monday, which means our BIG appointment is four weeks from then! We cannot wait to find out baby Dokos' gender. Care to venture a guess? ;)

Christmas 2011

So Christmas came and went, quickly and without major event. In fact, I am having a hard time forgiving myself for not even putting up a Christmas tree. Well actually, we put the tree together, started to untangle the light strands, and gave up. We kept glancing at our poor, worn-out faux tree as we tried to figure out what sort of system we thought we had so cleverly developed last year in the way of light storage, and decided it just wasn't worth it. Don't get me wrong, I know there are plenty of people who cannot afford any type of tree, and for that I feel truly guilty. However, after four years of looking at gaping holes and a very visible plastic trunk, we knew it was time to send it into retirement. So, to Goodwill it went, in hopes that someone else will breath new life into next year. We intended to find another pre-lit tree more suited to our new home, but as we drew closer to our holiday trip to Tennessee it was decided that we should hold off. So next year, look out! I know for a fact we will be spending the 2012 holiday season in our Texas home (more on this in a future post;)), and to me a treeless Christmas day is simply unforgivable.

We made the 16 hour trek to Tennessee again this year to celebrate Christmas, Nichols family style. Missing were my sister, bro-in law, and the camera! First a disclaimer: I am in no way trying to downplay the degree to which I missed Julie and Seth with my camera ramblings. That being cleared up, I admit my beloved camera stayed behind in Texas and I missed it dearly, and I mean dearly! Maybe it was the 3am wake-up call the day we began the horribly LONG drive or some other recent developments in our life (again, more on that in another post), but my brain must have literally turned off as we rolled our suitcases to the car, set our alarm and locked up our house. That said, I have ZERO pictures of our trip.


I will say we had a good time getting out of Texas and seeing my family, although we missed J.R.'s. 2011 was not an easy year health-wise for the Nichols family, so it was nice to be able to help with what I could while there. We had a lovely Christmas dinner, complete with individual cornish game hens, smoked by my talented dad, and a goat cheese au gratin potato dish, baked by my gourmet chef of an aunt. J.R. was able to go shooting with my dad a couple of times, and Max tasted a little bit of freedom with an off-leash hike around Norris Dam. All in all, it was worth the drive and we loved our Tennessee Christmas.


Don't tell the inside of our house, but the outside did celebrate Christmas...a little. I will leave you with a few pictures of the only decorations we did attempt this year:).

 Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year to everyone! 

We will have some exciting news to share in the next few weeks!!

Thanksgiving in review

We had a lovely, 70-80 degree Thanksgiving weekend in Texas a few weeks ago. More and more, I see major differences in the weather we experience at the bottom of Texas versus the weather we had when we lived in Dallas. I don't remember it being so warm around this time of year. I don't mind it most of the time, but the last few days have finally dipped into the 30-40 degree weather I associate with December, and Max, J.R. and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, as most apparent in Max's "frisky" 10pm walk last night. I love these cravings for late night walks that we have entertained over the past week. It's a great opportunity to scout out the best Christmas light displays.

But, I digress, back to Thanksgiving. J.R.'s mom flew in to spend the week before and part of the week after the holiday with us. With her, she brought a huge can of apples and made three incredible pies that we munched on for days:

We had quite a meal for only three people, and ended up having leftovers for a full week.

 Bad pictures, but you can see one of our wreaths in this next one. We put them on all our forward facing windows this year and I think it looks really nice. I will get a picture of the front of the house sometime soon for the blog!

When Black Friday rolled around, we opted to avoid the hoards of mad, crazy shoppers and get out of town. We left the house by 10am and hit Galveston around 11:30, just in time to catch one of the dolphin tours we had missed out on during our last trip to the gulf. The first ten minutes of the boat ride were pretty exciting. The dolphins seemed to be putting on a show for us. They were so quick, it was hard to snap a picture in time to catch one, and this is the best I had:

I know, very picturesque with the oil rigs in back, right? Still it was completely worth the ride to see them so close to us. I imagine if they had something similar to a human personality, they would be some of the most fun and energetic people:)!

We also stopped by Trip Advisor's #5 must see in Galveston,
the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling and Rig Museum:

We had a great lunch with almond crusted Tilapia, and then went to explore
the seawall and snap a few pictures.

It was a beautiful day and well worth the trip!

On a side note, our next door neighbor asked me to take a few family photos for her on Thanksgiving morning. Turns out, it can be a rare occurrence to get three kids dressed up, hair brushed, etc. at the same time, and holidays seem to provide the motivation:). I don't know how you moms of three survive each day, but I have a great respect for you. It helps that from what I have seen of them, her children are very well behaved and so sweet (case in point--when we were returning from our early Thanksgiving morning walk, the oldest little girl, Claire opened up their door and in the tiniest voice, yelled out
"Happy Thanksgiving"--adorable)!

 Their son is definitely a mini version of his dad--too cute!

A few photos of a cutie

You may remember the TX family I took some pictures for around the time we moved here? Well, the littlest member of that family hit her nine month milestone a month and a half ago (I am behind:)), and I took a few quick pictures (in front of our house--so nothing extravagant)
to document this precious time for her mom:).

I cannot get over her hat and the ruffles, lol. Her mom says she has a sassy attitude to match the outfit:).

 She has actually been walking since she was eight months old, believe it or not! We ate lunch together around this time and a woman in the restaurant said, "she is not big enough to be walking!" Apparently, Crystal gets that from people all the time. Camden is definitely a tiny girl, so it is funny to watch people's reactions. 

She definitely keeps her mom busy:).

And in other baby news...my friend Hol (Lucas' mom) is having a little girl in March! I am so excited for her and her family, and cannot wait to meet Miss Elli! 

I plan to fly up there around that time--so pictures to come next year!

Happy Haloween!

Well of course I was going to post some of the torture our poor fur baby went through last weekend after our pumpkin carving! Suffice it to say, we had two pumpkins and the little one didn't turn out so well.
We needed to find a replacement, and guess who fit the bill?

You can see the stages of emotion he goes through so clearly in his facial expressions...

We call this one the "disgusted teenager":

This is the "you will be sorry for doing this to me" glare:

Finally, the "you owe me big time--you have five seconds and I am gone" look:

But, don't feel too awful for him. We rewarded him for his cooperation with a little tennis ball action:).

Happy Haloween from us to you!