More belly pics

It's been a while since I've taken any belly pics so I had James take a couple today before he went to work. They are not the best pics, I'm having clothing issues. Since I'm bigger than I was but not quite huge yet, I'm at that awkward in between phase where nothing seems to fit right. Thanks to my good friend Jill, I have a bunch of maternity clothes now! So at least I'm comfortable :) Thanks Jill!! :)

I am about 20 weeks here.

Check out the awesome maternity jeans! Now that's HOT! ;)

Twenty weeks marks about the halfway point for the pregnancy. Doesn't feel like it but I'm so excited to meet our little boy. He's been moving a LOT more frequently now and it's so cool to feel :)

I guess I'm not 21 anymore

I used to go out ALL the time. EVERY weekend I would go out. Jenn, Victoria, Aimee and I had our routine in college. We used to be slightly crazy. We would even go so far as to call each other to remind each other NOT to eat so would get drunker faster! Jeez, what were we thinking? Then after college, I met Ami, Mary, Anabelle and Nicole and discovered the Moon. We would go every Saturday night and line dance and have so much fun! Nicole and I would even go so far as to bring Pucker in the car with us and do shots (in the parking lot, not while we were driving!) before going in (drinks were expensive!). Then I met James. We would still go out every weekend, maybe not drink quite as much but still go dancing just because we both loved it. And then... I got knocked up. So much for going out every weekend. We didn't go out for about six months. Last Saturday, I was feeling well enough to actually go out! Yippee! It had been so long, I was so excited to finally go out dancing! The first problem was trying to find something to wear. Back in the day, I would wear my shortest skirt, my tightest shirt and my highest heels and be ready to go! Yeah, after gaining 10-15 pounds during the first four months of my pregnancy, none of my pre-pregnancy Moon clothes would fit. Well, they still "fit" but it was not a pretty sight. So I tried some of my maternity clothes. Those made me look like I was going to a PTA meeting! I was cute but I was not used to this look for going out to the Moon. Ugh. Alright, I can do this. Now instead of bringing a bottle of Pucker, I brought an apple with me. Nobody likes a hungry pregnant girl ;) Once we got in, I was ready to dance! Apparently, so was our son! I had felt him move around a teeny bit before but it was NOTHING like this! He was moving all around and didn't stop for a good long time. James could even feel him this time and he never had before! I was slightly afraid I might be damaging the baby's hearing because the music was so loud. Pre-baby, I could dance all night long. James and I could stay till closing and dance every song without getting winded. Not so much now. I could go maybe two songs and then needed a break and a lot of water. I lasted a whole two hours! We got there at about 9:00 and left by 11:00. The next day I was tired and sore. I'm wondering if it will be another six months before we go out again ;) By then, I'll have another set of issues to deal with!

Our little mover and shaker :)

May I welcome you, to Christmas morning!

You know those scenes in the movies where everyone rushes down the stairs on Christmas morning and tears open every single present as fast as they can? Yeah, well that's not the way it's done in the Spencer house. If you haven't gathered from previous posts, we are an extremely organized and well-planned out type of family. So instead of the mad rush we have a much different type of Christmas. Always have, probably always will. Here's the way it works. We get up Christmas morning and open our stockings. My mom always does an awesome job filling the stockings the night before. While we do that, we eat the much anticipated cinnamon rolls, yum! Then we get ready to go to to church. Since we get dressed up for Christmas Eve services, Christmas day attire is much more informal. We have joked with my dad for several years that one time we are all just going to show up in our pajamas! So far, none of us have had the guts. After church, we come home and eat yet more cinnamon rolls and settle in our places to open presents. The tradition is, my mom passes out one present to every person and we take turns opening the presents, starting from the youngest and going up to the oldest. Being second oldest in my family growing up was never fun cuz I always had to wait what seemed like forever to open my presents! When that round is over we start again and continue until all presents have been opened. Sounds boring, I"m sure. But this way we get to stretch out the day and have it last longer. I am so bad at remembering to take pictures during the actual opening of the presents so this year the only pics I have are of the clean-up after and the presents we got for the baby ;) After presents, we get ready for dinner. We usually forgo the traditional ham for Christmas since half my family became vegetarians long ago and opt instead for Mexican food! My mom and dad make the best Mexican food too! Yum! After dinner we play games or watch movies. This year we played the new Mario Bros Wii. It was fun seeing everyone else get killed playing that game too! Then dessert (if you couldn't tell already, we like to eat!) which is usually my mom's killer cheese pie... no it's not pie made out of cheese, it's like cheesecake but creamier and less cakey. Then for me at least, there's the long drive back to Tucson. I love celebrating Christmas with my crazy family and I can't wait for next year when we add a few more people into the mix. I"m excited to share our traditions with our baby boy :) Here are a few pics that I did get of Christmas:

Wow! That is a giant present! What could it be???

Hee-hee :) It's Emily! My dad got my mom a bunch of big presents and when we were cleaning up, we thought it would be really funny to put Emily in the giant gift bag, cute huh? :)

My mom got James and me a new camera since someone (ME!) dropped our old camera on the tile floor and busted the battery compartment.

Emily got our baby boy a Grease onsie! Cute!

My talented sister-in-law Leah made the baby a quilt that matches the nursery perfectly!

Here is a close up, see Winnie-the Pooh!

My brother Matt got us some baby boy clothes :)

My sister, Lizzie, got me season one of Gossip Girl! Yippee! This was one of the few gifts I got that was actually for me! Thanks liz!! :)

My sister, Emily, got the baby a baby gym! Now he'll be buff!

James got me a Tony Romo jersey! Go Cowboys!!! :)

That does it for Christmas 2009. Next year is going to be so much fun! :)

Christmas Eve

Another Christmas tradition we have in my family is church. We have a children's service on Christmas Eve that we all "enjoy"... especially now that we no longer have to participate! We eat our traditional Albondigas soup, get dressed up, bundle up and head off to church. This year I wanted to make sure and take pictures of everyone by the tree since it would be our last Christmas before babies ;)

It looks like there are only three people in this picture, but there are really SIX! Can you believe me and both my sisters in law are pregnant at the same time?!? Left to right: Leah (my older brother's wife, due one week after me) Me, Kenya (my younger brother's wife, due February 12th)

The happy couple's last calm Christmas before baby boy comes to add fun and excitement :)

My big and getting bigger everyday, family. Top row, left to right: Chris, Leah, Matt, Erin, Me, James. Second row: Kenya, daddy. Third row: Emily, momma. Front and center: Starla (Kenya's daughter) There are currently eleven of us, next Christmas there will be FOURTEEN!!!

We did a little math today and right now there are seven girls and four boys in our family. However, since Kenya and I are both having boys, the boys are quickly catching up! If Leah turns out to be having a boy too (which we all think she will!) that will even up the boys and the girls, seven and seven! Crazy huh? Should be a very interesting Christmas next year :)

Christmas cinnamon rolls

There are so many Christmas traditions we have in my family that I love. One of our traditions that James and I started taking over is the making of the cinnamon rolls. I'm not talking the pop out of the tube kind either. I'm talking the made from scratch dough, all day type of project. I'm not sure exactly where this tradition got started but I'm thinking it was my dad's grandma. The recipe got passed down through the family and I'm proud to now be a part of it. James and I have had a chance to practice the last couple of years with my mom and this year we tried it on our own and, I think we got it down perfect! Here are some pics of the multiple steps it takes to make these wonderful rolls.

Step one: make the dough and let it rise.

Step two: knead and name. I know it sounds strange but we always name the dough since it kind of seems alive anyway. We named this dough Franklin ;)

Step three: roll out!

Sometimes it's a bit difficult to roll, you need a big strong man to do it!

Step four: while the dough is being rolled, I make the filling. Lots of butter, sugar and cinnamon!

Step five: once the dough is rolled, we spread the cinnamon filling.

See how much fun!!

Ready for the next step.

Step six: rolling up the filled dough. I shaped it into an "S" just cuz it was fun :)

Step seven: cut and place in pans, let rise again before baking.

Ta-da!!! :) And they were super yummy too!!

Daisy likes to help too :)

Stay tuned for more Christmas fun the next few days. There was way too much for one post :)

Baby pics :)

We went for our "formal ultrasound" today. I was nervous, of course, hoping that everything would be normal. Thankfully, we had a very nice tech who explained everything to us and pointed out all the bits and pieces. It was so cool to see all that stuff going on right in my belly! Everything was perfect! I even have a bunch of pics to share :) Embarrassing ones for the future too but hey, inquiring minds want to know! Hopefully I can remember what each pic is of...

Here was our first glimpse of our baby :)

Can you see it? Yep, that's a little ding, ding! It's a BOY!

Nice shot of his twig and berries ;)

A nice profile :)

Here's the little one yawning.

Another profile.

Closer profile.

And again.

Here's his arm and leg, all measuring perfect for his due date! :)

Hope you enjoyed the pics as much as we did! We are so excited to be having a little boy :)

And God bless us, everyone!

When I taught first grade, I decided to do a little mini-musical celebration with the kids for Christmas. Each class was in charge of a song, the kids dressed up in red and green and the kids sang and danced for their parents. It was so fun and cute, I loved it! We did it for at least the past five years. Well, last year I graduated to second grade and I really, really wanted to take my show with me. Unfortunately, it had become a first grade tradition and I had to let it go. I needed to come up with a new thing to celebrate the season with my kids. Well, my sisters and I have always loved A Christmas Carol. I thought it would be super cute for the kids to do that as a play! Luckily, I found a script online and tried it out last year. It went great! The kids learned a lot about the 19th century and Charles Dickens. It was fun for me to share something I really loved with the kids and the parents truly enjoyed coming to see their kids in a Christmas play. Since I had success with it last year, I decided to do it again this year. It is so much work but it was worth it when I see the parents' faces :) Almost all the kids' parents were able to come and they all let me know afterwards that it went really well, even though I did accidentally call one student by another student's name. Whoops! My sister Erin got to come again this year too :) I'm glad it went well and it's over. It's a bit stressful. Check out the cute picture I got of my kids...

Hee-hee :) Merry Christmas! And God bless us, everyone!

Mini-wave in celebration of me!

I've always loved baking, especially cookies! Ever since I got pregnant I just have not had the energy to do any baking. I did some for Thanksgiving but it was more like cooking and not baking. Cooking I'm not so good at. With Christmas coming up, I need to get back in the groove. So today, I FINALLY did some baking! I made two different types of cookies, some sugar cookies for my kids and some chocolate chip for my teacher friends at school. Check them out...

Before you get too super impressed with my mad skills, I need to confess that I took a bit of a shortcut on the sugar cookies. The chocolate chip, I made from scratch but sugar cookies from scratch are just soooo much work! You gotta make the dough, then chill it so it's easy to handle, roll it out and cut the shapes, then decorate and bake. Ugh! Too much work! So while James and I were at Target this weekend, I just happened to spot this awesome invention from Nestle...

That's right, pre-cut sugar cookie shapes! There are 24 cookies already cut and ready to decorate and bake! Yippee! So even though I took a bit of a shortcut I am impressed with myself that I worked a full day (*side note, the week before Christmas break is ridiculously stressful due to the hyper kids and all the projects that need to get done!) then came home and took Daisy for a walk and baked two sets of cookies. Granted I did not do the dishes but hey, I gotta save something for tomorrow... or for James ;)

For honesty???

So my friend Nicole has this awesome blog http://mikkfam.blogspot.com/ and she got an award. She passed the award on to me, yippee!! Thanks Nicole :) So now I have to post ten honest things about myself. Shouldn't be too hard, right? So here's me, honestly :)

1. I am the biggest crybaby. I cry over just about anything, sad movies, mean people, if the store happens to be out of something I need, you get the point. I'm hoping the baby will take after James! He's dead inside ;)

2. I have many secret embarrassing loves. I LOVE old reruns of crappy TV shows like Full House, Fresh Prince, Saved by the Bell etc... I also LOVE some pretty awful music including but not limited to, Clay Aiken, Paula Abdul, Jessica Simpson, Styx etc...

3. I also dislike a lot of stuff. I hate feet, other people's especially. But I also don't like mine to be touched. My friend Anabelle had to drag me kicking and screaming to my first pedicure, which I survived and can now tolerate. I HATE bugs with a passion! Not just ugly bugs but the so-called cute ones like ladybugs and butterflies too! I'm pretty convinced my child will LOVE bugs!

4. One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is... sleep. Pretty sad and pathetic, I know. I also know that those days are quickly coming to an end :*(

5. If I could have, I would have been a professional dancer. I just wasn't good enough. I started dancing when I was about eight and I loved it! I continued through high school. After high school I continued dancing and thanks to Nicole, we discovered line dancing! Sounds dorky but it was sooo fun! Dancing was also how I met James. I haven't been dancing in a while but I'm hoping it's just like riding a bike :)

6. I have an uncanny talent for memorizing lines/scenes from TV shows and movies :) I'm especially good at Disney movies, Monty Python, Friends and Seinfeld. Don't be jealous!

7. Schedules, times and routines are my bag baby! I do everything according to a schedule. My daddy taught me well, we do NOTHING without a plan. This includes Disneyland!

8. I have been watching Days of our Lives since I was about ten. My days is complete when I have watched the episode from that day. DVR has helped me do this a lot more often and I am very thankful for it! For those of you who watch, I am very excited that Vivian and Carly are back! I still remember back to the summer when Vivian buried Carly alive! Now that's good TV!

9. I am a junk food maniac! I am all about fast food, sweets, fried food and whatever else is bad for you. I'm trying desperately to be healthier but it is so hard when good for you food doesn't taste NEARLY as good. Lucky for me, I have a great metabolism, I'm hoping it sticks with me so I can lose the baby fat!

10. I am petrified of giving birth!!! Before I got pregnant, I was petrified of being pregnant but that hasn't been too bad... yet. Now I'm really scared of what come AFTER the being pregnant part. I've heard so many horror stories of painful, long, complicated births and I'm so scared that will be me too! I'm trying my best to be positive but it's hard when you know what is coming!

Whew! It was harder than I thought. I hope I didn't scandalize too many people with my honesty. Since Nicole tagged most of the blogs I read for this award already, I'll just put it out there, if you wanna do it, go for it! :)

Round ligament pain

No idea what it is? I didn't either! The good thing about being pregnant is that you learn something new everyday! (Do you like how I'm trying desperately to see the silver lining here?!) Anyway, late Wednesday night I started feeling some pain in my lower abdomen, nothing excruciating but still very uncomfortable. I told myself it was nothing and if it was still there in the morning then I would call my Dr. Well I woke up the next day and still felt the pain. I went to school figuring I would call during my plan period. I have duty in the parking lot in the morning so I went out, still concerned about what was going on. As I was standing out there, who should drive by to drop off her daughter but my parent/favorite nurse! She nicely asked how I was doing. Funny you should ask! So I explained what was going on and she listened. When I was finished she said three words... round ligament pain. Oh ok! Wait, what is that? Thankfully she was patient enough to tell me about it, apparently as the uterus grows the muscles that support it have to stretch and that is the pain that I've been feeling. I felt such relief to know that everything was ok and that it was perfectly normal! I really am so thankful that my nurse just happened to be there and was nice enough to answer a random question in the school parking lot! She also gave me some tips to help ease the pain. Water and rest. Water I can do but rest... ha! So I've been trying to drink a lot more water and I've been TRYING to sit more at school and walk slower when I'm up and about. It's been getting better but I still have some aches and occasional shooting pains as I'm changing positions. I shouldn't really be surprised by these pains since my tummy has been growing A LOT lately. It's hard to tell on the belly pic below but I certainly FEEL bigger ;)

I'm about 17 weeks, 2 days here.

It feels much bigger than it looks!

On a side note, James and I went to Winterhaven last night with my mom and sisters. It was a lot of fun! I always enjoy the awesome light displays :) Since I've been experiencing some pain with a lot of movement, I've been having to walk slower. I have always been a fast walker. I do what my family refers to as the "Disneyland walk." You walk very quickly to get somewhere and this how I normally walk, yes, even through Winterhaven. Well this year was a bit different. The rest of my family could still do the Disneyland walk whereas I could not. I had to keep asking them to slow down and I even had to sit once. I thought that I did very well considering I'm more than four months pregnant and we stayed for nearly two hours and waaaay past my bedtime. James and I were excited to think that next year we'll have a little one to share Winterhaven with! :)

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

Are you singing the Boyz II Men song now? :) There are so many things you cannot do while you are pregnant. I've gotten used to almost all of it by now. Yes, I still miss taking drugs that work, I miss drinking, I miss clothes that fit, etc... But there is one thing that I am still clinging to. Don't worry, it's not bad for the baby or anything but it is something that needs to be gotten rid of sooner or later. I'm talking about my belly button ring. I got my belly button pierced (much to the dismay of my mother!) when I was 18. I've never taken it out just because I really liked the ring and, I'll be honest, I was little afraid to take it out. All the stuff I've read says I need to take it out before my belly gets too big. I just can't bring myself to do it! It's like the last shred of my young, crazy, former self. James asks me every night if he can take it out. One of these days I'll have to let him. He keeps telling me that taking out the belly ring will be NOTHING compared to labor... gee, thanks! So please enjoy the last pics of my awesome belly ring and try not to be jealous :)

Look how cute!!

From this angle, my belly really looks round!! But still cute, right?

Now I need to do another belly pic from the side :)

Trees, trees, trees!

I thought I'd steal from Ami's blog and talk about Christmas trees! In my family we have a tradition of getting not fake trees, not cut trees but actual living trees. These trees are potted and live through the season and can be planted after Christmas. It is our little way of helping the environment :) When we lived in El Paso, we had this one tree nursery we went to every year. We'd all go out as a family and pick out the "perfect" tree. We'd argue over which had the right number of branches, the right height, etc... We would eventually find one we could all agree on, my dad would buy it and then one of us would sit in the back of the van to make sure the tree didn't tip over or fall out! Not very safe, I'm sure! But fun for whoever got to do it! When we moved to Sierra Vista, we were a bit lost. We'd been going to the same nursery for YEARS and now we had no where to go. Thankfully, we could usually find a suitable tree at Home Depot or Lowe's. However, as the years went on, it became harder and harder and HARDER to find a potted, living Christmas tree. Since they are not popular, they are hard to find. Every year we lucked out and found one... until this year. We found out that the tree nursery that provides the potted, living trees to Home Depot and Lowe's had burned down!!! We had NO WHERE to find a tree!!! Thus began the Great Tree Search of 2009. Since Tucson affords more options than Sierra Vista the job fell to James and me. James started calling places to see if anyone carried the living trees. It's amazing how few people understood what we were looking for! Nobody seemed to have anything. I met my friend at Starbucks on Wednesday and thought I'd go myself and check our Home Depot. As I was walking to the garden section, a Home Depot employee told me the garden section was closed and asked what I was looking for. I told him I was looking for living Christmas trees, he looked at me like I was insane and pointed toward the huge lot of cut trees. I explained what I was looking for and he said they didn't have anything like that. That's the LAST time I go to Home Depot alone again! ;) So Saturday, James and I ventured out DETERMINED to find a living tree. We went to Civano, a couple Home Depots and Lowe's with NO success. On a last ditch effort we went to the Magic Garden nursery on 22nd and Pantano (plug, plug, plug!) Right away we saw living, potted Christmas trees!!! Yippee! Finally! So then the phone tag began. Keeping with tradition, we wanted to make sure everyone had a say in which tree we got but it was way harder when half of us are in another city! I called Lizzie so she could come help us choose. James called my dad. I called my mom. We sent pics to my mom and Emily. After about an hour of decision making we found the "perfect" tree! Mission Accomplished!!! Now what? We still had to get it to Sierra Vista. So James and I gave up our Saturday night (we really WERE going to go out to the moon that night!) and drove the tree down to SV. I hope that my family enjoys the tree, which Lizzie and I named Herb. Another part of the tradition is we name the tree! Now that was A LOT of work! Since all the pics of that tree are on my phone and I have NO idea how to get those on here, please enjoy pics of the fake tree James and I did at our house a few weeks ago.

Our lovely (and easy!) fake tree :)

I'm with Nicole, I'm not sure if I like the pic better with flash off like this:

Or flash on like this. What do you think?

I hope you enjoyed my ridiculous story of family traditions. It's a pain sometimes but I love our family traditions. I'm looking forward to sharing these traditions with our little one next year :)

It's not all bad

My last post seemed a little negative so I thought I'd balance things out and talk about the positive things about being pregnant.

* Extreme happiness - I feel so happy to be able to be pregnant. I know it is a blessing and I try to treat it that way everyday. I'm excited to be able to give James a baby! He is so thrilled to get to be a father and he will be a great one!

* People have to be nice to me - James has been wonderful at getting me every strange pregnancy craving, doing the dishes when I'm too tired and decorating the nursery. My family has been nice to me too. Which in my family, is a big deal! My mom has been buying me clothes, shoes and making sure I eat well. My students have even been a tad bit nicer to me :)

* New clothes - Granted they are not the most stylish clothes, but hey clothes are clothes and I love shopping :) I also get to wear lose fitting clothes which are waaaay more comfortable and people don't look at me funny when I wear sweats to work!

* No pressure to be skinny - I have been skinny my whole life and any time I gained a pound, I felt fat. Now there is no pressure to look skinny or have a flat belly. In fact, people ENCOURAGE me to gain weight! I don't have to suck in my belly, I get to stick it out!

* Great hair and nails - The prenatal vitamins and crazy hormones have been great at making my hair silky and smooth and my nails grow quickly and not break! It ALMOST make up for the bad skin ;)

* Eating for two - I know that I am not "technically" supposed to be eating for two, but I like the saying anyway. I can eat pretty much whatever I want and not worry about it. I was in line at Subway the other day getting myself a nice footlong (don't worry, I got it toasted!) and this woman in front of me asked, are you going to eat that whole thing yourself?! I was a tad insulted but then replied with, I'm eating for two! I hope I made her feel awful!!

That's all I can think of for now but I am sure that I will have more positives too :)

Pregnancy symptoms nobody tells you about

Everybody talk about morning sickness. I knew I had that coming. What I didn't know was the myriad of other symptoms I'd have to deal with along with it. I thought I'd share a few just in case you are like me, totally clueless ;)

* Fatigue - I knew that after having the baby, I'd be tired but I didn't realize quite how tired I'd be just being pregnant! When you think about it, I am trying to grow a person so it makes sense. Thankfully, that has MOSTLY passed.

* Breast tenderness - A very nice way of saying... MY BOOBIES HURT!!! I could not believe how sore my boobs were. I could not sleep on my side, drive over speed bumps or even get hugs. I would hold James's arms down at his side when he hugged me so there was no danger of pain being inflicted from hugs. I could not really explain this to kids at school so I took to doing the side hug where I'd just put my arm around the kids. Luckily this has MOSTLY passed too.

* Acne - Yeah, I feel like a teenager again! Apparently that lovely pregnant "glow" is all oil! So not cool. I'm waiting for this to pass soon too!

* Rhinitis - Have no idea what it is? I didn't either!!! Apparently pregnancy does mean things to your whole body including your NOSE! I went to bed one night and could not breathe to save my life! I thought I was coming down with a cold but had absolutely no other symptoms and it didn't go away! I finally freaked out enough to check my baby books and lo and behold, it's a pregnancy symptom. Luckily Ami and Anabelle informed me that breathe right strips work wonders. Now I can breathe at night. If only there were a cool way for me to wear them during the day. Thankfully there is a cure... having the baby!

* Lack of belly - I know this is not technically a symptom but I feel it's relevant to mention. I thought for sure that by this point I would LOOK more pregnant. I'm about four months now and to me, that seems about time to have a pregnant belly, however, I have what looks like a beer belly!

I may discover more later but that's enough for now :)

Now we have a glider too!

Yesterday the glider was delivered! James was quick to put it together. It works great and is very comfortable, despite the fact that it's not quite as "squishy" as I might have liked ;)

The nursery looks a bit more complete now. I think the next thing we need to get is a rug for the floor. Tile is great but probably not so great for the baby to play on!