Feeling Loved

Sometimes it's hard to admit but my primary love language is Gift Giving. As materialistic as that can sound, it's the act of someone thinking about me ahead of time and making whatever sacrifice it was to give me a gift. I understand the value of money, time and effort so when I'm the recipient of a gift - I truly feel the depth of that person's love. It goes both ways, I love to gift others with things too because I know that they are worth whatever the cost is to me.

In the past month, I've been so blessed by a handful of my closest friends and family members. They've joyfully and excitedly given me some precious gifts. I keep them on a little dresser in our guest room and walk past it many times a day. It serves as an Ebenezer to remind me of God's goodness and faithfulness in our lives. He's given us what we asked for the most and is letting us thrive in that joy.

Jenny, Rebekah, Amanda and Mallory all blessed me with helpful motherhood gifts like books and belly bands and sandwhich containers. I love and cherish them all!

Then Jen rocked my world:
And Momma gave me a beautiful nursing cover from the cutest little shop:
And Ashleigh prepared me for a girl OR a boy:
And Heather thought of practical ways to quiet down a fussy baby: (I'm teasing Heather, I LOVE them so much!)
And on Friday I received a box in the mail from one of my aunts with 9 individually wrapped packages - one for each month of pregnancy! Seriously, my cup overfloweth with love. Thank you so much loved ones! You've got to understand how much this means to me.

From the River to the Grove to the Lake

Our new home sweet homeThis will be our fourth home together in the last 4 years. We are excited to settle down and live here for a while. Our first apartment didn't have a cute geographical road name, but we then moved to Riverrun then to Mason Grove and now on to Benton Lake. Road names are fun - my dream is to live on Magnolia Lane. Someday! But in a month from now we will be here!

Is this safe?

Should I not be drinking out of this any more? Friends, please help me. Did I miss the memo that plastic nalgenes are toxic? No one ever drinks from these. And if so, what should I drink from? I am currently drinking 64oz of water a day from this plastic bottle. I beg you, leave a comment with an answer - I don't trust google.

Life at 12 weeks

We got to put the "sold" sign up in the front window of our new home! 12 weeks pregnant:
Do you love the socks?

busy, busy February

I think we've found the house! We can't wait to share it with you all - pictures and details to come as long as everything goes smoothly. We have had no trouble finding someone to fill our lease of the rental home. We got 10 immediate responses to an add and 4 families came through the next day to look at it. So thankful that it was a breeze!

I'm getting more and more (mildly) worried/stressed about our upcoming September and October. It's far away, but I am living in those months mentally because of all the weddings I'm working on during that time. Not to mention we have to travel to Rhode Island for my friend's wedding with a brand new baby?! I will be asking for car travel advice in the coming months....I'm a little concerned. It's about time for me to break the news to my fall clients that I will be on maternity leave for a bit. I'm praying that it goes well!

Initial thoughts

One of my favorite calendar quotes from "A Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy:"

"Here's the Ultimate Girlfriends Tip: The minute you enter the hospital start asking for an epidural and continue until you receive one. Labor is not a contest, you don't win anything by going pain-free and if you think you want to go au naturel, talk to me afterward."

I think that's hilarious. BUT I like it. Every single woman who is older than me has said in the past many weeks, "get an epidural!" Everyone. Why would I not take their advice? Us young people like to try and do things against the grain and figure things out on our own and all the while older folks in our lives are kindly suggesting that we learn from their past trials and do things a different way. They are generally right. But do we listen? No. This time I think I am going to listen. I'm not ruling out the other options yet, these are just my thoughts as of month 3.

Working on the Weekends

Look what happens when you make connections in the wedding industry! Wine and cheese flow freely:

Thank you Steve at the Omni. What a treat! I'd stay at this hotel any time.

Tighter clothes

I'm not gonna lie, my jeans are more snug these days. When I wake up in the morning things are normal, I look no different and weigh the same. But by the evening I cannot suck in my stomach, it looks like I've gained weight in my tummy and I weigh 3 pounds more. It all repeats the next day. I'm in that awkward phase of not being able to tell that I'm pregnant by simply looking at me. I was hoping to be one of those woman who don't show until they are 5 months (ahem, Marta.) but that's not happening for me. It looks like I will have to do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred after all this fall. (Birthday gift idea from amazon!)

My next appointment is March 2nd but I had all my lab tests done today - on accident. I called the scheduling number to schedule the blood work to be done in the next two weeks, the automatic voice asked me if I could come in on February 15th at 12:30pm. A Tuesday at lunch time? No problem, YES I can come in that day. I confirmed, hung up the phone, got out my calendar to put it in the schedule so I wouldn't forget, then CRAP! My appointment was in 2 hours! No time to mentally prepare for the 6 vials of blood taken out of me. Same day scheduling was not intentional. Poor me. But I survived and it actually wasn't that bad.

Here's 10.5 weeks. I was hating the way the camera made me look so I refused to smile at it. And yes, I know, same outfit as the first picture. Give me a break.

Cville love

Part of our time in Charlottesville was spent with some of our favorite friends that we miss so much. Most everyone had a little kid or two running around outside. Michael loved playing football and kickball with all the tots.

Sweet little Parks:
Caroline has a great arm for a 7 year old!
These little ones are so cute.
Me and Mal pregnant with the next little ones!
Highlights from the weekend included all of our time spent with the Andrews (it wasn't enough!), eating at some of our favorite hot spots, and being with all those folks. Jen and Jen, thank you for entertaining me with all of your labor and delivery advice. I can't wait....

Bought my own valentine

Ashleigh made me do it.

I bought myself a box of heart chocolates for my ride home today. Honestly, I only ate 2 of the 4 pieces and they weren't gourmet like the ones I'm hoping to get from Michael. So I really don't feel guilty. I will when our little neighbor delivers the 5 boxes of girl scout cookies that magically were ordered for us.

Wedding work is picking up. May is getting closer and so the count down begins! I still have plenty of room to book weddings this (early) summer and all next year. Send the brides my way ladies.

Things are pretty busy in our household lately. We are looking to move - yet again. This time it'll only be a local move. We are hoping to buy. We'll be here for a bit so might as well invest in the market. Plus, there's a lot more to think about with little baby. I can't be selfish anymore. Bye-bye trendy city life! We'd like yard space for outdoor play time and a space for a play room/rec room and a safe neighborhood to take walks in the stroller. (That's so weird to think about!)

Maybe we'll have a house update soon. For now, we are getting ready to spend some much anticipated time with some of our favorite friends, the Andrews! We are reuniting in Charlottesville for a weekend getaway and splurging on our most loved restaurants and hot spots in town. I'll have to get a picture of Marta and Le-a pregnant together!

10 Weeks

Into the double digits already! I'm feeling great for the most part. The ickiness has moved to nighttime and requires me to sacrifice watching my shows like the Bachelor, Glee, Modern Family, etc. Sleep solves a lot of problems. Michael also let me throw away everything in our fridge yesterday! It was so refreshing.

We have been so good about not buying things for the baby yet. However we did purchase one gift. Ever since our church started selling the Jesus Storybook Bible, I have been wanting to buy it for our child. But I waited and waited and waited - until I actually knew it was going to happen. And so here it is! Our first gift/purchase for our baby!

Lots of Love

Sharing the news on Tuesday was so much fun! Both Michael and I just couldn't wait to share our joy with friends and family. Watching comments post on facebook was too precious! I got over 100 messages/posts/comments about the baby. I feel so so loved knowing that so many of you care and are excited for us! Thank you. Seriously, it's just one of those things that really means a lot to me.

There are also some nicknames for baby floating around already - only one of which has been given to him/her by us...

- Megael

- Half & Half

- Blueberry

- Pog

- Gustavo

- Leslie diaper

- Dauberito

I know I'm forgetting others.

There's a baby coming!

We told our families this past Sunday evening. It was way more fun than I expected! I wanted to do a little something more than just blurt out the news so I purchased baby frames and filled them with a note. (Don't ask me why one has a baby on it and one doesn't......I couldn't tell ya.) The frames worked out so well because it took a few seconds for people to read them and make the connection of what we were telling them. We told each family separately and had a night filled with joy after joy!

Since we had to tell Heather and Matt from long-distance, I left her with a fake valentine's day present over the weekend and told her not to open it. Shortly after we left my parents house on Sunday I called her up and had her and Matt open the box to find this little note inside. Just wanted something fun and tangible to make it a bit more special for everyone!

Los Tres?

It's true! We are having a baby!!!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much we've wanted this and been waiting for this to happen. God is good and here we are. Last night was our very first OB appointment - 9weeks! Everything was new and thrilling. Little Dauberito looks great. We heard the heartbeat, saw the baby wiggle and just looked at the babe for a long time. We love Doctor Wolf, she's a good fit for us. I cannot wait to elaborate more but social network breaking news is overwhelming. Here he/she is!

Picture at 5.5 weeks when we found out!

January Birthdays

Some of my favorite people have birthdays in January. We did a lot of celebrating. From David to Rebecca to Amanda to Heather to Cathleen there are so many fun people born in this cold month. Love you all!

Here's Heather opening a gift last weekend at her home in Delaware.
Here's Amanda's sweet little party as we celebrated her before she went back to Washington state to meet Cale! We stole the spotlight in this pick - what's new?