Big Dan has a birthday

We spent a fun weekend at the lake celebrating my FIL's birthday with the family!

Frank trying to get in on the cake action

It had been awhile since we were with the whole family but it was great to catch-up with everyone including my SIL and her fiance Alec and Ray's cousin Evan and his wife Lauren -- and of course our cutie pie godson Ben! 

This is fun!

Ben thought the dog water bowl was the best toy around and he entertained us all for a good 30 minutes splashing around and pretending to drink from it. Don't worry, we made sure he didn't actually drink any of the water! 

As usual, my MIL prepared us an awesome feast and we spent the evening watching football on the couch with full bellies. 

Brownie and Huey = best cousins

The dogs agreed it was a busy day and they wanted to do some relaxing too. We had to remind them they aren't human though and we get first dibs on seating! The next morning we got up and took the pooches for a walk before having some breakfast and hitting the road back up to NOVA to get ready for our short work week.

Happy Birthday Daniel! Glad we could help you celebrate this weekend! 

Baby Wotring - 14 weeks!

Oh hey, second trimester!

I hit 14 weeks today and can't believe I'm starting the second trimester! In the books I'm reading they refer to the second trimester as the "honeymoon" trimester since it's when a woman feels her best since this is when energy returns and morning sickness usually subsides (not that I ever had much to deal with). This week the baby can squint, frown, grimace, pee, and grasp!

A little bump poking out! 

Ray doesn't think I have much of a bump yet and asked me last night when I'm going to start REALLY showing.  He said he thinks once I start to show a little more it will make it seem even more real and I tend to agree with him.  I'm sure within the next couple weeks I'll need to transition to maternity clothes (I ordered some jeans and tops this weekend but they haven't arrived yet) and I'll really start to show. All I know is I definitely feel like I've gained more than the 2 lbs the scale is showing. 

This week we also started researching daycares and have our first appointment on Tuesday to go check out a place just a few miles from our house.  We have friends who just started sending their 3 month old little girl there and they had nothing but great things to say about it so hopefully we'll like it as much as them! I'm working to set-up visits at a few other places too since we keep hearing daycares in Northern Virginia have long waiting lists if you wait too long.

Also big news -- I ran 2 miles! I went for a run tonight with my friend Ashley (she's getting married in 16 days!) and while it's nowhere near the mileage I was putting in a few short months ago, it felt good to get out there and surprisingly I didn't feel like death when we finished!  I'm hoping this starts to be a more regular occurrence and I can keep it up at least for a little while.

Fall has arrived

I was home alone this weekend while the husband spent the long weekend in Nashville for our friend Evan's bachelor extravaganza! From what I gather, they got very little sleep because they were too busy drinking like they were 22 and eating like Kings. But honestly, they had a blast and everyone came home in one piece which is what matters.

Their steaks at The Southern in Nashville 

As for me, it was a great fall weekend here in Virginia and I spent part of it out apple-picking with a friend and enjoying the fall-like weather.

My friend Preeti @ Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville, VA

After filling our buckets full of delicious apples, we got some lunch and spent the afternoon walking around Old Town Alexandria.

On Sunday I spent some time in the kitchen putting some of those apples to good use.

Love the apple peeling gadget from Madre

Paleo apple crisp

I almost forgot to mention while we were in Old Town we stumbled into Anthropologie which had a cute spread of cookies and cider for customers. The cookies were amazing and I'm pretty sure I could have devoured 10 of them if the sales lady hadn't been watching over them like a hawk. Lucky for me, on Sunday I discovered you can access the tasty treats at Trader Joe's! Ray tried them when he got home from Nashville and the grin on his face and "oh my gaaawd" he mumbled with a full mouth of cookie lead me to believe he's a fan too! 

WARNING: once you start cookie consumption you cannot stop! 

Baby Wotring - 13 Weeks!

Don't you love the blocks?! A gift from fabulous Auntie De to help track the pregnancy and Baby Wotring once he/she arrives! Thanks Auntie De! 

Hey 13 weeks! Baby Wotring is the size of a lemon this week and his/her movements are becoming more fluid-like and less jerky when he/she repositions arms and legs. 

13 weeks

The best part of this week by far was getting to see our little nugget! We had genetic testing done (it's an optional test we decided to do) and not only got to see the baby but hear the heartbeat for the first time too. It was absolutely amazing and I was so glad Ray could be there to see the baby since he had to miss our doctor's appointment last week. It almost doesn't seem real when you see the baby on the screen but it's just so exciting every time we get to see Baby Wotring especially now that he/she is looking like a baby and not just a little sac!  The test results came back today and everything looked great the nurse practitioner said. She put our odds at one in greater than 10,000 for a genetic disorder which is the highest you can score on the test (clearly Baby Wotring takes after his/her momma)! 

Our baby!!

There basically wasn't any "down" this week but if I had to come up with one I guess it would be this whole running to the bathroom nonstop thing. I've been getting up at least once or twice a night and running to the restroom what feels like every hour at work but I read that should be ending pretty soon which will be welcomed!

Getting my fitness on

My energy seems to have returned for the most part and I've been getting in some good workouts this week, mostly on the elliptical but I really want to get out there soon and make my (hopefully) triumphant return to running.  I did three elliptical workouts this week and got in a lot of walking which felt good after 6 weeks of virtually no exercise! 

Chipotle deliciousness

All that exercise has sure worked up an appetite! Ray's out of town for our friend Evan's bachelor weekend in Nashville so I decided to treat myself and Baby Wotring to a delicious burrito bowl from my beloved Chipotle.  Thankfully the little nugget is a big fan of Chipotle so I see many more of these bowls of goodness in my future! 

Love is in the air

Summer is just about over and while it flew by way too fast, I've spent the last few weekends celebrating some wonderful friends and wouldn't have it any other way.

Friends reunited

Two weekends ago, I crammed a few sundresses and my swimsuit in a bag and made my way south to Savannah, Georgia for the lovely Taylor Shea's southern soiree bachelorette weekend! Lots of wonderful ladies traveled from all over including Washington, Missouri, Texas, New York, DC and even Ireland to whoop it up with our girl before she gets married in a few weeks.

The lovely bride-to-be

To say we enjoyed ourselves would be an understatement. We laughed, ate some amazing food and explored beautiful Savannah and surrounding Tybee Island Beach. As much fun as we had, I think I'm even more excited for Taylor and Evan's wedding day! Ray and I have known the two of them since we all started working together in 2005. I'm sure if you had told any of us back then that we'd end up marrying one of our SSA coworkers we would have looked at you in shock -- similar to our reactions when we discovered one of the states we were assigned to monitor back in the day prefiled 1,000 bills we had to review by days end! We are thrilled for the happy couple and know they have many years of happiness and love ahead of them. 

Blast from the past of the happy couple

This past weekend we continued wedding related fun at a couple's bridal shower for our friends Ashley and TJ! You'll recall I spent a weekend in Austin, Texas for Ashley's bachelorette weekend in August.

YUM...cake and alcohol (jk, no booze for the pregnant lady)

Ashley's fantastic maid of honor, Danni, hosted the shower and did an outstanding job. I contributed a lemon cake (one of Ashley's favs) and some fun favors for attendees (little bottles of booze and a mixer) while Danni aced the food and drink!

Amazing spread

We had a great afternoon with some of Ashley and TJ's closest friends from Pittsburgh plus the local gang. Ashley and TJ get married the weekend after Evan and Taylor so it's safe to say our October will be filled with lots of wonderful memories and love!

The happy couple

Baby Wotring - 12 Weeks!

We hit 12 weeks the other day and had our 12 week appointment with our new doctor who I love! I switched to the practice our adorable godson was delivered by and feel really confident we made the right decision. There are four doctors in the practice who rotate so I don't know which one will end up delivering Baby Wotring but I'll get the chance to meet with all of them over the next 28 weeks.

The baby was jumping all around during the ultrasound and really active. Ray couldn't make the appointment because of work stuff but I called him right after and he said sounds like the baby is taking after him with his/her hyperactivity! It was pretty amazing stuff to see the baby actually looking like a baby and moving around. Makes me look forward to our next ultrasound at 20 weeks to find out whether our baby is a boy or girl.

Pardon the unwashed hair and general sleepiness

The doctor said everything looked great at the appointment this week so we decided to alert the interwebs to Baby Wotring's arrival! It was fun making the announcement and sharing the news with friends and family. Sharing the news definitely makes it feel more real too!

Still feeling really good over here. This week I had some heartburn but I found if I ate smaller meals it wasn't as bad so I'm keeping that in mind at mealtime. I also got the okay to resume normal exercise so I'm excited to attempt a little running this weekend while the weather is cool! Six weeks of nothing but walking has probably killed any endurance I had but hopefully it feels good to get back out there even if I don't make it very far. 

Ray felt left out

Baby Wotring - 11 Weeks!

Today marks 11 weeks for Baby Wotring! 

11 weeks

Another 11 week pic

Overall, I can’t complain much about the first trimester.  My biggest issue the last 2 or 3 weeks has been tiredness. It mostly hits me in the late afternoon but some mornings I wake up and feel like I didn’t even sleep the night before. As a result of late afternoon tiredness, the crock pot has become my favorite kitchen appliance. The last thing I feel like doing when I get home is cook so I've been giving the crock pot a workout while I'm at work all day.

So thankful for the crock pot! 

Aside from that, I’ve had a few very random bouts of nausea that typically last 20 minutes so “morning sickness” has definitely not been an issue for me. I read in one of my books or blogs that women with bad morning sickness are more likely to have a girl but that wasn’t the case for several of my friends so I’m not reading into this too much. We’ll find out soon enough whether we are having a little girl or boy.

Cute card from family friends 

The husband and I are both really happy this week. The start of NFL season might have something to do with the big smirk on my husband's face, but I think we are both really looking forward to our appointment next week with our new doctor!  From my reading, I think we should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat at this visit!

I’ve started browsing online for maternity clothes but haven’t pulled the trigger on anything yet. It seems too early and all my clothes still fit fine so I’ll probably just continue to keep my eye out and build a list of things I think I’ll need when the time comes. This week my weight is up about 1 lb from my pre-pregnancy weight but I’m accounting most of that to the large bag of candy corn I snagged at Target this weekend ;)

 One of my favorite candies!

Missing the long weekend already

Long weekends are the best, right? After a few weeks of what felt like non-stop travel (I’m sure first trimester tiredness had nothing to do with it), our little family spent the weekend at home and enjoyed every minute of it. We completed some important house tasks (weeding and cleaning), ate some delicious food (greek and froyo), caught our first (and probably last) Nationals baseball game of the season, spent time with friends, and watched an unmentionable number of Breaking Bad episodes.

After traveling to Maine and Texas, I was thankful for a relaxing weekend at home. That being said, our time in Maine was amazing! We had so much fun sharing our happy news with my family and I think it’s safe to say there are lots of people excited about Baby Wotring’s arrival! While in Maine we took a day trip to Bailey’s Island one day with my mom and sister. It was a gorgeous day to be near the water.

Me and the husband

Madre and her daughters (missing my bro who was working)

A declicious lunch enjoyed on the water

We spent another day at Crescent Beach and while my southern husband remained wrapped in his long sleeved quarter zip on the beach, because in his words it was freezing, my mom, sister and I enjoyed the sunshine and even ventured into the chilly ocean.

Beautiful day at Crescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth, ME

As always, it was sad to say goodbye to my family. Our time in Maine always seems to go by so fast but I only had 36 hours in Virginia before jumping on another plane to head to Austin, Texas for a dear friend’s bachelorette weekend! Let me just say Austin was awesome and lots of fun was had by all! My friend, the bride, loves dinosaurs and her nickname is Schelskosaurus, so we had cute tanks customized on Etsy that said “Schelskosaurus’ Last Single Stampede” on them. They definitely attracted a lot of attention on 6^th Street and helped the girls acquire quite a few free drinks!

Waiting for our table at Parkside on 6th Street

Wicked fun dueling piano bar on 6th Street

I’ve got a short week this week since I’m heading to Savannah, Georgia on Friday morning for another friend’s bachelorette weekend! Hopefully the short flight won’t leave me as tired as my travel to Austin did a few weeks back. Looking forward to seeing friends and exploring Savannah – it’s my first time visiting and I anticipate lots of southern charm and yummy food.