Giving Thanks...

With Thanksgiving just around the corner I wanted to take a minute to share what we are thankful for...

We are thankful for our amazing family and friends...
I know I tend to say this a lot, but Justin and I are blessed with the most amazing family and friends anyone could hope for. You all have been extremely supportive, helpful, giving and loving throughout this entire journey! We cannot begin to express how thankful we are for each and every one of you and all of things you've done for us and the baby! It is such a great feeling knowing that we are bringing our baby girl into a world where she is already loved soooo much!

I'm thankful for the great women in my life...
The baby and I were very spoiled these last couple of months by all of you with not one but two BEAUTIFUL showers! Both days were very special and I was touched by all of you who took the time to come and celebrate the life of our soon to be daughter. Justin and I are also very thankful for all of the gifts for baby! I must say...this girl will be dressed in style for quite some time! It was such a blast playing all of the silly games, catching up and opening all of the ADORABLE baby things! Thank you to my Mom, Kristen and the Wolf Family for the great showers!

We are thankful for mass amounts of diapers...
In addition to the two showers, Justin had a really great diaper party! Again, we were very touched by everyone who took the time to show up and support us on this journey. Justin received about two and a half months worth of diapers (at a rate of 12 diapers per day haha) and we couldn't be more thrilled! This is such a big help for us as we prepare for the little one to arrive! Thank you to Chris and Jeremy for putting this great party together!

We are thankful to be blessed with a very normal and healthy pregnancy...
I've always been fortunate enough to be very healthy and I never really thought much of it until I became pregnant. Now I thank God everyday for blessing me with such good health. It's nice to be classified as a "low risk patient" and have the doctor tell you "everything looks perfect" when you go in for the checkups. I pray that this good health will continue to the end of the pregnancy and through the delivery.

We are thankful for each other...
Justin and I are very lucky to have one another and are lucky to be on this journey together. I can't describe how good it feels to have such a loving and supportive partner there by side everyday. As we go into the final weeks, I'm thankful to have Justin there to help me with all of the everyday things I've taken for granted...like getting up off the couch and tying my shoes in the morning! :) Thanks babe!

This week we will be heading into the 37th week of our pregnancy! Baby could be here any day now and we are very excited (and a little nervous). We hope you all have a fun and safe Turkey Day...eat lots! I know we will be!

P.S. My Mom took all of the great pictures you see above! What a natural! Thanks Mom!

Love Always,

Justin & Candice

Everyone Loves Chubby Cheeks!

SHE IS AMAZING!

We have about 7 more weeks to go (if I make it full term) before we welcome our beautiful baby girl into this world! Baby and I are definitely getting bigger and bigger everyday and we can all really feel the big day drawing near!

While there are so many things to enjoy and ‘ooohhh’ and ‘awww’ over during pregnancy, one of my favorite parts is the ultrasound. Yes, it’s really awesome to feel her moving around inside of me and seeing my belly ripple (or bulge) when she moves, but I LOVE seeing her on the ultrasound! We had another ultrasound today to check her growth development and I’m happy to report that she is doing well and looking good...she even has a little bit of peach fuzz!

As of today she is about one week ahead in her development and weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds 8 ounces! The last few ultrasounds we haven’t really been able to get a good shot of her face because she’s always got it buried down and blocked with her arm (see previous blog). WELL, today before I left work for our appointment she was especially wiggly in my belly and moving around a lot…it made me hopeful that we might just see her precious face. I heard that if you drink some caffeine before an ultrasound it helps to get them to wake up a little so you might be able to get a good picture. I’ve really been doing my best to avoid caffeine throughout the pregnancy but today for good measure I had a small cup of hot chocolate. Well that small cup gave me the jitters and shakes by the time I got to the doctor, but baby was definitely moving!

We went back to the ultrasound room, I got all gooped up and low and behold, there was her beautiful face...finally! The tech did a few measurements but then decided to switch to 3D mode before the baby decided to turn. Now let me tell you, seeing your baby’s face for the first time in 3D is so incredibly amazing! I can’t describe the feeling or the emotion! I’ve posted the pictures below for everyone to see! Personally, I really think she looks just like Justin…same nose, same mouth! I’m completely awestruck. If you can’t tell, she’s definitely a chunk and we can’t wait to pinch those cheeks!

As always, thank you all for your love and support throughout this journey; we have the best family and friends anyone could hope for.

Love Always,
Candice & Justin

That's Our Daughter...

Hi Everyone,

So just a short update today. We had another ultrasound and they let us do it in 4D! These ultrasounds are simply amazing! It is unbelievable how detailed of a picture you can get out of them. Essentially you can see what your baby really looks like before he/she is even born. So naturally we were very excited to get see our little girl in 4D! Well make no mistake, this is OUR daughter...no doubt about it! I'm not saying this because she looks like either one of us, I'm saying this because she already has the personality of her Mom and Dad...stubborn. This little girl buried her head perfectly so that we couldn't see any part of her face no matter how much we tried. I tried shaking my belly and rubbing it, but no such luck...she just put her arm up and covered her face even more. So our exciting 4D ultrasound only resulted in a great picture of her little ear...it is a nice ear though! :) Maybe next time we can convince her to show us her precious little face...then again, maybe she'll make us all wait until she makes her debut to the world.

Love always,

Candice & Justin

So Much To Tell...

Hello Again Everyone!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a blog and mostly that was because I thought not much had really happened since our big announcement that we are expecting a baby girl. However, today I was working on some stuff in in my daughters soon to be room and I realized that A LOT has happened! So this may be a lengthy blog, but I feel like there is so much to share!

Crib Building 101...
Let’s start here. Justin and I have really gotten down and dirty and started getting this little girls room ready! I was completely dreading cleaning out our guest bedroom and finding new places for all of the things we keep in that room, but to be quite honest, it was quite freeing! It felt so good to go through all of our junk and get rid of the crap we just don’t need. I also noticed that we are showing many of the symptoms of hoarders and I’m now committed to stopping that (although you couldn't tell from the looks of our garage...one room at a time)! Anyways, we got the room all cleaned out, shampooed the carpet and painted the room a cute lavender color.. I’m totally loving it so far! Once the room was clean, we were ready to bring in the furniture! Justin’s Aunt Jackie was so sweet to us and bought the baby a BEAUTIFUL cherry wood bedroom set; crib, changing table and dresser! Now three pieces of furniture to build seemed like quite a daunting task to me, but my wonderful hubby was determined and VERY excited to get it all together. Well it took around 3 to 3 ½ hours, but the result was three gorgeous (and sturdy might I add) pieces of furniture and no extra parts! Success! Justin and I are total pros at building a nursery…ok…it was mostly Justin, but I helped…a little. There is still work to be done, but as you can see, it’s really coming along and looking absolutely amazing!

Spoiled Little Girl Alert…
Now let me say, this girl has yet to grace us with her presence and she is already so incredibly spoiled! She has so much AMAZING family and friends surrounding her and awaiting her arrival! As I mentioned above, her Great-Aunt Jackie bought her some beautiful furniture (probably the nicest furniture in the house…I’m jealous). In addition, her Grandma & Grandpa Perea have a carload of stuff for Justin and I to take home almost every time we see them; a swing, bottles, monkeys, clothes, a jumper, a highchair…just tons of stuff! THEN her Grandma & Grandpa Lopez are the same way! Carloads of clothes & toys! And finally, her Vento family in Texas loaded us up with two GIANT boxes of baby stuff galore before we came home from our vacation this past week. Now this is just her family that I’m talking about, I haven’t even mentioned all the friends that keep showering her with some of the cutest outfits ever! Just checkout this girls, room and closet! I think she has more outfits than me!

Big Kicks…
This past week or so finally marked the time when we could feel her on the outside! I have felt her moving and wiggling around for quite awhile now but Justin has been waiting and waiting for the day when he could finally feel her too. Well, that day finally came and it was so exciting! I know he was happy to finally feel her move and the experience was amazing for him! He always wants to know when she moves even in the slightest bit and his hands are always on my tummy now. While it’s always amazing to feel her moving around inside me, it was also an amazing and precious moment to see Justin’s face light up when he felt that first kick. Now, we have been trying for a little while now to see if he could feel her move but she is kind of a brat about it...just sayin. As soon as I feel her move and Justin puts his hands on my tummy, she immediately stops…like she’s playing a game with us or something…it’s really odd and funny! Anyways, one afternoon I told Justin she had started moving and the kicks felt pretty big and so he immediately put his hands on my belly and was staring intently at it just waiting for her to move and SUDDENLY there it was…a nice big kick straight into his palm! His head perked up and he looked at me with wide-eyes, “Was that her?!?!” I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.

So that about sums it up for now! I just want to say thank you to all of our family and friends that have been there for us on this journey; we are incredibly blessed to have you all.

Love always,
Justin & Candice

It's A Girl!

IT'S A GIRL!

I'm so sorry for the long delay in this post, but hopefully word has spread through other means and you all haven't been waiting for this blog! I had planned to write it on Friday evening when we got home, but I passed out on the couch for hours...too much excitement I guess...and well I don't know what happened to the weekend!

Her hand was in her mouth the whole time, so that's what you see sticking out of her face.

Justin and I had our first official ultrasound on Friday, August 6th and found out that we are having a little baby girl! The tech asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby if she could tell and of course we said, "YES!" Well, she put the jelly goop all over my belly and then put the transducer on me and the first picture we saw was a little butt in air! The tech looked for a second, put a little arrow to her parts and declared her a girl! We continued on with the ultrasound and the test and she is absolutely perfect! She is about one week ahead in her growth development and weighs about one pound, so she is a big baby right now...and I'm starting to really feel that in her kicks! She is constantly moving around in my belly and as time progresses, they are starting to be stronger and stronger kicks. Future soccer player?

Our first family photo

Justin was completely convinced that it was a boy and so it is taking him a minute to adjust to the fact that we are having a girl, but we are both VERY excited! Daddy's Little Princess! We went to the store over the weekend and bought some SUPER cute outfits, bows, shoes, everything! Girls clothes are soooooo much fun! We also picked out a theme for her nursery...pink and purple (duh) jungle theme! I LOVE it!

We're working on names now, so I'll let you know when we've decided something. We can't wait to meet our little girl!



Love,
Justin & Candice

Two Days and Counting!

Well, the anticipation continues to build for us all! We were supposed to find out last week at our doctor's appointment if this baby is a boy or a girl, but for various reasons, we were rescheduled to this Friday (August 6th). So now we have two days of waiting left! All of our family and friends are just as anxious as us to find out, but there are three little ones that we never expected to be so excited for this baby too...the dogs!

People keep asking us how we think the dogs will react to the baby when he or she comes...well they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I would say these two are worth a million!

It's funny how dogs can sense what is going on around them. Our three pups, Duke, Belle and Dodger, have already become protective and loving of this baby. They all follow me around everywhere and are constantly cuddling with my growing belly. I'm even finding Duke sleeping on my side of the bed more and more frequently (his bed is on Justin's side). It's just so funny to see the change in them.

So how do I think they will respond to the baby when he or she comes? Well...they will be GREAT puppy siblings!

That's all for now, see you all on Friday with AMAZING news!

Love,
Justin & Candice

Final Predictions...

So tomorrow is the big day...well we hope it's the big day. We have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and we're hoping that the she will send us down the hallway for an ultrasound. I always thought you got an ultrasound every time you went for a prenatal checkup, but from what we've learned, they're completely unnecessary if you're healthy, you have a good family history (medically speaking) and if you're not showing any signs for concern. Well, Justin & I meet all of that criteria and so we have yet to have our first official ultrasound.

Now, I have to say, if that doctor doesn't give us the referral, I'm going to have to get down on my knees and plead with her and tell her that it's medically necessary! We NEED to know the sex of this baby for MY sanity! Everyone around us is dying to know and making predictions based on some of the most absurd old wives tales I've ever heard! OR they say they're one of those people that are just good at predicting the sex just by looking at you...right...lol. Well, everyone has a 50/50 chance of being right I suppose.

SOOOO...before we hear the truth, we were wondering what everyone's predictions are and why you think that way. I think it will be cool to look back one day when this little peanut (actually he or she is the size of a cantaloupe now) is older and see what all of his/her loved ones said! Please leave your prediction as a comment here on this blog! Justin is convinced it's a boy and I truly have no guess whatsoever! Looking forward to seeing the answers and of course looking forward to finding out the truth!

On a side note, I finally had to give in to this growing belly of mine and buy some maternity clothes. It was a little depressing at first because I just wasn't ready for it, nor was I excited for it. I had this image in my mind of all of these awful looking clothes such as moo moos and floral prints galore. Turns out it was nothing like that at all. I actually found myself quite a few things and even enjoyed it. It probably (well not probably, definitely) helped that I had my Mom right there with me helping me emotionally and fashionably. We had a bunch of good laughs that day, particularly with the pillow in the dressing room. Those things are sooooo funny! When I first walked into the dressing room I noticed the round pillow hanging from a hook and I thought, "what the heck is that?" Well, my first best guess was that it was some sort of Boppy pillow because they allow you to use their dressing rooms for breast feeding. That seems logical, right? However, as I started to try on clothes, it dawned on me what it was and I HAD to try it on! Not because I was particularly interested in seeing how my clothes might fit further down the road, but because I thought it was HILARIOUS! I came out with my first outfit on (including the tummy pillow) and my Mom's eyes just popped wide open and she said, "Wow! You really did need some clothes!" I showed her the pillow and we just couldn't stop laughing. In case you're wondering, here's what I could look like towards the end of this pregnancy...


I guess that's about all for now. Hopefully I will have another post to make tomorrow. Don't forget to leave your predictions as a comment below! Oh, and here's a funny link about old wives tales and predicting the sex of the baby...some are quite comical!

http://www.pregnancy-info.net/wives_tales_and_myths.html

Love Always,
Justin & Candice