20 Weeks

I am coming to the end of my 20 weeks and I realized I haven't taken a picture in a while.

However, I really don't feel like I have changed that much. Either way, I am documenting the moment.

I was so excited about Summer today that I had to go shopping for her. I have resisted doing this until now because I just feel that I will be doing it so much in the future I should hold off. This is a 3-6 month dress that she can wear in this fall/winter. I think it will look so cute with some little baby leggings.

I had a terrible dream last night that woke me up. I was vacationing in Destin at a water park (no that's not the terrible part! ha) and I turned around and there was an alligator in the water headed for me. I grabbed his mouth and screamed for help "help me I am pregnant!" Then the alligator got free of my hands and went under water to presumably bite my stomach off! That is when I woke up to tell Chad. How weird that must of sounded to him!

Talk to yall later:)

Crafty Jana

I am so pleased to share this post.

If you have been following me you might remember that I purchased some great fabric this summer at a garage sale for a great deal. I have been waiting for just the right thing to make.

I saw on a design show how they made an upholstered headboard and I thought it looked like an easy inexpensive way to transform a bedroom. Plus, our bedroom is the one room in the house that has gotten little to no decorative attention.

Walla, I made an upholstered headboard yesterday!

Trouble came when we went to hang it. First set of mounts were too specific giving no room for error and that resulted in frustration. Second set of mounts did not hold the weight and bent immediately, we got fiesty! Third attempt was to not mount it but to put legs on it instead. This method is the one you are looking at.

By the way, I put both sets of mounting hardware that failed into plastic bags and returned them to Home Depot and they gave me my money back! I was impressed. Thanks HD it really took some of the frustration away as I was there for a 3rd time to accomplish 1 task.

We've decided

After much thought, Chad and I finally agreed upon a name for baby Martin.
Our sweet little girl will be "Summer Marie Martin."
It wasn't easy, as I stated in previous posts, but once Chad thought of the name it just felt right. Summer is such a positive, happy, cheerful name that we just fell for. We felt it was the right balance of unique without being weird. Marie is my middle name as well as my mom's (Mimi).
We hope you like it...or at least don't tell us if you don't.

Names Names Names

Who knew picking a name for your unborn child would be so difficult!
I have been looking at the computer for 5 days straight searching page after page for the perfect name to hit me. Then once it does it has to hit Chad too. So far we have struck out. Either I don't like it or he doesn't like it or we already know someone by that name or it is too common.
It is starting to depress me. Last night I woke up at 2am and went and searched online until 3:30am...I would have been awake anyways might as well make the time useful.
Do you think I am supposed to immediately know "that is the name!" or will I have to talk myself into it?
Once again, please keep sending us your suggestions they really do help.

It's a ...!!

****GIRL****

Yes we found out this morning that Baby Martin is in fact a Girl!

Chad and I have been convinced that we were cookin' up a little boy but we were wrong.

The ultrasound technician was great and we watched every move on a large plasma on the wall. We saw all 4 chambers of the heart, spine, lungs, kidneys, brain, arms and legs. She took the heartbeat and I asked what it was. She had already told us the baby was moving around (I drank coffee to ensure this would happen) and the bpm was 142. I told her that was low and she said "Oh by the way it is a girl!"

We laughed with joy and shock. And I said to Chad, "Pink Pink Pink!"

We have not agreed on a name for a girl, of course, but now that we know the sex we will focus on it more. If you have any that sound cool and like me then let me know.

Here is a picture of our baby as of today!

The line down the middle is the spine. The head is at the right and body to the left.

Sampson the guard dog

I never knew if my big boy, Sampson, would pull through in a time of need or if he would cower down. Well, last night our friend Matt decided to come back early from his trip and pick up his dog we were babysitting, Maya. He called but we were already asleep and so not to disturb us he decided he would go around back to our french doors and try to get in and get Maya.

I always lock the doors at night so he wasn't successful getting in...but oh did he get an earful from by big boy Sampson!

I woke up and I thought I saw a head walk by our bedroom window (or so I thought in my groginess). I popped up and looked but saw nothing in the darkness. I then went into the living room were Sampson was barking up a storm and turned on the lights. That is when the phone rang...Matt telling me he was outside and sorry for scaring us. What a relief!

Thanks Sampson for sticking up for us while we were sleeping!

Our friends, Lisa and her boys Ethan & Nico, stopped by this week to bring us some treats for keeping their dog Rosie. They were so sweet to give Chad and I each a cupcake (delicious!) and each of the dogs a really big bone. What they didn't know was they came over on Lucy's birthday so a dogbone was perfect timing. The picture above is Sampson enjoying his. Everytime I tried to take a picture of Lucy she darted around the yard thinking I wanted to steal it.

They also brought us a beautiful bouquet of flowers. It was so large that I separated them into two separate vases. Thanks Lisa...we will gladly do it again with no reward.

Chad's parents sent us a Maternity Angel which is pictured with the yellow flowers.
What a generous week!

So we have less than 48 hours until we find out the sex of the baby. I typically wake up in the early morning to use the bathroom then have trouble going back to sleep. This morning I just kept thinking...is it a boy or girl? Then of course my mind goes straight to how will I decorate either way!

Have a great Saturday.

Happy Birthday Jennifer

Today is Jennifer's Birthday (Bud's wife) and I want to wish her a great day!

Jay is so lucky to have a sweet, down to earth, cute as can be wife like Jen.

I know yall will celebrate with something fancy tonight!

Cheers from Jana & Chad!

Update from yesterday:

I had the cable technician come back out and put the cable in the correct location (to be hidden by the tv). Plus I patched the hole from the misplaced location and all is back to good. Now I just need to stay motivated and get the mount up on the wall.

I touched up the Blue Tape horror and I am mostly pleased with the outcome. Now I just need to stay motivated and continue to paint the trim...I already purchased the paint so that is a step in the right direction.

Today is primarily about Jennifer...but there is another sweet furry someone (actually not "another" as Jen is not furry) who is celebrating a birthday today...LUCY! She turned 2 today and has been celebrating with crazy turns trying to catch her tail and lots of licking love. She got some scraps from my chicken salad sandwich AND she got to lick the inside of my yogurt cup...oh yeah, heaven!

Blue Tape

I just want to take a break from my frustration and warn all of you out there not to use Blue Tape on your next paint job.

This weekend I painted our living room, kitchen and hallway a nice khaki color. I really wanted to do a thorough job and I spend hours taping every baseboard, ceiling line, around cabinets...you name it. Today...after I hadthe job finally completed with all my touch ups done I went to pull the tape off and...Disappointment! Not only did the tape leak, not keeping a clean edge, but it was a pain to remove. I had to break out my tweezers to pull it off in spots! I love picking with tweezers but this did not fall into that category.

I really haven't ever had the patience to use blue tape before and I have a pretty steady hand so I don't mess up...I over thought it this time. Shoot.

Now I have to go get more paint so I can touch up the rough edges.

Yes this is a post just about me complaining, but really my week is going great.

While I am at it...we finally decided to have our plasma mounted to the wall and had a technician from the cable company come run the cable to the right spot. As we were identifying the spot I put a piece of my infamous Blue Tape on the location...then went back to painting behind the fridge (waste of paint) and sure enough I come back to look at his finished work and it is about 2 inches below the blue tape. So now we have cable in the wall but still in a visible location...just one of those days.

Hope yours is going better:)

Week in Photos

This week flew by...yeah only one more until we find out what's cookin in the oven!

Our sweet puppies have adjusted to their new friend Rosie and can be left alone without supervision.

I dressed Rosie up in one of Lucy's old outfits...looks too cute. Lisa she can have this.

Chad and I made our first purchase for the baby...a dresser/changing table (of course we put a pad on the top for the baby to lay in) and storage cabinet. I got a steal on it from work. I plan on putting little baskets lined with pink or blue inserts on the shelves to keep a nice clean look.

And the best news is that we got our results back from the Quad screen test and our baby is healthy!

Baby Update

I have had strangers notice I was pregnant for the past two days.

First I had a lady tell me to watch out for some fumes while I am pregnant. I was like, wow you noticed I am pregnant. She said I was really blossoming. I was at PB and she must have seen me before as it seemed that she knew me.

Then today, Chad and I went to a Greek restaurant and I asked the owner's opinion on 2 different gyros and he said since I was pregnant that I should get both. Once we sat down Chad and I were surprised that he noticed. We figured that we see me everyday and it is hard for us to notice much change.

All that to say that I figured I would take a picture of me "blossoming."

Doggysitting Rosie

Our friends Lisa & Phillip have gone out of town and we are doggysitting Rosie. I told Lisa that I would blog about the dog adventures so she could be assured that little Rosie was still alive in our crazy dogpack!
Rosie is a black poodle mix approx. 2 yrs old and weighs 19lbs (I weighed her). She set the tone right away that she didn't want to be messed with. She showed her teeth and gave a quick snap-bark to help identify her personal space.
Sampson got the message right away...stay away from the barker.
Lucy on the other hand is a little less experienced and thought that the snap-bark was a signal for play.
Finally Rosie gave in and figured she might as well play with Lucy since she won't leave her alone. Here are the 2 of them having fun on the couch.

I thought it was funny that Sampson (175 lb) was hiding at the end of the hallway wanting nothing to do with the small dogs playing.

He later came closer to be a part of the fun.

Rosie does seem to enjoy being around Sampson more than Lucy because he basically ignores her and gives her some peace. Here they are sleeping together in Sampson's bed.

More of Dad's Trip

While Dad and crew were in town they wanted to get up on the ski hill and learn some turns. It was Mary Ashley and Bethany's first time and so they signed up for a class. I have to admit the weather was terrible for a first timer. The winds were harsh and it was frigid! I wasn't sure how long they would last and how much they would actually enjoy the sport. But to my surprise they skied until the lifts stopped running and came down with smiles.

It was great having yall out here and I look forward to seeing you in Birmingham in February.

2 more weeks

We went to the doctor this morning hoping that we would maybe find out the sex...no luck. However we did schedule our big ultrasound for January 19th, in two weeks.
The baby's heartbeat is currently 150 which is right in the middle of the range. Our doctor said that the baby's hearbeat can fluxuate (sp?) by 20bpm depending on if it is awake or not...so she doesn't even try to guess a sex that way. But she did tell us that a lower heartbeat means boy and a higher means girl. Like I said, ours is riding the fence right now.
Chad and I are beginning to think it is a girl.
Oh, who knows...we will just have to wait and see.

Dad's Visit

This weekend Dad, Sandie, Mary Ashley and Bethany have come to visit Chad and I. We had a rather disappointing first night watching Alabama not play Utah! Where was our Bama team? That was really too bad to end a 12-0 regular season.

Oh well, Sampson wooed the ladies as usual and had them melting in his paw.

We went to Squaw Valley to get a taste of the ski resort. We rode the tram to mid mountain and took advantage of the photo opportunities...

Checked out the Olympic Museum...

Then off to the see Lake Tahoe before the sun went down.

It was a great eventful day. You'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

PS - Monday morning I go to the doctor for a checkup and I am going to seriously beg for an ultrasound to check the baby's sex...wouldn't that be exciting!!!