Happy Thanksgiving!

We just got back from a wonderful dinner with our friend's family, and although I'm feeling slightly comatose from all the wonderful food, I wanted to share some updates and some photos.

Last weekend Dan and I did some intense cleaning in preparation for our new arrival.  Dan attacked the garage while I cleaned the inside of the house.  We had been toying around with the idea of putting our guest room furniture on Craigslist since we are turning that room into a nursery.  We weren't sure if we wanted to wait until after the holidays and had no idea if it would take a long time to sell.  So I decided to tidy the room up and snapped a few photos, making sure to capture the furniture in all it's glory (it's really not that nice of furniture, so that was a difficult task).  On a whim I took a look at Craigslist to see what other people were selling, their asking price, and how to word an ad.  I then created the ad for our furniture, previewing it and editing it about five times before submitting the final one.  I surfed around on the website for a few more minutes, scoping out the competition before logging in to my e-mail to be sure Craigslist got my ad.  Imagine my surprise to see an inquiry in my mailbox about the furniture.  Not even 10 minutes after I posted my ad, and we were on the phone with a guy who said he wanted our furniture and was able to come a pick it up now!  We were stunned to say the least.  So, in a matter of a few hours our guest room set was sold and out of our house!  I think I spent more time creating the ad for Craigslist than it took to sell the set.  Dan says we got really lucky to have sold it that fast, I think it's due to my fantastic photos and ad skills!

Now that the furniture was gone we were getting more of a sense of how the nursery would look and started brainstorming ideas for the colors.  After a trip to Home Depot, we came home with four colors that are still painted in large squares across the wall.  Different inspirations and ideas that I've come across on the internet are now taped to those squares and I enjoy standing in there and staring at them while I'm brushing my teeth in the morning.  We'll have a color picked out by the time my parents get here so we can paint and decorate!

This morning, as I was sitting on the couch enjoying the Thanksgiving day parade, Dan was out with some friends enjoying a fun game of touch football.  I made my delicious corn casserole and we were off to our friend's family's house for some turkey and pie.  Below you will see some more bump pictures, and I finally got Dan in some of the photos!  Yay!

We are 22 weeks pregnant!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Jess, Dan, baby, and Lucy

Orlando Calling

Last weekend Dan and I went to a music festival in town called Orlando Calling.  This is the first year for this music fest and there was a great line-up that Dan and I enjoyed for two days!  Some great bands we saw on Saturday were the Ettes, Pete Yorn, The Pixies, The Racontuers and The Killers.  It was a long day but the weather was beautiful and I made sure to bring a blanket so I was able to sit and relax at most of the shows.  Sunday we decided to make it a shorter day since my feet were still a bit achey.  I told Dan that some chocolate chip pancakes would really make my day better so we headed off to IHOP for a delicious breakfast to start our day off right!  We saw some more great shows on Sunday:  Michelle Branch, Buddy Guy, Kid Rock, and my guily pleasure Chris Isaak!  We missed seeing Bob Seger because it was past my bedtime, boo.

So, let me get back to Chris Isaak.  I saw a show of his once in Chicago and the House of Blues and I've been a fan of his since.  He is very entertaining, plays some great music, and is very easy on the eyes!  I took a boatload of pictures of him, but I will spare everyone and share just a few of my favorites.



The apparel is always FLASHY!



Never a dull suit!

 The first picture is his only wardrobe change.  I had mentioned it to Dan hoping he would put on what I refer to as his "Disco Ball" Suit.  Loved it!  We had a great time at the festival.  We hope to go again next year!

Time continues to fly by, I can't believe that this week is Thanksgiving!  Which means Christmas is just around the corner.  I've been enjoying doing some early shopping on-line.  I don't plan on going to any malls if I can help it.  Nothing beats sitting in your PJ's, drinking some hot tea, and browsing the internet for the next great gift.  The other great thing is all the reviews you get to read about the product before you buy it. 

All of this also means my parents will be in town soon and we're very excited to see them!  We haven't seen each other since early September and my body has changed a lot.  We're are also going to start setting up the nursery putting furniture together and painting and decorating the walls.  So excited to see how everything turns out.

As I mentioned, my body is changing and I don't just mean the expanding waitline.  I have more energy these days, so I'm trying to clean up and organize as much as possible.  Dan tells me I'm "nesting".  I guess he may be right.  I went through our filing cabinet and thinned it out sending my shredder into shock.  It only stopped working due to overheating one time.  Also, my hair is thicker and shinier these days, thank you prenatal vitamins!  My hair dresser noticed right away, always nice to hear for once that my hair is not dry and damaged.  Something else is changing, a little bit funny, my belly button is looking less deep and a lot more shallow.  I'm sure it wont be long until it's popped out like a cooked turkey!

Until next time, I'm sure our little turkey can't wait for all the good food coming her way this week!

Love,
Jess, Dan and baby girl York

Is it a boy or a girl??!!

We are 20 weeks pregnant today!  I can't believe I am halfway through my pregnancy.  We had an appointment today for an ultrasound to make sure everything was forming correctly and to take some measurements.  Oh yeah, and to determine the gender of the baby!  WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!! 



Sweet Baby Girl



We saw so many things on the ultrasound.  The spine, the brain, the heart (with all four chambers beating away at 140 beats per minute), the stomach full of the amniotic fluid she's swallowing (yes, we saw her take a big gulp!), and a couple of well functioning kidneys (to pee the amniotic fluid out so she can drink it again, hee hee).  We even got a good look at the structures of her face and mouth especially.  The technician looked to see if there is a cleft lip or not.  She pointed out her lips, which are intact, no cleft.  I mentioned it looked like York lips to which Dan clarified to the technician, no upper lip.  She said there are two full lips, so it looks like she has mommy's lips!  All in all, everything is formed perfectly on our baby girl.  She's even got mommy's stature ranking in at the 58th percentile in size for her "age".  We may have a basketball player in our future!

I now know I am definitely feeling her move.  Small pokes from inside that I usually only notice when I'm lying down.  I think it's still too early for Dan to feel it from the outside, but I hold his hand on my tummy while we're sitting together watching TV just in case.  **Update** I wrote the previous statement three hours ago and Dan and I were sitting on the couch just now, the baby was kicking hard, and Dan actually felt her! Yay!



Look mom! I can stand on my head!  OR, I can put my feet on my face



There aren't many foods that I'm craving, but one thing that I can always go for is a grilled cheese.  Yum!  I usually get them when I'm at work, the nice man in the cafeteria makes a fine grilled cheese.  Add a side of pickles to that and I'm good to go!  I had switched from drinking regular coffee in the mornings to decaf which just isn't the same.  So recently I've been having hot chocolate or hot apple cider in the mornings, still a far cry from my morning joe.  A friend of mine suggested a decaf tea to me in a Bengal spice flavor, and when you add some sugar and milk, you get a delicious chai tea.  I now have a new favorite morning beverage!  Hard to say what I'll be eating next week as my taste for things changes quite frequently.

A few bump pictures at 20 weeks today!

A note from Lucy



Today Jess told me there's going to be another girl in the house!  Wow, I guess Dan is going to be outnumbered.  That's good news though, because I tend to like girls better.  Jess is still walking me every day she's off work.  She says she needs her exercise too for a healthy baby.  I'm trying my hardest not to pull her along, but it's really hard to resist the temptation of a squirrel.  The way they twitch their tails at me and squeak at me when I run them up a tree is just really annoying!  I'm also being really mindful of Jess' growing tummy these days, while I still enjoy cuddle time, I try to steer clear of the tummy area.  Jess warns me that soon the baby will kick me, then I'll be sorry.

I thought I'd share some things about myself with those of you who may not know me that well.

Favorite food:  Iams

Favorite snack:  Milk bones

Human food I would die for:  Cheese  (I can hear the drawer open and I know the crinkle of the cheese package from across the house! I also ate the cheese off the top of a pasta casserole grandma Cindy made that was sitting on the counter. Hey!  I left all the pasta for them to eat!)



Favorite sound:  The jingle of keys (I am a sucker for a car ride)

Favorite phrases:  "Go for a walk"  "Go for a ride"  (either of these can wake me from the deepest sleep, or encourage me to come in the house when I'm being defiant)

Until next post...

With Love
Jess, Dan, Lucy, and baby GIRL York!