Jana's Saucy Hair

A few of you have asked to see another (better) pic of Jana's new hair...this is the only other one I have, but you can see the cut a little better. I am so jealous of her new hair...if only my hair would look that cute short. Oh well...guess it's pony tails for life for me.

Day at the Zoo

This past weekend Andy was in Vegas with the boys, so I was a bachelorette all weekend. I was fine Friday and Saturday, but after a while of being in an empty house, with only your dog to talk to, you begin to need a little people time. So on Sunday, I tagged along with Mom and Jana when they took the girls to the zoo. We had so much fun. I had not been to the Dallas Zoo in about 15 years. Abbie and Anna Claire had the best time and were so good! Abbie loved the monkeys and AC loved the merry-go-round ride. She squealed all day long...Those girls are soooo stinking cute! I posted a few pics of our day. Jana just chopped her hair off and it is super cute. You might be able to tell in some of the pics. Very Katie Holmes.

Abbie "needed" to get into the water to play...what do you do when you didn't bring the swimsuit? Improvise...Who needs their skirt anyway?

Anna Claire and Jana on the merry-go-round. She LOVED this!

The girls...chillin' in the stroller

Bathroom...NOW!

So WL is being very difficult right now. It started Tuesday night when I was going to meet my friend Shea for a walk. I was running late so I decided to run the 4 blocks to where we were meeting. We live really close so we just meet 1/2 way...anyway, I had to stop immediately b/c it felt like my bladder would explode. Imagine running with a cup of water and trying to not spill any...yeah, that was how my bladder felt...slosh, slosh, slosh. All day yesterday I felt like WL was jumping up and down, up and down, up and down. I mean, like every 15 minutes it felt like I had to go pee. I'm all for the kiddo having some fun time, but come on...move over off of the bladder! (sorry if this was TMI for some)

Also, I think WL is going through a growth spurt right now. Why you ask?? Because I can't seem to get full. So far this morning I have had a bowl of cereal, a banana, a handful of chips, and some almonds. IT'S ONLY 11!!! Up until now, I have splurged a little bit, but I have not really strayed from my normal eating habits and eating times (except when I was pucking my brains out and would eat anything that marginally tasted okay). However, yesterday and today, I cannot get enough food to save my life. As Shannon would say...FEED EBES!!

All of you moms out there are saying, "WELCOME TO PREGNANCY!"

12 Week appointment

I went for my 12 week appointment on Monday. Everything is looking good. My morning sickness is tapering off and I am getting a little more energy back. It is amazing how just all of the sudden you feel better. I was up until 9:30 last night (such a sac!) ha!! Oh, and I gained a total of 3 lbs during the 1st Trimester. I'm not sure if that is normal or not, but I feel pretty good about it. I know these next 3 months will be a shocker to me...I'm psyching myself up for it now. I have posted a picture of a beached whale at my desk to remind me what I will look like at the pool this summer (joking, but you know what I mean).

WL's heart beat was 174, it was at 173 last week. I read somewhere, after Jana said she thought WL was a girl b/c of the high heart rate, that they have found no evidence of the heart rate showing what the gender is. They said that a heart rate of 170 to 180 at the beginning is normal. Sorry Jana :)

The Almquist family is secretly hoping for a boy. Dad was the youngest of 4 (3 older sisters). Mom was the oldest of 3 (2 younger sisters). Then Mom had me and Jana. Now Jana has Abbie and Anna Claire. We are due for some boys. Poor dad...when Jana and I got married it was like he had died and gone to heaven b/c he now had male companionship at holiday's and family gatherings. HOWEVER...Andy and I don't care at all what we have. I'm just excited to have a baby.

I'll blog more later about some books I am reading. One of them scared the ever living sh*t out of me the other night. DRAMA!

I'll also try and post pics of the growing belly. I actually have a small prego pouch now. NEAT!

love to all...Ebes

BONUS FLAP!

This past week I had some minor "prego complications" and my doctor wanted to see me just to make sure everything was fine. I am 11 weeks this week (will be 12 on Monday...HELLO 2nd Trimester!!)...anyway...I took Andy with me because he did not go the first time. He said that he was not ready to see how they did your first ultrasound...GET OVER IT!! So this time he was a big boy and volunteered to go with me. After a lot of questions, my doc decided we better do a sonogram. I was super excited because my next one was not scheduled until 16 weeks. Everything looked great and White Lightening is doing fine. My 12 week appointment is Tuesday.

Here is the pic...He/She has really grown...no more SAC!

White Lightening

Ok, so I have broken down and finally decided to start up one of these things. After all, I do spend a lot of time checking blogs of my friends and family...so why not have one of my own?? For those of you who don't know, my husband Andy and I are expecting our first little nugget in October...the 19th to be exact. After a long time of "trying to make it happen" (how's that for PC?)...we were finally blessed with our tiny gift. I found out on February 12th that we were expecting. My posts will be slow going for a while, but come October I have a feeling I will have a lot more to write about. So for now, I will write about all the fun, and not so fun, happenings of pregnancy. I know you are excited :)

FIRST TRIMESTER...
Things have been great so far. Besides the vomiting and not being able to keep my eyes open past 7:30 p.m. I have felt great! I LOVE LOVE LOVE being prego! Why didn't anyone ever tell me that it was this much fun?

Not a good pic, but this is my belly at 8 weeks...FANCY!

White Lightening (baby's nick name for now) at 8 weeks