Ten Months

Did you know that a pregnancy is really 10 months?! The way you count a pregnancy is by weeks...the normal pregnancy is supposed to be 40 weeks (i.e. 10 months). Therefore, that officially makes me 6 months pregnant. Now, if you would have asked me before I understood the whole pregnancy thing...I would have thought, "wow 6 months, you are almost done...3 months to go." Not so much...I still have 4 months to go. Don't get me wrong, I want to have a healthy happy baby, so I understand why the next four months are important. But the anticipation of meeting this cutie-pie hanging out in my belly is enough to drive me crazy! The little kicks or movements throughout my days and nights always bring a smile to my face. Oh and I finally figured out what the baby's hiccups feel like this past week.

The Belly at 24 weeks!

Bubbles

Are there rules to blogging? Am I allowed to blog about other people or post pictures of their kids? What blog rules do I need to know? I figure if you don't want to hear about it then either you wouldn't be reading along or you can just glaze over these posts...until I talk about you of course!

The reason I ask is because last week my friend Wendy and I visited another friend, Amanda and her new baby boy! Wendy brought bubbles for Amanda's little girl to play with and I caught a couple of pictures that I thought turned out absolutely adorable. Is it okay to post pictures of other peoples kids?

Maybe it's just my maternal instinct kicking in, but little K was so entertaining to watch with her bubbles!

Family Ties

The past couple weekends we have had the opportunity to hang out with Ben's extended family at family outings. Both of his parents are from large families so it's rare to have all the aunts and uncles together at the same time...ironically it happened two weekends in a row!

This is the Brockwell Family at the annual Fish Fry.

This is the Funk Family Reunion. Grandma, plus all six siblings and their families made it to Morton for the holiday weekend. There were a couple people missing, but this is the most Funks I've ever seen in one place!

While we were at the reunion I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of Ben's cousins for the first time. His cousins Patrick's wife, Joanne, has totally inspired me to pursue the hobby of photography. I don't want to go crazy (yet)...but I really want to be able to take cute pictures of my baby!

Here is a practice shot of my handsome hubby I took with one of Joanne's cool (hard to screw up any picture) camera lenses.

Pomp and Circumstance

Over the past weekend Ben and I went to a graduation party. Not just for anyone, but for one of THE Cruses...Brandon Cruse! The Cruses are almost like my own children...EXCEPT I never had to foot the bill and they paid me to take care of their kids :) Anyway I saw them almost every day for years and watched them grow up. I baby-sat summer after summer during junior high and high school. Luckily I had both the Cruses and Castillo's to keep me employed. Between the two families, it seemed as if they would alternate who would have a baby each year. Regardless, both of these families are like my own and it's times like this where I just can't believe how grown up they have become!

The three oldest Cruses in 1998. There is a similar picture on the same day where Alex and Brandon were "posing" for the picture...but really they are holding onto each other for dear life!

Congrats to you Brandon as you start the next venture of your life. My advice to you is to make sure that you go to class enough to get decent grades...but don't forget that there are important lessons to be learned outside the classroom as well! (I expect a couple smiles out of my sorority sisters as you read this!)

The Cruses today...from L to R: Nancy, me, Kendra, Michaela, Charles, Alex and Brandon. Notice how they all tower over me with the exception for Charles. I probably only have 3 or 4 more years before he is taller then me!

Kicks

Can you believe that I'm only 22 weeks pregnant in this picture? I feel as if I don't know how much more I can seriously grow...not to mention 18 weeks more. Oh well...it's all worth it!!

My bi-weekly pictures are at the encouragement of my friend Monica. She and I are due on the same day...what are the odds! Another friend, Staci, is due three weeks in front of us...so we all share pictures to see our babies growing. At first I was highly against recording myself through this stage, but I've realized that it's fun to look back and see the progress...at least that is how I feel at this moment. I may feel differently about publishing pictures at 40 weeks! My goal is to wear the same shirt throughout all the pictures so I can get an honest representation of the baby's size.

The baby is starting to get really active. I feel lots of kicks...especially after eating something sweet. This baby is definitely a big fan of my mother-in-laws pies (though I don't know anyone who isn't a fan)! I think I'm going to have to learn to make pies soon. Anyways, after a piece of yummy Strawberry Custard pie, I had Ben put his hand on my belly and sure enough he felt a couple big kicks. I'm even starting to see the kicks through my clothes. Not identifiable body parts, but there is definitely movement...pretty cool!