A Fun Day!

I took a break from painting and decorating Bryson's room today and went to lunch with Alicia. It was so much fun to catch up and hang out with her and lunch was delicious!! (I ate tons of salsa!)

Since I was in Dallas, I had to make a stop at NorthPark Mall. :) There's a store called Janie and Jack that has the most precious clothes and they just happed to be having an awesome sale...and I love sales!! I just couldn't resist! (If you have kids, or need a present for a little kid, you must make a stop over there!)

I am SO in love with these shoes that I wish I could have them in every size for him!!


And he got some really cute shorts and a swim suit for next summer!


Then, Michael came home from work with this for me!!

He is so good to me!! :)

As for the rest of the night, Michael gets to stay home tonight...no class or study group!...so we're going to have a nice homemade dinner and spend a wonderful night together:)

We're Woodworking Elves

I've been in a huge decorationg phase lately and I have really wanted to make a little art table fo Bryson, but I didn't know how it was going to turn out since a) I don't have any tool/saws and b)I've only used a saw once in my life. But for some crazy reason, I have had huge desire to make it!!

So, Sunday night, we were sitting around after lunch and I asked my Dad if he would show me how to use his saw and he graciously offered to go to Home Depot with me and help me make the table!!

I had the table pictured in my head, but really hadn't thought of how I was going to make it. That's where my Dad came in!!!

We got all the supplies together (we used stair spindles for the legs and I love them!!)

Then my dad showed me how to use the saw


Once the table top was cut, we put the wooden supports on bottom part and then put on the legs

Then, 4 1/2 hours after our Home Depot run, the table was finished!!



These are the stools that I had already painted to go with the table.

--I still need to paint the table, but I'm waiting until it's not rainy outside. Also, I don't know if you can see it, but my Dad cut a small slit in the top so I can slip the roll of art paper through it so Bryson can color right on the table. Once it's finished, I'll post pictures!! :)

It was so much fun being able to do this with my Dad. Bryson is going to have a special table for years to come that his Mommy and Papaw made just for him with lots of love!! Thank you Dad!!!

Prayer for a Sweet Little Boy

I know anyone who has a blog, or has read a blog or even who just has the iternet has heard of a sweet little boy named Stellan. I found MckMama's blog at the beginning of this year and Stellan quickly captured a piece of my heart. I love love love babies and kids and when one is sick or hurting, it absolutely breaks my heart. I had to stop reading the blog briefly when I found out I was pregnant because I was consumed with worry and fear for our baby instead of joy and excitement. But I have been captivated with his story.

I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant with a baby boy or if it's just the fact that it's a story that pulls at your heart, but since his last downhill slide, I have been glued to the computer, waiting for updates on his condition and praying nonstop for a sweet little boy that I don't even know.

If you haven't heard his story, you should read it. It is a true testament of prayer and God's amazing miracles. I hope you'll join me in praying for this sweet Angel.

John Bryson Fant

Meet John Bryson Fant!
I just can't get enough of him and his precious little nose :)

I can't wait to get to see him in person!!

So, as I've said before, I constantly feel him move...always!
The ultrasound tech actually commented on how wiggly he is. He started out in breech position facing my belly and within minutes, we had flipped upside down and was facing my spine! It was funny because she had to keep chasing him with the wand to take all the measurements! :)

I see a very active little boy in our future!!!

It's A .............

First of all, I have to say that I could barely sleep at all last night I was so anxious!!! I told Michael it was like Christmas Eve--If you don't know, I am crazy about Christmas!! But I was even crazier about finding out the gender of our baby!

This morning, I woke up early (6:00) and went outside with Orion and prayed for quite a while for a healthy miracle of a baby. I prayed for a healthy heart, a developed brain, 10 fingers and 10 toes and all around just a healthy baby. And God heard my prayers !!

SO.... (drumroll please!)

For all of you who guessed that our baby is going to be a...

Don't go to Vegas any time soon!! HA!

Because we're having a precious baby

YAY!!!!! Michael and I feel so blessed to have this baby. I can't begin to put into words how much love I have for Bryson already. It's amazing! We are SO excited, we can't stand it!

--I had to let you all know asap, so I posted from my parent's house and don't have my camera cord so I can't upload the pictures from our camera. Those will be coming shortly, so check back soon!! :)

Babymoon in Boston!!!

Michael and I have been in Boston for the past week. We called it our Babymoon, our last big trip as a family of 2. The next trip we take, our family will be slightly bigger! :)

We had SO much fun in Boston! It was by far the most physically exhausting trip I've been on. We walked upwards of 7 miles every single day. Michael and I agreed that we took the trip at the perfect time because if I was in my first trimester, there is no way under God's green earth I could have done pretty much anything except sleep in a fancy hotel. If I would have been in my 3rd trimester, I would be too uncomfortable and gigantic to do everything! I'll try to post a shortened version of the trip or else no one would finish reading this post! :)

We left for Boston Thursday morning

And checked into our hotel, The Omni Parker House...We found out that it is the oldest continuously opperating hotel in the U.S. It has housed every single U.S. President since Lincoln. JFK proposed to Jackie in the Parker House Restaurant (one table away from where we sat!!) And Charles Dickenson read A Christmas Carol for the first time ever in the lobby. So much history in that hotel!
Then we hopped on The Duck Boat to take an exciting tour of Boston. It's an old WW2 boat that drives on land and then dives into the water-hence the name!




We walked around for the rest of the day exploring Boston.

The next day, we walked the Freedom Trail. It takes you all around Downtown Boston, everywhere from Paul Revere's House, The Old North Church, King's Chapel & Burial Ground, The site of The Boston Massacre, U.S.S. Constitiution and several other places.
The churches are BEAUTIFUL!!
The Old North Church & The Lantern Paul Revere hung on the steeple

Taking a break from walking up and down the hills in Charlestown

The U.S.S Constitution

On the way back home from the 5 mile hike around the city...this was my best friend!! (I have been craving them ever since!)

*****Friday Night: I was completely exhaused from walking all over the city, but it was 11:30 and we couldn't go to sleep. We ran to 7-11 right across the street and got a midnight snack. We finally went to sleep at 12:30...I was out in about 2 secounds! At 1:40AM, we heard a horrible noise that scared me out of bed. I jumped up to figure out where it was coming from. I banged on the alarm clock for a while and realized that wasn't it. I went over to the thermostat and put my ear to it. Micahel woke up at this point. I started banging on the box and pushing all the buttons to get it to stop. Remember, I was half asleep!! HA! Michael finally mumbled that it was the fire alarm. I completely freaked out and we ran out the door and everone was out in the hall. We were on the 10th floor so we had to make our way down 10 flights of stairs. fun. We finally got to the 1st floor with a jam packed lobby and firemen

We waited across the street until we could go back into the room...

We got the OK and went back inside. Since all 500 rooms were downstairs, it would have taken an hour to get back up to the room. So me and my pregnant self had to walk up all 10 stories to get back to our room. FUN. HA! It did make for a funny story though! It turns out that some "funny" kid decided to pull the alarm. Thank you kid...

We went to Fenway on Saturday and Michael was thrilled about this!
But first, we had to stop at Dunkin Donuts. Apparently Bostonians live on this. There are 94 in the city! GEEZE people!


We ate lunch at the Bleacher Bar on the field. This place is so cool! We ate lunch overlooking the field, right next to the Green Monster.

We went to Revere Beach to hang out afterwards. There happened to be a sandcastle contest going on!

The water was FREEEEEEEZING!!

Just a typical day in Boston! :)


That night we had our fancy shmancy dinner. We went to dinner at the Parker House, in our Hotel. I was a bad pregnant girl for this dinner... I had calamari, seafood ravioli, and a little bit of chocolate on the Boston Cream Pie (which was also invented in the hotel!) I just couldn't pass it up and boy was that a good choice!!! It as absolutely incredible!

We went to The Old North Church for service Sunday morning. It was so interesting. All the pews looked like this

Then we went to Cheers for lunch!


Monday, we went to Harvard. I felt smarter just from walking around campus! Harvard is the most beautiful campus I've ever seen.

Michael is an itty bitty speck in this pic, but he's infront of Harvard's Business School

Before heading back to the airport, we spent a lot of the evening at Boston Harbor watching the ships come in and out.

Then we hopped on the train

And headed home! What a fantastic vacation!!

18 weeks

(I'm late updating again, I know :( Since I didn't post a picture last week, you can pretty much just picture me about the same size!)

I FINALLY "popped" last week!! I officially now look kinda pregnant! It's so exciting:) Some days I feel bigger than others, but I still love it. Also, in the past week I constantly feel the baby move !! It is so fun to feel Fantlet wiggle and squirm all day long. I can feel him while I'm sitting and standing now. A couple weeks ago, I could only feel the movement laying down. I absolutely can't wait for Michael to be able to feel the baby move. He's tried several times, but no luck. Hopefully it will happen soon because I know he wants to be a part of it so badly.

18 Weeks

This picture was taken on our way to The Old North Church Sunday morning. It was really windy (as you can tell) and only 70 degrees outside! It felt amazing in Boston! (Pictures to come, I promise!)

Tomorrow morning is THE big day. It's THE big appointment. We will find out THE gender of our baby. And it will be one of THE best days of my pregnancy!!!!! Michael and I have had a countdown (down to the hour!) for the past couple weeks. I can't wait for the doctor to tell us that every single one of Fantlet's organs and limbs are developing perfectly and our precious baby is healthy.

Boy or Girl? We will know tomorrow!!!!!

Boy or Girl!?

Go to the sidebar on the right to put your opinion in on what you think our precious little baby will be!! We get to find out Friday morning!!

Summer Crafts (Part 1)

If there is such thing as a "Decorating-Nesting" stage, I am so in it right now! I've been going crazy with projects. Most of them are only half way finished right now because I need to know if the baby is a boy or girl first :) I have either seen these projects on other blogs and I feel like I need to replicate them, or I wake up at 3:00 AM (wide awake, ready to start the day) with a brand new project in my head. These are the couple that are actually finshed right now.

These are the stools for the art table I mentioned I wanted to make a while back

This is a picture frame I made for a friend's precious new baby boy (I plan to make another one for Fantlet!)

I saw these shelves at a house I went to for a baby shower a while back and just couldn't get them out of my head. I haven't put any pictures in the frames yet, but there will be some in there soon!

That's it for right now. I'm sure Michael is somewhat scared to come home every day because he has no idea what I've decided to paint/make/mod podge/etc. It's just so much fun though! T minus 8 days until we find out if we're having a baby boy or baby girl!!!

P.S. What should my next project be?? I've thought about busting out my sewing maching and maybe starting to make a bib or two...I'm not quite sure about that idea though :)

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

We're off to Boston tomorrow morning and I am SO excited! We're going on our last vacation as a family of 2, also known as our 'Babymoon'. Michael checked the weather and the high for the whole week that we'll be there is only 81 degrees!! Halleluiah! It will be SO wonderful to not walk outside and melt :)

** A side note: After watching the news and seeing the 2 planes crashes in the last couple of days, I will most definitely be praying for safety the whole time we're in the air! **

Yummy Yummy!

This was Michael's favorite meal for a long time while we were engaged and newly married. I hadn't made it in a while, so I decided it was time to bring out Emeril's recipe again :) I forgot how much I like it. I even ate it for breakfast this morning! (Yuck, I know. But it was good!)

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OOPS! A sweet friend pointed out that I left you in the dark on this meal!

It's Emeril's Turkey Lasagna

***It might sound like a lot of work when you read it, but I actually made it again tonight to take to a friend and it took about an hour including bake time!

Recipe:

12oz of ground Turkey (or beef if you want)

3T Dried Minced Onion

2 cloves chopped Garlic

1 14 1/2oz can Diced Tomatoes

1 8oz can Tomato Sauce

1 T Italian Seasoning

6 Lasagna Noodles

1 beaten egg

1 15oz pkg Ricotta Cheese

Parmesan cheese

Mazzarella cheese

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Cook meat, onion and garlic in lg pan then Stir in undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce and Italian Seasoning. Cook another 15 mins, stirring occasionally.

Cook noodles, drain well and set noodles aside on a flat surface

For Filling: Combine egg and ricotta

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In a 9x13 lasagna (or Pyrex) dish, spread 1/2 cup of meat sauce on bottom of dish. Lay 3 noodles side by side. Spread 1/2 of ricotta mixture on noodles and top w/ 1/2 of sauce. Repeat layers and top with desired amount of mozzarella and parm cheess. I pile on the cheese and even put it in between the layers. I loooove cheese!!

Bake at 375 fo 30-35 mins and ENJOY!!

Yumm Yumm!

16 weeks

Well, really, 16 weeks and 3 days :)

If you look closely, you can tell my stomach is no longer flat! I think it's the beginning of a true baby bump! Yay!! I tend to eat a ton nowadays and I look about 7 months pregnant after most dinners. Maybe I should post a picture of that too! ha!

I went to the doctor on Tuesday to check on Baby Fantlet. She said the baby seems to be very healthy and has a strong heartbeat, 150 bpm. I asked about the old wives tale about the pace of the baby's heart beat (fast, 160+ = girl, slow under 160 = boy) and she said it's not true, you just have to wait until we see the actual anatomy on the ultrasound. Darn. But speaking of that, we get to go in on July 24 to find out if Fantlet is a boy or girl! Michael and I are SOO excited!! I had to beg my Doctor to do the ultrasound a couple weeks early so we can hopefully know what we're having just in time for Michael's huge family reunion that weekend! We can't wait to find out if we are going to have a John Bryson or an Emily Grace! :)

My pregnancy is still going great! I'm SO much less tired than the first trimester and it's wonderful. I haven't had any heartburn or indegestion or anything yet, but I'm sure it'll be coming soon. But so far so good!

As of now, I am just waiting for the 24th so I know what color clothes to start buying! :)

I love him!

Michael came home a few days ago with these beautiful flowers and a delicious dinner!

What a thoughtful husband and daddy-to-be!

I sure do love him!

A Fantastic July 4th!!!

Wow. We had such an amazing July 4th weekend....SO much happened!! (This will most definitely be a long post) :)

Michael and I took a road trip with our sweet friends Ray and Alicia to Bricktown in Oklahoma City. (Bricktown is like the Riverwalk in San Antonio) Alicia had no idea what was in store for her this weekend!

The 4 of us at the Texas-Oklahoma Border

3 1/2 hours after leaving McKinney, we arrived in Bricktown, checked into the hotel and then headed down to the Riverwalk to watch the Fireworks (on July 3rd)

After the fireworks, we went back toward the Riverwalk where Ray wanted to "take more pictures." He dropped to his knee and asked her to marry him!!!!

We went to Bricktown Brewery to get out of the humidity and for Ray and Alicia to call all their family and friends. I felt like I needed to announce their engagement to everyone we saw as we walked there, so I did! :)

The next day, July 4th, we took a trip to OU's campus in Norman. This is the day I REALLY felt like my body temperature had changed due to pregnancy beause I was SOOO hot! We had to stop at a gas station on campus to get some water and ice cream (at 10:00 in the morning) to cool off!

OU is really pretty and has about a gazillion statues and fountains around the campus.

They also had fun old school phone booths around campus. Naturally, we had to play in them :)

After lunch at Campus Corner, we went back to the hotel for an hour or so and then decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. It was most definitely our lucky day because as we drove up to pay for parking, there was a sign that said "Parking is FREE on July 4th". Hooray! We didn't have to pay for parking!! Then, we went to the entrance and there was a sign that said "Admission is FREE on July 4th". Sweet!! Michael and I found about 30 different flowers we would like to have in our flower beds, but sadly, I don't think they would survive in Texas.

We walked around the big pond right outside of the Botanical Gardens and saw a Mommy duck with her 5 ducklings. She was so sweet with them and was very protective of her babies when someone got too close. I thought it was precious :)

We went back to the hotel for a while, played some Speed Scrabble, rested and then got ready for dinner. While I was laying down I'm almost positive I felt Baby Fantlet move!!! It was so exciting! I know it's on the early side (16 weeks)of being able to feel the baby move, but I'm almost positive it was him! A few minutes later, I felt the same thing (and I'm pretty sure it wasn't gas or food digesting!) When did you first feel your baby move or kick? I'm so curious! :)

For dinner, we got all dressed up and had a super fancy dinner at Nonna's on the Riverwalk. It was Delicious!

We took a ride on the Water Taxi down the River after dinner. It started raining on us about 4 minues into the ride, so we were soaked by the time it was over.
We went up to the 4th floor patio of SKKY Bar to dry off and hangout until the firework show later that night. So much fun!

Sunday moring, we went over to the Oklahoma Ciy Bombing Memorial. My family and I had seen the site MANY years ago (like around 1999) on the way to one of our vacations and they didn't have any of the Memorial Stuff up yet. I know it happened a long time ago, but it is just so heartbreaking to me to think of all the people in the building that lost their lives. The worst part was seeing the "little chairs" for the children that were killed in the Day Care Center. They also had tons of memorabilia on the chain linked fence surrounding the memorial (like they usually do for a tragedy). I have a really hard time looking at it for more than about 30 seconds. It was special to see the Memorial Site though.

What a fantastic trip with wonderful friends!! Congratulations Ray and Alicia, we love y'all! I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July!