Reagan Turns 4

Last Saturday, May 14, 2011, Reagan turned 4. My sweet, beautiful, adorable niece Reagan is already 4 years old. In the big picture, its quite amazing that she is 4 and just as fiesty as ever, but on the selfish side, I miss that cute infant/toddler who was so cute and cuddly. She is still cute and cuddly, but she is now a little girl and I fear there is not much more time that she wants to be cuddly. She takes dance lessons for goodness sakes. I arrived early to help my sister get her ready, french braid Reagan's hair in pigtails, and take care of last minute party details that are essential to a 4 year olds birthday party. Here are some pictures of the big event.

Welcome to Reagan's House













Some pre-party pictures with Lori, Gavin, and Reagan

Reagan and Mommy

Ice Cream Truck Fun with all Her Friends







Tinkerbell Cake

Cake is Served








Her Kitchen for her New Playhouse

Lori and I










Lori, Mom, and I

21 Week Update

Good morning sweet friends. I just want to start this day off with praise for another beautiful day, we are here; in the now, so let's make the most of this day that has been given to us. We have so much to be thankful for in all our lives: family, friends, blessings within, homes, warm beds, and people to share our lives' journey with. God is so good and continues to richly bless Charlie and me; I have no clue what we did to deserve any of what we have both outside and within. So thank you God for this day and for the many blessings given to us.

I have decided that I am going to attempt more blog posts. There is just so much going on, and there is so much I want to share. For right now, I am going to share the 21 week update on Baby Boy Cagle.

How Far Along: 21 weeks, 1 day

Weight Gain: up 1/2 lb per 19 week appointment

Maternity Clothes: Almost always

Stretch Marks: None

Sleep: Very well

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling our little man move more and more everyday and night. Also purchasing the stroller and carseat. It feels great to finally take action and begin preparing.

Gender: Team BLUE!

Belly Button: Getting more shallow

What I Miss: Nothing, I LOVE carrying this baby.

Symptoms: Nothing new really. My chin acne may be disappearing. Either way, I don't care, its my badge of motherhood that I wear proudly. But the sun may have helped clear it up.

Looking Forward To: A great weekend with a prenatal massage and Reagan's dance recital.

Milestones: I am the most pregnant I have ever been and blessed with a baby boy.

Crying and Shopping

Yes friends, that sums up my week. These hormones can be pretty intense and leave me jumping to irrational thoughts. For example, Thursday afternoon I received fabric swatches in the mail, and was super excited to see how the lil guy's nursery fabric would coordinate. Charlie came home and informs me that he does not like the nursery fabrics, and oh by the way, he wants to revisit a name for the lil man that I thought we had closed the book on and put on the shelf.....I thought for good. Cue the overwhelming thoughts/tears and then ding dong goes the doorbell, my dad arrived to take me to dinner. So the kicker and what came out of my mouth to Charlie was "What does it matter to you? You are colorblind." He really is, he gets his blues, greens, pinks, etc mixed up. Plus, my husband just does not have the ability to see the finished product, he typically hates the bits and pieces, but loves everything once its altogether. To compromise, I took the one fabric he liked (brown fabric with blue giraffes...which he thought the giraffes were pink) and looked up all the coordinating fabrics to go with the giraffes. He did not like those, and just told me to do what I wanted, he was sure he would love it. Just don't make his room girly.

Here is a picture of the color scheme to be pursued. I love the dots, stripes, and the giraffe print. Since our furniture is dark, I plan to only use the giraffe print as accent here and there.

I went by Lowe's to pick out paint swatches and plan on starting to paint this week. So exciting, and Charlie is so ready to paint and install crown moulding.

In other news, we purchased our stroller and carseat. Here are those pictures too:

Meet the Peg Perego Pliko Switch Classico Stroller in Kiwi and the Primo Viaggio SIP 30/30 Infant Carseat in Pepper. Charlie picked out the carseat color and I picked the stroller color (there is your compromise). While they do not match, you will never see the stroller and carseat together. The stroller seat completely pops out so as only to leave the frame and the carseat clicks right into place. The carseat and stroller seat, when either is used, can face towards me or face the world. I LOVE how compact the stroller is when collapsed and I LOVE that the carseat is inverted so as to help prevent gas and reflux. I thought I would always go the Britax route since that is what has been used in my family, but the safety reviews and customer satisfaction reviews are so close, that we went with Peg.

Lastly, the "shopping" part, as in the title. Here are some purchases from this week: I went a little crazy.

Let's just say the first is dress is definitely more friendly on the wallet. The tie dye dress, was a bit pricier; however it was the MOST comfortable dress I have ever worn. It will be great in July for my maternity photo session with Kim Graham, our wedding photographer. Additionally, when trying these on yesterday, I would pull the fabric out in the stomach area to get an idea what happens to the dress's fit when my bump gets bigger. These were the only 2 that did not hug my rear end. I also hit up the 30% off at Ann Taylor LOFT maternity yesterday.

Ok, off to get ready for another baby shower at LKN. I hope ya'll have a great Sunday and enjoy the remainder of your weekends!!

Half Baked

This week marks the half-way point on our journey to lil man. I cannot believe how much time has passed and all the new things that are happening from week to week. There is so much to be thankful for and this past week this has been so evident:

Charlie and I feel the lil guy move every night and have now established a routine of laying in bed and feeling the gymnastics take place;

I have ordered fabric swatches for his nursery;

We have made progress on selecting his name...more on that at another time;

Dinner with my sweet cousin, who is an amazing mother and woman of God;

A baby shower for a longtime friend who is being blessed with a baby girl;

A friend finding out she is having a baby girl (that baby is going to be stunningly beautiful);

Lunch date with a fellow infertile (I can smile about this now) and her son;

An over-hour conversation with a dear friend;

celebrating Mother's Day and oh so much more.

This Saturday is my niece, Reagan's, 4th birthday. My sister is having a "housewarming" party for her since she has a brand new playhouse. A girl has to get established....I see lots of pink and purple; lots of princess with a splash of diva. Wouldn't you know she has 2 boyfriends these days? When I pick her up at daycare some days, her teachers tell me how bossy she is to them. HA! Someone is fiesty just like their aunt!

This week's updates:

How Far Along: 20 weeks, 1 day

Weight Gain: Up 1/2 lb per doctor's appointment from last Monday.

Maternity Clothes: Most definitely

Stretch Marks: None

Sleep: Very well this week

Best Moment of the Week: Mother's Day when Charlie felt the lil guy move.

Gender: Team BLUE!

Belly Button: In, but getting shallow

What I Miss: Nothing, I LOVE carrying this child.

Symptoms: RLP and great sleep

Looking Forward To: Getting the fabric swatches and getting the nursery construction underway.

Milestones: I am the most pregnant I have ever been and blessed with a boy!

Springtime and 19 Week Updates

Good morning friends!! I know I keep saying this, but my gosh, time is FLYING by. It feels like the work week passes in one day and then its the crazy, busy weekends. I LOVE staying busy at work and then usually make sure I have something scheduled (or planned around the house) to do for after work and then my day is finished. I am loving the springtime weather, all the fruit, salads, and spring dishes that are some of our favorites. Speaking of which, let me give you one:

Proscuitto Pear and Blue Cheese Sandwiches:

4 slices of toasted multi-grain bread (I buy a loaf in the bakery just bc it tastes better than pre-sliced bread)

1.5 packs of proscuitto (avoid Dietz and Watson bc they have a metallic something on the proscuitto that you can see through the packaging...scary)

1 sliced pear (thinly sliced)

Spring Mix salad leaves tossed in a small cap-full of red wine vinegar and sprinkled with pepper

Blue Cheese

After the bread is toasted, I place the proscuitto on the bread, top with however much blue cheese you like, accompanied with as much spring mix as you like, and lastly top with about 2-3 pear slices and the last piece of bread. Enjoy.

We LOVE mixing fruit with different cheeses. As always, I swear by the magazine Cooking Light, where I found this gem of a recipe. During this time of year, I pair most dishes with a salad or fruit salad (think fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, and strawberries).

In other news, I ordered the nursery furniture from USA Baby yesterday. They are having a furniture sale. In my last post, I put the link to the info about the furniture so you could see it. However, when I visited USA Baby, I saw this crib in the same furniture linethat we wanted and was placed on the floor just last Friday. An executive decision had to be made, so I changed the crib to this one; thank goodness Charlie and I have the same taste in furniture. This is the actual color of the furniture we ordered. It looks black, but I promise its not. If you see the price on this crib, trust me, I did not pay this much for this crib....much, much less.

So this week, we are 19 weeks. EEEK!!! What's going on this week?

How Far Along: 19 weeks, 2 days

Weight Gain: Up 1/2 lb per doctors visit on Monday

Maternity Clothes: Most definitely

Stretch Marks: None

Sleep: Very well, but I am taking 1 Benadryl (yes, its safe) at night for my severe allergies.

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing his face on the ultra sound. I LOVE knowing that this child has apparently inherited his father's handsome looks. As I always say, Charlie is easy on the eyes.

Gender: Team Blue!

Belly Button: In

What I Miss: Nothing, I love carrying this child.

Symptoms: round ligament pain, crazy dreams (if you only knew), and no snissing this week.

Looking Forward To: a weekend visit to the fabric store to pick out the fabric for his room and the purchasing of paint samples to start painting his room.

Milestones: I am the most pregnant I have ever been and blessed with a boy!

The Nursery Madness Begins

So, we are approaching the half-way mark on this pregnancy journey, and wouldn't you know I have started worrying that the nursery won't be finished for lil man.....especially since I have not started anything nursery related. EEEKK!! Ok, I cannot say I haven't completely started. I mean, we have decided on furniture, its just not ordered yet, we have decided on a theme and colors, and I have lined up the painter who is going to paint the plaques and letters of his name. Well, his name is not yet definite, I am having the crib bedding made and have not fabric shopped, and I have picked out the Bible verses for the plaques, but have not purchased the materials yet. BUT, we are taking the plunge and ordering thenursery furniture tomorrow on my lunch break. Tell me what you think:

www.munirefurniture.com/majestic_04.htm - With the curved back crib, dresser, hutch, nightstand; all in the walnut finish.

Ok, I can breathe now, we are taking a HUGE step and a HUGE weight is about to be lifted.

Crazy Week of Emotions

I have always thought that I am a pretty level-headed person....for the most part, but whatever, we all have our moments. So the thoughts of pregnancy related emotions have really toyed with me this week. I never thought I would be one of the those who gets emotional or wrapped up emotionally in things during pregnancy....guess again!
Which brings me to the issue of what has me emotional: my relationship with my father. I won't go on too much, but those that know me or have followed my blog from the beginning know some of the issues that stem from my relationship with my dad. My father and mom split up (story of many people) about 2 years ago, but it was a nasty split; complete with an affair galore on my dad's side. During this time, my father said some very harsh things to my sister, our spouses, and myself. My point in writing this is that on my drives to work or laying in bed at night when I am feeling this lil guy stirring inside, I cannot imagine saying/acting in these ways to this miracle of life. This leaves me completely baffled at my father's behavior. Let me also be clear that I have prayed about this situation and have forgiven; I guess pregnancy just has a way of making you extra sensitive to life. I just pray that God will reveal His plan for my relationship with my father in His own time.
I changed my blog picture to my favorite Mother's Day picture from 2009. My mom and sister are amazing ladies and mothers. God blessed me richly with these two and not to mention my sweet niece, Reagan. This was Reagan's first Mother's Day post heart surgery, and we are so blessed to have her with us happy and healthy to this day. Moving on.
Who has had CRAZY allergies this past month? There is no way I can wear my contacts, go 30 minutes without sneezing, and watery/itchy eyes to no end. Allergy eye drops are my BFF right now. We were hanging out with friends on Saturday night and were grilling out. As I was looking around, I just saw white dandeloin (sp) fuzz falling from everywhere. Needless to say, I went inside and fell asleep....its okay though bc our friends are pregnant too, so they recognize when "momma" has had enough...I keep promising to post pics from the gender party, Charleston trip, and now a dear friend's baby shower. I promise to post those soon. Rambling on:

How Far Along: 18 weeks, 2 days
Weight Gain: up 1 lb. Total gain of 6 lbs...this will change at our doctor's appointment on Monday, I am sure of it.
Maternity Clothes: Yes to all
Stretch Marks: Nope
Sleep: tossing and turning
Best Moment of the week: I FELT HIM MOVE!!!
Gender: Team BLUE
Belly Button: In
What I Miss: Nothing, I LOVE carrying this child.
Symptoms: I have just pieced together that I have been having braxton hicks contractions for the last 2 nights. Only a couple and not very strong. I also snissed myself the other day. Snissed, you may ask? Well, let's just say that when I sneezed, it caused another reaction. Charlie wondered why I was bolting towards the stairs to the shower.
Looking Forward To: Our appointment on Monday when I get to see him on the ultrasound and hear his heartbeat.
Milestones: I am the most pregnant I have ever been and blessed with a boy!!