26 Weeks Update!

How far along? 26 Weeks!

Size of baby? About the size of an eggplant

Maternity Clothes? Yep.

Stretch marks? Not yet.

Sleep? Still sleeping good... but this summer schedule of staying up late and then sleeping late is going to be hard to get out of in August. haha

New Symptoms? Nothing new this time. Still having a little bit of back pain... but VERY little. Less than less time!

Fun Moments this week?

KARIS ELAINE GORMAN was born this past Wednesday, July 19th at 6:53 p.m.! She weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, 18 in long! She is BEAUTIFUL. I have LOVED getting pictures & videos from Emilie and her Mom! SO thankful that Mrs. Margaret has been kind enough to keep my updated during this time! I am dying to meet little Miss Karis and to see her MOM!!!!! I can't believe my Best Friend is a mom! Talk about an emotional experience when your BFF has a baby and you're 9 hours away! When I got word that Karis was born, I just sat in my living room and cried! I was so happy & proud of Emilie! I had been praying for her all afternoon, so it was such a relief to here that her & Karis were doing great! And then to think that this whole thing will be happening to me in about 3 months. EMOTIONAL WRECK. UNBELIEVABLE. But I am so ready. But first I want to meet my niece!

 Jordan & Jake stopped by and had lunch with us a couple weeks ago. They brought us cupcakes from their NOLA favorite Sucre! They were so delicious and SO beautiful & sparkly! So great to see them for a couple hours!! 

Last weekend we went to Galveston with our friends from Texas, Lauren & Banjo! We spent all day Saturday at Schlitterbahn just floating on the lazy river! It was amazing!! I can't wait to go back to Schlitterbahn after I've had Ella... I enjoyed it, but I would have LOVED to do the water slides!! Also I would love to wear a swimsuit that doesn't have the name tag of "maternity" on it. haha So much fun wearing a maternity swimsuit... not. haha After Schlitterbahn we headed to our hotel and got ready for dinner... We went to Kemah and ate at Landry's on the boardwalk! So delicious! After dinner, we grabbed ice cream at Marble Slab and then went through a fun wooden maze! It was the coolest thing ever... if you're ever in Kemah... go do the Lighthouse Maze!!

Food Cravings? Watermelon! I've had a couple of my Dad's so far... and they are DELICIOUS! Way better then ANY of the watermelons I have bought from Wal-Mart or Brookshire Bros!

Things I miss? Coffeeeeee.

Movement? Lots & lots of it

Weight Gain? Yes, apparently I have. My doctor so kindly told me that I need to watch my weight. haha... Thanks to all the sweet & encouraging women in my life they have reminded me that I have not gained that much weight... at least that's not noticeable to the eye... even though the number on the scale has increased. haha... I know that I am supposed to gain weight while being pregnant, but his reminder definitely made me feel a little self conscious. I decided that if he was a woman... he would NOT have told me that. haha 

Worries? Still haven't heard anything about a job for next year. If I'm being honest, I'm really not that worried about it. Although, the insurance thing keeps coming back to my head and that makes me a little anxious. I just need to trust God. He has a plan. And it could be something that I didn't even remotely foresee.

Looking Forward to?

• MEETING KARIS ELAINE!
• CATCHING UP WITH EMILIE IN PERSON!
• WORKING ON ELLA'S ROOM! We bought a shed from "Uneedashed" to store everything that has been in our spare bedroom that will now be Ella's bedroom. We ordered it the day after Memorial Day... and it STILL hasn't been delivered to our house yet. We haven't been able to do ANYTHING in her room yet, because we have no place to store all of the stuff that's in it in. SO I AM GETTING VERY IMPATIENT WAITING ON THIS SHED. I've been in the collecting phase, but now I'm ready to start the actual work on her room. Painting the room, painting furniture, putting the furniture in the room, and then DECORATING!

Originally, I had planned on buying a standard size crib for Ella's room. We picked one out on Target.com and we both really liked it. It was white and very cute! My mom kept mentioning to me that she had an old iron crib in the shed in her backyard. One day I finally looked at it, and it was PERFECT. BEYOND PERFECT. The story behind it is even better. My Aunt Jenifer actually bought this crib a long time ago and my mom just stored it in her shed. While we were putting it together one day Mom said, "I wonder why Aunt Jenifer bought this?" I said, "She bought it for Ella!" I'm so overwhelmed with joy that this is something that Aunt Jen hand picked WAY before we knew anything about Ella and we are going to use it in her room. How special that Ella will have a little piece of her  in her life! I LOVE THIS CRIB! It is in almost perfect condition! One of the corners of the railing is minorly broken... we think a quick spot welding job will fix that perfectly! The paint is a little dingy... so I am in the process of cleaning and spray painting it and the new coat of white paint has given it an even brighter life! It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for something!

 **Side Note: Spray painting should be an easy project!! I bought Rust-Oleum spray paint and it was TERRIBLE. It looked like I was spraying painting sand! It was terribly textured. After it dried, I had to sand the "sand texture" off and then RE paint it. NOT FUN. Just wanted to share this with everyone... Do NOT buy Rust-Oleum spray paint! It will make you very, very, very, mad. haha  I've used Krylon before and didn't have a single problem... I will be using it again for my next project!

Random Update: We made pickles!! They look good, but we can't try them until the last week in July! We have one more batch to make!! 

Exciting Accomplishments this week? This past weekend, Lauren & Banjo came to our house for a weekend of tree cutting! Banjo has experience with cutting trees after hurricanes and trimming limbs at the Camp that he works at. He brought all of his equipment, knowledge, and experience and did an AMAZING job in our yard. There is no telling how many thousands of dollars we would have paid a tree cutting service to do this job. (Banjo is not going home emptied handed, him & Nehemiah made a deal... Limbs cut for some home audio!)

The word that sums up this project... IMPRESSIVE. I could NOT believe how each limb was hanging either over our house, shed, power line, or my car shelter thing. (Not sure what that's called haha)

Every time they were about to make a cut, I was thinking, "How is it NOT going to hit the ____?" It NEVER did. Every limb came down just as Banjo planned it would. I was praying for each and every limb that day! I'm so thankful for a day of progress made at our house with friends, with NO injuries. Not even a splinter. Just a lot of tired and hungry boys that night!

We also had help from our friend Ben S.... Him & Nehemiah were the ones who held on to long ropes that the limbs were tied to and guided the limbs on where to fall! So amazing. This seriously is an art.

On Sunday, my brother Ben, Ethan, and Nehemiah did an AMAZING job of cleaning all of the debris up! My brother brought the track-ho over and pushed everything into our burn pile and smoothed out some dirt. He's a talented guy on that trac-ho! We are so thankful for all of our friend's who are so willing to help us with our projects!