preggo progress - 4 weeks

thanks to pinterest, i have found such a cute way to track my growing baby bump and progress in general. i stole the idea from this blog although hers is WAY cuter!

How far along? 4 Weeks on christmas eve

Weight gain: +6.4 ounces - over the past 9 months i have lost 20 pounds. unfortunately that little pouch where a baby bump would grow is evidence that i did not quite hit my goal weight loss before i got pregnant. my goal is to only gain 25 throughout the pregnancy.

Maternity clothes? not for a while

Stretch marks? no
Sleep: i've been waking up to pee around 5 am for the last week or so and i'm one who RARELY wakes up to pee so that was kind of a dead giveaway that i was pregnant.
Best moment this week: telling stan he's going to be a daddy and sharing our good news with all of our family!
Miss Anything? sleeping through the night
Movement: not for a while
Food cravings: no real cravings that i just HAVE to eat. i just want fruit a lot.
Anything making you queasy or sick: not yet
Gender Prediction: I don't have a feeling either way yet - Stan however has had two dreams about a daughter
Labor Signs: not for a while
Symptoms: i have to pee ALL THE TIME
Belly Button in or out? still flat
Wedding rings on or off? all three rings fit great, but i'm sure once summer hits i'll be down to just my engagement ring...
Happy or Moody most of the time: happy! although i did have my first mood swing and it wasn't at stan - score one for the husband!
Looking forward to: our first doctor's appointment - January 16th

surprise...

... stan and i are so excited to announce that we are expecting a mini rhoden in september!! today we found out i was pregnant and we cannot be more thrilled! 

baby rhoden is tentatively due september first. i was successful in surprising stan--which is next to impossible. i bought him this sah-weet johnny cash diaper bag and wrote forty things i love about him on slips of paper and put them in a jar - one to open each week of the pregnancy (of course he had a few to catch up on).

 the best part was telling our parents. for stan's dad we bought a military camo onesie (he's proud of his service as a marine - as he should be) and wrapped it up as a present for him to open with the rest of his presents. he jumped out of his chair and hugged us. i've never seen him move so fast!

I gave my parents a "baby on board" sign since my mom will be taking care of said baby. she asked me if that meant we were going to start trying. i kind of told my mom we were going to start trying after the new year - oops. in my defense, i didn't think we would conceive on our first try. my dad woke my mom up in the middle of the night asking if i had told them i was pregnant. ha!

stan's mom's reaction was THE BEST. we intentionally did not inform her that we were trying to get pregnant. she is the only one without grandbabies in her life and we thought it would ruin the surprise when we finally told her and steve. we decorated and framed a piece of scrapbook paper that said, "arriving sept. 2012" and it has a place for a sonogram picture and a place for a picture when suzanne and steve hold the baby for the first time--or i guess whatever picture they want to put there! suzanne screamed and then sobbed for a good 10 minutes because she was so excited. it was absolutely precious and i'm so glad she's finally going to be a grandma! she's been mostly patient for so long! :) baby rhoden is blessed with some amazing grandparents!

5k spirit run

i ran my first 5k race today with my friend, Katy! i had every intention of running again before the race but unfortunately that never happend! basically, i just ran 5k cold turkey and it wasn't so bad! i had a race time of about 33 minutes and only stopped to walk once. it was a race put on by the city of richardson called spirit run and they had some of the band and cheerleaders from all four richardson high schools at different stops along the course and we got to vote at the end of the race for who we thought was the most spirited. my high school alma mater did not win, unfortunately, but it was so fun! we wore our berkner varsity gymnastics shirts. that made me feel old! here's a pic from the day!

starry night

i'm giving it all to the only Son
who gave me hope when i had none
so let the praises ring
oh let the praises ring

i'm giving my life to the only One
who makes the  moon reflect the sun
every starry night
it was His design

i'm giving my life to the only Son
who was and is and yet to come
and the angels sing
that He is heavenly

so let the praises ring
cause He is Everything

-Chris August

my not-so-green thumb

when we moved our offices to a new building last august, there was a company who was moving out and selling the plants they had so they didn't have to transport them or trash them. since i'm too cheap to buy a plant myself, i happily accepted the offer our company was making to purchase the plants if we wanted one or two for our office.

i chose a plant that only had to be watered ONCE A MONTH. that's like a guaranty that it cannot be killed, right?!

WRONG!

here is a succession of pictures that chronicles the life of my plant:





I'm guessing gardening is not my forte.

hand-stamped jewelry

for mother's day this year i wanted to purchase some hand-stamped necklaces for our moms but upon further research i realized they were way more than i was willing to spend. the necklaces i wanted to purchase had two discs and a little charm in the middle and they were upwards of $60. i looked on etsy and found the supplies to make them myself for less than the cost of two necklaces. it couldn't be that difficult, right?!

so instead of $120 for two necklaces (my mom and stan's mom), i paid $100 and i made two disc necklaces for my mom and stan's mom and one disc necklaces for my sister and sister-in-law. on top of that i was also able to make one disc necklaces for our four home group girls who have kiddos! that would have cost me around $500 if i purchased them. the cherry on top of it all: i can continue to make hand-stamped jewelry! i'd say that was a good investment.

recently, one of my home group girl's best friend lost her sister and she asked me to make a necklace to give to her friend. here's how it turned out:





the second disc reads: "beautiful sister & friend"

ordained

my husband is officially an ordained pastor! i am so proud of him. he works so hard for our little family and i am so blessed to be married to an amazing man of God! he already has his first wedding lined up--his best friend from high school is getting married in june and stan is going to perform the ceremony! i can't wait to watch. here is  my favorite picture of us from his ordination night. unfortunately, i forgot our camera and out of 15 or so people in our family who came to the ceremony, no one took any pictures of that part. bummer.