Whew - that was an exhausting 4 days.....

Gummy bear went on his first airplane ride on Wednesday night to New Orleans and we flew back home on Friday. The ride was not bad except I had come down with some nasty sinus crud last week and I was all stopped up. The pressure of flying seemed to have made the fluid and crud in my sinuses make their way to my ears - that was excruciating pain!! When we were landing I was in tears from pain - both on the plane there and back home!

We went for my grandpa's funeral that was on Thursday. I don't' like funerals and they are even harder when it is for someone you are close to. I will always have my grandpa in my heart and I wish he could have met the new addition to the family. I wish I could be selfish about that but I can't - he is in a better place and he is no longer suffering. He is walking with Jesus in heaven and that is better than being here on this earth. The funeral was good - they had his viewing set up beautifully! His Indian head piece was arranged on the casket proudly and he looked so healthy! I am glad that that the family was able to have that last image of him to keep forever in our hearts and minds forever! My grandpa lives on in baby John, he will keep the face and personality of my grandpa going - he is a spittin' image of him! I will always get to see my grandpa through that little boy's face!

After getting home on Friday we went and got some Benadryl to help with my sinus issue.

Saturday was NON STOP! As a matter of fact from Wednesday through today it was NON STOP! Saturday we got up, dressed and out the door to go register for all the baby things we need. We got to Babies R Us around 12:30 or 1 pm and we were there until 5 pm!!! There were SO many things in that store to choose from that it was almost overwhelming! We registered for the so many things and knew that we could go back online and tweak them as needed. After the 4 hour baby shopping marathon we went to a birthday party for Justin's cousin. We were EXHAUSTED but the party was fun! It was just enough people to have fun but not too many to be crowded. Also got to see little Ryker! He is SO precious! What a perfect baby for being 5 weeks early!

"I love you tight tight tight!!!"

I received a phone call from my mom on Sunday to tell me that my Grandpa passed away. As much as it has been anticipated, it still hurts! This is the first grandparent I have lost and I am grateful to have them all in my life for so long! I pray that my other grandparents continue to stay in my life longer, with good health and all.

So tonight I am flying to New Orleans since the funeral will be tomorrow at 1 pm and I will return on Friday. Even though it is on these circumstances, I am glad I get to go see family that I don't get to go see all that often.

I pray that all my mom, my aunts and Sara find peace in this time and know that their daddy is in a better place! He lived a long full life and has generations following him for proof!

Growing up I always told my grandpa - "I love you tight tight tight!!!" We always told that to each - even as an adult I told him that! I loved to hear the stories of how he would baby sit me when I was in diapers. Back then the diapers didn't stick back so if he checked my diaper and it was clean he would use duct or electrical tape to put it back on me. I also always stuck my tongue out partly when I was concentrating hard on something JUST like he did. And I blame him for my short stature - he always gave me coffee in my bottle.

I am going to really miss my Grandpa and I wish he could have been here to meet our new little man! I am glad he was still here to find out that I was pregnant and then keep on living to learn that it was a boy!

He truly is in peace knowing that his family is taken care of - Sara is happy and ready to live her life for HER and her precious little boy!! I believe he needed to know that his last child was happy and pursuing herself a life of success!

I almost forgot to take these pictures this morning - but thanks to my sweets he reminded me and here they are for your viewing pleasure! My 20 week belly in ALL its big growing belly glory!!

I am already half way through this pregnancy!! I STILL can't believe HOW fast it has flown by! At this point I feel that little boy in there EVERYDAY and I LOVE IT! It really is so distracting and captivating that when I feel him I just want to sit and enjoy it......if it's at night I will stay up just to feel him squirmin', kickin, and punchin' - oh I am in love!



I can't WAIT to share this with Justin! I know he will have a blast being able to feel his baby boy move around too!

Frogs and Snails....and Puppy Dog Tails - That's What Little Boys Are Made Of

We are having a BOUNCING BABY BOY!

And to think of how many people thought we were having a girl!

I even thought it was a girl - until my dream a few nights before the scan.

I wanted to tell the grandparents in a special way so I decided to make cupcakes filled with Pink or Blue.

Since Friday was a BUSY day I made the cupcakes before the ultrasound and just made half pink and half blue. I had fun making them - it was messy but fun!

Here are the cupcakes and the filling - just filled the cupcakes....

Here are the frosted cupcakes to cover up the filling holes........which are pink and which are blue?!?!!? Don't worry - I knew which were which......

Here are the cupcakes with the final decorations.......Pink and Blue Question marks!

The Grandparents each got a cupcake and had to bite into them. This is what they saw........BLUE!!!!!

Even though I did not NEED the pink I was so glad I hung on to the pink food coloring I used for our wedding!

I honestly thought making these cupcakes filled and decorated would have been more difficult but it wasn't. I was surprised at how easy it was to make them AND make them presentable. Don't get me wrong - they were not the most professional but it was WAY past my bedtime and after a LONG day at work when I decorated them!

Here is Baby Bryan's Profile Pictures!

Unfortunately, these are the only two pictures we were given.

For those of you that still watch Grey's Anatomy you will know what I am talking about here - our ultrasound tech was not the most people skilled person. She was very much like the Cardiology Surgeon on Grey's Anatomy - if that character were real I would have thought she was her sister!

Although I was a bit disappointed with her - I was also very grateful to have a tech that was great at her job and cared about doing her part properly. She was very meticulous about the measurements she was getting and making sure she had the proper angles, etc.

About ½ way through the scan I was CRYING in pain from my bladder feeling like it was about to explode. So, the tech finally let me go to the bathroom. Before I went the baby was transverse – head to my right hip bone and feet to my left hip bone……we were able to get a PERFECT shot of the boy parts. We actually saw them within the first 3 minutes of the scan. Well after I went to the bathroom, the baby turned breech (feet down) and stayed there through the end. When she went back to get us our pictures she had trouble getting to the area that showed he was indeed a boy. Little man decided to cross his leg in front so she couldn't get a good view to take the picture and print out for us.

Y'all will just have to take our word for it - he IS a boy! There was no denying that!

Thankfully we were able to see what he was when we did - had he been breech when we first got there I am not so sure we could have gotten the shot we needed to know for sure.

Our appointment with the doctor is Thursday! Apparently I was measuring ahead on the scan so I will see what the doctor says - we may be moving the due date to July 5th. We will see!!

I will update on Wednesday with my 20 week belly picture and then again after the appointment on Thursday!

Only 2 More Days Until We Find Out the Sex...

So the title reminds me of a question someone asked when we found out we were pregnant and just started telling people that we were expecting........Justin had not spoken to this friend in a long while so when we told her we were expecting she asked "Do y'all know sex?" Well, having the question worded this way made me want to crack back and answer “well obviously we do, or else we would not be pregnant!” hehehehehe……….

Ok, anyways – there was not too much going on this past week other than Justin being vilely sick and I started to feel the baby move more and more (on a schedule it seems like too). I hadn't really even grown this week - I can tell by my appetite too. The past few weeks I have been a bottomless pit but this past week my appetite is lower than my normal pre-pregnancy appetite.

Lately I have been sleeping so hard nothing can really wake me in the night, which by the way – at the moment is AWESOME! Well Thursday morning I wake up 10 minutes before my alarm goes off to hear Justin roll over to the side of the bed, clear his throat and spit! I was angry because 1) I had woken up to something like that before I HAD to wake up and 2) I thought he just rolled over and spit on the ground next to the bed. I honestly thought he was dreaming and spit in his sleep. That was not the case – I woke up (reluctantly) and asked him “Did you just spit on the floor?!?!” just as I rolled over to see there was a trashcan next to the bed. Then I thought oh maybe he had a migraine – but he responded back and told me he had been up and down to the bathroom just so sick. I felt very bad after that because in my mind I had jumped to conclusion thinking he had just spit all over the wall on his side of the bed and that I had not heard him in the night so that I could get up and help him out. (I just pray that I don’t sleep this hard after the baby comes – I use to NEVER sleep this hard! ) I woke up and got ready for work and tried to help Justin out the best that I could so that he would be as comfortable as possible on his own when I was at work. I was also as careful as possible to not contaminate myself with what he had. At work that day I went to eat lunch with some co-workers at Lupe Tortilla and I had planned to go to a jewelry party that evening but with him being THAT sick I felt I should care for him AND disinfect the house. I went home that night and when I went to bed I started with tummy aches then I was up and down to the bathroom all night long. The first time up I just thought it was the food I had for lunch at Lupe’s but after the 4th and 5th time I KNEW it was not lunch. I still went to work on Friday and I felt so tired from having horrible sleep the night before so I went home early and napped for 2 hours. Justin was still badly sick, and he seemed to get better on Saturday. I still am not completely sure if it was lunch or if I had caught what he had and my body was able to fight it faster and more efficiently than Justin. Supposedly it is very hard to get sick when you are pregnant – so I really think my body took that virus and handled it with super powers!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day!! We didn’t do much since Justin was so sick! I felt so bad for him – poor guy was laid up for days!!

Here are a few belly shots for this week……Friday the 20th we will know if it’s a boy or girl!! I will post about that and how we told the soon to be grandparents after the occasion!

Welcome "Big Red" to the Family.....

I am talking about the new truck - not my new emerging belly!!

"Big Red" has been added to our family........this is our new farm truck/future project for Justin. We are in the process of selling our newer truck to get an SUV but in the Bryan family it’s impossible to NOT have a truck. So we went to get an old truck - but a fun one as well. This will one day be the project that Daddy's boy - or girl - can help him out with!

Update on some old news - our roof needed to be replaced after Hurricane Ike - well we FINALLY had that done!! Insurance agencies are quick to take your premiums but SO slow to pay you for damages!

In light of "Big Red's" debut here I am in a big red costume - j/k - I am getting to where I feel big and as you can see in the pictures I am FAR from my normal tummy/body .

Wow that baby is GROWING!! I LOVE it! I feel more and more pregnant everyday!
I have been feeling the flutters more and more this week. They are still not consistent but I get little "love taps" here and there! Mommy loves you too baby! I can't wait for Daddy to feel you!
We will know what we are having in 10 days!!! So incredibly excited!!

What a difference 11 weeks makes....

I was trying to look at some of the pictures to see the growth change and thought I would just post two pictures together on here to show!!

6 WEEK BELLY

17 WEEK BELLY

That baby is growing in there - and I LOVE IT!

Flutter Away

My tooth has healed up nicely and I am no longer in pain from it. Since there is still a bit of a hole where the tooth was I have issues at times with food getting stuck. Just a little water swishing and its fixed. I am going to baby my teeth for the rest of my life now - I hate going to the dentist!

Enough with that boring stuff - I FELT FLUTTERS!! They are not consistent or frequent - but they are not suppose to be right now. It soo weird how I felt them one day (was not sure that day it was actually that) then again 3 days later! After that I knew that is what I was feeling! It is the neatest feeling EVER! Nothing you can REALLY explain - I mean I can try to but its just not the same as actually feeling it. I can't wait for the full on kicks, rolls and elbow jabs! Bring them on!! Heheheh......I may regret saying that later!

Here are my 17 week belly pictures ..........a little bit bigger than last week. I added a clothed belly picture as well. Shows the bump a bit different - either way I can't hide it! I keep thinking my front on pictures are going to start getting more difficult to take when I start getting way bigger - I may have to use the timer for that picture as well - arms length away from the camera may not be far enough.