Finally decided to update!

So I've been stalling writing a post since Christmas simply because I had the excuse that I was waiting on my mom to send me pictures so I could post those...then my mom sent me the Picasa albums and I am out of excuses! Here is what has been going on since November:

I was wondering why I'd been so tired and my back was hurting so badly...go figure! We're having a baby! I was feeling really great for the first little while, no nausea what so ever. Then the morning of my 12 week appointment made up for it. Then I went in and they told me there was no way I was 12 weeks, so the bumped me back to 10 weeks (and I was so excited to get out of the first trimester too!) and changed my due date to the 10th of July. It actually ended up being a really big blessing (for insurance stuff, and for my mom's availability to be here).

The nausea stuck around until about week 13ish, but I am doing just dandy now. We are at week 16 now and loving it! The hardest thing for me to figure out is if I'm regularly getting bizarre indigestion or if I'm feeling the baby move! We find out if we are having a boy or a girl on Feb. 17th, which seems really far away, but I know it will come a lot faster than it seems it will.

So far the wierd cravings have consisted of:

• Popcorn with butter and salt (plain popcorn was making me sick...wierd)
  
• Cheese quesadillas (or really anything with melted cheese)
  
• Tomato soup
  
• Fried rice (just randomly one night)
  
• Fresh squeezed orange juice with a little bit of grapefruit in there
  
• Spaghetti (for a while with the nausea we were eating this every night because it was the only thing that sounded good!)
  
• Chocolate Ice Cream (I can't really tell if this was legit or me just really wanting it! Either way it is delicious!)

My last appointment went well and when we listened to the heartbeat the doctor commented, "Man, this little one's got a really strong heart." He could've just been saying that to be nice, but it did make me feel good. There are so many little things to worry about that it was reassuring to know that so far everything is going as it should.

As for Christmas: We spent two wonderful weeks in Jersey! Here are some photos of our adventures!

We made an attempt to go to the Statue of Liberty, however, there was so much fog that they shut down the ferry and we didn't make it past Liberty State Park. That didn't stop us from having a great time though!

Here is my cute husband being a dork

Here is cute little Erinn's modeling pictureI really liked this pictureShannon's gorgeous ballet moves on the foggy bridge

The rest of us trying to follow suit

Shannon's reaction to our ghastly attempts Here is the famous family stair picture that we take every year on Christmas morning

It was a wonderful Christmas and it was so great to spend it with my family again. I couldn't have asked for a better vacation.

Joe and I are now back into the swing of things with school and work. I am doing my student teaching this semester which means that graduation is right around the corner (I keep telling myself that I can make it to April). YAY! Student teaching has brought its own challenges, but I'm glad to be getting the experience. I'll work on getting better and giving regular updates!