We're Having a Baby!

You may have heard the news that Benny and I are expecting a baby at the end of the year! We are over the moon excited and have been enjoying most everything about this pregnancy. Our official due date is December 28th so it could be a 2019 or a 2020 baby. We also found out at our last appointment it's a girl! We are thrilled, and Eric wasn't the least bit surprised.

(Pictures from 11+2 weeks, early June)

I have been feeling great overall. I've had some nausea/headaches here and there but I feel pretty lucky. I realized that trying to stay active and drinking tons of water has helped with some of that. Earlier on I slept a lot and had very little motivation to do anything. This made things a little tough when we were in the middle of a cross-country move and I was trying to get my online business back up and running.

I am 22 weeks now and have some of that energy back but still take naps every so often. It's still not yet super obvious to the general public that I'm pregnant, it kind of just looks like I had an extra slice of pizza. I can definitely tell, and am mostly wearing loose fitting clothes for now. I'm trying to hold off buying anything maternity-related until the weather gets cooler.
My back definitely hurts when I'm sitting/laying down for an extended period of time, which has made sleeping a little more difficult. I'm typically a belly sleeper so I'm trying to get used to sleeping on my side. I am still exercising moderately and we take long walks just about every night which has also helped with some of the sleep/back pain. I have been feeling her move pretty consistently since around 20 weeks and Eric can feel her now too which has been fun. It's mostly in the morning or at night. It was a crazy feeling at first, and I feel like has since helped me connect to the pregnancy. Everything at the 20 week anatomy scan seemed to look good so far but we'll have to go back for another ultrasound at 24 weeks because they weren't able to get a good view of her head/brain.

(Pictures from 20+4 weeks, mid August)


Thank you for all the love and support - we are in heaven, and I absolutely love being pregnant with this little girl.

Summer Vacation in Round Hill

Earlier this month we got back from our family vacation up at my mom and Dave's house in Round Hill. It is so nice to have a place to gather with so much to do! We spent lots of time in the pool. Eric found some fun new pool toys - our favorite this week was volleyball.



Of course there is also indoor pool if we needed to get out of the heat.

Mom had all kinds of fresh veggies/fruit growing in her garden. Benny enjoyed trying the jalapenos.

The girls get spoiled with ice cream sundaes at grandma's.

We spent much time on their porch.

And working on a puzzle in our spare time.

The girls even got to fly kites.

We went to Great Country Farms. It has so much for kids to do and is so close to the house.









Dave taught us all how to use the bow and arrows.

We took a siblings walk/hike by the river nearby.

We had a s'mores night, I always forget how delicious those are.

The guys were excited to watch the very first pre-season football game of the year.

Our final night on Friday we had a pizza/movie night with Katie's homemade pizza. It is always a favorite!


Thank you so much for letting us all stay mom and Dave! We had such a wonderful week, as always!

July Wrap Up

July was a busy month full of lots of family time. We started out the month by celebrating 4th of July at mom and Dave's house.




We had our second annual little 4th of July parade.



We didn't hold back on the red white and blue.

Then the guys had fun setting off some of Dave's old fireworks.


Rescued a frog out of the pool.

Benny and I went to a couple of Eleanor's swim meets. It's so fun watching her compete!


We took another trip to Busch Gardens.





Somehow or another I got pulled up on stage during the Oktoberfest show to dance during an entire song.

Water rides were a must in this heat.

Dad and Racheal came to visit for a day where we went swimming and got pizza.

The month finished off with a week trip back up to mom's house for summer vacation! I'll save that for it's own post. We're soaking in all the summer things while they last!