Family time

In front of my parents' tree. Not a big fan of this picture, but posted anyway.


Lookin' good dude!


He doesn't sit still much to take a picture


Dylan cheesin' for the camera (he says "cheese" when doing this)



Although we were sick of the car by Sunday afternoon, we had a great weekend with my family. The weather cooperated during the times we had to drive. We woke up on Saturday morning to a blanket of snow outside my parents' house. Dylan played in the snow (hopefully I will get some pictures of that soon). This was his first time in snow and it was pretty cute! They don't get much of the white stuff in Florida. UofL lost their game on Saturday, but Butler won. Dylan stayed at Brad and Tara's house during the game and played with Brady (their son who is 2 months older than Dylan). Thanks you two! Brady and Dylan seemed to have a lot of fun together. They both have a lot in common--they love Elmo and cars. Typical toddlers. On Sunday my mom made a delicious Christmas meal since this was the only time my immediate family would be together. My mom may not like to cook a lot, but she can cook! Yummy! It was so nice to all be together!

Our baby furniture has arrived!!!! It arrived a little early. Jeremy is going to pick it up tomorrow. Let's just pray that everything is correct. Jeremy ordered doors to put on the closet and those have also arrived. We can now get a move-on with the nursery. Time is ticking!

We are doing Christmas with Jeremy's immediate family this Saturday since his sister, brother-in-law and nieces will be in town. We are looking forward to this weekend and then it will be Christmas! This is my favorite time of year, however, this year we seem to have lots going on (umm, let's see a baby coming in 10 weeks makes one busy) and I have decided not to send out Christmas cards. Ahhh! I hate that it won't happen, but I just faced reality and said there just wasn't enough time to get them out. We also don't have outdoor lights on the bushes this year! The inside of the house looks great! Jeremy is a Scrooge when it comes to decorating so he is not much help in this department. We have had such bad weather over the weekends that I haven't been able to put them out. Now it seems a little too late. I guess I will just have to be forgiven this year for not having outdoor lights and sending out cards. It will still be Christmas, right?

I hope to post again before Christmas with some pictures from this weekend. Until then, enjoy the final days before the holiday!

Busy, busy, busy

A picture of one of the nightstands...a work in progress.


29 weeks

Sorry we haven't written in a while. Between baby planning and Christmas events we have had a lot going on. Jeremy and I took some hours off work to visit daycares. Last week we visited 3 centers and today we visited 2 in-home centers. This is SUCH a difficult decision! Just like when Jeremy and I were looking for a house, we totally look at different things, which is a good thing. He was such a huge help! After leaving one facility he said, "Did you notice how there were no sprinklers in the building?" or "There is lead-based paint all over the windows." Wow! Once again I am so thankful for all his knowledge and experience. We still don't have a daycare resolution, but are working on it. We actually have to find daycare for three situations 1) when I get off maternity leave until I move to Lexington for work for 1 month 2) daycare while I am in Lexington for a month and 3) permanent daycare after Lexington. Lots of decisions! Luckily Jeremy and I have wonderful bosses (actually Heather was my friend first) who are understanding, compassionate and flexible. It will all eventually work out.

I would like to list a few statements that people have said to me lately. I don't know how I am supposed to respond to statements like these!

1.) From a random guy in Subway...He looks at me, then my belly, then back and me and says, "How are you two doing?" (Umm...good???)
2.) "Laura, you definitely look pregnant these days" (Ummm...thanks???)
3.) "Oh, look at you, how cute, you have a waddle." (Note: Don't ever tell a pregnant woman she has a waddle and that it is cute.)
4.) "How are you feeling? You look good. Your nose is changing. Don't worry everyone's nose changes; mine did." (What??? This one I have never heard before and for the record Jeremy says my nose hasn't changed.)

Tonight was the beginning of a new adventure for us: baby classes! Tonight's class was on breastfeeding. We learned a lot and laughed a little too. I laughed most when we had a break during the class and all of the women went to the bathroom and the men stayed back and had cookies.

Jeremy and I are so excited because David (my brother), Carrie (my sister-in-law) and Dylan (my nephew) are visiting this weekend. If you know me well you have heard all about Dylan and seen pictures. They live in Florida and won't be able to come in for Christmas so they are visiting for a long weekend. We are going up to my parents' house on Friday, to Indy on Saturday for the John Wooden Classic (UofL and Butler are both playing) and then Dylan's making his debut at my dad's church on Sunday. It should be a great weekend and I will have some pictures to share.

I will try to post more often and with pictures. I have had requests for every week, but we'll try for every 2 weeks for now. I have had some threatening emails requesting pictures, so here you go Amanda...

Happy Shopping (we still have TONS to do)!

3 more months!!!

3 more months to the day and Baby Girl A will be making her way into the world (maybe earlier, maybe later)! We can't wait to meet her! We already know that she is such a blessing in our lives!

It was so nice to have some days off work to spend with friends and family. Jeremy and I got a lot done over the break. We went last Sunday to pick out some items before my mom and I actually registered on Wednesday. Even after pre-selecting and asking around from other new moms, the registry process was overwhelming! Jeremy and I picked out all the big items (travel system, pack-n-play, swing, etc). Jeremy also picked out "his" diaper bag. He had to get a more manly one, if there is such a thing. He started chuckling because he had a bag on his shoulder that said "baby" on it. My the times have changed. Who knew there were so may things for a baby? It definitely wore me out, but I feel good that we have successfully finished the process. My mom kept reminding me that "we use to not have stores like this...you probably don't need half the stuff in here." I get my practical nature from her, can you tell? Almost everything is at Babies-R-Us and our bedding is online only at JcPenney. Jeremy and I are both pretty picky so we agreed on this. Very basic in sage green and baby pink. Take a look. Go to the websites, click on "registry" and then search for us under "Angermeier".

www.babiesrus.com
www.jcpenney.com

We finished painting the back room and are currently moving furniture into it so we can now start on the nursery! Now that we have bedding picked out I feel like we can really get a move on. Currently as I write this Jeremy is in the garage (or should I say his safe haven) building nightstands for the baby. (If you didn't know this already, I have a pair of gardening gloves and some golf clubs in the garage...that's it! It's his area and I stay out as much as possible.) We decided that a nightstand would be nice to have and it would be something that could be used in any room. He is making two because it won't take much longer to make two instead of one. I am sure this little girl will appreciate what her dad made for her for years to come. He is already wrapped around her finger!

We have another doctor's appointment this Friday. I will be tested for gestational diabetes (it's standard nowadays). Yeah, I get to drink some lovely juice and then wait for an hour to see how my sugars are. I hope everything comes out normal because I have a sweet tooth!

The baby is kicking ALL the time, especially at night! The other night she thought it would be fun to do somersaults at 4:00 a.m. One day I will get her back!

We actually had 3 different Thanksgiving feasts to go to this past weekend. I didn't feel the baby kick much on Thursday. I think she was trying to digest it all, was very full or the tryptophyan in the turkey put her to sleep like the rest of us. Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We are thankful for so much this year!

26 weeks

This was taken late at night, can you tell? Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! Baby and I are looking forward to some mashed potatoes. Yummy!

Baby kicks?

About a week and a half ago I started to feel kicks. Not for sure if they are kicks, elbow jabs or punches. We like to think they are kicks so we have a future soccer player or dancer in our family. I have been feeling her periodically, but she is most active at night...she definitely gets that from her mom and not her dad! Sunday night Jeremy felt the baby move for the first time. We were both so excited. He felt her kick twice and then she stopped for a minute. As soon as I said, "I think that is it," she kicked again. Already playing tricks on us!

Our baby girl is going to have lots of boyfriends...friends that are boys, that is. There are two couples in our Sunday school class that are expecting boys, our wonderful friends Brad and Tara already have a boy and we just found out today that some great friends of ours are expecting a boy. Jeremy said he is going to have to be sitting down with all these boys and "have a talk" that is if my brother doesn't do it first knowing how protective he was with me growing up.

Have a great rest of the week! We are looking forward to next week...Thanksgiving! Time to eat and be with family!

One more thing "checked" off

When I posted last what I meant was the pictures are getting harder for me to post as I get bigger, but I will continue to do it. Sorry if I confused you.

Well, I am proud to say that we have checked another thing off our list...we bought baby furniture! With Jeremy as my husband, that was a huge accomplishment! He is very discriminating when it comes to style and quality of furniture because of his background. We both finally agreed on something. We bought it from USABaby. Now we pray that the 8-12 week turn around is accurate.

We are having to work on our back room (the 4th bedroom in the back of our house) before we can start on the nursery. When we moved into this house that room suddenly became our storage room/laundry room/basement/close-the-door-when-company-comes room. Now it will be our office. When we bought the house it was paneling, so we drywalled it, but never totally finished it. Jeremy has been finishing the room with trim and crown molding. Now we are finishing up the paint before we can move our office into this room. The current office will be the nursery. I am so thankful that Jeremy is so talented and is able to do all this work on our house! Sadie has to be in whatever room we are in...she's such a people-dog. Well, she got curious when Jeremy was painting and the picture below shows what happened.

Today (Monday) I was off work because I traveled this weekend for work. I took advantage of my time to do research on daycare. A lot of places have waiting lists so it is better to get a start on this now. Hopefully we will find something that fits by the end of the year.

Did you know that there is no Expecting Parents Checklist? My good friend Brooke, who is also pregnant, and I were talking about this. Wedding checklists they have...you know, 8 months away meet with the florist, 2 months away send out invitations. With babies, a whole new territory, there are no checklists lists like this. Of course there are books, websites and doctors, but those are usually medically related topics. Those are all important as well. Thank God for family and friends that have had babies or I wouldn't know what to do. I mean, I am a first-time mom after all.

Hope you are well! I still can't believe it is already November! The time sure has flown by!

Jeremy was in a wedding two Sundays ago for his good friend, Gary Churchman. They love to play golf together. Jeremy actually danced a lot that night...very unusual for him at weddings! And even while I am pregnant I still love to dance!

Sadie's tail...and it is oil-based paint! It will be there for a while. :)

23 weeks

These are getting harder for me to share personally, but I will continue to post for the sake of all the out-of-towners. :) We go to the doctor tomorrow. I will post again after that appointment.

Happy Halloween!

Getting ready!

Sorry we have written anything in a while. We have been busy looking into nursery furniture, bedding, registering, childcare and baby names. Any suggestions or information on these topics are helpful! Send them our way. We have about 4 names that our favorites right now, but that is something we have time on. Jeremy has wanted to make something for the nursery. For those you who don't know Jeremy does woodworking (and is amazing, if I might brag for a bit). The problem is whatever he chooses to make will take a long time and may not match the rest of the furniture. We are still figuring that out. I went into a store last week and the woman said, "We suggest you to order furniture between 20 to 22 weeks along" suggesting that we needed to get a move on. Well, guess what? I am 22 weeks. Don't tell an already overwhelmed pregnant something like that! My mom says that the baby can just sleep in a laundry basket in the beginning, babies don't know the difference. I get the point, but I don't think I could do that. :)

We have officially become "expecting parents". Yep, we have registered for maternity classes. I am sure we will have many stories from those to come.

I am experiencing the joys of pregnancy! Everyone loves touching my belly. Right now I don't mind at all because it has all been family and friends. When some old woman in the grocery store starts doing it then there might be a problem. Julie, our friend and youth minister at Beargrass, gave me a great shirt the other day. Thanks, Julie! It sums this whole experience up...

Maternity Wardrobe: $2,408 (by the way, I will NEVER spend this much!)
Nursery Furniture: $1,317
Touching my belly: $5
Some things money can't buy. For everything else, you need cold hard cash.

Sorry no pictures of the belly. We will post some next week before our doctor's appointment. Pictures below are from Lindsay Puckett's wedding. We grew up in youth group together. Jeremy and I are close to their family. I don't have pictures of Lindsay but she was a beautiful bride with an incredible dress with red on it!

Stay dry with all this rain and pray for the people in California!

Blessings-
Laura and Jeremy

With the parents of the bride, Mike and Jill

With John and Terrianne

With the sister of the bride, Kelly (practically our lil sis)

Half down, half to go

It's hard to believe that we are half-way through this pregnancy. I think it has taken us this long to wrap our minds around the idea of having a baby. Now we have the remainder of this pregnancy to get a move on a lot of stuff! There is so much to think of and plan for that it is very overwhelming! As my friend's mom said to me recently, "The only thing the baby really needs is food and love." I think we can handle that.

Posted is a picture of me at 20 weeks. I am so thankful for the fall weather that is getting here tomorrow! I have found out that heat and pregnancy don't go very well together. It makes me sympathize for women who have babies during the summer months.

Happy Fall! (Finally!!!)

It's a girl!

Apparently these are the girl parts.

A profile shot.

Looks like all five fingers are there.

Cute little feet!

Her hand is in a fist. Wonder what that means?

Yesterday we went to the doctor and had our ultrasound. According to the ultrasound tech everything looked very good. That was the best news to hear! A doctor will then read all the results and let us know if she sees any problems. We have been praying for a healthy baby regardless of gender!

It took literally 10 minutes before we could tell what sex baby peanut was! We stared at the butt for quite a while. The ultrasound tech said, "This is one of the most stubborn babies I have had in a long time." We were for sure thinking it was a boy after hearing that statement inheriting the genes from the father. :) Jeremy and I were really thinking that we weren't going to be able to find out that day. Luckily the tech was persistent. After shaking my belly way too much and making me turn to my left side, the ultrasound tech was relieved to let us know it was a girl! Instead of stubbornness, we like to just think we have a modest little girl.

We are both very happy. One of Jeremy's first responses was, "Girls are so much more expensive!" We have already begun to think about the teenage years, weddings and more. It's amazing how fast our minds were looking into the future. Posted are pictures from the ultrasound. She will apparently be a gymnast because she was in the tightest little ball. We hope she continues to be healthy!

Now it is time to start thinking about names, planning the nursery and picking out cute outfits. Jeremy will be outnumbered in our household. He is doomed!

17 Weeks

Posted are pictures from Monday night...17 weeks. Enjoy!

Baby boy or girl?

Hello there. So far the second trimester has been a lot better than the first, althought my first trimester was not as bad as some pregnant women. I feel a lot more like myself, although I am still tired often. I guess that is never going to go away as I am told by every mother. I went walking last week and had a really bad sciatic nerve problem. That lasted for a couple of days. When I told my doctor she gave me a look of "Already!?! You are in trouble!" Apparently there is not much that can be done for those flair ups. I just hope they don't happen too often or I will be limping the rest of this pregnancy!

Last Thursday we went to the doctor for our 16 week appointment. Everything went well and got to hear the heartbeat again. Baby peanut's heart is strong. We set up our next ultrasound. We have decided to find out the sex of the baby. I should say Jeremy decided to find out and I didn't have much of a choice. Very opposite of our personalities. Maybe a surprise for the next one. Finding out the sex will definitely make the rest of this pregnancy easier.

Monday, October 1st is the big day. If the baby cooperates we will find out if the little bean is a boy or girl. And I will not repeat what Jeremy said when we left the doctor's office regarding finding out the sex!

What do you think the sex will be? We have heard both from family and friends, although having a boy is winning right now. Jeremy and I have placed bets ourselves.

Hope you are well!

Much love,
Laura and Jeremy

The beginning of the 2nd trimester & Sadie's big day at the pool

A glimpse of the pool



Playing with Jeremy


Swimming


Posing for the camera

14 weeks


With so many friends and family out of town, we thought this would be a good way to let others stay in tune with our baby adventure. I will try to post weekly blogs, so check back often. I wanted to set this blog up a long time ago. Sorry! I am in my 16th week now. Time has flown by!

We go for the 16 week appointment on Thursday. Hopefully there will be a little less drama this time. When we went for our 12 week the doctor told us we could possibly be having twins! You should have seen our faces! We were able to get an ultrasound an hour later and found out that we are just having one bambino. One is enough for us for now. While we were waiting for the ultrasound, Jeremy turns to me and says, "Babe, you can't have twins. You are small and you will have the worst stretch marks!" Very comforting words, honey! I will try to post a scan of the ultrasound sometime soon. The scanner doesn't pick it up very well. At the time the baby was not even 2 inches long and we could see a hand and the spine. Ultrasounds are fascinating!

As much as I may not want to, I will try to take pictures of me and the baby bump. Posted is me at about 14 weeks (with a tight shirt to help the image), the very beginning of my "bump". To me it looks more like a roll, but every day it is becoming more of a bump.

Also above is last Saturday's big day for our first child, Sadie Mae. We took her to a local park that opens their pool up right after Labor Day for dogs. It was a riot! At minimum there were about 50 dogs in the pool, outside the pool and trying to decide if they wanted to get in the pool. Sadie loves to swim so she jumped right in with her dad!

Stay tuned for an exciting baby adventure!

With much love,
Laura and Jeremy