Waiting for Shiloh

Here's one more from Wednesday...

18 Weeks! (And also my thoughts on Stretch Marks!)

Baby Shiloh is now 18 weeks along, or 45.7% cooked, according to my lovely iPregnancy app! Nothing much is new from last week, except that I did have a checkup at the doc. Everything is looking fabulous! I gained 2 pounds over the last 3 weeks, and I'm measuring 20 weeks. I think Shiloh had a little New Orleans-style growth spurt! : )

I also had the pleasure of receiving my first weekly progesterone shot. The nurse gave me this one, and showed Jason how to find the right spot by making a little "L" on my hipbone, then jabbing the giant needle down into the middle of the L! It actually didn't hurt at all when she did it, but I have my doubts about Dr. Jason administering the shot next Thursday. We shall see.

Anyway, here is the latest installment in our every-four-week maternity series! My belly is definitely growing!






On a side note, I have somehow been very blessed to avoid getting any stretch marks on my belly over the course of the last 3 pregnancies... I have a few faded, silvery ones on my hips leftover from the lovely land of puberty, but my belly has miraculously remained unharmed! Now, I know that everything you read says this boils down mostly to genetics, and it probably does. If your mom got stretch marks, odds are good you will too, and if she didn't, then you might be spared.

However, as previously noted, I am obsessed with anything that holds the promise of increased beauty, so the odds of me leaving my stretch mark fate in the hands of heredity were pretty much "ZERO." Ever since I found out I was pregnant with Autumn, I have faithfully slathered my belly in Palmer's cocoa butter stretch mark cream in hopes of keeping the pesky little lines at bay throughout each pregnancy.





Now, I have no idea if this has had any effect, or if it really is just the luck of the draw, but I figure you might as well file it under "can't hurt, might help," and give it a try! It isn't too expensive (about $5.00 for a 4.4 oz. tube at Wal-Mart), and it feels nice when you rub it on, so I think it's worth a shot! I usually go through about 2-3 tubes of it per pregnancy, so I think that $10-15 to feel like I am doing something about the whole stretch mark thing (even if it is only a placebo effect!) is a small price to pay!

I have 2 weeks left until I'm "grounded," so I plan to be as active as possible in this beautiful spring weather until then! I wish I was outside now instead of working on pictures, in fact. I will have to try to escape later this afternoon. Have a great day everybody!

Dave Ramsey is a Genius.

Jason's Dad recently gifted us with a copy of "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. I used to listen to his radio show years ago on 1030AM, but I hadn't heard it lately and had kind of forgotten about him. He is so refreshing to read! We are very excited about re-vamping our budget to reach our goals. Within 5 years, using his "Debt Snowball" plan, we will be able to be 100% debt-free (including having our car paid off!) and have $75,000 in cash to put towards a home.

We can't wait! If you are ready to take a serious look at how your current financial situation compares to your ideal financial situation, check him out!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

We had so much fun getting away together for a weekend in New Orleans! Jason and I really enjoyed getting to spend some rare one-on-one time together, and walking around in the City that Care Forgot was an eye-opening experience!

Bourbon Street itself was an experience like no other: mostly strange and a little sad, but with plenty of humor thrown in for good measure. The other sections of the city were as diverse as the crowd on Bourbon, with everything from opulent antebellum mansions to entire neighborhoods that still stand devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I wish we had been able to make it down sooner after the hurricane to take some photographs of the damages, because I get the feeling that when they're finally done with all the rebuilding, it would be an impressive "Before and After" series.

We booked our hotel through Priceline and got a great deal, as usual, for a room at the Marriott in the French Quarter for just $70 a night. We thought that was splendid, but we it turned out even better than we expected! After we managed to navigate around the parade that happened to be leisurely making its way up Canal Street by our hotel and finding our way through the enormous lobby to the concierge desk, we were informed that they had run out of standard king rooms. At first we thought we were just going to end up in a room with 2 queens, which would have been okay, but then the nice man at the desk said he would upgrade us to a corner suite instead at no charge! It was fantastic!





We had more space than we knew what to do with, and we just couldn't get over the panoramic views of downtown from the 34th floor!





Other than our time spent staring out the windows in awe, most of the weekend was spent eating way too much delicious, creamy Cajun food. From the bread pudding at the bistro on Bourbon Street to the crawfish pasta at the Chartres House Cafe, I don't think I had a meal the entire time that didn't leave me blissfully satisfied. It's a good thing we also spent a lot of time on our feet walking around, or I'm not sure we would have fit through the front door when we got back home! Here is a sample of some of the yummy food we got to try:





And here are a couple of other snapshots Jason took. I think I was around 15 weeks at the time, and you can see my belly rounding out a little! It's getting much more impressive these days. : )









During our tour of the Big Easy, we made our way through all of the landmarks we had time for: The French Quarter, the Ninth Ward, one of the historic cemeteries, the Garden District, and the artists' markets in Jackson Square. After sampling the beignets at Cafe Du Monde, picking up some souvenirs at Aunt Sally's and negotiating a good deal on a beautiful, colorful painting from a street vendor to hang in the sunroom, we felt that our work in New Orleans was done. Mmm... beignets...





On our way home, we drove a little ways down the Coastal Highway so that we could walk along a beach to complete our weekend of relaxation. Mission accomplished!







A big, huge "THANK YOU" to my Jamie and my parents for helping out with the kids so that we could enjoy some time together.

There were too many favorites for me to narrow down to a blog post, so I threw some of my faves into a gallery instead! Click on the picture below to take a peek!

Sara Groves - Great Stuff!

I have been a big fan of Sara Groves ever since Jason and I went to a concert of hers in Joplin 4 years ago (that's when the above picture was taken). Her voice is beautiful and her songs are so uplifting! I just realized today that I have had most of the songs from her "Add to the Beauty" album rotating through my daily playlists for a really, really long time now! This seems a little silly since she has so many other songs I could be enjoying as well, especially since she just came out with a new album in November of 2009! I'm planning to check it out soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would share one of my favorite songs of hers. It's called "Just Showed Up for My Own Life," and I listen to it almost daily. Every time I hear it, I get a renewed spring in my step and a good reminder to really be living my life each day, not just existing! Click on the picture and then on the second song down to check it out!





Really pay attention to the words when you listen... One of my favorite verses is this one:

I'm going to live my life inspired
Look for the holy in the commonplace
Open the windows and feel all that's honest and real until I'm truly amazed
I'm going to feel all my emotions
I'm going to look you in the eyes
I'm going to listen and hear until it's finally clear and it changes our lives


Some of my other favorites from her "Add to the Beauty" album are "It's Going to Be Alright," "Add to the Beauty," and "Why It Matters." They're all pretty great though! Check her out! : )

Baby Shiloh - 17 weeks

Okay, so it's not triplets! Just one beautiful little baby in there who is apparently quite the little wiggleworm! He or she managed to do several actual flips during the 25-minute session. I was not too surprised about this, since I already feel Shiloh kick all the time, and I'm only 17 weeks! Anyway, this morning we all went up to What's Kickin' in Bentonville for a peek. We are still trying to not find out the sex of the baby, but not sure how much longer we can hold out! Here are the latest pictures...

***APRIL FOOLS!!!***

Well, we got a big surprise, and a bit more than we bargained for this morning when we went in for an ultrasound to try to see if "the baby" was a boy or girl...

I just about fell out of the fancy ultrasound massage chair when they started the ultrasound and found this!





Not one, not two, but THREE BABIES! It's TRIPLETS! This means that in a few short months, we're going to have twice as many kids. Say a prayer for us... We're going to need it! : )