Baby Boy and Christmas

My 18 week ultrasdound was today and everything looked good. We found out it is definitely a boy! My placenta is sitting on my cervix so I get to have another ulrasound in 4 weeks to make sure it's moving. We will be naming him Michael Patrick McGowan III. I know it sounds pretentious, he'll be called Mikey. Unfortunately I can't call anyone with the exciting news because I caught a nasty cold the day after Christmas :(
We spent Christmas in Crystal River with Mike's stepmom Karen. We really enjoyed spending time with her and hope we lifted her spirits a little. Mike's dad (big Mike) passed away in November and I know it's been a rough holiday season for her. Mike is working on a memorial website for his dad so I haven't really posted about it here (wanted to link to the website).
Karen is always so creative with her gifts and gave us personalized M&Ms with our picture and possible baby names on it. That was super thoughtful! Mike's mom had a great idea of all of us sending 2 of our favorite movies to each other. We've been seeing new favorites :) As usual my folks sent money which is always appreciated! We've been low on the gift giving this year between the economy and my lack of energy. I did send gift subscriptions to Ranger Rick to the nieces and nephews which I hoped they recieved.
We always enjoy the time with family and joy that comes with the holiday season.

Baby Room and Belly Pics

So here's the first step in converting the office into the baby's room. For those of you that don't know (or remember) our office was black so this is a huge change. The desk wrapped around two walls and is now just in the closet where I think it will still be very useful as a changing table. We moved a portion of the desk into the guest room closet to become our mini office. Since we don't know the sex yet we thought yellow was a good neutral color with lots of options.


And for those of you that are curious to see how big I am so far here's some lovely pictures, acne and all. I'm 16 weeks pregnant, 3 1/2 months for those of you not obsessed :) So far I'm 2 lbs heavier than pre-pregnancy (lost some weight the first couple months but have now gained that back).

Thanksgiving

I know I've been a slacker with posting. I'm still feeling pretty sick and have no energy... We had lots of fun over Thanksgiving. My parents flew in the week before and spent lots of time with us. My mom and I went shopping for maternity clothes and I found lots of cute things. On Monday of that week Mike's mom and stepdad flew in and it was really busy from there on out. On Wednesday we went to Fairchild tropical gardens which is huge and just full of beautiful flowers. It was perfect weather and just the right amount of exercise for those of us with lower energy levels ;)
For Thanksgiving we had the two sets of parents as well as my mom-in-law's best friend Mary. We had a wonderful fried turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, rolls, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. It couldn't have been better!
The parents have all gone home now so things have quieted back down. Now I need to start getting out my Christmas decoration and making my holiday cookies. Anybody want me to send them some? I'll be making fudge, caramels, shortbread stars and biscotti this year.