Springing forward!

Okay, so once again I have fallen behind on my blogging...I'm thinking that it's a once a month kind of thing now. Busy season is getting a little crazy and trying to keep up with everything else is becoming challenging. Jon is keeping himself busy with school, work, barbershop, and learning how to call square dances, as well as trying to pick up the chores that I can't do anymore.

Some of the fun activities that we've been up to include square dancing, date nights, dinners with friends, and a few days here and there to have some "me" time. We've been getting back into square dancing after a little hiatus when Jon was out of town on business. We've been to a few club dances in addition to a special square dance put on by Don and Brenda Whitaker at their home for a Baptist group from UCF. The club dances have been fun, though I think I'm now at a point where I'm going to have to sit out. The dance at Don and Brenda's was amazing as Jon and I assisted the students in trying to learn how to square dance for a few hours...it was an absolute blast! Jon and I attended our first movie in the theaters in about 9 months together after going to dinner. It was a lovely date night, particularly awesome because Jon agreed to watch a chick flick, the new movie "This Means War"...though it was a comedy and Jon liked 80% of the movie because it was just action and comedy, not so much romantic comedy, lol.

On to baby news...

We have had the 23 week checkup and all is well with me and Jackson. The doctors and nurses have said that he is doing great for being the number of weeks that he is. We have our 27/28 week checkup and glucose screening on March 20th. So I will keep everyone posted on that when the time comes. Jon and I are planning on scheduling a 3D ultrasound to see our baby boy between weeks 28 and 30 weeks, so I'll post those pictures when we get them :-)

One of the most important milestones that have happened in the last few weeks include Jackson moving around a lot in my tummy, and Jon finally getting to feel them for the first time two weeks ago. It was a really special moment for Jon, feeling him move/kick for the first time...his face just lit up with joy. We've also gotten the nursery furniture put together in Jackson's room and all the old furniture is out! We'll be continuing to put the nursery together once we get the crib bedding, as I want to wait to paint until I can match the colors. We have been so blessed by family and friends that we already have so many things for our little guy. We just can't get over how cute everything is!

Jon's co-workers were so sweet and threw a joint baby shower for us and for Jon's co-worker Crystal this past Friday. It was so nice to have a wonerful laid back lunch with some great people, and I can't believe that they were so kind as to buy Jackson's organic mattress! Thank you to everyone who made it so special! We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Here are some recent pictures:

24 Weeks

Also just a note...it's really hard to take mirror pictures!

 

25 Weeks

From thebump.com:

Baby's now the size of an eggplant!That oh-so-handy sense of equilibrium is kicking in, and baby's learning to distinguish right side up from upside down.

Let the good times roll!

Sorry the updates have not been consistent, busy season and trying to get things in order for Jackson's arrival have been taking a lot out of me these days. Well, now that Jon is home from his two and a half week work trip, I have a little bit of breathing room (and someone to tell me to take it easy every now and then).

So since the last update, Jon and I have had a lot going on. Busy season at my office is in full swing and Jon has been very busy on his current project at work. He is still trying to balance work and school as he is taking two graduate level classes this semester. I am trying to help coordinate/head up a clothing drive at the church for community members in need, so that has been keeping me busy trying to develop flyers for donations and figuring out logistics.

On to the important news...Jackson! We have had quite a few milestones in the past few weeks. First, we of course found out that it was Jackson growing inside of me...not a little girl. Jennifer was kind enough to go with me to the 20 week ultrasound and checkup as Jon was out of town. Everything is perfect with our little boy :-) Second, I felt Jackson move inside my tummy! He hasn't moved around too much, at least that I've felt/noticed, but it still feels awesome every time I feel it. It's like he's just saying hello :-) Jon is jealous because he can't feel it yet, but as soon as he can feel it I'm sure he will feel the same joy as I do.

My belly keeps growing and most people are starting to notice, lol. I finally gave in and went shopping for some maternity clothes. Thank you to Ashley for being my support system on my first shopping trip! On the positive side, I'm much more comfortable with elastic as it is oh so comfortable, hehehe. I am starting to have trouble getting comfortable when sleeping now, but thanks to the advice of a wonderful sorority sister from college, I have since purchased a body pillow which has helped immensely. Thanks Alix! I am also starting to get the occassional muscle cramps, the dull pain in my back, and the sporadic heart burn. But as I have an absolutely fantastic husband, I went and got a prenatal massage on a Friday evening while he was out of town which helped relax me and make my back feel better. I'm excited for my next one on the 24th of this month. I'm also a little more careful with the amount of peppers that I eat (as they were the cause of my first experience with heartburn last week).  Anyways, here's a picture of the ever growing Jackson from the outside.

Week 21

We are also now starting to accumulate more things for little Jackson. We now have a highchair, travel system (carrier, stroller, car seat base), clothes, and some toys...and so it begins! Thank you to all of your who are already starting to spoil our little baby boy, God has truly blessed us and we appreciate having such wonderful family and friends. We have also ordered the furniture for the nursery, so we will soon be tackling the project of converting the guest room into a vintage baseball themed nursery for our little guy.

For those of you who have asked, we are registered at Babies R Us and Amazon.com. We did not double register for anything, so if you don't see what you're looking for on one of them, check out the other one.

It's a Boy!!!!

Okay, so the time has finally come...we know the gender of the baby! Jon and I will be welcoming our beautiful baby boy Jackson Clyde Kelley to our family in June :-) Here are the latest and greatest pictures from this morning's ultrasound:

Baby Jackson upside down.

Here's the evidence he's a boy!

Jackson with both legs crossed at the ankles.

He had his arms up near his head.

Chillin' on his back.

I have no idea what this is a picture of, but it's part of Jackson, lol.

Sorry this post is so short; however, as tax season is in full swing, this is as good as it gets during the week, lol. I will give a better update of things this upcoming weekend, including a new baby bump photo!

Oh the places you will go...

Okay...so I know that I haven't blogged in a while; therefore, I have tons to catch ya'll up on. First, baby Kelley has now travelled to two more states in utero (he/she is becoming a cross country traveler already!). Jon and I took a weekend trip up to Charleston, SC the weekend of January 6th to visit some of Jon's best friends and his second families from his college days at the Citadel including the Vitello's, Kursh's, Hemingway's and the Hayne's. We truly enjoyed spending some time with some fantastic people while in Charleston! Thank you to our friends for hosting us and taking the time to have a meal with us on our quick trip :-)

Here's a few pictures from our trip!

The very next weekend Jon and I went to south Florida for two very big occassions. First, on January 14th, Jon and I traveled to Coconut Creek, Florida in order to pick up some exquisite paintings done by my great aunt, Marion Bohannon. She so graciously allowed us to choose any of her paintings or chalk drawings that had been loaned to the Coconut Creek Community Center for the past 7 years. Consequently, we ended up falling in love with two of the paintings that were shown to us, in addition to two works of art done in the chalk medium. Our home now has amazing artwork hanging on the walls and we could not be happier. Thank you Aunt Marion!

The very next day, January 15th, Jon and I traveled with his siblings Jason and Jennifer to go celebrate their cousin's upcoming baby girl, Vera Raye, by attending her baby shower in Port St. Lucie, Florida. We all had a wonderful time of fellowship with Jessica and the rest of the Weinman clan that attended. It was so great to see everyone and spend some time with the beautiful expectant mother!

The fun still has not ceased, as my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Craig came to visit us in Orlando this past weekend to help me celebrate my 26th birthday. We all went to my favorite Mexican restaurant on Friday night for my birthday dinner...yum, then on Saturday we went to Disney World to introduce Cindy and re-introduce Craig to the magical world of the Disney theme parks. We ended up spending time at each of the four parks giving them a little taste of what each park had to offer; though I'm not sure I would recommend it, as by the end of the night we all had sore feet and were exhausted to the bone from the walking and standing all day. Despite the soreness, I had an absolutely wonderful time, and I'm sure baby Kelley enjoyed him/herself (even though we couldn't go on many rides) :-) Cindy and Craig also were so generous to us and gave our little one some adorable Alabama Crimson Tide onsies...ROLL TIDE ROLL! along with some other fabulous goodies. Thank you both for taking the time to come visit and for your thoughtfulness, we truly appreciate it.

Other than all of our activities lately, Jon and I have been able to continue to make our house a home by adding our own personal touches to it. We are still going strong at our current places of employment and are continuing to enjoy our work. Our church is continuing to grow and Jon and I are truly blessed with such a wonderful church family. I will soon be trying to head up a clothing drive and distribution for the local residents near our church in addition to helping assist with the preparations for the upcoming vacation bible school in June this summer.

Now onto the most important stuff...the baby! Jon and I went for our sixteen week checkup at Delaney OB/GYN on January 5th and found out that everything is going well for mother and baby. Dr. Fritz also told us that we would be able to find out the sex of our baby at the next ultrasound (if we wanted to know)! The ultrasound is scheduled for 8:00am on Monday, January 30th; therefore, we will soon know if we will have a son or daughter joining our family (as long as the baby cooperates of course) :-) We know everyone is curious, therefore we will try to let everyone know as soon as we can; however, please be patient with us as we will still have to work a long day that day and will likely be unable to call or text anyone until that evening. We are extremely excited that we are nearly halfway there and can't wait to meet our little one.

Here is a picture of the baby bump at week 18 in front of one the aforementioned paintings, in an awesome Alabama maternity shirt compliments of my aunt and uncle.

Your Pregnancy: Week 18

As your growing uterus starts shifting your center of gravity (belly forward, bottom out), hormones are causing your ligaments to relax and joints to loosen. The result? Back pain and soreness. On the bright side, if you want to know baby's gender, this might be your first week for a sneak peek.

Baby's now the size of a sweet potato!Baby's become amazingly mobile (compared to you, at least), passing the hours yawning, hiccupping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking, and swallowing. And baby is finally big enough that you'll soon be able to feel her movements.

*Information and clipart above is from thebump.com.

Happy Holidays

So December flew by, including the Christmas season. I have been extremely busy at work with end of year tax projections for our clients, which has not left a ton of time for catching up with family and friends...I apologize for that. Fortunately, the craziest time of year at the firm has passed with December. Jon finished up his semester of graduate school about the second week of December, so he has been enjoying getting back in the kitchen letting the food "inspire" him as he likes to say, as well as catching up on playing some video games and reading books about becoming a dad. We continue to square dance on Friday nights with the Bren-Don Squares square dance club in Geneva, FL, which is still an absolute blast. Jon is also now apprenticing under Don Whitaker trying to learn how to be a square dance caller himself. He has had two very successful singing calls since he first started trying to learn.

Our baby has now celebrated its first Christmas and New Years (in utero at least) with us. Jon and I had a wonderful Christmas weekend as we went to visit Jon's mother Jodi in Fort Pierce on Saturday, with his sister Jennifer. To our surprise Jon's Aunt Cathy and cousin Jessica showed up for a visit as well. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with some of Jon's family and had safe travels to and from Fort Pierce. Sunday was spent going to church for a wonderful time of worship and praise with our church family on the most special of days! I can't remember the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday, but I was so pleased that we were able to attend a service at our church on Christmas morning. After church Jon and I quickly picked up and cleaned a few last minute things prior to Jon's siblings arriving for our Christmas celebration. Jason, Jessica, and Jennifer all came over to our house on Christmas for a wonderful Christmas celebration. Jason and Jon made a wonderful Christmas dinner that took approximately four and a half hours to complete, and Jennifer giving us a fantastic Christmas present, cleaned up the kitchen that was left in a disaster after they were done cooking. (In case you don't know, Jon and Jason both are known to make one heck of a mess in the kitchen when making their delicious creations). We had a fabulous time of fellowship with our generation of Jon's family on Christmas day.
On top of all of that, Jason and Jessica blew us away with all of the baby gifts that they brought us...we officially have our first baby things! Everything is just so adorable and cute; Jon and I are just so thankful for the thoughtfulness and excitement that Jason and Jessica have shown us. We know that our little baby is so incredibly blessed to have such amazing aunts and uncles excitedly anticipating his/her arrival. We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas weekend and we are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and hope that your New Year is better than any other you've ever had.

As many of you know, we let the secret out of the bag on December 9th that we were expecting our first child. I am now almost 16 weeks along in my pregnancy, with a very small bump starting to make itself known to the world. I am now having to start being strategic in my clothing choices, as my clothes aren't necessarily fitting as well as I would like them to anymore. I have officially purchased bella bands (one black and one white) in an effort to keep wearing some of my favorite pants. Jon and I have another doctor's appointment on January 5th; however, we will not find out what the sex of the baby is until the end of January or beginning of February. Everything is going well in my pregnancy...I have been extremely blessed in that I have not really had any significant nausea since about week six or seven, and no vomiting at all (sorry if that was too much information for some of you). My energy is returning, which is absolutely wonderful as well.

Here is a picture of the miniature baby bump from week 14.

Here are the pictures from the first ultrasound - Week 8:

Here are the pictures from the second ultrasound - Week 12:

Welcome!

Hello All!

I thought I would start a blog for those of you who want to be "in the know" for all things related to my pregnancy. I figured a blog would be a good way to keep everyone informed about the baby, how I'm doing, and how Jon is handling all the changes, lol. I will try to post pictures and ultrasound photos as my pregnancy progresses in addition to trying to post once a week; however, please keep in mind that busy season is already in full swing for me in December so if I can't post on time each week, please bear with me.