30 1/2 weeks!

Whitney at 30.5 weeks! She's been doing great, no complications. We are very blessed. We have a name picked out, but we aren't telling anyone until he's here, so don't even ask.

The baby's room is almost done. We painted and built a trinket shelf around the perimeter, a little over 6 feet off the ground. We still need to paint the baby's dresser. We're looking for a frog-green spray paint. Any suggestions on where we can get that color? We've tried Home Depot and Walmart, but their greens aren't what we want. We'll post a picture when the room is finished.

We're very excited to meet the little guy.

SEATTLE!!

This past weekend Rob and I took our last childless trip. We went to Seattle for the weekend. As we pulled out of the driveway, I thought, "Man, next time we will be packing a stroller and a bag full of countless things for the baby." We enjoyed just having one carry on bag between the two of us. Seattle was a very important place for me to take Rob to. Anybody who knows much about me knows that I love Seattle, and anyone who knows me well knows that Seattle is somehow part of my soul. Rob had never really been there, so I couldn't wait to be there with him. Here are some highlights:

Snoqualmie Falls

Brown Bag, the best breakfast place ever! Rob has heard about this place our whole marriage and now he finally got to go! (See my belly? It really started to pop out while we were in Seattle)

At Brown Bag with (from left to right) our friend Keith, my dad, my uncle Dick, aunt Heidi and my mom.

Famous and wonderful Pike Place Market

On a ferry rideAll the cherry blossoms were in bloom. It was magnificent! This is on UDUB campus.




The Space Needle
Look at that beautiful city!

It was a wonderful trip. We spent time with my grandpa (he is 94!), ate lots of amazing food at lots of amazing restaurants, saw my aunt and uncle (which was totally not planned, they live in Oklahoma), visited my grandmother's grave, relaxed, took walks, read, talked. I loved being there with Rob. He is amazing. I am so lucky.

22 WEEKS!!

Okay people, the first pregnant shot! What do you think? We are going to try to be more consistent with this and do it every month from now on but we'll see...

So I am five months pregnant in this picture. Everything is going well. I feel great. My energy is back and all food tastes wonderful ( I am finishing off a quart of mint chocolate chip ice cream right now in fact. Don't worry, I didn't eat the whole thing by myself, and I didn't eat all that I ate of it in one sitting...but almost). We are going to get the baby's room going now. I know exactly how I want it to look, but I don't really know how to describe it. I guess I would call it a paneling effect. It is going to look like paneling but it is actually just going to be the wall painted white with base boards to create the dividers and a shelf along the top. Above the shelf will be painted navy blue. His crib will be dark wood (still looking for a good bargain). The dresser/changing table and the rocking chair are going to be whatever I find that is cute and goes with navy blue....could be green or orange... We'll see. Fun!

We started our registry this weekend at Babies-R-Us. That place is insane! It is true that you need a lot of stuff when you are having a baby for the first time, but they also have so much stuff there that you do not need and that you will never need. My favorite was when the lady said that we should register for about 150 items so that people will have a good variety to choose from. Whatever, this is the way I see it: We are going to register for what we need and really want and that is all. None of this, "Well, why not, lets just register for this..... and this..... and this....." and pretty soon you have a registry that is pages and pages long. If anyone is reading this that will be coming to a shower for me one day, know that everything on that registry is stuff I need and want and not just everything on their "What You Should Register For List." I had gone to Babies-R-Us twice before, once with Rob and once with my mom, and scoped out the store and I had my own list. I knew exactly what I wanted to register for, so when Rob and I went on Saturday, we did it quickly. And guess how many items? 55.

I will probably be adding to that a bit though :)

IT'S A BOY!!!

What else can we say? We are SO EXCITED!!! I have always thought that boys come first simply because I have an older brother. So a little Crockett boy is on his way.

The ultrasound was fun. It was me, Rob and my mom. At first I had no idea what I was looking at and was worried I wouldn't be able to tell what anything was, and then I saw this little hand reach up and it took my breath away. I said, "Is that a little hand?" The tech confirmed it and I was thrilled. We can't believe that he is moving around inside of me as much as he is and I still don't feel anything. Patience.

But then she went through everything with us, explaining what everything was, showing us the head and face, arms and legs, heart and kidneys, spine. It was so amazing and so reassuring to hear that everything looks as it should. When it came time to find out the gender, our little guy had his legs plastered together. He didn't want to budge. We gave him a little baby earthquake and when he finally opened up, there was no denying it! We've got a little boy on our hands! "You are going to have a son," she said, and both mine and Rob's eyes filled up with tears.

It is funny, because we would have been thrilled either way (although Rob said he was secretly hoping for a boy). The thing is that it feels like we are closer to our little one now that we know he is a he. We can start to imagine what he will be like a little bit more and what life will be like with him around. We just can't wait to meet him!

Pretty exciting! Pretty wonderful!

Celebration of Love

This weekend was fantastic! Since it was Valentines Day and our anniversary, and I have gotten sick of saying Happy Valentines Day AND Happy Anniversary and wondering if what we were doing was for Valentines Day or for our anniversary, I have dubbed this weekend, for me and Rob at least, just LOVE weekend. And so this was our celebration of our love:

Rob got me tickets for us to see Ballet West perform Swan Lake. We went on Saturday evening. It is always fun to get a little dressed up and go out on the town. Capitol Theater is beautiful and Swan Lake is an absolutely beautiful ballet. Rob feigned interest really well, wanting to know what the storyline was and watching attentively (I only caught him sleeping once). But it was really fun to be together and to go out on a real date.
Sunday after church we packed up and went to spend the night at Grandpa and Cheryl's condo up in Midway by the Homestead. We highly recommend doing this because we had a great time. It is a beautiful and very comfortable place, fully stocked with anything you may need. It is really an enjoyable getaway. We made dinner together, a really yummy chicken curry over rice dish that I learned to make when I was staying in England with friends. It was really yummy. I couldn't find all of the exact ingredients but we improvised and it turned out well. It was fun cooking together and we had sparkling apple-peach cider to compliment the curry. After we cleaned up dinner we watched some of the Olympics and then made cookies together. It was a little frustrating at first because it was a recipe for homemade Oreo cookies that we had never made before, but through Rob's persistence they turned out great. We watched a movie together and snuggled and cuddled and talked late into the night. It was wonderful. We talked about what it is going to be like to have a little baby. We are both so excited for it!
Today, our anniversary, we slept in and then went out to breakfast at the Homestead. It was yummy and relaxing and just really nice. We went back and cleaned up the condo, washed the sheets and remade the bed. Rob worked a little, I read. We drove home, stopped for frozen yogurt. We ordered our shutters when we got home and I am so excited about that! I can't wait to get those up! They will look so nice. Tonight we will just eat at home, Cindy will come watch the Bachelor, and we'll relax. All in all a wonderful weekend.

Tomorrow we have our ultrasound in the morning!! We will know what we are having in less than 24 hours!! We can't wait!! I went shopping with my mom last week and we went into some baby clothes stores...we can't wait to know what we can start buying! There are some really cute things out there for babies.
Bringing up the shopping leads me to a side note: Shopping for maternity clothes freaks me out! I put on that little fake baby bump thing they have to make sure clothes will fit me when I am eight months pregnant and it really sends me for a loop. I cannot believe my body is going to take that shape and look like that! Yikes! Crazy!

Anyway, back to the original theme of the post: Rob, I love you. You are my life and my everything. Thank you for being so incredibly wonderful and amazing. 2 years down, eternity to go. All my love -
Whit

Pants That Don't Fit

So I am four months along and my pants are now just starting to not fit. I learned the rubber band trick (looping it around the button, through the hole and around the button again). That has helped. I still haven't bought maternity pants. I am holding out as long as I can. But my bump still kind of comes and goes. In the morning it is not very big, but by the afternoon, I have a definite belly. I am coming to terms with it. I saw an old friend at a restaurant last night and she said she was HUGE at four months so that made me feel a lot better. I know it is just going to get bigger from here. . . Rob asked the other day, "Wow, so your skin is just going to strrrrrreeetch over your belly?" I told him never to say the word stretch like that again.

Our friends Brad and Nancy were here for the weekend from California with their daughter Lia. It was so fun to have them here. Brad was able to take advantage of our perfect location and hit the slopes that are literally only 15 minutes from our doorstep. Lia is 1 and so cute with the cutest little laugh. It made us excited. But we are also going to enjoy these next 5 months of peacefulness and spontaneity.

I am going to get better at this. Our ultrasound is in a couple weeks and we will know what we are having. BOY? or GIRL? You can give your opinions and we will let you know. Then all the fun can start! Planning the baby room and shopping for stuff!

This Blog is About to Get A LOT More Exciting!

WE'RE PREGNANT!!
We are pretty dang excited. Even though we know this is going to change our lives forever, we are ready and this is what we want. We are grateful to know of Heavenly Father's plan and the importance of families. We are so happy to be starting one of our own with this little addition that is coming.
We found out at the beginning of November. I took a pregnancy test while Rob was at Young Men's. I was pretty stunned when it was positive. Even though this was something we were hoping for and planning on, I immediately realized that there was no backing out now, and I started to freak out. I didn't know if I was ready to give up everything of myself and be a mom. I didn't know if I was ready to give up the fun and comfortable life that Rob and I had as just the two of us. That sounds pretty selfish, but I really wondered if I was going to be the same person once I was a mom, or if I was going to be giving up a lot of what that person is all about as my life became learning about and caring for children (because now that there is going to be one, there will be more). I really didn't know to feel and I sat in the bathroom until I heard Rob come home. I went out and stood in the hall. I just stared at him and his eyes got all big. "What?!" he said, and I rushed him into the bedroom (my brother and his family were living with us at the time). I showed him the test and he was just laughing. He was pretty happy and I tried to be happy too, but he could tell something was on my mind. I told him what I was thinking about, that I was going to lose my identity, and he did his best to comfort me. But that night I didn't sleep at all. I was thinking all night.
We made an appointment with my doctor, but it wasn't for about a month, so Rob and I were just in our own little world about it for a few days. . . Until it was revealed that our house guests had the swine flu. I fled the house like a mad woman because swine flu is really bad for pregnant women. Rob fled with me and we went to my parents house. Because of our strange behavior, we told my parents and my brother and his wife about it. Because I was so disturbed about the flu I wasn't really anticipating their reactions, but my mom was so excited! And my brother and his wife were too. It was really fun to have that kind of emotion come from them. I started to get more and more used to the idea over the next week or so and I got so happy and excited. Now it is just pure fun and we are so happy!
We moved back to our house a week and a half later and everything was fine. We just had to keep our mouths shut at work and church. That is the hard part. I started to feel a bit icky right before Thanksgiving, and then I got a cold. It wasn't very fun. But I got past the cold, and the ickiness was the worst at night, so at least I could get up and go in the mornings. By the time I felt the worst I just curled up and went to bed.
The tiredness was (and is) still pretty overwhelming. I can't believe how tired I am, and I'm not even doing anything, or at least I don't feel like I am, but I know my body is working hard. It is so fun to read up on everything and just try to enjoy it all.
We heard the heartbeat the week before Christmas. That was a pretty special moment. Rob comes with me to all the appointments and he was pretty excited to hear the heartbeat. It was the first real evidence to him that there really is a baby growing inside of me.
We told all of Rob's family on Christmas Eve when everyone was together, all 22 of us. It was so fun! They all screamed and I have got to say that is easily becoming one of my favorite things about this, seeing everyone's reactions. Telling Rob's friends and my friends and everyone at work has been really fun the last couple of weeks.
It truly is a blessing and a miracle and we feel so blessed and happy. It just keeps getting better and better. I feel better now, not completely over the ickiness but getting there, and I just keep thinking the next 6 months are just going to go so fast.
It is crazy how much life is going to change. I will be doing more posts now, updating everyone on the status, so I hope that will make the few followers of this blog happy.
I love my life. I have been so abundantly blessed throughout my life and I know this is just another huge blessing and that this, me and Rob being sealed in the temple and starting a family, is what life is all about.