Fabulous Shower

Sunday was a day that we were showered with love by friends and family to get ready for Fulton's arrival. Look at these precious decorations and amazing table that they did. Mom made that door hanger with little buddy's name on it (She is very talented) and her and sister worked so hard on this cute diaper cake. I don't want to take it apart it's so stinkin cute, although I know his little bum will need those diapers very soon. Those cupcakes were delish!

Here are the sweet ladies that helped host this come and go baby shower for me. They are all such precious people in our lives and we were so blessed by all they did to make this a special day for us.

Me, Mom, and sister...nothing like putting big bertha in the middle of these 2 beautiful ladies!

For the record, I absolutely LOVE monogrammed stuff.. so much that I think I want to monogram Fulton's underwear one day. He got so much cute monogrammed stuff I just had to pinch myself (sister has been stockpiling this stuff for months). Mom also made him an adorable smocked bubble that he is going to look so handsome in!!

And Aunt Keri got him his first backpack.. I love it!! I am thinking about getting Matt a matching one for school.

I don't think I have shown what our bedding looks like, but my mom got it for us and made a quilt to match it... seriously, it is beautiful!! She bought extra fabric of the bedding and had been working on this secret project for a while. She also did some curtains. His room is finally starting to look like a real room.

Me and sister with the Monroe girls. Our families have been friends since before we were born... we love them!

And here are some other random shots of sweet people who came to celebrate the day. We are beyond blessed.. literally, I sat and looked at all this wonderful stuff that people have given us and I am just in awe. We don't deserve it, but we are so grateful for all these precious friends and family who are helping us get ready for this little fella to enter the world!!

30 Weeks!

It's finally here... we are on the home stretch and I am 30 weeks pregnant! Woohoo!! I haven't done one of these ole preggo posts, but since I know you are on the edge of your seat dying to know the details, I will share some fun facts with you.
How far along? 30 weeks

Size of baby? This week they say he is about 3 pounds and if you are into comparing that to vegetables, he is the size of a head of cabbage.

Maternity clothes? It varies day to day... I still wear a lot of regular shirts, but most shorts are maternity. I am still looking for that perfect maternity blue jean jumper with the school house on it for the first day of school.

Gender? It's a boy! Fulton Maddox

Movement? This little booger moves all the time. He likes to do karate chops in the middle of the night too.

Sleep? Oh sleep... it's a love/hate relationship. Lately, I have been getting up at 3 am and then sometimes I will go back to sleep about 6. This is going to be a problem when school starts back. Maybe I can get my 8th graders to start having nap time. We are up to 7 --hear that--7 pillows in the bed now. Matt says if I add anymore, he will have to sleep on the couch.

What I miss? Hmmm... what do I miss... not really anything too life altering that I miss. Probably just being able to sleep through the night without going to the potty every couple of hours like a five year old.

Cravings? Since the beginning I have loved fruit and dill pickle chips. I have been laying off the chips more lately due to the fact that I almost have a mini heart attack every time I get on that stinkin scale at the dr's office. You know what else I love?? a good strawberry slushi.

Symptoms? The ole back has been aching a little more lately... and I am super clumsy. Is this even a symptom? I don't know, but I drop things all the time. Good thing I am not trying to win us a championship on the balance beam.

What I am looking forward to? I have some showers coming up that are going to be so fun and I am really excited about. Also, this comfy, excruciatingly expensive, chair we bought for the nursery should be coming in soon. I will sit in that everyday so we get our money's worth.

Chicago

The Windy City! That is where we headed last week for our anniversary. It was an adventurous trip with lots to do in a few short days. Let me give you the quick and condensed version of our days in the big city. We arrived the first day and our plane landed at 8:30 am, so we had the whole day to play. We were set to see a show, Peter Pan, after lunch so we had a few hours to explore and figure out this whole city bus transportation stuff. Yikes... we got on our first bus and missed the stop so we kept riding it thinking it would turn around eventually.... not the case. This sweet man finally asked us if we needed help and told us to get off and walk across the street and wait for the bus coming the other way. Thankfully we had plenty of time because we got a nice tour of parts of the city that we probably shouldn't have been in. The show was great and afterwards we went to eat at Ed Debevicks... where they are extremely rude to you.. on purpose. It's quite the atmosphere!

The next day we were up bright and early and there you see me at that lovely bus stop again.. we were determined to get it right this time. We headed to Navy Pier and I guess you could call it somewhat of a big carnival on Lake Michigan. We took an architectural river boat cruise through the city and saw lots of amazing buildings that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. I will spare you the 75 pictures sweet boy took of all the buildings we passed, he loves some history. Matt even had a good conversation with some man in the park too.

We spent a little more time exploring Navy Pier, ate at Harry Carey's for lunch and then went to the beach. There was a beach on Lake Michigan about 2 blocks from our hotel. Matt put his feet in, said it was freezing, I sat on a stump instead. We had to hit up the Hershey store because they were giving away free samples (went back the next day too). I think I got a cavity just walking in that place.

That night it was time for the event Matt had been waiting for. He really wanted to go to a Cubs game, but they weren't in town, so we went to the White Sox game instead. See the bottom left picture of Matt glaring at me... it's because I was totally freaking out about riding this subway thing. Once we got on I swore that thing was going to fly off the tracks and we would die underground. Thankfully we made it. The Sox lost.. but it was a fun game. We even had some delicious hotdogs and nachos, dinner of champions right there.

The next day it was up and at 'em again (Matt kept me on a tight schedule) and we headed for the Shedd Aquarium. This was an enormous aquarium with lots of little creatures, big and small. Matt was so into it, as you can tell. I enjoyed it too... in between sitting on the benches and eating my poptarts. The view was beautiful outside the aquarium. In the right picture of the both of us, I know it looks like I have a twin in the water, but no worries.. it's just the whale swimming around.

After the aquarium we headed for some deep dish original Chicago pizza... this stuff is different, but good. We did a lot of yummy eating while we were there and decided to finish our last night with a fabulous meal at the Weber Grill Restaurant... and Weber Grill as in the thing you cook on in your backyard. Sometimes it takes me a minute to connect the dots... and when I finally saw the large grill on the side of the building I understood. We had a wonderful trip for our anniversary and Matt is already planning the next one so we can do everything we didn't get to do.

7 Years!

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary! Here's a sweet picture from back in the day when we were a lot younger (and thinner). What an amazing man God has blessed me with. He sure puts up a lot from me (and it's been taken up a notch lately with my precious mood swings). Matt is such a godly man with a servant's heart. I love this about him. He sees a need and he meets it. Matt has such a selfless heart and always challenges me to exemplify the fruits of the spirit on a daily basis. Here we are 7 years later with a little bun in the oven, about to start a new chapter in our lives. We are so undeserving of this blessing of each other and now a new life coming to our family. Thank you Lord for this marriage and the blessing of another day of life with each other!

The Fourth!

We spent a long weekend at the lake for the Fourth of July and it was fabulous! We had great weather, good company, and lots of delicious food! Saturday we stayed in the water literally almost all day because it was so hot. We got out late in the day to relax on the pier for a bit since we were all shriveled up.

Sister and me after a nice day in the sun.

Dad took us on a little sunset cruise and the weather was great. I am not supposed to ride in the fast boat because of the roughness, so we had to wait until late in the day when the waters were calm.

How pretty is this?!

Sunday and Monday we played again and Matt even entertained us with some jumps. This is his newest jump, his toe touch.

A little mini storm came up later that night and we were forced to get off the water, or dodge the lightning. I chose to go on up for the day. But the after storm sunset made for some good pics!

Our papa even came to see us... what a treat! And he was in a good mood... even better!

Since it was the fourth of July and all, I felt it was necessary for everyone to sing some patriotic songs and fly the flag for a bit. We had such a great weekend with family and friends!