It's a....

G - I - R - L!!!

Oh my gosh... I am on Cloud 9!!! We had our ultrasound this morning, and I am just gushing with joy right now. I was so nervous with this ultrasound, not only because it would be our big gender reveal, but also because I wanted everything else to be okay. I was the same way with Bobby's. Well, we have a healthy baby, and a little sister on the way! I have to admit that I really wanted this baby to be a girl. Like, really, really. I didn't want to let on how much I wanted a girl, in case we had another boy. I truly believe that you are happy with whatever God gives you, but I almost felt like I had to prepare myself with the news that it could very well be a boy. I have always envisioned having at least 2 kids, with one of each. And, along with that, I had always envisioned the boy being the older sibling (ya know... to "protect" his baby sister.) :) I can't believe how blessed we are, that it actually played out this way! And, the best part... if we decide to have more - it totally takes any pressure off!

Onto some stats:

Heartbeats/Minute - 154

I'm 17 weeks, 6 days (measured 17 weeks, 3 days).

Weight gained to date - 6 lbs. (yikes).

Profile shot:

"Money" shot:

She was very active during the ultrasound, which was so cute and funny!

Our Weekend

We had a fun start to our weekend, with a pretty low-key finish. Bob's sister, JoJo, and her fiance', Melissa came over to the 'Ham for a quick visit. We went to dinner on Friday night, and then headed to Birmingham's Pepper Place Farmer's Market on Saturday. It was a short visit, but a good one. We'll see them again in a few weeks, as we attend one of their wedding showers. Here's a cute picture of Bobby and JoJo. I "lifted" it off of JoJo's Facebook page!

The rest of our weekend was pretty low-key. We ran a few errands, cooked out, and just laid around. I also started re-organizing some parts of the house. Bob jokingly asked me if my nesting phase had started. I am hoping to do some type of organizing project every weekend, so that we are fully prepared for this new baby! If I have another preemie, I want to be as prepared as possible!

I'm looking forward to this weekend - as Bob will be off for 3 days. Yippee!

Friday Night Porch Parties

From April through October, our street has a Friday Night Porch Party, the first Friday of every month. We co-hosted, with another couple, at our house for the month of June. I love these get-togethers, as it allows for all our neighbors to become even closer. Each month has a theme, and ours was a picnic theme. We had fried chicken, sandwiches, pasta salad, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon, and all sorts of other goodies.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Thought this was a funny picture of Bobby...

Eleanor, Jenn, and Beth:

Tally (the mastermind behind these get-togethers) and Amelie:

Bob and Jeff:

The Wallace's:

Richard and the Brocato guys:

Beth and LeeAnn:

Volree and Cooper:

Group shot:

Our sweet neighbor, "little" Frank:

I'm looking forward to the next shin-dig!

Bounce House Fun

After leaving Nashville, Memorial Day weekend, we headed back to Birmingham. Bob's brother from another mother, Mike and his fiance' Brandi, dog sat for us. We were planning on just dropping by to pick up Winston, but ended up staying the afternoon.

Mike and Brandi have a little girl, Ryen, who is the exact same age as Bobby. I've mentioned her a few times on the blog - like their first date. Anyhow, the two of them had an absolute blast swimming, and bouncing the afternoon away.

I'm not a big fan of bounce houses, for Bobby, at this age. They are often too big, and too crowded. But, this one was perfect! He loved it!

Nashville Trip, Part II - Sightseeing

The second part of our trip to Nashville consisted of doing a little sightseeing. We spent the latter part of Saturday, and Sunday morning checking out some of the sights.

The first neat thing about our trip, was our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott, right next to Vanderbilt's football stadium. Our view was pretty cool, and apparently our room is coveted during football season.

Here's the view of the stadium from our hotel room:

On Saturday afternoon/evening, we headed to Nashville's strip of bars and restaurants. Unfortunately for us, there was a Jimmy Buffet concert held that night, and the area was swarming with Parrotheads. There's nothing with Parrotheads, it was just extra crazy and crowded!

Bobby is not a fan of Elvis!

Tennessee Titan's NFL stadium:

Finally, we were able to find a local restaurant and hops establishment that did not have a wait!

The next morning, we drove across the street from our hotel, and went to Nashville's Parthenon, or the "Athens of the South."

Love this picture!!!

You could see our hotel from the park.

We also took in some more sites while driving, like the State's Capitol building:

It was definitely a quick trip, but we had a great time! Bob and I want to go back, kids-free! My last post will be about the reason why we went to Nashville. It was for Bob to participate in a challenge called GoRuck. He's going to have to help me with the post, so hopefully it'll be up soon!

Father's Day 2011

(I'll continue our Nashville trip posts soon...)

Bob had a great Father's Day this year. His parents came over for a visit, and we throughly enjoyed their time here. We went to our favorite, brunch establishment, Another Broken Egg for breakfast that morning. After some rest time and naps at home, we all headed to our neighborhood pool. We then cooked out later, for dinner.

Overall, the day was just nice and relaxing. Bob received a new knife (don't ask), and a handmade gift from Bobby. Earlier in the week, we made a concrete, mosaic stone, with Bobby's handprint. The project was a bit more than I thought it would be, but Bob loved it. We also had cake to celebrate!

Here are some pictures from our afternoon at the pool.

Volree and Cooper...

Favorite picture of the day...

The happy dad...

Check out our little fish...