What I'm Loving Today :)

I'm Loving...this might sound silly but I'm loving that today is Wednesday! That menas the rest of the week is down hill from here! Only 2 more days in the work week and then the weekend! I look forward to the weekend for many reasons! The 2 biggest reasons are  being able to sleep in on Saturday morning till whenever I want :) The past 2 Saturday mornings I have woken up to Brent wispering "wake up, I made cinnamon rolls and they are waiting for you"! Love him! And then the other reason I love the weekends is b/c I get to spend lots of time with Brent! We get to do whatever we want and I love that we have no schedule. We just like to do what comes along.

Just a little picture of us!

I'm Loving that this morning Brent and I got to hear baby Easley's heartbeat for the first time! I was really excited as soon as I woke up....which is very rare! But I had a great reason today. In the appointment it was like ok ready...baby's heartbeat..done! haha. Use to being in the ultrasound room for 40+ minutes, this little adventure was done in about 60 seconds! I really wanted to say to the nurse " Oh, hey wait a second! That was too quick. Let me listen longer!!". But I guess this is just one of the things that just needs to be checked and then moving right along to the next thing. I really could have layed there and listened for at least 5 minutes. It is very interesting that they can get it to be so loud while through the speaker. It was in the 160's and apparently that is great! It's great to get reassured that there IS a baby in there and that it's doing well :)

I'm Loving also that we get to find out if our baby is a girl or a boy @ 19 weeks!! Talk about waking up super excited...the morning of May 27th, I will be jumping out of bed with excitement! Brent and I can't wait to find out what it is! When my doctor asked us today if we were going to find out, I excitedly said yes we are...definitely! She said great and even seemed excited that we would be finding out the sex! I would imagine that inside, doctors are glad that their patients choose to find out so that 1. they don't have to worry about accidently spilling the sex! and 2. they can discuss girl things or boy things throughout the rest of the pregnancy. But that's just want I think!

Which will it be?????!!!!!!

Im Loving my personal training clients that are coming to the gym tonight! They are a married couple and I love that I am able to push them and they allow me to challenge them as well. It's always a fun workout with those 2! They have come SO FAR in the past 5 years...it's quite awesome. It makes me happy :) If you didn't know, I have been a personal trainer at S.T.E.P.S.( Scientific Training and Exercise Prescription Specialists ) since right out of college and have loved every minute of it. It's such a fun job and a very active one as well! I like being at this private gym because it's smaller than a Y and much more personal. Everyone knows everyone and we are one huge family...trainers and clients.

I'll TRY to get Brent to blog about what he has been up to this week....interesting things are going on in dowtown Nashville at that Capitol of ours!

                                  ~Brent and Rachel~

Happy Easter!

One of the Easter crosses at church

Roses at my parents house

Us by the rose bush

Very pretty iris's in the front yard

              

13 Weeks :)

What does a peach have to do with a baby you might be asking yourself...At 13 weeks, that is the size of baby Easley! It's crown to rump length is about 7.8cm and the baby weighs about 3/4 of  an ounce. As I'm quickly approaching my second trimester, I am feeling great! I got great sleep last night and Brent and I went out and ran/walked 4 miles earlier today. What a wonderful day today is! I got new running shoes at Athletes House today and I love them so far. They are light and very supportive. 2 things I was looking for. I stuck with the brand Mizuno. I wonder if the baby is liking all the activity that I have been giving it?! I bet it likes that I am staying fit :)

According to the ticker, I have 188 days left! That's really not that long! As I have mentioned before, Brent and I are having a "Gender Reveal" party after our 20 week appointment. Well, we are going to try to see if our baby is a boy or a girl on our 19 week appointment and then have the party the day after...on a Saturday. I hope that all works out! Anyways, I have already got lots of stuff for the party and it's going to be so much fun.  I have even been quite crafty with some of the decorations! We just can't wait for that 19/20 week appointment :) We have a big appointment coming up this Wednesday. Wednesday will be the first time that we will HEAR baby Easley's heartbeat! I just can't wait to hear it. Being that it's been 168bpm at the past 2 ultrasounds, that is going to to sound so fast. 

I wear dresses whenever I can b/c pants are just not that comfortable...well workout pants are comfy but those don't really fit into my "business casual" work attire. I'm planning on hunting for a few more dresses this week to add to my comfy clothes wardrobe. And my granny is making me two dresses this week while they are in Myrtle Beach relaxing. I can't wait to get them! I wish there was something that I could have at home just to reassure myself that the baby is ok and doing well! Obviously when it reaches the kicking point, I will know all the time but I just hate having to wait for doctors appointments to know that all is well!! I DID find an at home doppler that you can buy for listening to your baby's heartbeat at home. I thought that was a great idea until I saw the price!!

This little gem is on SALE for...$400.00! Whoaaaa! I think I will pass and just reassure myself that everything is going well between visits! Brent always tells me that everything is fine too! :) Just love that he is here by my side!! 

On a side note, after our run Brent and I went to Sub Stop for lunch.

This was my first experience there. It was the best sub I have ever had...hands down. I love that place!! 

               

** Favorites ** and an Easter Memory

After finding out that I was pregnant, I immediately read up on what foods that I love eating that I was going to have to ditch for 9 months( an eternity to give up some of these things! ).  We will get to the "I am not going to break down and eat this but I really want to" foods that I have had to part ways with for a bit of time in a moment. Here are some things that I guess are my favorites for now!

For Snackage:

Triscuits! I will eat any flavor but I really love the Rosemary and Olive Oil :)

I can definitely go through a box of these in a week.

I also like to snack on apples and yogurt. I have loaded up on yogurt lately b/c Kroger has had some really good deals in the dairy dept in the past few weeks. Love Yoplait the best! Favortie flavor? Key Lime Pie! My roommate in college, Beth, got me hooked on that flavor. I wonder is she remembers that?!

Odds-n-Ends

Can't go a week without a Cherry Limeade! It's only $1( if you go to their "happy hour" between 2pm and 4pm ). I really don't drink soda( yes, caffeine free )much. Sometimes I need a Cherry Limeade though and not to mention...I love Sonic ice!!

I drink a lot of water! At least 3-4 of these at work and then some more when I get home. I usually down one before going to bed( which then makes me stumble to the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning)! My doctor is hard core about hydration...I remember her telling me in our first meeting to drink lots and lots and lots of water trhoughout the day. I think she would be proud :)

Yes, I had some extra time on my hands! haha. I try to stay away from candy and I'm not a candy junkie anyways except at the movies. But HERSHEY'S nuggets are the best! My bosses wife brought 4 huge bags to the office the other day. I love the extra creamy milk chocolate w/toffee and almonds...to-die-for! I eat a couple pieces during the week. I was going to try to stay away from chocolate completely. After reading how much you can have while pregnant, I quickly changed my mind. Other than those HERSHEY'S candies, I have chocolate milk occasionally!

Now for those foods that I would never ever give up unless a mandatory time called for it...I would consider this to be one of those times. We all knew this one was coming...

Oh Starbucks I know you have missed me...your cash register has missed my lovely plastic card too! People told me at first just to get decaf. I'm sorry but it's just not the same therefore you have not seen me in 2 months. I crave my usual VENTI iced vanilla latte every single day. I will be running to get one of these as soon as I can. It was a little piece of joy that filled my life everyday. I'm serious! I looked forward to going to Starbucks everyday! If you don't believe me ask anyone that knows me just how much I love "the bucks"!

Secondly and right behind my venti iced drinks...

SUSHI!!!!

Spicy Tuna Rolls! Love these...miss these! I could eat sushi oh.. 3 or 4 times a week! Vegetable sushi rolls just dont cut it....See there are just no equal replacements for these "no no" yummy foods and drinks. I know, the baby is going to be worth all of this and I am excited about that! It's just hard to give up foods that I love so much :)

Philly Roll :) Yea, baby doesn't want that raw fish but I do :) For baby's sake, I eat veggie sushi though!

Oh - My -Word!!! People, it is almost summer time! That means a lot of things but one major thing = HOT DOGS :( I was talking to Libby Barker earlier about her trip to Chicago this weekend( how super jealous am I?!! ) and told her about Wrigley hot dogs. If you have never gotten a hot dog at a Cubs game, you just don't know what you are missing. Unfortunatley, I do know what I am missing...Chicago or not, I love hot dogs especially Hebrew National.

Here she is...the Wrigley Dog( minus the relish for me ). My mouth is watering! Oh the poppy seed bun, grilled onions, mustard...it's delicious.

Enjoying a Wrigley dog a few years ago!

Last but definitely not least, I can't wait to have a massive club sandwich from Dan McGuinness! Oh the club is so tasty. 3 layers of texas toast, white and yellow cheddar, turkey, ham, lettuce, tomato and a side of honey mustard! It has honestly been hard to give these things up! Whenever Brent says "I'm going to get a turkey sandwich to eat" I reply with "oh yea me too that sounds great only to catch myself with oh wait, I can't"..tear.

It's all going to be ok :)

On a side note, I have an Easter story that I will share. This is when I was oh I would say 5 or 6. My parents took me to Opryland for an Easter egg hunt one year. Oh yea, we had a membership to Opryland! I remember being super excited and just new it was going to be awesome! So I'm out there in this big field trying to figure out where to go when I am seeing all these giants( older kids )around me...they didn't split the hunt up into age groups! They would slowly regret this! So I had my running energy ready to go, I look to my left and see an enormous child...prob a 10 or 11 years old! The same to the right. Don't get me wrong there were other 5 year olds out there. This was one huge Easter egg hunt. And we're off, I'm grabbing eggs right and left. There was more pastel on the ground then the color of green grass. This hunt went on for what felt like hours...my basket was full and I was tired so I decided to stop but my heart started to race fast b/c...I couldn't see my mom or my dad! I'm sure you can remember that panic feeling when you were little. I had gotten turned around among all the hundreds of kids and just couldn't find them. I started to cry and a worker saw me. I told her I couldn't find my parents and she hoisted me up onto a huge barrell( eyes full of tears ) in hopes that I would see them or they would see me. They saw me! I was rescued! I feared I would be lost for forever! Oh the mind of a 5 year old. I DID get lots and lots of eggs but the feeling of being lost was not making me want to go back and do that there ever again. My parents thought it was crazy to not split the children up by ages beforehand and that turned out to be right! We stuck to church Easter egg hunts with people that I knew from then on! :)

    

~ Rachel~

Some Cute-sy Baby Items :)

As soon as Brent and I find out if Baby Easley is a boy or a girl, I will be buying/having my granny & mom making these must have( for me & for baby )items!! Ever since I saw these a while back, I knew that our baby would need these :)

MONTHLY ONESIE STICKERS

 ( All of these photos are courtesy of...of course, ETSY! )

If a girl, I really like these:

If a boy, I like these:

I think the onesie stickers are a cute way to document each month and this way I won't have to make signs to hold up...I'll just peel off a sticker and put it on our sweet little baby!

The next 2 category's are crocheted items( this is where my granny's crafty work comes in and I don't want to leave out my mom b/c she can crochet and knit too). These are examples of what I would want our crochet items to look like. 

BABY COCOONS :)

Love the soft pink and the flower on the hat!

Love the chunky knit and the ribbon!

I love the crisp, clean white of this one. Boy or Girl!

Aren't baby cocoons so cute?! I already sent my granny pics of these a few weeks ago :)

Ankle Booties!:

Aw! So adorable! And all of these styles can be made in an assortment of colors. 

The pearls!!...I know there are +'s of both boys and girls. This is a girl plus :)

I love the big buttons of the first picture and the small buttons of this picture. Since the baby is due in October, little boots will be perfect!

Lastly:

Newborn headbands( for girls )



I like the smaller, skinnier headbands. I don't like when the baby's head has to compete with the  huge bow or gigantic flower! That's all the cute-sy things for now!

              

Pretty Relaxing

The weekends have just got to s.l.o.w. down!! I think I say this every Monday(ugh!). This past weekend was kind of relaxing but Brent and I had a few things on the agenda! Saturday I slept late (10:30am ) and it felt good! I feel like I just don't get enough sleep now a days. Whether it's 2:30am bathroom runs every morning( oh thanks Baby Easley!), cats falling alseep on my legs during the night and me waking up b/c I can't move my legs, or just tossing and turning, I just don't feel well rested during the week. I LOVE getting to sleep in on Saturday morning and you better believe I will continue to sleep this long until the end of October arrives!! Brent and I are different in the sleeping field...he can't sleep past 8:00am or 8:30am on Saturdays, I can solidly sleep a good 2 to 3 hours longer! He never takes naps...I took a 2 hour nap on Sunday afternoon and could have kept sleeping if we didn't have to go somewhere. I have actually ALWAYS been like this! I like sleep. I obviously can't wait till October 28th arrives but I also hate the thought of no good sleep for DAYS and DAYS. I just don't know how I am going to do it..haha. You heard me when I said I can sleep till 10:30am or 11am on Saturdays, right? And that I like to take naps? Just making sure that was clear :) I suppose new moms just go into some sort or zombie like phase where they are awake but not really.

I'm sure this will be my slogan for months! I know I will love every minute of it though!

Saturday evening Brent and I went to a wedding. It was at West End Church of Christ and the reception was at 111 Broadway. I didn't take any pictures! I can't believe it but I think it was because I was SO COLD that I was focused on eating warm food at the reception to warm myself up! 111 Broadway is on Broadway and Second Ave in downtown Nashville. It's just a wide open rooftop space on top of Big River Grille. It's perfect for a wedding reception.

See it's there on the very top of the building. There was a very large outdoor space but unfortunately it was about 40 degrees on Saturday night and it wouldn't have been pleasent to hang out out there.

This is the part of the inside of the venue. This is not their actual reception but it was set up just like this minus the chinese lanterns...they had a delicious assortment of foods. Cheese spreads, huge veggie & fruit trays, chicken tenders, wraps, a baked potato bar, bar-b-que and salads.

We wish Austin and Amanda a happy life together! And Brent and I also wish that we were where they are right now...Aruba!!! Don't we all wish we were there?!!

Sunday was spent out in Lebanon with Brent's family. We went to church and then headed over to the Kegley house for a birthday lunch for April. The whole crew was there and it was a great time spent with family! It seems like April and Josh are moving right along with their wedding planning! While I was there, Becky gave me a heart rate monitor to use during the 1/2 marathon that she borrowed from a friend. I can't wait to get home in a little bit and test it out on a run!

Dinner for tonight:

Grilled Hawaiian Chicken w/pineapple

Grilled zucchini marinated in teryaki sauce

&

Homemade Pasta Salad

~Brent and Rachel ~

12 Weeks!

Weeks are just flying by! This past week I felt really good! We had a check up on Monday that went really well. I have had a lot more energy than the first few weeks of pregnancy. I actually feel like my normal self( with the addition of some extra weight in my stomach area :)  

We are quickly moving through the produce section...baby is now the size of a PLUM!  Baby weighs 8 -14 grams and crown to rump length is around 6.1cm. Baby Easley is a little bit bigger than that right now b/c this past Monday, that's exactly how long baby was. Baby Easley has doubled in size the past 3 weeks. If you haven't checked out the ultra sound pics from last Monday, check out that blog post! On a run this week, I actually attempted to run up a long steep hill (18th Ave S to Wedgewood ) which I could barely do pre-pregnancy and I did it! I was so proud of myself and quickly regretted that decision because my legs were burning so bad! haha. But at least I know that I can do it :)  

Someone asked me yesterday if I was having cravings for anything unusual and I couldn't think of anything! I eat just about anything anyways so I'm not sure if I will have any "weird" cravings but I will keep you posted! I DO like to make all of my food spicy. Yesterday for lunch, my mom took me out and we went to P.F. Cheng's. Love that place <3 I ordered the lo mein and you know that hot sauce that the waiter makes before your food comes?? I never have put it on my food before. I almost put the entire bowl of spicy-ness on my noodles! It was hot and oh so good! So maybe that's something unusual. Brent and I always eat healthy...the baby is thriving off of lean meats and veggies( and mac  & cheese...and pizza...and chips & salsa ) What? It's all good food! I think that if I didn't exercise, I would  gain quite a bit of weight. I really do eat healthy though :)

Here is my 12 week picture. The baby bump is slowly getting bigger.

My friend, Megan, is bringing Brent and I 2 baby books tomorrow. I'm so excited that one of the books is a...baby name book! We are having so much fun picking out names that we like and we will be using one of these names very very soon...baby Easley will soon have a name! Megan actually said I could keep her books because she doesn't have a need for them anymore. Do you want to know why?! She has 3 young boys!! I just...Megan, I just can't imagine! Whenever I see you at church with those 3 boys, I am thinking to myself " Wow, she is quite an amazing woman"! 3 boys! Like I have mentioned, Brent and I will find out the sex of the baby in a little over a month and YES we are FINDING OUT!! I just don't see how anyone can wait ( Angie!! ). My cousin is also pregnant and is due in September. Her and her husband have decided to wait to find out the sex till it's birthday. That's a lot of patience right there! Brent and I are just itching to know!! Can't wait :)  We have a wedding to go to tonight. It's actually at the very same place where Brent and I got married 8 months( and 9 days )ago. I know that when we get there and get seated and I am just going to start reminiscing about our special day! Thinking about every detail and imaging what I was doing and how I was feeling right at that moment. Pics to come of the Smith/Hutchinson wedding! Happy Saturday!

                

The $500 dress...

Yesterday I posted some dresses that I really liked. One was a really long( VERY expensive )dress from Anthropologie. My granny read the blog yesterday and today she sent me an email saying that she would love to make some dresses for me like the long one from A! I was so excited! My granny is very crafty and she can sew sew sew!! I went to JoAnn's on my lunch break to look around at their fabrics and patterns. I found 2 patterns that I really liked...both were on sale! One was only 99 cents! I looked at the back of the pattern just to see how much they normally are and they are usually $15-$20. I got a great deal!! I also went ahead and bought the fabric because it was also on sale! If you need any clothing patterns or fabric, you should head on over to JoAnn's!! Here are the 2 fabrics that I bought for the dresses...

This is just a swatch of the fabric. I bought a couple swatches of material so that I could send them to my granny but since the fabric was such a good deal, I went ahead and went back to JoAnn's after work and bought enough to make the dresses.

Both patterns are for long dresses but they're 2 different styles. I can't wait to see how they will turn out! I'm so excited that my granny offered to make them for me :)

So I am going to be shopping for new running shoes this weekend. I will get them in just enough time to break them in for April 30th!

Race Countdown

I really like Mizunos. I have had 3 or 4 pairs. So, I will be looking for these and I like the purple! 

I am also going to look at some Asics...like these.  I'll let you know what I find :) 


So I was really really really trying to hard to wait till after my first trimester to color my hair back to super blonde...I am doing it tomorrow! The dark roots are just about to send me over the edge! haha. I will be 12 weeks tomorrow so I almost made it to 14 weeks! Since my doctor told me that I could color it at any time, I feel fine doing it tomorrow! Pictures of that will appear on here too. Everyone have a FABULOUS FRIDAY!!!