It's a......

We're having a baby boy!

Josh and I had our sonogram this morning and we're having a boy! I was nervous at first the baby wasn't in a good position for the sonogram technician, but by the picture we saw we are very confident it's a boy.

It is kind of weird now knowing the sex of the baby, but I also feel like I can really move forward with preparing for his arrival. As I was laying on the table during the ultrasound after we found out the sex, I realized the Lord knew from the very beginning (even before conception) that we were having a boy. It is just so awesome to know the Lord has a plan for my son. I continue to be in awe of the miracle of creating a baby inside of me and how the Lord is blessing Josh and I to be a part of His miracle. God is so good!

Psalm 139

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Recipe for Lettuce Wraps

I actually found two different recipes online for P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps and used a little from each one. I did find the prep work is a bit time consuming but the end results are totally worth it. Also, these aren't usually ingredients I keep in my pantry (i.e. hoisin sauce or Asian (dark) semsame oil). But now that I have them, I hope to make lettuce wraps more often.  

INGREDIENTS:

3 tbs. oil

10-12 Boston bibb or butter lettuce leaves

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I only used two but wish I made more for left overs) 

1 cup of water chestnut

2/3 cup mushroom

1 small onion

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tbs. soy sauce

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 tbs. rice wine vinegar

2 tsp. minced pickled ginger

2 tsp. Asian (dark) sesame oil

1. Rinse whole lettuce leaves and pat dry, being careful not to tear them. Set aside.

2. In a medium skillet over med-high heat, cook chicken in 1 tbs. of oil. When chicken is finished, set aside to cool.  Cook the onion in the same pan, stirring frequently. Add garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, vinegar to the onions and stir. Stir in chopped water chestnuts, green onions, mushrooms, and sesame oil. Continue cooking until onions just begin to wilt (about 2 minutes).

3. When the chicken is cool, mince it and combine with stir fry sauce.

SPECIAL SAUCE:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tbs. soy sauce

2 tbs. rice wine vinegar

2 tbs. ketchup

1 tbs. lemon juice

1/8 tsp. sesame oil

1-2 tsp. garlic and red chile paste (this adds quite a bit of heat, add as much as you'd like)

- Mix special sauce ingredients all together. Assemble lettuce wraps and top with "special sauce"

If anyone makes these let me know. I would love to know what you think and if you did anything different.

Happy Birthday Brock!

Today is my cousin Brock's birthday, and I can't believe he is already 6 years old! Brock was the ringbearer in our wedding and when we watched our wedding DVD Brock walked down the isle with a pep in his step and the biggest grin on his face. He was so cute!

Happy Birthday Brock!

We love you so much and are praying you have a great day!

This picture was taken at my sister's wedding last summer. These are Brock's older brothers, Jake is on the left and Joey on the right. Very sweet boys that I miss a lot and wish I could see more of..

19 Week Worry

I've started my 19th week of pregnancy this weekend. I can't believe how quickly each week is going by. At the beginning I felt like the weeks were going by slowly, but now I definitley feel like the weeks are flying by. I'm trying to really enjoy being pregnant, cherishing this time with Josh while the Lord is preparing us for being parents. But I would be lying if I didn't say I am super anxious for July to get here so we can meet our baby! The time will come, the time will come.

Today at work I was having a lot of discomfort in my lower abdomen. I've been having quite a bit of different little pains here and there and at my last doctor's appointment, the doctor said that's normal and not to worry. Today I was getting kind of worried and a woman in my office encouraged me to call the doctor. (Quick note: growing up with your father as a physician, I never called the doctor when I was sick. Not a good habit to get in to because when I'm not living with my father and I do need to call a doctor I usually don't or feel really weird when I do.) I did call my OB and they asked me to come on down to their office just to be safe. Right when I got there they used the doplar thingy to check the baby's heart beat and to ease my worries. Found the baby's heart beat right away and it was nice and strong.  PHEW! The PA took a few other tests and told me not to worry and that it's probably just all the stretching going on inside.

I knew a lot of the pains were related to all of the stretching but it was just good to hear that from the professionals, you know?

Thursday is the big day for us! If you haven't voted, you only have a couple more days to vote!

18 Weeks!

Sorry I'm just now getting around to posting my 18 week belly pic. I took this picture on Sunday and I feel like I've grown even a bit more since then. Which is totally wild that my belly is gonna keep getting bigger. Thankfully, it will gradually be getting bigger. I think I might be a little taken back if I woke up one morning and all of a sudden my belly was huge. Again, all in the Lord's perfect design of giving us women 9 months to prepare for this incredibly miracle of having a baby.


Not too many other new changes as far as my pregnancy goes. I have definitely noticed the increase in my appetite. Current cravings include: lots of fruit, cinnamon raisin bagels, pickles, and root beer. I know that's totally random but what can I say? I'm pregnant people!

I'm just getting over a little cold I had this week. I worked the nursery at church a couple of Sundays ago, and every time I volunteer, within a week I get a cold. I truly love all of the kids I get to hang out with during that hour and a half, but Josh doesn't want me getting sick every other month either.

Also in this weeks news, I just finished the sixth book of the Harry Potter Series. I fell asleep crying last night. At first, Josh was laughing at me but then realized I was really sad and we talked about it and is still helping me deal, and reminding me it's just a book. But I've become emotionally attached to the characters in this story and feel like I'm one of their best friends. One more book to go. I'm a little hesitant to start it because I know it's the last book but anxious to read what happens. Josh's parents are coming into town for the weekend, so I'll probably start it sometime next week.

Just a week from tomorrow and we get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl! Looks like the majority is voting for us to have a girl. And that is what most people have been telling Josh and I. I guess we'll see next week!

Happy Valentine's Day

I need to brag about my husband for a little bit because he has been amazing and I just love him to pieces! 

Valentine's day came a couple days early for me this year. Josh surprised me at work on Wednesday with a beautiful boquet of roses! He knows I'm not a huge fan of red roses but I do love pink and yellow roses. He picked out a great boquet! And my office smelled amazing while they were with me at work.

  

But when I read the note in the flowers I actually found out the flowers weren't really for me. Josh got them for the baby, to share with me. My heart just melted when I read "love Daddy". 

 

As my pregnancy is progressing, Josh and I are getting more and more excited about becoming parents. We've been praying a lot and asking to Lord to prepare our hearts for the gift and amazing blessing he is going to be giving us. Josh is going to be a great daddy!

Along with flowers, Josh usually plans a really nice Valentine's day dinner for the two of us. He made reservations for our dinner at the beginning of last week! But after talking about our plans, we decided to cancel the reservation and wake up early today for a Valentine's day breakfast. And I've been craving French toast like you wouldn't believe. We had a really nice breakfast this morning at a newer restaurant here in Erie called Lori's Wild Ridge Cafe. It was a nice breakfast, I got my French toast and I think we'll be taking his parents there next weekend when they come to visit. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Slumber Party

Last Friday night I had the privilege of going to a slumber party at my friend Sarah's house. And can I first just say Sarah went all out for us girls. Super cute decorations, pizza, yummy desserts, and a couple amazing chic flicks! I had such a great time, I felt like I was back in junior high.

Sarah Allen brought her little girl Addy, who was pretty excited to be able to stay up past her bed time. Camille is holding little Addy here who was dancing and singing along to High School Musical. I think I enjoyed watching Addy more than the movie.

Addy even wore her cute jammies I got for her when she was born.

The night would have been incomplete without us girls doing a craft. Sarah had a bunch of beads so we all made frienship bracelets. Even though all our bracelets were different, we all have a blue and white bird on the bracelets. This is a pic of my bracelet. Even though I took the longest to put my bracelet together (perfectionist), it didn't turn out as amazing as I would have liked. But I still like wearing it and love that Sarah put so much thought and time into the slumber party for us girls. It definitely was a great night spent with the girls but I did end up leaving around 11:30pm. I probably could have fallen asleep there (especially considering my history as of late for staying awake on a Friday night has only been up till about 8:30pm). I really don't like not sleeping with my husband unless he and I are in different citites, and sleeping is getting a bit more difficult for me. 

To see even more pictures from the slumber party check out Camille and Brooke's blogs. 

Happy Birthday Addie & Aimee!

Today is our niece Addison's 4th birthday and we can't believe Addie is already 4 years old! This precious little girl captured our hearts the moment we first met her. And she has had her Uncle Josh wrapped around her finger ever since.  Happy birthday miss Addie! We miss you a lot and pray for you often. We love you!

And tomorrow is our sister-in-law Aimee's birthday. Aimee lives in North Carolina with her two daughter's (Olivia & Audrey) and Josh's older brother Chris. We absolutely adore our Olivia and Audrey. We're sad we don't get to spend much time with them cuz every time we do get to see them they've grown so much. Aimee, we hope you have a wonderful birthday! We'll definitely be thinking and praying for you. Miss you!

Check out our poll!

Josh and I went to my monthly OB appointment yesterday and everything looks great! We were even able to schedule my next sonogram where we get to find out the sex or our baby! So February 26th is the big day and we are excited!

I have created a little poll for you all (on the right) to see what you think we're having. Polls close Thursday morning February 26th, so don't forget to vote!

Lettuce Wraps

I feel like I'm getting my cooking groove back! When I wasn't feeling too well during my first trimester, the thought of cooking anything was pretty much repulsive to me. Slowly but surely I'm starting to enjoy cooking again. I used to try to make a new recipe each week and I'm trying to get back into that habbit.

Well last night I made lettuce wraps using a PF Changs recipe I found online. Josh loves PF Changs lettuce wraps. I gave him a disclaimer that the lettuce wraps might not turn out exactly as you remember having them in the restaurant, and I wanted to cover myself just in case I totally screwed it up.

Well, in words of my favorite husband last night, he told me the meal was 4 stars! A+! Exactly like the restaurant! He loved them! I can't even tell you how excited I was the entire night, and even this morning, to know Josh really enjoyed last night's dinner.

 

16 Week Belly Pic

I'm not so sure how comfortable I am of doing this but here goes nothing. This is for you Brittany!

Here is a picture when we first found out we were pregnant, I think I was about 5 or 6 weeks here. This is also pre-Thanksgiving and Christmas belly.
 

And here I am at 16 weeks. My brother calls this my "joey or joanne". My big brother is so excited to become an uncle. I don't think my child will ever hear the word "no" come from my him.

I have a book that I read when I start a new week of my pregnancy that let's me know what is going on with my baby and body. This week I learned that I really shouldn't be sleeping on my back or laying on my back at all. Apparently, this causes your uterus to press on the inferior vena cava (a major vein that returns blood from your lower body to your heart), resulting in dizziness, low blood pressure, and a possible reduction in blood flow to your uterus. So even though I was never a back sleeper, now that is how I want to be sleeping. I had a pretty rough night of switching from my right to my left side and fighting the urge to want to sleep on my back. There was a time during last night when I was on my back and Josh gave me a nice little nudge over on my side. I've heard putting a pillow in the middle of the bed right up against my back should help me from rolling on my back. I'm sure this is only the beginning of sleep becoming a bit more difficult for me.

Also, at the beginning of January I noticed a sort of "fluttering" or "bubbles" feeling in my lower left abdomen, and I've felt it a couple more times. I thought it was just the baby having gas but from what I've been reading, I think I've already been able to feel the baby. It's never lasted a long time. It's almost like I have a cell phone vibrating in my uterus (and it's always been on the left side). I got kind of emotional on Saturday when I realized this. I can't wait until Josh and I both can feel the baby kicking.