Progress Pink!!!!!!!!!

We have been making progress in the nursery!!  The bedding is in!!  It is even more fabulous than what I imagined it to be!!  The walls are painted pink!!  The crib is put together and all of the other fine tuned details have been established and ordered!!  It is really starting to look like a baby will be arriving in a few weeks.  Less than ten to be exact!!  Holy cow!!!!!!  Her little room is going to be absolutely wonderful.  The french/indian design on the bedding was the inspiration of the room.  We have some fun vintage pieces (table, mirror, etc.) and some new more modern pieces with straight lines (crib, changing table)  It is truly going to look like a little princess jewel box when it is complete!!  I love it and am so happy!!!  I especially can't wait to see her pretty little face in the room. It will surely be the most gorgeous room on the planet then!! 

Piper was "showered" with lots of LOVE!!!!!!!!!

We have had two wonderful baby showers!!  The first one was in Ohio!  It was a true Thelma and Louise adventure.  I drove!!  Before you call me crazy for driving...............I drove to Greenville, SC to pick up Jodi Willis (which was a surprise to all in Ohio) and we trucked our way to Columbus, Ohio for the  first pit stop at Emily Aleshire's house!  We chatted the entire time so time went by pretty fast!!  Jodi drove a lot of the way while I sat in the passenger seat, feet propped up!!!  She was proud that I didn't need a potty break every five minutes!!  I can't tell you how excited I was to have the A/C in the car set to 63 degrees!!!  It felt so good, TO ME!!  Jodi, on the other hand, was an ice cube by the time we got there!!  Poor thing - Good thing I packed her a blanket!!  She had it draped over her the entire time, even when driving.  Overall, the trip there was a good one, but we (mostly me) were exhausted by the time we got there!!  Emily was so surprised to find my precious cargo (Jodi) stowed away in the trunk!!  So glad we were able to pull it off!!  

The shower was at Allyson Williams' mom's house in Salem!! It was perfect!!  I got to see everyone and most of their children!!!!!  I loved it and all of the yummy food (especially the mushrooms!!) and fun games.  Keri Garcia put together a unique idea of putting baby advice on sweet little handmade cards!!  She is so crafty!!  I got to see everyone and most of their children!!!!!  I loved it!!  I met Keri's baby, Vivian, for the first time!!  I love her!!  She is so adorable.  She has the best hair a baby could possibly have.  I doubt highly Piper will get so lucky.  After all, Jeff & I were practically bald until we were two years old. 

On the way home, Jodi and I kidnapped Allyson!!  She came back to the beach for a few days!!  She got a one way flight out of here!!  It was a nice visit.  We didn't do much but relax.  Well correction, Allyson didn't relax...........She nested for me.  I mentioned that I wanted to paint my bathroom and she did it!!!!!  What?!?!?!  I can't thank her enough for doing it.  It was a job very well done.  Now the bathroom we will use for Piper is good to go!!  I have such awesome childhood friends!!! 

The next shower we had was here in North Myrtle Beach!  It was a couples shower - meaning guys were invited to this one too!!  It was wonderfully prepared by several fun loving hosts!!  It was held at Jennifer and Glenn's beautiful home!!  Everything was perfect! The food was catered and it was very delish!!  They even got O'Douls for me!!  :)  They played the dirty diaper game for Jeff.  They melted chocolate bars in a diaper and he had to guess which bar was in the diaper.  So funny!!  Rich Moore was all about it.  He really knows his "sh*t!!"  LOL!!  He knew all of them!!   

Jeff and I have recapped all of the fun events that we had leading up to the arrival of our sweet bundle of joy and have concluded we have the most loving and wonderful friends a couple could ever ask for!  They have been so good to us and are so excited to meet Piper!!  We are very lucky!!  Thank you all for everything you have done for us!!  Words can't describe how appreciative we are of all of you!!  

We LOVE you!!!!  xoxoxo

Busy! Busy! Busy!!

WOW!!  We have been super busy lately!!  We have had a lot of company and did some traveling to Ohio to visit friends and family.  In addition to our visitors and travels, Piper has been a busy little baby too.  She is so active!!  She kicks, rolls and tumbles all of the time.  I love feeling her move around.  Jeff loves it too.  We are now starting to see her kick from the outside.  It is so crazy to see my stomach move!!  It seems like she moves the most when I am hungry or after I get done eating.  Which makes sense as to why she moves all of the time.  I sometimes wonder if she ever sleeps.  Hopefully she will when she gets here!!  Otherwise we are going to be a tired mommy and daddy!!  From what I hear that will be the case anyways!!  We are prepared, I THINK?!?!?

We picked finally out the bedding.  What a job that was.  I had no idea this would have been such a tough decision.  We decided on the Serena and Lily Lola Collection.  It is so pretty!!  It should arrive any day now!!  Once we get it we will be off to the paint store to pick out the paint!!  I'm excited, I love to decorate!!

We had our first baby shower.  It was in Ohio!!  It was so great seeing everyone.  I wish I could have packed all of them up with me and moved them down here with us!!  They were all so generous.  Piper got so many adorable things.  Just when I think I have seen the cutest baby item EVER, I see something else even cuter!!  Baby girl things are precious!!!  

I am getting so excited to see her!!  I love to imagine what she will look like.  Both Jeff and I have brown curly hair and brown eyes, but we both also carry blonde hair and blue eye genes!!  We are anxious to see!!  Jeff thinks she will have brown hair and blue eyes.  I am still not sure.  Sometimes I think she will look just like an Angela & Jeff combo!!  Who knows!!  We will see!!  VERY SOON!!!  

Overall, I have been feeling great.  I am now starting to get tired.  I am sure it has something to do with this crazy heat wave we have been having.  I think my beach days are done!!  It's just been too hot outside, even on a nice breezy day!!  I was hoping to have a little bit of a tan by November because brown fat is cuter than white fat!!  HA! HA!  Oh well, it will all be worth it and I can take it all off in no time!! That's the plan, at least!!

We have a couples shower coming up next weekend.  We are so excited.  Jeff is really engaged in the pregnancy and can't wait for her to get here so I think it was a wonderful idea of our friends to include him!!  He is going to be the best daddy in the world, without a doubt!!  Look forward to celebrating our little bundle of joy with all of our friends!!  

Thanks for following our blog!!  

A NEW FIRST..........

Piper got the hiccups for the first time last night.  It was hilarious.  At first I thought she was just kicking, but then noticed that her kicks were very rhythmic.  :)  They lasted about five minutes.  I hope they come back soon.  I couldn't help but laugh out loud!!  :)

Cliff Notes Version of What's Been going on...........Sorry for the Delay!!!

Whew!!  A lot to talk about!!  Let's start with the first trimester!!  OMG!  It was awful.  I was so sick.  I didn't think that I would EVER see the light of day.  For real..............I was in the bed most weeks, 24-7.  I dry heaved and threw up about 20 times a day and that may just be an understatement.  I took Zofran about every six hours as prescribed for nausea.  It helped just a little.  I couldn't imagine surviving with out it though.  If I see another saltine cracker again, I think I may  throw it across the room!!!!!!!!!!!!! I lived off of dry cheerios and water with the occasional hard candy tossed in for flavor.  It took until about week 17 for the sickness to go away. Although it was such a rough ride in the beginning, I would do it all over again for our sweet baby girl.  Oh, BTW, did I mention we are having a girl????  Her name is Piper Ellis Martin. 
Dr. Vu is our ob/gyn.  We love her.  She is so full of energy and so warm and inviting.  We trust her and know that she has the best interest of the baby at all times!!  What a relief that is.  Especially for me, someone who worries non-stop.  Could I be turning into my Grandmother?!?!?  Please God, NO!!!!!!!!!  HA!  HA!  We had our gender ultra sound on June 14th.  Going in, both Jeff and I felt it was a girl.  We had two names picked out for each gender.  Piper Ellis and Ellis Marie for a girl and Jones Ellis and Ellis Jones if he was a boy.  I packed skittles and coke, just in cake she was taking a nap and didn't cooperate!!  I didn't need them at all - as we discovered that she is definitely my child....................she was rockin' and rollin' all over the place. The ultra sound tech said "Whoa!!  That's a busy baby!!!"  We knew at that moment, she was a Piper!!  :) She was such an active little thing.  We still laugh at her.  Jeff says she looks like she was crawling up through a tunnel. 
We got a few pics of the ultra sound.  They are "cute"  I put quotes around that because at first I was so freaked out at how she looked.  Ultra sound pics don't do much justice - kinda alien like.  Does this make me a bad mom??  But then I think what if I had a home the size of a melon, soaking in fluid and someone took a picture of me X amount of layers deep, how would I look.  We won't talk about my weight gain and the X amount of layers!!  LOL!!  Oh well, it's a blog, what the heck.  I've gained 15 lbs so far at 20 weeks.  I thought that was pretty good, until Dr. Vu said she would have liked to seen me only gain 10 lbs. thus far.  What can I say, food had started to taste really really good.  If you recall, I lived off of dry cheerios!!  I've started my registry and have been looking at bedding.  Can't wait to start decorating.  That's going to be one of my favorite parts of this!! 

Well, I think that is all I can think of for now.  I hope to get some pictures up soon.  Most of them are on Facebook, so feel free to check them out there!! 
Thanks for checking in on my blog!!  Make it a great day!!!

Love,
Angela & Piper 

It's Confirmed!!!

It only took six positive pregnancy tests, an ultra sound with a sweet sounding 120 bmp heartbeat, and a lot of morning sickness to believe it!!  We're having a baby!!  We are so excited!!! To us, it doesn't matter if it's a boy or a girl.  Healthy and happy is on our wish list!! 

First ultrasound 3/17/11

p.s.  I think it's a girl.