Belly Shots

This week I have just started noticing my belly really beginning to POP! It seemed like nothing was happening forever, (except in the upper chest region!) and then all of a sudden my pants are snug and I have a little bump! It's the first time in my life where I'm excited for a little bit of belly growth. Never thought that would happen.

Here are some belly shots for comparison:

              3 weeks                                    

And here is a picture from
tonight, at 14 weeks pregnant:

I can't help but giggle when I compare these pictures, because it looks like I'm puffing out my stomach after a big dinner in the second photo. I'm not, believe me.

I'm going Maternity Clothes shopping this weekend-- oh boy!

Volunteering Fun

Last Friday, I arranged for a group of my Pfizer co-workers to volunteer at St. Mary's Food Bank in downtown Phoenix.  

Our job was extremely complex, as illustrated below:

We portioned carrots out of large 50 lb bags into smaller bags to be given out in food boxes for needy families.  

Okay, so it wasn't really very complex.  But still.  It was nice to do something small to help out, and the need this year is so incredibly high.  Before we began volunteering, the staff gave us some details on the history of the food bank.  Apparently, St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix was the first food bank ever established in the world!  Wow!  They distribute 230,000 lbs of food to hungry families and shelters on a DAILY basis!  Amazing.  Also, we learned that in Phoenix, if you take a typical classroom of 30 children, 6 of them wake up hungry and don't know when or where their next meal is.  It's heartbreaking.  So please donate to your local food bank if you are able to!   Or if you are able to get a group of friends or co-workers together, they have volunteer shifts from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. or 1-4 p.m. Monday-Friday.  Just call them at 602 343-3128 to set it up.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

The BEST chocolate cake ever....

If you have even the slightest interest in chocolate and/or baking, you MUST make this cake. I have been reading The Pioneer Woman's blog (which is great!) and came across the recipe, and from the photos, it reminded me of a cake that a coworker of mine used to bring into work years ago. So I just made it today and now I have to restrain myself from devouring the whole thing. My friend used to call it Texas Sheet Cake, and it was good at the time, but I just realized today that the key thing missing from it was eating it WARM!!! You need to try it to believe it! Am I just being a pregnant piggie, you may be wondering? Quite possibly, but don't judge until you try.


Gestational Diabetes here I COME! (Eeek, just kidding, I shouldn't joke about these things--how horrible!)

Here is the recipe. YUMMY!

95% pink?

We had another ultrasound today for some general screening. Everything is looking great! And the ultrasound tech said that she thinks it's a girl.... I'm 12 weeks along, which is still early for gender identification, so I asked her how sure she was. She said, "oh about 95%!" But she said not to go painting any nurseries just yet because she has been wrong before! So we are excited! Either way, it's going to be fun. She (or 5% possibly he?) had her little ankles crossed and she mostly just slept through the whole thing. Then we tried to shake my belly a little to get her to move around and she finally kicked her feet as if to say, "hey, what's the big deal out there?" We got to see the brain and the chambers of the heart. I couldn't believe that it was all there and here I am not even looking pregnant yet (aside from the chest area, I haven't really grown much). It's all so amazing to me.

Here's a profile view of the little munchkin:



And here's a general view of her little body:



And finally, here's a view of the little kidlet's brain. Yes, I am such a dork and I'm interested in the brain. You're looking down at the top of her head:

Patience pays off

I woke up this morning to some unusual Phoenix weather: rain! It has been gloomy, gray and chilly all day, and when lunchtime rolled around, I was craving some soup (to go with the weather), so I decided to stop at Paradise Bakery. The line was out the door, but I was a pregnant woman on a mission for some soup! So I persevered. After 15 minutes of standing in line, I finally reached the soup counter and asked the woman for a bowl of chicken noodle. She sharply said, "We're out of that. They are making some more in the back. Move to the side and I'll get you a bowl when it's ready." Maybe it's just my hormones, but I'm pretty sure there was some serious attitude in her delivery. Oh well, I was determined to get my soup, so I stepped aside and waited. And waited. About 15 minutes later, the manager asked me if I was being helped and I told him that I was waiting for the chicken noodle soup to be ready. He seemed satisfied with that and continued helping customers. That was when I noticed other customers walking by with...(you know what's coming) CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP! What? Oh, I don't think so! I politely waited for him to finish with his customer and stepped in and asked him if I might get that bowl of soup now. He apologized profusely, gave me the soup, and then threw in four big slices of yummy bread and 6 cookies! Yep! Patience definitely pays.
So in all, it was a 45 minute bowl of soup, but boy was it good! And the cookie definitely made the experience worthwhile.

And on another note, I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and got to hear the heartbeat! She said that the baby is a squirmer. She kept moving away from the microphone. The doctor was predicting it to be a girl based on her feistiness! We won't get to find out for sure until January, but it is fun making predictions until then. The heartbeat was 160 beats per minute and sounded like rhythmic swooshing. It was very cool! :)

Basketball Fun

Rich has been helping out his friend MIke with coaching a 7th & 8th grade basketball team lately. Mike is a 7th grade teacher and is new to the coaching scene, and Rich, being an overall sports lover, was eager to get involved. He has taken it so seriously! It is pretty cute, but sometimes I fear the future sports-nut-parent that I see in him. He is drawing out offensive plays and coming up with serious practice routines. He is frustrated with their lack of time (only 4 hours of practice a week!) and just doesn't think they can get it together in time. Last night was their first game, so I came to watch and cheer them on. My first impression was how LITTLE they were! It suddenly hit me that these little boys were the center of all of this serious basketball strategy that has been discussed in my home lately. How funny! Well, they won their first game by a landslide (45 to 19) and Coach S. was very happy last night. Of course, on the way home, he somberly commented that they would have some much tougher teams to play and he hoped that they didn't think this game was a sign of how easy all the teams would be! ha! I hope he isn't going to be one of those over-the-top Dads at our kids' games one day!

It's a jungle out there.

One day this week I woke up to quite the commotion coming from the living room. In my sleepy stumble, I walked into a room covered in leaves. Literally.



And Sadie was there to greet me with a present!


How sweet.