Adorable Giveaway... Seriously, ADORABLE!!

One of my good friends, Erin, is having a giveaway on her photography blog. She is pretty amazing. Check her page out here! And enter into the giveaway.

The giveaway is by Up Above Baby Creations and that site is AMAZING! I wish I had known about it earlier! Since I am getting into photography, I want to buy everything on that site!!! Check them out here! Seriously, DO IT!

Singer Island Vacation

Well Nate and I recently got back from our couples trip to Palm Beach, Florida. Can I just say, what an AMAZING place that is! Seriously, if you can't afford to go to the Caribbean but want something similar to it (beach and water), go there. We stayed on Singer Island at the Palm Beach Shores Resort and had an awesome time. Nate's mom was SO kind to come and watch Lyla for us for the whole week. Lyla LOVED spending time with her grandma, especially since she would read her countless books!

Anyway, the hotel we stayed at was BEAUTIFUL. Here are some pictures of it...

This picture the view from the beach facing the back of the hotel.

I got this picture off their website, but this is the boardwalk that went from the hotel to the beach.

This is our room from when you walk into the door. There's the living area and dining area and the kitchen is to the left. The doors to the bedroom and the bathroom are to the right.

The kitchen. Luckily we had one because we were able to eat cereal and fruit for breakfast and store our left-overs from dinner for lunch!

The bedroom. The bed was really comfortable... but almost too comfortable. We both woke up with our backs and necks feeling sore a couple of the mornings. I guess we just aren't used to such luxury!

Our bathroom was BEAUTIFUL! And yes there is a shower to the right, but I figured you wouldn't care to see it. It's nothing special to look at.

The view from our balcony. I loved it! We sat on it several times to play games or just read. I LOVED reading with the sound of the ocean in the background. My personal heaven. Oh, and down by the pool there is a tiki hut to get your towels and also, live singers came every day and sang. They were really good! Not over-bearing and they chose good relaxing songs.

We went on a snorkel trip one of the mornings.

Us on the boat.

Our boat captain, Gary.

When we got in the water, we saw one of these!

For those who don't know, it's a manatee. It was so cool! We were in pretty shallow water (maybe 6 or 7 feet) and we ended up getting like 5 or 6 feet from it! It just stared at us for 2-3 minutes and then swam off.

Sunbathing/relaxing afterward. Please excuse our whiteness and my prego belly :)

The next day we decided to rent bikes for the day. Our plan was to ride to some beach, have lunch, relax, and then ride back. And things did not go according to plan! First off, I think that day was probably our hottest day there and it was SO HUMID (not the best idea when you're 20 weeks pregnant)! My feet were starting to swell worse than I have ever seen them and I felt like I was going to pass out. Secondly, the bike seats were SO uncomfortable, even to the point that our rear ends were bruised for a couple of days afterward. I had it worse because I have no butt. Anyway, we ended up returning the bikes after about an hour... pathetic, I know.

But here is a picture of me on the bike, trying not to focus on my bum. If you look closely, you can see that I am sitting on a towel :)

There was a lake (well it was ocean water between Singer Island and the "main land" that they call a lake) to the left of us with a small little beach shore and we found this baby sting ray (at least I think that's what it was) that must have washed up during the high tide and dried up. Poor guy.

On the beach at the hotel they had little sections blocked off so we wouldn't disturb the turtle nests buried there.

Nate was so kind to get up with me one of the mornings to watch my first sunrise! Love that guy!

Sunrise

Another fun activity we did was Parasailing. It was awesome! I had been once before and this was Nate's first time. I forgot how high you get up! We were around 800ft in the air! When we looked down we saw around 5 sea turtles just swimming along the top of the ocean, which was pretty cool. It was funny because there was a mother and daughter on the boat with us. And when it was their turn the daughter lost her water shoe that she refused to take off. So somehow, miraculously, a jet-skier found it and gave it to her when they were about to dip her in the water. It was crazy! Anyway, we had a blast!

Taking off...

Right after take off

So high in the air!

Toward the end when they start to bring you in, they will dip you in the water. This is usually just your feet but they decided to DUNK us 2-3 times. It was hilarious and I almost lost my sunglasses.

With the pirate of the activities place that we went snorkeling and parasailing with. He was hott! ;-)

Trying out the night settings on my camera. Turned out pretty decent.

Okay, if anyone really knows me, they know that I LOVE Tropical Smoothie Cafe (even though they started making their wraps way smaller). I ate there ALL THE TIME at the one by Fullerton College when I was attending there. There are three in California that I have been to. Then, amazingly enough they have one about 20 minutes from where I live in IL (there is only 1 location in the entire state), and they have them everywhere in Florida! So we had to go one time and it was delicious.

We also had a nice evening out and Nate took me to Ruth's Chris. I know, I am totally spoiled.

Us with our food. I am a HUGE meat-eater. I love meat. I could not go vegetarian, even if I tried. Anyway, the filet they had there was hands down the BEST filet I had ever had in my entire life. It. Was. Delicious. Especially with their mushrooms. Oh my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Anyway, I'm lucky my husband was willing to take me there. Thanks Natey!

Anyway, I'll just end the pictures with this one. I know it's not super flattering but I LOVE IT! Why? I love the color of it, the beach, me with some actual color (a rarity), and it was right after we took a nice swim in the ocean. I LOVE THE BEACH, can you tell?! ;-)

Anyway, we did a lot of other stuff too. We saw lots of movies since there isn't much to do for the night life and since we didn't have Lyla with us. We relaxed and swam at the beach and the pool, got massages, ate lots of good food, shopped, and got a lot of good reading in. We really missed Lyla, especially since there were a lot of families that brought their kids her age with them. But we realize that we wouldn't have been able to do the stuff we did with her there, so it was for the best. And the only thing that really was disturbed with me being pregnant was the food. A lot of the restaurants nearby had mainly fish that I'm not supposed to eat... which really wasn't the end of the world.

I'm so glad we got to do this trip before we have baby #2. Especially since next summer we will be getting ready (hopefully) to go to grad school and therefore vacations like this last will not be possible during that time or for the next few years. I LOVED being able to spend uninterrupted time with Nate. Seriously, he is the BEST and he spoiled me silly. I am a lucky, lucky girl!

And on a final note and a completely different subject... If you haven't read this...

...then you should. It was (in my opinion) SO GOOD! Nate and I both read it and we did not want to put it down!

That's all for now. See ya!

It's a.....

GIRL!!!! We didn't get any good photos of the gender shot, but we did get a good look and the US tech said she was pretty dang sure about the gender. But here is a cute profile picture of her. We never got one with Lyla so it's fun to have this one. She has my ski-jump nose.

I am SOOOOO excited that we're having a girl because.....

1) Lyla will have a sister!!!

2) We'll be the first in Nate's family to have more than 1 girl! I was worried about that small detail!

3) We don't have to buy a bunch of new clothes!

4) I am going to decorate the kids room SOO GIRLY it's not even funny! Right now it is painted blue (from previous owner) and this will be changed. :-D

5) I have so many cute girly ideas for this one that I never did with Lyla.

6) Matching outfits. Yes, I will tortue my girls with this and they will love it... because they are girls.

7) Nate is going to have his hands full!!!

8) I just really wanted a girl but I didn't think I'd be lucky enough to have more than 1!

So, as far as the health and everything... I was pretty sure everything looks good. The US tech wasn't supposed to tell us anything, but she was really nice. We told her about Lyla with her clubfoot and so she took extra time looking at the feet just to make sure. For sure one is not clubbed and I think the other isn't either, but she didn't get as good of a look at it. But the doctor called the day after and said that as far as they can tell, everything looks good!

So, yeah! Now we gotta prepare for a house full of estrogen!!

Ultrasound

We go in for our 20 week ultrasound this Thursday. I'll actually only be 19 weeks, but close enough. Can I just say I'm a little nervous about this one? With Lyla, all we could think about was "Boy or Girl"?, blah blah blah. We never even CONSIDERED the possibility of them finding something wrong. Looking back, we are very fortunate that they only found clubfoot and nothing else. SO SO blessed!! And I am SO glad we found out at the ultrasound instead of right when she was born... that would have sucked even more.

So yes, as weird as it may sound, I am a little nervous about this ultrasound and I'm kind of dreading it. With Lyla it seemed like the date to get this US took FOREVER to get to. But with this pregnancy, I feel like the date has just creeped up on me way too quickly!! Is it horrible to say that I really hope this baby doesn't have clubbed feet? Of course, I would much rather the baby have that instead of something more severe or heart-wrenching. And at least we would know what we had coming for us. But I just want a healthy baby. Is that too much to ask? We'll see.

On a more positive note... Nate's mom comes into town just hours before the ultrasound... WOOHOO!! We are SO excited. And then on Sunday Nate and I are leaving to Florida for a week. So, although I am a little anxious about leaving Lyla for that long, I am really looking forward to having some good, solid time with Nate.

Happy Mother's Day

Pat and Dana,

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!! We love you both very much and are so blessed to have you be such a huge part of our lives!! We truly have the best mom's in the world!!

Below are some of our favorite pictures of us with our mom's. Pictures by Michelle.

Love,

Nate, Kelly, and Lyla

And I just had to add that I am so blessed to be the mother of this little gem below. I am the luckiest mom alive!! LOVE YOU LYLA!! And I love you little baby in my tummy!!

Love,

Mama

Flat Grandma & Grandpa

First of all, I think it's funny how the poll to the right has turned out so far!! For some reason I just can't see us having a boy but that could be because we're just so used to having a girl... who knows! We find out May 20th!

Now, this next post is for Grandma and Grandpa Wright. They sent out "flats" of themselves so they could be with Lyla during her daily activities. This is the only way I can get pictures to them... I still have no idea how to change the format of a picture to make them smaller on a Mac. So this will do for now. Mom... I know a lot of these are "repeats" to the activities you guys did with her, so feel free to pick and choose your favorite ones.

Reading books before bedtime....

Sitting on the deck playing cards...

Looking SO COOL with her sunglasses on :)

At the park on the slide with dad, flat G-ma & G-pa!

On our walk... blooper shot. It was SO WINDY!!

A better shot on our walk when the wind took a break for a couple seconds...

Lyla even gets into trouble with her Grandma and Grandpa!

Flat Grandma and Grandpa even took a trip to California with us and met up with Matt and Candace and their family (minus Jared) at Downtown Disney!!

Boy or Girl?

Do you think we're having a boy or a girl? Take the poll to the right!!