Kitchen Inspiration

So, I don't know how many of you watch Design Star on HGTV... but I'm addicted and LOVE the show! I'm jealous of their budgets of course to be able to go into stores and point at what they like and design spaces with whatever items they love. However, while watching this past season, I was inspired. When we decided we were going to buy a new house, I knew I wanted to do my kitchen like this kitchen by Brittany and Danielle. I love the pale blue wall color and yellow accents. We are moving into a kitchen that's completely updated but has dark brown almost black cabinets and tan granite countertops. I knew I had to do bright colors to liven this kitchen up. The pale blue and yellow accents are what I chose! We will see what happens when I paint and get some fun accent pieces. I just thought I'd share my inspiration. We'll see how close I come ;)

17/18 weeks

I just hit week 18 today! Hard to believe I'm this far along! We had a big appointent with the doctor yesterday where they measured the baby's progress and could tell what the gender was....and for those of you who don't already know...

That's right! We have a Harper girl coming! We were actually afraid that we weren't going to find out the gender because she had her legs together and her feet were hiding it. But finally she started moving around and kicked her legs long enough to see that it was a girl!! She was also facing my back so we didn't get a profile view but we got a full face view. The main thing about the appointment was that the doctor said she was very healthy and measuring really good. She was measuring exactly on the date and was a good size. She commented that the "anatomy looked good" and that all fingers and toes were there! She also had a really strong heartbeat. We were able to get a DVD of the entire appointment so we can watch it. We were thrilled to get such a good report. I've definitely had to get used to saying "she" and "her" when talking about the baby. I told Marshall that it was also an old wives tale (that's right Brooke- WIVES) that girls steal the mother's beauty when in the womb, so I'm thinking I should have known all along because my face has been so broken out! My doctor also said that I've only gained 1 pound in the past 2 weeks and only about 3 pounds overall, so I could stand to eat a little more- sounds good to me!

I do feel like my belly is starting to shoot out and people can finally tell I'm pregnant. But I'm still feeling great minus the hip pain at night that I've had since the FIRST trimester. We are still working on names too and haven't decided yet but I'm very into originality. Continue praying for us to have wisdom as parents and to be prepared with a newborn! Still no news on the hospital yet, we still haven't toured them. But I'm kind of leaning toward the smaller hospital but I'll let you know once we tour them. We also close on our house on Thursday and I'm super pumped to move and decorate! More pics of the house to come! And P.S. I'm super excited to have had Adam and Ashley come and visit us and now in the next few weeks Chad and Christy! What a great month!

15 weeks!

I am almost done with my 15th week and I will be 16 weeks tomorrow! People keep telling me they can finally see a little belly in tight shirts. Most of the time I can wear things that you can't tell I'm pregnant. We had our 2nd doctor's appointment at my new place and got to meet my doctor today! We got to see the baby on the old machine (which is free because it's not that good of quality) but we did get to see the baby move it's arms and legs. We couldn't quite see well enough on the machine to see if it's a boy or girl (he or she had their legs together-sneaky) but we are scheduled in 2 WEEKS to go back and get the big scan with the 3-D machine done to check the progress of the baby and find out the gender. I am SOOO excited to find out what we're having and to make sure everything still looks good with the new machine. The doctor today said that everything looks great and that my placenta (this might be TMI) is in the back and since I'm thin I should be able to feel the baby soon- which are good signs! She also said I had a good cervix and pelvis- haha. Why, thank you. Anyway, we were really happy with today's appointment and rejoicing to hear that everything is moving along as it should. Our next decision is which hospital to deliver at in Florence. There is a smaller hospital actually attached to the doctor's office I go to that I could go to or go to a bigger hospital, McLeod. We are planning on touring both and trying to decide what would be best. I talked to the doctor today and she said that it would be a more homey feel with the smaller one but with the bigger on if I go into labor before 34 weeks would be great to be at because of the NICU. So, we will be praying about which hospital fits our needs more. All the doctors at my office have privileges at both.

In other, non-baby news, we will close on our house in Sumter this month! We are still working out details, but we are hoping to close on the 23 so that we can have a little time to paint and find some furniture pieces while we're still in the rental until the 31. That would give us some time to move and get our house move in ready! I am SO excited about finally being in a permanent location and getting everything ready for Baby Harper to come! I also met a teacher friend up at the private school today and got the paperwork to be a sub there and met some of the teachers. My friend Susan introduced me to the lady in the office and she assured me that I would be busy there and sub a lot. I was a little discouraged that it was so difficult through central office in the public school system to jump through all the hoops, but I am encouraged now that it's not been as hard with the private school. Hopefully I'll have a subbing job when the school year starts! Woo-hoo! Continue to pray for the health of the baby (and myself) and for wisdom with all the upcoming decisions we'll be making.