Christmas decorations are up!

Today I finally had the energy to put up our decorations with the help of Brandon, he was such a big help. We put up the Christmas tree then hung out a few lights outside and finished with some decorations around the house. I can't believe it's only a few weeks away. Here are a few pictures:

I'm not 100% sure if I like the stocking here or not, I might have to switch them to a different place, but for now this is where they'll be. I love my new table!

Oh and after all the decorations were up I decided to make some cupcakes for work tomorrow. They will all have a surprise waiting for them in the morning. Everyone is so excited for me I thought I would treat them to some funfetti cupcakes with a little blue rattle in them. I can't wait for them all to find out we're having a BOY!

This weekend will be one I will never forget! Now for cyber Monday, I can't wait to start shopping!

Gender Reveal Party

That's right, last night we finally found out the sex of the baby. It was a wonderful night. Chris and Kristi went above and beyond, they hosted the party at their house. The party started about 5:00 and here is what we walked in to.

This one didn't turn out the best but it Brady holding pink and blue beads, when someone came down the steps they were greeted by Brady and you had to choose a pink or blue depending on what everyone thought I was having. The majority was blue.

 The basement was all decorated in pink and blue. Again, they went all out. 

 We invited just our parents and Grandparent's and of course my siblings and nephews. It was perfect, we even did face time with Luke Steph and Leah so they got to see the whole reveal.

Chris and Kristi made tenderloin, cheesy potatoes and corn, the meal was delicious! We have been super anxious for dessert. We've been waiting for this day since the day we found out we were pregnant, so we decided on this reveal party. Kristi had the cake made at All Things Sweet.

And the big reveal!

 

IT'S A BOY!

 

 We are super excited and can't wait to start planning for our little boy. Now we have to figure out a name. That's the hard part, we had some girl names picked out but we can scratch them and concentrate on a little boys name.

We had a great evening with great company, now the planning begins!

Happy Thanksgiving

Can you believe Thanksgiving is already here? I can't, this year we have so much to be thankful and I don't know where to start, but here are a few things that I am thankful this year.

• My husband, Brandon and Micayla - they are definitely the light of my life, they keep me on my toes. Sometimes I know I get on there case about things around the house but I truly am grateful for them. I can't picture my life without them. They all bring such a joy to my life and I can't wait to see what the next chapter brings when we have a little baby around the house.'
• My family - I am so thankful they are always there for me. I am so lucky to have such wonderful parents, 2 awesome brothers and 2 awesome sister-in-laws, they are truly like sisters and I'm thankful they are a part of our family, my 7 nephews and 1 niece, they are an inspiration to me and I love every minute I am with them.
• My in-laws - Tom and Linda, I couldn't imagine my life with out them either, they are a huge part of my life. They have brought me in as one of there own and I love being a part of the Hillebrand family.
• And of course the baby growing in my belly. I can't wait to meet him/her.

So onto our Thanksgiving celebration, yesterday we started the day at Tom's aunt Shari's house, we had lots of food and great company. Here are a few pictures:

Here is Tom's cousin's little girl, Haley. She loves to dress up!

Time to eat! 

Bob, Tom's Uncle, didn't want his picture taken, it looks like he's passed out.

 Playing SCAT!

 After Wissing, we heading to The Borgerdings, but first we made a stop at Andy and Bill's new house, I didn't get a lot of pictures, some of them didn't turn out, but the house is beautiful and HUGE!

Looking out to the deck from the 4 season's room

 The 4 season's room

It's one beautiful house. After looking at the house we headed to Gary and Erica's, they hosted Thanksgiving this year because Andy's just wasn't quite ready yet. Again we had lots of food and great family talk.

Mom had these cupcakes made, they were so cute. I didn't eat one but heard they were OK.

Little Taylor eating a couple of cupcakes.

We got home about 11:30, I had to teach in the morning so we headed to bed. It was a great day with some great news too, Gordon and Lorlie are expecting a baby in June. They are so happy and so are we.

21 Weeks

Today I am 21 weeks pregnant!

Pregnancy highlights:

Size of Baby: Baby H now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and measures 10 1/2 inches long, about the size of a carrot, and not a baby carrot! 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +5 since my last doctors visit.

Baby's heartbeat at last visit: 146 BPM

Maternity Clothes: YES

Gender: 3 more days an we'll find out! I can hardly wait.

Movement: I'm still not sure on this one, sometimes I will feel a twinge or something and not think anything of it, then I'm like "oh wait, that could've been the baby" but then I don't feel it again for a while. I'm sure the movements are coming. The doc said I should start to feel something real soon.

Sleep: I wish I could say I was sleeping great but in reality I'm not. I'm tossing an turning all night long then I'll have to get up to go to the bathroom. The side sleeping is not really a problem, it's just my arm, because it's usually up above my head under my pillow, so it falls asleep, then I have to turn to the other side and it will do it all over again. I can't sleep on my stomach anymore :( I have been using extra pillows, I may have to invest in a body pillow.

What I miss: Still beer! I did get in a sip or 2 of wine the other night at The Olive Garden, they asked if I wanted to sample the new wine, so I said sure and had a couple of sips. It was yummy!

Cravings: No real cravings, just seem to be hungry all the time.

Symptoms: Nope, just a growing belly and I feel like my boobs are really growing, just what I need.

Best Moment This Week: Spending last Saturday night in Peoria and attending my friends' daughter's wedding. We had a lot of fun and it was great to get away with my husband. And today, Wednesday, getting out of work at 2:00 - what a great way to start the holiday weekend!

Weekend in Peoria

This weekend we headed to Peoria, IL for a wedding. My friend Linda's daughter got married. It was a beautiful day. We left about 9:00 Saturday morning, it was about a 3 hour drive. We got into town around noon and decided to see if we could check into the hotel. The wedding wasn't until 1:30 so we had a little time. We did get checked into our hotel which worked out great, we got to relax for a while. We were already dressed and ready to go so about 1:10 we headed to downtown Peoria. The wedding and reception were all at the same place. The place was beautiful and her colors were black and fuscia. We didn't get the best pictures but here are a few:

Here Linda and the Mother of the Groom are lighting the Unity candle.

Linda and Randy after the ceremony. See the pink lights, they were shining throughout the place expect during the ceremony. They were so pretty.

Unfortunately we didn't get a good picture of the Bride and Groom, the phone camera was not taking the best pictures.

After the ceremony they had us all clear the room because the reception was in the same place, so they had us in a smaller room with some finger food, spinach dip and a relish tray. Tom and I grab a quick snack and since we didn't really know anyone we decided to go putz around at the mall. We had about 2 hours so we walked through the mall, not too impressed and we didn't buy a thing! Then we found Babies R' Us and walked around there for a while just thinking about things the baby is going to need. We found a Five Guys restaurant that we wanted to try but thought we will be eating at the wedding so we passed on Five Guys. Tom's never been to one and I've been to one with Luke in CA, their burgers are yummy. So we headed back to the reception and found our assigned seat, we were kind of nervous about that because the only people we knew were Linda and Randy, but we sat with a couple of Linda's friends, they were all a hoot, we had a great time. The food was delicious, they had chicken breast, roast beef, mashed potatoes and grave, (which I have been craving lately) broccoli and carrots. Everything was delicious. The music started playing shortly after dinner and we just enjoyed watching everyone, it was a great night. We headed back to the hotel about 10:00, we drove Linda and Randy back as well, and we were going to go to Five Guys but they closed so we decided a Sonic burger sounded good and that it was. I sure wish we had a Sonic in DBQ, maybe someday. Shortly after eating we were both exhausted and headed for bed.

We woke up the next day, grab a little something for the road and headed back home. Sunday was a day of relaxation!

20 Weeks - HALF WAY THERE!

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant!

Pregnancy Highlights:

Size of Baby: Baby H now weighs 101/2 ounces and measures 6 1/2 inches long, about the size of a banana. 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +5 since my last doctors visit.

Baby's heartbeat at last visit: 146 BPM

Maternity Clothes: Most of the time, they are so much more comfortable and my t-shirts are starting to get tight, so I may have to start wearing Tom's.

Gender: The technician yesterday at our 20 week U/S was 99% sure the sex of the baby. She put this in an envelop and now my brother and sister-in-law have it. We will all find out on the 26th of November! I can't wait!

Movement: I'm still not sure on this one, sometimes I will feel a twinge or something and not think anything of it, then I'm like "oh wait, that could've been the baby" but then I don't feel it again for a while. I'm sure the movements are coming. The doc said I should start to feel something real soon.

Sleep: Still sleeping great however I used to always start on my stomach but that's getting harder to do, it's just not comfortable now so I'm forcing myself to sleep on my left side, that's supposedly the best side to sleep on, but I like my right side better, so either way once I get to sleep I'm sleeping pretty good.

What I miss: Still beer! And the other day I bent over to cut my toe nails and wow, I could definitely tell my belly is growing and I don't think its going to get any easier.

Cravings: No real cravings, again I'm still feeling hungry all the time and can't seem to eat as much as I'd like which is probably a good thing, but I just can't figure out what I'm hungry for.

Symptoms: Nope, just a growing belly.

Best Moment This Week: Besides the shopping trip to Schaumburg with my mom, my 20 week ultrasound. Getting to see baby H and hear the heartbeat was the best. Also knowing my baby is perfect, 10 fingers, no cleft lip and the baby's brain and heart look perfect. We also saw two kidneys and they looked good too. So overall it was a great checkup and I'm so excited to be half way!

Here are a few pictures of Baby H!

Here the legs are crossed at the ankles. I love this picture because I'm always sitting or laying like this.

Here the baby's arms are up near his face, this is the way Tom sleeps all the time. So cute!

It's so amazing how they can see something so small. I'm so excited for this little baby and I can't wait to meet him or her or to just find out the sex, then I can start planning

Shopping weekend

Mom and I headed to Schaumburg this weekend for a little shopping. Of course we are supposed to be Christmas shopping however, it always ends up that we shop for ourselves. I'm not complaining but...I did get a few Christmas presents bought and mom got a lot of hers done too, so it was a success!

We left early Saturday morning, about 6:30. I drove mom's van and we headed out and got into Schaumburg about 9:30 or so. Our first stop was the shopping center where Home Good's is, we went to The Container Store first then to Home Goods.

My big purchase at Home Goods was...

A new table for the entryway into our house. I've had my eye out for something and when I saw this I knew I had to have it. It fits perfectly and I can't wait to start decorating for the holidays! 

After Home Good's we decided to grab a bite to eat, we were getting kind of hungry. We asked the clerk where's a good place to get a sandwich or something and she recommended California Kitchen Pizza, and recommended her favorite sandwich, Grilled Chicken Ceaser Sandwich, so that's what we got! First we needed something to drink, I got a non-alcoholic fruity drink and mom got a beer. I think I would have preferred an ice cold brew but this wasn't too bad.

Mom wasn't ready for my picture, I'm not sure what she was doing here. We also ended up ordering soup with our sandwich that we were splitting. I had a tortellini and mom had Broccoli and Asparagus. We wouldn't recommend the soup at this place but the sandwich was yummy. 

After lunch we headed towards the hotel to get checked in.We stayed at the Doubletree, nothing spectacular but it was clean and nice. The best part was they gave you warm chocolate chip cookies when you check in. They were yummy! I had to ask for a couple more once we got back into the room later on that night. After we got checked in we relaxed for a while and had a drink, we'll I had a Coke, mom had a drink. We ended up watching the moving "How to lose a guy in 10 days" we didn't watch it from the beginning, it was about half way over with, but it's a funny movie. Mom's never seen it. Once the movie was over with we decided to go back out shopping. This time we were heading to the baby stores. There was Babies R' Us and Buy Buy Baby. We stopped at Babies R' Us first and once we were done with there we didn't have to go to the other one because there is not a Buy Buy Baby anywhere around unlike Babies R' Us, there is one in Madison and what I was looking for was at Babies R' Us. I wanted to look at cribs, but decided I think I really like the ones at JcPenney's, even though it's all online its still my favorite, here's the website This one - Tori or This one - Monterey 2nd Edition They are both sets so I would get the crib, dresser and chest of drawers. One thing on my list at Babies R' Us was a rocker/glider, this is one I really like! 

And I got to sit it in and it was super comfortable, it also has an ottoman that rocks as well. It's very practical and comfy. I can picture feeding my baby in it already. I really like the grey color as well and I'm thinking I might go with a color like this. Mom also bought the baby 2 outfits, they are so adorable! It was nice to look around at things and see what I like and what I might need and what I should put on my registry. We'll have to do that one of these times as well. Wow!

So after the baby store we decided to hit Target, I heard there was a good size maternity area and we needed crackers for our cheese and sausage, well, Target didn't have anything different than what DBQ has and as we were looking there was a lady who told us about Motherhood, I was under the assumption that the Motherhood I know was in Macy's but sure enough there was a Motherhood/Destination Maternity shop in the area, so off we went. And I found some awesome clothes and I think I am now officially done shopping for maternity clothes. LOL

After all the shopping we were exhausted, we didn't even feel like eating at a sit down restaurant, it was about 8:15 or so by the time we were ready to go back to the hotel or to eat, and we decided to just order a pizza to the room and relax. It was a perfect idea! I think I was sleeping by 10:15. 

Here's mom's PJ's! LOL Nice huh? Spongebob Square pants, I about died!

Mom and I were both awake about 6:30, we must have been so excited to get our day started we couldn't sleep anymore so we got ready and headed out about 8:00. We went to Denny's for breakfast then hit Kohl's that was the only store open that early, the mall didn't open until 11:00. Once we got to the mall it seemed like we were rushed because we knew we had a 3 hour drive back home but we still did lots of shopping.

Mom's first and probably only Coach purse, isn't it so cute! I love it. And she deserved it, she still saves her "smoking" money after how many years and she bought this for herself. I'm so proud of her that she's not smoking anymore.

Before she bought it...

 After she bought it... notice the smile on her face? and above she just wasn't sure. 

After Coach we hit a few more stores and headed back to DBQ around 3:00. It was a fun trip and I loved hanging out with my mom. I'm one lucky girl!

Love you mom!