National Champs, take #2!

29 weeks

photo credit

My little Facebook ticker reminded me this morning... happy 29 weeks! It's crazy to think our little Stella, once the size of a sweet pea, is now the size of a squash. (Only two more fruit sizes to compare her to until she's here - LOL) She's taking advantage of having a bit of extra room - her nudges and movement are certainly getting stronger. Her sleeping habits are also a bit more in sync than before which is encouraging - when they started, she was tumbling at 2am.

According to thebump.com, her five senses are fully functional and brain development is underway. Brad and I talk to her out loud on a regular basis and she really enjoys listening (and actively responds to) to the 'Adele' station on my Pandora account... girl has great taste already!

Showered with love

This past weekend was our first baby shower in Summerville, SC and we had such a great time! It's incredibly comforting to know this sweet girl has so many people that love her already. Here's a few pictures of the festivities:

"Welcome Baby Stella"

Hostessess with the mostesses! Aunt Lesia, me & mom

Guestbook!

Grandmommies-to-be! Mom, me & Kathy

BFF moment! Jeff & I

Thanks to all who made this celebration so memorable...
we are so blessed!

It's here!!!

Twilight's final installment, Breaking Dawn (Part I) trailer has been officially released!

November 18th cannot come soon enough...

pink & green turtles? yes, please!

It's no secret that I love eBay & Etsy but now, they are my go-to places to check for pink/green/turtle stuff for Little Miss. This could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it:

 

See what I mean? :)

"Did you get that memo?"

This movie describes my today in more ways than I'd care to admit.

What a week!

Happy Memorial Day!

Some of us have today off (I'm not one of these lucky individuals but hey, it's alright) but I hope we'll pause today to remember all of our amazing soldiers who remind us every day that our freedom is far from free. It comes at the HIGHEST cost. Thank you to my mom, dad and family members that have served/continue to serve the greatest country on Earth. I love you all dearly!

This week is also very special because we are doing a LOT of celebrating:

Happy anniversary to Amanda & Lenny Mathis!

May 30

Happy birthday to a great friend and sister, Lorraine Saxon!

June 1

Happy birthday to one of my best friends, Jeff Rose!

June 2

Happy anniversary to Chris & Paige Morton!

June 2

Happy anniversary to Chris & Julie Paulson!

June 3

TGIF - coffee needed

Insurance exam this (late) morning = no coffee for Leslie.

(Happy Friday!)

Happy Thursday

Happy 25 weeks!

 

 

• Between 25-28 weeks, baby is about the size of an eggplant!
• Baby is getting her immune system ready by soaking up mom's antibodies
• Her eyes are forming and will be reayd to bat those new eyelashes

photo / information credit

Crib bedding - help!

We've narrowed down our crib bedding to the final two designs - yay! Both are about the same price for what we'll need, both are SUPER cute for Stella's nursery and would be easy to accent with pictures or wall art... but of course, I can't decide!

Which do YOU like? :)

BabyBedding - Lime and Pink Paisley

Land of Nod - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Exciting delivery at 24 weeks!

No, no, no. Don't worry, it's not THAT delivery. We still have a couple months before Little Miss makes her debut. However, we are receiving a special delivery today - Stella's dresser and hutch is arriving after work!

This means that her crib, gliber and dresser/hutch will be here and assembled by this weekend... hooray for productivity! We're still looking at bedding but have found some awesome choices to consider:

Land of Nod: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Pottery Barn Kids: Lily Nursery

All the while, today is 24 weeks!

• Baby is as big as a papaya!
• She can hear you from inside the womb
• Baby's face is fully formed
• Baby is also starting to settle into sleep cycles

photo / info credit

It's a...

Yep, Brad and I are excited that we're expecting Stella Reese in early September! Many of you already know this exciting news by now (thank you, Facebook) but it's taken me a while to get the news here for a lot of personal reasons including an ER scare, car accident and work getting extremely hectic. God never gives us more than we can handle - this I'm very certain - and the best news of all is baby Stella is doing wonderful. I hope all of the craziness is behind us... fingers crossed!

It's hard to believe but we're in our last week of the 2nd trimester - where does the time go??? I need to get Brad to take a new picture of the bump. It's certainly changed since 16 weeks! Thank you all for your continued prayers and thoughts... they are appreciated more than you know!

Less than 24 hours!

This time tomorrow, we will know the gender of baby Stoehr!

Will we be saying

or

?

Happy "HP7" Friday!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I was released today! Thanks goodness for a pre-ordered copy, a pizza and a night of total vegging. :)

19 weeks!

Couple fun things about baby at 19 weeks:

• baby is about the size of a mango!
• a protective covering is developing over the baby, shielding it from the amniotic fluid

One of the really fun things going on right now is that our nursery furniture is on its way! We found it initially at a place in Greenville, SC called Baby Furniture Plus Kids and instantly fell in love. I think I was drawn to the Ravenna collection because it has a traditional look to it that will be great to use for years to come (and not always in a nursery necessarily) Since we're working a pretty limited room, space-wise, we decided just to go with the convertible crib, dresser/hutch combo and a glider/ottoman. Little did we know, my dad and stepmom actually had plans to surprise us with the dresser/hutch and my mom and stepdad did the same for the beautiful glider/ottoman - all during the same weekend! (thank you to them - we're so lucky to have incredible parents!) To complete the package, we went ahead and decided to buy the crib, only to find out it was on sale, too. Win, win, win. Can't wait to see how this all comes together!

Wordless Wednesday

(Okay, so it isn't completely wordless, but little Emerson's reactions are priceless!)

Little One update

Things have been rolling right along - so much, that I missed last week's update! 18 weeks check-in, here we go:

(baby is the size of a sweet potato!)

The biggest milestone with this particular update is that baby is moving and I can feel it! I felt our little one move for the first time when we landed in Frankfurt, Germany a couple weeks ago. It was SUCH a crazy feeling: a ball of butterflies doing somersaults, much different for me than the feeling you get riding in an elevator or landing in a plane. Since then, I've felt him/her move a few times... I'm sure that will progress the further along we go!

Speaking of him or her, we're counting down the days until we find out what baby Stoehr will be... I can hardly stand the suspense! We get the big news next Thursday and while I'm not sure how we're planning to celebrate yet, it will make this Easter weekend one to remember (talk about a Good Friday!)

OH, and how could I forget? I think Brad and I have nailed down our names: Miller Patrick if it's a boy and Stella Reese is if it's a girl! Miller is my maiden name and since I'm the only child between my parents, it's our way of carrying on my dad's name; Patrick is Brad's middle name. Stella Reese has no family connection to either name, we both just really like the combination. The more I hear them, the more I love them. What a wonderful thing to mark off your mom-to-be list!

17 weeks!

Here we are at 17 weeks and moving along quite nicely! I've felt wonderful lately - no sickness, my energy is continuing to return and baby is getting bigger each day. We have a doctor's appointment after we return from Germany (I'm telling you, this baby is my traveling good luck charm!) and in a couple short weeks, we'll know if we're having a boy or girl - I can hardly stand it!

Some fun facts about baby at 17 weeks:

• baby is about the size of an onion
• the skeleton is hardening from cartilage to bone
•  the umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger
• baby's fingers now have fingerprints!

Blessings

If there was ever a day I didn't need to worry about drying my hair, it would be this morning. It began POURING rain around midnight and hasn't shown any signs of letting up. As I was rushing around this morning trying to take care of the dogs and get ready for work, I walked by the kitchen windown and did a double take: my hydrangea plant, which I've been trying to feed/water back to greener times, had sprouted not just one new stem... but THREE! It's almost as if it was just waiting for this big downpour to happen to it could finally blossom.

Seeing my sweet plant in its new stage made me stop and thank God for the blessings in my life, no matter how little.

Simply cute!

Sometimes, we just need the "awwwwww" factor.

(I miss my sweet Moxie being that teeny!)