Bungalow Full of Updates

I have been absent from the blog. I am sorry for that. I never could have imagined how little time I had for the computer once we moved into this house. We have been renovating and updating every moment of every day. Our goal before the baby gets here is to "finish" the living room. When I say finish I don't actually mean having every single little detail done, because honestly this room is going to evolve over time. However, I wanted it to feel comfortable and livable. I figure Josh and I will be spending lots of time snuggling Baby Crain (and Bella too!) in our living room so we wanted it to feel like home. It has been amazing to us how quickly this house really has become our home. We fall more in love with it each and every day. We will both admit that every once in awhile we are overwhelmed thinking of all the projects we want to get done, but it dissipates quickly because honestly we would be bored if we didn't have a million and one projects on our to do list. Will all that said, here are some sneak peeks at our in progress living room.

Yes I realize the pictures are dark and blurry. I did have a reason for that, and the reason is that we are not ready to reveal the full living room just yet. That would be why its called "in progress" folks. New photos will be coming soon!

****************************************

Baby Crain Update:

Our little mermaid is moving and grooving in my belly. Feeling the kicks is such a weird and amazing feeling. It makes me realize there REALLY is a real live baby growing in there, I'm not just getting fat. Seriously this belly is growing at amazing rates. The really exciting news is we are THIS CLOSE to knowing if the merbaby is a maid or a man. I do have a theory about what we are having. See, I have come to the conclusion that you have the opposite of whatever gender your pet is (if you have one that is). I am sure someone can prove me wrong on this one, but I only have so many examples to go by and each and every one proves my theory. So, according to this theory of mine Bella is going to have a brother. We will know very soon whether or not my theory is proven correct.


Thanks all for hanging around for my update. I would certainly provide more details, but I just don't have any right now.

Party Like It's Your Birthday

Happy birthday to the most wonderful man, father to Bella, and soon-to-be father to our little mermaid (or merman). I cannot believe how much you have accomplished in your 24 years of life and I am so thankful that I get to spend the rest of your years with you. Thank you for sharing my passion for houses, life, and family. You rock! :)

I love you babe!

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter!!!

...and as we like to say in the Crain household, "Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!"

Enjoy this time with your loved ones. We are off to our church service and then on to my parents for some Easter fun. It is just the 6 of us this year (dad, mom, Josh, me, baby, and Bella), but I have the feeling it will be a special one. It is the last holiday in their house before they move so it definitely has some emotional significance as well. I am bringing a few things to "liven" up the Easter table and I only had to spend a couple of bucks so I am happy with the results. I'll try to remember to post some pictures later on. To get you ready for the true reason for Easter, here is one of my favorite songs out there right now...





We love you all and wish you a very happy Easter!

It's a......Baby!!

Today we hit 15 weeks. We cannot believe it. Only 25 weeks to go. My belly looks like I am at least 5 months along. I'm not. Here is a picture to show that this baby is growing like a weed....or maybe mommy is just eating a lot...

See, I don't lie. There was a picture that REALLY showed the very enlarged tummy, but that one just didn't make it on here. We have been telling everyone that we are having twins. Besides my large middle region, I also am still enjoying morning sickness all day every day. That must mean there are two in there right? Well according to our ultrasound tech I am pretty sure there is just one. Want proof? Here is the photo that most of you came for...

I'm no rocket scientist, but I think my excuses of having two babies is now long gone. Oh and did anyone else notice we are having a mermaid? I can assure you that the other shots we have of the legs definitely show very normal human legs, but can you really get past the fact that our baby has a forked tail? Our baby will be one good swimmer!

No matter how many times we hear the heartbeat or see the baby's sweet face we just can't get over that we really, truly are pregnant. Every single time we get a bit of a shock and say, "that is really in there?!" Maybe it's because we feel so undeserving. God blessed us with something much more beautiful than we could ever imagine. We know it will feel very real once the baby is screaming at all hours of the night keeping us up, but for now it is just completely surreal. We cannot wait to meet our precious little bug. We just love him or her so very much.

Speaking of gender...we did not find out the sex of the baby today. I know many of you were hoping that we would, but the tech just felt like it was too soon to determine it for sure and she figured we would be back in about five weeks for another ultrasound anyway. Although we were looking forward to it, we were kind of thankful because honestly, even if she had told us, we weren't going to tell you for a whole month anyway. And, well, secret keeping is just very tiring. Don't be sad though, five weeks is just a short time away!

One last thing...we cannot thank you all enough for your love, support, and prayers. Honestly, this journey would be so much tougher if we didn't have each one of you encouraging us daily. It feels so wonderful to have so many friends and family that are sharing in our excitement. We are thankful for each and every one of you reading this...even if you haven't left a comment or talked to us, we know you care! So, thank you from the very bottom of our hearts!

XoXo

Baby Diaries

We are back with the story about how we found out about the little Crain, and no this will not include where babies come from (thanks Ashley for that warning). However, we do intend on being very honest in this whole pregnancy process. I have found that after reading some posts from other bloggers about their pregnancies that their honesty is what truly has helped me understand all the weird things I have gone through thus far.

So, as we hinted in the first baby post, we have known that I was pregnant for awhile now. It all started on Tuesday, January 19th at 6:00 a.m. I had been feeling pretty positive that I was pregnant, however Josh was not feeling so positive and I think he may have even rolled his eyes a bit when I said we HAD to get a pregnancy test (he would never admit to this). We had taken a few before which had all been negative, so I didn't really blame him, but at the same time I wanted to know for sure that this time was just like every time. Bleary-eyed, I stumbled down the stairs (we were at my parents at the time due to the flood of '09) and peed on the stick. Now I will admit, I may have felt like I was pregnant, but I certainly wasn't ready for what I was about to see. Not even 2 seconds went by when I looked over and saw those two lines clear as day. I looked away at least a dozen times and every time I looked at it, the result was the same: POSITIVE. Were we hoping to be pregnant? Absolutely! So why was it that I felt so overwhelmed right at that moment?

I ran up the stairs (well really I think my legs were as heavy as lead) and with words that were hardly deciphered started saying, "Josh, Josh, I'm pregnant!!!" Yes, he was very much asleep and very much confused as he woke up. I hyperventilated. It made me feel bad. Josh cried which made me feel worse because I knew they were tears of joy. All I could think was we had no means for taking care of a baby. We still had a whole house to renovate. WE ONLY HAD ONE BATHROOM!!! Yes, that was one of my biggest concerns. What didn't help with all of this was the fact that I had to go to work in an hour. Let me just admit now, that was the most unproductive I have ever been. I am sure I hung up on people multiple times that day without even noticing.

It took some calming words from Josh for me as well as tons of prayer to realize that we WANTED this. We were praying for a baby and we had our prayers answered. How could I not be excited? Most people know that we actually were not even sure that we could have a baby of our own so the fact that we got pregnant so quickly just stunned us. It was amazing what God had done for our little family. At first I felt guilty about all the thoughts I had when I first found out. I had always expected to scream in excitement and yet all I could do was worry. I realize now that it was completely natural. I was becoming a mom and I just wanted to know without a doubt that I could give this baby the best life ever.

Josh and I are elated. We love this little baby with all of our hearts. Bella is still our first born child (or dog as many people call her), but it will be so much fun to have a little baby around. It makes our family feel complete. Mommy and daddy can't wait to meet you Baby Crain!!

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Baby Stats

11 Weeks

Date we found out: January 19, 2010
Expected Due Date: September 23, 2010
How far along: 12 weeks 5 days
Heartbeat: 168 bpm (3/10/10)


So I am growing all over. At 9 weeks I already had a noticeable pooch in my stomach. So much for not showing until 5 months in your first pregnancy. I definitely had morning sickness. It started at 6 weeks and 1 day and while it is much better at 12 weeks, it is still not completely gone. However, I feel MUCH better. I have been tired. I mean not just sleepy, but like I could sleep for 10 hours a night and still need a nap. I actually started going to bed at 7, and if you know me, you know that I avoid sleep as long as possible. I run to the potty every 15 minutes (this got better and for some reason returned again). I wake up at least 3 times during the night to sprint to the potty. I had a dream the baby was a boy. We did the old wives tale needle test and three different times it indicated I was having a girl. Don't ask what mother's intuition tells me, I have no idea. Do we care what we have? NOPE! I want both and Josh wants a boy and a girl twin. Truth: I am semi scared of boys, but LOVE them. Having so many allergies is REALLY hard when all you crave is food you can't eat. Cravings: taco bell, fries, veggies, burgers, mexican food, rootbeer...actually I don't think any of these cravings were pregnancy related, I think I was just really hungry. Yes, we know the names, and no we aren't telling. We will tell once we know if it is a he or a she. We definitely will find out what it is (but probably not until May). I found out my blood type is A- and I am RH- which means shots in awful places so that my blood doesn't attack the baby's blood.

Well, that's all I could think of for now...but seriously if you have questions just leave me a comment and I will give you an answer (possibly in a future post). So get those questions ready and start asking. Remember, I never have a problem being honest so ask ANYTHING (although some questions may have to be answered via email if they are a bit more personal).

Well, be back later with some serious details...

House Tour: Before

 Thank you all for your sweet comments about the baby! We are so thankful for each and every one of you!

 *******************************************

Welcome to the much anticipated post, the pictures of the INSIDE of our new home. These will all be before pictures as we bought this house with the intent of renovating. Renovations won't be happening all at once, we are choosing to save up for each project and do one at a time. This may not be the way that everyone likes to work, but we feel this is the best for our family. Plus, after just over a month of living here we have already changed our minds about a few of the renovations so we are thankful to be taking our time so we can really get to know this house. Without further ado, please meet our house...

Living Room

Kitchen

Dining Nook

Bathroom

Baby's Room 

Master Bedroom

There is also a basement and a backyard to be seen, but that's for later. Hope you enjoyed the small house tour. As we update the house we will share the "after" photos. Thanks for joining us!