Happy New Year! Highlights of 2009...

2009 has been such a wonderful year filled with adventure, blessings, and some loss. Looking back, it seemed to have gone by SO fast. How did everything Brian and I experienced during the entire year fit into only 365 days? Here is a list of the biggest Nutt memories each month of 2009.

January 2009
Ringing in the new year with friends.

Tracie got a new puppy. Her name is Tinker.

Brian met Barry Switzer.

February 2009
The Nutt Bowl II - SuperBowl Party

An awesome early in the month ski trip to Vail, Colorado with a group of friends. Too much fun!

March 2009
Taking my mom to the Elton John/Billy Joel concert.

April 2009
Being in Lewisville, TX for the birth of Noah Timothy Barclay, the first born of our closest friends Jeremy and Amy Barclay.

May 2009
Summer at the lake.

Going to Dallas to visit the Barclays.

June 2009
Weekend in Kansas City for baseball games. STL Cardinals vs. KC Royals. Went with Brians parents. Our yearly baseball trip! 

The David Cook concert in Tulsa.

My mother fell and broke her foot/ankle in 3 places requiring surgery, plates and screws. I'll spare you the bloody pictures, but will include this cute one of her in a wheel chair following a lunch outing one day. We tried to get her out of the house as much as we could during her recovery.

July 2009
Brian going to the Baseball All-Star Game with his dad.

And getting the back yard looking great again.

August 2009
Brian made it to another birthday!

The DeBoer "Tool" Party. Yes, it was as crazy awesome as it looks!

September 2009
Spending time with the Barclays in Arkansas.  They make a cute family, don't they?

Okay...the family is much cuter with real mommy...

October 2009
An amazing cruise to the Bahamas with my hubby to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary! We went on the Carnival Destiny and stopped at Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau, Bahamas.

November 2009
Positive pregnancy test!

Spending time with family over Thanksgiving.

December 2009
Stacie making it to another birthday!  The best birthday present anyone could ask for, a healthy growing baby. I was almost 12 weeks pregnant on my 38th birthday.  WOOHOO!!!

And a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends...including a cute little P-Nutt baby growing inside of me. My first trimester officially ended on Christmas Day.

In summary, 2009 was, well, one heck of a year! We loved every minute of it!

Week 16...Dear Baby Nutt...

Spending the weekend with my mom and sister, and Ken and Janet who came in town for the weekend.  House projects, loving on dogs, and baby planning was the theme of the weekend. Great fun!!

Dear Baby Nutt
Today I am 16 weeks pregnant, which means I've been growing you inside of me for about 4 months. They say I should start to feel you move around soon. I haven't felt you move or kick yet, but I know you are there because my waist line keeps expanding and my hormones are all crazy at times. The morning sickness you put me through the last 8 or so weeks was almost unbearable at times, but every time it got it's worst I would think about how happy it made me that you are growing inside of me and that made me feel much better.  We are getting your room all nice and ready for you. We pulled up carpet and had the original hard wood floors redone. They look beautiful. Just like you are. We are waiting until we find out if you are a boy or a girl before we decorate. But I'm so anxious to find out if you will be a momma's boy or a daddy's little girl. Either way, we just want you to be healthy and happy!

You should have seen your father last week. In the midst of all the little house projects we are doing, you dad got a bit overconfident.  It got very cold here and the water hoses to our washing machine froze. Your father, ever the impatient one, decided that he could "fix it". Not that a couple of days of thawing couldn't have done the trick naturally or anything.  But as I layed down for a sunday afternoon nap (you had me very tired after church and lunch), your dad decided to head to the garage for some "man time" to fiddle with the washer. He took the hoses off and soaked them in hot water, which thawed them out, but then he realized that there must have been frozen water IN the machine somewhere, because the washer wasnt starting properly nor was the tub draining properly after filling.  Oh how the wheels in his mind were turning! All I know is that when I woke up from my over 2 hour nap, Brian was just finishing up in the garage, a bit deflated that he couldn't put the machine back together. He was so cute, I couldn't do anything but laugh with him about it. I'm still not sure how the actual tub part ended up coming off it's center stand...of which he couldnt figure out how to put back and level out, but I guess once you take the back and side panels off of a machine like that it just opens up your imagination and you can't help but tinker with it's guts. One accomplishment however, in the midst of all his tinkering, your father did identify a "part" that had cracked due to the frozen temperatures. This, your father says, made it all worth it. It proved his manhood that day. HE is the king of our washing machine now.  It didnt matter that he had to humbly call a washing machine repair man and have them come the next day to put our machine back together to the tune of $168 bucks, for HE, my wonderful husband, your amazing father, diagnosed a problem with it, a problem that HE could tell the repair man about. As he now beats his chest to the sound of a working washing machine, I have only but one request, please honey, tinker with something a little smaller next time.  ;-)           Good Night, Baby Nutt!
Mommy

Week 13 Ultrasound...

P is so beautiful.  Yes, we are calling it P for now...P Nutt.  :-)   Here P is at 13 weeks in utero.

He still kind of resembles more of an alien blob than a real baby....but when we were at the doctor and he was pointing out his organs, limbs, and heart, it all painted a perfect picture at the time. P is beautiful!

Merry Christmas To All...

Christmas 2009 was great!  We were supposed to go to Hernando, Mississippi to spend this Christmas with the Nutt side of the family, but Brian's aunt Ernie came down with the flu and the family decided that we wouldn't chance getting sick, so we all just did our own thing.  It ended up working out pretty good since I was still dealing with all-day-morning sickness and a snow storm was brewing in the mid-west.  We went to Springdale, AR and spent a couple of days with Brian's parents.  The biggest blessing of the holiday was that I made it through my first trimester.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I was really hoping that I would wake up Christmas morning and the nauseas fog that had been following me around constantly would be lifted.  It wasn't.

Here are some pictures from Christmas in Springdale...

The Christmas lights on the square in Fayetteville were awesome!

We came back to Tulsa a day early to avoid having to drive in the snow storm that was headed our way. We woke up in to a big dumping of snow the day after Christmas.

Scripps is a weather snob....she doesn't like the snow!

Here we are at my moms house the night of the 26th, with my mom and my sister. They were having an intense conversation, both praising the lasting power of Organic Milk. It was funny at the time, but now that I've tried it, I cant go back to regular. It tastes better and it lasts for WEEKS longer than regular milk!

I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant in these pics, you can start to see my baby bump show. So awesome!

Week 12... Imma Be, Imma Be, Imma Imma Imma Be... A Blogging Slacker!

Yes, I'm a blogging slacker!  Weeks 10 and 11 of this pregnancy have been filled with nausea, fatigue, and an overwhelming sense of smell that has caused me to want to burry my head in my pillow every chance I get. I have become part canine and it's gross. Every smell is gross. EVERY smell is gross. Ive not ever really noticed how smelly life is. It's no wonder our ozone layer is thinning. (It is still thinning, right?)  Anyway...I cannot go anywhere without wanting to puke at every smell.  Oh, the price we pay for creating offspring.  I can't complain, however, as I would have given anything for these issues a year ago when I was struggling with infertility.  My cup, absolutely, runs over.. and for that I am so grateful!

The last time we went to see our fertility doctor, he said we were done with him and now we need to pick a regular OBGYN to start going to.  WHAT??  Really?  Change...gotta love it. So the search is on to find an OBGYN who delivers at St. Johns (which is where I was born), and who will do a selective c-section if I so choose.  Yes, I said it, I want the option of having a c-section if I want to.  Period!  We'll see what I can find.

These are the 10 and a half week ultrasound pics that we got during our last visit.  He's looking more and more like a human every week. He, or she, is beautiful!  It was so exciting when the doc was doing the ultrasound. Baby Nutt was sleeping at first, and although it's little heartbeat was beating strong, he wasn't doing much. Then the doctor started poking around (on purpose) and woke him up. He stretched his little arms and started dancing around. It was the most precious thing I've ever seen in my life. I just burst into tears right then and there and became so attached to that little miracle. I just couldn't believe we were watching our baby dance. It was amazing!  So tiny, so full of life, so amazing!

WEEK 12  "Even though your little Einstein’s body is still growing quite rapidly 2 inches long right now, the overall super-speedy growth of their amazing brain continues to leave the head proportionately larger than the body— and is actually slightly more than one third of their total body mass! The head and neck are still straightening at this point as can be seen by their little chin lifting off of the chest. Your baby is also actively rehearsing “breathing” by using amniotic fluid to prepare the lungs for future air respiration."

WEEK 11  "Maybe you’ve noticed… your baby is a super-duper grower! Your lil' fetus will be gaining a substantial amount of weight this week and has already achieved fruit-size-status comparable to a plum. What's more, your little scientist is already starting to explore their body, focusing most intently on touching their head, and especially their face and mouth. Their mouth in particular will provide them with hours of entertainment. This happens not only because your baby is gaining coordination, and is therefore able to move a hand on command, but also because their palms have gained sensation and can actually “feel” what it touches.They're also developing their swallow reflex this week. And lastly, your baby's smelling and other olfactory senses will begin developing this week, which when combined with the maturing taste buds, will provide your baby with their first experiences of taste and smell."

WEEK 10  "Your astonishingly tiny baby has been hard at work growing as fast as possible—almost doubling in size in the past three weeks! Amazingly, you’re in for a repeat size doubling performance within the next three weeks! Your tiny champion still weighs less than a quarter of an ounce but has already completed the most critical stage of their development. Using Doppler technology, your doctor or gynecologist can let you hear their tiny rapid fetal heartbeats this week (145-165 beats per minute!). Chances for miscarriage are greatly reduced when the heartbeat can be detected, so take a sigh of relief if you’ve been needing one—it hasn’t been an easy ten weeks! What’s more, they’re getting ready to make their first baby poop! Your little one’s major organ systems are developing, including a functioning digestive tract capable of moving food all the way through their bowels. The final shiny gold star on their fetal behavior chart for the week: your little scrapper has already developed defense mechanisms to protect them on reflex!"

Week 9...Another Strong Heartbeat

The doctor visit and ultrasound was great. It's little heartbeat was 170 beats per minute, which has Brian thinking now that it might be a girl. Healthy and happy is our only prayer, but it's fun to speculate what the little angel will be.  Truth be told, I'd prefer a boy.  If only for the fact that i, myself being a girl, was a pain in the butt during my teen years. I cant imagine how bad the paybacks would be.  But again, as long as he/she is healthy, I'll be happy.

I think I've found my best armor to battle morning (all day) sickness. Sea-Bands. They really seem to be taking the edge off of my misery.  Who would have thought a nice little acupressure wrist band device would trump drugs?  Although I'm sporting a really nerdy "tennis anyone?" fashion statement, these wrist bands are great.  I've been wearing them ALL the time, I only take them off to shower, then as soon as I dry my arms those suckers are back on.  So far so very good!

Although I'm not officially showing, i'm bloated as can be and my clothes are fitting snuggier. I'm down to only being able to fit into one pair of my dress slacks for work and today, jeans day, will be the last time i'm able to wear my low-rise, cute butt, jeans. Sigh. Maternity clothes shopping is on the horizon. The thought of wearing maternity clothes when i'm noticeably "with child" doesn't bother me. It's actually a very cute thing. However, the thought of buying maternity clothes as a way to ease my discomfort due to all the bloating, swelling, gas, heartburn and nausea, i'm not all that hip about. There's nothing "cute" about any of that.

Grow, little guy, grow!

WEEK 9:  "Congratulations! Your amazing growing baby has been accepted into to the fetus-club, a very exclusive and exiting new stage in their prenatal development. Basically, this means the little sweet pea has graduated from swimming embryo creature to a recognizable human being! This week in particular, the irises of their little eyes can function, but (frustratingly for them?) their eyelids remain fused shut for a while yet. Their external ears are formed and their inner ears are now filled with fluid—so your little one is already developing their sense of balance. Your baby's little swimmer legs are still relatively, although other bodily developments are going forward at a nice pace: their kidney is actually functioning now, which means they’ve started urinating (this might seem charming now but wait till you have to start buying diapers!)."