Friday, December 31, 2010

Celebrating the New Year

To celebrate New Year's Eve...it was out with the old and in with the new in my closet!  Coming back from Colorado, we lugged back 2 big bags of maternity clothes and 1 of miscellaneous baby fun from my sisters.  Between that and the new ones my Mom and sisters picked out for me, I'm just about set for the next 5 months!

First, it was out with the old.  To make space for all of the new, I packed up just about everything that won't fit without a rubber band anymore.  I kept a few of my favorites back to have something around to work to fit into after this little bundle arrives!  Here's Dan's fun project for the coming days...getting these up into the attic for storage!  Shhhh...I'm waiting to spring this on him until I have everything that's coming out of the nursery and going up into the attic ready as well. :-)

I think I have been doing laundry non-stop since we got back late Tuesday night with all of our vacation laundry and the new maternity wear.  I suppose it's getting me ready for the new loads of laundry about to settle it's way into our lovely home!  Once it was all done, it was in with the new...here's a shot of my new wardrobe.  Seriously, only about 8-10 of these shirts are my old clothes - my sisters rock!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Amy Grant Lied

"Well I know there's more snow up in Colorado than my roof will ever see..."  Yep, Amy Grant lied.  Because the only snow we saw was in southern Colorado as we drove into the state.  Sad.  It's now been over 365 days since we've been in snow.  I think we need to move back north.

We spent the first 3 days in Colorado Springs visiting Dan's brother and his family.  We always enjoy spending time when them when we are home, so I'm glad they live in the same state as my family!

After that, we spent the rest of the trip with my family in Greeley and then Wray.  The following pictures are all from that time.  It was nice to not have my Dad in the hospital this year! :-)

Uncle Dan reading to Katie and Ben

Making Christmas cookies...Dan was pretty excited because I'm kind of a kitchen nazi when we do cookies and don't let him help much.  (I know...that's going to change soon!)

Me and Heidi...love this baby girl!  She's the current youngest cousin.

Dan decorating cookies with all of the nieces and nephews.

My Mom's doctor recommended this stretch for my sciatica...so I was giving it a try when the others decided to join me.

Dan and I with my Grandma Eunice on Christmas Eve

Dan and I on Christmas Eve (sorry bump watchers...the black isn't helping you see the baby!)

Walking over from Mike & Aug's to Mom & Dad's for Christmas morning.  Mom always gets everyone matching Christmas jammies...Dan's were a little highwater this year!

The baby's first Christmas gift!!

Grandad opening his present from Baby Gaines...a "come visit" card with 2 free Whataburger coupons!

My maternity Broncos shirt - love it!

Every year, my Dad gives his three daughters some type of jewelry.  This year we had been talking about how he used to bring out yellow legal pads for either helping us with math or "family meetings" (i.e., someone was in trouble).  He made our gift a scavenger hunt with the yellow legal pads this year!

We found our treasure!

Grammie and Heidi getting ready for some Broncos football!

Katie, Ben, and Mike sporting their Tebow gear.

Dan and Gav, sitting on the sidelines...kind of like Orton did (bittersweet - I love watching Tebow, but am sad for Orton being a Boilermaker!)

Uncle Dan trying to get Heidi to crawl during the Broncos game.

Tebow scores - Broncos win!!!

Hooray!!

Katie got a new hair salon for Christmas...so Dan was her first client! (getting him ready for Baby Gaines to be a girl...she told me numerous times, "Stace, I hope that baby in your belly is a girl!")

And now for his color...

And it's Uncle Dan's turn to be the stylist.

As always, it was a great trip filled with lots of laughs!  We're already counting the days until next Christmas where we'll get to bring the newest family member along!

(to see more pictures from our Christmas in Colorado - check out the album on Stacey's facebook page.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Belly Pic #1 (for Carlee)

Per the request of my good friend Carlee, and many others...this is my first belly shot...we need to get better about taking them regularly!  In this picture, I am 15 weeks pregnant.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Baby's Heartbeat (at 16 weeks)

Here's an audio of the first time we got to hear the baby's heartbeat!!  It was at my 16 week appointment, but the picture is actually from our ultrasound at 13 weeks (I needed something to show!).  It was so amazing to hear.  I'm at that point in pregnancy where I don't feel the baby move often, and all of the yuck symptoms of the first trimester have passed, so sometimes I get nervous that everything is OK.  Everything is going great, and we'll find out the sex on January 12th (my Dad's birthday!).