Blessed with wonderful friends!

This past weekend couldn't have been more perfect. So many of our friends came in town and 4 of my closest friends threw us the most amazing shower! They went over and beyond on everything and everyone had a blast! We got some wonderful gifts and felt so blessed to have so many great friends there.

With the wonderful hostesses!

Just the two of us...or should I say 3?

With Michael's cousin, Allison, her husband Heath and
their 3-month-old Hayes (Max's future best friend)

Such a fun game...diaper relay race.

I totally kicked his butt...twice!

Lucas and Kyle, neck in neck...There was so much
excitement Ava didn't know what to do with herself!

Adorable blanket and bib from Michael's grandmother.

Michael's Baylor lacrosse coach had a onesie made with
Michael's lacrosse number on it...too cute!

Not only did the hostesses throw an amazing shower, but
they gave us this basket full of all kinds of goodies!

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything went great. We will have another sonogram at our 36 week appointment, so of course I am looking forward to that. I have been a little under the weather over the past week and all of the excitement over the weekend put me over the edge...I had a full blown, horrible cough by Sunday. However, I am feeling much better now, especially after getting 11 hours of sleep last night.

The new thing this past week or so has been hiccups. Max seems to get them at least twice a day. He is moving a lot. Something tells me he's going to be a very active and strong baby. Braxton Hicks contractions are in full force and I get them several times a day. My belly button has officially popped and no matter how I try to cover it up it pokes out!

We are now in the home stretch...only 8 weeks left! Gosh, that's hard to believe. We have put together a list of all the things we need to get done before Max arrives and it seems to be growing rapidly. Luckily we've gotten most of the necessities taken care of, but just have a few more things like carseat and some other smaller things that we're probably going to end up biting the bullet and buying pretty soon. Other than that we're just trying to get organized and prepared. I am the type of person who will prepare to get prepared, but it never fails, I will not end up being prepared. I am trying to be realistic about everything and accept that there will be some things that I'll just have to go with the flow on.

Our maternity pictures turned out great and you can check out a preview on our photographer's blog if you would like. http://family.knotsandtotsphotography.com/2011/10/18/cedar-park-maternity-portraits-wendy-and-michael/

3rd Trimester and Doggy Lovin'

Things are going by faster and faster and I feel like I'm getting bigger by the second. I cannot believe that I am in my third trimester and 31 weeks pregnant. Deep breaths, let's not freak out.

29 Weeks

I am dying to get the nursery set up, and now that we FINALLY got the dresser/changer delivered today I can get going on it. Some friends are throwing us a shower at our house next weekend, so this will be my big project of the week...among the many projects that I have been taking on lately.

30 Weeks

I have been feeling extra "crafty" lately. I've spent way too much time (and money) at Hobby Lobby and Michael's over the last few weeks. I am absolutely going to blame it all on Pinterest...there are way too many good ideas on there, too bad I am the queen of gathering ideas and never following through. But, I've decided to make all of my thank you cards and Halloween cards, so we will see how that goes to start out.

We went to Waco last weekend to see the Baylor vs. Iowa State game and had a blast! It's definitely getting more and more uncomfortable to sit in one place for an extended amount of time, but I can't think of many things more worth it than a Baylor football game. Unfortunately this week's game wasn't so great...losing to A&M hurt.

Last weekend we got the most amazing gift we could possibly imagine....RAIN!!!! It rained for several hours  last Sunday and it was incredible! Round Rock just got put on emergency water restrictions (absolutely no outdoor watering...how absurd) so this was a God send. I would not normally talk about rain, but it's not even funny how desperately we have needed it!

Our doctor's appointment went well this past Tuesday and Baby Max's current weight estimate is 3 lbs 11 oz. His heartbeat was strong, as usual, and everything else looked great too. We are now on bi-weekly doctor appointments.

We took maternity pictures this week. It was an idea that I was not completely sold on, but in the end found a really great deal on Moolala (a coupon website like Groupon) and decided why not. From the pictures that they showed us on their cameras I was so pleased, and I am so excited to see the final product!

This weekend has been nice and relaxing. We went out on a date night on Friday night and then walked in the Brushy Creek Doggy 3K and Play Day on Saturday morning. We hung around the house to watch football that afternoon and relax. Today we went to church, lunch and then to a pumpkin patch...one of my favorite fall activities! 



A special Happy 25th Birthday to my wonderful sister today! Love, love, love her!

Ava in all her glory.

She totally dominated in the turkey dog eating contest...
and he had  a good 20  lbs on her!

Fall Showers

Fall is by far my favorite time of year, I love the weather. I love the decorations, I love pumpkins (and just about anything pumpkin flavored), and I love football! Unfortunately the weather hasn't quite made it here yet, but my fall decorations are in place, the pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks are here and football is in full swing. Falling asleep on the couch with a good book on a Sunday afternoon with football on in the background is one of my favorite things in the whole world...it reminds me of Sundays growing up at home, although the addition of the book is more since I've graduated from college and am not actually required to read.

27 Weeks (9/23)

We had our doctor's appointment two weeks ago and everything went great! Baby boy Magee was at the time about 2.5 lbs (slightly bigger than average) and was blinking and yawning during the ultrasound, it was THE cutest thing that I have ever seen! I was completely wrong about him being in transverse lie (he is now head first, ready to go) I guess I was just confused by the simultaneous kicks on the opposite sides of my stomach. As I mentioned in the last post, we have officially chosen a name and we are now sharing it with everyone. His name will be Max Cameron Magee. Max is just a name that both Michael and I liked a lot and Cameron is special to us because it is the name of a park that we would go to often in Waco and it is where Michael took me to propose to me. We thought about doing the whole keep the name a surprise thing, but we couldn't take it anymore.

My sister (The amazing Hostess) and I
in front of the cutest cake ever!

The coolest diaper cake...A family friend
made thisone and did a beautiful job!
twopeasgifts.com

                                                       





I had my first shower this past weekend in Sealy. It was so good to see so many friends and family members who were able to make it. We got so many great things, I can't even begin to tell you! The nursery is packed and have some serious organization to do! My sister did an amazing job putting everything together for the shower, I am so lucky to have her!

With my parents and sister

Michael's Mom, Grandmother and Sister
(He hung around before things got started)

My mom and grandmother

Several people have asked me where I am registered so I am including the links to the registries. I ended up doing a few smaller registries because some stores like Babies R Us have a huge selection, but other stores like Buy Buy Baby are much easier to work with. Unfortunately I didn't realize when I started the registry at Buy Buy Baby that it only has a few locations in Texas. We also ended up doing a couple of really small registries at more specialized stores like Restoration Hardware Baby and Child and Pottery Barn Kids  because we purchased some larger items like crib bedding and rocking chair from them and they offered incentives for starting a registry that helped make those items more affordable! So I didn't end up registering for an exorbitant amount of things, I just spread them out over several registries.

I have had some really great help from mom-friends telling me what to get and what not to waste my money on as well as what products work best and which ones are a flop. I know a lot of this is stuff I will have to figure out on my own since each baby is different, and things are constantly evolving, but I would love to hear any other advice from moms out there who wished someone would have told them something before they had their baby.

Opening gifts with one of my good friends
from high school, Natalie.

Everyone had to guess how big I was with a
piece of yarn, it was quite humorous!