Going bananas at 20 weeks!!

Well, the halfway mark has arrived! I am officially 20 weeks pregnant and I can't believe it. The baby is estimated to be as long as a banana which seems appropriate because I feel bananas waiting to find out if its a boy or girl! The last two weeks I feel that I have hit a growth spurt which has left me a little more tired and starting to feel a little "thicker" through the mid-section. It is the most noticeable when I go from sitting to standing. It seems to take a little more effort than I am use to! I have continued to feel the baby move a littel bit each day. The baby seems to be the most active after anything with sugar or when in church. I think they are having a little dance session in there while the worship is going on. So funny! I told Cory last week in church that I thought the baby was playing their own session of Rock Band in there!

The two most frequently asked questions are: Do you have an idea if its a boy or girl? and Do you have names picked out? The answers to those two questions are both up for debate! When we had our first ultra sound around 6.5 weeks I said out loud "That is a boy!" I said it before I even realized I was saying it. And the first time I heard the heartbeat around 11 weeks, I initiallly heard it and thought again "that is a boy. However, ever since then I have crossed back over to thinking that it is a girl. Cory started out saying a girl and the closer it gets he is on the fence. So, we shall see! As for names, we have talked about 10 girl names and about 10 boy names. The list has definitely evolved over time. We have some good ones to pick from and have just decided to hold off until we find out the gender and then think some more on it. I am ready for this baby to have a name so I think once we know the gender that process will more more quickly.

Here is the baby bump for this month!

So, what do you think the baby is -- a boy or girl?? Please vote on the poll to the right and/or leave a comment with your thoughts! I love to ask people what they think we are having -- its fun to hear other people's thoughts!!

Have a great week!

CEC.

Pray for Austell.

Austell, GA (a suburb of Atlanta) is the town where my brother and his family live and has been hit hard by the flooding. My brother is the pastor of a church there and several members of the community and his church have lost their homes to total flooding. Please keep these people in your prayers as they face the days ahead. If you want to read more, visit my sister-in-law's blog HERE where she explains her perspective and posted pictures of the damage. By God's grace, their home has been kept clear of any major damage but so many have not been so fortunate.

Pray for the sweet people of this area and other areas around who suffered such a great tragedy!

Chi-town Babymooners!

Over Labor Day weekend, Cory and I took a "babymoon" to Chicago! I did not know this was the official name of our trip until I was telling someone at work about out trip and she so cleverly stated, "O, so you are taking a babymoon?" I was definitely caught off guard, never having heard that term, but I kinda liked it and it has stuck. We often joked on our trip that we were the "babymooners!" This trip was definitely more of a last minute decision but we are very blessed to have the opportunity to take such a fun trip together! We had an absolute blast.

Here is a recap of our trip. First of all, we did drive to the good ole' Windy City! It was definitely cheaper than a ticket and made it definitely more like a fun road trip. We broke the trip up on the way up there by stopping to stay over in St. Louis but for the drive back we did it all in one day! Honda LaFonda was good to us!

When we arrived Friday early afternoon, we checked out our surroundings and enjoyed dinner at the Riverwalk on the Chicago River.

Next, we headed to the Friday Red Sox/White Sox game! We (heart) David Ortiz!

The Red Sox lost 12-2, so this is our sad face!


Here is the view from our room on Saturday morning!

Saturday we took a double decker bus tour of the city! This was a little too uncool for my better half but an hour into the trip he agreed that it was a fabulous idea :) We saw tons of fun sites of the city.

Taking our picture into the silver thing (I think there is a more formal name but I didn't catch it) at Millennium Park.

Eating lunch at Geno's East! Yumm-O does not even begin to touch the taste of this pizza!

Look at that cheese!

One of Oprah's many many condos!

Saturday evening we enjoyed an evening watching the Blue Man group. I was most excited about going to watch them but I think Cory enjoyed the show more than I did. It was NOTHING like I expected and there was lots of silly humor. Cory was laughing so loud it was starting to get embarrassing! Ha!


Sunday, we ventured to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). It was a little overrated but glad we went. They have built these glass boxes off the side of the building that you can walk out in and all that is underneath you is plexi-glass. It was scary. I walked out there long enough to get my picture taken and say I did it. Here is random man that was laying down inside of it. Since, neither Cory or I were going to do that we took a picture of this man to better understand how this box worked.

Us in the box -- kinda blurry.


Sunday afternoon we headed out to cheer on the Red Sox again! This time they won 6-1! Go BoSox! Here is a pic of Baby Calhoun on the trip.

By Sunday evening we were BEAT! We decided to take the water taxi over to Navy Pier but it was a let down. It is a very long pier that juts out into Michigan Lake with some rides on it, children's museum, restaurants and dinner cruise boarding stations. I think by this point I was SO worn out that I just could care less. Plus, I think having kids at this place would have been a little more enjoyable.

We drove home Sunday morning! And I had to take a picture of the O'Dell exit, although they need the apostrophe and to capitalize the D.

All in all we had such a GREAT time! We are so fortunate to have this chance to have a get-away before Baby Calhoun graces us with his/her presence! It will forever be a very fun memory for me and Cory.

CEC.

O, and just a side note -- I have started to feel the baby move! It started right after I turned 17 weeks and has increased a lot more after 18 weeks. It happens the most in the mornings after my alarm goes off and after I eat. It feels the most like popcorn popping 2 or 3 times real quickly or a spider walking across the inside of my stomach. We are getting excited about knowing if pink or blue will be in our future!