Fun Weekend

We had a great time this weekend with Matty NOT going into work (yay!) and just getting stuff done around the house.

Friday we had a wedding in Spring so we came home, showered and left straight for the wedding.  Thankfully we made it in plenty of time and had fun while we were there.  Dinner was delish but we left before cake was served.  :(

After the wedding we picked up Brooks, watched a little Yo Gabba Gabba, and had a slumber party. 

Saturday we had a lot of errands to run so we got those done in the morning.  Then we met Sara and Randy at CFA for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon at the house.  Brooks had a long list of things she wanted to do:

• Wear Aunt Mandy's necklaces

• Turn the bathtub water on...and off...and on...and off...repeat

• Play outside

• Eat breakfast in a big girl chair

• Go shopping and NOT sit in the cart

• Wash our hands 1000 times

• Go to the park and swing, and laugh the entire time while flirting with the other little boys there

• Talk to Tom

• Wear Uncle Matty's sunglasses

• Eat at Denny's

The funniest thing that I want to remember if naptime on Saturday.  I laid down with her (because preggo needs a nap too) and closed my eyes in hopes that she would go to sleep.  She crawled around the bed for awhile just talking to herself and playing with her stuffed animals.  After about 15 minutes she laid on Matt's side with her head on the pillow, pulled the covers up to her shoulders, kissed her monkey Harry and said "night night" before she closed her eyes and went to sleep.  Melt my heart!  She is just the most precious thing I think God ever created.  

Sunday after church (and eating at Black Walnut Cafe that took FOREVER!) we spent the day cleaning the house and garage.  We are getting new floors on Friday so we had some prep work to do inside before the guys get here and start moving our furniture around.  We also cleaned out the garage, hall closet and nursery.  Hopefully in the next few weeks we can start working on little boy's room.  I'm really stuck on decor, but that is neither here nor there.  

Sunday night before dinner at the McD's Matt was able to get in some duck hunting.  Can you see him here?

How about here?

Now??

Next weekend we will be living with Sara while our floors are put in.  I will be glad when this process is over but it will sure be a pain while installation is taking place.  Pray for us!  

17 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 17 weeks

Size of baby: turnip

Gender: BOY!!!

Maternity Clothes: I'm in a weird in-between stage where neither is comfortable.  I can fit in most of my work pants, but not jeans.  Although maternity jeans fall down all day!

Weight gain: 3 pounds

Movement: He moved for me last night!  It was wonderful!

Sleep: I still catch myself on my stomach some nights, but overall I've been sleeping pretty good

Symptoms: still the dry nose and add restless legs at night

Cravings: none that I can remember
What I miss: Diet Coke, getting dressed in 2 minutes and not changing every outfit 3 times

Best moment this week: his little dance party last night!  

Best husband moment/quote: Seeing Matt's face when I discussed childbirth and breastfeeding classes...lol!
Notes: My belly has officially "popped" and my kids are loving it!  Everyday they ask about the baby and how I'm feeling.  It's probably just to get out of doing work, but I love talking about him!  :)

Gender reveal party

We had so much fun last Tuesday sharing our joy over our little BOY with our friends and families.  I'm telling you...there is NO better feeling than seeing your loved ones so incredibly happy for you!  Baby McDaniel- you are SO LOVED by SO many people!

The Decor: Since we had MLK Day off the day before our ultrasound, I spent the day decorating the house in pink and blue.  It was super, super easy and literally took me a few hours and zero prep.

Dining room.  Baby pictures of us on the table and pregnancy symptoms on the lights.

Each circle listed symptoms from each gender to help our guests guess

Banner in the kitchen

Kitchen table

Baby Matt and Amanda :)

Cupcakes and cake balls from Lauren

Guests signed a page for the baby's scrapbook

I had my pregnancy scrapbook out for guests to see

The huge box we held the balloons in until the big reveal

The Guests: We had our friends and families over to share the news and it was perfect.  Not too many people but everyone there was SO EXCITED!  We seriously have so much LOVE for this little one.

Aunt Laura

Cousin Love (I'm seriously sticking my belly out here!)

Nana and PawPaw

Mama K and Daddy J

Uncle Robby, Mason and Aunt Stephie

"Cousin" lovin

Team Pink!

Team Blue!

The Reveal: I went shopping with Missy the day before and she just so happened so buy some chairs from PB that came in this box.  It was perfect!  I wrapped it in paper and cut out the letters on my Cricut.  After the ultrasound Matt and I ran to HEB (and hid from several of our students...of course) and bought the ballons.  When everyone was there we let our moms open the box.  Surprise!!! 

A big thanks to everyone who came to love on our baby boy.  We are so blessed with such wonderful friends and family...I can't say that enough.  I know we will have so many babysitters and "aunts" and "uncles" to love on our little one and just can't wait to meet him!  

And just because I love this picture...

16 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 16 weeks

Size of baby: avocado..yum!

Gender: BOY!!!

Maternity Clothes: I'm in a weird in-between stage where neither is comfortable.  I can fit in most of my work pants, but not jeans.  Although maternity jeans fall down all day!

Weight gain: 3 pounds...finally!

Movement: none since what I may have felt last week, but looking forward to some flutters in the next few weeks.  The ultrasound tech said yesterday he was deeper than most babies, and my stomach muscles are preventing me from feeling anything yet

Sleep: I still catch myself on my stomach some nights, but overall I've been sleeping pretty good

Symptoms: dry nose and nosebleeds...yuck!

Cravings: salad, which the oddest craving ever because I've never been a fan of salad
What I miss: sleeping on my stomach, Diet Coke, only peeing 3 times a day

Best moment this week: finding out that we are having a BOY!!

Best husband moment/quote: I told Matt last week the baby could hear us so we needed to talk to it at night.  Last night once we knew he was a boy he started talking football to him.  Melt my heart.  
Notes: Going shopping this weekend for boy stuff!  So fun!!

It's a....

BOY!!!!

We are so stinking excited about our little football player!! (or tennis, baseball, basketball...whatever makes him happy)  The doctor said she is 100% FOR SURE and we can paint the walls and go shopping which is exactly what I plan to do this weekend.  

Love you so much, little BOY McDaniel! :)

Football player or cheerleader?

Well...tomorrow is the BIG day!  Despite my pleas of waiting, Matt has decided that we ARE finding out the sex of our baby, no questions asked.  He's so excited and just ready to know one way or the other.  I also think he thinks knowing the gender will help with our ongoing name game.  I give him points there, at least it will eliminate 1/2 of the names on our fridge.

I still have NO IDEA either way if this baby is a boy or girl.  I don't understand how people just "know." I guess it's just a lucky guess, lol.  I think I'm going to be surprised either way and just so overjoyed to see our little one on the ultrasound again.  I can't wait to see the little hands and feet and watch the movement (haven't felt anything since the flutters last week.)  Praying our little one cooperates so we can know for sure...football player or cheerleader??

And for you, here's a list of old wives tales and which side we are leaning towards, enjoy!

• Heart rate > 140 bpm points to...GIRL
• Needle/ring test points to...BOY
• Craving sweets points to...GIRL
• Little morning sickness points to...BOY
• Chinese Gender Chart point to...GIRL
• Dry hands point to...BOY
• Mayan rule of even and odd points to...GIRL
• Feet colder than normal points to...BOY
• Skin break-out points to...GIRL
• Not feeling moody points to...BOY
• Husband gaining "sympathy weight points to...GIRL
• Carrying in front points to...BOY
• Prefer to sleep on right side points to...GIRL

So it's pretty close!  Like I said, I'll be surprised either way tomorrow.  We are having our friends and family over tomorrow night for the gender reveal and I CANNOT WAIT to see their faces!  I think all of them are glad we are finding out so they can start shopping, lol.

And for my sister, please vote in the poll at the top.  :)

HIMYM

One of my favorite things to do when I have the time is find a great TV show on Netflix, and watch all the seasons over the course of a few weeks.  That's how I started out my summer last year with Friday Night Lights.  It's the best way to watch a show because 1) there are no commercials, even ones you have to fast forward through, 2) the jokes in the show make more sense since (weird to see those two words back-to-back) you remember the reference, 3) like a book, it's easy to get "sucked in" and relate to the show.

Over Christmas break Matt and I started watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  I had watched the show before, but not weekly and I didn't ever set my DVR to record.  There were 6 seasons available on Netflix with the 7th on air, so it was the perfect choice for us.

source

I am so glad we started watching!  I know we're late to the game, but this show is so funny!  It's perfect for us because each episode is only 22 minutes long, so we watch and episode or two every night before we go to sleep and doesn't take up too much of our time.  I love going to be laughing! Barney is hilarious, and you have to just love Ted.  I can't wait to see how he meets his wife, lol!  

Some of my favorites:

• Legend-wait for it-dary
• Have you met Ted?
• Bro me
• Suit up!
• The blue french horn (I still want Robin and Ted to work out)
• The suit song
• High fives
• The slap bet
• Marshall and Lily

I should add that the top girl name on Matt's list right now is Alyson, after Alyson Hannigan.  Yeah, he's slightly obsessed.  Ask him what Jason Segal or Alyson Hanigan's last tweets were and he can tell you.

We're just started season 6, so we still have quite a bit of watching to do until we catch up to the episodes on TV.  We've started taking it slow so we don't get too close to the end, lol.  We don't want to finish season 6 and not have season 7 ready for us to start on Netflix.  

Do you watch HIMYM?  Once we finish, are there any other shows you can recommend for us on Netflix?

15 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 15 weeks

Size of baby: apple

Gender: still no sign either way but Matt has decided we are going to find out! 

Maternity Clothes: YES! In this picture both the shirt and jeans are maternity!  There are in the smallest sizes I could possibly find, but still maternity nonetheless!  

Weight gain: was so sick last week with the flu/virus that I had to have lost weight

Movement: MAYBE! Monday night we were watching the Bama/ LSU game and I noticed these little flutters on my right side.  A little later I noticed them again and laid my hand on top of them.  If it wasn't little baby kicks I don't know what it was!

Sleep: the days of sleeping on my stomach are officially over.  I've slept on my stomach for 28 years, I don't know how to change!  I am going to buy one of those pregnancy pillows I hear such good things about

Symptoms: last week I was home with a nasty virus so I haven't been feeling well 

Cravings: salad, which the oddest craving ever because I've never been a fan of salad
What I miss: sleeping on my stomach, Diet Coke, only peeing 3 times a day

Best moment this week: feeling the baby move!!

Best husband moment/quote: Matt was SO excited (and a little jealous) I felt the baby move.  He immediately ran to get the doppler so we could listen to the heartbeat together. 
Notes: I think I'm officially "showing" (even if I have to pooch it out a little) so my kids know the big news, although that's a separate story in itself