Merry Christmas at nineteen weeks

Here's a picture of my baby belly at 19 weeks...starting to be a little more evident now!  We go for our 20 week sonogram next week, & we're still deciding whether or not to find out the sex of our little one.  I still think we will, but I suppose anything's possible with Craig & me!  :)  Either way, we'll definitely be posting Baby's latest photo shoot next week!  Can't wait to see how big he/she has gotten...I know I'm definitely feeling lots more of his/her movements every single day!  What an awesome feeling!  We are already so blessed!

I also wanted to take a second to wish everyone a very safe & Merry Christmas!  It's hard to believe it's already here!  Be safe in all of your travels this holiday season, & enjoy all of those Christmas cookies & candies!  I know we will!  :)  Lots of love & Happy Holidays to you & yours!!!

All our love,
Craig, Ash, Erica, Julia, & Baby  :)

our little kicker

I just had to pass on that, although I have been feeling the little kicks & punches from our babe for about 2 weeks, Daddy finally got to feel his first karate chop late last week!  :)  We were laying in bed ready to fall asleep, & our (very active) little one started going crazy!  Although I haven't been able to feel anything externally yet, Craig was able to feel the movement that night!  I have tried several times to catch the baby moving, but I think he or she knows when I'm trying to feel the movements, so instead he/she freezes!  Go figure...already ornery!  I think Craig & I both already knew we'd have plenty of our own orneriness coming in paybacks!  :)

18 weeks & baby c's 3rd check up

It's hard to believe that Christmastime will be the halfway mark for our pregnancy!  So far, it's been going pretty quickly & very smoothly!  I have to say, there's not a thing I can complain about!  We went for our third check up last Thursday - December 9th, & Baby & I are progressing exactly as Dr Ertmoed said we should be.  Although, I still don't have much of a "bump", I have started to gain a little weight now.  I figure in the next week or two weeks, it'll be much more evident.  I'm definitely not complaining...& hopefully, with any luck at all, the weight will continue to come on slowly!  Here's a picture of my baby belly at 18 weeks...

We go back on the 29th for our next visit & our 20 week ultrasound.  We are still a little unsure if we'll find out the sex, but I'm thinking we probably will!  My impatience might be getting the best of BOTH of us!  :) 

We also went shopping for Baby's new furniture after our last appointment, & we found the perfect set that we both LOVED!  I can't wait until after Christmas when we can start rearranging our house so that the nursery can be on the first floor of our house with our bedroom.  We are both getting very excited for that change, & the girls are more than ecstatic!  They ask us nearly every hour (no exaggeration there) when we will start moving things & making their little brother or sister's room!  I think they are having just as much fun with the anticipation as we are!  They'll be GREAT big sisters...& I can already tell, they will be so much help to me!

Speaking of big sisters...we also celebrated Julia's 6th birthday this past weekend.  We had a bowling birthday party for her on Saturday with her classmates (we did the same with Erica for her first year in school).  Julia had an absolute blast.  There were about 15 kids total, counting a few siblings that came along.  Thank goodness it all went smoothly...no one went down the lane with their ball or anything!  So, we all had a good time celebrating.

Aside from everything else that's been going on...I am MORE than ready for those pregnancy hot flashes to start kicking in!  It is FREEZING here!  At least there's some snow on the ground to make it a little more worthwhile...but, I'm getting ready for May in way more ways than just one, now!

sneak peek!

Thought you all might like a quick sneak peek of our Christmas card for 2010!  So, here ya have it...

I thought we better get at least one more good picture as a family of four before we are PLUS ONE!  :)  Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  It's still hard to believe it's already December - also hard to believe that little Miss Julia just turned SIX, in three & a half weeks, we'll be halfway through this pregnancy, & Christmas is almost here!  Where does the time go?!?  By the way...Baby Corzine is an avocado this week according to babycenter.com & is also starting to be able to hear!  Next Wednesday (Dec 8th) is our next appoinment for a check-up, & then the very next visit will be the ultrasound to determine the sex if we choose to find out (which has been a really tough decision for us)!  We'll definitely update on Baby's progress after we visit Dr Ertmoed next week!