Spring Happenings

This past Saturday I hosted a baby shower for Matt, Brooke, and sweet Baby E. Brooke is now just about 2 weeks away from her due date. We can hardly wait to meet her beautiful little angel.

At the shower we enjoyed some games, delicious food, and great company.

Brooke and Little E got some fantastic gifts. She is one lucky baby.

Can you believe Matt's sister made these?

Our babies will be exactly 4 1/2 months apart. I am so excited for them to become great little friends, and for us to experience being moms for the first time, together.

Saturday morning, we headed out to the end of our street to watch the marathoners run by. We saw many people we know, but were there mostly to cheer Rachel (Josh's sister) on. She did awesome! We live at mile 7.5, right where you are starting to get a titch uncomfortable, and she looked like she could have kept going all day. She is such a champ.

I have to admit, I was really sad I wasn't able to participate this year. It is for a good cause and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I miss this run. I have done it the past few years and that morning I wanted to be out there with the rest of the runners again. I am excited for next year though, Baby and Josh will be out at the end of our street, waiting to cheer me on as I run by. I don't think anything could be sweeter more motivating.

Our Easter Week

The first week of April my parents came up for a week at their cabin. I always love when my family comes to town. I love them and am always sad when they leave. Since I am so far behind in posting, my words will be short and sweet and the pictures will pretty much explain our week.

The first day in my dad decided there would be no ice or snow left on his deck by the time he left (even though it was still falling from our roof and the sky that week). This included the use of axes, blow torches and several types of shovels.

We built a fire with our left over Christmas light poles, the only problem was, they were soaking wet.

So of course the blow torch was pulled out again.

We built a snowman. This was no ordinary snowman. The men insisted it be 8 feet tall, so it was. Physics and strength were the two main ingredients used to put this sucker together.

We had Matt and Brooke up for dinner, which was lovely.

Afterward, we dyed Easter eggs.

Easter Sunday was spent relaxing, watching conference, and with family.

I remember doing this when I was a kid. Isn't Claire just precious?

The kiddies waiting in Grandma and Grandpa's elevator to go downstairs for the egg hunt.

They got more candy then anyone could possibly ever eat.

Me and my sweet grandma. I love her and wish I could see her more.

The end.

I need opinions

So, given our current circumstance, we are in the market for a stroller. Here are the 3 brands I think I've narrowed it down to and I need onions/thoughts/suggestions, etc:

First of all, we have the Uppababy:

I'm pretty much only looking at the Vista model. Thoughts?


The Bugaboo is also a contender:

But, which is better, the Cameleon or the Frog?

Last, but not least, is the BOB:

I'm not sure which style to go with for the BOB, I've just heard really good things about it, as I have with the other brands. What to do, what to do? If you know anything about strollers, or if you have reviews to give on any of these, please help!

The verdict is in

and apparently I was way off because we are having a girl!
I am still in shock and in a bit of denial. I think a wiener is going to pop up in our next ultrasound because I was SO SURE we were having a boy. Here are some of our ultrasound images from yesterday:

Her girl parts:

Her little footie:

And my personal favorite, her precious profile:

It's amazing how much she has changed in just three weeks. Last time we saw her she was tiny and still semi-blob like. She was extremely active at our first ultrasound and had plenty of room to bounce around. Yesterday she was still active but it was quite obvious she was more snug in there, which means I'm going to explode any day now. She was being shy at first and it took a good 10-15 minutes for us to get a good clear crotch shot. She kept crossing her feet and sitting Indian style so we couldn't see anything. Then when she finally uncrossed, she put her hand down there to cover herself. It was pretty funny. Toward the last few minutes she gave us some good views of what she's made of.

Immediately after our ultrasound I wanted to go buy something fun and girly so I headed to Baby Gap, and Josh went into a gun shop. We were both taking care of business. It's funny what we each thought we would need for our little girl.

We are so excited for our precious little one to get here! We have a huge responsibility raising a daughter and we are scared out of our minds about it, but it will be the biggest blessing of our lives. We hope that she has good self-esteem and that she grows up a happy and healthy person. We love her so much already and already worry about her. I can only imagine what we will feel once we have her in our arms.

We love you Baby Girl!

Male or Female?

Tomorrow we should find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We can hardly wait and it is all I can think about. Cross you fingers that baby doesn't cross it's legs. We are hoping for a clear shot!

I miss you...

This cute boy:

has been here:

all week. I'm ready for him to come home tonight.

I don't sleep well when he isn't around.
I get nervous someone is going to come kidnap me and take my baby. Weird I know, but I get really paranoid when I'm alone at night.

Plus, life is just better when he's with me.

Happy Birthday Aunt Lindsay

Josh and I decided that we would each be in charge of sharing our exciting news with our own families. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold the news in long, so I had think of something FAST! That is just what I did. The day after we made the discovery ourselves was my sister's birthday. We were to pick her and Curtis (her boo) up from the airport so they could spend her birthday weekend with some friends at the family cabin.

We told her we left her gift at our house so we had to stop by and get it, while we were at it we would sing Happy Birthday to her with the family on iChat. So, we sat her on the office chair and proceeded with the birthday song. This is what her birthday cupcakes read:

And here is video of how it all went down:

I think my favorite part of that video is Curtis in the background, "Oh no, I know what that says!" Hehehe.

Josh decided that a couple of days later, while we were having Sunday dinner at his mum's house, he would spill the beans (after Rachel had already figured it out). He sarcastically announced, very nonchalantly, "So, we don't know who the father is but Courtney is pregnant."
Oh the difference between boys and girls.

Is she fat, or is she pregnant?

We are 100% pleased to announce the upcoming birth of our first child!!!!

That's right folks, we are pregnant! We found out two months ago, and it has been the hardest secret to keep. Well, we didn't keep it too much of a secret. Papa Spiker got a little excited about becoming a grandfather and spilled the beans to just about everyone he ran into. Josh and I also had a hard time keeping it to ourselves, but we wanted to wait until we heard that magical heartbeat to share our news with the cyber world. How can you bottle up such fantastic news as this? It seemed impossible.

We found out in January that we were expecting. I have been working with a fertility doctor over the past few months. I hadn't started any meds but was supposed to go in every two weeks (for 6 months) for lab work, to check my hormone levels. I had a sneaking suspicion that I was pregnant so I had them throw in a blood HCG test just in case. I really, really didn't think I could possibly be pregnant. If you knew my history you would think it wasn't likely either. Low and behold, I call for my results 2 hours later and the tech ever so casually tells me that my pregnancy test came back positive. I was in COMPLETE shock. I didn't even let myself get my hopes up for a positive this time around. I have taken dozens of home and blood pregnancy tests and ovulation kits over the past few year, that have all come back negative. I was suspicious but didn't think it was possible, so I was seriously surprised. I called back three times and talked to different lab techs to make sure I was given the right information. Sure enough I was! We ran right out and bought a few at home tests (I know I'm crazy, the blood work is 100% correct. I just had to see it with my own eyes). What do you know, within seconds that second pink line that I have been dreaming of appeared. We were overjoyed.

Yesterday we had our first doctor appointment and ultrasound. It was so amazing watching our little babe bounce all around the screen. He (we don't know the sex yet but I ALWAYS refer to the baby as a boy. I need to stop but can't.) was extremely active and did flips and huge jumps for us. He seemed really excited. He also gave us a wave and did some karate kicks and punches. He already has a hard time holding still and saying cheese for the camera. His heartbeat was very strong and is measuring right on track. We were so excited and a bit relieved to know everything looked perfect. Baby is due September 21.

In the picture below, Josh likes to think the umbilical cord is the baby's boy part. That would just be sick.

Here he is kicking his little feeties for us.

So, if you couldn't tell, we are beyond excited to be pregnant. We feel so blessed and are already so in love with our little bundle. I can't wait for him to get here! I love that Josh and I get to experience this together. There is no one in the world I would rather become a parent with and I know he is going to be the best dad out there. I think he'll be a lot like my dad, and my dad is the best. He has been as excited as I have been since we found out about the baby and that makes my heart jump with joy. He has been so sweet and caring with me. He is very attentive and is there at my every whim. I love him more than ever. He talks to the baby every day, and always makes sure we are both happy and comfortable.

Welcome to our family little babe. We love you!

Post edit: I think I made it sound like we had been trying for this baby for a long time and that we had had fertility issues. We actually weren't. We thought it would take much longer than it did, and it was exciting and surprising to us that it happened so quickly. We anticipated problems that we didn't run into.