A boy and his birds

I'm taking a much needed vacation day today as we are heading to Pittsburgh early this afternoon ... and, I just love having a few hours to get a few things done around the house. I finally found some valences to hang in the kitchen, breakfast nook and family room to complete the room and had Sherwin Williams make a custom paint color to touch up a few patches we'd made to the walls (who knew they could make a custom color, btw?? and they did it for free). Anywho, I was removing the old curtain rods and attempting to hang new ones when the kittens started going crazy. They love looking out the windows and it's an added bonus when they see a bird or a rabbit or a deer (no joke, we have deer in our yard regularly) ... but today put them into kitty heaven ... a flock of no fewer than 100 birds were in and out of the yard all morning, collecting pieces of dried grass, twigs and berries. It was a constant cycle of flocking in and out and Milo and Daisy just sat there in awe ... I wouldn't be surprised if we came home on Saturday evening to them sitting in the same spots.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I have so much to be thankful this year and can't wait to share the holiday with my wonderful family!!

Baby Kelly as an Appetizer Platter

Other than a few books I have at home, I get most of my information related to the pregnancy from BabyCenter.com as they have a great weekly e-mail newsletter and easy-to-find quick answers to random questions. One of the features I love the most is their comparison of the baby's size to common food items ... hence the many nicknames I've called Baby Kelly. We've graduated from a poppy seed to a lime in a matter of 10 weeks, something I find absolutely amazing.

I'm officially in my last week of the first trimester and feeling pretty good. I dodged any major morning sickness and my fingers are crossed that sticks for the next 27 weeks. I dealt with a lot of fatigue and some afternoon nausea, but nothing unbearable. I've been fighting a cold/cough for about 4 weeks now and hope the meds my doctor gave me this past week kick it for good.

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I can't believe I'm already a third of the way there!

** All photos are from BabyCenter.com **

Happy Birthday Mike!

Mike's birthday was on October 23, but better late than never to post about it, right! Mike is seven months older than me and I LOVE to remind him of that every year around this time. This year we decided to combine his birthday weekend with a visit to his brothers in Cleveland, which is also only a 2-hour drive for his parents from Pittsburgh. We also knew when we planned the trip that we'd be able to share the news about Baby Kelly with everyone in person, so it was perfect.

We drove up Saturday morning, had lunch at the Great Lakes Brewery with his brothers, checked out the West Side Market and then hit up the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the entire family. We only had about an hour and a half at "The Rock," but that was perfect with our combined ADD. If you ever find yourself in Cleveland, it's a neat stop; they have standing exhibits as well as featured exhibits, The Boss was featured during our visit.

Mike begrudgingly posed for this picture on our way out (no cameras allowed inside).

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The rest of the day was spent with family at dinner and sharing our news. Mike's brother picked an awesome place, Pier W, I save up all of my fish "allowance" for the week to enjoy dinner here and it was totally worth it. Of course everyone was thrilled with their "tickets" to the big event and the homemade Apple and Chocolate Cream pies Mike's Mom brought with her were the literal icing on the cake of a great weekend.

Friday Funny: How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas

Megan's Mom posted this on Facebook yesterday and I couldn't help but post here ... hilarious ... and also a great way to start getting into the Holiday spirit!

Go Big Blue!

Mike and I lucked into the most beautiful weather for a November football game that I can remember. Way back in the summer I purchased tickets through the Alumni Association for the Vandy game thinking "it'll probably be cold and miserable, but at least we'll have a good shot at winning" ... boy was I wrong (about the weather, luckily not the winning!). We popped down Saturday morning, parked at a friend's house that lives within 10 minutes walking distance and had great seats. Also through the Alumni Association, we were able to get two sets of lower level seats for this coming basketball season.

Go Big Blue!

As an added bonus, we found naming inspiration should Baby Kelly be a boy (we aren't finding out the gender, btw) ... In case you can't read above, Shipwreck Kelly played for UK 1929-31 ... I think it has a nice ring to it : )

World Premiere

During October we were out of town several weekends in a row ... it was tiring, but all for a great reason. We wanted to invite our parents to the "Event of 2011" happening in Cincinnati next May:
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That's right, I have a bun in the oven and we are thrilled!

We found out just as I had returned from my girl's trip to San Francisco and the longest three and a half weeks of my life occurred between then and my first OB appointment. Luckily everything looked great during the visit, but they wanted to take a peek at Baby Kelly before I headed across the pond to London ... fine by me if it meant to get to see our little peanut earlier than usual. Seeing the little gummy bear below was just amazing and hearing the heartbeat put us both over the edge.

We had decided to wait to tell our parents until after my first appointment and were lucky enough to do so in person. Needless to say, they are thrilled as well. The rouse that we were giving them tickets to show in Cincinnati provided quite the double-takes ("who is Baby Kelly? is that a new artist?"), which added to the level of surprise and was perfect.

First Photo - Baby Kelly at 9 weeks

I went for my second OB appointment this past week and again all of my labs looked great. Baby Kelly, however decided not to be cooperative when the doctor went to hear the heartbeat. Although the doctor wasn't worried, he knew I would be and ordered an ultrasound. Again, it was amazing to see the little fig bouncing around the heartbeat was music to my ears.

Baby Kelly at 12 weeks

Unless Baby Kelly is uncooperative at my next appointment, we won't see our little peanut again until early January when I'm about 18 -20 weeks. Speaking of weeks, I'm 12 weeks today and after the measurements from the first scan, my due date was moved up a few days to May 28, aka my birthday. I know that only a small percent of babies are born on their due date, but for now it's fun to have a birthday buddy : ) And, so help Mike for the next 60 or so years in the month of May as our anniversary is the 23rd ... I figure that makes it easy to remember, right?

Still Kickin' ...

Yikes, it's been almost a month since my last post??!! I was really on a roll ...

I made it back from London, had a great time, but brought a lovely souvenir called a "cold with a nasty cough" back. The time change didn't get me, it was the hacking up a lung the day after I landed that wasn't so pleasant. Before the trip we hired a couple new gals at work and they're doing great, but I had to spend significant time transitioning; now that they're a few weeks in, I'm reaping the benefits of four extra hands on our team. And during all of this, we were out of town several weekends. OK, enough excuses ... look for some posts with fun pictures coming soon!

And, in the meantime, to prove I actually crossed the pond, here is a phone picture of Buckingham Palace right before I saw the changing of the guards (very cool, btw!).
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