Cambry's Room & 38 Weeks!

We finished Cambry's room a little while back but am just now getting around to posting some pictures/collages that Steve took of it. We are really happy with how it turned out and now we are just waiting on our sweet baby girl to decide when she wants to come see it!

This is a shelf that my Grandfather built for my room when I was a little girl. We painted it black and it fit perfectly over her dresser. Also, my dad gave us the "Little Princess" sign for Christmas just after we had found out we were having a girl. It's special to us because he had been calling our baby "Little Princess" ever since we found out we were pregnant because he just "knew" it was going to be a girl. :)


I decided to try and be crafty! I made the lamp shade and the bow holder--both of which I saw on other people's blogs.


I found the sweet wall hanging with that saying on it in Canton. I had seen it each month when my mom & I were there and everytime I would tear up when I read it. When we decided to go with a pink/black theme, I knew I had to get it!


My mom made the cute curtains and we added pink & green ribbon to the top of them. I know you can't see a full shot of them, but she did a wonderful job!

This is this "dollhouse" that my Grandfather built for my sisters and I when we were little. It got passed down from room to room growing up. It was painted like a dollhouse but its meant to be used as storage inside. Our sweet family friend, Jenna, repainted it to go in Cambry's room. We absolutely love it! Thanks, Jenna!

Finally, I had my 38 week appt. yesterday. Surprise, surprise--my body has not done anything, although Cambry did decide to wiggle back down in her "dropped" position. My doctor is still predicting I will make it to 40 weeks or later due to my family history of my mom being late with my sisters and I and how my body is doing nothing yet. We talked about a tenative induction date of May 4 if she hasn't arrived by my due date of April 30! It's wierd to think I could be having her in May when all this time I have had April in my head. We know that God has His perfect timing of her arrival and we are anxious to meet her whenever that may be!

38 week pic--Steve was testing out his new white background.

37 week update

Yesterday I had my 37 week appt. Everything is still going smoothly. We are just waiting for my body to progress some. I am not showing any signs of labor any time soon. The last 2 appointments I had the doctor said Cambry had dropped. But, yesterday when I went, she said somehow she has moved up some. She is still head down, but not as low as she was. So, we apparently are still on the 40 week plan, which we are just fine with. We are so thankful Cambry is now full term and whenever she decides to come, we are ready!

On another note, I finished my last day of work yesterday for the rest of the year! YAY!! It was definitely a bitter sweet time as I really have loved my class this year, but I am super excited about having 2-3 weeks to be able to get some final things done around the house, wash Cambry's little clothes, and just rest and relax some. I sure am looking forward to starting my new job as a Mommy!!

Shower Time!

I had 2 more baby showers last week which I am so thankful for! On Wednesday I had my school baby shower. There are actually 3 out of the 6 of us pregnant on my team, so the rest of our team threw a triple baby shower for us. We are all having girls so they went with the theme "1st grade is Wild about Baby Girls!" It was so cute! I didn't have my camera but hopefully I can get some pics soon from a friend.

On Saturday, I had my family & friends shower in Carrollton. Two of our good family friends and three of my close friends/college roommates hosted it. It was decorated just darling in Cambry's nursery colors and had cute little touches of baby girl all around! I was definitely showered with many wonderful gifts for Cambry and shed tears of joy multiple times--surprise, surprise. :) My friends and family are such a sweet blessing! Thank you for such a beautiful shower, ladies!
I forgot to take my camera out again until the end, but here are a few I have.

Shower Hostesses...sorry I was covering you up, Donna!

The delicious brunch set up

Cute diapers with candy corn in them


Long time friends!Katie, Sarah, Emily, Me, Cindy (holding Ashley's baby), Ashley

I love how everyone is in warm clothes b/c it was 35 degrees on March 28! Too bad I only had a spring dress to wear! :)

35 weeks

I can't believe 35 weeks has almost already come and gone! We got to have a sonogram (FINALLY!) on Friday. Apparently, after the 20 week appt, they don't do anymore sonograms unless they are needed due to insurance coverage. But, my doctor said that near the end if there wasn't a need, she would "try to find a need" so that I could get one last peek! So, she said that I could have one and she would say it was to find out if the baby was head up/down, even though she could already tell. YAY! We got to see our precious Cambry and it was so amazing to see how much she had grown and developed since our 20 week appt! She was just beautiful and she had the chubbiest little cheeks that we are looking forward to kissing and squeezing in just a few weeks! They also confirmed for me that indeed she is a girl! WHEW! The sonogram showed that I am still measuring on track and she is estimated to weigh 6 lbs, 1 oz right now! That sounds big to me at this point, but they said she was in the 57th percentile, so I am hoping she won't have a huge growth spurt between now & delievery time. :) We are getting more and more excited each day, if that is even possible! We can't wait to meet our baby girl!!

5 years ago...

I married the man of my dreams! Steve and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on Friday, March13. (yes, this blog is a little dated) We decided we wanted to go back to an all time favorite of ours, The Melting Pot. We went for some cheese and chocolate fondue. We are usually too full to enjoy the chocolate fondue at the end, so this time we opted out of the meat fondue. It was actually the perfect amount of food. Delicious! We can't believe it has already been 5 years, as we think the time has just flown by. I guess its true that time flies when you're having fun! The past 5 years have been the best 5 years of our lives and we are looking forward to starting this new journey together as parents in just a few weeks!

Our First Shower!

Steve and I had our first baby shower last weekend with our lifegroup. It was absolutely beautiful I couldn't contain my tears...pregnancy hormones, I suppose! The decor was in our nursery colors (pink & black damask) and they had a sweet princess theme going on. We enjoyed baked potatos, fruit salad & ceasar salad for dinner and we had strawberry cheesecake for dessert (our favorite!). They showered us with many wonderful gifts for Cambry and I was so excited about them all that I stayed up late that night trying to organize some of it in her room! FUN, FUN! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends! Thank you for the wonderful shower, guys!

Isn't the "Cambry Brooke" sign so cute?!?!


This picture doesn't do it justice...the decor was so cute!!




One of our many wonderful gifts...

Maternity Pics

Some of you know that lately Steve has taken up photography as one of his hobbies. He has been accumulating some very nice photography equipment for a little studio in our formal living room. His first photo shoot with the home studio set up was my maternity pictures! He took a ton of pictures and we were both exhausted by the end!He did a FABULOUS job and we were both pleased with how they turned out. I think we've finally narrowed them down and here are a few of our favorites. I can't believe I am about to put a bare belly pic on here!! :) To see more, you can go to his website at stevenhodgsonphotography.com and go to the gallery & then maternity.

31 weeks!

This past Friday I had my 31 week appt. It was a short and sweet appointment. My doctor did a tummy check and I am still measuring right on track. Cambry's heartbeat is nice and strong. She predicted that our little girl is a little over 3 lbs. and she is estimating she will be about 7.5 lbs if I continue on this track. Considering I was over 9 lbs when I was born, 7.5 lbs sounds good to me! :) She did remind me that things could easily change and that is just a prediction! I am feeling great and just can't believe that the end is not too far away! Stay tuned for some more blog updates as soon as I get a hold of some pictures...

28 Weeks!

I am 28 weeks today (I can't believe it!!) and I had my doctor's appointment this past Friday. It was the appt. where I did my glucose test for gestational diabetes. My appt. wasn't until 4:15pm and I wasn't able to eat any sugar or starches all day. It was actually really hard to think of breakfast, lunch & snacks that didn't have any of those ingredients! But, I managed and the results came back normal! Dr. Campbell says I'm measuring right on target and I will now be starting to go every 2 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. I can't believe it is already time to start going every 2 weeks...the end is in sight!! How exciting!!

A funny thing happened at my appt. on Friday. I had layed down for her to do a tummy check and listen to the heartbeat. She put her hand on my stomach and asked if I felt how tight my stomach was. "Of course" I thought to myself, it seems likes its always tight these days. Then she said, "you're having a contraction right now." WHAT?!? I was completely shocked! It was just a Braxton Hicks contraction but I truly didn't feel anything and I couldn't believe I was having one! She said it is very normal right now, especially when you lay down after sitting or have a full bladder (both of which I had). :) It makes me wonder how often I have those and have no idea its happening! Crazy!

A few other exciting things:
We got our baby furniture in (a month earlier than expected) and we love it! We also got our bedding in (a month earlier than expected) and we love it as well! Steve finished Cambry's room as far as the painting & baseboards go and he got the crib and dresser set up in there. I am so excited to start decorating in there!

The wood floors are finished and the furniture is all moved back into our formal living/dining room. We really like the floors a lot and are glad that project is over! Thank you to Andy & Toby for helping Steve move furniture!

28 weeks:


Crib/Bedding...we don't have sheets yet but are planning on them being pink!






We are planning on having the circle thing as our lamp shade


It's obviously still a work in progress, but thought I'd give you readers a sneak preview! :)

Projects!!

We are knee-deep in projects at our house right now. Steve has been working on painting Cambry's room, which is so exciting!! We were wanting a light, soft pink color. We headed out to Lowes to get some swatches and there were a lot of great choices (so we thought). We decided between 2 to get samples of to try on the wall and woah, they were bright! So, we went with 2 others--got 2 more samples to try on the wall & they were way too bright also. We were a little frustrated b/c what was showing on the swatches was not coming out on the walls. How hard could it be to find a "soft pink"?? My mom suggested trying Sherwin Williams where they can custom blend paints. We finally found our paint after they blended a couple together. YAY!! So, Steve has been working hard on painting and he is also replacing the baseboards in there, too. It's coming together though!!

In the midst of all this, we are also having wood floors put in our formal living & dining room. This has always been something we wanted to do, but there has always been something ahead of it. We decided now is the time to do it before I quit working and before Cambry is here. So, it kind of just all came together and they came out on Monday to start working on it and they finished yetserday afternoon! We really like how it turned out!

I'm going a little crazy with all the projects & out-of-place things in our house, but I know that it will all start coming together soon! I guess you could say there is a little nesting going on at the Hodgson house! :)

Catching Up

It's been a while since I posted last! I thought I would have all this time to post over my 2 week break from teaching, but apparently I was busier than I thought I would be! So, the next few posts will be catch up posts! Beware, its long!!

Pregnancy Update

As far as pregnancy is going, things are still going good. I have been having some lower back pain pretty regularly, which surprised me b/c I didn't think she was big enough yet to be causing that, but apparently she is! My doctor says everything looks great though, so it just must be good ol' pregnancy back pain. Cambry is a little over 1 pound now (according to books) and she is kicking away. Steve has been able to feel her and see her move, which has been so neat for us both! We decided on our bedding and furniture over the Christmas break and it should all be here around the end of February. We are anxious to start working on her room! So fun!
Below is a 23 week picture of me. One of my close friends and college roommates is pregnant too, so we took a preggo picture together when she came in town from VA!

Laura & Halie


Happy New Year!!

We have a yearly tradition that started in 2000 (we think) with my college roommates & our husbands/boyfriends to all get together and have a fondue dinner! We usually try to do it over the winter break since we all live in different places now. This year it worked out for it to be on New Year's Eve. Katie's parents started the tradition for us and have always hosted it at their house, but this year Sarah & Wade graciously hosted it at their new home in Keller and did a wonderful job! We enjoyed a cheese fondue, salad, a meat & veggie fondue, and then a chocolate
fondue for dessert! Delicious! It took us about 5 hours to get through all the courses, but it was a blast and we always treasure this sweet time together. They are some of my oldest and dearest friends and I am so glad that we have a time where we are all together again, even if we don't live near each other. Love you girls! We missed you Cindy & Matt!!

Steve & I just after midnight


The Girls! Katie, Laura, Traci, Me, Sarah


The Guys! Alex, Wes, C.J., Steve, Wade


Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year with family! We spent Christmas Eve morning with my family at my parents house. Then, we headed to Conroe that afternoon for Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day with Steve's family. Then, we went out to Henderson (East Texas) for another Christmas with some of my extended family. Here are a few pictures of our time together!

Vinson Family...excuse the roughness, it was early in the A.M.!


On top of the piano, my mom always has a nativity scene out. As you might notice, there is a random dog in it. Growing up, my crazy dad always would sneak this dog in the nativity scene and my mom would always freak out and she would move it. It somehow always made its way back. After 29 years, it is still there! Gotta love my dad.

Sisters sporting our new slippers!

Cambry got a present for her room from "Pops." My dad just knew we were having a baby girl from the beginning and always referred to her as "Little Princess" when he would ask how she was doing, etc. So, it was just fitting that he got this for her! Precious!! Yes, I cried.

Family Portrait with The Hodgson's


My nephew, Clayton & I wrote a letter to Santa & his reindeer with some cookies and milk! He was so excited about leaving his letters for Santa!!


Clayton was helping Uncle Steve open a gift! What fun!!



Gaylord Getaway

Steve took me on a little weekend getaway to the Gaylord the weekend before Christmas. We had a blast! We got dressed up and enjoyed a nice steak dinner at the Old Hickory Steakhouse in the hotel. We also went to the ICE exhibit they have there. Man, was it cold (9 degrees), but it was amazing to see all that people created with ice! We enjoyed getting away from the hustle & bustle of the holidays and enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere there together! Thanks for a fun weekend, hubby! (I'm not sure where these pics are...I'll have to add them later)

Lifegroup Christmas Party

In early December we had our Lifegroup Christmas party. We ate at this yummy pizza restaurant in the new Watters Creek shops in Allen, but I can't remember the name of it. Then, we headed over to Tom & Aubrey's for our annual ornament exchange for the girls and white elephant exchange for the guys. It was wonderful celebrating the Christmas season together, as always!

The Gals! There are 5 of us pregnant...can you figure out which ones?!?

The guys sporting all their white elephant gear!

20 weeks!

I am at the half way mark!! I feel like it has been going by so fast. I am having so much fun looking at little girl stuff now and trying to figure out what we want to do for her baby room. Our latest news is that we have decided on a name--Cambry Brooke! It is neat to get to call Cambry by her name instead of just referring to her as our baby.

20 week baby bump

It's a GIRL!!!

Well, we had the big appointment today that we have been anxiously awaiting for a while now! I had a coke just before we went to make sure our little one was moving around. Well, she was sound asleep curled up in a little ball. So, our sonographer took all the measurements necessary & then started pushing around on my stomach to wake her up. She finally did a big stretch and wiggled around enough for us to see the "money" shot! Our sonographer spotted it right away and said "It's a GIRL!" We were both in COMPLETE shock b/c most of you know that I was CONVINCED we were having a little boy and Steve was leaning towards that too! I had been so convinced that all I would look at was boy stuff, boy bedding, etc! Well, we were pleasantly surprised to find out we're having a little girl! I asked her about 5 times if she was sure and she showed me multiple times to reassure me it was indeed a little girl! :)

We are both just ecstatic and in awe of the tiny miracle growing inside me! (we are still in shock too!) :) I think the sweetest part was watching her move around, rub her eyes, yawn & then start sucking her thumb. Steve and I were both thumb suckers and it looks like we have passed that trait down! Here are a few pictures of our baby girl. They even did a quick 4D sonogram for free and gave us a couple of those pictures too! Thank you Lord for this amazing blessing!



Top Left: Spinal view, she is facing down
Top Right: It's a girl view
Bottom Left: 4D sono--she is facing us, sleeping, laying on the placenta
Bottom Right: 4D sono--she is facing us, sucking her thumb & you can see her arm (also laying on placenta)

Baby Update

It has been 18 great weeks of pregnancy, literally. I feel very blessed that it has been a smooth pregnancy thus far. My belly is definitely growing! I think the most exciting thing that recently happened was that I started to feel the baby moving!

I was 17 weeks exactly and my kids had just left my classroom to go to the library, so I was still and it was quiet. I was sitting at my computer and I felt this little "tap, tap" on my lower right side as if the baby was saying "hi, I'm in here!" It kind of caught me off guard and made me wonder if that was really what I was feeling. It then happened a few minutes later in the exact same spot. I knew that must have been what it was! How exciting!! I began to feel it the next few days at night when I layed down to go to sleep and in the morning before I got out of bed. Now, I feel it regularly when ever I am still. It is the neatest feeling and sure has eased a lot of my worries!

We find out if its a boy/girl on Friday! We are anxiously awaiting and hoping our baby will cooperate that day! :) We would love to hear predictions on what you think we're having! Cast your vote on the side of our blog!

Lucy's Favorite Things...

* going to the dog park
* dryer sheets
* digging in her bed
* stealing my slippers
* chasing squirrels
* hiding under our bed
* being chased
* peanut butter
* chewing her bone
* catching lizards
* going to Gi & Pops' house
* greeting us when we get home

And, my favorite is that she loves to snuggle! We love our puppy!

God Is So Good!!

Steve and I are excited to announce that we are expecting our first baby! I am currently 12 weeks pregnant and due April 30! We consider it such a blessing that God would allow us to become parents and entrust us with such a precious gift. We are looking forward to the day we get to meet and hold our baby!

I have had what has seemed like a pretty easy 1st trimester and I am so thankful for that! I wasn't ever sick or nauseous, just had the tiredness going on. I always thought I was going to be so sick during my first trimester, as my mom was so sick with me and my sisters, so I was all geared up for that & then have been pleasantly surprised!

We have had 2 sonograms & we have heard the precious heartbeat 3 times! So exciting and miraculous! I always get so nervous before the doctor appts, but it so reassuring to either see or hear that strong heartbeat!

Thank you, Lord for this precious blessing!

Here is a picture of our 8 week sonogram:

Isn't he/she just adorable already?!?

This is my 1st trimester baby bump!

Baby Jack

Last week my long time friend from high school, Andrea, came in town for a bit from Houston to get away from the Ike situation. Her and her hubby just had their first baby 5 weeks ago and I got to meet him for the first time. Jack is just precious & loves to be held! We enjoyed catching up for the short time we had together at Tin Star! Come back & visit soon, Shephard family!

Game Time!!

Today we get to watch our first Aggie game of the season on t.v.! Even though we aren't expecting much this season, it is always fun to cheer on our Aggies! This is the site I saw just minutes before the game started.



Steve came around the corner with Lucy decked out in one of my Aggie t-shirts. I was laughing so hard! Looks like we need to invest in a dog sized shirt for her. She was trying hard to like her Aggie gear even though she couldn't walk in it. :) Gig'em Aggies!!

Baton Rouge Adventures!

Last weekend Steve and I headed out to Baton Rouge for Matt & Sarah's wedding. Matt was Steve's best man in our wedding. They had a very small family/close friends wedding at her brother's home in Baton Rouge. We were a little worried how things would pan out with the hurricane just passing through that week, but they were able to still have the wedding. It was a very quaint and sweet wedding outside around the pool.

A few funny/interesting things during our weekend out there:

*We rode on the smallest plane I have ever been on. There was 1 row of seats on each side. YIKES! Only 7 people were on the flight with us. There was a real
nice older lady from Baton Rouge who tried to explain where some restaurants were since most of the stuff was closed still from the hurricane.

* When we got there, we had to rent a car. Steve had asked for a mid-sized car rather than a tiny geo metro or something. We were given an old school mercury grand marquis. I laughed so hard, I cried. It was sitting next to all these normal cars and we were going to be cruising around in that. I eventually convinced Steve that we should ask for a different car. No problem...there were plenty to choose from. I can't remember the name of what we ended up with, but it was normal. :)

* We couldn't find many food places open, so we literally ate fried chicken for all our meals. Popeyes and Raisin'Cane's. Tasty. :) We tried to go to the only Chili's open one night but when we got there they said they were closed due to the 8:00pm curfew. Nice.

* The poor city was pretty messed up due to the hurricane. We drove around LSU's campus and a lot of the roads were completey shut down due to debris and big trees uprooted. All the streets were completely lined with huge piles of brush/debris from the hurricane. I did think it was very interesting and eye opening to see the aftermath of a hurricane.

We were so glad we got to be there to celebrate with them. They headed to Vegas for their honeymoon. Congrats, Matt & Sarah! We are so happy for you two!

Steve and our awesome ride ;)


The Newlyweds!

One week down!

This was our first week back to school with kiddos! It was a long and exhausting week, but I think I am going to really enjoy my class this year. I have a full class with 22 kids that are sweet and chatty!! In the seven years I have taught, I think this will be my most challenging year from the academic standpoint, but I am up for it! The long weekend was welcomed and it has been a refreshing one. Here's to week #2 in 1st grade!

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Michelle's baby shower

Yesterday we hosted a lifegroup baby shower for our friends, Michelle & Andy. Usually we do a couples shower, but this time while the girls were showering Michelle with gifts for baby Ryan, the guys all went to the Rangers game! Our theme was "pickles & ice cream" and we enjoyed ice cream sundaes and some salty snacks! It was really cute! I don't have any pictures of the cute set up, but I've got a few of the gals! We are excited to meet Ryan in just a few weeks!

The Mommy-To-Be and Me


Aubrey, Carrie & Rita


Melanie & Trichelle


Anna & Courtney

Lanette & Joe's wedding

On Saturday we went to Lanette & Joe's wedding. Lanette is one of my teammates and we got to share her joy this year as she got engaged in February & quickly started planning her wedding for July! Lanette looked absolutely beautiful and the wedding was wonderful! The happy couple headed out for their honeymoon in Antigua. FUN!!

The newlyweds!


The 1st grade team & our principal