23 Week Update *Happy 6th Anniversary*

From this day forward, let us laugh together, and plan together,
let us find our favorite places and go together.
Let us enjoy the sunshine, and the rain,
being alone together, and in crowds together.
From this day forward, together,
let us love...

We celebrated our 6th anniversary this week. It's astonishing to think that six years has passed by already...we did not do much the weekend of our anniversary. We shopped for the babies (UPS dumped half a garage full of boxes on us later that week), went shopping and out to eat. It was a lovely day spent together. We're officially celebrating our anniversary at a later date in Nashville; we're heading to The Hermitage Hotel for a weekend away. It's a luxury 5 star/5 diamond hotel and I'm looking forward to relaxing for a weekend!! I hope I know how to behave in this ritzy hotel ;) Wow, 6 years...we've moved states, changed jobs, bought 2 houses, and experienced a lot of ups and few downs. We are finally on our way to making our dream of a family come true...I must admit, this aspect has made this anniversary a very happy one! I would not want to experience all that life has to offer with anyone else. It's been a great journey so far...

In case you are wondering what these first two pictures are...the first year anniversary the traditional gift is paper. We both decided to adhere to this our first year of marriage. One of the items I bought C was an empty journal with the printed page above in it. Each year we take a few hours together (typically with a nice bottle of Pinot Noir) and answer each of these questions. **The questions, in case you cannot read them due to the poor pic I posted are: 1. Anniversary Trip 2. Anniversary gifts 3. Where we are living 4. Best memories of the past year 5. Worst memories of the past year 6. Current jobs and salaries 7. Current cars 8. pets 9. Miscellaneous 10. Hopes/dreams for the following year.** We also read over each of the previous years and share a lot of laughs, and sometimes tears, while reading through the previous entries. The past few years, the worst memories and hopes/dreams for the following year have always involved IF and desperately wanting children. It will be interesting to fill out this years because things have certainly changed in these areas! The purpose of this is to look how much we've grown over the years. I hope to share this with our children one day at our 50th wedding anniversary. I'm sure our jobs, salaries and cars will be quite entertaining to read 40+ years from now! We haven't filled out this years yet, but I'm looking forward to a lovely evening reminiscing!

Week 23 has flown by! I'm in the sixth month of pregnancy. Utter amazement. With all the house obligations on both ends there does not seem to be enough hours in the day (nor energy on my part) to get everything accomplished. I started to feel a tad bit uncomfortable at night. Aside from waking every two hours to pee, I now have to stretch my hips when I get up because they are getting sore. My belly seems to be expanding so quickly!! I read, in one of my many pregnancy books, that by the end of the month the babies will double their weight!! They start to gain fat this month and I think I can definitely tell they are growing.

Their kicks are getting a lot stronger. The day before our anniversary was the first day C was able to feel them kick. It was a beautiful moment. I'm excited he can now feel their movements!! It makes me feel like he is more connected to the pregnancy.

I'm definitely still more tired and can sleep anytime, anyplace. What happened to that second trimester energy spurt? It's dwindled...

As far as cravings, I'm still jonesing for in the shell peanuts, organic chocolate soy milk, fruit and sugar free pops. My only aversions include foods with too much spice and onions.

Overall, I hope things continue to sail smoothly. Yup, I'm uncomfortable, get short of breath easily and feel tired, but these are certainly nothing to complain about. They are all welcome. I think I'm one of those ladies that really thoroughly enjoys being pregnant. I keep telling C I want to do this again...you should see his face when I say that!

We had inspections on our house and the house we're buying this week as well. Both turned up unremarkable. We have one issue to get fixed on our roof; we got a new roof this past year and the roofers need to move a vent. We measured all the rooms in our new house while it was being inspected and formulated a game plan for painting and furniture placement. We had about 5 hours to spend in the house and it was great!! I am completely in love. I kept wondering what we would do with all the extra space (it's about twice the size of our current house), but then I thought about all the baby items taking over our garage and bonus room and realized I knew what would fill the space! Wandering around the new house for hours led me to have swollen sausage toes, but I came home, elevated my feet, and thankfully they went away. **Side note-having reclining furniture is a must if you are pregnant!! I'm most comfortable kicking back with my feet up** Everything is moving forward with both houses and we'll be in our new one in about 2 weeks....hard to believe!!

Our huge UPS shipment this week included all of baby girl's furniture, girl and boy's bedding, a double stroller, a play mat, breast feeding items and other odds and ends. We're shortly hitting viability and the overwhelming need I have to purchase these items has taken over. We have a lot more to purchase, but I'm holding off on most of it until we move. The first rooms to get set up in the new house will be the nurseries!!

Prayers for a continued smooth journey on the pregnancy and houses!!