Welcome Olivia Rose Beck (and some updates...)

What an exciting week it has been!! First, and most important, my first niece Olivia Rose was born on Friday at 3:59 p.m. weighing 9 lbs 4 oz. She is just the most adorable baby and I just hope that we have as healthy and beautiful of a little girl. I am so happy for Melissa and Brian! I can't wait to go over to their house to visit and get lots of practice holding her, maybe change a diaper... :)

In other baby news, we start our first childbirth class tonight! I am pretty excited and anxious to be a little more informed. So, for the next 4 Wednesdays we will hopefully learn the ins and outs of what to expect so we can be slightly more prepared. I know people say they just "winged it" but I just don't think I can do that. Hopefully we will learn a lot!

Also, I found out on Thursday that I had failed the 1 hour glucose screen that tests for gestational diabetes. It was the most miserable feeling in the world. They, of course, scheduled another test so I went in during the day on Friday (while we were at the hospital waiting for Olivia anyways) and had to do the 3 hour glucose screen. Talk about torture! Fasting for 12 hours, then chugging liquid sugar, and getting blood drawn every 3 hours was enough to make me ill. And I have a pretty good tolerance for things like that! Anyways, I just found out yesterday that the test results came back and my numbers were great and I don't have to worry about the diabetes thing!! HOORAY!! It was definitely the best thing to hear. I am so relieved now...phew. I just continue to hope and pray for a smooth pregnancy for these last 8 weeks.

So, enough about me...back to a couple of pictures of the newest cutest baby girl in the family:

Then Comes a Baby...

While I am in the uploading photos mood, I wanted to post Sophia Marie's first pictures...ultrasound pictures, of course! But I think she was definitely smiling for the camera...if she takes after her mother that is! This first picture is of Sophie at 11 weeks (you can click each picture to enlarge)...

And these are her cute little profile pics taken at 20 weeks when we found out she was a girl! (Or at least when the ultrasound tech told us it was a girl...Hey, I've heard of birth day surprises!)

And here is her little arm and hand

And her smiling glamour shot (yes, it's kind of creepy, but I still think it looks like she's got a big ol' smile on her face! Say Cheese!)

First Comes Love...

I've been a married woman for 2 months! Still seems surreal! I know by now that everyone has seen lots of my wedding pictures. Anyways, I'd like to repost a few of my favorites for any newcomers who have not and for my future self when I look back through all these wonderful posts... You can never be too tired of your own wedding pictures, right?

My first blog post ever!

I've given in! Not sure how long I will be able to keep this up, but I am starting to think it is a good idea to have a place online for all my tech-savvy friends and family, who may want to see pictures or hear how things are going in these exciting times, to come to and read all about it. And, maybe in the future, I'll want to go back and reread all the insightful things I'll have to say :) That said, welcome to my blog! Follow me if you want to or just come back and check in every now and then...