Newest Carrigan Addition!!!!

Reece Allen Carrigan is the newest love of our lives.  He made his entrance into the world 2 weeks early on March 18 at 10:07 pm. He weighed 7 lbs and was 20.5" long.

Here are pictures from the first month.

More to come soon!

We're in single digits now!

31 Weeks/ 9 to go!

Reece Allen: Is now weighing over 3 lbs., and roughly 16" long. He is moving all the time. He must love his sleep at night like his mom because he hasn't been keeping me up at night. He does take after Scott and I by loving his mornings. When I am hungry he is hungry. If this is true or not I do not know, but when my stomach is growling he starts moving around.

Aches and Pains: Sometimes when I sit down I get this really uncomfortable feeling. It takes a couple of minutes but I think he finds a new position and the pain stops. My back is already hurting, but in the strangest place. You would think I would have pain in the lower part of my back. Instead my back hurts by my shoulder blade on the left side.

Cravings: Citrus fruits. I eat oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, and blueberries like it is no ones business. We eat pancakes at least twice a week. Weekend mornings I make them and also one night a week we have breakfast. My coffee must be sweet now:( I cannot drink coffee the same way I used to. The creamer I use is now flavored. I am hoping once the pregnancy is over I can go back to normal coffee drinking. Oh and don't worry the coffee is either all decaf or half & half.

Exercising: 5 to 6 times a week. Every Friday is my rest day and Sunday's are either a stroll with the dogs or weight lifting. Saturday's are still my running days. While they no longer consist of 6+ miles, I am still out running none the less. Every Thursday evening is my 45 minute cycle class. I really enjoy this class because I can alter it to fit my needs. Plus the people in my class are always so sweet when I come in.

Clothing: All pants that I wear now are maternity pants. I still swear they are the most comfortable pants. I can no longer wear my usual shirts as they are too short. Even though my stomach may be expanding I still want to look cute while staying comfortable at the same time.

What we pray: Is your development to continue to stay right on track.

What we wish: Is for you to wait to make your entrance into this world for 9 more weeks.

What we hope: Is that your furniture will arrive on time!

(Don't worry you will sleep in the hand made cradle by your Great Papa in our room for the first month anyways:))

In the Kitchen

This weekend we opted to eat in rather than our usual dinners out. Since the weather was cold and dreary we were hermits this weekend. This time I was able to get Scott in the kitchen to help.

Saturday's dinner:

Chicken Marbella and greek mac and cheese.

Sunday:

Sunday night is pizza night. This time I made a delicious pizza that most defiantly gave any other pizza a run for its money.

We ended up with breadsticks because the first dough I used was a failure. They did make good breadsticks.

Ingredients:

1 Pizza crust

pizza sauce

shredded mozzarella cheese

Spinach

Neese's sausage

minced garlic

diced jalapenos

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cook Neese's sausage throughly.

3. Drain grease from pan and lay sausage on plate lined with paper towels.

4. Saute garlic and jalapenos in olive oil.

5. Add spinach to mixture. Cook for 2 minutes. You do not want the spinach to wilt too much.

6. Spread pizza sauce on the crust. Sprinkle cheese on top. Add crumbled sausage. *You will not use all of the sausage. Then top pizza with the spinach mixture.

7. Cook for 12 minutes or until cheese melts.

Monday Night:

Scott was in charge of the omelet making. I made the pancakes.

In the omelet was sausage, tomatoes, spinach, and cheese.

The pancakes were made with pancake mix, oatmeal, flax mill, and blueberries. Topped with fresh strawberries, pecans, and powdered sugar.

Simply Sweet

Last night Scott, myself, our parents, and Ash and Trent got to see Reece Allen in a 3d/4d ultrasound. It was the greatest experience to see his sweet face, hands, fingers, feet, and toes, on the screen while sharing it with the people we love most. Tammy was the lady who did the ultrasound for us and she was so sweet. She would get just as excited about him as we would. The whole thing was suppose to be only 35 minutes, but an hour later we were still there.

Reece wasn't very active which was ok, because we were able to get to see his face a lot! He did however play with his toes, opened his little mouth, slept with his hand by his face, and waived to us. Tammy kept waiting for him to do something neat for us before she turned off the monitor. As soon as she said "ok guys you will see him in 10 weeks," he waived at us!!! He was saying see you soon, now get this thing away from me and let me rest peacefully.

He has Scott's nose and chubby cheeks. His arms had rolls on them, he looked like the Michelin baby. Darlene said he was going to be a body builder. He might be a mini Scott, but he did have a few of my traits. He was touching his toes with his fingers, and sleeping with his hands by his face. I get to claim something don't I?

His mouth is open.

Here he is playing with his feet.

His sweet little feet are crossed.

His face is laying on his hand. You can see his his little fingers by his chin.

Goodbye guys, I will see you soon!

Trixy Mae

The other day I was playing around with my camera settings and new lens. Trixy well, she loves the camera.

Trixy is quite the trickster. She is a feisty and demanding 5 lb dog. Out of the 4 of us she is the run that runs the house. Some of Trixy's favorite things are sitting up high, walking on her hind legs, talking, playing with her weasel stuffed animal, antagonizing her older brother, laying in front of the fire, and being a daddy's girl.

Scott and I often talk about what she is going to be like once Reece comes along. We are guessing she will pounce on him and get in his face. We also think she will be a pretty good snuggler and guard dog.

Even though you cannot tell where she is sitting, she has plopped herself right on top of Reece. She still doesn't understand why sometimes her butt moves up and down when she sits on my stomach.

We don't have to pose her for pictures. She sits with her front paws crossed often.

Such a little lady.

The higher the better.

We don't play favorites in this house. A post on Coby McGuire will be coming soon. The camera has a hard time focusing when a dogs tongue is licking it.

29 weeks

Reece Allen was weighing approximately 2.14 oz. last week. He should be measuring around 15" long. His movements are so much fun! Now he is all over my belly. We do have a pretty good idea how he is positioned because of the ultrasound last week. He is already head down and his spine goes around my right side and up to my belly button.

News from the last appointment: My placenta had moved, so they are no longer concerned with it being low. My hemoglobin and glucose tests all came back normal. We are also measuring perfectly where we should be! The best news of all was we were surprised with a sneak peek of Mr. Reece during the ultrasound. If Scott and I must say so ourselves we think he is beautiful! He does seem to have Scott's nose.

Emotions: After seeing Reece on the screen last week I know I fell in love with him even more. Once his face appeared on the monitor I instantly had tears in my eyes. I cannot wait to hold and kiss him. He has already brought so much joy into mine and Scott's lives. So far there are no feelings of nerves. Just ask me the same question after we take our child birthing class in 4 weeks.

Updates: His nursery is starting to come together. The chair railing is going up this evening. We still have a while until the furniture comes in. In a couple of weeks we are going to buy the glider/rocker for his nursery. This Friday we have our 3d/4d ultrasound. We are thrilled to share this experience with our parents and my sister. Only 11 weeks to go! Where the time has gone we do not know. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival, and quite thrilled to have him still growing and developing inside me. Until April 2, these are just a few of MANY things we pray, hope, and wish for Reece Allen Carrigan.

What we pray: Is for you to be a healthy and happy baby boy.

What we wish: Is for you to know how loved you are.

What we hope: Is that we will be the best parents we can be.

Work in Progress

As we speak, the nursery is being painted by my wonderful husband and loving mother in law. Darlene very graciously has given up a Sunday afternoon/evening to paint Reece's nursery. I am so excited about the progress, I can't wait to see the finished product. The chair railing is going up Monday night. This makes me want the furniture to come NOW! I do know that I am thrilled we went with the wall design we did.

Scott has started laying out the decals for the border. Reece's nursery will be a labor of love. So many hands have been involved in the creation of his nursery. Scott and his mom painted the walls and ceilings. Him and his parents are putting up the chair rail. Scott is designing the decals and then will put them up. Mom is hard at work on his bedding! I of course decided on the anything but ordinary design:)