Happy November!

My favorite month of the year may be over, but the two months at the end of the year bring a lot of fun with them. Here we are in November. And here's what this month brings...

1. Engagement dinner (postponed).    I mentioned last month that we were celebrating Tyler and Sarah's engagement. It didn't work out in October, but we are having dinner tomorrow. I am pretty excited about some Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.
2. Graeme check-up.    Monday afternoon we have an appointment to check on Graeme (and me). I love hearing that little heartbeat.
3. Renee and Derrick.   It's been a couple months since we've spent time with my best pal and her awesome husband. We are looking forward to our double date with them next week.
4. Vacation.    Aaron and I last-minutely decided to skip out of town for a few days this month. It will be so nice to take a little break.
5. Christmas season starts.    Some time in the middle of November I declare it time for Christmas. We like to decorate before Thanksgiving and begin the Christmas music listening, Christmas movie watching, present shopping fun.
6. Another ultrasound.    We are going back for a second ultrasound this month since our doctor was unable to see everything she needed to last time. Graeme was WAY too wiggly. I'm so excited to look at his cuteness again.
7. Journey Kids Movie Night.    We are having a movie night this month for our UPTOWN kids so parents have a chance to go out for a couple hours of dinner or shopping. I'm not sure what movie we're watching. But there will be never-ending popcorn, so it's my kind of event.
8. Thanksgiving.    Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. We will celebrate with Aaron's family the weekend before. On Thanksgiving Day, we watch the Macy's parade, eat way too much food and pie, and take a nap (at least I do!).
9. Frozen.    The new Disney animated film, Frozen, comes out this month. Of course it was going to make my list.

That's it for now. Lots to look forward to this month. Happy November!

about my birthday

Happy Halloween! 

Halloween means that my birthday has come to a close for another year. I feel like it keeps coming sooner and sooner, so I don't think it will be long before it comes around again. I guess that's part of growing up.

I had a wonderful 26th birthday thanks to all of my awesome family and friends. 

It all started last week with a family celebration of the three October birthdays we have (Aaron, me, and my almost sister-in-law).

Presents for everyone! (Mine were wrapped in Cinderella paper, of course.)

My mom made us a blackberry cobbler and my dad made homemade vanilla ice cream. YUM.


My birthday celebration continued the evening before my birthday when some of my favorite people stopped by for a visit. I didn't get any pictures with Bensen and Keyen, but I took pictures of all of the wonderful birthday gifts they brought me.

With all of this Disney princess stuff, you might think I'm only six. Don't judge though. I love it. Flowers, homemade cupcakes, and the two biggest birthday cards I've ever received!

I love those boys. They even brought something for Graeme.

I love it. (I was told it was going to be a onesie with owls on it, but Bensen insisted I didn't like owls. I'm not sure where he got that from!) I'm glad he was excited to pick out something all by himself. Graeme will look adorable in this one day.

On my actual birthday, Aaron started my day off with a sweet card that brought on some tears. He also bought me new cutting boards (mine were broken/falling apart) because I had been asking for new ones for a couple of months. And he got me a movie that I like. I hadn't expected either of those things because I had told him I just wanted him to take me shopping later that day. He's the best.

We went to work in the morning, and then we had our weekly lunch with my mom-in-law. I got to pick where we ate since it was my birthday, and they got me the perfume I love that I had run out of a few months ago.

Aaron left work a little early and we shopped around and had dinner together. I wouldn't want to spend my birthday with anyone but him. 

We skipped birthday dessert at the restaurant per my request because I knew I had this magical-ness waiting for me at home:

Our friend Julie made me a homemade ice cream cake. She makes AMAZING cakes!

Aaron and I both fell right to sleep that night. We even forgot to set an alarm! I guess that means it was definitely a great birthday.

Twenty six, here I am.

in the middle

Today is pretty exciting because we are halfway to meeting our sweet baby boy! 

Hello, 20 weeks. Nice to finally meet you.

I'm a little annoyed because my cute little ticker on the side of the blog over there says Graeme Grayson is the the size of a cantaloupe this week. That, however, is false. [That would have been a huge growth spurt from my mango baby last week!] He is actually the size of a banana this week. I tried to fix it, but there's still something wrong with it. Don't be deceived. He is not the size of a cantaloupe yet. 

Anyway.

This past week has been another great week. Obviously we've enjoyed knowing that Baby Bauer is Baby Graeme. It's been fun to start planning and doing a little bit of shopping.

I have felt good again this week. No complaints! As long as I don't give in and take a nap (which is usually only on the weekend anyway), I sleep great all night. I've slowly incorporated some food items that were making me sick back into the mix. I still can't stomach an egg though.

I am loving this stage of pregnancy, and I hope it lasts for quite awhile.

We have an appointment on Monday to check up on me and Graeme. I believe I am due for a finger prick and having blood drawn to check my thyroid hormones. I will try not to think about the needles and instead focus on the exciting part of hearing Graeme's little heartbeat...

now that it's sinking in more

I've had a few days to let it sink in that we are having a boy. Don't get me wrong, it's still a little bit dreamlike. The first time Aaron put it in the terms of "our son," I definitely did a double take. It's a strange, wonderful feeling.

We are definitely excited. We would have been thrilled either way, but here are a few reasons I'm happy we're having a boy:

1. I never had a big brother, but I always thought it would have been nice. Not that I would trade in my little brother at all! If we have more kids (which is the plan for now!), I am glad they will have an older brother to look out for them.
2. Like I just said, I grew up with a little brother. I had a lot of younger boy cousins. I mostly babysat boys growing up. I nannied full-time for two boys for two years. Aaron is a boy. Aaron had brothers. I think we will be pretty comfortable with a little boy! (But Penny and I will definitely be sticking together around here when all the boys gang up on us...Jonah is a boy too, you know. The girls are outnumbered now.)
3. There's just something about baby boys that makes them so snuggly. People always say boys love to cuddle. And so do I. (If Graeme doesn't like to cuddle, I'm going to be a little upset.)
4. I think Graeme has the best dad in the whole world. I can't wait to see him with Aaron and I know they will have so much fun playing together as Graeme grows up. I think Aaron and I will make a good team on this parenting adventure. It's going to be fun. And exhausting. And fun.

I can't believe I'll be 20 weeks along in a couple days. I think I'm more excited about that than my birthday tomorrow! We're halfway there to meeting our son (that's still weird to say!).

at 19 weeks...and having a...

Well, if you haven't been on Facebook or Instagram and haven't heard the news, our sweet little 19-week-old mango is an adorable, healthy, wiggly BOY!

I am still up in the clouds with excitement. We had our appointment bright and early at 8am this morning. The immense uncomfortableness of a full bladder was soon pushed out of my mind by the sight of our baby on the screen. We hadn't had an ultrasound for six weeks, and that one was literally 10 seconds long since they were only listening for the heartbeat. A lot has changed since then!

After checking on all of the other little body parts and showing us where everything was (which was totally amazing) she told us that our little wiggle worm (he moved A LOT) was a little boy!

Neither of us had a "feeling" of what we were having, and we would have been thrilled either way. After we left and sat down at Starbucks, we let it sink in. A BOY. A little boy. We were beyond excited.

So, in just a few months, we will welcome Graeme Grayson Bauer into our little family.

Graeme:   We are pronouncing it GRAY-em. We didn't really pick it because it meant something or because it's a family name. We just liked it. Graeme. Two syllables. 

Grayson:   Grayson, if I'm being honest, took us a long time to decide on. When it comes down to it, again, we didn't choose it for meaning or family. It's from Batman. Yes. Dick Grayson. It's the only Batman name I could get behind. And we think it's adorable paired with Graeme.



We have already been to Target and Babies R Us today for fun. Graeme will definitely have a lot of Batman, superhero, and Disney things. We also like robots and monsters and animals. Not so many sports things. Actually none on account of us. Please don't buy us "Daddy's Little Quarterback" things. We don't even know what that means hardly. Graeme will have to get educated on sports elsewhere. I'm sure his grandparents will take care of that.

Speaking of grandparents, we were able to meet them for brunch after our appointment and tell them in person. 

"Baby Boy or Baby Girl...WHOOO will I be?"

This past week has been great. This is actually the first week of pregnancy where I can't think of any negatives. I've felt great. I've had a lot of energy. I've been sleeping well. I'm totally nesting like crazy. I have organized almost every closet, cabinet, and drawer in this house.

It's hard to believe that Graeme and I will be at the halfway point next week.

I am praising God continuously for this sweet little boy. I am so thankful that he is growing and healthy. Seeing his heart beating, his lungs, his brain, his kidneys and so many other little working body parts today reminded me just how much of a miracle life from God is. Graeme is definitely fearfully and wonderfully made!



We can't tell you how much we appreciate all of the love we continue to receive from friends and family during this pregnancy. We love all of you.


We love our "little hero" too!

Aaron has proclaimed it "nesting" phase...

This past weekend we had an upheaval around here. Our upstairs (minus our bedroom and the bathrooms) is totally switched around.

It's wonderful to have wonderful friends, and when their wives are out of town and they have a free night, it's convenient all around. We offer food and fun (at least we think we are fun). He offers manpower. So, our very wonderful friend Patrick came over last Thursday night to move what he thought was a couple things (Aaron was a little misleading). He really helped us move like 10 things.

By the time the guest rooms were cleared out and semi in order, our loft looked like this:

Penny was VERY concerned about the whole situation.

It didn't all fit in the loft, so our room was also a holding area.

We probably owe Patrick more than free dinner...

The next day, Aaron and I set to work trying to get everything else in order. To get the general idea of what things are like now:

Baby's room

Guest room

Loft (We moved the TV into the big cabinet sine this picture and cleared out all of that other stuff.)

Saturday afternoon, more wonderful friends (Rodney and Bensen) came to set up Baby Bauer's crib (it used to belong to Keyen, so Rodney offered to set it up for us long ago).

When that was finished, Aaron and I did not want to leave the Baby's room. It's so cute already and we haven't even begun to decorate it.

Blurry :(

Don't worry, we did leave Baby's room and we didn't work hard all weekend. We took a break on Friday to head to the NC State Fair.

Hard to see, but there is a giant motored shopping cart facing off with that wheel pedaled by a man. Oh, the fair.

Saturday night, we babysat Bensen and Keyen. They made Aaron birthday cupcakes. So sweet (the boys and the cupcakes).

And last night Aaron took me to see Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio as an early birthday present. 

So, if this is "nesting," as Aaron says, it's pretty fun.