4 months and counting!

Well as of Thursday we hit 4 months! Can't believe it. We have definitely been keeping pretty busy around here. Work has occupied most of our time. Most days it definitely feels like so much to do, so little time. The front yard is looking great! I finally took some pictures to post here. We aren't done, don't worry. The next step is going to be putting up a wall where they outline is, that will help cover up the piping from the gutters. That is just going to be a matter of time for buying the wall rock. In the island we are going to still buy a lamppost, our poor palm there is not having tons of luck, everytime it blooms something happens. In both rock areas we are going to put in some other items to help decorate it. We are pretty happy though with how it is turning out.

The first coat of the "clean up" paint has also been completed. It doesn't look too different from the pictures we took and posted not too long ago so we haven't taken any new ones yet. We are pretty sure we have a color scheme picked out for a boy, but still looking for one for a girl (we thought we had the bedding, etc figured out but we changed on both not too long ago). The good news is that on Friday, we will be finding out what we are having!!! We can't wait. Our appointment is first thing in the morning and we will definitely make sure we update on here as soon as we can. As you may notice on the right side of this blog, we have posted up a poll to see what the guesses are as to what we are having. Please feel free to let us know what your guess is :)

As we have been trying to do, we have a new picture that was taken today (16w2d) of Gabrielle. Things have grown pretty quickly. She can no longer fit in any of her normal clothes without the help of a belly band and sometimes that is getting uncomfortable. She wore her first maternity clothing today (the shorts) and was extremely comfortable. We will be making some rounds for some clothes soon!

We took one of her with her shirt lifted, but she has opted to not post that one today :)

Well we suppose that is about it for now. It is getting to be dinner time and everyone is getting hungry so that is next on the list for today.

We hope you are all enjoying your weekend and have a great one. We will talk to you all again on Friday!

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

Happy May!

Just wanted to stop by and drop in a new picture from this past weekend. This was taken on Saturday.

Slight change in the picture from last weeks, more so in the clothes department. The belly band has been worn a little more these days and we bought my first pair of maternity shorts that I am sure will be worn very soon. Gotta say, there is something about maternity clothes, those shorts are SUPER comfortable.

Can't believe it is May already. The weather is heating up quickly here! Definitely much nicer than the cold we were having! The pool is almost warm enough, we sort of went in on Sunday but it was still a little chilly, hoping that this weekend will be good!

In other news, Rory caught a mole this morning. It didn't take her long. Ben thought there may be one yesterday based on some holes he saw, and sure enough she found it this morning and when we were trying to leave for work she shows up and plops the thing down on the ground. Poor mole. The dogs are doing well though. Can't believe Rory is already 1 year (turned 1 in April). Here are some pictures of them from not too long ago.

Well that is about it for now. We hope that everyone is doing well!

Love and miss you all.

Love,

Ben and Gabrielle

Busy weekend! Lots of pictures :)

As mentioned before the Rivera's came up this weekend to help with some of the items on our list. So much got done and we are very thankful to them for coming up to help out.

We didn't take any pictures of before or after yet of the front yard, but the new larger "bed" has been scaped, weed-block put down, and ready for rock and then the wall (first layer of the wall is down though!). It already looks a million times better. It is really going to be nice when it is complete. I think we are going to try and get the rock purchased this week so that this coming weekend the open areas can be filled in. Then in time we will begin to work on the wall. So HUGE accomplishment.

The next big thing was starting the nursery. Since the guys moved out, we have only gone in and worked on the now guest room and have left the "nursery" room alone and just used it for storage. Well we had finished moving out everything and were left with an empty slate (minus the paint that was already there). Ben had started the patching of holes and then he finished it with his dad. Here are a couple of pictures of before this weekend's work.

Today's goal was to sand all the hole patches up and then put up a coat of ceiling paint and then primer to get to a basic starting point for when we decide on the color scheme for the actual nursery decoration. There was hope that only one coat would work but it looks like it is going to need another coat. So here are the pictures of round 1, getting whiter :)

So there is still a chunk of work to do in there, but it is definitely getting closer. The room will be ready to go for when we find out the sex of the baby (May 21st) so we can get in there and start really decorating it. Be ready for more pictures of this to come and we promise to get some up as well of the front of the house.

In other baby updates, we have a new baby bump picture from yesterday when we were 13 weeks, 2 days. This weekend shorts were definitely fitting tighter. Gabrielle had to put on her belly band for what used to be her loose :-)

Everything else here is going pretty well. Work is keeping us both very busy but we definitely have no complaints. We hope that everything is going well with you all. I am sure we will be updating more soon.

Much love!

Ben and Gabrielle

April Appointment- Check!

Today was our monthly appointment with the Dr. It is hard to believe that we are going to be 13 weeks tomorrow! Time is flying by. The Dr is very happy with the progress the baby is making. The doppler machines were having a little trouble, I think Baby Rivera likes to hide and only show him/herself. So we found ourselves back in the ultrasound room for another trans-abdominal u/s. Wow what a difference 4 weeks can make! Baby Rivera had hands and legs that were moving around and a strong heart beat flickering away. Our Dr. turned on the sound and let us hear the thumping of the heart. What a sound!!!

They are also pretty happy with the current weight gain. At this point it looking like 5 pounds over the first trimester, though the last 3 came from this last month! That seems to be the healthy average for the first tri, so hopefully we can keep up the good healthy pace.

So our next appointment now is in 5 weeks (usually 4) because at the next appointment on May 26th we will be finding out whether or not Baby Rivera is a boy or girl!!! It is going to be a long 5 weeks :) We have to go get this ultrasound somewhere else so we have to do that before the 26th so that our Dr gets the results before our appointment. So get those guesses in!

Ben has done an incredible job on the nursery. There is not one thing left in the room. Everything has been cleared out. The next step is to finish patching the wholes, then sand the walls down, then put up a primer and some of touch up some of the ceiling paint. Ben's parents will be coming up this weekend and will be helping out with the room. Then after our appointment on 5/26 we can paint the room the final color that will go with the room decor. We took some pictures of the room before any painting is done and will post those as before and the after, should be a sight!!

We want to thank everyone for their love and support. It has really been a blessing to have.

Well that is all the news to report today. I am sure we will be back soon!

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

12 weeks, 2 days bump

Well here is our most recent belly picture. It is definitely starting to show, clothes are definitely becoming tighter. It is definitely smaller in the morning (when this picture was taken before heading to the gym-sorry for the clothes) then by afternoon and evening. I swear it grows throughout the day :-)

We will keep posting pictures in the coming weeks and will update after our appointment on Wednesday.

Hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

1/3 down, 2/3 more to go!

We officially hit 3 months today! 1/3 of the pregnancy done. Man time is flying by for us. Baby Rivera is now the size of a lime. Reflexes are a huge development this week. Fingers and hands will start to open and close, toes will start to curl, eye muscles will flicker, and the mouth with start to make sucking movements. The baby is making huge growth strides, just in the past 3 weeks he/she has already more than doubled in size. Gabrielle's clothes are definitely starting to get tight, and there is definitely a baby bump growing. We will try and take pictures this weekend!

Our next Dr's appointment is next Wednesday (day before we turn 13 weeks). We should be able to hear the heartbeat, so we are looking forward to that.

Ben is planning on working on the nursery some more the next couple of weekends. Gabrielle's parents bought us our crib and mattress and those items came in today. We are very excited (thanks so much!!!), it is all starting to seem even more real. Here is a picture of the beautiful crib (that isn't the bedding we are looking at but the crib and its color).

That is about all to report here.

Hope everyone is doing well.

We love and miss you all.

Love always,
Ben and Gabrielle

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone! We hope that you are all having a wonderful day and are hopefully able to spend it with family and friends. We had a wonderful evening last night, dinner with friends and then a lovely Easter Vigil at the church. Today has already shown to be an absolutely beautiful day!

It is hard to believe that this time next year we will have a little one (6 month old)! We are going ahead an posting this week's belly picture. The picture was taken today, where we are 10 weeks, 3 days.

Well sorry that this was so short but we have a lot to try and get done before we head out for early dinner at Gabrielle's parents and then hopefully able to meet up with the Rivera's after at Danielle's place. Wish us luck to make it everywhere, we would really love to see everyone!!

We will update again soon.

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle