Over the Hump

Well, I am officially over the halfway point in my pregnancy! Jeez, time is really starting to fly by. I'm 22 weeks along, with only another 18 to go. I had a doctors appointment yesterday and everything is going pretty much perfectly. I feel great, baby feels great (if the amount of time he spends somersaulting around in there is any indication), and we can't wait for his arrival! And yes, though we haven't officially announced it on the blog yet, most of you know by now that we are having a BOY! Here are a few of his 3D glamour shots from our last ultrasound.

Here's his lil face, I think he has Brad's nose.

Here you can see his right arm, sort of tucked behind his head.
Yep, he's a lounger.

He's showing off his flexibility in this one.
It's a good shot of his long leg and his foot right in front of his nose!

I also wanted to share the great card that all my friends and co-workers from UT gave me at my going away lunch. The card was hand drawn by Bob Longmire, who works at UT as a graphic artist. He's obviously quite talented!

Bob had never met Brad before, so he worked from a Facebook photo.
Spot on, eh?!

And lastly, a quick update on Woody. His 2nd surgery to remove more of the tumor went well, though the poor guy was in quite a bit of pain for a few days after. We're happy to report he's pretty much back to his usual self, and we expect to get the stitches out and cone off today. And best of all, the lab results came back showing that the area is clean, so we got all of the tumor this time, YAY!! Woody has been a trooper through the whole ordeal, and it has only made us love him even more. He's been very agreeable and will even help you by pushing his head through the cone opening when it's time to put it back on after a walk. We're so glad he's ok and hope that he remains cancer free for the long haul!

We hope that everyone has safe and happy holidays, and a happy new year!

Woody, railings and Kat's shower

I feel that we've been neglecting the blog a bit, so it's time for a big ole catch up post! November was a busy month, so I'm just going to dive right in.

I guess I'll start with the not-so-good news, so that we can get it out of the way. Many of you have either met or heard us talk about our black lab Woody. If not, here's a quick looksie:

Adorable, right?! Any who, Woody has had a bit of a rough time lately. We found a lump on his hip, and after determining that it was not a cyst, the vet thought it best to remove it and send it to the lab for analysis. The surgery was no biggie, he bounced right back from that. But the hard part is that the poor boy had to wear a cone on his head for 10 days to keep him from chewing and licking his stitches. It started off kinda of sad and cute, but as he started feeling more like his usual rambunctious self, it really limited his ability to fetch, which is Woody's mission in life.

Awww, poor boy, could he look any more pathetic!

Unfortunately, the lab results were not good, and it turns out Woody had a level two mast cell tumor. Based on the sample, the vet doesn't think she was able to get it all, so Woody is going in for another surgery this Thursday, with another 10+ days of wearing the cone to follow. The vet is fairly certain that she can get all of it this time, so there shouldn't be anymore surgeries for awhile. From here, we pretty much just have to watch him to see if any other lumps form, and if he starts acting like he doesn't feel good, we can take him in for an x-ray to see if anything else has developed. Our vet says there is a chance that it was just this one spot, and assuming we get it all, he may be more or less cured. Only time will tell. We're really bummed, but we're dealing with it. Any positive thoughts you want to send Woody's way are appreciated!

Moving on to more positive topics, we are making some progress in getting the house ready for our first baby, due in April. One project we've recently finished is installing new railings on the stairs. We'd removed the old ones when we did the floors awhile back, so it was time to get the new ones installed. We have Frank with Andy on Call to thank for the great results! Here's the before shots:

Notice no railing on the left, not very child proof!

And here's what we ended up with.


We still need to add a poly later and patch up and paint the old railing holes, but you get the idea. Ahhh, it feels good to cross something off the To Do list!

And lastly, Jen, Carrie, Shon and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Katherine on November 15. We all had a great time and I think Kat got lots of great stuff for Chicken Little, who is due on December 17. Here's a quick shot of the all of us, including Jen's adorable daughter Lotti Sue. You can see more great shower pics on Jen's blog here.

Shon, Carrie, Kat, Jen, Lottie Sue and me!