Our Christmas Cards

We have had so much happen in our family this year. We can't believe our baby is almost 4 months old. This being her first Christmas we can't wait to share with you our Christmas card! I made the card at Shutterfly.com. I have always loved their cards because they have a wide range of designs to choose from and they always are sending emails with special deals to make them more affordable for any budget.
You should check them out here:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
With a new baby, we are saving wherever we can. And Shutterfly.com is helping us out again by giving us 50 free cards for just writing about them on our blog. We used Shutterfly for Spencer's birth announcement:

Sincere Embrace Pink Baby Announcements

Find hundreds of elegant baby birth announcements at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly is so easy to use, upload, edit and create projects using your pictures! Here is an edited card of Spencer:

Sincere Embrace Pink Baby Announcements

Make a statement with Shutterfly birth announcement cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

And this is this year's Christmas card:

Snowflake Elegance Noir Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I like Shutterfly's Christmas cards the best because you can keep the same card design but most of the cards will adapt to 1-4 or more pictures. It is so easy to turn a picture and crop it just right. Then you can change the color, brightness, tone, red-eye and rotate it in a very user-friendly process. And another bonus, the projects are saved in your shutterfly account and you can share them again on your blog or website! If you can click a mouse, you can use Shutterfly!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
The only problem I had on the site was choosing which card to use because there were so many that I liked! I like the folded, stationary and photo cards. I even helped mom create her family card on here too!

Here are some of the other cards I loved:

Merry Montage Christmas

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Polka Dot Snowflakes Christmas

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

We can't wait to get more cards so we can share them with more family members. We look forward to making photo books for the grandparents on Shutterfly too! Thank you shutterfly!

A New September 11th

While the whole world was changed this day nine years ago, this day now holds a different meaning for me in my heart. Today September 11th, 2010 my daughter is now a month old. Today, her great-grandfather, my grandfather, went to be with our Creator. Sadly she did not get to meet him in person. Thankfully he saw her picture before he passed and thankfully I have many wonderful memories of him to share with her when she gets older. I miss you grandpa!
(I am seven weeks pregnant here so this is Spencer's picture with her great-grandpa!)

James Mettauer "Taughty" Crute

Our Baby Girl

When we found out in December we were expecting our baby, we were very excited but we had no idea how fast my pregnancy would fly by. When we had our 3D ultrasound, our girl was measuring ahead as usual-which made us think that we might have a baby before August 11th (our due date) arrived. I really wanted to her to arrive the Monday before her due date so her birthday would be 8/9/10. I even when to have a massage on Sunday the 8th to see if I could influence her arrival on Monday. It didn't really work but I did start to have cramping.

We went to our scheduled Dr. appointment on Tuesday, the day before our due date to make sure her size and heart rate were good. Much to our surprise, as I was on the monitor for 45 min, I was already dilated 1 cm and having 5-6 contractions an hour. The doctor asked us if we were ready because he thought she would surely be arriving the next morning. Our doctor told us to call him that afternoon so he could make sure there was room at the hospital and we would be checking that night.

We checked in and made new friends as our room was being prepared. We ended up with the biggest room on the corner-the one that can be pressurized if needed. Just like the one Jason had last fall when he had his gallbladder out. We settled in for the night and I was given some medicine to get things rolling a little faster. By the next morning, my water was broken and I was advancing from 1 to 2 to 3 and then to 5 cm. That was at 12:30 pm on Wednesday.

And at 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00, I was still at 5 cm. My parents, who started their journey Tuesday night, got to Sugar Land around 4:30. By this time my doctor had left on vacation and I was seeing another doctor from the practice I go to. Around 5:30, the doctor brought up what I dreaded hearing: c-section. I did not have a detailed birth plan other to do what was best for my baby and to breastfeed as soon as possible. But I really did not want a c-section. I wanted to deliver in the room I checked in to and hold my baby as soon as she was born. However, this was not to be because she was not coming down.

So we made the decision and things really started rolling. Jason was given some stylin' scrubs to wear and I was given a lovely cap to add to my hospital attire. Stockings and air compression socks were also added to my wardrobe. The anesthesiologist met me at the door to up my epidural and off we rolled down the hall to the operating room.

Within 10 minutes, I was prepped and ready, Jason was called in and our baby appeared at 6:40pm. I saw her bluish body and heard her scream as Jason went away with her to be cleaned up. All the c-sections I have seen on TV and heard from friends involved the mother getting cold. However, I was burning up and they kept putting heated blankets on me. I did get sick when they said, "You might get nauseated when we put your uterus back inside." The doctor did say that she appeared to be stuck and probably would have never come all the way down for normal delivery. (Her pediatrician said her head was a good size too,14.5 cm, so that may have prevented her descent!)Finally though, my hubby came back with our baby. She was pink and calm and perfect. And for a guy who had never held a baby-he was doing great. She was so happy in her daddy's arms. And she was ready to eat. They finished up with me and off we rolled, with Jason and Spencer following behind my bed.

We had our entire small group from our church waiting on us as we entered our room. But first Miss Spencer needed to eat and thankfully she took to feeding very naturally. One of the things I was looking forward to after having my baby was eating a nice, big Bacon Turkey Bravo from Panera Bread. I hadn't eaten one in nine months because of the Gouda cheese and I was hoping to have one right after I delivered...but not with a c-section. I also couldn't eat the lovely cake that Mandy made for our little one-complete with two big tiger paws and one small one. I had to wait another day to have some real food.

But it was all worth it...because our baby girl is here, with a beautiful round head...and BROWN hair-not sure where this came from but it has natural highlights in it.

I love my fingers!

My daddy caught my first smile outside mommy!

Sleeping on PawPaw's chest in my little big girl dress!

3D

So my mom has been in town since Thursday night. We got our free Chick-fil-A meals on Thursday and she helped me finish my classroom for the summer. And she has helped me learn to use my new sewing machine. More on this later. But today we had a surprise for her.
After lunch, we took her to our 3D ultrasound appointment. She, Jason and I got to watch our little Spencer on a big screen on the wall and bring home a DVD, pictures and digital copies of our visit. It has only been 11 weeks since we last saw her on an ultrasound and she has really grown. Of course, she is measuring ahead as usual and she could weigh as much as 4.5 lbs already! Here are some of the pics we saw:

Evee Finds a Squirrel!

Here is Evee and the squirrel she found up a tree!

Our little girls at the park!

Here is some video of our current girls!

Spencer at 20 weeks!

Here is some video from our 20 week ultrasound.

It's A...

Sorry for all the suspense. But it was really fun for us. Yesterday, we went to the medical center for our 20 week ultrasound. We left really early but were almost late to the appointment because of all the traffic. We finally got to the office and went back to the room. I had no idea that she would scan for almost an hour looking at all the parts. The baby was a bit difficult. The hand kept moving in front of the face so we couldn't see the nose and lips until I turned to my left side at this weird angle. But there was lots of movement. She told us that everything looked normal. Here is our baby in full:


And for the big moment. Here is the money shot:

I asked the tech to show me the picture before she told us so I could guess because I have been looking at pictures online. I guessed right. It was kinda funny when Jason and I were talking after the appointment, Jason had asked the lady if she knew what the baby was about 15 min into the appointment. She said she did. But then we didn't see the shot until 30 min. later. But during that 30 min. we both heard her say "He" or "His" so I was thinking..."Oh! It's a Boy!" in my head until I saw the shot myself. So....it is most definitely a girl. Which we are both excited about even though we really didn't care either way!

And on to the name....We already had names chosen when we found out we were pregnant. Our 14 hour drive home over Christmas helped us narrow down to a boy name (which we will not announce until we have a boy) and a girl name. I love family names but the only one female in the past I could find was a great aunt Ella Grace. But apparently that is one popular name and moving up in popularity. Jason and I both wanted a unique name the not many people use because we are so used to everyone sharing our names. The name also had to be easy to say/pronounce so when the teacher is calling role is it not embarrassing for the child to have to pronounce his/her name correctly. Then about a year ago, we were sitting around my paternal grandparent's table after lunch talking and laughing about all the silly things that happened in the past. My grandmother brought out some old pictures she found and she was going through people's names of my dad's family. My great-grandfather's sister was named Mary Spencer and she thinks his mother's last name was Spencer and I just fell in love with this name. But I didn't want the typical Marie, Maria, Grace, Lynn or another common middle name...So we settled on a name:

Her name will be..................

Spencer Reece Hardy

We just really like Reece and are using the C in Reece instead of the S because Jason said the C will stand for Clemson. Ha Ha. Can't wait to meet this little tiger!

We will post some video of the ultrasound later but I didn't want to keep everyone in suspense any longer.

Guess what is coming in 2010?

When Jason and I got married 5 years ago in December, we already knew that we wanted to wait a while before having children. Within 6 months of getting married, we added a new dog to our family and thus became a family of four-two humans and two canines. We were thinking about waiting 5 years before getting pregnant. Well, December 17th, one day before our 5th anniversary, we went to my OBGYN and had an ultrasound to confirm what we already knew: We are pregnant! Here is what we saw:

We were a little surprised because we were not trying to conceive. We were "planning" to start trying this summer but God knows better than us and decided to give us an early Christmas present.

Our Due date is August 11th. We went back to the doctor for our second appointment on January 14 and this is what we saw just four weeks later:
We heard the heartbeat at a rate of 146 beats per minute and the baby was moving around. The baby was measuring almost a week ahead and I am hoping for a date closer to July for the baby to come so I only have to endure as little as possible of a Texas summer pregnant. We should find out what we are having at the end of March or beginning of April. So far, I have not been sick or moody, which is a complete blessing. Please pray for continued health for me and the baby and we will keep you posted on new updates!