I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!!! SHE LOOKS LIKE A LITTLE DOLL!

Happy Halloween from our little Pumpkin!

I been swimmin', and boatin', and floatin', and maybe even a little skinny dippin'!!!!!!!!!

She is so cute when she sleeps!!! Every morning, when she sees my face so grins so big for Mommy. It melts me on the spot.

Daddy has learned to multitask...
With the one hand...feed the baby...
With the other, play the Wii!

This PROVES I have no business cooking! I nearly burned the house down. Some of you may not know that I don't have a sense of smell and I only have hearing in one ear. As it turns out, cooking is one of the most dangerous tasks I perform. I was trying to be superwife and start cooking something besides Chef Boyardee and sandwiches...so I started with a boiler of rice. Then I went to love on my baby and I totally forgot about the rice!!!!!!!!!! I didn't notice the entire house was filling up with smoke. I went to put her bottle in the dishwasher and as I passed by the stove, I noticed the mess (needless to say the open flame below the boiler was still burning just as strong as ever). Then the smoke alarm started going off. I then noticed the entire house full of smoke. The lid to this pot had cooked itself on, so I just ever so casually took it outside and waited for Dan to come upstairs and start screaming. The wierdest thing of all is that he never even did the usual "You need to [fill in the blank] next time." Yes, he always likes to tell me what I SHOULD have done. Anyway, this is supposed to be about the cooking, not the husband. Ha ha. I moved the timer down onto the stove and made a personal commitment to start using it, as it beeps when time is up. I just pray I hear it the next time I forget I am cooking. Another incident like this may provoke me to give up once and for all.

So, as you MUST have expected, I'm slow getting this blog updated. Well come on...I have a baby to take care of. :-)
So far Motherhood has been wonderful. Daniley is a very good baby! We are getting up only once or twice each night. She doesn't cry unless she's 1) hungry 2) has poopy drawers or 3) fighting sleep! Actually we have very little cries at all. She is so cute I just like to stare at her all the time. She makes hilarious faces at me and they crack me up. I laugh at her all day long!

Labor and delivery was pretty easy for me. I didn't feel anything thanks to the epidural. She was BIG...8 lb 9 oz! She was 20.5 inches long. This little hog can put away some food. At her Dr. appt. this week they mentioned she was weighing in at 95%. I said "what does that mean?" The answer: She is heavier than 95% of the other babies her same age. Oh well! :-)

We will be posting the rest of the photos from our photo shoot on dropshots, since the blog is not really the place to post 55 photos. View the other pics at www.dropshots.com/danicadear

Mommy is so in love!

Almost 2 weeks ago I was having some intense cramping. After just dealing with it for a night and most of the next day, I finally called the Dr. to inquire. Of course she wanted to see me. So when I got there she discovered that I was dilated 3 cm, and sent me "downstairs" for monitoring. ("Downstairs" is where babies come from!) I never defined myself in labor or out, so they kept me the night and then sent me home. Two weeks later, the doc keeps telling me she is so shocked I haven't had the baby yet. So I guess I'm due just any day now. We did schedule an induction for Wednesday, August 27 if Daniley hasn't arrived by that time! So at worst....one more week!!!!!!!!!!!! We're just so excited we can hardly wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HERE WE ARE! CLASS OF 1998!!!
Saturday night was our class reunion and boy did we have a great time! Many of my mates showed up and everyone was so nice and sweet and surprisingly good looking! My how we've grown up! I was the only preggie pop in attendance but I didn't miss a beat!

This is my high school friend Jana. I don't get to see her much because she lives in Mississippi. I enjoyed catching up with her!

I did my BEST to dance the baby out but it didn't work AT ALL. I woke up Sunday and she was as high as she'd ever been (in other words, no dropping yet). Although my efforts failed, I did get some good exercise!

This picture pretty much sums up the night!

We had a party for Dan's friends, and there were lots of babies here getting the place primed up! :-)
We had such a great time and can't wait to add our little Daniley to the mix!

I don't know what we're doing but it must have been funny.
It sure is funny now. What a hilarious (and horrible) picture of me!
Bear no shame! LOL.

We had a baby shower for our family and a few friends.
We got some really nice things!
We thank you all for your generosity to us and Daniley!

Here she is...finally!
I am embarassed to say that I have had these pictures for quite some time, but I have just lacked the time to get them on the blog. And I'm SO SMART that the only way I could figure out how to do it was to take a picture of it...and then I had focusing issues being the great photographer that I am....but I think you can see...she looks just like me!
Do you mom's stress about photos like I do? I don't think I'm going to be one of those with the camera out all of the time, and I'm scared I'm going to miss the best moments! I don't see how you all have time to take all those photos and do all these cute blogs and such. It's all I can do to get a picure loaded up on here! It's SO embarrassing! I wish someone would show me how to get a video on here because I do have a digital video camera, believe it or not. I think I'm technologically challenged...but I guess sooner or later, I'll get it together.

Daddy checking for leaks!

Here are some pictures of the nursery we finished up just in time for our baby shower this past weekend. It looks a little cluttered because I have all my gifts displayed! Daddy did such a great job getting this room ready! He even installed the chair rail. His first shot at it ever and it turned out just perfectly, just like about 99% of the other things he does! I wonder if he would say such nice things about me??? Nevermind, who am I kidding?

I can't show you the whole bathroom right now because he's in there working. But you get the idea....inspired by Daddy....MONKEYS!

This is me these days. I am now 34.5 weeks and pretty large. But, I've been "large" for a long time, so at this point I don't feel any bigger than "usual." In fact, I've been big for so long that I actually don't think I'm all that big anymore....but my friends say that I'm just used to it....I'm PLENTY big!
This belly makes my butt look small....that's MY Theory of Relativity!

Here are a few of our maternity shots!

And this picture is my favorite of them all!!!!! :-)

Yesterday we found out the baby's true identity: a GIRL. Dan was in shock. I was also in shock. Dan had told me so many, many, many, many times that he "only put in boys" that he nearly had me convinced. I was duped. LOL. So we were having the ultrasound and a friend from work told me if it was a girl I would see "equal signs" on the ultrasound. The technician said "here's the baby's bottom" and I shouted out "IT'S A GIRL!!!" She said yes, it looks like a girl! I looked over at Dan and bless his little heart he was about to cry. Then that made me cry. I know he wasn't crying because he was mad or upset...I think he was just so happy to finally know what it was and I think that the baby melted Daddy's heart right there in the ultrasound room. Dan is scared of girls because he knows he's gonna be wrapped around her little finger! I was kinda upset that I just gave him a daddy's girl because I was kinda wanting a mommy's boy! You know, just so I could have the baby all to myself! :-) I bet the baby will have a big butt and Dan is betting that she will have a big second toe (he even tried to see it on the ultrasound). Bless her heart. Blond hair, blue eyes, junk in the trunk, and bossy. Just like me! Hopefully she'll get her daddy's common sense and handy skills! :-)

Well we finally had somewhere to go! Dan's company had a PE dinner (that's Professional Engineer's) and he is a PE now! (I took the test Friday and I am not so sure I will be a PE until I take it again). Anyway, I hadn't been cute in a good while because I can't wear makeup because when I throw up it gets in my eyes and burns. I had given up on being cute until I pulled dress out of the closet! I felt sassy, finally! I love my belly....I think it's just so cute. It's just a little bigger than normal. ha ha. I think I have gained most of my weight right in the belly. I am 5 months in this picture. I just looked back at a picture talken about 7 weeks ago where I THOUGHT my belly was big, but it was just a joke I played on myself! ;-)
Dan looks hot too, by the way. That little hottie. I'm gonna go find him right now!

Happy 4th Anniversary!!

For our 4th anniversary we took a trip to Denver, CO. We spent some time with Dan's great uncle and took a train ride to Glenwood Springs to swim in the snow! The train ride was BEAUTIFUL. We saw beautiful wildlife including bald eagles, elk, deer, mountain sheep, and lots more! I didn't feel good on the trip at all...I was "morning sick" the entire time. I hope I didn't ruin Dan's trip! I tried to not complain as best as I could. We had a great time in the hot springs pool! I think that was the only time I felt good during the whole trip! I love Dan so much and I can't believe we have already been married for 4 years!!!

Here's a pic from our first ultrasound back in February.

I have not been a very faithful blogger. Since my last post we had an anniversary, spent a week in Colorado, and been to the Dr. several times. I have been so sick I have spent any spare time in the bed, just trying to sleep through the nausea. I have been so HUNGRY that every night I have been having to get up and eat at least once and up to 3 times. This helps control the nausea because getting hungry actually makes me throw up.

I have the biggest test of my life coming up in April. It is the PE, or professional engineer's exam. It's to get my license to make me legal and all. I was supposed to be studying since January but due to being so sick I have just been unable to do it. Now, though, I am one month away, and feeling some better, so I have plans to study in most of my free time between now and April. This likely means that I still won't be adding pictures of updating the blog regularly. I just can't justify playing around when I am not polished for that exam.

The baby is doing good. We should find out what it is around the middle of April. I am very excited about finding out. My stomach is poking out everywhere. I kind of like it; at least I like having an excuse to let it all hang out! All indications from the Drs. are that the baby looks very healthy...and if it's true that sick pregnancies produce healthy babies, then it will be one of the healthiest babies ever born!! :-)

The Dr. visit last week was pretty uneventful. We didn't do anything exciting. But I did get an official due date: September 1. I go back on Valentine's Day, and we should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat. How sweet! :-)

The nausea has continued but I did get some better drugs at my Dr. visit. I am taking Zophran, a powerful nausea medicine. I have been impressed with it. Even though I'm still not running at 100%, it has controlled the actual vomiting (but the feeling of it only SOMEWHAT). But any improvement is welcomed!

Greetings friends and family!! We have exciting news to share: We have a bun in the oven! My first Dr. visit is next week, so for right now all I know to say is We're Pregnant! I have been pretty much sick for the last week or two. It pretty much stinks right now but hopefully I will be out of this stage soon! I'll keep you updated when I have news to share!