Mr. Aiden James

Yup, Aiden James Schweizer will be our little guy's name. (And yes, all you James' I know out there, I named our baby after you.....The middle name has nothing to do with my fabulous father.) We figure he may go by the nickname AJ now and again.

There's lots more updating to do.....another family wedding, Thanksgiving, and my first (surprise!) shower while we were in NY....but those are for another day this week, when there's a little more time.

BUMP!

And here it is......my growing bump! A friend of mine mentioned taking pictures each month and using a count on my fingers to show how far along I am. I thought it was a cute idea so that's just what I did. Should be four more of these during the coming months....

My friend Jessica bought baby the most fabulous bear during a shopping spree for "soft things." Yup, we were looking at all the stuff you'd just love to cuddle up with, and we came across this guy. We said it could be one of those animals that our kid takes pictures with every month....until he's at least 8-years-old! Ryan was a huge fan of the bear, and I think he considered making it his own.

Most importantly, this week God me reminded to appreciate all I have, especially this new, growing life inside of me. He reminded me that whatever changes are happening to me (whether fun and exciting or more on the strange and uncomfortable side), they are all indicators of a beautiful new creation that I am blessed to be carrying. As always seems to happen when I make a God-realization, I heard my favorite Christian song, Blessed Be Your Name. "Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's 'all as it should be, blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering blessed be Your name." Amen.

Excitement during week 18

Week 18 has been a BIG one! I started feeling baby kick, people began to notice my bump and we found out the gender (see picture below). We mailed gender announcement cards to all of our fam since we couldn't do a gender reveal party with them. Lauren from http://palmpapers.com/ made the adorable announcements for me. The jury is still out on a name.....we have a few we are debating. I'll share once we settle on one.

When I said fairly up-to-date, I was aiming for something more frequent than every six weeks so hopefully I'll pick up the pace. I will say the last six weeks have been crazy. I got a cold the last two weeks of my first trimester, and that made me a sort of tired I've never known before. I came home most nights and just got in bed. Fortunately, the start of the second trimester came with more energy (that has continued) and an improved immune system, both of which were much needed for Mal's wedding (yay!)

congrats Mr & Mrs Owens!

Ryan's been hard at work on baby's room, and it looks great! At this point we are just waiting to find out the gender so that we can add fun color and finishing touches. I know it may seem a little early, but lots of people I talked to said it could take months for some of the furniture to come in so we put the room at the top of our to do list. Everything came in within a few weeks though, and Ryan is a go-getter when he has a project so he got the room in order really quickly. The only thing we have left to find is a glider/rocker.

I've included a few close-up pictures from the baby's room, including baby's first booties and the darling, sweet picture I received from my work gal pals. I am so blessed to work with such caring, thoughtful people.

On top of all that, Ryan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this weekend (in style...at Wolfgang Puck's Five Sixty restaurant...mmm, mmm!). It's been an amazing five years, and I continually thank God for the fabulous husband he blessed me with. I'm pretty sure the next five will be a little different from these past five, but we are looking forward to them!

We will find out the gender of the baby in the next few weeks....I promise to post with news as soon as I can!

the start of schwei-town.....

I always said I would start a blog when we were going to have a baby. So that means, since you are reading this, Ryan and I are having a baby. Woo-hoo!

I am currently 11 weeks, and my due date is March 26th. In seven weeks we should be able to find out if we are having a Jack or Jill. If we got to pick, we'd choose a boy (a bit scary to think about another teenage Courtney running around in 13 years!), but everyone's bets seem to be on us having a girl, and, at the end of the day, we are happy with a healthy baby, regardless of gender (cliche but true).

I promise to try my hardest to keep this blog fairly up-to-date. We live a small distance from many of our wonderful family members and friends, but we want to share with you all that is happening in Schwei-town!