Surprise!

We have met some great people since moving to Oklahoma. Want some proof? Last night was like any other night at our house, with the exception that Tom and I were going to meet our friends James and Amy for cupcakes. (Which as an 8 month pregnant lady, I was very excited about.) Tom texted to say that he and James were going to the golf course and they would meet Amy and I at the cupcake shop. Not unusual. So I change out of my work clothes, and thankfully, into something somewhat presentable and head out the door. I get to Amy's house, ring the doorbell and...nothing. Hmmm, their dog wasn't barking, did I get the time wrong? Nope! Surprise! Amy had gathered together some kindred souls (aka other residents wives) to throw me a surprise baby shower!

It was absolutely wonderful! They had food, flowers, gifts, and cake. Amy had made and decorated a cake for me to take home a share with Tom.

The girls very generously gave me all kinds of baby essentials. Swaddleing blankets, rattles, teething toys, bibs, diapers, bottle brushes, baby wash and many other bathing necessities.

Needless to say I am very grateful for the wonderful friends we've made so far.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have posted photos of the cake and now I must eat some.

Bird on a Car

A bird on my brother-in-laws car!

Discovery

I made a very shocking discovery this week. Oklahoma has scorpions. Apparently I am the only one who didn't know this. I feel I was much better off not knowing because now I have to add scorpions to the list of creepy crawlies I am scared of.
This lovely fellow was in the breakroom at work. And while I feel that any scorpion is too big, this one was a "baby" according to the branch manager.

Strange

It's 103 degrees outside. Where do you think my dog is?

That's right, laying in full sunlight in the middle of the backyard. Strange!

Catch-up

So once again, I have been delinquent in posting to the blog. I'll try and catch you up on the recent events in the Howard household.
First things first, we had a week of vacation at the end of May where we went to Sioux Falls. Tom got in a lot of golfing, I got in a lot of family time, and Henry...well he pretty much spent the whole week doing this-

He was our VERY diligent watch dog. You never know when a robin or squirrel might try and attack the front yard.
Most importantly, we had our Reveal Party for Baby Howard. An amazing number of our friends and family came to Tom's parents house to witness the cake cutting. We had wonderful food, great conversation, and of course, cake.

Two of the three great-grandma's to-be were there to cut the cake.

And, we're having a...

BOY!

Everyone enjoyed the cake, especially the proud papa-to-be.

We had an absolutely wonderful vacation! Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate our growing family!

27 weeks

Baby Howard

It's been a very exciting week at the Howard house. First, (and most importantly) it was Henry's 3rd birthday and second, we had our ultrasound on Monday. Both Tom and I were very excited, but also slightly nervous. What if something was wrong with the baby? We ran through any number of scenarios in our heads and I think we both said more than one prayer. But in the end the ultrasound was better than I could have imagined. As my somewhat nerdy husband said "there's a brain in the head, intestines in the belly, a four chamber heart, a 3 vessel umbilical cord, and two arms and two legs." I couldn't have put it any better myself!

So without any further ado, say hello to Baby Howard:

And now from the outside:

You'll notice that I left out all gender revealing photos. One of the future grandmas has requested a gender reveal party complete with pink or blue cake. So you'll have to wait until May 21 to find out if it's going to be a Charlotte or Will, Julia or Ben, Norah or Graham.

It has been absolutely wonderful seeing photos of our little one. I think the ultrasound has made it so much more real for both Tom and I. The minute we left the doctor's office, Tom ran to Barnes and Noble and bought several parenting books and I started researching the safest car seats. (Which I could use some advice on from current parents) We are both so happy!!!

Mail!

I LOVE getting mail! Especially when the outside of the package looks like this- And the inside looks like this-