Tulsa

Last weekend, after our gender reveal party and before our Superbowl party, Adam and I made a quick trip down to Tulsa to visit one of his RC buddies, Brandon. We hadn't met his wife Cassie and their daughter Reagan before this visit, so it was great to meet them. They were really accommodating, and we even got an impromptu performance of them singing "It's Tricky" on SingStar. :)

Saturday evening we went to a restaurant called the Brook and ordered a TON of amazing appetizers. Nachos, cheese fries, macaroni and cheese, quesadillas....oh my gosh it was so good. And so much cheese. I love cheese.

Then we headed back to their house to just hang out. They have a Greyhound named Toe and an Italian Greyhound (the little one) named Moxie. As you can probably imagine, I spent most of the weekend schnuggling with these girls.

Moxie and I were BFFs by the time we left.

Here's their adorable daughter Reagan. I took this right in the middle of her lunch, so pardon her messy face. Reagan is such a good baby and took an immediate liking to Adam and I. Which I take as a good sign...hopefully our kid will like us too. :) I even got a couple open-mouth kisses from this sweetie!

Before we left, I wanted a family photo, but Adam had to ruin it, of course. Reagan just stared at him, like she knew he didn't belong.

There we go! Thanks Brandon, Cassie, and Reagan for letting us stay with you! We had a great time.

20 Weeks

Hooray!!!! Finally half way!!!
And I got my hair done this morning by the wonderful Sage (thanks Sage!) and I love it! My bangs are finally trimmed and we dyed the underneath layer DARK. It's so cute...I should try to post a better photo of it. And this week's photographer was Ginger. Thanks for taking my belly pic this week Geeenger!

How far along? 20 weeks
Weight gain: Exactly 10 pounds
Baby is the size of a(n): Cantaloupe
Food cravings/aversions: I'm really excited to get one of those Valentine's boxes of chocolates in a large size (hint, hint, Adam). Yesterday I had mushroom pizza at Knolla's for lunch and then I had to have it again for dinner. I could eat it again today, if only there were leftovers...
Sleeping: I switch positions a lot during the night and it's getting more difficult to do. I'm carrying 10 extra pounds I'm not used to! Last night as Adam and I were going to bed, I sat up in exasperation. Adam rubbed my back and asked what was wrong. I told him that I'm just not able to move around easily to get comfortable anymore. He thought it was "cute."
Milestones: Adam was able to feel the baby kick this week! It was really exciting, though he's not a freaker-outter like me, so he didn't get nearly as excited as I thought he should've. I asked him if this was becoming more real for him since I'm showing and he felt the baby now, but he said the sonogram made it more real than anything else. And I'm definitely feeling more movement and kicks now. Sometimes it surprises me and makes me jump a little. :)
Weird things I read online: My uterus is pushing against my other organs like my lungs, which will make me short of breath (glad to have that explained because I've definitely been feeling it). Also, little man is sleeping similarly to what he will after he's born. So that means he's awake and asleep as much as he will be in the real world. Crazy!
Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: I cleared out the nursery and scraped the pink-and-red border off the wall. I took before photos, so I'll be able to show our progress. I got paint samples for the color scheme I want to use, so I'd like to start painting as soon as possible (ladies who work with Adam: I need some help convincing him to PAINT!). We got to see the nearly finished crib (sans stain) that Adam's dad is building us and it's BEAUTIFUL. My dad finished the motorcycle rocker (from the previous post) for us. Also, I've started thinking of the baby by the name we chose, so it's 100% the name we're going to use! But it'll still be a surprise for you all. :)

And here's a picture that just warms my heart. I was washing dishes last night after supper, and when I came into the living room, this is what I found. Proof that I'm not the only one who pampers our dogs. All my boys! Well, minus one I guess. :)

Things That Make My Life Interesting

This will be another new installment to the Dreher blog. There are so many weird things that go on around our house, I thought people should be privy to just how strange my little family is.

-Adam will never give a straight answer to any question he's asked. Conversations that should be quick, like, "What did you have for lunch?" Turn in to 15 minute discussions of me trying to get him to tell me the truth. Exhausting.

-Axl likes sleeping with a pillow on top of his head.

-Diesel must be "invited" up onto our bed at night. At his insistence, not ours. If we don't ask him to come up there, he sits on the floor next to my side of the bed, shifting his weight and whining until he's finally invited. So annoying.

Vroom Vroom

My dad built this awesome motorcycle rocking "horse" for our little dude. It's amazing! I can't wait til we can use it. And it's a Harley, of course. :) Thanks Dad!!!

Gender Reveal Party

Friday evening was our big gender reveal party with our small group and a few other close friends. The night before, I began the decorating. I'd gone to Hobby Lobby and purchased a bunch of blue and pink containers. And I went to Candyopolis in the mall for the candy. By the way, they charge and arm and a leg! I didn't realize! Anyway. Here are my supplies:

I realized I didn't have a tablecloth for the counter where are the goodies would be, so I used alternating blue and pink crepe paper in strips. It turned out cute.

We used cupcakes to tell everyone that we were having a boy. I got blue gumdrops and baked them into the center of the cupcakes. This photo shows my process. Luckily I was smart and used foil muffin cups...the paper see-through ones would've revealed the news before they upwrapped the cupcake!

After they cooled, I frosted them since you could see a little blue poking out.

Here's the goodie table. I also had a little thing for people to suggest baby names for either boy or girl. We got lots of...ahem..great suggestions. :)


Ryan and Melinda made their shirts. They drew babies but covered up the goods with duct tape so they could have their own little "reveal" moment.

Melinda thought boy...

Ryan thought girl.

Everyone wore either pink or blue, depending on what their guess was. I was going to take photos of each "team" but totally spaced out on that. To recap, the boy team did win out.

Team Girl was Adam (he had to wear pink since he originally thought it'd be a girl) Rachael, Risa, Ryan M., Val, Luis, Lindsey.

Team Boy was me, Matt, Ryan H., Chris, Melinda, Scott, Ginger, Joe, Avery, Audra, Justin, Reid.

Here I am, getting ready to hand out the cupcakes and explaining that they had to unwrap and bite in on the count of 3.


The moment of truth...

It's a BOY!

Rachael and Matt drove all the way in from KC for the party. And guess what? They got like 4 inches of snow that day and weren't sure they'd be able to make it. Read this if you don't know what I'm referring to.

Thanks for a big reaction, Risa. We can always count on you. :)



Adam had bought awesome prizes for the winning team, so he handed those out. They were grow-your-own dinosaur and foamy airplanes. Good job, hun.

It was a fun night and a super fun way to tell all our close friends. I'm glad we had the party, but I'm even more relieved that it's not a secret anymore. Keeping that secret was HARD. Harder than keeping the pregnancy a secret the first 12 weeks. I even slipped a couple times, so a few people knew before they were supposed to. I'm not real good at keeping secrets... :)

Thanks to everyone who came, you made it such a fun night!

Today

I had a bit of a hard time today.

I decided to finally clean out the nursery. It'd kind of become a junk room. We had unpacked boxes in there from when we moved a year and a half ago. It was a place I'd thrown items that were to be "dealt with later."

I came across the stuffed bear my mother-in-law gave me to help comfort my empty arms after our miscarriage. The cards from people during that time who were praying for us. The sonogram picture of our first baby.

I lost it.

There are so many strong emotions still associated with our loss. Sadness that I have a baby I never got to meet. Happiness that I'll one day meet her in heaven. Guilt at being so happy about the new baby and not thinking about the first one as often as I should.

It's good to cry. It's good to remember. But thinking over the past eight months, all we've been through, the hurdles we've faced... I'm so thankful. Jesus is our Redeemer. The Giver of Life, of Hope.

Then I read this great devotional tonight.

From Streams in the Desert:

Is there ever really any reason to be downcast? Actually, there are two reasons, but only two. If we were still unbelievers, we would have a reason to be downcast; or if we have been converted but continue to live in sin, we are downcast as a consequence.

Except for these two conditions, there is never a reason to be downcast, for everything else may be brought to God "by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving" (Phil. 4:6)...

...Our work is to lay our petitions before the Lord, and in childlike simplicity to pour out our hearts before him, saying, "I do not deserve that You should hear me and answer my requests, but for the sake of my precious Lord Jesus; for his sake, answer my prayer. And give me grace to wait patiently until it pleases You to grant my petition. For I believe You will do it in Your own time and way."

"For I will yet praise him" (Ps. 43:5). More prayer, more exercising of our faith, and more patient waiting leads to blessings - abundant blessings. I have found it to be true many hundreds of times, and therefore I continually say to myself, "Put your hope in God."

Telling Our Parents

Tuesday evening, we had both sets of our parents over for dinner so that we could tell them what we were having. We had the dogs help us out with this one.

We took Axl and Diesel into our bedroom and changed them into shirts. Axl ran out first in a pink shirt, and there was some screaming, as our parents thought they knew. Diesel had on a blue shirt, but he didn't run out like he was supposed to, so I had to run out with him. Diesel's blue shirt said on the back "Just Kidding...it's a BOY!"

After that there were lots of hugs, a few tears, and relief from us that we were able to tell them!!