Happy New Year!

Hard to believe we are ringing in another New Years.  2011 was life changing and incredibly exciting  but I have a feeling 2012 will take the cake for sure, for obvious reasons! =)

We spent a wonderful, low key, New Years at our home. We invited a few friends over for dinner and spent a lovely evening catching up. It was the first time I busted out my china and we ended up with a pretty tasty feast! It was nice that all 6 of us could sit together at the table for a change and it just proves that times are a changing. We are all becoming such mature adults! ha Well at least the ladies for that matter.  I mean how crazy can the girls get when the majority (meaning Em and I) are pregnant! ha ha. We definitely missed the Foster's that night but they were definitely there in spirit!

Here are some pics of our fun little evening together....

Our New Years feast!

Dinner at the table...We are such grown ups! 

With my baby's Daddy
=)

Cheers to a Happy New Year!

The Ladies

My bump looks crazy BIG in this picture
& Em is such an adorable preggo!

Mia had to get in the picture with the boys.

Happy New Years!!!

Silly boys playing with a toy helicopter.

New Years Day was beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky and perfect weather.  So Josh and I went on a 3 mile walk from our house to Allen Parkway. We stopped by the whole Foods on the way for some water and relaxation. Perfect day to spend time with the family and a perfect way to start out 2012!

16.5 Week Belly Post

How far along: 16.5 weeks

Size of the baby:  Around 4.6 inches. About the size of an Avocado.

Total weight gain/loss: Okay so I officially have pregnancy brain. I went to my 16 week appointment this past Wednesday only to be told I was actually scheduled for next week, due to my Doc having taken the week off. I wanted to blame them for the scheduling mishap but knew it was probably due to my absent mind these days. Anyhow I did't get my official weigh in but I got on the scale at home and since I found out I was pregnant (October 3rd) it appears I have gained about 8 pounds. WOOWZERS!! I may be weighing more because normally the home scales aren't the most accurate. Hopefully I haven't gained to much more but I have to say there are some definite changes going on in my body right now, so now that the holidays are almost over I plan to be more focussed on better eating habits. Because lets face it I have been sooo sooo bad since I have been back from Poland! 

Maternity clothes: No maternity cloths yet but I am about to purchase the Belly Band. I still fit into all my tops but there a few jeans that are a higher waisted that are incredibly uncomfortable to button and I am starting to get scared that I may be squeezing our baby to death. Mom gave me some cute maternity shirts and jeans for Christmas but I don't plan on wearing them until I start getting a little bigger. 

Cravings: Lots and lots of Greek and Mediterranean food. It seems to be a consistent craving of mine this last month.

Symptoms: No more morning sickness and the nausea is basically gone. I still have a very sensitive gag reflex but I hear that is pretty normal for us Preggos. I have also experienced lots of bloating and getting too full NEVER feels good! To me 16 weeks has marked a very definite time where things have really started to feel like they are stretching. I feel like within the last few days the stomach has started to appear more like a bump at least to my eyes anyways. 

Movements: I have started to feel my first few flutters. This past weekend I was laying in bed and felt very light movement, almost like popcorn popping lightly. After feeling this several times daily I have come to the conclusion that its definitely not gas! Its pretty amazing that I can feel the baby already and even though it just feels like little bubbles I can't WAIT to feel baby's first strong kicks. More than anything I can't wait for Josh to be able to feel baby in my belly but I think we still have a few more weeks or so before that actually happens.

Gender predictions: Most people including myself, seem to think we are having a boy. The prediction was almost confirmed at our 12 week appointment when the doctor performing our ultrasound asked if we wanted to know the sex of our baby. He said that he is 90% sure we are having a....BOY!!! Of course it is too early to know for sure and he has made mistakes in the past, so we aren't exactly going out and buying BLUE just yet! But we will either confirm or dismiss this prediction at our next ultrasound at 20 weeks. CRAZY!!!!

And now I will leave you with 16.5 week belly pics....

Christmas 2011

This year we headed back Home to the beautiful land of Oklahoma to spend Christmas with our family in Tulsa. Loved, Loved, Loved our time back at home and it made me realize how much I really enjoy spending the Holidays back where it all began. Josh and I hit up all our favorite places around town and  even drove around wondering what it would be like to be back in Tulsa again. Something about the Holidays makes us miss home and really appreciate all that T-town has to offer. I even got the chance to meet up with some old High school friends that I had not seen in ages. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take pics but it just proves how much catching up we had to do.  But most importantly we were able to spend time with our families and really enjoy being around those that we love the most. Although baby Manard won't be making an appearance until 2012, he was constantly on our minds and the topic of most conversations. We can't wait to finally have him here and can't believe how much more special the holidays will be with our own lil one around. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

I forgot the fancy camera so my iphone had to do. 

Happy to get to spend time with the Beautiful Herron ladies
AKA (Mrs. Phillips & Mrs. Fredrick)

Every Morning we took beautiful Sunny walks with all three dogs.
Unfortunately Mia didn't make the picture.

The Manards on Christmas Eve

Baby Manard: 15 weeks

Went to check out the lights on Christmas Eve
with Josh's Brother and pretty lady but
didn't get pics of them either. :(

Rhema Church Christmas lights

So patriotic! 

The Portillo Family on Christmas Day.
Chowing down on Abuelita's DELICIOUS Turkey!

Merry Christmas

Better late then never. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

14 Week Belly Post

How far along: 14 weeks

Size of the baby:  Around 3.4 inches. About the size of a Lemon

Total weight gain/loss: to be honest I am not sure. I forgot to ask at my 12 week appointment with all the commotion of our 12 week ultrasound. But hope to get an official number at my 16 week appointment.

Maternity clothes: No maternity cloths yet but some days I feel bigger than others. Can't tell if I am just feeling bloated or I have a full bladder. These days my bladder really can't seem to hold much!

Cravings: Started to get a craving for those delicious Chicken Lebanese Kebabs that Josh and I ate so much of when we were in Poland. I think I would have craved them at some point regardless of being pregnant so we ventured out to this AMAZING International grocery store called Phoenicia that just opened up dowtown. It is like a central market but of Mediterranean influence. WOW!!! Everything in there looked amazing and it was hard to refrain ourselves from loading up the grocery cart when we were so hungry. But to make a long story short we ended up with some delicious chicken Kebabs that didn't taste exactly the same but were pretty dang close!  Try the kebab with some of the best warm pita and hummus, and you have one VERY happy pregnant lady! =) One other craving I found myself having this last week was a very strange craving for sour patch kids. For most of you who know me that is pretty odd because I am not one to really like candy and sweets. So one little bag of sour patch kids did the trick. Wonder what other crazy cravings I will encounter along the way?

Symptoms: Since my last 12 week post I have only had one more episode of Morning Sickness. There have been a few times here and there where I would get a little wave of nausea but it usually dissipated soon after. 

Movements: Not yet but I sure can't wait!

Gender predictions: Most people including myself, seem to think we are having a boy. The prediction was almost confirmed at our 12 week appointment when the doctor performing our ultrasound asked if we wanted to know the sex of our baby. He said that he is 90% sure we are having a....BOY!!! Of course it is too early to know for sure and he has made mistakes in the past, so we aren't exactly going out and buying BLUE just yet! But we will either confirm or dismiss this prediction at our next ultrasound at 20 weeks. CRAZY!!!!

Here are some 14 week pics. Lighting is not great but we had no choice but to use our room lights because these were taken at night.

Had to include some pictures of the Big Sister! =)

Pure sweetness!

12 Week Belly Post

How far along: 12 weeks

Size of the baby:  Around 2.1 inches. About the size of a Plum.

Total weight gain/loss: to be honest I am not sure. I forgot to ask at my 12 week appointment with all the commotion of our 12 week ultrasound, which was AMAZING by the way! More on that later on...

Maternity clothes: No maternity cloths yet but some days I feel bigger than others. Can't tell if I am just feeling bloated or I have a full bladder. These days my bladder really can't seem to hold much!

Cravings:  I haven't really had any specific cravings. Ever since we have been back from Poland Josh and I have wanted to indulge in all of our favorites here in Houston, which of course includes mexican and every other food that was hard to find while we were living away. Not sure if that is considered cravings or just over indulging after being deprived for soo long. But I think I need to simmer it down now because I wouldn't be surprised if I have put on some serious pounds since we have been home.

Symptoms: I have had my moments with the whole nausea thing and would be lying to you if I told you I didn't get occasional episodes of morning sickness. Almost always I would get sick in the morning but towards the end of the day I would be feeling fine. The exhaustion seems to finally be dissipating. I didn't realize how exhausted I was actually feeling until I experienced a burst of energy during my 12th week. For the first several weeks of pregnancy I blamed it on jet lag and getting used to a new time zone but now I know better! All and all have I have had a good 1st trimester and really can't complain.
Movements: Not yet but I sure can't wait!

Gender predictions: Most people including myself, seem to think we are having a boy. The prediction was almost confirmed at our 12 week appointment when the doctor performing our ultrasound asked if we wanted to know the sex of our baby. He said that he is 90% sure we are having a....BOY!!! How did he know this early??? Well apparently our little one has a little (well you know what) and since it was pointing up it almost always means its a boy. If it was a little girl it usually points down. (interesting!) Of course it is too early to know for sure and he has made mistakes in the past, so we aren't exactly going out and buying BLUE just yet! But we will either confirm or dismiss this prediction at our next ultrasound at 20 weeks. CRAZY!!!!

Here is my first belly pic at 12 weeks. That day I was feeling very bloated and to my eyes beginning to show. I do have to inform you that my bladder was full because I was rushing the hubby while he was taking this picture. We never got a chance to retake because we were running late for lunch but I guess the upcoming weeks will tell....

This picture was taken at our 12 week nuchal translucency ultrasound. Josh and I chose to do a more in depth ultrasound performed by a specialist that is optional to most parents. Women who are at a higher risk for genetic abnormalities usually go this route to make sure their pregnancy is going well. For us it was more of a decision to get to see our baby again before 20 weeks and of course to have a better piece of mind. It seemed like the right thing for us to do and it made so much sense since our insurance covers this ultrasound. We did in fact get our results and everything looks perfect! What more could a Momma ask for and we got this beautiful picture to show for it! Enough of a reason to do it!! =)

Baby Manard at 12 weeks: Heart rate 152.
Doctor says baby is measuring
more along 13 weeks. Wonder if I can move my
due date up?!?

Can't begin to tell you how crazy this ultrasound was for both Josh and I. Not sure if Josh and I were really prepared to see such a real baby in front of us.  I think it is finally starting to sink in that Josh and I are really about to become parents!! Baby Manard kept moving around and waving his hands to us on the screen. At one point the doctor froze the screen and we were able to count all 5 fingers on one of the hands. We even got to see the baby make sucking faces with his mouth! It's truly amazing that at 12 weeks they are as developed as they appear and hearing the heartbeat for the first time was music to our ears. Can't wait to see baby Manard again at 20 weeks and we continue to pray that our baby grows strong and healthy!

Our Polish Souvenir

Well just as we thought we were closing a big chapter of our lives by moving back home, we open-end up an even bigger one as soon as we arrived in Houston. Josh and I found out the day after we got home that we will be welcoming our first child this summer!!! Official due date is June 14th, 2012.

To be honest we still can't believe we have a baby on the way. As soon as we got home I had this crazy, wierd feeling that I could be pregnant. Josh and I had been open to the idea of expanding for awhile now but had no real plans to seriously think about it until we got settled back home in Houston.  So when we found out we were pregnant we were surprised and ecstatic all at the same time. Okay how about really  really surprised!! Although it happened a little sooner than what we anticipated, what is 3 or 4 months in the grand scheme of things, right?! This was all in Gods big plan for us and what an amazing story we get to tell that our little souvenir was brought back all the way from Poland!

This is one souvenir that can never, EVER be topped!

First two pregnancy tests were taken the day after we got back. The lines are so faint in the first one that I almost threw it away without giving it another thought, before deciding to take another glance at it in the sunlight. The second one, I took a little later and the line appears to be a little darker then the first. At this point I thought I should let the Hubby know that this could be for real! Of course when I told him he was extremely suprised and his first question was "how did this happen"? hahaha

Of course we still had our doubts and I had conveniently scheduled a routine physcial when I got back to Houston for the following Monday. I thought that I would discuss my suspesions with the Doctor in hopes of getting it confirmed. So on to my appointment I went, and called in early Tuesday morning for my results. Well to my suprise it came out NEGATIVE! I will say I was a little surprised but to be honest I knew in my hearts of heart that the result was wrong. Not sure if I was already getting that motherly intution but I still had a feeling that it could be too early to tell. So conveniently again I had scheduled my yearly women examin for Tuesday afternoon and at that point I had already planned to bring in my two faint lines for them to see. This is where the 3rd pregnancy test comes into picture. A more distinct POSITIVE! Still faint but definitly positive. Basically I was so early in my pregnancy I was producing super low levels of hormones which could explain the false negative. I was about 3 1/2 weeks pregnant when I found out the big news, making this the worlds longest pregnancy. Not really sure I recommend anyone taking it so early because this has made our first trimester feel like an absolute ETERNITY!

The 4th pregnancy test was taken 2 weeks later . I took another one so
I could have a clear positive for keeps sake.
 Pretty official.

At our  5 1/2 week appointment and very first ultrasound.

Baby Manard is about 3mm long. Believe it or not

you can actually see  a little heart flutter that early in pregnancy.
 Unreal!

5 1/2 week pic: first of many baby Manard pictures..

I didn't realize when I took this, that our OTHER 

sweet baby is in the picture as well.  

LOVE!

8 week pic: a little fuzzy but you
can see our little peanut growing away! =)

We told our immediate family the news when we went back home toTulsa for a visit, as well as a number of our close friends who would have suscpected the moment I rejected any form of alcohol. For the rest of our family we waited to spill the beans at Thanksgiving, making it a very special one this year.  It was so hard to keep this big secret to ourselves, especially when our first trimester has felt SOOOO LONG! All we have wanted to do is to tell the whole world what an exciting miracle we have been blessed with, so you can imagine the relief for us to finally be able to talk openly about it. =) Josh and I are thrilled beyond belief and we can't wait to finally get to meet this little peanut!!

More than anything we continue to thank God for such a smooth pregnancy and pray that things continue to go as well as they have. For the most part I have done pretty well and have only experienced occasional episodes of morning sickness.  Just a small price to pay for our little baby! More than anything we wish for a healthy and happy baby that continues to remain content with where they are at for the moment, and by that I mean right in that belly of mine. =)

So get ready guys! Familia de Manard's blog is about to take a complete 360 from a year of crazy, fun, European travels, to 100% baby talk. We couldn't be more excited!!

p.s. How ironic is the last picture to our last post on "farewell, never goodbye" ??? We didn't know it at the time but we were already pregnant. Pretty funny!

Farewell, never Goodbye

I know this post is completely overdue. Truth is things have been pretty nuts since we have been back home. With getting settled back in to our home, a trip back to Tulsa to see family, and starting our jobs again, we have managed to stay consistently busy.
 So here is the final post to such an eventful year.....

Crazy to think that yet again, another year has flown by! Seems like yesterday we were getting off the plane in freezing cold weather, wondering what on earth we got ourselves into. To say the least, this has been one of the most fulfilling experiences for both of us, to date, and we feel so blessed and fortuante to have been able to go through this together. It has changed us in so many ways and allowed us learn so much about ourselves. Although there were challenges at times, we definitely feel we are coming back to Houston with a whole new perspective on life and a greater understanding of this fascinating world we live in.

More than anything we are grateful we have been able to travel as much as we have this past year, and none of it could have been possible without making the big move. Josh and I were making the list the other day, and we have managed to visit over 10 countries and 20 major cities/towns in the last year! It is insane that we managed to cover as much as we have and we feel very good knowing we have taken full advantage of every moment we were there.  Poland will always have a special place in our hearts and we look forward to getting to come back someday in the future to see how things have changed.

Now I would like to take a moment to Thank all of our friends that we made in Poland. We could not have gone through this experience without them. They were the support we needed, the shoulder to cry on, the friends to share all of these amazing memories with and we will miss you dearly!

It's Farewell, never Goodbye!


Here are pictures of our farewell get togethers.....
(sorry some of the pics are blurry, we only had camera phones available for some of these)

Ladies dinner at Nu Nu's. I am going to miss these girls!...

Saturday night dinner/turned into dance party...sooo much fun!...

Mia and Charlie's last coffee run together...

Our last morning walk with Cristina and Sunnie. Mia will miss her neighbor Sunnie soo much!

 Our Last Kebab!!! GOSH I am going to miss these!!!

Josh and I don't want to know how many
of these we had in the last year!
Incredibly DELICIOUS!!!

Last stop at Fenicji

Josh's going away party at work. They went above and beyond, and really knew how to make a boy feel special! THANK YOU!!

Josh getting roasted! 

Josh's office presented him with the most memorable gifts!
Framed pics of Josh on the job and a beautiful "Poland" coffee
table book, with messages for Josh from all his
co-workers in Poland!

LOVE!

This is a silly gift they gave us. They claim they
think Josh will be the next to have a baby
because he has seen so many storks flying around in
Poland. A common Polish myth! haha