Baseball, baseball, and more baseball!

I can't even believe it! Cooper will be here before we know it! Ryan and I feel like we are at the "hurry up and wait" stage.  You are encouraged to have all these baby preparation things done well in advance just in case the little one decides to join you a little early, but then if or when he doesn't, you sit and stare at each other just waiting! It's exciting and nerve racking all at the same time! We are finally done with the nursery....at least I think! The only thing we are waiting for is the rocker that we are having recovered to be finished. That should be any day now! Here are some pictures! What do you think? Any suggestions of things we should add?


Here you can kind of see how the room is set up! Up against the far wall when you walk in is the crib with the bedding that my mother and mother in law made.  Up above it is the scoreboard that my husband (with a little help from his parents) hand made. It says "Rodgers Field at Cooperstown." I absolutely love it and am so impressed at their talent!

Here's a better look at the Scoreboard and the mural.  We wanted to sort of give off the illusion of being in a ballpark with the fans! We are very pleased with how the scoreboard turned out! It was even painted out of chalkboard paint so that someday Cooper can really play with it!

The hutch finally came in after 3 long months of waiting! It's not completely decorated quite yet, but we are working on it! The "Danger-Foul Ball Area" sign on top had strict restrictions as to where it could go in the nursery.  Ryan wanted to make sure that it truly fell in a foul ball zone of the room! Haha...Oh goodness! I would have never known the difference!

Not a great picture here- Sorry! Hopefully you can see the adorable curtains that my mother in law made! I absolutely love the way they turned out! There were certain pieces that were a must when designing Cooper's room and the Nolan Ryan picture seen below was one of them! He had it signed by Nolan and really wanted it to be in there! I love it right next to the baseball lamp that I found online! 

Hopefully with the room being so "baseball" themed, Cooper actually likes the sport! Haha!!! If not, I know a pretty excited 30 year old man that would move on in in a heartbeat!

Have a great weekend!!

Only 7 weeks to go!

I know I am the worst blogger in the world and I am sorry! My goal is to be better. The problem is that I have so many things that I wish to be better at right now! Here are some things I am hoping to get better at before Mr. Cooper gets here:

1.  I hope to take more pictures of everything...even our everyday life!

2.  I hope to organize all the pictures that I am now taking so that I can have them to share as Cooper gets older. I have started to organize all the pictures of Ryan and I pre-wedding and have begun making albums with them on Shutterfly.  I just ordered our Honeymoon book yesterday! This is my quick fix to scrapbooking right now! I am hoping to start Cooper's scrapbook very soon!

3.  I hope to prioritize my work a little better so that there is more family time at home (a very hard one). Ryan and I very rarely have time at home August through May.  Between football, basketball, baseball and track, there are very few nights where we are home before seven or weekends with no obligations.  Although we both love our jobs, it is important that we learn to prioritize these things as Cooper joins our family.

4.  I want to make more time for friends and family. Luckily we don't live very far from most of our family. Ryan's entire family lives here in Midlothian with us so we get to spend quite a bit of time with them.  It's great because Hillary (Ryan's sister) has a little boy, Evan, that is about 2 and a half years old, and she is due with twins in August! Lucky for me as well, my sister Maggie lives in Fort Worth, about thirty minutes away.  Baird, her son, is just now eight weeks old. Although I don't get to see them as much as I would like, we are very close and get together when we can.  Cooper will have so many cousins to play with around his age! With our schedules though, sometimes we miss out on family things that we really wish we could be a part of. We're hoping this summer for sure and while I'm on maternity leave, we can visit Granbury/Weatherford more often to see my mom and Rodney, sister Mallory, and my dad and Cynthia a little more.  I also want to make a better attempt at hanging out with all my best friends.  All of them have little ones and I can't wait to schedule play dates with them all! I want Cooper to grow up with as many close childhood friends as I did.

5.  I hope to journal/blog more so that i don't forget a single memory! I already feel like this pregnancy has gone by so fast, I can't imagine how fast it will go once he gets here. Someone please help me with this one! I don't want to forget a thing!!

Now, news on Cooper!! Only 7 weeks until his expected arrival! Things are coming together nicely I think! The nursery is almost done, thanks to my sister Mags who came over last night and helped me find an organized place for everything! For those of you that know her, you know this was a huge help!! Pictures will come very shortly as soon as it is finished! As for Cooper, he weighs about 5lbs right now and is approximately 20 inches long! Big boy!! He is kicking and punching and squirming like you can't imagine. I love it!! Sometimes I catch myself getting sad that there are only a few more weeks that it is just him and I.  The bond that we are experiencing is so priceless and something I could have never imagined.  I know this will only strengthen over time, but it is just such a special time.  Now, with that being said, I will be glad when I can actually sleep through an entire night (which yes I know will be a while) without waking up starving, cramping, restless, needing to pee, etc.  It will be so nice to workout without feeling so winded and like I am going to die of exhaustion! And to think, I use to be in shape!

We have been very blessed by our family and friends who have been hosting Cooper and I many showers.  Cindy's friends hosted the most fun "baseball" shower two weeks ago.  There were so many family and friends there who were so gracious with so many adorable things for Cooper.  Last weekend, all of my coaching friends hosted a shower. All the coaches and coach's wives came and we had a great time! One of the neatest things they did were "advice" cards. I learned so many important and funny tips on parenting.  There were also many hilarious stories shared which was so fun to listen to and look forward to!  Next weekend, my best friends of all time (Lissa, Allison, Abigail, and Kandle) are hosting a "Show off the Nursery" shower at my house! I am very excited for this one and glad that it has motivated me to get my house ready! I can't wait!! I have the best friends!!

And, speaking of friends I am so excited to announce that my best friend, Allison, is HAVING A BOY and my other very good friend, Abigail, is HAVING A GIRL!!! This is such an exciting time! They are both due in July! Looks like Cooper will have a built-in best friend and girlfriend!!!

That's all for now! I hope you are all having a wonderful week!!

28 Weeks

Hello Friends!

I know, it has been forever since I blogged anything and I keep telling myself that I must get better! This is a really exciting time in our life and I know that someday I will want to be able to look back and see what all was going on and how I felt! We've been a little busy to say the least! Now, at 28 weeks, there is no hiding that I am pregnant.  I am getting bigger each day.  I have been feeling pretty well most of the time, just getting a little more uncomfortable.  The tired stage has returned and it seems like I just can't get enough sleep these days.  I'm sure this is just preparing me for Coop's arrival! Cooper is a kicker for sure and I love it! The only problem is, every time he is kicking up a storm I run and get Ryan and he...stops!! He is starting to feel him a little more each day though.  I just keep telling him, "Sorry babe! I guess he's a mamma's boy!"  At least I like to think so!  On top of all these pregnancy changes taking place, we are wrapping up basketball season and transitioning into a much more relaxed time of baseball and track season...lol....yea right!! We have no off-season and somehow we love it! I'm only hoping Cooper will learn to adjust.  At the feel of his current sleeping patterns, I don't think he'll have any problem! 


We have been doing a lot of work in the nursery and are going to make even more progress this next weekend...I hope!  If you hadn't guessed, we are doing a baseball theme in the nursery....big surprise I know! It is all starting to come together now, slowly! Here are a few pictures of the wonderful paint job that Ryan did and the fabric that we chose to do the bedding and curtains in.  Thanks to my mom, my sister, and my mother-in-law for making the bedding! I love it! 

The navy blue stripes on the bottom of the chair rail represent the outfield wall of a baseball field and the light blue on top is representative of the "sky".  A mural will be coming soon!  

We decided to go with navy blue, dark red, light blue and cream fabric! Kind of a vintage look maybe...

More pictures to come when the mural gets painted next weekend! We are so excited that we found someone to help complete the image we have in our head for Cooper's nursery!  Ryan has a big project ahead of him too that he keeps telling me he is about to work on....Hopefully there will be pictures of it coming soon! I think it's going to look great!


On another big note....it looks like I am going to be an aunt again...this time to TWINS!!! Yes, Hillary is pregnant with twins!! Below is a quote from my nephew about all the babies (He's 2 and a half).


Evan's teacher asked him if he was going to be having two babies and Evan looked at her with a "you're crazy look" and replies, No, not me, my mommy is having babies.  And Baby Cooper is in Aunt Manda's belly."


I can't wait for all the babies to be here! We are already having so much fun with cute little Baird!


Hope everyone has a great end of the week and weekend! I know I am looking forward to it!  

I think we have a baseball player on our hands!

So, I am a little over 21 and a half weeks and things are progressing wonderfully.  We went back to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon and found out a few interesting things. First, it appears that I am a carrier for cystic fibrosis (of course I am).  This doesn't really matter as long as Ryan is not a carrier of the same gene. He had some blood work done and we should know more by early next week.  It was kind of a nice feeling to get to watch him get pricked for once while I sat reading a magazine.  Is that cruel? I'm trying not to worry about it too much until we at least get the results back. On a positive note, we got to have another sonogram.  Oh my gosh, he is just growing so fast.  He already looked so much bigger compared to the sonogram we had a few weeks ago!  He was measuring about 4 days ahead of our original "due date" so he moved the date to April 21st instead! I'm so excited to meet Mr. Cooper that everyday counts! Although the majority of his body was measuring 4 days ahead, his arms were measuring 2 weeks ahead!! Oh boy!! Ryan was pumped because he said that would be awesome for baseball.  Of course, that's what he is thinking about. I'm thinking big arms equals big baby which equals OUCH! He was moving around so much on the screen and I just wish I could feel him enough that Ryan could feel too.  I am feeling him most of the time now, but not strong enough for Ryan to feel.  I felt him kick hard one afternoon but haven't felt it again since.  I'm sure at some point I'll be annoyed at the fact that he won't stop kicking, but right I just love it every time!!

The nursery is in full swing! Ryan has done so much in order to get the room ready for decorating! He first painted the nursery; we are doing navy blue stripes on the bottom (under a chair rail) and a light blue on the top. This is supposed to resemble a baseball field, which it will more after we get the murals painted.  He then hung the chair rail and it looks so good.  He and his dad have been working in there quite a bit!  They built some shelves in the closet so that we have a little more storage for all of Coop's cute clothes...which I am just dying to hang up in there! While they were doing all of these "manly" things, my mom, my mother in law, sister and I worked on making his bedding and curtains.  Although we are not quite finished with it yet, we are very close! It was so much fun! Pictures of all of it coming very soon!

On even an better note, it looks like I am going to be an aunt any day now! Maggie is making some progress and we are hoping to meet Mr. Baird any day now! I can't wait!!!

I think that's it for now in our life! We are really looking forward to the Holiday break! This is my favorite time of the year!!

Hope you are all having a great week!!

Cooper Isaac!!

Well, It's a BOY!!!! I know it has been quite some time since I have blogged. I have just been so busy and so tired lately that it has not quite made the list of things to do. I am going to be better! I promise!! We went to the doctor today and had our third sonogram!! What an experience that was.  We knew we were going to get to find out the sex of the baby so we asked our mothers to come along with us! We thought it would be something they would really enjoy! I felt like we were in there forever waiting for her to reveal the sex. We got to see the heart beat, the kidneys, the hands and feet, and every other body part you can imagine!! It's amazing to me how real the baby looked! And then, plain as day, we knew it was a boy!!! I was so excited and so scared all at the same time.  In case you have forgotten, the main man in my life growing up was my dad!! I have three sisters!! I'm just not too sure what to do with a boy!!! I know I'll figure it out as we go along, but I just hope my poor little boy doesn't think his mother is nuts!!! Ryan was ecstatic!! Although he wouldn't come out and say it, I know deep down he wanted a boy!! He's a big believer in the big brother coming first to protect the little sister! The only concern I have with this whole thing is that Ryan's nickname as a child was "Wrecker!!"  This, my friends, is going to be a problem!! I've always heard paybacks come to you in your children!! This is going to be fun, I know it!!

We decided on Cooper Isaac for this sweet boy.  Cooper, because we really liked the name and Isaac after Ryan's grandad and great-grandad. When we were coming up with names we really wanted to keep a family name!

One of the most exciting things about Cooper is that he is only going to be about 3 months younger than Baird, my little nephew arriving in just a few weeks! It will be so fun for them to be so close and for Maggie and I to get to experience this whole thing together!! My mom is already concerned that their High School graduation will be on the same night!! He will also be able to look up to his big cousin Evan and follow in his footsteps! I never had cousins around my same age so I am so excited for Cooper to get to have such a big extended family!!!

I was a little worried about having a boy since all my friends have little girls! I wanted them so much to be best friends like we all were!! But, I think this will be even better! Little Cooper can just marry one of them and we can be sisters like we always dreamt of being!! I can't wait for play dates!!

Now that we know Cooper will be joining us, we can finally get to decorate the nursery. We are almost done cleaning out Ryan's "man-room" and are ready to start the remodeling!! We (Ryan and Danny) are going to be building built-in cabinets/bookshelf/changing station! We have big dreams for what it is going to look like! Now, as for the theme of the room, I have left that up to Ryan! I know, you may think I am crazy, but he has been talking about his "dream" for the room for months!! Let me just say the word "baseball" and you can imagine the rest!! I'll update as we make progress!!!

What a joyous Sound!

I don't think there are any words to describe the joyous feeling of hearing your baby's heartbeat! Although we have heard it several times already, yesterday just seemed different.  This was the first time that we did not hear it through a sonogram and it just seemed so much more alive.  There's always a little fear this early on that the doctor wouldn't be able to find it with the doppler!! Little Squirt's heart is beating 160 times a minute, so strong and healthy! Although many have heard and said, the higher the heartbeat the better the chances are that it is a girl, the doctor shared that this is just not the case.  My doctor did offer to send her good wishes our way, since she has four daughters and three granddaughters, but Ryan insisted that she keep all that to herself! Obviously we would be just thrilled with either a boy or a girl, I'm just not sure I would know what to do with a boy! I mean, I am the oldest of four girls. The only man in my life has always only been my dad....until now of course! Ryan says boys are just so much easier! Who knows!  Both will be fun I'm sure! 

I've been feeling alright. It's starting to come and go in waves so I'm hoping that's a sign that we are almost through this "morning/all day" sickness!  Monday, I felt great! I got off work about 530pm, went to the grocery store, cooked dinner, cleaned the house, went on a walk, decorated the house for fall, and then CRASHED!  Tuesday I felt like I could barely function! Haha! I think I just wore myself out! 

Then there's maternity clothes....I'll save that for a whole new post! 

Hope you're having a great week! It's almost Friday!! Woohoo!!

First comes love, then comes marriage...

You got it....then comes the baby in the baby carriage!  Yes, Ryan and I are pregnant and so very excited!! We have known for a while now and it is so exciting to finally spread the great news!! Here's the story- I noticed that I hadn't been feeling very well for a few days but didn't want to jump to any conclusions.  One night while Ryan was at two-a-days I decided just to take a test to see, expecting it to be negative.  Right after I took the test, my friend Jamie called and I started catching up with her.  I forgot I had taken the test until about 30 minutes later.  Jamie and I were still talking and when I went to look at the result and there were TWO pink lines! Of course, I tried not to freak out and let it show in my voice, but later Jamie did tell me that I seemed distracted! I couldn't believe it!! I was so excited, nervous and in disbelief all at one time.  Ryan wasn't supposed to be home for about 5 hours so I had nobody to freak out with!! I had always thought that I would tell him some really creative way, but of course now that it was here, I couldn't think of a single creative way to do it! I had to leave the house immediately and went shopping in Cedar Hill.  I went to a million stores searching for just the right things, but just felt clueless! It had to be something not too girly or too boyish! I finally found a cute little "Baseball/softball perhaps" outfit that was just adorable! I was so overwhelmed as I looked at all the cute baby clothes!  I got the movie "Parenthood" because I feel like it puts a very comical spin on parenting.  I bought a big book full of baby names as well as "What to Expect When You're Expecting."  I put these all in a bag along with a card and set it on top of the dryer by the back door. Since Ryan wasn't supposed to be home until after 10, I thought I would act like I was already in bed (because normally I definitely would have been).  When he FINALLY got home, he told me later that he thought, "Oh, that's so sweet. She got me a present for going back to work and working so much with football."  After he took the first book out, he came around the corner into the living room where I was sitting and said "Are you serious? We're pregnant!"  I couldn't even hold back my tears I was so excited!  He ran to the couch and we just sat there hugging for several minutes.  He was so excited!  He kept saying, "I'm so excited. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm really nervous too, but I'm so excited!"  I don't think I slept for a solid week.  Of course I took another test the following morning because I just wanted to make sure (and maybe another one the next week as well!).  Let me tell you this: It is so hard to keep this a secret for six whole weeks! Do you know how many "lies" you have to tell?  Unbelievable!! We have been to the doctor twice and have had two sonograms.  Baby looks healthy, with a heart beat of 167!  Little "squirt" is due April 19th which means yes, I am already 10 weeks!  Go ahead and do the math people, we have been married 3 months and are only 2 and a half months pregnant!! I am really hoping to blog throughout this whole process so that I can someday look back and remember all the joy (and nausea and exhaustion) that I feel! We couldn't be happier and can't wait for little squirt to be here!

PS....I've been meaning to blog for several days now, but I fall asleep before I can even turn the computer on!! More to come on that later!