Porter House

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Baby Reveal Party

Brent and I threw our Baby Reveal Party on Saturday, Aug 20, 2011 to reveal to our family and close friends the gender of our bundle of joy. I ran around all day getting ready for the party making lemon ducky sugar cookies, red velvet cake pops, white wine sangria, ham/turkey sandwiches and I even scheduled to get my hair cut that afternoon. Luckily my mom and dad came over early to help set up and thank goodness they did. I always over commit myself but in the end it is always worth it.

The invitations I made (front side)

Back side of invitation

Everyone started to show up right on time at 6:30pm. As they arrived, I had them make their way over to the Boy/Girl canvas I made as a keepsake for the baby. Each guest signed their name under the "Boy" if they thought we are having a boy and signed under "Girl" if they thought it was going to be a girl. I knew a lot of people thought we were going to have a girl but I didn't realize that nearly everyone thought that. It was so funny watching everyone sign under "Girl" when Brent and I knew we were having a boy...hehehe! Everyone grabbed a plate of food and mingled for a couple of hours.

My decorations were gender neutral with yellow and green

GIRL votes
Little PawPaw

Vicki

Grams

Mal

Aunt Tina

Nana

BOY votes
Daddy

Grandpa John

The ladies in purple

The boys having a good time together

No more monkeys climbing in the tree

Sweet baby Tyson

Vicki going for her 3rd glass of sangria

The boys hiding out in the TV room

Party shot

Mal and Grandma Vicki

Mommy and Baby Preston Jack

I had a fun game in mind for the boys and as everyone got done eating, I thought it would be the perfect time to play. I had Brent, my Dad, John, Dave, Bubba and Jerod line up in the living room with their eyes closed and their hands out. I placed a little diaper filled with a melted chocolate candy to each of them and when they opened their eyes, they were quite surprised or at least quite disguised. The object of the game was to guess by smelling and tasting the diaper to see what chocolate candy was in your diaper. All the guys were good sports and all of them ended up guessing the correct chocolate.

John looks pretty grossed out

Good sports

After the game, I asked if everyone was ready to find out if we were having a boy or girl and all I heard was a big "YES" so I gathered everyone in the TV room for the big reveal. I had pondered for a week trying to figure out how we were going to do the big reveal and I changed my mind right at the last minute and good thing I did because it turned out awesome the way we did it. Brent and I video taped our reaction at dinner so when we got home that evening we loaded the video on Brent's computer and played it for everyone on our big TV. That way everyone got to see our reaction to the big news as well.

Everyone gathering into the TV room for the big reveal

Me explaining the video real quick before we watch it

Me revealing on the video that its a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!

Preston's first present from Mal and Little Paw Paw

This is perfect to track Preston's height as he grows up

It was a fun night and I'm so glad we got to celebrate it with all our family and friends. When Preston Jack gets older and watches the video of the party, he will know he is very much loved!!!!

Final verdict

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

We're having a....BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, August 19th is the day Brent and I found out we are having a little baby boy...Preston Jack Porter!! We both went to work that Friday morning and I have to say, little baby Preston was the star of the office on Friday. Everyone knew we had gone to the doctor the day before and wanted to know if we were having a boy or girl. I of course didn't know because we were waiting until that night to go to dinner and open the envelope. All day, my co-workers kept voicing their opinions as to whether they thought we were having a boy or a girl. I got to tell my sonogram story over and over all day and showed the sonogram picture to everyone that walked by. I was a beaming proud momma!!!

Brent got home a little early on Friday because he was so anxious to get to dinner. We both quickly changed clothes and headed straight for Outback (our special moment place). On the way to dinner, I texted my mom, Vicki, Mindi and Christy that we were headed to dinner to tease them a little bit. It was pretty amusing to know they were on such pins and needles to find out the sex of the baby. I got a pretty good giggle. We made it to Outback and ordered the cheese fries with 2 ranches right away as we always do. We then ordered and Brent asked if we were going to open the envelope now or wait till after dinner. Since the cheese fries hadn't arrived yet, I said lets go ahead and do it.

I got my camera out for Brent to video our reaction because I surely didn't want to miss this very special moment. He started the video and I began to open the sealed envelope. I was so very nervous and when I opened the envelope there were 2 pieces of paper in it which puzzled me. I knew Dr. Grisham would be up to something but I wasn't quite sure if he planned any funny business. I opened the envelope that said, "Open me first". I opened the first flap and it read, "You are having a....", I took a deep breath and opened the bottom part that read, "BABY!!" Oh Dr. Grisham thinks he is soo funny. I dug in the envelope and pulled out the second piece of paper that said, "Open me second". I knew there wasn't any funny business in this one as this was the only thing left in the envelope. I took another deep breath and opened the first flap. I was holding the paper where Brent could see it too and he saw the boy symbol and said, "BOY!!" I opened the rest of the envelope and it said "BOY" real big in the middle of the page. I of course proceeded to cry and looked at the sono picture that Dr. Grisham put in there that showed it was a boy. Brent and I both still couldn't tell what we were looking at, so Dr. Grisham will have to show us what he sees on our next doctors visit.

We couldn't tell but Dr. Grisham knew from this sono picture we were having a boy

I wanted to tease my Mom, Vicki, Mindi and Christy a little more, so I texted them, "We know!!!" right after Brent and I opened the envelope. My Mom and Mindi tried to be tricky to see if I would slip and reveal the gender but hahaha their antics didn't work on me!! This was yet another amazing day that neither Brent or I will ever forget. I'm so thrilled to have a little baby boy and I can't wait to start buying him all kinds of cute clothes and boy decorations!!!

4th Doctors Appointment

What an amazing day Aug 18th, 2011 was!!! Words can not even describe the feeling I got walking into Dr. Grisham's office knowing we were about to find out if we are having a little baby boy or little baby girl!! My heart was pounding and I couldn't stop smiling. Our nurse Millicent came and got Brent & I from the waiting room and took us back to get my vitals checked as usual. I had gained 5 lbs since my last doctors visit to weigh in at 144 lbs. Hope that is all baby and not me just getting fat : )

Millicent asked us if we were excited to find out the sex of our baby and I told her we were soo excited and we were wondering if Dr. Grisham could put the results in a sealed envelope because we were going to go to dinner the next night to read the results and to celebrate just the 2 of us. She looked a little puzzled and said that they have never had anyone ask them to do that before. She said most couples either find out in the sono room or wait until they deliver their baby. I went on to tell her we had a big party planned on that Saturday with our family and close friends to reveal to them all at once what we were having. She smiled and said that sounded so sweet and special.

Dr. Grisham is a young and laid back kind of guy and I just knew he was going to have a funny word to say about our baby reveal plans once Millicent told me they have never had anyone ask them to put the results in a sealed envelope before. Low and behold I was right, he walked in and the first thing he said to us was, "So I hear you have big dinner plans tomorrow night!!" Brent and I smiled and gave him the low down on our plans. He was more than happy to accommodate our wishes and even suggested we go to Capital Grill for our little celebration. After mingling for a little bit, he started our sonogram!! It was completely night and day the way the baby looked from our first sonogram. Last time, the baby looked like a little peanut and this time the baby actually looked like a tiny little person with a belly, arms, legs, ears and a tiny little nose. The baby made Dr. Grisham work to get his/her basic measurements as the baby was doing a shoulder stand the whole time inside my belly. Dr. Grisham even shook my belly to try to get the baby to move out of that position but that didn't work to well. Luckily he was able to get the measurements and the baby measured right on target weighing in at 7oz.

The whole time, Dr. Grisham was also trying to get a good view of the goods but the umbilical cord was right between the baby's legs. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to tell us if we were having a boy or girl but luckily at the very end he moved the sono wand to the far left side of my belly and got a quick look at the goods. Brent and I had no idea what he we were looking at when he said he could see if its a boy or girl but he printed that image and kept it by his side.

It was so nice to see our little bundle of joy again and then we got a surprise when Dr. Grisham said we get to come back in 2 weeks for my level 2 sonogram and get to see our little one again!! Dr. Grisham said he was going to prepare our envelope for our big dinner reveal and snuck out of the office. A few minutes later we met him and Millicent at the check out counter and he handed us our envelope which he had written on the front, "What am I? Boy? Girl? Find out Inside (smiley face)". On the back he had written, "Do Not Open Until 8-19-2011 at Dinner".

Brent and I left the doctors office and when we got home, Brent wanted to open the envelope so bad but we restrained ourselves and waited till the next night. I was kept busy that evening talking to Mindi, Mom, Vicki and Amy telling them all about the appointment and how things went. It meant so much to me that they cared so much and expressed how happy they were for us and couldn't wait till Saturday to find out if we are having a boy or girl!!

Later that evening Brent and I went to an open house at the Willow Bend Daycare Center to see if we liked it enough to take our baby there once I return to work from my maternity leave. This place is in our top 3 based on the fact that they have never had a state violation since they opened their doors 7 years ago. We sat through a 2 hour presentation and then walked around to see where the infant rooms were. It was a very nice place and we will keep it at the top of our list. We have a few more to check out before we decide but at least we got a head start.

Baby Bump getting bigger

14 weeks and belly measures 35.50"

15 weeks and belly measures 35.75"

16 weeks and belly measures 35.80"

Thursday, August 11, 2011

2nd & 3rd Doctors Visit

2nd Doctors Appointment - June 23, 2011
I had my second doctors appointment on June 23rd and it was my first official "Big" appointment. I wasn't too sure of what all they were going to do although many of my friends who have had babies told me they would ask me a lot of questions and take lots of blood. Thats pretty much what happened. They took me straight back to the lab area and took 6 vials of blood. I couldn't watch as they did this because my stomach gets a little weisz when it comes to looking at blood. I made it though and then they took me into the room where Brent was. The nurse took my blood pressure and weighed me (138 lbs). Then Doctor Grisham came in and ask me a bunch of questions that pretty much had the answer "no" to them which I think is a good thing. He then proceeded to give me my girly exam which was really weird for 3 reasons. 1, I have never had a guy doctor before so it was weird having him give me the exam, 2, Brent was in the room and had no idea what was about to happen and 3, having a guy feel up all on me with Brent in the room. Of course, Doctor Grisham was very professional and he had his girl nurse in the room the whole time. It was just funny watching Brent watch another guy touch my boobs. After all that, he got the heart listening monitor out and tried to listen for a heart beat. At this point I was only 10 weeks so it was a little early to hear the heart beat. I was a little concerned but Doctor Grisham said it was normal to not detect the heart beat at this point. Brent and I were a little sad that we couldn't hear it but it made us even more excited to hear it at our next appointment.

3rd Doctors Appointment - July 3, 2011
Our 3rd doctors appointment was a quick and easy one and a little interesting in the fact that my mom and Jerod came along. They picked Brent up from work because both of our cars were broken at the time so they came along for the ride. I wasn't sure what was in store for this appointment and was a little concerned about having Jerod in the room but luckily all they did was take my blood pressure, weighted me (139 lbs) and then Doctor Grisham came in and listened for the heart beat. Finally we got to hear the heart beat and it was cool that Jerod got to experience that as well. At the end of the appointment, Doctor Grisham said those famous words I was waiting to hear, "I want to see you back in 3 weeks to determine the sex of the baby!!!" I got so excited and could hardly wait for the next 3 weeks to pass!!!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Congratulations to the Newlyweds Brad & Jessie

Brad and Jessie got hitched on Saturday, July 30th and I now have a new sister-in-law and I couldn't be more thrilled. Jessie is as sweet as can be and they had a beautiful wedding at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas.
They had their rehearsal the night before and had their dinner at Texas Land & Cattle off Lemmon. I went early to decorate the room for their dinner and luckily my wonderful mom and dad helped me out because it turned out to be a little more of an undertaking than I was expecting. In the end it all came together and looked absolutely beautiful. Vicki picked out all the decorations and even made the flower arrangements. Her and I think we would make a great team being wedding planners. There were 31 of us and it was fun getting to know Jessie's family.
The next morning, I got to the hotel early to help Vicki decorate and that turned out to be a lot more fun than expected (wink wink). In the end, it turned out beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. I think Brent had the most fun of all as he made friends with the bartender, ripped his pants, untucked his shirt and kept me up with his snoring till 4am.

Rehearsal Dinner

Room decorations