So Blessed

25 weeks and counting and our little man is moving more & more these days.  I love it when he gets going in there.  It constantly reminds me of the miracle that God is creating inside my body and we can't wait until we meet our son!  We have been so blessed with family & friends starting to send us gifts for our special addition!

Last week we received a swing and bouncer set from my sister, Tanner, Kannon, and Mom & Dad.  We were thrilled to receive it!  We know that our baby will get good use out of those items and it will help soothe him at the same time.  The swing has a mobile on it that plays animal noises and lullaby's and when Rock-a-bye baby came on tears came to my eyes.  I still cannot believe that we will have a baby in there in 14 weeks or so!  It is so surreal and we are so blessed.  My husband and I have overcame lots of struggles to conceive our child and we could not be happier to share this experience with our family & close friends!

This week we received our Pack-n-play in the mail from my Mom & Dad!  This is where baby D will call home for the first weeks of his life so he can be close to us so we were very thrilled to receive this!  Its an awesome gift and the best part of it is the Pack-n-Play is completely washable!  My sister told me about this excellent find and we were so glad she did!

We also received a special, hand knitted jester beanie for our newborn baby courtesy of our friend Adrienne.  What a special surprise this was for the both of us!  It is such a unique and special gift because it was hand crafted by her.  The beanie is so adorable we are going to take it with us to the hospital to get a few pictures of him when he's first born in his precious little beanie!  Thank you, Adrienne, for thinking of us and our special addition!  Here's a picture of the adorable hat:

 



We are so blessed to have these and all the other special people in our lives to help us celebrate our baby and give us a head start in preparing for our little bundle.  We can't thank y'all enough!

26 week baby bump pictures coming soon!

Moving Right Along

23 weeks and counting in this pregnancy and we are so excited!  At our last appointment we found out that we are being blessed with a beautiful baby BOY this fall!  We could not be happier!  Neither one of us cared what the gender of our baby turned out to be, we were just happy that the baby is healthy and growing right on schedule.  Thank God!  Now the fun begins!  We have the baby's nursery décor purchased, and have put together his crib and glider rocker, and all we have left to go is his dresser.  While we were excited to reveal our baby's gender, we are not revealing his name.  We decided we wanted to keep something a secret and surprise family and friends when he arrives, so we are keeping his name a secret until he makes his grand entrance!

Life has been pretty busy around here lately.  Between haying and stacking bales, and roping in town and at the ranch we stay busy most nights of the week!  But our summer nights have been absolutely gorgeous here so we can't complain about that.  Our highs have been in the upper 80's with a few days where we hit over 90 degrees.  However here lately we've been in the low 80's for highs which makes for really nice evenings outside.  We love to BBQ so when we find the time (like over the 4th of July) we take full advantage of our Big Green Egg smoker.  Over the 4th we smoked a couple racks of ribs, steaks, and Frenched chicken drummies.  They were absolutely delicious!  My husband is a master BBQ'er and it seems like everything he smokes turns out wonderfully delicious!

We're about a month away from my parents coming for their annual visit and we are so looking forward to their visit!  We have a lot of fun activities planned for this trip (as usual) and we are all ready for a much needed vacation!  I know time will fly when they're here and while that makes me sad it also means we're that much closer to meeting our son!  Before we know it the holidays will be upon us once again...shocking but true!

Here's the latest picture of my baby bump at 23 weeks! 

My chalk lines weren't as dark this time but the weight of the baby is about a pound and the heartbeat is 161 bpm!  :)

 

20 Weeks!

Holy moly how are we halfway thru this pregnancy already?!  I know just as time has flown by for the first half of this pregnancy so too will the last half.  At our last appointment our little bean was doing well.  We measured right on time and the little one's heart rate was about 160 beats per minute! 

We find out this week what our little one will be and we are so very excited to know!  I think Wesley is more excited than anyone.  He can't wait to know what we're having!  I'm feeling pretty good these days, except for getting tired if we are out too late.  When we are out until after midnight (or later) at ropings in town the next day I'm really worn out due to the lack of rest & being on my feet.  But, I always make time to rest because I know if I don't I'll end up with a migraine or sick so resting is a priority of mine. 

I really don't have any cravings for anything.  I could take or leave sweets, but will eat a little if they're available.  I choose to not eat steak because I can't eat it medium-rare (no pink meat when you're pregnant) and since it completely ruins a steak to cook it well done I just don't eat it.  I will eat hamburger, but sometimes I could take or leave meat at this point.  I am in love with oatmeal in the mornings.  I have to have a bowl with 2 pieces of toast in the morning every morning.  Its definitely my favorite breakfast food during this pregnancy.  Normally I'd eat eggs for breakfast, but they don't sound so great during pregnancy.  I also love fruit.  I have to have fruit in the house at all times or I get a bit antsy.  Peaches, strawberries, cantaloupe...I love it all.  I am not so overly enthused about raw vegetables, but cooked ones are tasty.

We are so thankful that we are growing on schedule and continue to pray that we receive the same results every time we are at the doctor.  Here's a picture of my baby bump taken a few days after I turned 20 weeks (excuse the tan lines on my arms.  We're all rocking farmers tans around here.  Haha!)

Sweet Summertime

We are in to summer here in Montana, and that means longer days, shorter nights, and lots of beautiful weather and temperatures.  We have yet to hit 90 degrees for a high, and we are totally ok with that.  We've received beautiful amounts of moisture that the Lord has blessed our land with and we are so thankful to have a beautiful hay crop to cut and bale this year.  Summers here around the ranch consist of family ropings in the evenings around here as well as ropings on the weekends in town.  Wesley and David both participate in the ropings in town and Moo Moo and I are always there to watch and cheer them on.  Wesley won 1st at a roping last weekend here in Forsyth and I couldn't have been more proud of him!  He did so well, as usual!

When we have a free moment (which lets face it is few & far between during the summers) we are busy preparing the baby's room and our guest room.  With the baby coming we had to do some rearranging by moving our office so the baby has a room to his/herself!  And we had to do lots of storing & arranging in our guest room to move the things from our office into there.  But, it is all working out just perfectly!  I love the thought of getting the baby's nursery together & can't wait to find out what we're having so we can start preparing!  Speaking of finding out, we will know what baby Davenport is next week :)  I'm sure this week will go by fast looking back on it, but in the moment it is going by slow because we have such a big event to look forward to next week!

Another big event we have to look forward to comes in August when my parents come for their annual visit.  We love having them visit and this year it will be even more special as they will be becoming grandparents for the second time in 1 year with the arrival of our baby in November!  We are going to have lots of fun when they come and really relax and enjoy each other because after the baby comes I know it will be all about the baby! 

Speaking of big events, another milestone came for us this past week as we hit 20 weeks in this pregnancy!  It seems like yesterday when we found out we were pregnant.  I still remember that morning as if it was yesterday and I will forever have the memory of Wesley's face etched in my mind when I told him he was going to become a Father.  It was pretty special!  And now to think that we're already halfway through this pregnancy is pretty amazing.  Time truly flies by and I can only imagine how fast they days will go once our little one is here.  But for now we are enjoying our time together!  I still have to upload my 20 week photo but will do that soon and post pictures of my baby bump!

17 Week Photos

Here's what my 17 week bump looks like as Baby Davenport continues to grow! 

 

 

Branding 2014

I'm finally getting around to putting pictures up of our ranch branding this past year.  Of course since I'm pregnant I wasn't allowed to do anything at the branding.  But that was fine with me...I have wanted to take pictures of our own branding ever since I came up here and this year I got the opportunity to do just that!  Hope you enjoy  :)

Wesley on Steele guiding the herd toward the corrals

Clint (Christi's husband) on Blue

Clint (far left) and Wesley (center)

Christi on Nelson

All the riders pushing the herd into the corrals

Wesley dismounting and taking off chaps so branding can begin!

Mandy (left) and Christi (right)

My handsome husband :)

Clint

Matt (Mandy's boyfriend)

Wesley branding

Wesley cutting a bull calf (which is now a steer!)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I can't believe its been a month since I updated the blog last.  Where in the world has the time gone??  We are now 16 weeks along in this pregnancy and I can't believe that!  We are so excited about the baby and can't wait to meet our newest member in November! 

May brought lots of exciting times around the ranch.  We started out celebrating Mother's Day in Billings at a roping that Wesley and David participated in.  Moo Moo and I hung out for the day while Wesley and his Dad roped.  We had a great time together celebrating their roping victories and keeping each other company.  It was a rather long day/night at the roping as there were 1,300 teams entered in this roping but we had a good time anyway!

The next weekend brought a neighbor's branding, and Wesley's sister Christi and her husband Clint, and Mandy and her boyfriend Matt all came up on the 18th of May.  They stayed for a week, and just went home this past Monday on Memorial day.  We had a very busy week while they were here, but enjoyed our time together with them.  It always seems like time goes way too fast when you're spending it with family, just like it does when my parents come up here or we go down to Texas to spend time with family.

On May 24th we held our branding.  Since I'm pregnant and can't do much these days, I stayed back and took pictures of our branding (for the first time since I've been here).  I was pretty excited to get to take pictures because this might be one of the only years that I'm not busy helping with the branding, or chasing after a little one!  So, I took full advantage of being able to capture priceless pictures.  I will certainly get all of them uploaded and share them with you as soon as I do!  

The evening of the 24th we held a surprise birthday party for David (who's turning the BIG 6-0) and a surprise anniversary party for David & Jewel (who will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year).  We got them so good!  Moo Moo knew about the birthday party but she was unaware of the anniversary part of the party.  She was able to help us keep things under wraps and keep David occupied while we snuck away here & there to decorate for the party and such.  The look on his face when he walked into the hall & saw all of their friends was priceless!  We hired a band and had lots of appetizer foods available, and we had a great time celebrating and dancing the night away that evening!

The following Sunday we said goodbye to Christi and Clint as they had a flight to catch.  After sending them off, Wesley and I came back home and took a nice long nap which was much needed for this Momma-to-be!  That afternoon we enjoyed one last family roping session here at the ranch with Mandy & Matt before they headed home the following day.

Monday came time for Matt & Mandy to make their way back to the Lone Star State.  They left earlier that morning, and after seeing them off, the boys and I came back home and took another nice long nap!  That afternoon we went to a graduation party with Wesley's parents for a friend of the families, then came back home to start a new week.

I'm slowly getting over my morning sickness (I think).  Fingers crossed!!  I was sick the other day, but I think I know what set my sickness off.  So, I'm sure to avoid things like that in an effort to not be in the toilet 24/7!  But as I've said, as long as we have a healthy, happy baby I don't care what I have to endure to get him/her here!  It is nice, though, to be able to enjoy a meal with my husband, or do a load of laundry every now & then (who would have thought I'd miss cleaning my house & doing laundry!?!?) - haha!  I'm also happy that I'm able to take a little of the load off of my sweet husband's shoulders.  For the past 16 weeks he's handled cooking, cleaning, laundry...you name it, he's done it!  So, I'm happy that I'm able to help him out again.  Don't worry Mom - I'm not overdoing it at all!  :-)

I'm hoping later this week I'll be able to upload our branding pictures & get a new belly picture uploaded too!