It's a BOY!!!

Well, we finally got the sonogram results and "it" is a BOY!!! :) So, now we can call him Baby Boy Campbell until we decide on a name. We were so pleased to get several pictures today (I only posted a few) and it looks like everything is going well and in the right place for our little guy. The heart was beating great, strong looking spine and head and lips looked good too (no cleft lip). The sonographer took lots of measurements and pointed out several of the main bones which all looked great. Baby measured a little higher in some places, but overall at 19wks 2days, which puts us at 40 weeks the first week of February. (Feb. 7th I think!??) Anyways, we're not too worried about the due date because we know he will come when he's ready, but since many of you have been asking about it that's what we came up with. :)

For Mom (oh yes, that's ME!), I received the regular flu shot today. (still hoping H1N1 vaccine doesn't make it to the market for awhile cuz I'm not ready to take that one) My BP was 112/68 which was GREAT! Weighed in at 3 more lbs. gain, which avgs 1 lb. a week which I think is great. Overall, I have gained 6 lbs. at this point and we will be at week 20 on Saturday, so halfway!! Yay! :) We also checked in with the Dr about insurance coverage etc. for delivery only to find out that my Merck insurance would cover everything 100% except for my $250 hospital co-pay.... too bad that insurance expires Oct. 31st... bummer. So, I let her know about my new insurance with Aetna/Study Island and I have a $1000 deductible and then will owe 20% after that so as long as no C-section or anesthesia pretty cheap. We were happy to have an idea of what to plan for though.

Update on Dad (Mike) he was thrilled with the news!! (Would have been either way) He is excited to carry on the Campbell family name in our son. Now to focus on coming up with our baby boy's cute little name.... I think he's glad that boys are cheaper in the long run than girls, but that's just the Financial-Man in him thinking. ;) So, overall we are SOOOO very excited about our son and look forward to finally narrowing down some choices and doing some big planning. Yay!! Enjoy the some sono pictures posted below.

~Emily

Baby Boy Campbell with his hand in the air

Between the legs shot bottoms up (It's a BOY!)

Profile shot of precious baby BOY Campbell

Fall weather and Football

Well, the calendar may say that we have another week or more until Fall begins, but our cooler weather certainly says otherwise! I am enjoying the mid-70's that we have had the past few days and was pleased to see that it is not supposed to get above the mid-80's all week. What a lovely change!! So, with the cooler temperatures and several inches of rain we've been receiving, I decided it was time for Fall decorations. However, I came to realize that the only Fall decorations I had were a wreath of my great-grandmother's and a cute garden flag. So, off to Michael's I went!! :) Below you will see some of the cute things that I found. I also purchased a doorknob hanger that is in the entryway on the door to the half-bath. I was very happy to spend less than $45 starting my new Fall collection!

Fall garden flag and garden scarecrow (I think he's so cute!)

Fall wreath (probably need a bigger one with this massive door) and scarecrow

This cute scarecrow eventually made its way out to the front porch because Toby thought the hay/straw was a tasty snack for him!

Fireplace with Fall garland, scarecrow & pumpkin arrangement

Also, with the season comes FOOTBALL!!! In particular, TCU HORNED FROG FOOTBALL!! :) This past weekend we watched the Frogs on TV as they beat Virginia. This upcoming Saturday we are looking forward to the first home game of the season vs. Texas State. We are a little confused as to why we are even playing a Division II team at all, but hopefully we should see TCU scoring in the 50's for sure or I will be disappointed. I've got my "frog gear" ready and plan to be at the game early and possibly even a little non-alcoholic tailgating (for me) beforehand. We always look forward to Frog football as well as catching up with old college friends at the games.

Halfway mark... So, tomorrow is the anticipated day where we will find out the gender of Baby Campbell. It's been long-awaited so we are anxious for the sonogram. Also, later this week we will be hitting week 20 which is the halfway mark. Hard to believe there is only this amount of time left. I know it will fly by, especially with all of the holidays and football games in between. Please say a prayer for a great appointment tomorrow and healthy baby. Don't worry about contacting us about the gender though, we will let you know when we are ready. ;) We may have a little surprise in store for the grandparents first before revealing to everyone else, but you all should know by the evening tomorrow via text, facebook, or blog so be on the lookout!

This morning we had a minor car issue as Mike's Infiniti would not start. We knew it was somehow battery related (although he had just gotten the battery replaced in late May). However, we were unable to jump the car so Mike took my car to work today and I opted to work from home and deal with the dead car. I called a tow truck this morning which arrived around 10:45am. He had to roll it in neutral out of the driveway and onto the main road in order to load it on the truck. We had a nice neighbor from down the street stop to help the driver push the car a little way down the road since I wasn't much help. (Thanks to Mr. Bailey for his kindness). Then I hopped a ride with the tow truck to National Tire and Battery to await the results. We arrived and got the car unloaded by about 11:30, but the battery was so dead they couldn't run the test to determine which components were causing the trouble. So, about 1:30 I heard back that they had completely recharged the battery to "as good as new" and had tested the alternator, starter and connections and everything checked out fine. So, basically the battery had somehow (still unknown) gone bad, but everything looks good now and didn't cost us a dime! (Just some time away from work and time in general of having to deal with the dead car) So, I'll be back to work at the office tomorrow and hopefully a little more productive than today. We are very thankful that this was not an expensive fix though. I suppose that is all from me for now. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

This week's praise: Cooler temperatures, TCU football, Feeling baby move all the time now which is an amazing and fun feeling, :) car fixed!

Prayer list: Sara Dubose begins bone marrow treatment this week, The Weathers will be induced Wed. with Baby Logan, Our Dr's appt-healthy baby, cousin-swine flu, Mom-stomach bug, Mike's hectic work schedule right now

~Emily

Mike's 2nd attempt at this blogging craze

Back by popular demand.... ok, well maybe not popular, but there was some demand. So i guess Emily took care of August in her last blog so I will cover September. Luckily September is a busy month for us so I have a lot to cover. So last week, as many of you know, Emily and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was on a Tuesday so we didn't do anything extravagant, but we did go to a restaurant we had been wanting to try for a while, Genghis Grill. Neither of us had been before, and we had a good time. The food was good and I got a Genghis Grill beer glass to take home. (Happy Anniversary to myself!) Emily got me some new work shoes that I was in desperate need of and I got her a new cell phone, which she was in desperate need of! All in all a good anniversary!

This labor day weekend we spent mostly in Fort Worth. Emily was a bridesmaid in Meg's wedding so she spent most of the day Sunday with her and the wedding party getting everything ready. I showed up a little bit before the ceremony with the Roberts' family and we got there with enough time to help out with some last minute items. The ceremony went great, both bride and groom looked marvelous and everyone said "I Do", so a very successful wedding in my book! The reception afterwards was also a lot of fun, with lots of dancing, great food, cheeses, wine/beer, and some great cake! All in all a great time had by all I believe!

My work has been pretty crazy this past week and going forward the next few weeks. This week I am working from the Richardson office on a "special" project all week so Emily and I are staying with my parents in Plano since Richardson is at the opposite end of the metroplex from our house and it would be a disaster driving to and from everyday. Not really looking forward to this week, but I'll be happy when it's over because Emily and I are traveling to Austin on Saturday to celebrate our friend John's 30th birthday!!! Happy Birthday to John! We have planned a little golf outing with some guys while the girls do whatever girls do when guys play golf. I think the correct answer there is SHOP. My boss had talked about us working over next weekend, but he seemed receptive when I told him I had prior plans, so hopefully nothing crazy happens where I have to skip out on a great weekend.

TCU football starts up next weekend as well as the NFL. Really excited about the Frogs this year and think they may have a special season ahead of them. I'm going on the record of saying I think we will go undefeated this year. We have season tickets so we plan on going to all of the home games this year. We put our TCU flag out in front of the house this morning so the stage is set!

Can't forget about September 15th. That's the day we are scheduled to get our next sonogram and determine the gender of our BABY!! whoohoo! Both Emily and I are really excited to find out so we can start narrowing down our name choices and so Emily can go hog (or frog) wild on registering for fun baby stuff and figuring out decorating ideas for the nursery. She is like a race horse in the gate waiting for the starting gun to go off! I think both of us still think its a boy, but judging by the poll most believe it is going to be a girl! Maybe you know something we don't...I guess we will all wait to find out together! I know we will be thrilled either way, and know everyone else will be too. Our friends James and Kristin just found out they are having a little girl around our same due date so we are VERY excited for them! Can't wait for our two kiddos to have play dates when we visit each other!

The only other thing I can remember about September is the day of the TCU/Clemson game a bunch of family from the Keene's, Roberts, and Campbell's are going to do a Rahr Brewery tour and catch the game at a downtown bar afterwards. Now that sounds like a good time! Well if I forgot anything big, I'm sure my lovely wife will post an additional blog to fill in the blanks. Until next time.....

Mike

p.s. Below are some updated "baby belly" pictures to share from last week. Enjoy!

Approximately 17 wks (8/29/09)

Approximately 17 wks (8/29/09)


Approximately 17 wks (8/29/09)

End of August and August Birthdays!

I'm realizing as August draws to a close that I never really did my "Birthday shout-outs!" As you may or may not know, August is a big birthday month for my family so I will do the best to remember everyone's dates correctly. I will start with my little sister, Maggie, who is celebrating her big 21st on the 30th. Also, my sister-law-Vivian, whose birthday is TODAY the 27th, then we have my cousins and uncles, Lisa (on the 23rd), Michael (on the 12th), Uncle Larry (on the 25th), and Uncle Jeff (on the 13th). So, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you all!! :)

Last weekend Mike enjoyed golfing with his brother, Matt, and some other friends at the "1st Annual Bull-Moose Golf Tournament" in Tyler, TX at Garden Valley Golf Resort. He had a great time, but I think was a little sore after 3 full rounds of golf in two days. A funny fact about the place they golfed is that when I was in high school and decided to join the golf team, that was the first course I played on. From what I remember about it, it was absolutely freezing and we had to wait for about two hours to tee off in the morning due to frost on the greens after waking up ridiculously early to be there by 7am I think? Anyways, Mike obviously is a much better golfer than I was or ever will be, but I think it's neat that we've played on the same course.

While Mike enjoyed his "guy time" I drove to Flint, TX (just outside of Tyler) to spend time with my lovely pregnant friend, Mariann Weathers. I really enjoyed hanging out at her house and getting to have lots of pregnant discussions where I could ask some questions and share my experiences with her since she is only about 3-4 weeks away from delivery. I'm sure JD was tired of all the "pregnant talk" but he was quite the trooper. I was also able to help Mariann and her family paint and prepare Logan's nursery for his arrival. It is such an adorable nursery and I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it. If you want to see pictures of how cute it looks you will have to click on the link to the right that says "The Weathers". On Sunday I went out to Lake Tyler with Mar, JD, & Catie and got to spend about an hour on the lake in their boat before heading back to pick up Mike and drive back home. It was a beautiful sunny day and I think it was the first time I had truly been swimming (treading water) since I've been pregnant. It was good exercise, but definitely felt different and I got winded a little faster than I remember. Maybe that means I should do that more often to get some exercise... hmmm....

Work the past two weeks has been up and down for me. A little boring at times, but pretty busy at others. It is certainly a work in progress, but so far so good. Mike has had two extremely busy weeks due to a project that he is working on as well as it being the end of the month and having his regular responsibilities. This has lead to a few nights of dinner up at his office and leaving downtown Dallas between 6:30-7:30 some nights. With that being said I feel like I never see my house anymore. I wake up at 5:45 in the morning and we get ready and go straight to work @ 7am and then when we get home late it's like eat, watch a little TV or read, then bed...repeat. What a vicious cycle. I think Toby doesn't know what to think about us being gone all the time and only being awake with him for a total of about 3-4hours a day. Oh well, hopefully things will settle down for Mike's work soon. I am so proud of him for working so hard and doing such a great job! He has even gotten some good exposure with his VP and some Executive Directors this week. Way to go!! :)

Lastly, this weekend we will be taking it easy and trying to catch up on all the neglected chores around the house, but also hopefully spending some time together to celebrate our 2 yr. wedding anniversary which is coming up on Tuesday, Sept. 1st!! :) I am hoping to get a little bit of shopping in on Saturday so that I have a gift to give my sweetheart. Also, on Sunday we are excited to be celebrating Maggie's 21st birthday with the family at Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse in Fort Worth!!! It has been a long-standing (3 girls anyways...) tradition in the Roberts family that Daddy takes us all out to Del Frisco's to celebrate #21. So, although I'm sad that I won't be getting a yummy medium rare steak, or the fabulous "Del's Delight" (alcoholic milkshake basically), we are going to have such a wonderful celebration together as a family!

I suppose that's it for me this week. Happy end of August to everyone!

Prayers: All the teachers and students back to school this week, Mom and Dad safe trip back from Ruidoso, NM, Healthy baby/pregnancy, friends/family pregnancies, & Meg's upcoming wedding.

~Emily

No gender news...

Sorry to get everyone's hopes up (including ours), but we apparently had a mis-communication with the Dr. at our last visit and the sono tech was not scheduled for today. She also decided to go back to the due date of the first sonogram which puts us back 2-3 weeks from where we thought we were now. I thought I would be 19 weeks tomorrow, but apparently we are 16. Which for now puts us at Feb. 11th from what we've been told. We won't be convinced until the next sonogram and measurements so we can get this all straight. This has been so confusing going back and forth and I hope she wrote something consistent in her notes for next time, but we did actually get a scheduled time with the tech for Sept. 15th @ 1:40pm. So, as we've all been told all our lives "patience is a virtue". It's a virtue I still need to work on. While today was disappointing because I was anxious and excited, I know that everything's fine and the baby's heartbeat sounded really good 157bpm! I also gained weight for the first time, 3 lbs. nurse said it's a nice and steady gain. My bp was 120/62 so also good. That's all until next time...

~Emily

August is flying by...

So far this month, we have hosted a couples wedding shower for Meg and Derek (see a few pictures at the bottom) and have taken a mini-vacation to Ruidoso, NM with Melissa & Hahns (a few pictures at the bottom). This week after work we are headed to Tyler, TX where Mike will have a "guys golfing weekend" and I am going to spend some time with my good friend Mariann and help her work on the nursery for Logan, her son, who is due to arrive in the next 6 weeks or so. I apologize for being so busy that I have neglected the blog for a few weeks.

This week we are 18 weeks and on Monday we will be having our sonogram to find out the gender of Baby Campbell. If you haven't voted already please see the poll to the far right hand of the screen and click which gender you think it will be. The polling will close Monday morning and we will let everyone know next week what the sonogram shows. :) I will take more belly pics soon as it seems to be changing daily, but none to share today.

Last Friday we enjoyed a fun 'Game Night' playing Nertz with our friends Mara, Tyler, Lauren, and John. Although it was a late night it sure was fun visiting and having some friendly competition going on. Saturday we spent the day running some errands and getting oil changes and inspections done on the cars then went to the Roberts home for a fajita dinner with Mom, Dad, Lauren & Christopher. Tonight Matt & Vivian are coming over to our house for dinner and we will be grilling out shrimp and potatoes and enjoying more family time.

I suppose that's mostly our lives for the past 2 weeks in a nutshell. I'd like to say GOOD LUCK to TCU Sigma Kappa Sorority Recruitment that started today!!! One Heart One Way! Hope everyone has a wonderful week and enjoy the pictures posted below.

Meg & Derek's couples shower

Gift time!!

Meg's shower- "Who will be responsible for...." game

Waterfall outside of Cattle Barron

Snow cones after Putt Putt

Human Maze.... I got lost... Mike won in 12 minutes (above avg)

Our hike... Mike found a walking stick

Taking a break and photo opp. on the hike

Paddleboating at the lake at Inn of Mountain Gods

Mel & Hahns Paddleboating at the lake at Inn of Mountain Gods

Cute deer at the condo

Cute deer at the condo

Mike feeding one of the deer

First week on the job!!

So, this week has been an absolutely crazy week and I am also realizing that I have quite a bit of updating to do on the blog. Agenda for this post- brief job info, Dr's update, finally furniture/house pictures, & maybe that will be it. ;)

This was my first week on the job at Study Island, which is technically now under the umbrella brand of Archipelago Learning. There are three products: Study Island (K-12), Northstar Learning (post-secondary division- where I will be working), & Teachers Web. So, they are trying to have one name that is over the whole company, although everyone still refers to it as "the island" or "Study Island". So, I just thought I'd let you all feel as confused as I have been on what I should actually call my place of employment. :) There are I believe around 250 employees that work within Archipelago Learning and there are so many components that I won't even bore you with the details, but I sure have learned a lot this week. Monday and Tuesday I was in the office getting my cube set up and meeting lots of people as well as starting to learn the system a little bit. Wednesday through Friday we have been at the Annual Sales Conference which was held at the Palomar Hotel in Dallas. Oddly enough it was run very similarly to how my previous sales meetings were with Merck, but the biggest difference of course being there were a little over 100 people in attendance vs. the 3-5,000 that were at the Merck meetings depending on what groups were represented at one time. I have to say my favorite part about the company was how laid back everyone seems to be and how much they joke around with one another. We truly spent a good amount of the meeting laughing through different presentations due to the presenters being funny or the slides they were presenting. There are a few practical jokers as well that I'll have to be sure to stay on their good side so the joke's not on me next time! I got to meet some more people and am starting to finally get a hang of some of the names. I know that will get better with time as well. My boss, Julie, was in town from Michigan since she is the Vice President of Sales and I got some time to get to know her better and learn from her as well. There is still a lot for me to learn, but I am ready to get in there next week and start getting my feet on the ground. For now though, I am thankful for a weekend after a long past few days of meetings all day followed by cocktail hours, and dinners that lasted pretty late into the evening. So, enough on the new job, but more to come in following weeks.

Mike has had a good week at AT&T and carpooled with me the first two days this week which allowed us to take the HOV lane. He also has a rental car this week while his car is currently in the shop to be fixed from his accident. He was very helpful around the house the past few days while I was busy at the sales conference. He busied himself with feeding Toby and getting some house chores done, which I found EXTREMELY helpful. We still have some last minute cleaning and setting up to do before Meg & Derek's shower tomorrow, but in general we are ready.

Last Friday we had another Dr's appointment where the Dr. decided that we were 14 weeks instead of only 12, which puts us at 15 weeks right now. It's crazy how the time can fly on all of this. So, it looks like we are also sticking to our January 21, 2010 due date for the time being. We were also very excited that we were able to schedule our next appointment where they are planning to try to determine the gender. So, ladies & gentlemen mark your calendars because August 24th we should hopefully know if this little one is a boy or girl!!! :) We cannot wait to find out! Either way we will be so excited, but it'll be fun for planning purposes and starting to narrow down a name as well. So, with that said this week we will be adding a voting poll for you to cast your vote for whether you think Baby Campbell is going to be a boy or a girl. I think it will be fun, so be sure to cast your vote!

Coming up: Wedding shower tomorrow, August family birthday party-Sunday, & Next weekend- trip to Ruidoso, NM with Mel and Hahns!

Finally, as promised (especially for you Nanny) here are some photos that those of you who do not have facebook may not have seen of our house with some of the furniture in it. Also, new curtains that my Mom made for our bedroom. Enjoy!!

Formal dining room

Formal living room

Master bedroom- New curtains

New curtains

Our bedroom

Guest bedroom

New living room furniture

New living room furniture

New living room furniture