Funny Feeling

The other night Cade and I were laying on the couch watching a movie and suddenly I felt a little poke from the inside of my belly. I thought "was that a kick?" So I put my hand on my belly and I felt it again. It was a pretty good little kick so I grabbed Cade's hand and put it on the same spot hoping Baby would kick again and it kicked twice for him! Cade's eyes lit up and we were both so excited to actually feel our baby moving and kicking. The baby has started kicking with decent strength a few times a day. Cade gets jealous when he is not with me when it kicks or if it stops kicking just as he starts to feel my belly. :) He is getting so excited and it is so cute. He is going to be the best daddy ever! He once asked me "How big does the baby have to be before it can sleep with us?" Haha! And he's is loving looking at baby clothes, shoes, and other things; I have to keep telling him we can't buy much just yet. It makes me so happy to see how excited he is for our baby.
Well I am 20 weeks along now and feeling great. We go in on Tuesday for an ultrasound and get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl! It will be so fun to be able to start calling the baby by a name instead of just "It." I will be sure to let ya'll know the gender soon. :)

More Pics

Although I refuse to post these pictures to Facebook out of courtesy to others who may be trying to get pregnant (I know it kinda bugged me to go on Facebook and see all these pictures of pregnant women while I was struggling so much; even thought it shouldn't have bugged me it did a bit).....anyways I will post them on here for people to see if they want to keep up on stuff; plus I've had a few people request it so I am giving in. I didn't think to take a picture of my belly when we first found out so there is no comparison with how I looked before I started getting any sort of a bump, but that's ok. I mostly wanted to take these pictures for my own personal curiosity of how much my belly would really change over time.

12 Weeks along:

16 Weeks along:

By the way I must say I am so glad they make cute maternity clothes now. I actually found maternity pants that look like normal pants when the elastic material at the top is covered by a shirt. And shirts are really stylish shirts rather than just big baggy T-shirts. Cade took me shopping for a few things and then we discovered that Ross has the best deals for cute maternity clothes and I bought a few more things today while shopping with my friend Adrianna.

Late Christmas Stuff

I realize Christmas was many weeks ago, but I am slow downloading pictures onto my computer. So here are some pictures from Christmas morning at my parents' house:

Look at that mess of presents and wrapping paper.

Jaylee wrote Santa and asked him especially for a bell (like the one on Polar Express she said)

My sister Heather is so spoiled; with her new iTouch.


Rance got the exact train he wrote to Santa Claus for. :) Yay!

Kinley liked her princess watch.

I think Jaylee liked this one too. :)

Time to discover a slinky.....

Pretty necklace for Kinley.

A Baby This Year

So on New Year's Day I had a fun thought: this is the year our baby will be born! It makes it seem that much closer even though it is still five months away. Although I think it will go by somewhat fast. It seems like hardly any time at all goes by between our appointments. We just had our 16 week appointment today and the heart still sounds good and strong. February 1st is our big ultrasound and then we'll know if it's John Cade Hunter or Hannah Hunter growing in there. Cade took me shopping earlier this week and we bought my first maternity clothes. I am starting to look round and I feel kinda huge already and I know I have a lot more growing to go. Things are just starting to feel more and more real to me with each appointment and each thing we do in preparation. The baby's room is still pretty full of storage stuff, but since I am not taking classes this semester I think I'll have lots of time to work on it and get it all ready for baby.

Best News EVER!!

So I was going to wait a little longer to make an official announcement but now that I know everything is going well so far I just can't hold it in any longer. Cade and I are expecting a baby in June!! After two and a half years of trying and spending all kinds of money and doing all kinds of tests, etc., we are finally successful. And wouldn't you know it: the month of conception was one that we used no artificial hormones, no Dr. treatments, and no keeping track of days whatsoever. Since we've have had such a struggle getting pregnant, my doctor wanted to do my first visit at 8 weeks rather than 10 weeks. So Tuesday we went in and she did an ultrasound to check the placement of the baby and find a heartbeat. She said it is in a great location and we heard a nice strong heartbeat. I am so excited I can't even put it into words. Trying for a baby without success has been by far the biggest trial of my life and I'll admit I think I failed miserably most of the time in that test. But going through all of that has made me even more grateful now that it has finally happened and now we just pray that everything keeps going well. Any ways here are the "pictures" she printed out of the baby during the ultrasound: (The blue arrows are not an indication of a gender prediction or anything I just liked the color)

Surgery Monday

Well last doctor's visit to my OB/GYN, we decided that in order to really know why I'm not getting pregnant we need to take a look inside. So we are doing just that this coming Monday (the 12th). I'm going in for a laproscopy/hysteroscopy. My doctor thinks that maybe I'm having problems from the peritonitis infection from my wheeler accident. The infection could have created lesions on various organs in my abdomen/pelivic region. If that's the case then it could be preventing my ovaries from releasing eggs. And while she's in there she's going to make sure all is well with everything else too. I have mixed feelings on what I hope the results are. On one hand if everything is normal then that's good news that nothing is wrong, but then it also means we have no answers....still; on the other hand if we find something wrong then that is not necessarily good news, but at least we know what that problem is and maybe we can work on fixing it or bypassing it.

As for non-drama stuff: we are going to Willard Lake on Thursday to go boating with some friends. That should be fun as long as I don't get too motion sick. I will try to remember my camera and take some fun pictures to post on here afterwards. Then next weekend is the Allen family reunion (Cade's mom's side). That is always an adventure :) Things are rarely even close to boring with that part of our family. Hopefully I'll be mostly recovered from my surgery by then so I can have fun with them all.

Washington DC

Last week we went to DC as chaperones with Cade's dad's FFA group for their Washington Leadership Conference. We had to actually be chaperones a couple of times, but mostly we just got to tour when and where we wanted and then meet up with the advisors group to eat the meals they paid for. It worked out really nice for us. We spent 8 days touring so we were able to see so much and yet there was still so much left to see. Rather than just telling you about it all I will just post a bunch of pictures to show you what we saw. Keep in mind I ended up with about 500 pictures so these are just a select few of them. For a few more you can check out my Facebook.

Arlington National Cemetary. Robert E. Lee's house in the background and the Eternal Flame burning and JFK's memorial/burial site.

Riding a ferry boat from Mt. Vernon to Old Town Alexandria.

Meeting Congressman Chaffetz.

The view from our hotel room balcony on the 11th floor.

One of the modern-day Masonic lodges