it's a boyyyyyyy!!

As you might already have heard, we found out last Friday that we're having a boy!!

So, if you voted boy, congrats, you were right! The ultrasound was SO cool, it was amazing to see the little human that's been inhabiting my tummy for the past 5 months. My mom and Clay were both in the room with me, which was really great. The only not so fun part about this visit was the fact that I had to drink 32 ounces of water and not urinate at least an hour before my appointment...which, let me tell you, for a pregnant woman is excruciating! I even cheated and didn't drink the whole 32 oz., but I don't think I would've been able to contain myself if I had.

Clay held onto my arm and had the biggest smile on his face the whole time, it was so cute! We got to see the baby's heart beating and saw him moving around while the ultrasound tech checked to make sure everything looked normal, which thankfully it did. He even yawned a couple of times!! (Ok, ok, so he might've just been swallowing fluid, but it looked like a yawn!) Seeing his little body and knowing what we're having makes it much more real now. I feel a lot more connected to the little guy and I can't wait to meet him in real life. For now, Clay and I are pretty set on the name Levi, unless we happen to come across something we like better. We both really like that name and hopefully it suits him. Now we just need to think of a middle name for him, so if you have any ideas, toss them our way!

Here are some pictures of our son to be!:

I think this is a head-on shot, you can see his eye sockets....and maybe a hand waving?:

Here's the shot of the boy parts! The lady said to look at the picture

as if he is sitting on a glass coffee table and you are underneath, looking up.

You can see his legs (they're pointing right) at the top and bottom of the image.

His bottom is on the left.

The arrow should help guide you too ;] :

Little feetsies! :

And here's my favorite, the profile shot. I think he already looks like Clay,

just look at that little button nose!:

Hope you enjoyed them!

faaaaaantastic!

Even though it's been almost 6 months since I've seen it, I feel compelled to write about one of my favorite animated movies, Fantastic Mr. Fox! If you haven't seen it, you should. Now, I'll have to admit that the trailer doesn't do it justice at all, and I wasn't even super excited to see it, but I was very pleasantly surprised to say the least.

Not only is it directed by the...excuse the pun...fantastic Wes Anderson (whose other films include Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, and The Darjeeling Limited), but it is also stop-motion animation (you know, like The Nightmare Before Christmas style), which I think is a huge part of what makes the feeling of the film unique. It's hard for me to really enjoy and appreciate movies with graphic animation these days, I tend to think that filmmaking has shifted too far into the spectrum of shock-and-awe computer graphics and each movie just tries to outdo the one before. It's almost not even impressive anymore. Don't get me wrong, I do realize the skill and talent that goes into any type of graphic art, and I am not one to judge. It's just my personal opinion. All you Avatar fans probably want my head on a silver platter right about now...ha. I was surprised to learn that the film was made using real, tangible, handmade models! I mean, who does that anymore? And while I know stop-motion is nothing new, it does somehow give the film a warmer, more organic feel, and I like that.

Another added bonus is the fact that the screenplay was based off of a children's novel by Roald Dahl, one of my favorite childhood authors (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG...etc). The great thing about this movie is that it's not just for kids...in fact, I think it'd be safe to say that adults would enjoy it and understand it even more.

It also has a huge cast of big name actors - I'm not even going to name them, just try to guess who they are by their voices- voicing the characters, which adds a fun, grownup touch. And just when you think it can't get any better...wait til you hear the soundtrack. It is on constant repeat in my car, much to Clay's annoyance. ;]

So the gist of this rambling observation-turned-film-review is...go see Fantastic Mr. Fox! And like all the urging I got to go see Avatar "just for the graphics, if nothing else", I urge you to go see Mr. Fox for the NON-graphics, if nothing else. Let me know what you think!

(i don't know why the right side is cut off a little bit...i made it as small as i could! sorry)

the halfway point!!!

So this week marks the halfway point in two of my life's journeys!

For one, I finished my last semester at college and am graduating this weekend! My next step is going back sometime next year to start my teaching credential program, which normally takes about a year to a year and a half, but will probably take me a little longer trying to juggle life with a newborn. Luckily, I planned on taking time off after graduation anyway when I was going to move to New York, so taking a little longer to get my credential won't totally offset my plans. So yay! I can officially say I'm a college graduate! I'm halfway there to becoming a teacher someday.

My second halfway marker is my 20th week of pregnancy! 20 weeks down, 20 to go. My belly's gettin large and I'm feeling the baby move more than ever. My little alien friend.
Clay has actually felt it from the outside a couple of times, but it's kind of tough to feel it this early. There will be plenty more kicks for him soon, though. :) We get to go to the doctor this Friday to find out the gender and to see an ultrasound! My last ultrasound was at 10 weeks, and it still looked like a little lima bean with T-Rex arms at that point, so it will be cool to see something that looks more human. Clay is really excited to see it and to hear the heartbeat for the first time (I got to hear it at my last 2 appointments), and most of all we're suuuppper anxious to find out whether it's a boy or a girl! Stay tuned to find out...!

things i love about may!

Now, May isn't my favorite month of them all, but I do love it for many reasons! Let me count the ways...



The last day of school...always a good thing:






My favorite summer fruits coming into season:








Finding the perfect new swimsuit (although I won't be looking forward to that this year...but how cute is this one?!):








The earthy smell of fresh soil and newly planted plants:







The anticipation of our annual family camping trip to Yosemite National Park in June:









and the scent of orange blossoms blooming!






Do you have any favorite things about May?




Oh yes, and I need to give a shout-out to the most supportive, loving, accommodating, handsome dad-to-be that I know, Clay Michael Campbell the Great! (also referred to *lovingly* as Dingy) I absentmindedly neglected to mention him in my last post.

Thanks for all that you do for me, I won't forget the head pets or the late night runs to satisfy my sour straw candy cravings! :D

my first blog!

Alright, so I'm officially a blogger!

I decided to start this blog for three main reasons: firstly, because I've gotten a lot of emails asking for updates about how my pregnancy is going, and secondly because since I am not planning on getting pregnant again any time soon, I thought I should document this very unique point in my life. And lastly, so many things about my life are changing and it is one crazy emotional rollercoaster (hormones may or may not be to blame..) and I need a place to sort out my feelings. I think I've always had an easier time expressing myself through writing, so it's kind of an outlet for me. Of course, it will include other aspects of my life beside being pregnant, too. :)

For those of you who don't know, I didn't find out I was pregnant until I was 2 and a half months along, and it hit me really, REALLY hard. The hardest part was realizing that my entire life was being flipped upside down and that all the plans I had made for myself were about to be a thing of the past. I graduate college (finally!) this month and planned on moving to New York this summer for a year or so just to experience something new. God must've had different plans for me, though, and slowly but surely I am learning to trust in that and let go of what I think is best for me. Although I really do love kids, I never thought of myself as the "maternal" type or dreamed of having a bunch of babies one day. In fact, babies really intimidate me! :/ I guess it's time to change that...

One of the hardest parts was breaking the news to people (parents, obviously) and being bombarded with the opinions and judgements of everybody else about what I "should" do. I ultimately had to decide to do what I felt was best for me and for the little life inside of me, and while I still have doubts at times, I have no regrets. I have been so surprised and thankful for the outpouring of love and support I've received from so many of my friends and family, and I want to sincerely THANK YOU if you've been one of them :)

So as of today I am 19 WEEKS along! For those of you who don't know (I didn't!), a full term pregnancy is about 40 weeks. Which meaaannnsss in a week from now I'll be halfway done! Luckily, I haven't had much morning sickness, but the weirdest thing is just the heightened sense of smell. I can literally smell a cookie sitting on a table across the room. It really gets my gag reflexes sometimes. :X Mostly I'm just always tired, which isn't much fun. All in all though, I've had a pretty breezy experience so far, especially since half the time I didn't even know I was pregnant!

This week my baby is about the size of my hand! The picture at the top of the page shows what it looks like now... a mini baby! I am just starting to finally show a little bit, but I'm afraid that sometimes I look more like I need to lay off the beer and burritos rather than that I'm pregnant. I will start posting pictures next week though, since many of you have been dying to see a belly on me! The coolest thing so far is that a few days ago I started to feel the baby move a little bit!! Everyone describes it as feeling like butterflies, but to me it feels a little rougher, like a lizard is in my tummy or something. It also kind of feels like a muscle spasm or something. That's the best way I can describe it, it's just weird!

Anyway, this ended up being a way longer post than I intended and hopefully it wasn't too boring! Oh oh, and next week we get to find out the gender!! I'm super excited. I really have no inkling of what it is, I'm just tired of calling it an "it". So...what do YOU think it is? Let me know if you think it's a boy or a girl!

P.S. can anyone tell me how to get pictures to be placed in a specific spot (like the middle of the page) instead of always at the top?