Joshua in 3D!!

We had scheduled a 3D/4D ultrasound as mom's Christmas gift (and because we really wanted to do it) and today was the big day! As Ben says, "this stuff never gets old". Seeing Joshua in 3D was unbelievable. We watched him open his mouth, stick out his tounge and chew on his umbilical cord. Yes, you read that correctly...he was chewing on his cord. He kept his left arm up over his head and his face right up against the placenta so it was hard to get a good picture of him, but it looks like he has his daddy's chin and jawline and possibly my nose. Regardless of who he resembles, he is perfect.

Joshua with his left arm over his head. Can you see all his perfect little fingers?!

Joshua's face. Look at those perfect lips!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, dear friends & family!! Ben and I hope that you are warm, happy, and surrounded by those you love. We are enjoying our first (and last!) Christmas by ourselves. While it's strange to have it be so quiet, it's nice.

Joshua celebrated his first Christmas with a dance number that would put the Rockettes to shame. He kept me up from 2am until 6am with high kicks, low kicks and all sorts of tumbling moves. He's never been that active for that long. While he may have his father's love of pizza, he most definitely already has his mother's love of Christmas! We will be quite the pair in years to come. I picture us racing each other down the stairs to see what Santa has brought. Poor Ben will be ripped out of a cozy slumber by Joshua's shouts and my jumping on the bed. He'll love it. :)

We hope that your Christmas and this last week of the year is a beautiful one! We send all of our love, kisses and hugs to our families who we are missing terribly.

"Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow.

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,

and have yourself a merry little Christmas now!"

Oh. My. Goodness.

OK. Does it freak anyone else out that the ticker at the top of the page says that there are only 100 DAYS until Joshua is due to arrive?!?! Because it makes me panic just a little bit. One hundred days is not a long time. I feel like there are so many things to do and so little time. This is more stressful than planning our wedding!!!

On the bright side of things...somewhere around 100 days from now, I'll be holding my son in my arms. That makes it all better. :)

Timothy!

We did a whirlwind trip to visit friends and family this weekend. It was the weekend of the Nodine Men Annual Christmas "Shopping" Trip. I actually think they did really shop this year too! Impressive, huh? :) The ladies stayed at Kim's house and talked and fawned over the newest addition to our family - Timothy! He is a very happy baby, but does NOT like having his diaper changed! Brian are Carly are wonderfully proud parents (with good reason!) and were so nice to let me completely monopolize my nephew. Of course, I shared Timothy with Ben and both seemed to enjoy the experience.
Timothy is just beginning to smile as well and it was wonderful to see him give his Uncle Ben an example of his newly aquired skill.
We had such a great time this weekend seeing everyone. Thanks to Todd & Andrea, Tori & Jay, Matt & Rebecca (Matthew & Natalie too!) and the Birtwistles for taking the time to visit with us! We miss you all and can't wait to see you again once Joshua is here!!

Ahhhh.

We were given a wonderful gift from Grandma & Grandpa (aka Chiefy) Nodine. Here it is!

It rocks (well, it glides really) and swivels and is probably the most comfortable place to sit in the whole house. It fits both Ben and I perfectly...my feet even reach the ground! I'm sure there will be many nights spent rocking our little one to sleep in this chair. I have no doubt that it's up to the challenge. :)

Thank you so much, Grandma & Grandpa!! We love you.

So Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving! Dinner here was a huge success and we are all sitting around in a turkey coma. My mom flew down from Rochester to be with us and my sister, Jodi, and her husband, Jay, drove up from North Carolina. We are so happy to have them here! The only thing that could've made it better would have been to have Gina and David with us. We miss you guys!!

Joshua has been quite active today and both Jodi and mom were able to feel him wiggle and kick! Today is also Jodi's birthday. She said all she wanted was to feel Bean kick. Thankfully, Joshua obliged. Happy Birthday, Aunt Jodi! :)

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We have been so blessed. We have a home that we love, Ben is happy in his job, the weather has been wonderful, we've had opportunities to see both sides of our families, we have a new nephew, a new brother in law, and we have Joshua. What more could we want?!

So tell us...what are you giving thanks for this year? :)

Halfway Point...

Today marks the half way point of my pregnancy. It's hard to believe that it's half over already! Time really does fly when you're having fun. Joshua decided to mark this momentous occasion by making his presence known. There was no mistaking him kicking this morning! This was the first time Ben got to feel him too. I definitely haven't felt him kick like that before. It was so exciting! We're pretty sure he's going to be a soccer player and he is starting to practice all those game winning goal shots.

We went to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia today on a whim. It's about 40 minutes away and was so pretty. It was such a beautiful, crisp fall day! Here's a picture of Joshua's first trip to West Virginia. :)

Three cheers!

Congratulations, Brian and Carly!!!

Ben and I officially have our first nephew and Joshua has his first cousin! Brian & Carly's son, Timothy, was born last night at 7:40pm, 21 inches long, weighing in at a whopping 8lbs, 11 oz! I am in awe, Carly!!! You're amazing. Both mom and baby are doing well, and dad is hanging in there too. :)

We are so excited and can't wait to meet this new little addition to the Nodine family!

We're very prepared parents!

We decided it was high time to put together Josh's crib and start to convert our guest room into the nursery/guest room. I honestly thought that it would take a while to put together our little one's bed. As it turned out, it took Ben less than 30 minutes. We're pleasantly surprised at how sturdy the crib is and we really like the way it fits in the room. We've put some of Joshua's new clothes (see his little Hawaiian print swim trunks? And he already has polos just like Daddy's!) and blankets in the crib for now.

As I'm sure you've seen, all the Christmas stuff is starting to come out. Yay!!!!! What's that? It's too early, you say? I beg to differ! It's never too early for Christmas! Besides, there's only

Anyway...we were in Target the other night and found a stocking for Joshua. So he's all ready for Santa to visit! Yes, I know that Santa won't really visit him until next year...I'm just being a prepared mommy. :)

We've decided to name our son

~*~ Joshua James Nodine ~*~

We'll call him Joshua, Josh or Bean. No JJ. Aunt Jodi already calls him 'Joshuabean'.

Joshua because we love the name, James after my dad. I called dad to tell him this morning and he was "tickled" (as he would say). He said that it makes him "real proud" to have his first grandson be named for him. I can't wait to see them together! Now we only have 150 days (give or take) until we can put a face with a name. :)