Tree stumps...for legs??

Yes, in the past few days, my legs have in fact looked like tree stumps.

I woke up on Sunday morning with severe pain in my calves...so bad that I could hardly walk all day. The pain continued into Monday and I looked like a crippled person trying to hobble around at work. By Monday night my legs were so swollen you couldn't even tell that I have ankles! Yesterday I received one of my pregnancy emails that stated "if you are feeling pain in your calves and extreme swelling, contact your doctor, this may be a sign of a blood clot" WHAT?! You can imagine my distress. Never in my life have I had the dreaded cankles and I could not fathom where my bones had disappeared to underneath the sea of swollen skin. Finally I call the doctor, it takes a couple of hours for the nurse to call me back and tell me that she wants me to come in today and in the meantime I need to keep my feet elevated above my heart. Which I will say this is hard to do...I don't consider myself an extremely active person, but apparently I am...because this was killing me to sit and keep my feet up! And this is hard to do at work as well. Propping your feet up on a wooden desk isn't exactly comfortable and I look like such a slacker doing so!!

Anyways, this morning, after heeding the doctor's advice all evening and during the night. I could see my ankles again!! I knew I had bones in there somewhere! So I proceed to the doctor and she tells me that with this heat it is not abnormal for me to experience some swelling. All women are different and some swell while others do not. Lucky me. She told me to stay off of my feet as much as possible, wear shoes with good arch supports and consume more potassium (like bananas). Great, so it looks like I may be dealing with this ailment for the remainder of my pregnancy. Oh the joy.

Good thing is my blood pressure is fine and the baby's heart beat sounds good, so we are healthy...just a little chubby looking at times :) so please forgive me if you see me on a day where I can hardly walk and my legs look like tree stumps...can't say I didn't warn you!

Outside for Good!

That is right...Mr. Spencer is outside for good. He has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to this, but over all I would say it has been a successful move. I did bring him in the other night when it stormed and when we get our garage done, I will allow him in there when it is stormy/icy/snowy. I believe dogs are meant to be outdoors. I love him, but I also hate him in my house, forever staining my carpet and sending his dog hair all around. BLECK! The transition was necessary. I refuse to have a tiny baby on the floor with my icky dog, covered in dog hair and slobbering all over each other. Eww...who knows what people would think of me then. So I say all of this to let you know that now when you come over you will not see any evidence of dog inside my house (hopefully) nor will you have the crazy hyper jumping dog all over you when you enter.

I know Spencer is enjoying his time out there, because who wouldn't like the freedom to run and play all day rather than be stuck in a tiny crate? And we purchased him a doggie pool so he could cool off. I did actually have to get the one at petsmart, made for dogs, because it was the only one short enough for him to get into and out of by himself since his legs are so short. Although I have yet to see him voluntarily get in it. We put him in there from time to time and he gets all sad like we are going to give him a bath, so I assume he will figure it out when it gets a little hotter outside. Here is a picture of him enjoying the greenery :)

The picture above was taken just a couple of days ago after his appointment with the groomers. He is shaved and ready for summer -- he always runs around like mad when we bring him home after he gets shaved, I believe it is his "I'm free, I'm free" run...you know free of all his big puffy hair!! But Chris said when he brought him through the house after the appointment he looked around the living room for his crate, then went into the dining room and looked for his doggie bowls and then he looked at Chris like "Hey, where's my stuff?" and let out a big sigh. Hahaha! I think he has come to the realization now that this is a permanent thing.

Hip hip hooray no more stinky dog in my house! :)

Prego Pal and updated picture

Ok, so I am pretty behind in my posting yet again. So here is a picture of me and one of my prego pals, Kari. As you can tell, she is a much prettier prego person than me! :) She is 16 weeks 4 days and I am 20 weeks 4 days in this picture. We are exactly 4 weeks apart!

Now here is my 21 week picture. I do not feel so hot (and I don't mean temperature), but frankly when do I ever feel hot? I haven't felt hot since I was in college, ah, such is life. Oh wait, I did feel pretty on my wedding day so...but not much since :) Here it is.

Jules is FOUR!!

Happy Birthday Julesie!! Her actual birthday is today but her party was Saturday. Here are some pictures of the cutie:





Playing in the pool with friends

Opening Presents

Trying to kill the pinata

Scoring some candy from the busted pinata

Dance Video

Now, this is a dance video. A video of Chris and three little girls dancing that is. Connie and I just looked on and laughed. You wouldn't want to see my dancing skills...I am sure Connie has some, but I have NONE! Uncle Chris brought in pizza and said, "girls, I got us some dance music" or something to that nature and this is what happened.

I would also like to mention that the ginormous box they are sliding/dancing on is from the crib we purchased. Connie and I sat in the living room all evening talking and watching the girls play around the box that was sitting upright. Then Chris walks in when he gets off work, tilts the box and makes an instant slide AKA the coolest toy in the house. Now, why didn't Connie and I think of that??? We will never know...

It's a...

GIRL!!

Beautiful arrangement

You must check out this video on YouTube, it is absolutely beautiful. My friend Ellie shared this with me and I just love it! Jamye you need to download it on itunes so I can put it on my ipod :)

Taylor Swift's Love Story meets Coldplay's Viva La Vida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys

I wish I could play the piano like that!! My lessons never got that far...

19 Weeks

Ok, so I took 3 different pictures and I didn't like any of them. My skin looks awful and so does my hair...which I didn't actually fix today. I photo shopped my skin, but it doesn't look much better. So I tell you all of that to explain why this is a headless picture. I do actually still have my head it just looks disgusting so I cropped it out :) Really all you care about is the belly anyways, right?