Let's Celebrate Baby S - Texas Style!

In January, my best friends through me the most fabulous baby shower ever! I feel so blessed to of been surrounded by so many friends and family during this special time. It meant so much to be able to see everyone and to celebrate our impending arrival...I just wish the shower could have lasted all day long so I had enough time to catch up with everyone.

Here are some highlights:

The food table...

Meredith and Jana...


Eileen and Karen...


Grace and her Granny Jessica...



What I was unaware of was that I was the entertainment for the shower! One of the "games" was I had to act out a bunch of movie titles, song titles, and sayings with the word "baby" in it. That was embarrassing and exhausting! But pretty hilarious for my guests to watch their pregnant friend acting out pop culture's biggest baby hits.

"Baby Got Back"...

"Hit Me Baby One More Time"...

And everyone trying to figure out what in the world I was acting out this time...

When it came to opening the gifts, Grace thought it would be most beneficial for me for her to spread her knowledge that she learned over Christmas. In other words, she wanted to help me open all of my gifts! She's such a doll. And who can turn her down? Not her nanny Jamie!

One of my best friends Eileen got Baby S a Dave Matthews Band onesie!!! She knows me so well... Do you think the baby knows DMB's songs by heart now? I listen to him enough... Maybe his first word will be "dancing" or "nancies" or "ants".

Another highlight was Baby S receiving his very first Texas team sportswear from Elizabeth!!!! GO AGGIES!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell how exciting I am??? After the voluminous amount of Denver Broncos stuff received, it was about time this baby was introduced to Texas football. I've got a LOT of work to do to even out the Colorado vs. Texas team outfits though.

Katie, Karen, and I....

My Houston A&M co-workers (I miss you ladies!)....


Mom and I....


My gorgeous shower hosts (minus Katie)...

Thank you to everyone who was able to make my shower in Houston...it was so great to see you there and I am honored that you were able to make it. Baby S was "showered" with so many great gifts so Mike and I cannot thank you enough. And thank you to my wonderful shower hosts...I know how much work went into the day and I just wanted to let you know how much I truly appreciate it. You are the best friends a girl can have. Love, Jamie

The gig is up

When my sister and I were young, we saw Santa peering through the window on Christmas Eve one year. I was a bit young to remember but my sister will never forget it.

So we tried to recreate the experience for Grace.

When Grace saw Santa through the window of the front door, she got really still, her face went blank, and she whispered ever so softly, "Santa....." It was a moment I know I will not forget.

So Santa comes in with gifts for all of us...the biggest one for Grace of course.

A Cinderella dress (I was SOOOO jealous!)

Grace soaked up all the attention...I mean, this was Santa! In her house! And he was bringing her some darn good gifts. But sadly, at some point Santa had to go. He gathered his things, said goodbye, and began walking about the door...to which Grace yelled...

"WHY IS GRANDPA SANTA???!!!???"

We all had mixed emotions. I mean, clearly, this girl is not stupid. But at the same time we were worried that we had ruined the next 5 years of Christmas magic!

No worries though b/c the next day at brunch, Grace ran right up to Santa to get a picture. Then she ran across the restaurant to Amy yelling "mommy, mommy, i just met Santa!!!!!!!"

We are on for next year.

Christmas in Houston

We headed straight from Illinois to Houston for a week of Christmas celebrations with the Martin clan. This was a REALLY exciting year b/c it was the first year that Grace was old enough to really appreciate Christmas and Santa visiting. Personally, Grace and I got along REALLY well b/c she's going through a serious princess stage...everything she wants revolves around princesses, pink, trying on princess dresses, and pretending she is a princess. My sister Amy thinks this is just a stage but considering I'm 31 and am still experiencing this so-called "stage", Amy and Andy have a lot of princess in their future.


Christmas morning!!!


Christmas morning consisted of Grace ripping open a present and a combination of Amy, Andy, Mike and / or, myself frantically trying to put together the gift as quick as possible. This repeated about 15 times until Grace had been through all of her presents. It was pretty exhausting but a lot of fun! There was a lot of scrambling between various toy parts, tools, directions, and batteries but eventually we got it all put together. Who would have known one blond princess would be so high maintenance? :)


Amy, Andy, and Cinderella...



Mike and I after a yummy Christmas brunch...

The Martin clan (Papa, mom, my brother Greg, me, Mike, Grace, my sister Amy, and brother-in-law Andy)...

The Holidays in lllinois

Every year since I can remember, my mom and I fly to St. Louis, rent a car, drive 3 hours to southern Illinois (specifically the booming metropolis of Eldorado), goof around with family, eat lots of carbs, eat lots of sugar, eat lots of butter, gain 5 pounds, fly a UFO, drive 3 hours back to St. Louis, and fly home...all in 3 days! We look forward to it every year! Well, for the second year in a row, Mike joined us (I think it was either the UFO or Aunt Donna Mae's desserts) for the madness.

Mike and I with my Grandma Opal...


Four generations (Grandma Opal, mom, me, and baby)...

Mom and I after overindulging ourselves on a combination of Aunt Donna Mae's 15 desserts...

Sometime after that, me - post nap...

Uncle Bill, me, and Baby Spruiell...

Mike and I cheating on Jerry with another border collie (Uncle Bill and Aunt Teresa's baby Chico)...

Does this picture look familiar to ANYONE else? Just substitute Mike for Uncle Bill and Jerry for Chico.

As for the highlight of the weekend, the UFO! So the story goes, when my Uncle Bill was younger, he built this UFO and let it fly around town. Well, some of the townspeople saw it, really thought it was a UFO, and it made the paper the next morning! There was even a quote in the paper by one man who swears he saw tiny aliens inside. Every year since, we have re-created the UFO. We spend the entire weekend analyzing the probability of the thing flying - between wind trajectories, temperature, materials, and other factors we cannot discuss (top secret family business) - it all comes down to the last night! Will it fly or not? Let me tell you, we've had some pretty good years! We've seen this thing fly so far we cannot see it anymore. On the flip side, we've had some really bad years - think burning UFO landing on top of Uncle Bill's roof. Either way, come hell or high water, we try to fly.

The UFO team members include Uncle Bill - founder and president, my cousin Clint, myself, and the newest member Mike! Mike was voted in this year after my family confirmed he is not a Russian spy selling our secrets - in fact his engineering background has proven to be a great asset! Other helpers include Clint's daughter Faith. The next generation of UFOers will include Faith, her now 9 month old brother Jaxson, and Baby Spruiell so we have been putting them through some pretty rigorous training.

Here are some pictures - there are no close-ups due to the preserving the family secrets in UFO building... :)

Turkey Day in Seattle

This year the Janets hosted most of the family for Thanksgiving...and what a time we had! We ate lots, (some of us) drank lots, shopped, watched football, went bowling, received a personal tour of the firestation, and played a TON of Sequence. It was the perfect weekend with family. The only complaint I have is that we didn't have more time together.

The girls...

The bros (minus Tod who was keeping Seattle safe at the time - aka he was at work)...

The sisters...

The fam bugging Tod at work...

Some crazy pregnant lady thinking she can drive a firetruck...

Tod humoring us by showing us one of the beds at the fire station...

Bowling! My team one both games with no help from yours truly.

And Porter....the entertainment for the weekend...

It's just another manic Monday

I took these pictures on the Monday after Christmas when I was home for the break.

These animals really have a "ruff" life don't they?

The result of too many cookies

Here's a blurry picture of me and Baby Boy Spruiell at 28 weeks and 4 days (today).

Since I'm your typical Type A personality I've been keeping close watch on all of mine and my baby's stats: blood pressure, heart rate, glucose levels, and of course....weight. My doctor is at the point where she chuckles when I bring out my stats book to record all of the numbers at each appointment.

I had a doctor's appointment today (which I now refer to as "Weigh-in Day") and was getting pretty nervous considering I've made two trips to Texas this month (airline food coupled with Tex Mex does not a pretty figure make) and I recently have acquired a craving for chocolate chip cookies. To top it all off, Mike brought home a package of Mike and Ike's candies, as well as, a chocolate marshmellow heart for me last night. What a nice man, I know. I not so politely informed him that although the gesture was sweet (no pun intended), it was before my Weigh-in Day. Then he watched me throw all logic out the door and devour all of it in a matter of minutes.

So I get to my appointment this morning and guess what??? 1.25 pounds gained in one month. YES! That's like record-setting for me. Seriously, my monthly average weight gain is usually way above that so logic would say either 1) the scale was off or 2) next month will not be very good but whatever! My "pregnancy brain" tells me that eating bad worked. So when I got back to the office I marched right across the street and bought myself a chocolate chip cookie to celebrate.

Lesson learned.