11 weeks

how far along?  11 weeks

how are you measuring? 11 weeks

size of baby? about an 1 1/2 inches or the size of a fig
heartbeat? 183 bpm (at our 8/9 week sono)
total weight gain/loss? -1.2 pounds (no weight gain yet!!)
maternity clothes? I'm still wearing my normal clothes and they fit just fine!!
stretch marks? No
sleep? For as long as I can remember I have gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  One trip to the bathroom at night is normal, but lately it's been 2 and sometimes 3 trips.  After the second or third trip to the bathroom, I start having trouble falling back asleep, because my mind starts to wonder off about what it will be like to be a Mom, bedding and baby registry etc.
best moment this week? Spending time with my sweet college roomie and her new baby Kinsley.  Erin really let me "pretend" to be a Mommy for the few days I was there.  I changed a few diapers, put her in and out of her carseat, pushed her around in her stroller and loved on her a bunch. Erin was an open book and really answered alot of my questions.  It was so great to spend time with an old friend!!

movement? I'm not feeling anything yet, but apparently he/she is moving all around.  (according to all my books) I just can't feel it yet. I can't wait until I can feel him/her.

food cravings? Ice Water. I have to have ice cold water with me at all times.  I'm so thirsty.
gender predictions? I honestly have no idea.  Nine more weeks until we find out though!!
what i miss: Working out.  I haven't really worked out since I found out I was pregnant.  I've just been too tired.  And now that it's getting cold outside and it's dark so early, I don't even have any motivation to go for a walk.  And......on Saturday I got this awful cramp in my hip.  My Mom said she had it when she was pregnant, and it didn't go away until she delivered.  Supposedly, it has to do with hormones, but I don't really know.  It isn't hurting so much today, so maybe I should go for a walk!!  Ehh.....maybe tomorrow!!
what i'm looking forward to: Christmas Break.  I know that doesn't really have anything to do with pregnancy, but after a wonderful week off of Thanksgiving, I am so ready for those 2 weeks at Christmas!!  More time to read all my books, think about baby stuff and look at all the things that we will need for our sweet babe!!
how are you feeling? I'm still feeling great!! I really feel like I'm cheating pregnancy since I haven't been sick at all.  I'm still tired, but I do feel like I'm getting some energy back.  I'm not going to bed at 8 or 8:30.  I can now make it to 9:00 and sometimes even 10:00!! My hip cramp was really bothering me on Saturday and Sunday, but it seems to be better.  I'm hoping that was a 2 day thing and it doesn't happen again. We'll see though!

meal planning monday

Monday: Dinner @ My Parent's House

Tuesday: Cranberry Stuffed Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, & Salad

Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti, Garlic Toast, Green Beans, & Salad

Thursday: Dinner @ My Parents House

Friday: Goodfella's Pizza

Saturday Breakfast: Matt-Guy's Bible Study Me- on my own

Saturday Lunch: Grilled Cheese & Chips

Saturday Dinner: Chicken Spaghetti, Rolls, & Veggies

Sunday Lunch: Out with our ABF

Sunday Dinner: Snackin'

crumbs

Izzie is going to be so excited when there is a little crumb dropper at our house!!

 

Izzie loves crumbs!!

happy thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at Matt's parents house!! 

Izzie stood under the table the entire time while Stan carved the turkey.  She was in heaven with all the little crumbs that were dropped throughout the day!

 Our dinner included ham, chipotle corn, sweet potato casserole,

 dressing, masshed potatoes, turkey, gravy, celery & peanut butter, rolls, waldorf salad, green beans, cranberry relish and jellied cranberries, and hot fruit compote.  

 We all stuffed ourselves silly!!

Izzie loved being with the family.  All the little kids played with her and loved on her so much.

 She was worn out at the end of the day though.

 Matt and I have so much to be thankful for this year.

We are most thankful this year for the sweet little baby growing inside of me!!

gobble! gobble!

Last Christmas, I made these for my neices and nephews.  They absolutely loved them, so I searched the internet and found these for Thanksgiving. 

Here's was you'll need to make these cute little turkeys.

 Whoppers

Oreos

Candy Corn

Reece's Cups

Icing

These directions are straight off the Tasty Kitchen website.

FEATHERS:

The easiest way to start these turkeys is to do the feathers first. Put frosting on the back of an Oreo and put 5 or so candy corns, point down, in the frosting, so that the wide end is sticking off the edge. I left them laying down so the frosting could dry and harden.

BASE:

Next put a blob of frosting near one edge of another Oreo, and stand one of the feathered Oreos in the frosting. You don’t want to leave the Oreo laying down on its feathers, because the feathers will cause the turkey to lean when standing if you do so. Instead prop them up against a book or wall so they can dry without being too top heavy and falling over.

BODY:

While the bases are drying, cut off the bottom edge (fat end) of a bunch of candy corns, and then “glue” one to each Whopper with the point out. (For the beak.) Then put each whopper head on one round side of the Reese’s cups.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

Once all of these are stable, add the Reese’s/Whopper bodies to the Oreos, standing them in front of the feathered Oreo.

I used a little too much icing, but the kids definitely approved.

Now I need to find another cute dessert for Christmas!!

how we told everyone

As soon as I saw the positive pregnancy test, my wheels started turning on how I would tell everyone that we were expecting.  I didn't want to be boring and just tell everyone with a phone call or a visit, so I tried to come up with a fun way to tell everyone!!

Here's how we told.....

• my parents
• Matt's parents
• our ABF
• facebook
• my school
• and if you missed it.....my blog

telling lolly & pops

We went to our first doctors appointment on Thursday, November 4th, and we had decided to keep our pregnancy a secret until we went to that appointment.  

After keeping it a secret for a little over 2 weeks, I was so ready to tell my parents.  I talk to my every day so it was extremely hard not to say anything to her.  I really wanted to tell them right after our appointment, but I also wanted to tell them in a fun way, so we decided to wait until Friday evening.  After school on Friday, I went to the candy store and bought a giant lollipop.  I made a cute little card and attached it to the lollipop. 

My nephew Carson calls my parents Lolly & Pops, so I thought it would only be fitting to tell them with a lollipop. 

Earlier in the day, I had called my Mom to see if they wanted to try out a new restaurant in town.  She didn't really sound all that interested in going and let me know that my Dad had wanted to see a movie either that afternoon or evening.  I didn't want it to be obvious that we wanted to meet with them to tell them something, so I just told her I would call her later because we needed to come over so I look at some diaper bags for a friend and Matt could talk to my Dad about some sprinkler issues.  When Matt got home I immediately called my parents house.  My little brother answered the phone and said that they had just left for a 6:00 movie.  I was so bummed, because now we were going to have to wait until their movie was over and for them to go to dinner afterwards.  I called my Dad and told him to call us when they got home so we could come over when they got home.  Matt and I ended up trying out Matt's Ranco Martinez without my parents then came home and watched some TV while we waited for them to get home.  We waited and waited and waited.  Around 9:30, I finally texted my Dad asking if they were home.  He called me right back and said, "Come on over."  I think he had forgotten to call me!!

When we got over there, we chatted for a bit and then I busted out the lollipop.  They were so excited for us!!

My Mom said that she had just thought that we might be coming over to tell them we were expecting.  My Dad on the other hand had no idea!!

telling grammy & granddaddy

On Sunday November 7th, we were supposed to have our pictures made in McKinney.  Since Matt's parents live about 30 minutes from McKinney we thought we would have them meet us for dinner after our pictures.  We ended up not getting our pictures taken that day, but we didn't want to cancel our dinner plans because we wanted to tell them our good news!!

As soon as we got there Matt pulled the little card out of my purse and showed them.  

Matt's Dad had to look at it for a minute for it to sink it, but his Mom was so excited I'm pretty sure the whole restuarant heard her screaming!!  

It was so fun to see them get so excited even though this is their 6th grandbaby!!  I know it's an extra special one though because it's their baby's baby and it will be the first grandbaby with the last name Link!! Matt has two sisters, so all the other grandkids are LeBlancs and Reeds!!

telling our ABF

A few weeks ago when I went to coffee with a friend, I was actually meeting our ABF director to tell her that we were expecting.  Her husband is in charge of our "ice-breaker" games at the beginning of class, so I told her to tell him to come up with a game in which we could announce that we were expecting.

On Sunday November 14th, Tom had us all get in a circle.  He would say things like, "Stand up and move to the left if you have traveled to more than 3 contintents" or "Stand up and move to the right if you have ever."

Towards the end of the game he said...

"Stand up and move if you and your spouse have thought about having kids."

Everyone moved, because we have all talked about having kids at some point.

Then he said...

"Stand up and move if you have thought about your kids names."

Almost all the guys stayed seated, and all the girls moved!!

Then he said....

"Stand up and move if you have recently found out that you are having a baby and want to share it with the class!!

We stood up and totally surprised everybody!!

telling the world facebook

On Thursday night I posted this picture as my profile picture then updated my status to......

Katy Link We are thrilled to announce that we're having a baby!!!

November 18 at 6:51pm ·  · Comment

Matt cracked me up and posted this on Twitter.....

@mlink10

Matt Link

@katylink is gonna be my baby momma........ this dad to be is super excited!

18 Nov via web Favorite Retweet Reply

and posted this on Facebook.....

Matt Link We're having a baby (well Katy Link is.....)!

November 18 at 7:05pm ·  · Comment · Remove Tag

All evening and all day Friday, my phone was beeping like crazy with all the comments people left on my facebook.  It really made my day to have so many people sbow love and excitement for our baby!!

telling my school

Thursday night after I announced on my blog and on facebook that we were expecting, I sent an e-mail out to my staff.  I used the same pictures I used on my blog, but attached them all in one picture.

I got so many hugs, smiles, and e-mails from all my staff that day.  They were all so excited for us and loved the way we announced it.  I really do teach at the best school ever.  I felt like I was telling my family we were expecting.  Everyone was genuinely excited for us!!

10 weeks

how far along?  I know this should be a a 9 weeks post, but when we went to the doctor I was measuring 6 days ahead so she moved my due date up.  I basically skipped 9 weeks and now I'm 10 weeks!!
how are you measuring? 10 weeks

size of baby? It was the size of a grape and now it's the size of a small kumquat.  (I don't even know what that is!!)
heartbeat? 183 bpm (we got to hear it at our sono)
total weight gain/loss? -1.2 pounds
maternity clothes? I'm still wearing my normal clothes and they fit just fine!!
stretch marks? No
sleep? I plan to do a lot of sleeping this week while I am out of school for a whole week!! I really can't get enough sleep!!  Bedtime is around 8:30 for me these days.
best moment this week? Our sonogram was the number one moment of this week.  It was an unbelievable experience.  We got to see our "Little Link", who looked like the cutest little teddy graham.  We could see the heart beating in his/her chest and then we got to hear it.  Praise the Lord!!  After we watched our baby for a little while, he/she began to wiggle around.  It is just amazing to think our little baby (the size of a grape) has little limbs and was moving around inside of me!! Our number two moment of the week was that we announced on our blog and facebook that we were expecting.  We got so many comments.  It really made my day that so many people were so excited for us.  I also told my staff that we were expecting.  I got so many hugs, smiles, and e-mails that day.  Our baby will definitely be loved by lots of people!!

movement? I'm not feeling anything yet.
food cravings? Panera Bread Sierra Turkey Sandwich (details why below)
gender predictions? I honestly have no idea.  
what i miss: Lunchmeat.  Apparently you aren't supposed to eat lunchmeat when you are pregnant.  I just learned this.  Well, you can eat lunchmeat, you just have to heat it up until it's steaming hot to kill the bacteria known as listeria that could be in it.  Pregnant women are more susceptible to this bacteria which is why we shouldn't eat it.  Unfortuneatly, I don't like warm lunch meat. I only like cold sandwiches.  So of course since I can't have cold lunchmeat, that is all I want!!  I just want a Panera Bread Sierra Turkey Sandwich!! I guess I'll have one in June.
what i'm looking forward to: I am looking forward to spending time with my old college roomie Erin, her husband Kory and their new baby Kinsley for a couple of days.  I'm sure I'll get lots of good advice from Erin since she was just pregnant.  I'm also looking forward to spending time with Matt's family over Thanksgiving!! And 9 days off of school!!
how are you feeling? I'm still really tired, but I have 9 whole days to sleep as much as I want. Can you tell I'm excited about the 9 days I get off of school!! Thank you Dr. Fuller for giving us the whole week off for Thanksgiving!! 

8 weeks

I realize that I don't have a baby bump yet, but I'm so excited to start my "Baby Bump Series" on my blog.  I mainly want to start it this early so I can blog about all the details of my pregnancy.  I know that it goes by quickly so I want to soak up every moment of it!!

**I took these pictures and typed this post on November 15th when I really was 8 weeks!


how far along? 8 weeks
how are you measuring? ????
size of baby? size of a kidney bean
heartbeat? ???????
total weight gain/loss? -2.2 pounds
maternity clothes? I'm still wearing my normal clothes and they fit just fine!!
stretch marks? No
sleep? I can't get enough sleep. I am absolutely exhausted when I come home from school.  I go to bed around 8 or 8:30 almost every night.  I think the latest I've stayed up since I've been pregnant was 10pm.  I usually squeeze in a 30min to 1hour nap on weekdays and I've been taking a 2-3 hour nap on the weekends.  
best moment this week? During week 6 we told our family we were expecting. During week 7 we told close friends and Matt told his boss and I told my Kindergarten team.  This past Sunday when I was one day shy of 8 weeks we told our ABF.  It has really made the pregnancy feel real now that it's not a secret anymore!!
movement? I'm not feeling anything yet.
food cravings? No cravings yet.
gender predictions? I honestly have no idea.  
what i miss: I miss having energy.  I feel so lazy when I come home and sit on the couch all evening.  I just have to remind myself that I am growing a little baby inside of me, and that is why I am so tired.  
what i'm looking forward to: We have our first sonogram on Thursday.  I am super excited to see our "Little Link" growing inside of me.  I really hope we are able to hear the heartbeat.  I hear that sometimes you can and sometimes you can't at 8 weeks.  
how are you feeling? I am very tired, but I haven't been sick one bit.  I really feel great!! No nausea or no vomiting, NOTHING.  I feel so lucky.  Somedays I have to remind myself that I am pregnant because I really don't feel all that different.  

meal planning monday

Monday: Matt: On his own Katy: In Houston

Tuesday: Matt: On his own Katy: In Houston

Wednesday: Taco Soup

Thursday: Thanksgiving @ The Links

Friday: Thanksgiving Leftovers

Saturday Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls

Saturday Lunch: Frito Pie

Saturday Dinner: Fajita Chicken Braid, Homemade Hot Sauce & Chips

Sunday Lunch: Last Sunday Lunch w/ ABF

Sunday Dinner: Pizza

guess what??

Details to come!!

meal planning monday

Monday: Dinner @ My Parents House

Tuesday: Matt: On his own Me: UIL Competition

Wednesday: Ravioli w/Sun Dried Tomato Alfredo Sauce, Garlic Toast, & Green Beans

Thursday: Little Caesar's Pizza & Crazy Bread

Friday: BJ's (using a giftcard)

Saturday Breakfast: Matt: Bible Study Me: On my own

Saturday Lunch: Leftovers

Saturday Dinner: ABF Fellowship

Sunday Lunch: Matt: On his own Me: At the airport

Sunday Dinner: Matt on his own Katy: In Houston

cheap chipotle

Today after church Matt and I stopped by Chipotle to get some lunch.  When we got to the register the guy in front of us showed the cashier his iPhone and it took his bill down like 6 bucks.  You know how much I love a good deal, so I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Sorry to be nosy, but what did you just show her on your phone."  He said that when you check in on facebook, it gives you a Buy One Meal Get One Meal FREE coupon!!  So I quickly told Matt to check in and get the coupon.  After the coupon we got our lunch for $6!!

Made. My. Day.

It looks like the deal ends tomorrow, but if you want to try to sang it, you can go here.

frito pie

A few weeks ago I made Frito Pie for dinner.  

Mmmmmmm....

I know it's not a pretty picture and I know it wasn't a healthy dinner, but it was so good!!

It just hit the spot!!

While we were eating, my husband informed me of one of his favorite dinners in college.  He said he would put a bed of lettuce on a plate, top it will Frito Pie, then cover in Ranch.

Can you say DISGUSTING?  

And the funny thing is, he thought it was kind of healthy because it had lettuce in it!!

It's a good thing that I do all the cooking in our house!!