The boy could arrive anytime between now and four weeks from now!  At my last doctor's visit, they said the baby has dropped and is doing great!  They told me to be ready with my bags packed!  As of three weeks ago, he was 4 1/2 pounds.  The ultrasound pictures are AMAZING (he already has a head full of hair!).  We almost have everything ready - we still need to install the carseat, finish a few things in his room, and make sure the house is all clean.  It's still seems unreal to me!  I can't believe how fast time has gone by!

Here is just one picture of many more to come!  Tyson and I went out to a field about two weeks ago to try to take pictures of ourselves.  We got a couple good ones, but using the timer can be tricky!  We then recruited our close friends Aaron and Nikki to take pictures of us while they were in town for Elyse's wedding (they were so nice to get up super early to take pictures of us before Church!).  I plan to put them up within the next couple of days - Right now I'm walking out the door for a surprise weekend that Tyson planned for us!  Tyson planned a mini-vacation for us at a nearby beach resort before the baby comes!  I love you Tyson!! You're already an amazing father!!!

Tyson and I finally bought furniture for our little guy!  We bought the crib below in distressed white (color in the second picture).  We were orginally looking at a very modern style crib that was priced realtively cheap.  After searching for a bit, we found that this crib was of MUCH better quality (dovetail drawers, can't see any screws in the crib, etc) and priced only a little bit higher.  I felt like we had to decide right then how many kids we were going to have!  After Tyson used his skills to negoitate the price down by $175, it was done deal!  We feel this furniture is just modern enough for our taste and will be perfect with the right accessories (funny that it's the first one my mom picked out awhile ago as her favorite!).  It should come in about 4 weeks!!  Now we're onto bedding, art for the walls, rug, paint color...... 

On a different note, I found this article in USA Today interesting.  It says "Women who ate at least one bowl of cereal daily were 87% more likely to have boys than those who ate no more than one bowlful per week." I don't think I've gone a day in life without eating cereal!!  Looks like I'll be having a houseful of boys.... (at least one needs to be a girl so they can use the white converted crib as their bed!). 

For the past two months, when not trying to catch up on pictures, we've been spending every moment searching for a house.  It's turned into a pretty big project, which makes me happy we didn't try to do this at the same time we were planning our wedding!  The emotions have ranged from super super excited simply because I'm looking for a home with Tyson, to kinda down because we weren't finding "the one".  Tyson LOVES land, and not just land - but trees and flowers and bugs, etc.... hence, the reason we have snakes in our home.  However, everything with land in our area is either out of our price range, or is a fixer uper, which again puts it out of our price range. 

We did find however, at the very end of our search, an adorable neighborhood.  While the homes don't have much land, there are loads of parks scattered throughout the neighborhood (one about every two blocks) and a huge nature park adjacent to the neighborhood.  It also appears, as strange at it is, that it's much cheaper to build a home than to purchase an existing home.  We are still in the process choosing which builder to go with and selecting a lot.  Nothing is offical yet, but here is the front of one of the houses we're considering!

That's right!!!  We're super uber excited!!  Today was one of the most amazing, coolest days of my life.  I can't tell you how surreal of a feeling it is to watch your child up on the monitor for the first time.  To be able to see all his fingers and toes, to watch him curl up and then stretch out and then turn over, and then have a sneak peak at his face for the very first time is one of the most amazing things I have experienced so far in life.  It's strange - I've dreamed since I was a little girl about one day being a mother and I'm just in awe actually seeing my child on a monitor before my eyes! 

And now it's time to go shopping for blue!  I'm sooooooo excited to meet a miniature version of Tyson!  I of course think Tyson is the absolute most adorable boy in the universe - so I can't imagine what his son will be like!!  Ahhh!!! Excitement!!!  Here's his adorable little face:

Yes - that's right - It's HERE!!! PARIS PICTURES!!!  Tyson and I went to Paris for a week back in September.  We took thousands of pictures - so this is just day 1. 

I really can't tell you how much Tyson and I enjoyed this trip to Europe.  With us both working full time and each commuting for an hour - it was sooooo great for me to get a week straight of not leaving his side.  I treasured every second of it!  It was also exciting for us to learn something new together.  Normally, our relationship consists of Tyson teaching me things (computer programming, photography, fishing, skiing...).  Don't get me wrong, that's my favorite thing about our relationship - but it was exciting for us to be thrown into an adventure for a week where we both knew relatively little and discovered things for the first time together. 

We weren't totally alone to navigate Paris though!!  Four of my colleagues, who were from France originally, were doing an internship in Paris for the semester!  It totally changes the experience to have someone from the country show you around (and it makes ordering food a lot easier)!  I will be forever grateful for them!!  It had been a goal of mine for a long time to go to Europe before I had kids (I even gave my word to a UF professor of mine that I'd do this - I'm thankful for his encouragement!).  I didn't know how or when it would happen, but it was neat to see how God combined my dreams of going to Duke with my dreams of traveling.  I now have amazing friends from all over the world and I hope to one day visit all of them!!

So here's Day 1!  To give a little background, we arrived at 7AM and couldn't check into our hotel until 3PM.  We had been up for many many many hours and hadn't had a shower in a long time....we were kind of walking around in a daze!!  One of my most awesomest friends, Olivier Mammet, greeted us at the airport before he went to work!  Here he is on the train trying to explain the subway system to me.  I think I was just nodding my head here with zero understanding.  His book sure came in handy!!!

After giving us a quick overview of the subways, Olivier took us to our hotel so they could hold our luggage until check-in.  It was a weird feeling being left to fend for ourselves after Olivier left :).  We followed his guidance though and headed to the Louvre!  When we came out of the subway, we felt like prairie dogs!  We just popped out of the ground and were in a totally new place.  We were just looking around saying "hmmm, now what?" (After getting our book out, the Louvre ended up being directly beside us.). 

We immediately headed to the only thing that we knew was there before arriving: the Mona Lisa!

We weren't the only ones there...

Trying to smile like mona Lisa :). 

We realized after taking this picture, that the painting is of Jesus - The Wedding Feast at Cana (I'm telling you, we were in a daze!).

Then we ventured though the rest of the museum (really wishing we knew more)!

Here's Winged Victory of Samothrace.  It dates back to between 220 and 190 B.C!

We were throughly impressed with how far back everything dated! (dates were the one thing we could read!)

We were in awe of the Egyptian statues!  Unfortunately, we only saw the first room of the exhibit because we accidently went into a different room and couldn't figure out how to get back...

The different room turned out to a dungeon!  We learned afterwards that the dungeon was actually there before the Lovre was built!

We then left the Louvre simply because we were so tired, and headed out to find someplace to eat until it was check-in time.  That was the last time we'd be able to use our credit card - it was cut off by dinner time.  We now know to warn the credit card company...

This is of a painter we passed on our way to the hotel.  We thought it was a good photo op :).

This is how a lot of the buildings and streets looked throughout the city. Our hotel was just down the road, in between these two buildings.

That night, after taking a much-needed nap, we met up with Olivier and his girlfriend, Claire Mongenot.  They are such an fun couple!!  We LOVED their company!!  Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe!  It's the world's largest triumphal arch and was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806.  The streets around it form a star when looking down with a bird's eye view (I saw it on a post card :) ). 

YAY!!!  The Eiffel Tower!!!!  I was wondering, while I was standing there, how many other people I knew had stood in the exact same spot.  I know that many of my relatives have - I assume my parents and grandparents.  And one of my bridesmaids was engaged there just a couple months prior.  It's a neat feeling to stand in such a famous spot! 

We headed down to take a closer look!

Tyson and I still laugh when we look at this picture!!  I guess you would call this "perpendicular parking." I wonder if they teach this in French Driver's Ed?  These little cars were everywhere and we understood why!

And we were home.... :) It was an exciting day!!