It's a BOY!!!

July 10th was the day we've been anxiously waiting for, the day to tell us whether Baby Hixon was a boy or a girl!  I was really getting tired the past couple weeks leading up to this day of referring to my child as an "it".  Really there's not much option since I didn't know, but "it" got old after awhile.  Plus, it's hard to do too much shopping when you don't know, which may have been a good thing.  We could have found out earlier than our 20 wk. appointment, but I wanted to know for sure what "it" was.  I'd heard too many stories of people that found out at 16 wks. or earlier and then were told at their 20 wk. appointment that they were having the other gender.  For Casey and I, we decided we would rather wait and have that certainty.
    The ultrasound tech took some other measurements before and then she says "Here we go!".  Before she said anything else, Casey looked at the ultrasound and said, "And that's a penis".  The tech replied back, "Yes it is", so WE ARE HAVING A BOY!  Thankfully, it was very obvious we have a boy, so there were no doubts in our minds.  I had tried the night before to talk with Casey about boy names since that had still not been decided, but he did not see the point of doing so because we both thought it was a girl.  I honestly wasn't too shocked it was boy, Casey is 1 of 3 boys after all.  Casey was thrilled to not have to pay for a wedding, go to dance recitals, and to teach his son baseball (they were said in that order).  Not having any brothers, I'm looking forward to having this little guy and know what it's like to have a son.  Most importantly, God gave us what we needed.  The Hixon name will continue for another generation and hopefully he'll be and look just like his Daddy!
  So the bright pink onesie Casey's Pawpaw bought on the cruise because he was so certain it was a girl will have to be stored for now.  Knowing what to buy/look for and refer to the baby as a "he" was so nice!  It took us awhile to decide on a name.  We both went through the baby name book quite a few times trying to find just the right name.  All I can say is naming a person is serious business and not something we took lightly.  What I wanted for my child as far as their name was it to be common enough that it was not unheard of, but not so common that there would be 3 other kids in their class with the same name.  Plus,  you've got to take out family/close friend names that have already been used.  There's no rule that says you can't repeat, but my main point in doing so was to minimize confusion when there were get together's.
    We knew for the middle name we wanted that be a name after someone in our family.  We were able to narrow that name down to 2 possibilities very quickly.  His first name took some discussion.  Though I wanted to pull the "I'm birthing him" card to give me at least a 60% say rather than the fair 50-50, I knew that was not the right way to go.  After much talk, we came down to one name that we could both agree upon.  The name we have chosen for our son is....

Caden John Hixon

     We didn't want to experiment with any funky spellings and Casey was very adamant no feminine spellings.  I've seen Caden spelled with either a C or K, but since we decided his middle name was going to be John, Casey wanted them to have the same initials.  As someone who had the same initials as their Dad, I thought that would be special too.  The middle name is sentimental to us both for 3 reasons:  it's Casey's middle name that he wanted to pass down to his first son, Casey's father is named John, and I have an uncle on my side of the family that I love/admire also named John, so it was a perfect fit for us! Here are some pictures of Baby Caden at 20 wks 2 days:

The "Definitely A Boy" Shot

Here are some updated bump pictures!

20 wks.  

24 wks.

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17

North to Alaska (Part 2)

 
On Thursday (the 5th) the ship docked in Ketchikan.  In the morning, Casey and I went an excursion that took us to the Alaskan Rain Forest.  We were able to see a baby bear cub, feed some reindeer, and watch this local carve a gigantic totem pole.  Very cool stuff!!!  They had a lot of shops too by where the ship docked, so Casey and I spent the afternoon walking around and watching the small bush planes comes in on the water.  Very relaxing and another lovely day!

     Friday (the 5th) was a day spent at sea, but the scenery really is so lovely (even if it is cloudy) that you can just spend hours in a chair looking out on the water.  Saturday (the 6th) was also spent at sea and was much of the same.  Casey and I would sleep in since for most of the previous days we had to wake up early for our excursions.  It was nice by the end of the cruise to just do nothing if that's what we wanted to do.  I even got Casey to do the Newly Wed game (which Casey did not want to do, but was a good sport and participated).  We did pretty good, and even got a free cookbook out of the deal!
    There were many stories and memories made, but I'll leave you with the one where the dining staff tried twice in one meal to hurt our unborn child.  For those unaware, when you are with child you can not eat under-cooked meat mainly for the risk of the bacteria listeria that can harm the baby, so the experts suggest well done, medium well is okay but pushing the boundary.  We went to the nice dining room every night where you choose from various options.  On our last night on the boat, I chose a glazed bourbon beef.  The description did not specify how it was cooked, so I asked the waiter and he said "medium to medium well".  So I told him I had to have medium well because I was pregnant, he said okay and told me that it was the same in his country.  So dinner arrives and I'm guessing my plate went unknowingly to someone else because parts of my meat were medium well, but there were a lot of parts that weren't.  Meat itself was okay, nothing to write home about, but not terrible either, so I just ate around the parts that weren't medium well.  The waiter noticed I wasn't eating all of my meat and that it was not prepared as I had requested, so he's very apologetic and offers to get me another plate.  I said I was fine, it wasn't a problem and I was just eating the parts I could.  Then the dining floor manager comes over to apologize and tells me that I hope this is not a reflection of their staff and so forth (since they had passed out evaluations that morning).  I tried to explain again, it's not a big deal, and by this point I am just wanting to move on and get the attention from others around us off of me.  Then as his way of making things better he brings a bottle of champagne! Hello, I'm pregnant and if I don't want under-cooked meat, I for sure am not going to poison my unborn child with alcohol!  They brought a whole bottle for the entire table, which was a nice gesture.  Once I explained that I can't have that either, this guy is trying hard to give me something to make up for what happened, so what comes next you ask?!  That's right a copy of the cookbook Casey and I had received the night before for playing the Newly Wed Game!  The guy is probably greatly discouraged by this point that each of his efforts have failed to rectify the situation, so I just took the cookbook and gave it to my brother in-law and his wife, so the madness could finally end!
   We had a wonderful time and I highly encourage anyone to go.  Definitely go in the summer when it is warmer there, and as long as you layer you'll be fine!  Back to the real world it was on Monday, but at least Casey and I were smart and took the morning off to catch up on some sleep ( I was never more thankful we did that since our last flight that night was delayed and we didn't go to bed until 1 AM!)  We went to the doctor the Wednesday after to find out the gender of Baby Hixon, let me tell you that was a fun weigh in after just getting back from a week long vacation!  Read my next post to find out the gender and name of Baby Hixon!  Have a wonderful week my readers!!!

"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2:1-4

North to Alaska (Part 1)

I apologize for the long delay in posts, I confess I am a bad blogger!  These past 5-6 weeks have been jam pack full of activities and work has been busy during the day.  You almost wish you could ask for more downtime so you can update your blog, but I'm sure that request would not go over well!  Allow me to take you back in time to the first week of July where Casey and I were blessed to go with his brother David and his wife Taci, his mom, and Casey's 86 year old grandfather on a 7 day Alaskan cruise together.  The vacation actually stretched out to 9 days because we spent a day in Seattle, but it was incredible!!!!
   What God created in Alaska was truly breath-taking, unlike anything else I have seen!  I'm so glad that Casey and I were able to go, and Baby Hixon came along for the ride too (at the perfect price too, FREE!)  It was wonderful to share this experience with our family, especially his Pawpaw.  We have memories that will stay with us forever!  So what did we do?!  I'll try to be as concise as possible, but I truly feel each detail is important.  On Friday (June 29th) we flew to Seattle to break up the time spent on an airplane, and most flights stop in Seattle on the way to Anchorage, so why not see another city you haven't been to?  We arrived late Friday night and our plane to leave for Anchorage left early Saturday evening, so unfortunately not too much time was spent here.
     We were able to go to the public market that's right on the water that has every kind of food and flower imaginable!  The flower bouquets were so big and beautiful and CHEAP!  Arrangements down in Houston that would be $20-$30 at least were going for $5-$10!  The original Starbuck's is down there too, but it is not very big and the crowd in and to get inside was ridiculous, so we took a picture and kept on walking.  After that we made our way to the Space Needle, which was very nice.  It's neat to see an entire city from high up.  I had honestly expected it to be very rainy in Seattle, but not a single drop and the weather was very pleasant.

     Onto Anchorage, which was definitely much cooler, but by no means miserable.  We didn't get a chance to do anything here because we got to our hotel so late Saturday night and had to leave Sunday morning for the cruise, but Casey was able to eat some reindeer sausage for breakfast that morning and let me try a sampling of it, not too bad.  Sorry to Rudolph and his kin for eating him!  Casey's Mom found this bus tour that would pick us up at our hotel and then take us to where the cruise departed in Seward, which was about 90 minutes away.  It even stopped at a wild life reservation where we got to see some bears, moose, elk, etc.
     Cruises are lovely, I love coming back to my room and having my bed made and room cleaned!  Easy to get used to, hard to go back to reality!  Monday (July 1st) was a day at sea, but what a day!  The boat went through a glacier passage and what amazing sights we saw!  Chunks of ice in the water and huge glaciers that we could see blocks of ice falling from was a definite sight to see.  I'll post a few pictures below, and try to get the rest on Facebook at some point.

    Tuesday (the 3rd aka my sweet Mommy's birthday) we docked at Haines, Alaska for the day.  In the morning, Casey and I went on an Eagle Preserve Wildlife River excursion where we were able to see beautiful bald eagles and the massive nests they build in the Alaskan nature all while being driven around on an aluminum boat!  The scenery was great and seeing our national symbol in its natural habitat was fantastic!  In the afternoon, we went on a bus tour of the city and learned some more about the area, which was educational and nice to do most of that while sitting.

     Wednesday (the 4th, Happy Independence Day America!) we were in Juneau.  The morning was a little rainy, but we still panned for gold in our rain jackets/ponchos without any problems!  That is some tedious work, I don't know how they did it back in the day.  For lunch, we were able to get Casey some crab that he really wanted to try (if I was a fan of crab or for that matter seafood, I'd probably be there right there with him and want some true Alaskan crab).  Thankfully, the city of Juneau came through and he was satisfied!  I will say the crab bisque I tried was tasty, but I don't I actually ate any crab, just the creamy goodness.  The afternoon we went on a whale watching excursion which was AMAZING!!! The excursion place guarantees a sighting, but I was worried that all we would see would just be this fin of a whale way off in the distance.  We definitely were not disappointed.  At first we saw the fins of a few, which was nice but later on we got to see about 10+ of them together doing what they call bubble net feeding.  Apparently this is a rare site to see even for the locals.  With a baby on the way, Casey and I bought us a what I call paparazzi camera that will take nice action shots that you don't have to push the button down and wait 3 seconds for it to finally take the shot that is now not the shot you wanted.  Casey was able to get some great shots of the bubble net feeding happening.

    Since this post is already quite lengthy, I am going to split up the trip over 2 posts (plus it will increase my # of posts!)  Until next time my friends!!!

"Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory in the heavens.  Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger" Psalm 8:1-2

Bump It Up!

I haven't really posted any "bump" updates because you couldn't really tell or it just looked more like a gut in that I had been eating too many potato chips and sweets (which probably isn't a lie either).  Food confession, I may or may not have any all of eaten the following foods this weekend: breakfast taco, sugar powdered donuts (it was National donut Day Friday so I kinda felt obligated to eat these yummy creations), a strawberry snow cone, half-ish of a vanilla cupcake, sliced beef BBQ sandwich with a side of potato salad, half a chicken-fried steak.  That is not even all of what I ate, I just condensed it down to the nutritious winners I indulged in this weekend.
     Back to the "bump" discussion.  I wanted to see the monthly growth of Me/Baby Hixon besides the number on the scale, which is growing too!  My husband/baby daddy/photographer took these snapshots:

4 Weeks

8ish-9 Weeks

12 Weeks

16 Weeks

As you can see Baby Hixon is growing along and doing great per the doctor!  I'm still surprising Casey by how often and how much I eat.  Frankly, it's mind boggling to me too sometimes!  We have just less than a month till we find out if Baby Hixon is a boy or a girl (mad props to you people that wait the whole 9 months!)  We are getting close on names, but aren't really sharing until next month when we find out.  Casey's Pawpaw is convinced it's a girl, so told us not to even bother with looking at boy names, so we'll see if he is right.  My sweet, dear friend/coworker Leslie is preggers too and due 11 days before me, so at work they put up a poster board in our area (picture below) with blue and pink sticky notes for you to put your guess.  Right now we are both even, but  not everyone has voted, so we shall see.  It's so nice to be due so close together (though not as nice for our boss and coworkers when we are both out on maternity leave at the same time!) and bounce ideas off or have someone so close that understands it's time for another snack.

That is all for now my blog readers!  Have a blessed week!

"Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths.  Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Psalm 25:4,5



Me & Shamu

I've come to fear that by the end of this pregnancy this is what I am going to look like:

  

   That's right, Shamu the whale!  I feel like I could eat  pretty much ALL the time!!!  The satisfying feeling of being full is rare and short lived these days.  If I can go 2 hours without eating something, I feel a huge accomplishment.  I realize weight gain is a part of pregnancy, but I was hoping I would have more self-control and not feel like I'm starving every couple hours.  I don't mind gaining a few lbs., I just don't want to gain 60 or so of them since I don't want to keep them on after childbirth and it's much more difficult to take off than to put them on.  I am also hoping to not have a 10 lb. baby either because that just does not sound pleasant when I am the one birthing the child. (Let's say some prayers that this baby is more like Casey's size in the 7 lb. area rather than myself who was 9 lbs. 2 oz.! I'm so sorry Mom!)

       I'll do what I have to do to make this baby as healthy as possible just trying to do some wishful thinking!  Of course this baby is a child after my own heart and LOVES carbs!  They are so delicious!!!  Now that I'm in my second trimester I seem not quite as extremely particular, which gives me the hope of incorporating more healthier things into my diet.  Some days I do pretty good, other days are an epic fail (like yesterday when I had a cinnamon sugar bagel with cream cheese for breakfast from Einstein Bros. and then for dinner I had a slice of cheese pizza and a cup of spaghetti with sauce from Sbarro)  Today is a new day, and while the smoothie for breakfast was a healthy choice, I'm thinking going to Pappa's BBQ to celebrate a coworker's birthday by getting a brisket sandwich and side of potato salad was not low-cal.  Ah well, I'll try again tomorrow...

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16

Sweet Child of Mine

Baby Hixon at 12 wks. 2 days

O sweet child of mine that has taken residence in my body for the next several months, my mind has me thinking of what you will be like and while I know God has made you exactly the way you need to be, I wonder what combination of your Daddy and I you will be. Maybe something like this:

• Love your Heavenly Father above all else (I know it'll be hard with such a great earthly one, but we want you to love God more than us).  The first gift we bought you as parents is a Bible because it's vital to us as parents that you know God and want to live your life for Him.
• Have your Daddy's patience and laid back-ness (in the year-ish we have been married, your father has really shown me my lack of patience and that I'm a control freak who wants most things to go a particular way with little flexibility)
• Have your Mommy's sense of humor (I make your Daddy and so many others laugh constantly and the world definitely needs more laughter)
• Have your Daddy's skin tone (Please don't hate me for the pastiness I inherited if you get it too.  Overall not the worst thing ever, and thank goodness they have now created spray-on sunblock)
• Have your Mommy's social butterfly-ness and love of gabbing (Your father I must say has come quite a ways from when I first met him, but he doesn't hold candle to my love of talking/socializing)
• Have your Daddy's taste buds.  I will be the first to admit I'm definitely a pickier eater than your father.  He likes more vegetables and types of meat than my palate enjoys, and I would rather not have to battle to get you to eat healthy.
• Have your Mommy's proactiveness.  (Your Daddy is getting better about this and I am working on trying to relax and not freak out if something doesn't get done immediately)
• Have your Daddy's stubbornness.  (Your Daddy can be stubborn don't get me wrong, but it is nothing near compared to your Mommy's.  Your Daddy will be the first to adamantly agree that I am one extremely stubborn female and I fear that with you this will be my karma in that you are going to take my stubbornness to a whole nother level.  Let's be kind to Mommy and she will get you some ice cream!)

I know that however you turn out is going to be perfect in our eyes and you will be just the way God wanted you to be!

"Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." Psalm 100:3

WHOA BABY!!!!

So for me I am writing this on March 24th, but you (my blog readers) will be reading this a couple months later.  I wanted to document the timeline of things, so I didn't forget.  CASEY AND I ARE HAVING A BABY!  It seems unreal to me too!!  5 positive pregnancy tests and the absence of a monthly visitor have brought us to the conclusion that I am pregnant!  I honestly am still in shock and can hardly believe it either.  I'm NEVER LATE! (Well late in terms when using the word that, as far as arriving places on time, most of the time we are usually tardy, which I know Casey dislikes).  I kept expecting Aunt Flo to arrive because per the calendar she was supposed to show up on my birthday.  Talk about paranoid/curious every time I went to the bathroom!!!
    I still didn't believe I could be pregnant.  I didn't feel nauseous, moodier/more sensitive than usual, just a lot of cramping.  Thankfully, my cramps normally aren't that bad (I feel for those gals out there that suffer each month with more severe symptoms).  Just because I've never been late doesn't mean that there is not a first time for it?  Then I thought, do I tell Casey now or wait till after I've taken a pregnancy test?  I didn't want to tell him until I was certain we were pregnant.  Honestly the waiting/unknown game was excruciating!!!  Lots of prayers said for me to be happy/faithful regardless of what happened.  Trying to work and not get distracted was interesting, but luckily it was busy to keep my mind off of it.
     When I got home that evening, I decided to tell Casey.  I figure it was fair to the boy to share what I was going through and since it was part his child if I was pregnant, I felt he deserved to know.  Oh my goodness, he was SO EXCITED!! His reaction was priceless!!  He said he was proud of me (gee thanks, I did so much to make it happen) and gave me the biggest grin I think I've seen since our wedding.  I tried to reinforce that it wasn't definite, it was just a possibility so not to get our hopes up.  By this point I was only a day late, so we decided to wait a few more days till we took any pregnancy tests.  I did some reading online at work in the few minutes I could carve out on Tuesday, and one site I found said the best time to take a test was in the morining to make sure the restults would be the most accurate and not diluted by anything.
     On my way home from work, I decided to stop by and get some pregnancy tests.  Regardless of when they were going to be taken, they needed to be purchased.  I got 3 different kinds because I wanted to be sure and not have a false positive.  Time just seemed to be creeping by and 2 more days of waiting seemed like FOREVER!!!!  I got home and decided I had to try the tests to see what they would say.  Off to the bathroom I went (without saying anything to Casey).  That 3 minutes your waiting seemed like eternity, but the whole time I just prayed.  Prayed that Casey and I would not be discouraged if the results were negative, that we still be faithful and strive to walk closer each day to God even when things did not go the way we hoped.  If we were pregnant, I prayed for a healthy pregnancy/baby and for Casey and I to be strong, godly parents who would teach this little one about God and His Son.  I couldn't believe the first test I saw had 2 lines on it, meaning we were pregnant!!
    Holy moly, this was real!!!  The other 2 tests I took were the ones where it shows a plus sign if you're pregnant, and I discovered I'm not as big of a fan of those.  They are much harder to read in my opinion.  This is not a good time to not be able to read clearly!!!  Both of those looked to be positive too, so that made me a little more certain it was true.  Casey by this time is wondering what in the world happened to me, so when he came to find me I was holding the tests.  He thought we were going to wait, and I just couldn't hold out any longer.  Once I told him they were positive, he got over that I cheated (I know I violated Marriage 101: Communication, communication, communication).  I always pictured I would think of this creative, fun way to tell him I was pregnant, but reality for me set in and I didn't have time to do that.
     That's it for now.  Here's Baby Hixon making it's pictoral debut on our blog at about 9 weeks (though now I am almost 13 wks).  More posts to come!!!  Have a great week!!!



"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."  James 1:17