Here are a couple of funny pics to start our your week...

Now you know how pumpkin pies are made... (thanks to my dad for that pic in an email)

While "New Moon" was a good movie...it still didn't beat "The Dark Knight" in opening weekend numbers...

Have a great week!

Claire Rene Shepard

Today we got to meet our friends newborn baby that was born on Friday. She was seriously the cutest little thing that I have ever seen. She is all wrinkly and cute and while she slept she snored with her mouth open.

It was a touch surreal knowing that we are going to have one of those things in a matter of months. The Shepards have been about 8 weeks ahead of us through Amy being pregnant. In fact one night at a Sun's game about 8 months ago, they told us that they were expecting Claire and we got to tell them that we might be expecting after we finished trying. Pretty cool the way the timing has worked out! I am sure once our little one is on the outside our girls will set aside some chill time together to drool, cry and, spit-up! None-the-less it was really cool to meet Claire on her second day alive!

This time spent with a newborn made us want to practice our skillz this evening. So we used one of the cats....

Fun times! 


Hope all is well with you!

long time no post...

Okay, so here comes the ramblings about how we have been busy and haven't posted on the blog in a while ....blah, blah, blah... we've been busy.... anyway...

You might have noticed a few changes here on the blog. We updated the layout to make it a bit cooler looking as well as added a cool visual of a bunch of pictures that are on our new "flickr" account! You can scroll your mouse over the visual and it will spin all crazy. Click on any picture and it will take you to that picture on out flickr page.... or you can just go check out our flickr page here. Enjoy the pics! We will try to update them regularly as we can do it on the fly from the iphone.

Also added to the side is a box showing my most recent twitter updates. Amy does not have hers on here because she has protected updates (meaning you have to follow her to see them) and those cannot be linked to the blog. So if you are itching to know what we/I am doing on a more urrent basis than the blog allows...there you have it!

In baby news, the baby is growing and Amy wants it to come out now. While she realizes this would not be good for the baby, I think that she might be willing to try it... She could use some prayer when you think of it to help her feel more comfortable, mostly when she is sleeping.

Otherwise here at home we are spending our time tackling a large to-do list of things that we have been meaning to get done for a while. So far we have put down some grass in the backyard, painted furniture, bought and assembled a crib, and have organized tons of area that used to house clutter. It feels good to get things done!

Hope all is well with you! Look forward to more regular posting here!

Baby is getting big!

Our beautiful little bundle of joy now weighs nearly 3 lbs! She is kicking Amy all through the day (even sometimes so we can see it through the skin!). She has a large head and all signs point to an earlier delivery date than what was expected (Jan 21).

Below you will see a couple of the pictures that we got of her today! She definately has her daddy's nose and her mouth is open showing signs that she gets some traits from her mom!








We are so excited for her to be here with us! We have a lot of things yet to do be fore that happens though! Each stage of this process is a bit more astounding than the last in the way that things just happen. In away though it all feels normal, like it is no big deal. Ask me again in 5 months if I say the same thing!


-- post from iPhone

23 weeks!

hello friends!

it's official-- i am 23 weeks as of today! according to normal statistics, our little girl is now measuring approximately 11 inches and weighs about a pound. she has come a long way from the size of a sprinkle!!

in celebration of 23 weeks, brian and i are going to combine forces to create a list of interesting pregnancy facts... there may be a tmi factor, we'll just have to see.

1. brian: everything is dialed up a notch. literally, every emotion is more intense. this has been... let's just say... interesting.

2. amy: this is related to #1 -- i get the giggles really easily. most of the time at things that are not that funny. this works out pretty well for brian's ego, because i'm usually laughing at him. example a: i literally almost peed my pants yesterday at kohl's when i made brian try on some ridiculous shorts. it was close.

3. brian: less of our bed space is reserved for me. i've had to figure out how to be smaller when i sleep!

4. amy: you'll have to read into this one, because i am NOT spelling it out... i never thought i'd buy prune juice before age 70. but i did.

5. brian: it's really hard to resist the temptation to eat like a pregnant lady. ps. i need to get to the gym.

6. amy: it's really hard to resist the temptation to eat whatever i want. luckily, i have only had 2 real cravings: once for pizza rolls, once for hot pockets. (what a weird trend!) but being tired makes me not want to cook or eat healthy. and my doctor told me to watch it a little more at my last appointment! but since our real fall schedule has started, i have been a lot healthier. (although really, if i want ice cream i will have ice cream. i'll just have more work to do when she comes out!)

7. brian: it's really crazy to feel a baby kick inside someone else's belly! it's like there's an alien trying to escape from the inside. in a grand tradition of stubborn sauers (note from amy: i think it's MAYBE from both sides of our family... andersons hold their own!), this one is starting in the womb -- she won't let me feel her kick when i try!

8. amy: i have had to start parking in a different spot because between my big purse and my getting-bigger self, it was getting harder to squeeze between our neighbor's car and the column thing by our spot. so brian gets the covered spot now!

9. brian: who knew babies needed so much crap?? aren't they small when they come out? why do they need so much stuff??

10. amy: it's crazy to me how excited people are about our baby. i had 7th grade boys mad at me because i forgot to announce that we found out that she's a girl. i can't tell you how many times a day somebody asks me how i'm feeling at church. saturday night was the hot pockets craving, and we were going over to hang out at some friends' house with some of our high school kids. i told 2 of our high school girls about the craving before we left because i knew they would think it was funny-- and they stopped at the store on the way and got me some! and even our starbucks barista told us we'd better bring her in as soon as she's born! it is so amazing to know how much our daughter is loved -- and she's not even here yet!!

okay, i think that's all we've got for now. brian is in the middle of installing our bookshelves in the living room from the future nursery, i need to go upstairs and do some laundry, and the cowboys game is on. so a top 10 is all you get tonight!

tomorrow is flu shot day for me, and i think it's the first time i've ever had one. i'm not a big fan of shots, but i will be a big girl and take it. and i think we're going to institute a new policy for the high school/junior high kids and tell them if they even think they're getting sick, to stay away from me! we just can't be too careful with all the people we come in contact with during the week. have a wonderful week!

New pic and it's a......

I just realized brian never posted any ultrasound pictures!!! Our utmost apologies... But here is our beautiful, healthy, BIG baby girl!!



Check out those lips. They are either from Brian or Angelina Jolie. Right after the tech took this picture, she was trying to get a better angle so she poked my belly on the other side of where the baby was... And apparently we already have a very sassy little lady on our hands, because she flipped over and wouldn't show us her face the rest of the time! (but really, the sassiness is not surprising. Look at her lineage)

And the reason I said she is big is because she's measuring about two weeks ahead of schedule. So either she's planning on coming early (yay!) or being huge (oh nooooo). I guess we'll find out soon enough!

kickity kickerson

I really have meant to post more on here... so sorry about that! I think it's because my doctor is the most chill person I have ever met, so it has calmed me down and I'm taking everything in stride! however, I have learned a few things this week that I would like to share with you.

1) when you live in north Scottsdale and belong to a fancy gym and go to work out there when you are 19 weeks pregnant, you will actually feel like a big fat fatty.

2) but then you will remember that you can eat ice cream and consider it one of your essential calcium servings of the day, so that will make you feel better.

3) junior high girls do not know when to stop talking. example: when I told one today that I was pregnant while at camp with her in early June (like 8 weeks along), she said, and I quote, "oh, you were pregnant then? I noticed your belly was round but I thought it was just from all the food we ate there." although let's be real, it probably was.

4) it's possible that Brian and I will be financially set for life once he or she (we find out Tuesday!!) signs as a kicker for the NFL. because tonight there are a lot of kicks going on! either it's a great kicker, or just excited for the weekend, or can't wait for Paula Deen's mac and cheese that is currently in the crockpot. I'll keep you posted.

this is your last chance.... do you think it's a boy or a girl?? cast your vote in the comments!!

Baby Bump!

Amy is growing a bump on her tummy now! Here is a picture!


-- post from iPhone

the big day is....

september 1! that's the day we'll be finding out if we have a pink sprinkle or a blue sprinkle! or, as our friend kj's ultrasound tech put it a couple of months ago when they had their big ultrasound... "let's see if it's a hot dog or a bun!" :) we are very excited to have a day that we'll know and not have to wonder anymore!

have I mentioned how much I love my doctor? I love her. a lot. she is probably the most chill person I have ever met in my entire life. she is just so relaxed and makes me understand that everything is normal and perfectly fine! plus, she always has such interesting tidbits to share. one of the concerns we discussed today was that I've been having a ton of headaches recently. I have tried to tough them out, but almost always wind up taking tylenol because otherwise they just stick around. and now I know why! apparently between weeks 16 and 20 is when my blood supple is increasing really rapidly, and that combined with august in arizona makes it almost impossible to stay hydrated. ohhhhh! now it all makes sense! plus, she told me just to drink lots of fluids, take a tylenol, and have a little caffeine, which is exactly what I have been doing. other than that, today was a pretty basic appointment and things have been continuing to go great! OH, I was a little nervous about the weigh in because we were on vacation last week. but our nurse is also SUPER awesome, and we told her about how we went to eat at paula deen's restaurant (to which she responded, 'isn't that the lady with all the fried things and butter? YUM!') and it's possible she noted something on my chart, because the doctor didn't even say one thing about weight gain. hooray!

we also got to hear the baby's heartbeat-- which NEVER gets any less miraculous! there were some weird noises on the doppler, which I wondered about until the doctor said that was the baby moving around and kicking! so crazy! this is quite the journey... and I can't wait to see what happens next!

happy 2nd trimester!

well, we have finally made it to a pretty pivotal point in pregnancy... the 2nd trimester!! it's kind of like a miracle... I have been feeling better for the past few weeks as far as food things go, but I've still been SO tired. like go to bed early, take a nap every day, and still feel exhausted tired. but this past week (even considering spending my mornings at VBS with 1000+ children) I haven't even taken a nap every day! and this weekend, we even cleaned the house and I did laundry and then today-- get this-- I WENT TO THE GYM! it's really nice to start having some of my energy back! I feel like I am actually a productive member of society (or at least our house) and I'm not just surviving every day.

I had another big pregnancy milestone this week that I was not so excited about. I spent most of the week either wearing yoga pants, or stuffed into some other pants and wishing I was wearing yoga pants... so I had to bite the bullet and get some maternity pants. I was seriously dreading it! I don't know why, but I just felt like I shouldn't need them at this point and they would not be cute at all. however, I will eat those words, because they are AWESOME! I got a pair of bermuda shorts at target (actually 2, but I have to go exchange them because the size was mislabeled) and some awesome jeans at old navy! not only are they SUPER cute, but I can actually breathe during the day, which is kind of a bonus. :)

so that's about all that's up with me and sprinkle here at week 14! we probably should have taken another picture for this week, but we forgot, and now I'm all gross from working out... so we'll try and remember tomorrow.

to end on a happy note, one last thing I discovered this week... spaghettios are FABULOUS!

plum

Okay...so we have been a touch busy, and have forgotten to write about how Sprinkle and Amy are doing!

Sprinkle is the working name that we are using to talk about the baby and not say "it," "that thing," or "the alien growing inside my wife"...Sprinkle feels more personal!

Also, we are waiting to announce the name until after the baby is here and in the flesh because there are too many people in our lives that would have good ideas to share with us, after they heard the names that we chose. While we love our friends and family, we feel like our future child should only have us to blame for being named after an American Gladiator.

We have come to the name Sprinkle because we read at one point that it was about that size. Our 2 year old friend Abigail does not approve of this name due to the fact that it is not a "people name." Either way we will continue to use Sprinkle until further notice.

Amy has not been feeling as well the last couple of weeks. She got a bit of a cold after our adventure to California with 162 high school students and has been getting bad headaches off and on. All in all though, she is taking it pretty well. I think that if there were a person growing inside me that was causing me that annoyance, I might just ask it to find a new place to grow. Hopefully, as the peeps at the doctors office have suggested, we are coming upon a time in the pregnancy when Sprinkle will allow Amy to live without pain for a few weeks. I called it "The calm before the storm," and the nurse agreed that was a good name.

We are still a bunch of weeks from finding out if it will be a boy or a girl. I am just praying that it won't be a hermaphrodite, I don't want to have the responsibility of having to choose if the room will be pink or blue... Once we do find out though we will be sure to let you know what color will dominate our house for a while. There are big bets riding on this one! so pick your teams in the poll on the right!

Here is a picture of Amy taken recently at about 12 weeks....

she isn't showing yet I think, she says she hates this picture and felt "huge" when it was taken. I told her she looked as beautiful as ever and there was nothing to be worried about. (I am an AWESOME husband!!) I wasn't even lying! Either way, we will continue posting pictures of Amy as Sprinkle gets bigger. Currently he/she/it is about the size of a plum and quickly moving up the scale to other fruits! Hopefully watermelon is out of the question!

Life goes on at the baby factory! Hope all is well with you.

Baby LOVES to dance!

We got to see the little alien that is growing inside Amy today!

We are calling it sprinkle for the time being...

It is a about an inch long and loves to dance - as you will see on the video!

(it is looped over a bunch of times...in case you find yourself watching to the end and wondering...)

breaking news

BIG NEWS! today, I...

• got out of bed
• put real clothes on
  
• went to church
• went out to lunch with real people
• (took a nap, because i am still pregnant)
• went to the grocery store
• cooked dinner
• cleaned up our bedroom
• and i'm about to do a load of laundry

DO YOU SEE HOW PRODUCTIVE THAT IS??? considering that yesterday, I literally laid in bed all day, until I HAD to get up to go to a junior high event I had planned. I was out of the house for approximately 3 hours, and I had to go to bed immediately upon returning home... at like 9:15. it is ridiculous how tired I get by doing nothing. however, I would like to mention the two other things on my to-do list at all times:

• manufacture human inside my body
• develop placenta to feed said human

so let's just say... I have been a little busy! oh yeah, and besides all that, I spent sunday-thursday last week up at camp with 75 8th grade students. somehow just typing that makes me need another nap! camp was pretty good though. it was absolutely miraculous and God moved in ridiculous ways. I think the tough thing for me was to feel like I couldn't give 100% to the kids. usually on these trips, there is 'youth pastor amy' and 'real person amy'. and real person amy takes a BIG backseat whenever the two clash. but that just really couldn't happen this year. I'm really looking forward to the last -- well, two days -- of the high school summer trip, after we tell the kids. I feel like I'm just not being myself and I can't even tell them why! and it's totally fine and absolutely worth it... it'll just be easier when I don't have to hide it anymore.

this week we're looking forward to the ultrasound on wednesday! we'll actually get to see the little future anderson!

and on that note, I'll leave you to guess what I'm going to do next. :)

6 weeks...a touch belated

So I was supposed to have written on this blog several weeks ago, but with the end of school and the craziness that was all wrapped up in that and finding a job...the blog got put on the back burner....but now I am back...and better than ever...with a fresh year of paychecks promised to me!

Anyway, pregnancy is not really what I would have expected...I am not tired at all, the food aversions really haven't set in, I am losing weight instead of gaining, and I haven't had to stop drinking beer!

Amy is a different story...she is sleeping more than the cats, loving a particular food one day only to gag at the idea of that same food the next, seriously she is sleeping A LOT, some times after I have committed any action that might be perceived as out-of-line...she says things like "you really don't want to anger it!" while pointing at her midsection, and did I mention that she is ALWAYS ASLEEP!?

Really though, through all of the suffering that our little one is already causing her, Amy is taking it really well. I literally think almost every day that it is good that women have the babies, because I am honestly not sure that I would be able to make it through. That is not a joke.

The lizard shaped human being that is growing inside my wife is now the size of a sprinkle that would go on top of a cupcake. We are hoping that the brain is already HUGE and that the heart is beating strong! Coming here in a few of weeks, we are hoping to hear the heart beat! Then we can be sure that it is a human an not a lizard! If it is actually a lizard, then Amy has A LOT of explaining to do.

Look forward to more updates as the weeks role by!

doctor's appointment #1!

I had my first doctor's appointment today! I didn't expect this, but it made it all feel really REAL. not that it wasn't before, but now I am officially on paperwork in my file pregnant! because I went in for a checkup/preconception visit in december, there really wasn't a whole lot to do during this appointment. mostly I just updated all of my paperwork, and filled out all the additional 'you're pregnant!' paperwork, peed in a cup, and got to meet my doctor and ask her all my questions. she is seriously the most laid back person I have ever met, which I forsee being really helpful about 9 months from now.

speaking of that! one thing she did give me was my for reals due date: January 21, 2010. of course, that could still change, and the chances of me delivering on that day are really slim, but for now, that's the target day!

I also got to schedule our first ultrasound and my next appointment. they don't do an ultrasound until at least 7 weeks so that you can actually see something (and hear the heartbeat!!), which I appreciate! if I am remembering correctly, the ultrasound appointment is Wednesday, June 17th and my next appointment with the doctor is Tuesday, June 30th. crazy!

let's see, what questions did I get answered? I asked about travel in July and October, and she said I should be absolutely fine. I asked about exercise restrictions (although I have been WAY too exhausted to go to the gym for all but 2 days since I got the positive test) and I just have to keep everything to a moderate intensity level. she gave me some stuff to read and a gift bag full of samples (good thing I have a whole bottle of infant formula now. I'm sure that will really come in handy in the very near future... or not) -- the coolest thing was that the gift bag was in a real diaper bag! the funniest part of the appointment was after we had already talked about how I'm a youth pastor and how Brian and I met and got married... she said: "it's routine procedure to do an HIV test on pregnant women, so we'll do that whenever we need to do blood work for something else... I assume you're pretty low risk for that?" yeah, that's probably a safe assumption. :)

so things are progressing normally! I usually feel a little icky after having breakfast, and last night we went out to eat and I overate a little bit and felt GROSS, but I haven't puked yet and here's hoping I don't! on that front, if you feel like praying that my morning sickness definitely stays away in June, I would really appreciate it -- I have both Confirmation camp for 4 days and our high school summer trip for 8 days, and it would be really hard/frustrating/not very easy to hide if I have to go throw up every day on those trips. thanks in advance and have a GREAT 3-day weekend!!

things I didn't know about being pregnant, part 1

I DIDN’T KNOW MY TEMPERATURE WOULD RISE TO TWELVE THOUSAND DEGREES.

Apparently the hormones that make for a healthy pregnancy also make me become a furnace. Literally, Brian has hugged me and jumped away for fear of being burned. However,, he is not complaining, because our annual summer what-temperature-do-we-set-the-air-conditioning-at debate and negotiation has been postponed indefinitely… I’M asking HIM to turn it down. Trust me, this has never happened before. In fact, I have always been the girl who is constantly cold. My family used to make fun of me for using a blanket in the summertime. I live in Arizona and I still wear a cardigan almost every day, just in case I get cold. I don’t even know how to handle this new-found heat, because it’s always been a non-issue in my life! Let’s just say… I’m a little less excited about the 100+++ degree summer this year. On a positive note, it has forced me to become resourceful. In our office building, the air conditioning controls are in one office way down the hall from mine. And the air has to travel through about 5 offices before it comes to me, so my office is usually pretty warm. Generally? Not a problem. This year? I feel like I’m melting. But I just found this clip-on fan that I clipped to my keyboard shelf/drawer/thing and it is pointed right at me whenever I’m sitting at my desk. Jesus has had mercy on me, and his mercy came in the form of a 9 dollar clip fan.

This is definitely something I did NOT know about pregnancy before I experienced it—and I’m sure there will be many more fun surprises to come! But I’ll take them all and more – I’m pretty sure the end result will be worth it!

happy mother's day!

today i got the craziest, most amazing gift for mother's day.

i found out i'm going to be a mom.

can you believe it? it's crazy! we literally just found out today... mostly. i took a test on friday that had a faint positive line... and then we went away for the weekend with 80 high school kids. good timing, right? we got home today and i took a digital test (no questions there!) and it said YES! it's so early that normally, we probably wouldn't have told anyone today-- but it's mother's day for goodness sakes, so we had to call our moms to tell them they'd be grandmas! it was a really wonderful day, and so fun to see their reactions. luckily, we used screen capture software and called them using the webcam, so maybe one day YOU will get to see their reactions too! :)

even though we had been praying and trying for this, it still seems like such a surprise. even more than that-- it is a miracle. literally. i have been thinking so much about that this weekend. God has worked in so many different ways in my life; He has pulled together circumstances in ways that don't make sense unless you know He's been working behind the scenes. but this-- this is something ONLY God could accomplish. when i think about the amazing things that have been happening without us even knowing about it, i am so overwhelmed with gratitude. i am really looking forward to taking this journey and seeing what is yet to come! and most of all, i can't wait to meet this little person in january.

thank you in advance for being excited for us, for praying for us, and supporting us in countless big and little ways. we know that our baby will be SO blessed to have tons of people to show him/her (oh believe me, we've already picked sides on THAT front!) love.

it's going to be a crazy year!!!