Maryland Baby Shower

Michael's family threw us a shower while we were there for Christmas. Melanee and family were gracious enough to host it in their home and we had lots of fun!

They decorated with Noah's Arc theme and here are some of the cute decorations and snacks they had.

The elephant cake Jenny decorated for us was just perfect! Stephanie was sure to have Michael share his elephant noise with everyone.

The ever-entertaining Lexi is just chillin' at the shower.

Jenny did a great job planning games for the evening. Here you can see us tasting what's in the diapers...yuck! Well, yummy actually because it was different kinds of candy bars. Later we got to taste baby foods and see if we could tell the different flavors, not easy to do!


We also played baby shower BINGO and then made lists of all the different baby items we could think of. Here's Bill, Cheryl, and Brianna racking their brains.

Mel and Brittany are making their lists...of course Mel thought of lots of items, she is well versed with the baby items.

Here we are opening the gift from Grandma and Grandpa Upton.

Here are some pretty outfits from Uncle Wayne and Aunt Jenny.

Brianna with the baby shower balloon...what a fun shower! Thanks everyone!

Church Baby Shower

Today, Dec.15th was the baby shower from the ladies at our church. Here are some that were there...

Wendy (the hostess) and Laura

Sharon and Cyd, having a good time

Misty & Andy Kuhn and Rachel & Jared Ostlie
Judy, Sharron, and Bethany

Here we are by all the gifts...


We got lots of great gifts including bath toys, cloths, a musical piano, and a hanging jumpster.

Here is a set of bath soaps and books...

They also had a wonderful brunch for everyone including breakfast casseroles, fruit, blueberry muffins & scones, chocolates, and chicken salad croissants.

Work Baby Shower

My co-workers at Trinity threw a baby shower for us on Dec. 5th. Here is the stack of gifts...

They served a great dinner with two types of chili (perfect for the cold snowy night that it was), corn bread, veggies, fruits, and yummy chocolate strawberry layered dessert.

Kati, Sara, Kami, and Tonja try to guess some hard questions on the game...

Anna Wagner reads a Bible verse about parents and children for us for encouragement.

All Steph's co-workers from the Records office went together to get us the Pack and Play!!! We plan to use it by the bed as a bassinet for a little while. It's nice that it's so multi-functional.

Here's the whole group...minus a few that had to leave early...

Tiffin Baby Shower

Here are pictures of the baby shower my sister had for us in Tiffin, Ohio on Nov. 25th with family and friends.

Here 's the cake...

This is my Dad and his brother, Uncle David
Here is Aunt Mary waving "Hi" and my Dad's sisters, Auth Mary Ann and Aunt Joanie.

The handmade baby blanket from Aunt Mary Ann...

We got baby's first doll...

Here's my sister's signature gift, baby jeans and a cute top :)

Here is the Noah's Ark bedding set from Steph's parents.

Here is a family sibling photo -
Michael Jr., me, Michael Upton, Matt Kerner, Angela (Sissy), and Scott.

Will post pics soon!!

I have been wanting to post pictures of our baby showers since Thanksgiving. SO, here's my excuse...the semester is ending and Michael has been on the computer finishing things up 24/7. Thankfully, this is the last week for him...yahoo!! SO, I should be able to get some new pics and info up for you soon!

Hope you all are doing good, healthy, and blessed. We are...baby Abigail is seeming healthy, moving around but getting squished in there. I am feeling her in my ribs more often and it is getting harder to bend over for anything. Michael is a little stressed, but mostly in good spirits at such a crazy time, to finish off the semester. I am proud of him, he has really planned ahead well and is ending strong. Many little things tire me these days, but what else is new. I am sleeping, so I am happy. :)

5th Anniversary Celebration

This year we are happy to celebrate our 5th Anniversary!! Michael made special plans for us to have dinner and go to the theatre in Chicago on November 14th. Our acctual Anniversary is December 14th, but we didn't know if I would be up to a lot of action a month before the baby may come.

We ate at a nice Italian Restaurant named Maggiano's and then went to see Wicked!! I have been wanting to see the musical Wicked ever since we moved here, so it was quite a treat for me. The story was great and the music was fantastic!! We had such a great time!! I think the baby enjoyed it too, she kept moving around during the music. :)

This weekend we look forward to going to Ohio to see Stephanie's family for Thanksgiving. Will tell you more when we get back! Have a restful and blessed Turkey Day Celebration!

Third Trimester Already!?!

SO, here we are already in the third trimester...seems like time is flying by and there is so much to do in such little time. We have been attending our Childbirth Preparation class for three weeks and this Thursday is our last. There is so much to learn. I am disappointed that we will not be learning more lamaze techniques in class, but my parents are willing to help teach us! We will be seeing them for Thanksgiving and I am soooooo excited!! They have been wanting me to post belly shots, so here you go...

I can't stop this feelin' deep inside of me

It is amazing to feel the baby move multiple times every day!! I can't quite explain what it is like, but it's so neat. Finally, here are the pictures from our last ultrasound....


On the right you can see her face, looking right at you...posing for the camera already! Her hands can be seen in the middle on top and bottom and her abdomen is to the left. I could not believe we cought her SMILING!!!

The Ultrasound specialist liked the pic of her smile so much he took a second one for us 9 seconds later. I will never know what has made her smile so much in the womb, but every time I see these pictures it makes me smile, too.

This one's a little blurry because she was moving all around, but you can see her head on the right, her arm sticking up in the middle, and her legs to the left.

You may or may not know this, but the name Abigail means "Father's Joy" which I think is so fitting. Michael could not be more excited!! Her middle name is also joy, because she gives an extra burst of joy for me, too. Our beautiful little Abigail Joy!! Praise the Lord for a healthy and happy baby - even in the womb.

We're having a girl!! Ultrasound of Abigail at 5 months along!

It's A GIRL!!! See the video of our 5 month ultrasound.

Abigail is 1 pound, and at 24 weeks.

Our sweet lil Abigail... See her head, her arms, her legs, her body, her feet and her fingers!

We were so excited to see our little one!

Ultrasound Day!

So, we have gotten the chance to see our baby lots within the last two days. Wednesday we had an ultrasound scheduled, which went well. They took all the measurements and we got to find out - It's a Girl!! She weighs about one pound now and is doing great. They tried to take a video for us, but when we got home we found out it didn't work. I was so dissapointed! I was really looking forward to sharing the experience. But we did get one picture...

Here you can see her head on the left, one hand in the top middle and her spine on the bottom.

The next day at lunch we decided to call the hospital to let them know our video didn't work and to let them know they may want to check their equipment. Just a little while later we got a call back from them wanting us to come back for another ultrasound. They said that the video is part of the experience and they would like to offer it to us. So, of course we went back on Thursday for another ultrasound. We will post the video and pics from this trip as soon as we can. It was such a great experience, and so unexpected!

The Overwhelming Gift Registries

We finally started our gift registries recently. So, we have one with Babies R Us/Toys R Us and one with Baby Depot (in Burlington)...so far. :) There are so may things needed for a baby that I have not thought of and many options available. So, it takes lots of time to choose what we like, what is most practical, and what will be best for our baby. Whew! It can get tiring! We finally found a stroller combo that we liked and Michael wanted to buy it right away. Who can blame him? It is the perfect one for us. But, we decided to wait. God blessed our decision with a $100 gift card for there from our church (for him co-leading VBS). But, added together we would need $50 more. So, we waited some more. When we went to register there they were having a huge sale. We ended up paying less than $10 AND getting a FREE (adorable) light weight push stroller. Here is a picture of this stuff...

At Baby Depot we are only registered for bedding, so far. We have found a cute and really nice Noah's Arc bedding set (Two by Two). It's funny how we have been having a hard time finding certain things we like and then we run into just the right one and we both love it. It's also funny how everything is ending up to have elephants in it.

We still have a long ways to go in registery world. So, hopefully we will find the time one of these weekends!

My parents and Scott were here to visit for the weekend. It was so nice to see them and to just hang out and have a nice relaxing time together. Strangely, I had a few weird dreams over the weekend - I guess that happens with being pregnant sometimes. They were fun to share with them all though.

I think I have been feeling the baby move more lately and it's supposed to be about 5 inches long now. Michael can't wait until he can feel it move too, but he is reasured that I can feel it at least. He noticed today that my belly button is starting to come out a little. I guess there is not even room for that with the baby in there. Interesting.

Heatbeat - Loud and Clear

We just had a regular appt with the doctor today. It was great to hear the baby's heartbeat, loud and clear. I have not gained any weight yet, which is a good thing for me. They took some blood for standard tests. Dr. Allen said we will set up another ultrasound at our next appt. We will be at 22 weeks then, hope the baby won't be too squished to give us the "show" - if you know what I mean. :) Well, all in all the Doc is pleased and things are normal.

Michael's older sister Melanee gave us a book that explains the changes in the baby and in me week by week. It is so neat to find out about what is happening through the whole process. Honestly, it's something I haven't thought too much about before. But, I just get a new sense of how awesome and amazing God is to do such miracles. I have never been so personaly involved in a miracle in all my life and I count it a privilage. Just the fact that each cell knows which part of the body to be is awesome. Knowing the different stages of the heart and that the last bit does not form and start working until the birth is amazing. Thing after thing just blows me away. There must be so many things that science can not completely explain, because they are simple miracles.

I have just recently started wearing maternity clothes because even the clothes that used to be loose on me are tight now. So, I had to give in. I think I will have to look for some more though. This will be my only wardrobe for the next few months. Could be a good thing. Looking forward to getting the package from Melanee with more clothes, too. :)

The Crib and other Loot

Right after we told my co-workers in the Records office about the pregnancy, my co-worker Cathy said they have a crib they would love to give us. This was such a shock! We had just found out about the pregnancy and just a few weeks later we had the crib. It is just like brand new. Also, we just couldn't help but buying a few gender neutral things. SO, we went to a few garage sales and found a cute sleeper with elephants on it, a ducky towel, a nice graco carrier, and a basket. We also got a gift already from my Aunt Connie of a flower rattle toy, some onesies, and washclothes.

OK, last thing, we had been wanting to find a baby book so that we could start writing in it. SO, we decided to chack at Baby Depot and found the perfect one. It made me cry from the first page. There are lots of scriptures throughout and all kinds of neat information to include. But, the first page says, "For this child I prayed; And the Lord has given me what I ask of him. I Samuel 1:27" I could not have said it better myself.

12 week Pictures of Baby Upton

Here are our ultrasound pictures of baby Upton at 12 weeks along. Hopefully we will be able to find out the gender at our next ultrasound. :) The baby was very active, this was so reasuring for both of us. It is crazy to think about it moving so much and I can't even feel it. Praise the Lord that all is well!!

Our First Picture of the Baby

We got to have our first ultrasound at 6 weeks. The baby is so tiny, but we could see it's little heart beating. It was amazing!! The heart was not even fully formed yet, but was still in two parts pounding against each other. I am so amazed at how God has planned this pregnancy and how he sustains such a tiny life. We are hoping and praying that the baby stays healthy.

We're Pregnant!!!!

At the end of May we went to see Stephanie's OBGYN for a routine appointment, and found out... WE'RE PREGNANT!!! It was the most exciting news we have ever heard! We couldn't wait to tell our family and friends. This will be our very first child!! We're so excited to be new parents!!
First we told Stephanie's parents. We dropped a few hints in a phone call earlier, and then called them back to tell them the great news when everyone was there to hear. We asked them a bunch of family history questions from when we saw the doctor and got more and more specific about history of childbirths in the family.
We did the same thing with Michael's parents. They finally got it after we asked them about chromosomal abnormalities in births in the family. Michael told his niece Brianna on the phone, and she said CONGRATULATIONS, and then we could here her singing "Aunt Stephanie is gonna have a baby! Aunt Stephanie is gonna have a baby!" Brittany our other niece ScReAmEd in excitement!
They were all so excited for us. And we were excited too!
It has been so fun telling people of our joyous news and thinking about becoming parents!

The Upton Family's First Blog

This is the start of the Upton Family Blog - for now, a tribute to what God is doing in our lives through Baby Upton!! We are so blessed!!