Thanksgiving and more.

The carnage.
What an amazing Thanksgiving! Amazing food, great company and good times. The food was so good, in fact, that I can't find a single good picture of us where we don't all look sweaty and bloated. The last thing we need is another famous fatty Thanksgiving picture floating around, like the one taken in 1995. Ugh. That picture will forever live in infamy.
Anyway, Levi & I were lucky enough to enjoy two Thanksgivings. We first went to his aunt's house for the Gates' annual Thanksgiving feast, followed by a second feast at Heather's house a few hours later. Surprisingly, we weren't too full and enjoyed the food at the second dinner as much as the first. This year I took the five layered Jello-Ice Cream dish over to the Gates' family dinner and they loved it. I'm glad they could be turned on to the goodness of that Utah dish! Funeral Potatoes might be the next step :)

Levi & Sevy at the first dinner.


Before we ate at Heather's house. Isn't her house great?

After dinner, Mom, Levi, Sevy and I went to Harry Potter 7 at the Downtown Edwards. Oddly enough, the theater wasn't packed this year. We almost always go to a movie on Thanksgiving and it's usually super crowded. Must have been the crappy weather. The movie was fantastic and I can't wait for the second one to come out next summer!

At the movies.

Today Levi and I (mostly Levi) put together the baby's crib and a few other pieces. It's so fun to walk past the future nursery and see the crib. I can't believe she's going to be here in just a few (okay, four) months! We found an adorably soft baby bunny stuffed animal at Anthropology and scored another great baby outfit at Kid to Kid. I also ordered a cute pair of infant shoes on ebay and they are about the most precious things I've ever seen!





Well, I need to go lay down. Strangely enough, I find myself more tired this trimester than any point in my first trimester. What's the deal??

PS It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house and I'm so excited! This is the first time in years that I'm actually looking forward to it and want the house decorated and Frank Sinatra Christmas music playing all the time! What are your favorite Christmas songs? Mine are "O Holy Night" "What Child is This?" and "Silent Night" because I've never heard a bad version of any of them. They all make me well up with tears.

Girlie Girl.

(I think I'm gonna like shopping for a little girl! $4.99 bargain from Kid-to-Kid!)

It's official: We're having a little girl!
Yesterday we had our 20 week ultrasound which confirmed what I already knew. I never once, not even for a second, thought we were having a boy. It was so neat to see our little girl, cuddled up with her bum in the air, covering her face with her hands, looking as snug as a bug in a rug. What a little cutie!
We were lucky enough to have lots of family there with us. My mom, Levi's dad and stepmom and Heather and Eliza joined us, but unfortunately Heather and Eliza had to wait in the waiting room. I was told that up to eight people could join us in the room, so we invited everyone and it turns out they only let four people in at a time. So ridiculous and it was very frustrating to know that Heather and Eliza were probably dying of boredom in that stupid waiting room. I'm so sorry, Heather! It means the world to me that you were there and I'm sorry the doc's office screwed up!
It's been so surreal to know what we're having. Saying "she" when referring to the baby has been so exciting and I've already started window shopping for cute nursery stuff (I'm thinking a red & white theme with damask bedding...we'll see!)
I have just been smiling all day today and I can't believe how incredible this experience has been. I'm so antsy for this little girl to join us and she will be the most loved baby this world has ever seen!

Check out these cute boots Levi's stepmom already bought for her. Squeal!!

Thank You

As we approach our five month ultrasound and are about to learn what gender our wild little baby is, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I NEVER thought I'd make it this far in a pregnancy. Th idea of feeling a baby move around inside me was as much of a possibility as, say, learning to fly a UFO. In short, making it this far along is only due to the faith, prayers and positive vibes of all those who were rooting for Levi and me.
The outpouring of love we experienced when we realized we had fertility issues was unreal. I always knew that people cared about us, in the sense that family and friends always care about their loved ones, but what we felt was much more beyond that. When we were doing our fundraising with the homemade bookmarks, I had dozens of requests for them from our family and friends and we were able to pay our fertility clinic bill outright. The fact that people were so willing to help us and send a kind word our way is something our baby will know all about, we'll make sure the baby understands how many people were cheering for him/her to come to earth and join our family.
This baby being conceived after we had given up on all fertility options and stopped taking all fertility medications is, of course, hilarious, but also a testament that now is the time we have been chosen to have a little spirit join us. Levi and I couldn't even celebrate properly the first three months, we were so scared of another miscarriage, but I now see that everything happens for a reason and we are finally meant to become parents.
Thank you to everyone who ever said a kind word, included us in their prayers and offered unconditional love and support throughout our trials. It will never be forgotten and it will always be an example of hope and charity.
We love you all!!

Love,
Carly, Levi and Wild Baby Gates

Halloween, etc.

Wow, it's been a little while since I last blogged. I feel like, since everyone who reads this is on Facebook, that I end up repeating myself often. All the Halloween photos I have are photos that have already been on Facebook, so I'm not sure if it's repetitive to put them up here. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, Halloween was an absolute blast. Levi and I have always wanted to create the cannibal pumpkins that we've seen on websites so this year we buckled down, spent about $30 on pumpkins and created two of the meanest pumpkins man has ever seen!



On the night of the 30th, we hosted a Halloween party at our home. The Gates clan (Brad, Julie, Seth, Sevy, Avery and Chris) and Heather and her cute family came over and we ate chili, potato cheese soup, pumpkin muffins, cupcakes, witches' brew, sugar cookies and more. It was a nice gathering and I'm always in awe of what an amazing family I was born into and what an amazing family I married into.
We watched a scary movie that night (A Spanish horror movie called The Orphanage, perfectly creepy Hitchcockian tale) and then said goodbye to everyone and went to bed. I was worn out!


Levi was a hipster idiot. We have throngs of men who dress like this in Boise.






This fall in Boise has been beautiful. The geese are out, the leaves are changing and the weather hasn't been too bad (yet). I went to a BSU game with some of my coworkers and had a great time.



Everything with the baby has been great. I feel great, just tired sometimes, and I'm still in awe that I'm almost 4.5 months along! Our ultrasound is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and hopefully they'll be able to see what gender the little Boise spud is! I'm 99% sure it's a girl, but we'll see.
Having my mom up here has been great. We hang out on my day's off and our house just feels better having her here. She's so funny and I find everything is less stressful with her around.
Levi has been busy at work and has had plenty of honey-do projects around the house. Our house is 30 years old and is starting to show it's age. We're excited to get the backyard back to life this spring. We found a new home for Morty so we are now dogless. It's a little lonely without them, but it's the right decision.
Well, I better get moving today. The only thing we've done since waking up this morning is drive to get donuts and then surf the web. Nice day off!