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Well, it has taken me a while to get my pictures together and make time available to update the blog but it is finally here. I am 12 days away from her due date and ran into my first round of complications yesterday at the doctor appointment. Rileigh’s heart rate was perfect. I measured 2 cm smaller than I should be and hadn’t grown since last week. Last week I found out I was 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced but there was no improvement this week. So, we scheduled another ultrasound for Tuesday to make sure she is growing and still healthy to continue growth in the womb. Unfortunately, I had high blood pressure. They didn’t find protein in my urine nor am I swelling which would be signs of preclampsia. I am having headaches which is a minor sign for this so, I had blood taken and find out Friday if it is preclampsia or not. For now, I am on semi bedrest and for those of you who know me – this is a VERY hard task. But whatever it takes to keep baby and I healthy.

On the up side, I am very close to her due date so if they need to induce me they will. My parents get home Monday from Hawaii and remaining family the rest of the week. Hopefully, Rileigh holds on until everyone is close to home.

Ben and I are truly ready for Rileigh to join us. We have her room ready, items put together and now we wait.

This past week we have gone through moments of shock realizing what we are about to encounter. We are super excited but I don’t think we can prepare ourselves anymore for this blessing God is bringing into our lives. So, we remain patient knowing God’s timing is perfect.

I will keep everyone up to date as much as possible with doctor updates and delivery!!! Love to all.

I think I have hit the point of (one) discomfort (two) anxiousness (three) nesting (four) sleepless nights. For those of you that know me well, I am a bit overly organized and have a list of all items I have and then a list of all items I need with prices along side each item. When I buy things or get them as gifts I check them off, remove the price and add them to the “have” list. This and Rileigh’s moving keeps me up at night.

On top of all the items needed to prepare for her, I am completely finished with her room except for adding in the rocker and lamp. I want to show you all the pics of the room but I figure I’ll wait till it is completely finished so you can see the final piece instead of a lot of up dates. Hopefully Rileigh will love it 🙂

I never realized how overwhelming preparing for her arrival would be. There are more things to buy then ever imagined. I guess this is where “all the money goes to your children” starts. I can’t wait to spend more on her when she is here. It is funny how much of a guessing game all of this is – who knows how big she will be or what items she’ll like: will the smaller clothes ever fit her? Will she like the bouncer or a bounce n’ swing? Will she take her pacifier? Are the hats going to fit? All these questions race through my mind every day. I literally walk into Rileigh’s room every day scan through things, make sure it is organized, and then sit and imagine her in it. I can’t wait to hold her in my arms.

I have been blessed incredibly with the baby showers that have been held and will be held for Ben, Rileigh and I. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family helping us out. I wanted to include some pictures of recent showers that were held. We had 2 already (one with my business group including all radio and TV reps and then another with high school/college/camp friends). The next 2 are coming and I am so excited for them as well!!

I will update next beginning of October! I will be working from home and will have mostly everything finished for Rileigh’s arrival.

Being that this is my first pregnancy, I started showing very late. My first pictures of actually looking pregnant were at frontier. My summer has been measured by the many trips I was blessed to go on. I started with frontier where I was able to see God move in amazing ways! I learned so much about His love. I fell in love with every one of my Young Life girls. It was amazing to watch how loving and caring they were for me while I attempted to keep up with everyone while pregnant. I can’t wait for Rileigh to meet these wonderful girls and hopefully get to know as they babysit her 🙂

A week after frontier, my family took our non-pest control trip to Seaside. Ben and I were able to join them the last week and loved every minute of it. The place was peaceful and relaxing. You definitely have to put on your “chill hat” on while you are here. I really enjoyed seeing my sister and brother love their time with their friends and the joy my sister feels at there.

In between seaside and Academy (pest control convention in Orlando), Ben and I began furnishing Rileigh’s nursery.

The crib and changing table is from Babies R Us. I looked for months for exactly what I wanted and finally found it. I really wanted simplicity being that this room is quite small. I initially wanted white but Ben met me half way with this piece being too girly (for future kids as well) if it was white. The remaining furniture is a lot more than “looks” to me. It was my mom’s first furniture as a kid, my first furniture and now Rileigh’s. We still need to replace the knobs (which is taking me forever because the width is not standard).

The latest addition to the room is a sticker that my cousin Jessica found for me. I absolutely love it! It really helps the room out a lot.

I’m continually working on this room and would love more ideas if you have any.

Here is the latest baby bump picture with my sister-in-law, Sarah. She is having a girl, Anna, due 7 weeks before Rileigh. I am so excited that Rileigh will have a cousin so close in age because my cousins and I have grown up together being close in age and it has been a big blessing.

I have exactly 81 days to go. (I do have an app that counts this for me as well as monitors my symptoms per day and gives me updates daily and weekly – it’s awesome). Ben and I are very excited for Rileigh to get here!!!!!!!

(Her precious foot)
Ben and I went in yesterday to the radiologist for our appointment. We were both very anxious to see how our baby is doing and what the sex will be. As the nurse went through the anatomy of the baby, Ben and I were in awe of how amazing it all was. To see her lips, 4 heart chambers, down to her stomach, over to her arms and feet, it was quite the experience. Ben then asked if we were going to find out the sex and she began to look.
During this time and for the past month, I had a feeling it was going to be a boy. There was no reasoning behind it. But, I was very wrong. Ben and I were both so thrilled and we both became a bit sentimental. It is rather a dramatic and moving moment.
As the nurse brought the pictures and measurements to the radiologist, we called the family. It is funny that most everyone was suprised that it is a girl as well. I was shocked at how emotional I got when I actually spoke the words “It’s a girl!”. After about 20 minutes, the nurse came back in and let us know that everything looked fine.
Ben and I left from the radiologist in shock and excitement. It is such a blessing to see God’s hands working on our baby girl and in our lives. It amazes me how many unbelievers there are when the miracle of the human life and the way we are formed is right in front of us every day.

Here is our lovely baby girl! She is growing so fast.

Since, we thought all along it was a boy we were set on boy names and had done a lot of thinking on this one. But, when we found out that it is a girl we began to question our girl name. Once we left we were looking up and thinking of other names. We became settled and excited about her original name.

Her name is Rileigh. The story behind this is that growing up I loved my dad’s name, Raleigh, as a girl. My family and I were in New Mexico at a hotel’s pool and heard a dad call for his daughter, Raleigh. From that point forward we all loved the name for a girl. Once it got to naming my kids, I was second guessing naming my daughter my dad’s name. So, right when I found out I was pregnant I started writing down names. I loved the name Riley and Raleigh. I then combined the name and the spelling and got Rileigh. Having a meaning to a name is important to me and this has family history in it. As for the middle name, we are debating between two names and I will let you know once we find out.

Thanks for letting me share all these wonderful times with you. Praise God for the miracles he makes every day!

So now that the pregnancy is public knowledge, I thought blogging would be a great way to update all my family and friends! Today I am 16 weeks and 2 days pregnant. My weekly marks are on Tuesdays so that is my new favorite day of the week!

Ben and I feel so blessed that God surprised us with an addition to our family. For those of you not familiar with “prego terms” I thought I would explain a lot of the things going on. The baby’s “before-birth” date (Ben & I’s terms not a term widely used) is counted in weeks and not months. It is also separated into trimesters.

The first trimester was from week 1 to week 12. Although I was pretty nauseous every day for a few weeks, I never threw up. I was very tired all the time but that isn’t unusual for me even before pregnancy. I didn’t ever crave anything that was uncommon. Also, I didn’t have that big of an appetite and my love for sweets diminished. If I wanted anything sweet it had to be fruit flavored.

I decided that I wouldn’t tell the public until after the first trimester (appointments are very 4 weeks until week 26 they are every 2). At my 12 week appointment I went in by myself because Ben nor my mom were able to come with me. The nurse came in and tried to hear a heartbeat and couldn’t after about a minute. She then left saying she needed to get the doctor. While I waited 5 to 8 minutes, I was trying to hold back tears. I texted Ben and my parents asking for prayers and they started calling me immediately. I couldn’t talk to them because then I easily would have started crying. My mom and Ben both decided to come to meet me at the doctor’s office. The doctor finally came in and tried to hear the heartbeat as well and couldn’t. She found that my uterus was inverted or set back which isn’t that negative just will take a bit more time to set in place. We did an ultrasound and saw the baby moving and spinning around. We also saw the heartbeat! I then immediately notified Ben and my mom so they could turn around. So since I didn’t “hear” the heartbeat, I decided I would wait to announce to facebook and others about the baby.

Once week 13 hit, I have been feeling great. My interest in food has improved and my energy is back! I have worked out 3 to 4 times a week the entire pregnancy so far and hope to continue until pretty close to my due date.

This last appointment, week 16, was quick and easy. We waited a while so my mom couldn’t stay but, Ben and I heard the heartbeat instantly and were amazed. The noise was like horses stampeding but more of an airy wooshing sound. I think the reason we didn’t cry is because we were just praying we would hear it this time and once we did we were very relieved.

As far as showing or not, I have a small “baby pooch.” I can hide it right now with loose clothing but If I wear anything tight it looks like I have gained a bit of weight in the tummy. I am still in debate with myself of taking pictures of my stomach or not. If I decide to take pictures, I will be sure to post them on my blog updates.

My due date is November 2nd! We have a lot of family and friends birthdays around this time and we’re excited to see who our baby shares a birthday with. Jessica’s is the closest, November 1st, so that will be fun to celebrate.

We find out the sex in 2 weeks!!! I am very anxious about this. Ben wants a boy to get the boy over with and not have to worry when we have more kids but, he really wants to be a dad to a girl. I would love either being that we want 4 kids. At first, I thought the baby was a girl but lately I have been thinking it was a boy. It is hard to narrow down on a 50/50 chance.

I have also started my pre-nesting stage. I made a file on my computer with furniture and bedding for a boy and girl and prices. I think I have it pretty narrowed down to 1 for each so I am excited to go shopping in 2 weeks! I also shared all this with Ben and told him my dilemma of which room the first baby should be in. For a while the baby was going in the middle room because the room closest to the front of the house is his “man cave” and the room closest to the bathroom is the guest room. But, I figure since this is our first child he/she should have the first room. I discussed this with Ben on my way home from work and when I got home he had already moved the guest room furniture to the middle room. He is such a wonderful husband! He even said he read online about women and their nesting stage and that the man needs to be ready to work lol! I am so excited to see how wonderful of a daddy Ben will be.

I tried to include all the questions I have been asked by family and friends lately. If I left anything out just leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to answer it in the next post.

So, I haven’t written on here in a while and would like to summarize what I have been doing : working, classes at the YMCA, and Ben got braces! (He is a little embarrased about them but I think he looks adorable with them on). Other than the Aggies losing :(, life has been really wonderful!

Onto my sweet tooth: I have always wanted to have one dessert I was good at (primarily due to the fact that I LOVE sweets). Well, after falling in love with cake balls at Ooh La La (a Katy dessert place), I wanted to try them out for a welcome back lunch for one of the managers at the office. I don’t have a ton of time on my hands to bake but, these cake balls alotted the perfect amount of time and they are delicious and easy! I also made them for my wonderful new neighbors, The Jacksons, and for campaigners every week at our home. Here is the recipe!!

ingredients needed:
– packaged cake box (and the ingredients it requires)
– a can of icing
– chocolate bark (there is vanilla bark as well depending on which type of cake you use)
extras needed:
– toothpick
– wax paper
– bowl, pan, plate to serve on
 
 
1. Bake the cake as ordered on the box
2. Once the cake is finished cooking, immediatley take it out of the oven and cut the cake right around the edges (to avoid the harder parts of the cake).
3. Empty the cake into a bowl and with your hands or spoon mash up the cake into crumbles.
4. Add as much icing as your heart desires into the cake. (I have used half the can as well as the whole can and they both tasted great. The more icing you add the softer it will be in the end which is always nice and also when forming the balls it is easier to do so when more icing is added. BUT of coarse the more icing the more calories.)
5. Mix the icing and cake all together into a “mush.”
6. Place the bowl of cake & icing into the refrigerator for 2 hours.
7. Grab a pan (that will fit in your freezer) and lay it with wax paper.
8. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator, and with your hands or a scoop make 1 inch to 1.5 inch balls of the cake & icing (or 2 bite size) and place on the pan.
9. Place the pan into the freezer for 6 hours.
10. Soften the bark once the 6 hours is about up.( different brands call for different ways of softening). I have found that the microwave has worked best.
11. Grab a plate (big enough for all of the balls) and lay wax paper on it.
12. One at a time, remove a cake ball from the freezer and dip the ball into the bark with a toothpick. You want to get the entire ball dipped.
 
Option:  If you want to add sprinkles, you would do so while it is hot. You can also be creative with the balls and add color dyes and such… Remember you can use any and every kind of cake with the icing you think is best.
 
These cake balls are delicious and easy. You just have to plan for them ahead of time. They are moist and yummy in the inside with a harder choclate coating on the outside.

Enjoy! I will write soon.

Lately, Ben and I have been doing alotta working, alotta working out at the Y, and a little socialization. So.. I am changing it up. Yes I am my mothers child (those of you who know my mom and how she never stopped volunteering causing many fights with my father who is ant-social). I got an email from our neighborhood about a social committee meeting and I was all over it. Yesterday, I walked into our club house (1st member) with a very intimidating, non-comforting area. The board all sat at the head table and chairs in  front of them. OF COURSE, those of you who know me, I stutter… say I live on Pine Mill Ranch (it’s the name of the neighborhood duh!)… couldn’t remember my streets name… and looked like a dumb blonde! I eventually felt more comfortable… gave my input… AND committed to lead the tennis club (Ben and I).

Currently then members of the tennis club are the Johnsons and well that is it. Hopefully, my mom informs me how to do the rest.

This weekend is quite busy with the ‘Stros game tonight, tomorrow Ben is working so I am going to the Y for Body Attack and then PAINTING MY BEDROOM! I’m thinking gold faux on the walls, brown for the drawers and cabinet, and red in the toilet room. Can’t wait till I finish my 1st painting steps!!!

Yep… that’s right. Since I am a volunteer leader for Young Life, Seven Lakes, I got the priviledge to go to Frontier Camp with my 3 girls, Dancee, Brittanie & Danielle. The bus ride from Katy to Buena Vista, CO = 24 hours!!! It actually was a much better bus ride than when I went the times in high school and college. Maybe this was due to my preparation, maybe because I had 2 seats to myself (what what), or because when I went other times I was going for “me” and my pleasure. This time I was going for my girls and the opportnity to see them come to know Christ! The first 2 days were a little rough while the girls from Seven Lakes and Cinco were djusting to what camp is like and the activities which they were highly recommended. By the 2nd day, one of the Seven Lakes kids got sent to the hospital with possibility of Swine Flu. It ended up being type A flu.

That same day we got our first “ride” cancelled due to rain and then the next day, we were about to ride horses when they asked Katy girls to take our temperature. Well, one of our girls had a fever so we were all escorted back to the “Quarantine Room.” We were in a room with all boys, which made it fun for some girls but miserable for the girls who thought they were annoying. Once we were all escorted to dinner, after all the other kids ate, we had to all move to the “sick” cabin. I didn’t mention that the week before there were many cases of swine flu and each camper that was sick was put into this cabin. I just new eventually I would get the symptoms. It was a long night. We were told we were leaving at 6 the next morning before the other “healthy” campers woke up. There were many tears. Many of the tears were from the leaders because we new the impact of Jesus they were missing and the wonderful messages that were going to be told the rest of the week.h The high school girls and boys needed to hear about Jesus and man… what an amazing man he was and hopefully some of these kids would give their lives to Him. The kids also cried either because they heard how amazing this week was from their siblings, they didn’t want to go home, or they had just started to get used to everything and get excited for the events and talked about  Jesus and the impact on our lives He has. So… it was a very long night.

We were about to depart when we realized we need a girl leader to stay so… I did. I had started to wonderful why God would allow something like this to happen and why I had come and given up a wine tour trip to Sonoma with Ben and my parents but – it became apparent to me. I was able to serve and love on the kids who were sick. I also made a wonderful future best friend, Ali, who inspires me and is an amazing person. We all had tons of laughs all night and was full of fun and joy! We drove home the next day (only a 16 hour car ride) and that too was fun. I just loved being with these kids.

God truly has a reason for everything and I was blessed to see that quickly. I was also able to be home for my dad’s early arrival on Saturday which I would have been able to be there if it weren’t for the flu! My dad looks great and feels great! We had wonderful family time the rest of the weekend and started a fresh new week this week.

Ben and I have been going to cycling classes everyday (which is kicking our bottom). It is a great time for both of us to work hard and get in shape together. This weekend we are going to the ranch for 4th of July with BT and Tara (whom we love to hang with).

So I thought I would add such a huge part of my job onto my blog… Keep up to date of where we are in $ to where we want to be. Or evern donate $1 to $1,000 🙂

www.firstgiving.com/raleighjenkins or his blog at www.goanteater.com

Well, do you ever feel like you have too much going on so… you just sit and stare and avoid the craziness. That is how I feel. This weekend was a blast which is making my slow Monday feel a little better. Adrienne stayed with Ben and I Friday night so we all went to eat and to get a few drinks. It was quite fun and relaxing.

Saturday Ben worked and AD and I went to the Y to go to a really that class that kicks your bottom. It is called Body Attack. It does! Then once AD left I realize I really need some girlfriends while Ben is out doing things because both Saturday and Sunday (while he golfed all day) I well.. cleaned the house. We have no money to just go shopping. I worked out both days and read so… whats next- clean! Need girlfriends to hang out with bad… real bad. All the girls I could just call up and hang with are 30 + minutes away so it is hard to just get up and hang for a bit.

This Saturday I leave for Frontier and the excitement is getting greater and greater. I just love the mountains and love hanging with the girls. It is really going to be a great experience for me. (I will miss Ben BIG though)

Update on dad: he is coming home the 29th – the day after I get home! I am making him a scrapbook and will post pictures of it once it is complete. So far so good.

Dylan: He is coming home the day I leave 😦

Vern: She is really into her friends and not doing camp this year. Instead she just got back from Colorado, going on a road trip with (was going to be her and mom) but now with her 2 besties. Then to Florida then to NY. Life must be hard. Yes, I am a bit jeal but… Ben and I planned a week in Jan. for a cruise with a bunch of peops . I am pumped!

Little update and hope work goes by a bit faster!!!!