.sixteen.

|| 16 weeks ||

 Some form of "weekly bump pics" will be coming soon.  I haven't felt like there's much to show but several people have told me how fun it is to look back on and notice the slight difference week to week. And it's boarder line killing Travis that I'm not doing it already. As soon as I locate an empty wall and invest in a tripod, it will be happening. 

How far along: 16 weeks! I definitely see a bump there but I think now I'm ready for a noticeable "it's a baby in there" bump. I have a feeling it may be a while though. I keep getting told that since I'm tall I probably won't hardly be showing until 6-7 months. Really??

Gender: we will officially find out November 25th!

Maternity clothes: I wore the skinniest/tightest jeans I own on Friday night and I finally had to unbutton them. Not so much because they were feeling too tight but because by back was absolutely killing me! I've also worn a pair of maternity leggings a couple times this week and they are SO comfortable but they really need a bump to support them. I kept yanking them up. I have, on the other hand, busted out of two button downs. My favorite, favorite denim shirt will have to be retired until further notice. :'(

Sleep: Much better now AND without the aide of meds! But it could have something to do with the fact that I'm attempting to do 101 different things every day. My mind and my body are exhausted by 8pm!

Best moments this week: 

- Hearing Ace's heartbeat at our appointment on Tuesday! He was so busy in there our doc said all the other commotion we heard was him flipping and kicking the doppler! Love our busy bean so much even though I'm absolutely certain we will have our hands full in several short months. 

- Also, our cousin and her husband, who have been trying for a baby for about a year texted me the most wonderful first picture their little angel! I am so incredibly excited for them! 

- I also finished almost all of our Christmas shopping at the San Marcos outlet malls on Thursday and...purchased Ace's diaper bag! 

- In town for church two Sundays in a row??! That has never happened! It was so fun being greeted with a "so happy to see y'all again" and invited to lunch by members we met the week before! 

- AND Turbo got the biggest buck he's ever killed this week! So happy for him! It's fun to think that over the next probably 40+ years Turbo and his kiddos will spend weekends bonding over things like that. I'm not huge on dead animals around the house but I love the idea of a room full of all those memories they've made together! 

Worst moment this week: Turbo being gone (which to be completely honest wasn't all that terrible. I got a lot done and I'm finally getting less and less nervous of my empty house!) 

Miss anything: If I got to choose between drinking a bottle of champagne and a new pair of riding boots, I'd choose the champ....is that so terrible?

Cravings: None. However, my empty pickle jar collection is growing. And that's not a pregnant girl joke. 

Queasy or sick: Nope. Just hoping the back pain I was having on Friday never shows its ugly face again. 

Looking forward to: Getting everything ready (done/finished/out of sight forever) for the craft show I'm doing next weekend. Slowly pulling out Christmas decorations! Finding out if our little is an Ace or Acie and feeling him move! 

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We could not ask for better weather around here! It's been gorgeous! Sunday afternoon we took the pups to the river for the first time in ages! It was pretty chilly but the views and happy tails were totally worth it! 

While Turbo was getting his big buck, I got my diaper bag! The best kind of trade off if you ask me!

I know. My husband looks like a giant leprechaun with that beard....

And here's the bag I will be toting along with little Ace!

I was thinking I would just get a black and leather Jon Hart bag instead of an actual diaper bag, but I just couldn't pass this one up!

 I wore it strapped across me for a good 45 minutes while shopping and everyone agreed it suited me well! Can't wait to have a babe on the other hip!

15 and flying

.15.

How far along: 15 weeks 

Gender: still guessing boy!

Maternity clothes: none yet but I have GOT to get black maternity leggings immediately. Mostly because all my others are practically shear from wear.

Sleep: like a rock (with the aide of Benedryl) but of course waking up 1-3 times to stumble around the bed to the bathroom. 

Best moment this week: Halloween was majorly fun! I can't wait to have a child to experience the holidays with! My house is finally clean, my to-do list is slowly getting shorter, we kept our doors open for about 3 straight days to bring the beautiful days inside, I started "Jesus Calling" making my favorite part my day even better, we stayed in town all weekend and got to go to church, Travis cooked nearly all our meals, this girl can not complain about a thing! 

Worst moment this week: no true "worsts" to speak of. Tech lost. Again. My phone wouldn't send or receive messages which is just a tad annoying. But in the grand scheme of things are pretty wonderful!

Miss anything: I opened a bottle of wine for a friend Halloween night and I wanted to chug the entire thing!  And I could have certainly benefited from a Miller Lite (or a Xanax) during our game.

Cravings:  This week we ate like we never do! More carbs and red meat that I usually consume. Travis is hilarious doing a rendering of the dance he thinks Ace does every time I feed him "meeeeeeaaatt!!!" I must say though, I made baked potatoes topped with meat Trav had frozen the last time he made ribs and incredible is really the only way to describe it. 

Queasy or sick: not really, but I have been a little stuffy. Not sure if Ace is to blame though. 

Looking forward to: Feeling him, so I know he's ok in there! And my appointment on Tuesday although there's not an ultrasound. It will be nice to check in with the doc. Plus, it's always fun to spend a day in San Antonio with Turbo. We decided after our first appointment we would always do some type of random act of kindness after each good doctors visit. I look forward to it and it's really the least we can do to share our endless blessings with others. I hope it's a tradition we will continue with Ace each time we go to SA, and teach him to spread the love every day! 

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Turbo ran to the beer barn by our house for ice and brought back a Dr Pepper (he's a saint) and 4 lottery tickets for Ace. He said our winnings would go in his college fund. Well, we were winners!! With this $10 we will be able to buy Ace his first two beers when he turns 21! You're welcome in advance, bud. Hold us to it! 

We also read that Ace can now hear! Unfortunately the first words he probably heard his dad speak yell were several choice curse words directed to a certain coaching staff and defense on Saturday. We hope Kliff can pull this together before Ace commits with Tech in 2033 and can offer them a legitimate defense. 

At least our steak has same spirit... 

I spent last week working on things for Urban Sky. I've been working on new designs that I hope to make in to prints available for purchase. I am really excited about that little addition. I also worked on several burp clothe orders. I like these boy designs but I'm in love with my girl designs! I'm working on some different "cool" ideas for boys. Burp clothes your husband would be proud to sport! Excited to get these listed soon as well.  In the mean time you can order in my etsy shop (shopping cart above!)

Ace in the Hole

The story behind the name!

How many times in school did you have to write a paper about "how you were named"? I can think of at least 4 different times I did. There's not a true "story" behind my unique name but it was nice having something to write besides, "my parents just liked it". So here is the story behind the origin of Ace's name. I'm pretty much in love with how it goes...

When I was teaching I regularly referred to my kindergarten boys as Ace. "Awesome job, Ace!" "Wow, look at that handwriting, Ace!" I used this so often in fact, they would ask why I called all the boys the same name. My explanation: Ace is like a term of endearment. No different than saying "sweetheart" or "champ". When I think of the word ace, I think "number one" "the best".

Webster agrees: 

ace [eys]

noun. a very skilled person; expert; adept: an ace at tap dancing.

or, hopefully in our case, throwing or tackling. 

That continued when Turbo and I first started dating. I would call him "Ace" like a pet name. "Good morning, Ace" etc.

For at least a year Travis and I have referred to our future child as Ace. As a silly pet name to begin with, we used this more as joke than anything.  A word that inferred that our lives would surely change. "When Ace comes you know you can't drink a bottle of wine every night." "When Ace is here we've got to stop going out of town so much!" "On Friday nights we'll go to Ace's football games." "Can't wait for there to be an Ace in the hole?!" (Which coincidentally also happens to be the name of George Strait's band...)

Well, this nick-name definitely stuck among our family and friends. We don't say "it" or "baby" we say "Ace".

I get regular messages asking how Ace and I am doing. If I have a request for Turbo, approaching it by saying "Ace wants BBQ" has nearly a 100% chance of working.

He will without a doubt, be Coach Kliff Kingsbury for Halloween in 2017, Brynn!
Apparently all of my texting takes place around 11 am and my phone is always about to die.

My favorite are the hand written ones! Love seeing his name in print, especially lipstick-on-the-shower-wall-print, courtesy of the doting baby-daddy! Oh my heart! 

I just assumed this would remain a nickname and originally I was thinking we'd go with Travis Layne (Trav's name) and just call him Ace, and that's what we had told people, but Turbo wasn't the biggest fan of going the Junior route, I wasn't a huge fan of "wasting" Layne - a name I love for a girl- as a middle name, and the more we thought about it (for all of like, 3 minutes) the more we decided that if we're going to call someone something his whole life, we may as well just name him that! As a former teacher, I know that's appreciated!

We had every single intention on keeping the names a secret until they were born. I am semi-obsessed with baby names but after my sister-in-laws started having babies I vowed to not ever, ever, let the names I truly loved slip. So these names have been kept under tight wraps for a very long time. 
(Except from my mom, she of course knew! We've shared a list of baby names together for ages.)

Like I mentioned, I imagined the name would be a big surprise on the day (s)he was worn but we use it so frequently we couldn't keep it sealed. 

So, long story short...should baby U be a boy his name will be:

Ace Edward Urbanovsky. LOVE. 

Edward, who is possibly the sweetest man I've ever met, is Travis' grandfather. He's also extremely musically inclined and we're desperately hoping that will be passed on to our children!

I mean, come on! Just say "Ace Urbanovsky with the tackle" in your best high school football announcer, loud speaker voice and TELL me that's not the name of a total badass!

Ace shouldn't have any problem learning his vowels either. Just missing I and O (and sometimes Y)

And should baby U be a girl?

Her name will be...

A surprise! But her sweet monogram will be aUa. 

Both inspired by family names. I can guarantee you, you don't know any little girls with the name. And don't ask, I won't tell! 

...though it's very likely we will call her Acie, because honestly we just can't undo Ace! It's stuck!

and truthfully, if the "A" changes from the original name we have planned to "Acie", I wouldn't at all be surprised... 

Choosing the names was the easiest decision we have made! It helped that we've been mentioning baby names for ages but in about 3 minutes we had it settled! I am so thankful for our like-mindedness on what can easily become a major stress factor before a baby comes!

Halloween pre-babe

Our last Halloween without a sweet little babe to dress up! I couldn't even express to you how excited the thought of having a baby for all the holidays makes me. Can.not.wait to see them through the eyes of a child! 

We, as usual, played it low key. Chili on the porch and passing out candy to all the little disney princesses and supermans that came by! We had well over 200 trick-or-treaters from about 5:15-9:30pm and went through about $60 worth of candy! We were all exhausted by the nights end. Totally worth it though, I love any excuse to be neighborly! 
I was a "hippie" and wore an outfit I have worn before a regular non-Halloween day if that tells you anything about the contents of my closet...  Even the pups got costumes! My sweet little fairy princesses! They were a HIT! 

We were excited Leah and her dog horse, Waylon could join! 

who wants to come repaint our porch?!
Turbo? He was sans costume but he got a great start on no shave November and is currently rockin' a killer beard! I don't even hate it! It helps that it's all for a good cause as well. Not exactly sure what that cause is but it's something for pancreatic cancer..? I think?
Anyway, all FIVE of us had a great time! Ace experienced the perfect start to Halloween if you ask me!