12 Weeks: Baby Bump Debut...kind of

We are 12 weeks this week!! I feel like I am starting to show just in the past couple of days. I never thought I would be so excited to see my stomach getting bigger. I know a lot of people don't show early, but I'm going to say that I am because Dan and I were both HUGE babies. More so Dan. Let me remind you that he was almost 12 pounds when he was born!!! I was almost 9 which is still pretty big but it is not 12 pounds...

I had a lot more energy this week. I think I only took 2 naps. I started taking B12 which seemed to help a lot and I worked out a few times which always helps me. Only 2 more weeks until we are out of our first trimester!

I have to brag on my husband for a sec. Yesterday he went swimsuit shopping with me for the afternoon. I tried to warn him what he was in for going swimsuit shopping with a pregnant woman. He was a great sport and quite helpful. We even bought some maternity clothes which was a lot of fun.

I promise I do own more than just dresses!

A baby shower for a best friend...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for one of my closest friends, Adrienne. It was so fun planning this for her and we had a great time celebrating her first baby.

Adrienne and I have been friends since high school and have remained close since we graduated. I talk to her every morning! I'm not sure what we talk about but we always have something to say to each other! I am so excited for her and Glenn to be parents. She's due mid August with a baby boy that they are naming Owen. I can't wait to meet their little boy!

Me, Adrienne and Jana the other hostess

Adrienne and her amazing cake. It matched the invitation exactly!

For favors we did bags of caramel and cheese popcorn. Yum!

We had each guest fill out advice cards for Adrienne and Glenn. Each card said something different like, "I hope you learn...I hope you aren't afraid of...I hope you remember...etc". It gave those that don't have kiddos a starting point.

The shower turned out great and Adrienne and Glenn got stocked up with almost everything they need for their baby. Now we are all just waiting for Owen to make his debut!

11 Weeks and a staycation

I can't believe that we are 11 weeks already! I say "we" because it's our baby, even though I am the one carrying it, Dan is definitely doing his part in this. He has to put up with me and has been so wonderful. He says I've been pretty good so far :) This week I started to get really, really tired. I didn't work out this week like I have been, so maybe that's it. I'm great until about 1:00 and then I turn into a zombie. I compare it to when we have flown overseas and not slept on the plane and you are so tired you just want to pass out. Carrying a baby is a lot of work!

We had another doctor's appointment last Thursday that went great. We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time which was really amazing. Our due date was moved again to January 7. I'm just going to start saying sometime in January we will have a baby. I guess the computer calculates it every time. Not the greatest 11 week picture, but you can see I'm definitely starting to fill out! Yay for almost being done with the first trimester!!

This weekend we wanted to get away but not actually go far, so we went to our favorite little hotel The Belmont for a night. We have stayed there in years past and loved it. They are an old motor hotel right outside of downtown Dallas near Oak Cliff. The views are amazing and it's a very boutique feel. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Hattie's. Saturday we went to the pool and hung out there for a while then came home and you guessed it, took a nap! It seems to be a daily thing at our house this week for me. I didn't take many pictures, but we had a great time.

BIG News!

Yes, we are having a baby!! We are expecting him or her to make their debut into the world January 8, 2012! We are beside ourselves excited and feel very blessed. I have been feeling pretty good so far. Besides a bad cold/cough I have had from the beginning I have felt pretty normal. I'm trying to be good and work out and eat healthy but still allowing myself some indulgences :) I know the next 7 months will fly by so we are going to cherish each stage of this pregnancy.

No cravings really and no weight gain so far. I'm sure I won't be able to say that for long. Dan was almost 12 lbs when he was born and I was almost 9 so we are looking forward to a big baby! We told our parents for Mother's Day and they are all so thrilled to be first time grandparents. I can't wait to see Dan as a dad because I know he will be amazing. I'm looking forward to blogging about this amazing journey we are now on!

I heart Italy.

Almost two weeks ago we got back from our amazing vacation. 11 days ways was the perfect length for a vacation overseas. We spent 7 nights in Sorrento, a small town outside of Rome. The remaining 3 we spent in Rome (that post will come later). Sorrento was by far our favorite town so far in Italy. Sorrento is where the limoncello was created. There were lemons everywhere and they were HUGE!

Please excuse the blurry pic of my hubby.

The weather was perfect the entire trip. 70 degrees and cool. Only one day it rained a little. From Sorrento we could take day trips. We went to Capri one day which was only a ferry ride away. We were able to take a gondola ride all the way to the top of the mountain which made for beautiful pictures.

Another day we went to Pompeii. I am glad that we saw Pompeii, but I probably wouldn't go back. Our tour guide was great, but his English was terrible. It was amazing to see a town that was so old.

Our last day we went to the Amalfi coast to a town called Positano. This was a cute little town along the Mediterranian Sea. The bus ride was very interesting. I highly recommend looking straight ahead and not looking down. The drivers know what they are doing and do it all the time. To give you an idea, the ride was along a windy road up a mountain. And the bus drove at least 50 mph. The bus dropped us up at the top of the mountain and we walked through the town until we got to the beach at the bottom. Another beautiful picture place.

I'll have to do another post on our time in Rome. We took over 800 pictures so these hardly even show all the fun we had! We had wine, pasta and pizza everyday and slept a ton. Truly a wonderful vacation!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from The Tumis'!!

I have a lot of updateing to do, but that will have to come in the next couple of weeks. Aren't Bella and Dylan the cutest little Easter bunnies?

Let the countdown begin...

14 days from today I will be here...

With this guy....

In a country that we love...

For 12 days!!

And I can't wait!!!

Now we just have to work our tails off to prepare to leave...

But it will all be worth it when we are sipping wine and eating pasta and hanging out just the two of us without cell phones, computers and the daily grind.

We LOVE Italy and can't wait to get there!

Out with the old!

Since we moved in our house 3 1/2 years ago we have done a handful of home projects. We have painted every room, built a pergola in our backyard and added new landscaping. Being a homeowner, the list goes on and on for what I want to get done to the house. We love our house, but there are always projects we want to do. Our biggest and most recent project was redoing our master and guest bathrooms. This was a fun project and I am so happy it is done! We left the cabinets and redid everything else. Enjoy the before and after pictures!

We had the shower raised about 4 inches for Dan. He can't wait to not have to bend down to shower! The rest of the door will arrive on Friday.

Here is our guest bath. Ignore the picture of me!

Meeting The Pioneer Woman

On Valentine's Day I left my Valentine at home while my friend Danielle and I went to meet THE Pioneer Woman. For those of you who don't know who Ree Drummond is, you should. She has the most popular blog in the world and is in my mind one of the most inspiring women I have ever met. Not only does she have 4 kids, she home schools them, lives on a ranch, gardens, is a photographer, an amazing cook, and has a great marriage. She writes daily about crazy things that happen on the ranch and talks about motherhood and life from an honest perspective. Anyway, she was as beautiful in person as she is in her pictures. She had brought all of her kids and her husband to the book signing. The signing started at 6:00. Danielle and I had to pick up wrist bands when the store opened that morning to get assigned to a group. We got to Borders at 10:05 and got assigned Group 2. Each group had 100 people. Ree spoke for about 10 minutes and then the book signing started. We didn't walk out the door until 9 pm and we were in Group 2! There were 10 groups! It was so fun to meet her in person and definitely worth the wait! I really wanted to ask her how she stays so thin cooking all of her recipes!

Danielle and The Pioneer Woman

How's your burger?

Emily and I ate at Twisted Root the other day in Fairview and it got me thinking about my favorite burger places in the Lone Star State, and how funny the 'how's your burger' line is in Dumb and Dumber. Here are a few of my favorites:

1.) Mel's Country Cafe - My hometown of Tomball, TX boasts my favorite burger, and is ranked in the top 5 on Texas Burger Guy and one of the Top 50 Burgers in Texas Monthly. If you eat the Mega Mel burger you get to write your name on the wall, and it's no small accomplishment.

The Mega Mel Burger
1.5 pounds of fresh ground beef
1 pound of bacon
.25 pound of American cheese
lots, lots of lettuce, tomatoes, onions & pickles

This place has a lot of great food besides the burgers, my favorite is the chicken tenders, which can feed a family of 4. http://www.melscountrycafe.com/

2.) Roznovsky's Hamburgers - 3401 W. T. C. Jester Blvd, Houston, TX 77018 - If you live in H-Town you have to check out Roznovsky's. The founder was an All-American baseball player for UT back in the 70's. The review on http://www.texasburgerguy.com/ isn't that good, but if you are a Czech guy like me it's a right of passage!

3.) Twisted Root Burger Co - Ranked # 14 in Texas Monthly's Top 50 Texas Burgers, and the only burger place I know that has a pastry chef to help with their menu. Usually a restaurant asks you for your name, and then calls it when the order is ready. Not at Twisted Root, they give you a famous name, for example, Austin Powers or Michael Jordan. They have 5 DFW area locations, including their newest one in Fairview. http://twistedrootburgerco.com/

4.) Burger place in Austin - Sadly I cannot remember the name of this burger place, but I remember eating there at 2:00 a.m. many times in college after going out on 6th street. I'm not sure if it's because it was 2:00 a.m., but they had a great burger. It was downtown somewhere near the UT campus, just north of the basketball arena. Truly I cannot remember the name, but it was great.

5.) Mooyah Burgers & Fries - I asked Emily if she had one meal left on this earth (and it was a hamburger) where would she go? She said Mooyah burger, a great 'build it' burger place with several locations in the DFW and Houston areas, as well as a few locations in Tennessee and California now. Mooyah gives you about 650 toppings to choose from on your burger, and their large fry is enough for 4 people. - http://www.mooyah.com/

Honorable Mention

• Jake's Hamburgers
• Whataburger
• Scotty P's
• Frank's Place - Schulenburg, TX

Check out Emily's business http://www.shoppickledlily.com/