Baby Fever

Taken in 2009 after a dear friend of mine had her baby.

Matthew and I have been talking about having children recently. We originally talked about trying after we had been married for a year, but then I had a meltdown about it because I was so not ready. So we decided to postpone till the end of year (2013), but then we found out my mom's cancer metastasized a month after our first anniversary and Matthew and I moved in with her so I could help take care of her spend the time she had left with her while she was on hospice care. Matthew and I have talked about starting to try for a baby in the winter, but we are trying to figure out where our future will take us and iron out the details. A couple of months ago I spent some time holding some precious babies at a camp for teen moms, it totally gave me baby fever. So I decided to revisit my baby bucket list and see what Matthew and I have been able to cross off of it.

• Wine tasting tour - May 2013, we did some awesome wine tasting on our anniversary trip.
• Road trip - We've done a couple of short road trips either while traveling, (Toronto, California) and a we visited a winery before our anniversary this year.
• Spend all day in pajamas watching movies - We seem to accomplish this one every other weekend.
• Have a boozy lunch with friends - Still working on crossing this one off, any volunteers want to help me?
• Spontaneous weekend get away
• Stay out late - this one is crossed off anytime I hang out with my friends.
• Go out to eat - We've been enjoying this while we can. We know it will be more difficult when we have a child to either find a baby sitter or be conscious of other diners around us. 
• See lots of movies that would be inappropriate for children - Not only have we watched movies that wouldn't be appropriate for kids, but there has been many TV shows as well. Matthew and I have decided that we can't have cable TV when kids come into the picture, waaaaayy too much stuff is inappropriate for them. I was shocked when we were watching a show on TNT and they showed someones butt! Yeah I know, I'm a bit of a prude.
• Surprise romantic dinner for Matthew - February 2014, I spent all day making Parmesan crusted chicken and three cheese stuffed manicotti.
• Surprise romantic dinner for Katie - It's a little more difficult for Matthew to pull this one off with his work schedule.
• Go on a cruise or travel to Europe - We just got back from our Europe trip, Sept. 25-Oct. 12, 2014
• Stay at a bed-and-breakfast - October 2014, the place we stayed at in Rome was a bed and breakfast
• Get healthy - We've made a commitment to eat more fresh produce and fruits, most of our shopping is done by only getting stuff from the perimeter of the grocery store and not getting much from the aisles. We also got an elliptical machine since it's expensive for both of us to have a gym membership. 
• Purchase a SUV - We haven't gotten a SUV but we did sell my two door car and got a nice four door family sedan.
• Learn to sew / take sewing class - My friend took some time to show me the basics. Now to practice.
• Be a tourist where we live (Dallas) - Also nice to cross this off since we'll be moving from Dallas in a couple of months.
• Get life insurance - Though Matthew has life insurance through his work, I still want to get some better policies for us.
• Build up an emergency fund - We have enough savings to get us though 6-8 months of no income, but we continue to build it up.
• Pay off student loan - Thanks to some generous in-laws we are able to pay my student loan off without interest.
• Pay off Matthew's car - November 2013, Yay!
• Go hiking - May 2013, Pinnacles National Park, November 2013, Sequoia National Park 
• Get more pedicures

I never thought I would be in a state of mind where I can't wait to have kids. I mean, I knew I always wanted children but the thought of pregnancy freaked me out too much (ask any of my Bible study girls, they know), but having this bucket list has helped me. Even though we haven't crossed everything off, and I doubt we will, I feel like I've been able to mentally prep and have been intentional with my time and what I do with it. I'm very excited about the journey ahead of us, but we still have a few hurdles to cross.