28 Weeks and it's finally Labor Day!

It's finally about time to go to the lake--and we've hit the third trimester! I'll do the third trimester update before I talk about the lake and Labor Day.

I really can't believe that we're in the third trimester and what everyone keeps telling me is the "home stretch." We now kind-of feel like we're counting down instead of up. We're under 12 weeks from meeting our sweet Abigail Jane and can't wait. The nursery (which I realize, I never got pictures of to put up) is really coming along and I'm so pleased with it. It's very sweet and peaceful. I love to just go in and sit in her glider and mess with her little things. I don't really need to organize and re-organize, but it's pretty darn fun regardless. I'm still feeling better, but I am getting bigger by the day I feel like. She moves constantly and it's fun to watch my stomach move as she rolls all around. I DID pass my glucose test, but my iron was a smidge low, so I'm taking some extra. Things around the house are just now starting to feel uncomfortable, and what I mean is cleaning, bending, picking things up. This belly just gets in the way sometimes! :) I don't mind it though. I really like being pregnant. Of course, I could do without the stretch marks, ill-fitting clothing, and getting up to go to the bathroom multiple times at night, but having our daughter grow inside me is the coolest thing ever.

This weekend we finally get to head to the lake AND it's the Razorback season opener! For this post I've got some OLD pictures for the blog. First, the lake is a place I have blogged about a ton because it's such a special spot for our family. We've always gone and now, as we think about having a little girl, I can't wait for her to learn to love the lake as well. This weekend is the annual Knight Cashion Family Reunion at Mountain Harbor. We can't wait.

Our plan is to get some delicious Shangri La and eat it out on the lake, watch the sunset, and listen to the Razorback game. The best of both worlds. David and I have literally always loved the Razorbacks. So, because of that fact, check this out...


Little Razorback baby...






Tripp and I with our grandparents at a Razorback game. I know, cool jeans and hair-do. :)



Mom helped to get Abby ready for these two very important things at the shower this weekend. When she arrives, she's ready to represent both the lake and her team...



Anyway, we are really looking forward to a relaxing long weekend.

This pictures doesn't have anything to do with this post, but I had to put it up here. This is the last time David was fishing on the White River...that's a big fish for a little boy! I should have put this with our White River trip post.

Shower Weekend

I can't believe it, but this weekend I had my first and second baby showers. I feel so blessed and thankful. First, I can't believe that I actually get to HAVE baby showers...WE'RE HAVING A BABY! Second, I was so blessed by wonderful friends and family this weekend. It was so humbling. This post will most likely be long with lots of pictures, so prepare yourself. I'm going to try to include as many details as possible while it's still so fresh on my mind.

My Mom, Dad, Tripp and Kara came up on Friday night and we immediately started wrapping hostess gifts for the next day. Mom had brought all of the wrapping stuff and also brought the presents up. Everybody helped including the guys...Mom was the "packer in the bag," Dad had dark pink tissue, David had green tissue, Tripp had light pink tissue, I was the tissue placer and Kara tied bows. A family affair...



Mom and Dad got a hotel room and sweet Tripp and Kara (who are getting married January 5th) stayed with us on air mattresses. Tripp in the breezeway and Kara in the nursery. On Saturday we were off and running to the first shower, which was my Sunday School class. It was SO special. There were lots of people there and the hostesses did such a fantastic job. They really did it big. The hostesses were Diana Schneider, Nicole Hancock, Jessica Bryant, Sheena Pena, Mandy Jones, and Katherine Thorpe. Katherine was sweet enough to jump in and help with my Sunday School friends as a hostess, which really meant a lot to me. The decor was adorable and the food was delicious. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The banner that Diana made for Abigail.



Table shots




Diaper cake that Mandy made with a tutu as the base! She also attached some adorable bows.



This cake was extra special thanks to Katherine. It came from Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville! She had them do a design on the cake just like the old window pane in the nursery and picked it up on one of her trips from LR to KC! I literally couldn't believe it when I saw it. It had such sentimental value and was definitely a little piece of our history in college at the shower. Katherine...that was unbelievably special and I loved it so much.



Playing one of the games. We had to name the proper baby names for animals.



Diana handing me my prize for guessing the closest to how many pieces of candy were in the jar.



They had emailed David with some questions for him to answer. I had to guess what his answer was going to be. It was hilarious.



Here are a couple of my favorite responses that David gave.

Q: What should you do when Abigail is crying at 3:00 in the morning? "Wake Rachel up so she can feed her quickly. Then put Sooie outside so she will stop crying at the basement door."

Q: What will Abigail's first words be? "Go Hogs."

Q: At what age will Abigail be allowed to date? "Not applicable. She will always live at home and have no reason to date."

Kara was a diligent writer for me and got all the gifts written down. She is wonderful.



Opening presents.



Group shot!



It was a really special shower to me. I received from Wanda (our Sunday School teacher) was all the girls in our class that have had a baby have received. She gives us all these sweet lovies and book. I'm thrilled to be in the club. The hostesses worked so hard to make it wonderful and it truly was. It was something I'll never forget and will want to tell Abby all about when she is old enough.

After the shower we met the guys for lunch at Will Jenny's to tell them all about it. Then we headed to Jenny Preston's house my work/staff shower. This was totally different and completely special just like the church one, just in different ways. These are the women that I was with every day at work for the last 3 years. We're all at different life stages but have so much fun together. Jenny Preston (K) and Sarah Busenitz (2nd) were the hostesses. Jenny had her house so cute and they were both wearing pink!

The hostesses and myself!



Me and Mom and Kara!



Beautiful table.



We played some really fun games. Everyone made a guess as to how many diapers were in the diaper cake. Lots of the teachers turned in baby pictures of themselves and we tried to guess who was who. They also used toilet paper to make guesses for the circumfrence of my belly. Like my church shower, they also asked David some questions and shared his answers with the group. Everyone loved that his response to Abigail's first words..."Wooo pig sooie!" They also asked what trait(s) he would want Abigail to inherit from me. He said that he hopes she is a miniature me. So sweet. The funniest game we played was where they gave groups of teachers a picture of David and I and they had to use parts of both of our faces to make what Abby will look like. It was hilarious and people could hardly work they were laughing so hard.

Working on their projects.





Once we made it home we had so much fun going through it all again and putting it in the nursery. Abigail is one lucky girl.

The goodies...



Working on finding space for all her beautiful and cute things!







The weekend was wrapped up with a great day at church and lunch at Blue Moose. The weekend could not have been better. I truly cannot believe that we were given these wonderful showers. What a blessing our Kansas City friends are.

I'm hoping this week to put up some updated nursery pictures now that it's more together and maybe some of my favorite outfits that Abigail has collected up until this point. Thank you everyone so much!!!

White River Trout Fishing

This weekend we got to spend some wonderful quality time with the Rainwater side of the family. We were able to drive down Friday morning to Gaston's on the White River in Arkansas to do some guided fly fishing for rainbow trout. We arrived on Friday right in time to get our trout licenses and meet the guides. Our guides names were Paul and Larry and they were awesome. We had never been fly fishing before and were so excited to learn how to do it. It is pretty difficult to master and get "just right." The guides gave us good instruction as we went on watching our indicators, mending our lines, and which "midge" we were fishing with.

Some facts about the White River. The water is COLD...perfect for trout. The world record trout was caught here. The water comes through the dam that created Bull Shoals lake from deep deep deep. The water is clear, beautiful, and full of fish. We saw trout, beaver, deer, and snakes. I successfully caught the fish, smiled at the beaver, took a video of the deer, and ran from the snakes.

Here are some pictures from our first day fishing.

Our guide's boat name was "Hogs on the Fly." If you ever want a great guide on the White River, look him up on Facebook under Hogs on the Fly.







We ate dinner over the river at the Gaston's Restaurant. Saturday we got to sleep in a little bit and then headed over to Bull Shoal's lake to check it out before lunch. After lunch we got ready for more fishing!



By the dam.



I caught the big fish of the day...a 17 inch Rainbow! Our guide put a picture of this fish on his Facebook page. :)



Our guide got VERY excited when david caught this fish. It was a Brown Trout. There are not as many of them in the river and you can only keep them if they're over 2 feet long. We were pumped to see one and for David to catch it.









For dinner we ate at a great restaurant called the 178 Club (because it sits on Highway 178). On Sunday morning, just the guys went fishing again. It was "dead low water," which means that they were not letting water through the dam the fishing was very hard because the water was moving so slowly. David still maneged to catch a few!









After the morning fishing we headed back to Kansas City to get ready for the week. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend. The temperature was ideal and it was really nice to be with everyone and not be too busy. Mike and Kathy, thank you so much for a wonderful weekend.

On our way back to KC, we stopped in Ozark, MO to visit some friends from dental school, Nick and Ali Matthews. It was great to see them in their new home, and we miss them in Kansas City! We snagged a pic before leaving.



This week I am still working full time in the school office and David is working hard to see patients. As of right now, it's looking like I might work in the office all the way up until the baby comes! Today we are 27 weeks along and yesterday I had a big appointment with my glucose test and rogam shot. All went well and we're still waiting to hear about he results of the glucose test. I hope I did good!

"Fall-ish" weather

The past couple of days we have finally been enjoying some cooler weather in Kansas City, which is so nice for this pregnant lady and our suffering plants. I haven't blogged since Ben's graduation which was over a week ago, but not too much has been going on. I worked in the office all of last week and I'm doing the same this week.

On Thursday night, our sister-in-law (Sarah) and our sweet nephew (Shepherd) were in Kansas City with Sarah's family for a law thing. They were nice enough to invite us to eat with them at the Cheesecake Factory on their last night in town. We loved getting to see them and Shepherd is really turning into a big boy. He's going to be a great older cousin to Abby.





The office is closed in the summer on Friday's, so I was able to go to breakfast with Rachael Miller and Becca Kirkpatrick on Friday morning. We went to The Classic Cup, which was so nice. Rachael was in town for her brother's white coat ceremony at the D.O. school here in town.

On Friday night we went to a much anticipated Diamond Rio concert. It was only $5 at the Crown Center. We had been super pumped since we had heard they were coming and they didn't disappoint. We were able to go with our great friends Mitch and Nicole Hancock.



On Saturday I went to a baby shower for a Sunday School friend and then David and I spent the rest of the day hanging out. We took Deuce to a trail and let him run around, worked on home stuff, and then grilled out at the house. It was such a nice day to be outside.

Sunday was a great day at church and was the annual church-wide picnic! I only took one picture while we were there but dogs were welcome this year, so Deuce came along. It's such a fun thing that our church does each year. We can't believe it will be our last year to attend!



Sunday night the weather was so nice we used our little outdoor fireplace that Tripp gave us for Christmas! It was SO nice. We roasted a couple marshmellows and even read a baby book.



We can't believe that in three months or less we'll have a little baby to do all these things with...better get that book read and the nursery done! :) We are 26 weeks today and I am having so much fun working on the nursery. It's something I've looked forward to for a long time. This weekend we are taking a long weeekend to hang out with David's family and we are really looking forward to it.

Ben's Graduation

We made a really quick trip to Atlanta this weekend to see David's brother Ben graduate with his Masters in Material Sciece from Georgia Tech University! David worked a half day and then we flew out on Friday at 1:00 and got to Atlanta just in time to make it to our hotel, get cleaned up, and meet everyone to head to the graduation. It was great and we are so proud of Ben and his accomplishment. He is now moving to Dallas to begin an internship with Texas Instruments. I don't know about y'all, but i still love my TI83. Thank you Texas Instruments. :)







After dinner we went to eat dinner at a Great Italian restaurant right by the graduation location and our hotel. Ben had planned it so that we could walk anywhere we needed to.

Ben and his girlfriend Abigail Benson.



Mike and Kathy. Proud parents of the graduate.



David, John, and I. Sarah and Shepherd stayed home for this trip. It would have been quite a challenge for sweet Shepherd.



After dinner we headed to the rooftop of our hotel to check out the view. The only problem was that it was so windy!

Someone is looking quite pregnant these days. :)



Dad and sons. Handsome group!



This picture is not that good, but I wanted one of just David and I up there.



Atlanta skyline from our hotel.



This morning we met for a nice outdoor breakfast before everyone divided and conquered to head home. Mike, Kathy, Ben and Abigail drove home. David and I flew and were back in KC by 5:00, and John actually got to hang out all day today in Atlanta and is flying to Little Rock Sunday morning.





Before we left town we had to walk over to The Varsity, just to say we had been there.





This was a good week here at the house. I worked full time all week (except Friday) in the office at HCA and I'll do the same this upcoming week. I also had a craft night with my great friend Katherine to fix up an old adorable rocking horse she found at an estate sale.

Here are some pregnancy updates from my recent doctors appointment (about a week and a half ago).

Weeks: We are inching toward 25 weeks...hard to believe.

How I'm feeling: I've really been feeling excellent these days. Not too big, but definitely showing. I have back pain (which I expected), but it is manageable right now. I also have mild heartburn every now and then.

Sleep: I've been sleeping ok. I have to get up and go to the bathroom a lot, but other than that I've been doing good. Abigail has kept me up and woken me up kicking a couple times though.

Cravings: None (that I can specifically pinpoint)

Aversions: None (that I have noticed)

Weight gain: Some women share this. I am not one of them. :) I'll leave you with the fact that my doctors say I'm looking great and right on track. I've been diligently walking and even tried swimming these last couple weeks of summer work.

Movement: I feel Abigail move ALL THE TIME. She is quite an active girl. However, she is more active at night for sure or if I suddenly sit down and rest after moving around for a while. I love it. Sometimes she kicks so hard it surprises me!

Next appointment: August 20 and I will have my glucose test, my first belly measurement, and my rhogam shot. Big day!