Oh, Hey!

I feel like I should potentially start out this blog with an apology about how long it has been since I've blogged... but since this is a clean start, let's just pretend that this is the first time I've ever blogged. Okay? 

Let's start with the best news ever... Rob and I are going to be parents! It's true. I am 20 weeks along with a sweet baby girl, due April 24. We are both so thankful and so looking forward to getting to meet her. It has been a fabulous pregnancy so far, no morning sickness or fatigue. I have felt great- I don't know what all this fuss about being pregnant is! Okay, so I might go to bed a little bit earlier than I used to... And I'm hungry about every 2 or 3 hours. But beyond that, it's life as normal around here. We had our big ultrasound last Friday, and it was absolutely amazing to get to see Baby B for the first time. I have been feeling her kick and move around for a couple of weeks, but Rob loved getting to see her moving around. She looks great and totally healthy. She is measuring a little big, but considering her momma and daddy, she doesn't have much chance at being a little bitty girl :). Being a nurse, I LOVED seeing her heart and her brain, and made them show me each hand and foot. Rob and I have both thought from the very beginning that "it" was a girl... and we were right. Rob is still adjusting to the thought of being a daddy to a girl and has made a request of me to keep the pink to a minimum. Ha! Allow me to introduce you to what we think will be the sweetest, cutest, most fun little girl around... 

Her name is a work in progress. Stay tuned. For now, feel free to call her Baby B :). 

Jake and Ruby are so excited! Actually, let's be honest. They don't know or care. And if they knew how much their life was going to change, they might not be excited at all. But just look at this guy! He looks thrilled/proud, right?!

We had a little "gender reveal" party with Rob's family to make it a surprise whether it was a boy or girl. Everyone, including all the kiddos, had weighed in on whether they were voting pink or blue. I filled a box with pink helium balloons and all the kiddos opened it. They were all so cute and we snapped a picture of them with their balloons. Honestly, do they get any cuter than these seven?? We are pretty excited for Baby Ocho (8th grandkid) to join this bunch. 

Since I haven't blogged in f-o-r-e-v-e-r, I have a little bit of catch up to do. We moved to Austin in 2009, right after we got married. We absolutely loved it there and were very happy. Come summer 2011, Rob started to feel like it was time for him to change companies and find a new job opportunity. He interviewed for positions in the Austin area, but we decided it would be smart to at least look in Nashville since we knew we wanted to be back there eventually. Well, he ended up having an offer in Austin and in Nashville! After much thought, prayer and discussion, he accepted the position in Nashville, which meant we would be Nashville bound in a month! Whoa. I immediately emailed my former job at Vanderbilt Children's hospital, and was pretty much told that I had a job when I got home. (So thankful to be a nurse!) And we jumped into crazy mode, getting our house ready to put on the market. Did I mention we bought a house in Austin December 2010?! So, we put it on the market in the beginning on August and hit the road back to Nashville. Jim and Nanci, Rob's parents, had graciously invited us to live with them while we were selling our house and figuring everything out. We took them up on their offer, and moved right in. They have been so unbelievably gracious allowing us AND Jake and Ruby to live with them. Anyways, so we jumped into our new (old) jobs and lives here, and have been loving every minute of it! We sold our house at the beginning of October- so thankful for that! And have been on the house hunt here in Nashville every since. 

Deep breath. So here we are. Expecting a baby in 4ish months and desperately looking for a house! We want to live in East Nashville, an adorable and fun area of town really close to downtown Nashville. It's where we both lived before we moved, and we both missed our church and our community that we had there. We are looking for the right house in the right area at the right price, and as everyone knows, that can be a little difficult! We are looking forward to getting into our own little home again, and I, of course, am really excited about doing some "nesting". We will keep you posted in that department... 

This was really long. Thanks for hanging in there. Here are a few pics we snapped after a Christmas brunch with Rob's family. There are some cute ones of us, and I finally agreed to a bump pic! Now that I  am actually getting a bump, I will post more... maybe. 

We love you all and hope you have a wonderful holiday season! 

Love, Lara (on behalf of Team Bauchiero)