Merry Christmas and Cheers to the end of another year!

So its Friday night and 'Christmas' has officially come to an end here at the Urban house. I know Christmas was Sunday but we spent last night celebrating the holiday again with my parents and sisters. It was so nice to get together in our house for Christmas.The Christmas holiday has been a bit different for Matt and I this year. Normally, we spend the time packing the car up, driving to one of our families homes and then many years we fly off to the west coast to get some skiing in. Instead of snow, we had temperatures of around 80 degrees and we never left Gainesville. With Brock due to arrive any day, we weren't able to travel anywhere this year, but we had a great holiday, even if it felt a little unusual.

Friday night, Matt's parents drove up to Gainesville and we had a great dinner at Stonewood that night. Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, Matt and I woke up early and spent the morning sitting under the pergola outside, drinking coffee, reading the paper and watching Zeke bark at everything... basically completely perfect morning. We also went for a nice long walk while his parents slept in and I have to say I really just enjoyed the morning so much. It was so relaxing and basic. Its times like that that make you realize that you don't need a lot to be truly happy. Matt laughed at me on our walk because I would just break out in sprints and do squats, willing this baby to a natural labor. It didn't work but I got lots of honks from cars. For the afternoon, I went and had the most wonderful manicure/pedicure. I am not sure why I don't ever make the time to do this for myself because I LOVE it but I don't. I literally spent over 2 hours while my Asian technician. "Jimmy", made me the happiest pregnant woman ever, He even gave me bottled water and strawberry wafer cookies. When I went to check out, he told me it would be $32... seriously? Best pedi/ mani ever, hot stones and all for $32. How have I lived here this long and not discovered this hole in wall? Going back for sure.

Christmas Eve night we had some of our best friends, Jayson and Joslyn, over for dinner. We went anti-traditional and had delicious crab claws, twice baked potatoes, a Giada pasta dish and salad. It was so delicious and we had a wonderful time just hanging out together.

Sunday morning was Christmas and Zeke couldn't have been more excited, he could tell it was a very exciting day. Matt and I skyped my parents while we opened our stockings. It was so fun and what a great way to use technology. Even if we couldn't be together, we got to have that time and it was awesome. We then opened loads of presents, I have to say we are quite over the top spoiled and our families love Christmas. We got so many wonderful things and it was really endearing opening up all of Brock's gifts. He is seriously one spoiled little boy. He got his first FAO Schwartz teddy bear from NYC that arrived the day before, an Elephant rocking chair, and tons of toys. We can't believe next year he will be almost a year old and be running around. We can't wait! I got Matt a telescope that he had been asking for and he spoiled and shocked me with a beautiful David Yurman necklace. We both said we weren't going 'overboard' but he defiantly did. I love it, he says their may be more to come when little Brock arrives. I guess I better be a good pusher! After opening presents, we had a lovely breakfast casserole Sandy made and mimosas.

                                             Zeke being spoiled

                                                       Brock being spoiled

Christmas night we were invited to the Henderson's ( some good friends of ours) for their family Christmas dinner. There were around 30-40 people and we felt right at home. We had a lovely traditional meal with great foods, wonderful conversation and we left exhausted! It was so nice for them to invite us over and we were really grateful. Our final Christmas celebration was last night with my parents, my sisters Amanda and Katie and our great friend Brittany. We spent the night drinking wine, eating amazing Italian food and enjoying each other. It was a great end to the holiday season.

Today was also quite a big 'holiday' moment for me. Around 7pm, I put up my maternity out of office notice and shut off my laptop. I have officially worked till the end of my pregnancy and I am more than ready for a break and to focus on the baby. Last Thursday we found out that Brock is still growing like crazy and even though I am progressing really well, we just can't wait for him to make his debut in his own sweet time. Matt and I were both exceptional large babies ( hilarious, I know) and it seems big baby genes mixed with big baby genes do not equal a 6 pound baby, oh well! So at 39 weeks, Dr Botha was estimating Brock at around 9.5 pounds. Luckily, he seems to be really long so I am hoping long and lean! The ultrasound put him right at 9 pounds so I was a bit happier about that. Anyway, I have spend the entire week, running, spinning, squatting, jumping, eating spicy foods, and getting a massage to get this process going but he seems quite content in my ever growing gianormous tummy, so it seems that we will have to push things along a bit more. Sunday night, if there is room in the Inn :), I will be induced around 9pm and will most likely have him sometime Monday. We are so excited and its nice to know we will be able to hold him in a matter of days. I am not happy with being induced but I have more of a chance of having him naturally by inducing him now then waiting any longer so here it goes!

Tomorrow I plan to do my last workout at the gym then we are going to put up all holiday decorations so that we can come home to everything all together. With our luck, I will go into labor about the time we are dragging our dead tree out the front door ( can you tell I have thought about this?).

This holiday season, while it has been quite quiet, it has been wonderful. I have really appreciated this time that Matt and I have had together to just go for long walks, watch movies and enjoy each other. I know this quiet time will be ending soon and I am just enjoying it while it lasts. We plan to spend New Years Eve at a friends house, grilling steaks and lobsters, drinking champagne and sparking juice and watching the ball drop. 2012 brings a whole new life and adventure to us and we are so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family to share it with. Here's to a wonderful New Year!

Much love,
Christy

Here's a few more pictures because I just love pictures!

                                                                  Brock's first ornament

                                                             Can you imagine next year?!

                                                                        Big belly of baby!

                                                  Right before our last date night downtown

Pregnancy... coming towards the finish line!

Since I just started this blog, I thought it may be a good opportunity to write a post about my pregnancy because I am sure there will be a time that I actually forget about it and it would be nice to have something to remember it by. If you don't want to read about ovulation, babies, birthing classes... read no further!

So, starting from the beginning. Matt and I have talked about having kids 'one day' pretty much for the past 10 years. It was always a far off thought about what we would name them, what they may look like, whose personality they would get ( of course, mine :)) etc. When we first got married and decided we would travel  instead of have babies, we decided we would give it 5 years of independent fun before we even talked about it more. We stuck to our guns and celebrated our 5 year anniversary trip to Greece and Turkey. We decided we still weren't 'ready, ready' so decided we would wait a little longer then one random day, I was like what the hell, we are never going to be 'ready' for a bbay so lets just take the plunge. I think I took to pregnancy like any thing in my life, head strong, all in, and organized. The first couple months we tried the 'free spirit' approach to pregnancy, like it will just happen. Then I got impatient after a few months, go figure and took to pregnancy like it was a college course, documenting my cycle, ovulation, diet etc. Shocking I know! And the first month of organization, I was blessed to get pregnant. Note to everyone that says oh it you stop trying  to get pregnant, you will get pregnant... uhhh I hate this comment, first of all, no you won't and second of all it leaves people thinking that they are overreacting and something must be wrong with them because they are 'trying' and God, forbid, you actual try for anything. Plenty of awesome people I know out there, are trying to get pregnant and it just hasn't happened for them yet. There is nothing wrong with them, they are great people that would be able to provide a child such an amazing life and it makes me so sad to think they have to struggle through this process while people just act like it is easy for everyone. Its not like this for everyone and I really hope people think twice before asking someone why they don't have kids or assuming something is wrong with them because they don't. Sorry to rant, I just know a lot of couples that struggle with this and I find it frustrating for them.

Ok, back to the happy part :) So the first week of April I woke up and I knew it was the day I could take a pregnancy test for results so of course I got up at like 6am, which I NEVER do, and took one. And low and behold two lines popped up but wait the lines were not really that strong... or were they. I sat in the bathroom for awhile thinking that maybe I was actually imagining it soI took a couple more, same thing... I went to show Matt and he had the same reaction, two lines but really were they both as strong as they needed to be. We decided no so off to work I went and while I was sitting there trying to work, I kept thinking, Oh man, I could be pregnant and I just have to know. I hate secrets. So I left work, ran to Walgreen's, bought the real deal pregnant test's that say Pregnant or Not Pregnant ( at this point I needed words, not freaking lines!) and sat in the bathroom taking all of these and lining them up on the counter. And they all said Pregnant, I was shocked. I remember thinking oh my gosh, am I sure I really want this? Sorry but thats your first freak out moment, what have I done. So I text Matt, told him to pick me up at 11:30, we had to go to lunch. So he shows up and I ask him, so you will not believe who is having a baby ( you would have thought he would remember from the morning but no, completely clueless), he is like, ' huh, who'?  And I pull out the test's and I am like, we are! I always thought I would tell him in some cute, romantic comedy kind of way, but no, it was eating Mexican food at Las Margaritas. His first response was, well can't you have false positive tests? I am like NO, you are either pregnant or you aren't. There isn't a middle ground. So I schedule a doctor visit right away and after she confirmed it, he finally was convinced. Then I told him he couldn't tell ANYONE, for at least 12 weeks. This was like telling a kid they couldn't go to Disney, he wanted to tell people but I was adamant, way too many friends I know have had miscarriages and I just didn't want some huge announcement to only have to disappoint people. Wow, it was such a HARD secret to hold in but we did it. Right after this discovery, we flew to Ireland for what was suppose to be a pub crawl, Jameson, Guinness adventure and it was but I was sipping decaf coffee and not enjoying it quite as much as I wanted to!

Fast forward to finally telling people the great news! Right before July 4th weekend, it just so happened Matt's sister was in town and both sets of parents so we wrapped up sonogram pictures for the moms, as a late mothers day present and gave it to them to open at the same time. They were SHOCKED. After 6 years of being married, I think pretty much everyone I told was shocked. It was really fun to share the news with all our friends and family. Everyone has been so extremely supportive and it has made us realize how blessed we really are. So if you are reading this, thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts for being so wonderful to us and making us realize how awesome it is to be having a baby.

We videotaped telling our family....

I remember our first ultrasound appointment, around 15 weeks, like it was yesterday, I was laying there, palms sweating to death waiting to hear that this baby was really a healthy baby and everything was fine. It was at that moment that I realized it didn't matter if it was a boy, girl, one baby, multiple babies.. whatever. I just wanted to hear their heartbeat and know that they were okay, that was giving them everything they needed. The amount of responsibility you feel at that moment is really not one that you can ever describe to anyone that hasn't gone through it. To want more for someone than yourself. Its pretty incredibly. I remember hearing his heartbeat and being blown away by how developed he was already. He already looked like a little person, it really blew us away. The nurse also said at that moment that if she was to guess, she would say we were having a boy. This surprised me because I was dreaming of pearls and tutu's so what was I to do with a little boy. A few weeks later, this was confirmed and we found out we were having a healthy baby boy.

Matt and I hosted a gender reveal party a week later and our family and closest friends came to hear the news. I made 50 cupcakes and filled them with blue icing. We passed around champagne and everyone took a bite out of the cupcake. It was so much fun and it was a great way to share the news.

When I thought of what pregnancy would be like, I imagined I would be throwing up non stop and feel really crappy most of the time. It couldn't have been more opposite for me. I have felt great, really completely normal with no symptoms at all. I am not saying this to brag but just to remember it. I have been lucky enough to never be sick or tired which was a huge worry of mine. I have been able to workout this whole time, which has really helped me feel great. I ran until about 30 weeks when the pressure became too much. I go to spin class 3-4 times a week and on the other days walk, do weights or Pilates. For me, working out has made me keep my energy and agility up. Yes, I am slower but I feel empowered by being able to feel great and run around all day while caring this big baby with me.

Oh did, I mention BIG. Yes, even though I am a little person and I work out like crazy I think I am destined to have a huge baby. I was almost 10 pounds when I was born ( no my mom did not have diabetes and yes she was tiny) and Matt was over 9 pounds so I have had this huge concern over having a really big baby. About two weeks ago, I had an ultrasound set up to just check Brock's size and low and behold, he was measuring almost 8 pounds already and has an inch of spikey hair all over his head. Funniest thing you have ever seen. I thought I was going to have a panic attack, my blood pressure spiked up and they made me lay down for a few minutes. My doctor reassures me he won't be over 9 pounds and that I can deliver an 8-9 pound baby. Ok, still freaked out but I am over it at this point. It seems that big baby genes mixed with big baby genes do not equal a 6 pd baby. Oh well, I am over it, I am ready to meet our cuddly baby boy even if that means I have to push him out!

So a few more fun things to add like where Brock's name came from. Brock is my mom's maiden name and I was very close to my grandfather and I always wanted to name my little boy Brock. Luckily, Matt loves it also. And his middle name, Harrison, is just a name we both really like. Every family name starts somewhere, right? So why chose a name you don't really like and go with what you want... so there you go Harrison :) His name will be Brock Harrison Urban and by the looks of his nursery he will have no problem remembering his name or monogram!

I am now nearing on 39 weeks pregnant, my last appointment showed progress. I am 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated so that is all great news that my body is progressing right along. I would really like this labor start to be as natural as possible, its been such an easy, natural process so far that I would love to just wake up one morning, rested, water break and have him that day. That is not say I will not be getting an epidural. I am no super woman. I will not be winning any trophy's by not getting drugs and hell 85% of people get an epidural and look at all these healthy babies out there so I will defiantly be joining the 85% :)

Some pictures from around 15 weeks onward...

15 weeks

20 weeks

around 22 weeks

26 weeks

30 weeks

Ok, thats all for now! Gotta get to bed to give this baby some rest.

More blogging later.

Merry Christmas!
Christy

Newsletter Family

Yes, I married into a newsletter family. You know exactly what I mean by this! ....

Growing up we would get newsletters from people and we would just sit around and laugh, it may sound mean but sometimes people can really come across in a newsletter like 'we are SO awesome', look at all this awesome stuff we do. Anyhow, I never in a million years thought I would be sending a newsletter until I married an Urban :) Yes, Matt loves newsletters, Christmas movies, lighting our house up like its on fire, playing Christmas music from Thanksgiving onward to the New Year, sending every person he has ever met a Christmas gift etc etc. When he told he was starting a newsletter the first year we were married, I was like, NO WAY!!!!! I made fun of people like that. He was adamant about this and finally I was like, what hell, send away. And to my surprise, we get notes from so many people thanking us for sending one, especially family that we don't get to see as much as we would like, saying how much they enjoyed reading about it. So, I have warmed up to the idea. I realize there are people drinking their hot chocolate laughing away but sometimes you just have to join the jolly side so here you go....

Season’s Greetings from the Urbans

The end of the year has once again arrived and it is time to reflect back on all that we have done!  It has been a year filled with family, friends, travel, events, and new exciting additions to our family!  So many wonderful things have gone on, but we can’t wait for 2012 to be here!

Christy and I have been blessed and are so excited to announce that we will be parents to a new baby boy!  His name will be Brock Harrison Urban and the due date is January 1^st, 2012!  We have been slowly preparing for him to arrive over the last 9 months that his arrival is in just a few short weeks.  Who knows, you may be reading this card and he might have already joined us!  We are looking forward to having him in our lives and can’t wait for him to experience the many great things in this world.

  Christy is in her 6^th year at SumTotal Systems and is hard at work as always.  She is still very active in Junior League and various charities.  She also has been staying active and doing a lot of spinning over the last year.  I always kid with her that when Brock is born, he might come out and jump right on a stationary bike and pedal away!  Most of her time recently has been putting the finishing touches on the Nursery, which looks amazing.

Matt is in his eighth year at Yellowbook and has continued to manage a team in the North Florida area.  The company is rapidly changing and is growing in leaps and bounds!  He is still actively involved in the Quarterback Club supporting UF Athletics and has been working on his golf game more so than in the past.  With help from his family, this past April he built an outdoor Pergola and laid pavers in the back yard.  He also has dusted off his refinishing tools and he and Christy re-did a dresser for Brocks room!

 Zeke is excited and is preparing to be a big brother!  He said he might even share some of his Greenies with Brock… wait, he just said probably not.  He continues to watch The View during the day and enjoys a good piece of turkey and a nice long walk.

In between preparing for Brock, his showers, and working on his nursery, we were still able to travel a quite a bit.  This year we made it out to Denver to visit family and ski, headed across the pond to Ireland for a pint, sailed in the Caribbean to the Bahamas, enjoyed our favorite beaches on Anna Maria, and hit up the Big Apple to enjoy the sights and catch a few shows!

 We truly have been blessed over this last year with the love and support that our family and friends have shown us and can’t wait to share all the future moments with you as they come!  We hope this Christmas finds everyone well and that we don’t forget that Jesus is the reason for the season!

                                                                                                                                                                                       Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays,

                                           Matt, Christy, Zeke and Brock

 

Brock's Nursery is finally done!

So excited to say that we have finally finished Brock's nursery, do you hear that, Brock?! We are done so you can come join us early if you want to ( one can hope, right?). I am starting my 38th week of pregnancy and I am so happy that all of our loose ends are finally done. Car is even clean and the car seat is installed! Its been a busy month, to say the least! So back to the nursery.

I feel like we have been working on it all year, I know it hasn't been that long, but it feels like it. From talking about ideas, to meticulously going through fabric etc etc... its been a long time. And I have to say, we really couldn't be happier with it. We spent the better part of today hanging things and organizing everything. It was actually quite relaxing and we had a good time doing it.

I think my favorite part of it has to be the dresser. I had this idea to find a French provincial style dresser and distress it to match the sprout green color of the fabric. Matt thought I was nuts, but gave in and it was a really fun project to do together. I think at one point he really wished I could just pick out something from a catalog and be done with it, but he was a good sport and in the end he really loved it also.

Here are some fun pics from our labor of love,

 our fur baby, Zeke

And finally the bassinet all set up in our room. It makes it very 'real' to have everything done now but it also just feels so good to know we are ready, as ready as you can be I should say. So for the next little bit of time we can relax, enjoy Christmas and just wait for our little boy to join us.

Our doctor is taking this week off to spend with her family in Tampa so we have been ordered to keep him in for at least a week. I am crossing my fingers its between Christmas and New Years. Considering he was almost 8 pounds last week, I am really hoping he comes early!

Ok, I have to get to bed but I just had to post this before I crashed. Hope everyone enjoys this week leading up to Christmas.

All the best,
Christy

Starting from the beginning

Wow, as I write this I just hit 37 weeks pregnant with our little boy Brock and I couldn't think of a better time to start a blog.

                                            Brock Harrison Urban, due to arrive 1/1/12

First of all I have to say... Welcome! I have wanted to start a blog over the past few years to talk about all of our travels, adventures and just life in general but I never really had that last push that I needed to do it... until now! I think the blog will be a great way to keep up with everyone in more detail than Facebook allows and a great way to document our lives.

When I try to think of a good way to sum up the past 6.5 years of marriage and 10 years of been together, I have to say we are two adventure junkies. Matt and I have had a great time traveling around the world to so many wonderful places both in and outside the US and I have to say I think we are better people for it. I am really glad we took the time to experience different cultures because I think it has made us appreciate our own lives and culture more. We both really want to offer our little boy the opportunity to see the world. We both traveled as kids but didn't really experience much outside our comfort zone until we met. We hope that Brock has a passport full of stamps in his lifetime. We also appreciate what our country has to offer and just hope that he enjoys traveling and trying new things as much as we do.

                                                             ( coast of Ireland)

So I guess to get to the point of where are today, I have to quickly start from the beginning. Most people know this story but for some that don't, here you go. Matt and I met ... well... okay I 'met' Matt when I was a freshman at UF and he was President of a nonprofit club on campus and was giving a speech on campus one day. I was with my girlfriend, Lindsay Crosas, and I leaned over and said to her, I think I am going to marry him, I really like the way he speaks. Ok, so I was like 18 and knew nothing, but I have to say I did know we would be together forever. Call it what you want..destiny, fate, whatever, but I did know at that moment, that was it. So as destiny and fate and sappy love movies show you, I did what every self respecting woman would do and I stalked him, followed him around campus and sent him bogus emails :) We finally 'met' a few weeks later at a fraternity party, he was the risk management chair and well I was defiantly the crazy risk. We started dating and dated through college. My senior year, I spent a semester in Italy and as hard as it was to leave him, I knew I had to do my own thing. It has always been very important to remain my independence, difficult or not. I really enjoyed my time in Italy, it defiantly forced me to learn to live without everything I alway had taken for granted living at home. I washed my clothes in the sink on a weekly basis and shared a bathroom with my classmates. I have to say though I really fell in love with living in a new country, learning the language, the culture, the people etc. I was so excited when Matt came to visit me at the end of my program and we spent a couple weeks traveling together. One of our last stops was Vernazza in Cinque Terre, Italy. We loved this place, it had everything we were looking for; water, great food, hiking and culture. We spent one day hiking along the coast through all five towns and ended back at Vernazza. Matt was acting very strange when we made it back into the town and I couldn't figure out what it was. After dinner, we walked down along the rocks and he asked me to marry him. It seems that he wanted to do it all day, so he had put my ring in my backpack and made me carry it all day. Seems very fitting looking back!

So fast forward a year and we were married on September 17th, 2005 in Tallahassee, Florida in true southern fashion... hot as hell :) We were married in Maclay Gardens and it was absolutely beautiful, yet hot, and we loved it.

Fast forward another 6 years and here we are. We decided to buck the trend of having babies right away and instead really focused on getting our careers going and traveling a ton. We were married young and we didn't feel like it was the right time for us to have children. This is not to say that everyone supported this decision, I can't tell you how many people have asked us over the past six years why we weren't having kids yet. If I had a dollar for every time this happened we would be very rich but we just knew that we wanted to grow up some, enjoy each other, travel and just quite frankly, be selfish. I can't say how grateful I am that we made this decision because I can truly say it has made us really appreciate this pregnancy more and this little boy that is going to change our lives. We have spent so much time talking about 'one day having a baby', to ' I wonder what he/she will look like', that now that it is really here, it is so unreal to us. Pregnancy has been amazing, I have no real complaints, for me it has been very easy. No morning sickness, no real bad side effects at all. This is not to say that I am one of those people that just "LOVE IT". I am not that person, for me, it is a means to end of a beautiful baby. I have enjoyed watching him grow but I am ready for him to be here already and not be kicking my ribs anymore. I am already in love with him but pregnancy I am not.

Sorry this is so long, but how can you start a blog about a couple, a family, without starting from the beginning? I hope that I can not only talk about Brock, but travel, wine ( another huge passion of ours), careers, balancing our lives with being parents and trying in the meantime not to lose our own identities. I hope you will join along side of us in this journey. We are so grateful to be blessed with huge families, amazing friends and a beautiful home in Gainesville. Thank you for taking a peek into our lives. You can add us to your favorites and add comments as we post. Oh and I promise, they will not all be this long !

From our home to yours,
Christy

Welcome to our Blog!

We look forward to keeping everyone up to date on what is going on right now with our family!  Stay tuned for many new exciting things!