It's A Boy!

We were very sneaky and snuck in one last $4 ultrasound before we left Moldova to see if we could tell what the gender of the baby is. We kept it a secret, though, because we wanted to be able to tell our families the big news in person! But now they all know, and the news is out! Baby Tapp is a BOY! We saw the evidence ourselves, and it seemed pretty clear to us that there was no room for error. So we are very excited - we both wanted our first one to be a boy! With all the packing, moving, and celebrating Christmas, we haven't had time for a naming discussion yet, so we're not incredibly close on making a decision there... We'll let you know when we come up with something!Here's a couple good pictures from our ultrasound. Below you can see his spine and legs - cool!
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and that you're all praising God for His greatest Gift to us - HIS Son. :)

Oh, My Achin' Hips!

I definitely have a new pregnancy symptom... My hips hurt! Thankfully, I had already read that this happens in pregnancy, or else I would've been really concerned because they hurt a LOT! Yesterday morning I woke up and could barely walk because of it - I limped around the house like an old lady all day! I've read that sleeping with a pillow between your legs helps keep them aligned while sleeping and eases the pain. So I tried that last night and it did help a lot. Still a little achy, but nothing like yesterday. I'm just surprised that it's happening so soon - I expected it once my belly got big, but I'm not all that big yet! Oh well. When we get home I may invest in one of those pregnancy pillows that curls around your whole body and keeps everything where it should be. Did anybody use one of those, and did it help? Do you have any other suggestions?

Christmas Favorites

My sister did this on her blog, and I liked her idea so much I thought I'd steal it for mine. I'll expand a little on her idea, though, because there's no way I can pick just ONE favorite Christmas movie! I've narrowed it down to my top four, which follow in no particular order.

Timeless Classic: White Christmas
This movie is unbelievable, especially considering it was made in 1954! It combines the amazing vocal talents of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney with the stunning dancing ability of Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen. It's not exceptionally about Christmas, although most of it happens around that time of year. But the plot is enjoyable and the talent showcased in this movie makes it one to watch every year.

Cartoon Classic: A Charlie Brown Christmas
I love this one for the fact that it's on network TV every year, and yet it remains the same timeless story about the REAL meaning of Christmas. It never fails to move me when Linus is on stage sharing the "glad tidings of great joy." Imagine, a Christmas show that actually honors Christ! Charles Schultz is my hero.

Comedy Classic: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
And then for the other end of the spectrum, this is pretty much the opposite of the real meaning of Christmas. But it is dang hilarious. I can't even pick one part of the movie that is my favorite because they are ALL funny! Cousin Eddie, Aunt Bethany, the dog Snot - so many characters that we can all identify with from our own families. This is another must-watch every year for me.

New Favorite: The Nativity Story
I just saw this movie for the first time a couple weeks ago, and I was very pleased with how well-made it was and how much it really did stick with the biblical account. I love that this was a mainstream movie that showed in theaters, but it really does tell exactly what happened and what Christmas is all about. I will definitely add this to my collection.

Honorable Mention: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (both the Dr. Suess and the Jim Carrey versions!), The Holiday, Prancer, A Christmas Story

On my Do-Not-Watch List: Any of the creepy claymation classics shown on TV - Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town (What the heck is a Burgermeister anyways?!), It's a Wonderful Life (It may be the effect of my husband, who doesn't like Christmas movies, but this movie is more depressing to me than uplifting these days.)

4 Months!

I can't believe that I'm 4 months pregnant already! That is both exciting and a little scary... We're almost halfway! Also exciting is that I think I felt the baby move for the first time last night when I was lying in bed! It just felt like somebody lightly tapping their fingers on my lower abdomen. And then I felt it again just now while I was checking email... Wow! So I'm not sure if that is the baby moving or if it's just gas or something, but I'm excited thinking that it is! :) I think the baby is just getting excited about going back to America and "meeting" its extended family. Less than 2 weeks! Yay!

I haven't posted in a while because everything seems to be going great, and there's not much to say! My nausea is completely gone, and my skin is even starting to clear up! I'm very glad because I didn't want to go home and think that people were lying when they say "You look radiant!" (Yeah, radiant red like Rudolph's nose, maybe!) Hopefully I WILL look radiant for Christmas with my family. :) Now all I've got going on is some serious cravings for potatoes. This baby loves it some starches. So I'm eating potatoes! Yeah! And they're yummy!