Belly sketch

I found this website that will take pictures and do all kinds of crazy things to them, like turn them into pencil sketches. So here is Meli's belly at 27 weeks if we had gone to a county fair sketch artist.

ht: ysmarko

Nathan meets Potter

So, I wonder if Meli could go to Hogwarts seven months pregnant? It has been ten years of waiting for Melissa and her ... infatuation with the Harry Potter series. She introduced me and now we are both hooked. So today, like millions of other people, we waiting in line, reservation in hand, to be some of the first to get the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Of course, like the last time, we went all out and even went in full costumes. Her costume was much better, however, looking totally like a girl student. We were not alone, but she was the only pregnant Hogwarts student there. :)

So now, she is listening to Jim Dale reading the book (chapter three as I write this) and I am going to be reading it for as long as I can before I go to bed. She's even making me go teach classes tomorrow morning so that the kids who will stay up all night won't even come close to ruining the ending. She's threatened to have absolutely no contact with the outside world until she's finished, so I don't recommend calling until Sunday. :)

Have fun, everyone who is reading right now!Meli and I together at the store.

Mel with our copy of the book!

P.S. It's 5:15 pm. I'm finished. She's on Chapter 15.

Big long update

Ok, so it has been a while since we updated the blog (sorry Mom) so here goes with the post
"What's been going on in our lives"

So I guess the first story is about the ATA World Championships. We went to Little Rock where I got the chance to take some training Ground Fighting that we're going to be using at the school. I had a really good time at that, however... well more about that later. Then I competed in the Top Ten Finals for 1st Degree Black Belt Weapons. I finished 8th which was one spot higher than I came in, so I consider that a kind of victory.

Then, Melissa went home, and I picked up a rental car and drove to Lake of the Ozarks Missouri, and met the youth group for camp. We had a wonderful time at this very big camp. I'll put up more about that later at my own blog.

While at camp, I couldn't help but notice that while the normal being sore in the muscles was going away, a pain in my ribcage wasn't. As the week went on, it got steadily worse. I was hurting the whole camp, but didn't want to go to a strange doctor, so I waited until we got home. It turned out that I had cracked a rib during the ground fighting seminar. So I'm just now getting back to where I can spar and do most of the taekwondo. Even with the cracked rib, I tested and am now a 2nd degree recommended black belt. One more test before I'm officially a 2nd.

Melissa is doing wonderfully being pregnant. Nathan is beginning to show his own black belt skills, kicking her almost every night. Some of them have been getting so hard that he is able to bounce objects off her belly. It seems to be that her big symptom is going to be in her legs. She has been waking up every morning with huge leg cramps and her ankles are swelling to the size of her shoulders. So now she has to wear these support socks (knee highs) to keep her circulation going... in Texas... in July... while doing taekwondo. She hates the the very idea, but it's been working. Of course, those are my pajama pants she's wearing in the picture. :)

In fact, we've been joking around that her pregnancy is going too well. We've only had the initial ultrasound and the 20-week one. We're probably only going to get one more before Nathan comes. We really want to see the little guy again, but since the pregnancy is going normal, we don't need to. :( Too bad.


The baby's room (or area of the room) is coming along nicely. My mom sent some wall hangings and the mobile all in the jungle animal theme we were looking for. It's going to finish up very nicely by the time all the baby showers are over. We can't wait for the little guy to come and be in that bed!

Last week, Melissa and I went out to Dallas to use the gift she gave me for our anniversary. We went to go see the musical Spamalot, based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So our little guy has already been to two Broadway musicals before he is even born.

Anyway, I'm hoping I've covered most of what has been going on in the lives of the Bilyeu family. We're going to make sure that these updates come more and more often. Later.

P.S. Meli playing a video game :) WOW

Belly Pics To Week 27

In honor of her reaching the third trimester on Sunday, I present to you,

The Belly Pictures

First discovery - Week 2

Week 10

Week 15

Week 20

Week 25

Week 27