Pregnancy...

Well...thus far, pregnancy has not been what I expected! Don't get me wrong, it's one of the most exciting times in my life, but in my little brain, it was supposed to be all cute and fun! Trimester #1 has been far from "cute!" I am grateful because I know it could be much worse. Nausea set in the day before Week 6 began and it hasn't let up since! I do have good days, though! Those are usually the days where I get to take it nice and slow in the mornings and get plenty of sleep. I have seriously tried every trick in the book. Any piece of advice someone gives me, I try it. So far, the only things that have helped are Phenergan, Emetrol, and eating peanut butter before I go to bed (odd, I know). I try to eat small meals and not to let my stomach get empty, and that helps. But I hate feeling like I'm eating all day long!! I have certainly obtained a little "pooch" in my tummy. It's real tight though. It feels funny! I am still able to wear all my pants, but some of my tops have seen there last wear for awhile. My sweet mother was making fun of me because I had to buy a medium sized shirt at a store that I usually would NEVER get a medium at!! People seem to be enjoying the fact that I'm getting bigger. I'm trying to embrace it and enjoy it, if that's possible. I guess I'll feel better when it actually looks like a baby-belly and not just a little weight gain!!!!!


I was an emotional girl to begin with, but since the pregnancy has taken over, it's about 10 times worse! Now, when I get emotional, it takes me hours to regain my composure!! James is just loving it.... :) Speaking of James, you would all be so proud of him. He is doing such a good job at taking care of me! He has been very sweet and willing to do whatever! I'm grateful for such a fantastic husband!


We go back to the Dr. on December 31! By then, I'll be 12 weeks along and almost through with the first trimester!!! Yay!! We should be able to find out the gender of the baby sometime in February, probably towards the end. It'll be here before you know it! These 10 weeks have absolutely flown by (well, I guess 6 weeks since we didn't find out til week 4). I'm just full of joy and thankfulness right now. Two posts in one week is a pretty big deal for me! Maybe I'm getting better at being a blogger!! Keep us in your prayers as we finish out this first trimester and return to the doctor at the end of the month!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!!

I'm officially the worst blogger ever! As promised in my previous blog, here is some updates of the last few months! Let's see, we went to a couple of football games. Those were fun, even though we're awful this year. Here are a few pics of the games...

I had a birthday! James surprised me with a party at our house with some of our closest friends. It was really a great birthday, even though 23 seems like a big number for me. I shouldn't be 23 yet, should I? Yikes! Oh, and we had a great opportunity for some more pictures with the Crawford kids after some of the party cleared out. They are too precious.

Yeah, it's every single season.... :)

Yay for Willow Tree angels!





This picture is my all-time fave!! They are so stinkin' cute!
Isn't he just the cutest??



We spent Halloween with Zane and Ashley...always a fun time. We dressed up and had a blast. We went to see a movie after all of our trick-or-treaters had come and gone. We had a whopping SIX kids come to our house. Sad sad! Anyways, me and Ash saw High School Musical 3 (which was great) and the boys saw some scary movie.

The four of us at my in-laws' house!
My little cowboy...oh my!
My favorite little Dorothy!

One of my great friends, Hollie, got married on November 7. I got to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. It was a very beautiful and sweet wedding.


She let me be the princess at the rehearsal dinner :) How sweet of her!


The beautiful bride :)

This makes me laugh because the bride is wiping away Madison's tears! Isn't it usually the other way around? It was a sweet moment!

Me and my handsome husband at the reception!

We put our Christmas tree up the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun! I love getting ready for the holidays! It was so nice having my own home to decorate this year!

The next day, we FINALLY got to tell people that we're expecting! It was such a great day! We told my parents first and then ran over to his parents house to share with them right after! His mom had made me a shirt to wear for when we told them we were having a baby. Here is a picture of it! It's adorable :)

As always, we attended the Fantasy of Trees Gala on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun!! Any excuse to get all dolled up and spend a night eating good food and getting excited for Christmas!!

Thanksgiving was great this year! We got to spend time with both families. I only have pictures of some of the kids from the day (are you surprised?), but they're still cute!!

Here's Mackenzie! She has gotten to be about as much fun as her big sister!!! Love her!

This is sweet little Payten. This was just about everyone's first chance to meet her! She's a doll! Here she is with her daddy. He doesn't get to see her a whole lot right now, so this was a very sweet time for them! We don't get to see him a whole lot either, so it was just all around special!

Now here are some random pictures!!

This is me at about 8.5 weeks. Not a lot to show right there, but James insists on taking pictures. I'll try to put up progressive pictures regularly (no guarantees though!)

I know...he's the cutest thing you've ever seen!!

This is our 2008 Christmas card photo :)

Finally!!!

James and I are expecting a baby of our own!!!!! :) We couldn't be happier about it! We had our first ultrasound yesterday. I was extremely nervous about the ultrasound, but it went great. The little peanut is growing right now track and has a nice strong heartbeat! The doctor said everything looked great at this point and I have no reason to worry. I go back for my next appointment on Dec. 31. I'm just looking forward to hearing that heartbeat again! Our due date is July 13, which puts me right around 8 1/2 weeks right now! I've had some pretty severe nausea that lasts all day since the day I turned 6 weeks. I know it could be much worse, and if my discomfort means the baby is doing well, I'm more than happy to put up with it! Fortunately, I do have good days with little to no nausea. Those are happy days, but I'm also comforted when the sickness returns to remind me that there is actually a little one in there that's growing!
It's been hard to get used to the idea of being pregnant. Not in the sense that I don't want to be, but that it seems to good to be true. You know how it is when you finally get something that you've wanted for so long, you tiptoe around and try not to get too excited for fear that it will slip away as quickly as it came. Hearing the heartbeat and seeing the little one on that monitor was a big step for me. It helped to confirm for me that, maybe, just maybe, God is really giving me what I have wanted for so long. So now, I'm trying to embrace this gift with all that I have. I'm letting myself get attached and love this baby like no other. I know that regardless of what happens, God will be there. He will take care of me and provide for me because that's who He is. I'm not going to be afraid anymore!
I know it is so cliche, but in all honesty, all we want is a strong, healthy baby. Boy or girl, doesn't matter. Now, had you asked me a year ago, I admit I would've been pleading with God for a little girl. But falling in love with little Tripp has shown me that little boys are just as precious!
There is more to update everyone on (since it's been 3 stinkin' months!!), but that's something that has taken priority for the time being!
Keep us in your prayers over the next few months!!

Time flies...

I have been trying to blog over the past few weeks, but every time I sit down to do it I can't think of anything going on worth blogging about! It's been a bit frustrating! Today, I decided that I was just making the whole blog deal harder than it really is. Apparently nothing earth shattering or life changing has to happen in order to write an interesting blog! Who knew. :)

The past little while has seemed so busy! I feel like there has been something going on everyday. It's been lots of fun, though. We have been able to spend a lot of time with some really great friends. We are so grateful for the new (and old) friendships that have been growing lately. These people are a blessing for sure! Fortunately for me, so many of these people have been having babies lately! Being able to spend time with all the new little ones has helped with my own impatience and frustrations! They are all so beautiful! :) I just can't get enough!

Well, here is a short run down of what we've been into since I last blogged:

- A couple of birthday parties

- A couple of baby showers

- The 1st UT Football game! Yay! Even though we aren't looking too great this year...we got to watch it with some friends.

- A yard sale which actually ended up being a good time. Oh, and apparently Becky is my mom. ;)

- A visit from some family from Florida and California, short but sweet! We love visiting with them.

- A promotion for James :) Yay!!

- Lots of Saturdays by the pool...I'm so glad we have used it more this year. I don't know what I would do without that pool!

- A new dining room table and entertainment center for the house

- 2 new fishies: Lucy and Squirt! They are too cute :)

- A new group of 3 year olds in our Sunday School class

- A Sunday School party (with the grown up class, not 3 year olds!)

- A fantasy football draft party at our house...the boys had a great time. Them and their fantasy football...seriously.

- A much needed girls night at Lyndsay's house!

- An introduction to the Red Box. It is the neatest thing ever. We've rented so many movies from it lately.

Hmm...that's all that really sticks out to me right now. I was looking through my pictures earlier and realized how pathetic my memory card is. There are only recent pictures of kids! I'm going to work on doing better about this so I have some pictures of us and our "grown up" friends to put up here! :) In the mean time, here's some recent pics that I love:

Home Sweet Home :)

We are all moved into our new home!! It took a couple of days to actually get everything transferred from one place to the other, but we finally got it done! There's been a lot of painting going on, and the house is still a mess. There's a lot of "stuff" still in the garage, but it'll get organized soon enough! We're tackling the garage one box at a time. I'll put up some pictures once we get it straightened up!

James had his knee surgery last week and it went extremely well. The doctor thinks he found the source of pain and got it all fixed up!! He's been on drugs and all that, but he's still in a considerable amount of pain. I think we've got him down to one pain pill at night, so that's great! He was out of work for about a week and physical therapy started on Monday. He's been such a trooper through all of this. It's only taken 5 months...poor guy!


We celebrated our 1st anniversary on June 30th! We had such a good time :) Fortunately, it was pre-surgery! We both had to work all day, but after work we got all dressed up to go out! We had to make a quick stop by the hospital to see baby Tristan who was born that day! He has a special birthday!! :) After our visit, we headed to Regas for dinner. We had been saving a gift card we received as a wedding gift just for this occasion! Our waiter was funny...he kept asking me questions about his resume and what to put on it! They gave us some complimentary cake since we were celebrating an anniversary! It was a nice gesture, except I don't like red velvet cake! It was a great date night! I just can't believe it's already been a full year! I'm ready for another wedding! Oh! And I got my first Willow Tree piece for my collection from James!


One last thing to share: The Crawford family joined us one evening last week to see the new house! "Coincidentally," Brylee and Tripp had on cute matching outfits! We couldn't waste an opportunity to get some super cute pics! I had a blast! Those kids are beautiful. We also had Hannah Grace that evening, as the rest of her family was at the hospital with her new brother. She was hysterical and we enjoyed every minute with her. She LOVED the puppy (puppy e-e-e as she called him!). It was funny to watch her with him.

Okay, I think that wraps it all up! Here are some pictures of the last little while!

This is the living area of our house! We left it this color of green...I love it!

This is the master bedroom, prior to the move in. We painted over the red. Now it's more of a hot chocolate color.

This is beautiful baby Tristan, born on June 30, 2008!

Here we are all dressed up for our anniversary date night!

Okay, I couldn't resist putting up this one. It's my cousin, Mackenzie, at her 1st Birthday party. I just love this shot!

Here's one out of about 200 that I took of Tripp. He's even adorable when he's mad!

This one has to be my favorite!! They are adorable :)

Here are some more from the Brylee & Tripp "photo shoot!!" Haha! :) I love these kids so very much!