thoughts...

First off...I try to blog atleast once a week, but there hasn't been too much going on lately. I am starting to get tired very easily and trying to go to bed early since I never sleep all through the night. Only 3 1/2 weeks until I am full-term and I am getting more excited to see her sweet face each day! It is going fast, but NEVER will be fast enough!

I am in the process of deleting my Myspace. I currently have both Myspace and Facebook, but I hardly ever get on Myspace anymore. When I was looking through it the other day, I went back and read the 'About Me' section that I wrote a VERY long time ago. I must have been in deep thought that day because most people write a simplified version of themselves, but I guess that day I was leaning towards a book! Ha! I just wanted to post it here because I still mean every single word...including my LOVE for Kanye West! No comments! :)

"I believe I am overly fortunate. My parents are two of the greatest people ever and have instilled great values in our family. I have two brothers that I am pretty sure should be a godly status. I met my husband when I least expected to, and he is beyond perfect for me. I have said that I would never own an inside dog…never say never…as I am now crazy and completely in love with a little yorkie, Berkley, who sleeps in bed with me every night. I have a nephew-Riley and three nieces-Caylee, Mackenzie and Hannah. They are definitely the coolest kids on the block. I became a Godparent to my now Godchild, Katelyn. My Godparents are very special people whom I have always looked up to…I hope one day Kate feels the same way about me. I find that there is never a dull moment in my life…but it normally ends up making for a great story. I love to be spontaneous and up and leave at a moments notice. I am very sarcastic and always looking for a good time. I love to travel…whether it be out of the country or just down the road to the lake. I value my alone time with my husband, but my greatest stories come from girl trips. I believe that couples should make time apart as absence makes the heart grow fonder. I am very optimistic and love to see the good in people. I am obsessed with sports: mainly football – MY Dallas Cowboys and NASCAR-Matt Kenseth. I love tattoos and wish I had 100…but I know I never will. I love 100+ weather as I am always cold. I cannot watch TV without a blanket. I love Mexican food and could eat it for every meal. I hate tomatoes. I love to talk on the phone and catch up on peoples lives. I love to send/receive text messages. I think the iPhone is one of the greatest inventions. I love music and could listen for hours on end. I am currently obsessed with Kanye West and listen to him everyday…I cannot explain the obsession and most of my friends cannot stand him. I enjoy a cold drink with friends and the laughter that comes along with it. I love fashion. I love jeans and t-shirts, but enjoy dressing up on occasion. I love tall boots. I love bubble baths. I love Vanilla Diet Dr Peppers from Sonic. I tape 50+ shows on my DVR, but probably do not watch half of them. I love art and wish I would take more time to learn about it. I love quotes and the different feelings that come with each…too bad I don't remember half of the ones I love, but thank goodness for Google when you need it. I am very thankful for the friends I have made over the years and look forward to the ones I will meet in the future."

Nursery completed....

and now we WAIT! I have been dreaming of what my baby's nursery would look like for so many years. I really have to say that it looks NOTHING like I had envisioned in the previous few years! :) My favorite colors are red, pink and black...which I always thought I would use. I do not like green! Ha! But when I found the bedding the very first time, I knew I wanted to use it. I had so many ideas for the room and just kept piecing things together. The room is FAR better than anything I had ever imagined and I CANNOT wait to bring her home into her room for the very first time! Berkley LOVES the glider and will sit in it with his toys if we leave the door open. I believe the 3 of us will spend ALOT of time in the glider once she gets here!
Justin and I have been so blessed since we found out we were expecting...not only has God blessed us with a child, but we have been shown that so many care and want to be a part of our first experience. I had put back money over the last few years to prepare for this time and we have not had to touch one dollar of it. Our family and friends have been so good to us that at this point, she could come today and we would NOT need one single thing! Pretty impressive! If I listed every single person that had bought us something, I would probably be typing for the next 5 hours, but I did want to make a note of the big items our family had purchased for us....

• Our parents bought our furniture...the crib and dresser. (Maybe if I knew they were buying, I would have picked out a few more pieces! Ha! Only kidding! Justin and I got exactly what we wanted!)
• My Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill bought our crib bedding and mobile for the room.
• My older brother Alan and his girlfriend Amanda bought us the glider and ottoman. I am so CRAZY in love with that chair!
• My little brother Jake and SIL Sarah bought us our baby monitor. (which Justin has already charged to ENSURE it works right! :)

Enjoy the nursery and I hope you like what you see...

Dresser (I plan to put frames on it or make a changing table, if needed)

The glider, ottoman and chandeliers

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I LOVE her name above the bed, but they were a disaster to hang!

The ladder shelf...each bastet has something different:

toys, lotions, burp cloths/bibs and books

Bow Holder...my cousin Shelly made the framed part and I added the long ribbon

Maternity Pictures

Justin and I took our maternity pictures last week and we are starting to get a few back. We went back and forth on whether or not we should take them, but I decided we should for some keepsakes. I always worry that our pictures will not turn out, so for this shoot, I was hoping to get atleast one or two good shots to keep for Hadlea. However...it took me about 30 minutes to decide which three to post for samples! YEAH! I will definitely post more once they are all finished. She is still in the process of editing some of them, but they are turning out far better than I could have EVER imaged! What do you think?

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Today, October 15, is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. I never really knew how many people actually suffered the loss of a baby through Miscarriage, Ectopic Pregnancy, Stillbirth, Neo-Natal Death, SIDS, or the Loss of a Child. Until you go through this or are close with someone who has, you never really know the loss. Please say a prayer for anyone that has gone through the loss of baby and for people that may be going through it today. We will never know WHY God chooses to take our babies, but we do know they are safe and definitely living a better life than we could ever imagine!

You can find more information about this at http://www.october15th.com.

Today's goal is to promote Support, Education and Awareness for grieving parents nationwide (and worldwide). Too many families grieve in silence, sometimes never coming to terms with their loss. This goal is to help others relate to our loss, know what to say, do or not say, not do and to help families live with their loss, not "get over" their loss.

baby shower #2 and my birthday!

This weekend was one of the greatest weekends we have had in a LONG time. It was so nice to spend time with friends and celebrate Hadlea! My oldest brother Alan and his girlfriend Amanda surprised us with a couples baby shower. We were so glad when they asked! Our close friends were invited and it was great to meet and catch up...as it might be the last time we get to do so for a few months! Ha!
Shannan came in from Kansas City for the weekend so on Friday night we met up with some of her old friends from when she lived here. Saturday afternoon we shopped. Saturday evening was the shower and it could not have gone better! We requested Children's books and I CANNOT wait to read them all to Hadlea one day. We received some of the cutest books!

Justin and I

Brother Alan, his gfriend Amanda, Me, Justin, SIL Sarah and little brother Jake

with my brothers! i cannot imagine life without them!

The hosts - Amanda and Alan

the inlaws to the family - Justin and Sarah

with my cousin, James

with my best friend from college - Deanna

with Brooke! She is due 2 days after me and SO CUTE!

Lisa and Taran

Justin and several of the guys he works with plus Erin

The cake! It was absolutely adorable! Amanda did great!

Opening presents!

All of the gifts from the shower! We received so many great things!

(Diapers, diaper genie, clothes, TONS of books, hooded towels made by a friend, car mirror, boots, etc. I also received a gift certificate for stationary and a hair cut...so I actually have an excuse to get out of the house and make Justin babysit! :)

Aunt Shan bought her some Juicy Boots! Adorable!

From Alan and Amanda and too true! "So Many Frogs...So Few Princes"

Books!

And my friend Alissa remembered Berkley! He LOVED his bone!

I CANNOT thank Alan and Amanda enough for hosting this shower. It was so much fun and some didn't leave until after 1am! Pretty late for a pregnant girl! Ha!

Today I celebrated my 28th birthday...and I have no pictures to share, but it was a GREAT day! I received TONS of calls, texts, emails and facebook messages. The ladies at work took me to lunch and for dinner, we met Alan and Amanda. Justin and his mom bought me a new lens for my camera and I cannot wait to get Riley and Hannah together for some pictures! It will not be too long before I have a sweet little baby girl to photo. I PRAY she will never get sick of pictures! I received some money from my parents...which I already have spent in my head...a cute pair of boots at the mall are calling my name! :) Ha!

Thanks to all for the calls and messages today! So many things have happened in the last few months that remind me how blessed I truly am. I always wish there was something I could do as a thank you, but hopefully everyone knows how special they are to me!

30 weeks, fishing and more baby!

I am officially 30 weeks! It feels so good to get to this point! These last few weeks have gone so fast and I am assuming it is because we have been so busy every weekend. We have more showers coming up and one is at my house so I am going crazy trying to get my nursery completed. We are waiting on our glider to get in so we can figure out where we want to put the rest of our furniture and then we can move on to hanging everything on the walls! It is looking so good...I could not have asked for anything better! I have decided to wait until it is completed to post anymore pictures...SORRY! :) I am just loving it so much that I want you to get the full effect! Ha! But here is a belly picture at 30 weeks! :)

Justin had a fishing tournament this past weekend so I planned to hang out and shop a little for our maternity pictures. We had planned to take our pictures tomorrow, but with the rainy weather, we have moved them to Wednesday. Here is Justin as he pulled out of the driveway. I was REALLY hoping he would bring home some $$, but...better luck next time. They caught 8+lbs and needed 9+lbs to get into the money.

Since I was home alone for the weekend, my mom decided to drive up Saturday. We did a little shopping and decided to make more burp clothes. I have heard you go through alot of these with a baby and I wanted to make sure I had plenty! :) We did make some for little boys for one of my cousins and some I have put back for future baby girls. We have ALOT of babies coming into the family soon so I know these will definitely get used! We also made two blankets. I think they all turned out great!

her home away from home

Justin and I talked several times about what we wanted Hadlea to sleep in when we first brought her home since she will be in our room. We went back and forth between a cradle and a bassinett. We had first thought about the pack-n-play but I wanted it in the living room and would not want to move it back and forth every night. One day I was looking on Craig's list and found this cradle for $40. I thought it was adorable! Justin and our neighbor painted it black. My aunt had planned to make me a bumper to go in it, but then I found a 3 piece cradle set at Babies R Us! I thought it looked so great in the black cradle...it is just so simple with the little pink outline and pink ties.

Before and getting ready to paint!

After...with the bedding!

(The ties are a really soft pink, but I think they look white here)

Baby Shower #1 - Medford

This could quite possibly be the longest post I have ever written and the most pictures I have ever posted! So please enjoy...because it took forever! :) As I wrote before, Justin and I are overly blessed and all of the following pictures will prove it! We are LOVED by so many and I CANNOT wait to share all of this with Hadlea when she is older. We have some very special people in our lives and it is amazing to get to be a part of their lives each day....whether we see them on a regular basis or not!

We started the day of the shower off with lunch with my mom's side of the family. The shower was Sunday, September 27. My granddad was having his 80th birthday on September 29th so we had lunch and cake and ice cream with him. The first picture is of my mom's entire family, except my Uncle Bill, who was home sick! :( My mom has one sister, Becky. Becky has 2 daughters. Michele and her husband Aaron are in the following picture with their 3 kids, Anna Grace, Harvey and Zac. Her other daughter, Malisa, is the one that is no longer with us and who we are naming Hadlea after. My mom's family is very small and intimate. We all live in 3 different states and DO NOT get to see each other enough!

My dad is one of 12 kids...YES, 12...7 boys and 5 girls. There are 39 grandkids and 18 great-grandkids, Hadlea will be the 19th. So needless to say, family gatherings are quite different between my mom and dad's families. My mom's side can fit into a house...my dad's side must use a community building. Per my grandma on my dad's side, once Hadlea is born, she will be the 97th person born into our immediately family...this is from my grandparents down to the last great-grandchild, which would be Hadlea. I love both sides of my family more than I could ever express into words...and each for different reasons. If you only have small families and have never been to a large family dinner...let me know...anyone is welcome to our family functions and I promise, you will never forget a dinner with 100+ people. Everyone is talking, laughing and kids are running EVERYWHERE! And now onto the pictures...

My mom's parents with the 4 grandkids...no spouses! :)

My granny and grandad with the grandkids and spouses...no great-grandkids.

My Mom, Grandad, Granny and Aunt Becky

The 3 great-grandkids..Harvey, Zac and Anna Grace

My friend Jennifer could not make the shower so her family came by to visit

Justin and his favorite buddy, Brynlee

And now onto the shower...I do not have any pictures of the people that were there, but I was told there were over 60...truly AMAZING! And onto opening gifts! My SIL, Sarah, is with me!

"My mom is hotter than your mom" :)

"i love daddy"

The hostesses minus 1. There were 11 and nothing would have happened without these people!

Grammie, Grandma, Me, Granny, Nana and Aunt Sarah

All of the pregos - Candice, Megan, Me and Shelly

High school friends - Mikki and Catherine

with my cousins Krissy and Riley Kate

Two of the most special people in my life. My Godparents - Gary and Brenda

My friend Shannan from Kansas City and her sweet babies - Brynlee and Kennedy

Anna Grace and I

Michele and I...whom I look up to for just about everything!

Michele, Granny and I

My momma and Me

We took pictures of ALL of the gifts before they were put up. I just wanted to remember everything we received! We received our bathtub, Carseat, Stoller and Pack-n-play.

Everything in piles!

Blankets

Frames and a sign

Coats

Bibs

Diapers, bath, Pacifiers, etc.

Books and Toys

I LOVE monogrammed goodness!

Shoes, Socks, Hats and Bows!

Play mats, cart cover, carseat accessories, etc.

Clothes

And and awesome diaper cake!

Anyone reading this that attend the shower and/or bought us a gift, THANK YOU! You will NEVER really know how grateful we are for each of you!