Christmas!

I was really bad about my camera when we were with the Thomas' on Sunday. We had a great time sharing our wonderful news with everyone, celebrating our sister-in-law's birthday and meeting our sweet niece for the first time since she was born in February! Luckily, we get to see them again in just a couple weeks for Christmas in Arizona, so there will be plenty of pictures for that! 

Monday we went to my parents and spent pretty much the rest of our visit with them since we won't be seeing them for Christmas. When we first got there, that's just what we did - Christmas! 

When my parents came to visit us in SC the very first time, we visited a lot of little shops in downtown Summerville. My mom found this little bottle vase with flowers made out of buttons, so I went back there this year and found a kit for her to make one herself! 

I had a picture of these out of the box but I lost them : ( They are ice balls though! Silicone balls that you fill with water and freeze! They are supposed to last in your drinks longer than ice cubes so your drink doesn't get watered down! 

A new game!

And of course, an ornament!

I should have at least taken a picture of our announcement gift, but I didn't....I hope everyone got to see the video on my facebook!

Family!

Time-out on baby talk : ) 

We had such a great time visiting with family while we were in NY for Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we stopped at my sister's first when we got into town. I can't believe it had been almost a year since we have seen them. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with just them for a little bit. 

We celebrated Christmas when we got there since we won't be seeing them at the end of the month...

Then it was time to play with everything! 

And capture some memories <3 

We got to meet "puppy" Molly for the first time! 

What a good, sweet "little" girl she is! 

 I just realized I didn't get any pictures of Douglas, but this one represents him. He went out to shovel Saturday night and when he got done he called us all out there to see his creation on our car <3 

More baby : )

On November 18th we got to see our little peanut for the first time...

According to my last cycle, I was 9 weeks and due June 25th. According to the ultrasound I was 7 weeks and due July 6th. My doctor said this could be for a couple different reasons, some of which being the baby was just measured at the wrong angle or I could have ovulated late. Nothing to be concerned about, thankfully. We had a great first visit. I gave more blood than I ever have, got all of our questions answered and much of the information we would need! She scheduled to see me again 2 weeks later to check the baby's measurements again and get a more solid due date in mind for us. 

We had our second appointment yesterday, December 4th and got to see how much our little one has grown...

Oh my. 

I am totally in love. 

How freakin' adorable is that little bean! 

Ahhhhh.

Anyways, I am officially 9.5 weeks and due July 6th! I am kind of hoping for a July 4th baby because how fun would it be to have fireworks for your birthday?! Plus, I have a pretty awesome sister-in-law born on that day : ) Our appointment went really great this time as well. The heartbeat is going strong at 175 bpm and I even got to record it on my phone to listen to whenever I want to. 

I am getting emotional just writing this post. 

My heart is full <3 

Announcement Fun!

I was kind of a slacker and also wasn't really thinking about my camera in the moments that we announced. I did capture my parent's reaction since we were celebrating Christmas with them so I already had my camera out and it didn't look super obvious for me to be taking their picture/video! Unfortunately, I can't upload the video to my blog, but i'm pretty sure everyone who reads this is friends with me on facebook, so i'm sure you all saw it there! For everyone else, you'll have to settle for the story version! 

I'm pretty sure the very day I found out I was pregnant I was on pinterest the whole time during the girl's naps! There are WAY too many announcement ideas out there! The sad/silly part is, we didn't even use any that I found on there LOL

When we got into NY we stopped at my sister's house first. They always make the trip to mom and dad's to see us when we come to visit, but we thought it would be nice to make a pit stop and spend some extra time with just them since it had been so long since we saw them all! As soon as we got there we had to have "Christmas" because I knew what one of my presents were and there was no part of me that could wait! There will be pictures to follow in another post about all of that, but I gave my sister an envelope that said "The best sister...." and on the inside flap it said "...deserves to be promoted!" and it had our ultrasound pictures inside of it! She squealed and I was attacked by Marissa : ) It felt great to finally get to talk to someone about it and get some helpful tips and hints from my big sister! 

Sunday morning we headed out from my sisters to go to Jeremy's parents. We got there before everyone had gotten home from church so we were able to unload and settle in a little bit. When they got home from church we did our welcomes and then Jeremy started talking about his crazy "Movember" mustache! (I should have taken a picture of his face!) He asked his parents if they liked it and then told them that he had a pretty cool shirt to go with it! He took his hoody off to make the big reveal...

At first they just saw the big mustache part and stood their laughing at it, but after a minute or two his mom caught on and started yelling "What?!", then his dad picked up on it and started cheering : ) 

That afternoon we had a surprise birthday party for our sister-in-law that we went to. Towards the end of the party when family started getting ready to leave we took advantage of having almost all of Jeremy's extended family in one spot and pulled the shirt out again. No one saw any of it coming and I have to say that his parents did a pretty good job of keeping their looks and comments hidden when a few remarks were made about us having kids before we revealed our secret! That evening we skyped with Jeremy's brother in Arizona and he showed off his shirt to them, too : ) We still haven't met our niece that lives out there, so when we first got on they were holding her sleeping so that we could see her. I told Jeremy he needed to wait to show them his shirt until after they put her to bed because I knew my sister-in-law would have a squeal! : ) 

Monday afternoon we left Jeremy's parents and headed out to my parents house. Again, as soon as we got there we had to do "Christmas" with them. We will be in Arizona for Christmas this year with Jeremy's family so that is why we celebrated Christmas with most of my family at Thanksgiving. After we all exchanged gifts I gave my parents their last one! At the time that we told them the baby was the size of a green olive, so inside of the gift box was a jar of green olives! This also had a double meaning because when my mom was pregnant she loved green olives! As soon as my dad saw the jar he knew what it meant, but there was a note inside that went with it, so I quickly changed the subject and told him to read the note! (His reply was that he didn't need to, but I made him!) 

This is what it said....

"Olive the way you made me smile

The way you made me laugh

Olive all the things you taught me

You showed me time and a half.

Olive the way you love each other

I've watched you all these years

Olive the way you love my man

You even buy him beers.

But most of all,

Olive the way you'll love the olive growing inside of me!"

When my dad got 1/4 of the way through that last sentence he realized that his prediction was correct and stopped reading, so it took my mom a couple more seconds to catch on since she was just listening to my dad read and then had to finish reading it herself, but she quickly caught on and started screaming! Then I called my grandparents and asked my grandma if she was ready to have two great-grandchildren next year instead of just one (my sister in law is due at the end of January) and she asked if that was because I was having one too!? 

Last but not least, when my brother and sister-in-law arrived Tuesday evening Jeremy was wearing his shirt again and it didn't take too long at all for my brother to turn his head to the side and ask what his shirt said and if it was for real?! LOL 

We made a couple more announcements to some close friends before we posted our official announcement on Facebook.....

We always have so much fun getting to NY and visiting with family, but this trip was SO much more fun and exciting with us being able to surprise everyone and share our exciting news! 

I also had this shirt to wear for Thanksgiving, but by that time everyone knew : ) 

We love our baby turkey so much already! 

The happiest post I've ever written...

My life changed 4 months ago when my husband threw my birth control in the trash and told me that he was ready to have a baby. 

In another 7 months, our life is going to change even more...

That sweet little bean (or rather, a prune) is growing inside of me and I could not be more excited! I have spent the past many years worrying that I may never get to experience this as I have a medical condition called endometriosis. It can make implantation difficult or prevent pregnancy altogether and for someone who has only wanted to be a mom her whole life, I feared that outcome. Our doctor gave us a year to conceive before we would be sent to a fertility doctor but God had a different plan and just 2 short months later that test those three tests told me my dreams were coming true! 

I had taken a test a week and a half prior with the daunting negative sign staring back at me but I was still over a week late and had no symptoms of my cycle showing up. Monday, October 27th I woke up and took another test, hid it in the closet so Jeremy wouldn't find it and hopped in the shower. When I got out, I opened the medicine cabinet and took a deep breath. I was shocked and in complete disbelief. There was no part of me that actually thought I was pregnant. I had told myself to not get my hopes up and had apparently convinced myself of it pretty well! I fought the scream that wanted to escape my body so I wouldn't wake Jeremy up and put the test back in closet. As I got us both ready for our day I wrestled with when to tell Jeremy. Should I wait to tell him tonight and surprise him? Can I keep it a secret for a whole day? There was no part of me that could keep this in, I was bursting at the seams! So I pulled out the announcement that had been hiding in my drawer for months! 

I found this after last Christmas while browsing a Christian book store. There was a rack of discounted ornaments and as soon as I spotted this I thought it would be the perfect way to announce our blessing when the time came. So, I wrapped it up and when Jeremy got out of the shower I told him I had a gift for him. He was oblivious! It didn't take him 5 seconds to spin around asking me if it was really true! I showed him the pregnancy test and we stood there in our bedroom, crying, shaking and a million thoughts going through our heads! I'm not sure what Jeremy's kids learned in school that day, but I don't think it was anything close to what he had prepared! : ) After our work days were done we headed out to Olive Garden to celebrate the little life growing inside of me and every day since then has been a blessing and new adventure each day! It was very hard to keep our secret for 3, almost 4 weeks, but we knew we would be seeing family in just a short while and how much more fun to tell them in person.....

Stay tuned!

I'm baaaaaaack!

I just realized it's been over a month since i've posted a blog! 

*slacker alert*

Luckily for all of my loyal blog fans (lol), we had a fun filled week with family over the holidays and I have lots to post about! Today will be filled with picture uploading/editing and getting posts ready to go! 

Come back tomorrow! : ) 

Fall

Jeremy and I aren't really into Halloween. Our first year being married and in SC we decided one day we were going to go browse around a Halloween store. Now, I wasn't raised with it, I didn't trick or treat until I was older and having fun with the kids I babysat, but I was okay with Halloween in general. Until we visited this store. It was gory, it was nasty, it had been taken to the next level - or 10 levels. It was just too much. Too far. We have decided that if we do anything with our kids for Halloween, it will involve turning all of the lights off, ignoring the doorbell and having a popcorn and movie night! 

Last year we carved a pumpkin because the Daycare I was working at was having their annual pumpkin stroll and everyone donated a pumpkin that their family carved together to represent them. We did the state of NY outline : ) This year, we aren't carving any pumpkins, but that doesn't stop them from being purchased!

I could "play" in pumpkin goup all day long just to get those precious little white seeds

Now I cannot take credit for this recipe (click here), but it makes the most delicious pumpkin seeds I have ever tasted! I made some with a friend on Saturday and by the time Sunday's grocery trip rolled around I could not put off buying pumpkins any longer. 

I had never heard of boiling your seeds before baking them, but trust me. When my friend and I made them this weekend we cut up a garlic clove and threw it in with the seeds while they boiled. Do it : ) 

When it comes time for baking, I sprinkled a little more garlic powder and some salt in with the olive oil. 

Ahhhh, heaven in a bowl : ) 

Happy Fall Ya'll (that one was for you dad : )