The Beginning of Showers!

The month of January has been a fun and exciting one so far…. mostly due to these fantastic baby showers that I am posting about! This week will mark 35 weeks of pregnancy for me and the nerves are definitely kicking in, but the overwhelming outpouring of love and sweet baby gifts help make it exciting. 

My first baby shower was on Tuesday the 13th in the OR break room. I am employed full time in the Operating Room at Marshall North, so this is my work family that I see every day. I am so lucky to have a great job with a work family that I love who made this day great! A special thanks to Amanda, Laura, & Beth for putting together the cute decor and food! In case you are wondering, my friend Amanda monogrammed twelve onesies for each month of Caroline's first year and then used them for decor! Such a crafty and cute idea!

This is not everyone because we had a few surgeries going on and some people had to come and go, but I love these people! 

Since this was my first shower, I was so excited to get home and look at everything in the nursery. So much fun. :)

As stated in my last post, I am not big on taking pictures of myself but this time in my life is too special not to remember the stages of pregnancy I am going through. So here is my outfit for shower #2, which was the one with my ER friends at my friend Andrea's mom's home. This shower was lots of fun and spent with some of my favorite girls in the world. 

Thank you girls for an awesome shower and tons of great gifts for Caroline! At the time this picture was taken, Tawnya is 37 weeks, I am 34 weeks, Jen is 33 weeks. 

The next day I had another shower at the Sparks family's beautiful home. My close friends from church hosted this shower and did such a great job. Caroline got so many beautiful things. 

These three showers were all in the same week.. my home shower in DeKalb County is this weekend and I am so excited to see hometown family and friends. I think I will save it for another post since I will probably be in picture overload :) Until then! 

Passion 2015

Several months ago back in August, we planned a girls trip to Atlanta to the Passion conference. Brooke and Haleigh had not been before, but I went last year and enjoyed very much. Our church attended and took the 18-25 year olds in college and we drove along on our own as leaders. We arrived in Atlanta Friday around 4 pm to get checked into the Westin and eat before the first session. Props to Haleigh for the awesome hotel choice…would definitely go back to the Westin in downtown Atlanta for a weekend getaway with shopping. 

The weather was rainy all weekend, but we managed to stay fairly dry walking to and from Philips Arena. Walking in downtown Atlanta while 32 weeks pregnant was easier than I thought it might be, although I realized when I got home and back to work on Monday that my legs were sore. This is a picture of us walking to the first Session where we heard music by Kristian Stanfill, Chris Tomlin, Christy Knockels, and a few others. 

Saturday morning we were up early to eat a quick breakfast at Chic-Fil-A in the CNN center and off to Session 2. Thanks to Will & Jamey our group got awesome seats. We heard sermons from John Piper and Carl Lentz. I was very familiar with John Piper but new to Carl Lentz. He is the pastor of Hillsong Church in NYC. Although his more radial approach differed from John Piper's theological style of teaching, both were enjoyable. However, the pregnancy fatigue overtook me for the latter half of John Piper's sermon and I did get quite a few laughs from my friends. Sorry about it guys. The best part of the day was hearing David Crowder….seriously his album "Neon Steeple" is good from start to finish! 

Finally we got a picture with Claire! By this point it was 7 or 8 pm we were all pretty tired. We heard an amazing message by Francis Chan that I'm pretty sure left us all thinking hard the rest of the week. This was my second time hearing Francis and I have to say he is one of my favorite speakers. 

Love this guy! Such a spiritually refreshing weekend. 

And the best part of coming home Sunday was this! The second coat of paint got put on the nursery walls, the carpet got shampooed, and Caroline's furniture was assembled! Obviously I haven't rushed on the nursery project. At first I wasn't going to share this picture, but I think it will be neat to see how it turns out. After taking this picture we have re-arranged the furniture, got her bedding and curtains, and other pieces to the nursery (rug, bookshelf) are coming this week. I have things ordered/planned to buy that should all fall in place in the next 2 weeks. Lets just hope she stays in a little longer so I can get done. If she doesn't, I'm not really worried about it though because I do realize that we won't sleep in here starting out anyways. :)

I kept seeing these button canvas projects on Pinterest, so when Kyle was working on Sunday I decided to give it a go. It turned out better that I thought it would! Can't wait for "C" to get here!

Hello, Third Trimester!

As I am sitting down to type out this post, I am currently 31 weeks pregnant. What seemed like an eternity when I found out that I was 5 weeks pregnant has now came and gone. This baby is already completely changing every aspect of life for me, from my eating and sleeping habits to my emotions, all the way to my perspective on different areas of life. It is such a wonderful feeling being pregnant but also very life-changing. Yes, I know, wait until she actually gets here :) The picture above was taken at 30 weeks. Tight doesn't even begin to describe my tummy right now. 

I have learned so many things about Caroline. We have already formed a bond and I have never even met her. For example, she loves when I drink chocolate milk, no matter what time of the day it is. This pregnancy has doubled my love for milk even more that it was, so I am going through a gallon or so a week. She also is not a fan of the light. I catch her rolling and flipping while I'm laying on my side at night, but the second I pull up my shirt to show Kyle, she immediately becomes still. It is so funny sometimes that it makes me giggle. She is so high in my belly right now that I constantly have rib pain. Her little bottom is rock hard and she stays balled up on my right side. That is her favorite place. 

The past few weeks have had ups and downs. I had another episode of extreme heartburn again. This is the second time this has happened (even while taking medications daily.) Thankfully, it lasted around ten hours. No worries-between my ER besties and my mama I was well taken care of. Kyle was at work for this episode, which probably worked out in his favor considering I was helpless. I usually work four ten-hour shifts a week, and now I have realized how hard it is becoming to work ten hours in your third trimester of pregnancy. It can be done, but it's not easy. My ankles have not quite made it to cankles, but they are starting to swell at the end of the day. This is hard for me because I like to work and I like my job so I find it hard to just sit down and rest. I always feel like there is something I should be doing or feel guilty for sitting down. 

Christmas was really special this year with the anticipation of Caroline coming at the beginning of 2015. Of course we received more gifts for her than we did for ourselves which we were extremely grateful for. Little girls are so much fun to buy for. Tomorrow we are going to Huntsville to pick up our nursery furniture and I am very excited! Every step makes it feel more and more real. Here are some pics from the past month…iPhone quality.

We took off for Chattanooga one Saturday for a rock-climbing gym adventure with Andrew and Victoria. You never know what kind of adventures the four of us will have. We had almost made it to the gym when Kyle had to pull over because I was tossing my cookies into a Hardee's bag. I ended up throwing up so much in the bag that I resorted to the sidewalk where I continued to vomit in front of a man walking down the street. Thankfully, he was very sympathetic and the vomiting stent only lasted less than ten minutes. I served as photographer for the day at the climbing gym and watched the three of them climb for a few hours and then we had a great meal at Big River Grille.

I am not a huge fan of selflies but I made myself start taking some iPhone pics so I could look back and remember good memories during this pregnancy. This is before our shopping trip for my birthday. Target for the maternity win. 

Kyle had to work the day after my birthday so I loaded up with Dad, Mom, Andrew, and Victoria and we headed to Chattanooga and had a great meal at Sticky Fingers. Zantac to begin my meal and Tums in between the appetizer and entree. Story of my life. 

This night was so much fun. We had our Sunday School get together at Tim and Kim's for Christmas and laughed the night away. Before we knew it, it was 9:30 and we felt like the party had just started. We played "Rate Your Mate", where I laughed so hard I was sure I wouldn't make it to the bathroom in time three or four times. Those are the best kind of nights. :)

The picture quality isn't that great, but it this after our cousin Wiley and Sara's wedding. We ate wings with Andrew and Victoria after the wedding to celebrate my birthday, which was that night. I settled for my Wing-Stop favorite, Garlic Parmesan wings, which made Caroline very very happy. ;)

December holds many birthdays for Kyle's side of the family so our tradition the past few years has been to pick one night and celebrate at Rosie's. This is after we got home.. we were so excited that we had eaten dinner and it was only 8:30 so we could still go to bed early. The funny thing is that I am serious. :)

My church had an Artsy Amber painting party and mama and I painted these door hangers. It was really fun and I managed to actually do an okay job!

Merry Christmas! This is our last Christmas picture as a family of two before our sweet baby gets here. 

   

I can't believe I am posting a picture of my self in pajamas after waking up ten minutes prior to this picture, but I had to show my new gun. Kyle and I like to target-shoot together but my little Smith and Wesson trigger was hard to pull. Christmas morning I woke up to a brand new Taurus 9mm and a grinning husband that couldn't wait to give it to me. I can't wait to try it out after Caroline gets here. Kyle says that I am slowly converting to a redneck, but I would like to make it very clear that this is not true. I just like to carry a gun and know how to safely use it. 

 And I can't forget my sweet little Libby Lou! She had the best Christmas (her 3rd Christmas with us.) This sweet fur baby got a Christmas doggie that she has played with non-stop since Christmas morning. She also got a stocking at her nana's (my mom's) full of goodies. Words cannot express how much I love her and her sweet little personality.

My mother in law had asked me last month what I wanted for Christmas and specified that it had to be something for me, not the baby. All I could think about was how miserable I was at night not being able to get comfortable so I suggested a body pillow and boy was I happy I thought of it. This pillow has only been in our house two nights and I am in love with it already. It has helped with my rib and back pain while sleeping. I love the monogrammed cover and I even got an extra cover with my name monogrammed for when I am washing this one! Such a great gift. 

Mama got Kyle and I this ornament when she went to the Smoky Mountains in October. It is so sweet and special. I am pretty sure she is right up there with me in the excitement and anticipation of her getting here in February. ;)

Full, tired, and happy on Christmas night. I look so very tired but I want to look back and remember how happy and thankful I was this Christmas. Happy that I got to spend it with Kyle and we both were off work and thankful for my healthy family that cares so much about us. I couldn't help but think about how much God has provided for me and how much we take for granted. I am so thankful for Kyle and his love for me and the baby. God has blessed us tremendously this year and I don't want to take a single bit of it for granted.