Family Christmas #1

Two weeks ago we celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family. Most of them were able to come to Nashville for the weekend. We ate at the yummy Loveless Cafe, opened gifts, went to downtown Franklin to the Charles Dickens Festival, and went to Opry Mills and ate at the Aquarium restaurant. (This was not what we were going to Opryland to do, but it's where we ended up and that's a whole other story!) Overall, it was a very nice weekend with the family. It's always nice having them in Nashville to do fun Nashville things and just relax.

Loveless Cafe

Bring on the baby presents! My aunt and cousin gave us our baby's 1st Tennessee t-shirt. So cute! Of course if it's a boy the pink one will be returned, but they thought if it is a girl the pink is really cute! This was definitely Brantley's favorite gift (said with sarcasm). I was not surprised at all that this is what they gave us. This side of the family are huge Tennesse fans...the baby will be looking good on game days!

We got our grandparents a picture frame with our first ultrasound pic in it. The bottom says:

Great-Granchildren

Little people who take up your whole heart.

(at least that's as close as I can get without having one in my possession anymore)

Either way I loved these frames and was so excited I found them.

Downtown Franklin- Charles Dickens Christmas Festival

This was a really neat festival in my favorite place in Nashville. They have people dressed up as characters from A Christmas Carol walking around on Main St. and have so much deliciously smelling food, shops, and tents set up for people selling their own products. I want to remember this for next year. I will definitely go again!

Callie (cousin) and Me

The Aquarium

B, Bella, and Me (16 weeks)

*Don't miss the post below...it's new too!*

Christmas Decorations (Better Late Than Never)

How terrible is it that I'm FINALLY posting pics of my house decorated for Christmas...3 days after Christmas! Oh well. I was sooo busy the past few weeks (as you will see in my next few posts) that this was not on the top of the list. But I still wanted to share them with everyone. Enjoy!

Watching Elf and drinking hot chocolate...something I found through facebook status updates

everyone seems to do now. It was fun anyways!

Finished Product

(Bella was sad she destuffed Santa Clause!)

Tree Topper~Mom bought a bow maker and this was the first bow we made!

It turned out beautiful! Thanks Mom.

A few of the bows I made. I really like how they turned out and had fun making them.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way...

My cute Snowman and Sled Salt & Pepper shakers

The Poll is Open! (16 Week Update)

So much to post about and so little energy...story of my life this week! Hopefully in the next couple of days I will get around to posting the other two updates I have been wanting to with my Christmas decorations and this past weekend with my family. On to the post you are currently reading! I had my 16 week appointment last week and things look great! I took my mom with me and let Brantley sit out on this visit. The doctor informed us at the previous one it would last like 10-15 minutes. So I figured my mom would really enjoy tagging along and hearing her grandchild's heartbeat. It's always so wonderful to hear that little pitter-patter of a sound! My doctor said the heartrate was in the upper 150's. He let me watch the doppler and I saw that it fluctuated between 156 to 162. Also I have lost 4 pounds since my first visit at 8 weeks. I thought that was weird but the nurse said that's normal b/c your metabolism changes during early pregnancy along with your eating habits. This is true considering I barely ate anything during my first 13 weeks b/c nothing sounded good and I had the flu! I just wasn't expecting to have lost weight. I'm sure I'm gaining it now though because I have a much bigger appetite and am getting hungrier all of the time. The really exciting part about my appointment (besides hearing my little one's heartbeat) was getting to schedule my next visit! It's the "BIG" one. I am counting down the days! It is 2 weeks from today (12/30). I am so anxious because I feel like that will make it even more real and I can actually start putting some things together I have been dying to do. So I am now opening the poll for you to vote on what you think our baby is...BOY???...GIRL??? Also, if you have a second after you vote, leave me a comment letting me know what you voted. I would love to see what people are thinking! I have my opinion in mind and will place my vote after a couple of people have voted (so I don't give it away as the first vote)...something I would do because of what Brantley has been calling my baby brain! Like I said, I will hopefully get around to posting those other updates soon. Until then...HAPPY VOTING!

16 Weeks

My Mother-in-Law is a very crafty creative person. She has an awesome craft room at her house where she does all of her work. One of the things she makes is personalized necklaces. She is so good! She cuts the glass, solders (sp?), creates and prints the photo (or whatever she is using for the necklace), etc. Here is a necklace she made and gave me when we were in Dallas a couple of weeks ago. I wear it all of the time! I don't know if you can tell, but the charms are a baby carriage, the May birthstone, and a paci. So cute! She also made the jewelry stand the necklace is hanging on but I didn't think to take a picture of the whole thing b/c I was trying to get a close-up of the necklace. Thanks Patty! I love my necklace!

Happy Thanksgiving...Birthday...and 15 weeks...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did! We were able to drive to Dallas (11 hours) Wednesday through Monday to celebrate with Brantley's family. It was so great to see everyone! We started at B's parents and spent Thanksgiving at their house with Patty's (my MIL) family. His sisters also were able to come in town from school at different points that weekend so we got to see them too! Friday morning we headed to meet B's grandparents in Abilene. They actually live in Midland, but they were so sweet and didn't want us to drive the extra 2 hours so they met us in the middle. It was nice catching up with them b/c we only see them once a year. Saturday morning we got up and met B's dad's side of the family in Graham, TX. This is where his other grandparents live. It was also nice to get to see everyone there and visit most of the day. We missed seeing some his cousins, aunts, and uncles on both sides who couldn't make it. Hopefully next time! It's so difficult being able to keep up with seeing family when we live so far away. So it's nice to try to knock it all out while we are there even if it means a lot of traveling. It's so worth it! On the way back from Graham, we were able to stop in Fort Worth and see some of our best friends. And we got to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant! Mmmmm.... Sunday we were able to spend some more time with B's parents and relax for the long trek back to Nashville on Monday. It was such a great time and went by so fast! We can't wait to see everyone again. Of course next year we will have a little one going with us! Sadly (for me and my blog) I took 1 picture the entire time we were there. I could not believe it and was so mad at myself. Below is the only picture I took and it's of Brantley and his dad skinning the potatoes which we all found pretty amusing!

Last Thursday was Brantley's birthday and Monday is my Dad's. So we celebrated Saturday night! And yes there was a Godiva cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory involved! Heavenly!

Happy Birthday! I love you!

I have been TERRIBLE at taking belly pics. I always told myself after seeing my friends keep up with it that that is something I wanted to make sure to do. Well, that hasn't happened. Out of the last 15 weeks I may have 4 pictures. Oh well. I'm just now feeling like my stomach is "bulging" out a bit, so hopefully from here on out I can think to keep up with it better.

15 Weeks

Also, this weekend Michael and Emily came in town for a quick visit. They ran in the St. Jude Marathon Saturday morning and headed to Nashville that night. It was such a nice visit and they were able to be here to celebrate B's and Dad's birthdays!

Emily, Chester, Me, and Bella

Me and the Hubby

The Fam

I hope to post pics of my house decorated for Christmas soon! Also, my next doctor's appointment is Wednesday. So stay tuned for those updates!

Happy Birthday Bella

Bella turned 4 years old today (or 28, whichever way you want to look at it)!

We love our Bella!

What sweet little 2 lbs of fluff!

Shaggy the Dog Phase

Princess Phase

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Unknown

Family Additions

Well, for those of you who don't know (and for those that do)...WE ARE...

On September 20th Brantley and I found out we are expecting our first little bundle of joy. We are so excited and have been anxiously waiting to reveal the big news to everyone!!! So here it finally is. I am now at 12 weeks and our due date is May 29th. We had our second doctor's appointment this past Wednesday and he said everything looks great and it is safe to spread the wonderful news. We were thrilled to hear that! So far we have had an ultrasound (pics below) and we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time on Wednesday. It is the most amazing sound ever! We only got to hear it for like not even a minute, so it seemed, but I could have listened to it for an hour. It was very reassuring to us that things are going well. He measured the heart rate at 170. So far, things have been pretty good, but my 9th-12th weeks have been the worst. NOTHING ever sounds good to eat and to top it off I had to take off work for a week because I got the flu. I have never had the flu and the one time I really don't need to get it of course I do. As of right now I'm just dealing with the aftermath of the flu. So being sick and pregnant has made me extra tired especially when also caring for eight 1 and 1/2 year olds every day. We are just so thankful we have made it to this point. I am already dying to know what we are having so I can start shopping! So really I guess for Brantley it's a good thing we don't know yet. We should be able to find out boy/girl the week after Christmas. Well, I feel like there is so much more I could say, but that will have come later. For right now enjoy the pictures and don't miss the second half of my entry!

Ultrasound at 8 weeks 5 days

We call this the gummy bear picture! It's a 4D pic and it looks like he/she is looking right at you. You can see the little arm and leg buds sticking straight out towards you. Crazy!

The news isn't over...

Within a few weeks of mine and Brantley's exciting news, we found out we are adding another girl to our family! Michael proposed to Emily on October 10th. My brother definitely knows how to give Emily the best of the best. He really went all out with his proposal. And I would have to say it is one of the best, if not the best, engagement story ever! Let's just say (to put it shortly) it involved he and a friend driving to New York, Emily getting surprise plane tickets in and envelope to fly to NY, a walk around Times Square, a drive up through New England with a stop along the way to enjoy fireworks and a romantic dinner, then ending up in Maine at the summer camp where they were both counselors and first started getting to know each other over a year ago. To add to that there was a ping-pong match (has to do with them at camp, but that's another story), romantic candles and a fire burning in the fireplace, with 20 amazing compliments to Emily, a letter, and a BEAUTIFUL RING! There is even more to the story, but you'll just have to ask. It was actually more like an proposal weekend. It also included two of their close friends, who also met at that camp, getting engaged too. We could not be happier and I know Michael could not be happier. It will be nice having another girl around! Congratulations (Aunt) Emily and (Uncle) Michael! We love you!