Family Christmas #2

The weekend before Christmas my mom's side of the family made it up to Nashville from Mississippi. It was great seeing them! My cousin, her husband, and kids got to come too. They had not been here before. Well, my cousin has but it has been a really long time and not since my parents or B and I moved here. Also, another cousin I only see once or so a year was able to join us from Kentucky. We did so many fun things and it was nice to catch up with everyone.

Grandparents

Opening their Great-Grandchild picture frame (see next post to get the details) and Loveless Cafe Strawberry jam and biscuit mix.

Opryland Hotel at Christmas!!!

Tatum, Mimi, Mom, and Erin

Adorable Tripp (Tatum's son)

The Cousins

Huge Christmas Tree

B and Me (17 Weeks)

We also went to see ICE. B and I have been twice before, but this year it was a different show and the theme was Charlie Brown. It was so cute! If you live near Nashville and you have kids (or even if you don't) this is a really fun thing to do at Christmas time. Everything you see is an ice sculpture.

The ICE slide (I took pics this year instead of sliding!)

Mom making her way down the ice.

In Snoopy's doghouse

I loved all of the cute characters!

"It's cooooold in here!"

The nativity scene they have at the end every year.

*Be sure and check out the other new posts below!*

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!