Thankful

Thanksgiving this year was a little different than years past.  Alan was on call during the week of Thanksgiving so he wasn't able to leave Jackson.  His parents were very thoughtful and brought Thanksgiving to Mississippi! Unfortunately, I got a horrible illness and was quite the sickling the entire holiday.  It was not the best timing to get sick, however we still had a wonderful Thanksgiving reflecting on all the wonderful blessings we have to be thankful for this year.  Alan fried the most delicious turkey and we ate until we were about to pop! 

 

 

Not only did we stuff our face with turkey, we got a good start on baby girl's nursery!!! I cannot thank my husband and in-laws enough for all their help. I am so excited about how the nursery is looking so far. It's starting to really sink in that there will be a tiny little baby girl in our house in just a few short months. Here is the latest "bump" picture taken on Thanksgiving Day at 25 weeks! 

I hope you found yourself surrounded by the one's you love this Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for.

Fairhope Weekend Getaway

Alan and I were able to getaway for the weekend and spend some much needed quality time together. Between his work schedule and mine it is rare for us to see each longer than 30 minutes for two or three days straight. A long weekend together was such a treat and we loved every minute of it. Our destination of choice was The Grand at Point Clear in Fairhope, AL.  It is a beautiful resort located on the bay. The spa was fabulous and the food was delicious.  I highly recommend The Grand if you are looking for a quick weekend escape! 

Beautiful view from our room

We had dinner at The Wash House on Friday night. It is a fine dining restaurant that offers Southern hospitality and a cozy atmosphere. We were seated right in front of the fireplace and it made for a romantic, delicious dinner!

After dinner we found ourselves craving something sweet (per usual). We found the most adorable ice cream shop, Mr. Gene's Beans, in downtown Farihope. We loved it so much that we went back Saturday night for more!

We spent Saturday morning sipping cappuccino while walking the cutest streets in downtown Fairhope filled with the most precious shops.  It made this small town girl so happy.  After a yummy lunch at Panini Pete's, which was featured on the Food Network, I tagged along while Alan played 18 holes of golf at the resort.  

After a long day for this pregnant gal on her feet, it was time to get comfortable and watch some football!! We enjoyed two of the most exciting games of SEC football thus far and I was quite pleased with the outcomes. Alan, not so much.....

Sunday morning after eating the most delicious breakfast buffet we packed up and headed to New Orleans for the Saints game.  Alan and I have never been to a professional football game and thanks to our friends the Hogan's, we had in-zone tickets on the 2nd row. Saints vs 49ers was a wonderful first experience. Although the Saints didn't pull out a W, it was an exciting game that went into overtime AND I got to see Mark Ingram up close on the field. Roll Tide! :) 

 

 

It was a weekend that I will remember forever.  With a sweet baby on the way comes many emotions about transitioning into a family of three. I know that weekends like this past one will be quite rare come March. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change where we are now for anything in the world and I cannot wait for our little girl to get here but I am cherishing the moments that Alan and I have as "just the two of us" a little more these days.  Hope that your weekend was full of special memories as well! 

Tickled Pink

 *!*!*!*!It's a GIRL!*!*!*!*

We are "tickled pink" that our sweet baby is a precious little girl!  Of course all we have prayed and hoped for is a healthy baby that grows to love the Lord. But finally putting a gender with this sweet child is so exciting and makes it all seem much more real. Both sides of our family are full of girls and we can't wait to add another spunky female to the bunch.  I promised Alan that if we had enough babies we were bound to get a boy at some point. He just smiled.  I love how he has already fallen completely in love with this baby girl and I know she is going to love her daddy as much as I do. 

Let's go back to the night that Alan and I found out the big news.  As mentioned in my last post, after my doctors appointment I took the envelope that the ultrasonographer gave me with the gender inside to a baby store.  I handed them the envelope and a blue and pink gown with instructions to wrap the gown that matched the gender inside. I waited outside very patiently  anxiously for the gift to be wrapped. I then rushed home to Alan and freshened up for dinner. My heart was beating 100 beats per minute.  It truly was the most exciting night. 

(Excuse the quality of these photos, it was dark in the restaurant and they were taken on my iphone) 

 

After three LONG weeks of keeping this big secret to ourselves we headed to Birmingham for a small gender reveal party with our family.  My sister graciously offered to host the party at her house and as always, she went above and beyond to make it the most special night.  Also, a big thanks to my mother-in-law, my mom, and Debra (my sister's MIL) for adding your special touches to make everything absolutely perfect. Alan and I will never forget the memories made and the moments shared.

 

 

After the big reveal, it was time to open the most precious baby gifts. 

The big cousin even got to open a gift! 

It was such a special treat to have five generations on my mother's side of the family and four generations on Alan's mother's side of the family present.

We also celebrated my grandmother's 75th birthday!! Her present from me was a picture of our baby. Until that night, she didn't even know that I was expecting! She said it was the best gift I could've given her! We love you GiGi!! 

So glad that my best friend from college was able to celebrate the evening with us!

We have been busy discussing baby names (she'll be lucky to have a name by the time we leave the hospital), brainstorming about nursery decor, strollers, etc, and soaking up our last few months as a family of two :) She'll be here before we know it!!! 

Until next time....... 

Our Rainbow after the Storm

Hello friends and family! Please excuse my blogging hiatus.  It is a joy to be back in the blogging world to share some exciting news with you! Alan and I are EXPECTING! Our precious baby will be here (Lord willing) in March!  We found out on July 1st that a little sweet miracle was growing inside of me. Before I get too wrapped up in this current pregnancy, I must explain the main reason I have been absent from blogging. As many of you know, Alan and I lost our first precious baby at 22 weeks this past winter.  It was the hardest, most devastating situation that we have endured in our lives thus far.  I will not go into much detail, but the main reason I bring this up is so you will know how difficult this current pregnancy has been and how thankful I am for each and every day with this baby. I take nothing for granted. I also bring it up to share with you that God is good and He is faithful. We would not be where we are today without His never-ending grace and hope.  Alan and I also want to say thank you. If you are reading this post, you more than likely said prayers, sent a card or flowers, or often asked how we were doing during that difficult time.  I didn't get a chance to personally thank everyone, but you will never know how much it meant to us to have so much love and support from so many people.  We are forever grateful.  Since going through such a dark season, I am much more sensitive to those who have lost a child, who have a child with developmental struggles, or are having trouble conceiving a child. My heart aches for all those who find themselves in these situations.  My prayer for each of you is that God will give you peace that passes all understanding, hope for the future, and patience to wait on His perfect timing in all things.  

As I mentioned, we found out about this little blessing on July 1st.  The combination of emotions that I felt at that time were overwhelming.  Happy and blessed to be given the chance to be a mother again, terrified that I might lose another child, hopeful that this pregnancy will be different, sad that our first baby never made it into my arms, anxious to make sure that all was going well so far, hesitant to even begin to get excited in fear of our hopes being crushed again.  After a few days wrestling with these emotions I finally had to take everything to Jesus and lay it at His feet.  God has blessed me with this baby but this baby belongs to Him. I am so honored and so thankful that He has entrusted Alan and me to parent this child for as long as He allows, but we are not promised tomorrow. This whole pregnancy I have been cautiously optimistic, meaning I am very hopeful that we will have a healthy baby in 5 months but I am also extremely aware that I do not control what happens with this baby. The comforting part is that God is in control. And even though God was in control in our first pregnancy which ended in tremendous heartbreak, He had a purpose greater than I will ever be able to comprehend.  And even though His ways do not always make sense to us, His ways are always good.  So throughout the remainder of this pregnancy I will continue to rest in the comfort that no matter what happens, God will never leave our side and His grace is sufficient in every situation. Praise God for that! 

I am currently 16 weeks pregnant as I type this post, and things are progressing beautifully so far. As I enter my second trimester the tiredness and sickness seem to be subsiding (some) and I am welcoming the cooler weather with open arms. We had an ultrasound a few days ago, and so far everything looks great. We will continue to get ultrasounds every two weeks for the remainder of the pregnancy (yay!!!) and keep praying that we will leave with happy news after each appointment. 

We were surprised and so excited that our ultrasonographer was able to tell the gender of our sweet baby at our 14 week ultrasound! We weren't really expecting to find out until around 16 weeks, but baby cooperated and we left with the big secret in an envelope. I immediately drove to Sweet Dreams, the sweetest baby store there ever was, and picked out a BLUE gown and a PINK gown for our baby to wear home from the hospital. I handed the gowns and the envelope to the lady who worked there and left the store while she opened the envelope and wrapped the colored gown that represented the gender inside. Alan and I rushed home, freshened up, and headed out to dinner to find out if we would be throwing BALL or playing with DOLLS in our future!?!? The only downside was Alan's work schedule. We could not get home to tell our families for another 3 weeks!!! For those of you who know me,  you are probably shocked I kept it a secret that long. But I did it :) My mother and my sister have tried to read my every tone and emotion, but I have tried my best to be as neutral as possible.  So what is Baby Cease..........?

Stay tuned for the next post :) It will be full of PINK or BLUE!!