and then there were...3!

better late than never...pumpkin patch and halloween!

2012-01-14T14:35:00.000-05:00

i know this post should have been done months ago...obviously i didn't get around to it but i've got to document it before i forget! especially so that i'll have the memories recorded for when i can scrapbook it! :)

bryleigh had a blast at the pumpkin patch....it was surprisingly, well maybe not so surprising that it was a really warm day! the farm we went to had some animals which was of course bryleigh's favorite part! she wanted to touch the little piggies so badly but there were several signs up saying that they'd bite! (we were even warned by the "farmer" to not get too close or they'd eat her fingers off! yikes!) here's a few pictures from bryleigh's first pumpkin pickin'!

for halloween, bryleigh was a lamb! goodness gracious, i know i'm biased, but she was one of the CUTEST lambs i've ever seen!! i racked my brain for weeks trying to figure out what bryleigh should be for halloween ( i know i'm running out of time for deciding what i'll dress bryleigh up as!) i searched online trying to find easy tutorials for making bryleigh her costume...i wasn't about to pay lots of money for a halloween costume that she'd wear ONE TIME! i was anxious to get bryleigh it in! honestly, i didn't think she'd like it one bit and to my surprise...she loved it! she kept trying to eat the fluffy "wool"....she was so cute, i could have just eaten her with a spoon....but i'll leave you with some pictures for you to decide!! :)

and yes i know! i may have gone a little overboard with the halloween picture postings but like i said...she was just TOO CUTE!

Bryleigh's 6 and 7

2012-01-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

i hate that i get so behind in my blogging....especially when it's about bryleigh and all about her growth and what she's learned! i'm going to cram two months into one post to catch me up! and i'd love to say that all of my pictures of her are in order and easy to get to, to make this post more fun...but for now, that will have to wait!

i keep thinking that bryleigh is in the "best stage" but then she learns how to do a little more and shows another side of her personality and she's even MORE fun! every time i blog about her, i mention how much fun we're having with her but it's true...she's such a joy! :)

what bryleigh is up to: (6 months)
we've continued seeing the chiropractor and i'm happy to say that she's still ear infection FREE! we've also stopped her reflux medications and switched her to a different formula, a cheaper one! WOO! she's really warmed up to dr. tony and gives him a big smile as soon as we walk in the door.

bryleigh learned how to sit up, unassisted on october 20th. i can't believe it! every time she reaches a new milestone, i feel like she's growing up on me way too fast! i get so excited that she's learning and growing but sad that she's doing those things, at the same time!

we've given bryleigh all kinds of fruits and vegetables and she loves ALL of them! sometimes she makes funny faces but never turns away or refuses it. she's eating about one jar of food once, sometimes twice a day and 5 bottles that are 6 ounces each.

she's never been that great of a sleeper or napper but did sleep through the night on october 22 for the first time! (7:15-6:45) :) she hasn't done this on a very regular basis since but sometimes we get a sweet surprise! i'm having to feed her between 4-5 am and then she'll usually go back to sleep for a 2 or 3 mores hours before we're up for the day.

she has mastered rolling over from her tummy to her back!

what bryleigh is up to: (7 months)
still no ear infections and reflux is good! the spitting up/throwing up has basically diminished! she spits up here and there, just like any other baby, but nothing like how it used to be! :)

bryleigh has no teeth! i'm perfectly content with that because once they start getting teeth, they stop looking like little babies! plus she's figured out how to use her gums and jaw muscles to gnaw and chew on puffs and cheerios! it's so cute to watch her eat them!! she's very interested in anything that we're eating or drinking and tries her hardest to convince us to share! she's learned how to drink out of an open cup...with lots of help and she'll even suck out of a straw sometimes! crazy! (november 21 was the first time)

on november 21, bryleigh really started rolling over from her back to her tummy....it took her a few times to figure out how to get her arm out from under her belly but she's a pro now!! so proud! she's started sleeping on her tummy during naps and nighttime.

bryleigh has learned how to say several consonant sounds but doesn't say them over and over like "da, da, da"

she has started getting from a sitting position onto her tummy to try and reach for what she wants. so grown up!

AND bryleigh's cousin was born!! londyn carrington was born on november 26!! bryleigh loves her little cousin and gets so excited anytime she sees her!

***halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas posts to come (including pictures), pinky promise!

Top 11 of 2011!

2012-01-01T14:42:00.001-05:00

2011 brought about many new and exciting experiences but also with those came some difficult ones too! We did our best to trust in the Lord and believed that His plan was and will always be better than our own! Even if we can't see what that's going to look like long term! (something that i still struggle with on a regular basis!) God was faithful and gave us so many things to be thankful for!!

Jeremy and I added a baby to our family, Bryleigh Addison, on May 15th and we couldn't be happier! She truly is a gift from the Lord!

We put our house up for sale (given the economy that we're in, we expected to take it off the market after 6 months) and sold it 5 weeks later!

We watched our church grow by the thousands and witnessed hundreds getting baptized! God is so GOOD!

My sister, Caroline, got engaged! I couldn't be happier for she and Max and I can't wait to celebrate their marriage this year!

Bryleigh's first trip to the beach! She loved it...didn't mind the sand and loved having her feet in the ocean...that's my girl! AND that trip included some of our best friends, the Hamiltons, making the trip that much better!!

We found out Jeremy's brother, Alex and his wife, Alicia, were expecting and then got to meet our first niece, Londyn Carrington, on November 26th!! Such a cute, laid back baby!

I got to be a part of one of my dearest friends, Hannah's wedding...couldn't have been a more perfect weekend, celebrating with friends! She was a beautiful bride!

We took a trip to Atlanta, to celebrate Jeremy's grandparents' 6oth wedding anniversary with the ENTIRE Russell family! two houses, dozens of people, tons of food and lots of fun!

Jeremy surprised me, for my birthday, and had some of our favorite friends come and celebrate with us at my favorite restaurant, Jake's!

We had a difficult first few months with Bryleigh's health. (constant ear infections and acid reflux issues) After talking with several people who have had successful experiences with seeing a chiropractor, we decided to give it a try! (we were willing to try ANYTHING!) We couldn't have made a better decision for our family. Bryleigh and I both see the chiropractor now and we've seen unbelievable improvements!! She hasn't had a single ear infection since, she's off her reflux medications and we've been able switch her formula...saving us money!

I continued being in a newly married, young women's small group and learned how to be a better, more respectful, godly wife! I made some incredible friends along the way, that i hope to keep for many, MANY years to come!

I'm excited to see what this new year will bring!! I hope yours is filled with many blessings and lots of happiness!! Here's to 2012!

5 comes before 6!

2011-11-12T19:19:00.000-05:00

i better hurry and post about bryleigh's 5th month since we're coming up on her 6th month...1/2 year birthday!!!

i can thankfully say that health wise, bryleigh has been MUCH better this month! and this mama couldn't be happier! both bryleigh and i have started seeing a chiropractor and bryleigh hasn't had any ear infections since! woo!! we started bryleigh on rice cereal soon after she turned four months old and since then we've introduced a few vegetables! and she's liked every one of them so far! :)

bryleigh is learning new things constantly! i feel like, every day, i see her do something that i hadn't seen her do the day before and its so fun! she's such a happy baby and has lots to say!! :) anytime we try and get her to say "da, da" she just grins as if she's saying "ill say it when i want to but not when YOU want me to!" ha!

three of bryleigh's favorite things to do are: play with her tootsies, anytime she can reach them! super cute! take a bath...from the time she was able to "submerge" in the water, she's never stopped loving it! we all get soaked during bath time! and have her daddy "gobble" her up! he tickles her, with his chin and she giggles every time! :) i LOVE watching them together!!

bryleigh has really gotten better with her hand-eye coordination and with picking up and holding her toys...if you aren't careful she'll get her hands on anything! she is able to sit up in the restaurant highchairs now, with a little wobbling, but she acts so proud! (hence, the big grin on her face above) she's wanting to sit up on her own and constantly tries to pull herself up when she's laying down, so i don't think it will be long!! she's still not too interested in rolling over, but has done it a couple more times.

we're having the most fun with bryleigh and her giggly, fun personality! she sure is a fireball but she only gets a temper every once in a while! and thankfully her fits don't last too long (usually!)....i hope things stay that way even into her "terrible twos!?" anytime she sees us, she immediately grins and it makes our day, every single time! one cute little fact about bryleigh....she LOVES old people and dogs! i don't know what it is about those two things but she'll talk to any older person, with a huge smile on her face and when she sees a dog, she gets really excited and loves when they lick her in the face!

we're looking forward to watching bryleigh grow and learn new things over the next few months but don't want any of it to come too quickly! we're enjoying our little one so much and sure don't want her to grow up too fast! :(

4 months and some...

2011-10-05T20:14:00.000-04:00

bryleigh is about 4 1/2 months now and she's changing so fast! she's such a happy baby and we're loving how her personality is really starting to show! (after becoming COMPLETELY OBSESSED with pinterest!) i decided that i wanted try and recreate some of bryleigh's pictures from when she was a newborn and then do the same for when she's 8 months and then a year!


here's bryleigh when she was only 17 days old! this picture was taken by the infamous candice and dan from The Beautiful Mess...check out their work! they're an awesome couple, with one of the cutest little girls and they do incredible work!! i know you've read about them on my blog before but i had to brag on them again!

and now bryleigh at 4 months old! she's grown so much and has added some squish! :)

bryleigh seems to be learning new things and getting better at other things every day! she's gotten so much better at reaching for and grabbing toys that hang above her. she will also grab something if you hold it out for her. she'll take anything she can get her hands on and bring it straight to her mouth! she coos and babbles all the time and i'm loving every second of it! bryleigh knows how to make smacking and popping sounds too...free entertainment, i tell ya! she is so expressive and keeps me on my toes! her favorite toys right now are anything that lights up or makes noise. OR if it has a mirror on it and she can see herself..she loves that baby in the mirror!

doesn't she look like she'll be a mess in a couple years?? that innocent, yet not so innocent face! ha!

we haven't been to the doctor yet...i might be a small procrastinator, or its that i don't want to go through another dramatic episode after the shots so we're taking it slow....! jeremy weighed bryleigh recently and she weighed about 13 and 1/2 pounds. she's pretty long, seeing that she outgrows her footed pajamas before anything else! she's wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. we started using cloth diapers this month and i'm a HUGE fan! we use mostly bum genius 4.0 one size fits all and really the only negative thing i could say about them is that they don't fit bryleigh's legs tight enough...although we haven't had a single leak or blow out so they're doing what they're supposed to! we're planning on starting bryleigh on cereal soon and i'm really looking forward to it! i know she'll do fine on it because we were putting rice cereal in her bottles for a while, hoping to reduce some of her reflux issues. i'm sure it will be funny though, to watch her eat it as opposed to drinking it in her bottle!

oh the faces of bryleigh :)

reflux and ear infections....yes both are still continuing! we feel pretty confident that the formula bryleigh is on is helping so we'll keep using it for now. bryleigh's pediatrician has recommended that bryleigh get tubes put in her ears when she gets a little older due to the recurrent ear infections :( we're hoping to try a few other options first like a chiropractor....i've heard numerous parents say that once their child starting going to a chiropractor that they didn't have another ear infection...how awesome would that be!?! even though bryleigh continues to have problems with these things, she's still such a happy baby! she rarely cries inconsolably and only fusses when she needs something!

sucking on that bottom lip...one of my favorite faces she makes!

teething....so not fun! i had no idea that once a child started teething that it could take FOREVER for the teeth to actually come through. at first i was really sad that she was teething because i thought it meant that teeth would be here soon and they would make her not look like a little baby anymore but she's been teething for over a month and still no teeth. poor baby, constantly has her hands or our hands in her mouth, just chomping away! :( she has 3 swollen spots in her mouth...all on the sides. 2 on top and 1 on the bottom...not your typical middle of the mouth, first teeth coming in! ha!


LOVE this girl!

bryleigh still isn't sleeping through the night, but only getting up once to eat. she wakes up other times throughout the night but usually just giving her pacifier back to her settles her back to sleep! she has outgrown her bassinet and moved into the pack 'n play (only temporarily because we've sold our house and we'll be moving to my parents house...temporarily!) she still sleeps in our room but i think we're all about ready for her to sleep in her own room...i think??

we're having the most fun with bryleigh and her happy spirit! she truly is such a blessing and i can't wait to see what the future holds for her! i believe that the Lord is going to use her for GREAT things and that she will definitely be a "force to be reckoned with".....watch out world! :)

we love you sweet girl!!

can't forget.

2011-08-22T17:14:00.000-04:00

bryleigh, i don't want to forget one little thing about you, as you grow up! there are some many cute things you do each day. you've already changed so much from when we brought you home from the hospital and the things that you can do continue to multiply. EVERY. DAY!

i don't want to forget...

...how happy you are every morning when you wake up and the times we (all 3 of us) spend cuddling in bed, first thing, while you wiggle around, show us lots of smiles and tell us all about your dreams you had that night!

...how you rest your hands on your knees while you're sitting up, somehow they always seem to fall in that position

...how you LOVE bathtime. you relax and take it easy the first few minutes once you get in the water and we (well usually your daddy takes over! :)) get you clean, but in no time you're kicking and splashing, squealing the whole time. and how after we get you out of the water and dry you off, you'll giggle for us if we tickle your legs or your neck!

...how you've found yourself in the mirror and constantly smile and talk to "that baby"

...how you sing your sleepy song when you're almost asleep

...how you hold onto the bottle (like such a big girl) or onto my fingers while i feed you

...how you immediately smile when your daddy talks to you

i love you, sweet baby girl!

*i'm going to keep adding to this list as you get older and won't it be so fun one day to look at it together and talk about all the cute things you learned to do!?

**bloggy readers, i've got to share this series of pictures with you, they're just too funny!

oh mom! please stop trying to take my picture!

uhh...a little help here?!


look at me!! weeee.....here i go! (as she fell over, face first. haha!)

HAPPY MONDAY BLOGGY FRIENDS!

3 month babe.

2011-08-15T15:59:00.001-04:00

i'll probably be saying this every month, but i can NOT believe that bryleigh is already 3 months old! so much has happened over this past month and bryleigh is changing so much! she is still such a happy baby but oh so strong-willed! :) i wanted to share some pictures with you of all that bryleigh has been up to in the last month!

bryleigh went to church for the very first time when she was 9 weeks old. we went, assuming that we'd be able to sit outside of the service and just watch it on a screen. but once we got there, we realized that the screen wasn't set up so we had to either take her into service with us or go ahead and put her in our children's ministry....well, this mama hasn't been away from bryleigh even for a second and so i became emotional, almost immediately! i knew i had to push myself at some point to let someone else take care of her so we decided to leave her in the nursery. i knew that she would be okay; i just wasn't too sure that i'd be okay! we've taken her back to church twice since then and i don't know that its gotten any easier but i'm at least able to hold back the tears now!

bryleigh wore one of the smocked rompers that my sisters and i wore when we were little! i'm so thankful that my mom held onto some of our clothes and now i'm able to dress bryleigh in them!

bryleigh took a nap in her crib for the very first time this month. and can i be honest?? she hasn't slept in it since. haha! (as i posted this picture of bryleigh in her room, i realized that i never did a post on her nursery...oops! sorry!)

we've gotten together with our friends, ashley and landin, several times and these two together are simply the cutest! landin is 3 months older than bryleigh but i've told her as long as they wait until they're 30...its okay that she dates an older man!

we had two weddings to go to on the SAME DAY! we were a bit anxious because we weren't sure how bryleigh would handle such a crazy day but overall she did great! a close friend of mine since we were little, got married local, and then my cousin got married in his hometown, winston salem, so we had to squeeze both into our day.

the sunset that night was absolutely gorgeous so we had to take some pictures with our cutie, while we watched.

we spent the weekend with jeremy's family in raleigh. we just can't resist those squishy cheeks!

bryleigh is always so smiley! especially when we put her in her bouncy seat and she's able to look around and see what's going on!

bryleigh also got to meet her great-grandparents (jeremy's dad's parents) while we were in town. watching them with her was so special!

don't you think bryleigh looks completely different when she's smiling and then when she's not?? i also think she looks a lot different when there's a big ol' bow up on her head too!

bryleigh had her "2 month appointment" when she was about 10 weeks old. we had to postpone our appointment because she turned 2 months old while we were at the beach (beach post coming soon!) i was completely dreading this appointment because i knew it meant her getting lots of shots! :( bryleigh didn't cry for too long but it completely broke my heart. i was the one who couldn't hold it together. the rest of that day and the next were really rough...bryleigh's little body didn't handle those shots very well! :( BUT getting to go to the doctor and see her stats are always fun so i'll share those!

2 MONTH STATS:

(at 10 weeks)

weight: 11 pounds 2 ounces (50%)

height: not quite 23 inches (75%)

head circumference: can't remember the measurement but 25-50%

bryleigh is still getting up 1-2 times a night and takes naps after she's been awake for about an hour and a half. (bryleigh slept through the night for the first time last night!! 9:30-615! say a little prayer for us that this is a continual thing!) we've figured out a better method of putting bryleigh done for a nap so typically it doesn't take as long as it used to. thank you, Lord! she still eats 4 ounces, every 3-4 hours.

bryleigh is wearing 0-3 months clothes but we noticed last night that her pajamas are getting a little short! looks like we'll be moving up a size very soon! i couldn't resist putting her in a few of her 6 month clothes already because they were just too cute! :) it makes me sad because i was surprised to see that the clothes weren't too big for her. she's growing too fast!

bryleigh started giggling! like really GIGGLING!! (for my records, the big day was august 2nd!) we LOVE it! we can tickle her on her legs, under her neck and sometimes under her arms and she'll laugh! sometimes she'll do it just while we're playing or when she's busy all by herself. anytime she giggles, we laugh too! we just love it sooo much!

she's such a busy baby. always kicking her legs and moving her arms. she prefers to be held facing out so she can wiggle around and watch everything that's going on around her. bryleigh enjoys playing on her mat that has toys that hang above her. she can finally reach the toys and swats at them! she has learned how to pull her legs up to her tummy and roll to her side...we're cheering her on, hoping she'll learn how to get all the way over to her tummy soon! she isn't much of a fan of tummy time but she's gotten better at pushing up with her arms to pick her head up! she's found her hands and constantly puts them in her mouth or clasps them together...so cute! and she'll grab onto your hand and try and bring it straight to her mouth! she's got some strong gums!!

unfortunately, a couple weeks ago bryleigh started refusing her bottles. :( i talked with the doctor and he explained that it could be a phase that she's going through and as long as she's gaining weight then he didn't have any concerns...as long as this "phase" didn't last long. a week went by and things still hadn't gotten better so i took her to the doctor. come to find out, she had a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION! are you kidding me?? how could my little baby have ear infections? i was so upset and hated that i waited so long to take her to be seen!! she was put on an antibiotic for 10 days (which she hated! ha!) and the doctor wanted to check her ears in 2 weeks. it hadn't been 2 weeks but bryleigh still wasn't eating or sleeping well so i called the doctor AGAIN! he had us come in for a second time and thankfully her ear infections had cleared up completely so he decided it had to be her reflux! :( we had already switched her formula and hoped that that would do the trick but he decided to put her in zantac. we haven't seen much progress since putting her on this medicine but they said to give it a week and we've got 2 more days until we hit that week mark....

we've really enjoyed watching bryleigh learn all kinds of new things and change into much more of a baby instead of a newborn! she's figured out that our dog, maela exists and when she sees her, her eyes will follow her around the room! she's definitely become a mama's girl and can get easily upset if someone other than me or her daddy are holding her. doesn't always last long though, especially if they turn her to where she can face out and get distracted by what's going on around her!

bryleigh...your mommy and daddy love you to pieces and we're excited to see you change and grow even more in the next month! you have been such a blessing to us and we're thankful that we were chosen to be your parents! we promise to do the best that we can in raising you but i can't promise that we won't make mistakes along the way. you are absolutely beautiful and so special! we love you!

playing catch up!

2011-07-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

i'm sorry its been a while since my last post...but we've been out of town a lot and things with a newborn are just a little unpredictable! :)

i'm beginning to think that a weekly post of bryleigh may be unrealistic so now i'm shooting for a monthly post. now i'll still hopefully post other things in between but i want to make sure and at least document what's going on with her developmentally, etc. once a month!

when bryleigh was 7 weeks old she started cooing! and i LOVE it! it couldn't make me any happier when jeremy or i talk to her and she wiggles around trying to muster up sounds to talk back to us! she's constantly grinning too...absolutely precious! she seems to smile more for the two of us but she'll definitely give a grin to other people too! a couple nights this week bryleigh gave me a wonderful surprise! she slept from 10:30-11 until 5AM! woo! i tried to not get my hopes up because i was afraid that i wouldn't be a permanent thing but i appreciated what i got! (and now that its been a few weeks since then...i can say its only happened maybe 2 more times!)

we went to stone mountain over july 4th weekend to celebrate jeremy's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary with the ENTIRE family! they rented two house and we all piled in! i was anxious of how bryleigh would do being around so many people and being in a new place but overall she did a really good job! here are some pictures from our weekend...

sweet smile! she smiles with her eyes too!

everyone hanging out at the "pool house" (and daddy is stealing a kiss from bryleigh!)

trying out the pool for the first time! (she LOVED it!) we definitely have a water baby on our hands!

he sure gets lots of kisses!

russell family picture! each family was assigned a different color to wear, making it easy to distinguish who belongs to each family.

team RED!

our little family :)

uncle alex and aunt alicia! do you see that baby bump?? they're due november 24th! and while we were there they decided on their baby girl's name...londyn carrington! LOVE IT!

4 generations on jeremy's side!

sweet merit, already knows how to pose for a camera!

i could just squeeze her!


laying out by the pool!

we had a great time getting to spend the holiday with jeremy's family. it's not often enough that they're all able to get together, with everyone living so far apart. we're thankful that bryleigh gets to spend time with her great-grandparents too!

bryleigh's birth day.

2011-07-20T11:25:00.001-04:00

CAUTION: this post is extremely long...because my labor was uh...long! but i promise if you're able to read until the end of the post, a baby really is born! :)

before i start explaining bryleigh's birth day let me first explain what happened the few days before she was born! friday, may 13th, was my sister, caroline's birthday! we celebrated her birthday with everyone in our immediate family...her boyfriend and our sister and brother in law came up from alabama so we all got to be together! :) we went out to dinner and then met up with some of caroline's friends and more of our family for drinks afterwards. it was such a fun night celebrating caroline! being 9 months pregnant, i got a couple funny looks being out that late...at a bar! ha! we got home pretty late that night and had to be up early the next morning because it was day 2 of celebrating caroline...because she was graduating! WOO! we went to her graduation and then spent some time hanging out at my parents' house until it was time for her graduation party! so many family members and friends came that night to share in her accomplishments and we loved getting to spend time with everyone! the entire weekend i was holding my breath, hoping that bryleigh wasn't going to make her appearance since we had so much going on and it was time to celebrate someone else...plus it would have been so chaotic and crazy for my family! once saturday night came around and i realized that bryleigh wasn't going to come during caroline's celebrations, i started really hoping for her to come the next day. i desperately wanted her to come on sunday while everyone in my family was in town, instead of them having to make another drive up to for bryleigh's arrival in the very near future! it would have worked out so perfectly! i kept telling everyone at the party to pray that she would come the next day but really thought that she wouldn't be coming. not that i knew how things would feel or if i could predict when she was coming but i assumed that she wouldn't be since i didn't know...if that makes any sense!? jeremy and i got home that night along with his mom, caroline, and her boyfriend and we all went to bed...without having any idea what was in store!!!

4:00AM ALL OF A SUDDEN, i am woken up by an intense cramping feeling in my lower abdomen. it takes me a minute to really wake up to realize the pain i'm feeling and try to figure out what could be the matter! i laid in bed for the next 30 minutes trying to fall back asleep but kept that cramping feeling kept coming back...over and over! i hadn't woken jeremy up because i didn't want to concern him, assuming that this was nothing and it would fade away...granted i hadn't felt this kind of pain since before i was pregnant (very similar to menstrual cramps but with the tightening of a braxton hicks contraction too!)

4:30AM the "cramping" hadn't stopped, it was happening about every 7ish minutes (yes, i did start timing this weird pain! ha) so i woke jeremy up. it took him a while to grasp what really could be/was happening! it didn't seem to affect him too much because he kept falling in and out of sleep! the pain was manageable and he encouraged me to try and go back to sleep. GO BACK TO SLEEP?? are you kidding me? yeah, right! i'm not going back to sleep! haha! i tried, really i did but i couldn't because of the pain and the unknown of whether or not this was the beginning of my labor!?

6:00AM i had had enough of this "trying to relax and get some sleep" business so i decided to take a shower. i knew that if i was going into labor that i would want to take a shower before going to the hospital anyways. plus i was hoping it would help keep me calm! the shower felt great...i probably stood in there for a good 20-30 minutes. ha! it also gave jeremy more time to sleep since we hadn't gotten much sleep earlier in the weekend and it was still very really! after i got out of the shower, i was determined to make blueberry muffins for everyone...they had sounded so good to me for weeks and wanted everyone to have something for breakfast when they woke up!

8:00AM jeremy's mom comes downstairs while i'm working in the kitchen, completely clueless of what's going on! :) she quickly realizes that i'm a bit uncomfortable and knows that i'm not usually up earlier than i have to be and asks if everything's okay! i explain to her what i think is happening but i'm not wanting to get my hopes up because i didnt know if the labor would stay and progress of if it could be "false labor." at this point my contractions are still about the same amount of time apart and still manageable.

9:00AM max, caroline's boyfriend, comes downstair to eat breakfast and sees that i'm not quite myself! he gets the scoop on what's going on and starts cracking jokes...helping me keep my mind off of the pain! :) caroline come's downstairs, beginning to freak out! ha! wanting to know how i am and to see if we're going to be able to go to church. GO TO CHURCH?? are you kidding me? i can't go to church, i may be having A BABY! :) we had plans to meet up with the rest of our family after church for lunch before lauren, pearson and max had to head back to alabama but i wasn't ready to call anyone and tell them what could be happening but i still wasn't 100% sure that this would be "it!" i made caroline promise that she wouldn't call them because i just really didn't want anyone else knowing yet...and i thought my family was already at their church and knew that if they got a call explaining that i was in labor then the entire church would know in a matter of seconds because my parents would be so excited! so caroline and max leave for church and i sit down for a bit to try and get my mind off how i was feeling! by this point, jeremy had gotten up! i tried to let him sleep as much as possible because i thought i could potentially really be needing his help later in the day!

10:00AM since the contractions hadn't stopped i decided my safest way to let my family know that i could be in labor was to call my dad. i knew he would stay calm and if i told him not to tell anyone that he wouldn't tell the whole church. well come to find out...he was the only one who had gone to church! the rest of my family was at home!! i tell him what's going on and soon after i get off the phone i get a call from my mom! :) everyone is very concerned about me and wanting to know the timing of my contractions! they are all encouraging me to go ahead and call the doctor to see what i should do. well stubborn me doesn't want to call the doctor because until i absolutely had to i didn't want to go to the hospital! plus, i still didn't know or maybe believe that "it" was actually happening! i was started to get worried that my contractions were slowing down and got a little discouraged. i couldn't know if i was in real labor and didn't want to keep my family from going back home if i wasn't going to have bryleigh but didn't want to send them on their way if she was going to come later on! my family decided that they would all go onto lunch and wait to hear from us!

11:00AM i decided that a walk sounded good and hoped that it would help speed my contractions back up! i really didn't want everything to stop and have to start the process of pain all over again! ha! so jeremy and i..with our dog maela, headed out for a walk! we walked around the entire neighborhood, trying to walk through the contractions! at times it was difficult but i knew it would be worth it if it kept them coming!

12:00PM jeremy was awesome! anytime i was in noticeable pain, he would massage my shoulders or lower back or squeeze my fingers (really helped with the pain!) at some point he convinced me to call the doctor and see what they had to say. after talking with the nurse she told me to head to the hospital! AHH! we told my family what she had said but that i wasn't ready to go yet! i didn't feel like the pain was intense enough for me to need to go and jeremy wasn't pushing the issue so we waited a little longer!

2:00PM i knew that a bath could help ease the pain and jeremy had offered off and on to run the bath water for me but i was trying to wait until i felt like i really needed it. he told me to go ahead and get in the bath and after that we'd head to the hospital but that we didn't have to rush! i got in the bathtub and within minutes needed to get back out! the contractions started coming much closer together and the pain was much more intense! i quickly decided that maybe it would be a good idea to get our things together and go on to the hospital!! he took a shower while i got a few last minute things packed, stopping during my contractions! (they were about every 3 minutes apart, lasting 30-60 seconds) we called our family and told them where we were headed!

**riding to the hospital was one of the worst parts! jeremy tried the best he could to dodge all pot holes and bumps but having contractions while stuck in an upright position wasn't any fun! AND somehow...we drove off without getting our pre-registration papers and realized it about 5 minutes down the road and had to turn around!! are you kidding me? we have to turn around and i'm in LABOR! jeremy's mom luckily met us outside of the neighborhood with the paperwork but we met her in a gravel parking lot! NO FUN at all! i had jeremy drive as slow as a turtle not wanting to bump up and down too much! :)

3:00PM we arrive at the hospital to meet my family who had beat us there! HA! we went straight to the labor and delivery unit and got checked in. they hooked me up to the monitors to see what was happening! the nurse asked me TONS of questions and checked to see how much i had dilated. unfortunately, i had only dilated to 3 cm! :( i had hoped that since things had sped up and the pain was worse that i would have progressed more!

4:00PM the nurse came back in to check me and thankfully i was 4 cm! making progress! :) they decided to admit me and i was there for good...i was going to be having our baby soon!! she asked if i would be wanting the epidural and that i could get it if i'd like to. (i had been told by our childbirth instructor that if you wanted an epidural that you needed to go ahead and ask for it before you desperately needed it because the anesthesiologist came on a first-come, first-serve basis and you may have to wait a while for your turn!) so i decided that i should go ahead and request it. she said he wasn't too busy and should be in in about 30 minutes! i started to get really anxious about it because the idea of being numb and stuck in the hospital bed really made me feel claustrophobic! in a few minutes the nurse was back in explaining that the doctor needed to come much quicker to administer my epidural because a woman had just come in, already dilated to 6 cm, requesting an epidural! but since i had asked first, he needed to hurry and do mine! YIKES! i hadn't completely prepared for it and really got scared! the doctor was great and got that medicine in and working in NO TIME! i felt like a new woman!!

5:00-9:00PM the nurse came to check me again and i hadn't really made much progress. visitors started coming and since i was feeling great! :) i was able to spend time with many of them! the nurse had been in communication with the doctor that was on-call and they decided that since i wasn't progressing very fast to go ahead and give me some pitocin. the nurse would check me every 30 minutes and if i hadn't gotten closer together then she would "up" the dosage. she checked to see how much i had dilated a each hour and i went from being 4 1/2 to 6 to 9!!! so close!

10:00-11:30PM the nurse called the doctor for him to come in, knowing that it wouldn't be too much longer before it would be time to push! :) it was such a surreal experience because i knew what i was at the hospital for and i could feel the pressure and tightening during the contractions but it still didn't seem real that we were about to have our baby! the doctor came in and introduced himself...he was a super nice guy! he made me feel so comfortable and excited about what was about to happen! i was 10 centimeters, fully effaced and her head was super low...the nurses and doctor could see her head and i hadn't even started pushing yet! (for several weeks i had been told by my doctor that she was really low and as soon as the nurse started checking me at the hospital she would say the same thing every time too!) i tried to prepare myself for what was ahead...assuming that i would be pushing for 2 or more hours, considering i was a first time mom. the nurse had me push during a contraction before the doctor came in and so i gave it everything i could! quickly the nurse became concerned because bryleigh's heart rate dropped while i was pushing. another nurse came in and saw what had happened and they hoped that once i pushed again bryleigh's would have adjusted to the stress and wouldn't react the same way...well she did! so they immediately started talking about getting her out as quickly as possible and that the doctor may need to use a vacuum! :( i started to get really nervous and definitely didn't want them to use a vacuum!!

11:30PM the doctor came in and the "real" pushing started! he watched me push through one contraction and said he wouldn't be needing the vacuum that bryleigh would be coming VERY SOON! i pushed through 4 contractions and SHE WAS BORN!!!!! i kept saying, "we did it! can you believe it?? she's here!" it was such a surreal experience. there she was laying on my chest and she was ours! she didn't cry a whole lot so they took her over to the bassinet where they could get suction more and make her cry :( i already hate hearing it! i asked the doctor what his guess was on how much she would weigh because from the look of her i was still thinking she was a big baby. he guessed 6lbs. 12 oz. and when they put her on the scale, he was ONLY 1 OZ. OFF! you can definitely tell he's being doing this for years!

i wasn't feeling well after the delivery and they think it was because i tried to do too much too fast right after she was born. i felt really nauseous and light-headed so it took me a while before i felt up to feeding bryleigh. they want you to try and nurse within the first 2 hours of their lives so i needed to try and feed her before all the guests came to see us. thankfully i did end up feeling a little better and after a super long wait, our family and so many of our friends were able to meet her!! everyone were such troopers waiting as long as they did. most everyone had to work the next day and they we're able to see bryleigh until sometime after 1 AM making it a really long night for everyone. a few people even had to drive 3 and 4 hours to get back home for work the next day!

i can honestly say that labor was difficult but absolutely worth it! and i highly recommend the epidural! ha! the entire experience wasn't as hard as i had thought it would be...i just kept reminding myself that the pain wouldn't last forever and at the end of it our daughter would be here! :)

having a baby truly is a miracle from God and i feel SO blessed that He gave us such a beautiful and healthy baby! and an incredible husband too! i couldn't have done it without all the prayers, support and love!

**when i have a chance, i'll update this post with pictures from the hospital!

how a baby wakes up...

2011-06-30T18:57:00.001-04:00

how a baby wakes up...it takes a lot of work, ya know!

first...you end your nap with a sweet dream of...milk! and you get pretty excited about it...it even puts a smile on your face!

second....okay well really its an extension of the first...still dreaming of milk!

third...for a quick minute, you drift back into "la-la land!"

fourth...attempt to get that darn bow off your head! who wants to wear one of those?? (mommy helped her!)

fifth...streeetch to the right!

sixth.....streetch to the left!

seventh...stretch to the top! you're almost awake!


and last....a BIG OL' yawn!

phew! we made it! :)

weeks 5 and 6 in pictures! ENJOY!

2011-06-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

taking a little snooze on mommy and daddy's bed :)

"mom! please stop taking my picture!"

headed to fairview elementary to visit with all of nonnie's friends! (you can't tell from the picture, but she definitely has a tutu on!!)

just hanging out, looking super cute!

where's bryleigh? ha! we went to help out a couple friends and bryleigh took a nap on the couch...she's flexible!

sleeping good in her carseat...looking so stinking cute!

happy father's day to the best daddy!

bryleigh having a good ol' time, grinning for her mommy! LOVE IT!

doesn't it look like she's wanting to tell me something exciting??

great-grandma and bryleigh


i absolutely love this picture! but you have to be careful of grandma betty...she's likes to try and squeeze the sweetness out of babies! :)


great-grandaddy spending time with bryleigh.

and now its her great-grandmother's turn!

bryleigh and i went out to support aunt lucy (emily) at her swim meet!

bryleigh's holding her daddy's hand, helping keep that pacifier in her mouth! LOVE THESE TWO!

isn't this the CUTEST monster you've ever seen!?!

one of my very best friends, hannah, came to visit and meet bryleigh for the first time!

doesn't happen too often but i was able to get in a picture!

look at me! i'm such a big girl...wearing 0-3 month clothes now!

"now how can i get that chick-a-duck?!? my arms don't reach!"

look at that happy baby! i could just eat her with a spoon!

bryleigh's one month!

2011-06-16T23:35:00.000-04:00

how in the world is bryleigh already a month old? as of yesterday we've had our little girl in our arms for ONE month! i can't believe it! i have absolutely loved the time i've gotten to spend as bryleigh's mama and i've really enjoyed getting to watch her grow and learn new things in such a short amount of time...she keeps changing and getting bigger and i can't get her to stop!

i couldn't have asked for or hoped for a better baby! bryleigh has been such a joy to love on and cuddle with! jeremy and i feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to raise bryleigh and we pray that she grows up to be a strong, independent, generous, passionate, and honest, CHRISTIAN girl. we already know that she is beautiful, stubborn...or maybe you could say determined?!, and advanced! ;)

some of my most favorite moments that i've shared with bryleigh:
....watching her while she sleeps...making all her little expressions and even letting out a couple giggles!
....talking to bryleigh and her making eye contact, trying to make sounds like she's talking back to me
....rocking her to sleep, while she's cuddled in my arms

what do yall think about these pictures?? haha...i am DEFINITELY no photographer...pretty terrible at it actually! BUT, i'm hoping to take somewhat "special" pictures on each of bryleigh's birthdays over the next year! similar to what i'm already doing for each week, i'd like to have pictures for each month too!

it was hilarious to me to try and take these pictures. i was hoping that bryleigh would fall asleep before i took the pictures but as you can see...that didn't happen! i love that she was awake though, that was i was able to capture her beautiful eyes and wiggly body!

don't you just love that naked (or as i pronounce it "necked") hinny?!? i was praying the whole time that she didn't pee on the rocking chair (it's an heirloom piece, passed down, from my dad's side of the family...still in the same fabric!)

i tried to get her to ball up with her legs under her belly but this little wiggle worm wasn't having that! :) looking at this naked baby just makes me want to eat her with a spoon! LOVE my baby girl!

HAPPY 1 MONTH, BRYLEIGH ADDISON! your mama and daddy sure do love you!!

i hope y'all enjoyed these pictures and that you have a wonderful weekend!

week 4. a little late...

2011-06-15T17:51:00.000-04:00

bryleigh and i got to go with jeremy on his work trip for a few days, from sunday to wednesday! our dear friend, megan brought us lunch one afternoon and of course bryleigh slept the entire time that she was there! we ran out of diapers while we were gone and had to make a target run...a successful, uneventful trip! she did great every night that we would go out to dinner and did really well sleeping in her pack 'n play for the first time too!

i ABSOLUTELY love watching bryleigh with her daddy! she loves listening to him talk and sing to her!

it seems as though she's really starting to get a little personality...and maybe even more of a temper! haha! after she eats, she's usually pretty happy and loves looking around. she'll wiggle around and make little grunts while you talk to her. she's definitely found her lungs and uses them anytime she wakes up hungry, acting as if she hasn't eaten in DAYS! and if she's hungry, while sucking on her pacifier she makes this distinct grunting/sucking noise letting us know that the pacifier isn't cutting it and she wants milk! :)

she's learning at a young age how to pose for the camera! ha!

i'm starting to feel like a real mommy now that i've had some time where i've taken care of her all by myself. and now that she's crying a little more...like when she's tired and can't get to sleep or if her tummy hurts, usually its jeremy or myself that are able to calm her down and/or get her to sleep quicker than anyone else. it makes me feel like i have this special job that no one can take away from me! :)

don't you love that face?? too cute!

the day our friends came to take bryleigh's pictures her face started breaking out. we assumed that it was a rash similar to one that she had soon after she was born and we hoped that it would go away quickly...but its decided to hang around. it makes me hurt seeing all the little bumps and red places on her face, neck and back but baby acne isn't supposed to hurt and it doesn't seem to bother her. they say not to put anything on it or it could get worse so we're just waiting it out. not that this rash makes her any less cute or anything!

bryleigh took a little nap on our bed for the first time, and on her tummy! (i think she liked it, don't you?)...it just about swallowed her whole though! haha!

friday night our friends, stephanie and kyle, came over to hang out and bring us dinner. the food was delicious and their company was such a treat! they're friends of ours from our small group and we hadn't seen them in a few weeks since bryleigh was born! they truly are one of the sweetest, most genuine couples and we feel so lucky to have a friendship with them!

the flower was so big that she couldn't see straight! i just couldn't resist though, had to get a picture for y'all to see the cuteness!!

i know i've said this before but she loves holding onto things. it's the sweetest thing how she'll hold onto your hand or one of your fingers while you feed her or she'll grab onto the burp cloth with both her hands and pull it up to her chest while she's eating...just so cute! she's definitely still a tiny little thing but we're beginning to notice that her clothes are fitting better and the velcro strips on her diapers aren't crossing over each other anymore...she's getting bigger!

her neck is so strong! she's holding her head up trying to look up at her daddy!

my sister, lauren, came up for the weekend and we got to spend a little time with her. we went to a mall and had dinner. and then on sunday my family got together for lunch. both outings involved feeding for bryleigh and she did so great!

we were at her grandparents house and she was in such a good mood!

bryleigh...week 3!

2011-06-07T18:29:00.000-04:00

there are so many cute things that i love about bryleigh! i'm so afraid that as time goes by i'm going to forget those things especially as she gets older and doesn't do some of them anymore! (3 weeks into motherhood and look at me...already being sentimental!) jeremy and i both love to watch her as she wiggles and squirms while trying to wake up. how she stretches her arms out (if she's broken loose from the swaddle) and then quickly brings them back into her face. we love how she's already very alert and will try and follow our voices to see where we are. how she makes so many different expressions when she's awake and when she's asleep. how she loves to hold onto things...she'll grab a hold of anything if its within her reach, our fingers, a burp cloth, her own fingers, your shirt, etc. we aren't too fond of the short temper she seems to already have (no idea where she got that from!) but deep down we love it because it will make her a strong, determined little girl and it can be funny to watch her go from happy to furious in a matter of seconds!...but that's only if we can calm her down just as fast! :) we love the dimples in her cheeks and how she can spread out all her toes, just like her daddy can!

we had two appointments on tuesday and her weights were 7 pounds 2 ounces and then 6 pounds 13 ounces..so back to her birth weight! right on track for where she should be! we're thinking she weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces at the doctor's office because i had fed her about an hour before! the doctor said that she looked great and that he didn't need to see her back until she's 2 months!!

tuesday night we had our friends, candice and dan from the beautiful mess come over to do bryleigh's first photo shoot! now between her "nonnie" and "oma" she's had several but not anything done professionally! they've posted a teaser on facebook and we can't wait to see the rest! we really enjoyed spending time with them and meeting their little cutie, stevie, for the first time! (go check out their blog! they do awesome work, they're super fun and would love to take pictures of your little one or of your special day!!)

her umbilical cord had fallen off at the beginning of the week. yippee! and we couldn't wait to give her her first "real" bath. she LOVED it! she didn't cry at all! she isn't quite big enough for it though..we had to be careful because every few seconds she would slide down and attempt to drink the water! ha!

bryleigh had a lot of firsts this week! she had her first road trip traveling out of her home state..to good ol' knoxville, tennessee...where she rode through the mountains and stayed in her first hotel. this king size bed completely swallowed her whole! don't you worry though...she didn't sleep "in" the bed...only took a short nap. we brought her bassinet (which we quickly learned wasn't the best idea due to its size and makeup!) for her to sleep in.

the quality of some of these pictures aren't the greatest since they were taken on my phone but this is one of my most favorite pictures so far! i think she looks so cute and kind of chunky! oh i just love those big eyes and squishy cheeks!

we visited with some of our dearest friends, the butler family, and they let us try out a swing...bryleigh's first experience proved to be a success! we may be shopping for one of these soon! :)

a picture taken while bryleigh and i were hanging out in the hotel room while daddy was away working!

my sister and her husband came into town for the weekend for bryleigh to meet her uncle pearson for the first time!

bryleigh got her first "lovey" from her "uncle max" and as you can see she already loves it. she grabbed onto it and kept it right near her face. so stinking cute!

bryleigh was wide awake, just hanging out with her daddy!

these details below are mostly just for this mama to be able to remember and keep up with bryleigh's schedule**

...she's eating anywhere from 3 1/2 ounces to 5 ounces every 4-5 hours. typically she goes closer to 5 hours during the night from the time she eats to the next feeding. she has started spitting up quite a bit so we're working on different techniques of how to feed her, burp her and how long to let her sit before putting her into her car seat or moving her around a whole lot. she definitely seems to know my voice and her daddy's and calms down quickest when we're talking or "shh-ing" her. she loves her pacifier but doesn't have to have it all the time. so far she's doing a great job riding in her car seat...we keep her sleep sheep playing on the ocean setting while she's sleeping! she sleeps best on her sides. we've found that when we place her on her back she pulls her legs up to her tummy to make herself roll sideways and then stays that way. she's able to sleep when its bright out or when its dark and with or without noise. we're hoping that she won't get used to sleeping one certain way because that will make things difficult as she gets older, needing conditions to be just right in order to sleep! (fingers crossed that this will last!!)

i hope everyone has a great week and be on the lookout over at the beautiful mess for bryleigh's photo shoot! YAY! can't wait!!

week 2!

2011-05-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

week 2 has come and gone and i can't believe its already going so fast! please....slow down! we've been much busier this week than last but we've been sure to spend lots of time cuddling with bryleigh too! bryleigh had her first doctor's appointment on monday and the doctor said she looks great! we had many visitors come by to meet our baby and many very generous family members and friends who brought us yummy meals! we wouldn't be surviving without all of you!

i think jeremy and i are beginning to feel like we have this parenting thing somewhat under control?! now, in no way do i think we've figured it all out but we've learned what her cries usually mean, when to feed her and about how long that will take, we've accomplished a couple trips out from the house..some more successful than others. ha! and we're truly loving every minute of it! (except for the lack of sleep!) bryleigh has been awake more this week and we have to try and contain ourselves because all we want to do is kiss on her chubby cheeks!

bryleigh is all wrapped up, trying to stay warm in her daddy's arms while waiting on the doctor to come in. she waited so patiently...i wish that i could say the same for her mommy and daddy!

my best friend, elizabeth, and her ADORABLE little leah, brought us dinner and even cleaned some for us too! since they brought us dinner we thought we could at least share a cup of pudding with leah...isn't she too cute?? those curls and her long eye lashes...they'll get you!

and then watching leah give bryleigh kisses...oh my word! too stinking cute! i could not get over how cute that was! can't wait for bryleigh to be a little older so that she can leah can be best buds!

our dog, maela, came home from playing on a farm all week and met bryleigh. she was super curious about who this little person was but she's already taken on a "mommy" role! anytime bryleigh cries she hops up and runs over to her to make sure that she's alright! she's adjusted to her much better than i had thought! whew!

trying out the "boppy pillow" all swaddled up in a cocoon.

my uncle dick holding bryleigh

my mom and her sister (my aunt ellen)

she constantly keeps her hands up near her face and can sometimes figure out how to get those fingers in her mouth!

we tried out our "sleepy wrap" for the first time...i think she likes it??

see what i mean? she's awake and her daddy can't help himself but to give her lots of kisses!

our sleeping beauty...in a spaghetti strap onesie! ahh, so cute!

i have to end the post with one of my most favorite pictures so far! don't you think naked babies are the cutest?!? we gave her a sponge bath and she was wiped out!

first trip out in the "real world"

2011-05-27T13:39:00.000-04:00

jeremy and i had been needing to desperately run a few errands for the past several days but just hadn't gotten around to it! having a newborn, even though they sleep most of the time is a lot of work! somehow the hours quickly pass by and your day is over! now that could be because we don't technically get out of bed until 10 or 11 am, seeing that we don't make it to bed each night until sometime between 1 and 3 am plus getting up a few times for at least an hour to feed her, so our "days" really start and end at completely different times than most everyone else..haha!

anyway, so we finally build up the courage to take her out into the "real world" for the first time and boy was it an adventure! (we had taken her to the doctor but that doesn't really count since all we did was take her there and then come right back home) we tried our best to time everything out just right so that as soon as she ate we'd leave the house to have the most amount of time to get things accomplished until it was time for her to eat again. of course that didn't happen and it took us like an hour to get out the door once bryleigh had been fed but we were doing the best that we could. so bryleigh gets fed, we get her dressed and ready to go, we get everything out to the car, get her buckled in and i climb into the back seat to sit with her. i realize that she's spit up EVERYWHERE! jeremy and i get out of the car, get bryleigh out of the car and we have to start over! jeremy stays outside to basically hose down the car seat while i go inside to change bryleigh. somewhere in between all of that bryleigh poops too! upstairs we go, get a clean diaper and outfit on and we're back outside ready to go! welp...bryleigh decides to poop AGAIN! goodness gracious, we can't even get out of the driveway and in no time she's going to want to eat again! i change her diaper and we basically jump into the car to try and get on the road before anything else happens. bryleigh falls asleep in the car and so we're keeping out fingers crossed that we'll be able to make it to at least 3 of the 4 places we need to go to. we make it to our first stop and quickly realize that bryleigh won't be lasting too long in her car seat..she's squirming around and getting fussy. we're basically running through target trying to get the things that are on our list...knocking off the stuff that isn't of utmost importance. she starts crying and jeremy gets her out of her car seat and holds her while pushing her stroller while i have the cart running down the aisle. we decide that its in all of our best interest for me to try and go feed her while jeremy checks out so that hopefully we can make it to at least one more store. i take bryleigh to the family bathroom hoping that there might be somewhere to sit to feed her...uh what was i thinking? i walk in and all that's there is a sink, toilet and changing table. so i do the best that i can, standing up in a bathroom trying to feed my baby! i'm terrified that at any minute someone is going to knock on the door needing to use the family restroom because they have a family of 7 kids or something. haha! we were in there a good 10 minutes and i had had enough. i feel pretty confident that she'll be okay until we can get to the car and i'd finish feeding her. we meet jeremy at the register (because he had to go back and swap out some of the stuff that i had picked up because i'd gotten the wrong things..ahh!) and we all make it out to the car. whew! we drove to a shaded, secluded spot in the parking lot and i was able to finish feeding her! glad that was over with! we did make it to one more store and decided to ditch the other errands and do those another day!

now some of you that already have a baby or maybe a few children may think this is ridiculous especially since i had jeremy with me but it was a lot for me to handle! of course, now we're already laughing about it but taking a baby out is HARD WORK! i think for now, we'll be sticking close to home and only going to the few stores that are right down the street from us so if we need to run back home its only 5 minutes away!

week 1 - in pictures!

2011-05-23T22:20:00.000-04:00

i'm planning* (key word...planning!) to try and post pictures of bryleigh every week. it will help me keep her pictures in order of when everything happens and it will come in handy for when i work on her baby book! i haven't decided yet if i'll make a photo book of her first year from these blog posts or if i'll do something completely separate and just pull stuff from here? any thoughts, suggestions?

sorry for the randomness....i know you're simply reading this blog now to see/ read about bryleigh! ;)

bryleigh and i having a special "mommy-daughter" moment...just minutes after she was born!

daddy with bryleigh. already so proud!

bryleigh all dressed up and ready to head home! can you tell i'm a little excited to be getting out of the hospital?!

bryleigh meeting her great-grandaddy for the first time! (my dad's dad)

bryleigh with her great-grandmother for the first time! (my dad's mom)

4 generations! bryleigh's great-grandma, nonnie, and mommy!

big ol' yawn! :)

bryleigh meeting her great-grandparents for the first time! (jeremy's mom's parents)

about to get her little bum changed! (i have to share the all the pictures we have of her with her eyes open because we aren't able to capture that very often! plus i think she looks completely different with her eyes open than when they're closed)

dreaming of happy things...like trips to the beach, one day visiting south africa and going on dates with her daddy!

whoa! that camera flash is bright! (don't you love that gigantic bow??)

daddy cuddling bryleigh after her second sponge bath...she does so good! (sorry for the sideways pictures, i temporarily forgot how to rotat the pictures but wanted to still post it!)

family picture! still can't believe we get to raise this little bundle!!

sweet friends, kristin and joel, came to visit and brought us some yummy supper! we've had several other people bring us meals but we forgot to snag pictures of them! (thanks to all of you!)

bryleigh relaxing in her daddy's lap.

bryleigh,

its hard to believe that a week has already passed since i realized that i was in labor, preparing to have you! you have absolutely blessed us beyond measure and we love you to pieces! you bring so much joy to everyone that meets you and you are a true testament of God's goodness. you are a miracle! we pray that you know how much you are loved and that you remember that we're here for you always! we're going to cherish every day we get to spend with you as we know that time will pass all too quickly! we love you bryleigh!

mommy and daddy

introducing bryleigh addison!

2011-05-22T22:52:00.000-04:00

we would like to introduce to you our daughter....

bryleigh addison hurst

may 15, 2011

6 pounds 13 ounces

19 3/4 inches

we have absolutely loved every minute of being parents! it's taken us a while to really even believe that she is ours but i think its beginning to sink in and we feel so blessed! bryleigh is such a good baby! she only cries when she's hungry, has a dirty diaper or when her tummy hurts! but don't get me wrong, she quickly showed us just minutes after her arrival that she has a temper (just like her mama!). she sleeps a whole lot but typically has a couple times a day where she's awake for about an hour. she eats about every 3 hours and loves to be swaddled. she took to a pacifier right away and we're so thankful for that! :) she has a dimple in her chin like i do but looks a lot like her daddy when he was a baby!

we love you bryleigh and thank the Lord for giving us the privilege of being your parents!

not just yet...i want to share this first!

2011-05-21T00:26:00.000-04:00

before i introduce you to our little one, i want to first take the time to write about my amazing husband! i could NOT have done any of this without him! i couldn't have gotten through the entire pregnancy, labor and delivery and now the adjustment period of having OUR baby at home if it wasn't for him! he is absolutely incredible and i can't even begin to thank him enough! i don't think i can put it into words how much he means to me either! he has been without a doubt the greatest support and encouragement. never once did he get frustrated when i would complain about being uncomfortable while being pregnant or when my emotions would fly all over the place for no real reason. he was always there to get me anything that i needed to help make my pregnancy a great experience. he would encourage me that it would all be worth it...and boy was he right! during the labor and delivery, he was right by my side making sure that i had everything that i needed to be as comfortable as possible. he encouraged me through each of those tough contractions and told me that i was strong and that i was doing great! just what i needed to keep going and not let the pain get to me! he prayed over bryleigh and i before she made her debut and i couldn't have asked for a more perfect husband! not only is he the godly leader of our marriage but he has already become an incredible godly leader over our little family.

i truly feel like the luckiest...or maybe the "most blessed" girl because of my husband. God is SO GOOD! i love nothing more than watching jeremy with bryleigh. it makes me love him even more and i honestly didn't know that was possible! i can already tell that she is a daddy's girl! and i don't mind that one bit! he knows the best ways to soothe her when she cries and the best ways to get her to sleep. he gets up with me at night while i feed her, helping me as i learn this new "skill." he changes her diapers, lets her sleep on his chest, talks to her about our future as a family together and kisses her all over! gosh, he is the greatest!

i keep rereading what i've already typed above and i don't feel like any of those words even begin to describe just how incredible he is. i love him with my whole heart and i'm so thankful that i get to spend the rest of my life with him! he is more than i could have ever hoped for as a husband and has already proven that he's more than i could have ever dreamed for as a father to our children, too!

thank you Lord for such an amazing, godly man! i don't deserve him!

i love you, jeremy!

2 days shy of 39 weeks!

2011-05-11T17:28:00.000-04:00

wow! i can NOT believe that its almost time! at the very latest bryleigh will be born in 15 days! (the doctor has scheduled an induction date of may 26th!...just in case) CRAZY! jeremy and i still can't wrap our heads around the fact that we'll have our VERY OWN little girl any day now! we're so excited, nervous, anxious, giddy, uncomfortable (okay, maybe that's just me!?) and all other emotions in between!

we had another doctor's appointment yesterday and we've made a little progress! i am dilated to 1 1/2 centimeters, 80% effaced and her head is at -1. the doctor said, more than once, that she's really low! he said that's a good indication that i'll have her naturally! i've been feeling a lot of pressure and i've had lots of contractions...they seem to be longer and more painful so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have a baby soon! don't worry mamas out there...i know that most first time moms have their babies late! i can be hopeful...just let me have that, okay? haha.

**TMI alert...stop reading if you are easily grossed out, don't like to read/hear about labor and delivery stuff or if you're a boy! ha.

i talked with the doctor about "stripping my membranes." i wasn't sure if all doctors will do it, when they do it and what kind of outcome it could produce. after his explanation, i now understand what it can do but still don't quite understand what the procedure is? haha. anyway...he said he'd strip "them" at my next appointment (monday). he also said that since bryleigh is so low that i'm a good candidate for it to work, even though i'm a first time mom! now, i'm trying my best not to get too excited thinking that it will work because it very well might not...so don't any of you get too excited either. or text me like crazy on monday wanting to know if i'm in labor...that may stress me out! or potentially irritate me because i'll be wishing that it was working if it hasn't!! and when i say "work," i mean, make me go into labor! he said that if it's going to work then i should go into labor later on that day. he had me schedule the appointment in the morning so that if it does then he would be on call and would deliver her! honestly, i can hardly even believe what i'm reading as i type these words out for you to read! i catch myself thinking...deliver who? wait, what is going on here? i'm having a baby!?!

i was hoping...as always... to have more pictures to post but at least i've got a few! there's a couple of most of my family at Easter and then a 38 week belly shot. my hope is to have pictures from my last two showers, pictures of bryleigh's nursery and a few other things we've been working on up soon but we'll see. or what would be even better is if my next post is me showing off pictures of our sweet little girl!?!

you see that bump sticking out?! gracious!

just the kids!

big ol' belly! ha! do you think i've dropped?

maternity pictures

2011-05-02T09:36:00.000-04:00

a few weeks ago jeremy and i got our maternity pictures done by the wonderful erika melson with Erika Melson Photography. she asked us to meet her in the adorable small town of stanfield and we got to work. i don't think she could have found a more perfect location! so here are a few of our favorites...or maybe more than just a few! ;) thanks again erika for taking pictures of us in this special time that we're in!

my honey dew has turned into a WATERMELON!

2011-05-01T14:39:00.000-04:00

i can't believe we've made it to 37 weeks! so crazy! i'm sorry i hadn't posted any pictures lately like i said i would but i won't leave you hanging on this post! :) we've had a lot going on the past few weeks and i'm here to share all of that with you...but ill probably share it in more than one post! (also, please excuse the pregnancy brain and the fact that things may be all out of order and jumbled together!)

jeremy and i started our childbirth classes 2 weeks ago and we have our last class this coming monday. overall, i think its been a good experience and we've learned quite a bit. although we've seen more birthing videos than we feel necessary and i may be more freaked out now than i was before! ha! its not the fact that i'm having a baby necessarily but the fact that i have no control...yes i'm bringing the lack of control issue back up again! eek! and the fact that i HATE hospitals! being reminded of the fact that i'm stuck in my bed once i get the epidural and having to rely on the doctors and what they see is best for me and bryleigh rather than me making the decisions...not like i'd know what to do, seeing that i'm NOT a doctor or even a nurse! but i'm anxious and nervous and ready for all of this to be over. i'm ready for bryleigh to be here and for me to be able to look back on the experience proud that we made it through and not sitting here on this side not knowing when and how any of it will happen! PLUS, control isn't something i should ever worry about anyways given that the Lord is in control and His plan is always the best plan! so moving on...

we had a doctor's appointment last week where i was checked to see if i'd made any progress. and i have! woo! i'm one centimeter dilated, 75% effaced and her head is at -2. my doctor said i'm ahead of the game but only time will tell that! haha. we've asked a lot of our friends and family to give their predictions on what day bryleigh will come, how much she'll weigh and how long she'll be so please feel free to leave your predictions in the comment section! i'm anxious to see if anyone will get all three predictions right! :) and all of you get to cheat a little because i just told you that i've made progress!

the last few posts that i've written have mentioned my feet and legs swelling and every time i write about it i think its bad. but then i go to write a new post and somehow the swelling has always seemed to have gotten worse than before! elevating my feet doesn't even help anymore! needless to say, i'm looking forward to seeing my narrow feet and bony ankles again once bryleigh gets here! :) but enough about my feet!

how about we skip the statistics and pregnancy talk and i'll share pictures from one of our baby showers and belly picture!? much better, right?

the hostesses...they did an awesome job!

college friend, ashley

lots of russell cousins (jeremy's mom's side)

unc friends, jon and haven

the preggo couple! ha!

caught in the action...so many wonderful gifts!

summer and cutie pie cole! love them


after mine and jeremy's last "date night" as a family of 2! 37 weeks!

i'll be back shortly to share some of our maternity pictures and to continue with this game of catch up!

still a honey dew and i can't tie my shoes!

2011-04-16T09:58:00.000-04:00

HA! i can't tie my shoes...much less wear shoes that tie! to be honest i can't wear most of my shoes at all! the shoes i'm able to get ON my feet get taken over by the end of the day from all the swelling that's bulging out from all sides! haha! and the indention marks that my sandals leave once i take the shoe off is oh so attractive! ;)

i had a doctor's appointment yesterday to make sure that my antibiotics had kicked out my THIRD sinus infection of the season! while i was there they noticed that my blood pressure was higher than normal so it caused a little concern. thankfully after doing a urine sample they didn't find any proteins so i was free to go. they definitely want me to keep an eye on the swelling as to not allow it to get much worse and also if i start to have any blurred vision, headaches, etc. to call my OB doctor because those can be signs of preeclampsia? um...no thank you!

i'm still feeling great overall. i'm able to sleep comfortably most nights and i'm cherishing that time! :) the swelling can give me problems at times and bryleigh's kicks, jumps and acrobatics are starting to get a little painful but even those things are manageable! she's been getting the hiccups more often and more of my family has been able to feel her sweet little jumps!

my next appointment with my OB doctor is next monday, the day after Easter. i'm anxious to have this appointment because it will start my weekly visits and i'll get to see if i've made any progress as far as dilation and such! it just means that we're that much closer to bringing our bumble bee home! plus i'd like to see if my blood pressure has gone down any! fingers crossed!

currently, as we speak, my husband is in columbia, sc running in the USMC mud run! he drove down there, EXTREMELY early this morning with some friends! i hope to have a before and after picture of his team this afternoon to share with you! i had planned to go but once we realized that the weather was supposed to be horrible and that you have to park far away from the actual race, it wouldn't be worth it for big ol' pregnant me to stand around out in the rain while everyone else runs through mud!

i hope all of you have a fantastic weekend and to those of you with spring break...have a fantastic next week too!

p.s. we had a shower this past weekend and we got lots of awesome stuff! our baby girl got TONS of clothes, a bath tub and bath soaps, cute monogrammed things and her travel system! YIPPEE! i promise as soon as i'm given the pictures i'll post some of them on here for you to see! pinky promise! plus i'll have more belly pictures too! sorry there aren't any pictures in this post...i know it makes it boring!

less than 40 days with a honey dew melon!

2011-04-11T09:13:00.000-04:00

can you believe it?? potentially in less than 40 days our little girl could and hopefully will be here! WITH US! it seems totally surreal, yet i...no we are so excited!! what continues to boggle my mind is that she is already here but not quite HERE yet, you know? haha! a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks since i last blogged so i decided that i'd show up and catch you up! :)

we had my 34 week appointment last week and everything looks great! her heartbeat was around 140 bpm and the doctor said that since i've had so many braxton hicks contractions that it makes him feel confident that i'll go into labor on my own! (as opposed to having to be induced, like many first time moms) but he did say that if she doesn't come by her due date of may 20th then we'll talk about starting an induction sometime during the 40-41 week! hallelujah! he isn't going to make me wait a full 2 weeks or 10 days past her due date before giving me some assistance! one good thing about being induced though is that we would schedule it for a time when my doctor would be on call and knowing that he would be the doctor to deliver my baby gives me such a calmness about this new, scary, uncontrollable, can't get out of it now, she has to come out somehow situation that i've gotten myself into! ha!

i am still having more good days than bad days and i'm enjoying these last few weeks of pregnancy. the swelling has gotten much worse in my feet and legs but its mostly just stayed in those areas, with some occasional swelling in my hands. i am constantly being told to elevate, elevate, ELEVATE! and even though i do elevate my feet (probably not as often as i should...i mean who enjoys laying down with their feet high in the air when you're spending time with friends or family and can't sit up while your feet are elevated because then you're belly is too squished so you have to lay completely flat when really all you want to be doing is enjoying people's company and you feel completely silly about the whole thing except you hate looking down and seeing what looks like someone else's thick! feet, ankles and legs! hahaha! sorry, i'll stop!), it doesn't make it go away; it only reduces the amount of THICK puffiness temporarily!

bryleigh continues to be very active...i'm not noticing much of a sleep pattern with her and i don't know if that will be a good thing or bad thing once she gets here but i am and everyone else seems to be enjoying watching her dance parties as my belly wiggles about! :) i haven't seen any distinct body parts pressed up against my skin yet but i'm getting pretty good at figuring out what i at least think is the body part giving my belly that lopsided, funky shape. jeremy and i have been able to feel her have the hiccups a few times which of course we love!

the closer i get to bryleigh's due date the more excited but nervous i get about the whole labor and delivery process! i am constantly asking my friends and family members, who have already had babies, what their experiences were like, trying to get a grasp on what to expect. but unfortunately i know that each delivery is different and as much as i want to feel prepared and in control of the situation..quite frankly i can't be either of those things! AHH! help this control freak now! no, it is a struggle for me not to get too anxious and overwhelmed but i am continuing to hand over my fears and stresses to the Lord, knowing that He has the control and knows how the entire process will go and that i don't need to worry! i have to give it all to Him several times a day because so quickly i try and take that control back by being afraid of what i can or can't expect when i know that i would be much better off allowing God to handle it. the pain and uncertainties are only temporary and that's how we get to have our daughter so i know that it will be completely worth it!!

32 weeks, tomorrow!

2011-03-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

hey yall! sorry for the delay in posts! sometimes i honestly don't update you because i don't have any new pictures to share. and i know i promised pictures more often and even pictures of specific things but clearly that hasn't happened. moving forward though i have to apologize again because some of you were expecting to see pictures from our 3D ultrasound last week and those won't be on here either....everything is fine and she's doing great but we don't have pictures to prove it! we had our appointment last thursday and we were accompanied by jeremy's parents, my parents and two of my sisters, caroline and emily. we were all super excited to see bryleigh as jeremy and i had only seen her once before and they hadn't gotten to see her at all except from our ultrasound pictures. the ultrasound tech wanted them split up into two groups so some would get to see her for a few minutes and then the second group would come in to see her....that didn't last long because of the location of everything in my belly. the tech quickly realized that the placenta is on the front wall making it difficult to get good pictures in 3D. she tried for a few minutes to switch from the regular ultrasound to the 3D but because of how the machines work even though we could see her on the normal screen when she would switch to 3D you couldn't see anything...it just looked like globs of stuff but definitely not like our little girl that we could see on the black and white screen. she had me rolling all over the table trying to get bryleigh to move...she was awake and kicking but she's already head down and so low that she couldnt get her to move enough to get good pictures! :( she also said that since there wasn't enough fluid between her and the placenta that we wouldn't be able to get any pictures! she let everyone come in and squeeze together to be able to see her on the regular screen...luckily we were able to see her open and close her mouth and she even stuck her tongue out for a second! we could see too that she already has hair and seems to have chubby cheeks! :) oh, and i think she has jeremy's lips!

needless to say, leaving with no pictures, i was really upset! mostly just disappointed that everyone had come to the appointment and we were all expecting such great things and assumed that we'd leave with lots of pictures to share with everyone and that didn't happen. they gave us the opportunity to reschedule and try for a second ultrasound. that appointment was today and nothing had changed.

even though i don't have pictures of our sweet and stubborn bumble bee, i do have a couple pictures of my belly! ha! not that pictures of me even compare to pictures of our little one, but they'll have to do!

30 weeks.


31 weeks and 6 days! only 57 more days until her due date!

i hope all of you have a wonderful weekend! and good luck to all of you harris teeter, super double couponers! :) i've already been once and plan to go at least one more time before the special is up!

***also if you wouldn't mind lifting up a few people in your prayers. my older sister, lauren...her husband, pearson's grandma (i know, its kind of confusing) passed away. the family knew it was coming sooner rather than later but regardless its a sad time. please pray for healing and peace for pearson's family. the second request is for a girl named allison. she is brooke (one of my best friend's), sister-in-law and she is at the hospital in critical condition. she fell threw her attic. thankfully a friend was there and called 911. they had to remove some of her skull and aren't sure of her recovery. please lift her and her family up in your prayers...i can't imagine what they're going through and i know that your prayers would be greatly appreciated! i'll keep you updated on her progress as i'm given more information. thanks!

eggplant to squash and a kick in the butt!

2011-03-02T12:38:00.000-05:00

i wanted to share a blog post with you that is helping me keep my perspective while being pregnant. i try and not complain too often of the uncomfortable things that come along while being pregnant because really...i don't have it that bad! (now some days i completely fail at this and throw a pity party for myself but i want to at least try and work at it!) i'm reminding myself of the words from this post often because everything in it is so true and that's how i want to be as a mother. and as a follower of Christ. go over to this blog..its an adoption blog that i read and i guarantee you will feel encouraged, inspired and "kicked in the butt" like i have been...enjoy! http://www.storinguptreasures.com/2011/02/my-life-for-yours.html
(sorry, i should know how to make things highlighted to where all you have to do is click on it, for it to take you to the page i'm wanting to send you to but...i've forgotten how!) i guess copy and paste will have to do until i figure it out again...or if any of you would like to comment and explain, i'd love to be reminded! ;)

on to preggo and bryleigh updates:
i have a doctor's appointment on friday for the glucose test...a little nervous! i don't think i'll mind the drink too much, well i have no idea if i will or not but i like all things that are flavored orange. and knowing that i can drink it over ice makes me happy. i am anxious though about not being able to eat anything that morning. especially since i have to eat a few saltines throughout the night now...am i allowed to do that?? we also have scheduled our 3D ultrasound appointment for March 17th and we're totally excited about that...dying to see our little girl again. its been WAY too long!!

i think i've gained. actually i know that i've gained more weight! my husband and i were talking and by the end of my pregnancy we'll probably weigh in about the same! i wasn't too happy about that but he reminded me that i will weigh that for 2 people! and he weighs that for just one! (and don't get me wrong...my husband is in no way large or overweight! he's about 1 inch taller than me and has a small frame but still knowing that you'll weigh what your husband weighs especially when you didn't weigh anything close to that before...is kind of difficult!...enough complaining...moving on!!

cravings...nothing any different than normal. i crave krispy kreme doughtnuts YEAR ROUND and let me just say...that since i've been pregnant, i haven't had a single one! not because i haven't wanted any, because to be honest i probably think about them at least ONCE A DAY but somehow i've managed to not let myself eat one! now. if there happened to be a box sitting in front of me. especially a box of HOT, glazed krispy kreme doughnuts. then there's no way that i could or would resist those scrumptiously delicious, melt in your mouth, sweet but not too sweet, over the moon amazing circles with the centers so carefully cut out, TREASURES from God. YUM! my mouth is watering excessively now just typing about them! oh i might be giving into that craving after all...

sleep is becoming rather difficult. i'm having a hard time finding a position that is comfortable and i'm not able to stay asleep for long periods at a time. due to the frequent trips to the bathroom, the sudden feelings of starvation and just because my body isn't relaxing enough to get into a deep enough sleep. i may end up with a bed full of pillows, giving my belly plenty of options of where to rest itself?

maternity clothes are all that i wear now except for an occasional top or layer of some sort that is long enough to help me keep my wardrobe changing. i am looking though for some fun outfit ideas for our maternity pictures and upcoming baby showers...so if you have any ideas, please share! :)

jeremy and i registered for baby bryleigh this weekend and it was so fun! so much easier than when we registered for our wedding! it can be tricky though trying to decide on things that we want or will need for her when she's not even here yet! how do you know what kinds of bottles, pacifiers or toys that she will like?? better yet how do you buy clothes for her when you can't know how much she'll weigh? if she weighs what jeremy did then we'll skip newborn sizes all together! ha!

i think that about wraps it up for now. i'll leave you with two belly pictures. one from valentine's night when i was about 26 weeks and one from sunday. i promise i'll try and do better about posting more often and posting with more pictures!


(do you like how we changed things up a bit and took the picture outside??)

**i hope everyone has a GREAT rest of the week! i'll be back later to share pictures of what all my mom and best friend bought for bryleigh at a consignment shop's DOLLAR DAY SALE!! AND pictures of bryleigh's room...in progress! :)

99 bottles of....?

2011-02-10T18:22:00.000-05:00

haha just kidding! can you BELIEVE it!?! only 99 days until our sweet bryleigh's due date! (don't you like how i'm already calling her sweet...you've gotta start early, right?) today marks 26 weeks! so crazy! i felt like once i got to be 25 weeks along that still having 15 weeks left was still quite a ways to go but only having 14 weeks left now...doesn't seem like much time at all! i apologize but i don't have any new belly pictures to share. and i'm looking like a hot mess right now or else i would attempt to take one of those pose in front of the mirror holding your camera, while making a serious face picture...but that's not going to happen! maybe ill try that some other time! ;) i will catch you up though on what's been going on!

jeremy's mom came into town yesterday day afternoon and just left a few minutes ago. thankfully when she comes it often means that we'll get a lot of whatever it is done that we need to get done! and i think with her only being her for 24 hours we got A LOT accomplished! :) we finished painting the crib. BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT! we decided on a color for bryleigh's room...not a specific color but we have a good idea of what it needs to be. we found and bought the paint that we'll use for our bedroom and bathroom. HUGE considering we've lived in our house for 2 years and haven't painted them. (except for the samples of gray on walls in our bedroom and bathroom where we tried out colors several months ago...terrible but i'm being honest!) a few weeks ago we also went out on a whim and had jeremy's mom purchase bedding for our room without us even seeing it yet-they were sold out in the stores in our area but thankfully had it in stock where she lives. and, what do you know...it's perfect! works well with the colors we wanted and with the fabric we're using to make curtains! yippee! the bedding was one of the main reasons she came to visit and i was terrified that she was driving all the way for me to decide i didn't want to use it! but that wasn't the case! phew! AND we decided how we want all of the furniture to be placed in bryleigh's room so once we get it painted the furniture can go in its named spot and wait until she arrives! can you sense a little bit of pride? i mean honestly getting all of those things done and making those decisions is unheard of...an undecisive me + only having 24 hours, i think i set a new record!!

we had a doctor's appointment last week and everything looks great for both bryleigh and i! i won't go into details but after a frustrating and complicated past couple months i've had to switch practices and doctors. this is really been something that i've struggled with and not been happy about but after meeting with a different doctor in this different practice last week, i think i can move past it all and look forward to bryleigh's arrival. the doctor we met with made both of us feel very comfortable and everyone else that worked with us that morning was great! the practice is smaller that the one i have been going to for the past several years and thankfully we won't have to change where we deliver!

i measured at 24 weeks so pretty much right on schedule and her heart rate was in the 140s. another fun little fact to share is while i was waiting to be seen by the doctor, all of a sudden i felt this weird tightening feeling in my belly. i pressed on it from one side to the other and everything did indeed feel really tight. from what i had been told by other pregnant women that's what a braxton hicks contraction feels like! WHOA! such a strange sensation! it would only last for a few seconds and then go away. it happened a few more times throughout the day, during one of them jeremy was able to feel how tight it was too. it definitely wasn't painful but it a feeling that could take some getting used to. i think part of that awkwardness though is knowing that it's getting my body ready for what's to come...yikes!

as far as statistics go...i've gained more weight. surprise! ha!! still enjoying food. thankfully i'm still sleeping well but have noticed a change in the amount of sleep that i need...not needing quite as much! and i am thankful too that as of right now i'm still able to sleep in any position that was comfortable before i was pregnant. i know, i know...that will change! oh and bryleigh weighs anywhere between 1 1/2 to 2 pounds, the size of an eggplant, and is about the length of a small pineapple! i think that about covers the usual statistically info!?

one last fun little fact to share....jeremy's mom brought one of her scrapbooks to show me all that she had worked on. this one is of christmas every year from the year jeremy was born up until now. well looking at some of the pictures from when jeremy was a baby and remembering from pictures of myself when i was a baby...we really looked a lot alike! i'll have to post some pictures of the two of us and see if you agree! kind of crazy but i think you'll see some similarities! ahh, just can't wait for bryleigh to get here and we can see for ourselves what the two of us make or create....wait does that sound inappropriate? ha! i don't know what's gotten into me!? :)

*i hope everyone has a great weekend; we've got a fun-filled one planned...family coming into town, breakfast get together, circus and birthday celebration for the cutest one-year old EVER!

we've decided!

2011-02-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

now if anyone of you reading this blog know me personally then it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that making a decision, especially one as important as our daughter's name, is extremely difficult for me! when it comes to making decisions its usually not that i can't ever make one, its that once i make a decision i then want to go back and change it. i am constantly changing my mind..maybe its lack of confidence in my decision making? i don't know! sometimes when a decision has to be made i either don't have an opinion...like where should we go eat OR i don't want to be the one who has to make the decision...like when and what we have to spend our money on.

thankfully jeremy and i have similar taste when it comes to most things like sense of style, humor, passions, dreams...AND baby names! so we weren't one of those couples that have to argue through the process, for the most part we like the same names. we like names that aren't common or trendy, are gender neutral and have the right amount of syllables! ha! each of us having relatively short first and last names we want our children to have "full" sounding names, if that makes sense?

anywho. after testing out so many strategies friends and family had given us to help in deciding on her name we've finally picked one! we tried writing our favorites down on paper, sticking them up on the refrigerator so that every time we got something to eat or drink we would see the names and could ponder over them. this helped with deciding spelling too! we also took some advice and asked people that we really cared about and got their opinions on the names that we were considering. oh but if we didn't ask for your opinion that doesn't mean that we don't care about you...we only asked a few people! ;) well i won't leave you in anticipation any longer...for some reason i find myself doing that you often!?!

our baby girl...expected to arrive around may 20th will be named:

bryleigh addison

we both really love the name and hope all of you do too! having a name for our little girl definitely helps make things seem more real and makes us want to meet her that much quicker! i'll be 26 weeks on friday with only 14 weeks left!

*thanks for being patience with us as we made our "BIG" decision...i feel like such an accomplished mama now! ha!

**we've gotten more furniture for her room and found her bedding...another huge and troublesome decision i struggled with...so ill be posting more with pictures about her room soon! :)

you wanna know how you know that you REALLY are pregnant?

2011-02-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

**let me first start off by saying that none of this has happened to me! i'm just telling you these things in case they were to ever happen to you! ;)

you wanna know how you know that you really are pregnant?...

you know you really are pregnant when every thought that consumes you in one day revolves around food.

you know you really are pregnant when you eat that food that you have been thinking about all day long and you think to yourself, and then can't help but say out loud several times, "this is the best _____ (you can fill in the blank with yummy food here) that i've ever had!" or you may use the words, "this tastes AMAZING!"....again, not that i know from personal experience; i was thinking that those might the words that i would use if i did experience this! and then you have to eat that same exact thing several times in the next few days. perhaps you would say those things about a particular brand of fruit loops that you really, really like or a certain drink from your favorite coffee shop that you can't seem to get enough of??

you know you really are pregnant when the majority of the conversations you have with friends consists of: how scary...i mean exciting labor and delivery will be, breast pumps and how to properly use them, plans of how to raise a child, how to get one to sleep through the night and how to keep a baby swaddled and asleep while changing its diaper, how you plan to get your figure back once the baby is born...if possible, considering your body...or certain parts of it will still be in his/her ownership hence the breast pump!

you know you really are pregnant when you cough or sneeze and then laugh at yourself because you had no control over what that cough or sneeze caused another body part of yours to leak, just a little! ...and then you have to go take care of that funny mishap! i might have been told about this from a friend, but this definitely has NEVER happened to me! ;)

you know you really are pregnant when random, complete strangers ask you things like "when are you due" or "how far along are you" or better yet have a man scream at you while walking in the mall with your husband, "BOY OR GIRL?" and then once you turn and answer him, with a confused look on your face, he proceeds to smile, wink and nod then returns to whatever it was that he was doing before he noticed the baby bump!?

***do you have any situations, stories or explanations of "you know how you know that you REALLY are pregnant?" oh do share...i would love to read about them!

papaya...

2011-01-29T23:52:00.000-05:00

24 weeks!

i feel like i should start out this post similar to a lot of my other posts...i'm sorry its taken me a while to post a pregnancy update, well really an update in general! i was hoping to have a christmas and new years post up quite some time ago but that didn't happen so...here's a baby bump picture, hasn't she grown A LOT!?! the last picture i posted was when i was 17 weeks along and now 7 weeks later...that bump is getting pretty big! it surprises me though how so many of my family members and friends tell me how small i look. i even have complete strangers talk to me about my belly, wanting to know if we're having a boy or girl, and once they find out how far along i am, they're shocked...thinking that i should be bigger!? isn't it funny though that i don't like them telling me that my belly looks small...don't women normally want to be told that they look small?! i think this is the only time where hearing that i look small is a bad thing! now i know that i have plenty of time left and i will only get bigger, so i'm definitely not complaining about the size of my belly! :)

week 24 stats!

size of baby hurst- the descriptions that i've found on most sites online start to use the same fruit or vegetable for each month from 21 weeks on as opposed to the first 20 weeks where each week the baby is the size of a different fruit or vegetable. for weeks 21-24 the baby is the size of a papaya. i did find on a friend's blog that for week 24 the baby is the length of an ear of corn!

total weight gain- i haven't been to the doctor in about 3 weeks but when i was weighed there i had gained about 8 pounds...and i'm thinking from here on out this statistic will just stay at 8+! haha...i can't handle that every time i go to the doctor the amount that i have gained has increased...i know its supposed to but i'm reconsidering the idea of sharing how much that number has increased with all of my readers! ;) who knows, maybe ill just keep sharing though and we can all laugh about what that total number is!?!

maternity clothes- wearing only maternity pants but still able to wear some of my regular tops...they're just getting shorter in the front!

movement of the baby- all the time and i absolutely LOVE it! jeremy has been able to feel her for the last few weeks too which makes her moving super special! in the beginning when he would put his hand on my belly in hopes of feeling her move, i couldn't distinguish between him moving his hand or her moving...it was such a strange experience! every time she would move, i would ask, " was that you? or was that her?" and he'd say, "no, that wasn't me!" :) i usually feel her moving the most after dinner until i go to bed and usually when i get up in the middle of the night, she seems to be awake then too! typically though if i'm not doing a whole lot during the day and i'm able to relax, she'll wake up and kick around for me :) another exciting thing that's been happening for a couple weeks is that you can see her moving from the outside. so not only can i feel her but i can see her too! my mom and mother-in-law have gotten to see her kick too!

cravings/aversions- i still don't know about cravings, whether i'm having them or not? but i'm loving food! haha, i know that sounds silly and could potentially be dangerous. ha! but when i'm eating something and it tastes good...it tastes sooo good! like it's the best i've ever eaten!! i am still enjoying things with sausage, LOVING coffee frappucinos with caramel drizzle and harris teeter fruit loops! YUM!

sleep- still needing a good 8 hours each night and as long as i can get that then typically i'm not too tired during the day...although there are definitely exceptions.

i think you'll be happy to read that jeremy and i are getting much closer to deciding on a name for our little girl. we've narrowed the decision down to two names and we'll hopefully pick which one soon! wouldn't you like to know those names?!? ha!:) don't you worry, we've decided to go ahead and tell everyone what her name will be instead of keeping it a secret until she arrives! BUT for now....i'll leave you in suspense! (**some of you may know one or two of these names we're considering...don't you spoil it for everyone else, just yet!)

that's about it for now. i have an appointment scheduled for this thursday and i can't wait to see how big my belly is measuring...to see if everyone's reactions to the size are right or if i'm measuring right on track!? or better yet maybe i'll be measuring ahead and she could come early!?! ha!

baby talk...we need your help!

2011-01-11T11:13:00.000-05:00

jeremy and i plan to register for things for our baby girl soon but aren't quite sure where to start! i have tried to start brainstorming a list of things that we'll need for when the baby comes and i think i have a general grasp on what those things should be. like a car seat, stroller, diapers, wipes, bouncy seat, boppy pillow, etc. but honestly i don't really know what brands and types of everything to register for? i know there are all kinds of reviews out there that i can read in order to get insight on which brand is voted the best by parents and all that but i'd like your opinions! plus you don't know what all those things are to look up and then read the reviews about unless someone tells you! most of you are new parents or at least still have small children at home and know what's out there. you know what works and what doesn't, what's worth spending your money on and what ends up being a gimmick! also tell me too, where should we register? i was thinking about registering at target and babies r us but i'm open to your suggestions! we're new at this and so we're relying on you for help!! so would you leave me a comment on what you've found to be necessary? and what maybe isn't necessary but has proven to be helpful? i am all ears...or eyes, rather?

**thanks in advance for all your help!

***also, does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of comfy, rocking chair to purchase/register for to hold myself and the baby for all those late night feedings?? this is quickly becoming the most important thing on my list!

look what we got this afternoon!!

2011-01-09T17:31:00.000-05:00

we got our baby girl's crib! yippee!! a very sweet couple, the corbetts (who were a key family in starting our church, elevation!) offered to give us their baby crib! they have two adorable children and feel pretty confident that they won't be needing the crib anymore!

crazy or maybe not so crazy, more like "a God thing" for us to have this crib. jeremy and i were discussing baby furniture on friday night, more specifically getting a crib. jeremy looked at several different ones online and asked me what i wanted our crib to be like. not that i had very many requirements but i liked the idea of the cribs that can become a toddler, twin and double bed...making it possible for you to use the same furniture from birth through at least high school! now the kicker, i said if someone gives us a crib or if we'd rather go to yard sales to try and find one then it didn't matter what the crib was like, but if we were going to go out and purchase one ourselves we might as well make the investment in a "good one."

well low and behold i leave for a baby shower shortly after our conversation where amy corbett is talking about how they are wanting to get rid of their crib because they're done having children. she stops in mid conversation, turns to me and says,"sarah, do you need a crib!?!" i couldn't believe it. there we were maybe an hour before that, sitting at home, talking about needing a crib and BOOM! there it is!! and it gets even better!...its a crib that can be converted into the three other beds and they wanted us to have their super nice, allergy friendly mattress too! crazy! to make a long story short...we went by their house this afternoon to check it out, loved it and immediately put it together once we got home! :)

this is the first thing we've gotten for our little girl's room and i'm so excited! now we just need her to get here so we can put her in it! ;) you would think that seeing that crib in her room would make things more real...but honestly it still doesn't seem that way! it feels like we've gotten it for someone else who is having a baby. i don't know when it will actually set in that we're the ones having her but for now it is all too surreal. feeling her wiggle around in my belly is helping me a little but to believe that she's ours to keep as long as the Lord allows us to, i can't quite fathom!

**thank you so much corbett family!

like i promised...pictures and party!

2011-01-06T11:26:00.000-05:00

the morning after we found out that our baby is a girl, we got on an early flight to fort lauderdale, florida to be there for jeremy's cousin's wedding. since jeremy's family wasn't going to be able to make it to the baby reveal party the following monday, we surprised all of them with the news that weekend! jeremy's cousin adam and his now wife, nicole, had a beautiful wedding in a small, historical church and their reception was full of yummy cupcakes and an awesome band!

you think of florida as always being warm...well that wasn't the case while we were there! jeremy trying to keep me warm!


an undeniable baby bump! :)

baby reveal party!! we invited all of our close friends and family over for the big gender reveal! i used silvers, yellows and whites as the theme for decorations and food so as to not give away our surprise!

we had everyone dress up according to what they thought our baby is. when each person got there we had them write their name down and place it in the pink or blue bowl depending on what they had worn. after the reveal we drew names out of the correct bowl for a few prizes!

jeremy with some of his friends, justin, kyle, todd and jason!

ashleigh and i...she has a sweet baby girl, lyric with the cutest chubby cheeks!

my cousin lindsay and friends erin and stephanie

our friends, the roux family, with their triplet girls! yes...crazy! :)

the way we decided to share our surprise with everyone was through balloons! we had balloons blown up containing a small note inside. each balloon had a different note but only one of them had the actual announcement of whether it was a boy or girl! given that there were small children at the party we decided the best way to pop these balloons was all at once..making one loud "boom" as opposed to loud "pops" over and over. once the balloons were popped you had to hurry and read your note to see if you were the winner with the announcement! ohh so fun!

passing out the balloons...suspense was rising! :)

who knows what's going on here!?

my little sis, caroline, cheesing it big!

me with two of my dearest friends, kristin and kristen :)

and here it goes!....the balloons had popped and everyone is scurrying to find out if they had the winning note!

this is team blue! the fourth girl from the left, ashley, was the winner! she had the note explaining, "it's a GIRL!!"


and team pink! as you can tell there were a few more people on the pink team! i'm thinking given that i come from a family of 4 girls, us having a girl wasn't too much of a surprise!?!

excited now that the news is out!! it was difficult holding it in those 4 days!

one of my best friends since first grade! brooke and i!

week 17 baby bump!

we had a blast with everyone that was able to make it out to our party! we are so excited about our daughter and knowing what she is helps make it that much more real that we'll actually be parents in a few months..still really crazy though! but we can't wait!!

**more posts with pictures coming soon of our family's white Christmas!! and our new year's eve party/sleepover!.... and maybe an update on baby girl hurst too ! ;)

heirloom tomato or mango?

2010-12-23T22:33:00.000-05:00

yes its true...its been almost 5 weeks since my last post! ill try and give you a recap of these past 5 weeks...lots of exciting things have been happening! when i was 16 weeks and 6 days we had our first ultrasound! AND we got to see what our sweet baby is....its a GIRL! it was so neat getting to see our little girl (sound asleep) with her arm up by her head, just like how her daddy sleeps! the technician needed to measure all the main organs of our baby's body and as she did so, she would explain to us what we were seeing. incredible! we got to see her heart beating...and we could see all 4 ventricles/atriums working! once the technician was finished with everything that she needed, it was time to try and figure out what our baby is. since she was asleep the technician would shake the doppler thingy (or whatever you call it) all over my belly trying to get her to wake up...after several times and her almost giving up we were able to quickly see...or not see really, that it wasn't a boy! ha! we were able to get a clear ultrasound picture that shows that we in fact do have a little girl...we're confident that that's what she is! :) jeremy and i are both so excited to be having a little girl and feel so blessed that the Lord is giving us a daughter! the best part of the whole experience was when the technician said that our baby looked healthy! :) that's all that a mama needs to hear! getting to see her and know that she's doing great inside her warm cocoon makes this pregnancy so worth it!

** we did have a gender reveal party with some of our family and close friends...ill have to do a separate post and tell you how it went with pictures soon! so fun!

statistics from weeks 14-19:

size of baby- as you can tell from the title our baby is now the size of an heirloom tomato, or some sites say a mango. she's also the length of a summer squash!

total weight gain- 6 pounds. yikes! seeing those numbers go up on the scale will take some getting used to!

maternity clothes- wearing some of my regular jeans and maternity jeans. same with tops...definitely like how i look in my maternity tops as opposed to regular ones unless they are loose. the regular ones are starting to ride up in the front. ha!

movement of the baby- YES! finally....just within the past few days have i been feeling her move and i LOVE it! its the best feeling in the world! every day i feel her more and more...couldn't be happier! the movement is usually really light so unless i'm paying attention to it, i probably wouldn't know that anything was happening!?! sometimes it feels like she has bumped up against me and other times it feels like a flutter...maybe that's the difference between her foot and hand?

cravings/aversions- not really having any. for a few days i enjoyed anything with sausage! haha! i know...completely random. salads and pumpkin flavors have been two things that haven't sounded too appealing though.

sleep- i'm still wanting/needing plenty of sleep at night! some days i feel exhausted regardless of how busy or slow my day is but getting several hours of sleep each night is a must! i've gotten sick a few more times over the last 5 weeks but overall have felt so much better! my lower back is beginning to bother me a bit if i'm on my feet a lot during the day and i'm having problems with indigestion..but other than those two things (which aren't anything new to me...i've had problems with them before i was pregnant) im really feeling great!

my next doctor's appointment is after start of the new year but we won't be having another ultrasound until we do the 4-D one when i'm 28-32 weeks along.

jeremy and i are busy talking about our little girl's name but haven't come up with anything just yet. thankfully we both have similar taste when coming up with baby names so there hasn't been any arguing! :) we both like names that are different, and not anything too common or "trendy." we also really like names that can be interchangeable, for a boy or a girl. we haven't decided yet if we'll tell everyone our little girl's name or make everyone wait in suspense until she's born!?! but we'd love your suggestions!!

** i know pictures make a blog post so much better but without my husband here to help me...because i still haven't quite figured out how to upload the pictures onto here on my own...you'll have to wait until my next post! BUT, i promise it won't be 5 more weeks until you see my growing belly and read/see our gender reveal party! hopefully, this will happen tomorrow!?!

lemon...14 weeks!

2010-11-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

14 weeks! out of the first trimester. woo!

i've decided to change my "pregnancy posts" from how far along i am to what size the baby is...so this week our baby is the size of a lemon! last week the baby was the size of a peach. i'm confused because i thought a peach was larger than a lemon and so i'm assuming our baby is a large lemon!?!

jeremy and i had another doctor's appointment and were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. this time the nurse calculated it to be 158 bpm. still pretty high...we'll see soon enough if we're having a girl like the old wives' tale says! (heartbeat higher than 140 then its a girl. lower than 140 its a boy) it is truly a wonderful experience to hear our baby's heartbeat. not being able to see our baby yet has been difficult but hearing that heartbeat really is so surreal and exciting!

overall my pregnancy has improved TREMENDOUSLY! i was getting worried that i would never feel "normal" again. and i wouldn't say that i feel "normal," i mean how can you when you have a baby growing inside of you...but i feel good! the nausea has pretty much gone away. i have occasional moments where it hits me full force but if i can get even a sip of water into my system, i feel better and almost immediately. major improvement!

update: i thought i was feeling much better until last night...not so good! when jeremy and i got home from our small group, the pregnancy bug bit me and with a vengeance! needless to say, i wasn't able to make it to a confined space filled with water to make life simple...you know, a toilet!?! i was terrified for the rest of the night that it would come to bite me again...thankfully it hasn't. yet.

so now for all the stats that some of you enjoy reading about..i know when i read blogs of pregnant women i am always interested to see their "stats":

i have gained about 3 pounds so far.

i'm definitely having to get creative with the clothes that i wear. i can only wear one of my regular pairs of jeans and only a few of my regular tops, comfortably. i'm wearing mostly loose fitted or maternity tops and 2 pairs of "jeggings" that have a small band around the waist. and plenty of dresses with leggings!

i don't seem to have any strong cravings for certain foods yet. but still unable to enjoy anything pumpkin.

i stay tired most of the time and sleep for several hours every night...with occasional naps during the day.

i haven't felt the baby move yet but really can't wait! im afraid the baby will be moving but ill confuse it with something else...gas, rumble-ys?

im still thinking that our baby is a girl and jeremy is thinking that its a boy. the anticipation is killing me!

i think that about covers everything. have a wonderful week!

12 weeks!

2010-11-08T20:01:00.000-05:00

12 weeks!

i can't believe that i am already 12 weeks! some parts of the first trimester have been rough but i think, or hope rather that things are looking up! i do want to first apologize for not posting pictures of my 10 and 11 weeks. to be honest, this is the first picture that we've taken of me pregnant...pretty terrible but we're working on it!

the last two weeks have gone by really fast and i feel like we've been going non-stop. then again, i don't think we ever stop! i've only gotten sick one more time and feel better more often that i feel bad. i seem to only have "episodes" of nausea now, instead of feeling that way constantly. i am definitely still very tired though! i've been able to eat more of a variety of foods and feel much more life myself again! i have gained 3 pounds so far! and i would have to say that now i can really tell that i have a little baby "bump!"

for the past couple of weeks i had had some concerns about my pregnancy and really wanted to make sure everything was okay with our baby. we were told the best thing for us to do was come in the office (this was last thursday) and check for the baby's heartbeat. and....the nurse found it! our baby's heartbeat! 164 bpm! we couldn't have been more thrilled! i was so relieved that they were able to find the heartbeat and that it was so strong and beating so fast! and jeremy is already such a proud daddy! they decided to keep my regular scheduled appointment for this week so we'll get to hear it again! can't wait!

and then there were......

2010-10-21T16:01:00.000-04:00

and then there were (or will be).....3! jeremy and i are going to have a baby!!!!! YAY! we are both so excited and really looking forward to adding a sweet little one to our family! :) we feel so blessed that we've been given the opportunity to become parents and ask for your prayers that our baby stays healthy, happy and safe in its warm, cozy cocoon for 30 more weeks!

if you know me then you know my love for little children, especially babies! my entire life all that i've ever wanted to do was be a "mommy." when i was little i used to tell my mom that "when i grew up i wanted to have hundreds of babies!" ha! i don't think we'll be having hundreds of babies but we do hope to have a large family! :)

i'm sure most of you are wanting to know the details so...

i will be 10 weeks tomorrow and the baby is due may 20th! in case you were wondering, our baby is now the size of a grape! :) we do want to find out the sex of the baby and have been told that we should find out before Christmas whether we're having a boy or girl! any guesses as to what you think our baby will be?!?

as far as morning sickness or rather all day sickness goes....i've been experiencing a lot of that since about 5 1/2 weeks. thankfully its mostly just been headaches, nausea and tiredness but i have had one episode of throwing up and im hoping it was my last! i can tell a difference with my body as far as things changing and growing but if you were to see me out and not know me, you wouldn't necessarily think i was pregnant. even though i don't look pregnant, that hasn't stopped me from starting to stock up on my maternity clothes! ha!

we haven't had an ultrasound yet or heard the heartbeat but i have another appointment in 3 weeks and we'll get to hear the heartbeat then! super excited! jeremy and i leave to take a 2 week trip to south africa on november 13 and the doctor wanted to have me in one more time before we go! yay for not having to wait 5 weeks before another appointment!

i haven't had any cravings yet...really. other than if something sounds good thats really what i want to eat. at times nothing sounds good so if i can think of something that would be appealing, i do whatever i can to eat just that! im having to eat about every 2 hours to keep my sickness symptoms at bay and i've tried all suggestions from friends and family as well! so if you have any, i'm open! i have had aversions though!! normally i love all things pumpkin, especially starbucks pumpkin spice lattes, but the thought of that...well let me just say, it doesn't make me want to run and go get one! another thing is arby's food. ridiculous, i know! right before i found out that i was pregnant (at 4 weeks) i had been craving arbys and eating it on a pretty regular basis (not the healthiest food, i know!) and ever since the nausea has started, i really have a hard time even driving by a sign for arby's! the smell of chicken cooking seems to be another issue! haha, i feel like these are such random things but for whatever reason have really caused me some problems! hopefully though in a few weeks when im out of my first trimester ill be able to enjoy my usual pumpkin spice latte...its fall, how can you not enjoy all things pumpkin?!

there you have it...all the details of my pregnancy thus far! ill do my best to post each week, hopefully with a picture of my growing belly and updates on me and the baby! until then, please give me any suggestions on how to get rid of morning sickness and tell us whether you think we're having a boy or girl!?!

its a girl thing!

2010-08-31T10:48:00.000-04:00

women, we need your help. i was checking all of the blogs that i visit on a regular basis and came across a project that encouraged me to chip in and help..and now im wanting to encourage you to do the same! rather than trying to explain everything that my blog friend had shared, i've decided to give you her blog address so that you can get all the information you need to understand the project! my hope is that many of you will want to help and join in on this much needed project. so if you'll go to http://www.babeofmyheart.com and scroll down to her post called "Project 1: It's a girl thing" you'll be able to find out all the information and details about how to make a difference in the women and girls' lives in Korah! my plan is to have a "pad party" here at my house with many of my close friends! if you feel inspired to help, want to be a part of my pad party, would like to have your own party or do some sewing on your own...please email me at sklink07@gmail.com and i can give you all the information, patterns, deadlines, etc. that you would need to help make a difference!

if you aren't a "sewer" just like me, that doesn't mean you can't get involved as well! you could be the fabric cutter or maybe the one who hosts the party at your house....we can all take part and help change these lives forever!

i cant wait to hear back from you and get things started! happy girl day! :)

(in a nut shell)

2010-08-28T20:56:00.000-04:00

yep. i was right...unfortunately its been another long while since i last posted on my blog! things have continued to be crazy for me and im afraid to think for even a second that they will ever slow down. ill try and recap things for you considering its been months....in a nut shell, of course!

back in april, jeremy was given the opportunity to start working with my dad. they work for a urinalysis lab, my dad being in sales and jeremy being an account manager. jeremy manages my dad's accounts, most of which are in tennessee. (in a nut shell) work has been great for them and the Lord has truly blessed us with this opportunity. it has been an adjustment, learning how to be at home by myself and for him to be gone at least a couple days each week. but we're doing it and making it work. and its good.

we took a trip to san diego for one of jeremy's friend's wedding and did a little sightseeing! we went with my cousin lindsay and her husband todd. (the ones that are responsible for jeremy and i meeting....!) we went to several beaches, the zoo and ate lots of yummy foods!

(in a nut shell)

jeremy and i both had siblings to get married this summer. ONLY 1 week apart! my older sister, lauren, got married to her sweetheart, pearson, that she met while serving overseas, on july 31st and jeremy's younger brother, alex got married to his high school sweetheart, alicia, on august 7th!

and just for fun a few more things that we've been busy with over the summer...

beach trip.

bachelorette parties.

bachelor parties.

another beach trip.

rescued a stray dog. rudy.

researched possible adoption agencies.

scrapbooking convention.

visited with our friends from south africa. casey. sarah. kieren.

lake james.

thirty-one party.

traveled to knoxville and chattanooga.

strongly considered moving to knoxville or chattanooga.

beach trip with high school bffs!

decided on an adoption agency. WOO!

babysat for lots of super cool families.

house sat/dog sat. and most definitely did not set their car alarm off (at midnight) and did not get locked out of their house! (and not on two separate occasions! ha!)

celebrated our second anniversary :)

in a nut shell.

just a quick 'hello!'

2010-06-23T16:28:00.000-04:00

here i am. yes, i know its been a while. im afraid that there will often be times where i blog and say...'its been a while'...! i feel like things have been going full force for a few months now and haven't even begun to slow down! jeremy and i have a lot going on this summer but i am truly hoping that ill find the time to blog about all of it! i've already got a list of things that i want to catch up on and i know that list will continue to get longer if i don't get a move on it! so...here's the start of what i hope to be the beginning of many blog posts to come! i hope!

*just in case, how about you keep your fingers crossed!?! and maybe click your heels three times...just for extra good measure! ha!

josh butler

2010-05-25T13:56:00.000-04:00

here is a picture of mine and jeremy's wedding party. josh is the one standing next to me...

jeremy and josh have been best friends since they were little boys. their families have been friends for years and i heard so many of their family memories last week. jeremy's brother is a year younger than josh's sister...and i heard a story of how alex chased summer, trying to kiss her, when he was only two! ha! i heard lots of stories about how the families would spend time on the lake together and how josh and jeremy had a few of the same "crushes!" i heard about some of the summer camps that jeremy and josh went to together...i could tell you stories for days! getting to spend time with both families and hear them reminisce of all their wonderful times together was wonderful...but oh so bittersweet.

you see, some of you may know, but some of you may not. if you don't know jeremy and i, then you probably don't know josh either. last monday morning, josh was in a tragic accident. he was hit and killed in an instant. it was raining and they lost control of the car. then another car. then a truck. the driver couldn't help it. there was no where to run. it was raining and it was muddy and it was an accident. he's gone. gone. it breaks my heart to know that i won't get to see him again on this earth. i still can't believe it. how can josh be gone when i had just talked to him a few short minutes before the accident? how can he be gone, when we were planning a day for him to come visit; it had been way too long since the three of us had spent time together. how could he be gone when he hadn't lived a long life, wasn't married and doesn't have any children...all were things josh had wished for!? how can he be gone, when him and jeremy were best friends. how can josh be gone since we loved him so much?

thankfully we know without question that josh was a Christian. we have full confidence that he is in heaven with Jesus! how exciting is it to know that he gets to spend eternity with Him!? no more suffering, no more sadness...just pure bliss! and while we're sad and struggling with our great loss, we have to realize that we aren't crying tears for josh but for ourselves. we cry because we miss him and wish that he could still be here with us. we're sad because he was taken from us..when really we should be thankful that God gave him to us and his family for 25 years!

i hadn't ever met josh's family but after spending last week with them, i absolutely love them, just like i love josh. josh was one of the sweetest people i had in my life and i see now where he learned that. i got to see so many of his mannerisms by watching his dad. and his laugh...oh he laughs just like josh did. i loved getting to hear josh's dad laugh because it was like josh was right there with us.

with promises to spend more time with josh's family and visit them in knoxville, i hope that we can hold on to each other and continue to remember all of the wonderful times that we had with josh.

we're dealing.
we're praying.
we're crying.
we're trying our hardest to believe that this was God's plan and that it was "his time to go."
we're leaning on each other and on the Lord.
we're crying.
we're doing our best to live a life that would please Him, just like josh did.
we're coping.

we love you and miss you terribly, josh! we can't wait until the day that we all get to see you again. know that life won't be the same here without you. thanks for being such a great friend to jeremy and a great friend to me. i promise to take good care of luke (josh's dog that we've adopted). and i promise to never forget you. i promise to think of you. always.

what im looking forward to...

2010-04-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

i get so excited when i begin to feel the warm temperatures and see flowers blooming because it can only mean one thing! SPRING! and then after that...comes an even better...SUMMER! YAY, we've made it! spring is here and summer is just around the corner! i don't enjoy fall and absolutely hate winter. i could completely do away with it all together! anyway...with spring and summer come lots of fun trips, visiting with friends and experiencing all the fun things that these wonderful seasons bring!

here are...just a few things...that i am looking forward to this spring and summer.

picking our own strawberries at a local farm to make all kinds of sweet goodies

going to seagrove to search for new pottery treasures

spending some quality time with my hot hubby! and maybe even taking some "business trips" with him

lots of special wedding events: bridal showers, tea party, cookouts, lingerie parties and bachelorette weekends!

attending four weddings! two for friends (one in boone and one in california!), one for my brother-in-law and one for my older sister!

traveling to charleston, south carolina to visit with our close friends, eric and megan

taking our annual family beach trip. well hopefully many beach trips...and by family, i mean 20+ people (in one house!)

"toting around" 2 preteens to the swimming pool, movies, carowinds and any other fun place we can get ourselves into...aka my job this summer!

cheering on my little sister at her swim meets...plus the delicious concession foods :) im a food junky!

continuing to build my thirty-one business

scrapbooking...im really hoping to get a lot accomplished over the next few months

possibly learning how to sew and maybe even reading a couple books? i dont know though...i don't want to push it too far! so there you have it...my fun spring and summer list of what im looking forward to!

what about you? do you have anything that you're looking forward to now that spring has arrived? any big plans?

new dish

2010-04-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

last night jeremy and i were trying to come up with something good to make for dinner. we were rummaging around in our freezer and found some tilapia...we've had it in there for quite some time and never tried to make anything out of it, so we figured that we'd give it a try! and what do you do when you...dont know what to do...google! ha! jeremy looked up recipes online until we found one that 1: sounded good to us and 2: we had all the ingredients for! we agreed on this parmesan one and let me tell you...it was super easy and delicious! i had to share it with everyone.

broiled tilapia parmesan:

(we halved the topping ingredients because we were just making enough for the two of us...it made extra but who doesn't love more topping!?)

1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1/4 c. butter, softened
3 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (i just used the bottle kind)
1/4 tsp. dried basil (i don't like basil so i left this out!)
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. celery salt
2 lbs. tilapia fillets (we used only 3 fillets)

directions:
preheat your oven broiler. (i had mine on high) grease a broiling pan or line with aluminum foil. in a small bowl, mix together the parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. mix well and set aside. arrange fillets in a single layer on your pan. broil a few inches from the heat for 2-3 minutes. flip the fillets over and heat for another couple minutes. remove fillets from the oven and cover with parmesan mixture on the top side. broil for two more minutes or until the topping is brown and the fish flakes easily with a fork. and VOILA!

thats it...thats all you have to do and you have a delicious, semi-healthy..or not so healthy meal! we paired ours with potatoes and steamed broccoli! yum! i can promise you that we'll be eating that again and don't be surprised if you come over for dinner and that's what we're serving! ;)

BIG things are happening here!

2010-04-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

hello blog friends! first i want to apologize for it being so long since my last post...not quite sure why i disappeared for a while!? (and im not sure if i even have any "blog friends" but if anyone out there is reading...ive got some news to share! you'll just have to continue reading to find out!) my husband and i tried posting about my birthday (back in the middle of march) and for whatever reason couldn't get any pictures to post...so ill try and post about that later...but on to more important and BIGGER news.....

before i share the big news.... i want to thank all of you for your prayers and support for jeremy and i as we have been in a whirlwind of a life for the past several months. moving to and from south africa has been and continues to be a challenge for us, but we're praying through it and thanks for your prayers as well. along with moving back to the states, we've been in search of jobs. this has been one of the most difficult situations for us! i mean you have to work to be able to pay bills and survive, right? goodness, i had no idea just how bad the economy was until we, ourselves were jobless. God has continued to provide for us though and we are very thankful! jeremy has spent hundreds of hours, days even, trying to find a job. every possible job you can think of...he's applied for! thankfully i have been able to help out some friends by babysitting their sweet little ones! but having only one income, simply isn't enough! i started babysitting some of our close friends, adam and elizabeth's little girl, leah, a couple weeks ago...and i will definitely be posting about that sweet little girl a little later!

okay now on to the BIG NEWS!!! (has the suspense been killing you?) my family was on their way to spend the weekend in opelika, alabama, with my sister's future in-laws and to celebrate their engagement. well we were about five minutes away from the alsobrooks' home when my dad gets a call from a guy he works with. (sorry if this is long and word-y!) the guy was calling to inform my dad that they had gotten it approved to bring jeremy on board with their company! YIPPEE! he emailed jeremy and my dad a copy of the contract; he wanted them to look over it and then have jeremy start TODAY! he will be shadowing my dad for a few days and then he'll be on his own! :) we couldn't be happier and i am just so proud of my husband! he stayed so patient throughout the whole process..of course there were occasional meltdowns and frustrating times but he's been great! all along the way, i believed that the Lord was going to give him something great! of course i had no idea what that was going to be and selfishly i was hoping for something to have come a lot sooner than now but i tried to encourage jeremy and believe that God's timing is perfect and He promises to take care of us...and He has! this is BIG, you see this job that jeremy has, he was hoping for; we had prayed for! God is so good! it is right up jeremy's alley and i think he will be great at it! he will be managing all of the accounts that my dad's company has with hospitals, doctor's offices and clinics to make sure they have all tests that they need, doing in-service trainings and just making sure that everyone is happy and knows the proper way to use the screenings and tests! jeremy is such a hard worker and always goes above and beyond what is expected of him, so i know that with this job, it will be no exception!

jeremy's job will require him to travel a good bit for a while so if you would please continue to pray for us. pray for his safety and for my scaredy-cat self, as i get used to not having jeremy around all the time! pray that we continue to seek the Lord as we try to learn even more of what His plan is supposed to look like for our lives! God is GREAT and i know that even BIGGER things are yet to come...i can just feel it! (and no im not talking about me being pregnant!) i know that the Lord has blessed us with the talents that we have... we just have to wait on the Lord to see how He wants to use them! :)

i hope all of you have a HAPPY MONDAY!

my husband!

2010-03-06T09:13:00.000-05:00

i have the BEST husband in the world! and i know youre probably thinking that im wrong and that yours is better but i would have to disagree! (i may be just a little biased!) jeremy and i have been searching for jobs over the past few months and so far jeremy hasn't found anything! now for a man, especially my man, thats extremely frustrating! he wants to be the financial leader and provider for our family but after completing hundreds of applications and lots of waiting...still nothing! he has spent the majority of the past few months at home, trying to find possible job opportunities and doing a great job keeping the house in order. almost every day before i leave to go work (im a temporary nanny), he asks me, "what can i do today?" so usually i try and think of a couple things that he could get done around the house or any errands that need to be run. well he knows that my job can be tiring and by the time i come home some afternoons, i am completely wiped out! two different times i have come home to completely WONDERFUL surprises!! the first one, i got to see without jeremy being home. (he referees for a recreational league for my dad and had games he needed to call) he bought three small pots of tulips! tulips are one of my favorite flowers! he had rearranged the centerpieces on our tables so that the tulips could be the main focus in our dining room! :) how sweet!! of course i called him immediately thanking him for the special gift, with a huge smile of my face! and then...about a week later, i ended up having to work longer than normal and came home to a deliciously scrumptious meal! crab legs! potatoes, green beans and bread! YUM! we got the crab legs for a ridiculous deal at harris teeter and we've never cooked them before....but that didnt scare jeremy! he googled recipes for crab legs and ended up making the entire meal go together using the same spices and herbs! everything tasted perfect! i absolutely love when he tries new things to make me happy because he gets so excited and proud of himself! sometimes seeing the smile on his face once ive seen what he's done, is better than the surprise that he's given me! gosh and he's just so darn cute too :) here are a few pictures to show him off even more!

Introduction

2010-03-02T08:03:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Well anyone...if there is someone out there reading my new blog! I have been trying to start a new blog for months and just never got around to it until NOW! With the help of my amazing husband, (who I will definitely post about later) we now have it up and running, In sharing on my blog, you will read about our journey together as a married couple and what adventures, fun times and possibly even some of our struggles as we try our best to follow God's plan for our lives. You will also see plenty of new crafty home decor projects that I hope to be starting in the near future!...as well as great specials from the company that I work for called Thirty One! I want to share my life with you and hopefully get feedback on suggestions of how to do things better, cheaper or easier and possibly encouragement by you sharing with me that you understand what I'm going through because you have dealt with it or are dealing with the same issues currently. Thanks for stopping by and again...hope you enjoy my blog!