12 Week Check-Up

I went for my 12 week check up on Monday. We got the heartbeat for about 2 seconds. The baby was just turning too much! It was 142 bpm. Hayden's was always higher than that, but this pregnancy has been nothing like it was with him so I can't really compare. I weighed the same, so that was good, but I'm definitely starting to have more of a pooch. I would like to just be bigger already so that people wouldn't think I'm just fat. I broke down and started wearing my maternity jeans a couple of weeks ago. I could still wear my regular ones, but they were just hurting! I'm also overemotional, which means I cry at just about anything. I was reading up on someone's blog this morning and kept tearing up. Go figure... I am still getting nauseated at night, but I am figuring out what makes it worse and trying to avoid those foods. Overall, I feel much better this time around, and I'm wondering what that will mean for the temperament of this baby.

Anyway, that's about all they did. I'm supposed to go in sometime before my next appointment to do an early blood sugar test, so I'll probably do that next week. I also haven't exercised in about 3 weeks, so I will definitely be getting back in the swing of that next week. I go back on January 26th for my next appointment and sometime at the beginning of February, we will have another ultrasound and find out what Pinto is! We haven't talked about names yet, but will be sure to let you know when we decide for sure.

I'll leave you with a pic of Hayden being wild with his shopping cart this morning! What a goober! I really should have made a video. He gets crazy sometimes!

Christmas Morning At Our House

Since Dave is in the TV business and usually has to work at least on Christmas Eve, we have started doing Christmas morning at our house instead of staying with my mom and dad. It has given us a chance to start some of our own traditions (such as having a big breakfast...hmmmm....maybe we'll come up with more later). This year my parents came over so they could spend a couple of days with us. They came on Christmas Eve and we hung out and made some last minute trips to Publix and Walgreens. Christmas day we had our big breakfast and a kind of big lunch, followed by an afternoon at the movie theater where we went to the The Tale of Desperaux. The movie was not that good, but we sure had a fun day! Today we got up and put away all of my decorations plus my tree! Yay for my mom and Dave!!! Now I don't have to worry about it next week. Hayden was so excited for Grammy and Deeda to be here and was especially excited to open his presents and everyone's stockings for them!!!

Last weekend we had Christmas in Muscle Shoals, but I don't have any pictures yet. And this weekend we will Christmas in Birmingham, so let the festivities continue!!!

Santa brought my mom hot dog bubble gum!

Hanging out with Deeda!

Mamma Mia is apparently his gift! He loves it!!!

Griping...

I would just like to say that I am thoroughly aggravated. We got home yesterday to find that our furnace was not working. So, I had to make a trip to Wal-Mart to get a space heater for our den until we have time to figure it out. I decided that while I was at good ole Wally World that I would do my grocery shopping. Mistake! It was a madhouse. Don't go there if you don't have to!!! I spent way too long there and it was freaking cold, so when we got home we ate a little dinner and headed upstairs to where our heat is working (we have a different unit up there). We have spent the day running up our gas bill with our logs burning and using the space heater as well. The sunshine helps during the day, so it got warm enough to turn the space heater off for a while. We have a good idea what's wrong, so hopefully we can fix it tomorrow...just in time for old St. Nick!

Another thing is that a few weeks ago I found out our pretty blue crib had been recalled! As Dave said, good thing they recalled it before we put a baby in it!!! (Note the sarcasm.) The spindles can apparently break and pose a choking hazard. Lovely. If you've ever had a recalled item, you understand the aggravation of all of this. First I had to fill out the paperwork online with every number written on the thing. Then we got a packet instructing us to take off a part of the hardware and mail it back so that we can get our stipend. I'm really wondering whether or not to do it b/c our crib has a nice spring support bottom and the other cribs in it's price range don't. Guess we shouldn't take the chance. It stinks though. I would put a picture of the crib on here, but apparently I don't have one. Wow, we are really bad about taking pictures of things like that.

Here is a picture of Christmas last year in our old house in the 'Ham. Wow, a lot can change in a year. We've moved to a different state and are expecting a new baby! I have to say, I am also another year older and a whole lot wiser!!!

10 weeks!

Well, I am 10 weeks pregnant today. Only 29 more weeks to go! Ha! I am feeling pretty good. I mainly have morning sickness at night. As long as I eat a big breakfast and light lunch and snack every couple of hours, I feel pretty good. I am taking B6 and Unisom at night, so that seems to be helping. All in all, this time around is very different from Hayden. With him, I couldn't drink any water at any point in the day. I was throwing up at least every other day in the morning and nauseated up through 18 or 19 weeks. I'm hoping that this light nausea will go away by 12 or 13 weeks. Wouldn't that be nice? I go back for my next OB appointment on Dec. 29th, so we will get to hear the heartbeat then.

In other news, Hayden and I are in Muscle Shoals and have been here since last Thursday. We were coming on Tuesday anyway, and my parents were in Georgia spending the night with us last week. So, we decided to go ahead and come back with them. We didn't really have anything else to do, and since Florence now has a Kohl's, I can finish my shopping here!

Hayden spent Saturday with Grandmoma and Papa (my grandparents) while I went with my mom and the BC ladies to Huntsville to Bridge Street for food and shopping. We went on a home tour in historic Huntsville that night that was a lot of fun too! Sunday afternon, my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, mom, dad, Hayden and I headed to Franklin, TN for their Dicken's of a Christmas festival. It was very windy, but a fun day. Our newest addition to the family, my niece, will be arriving on February 24th, so we are getting excited about that.

This week the plans are pretty loose, but I have to finish shopping, get my bridesmaids' dress for this Saturday, get together with my aunt and uncle and cousin, go to the rehearsal dinner Friday night and help decorate during the day Friday. My mom is having a brunch tomorrow morning, so Hayden and I need to make ourselves scarce during that. I'm sure we can come up with something. Hmmmmm....

Our newest little bean...

We are proud to announce that we are expecting a new baby on July 13th '09! We have affectionately nicknamed her or him "Pinto". We went for an 8 week ultrasound this morning and saw the heartbeat and blob of baby, so we feel comfortable letting everyone know! We are very excited and hope that everything goes well for the next 31 or 32 weeks. We will schedule a repeat c-section the week before, so no surprises for us this time!

So far I have only been nauseated when I let my stomach get empty. You would think it would be easy to keep it full, being that I am hungry all of the time, but not everything tastes so good right now. I've only had a little mild cramping and bloating (which made me think I was gaining weight or starting to show, but it's gone now...whew). I also belch ALL of the time. (What is that? Someone tell me, please!?!) I am pretty tired all of the time, but if I rest enough I have good days and a little more energy. I have been trying to continue exercising at Curves, but have only been once this week. I really feel better when I go, but it's the getting there that's the hard part. I am planning to not gain nearly as much weight as I did with Hayden (38 lbs, yikes on a 5'2" person!), so staying off of sugar is a big part of that for me. I was borderline gestational diabetic with him, so they will do the sugar test early this time. I have been doing really well with eating no sugar (only cheating every once and a while...especially on Thanksgiving), so I don't think it will be as big of an issue during this pregnancy.

I plan on doing bump pics with the same old t-shirt every time, so here is a 6 week bump pic (which, honestly, isn't too different from my leftover Hayden bump):

And here is the ultrasound pic from today. The blob of baby is to the left of the middle of the picture!

Thanksgiving the Third & Fourth and Dave's Birthday!

On Friday, Hayden and I rode over to the other side of Atlanta to spend the afternoon with my good friend Carrie's family on their Thanksgiving. Hayden got to play with some other kids and I got to eat lots of good food and visit, so we had a fun day!

On Saturday, all of us got up and drove to the 'Ham to spend some time with Dave's family. I actually snuck in some girl time with my good friend Traci that afternoon AND got some Christmas shopping done at the same time! Traci's always fun to hang out with, and she gives me great advice...so I'm anxious to get down to my list she gave me!

Sunday was Dave's 35th birthday so we just hung around the house and I helped Dave's mom put out her Christmas decorations, which is always fun for me. We got Dave an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (his special treat every year), and his parents also had a caramel cake so we maxed out on sugar. After Hayden's nap, we went over to hang out with Dave's father at his house and got to watch Wall-E in HD and surround sound! We saw it in the theater, so Hayden was all excited about that. Then we drove home and Hayden went back to school this morning. He had a great day full of smiley faces, so he got a "surprise" for being a good boy at school...a Frosty DVD ($5 at Walgreens, people), which he is watching intently as I type this.

Thanksgiving the Second

We had our little "family" Thanksgiving lunch today. Everything turned out great, if I do say so myself! And even though I halved the big recipes, we still have enough leftovers to eat off of for at least 3 days! Dave already left for work, and I am thinking about eating a little snack in a minute. ;) Hayden is down for a nap, so I will watch some sappy Christmas movies on TV and relax. Maybe I can work on a few more Christmas decorations after he gets up and he can play outside since it's so nice and warm!

P.S. We actually didn't stay at home tonight! Dave was covering the Macy's Christmas tree lighting at Lenox Square Mall, so we hopped on the interstate and joined him. Jewel performed, along with some other people that I hadn't really heard of, but who were equally as good. When they lit the Christmas tree, they had a ton of fireworks, which rivaled our little town's fourth of July set! Jann Carl from E.T. was there as the host, so I got a quick pic with her when it was over. I wanted to try to get a pic with Jewel, but she disappeared quickly every time she left the stage. Sneaky girl...

Overall, we had a great Thanksgiving all alone in Georgia. I'm glad Hayden and I mustered up the energy to head downtown. I'm always wanting us to "do" more, and tonight I felt like we did!

Thanksgiving the First

We went to Muscle Shoals this past weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Foote Family and November birthdays (Gwen, Brandon, and Dave). We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, followed with leftovers on Sunday. Dave and I went on a date to see Twilight on Sunday, which I have to say I was a little disappointed with. I still liked it just b/c it was a movie based on that particular book, but I felt like they could have done a better job with it. There's always the sequels!

This Thursday, I will be cooking a small Thanksgiving lunch for the three of us. I'm a little nervous about getting the dressing right b/c I've never done it before. That's what we have grandmothers for!!! I will not be cooking a turkey b/c we don't really like it that much and it will be easier to have chicken for just us anyway. I will round out the meal with veggie casserole, mashed potatoes, and a pumpkin pie. Hopefully Dave won't be too lethargic at work. Saturday we will head over to the 'Ham to spend some time with Dave's family for his birthday and Thanksgiving, and hopefully get some good visiting time in with all of them.

I'll leave you with some pictures. First is one of the Christmas tree. I will hopefully have the outside and the rest of the inside finished by the end of this week so I can post more pictures. The next 2 are Carson and Hayden at my mom's house all ready for Santa, but not ready to take pictures together!

Skipping ahead...

Yes, I admit it. I am one of those crazy people that puts my Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving. We have such a weird holiday schedule with Dave working in the TV biz, that it's difficult for me to wait until the day or weekend after Turkey day to put up the tree. We're usually out of town, and this year is no different. So, we put up the tree this past weekend, and I'm working on getting the limbs unfolded and some of the lights replaced. I hope to start putting on ornaments tonight, so that I can post a pic this week. I also want to take our Christmas picture in front of it one day this week! Never too early to start planning Christmas cards!!!

So, come along with me and skip ahead this year. I promise it won't hurt a bit!

Nostalgia...

My mom was feeling nostalgic this past Sunday, so she and my dad rode up to Tennessee to where she grew up. My mom's old house burned down many years ago, but our Aunt Mag's house is still standing. It was unreal to see the pictures and to remember how it used to be. I remember going there a lot up until high school, for family reunions or just to visit. Mag died around 10 years ago, but her spirit still seems to be there and I know I'll never remember the house without remembering her in it.

Gatlinburg...Finally!

For those who don't know, 2 weeks ago we spent a week in the smoky mountains with my parents. We stayed in a camping cabin in a campground...which was interesting, to say the least. There was no bathroom in the cabin, so we had to walk to the bathhouse for all of our showering and bodily functions. Hmmmm....So it was really like staying in a very hard tent. Ha! We enjoyed it, though, b/c we were in the same campground where my parent's had their 5th wheel trailer. We could walk back and forth and cook and Hayden rode his bicycle all over the place. (Don't ask me how we fit it in our car.) We even had a campfire a couple of nights. We went to Dollywood (where I dropped my cell phone off of an awesome roller coaster and it still works!), a magic show (where I ended up on stage for one of the tricks...I still don't know how he did that), the Wax Museum (where I had to hold Dave back so he wouldn't grope the female wax figures..ha), the Christmas place (where we got our ornaments for this year), and Ober Gatlinburg (where Dave and Hayden went alpine sliding). We also walked around quite a bit in Gatlinburg. We went to the Wild Plum Tea Room and had a great lunch, and then drove out to an apple orchard the day before we left. Overall, it was great and we were worn out! Dave complained that he needed a vacation to get over the vacation, but I still think he had a good time!

Trick or Treat!

Today was our first Halloween in Georgia. Hayden started the day with school and a fall party, which I also attended. I have to say, the moms who put it together really outdid themselves! The kids enjoyed all of the fun snacks and their extra treats that they got to take home.

After Hayden and I got home, we picked up Dave and went out to lunch since I was planning on us eating at home for dinner. We came home so Hayden could have a nap, then headed out to Publix for their trick-or-treating. I have to say, this is highly overrated. I would much rather go to a trunk-or-treat at a church. Anyway, we came home and ate dinner, then Dave and Hayden headed out to trick-or-treat on our street. They walked with some of our neighbors and one was dressed as Harry Potter, which he LOVED. He also really liked walking with the other kids and actually told Dave not to go with him to the door! Ha! Such a big boy...

I also dressed up for a little while, but Hayden wasn't too happy about the wig, so I took it all off before they got back. We did get some pictures, though.

We also went next door a little later and got a picture of Hayden with our neighbor's little girl, Lea. She was dressed as a Georgia cheerleader and he had on his Alabama jersey. We thought we weren't going to get them together to get the pic and joked that they were like flipped magnets...Georgia and Alabama just wouldn't go together!

Now, we are awaiting the swarms of trick-or-treaters we are rumored to have in our new neighborhood and starting to find it's true! The doorbell won't stop ringing!

Finally, here is Dave's pumpkin. See if you can guess what it is!

First Field Trip

Hayden had his first ever field trip yesterday morning. It was extremely cold and Hayden has yet another runny nose today from it. But I digress...his whole school went to a pumpkin patch. They got to look for gems and stuff a scarecrow. They also went on a short hay ride to the pumpkin patch. We were a bit disappointed when we got to the actual patch b/c apparently they got wiped out of big pumpkins over the weekend. We ended up with a little bitty tiny pumpkin, so we stopped at Publix yesterday and got a big one. Dave carved it this morning, and it turned out really good, but I'll wait until the Halloween post to put the picture of it on there. I was planning to take Hayden to a trunk-or-treat tonight, but I'm rethinking that b/c of his runny nose and b/c it will probably be really cold again.

I plan to blog about our trip to Gatlinburg, but I am waiting to get more pictures from my mom so I can put them on here! Dave is off for Halloween tomorrow, so we will take Hayden to Publix, then Dave will take him trick-or-treating on our street while I hand out candy. Our neighborhood is apparently a big place to trick-or-treat, so that should be fun for me. I plan on dressing up as well, so I will definitely have a picture of that! I can't wait to see all of our neighbor's kids dressed up!!!

Above is Hayden helping stuff the scarecrow!

Above are Hayden and two of his big buddies from preschool, Ryan (left) and Bo (right).

Halloween Giveaway at Monogramchick.blogspot.com!

Go to Monogramchick to enter for a fabulous Halloween giveaway this afternoon!

Moving on...

I am feeling better now, but still on antibiotics. They make me tired, but I'm trying to get us ready for the mountains next week. There is much to do, and little energy to do it with!

Hayden and I have ventured out the last 2 nights so that we wouldn't be totally bored at home. We went for him to play last night at Chick-Fil-A. There were a million girls there, so Hayden was in hog heaven. He played so well that sometimes I am surprised that he gets in trouble for pushing or hitting. Then when Dave picked him up from preschool today, his teacher said he had a great day! Yeah!

Here is a picture from when we were in Gatlinburg 2 years ago. Hayden was so little then, so I am guessing that this experience will be a little different. I am so glad we don't have to haul diapers!!! We are hoping just to hang out with my parents for a relaxing time. We got tickets to Dollywood for next Friday, so we will definitely have a new experience there. I would like to do a little of the non-touristy stuff, such as going up in the mountains, but I don't know if Hayden's car-sickness can handle it or my mother's foot for that matter. We'll see!

It's a Girl!!!

We're having a NIECE!!! Yeah! Finally, after four boys on my side, we will have a little girl! My brother and his wife will have this little bundle around March 3, 2009. My whole family is so excited!

In other news, Hayden went back to the doctor and still had an infection in his left ear. So he had shots on Tuesday, but we went back today and even though there is still fluid there is no infection! But now I am sick again. I went to the doctor yesterday and had 2 shots and got a prescription antibiotic which I started today. Needless to say, I am so over this.

More Pics from Orlando...

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!! Wish it were ours, but alas it is Bradford's Halloween costume. Hayden loves dressing up, so maybe Santa will bring him some costumes this year.

My son is a coffee drinker thanks to his Grammy! Only decaf, of course!

World's Largest McDonald's Playplace!

Bradford and Hayden at Universal. Sad that this is one of the best pictures of them from this trip.

I love this picture! My sis-in-law, Gina took it while we were at Cocoa Beach!

Fall...

I love Fall. It is my favorite time of year. I can get Hayden out into the sunshine b/c it is not so miserably hot. Being sick for almost 3 weeks has really ticked me off this year. I hope that I can feel better in the next few days so that we can enjoy this beautiful weather a little more. Halloween is just around the corner, so it's time to get costumes together. I will hopefully be dressing up as a disco diva (Thanks Moma), and Hayden will be Frankenstein probably. Dave may have to work, so we don't know if he'll dress up or not.

We are planning a trip to the 'Ham next weekend, so hopefully that will work out. We're having a bit of a problem with gas shortage around here, but it's supposed to be clearing up by the end of this week. I'm looking forward to hitting up Kids' Market and visiting with family and friends for a couple of days.

In other news, Dave started his new schedule this week. He is Monday thru Friday!!! Yeah!!! We feel truly blessed to have gotten this opportunity to move to Georgia. It took him 3 years to get this schedule at his last station, but only 7 months at this one! Our first official Saturday at home with him will be a full day. We plan on working in the yard in the morning and watching the 'Bama game in the afternoon. Of course, we will also be going to church on Sunday...finally. It seems like we will never be stable though since we will be gone the next weekend and headed to the mountains the weekend after that. I don't feel like we're that busy, but when I look at the calendar, I guess we are.

BTW, I have added the blogs I follow. Enjoy!

Sick of being sick...

Well, Hayden was sick before we left for Orlando and was just starting to get better last week when his nose started running on Friday. I thought he felt a little warm, but didn't take his temp. On Saturday, he felt warm and did have a temp., so I gave him some medicine before he went to bed. During the night he came to our room and was burning hot. He was so hot that I immediately gave him more medicine, put him in the bathtub, and got a cold washcloth for him when he laid down. It really scared us and I think it was 102 at one point. On Sunday, I kept him on medicine all day and all night and called the doctor first thing this morning. We went in and found out that Hayden has a double ear infection! YUCK!!! He has never had an ear infection before. It is horrible! He still has a fever today, so he will probably miss school again on Wednesday. Hopefully he will be feeling better after a few days of his antibiotic. In the mean time, I have been pretty sick and finally broke down and went to the doctor on Saturday. So I am also on antibiotic. I'm sick of being sick and sick of Hayden being sick.

Friday Freebie at Monogram Chick

Check out monogramchick.blogspot.com and enter for a chance to win this bag! Make sure you mention that you saw it here, so if you win, I win!!! Sarah Woodall is my cousin's sister-in-law and I also went to Samford with her.

She has super cute stuff and a lot of new goodies for fall!

Orlando or Bust!

We spent all of last week in Orlando, Florida on vacation. We drove down on Sunday and Hayden got a little car sick right before we got to Leesburg to our good friends' house. Once we got there, he livened right up and got down to playing with Bradford (his playmate from Birmingham who has moved to Florida).

On Monday, we spent the day at Magic Kingdom. When I say the day, I mean 12 hours. It was long and we were tired, but we didn't have the first meltdown! Both boys had a great time and we got to ride everything with no wait!!! We even rode several things twice. We met Mickey and Minnie, and Buzz Lightyear (which was probably the highlight). Hayden didn't have a nap, so he fell asleep during the fireworks that night.

On Tuesday, we just hung out around Leesburg to have a day of rest. We grilled steaks and let the boys have good naps and play outside.

On Wednesday, just the 3 of us went to SeaWorld. Hayden must have still been tired from Monday b/c he did not enjoy it that much. The poor child fell asleep in my lap during Shamu's show. We were on the 3rd row, so he pretty well jumped out of his skin when we were splashed. By then it had started raining hard, and I didn't cover our dry clothes in the wagon that we had borrowed to use, so they were wet too. At that point, we left b/c all of the kiddie rides were closed anyway and we were just done. Maybe we will try it again in several years when Hayden can change gears a little better.

On Thursday, we headed into Orlando to the McDonald's with the World's Largest Playplace. It had a "bistro" in it that was overpriced for what it was (except for the chocolate cake, so yummy!), so next time we will be just getting regular McDonald's food. The arcade was neat and they had a lot of old Happy Meal toys displayed. The playplace itself was huge and had a 60 foot slide. We had a lot of fun and then headed over to Dave's sister's house where we were staying for the rest of the week.

On Friday, we drove to Cocoa Beach with my sister-in-law (Gina) and her husband (Heath). We were out there a couple of hours. Dave took Hayden in the ocean quite a bit and I got in there too. It was pretty hot down in Florida and apparently we are sunscreen stupid b/c Dave and I burned our shoulders and backs. Hayden luckily had on a swim shirt, so only his cheeks and nose got a little burned. We don't know what happened b/c we did have on SPF 30. Whatever.

On Saturday, we met up with our friends from Leesburg again, at Universal Studios. We started out the day in Universal Studios and ended it out in Islands of Adventure. We rode quite a bit and had fun, but will probably pass on this next time unless Hayden is tall enough to meet all of the height requirements. It's just disappointing for little kids b/c there is not that much for them to do. I think he rode 3 or 4 rides all day. Disney is much better for young children in my opinion. Anyways, we still enjoyed it and were glad to experience it for the first time together.

On Sunday we headed back to Georgia, but not before I gave Hayden some Dramamin first. No more puking in the car for us on this trip! For a last minute vacation, we really had a great time. We had comp tickets for Disney and SeaWorld, and staying with friends and family really cut down on our spending. We never could have done it without them! We definitely plan on doing it again in the future!

Special thanks to the Van Dyken's and the Crocker's for letting us crash at their homes so we didn't have to pay for hotels!!!