"we are family..."

My family has been here this weekend. It has rained and rained and rained.
I have eaten such great food. I am loving Laredos right now. That cheese dip makes me so happy. Donnie's birthday is Tuesday so we had a little b'day celebration. I made him a cake. He wanted a fun-fetti cake so that is what he got...............


Rae and Donnie are staying until Tuesday. I am so glad! It is always fun to have them here. I've got to go get ready to go to Amsterdam's now.

Nate the Great!!!

We just got back from our ultrasound and appointment with Dr. Hensarling.
I am so happy to say that Nate looked perfectly healthy! The ultrasound lady pretty much ruled out all of the major diseases and abnormalities. All of his parts are the right size and his heart is very strong. It was such a relief to hear her say that. He has all of his finger and all of his toes!
He was being very stubborn today so we didn't get many good pictures of him. He had his head down and his chin tucked close to his body for most of the ultrasound. We did get to see him move around a bunch so that was neat. His heart was beating at 151 bpm today.
The ultrasound lady must have had it out for me. It hurt SO badly! She kept pushing that wand down as hard as she could into my pelvic bone! OUCH!
I had lost 4 1/2 pounds when I was weighed today. I've gained a total of 4 1/2 pounds now (if you factor in the weight loss) and I'm 17 weeks tomorrow. Dr. Hensarling said that was completely fine and that I'm doing great. She said the fact that I'm eating healthy and exercising daily is really make a big difference. She thinks that I will probably only gain about 25 - 30 lbs. Hopefully she is right!!
I'm going to try to scan some of the pictures from today's ultrasound and post them later.

I'm hoping that the rain will come and wash ALL of the pollen away!!!

can we all say BABY BRAIN!

I cannot believe I forgot to write about one of the best events of the weekend. We had our first Supper Club of 2009 on Saturday night. The Gaillards were the hosts this month. The appetizers were great. I'm wishing I had some of that Boursin (sp?) cheese right now! The meal was wonderful......when we were finally able to eat! (love you Nicole)
It was so great to get together with friends and catch up with everyone. Here are some pictures from our fun night. I apologize because I broke my no-photo zone rule and the results were not that great for me!




(This is a picture that I took last year with Siggi when she was pregnant! We are almost exactly at the same point in our pregnancies when we took these pictures. I thought these pictures would be fun to frame side by side!)


I was not a good photographer. I really didn't take any pictures of the boys or the kids!! I promise to do better the next time we get together.

so much to type...

I have so much to type in this blog that I have put it off for two days!
We had a GREAT weekend.

Saturday - Bryant and I worked on a lot of stuff at the house. Bryant finished Nate's Armoire so now I can start hanging up all of the clothes this little boy has (*pictures will be posted soon*). We did a bunch of other stuff that would probably be very boring for me to type about so I won't. It was also nice to spend time outside with the dogs. I thought the pollen was bad on Saturday...you should see my back deck today. Luckily, the rain is coming tomorrow to wash all of the nasty yellow dust away!! Poor Bryant....Bless his heart - He is really almost allergic to everything but pollen is the worst for him.
We are having a HUGE problem with bees here. Is anyone else experiencing the same thing? My dad said having bees is not a problem at all and that nothing would grow without them. I feel so badly for Bauer. He is so afraid of him and they just hover over him all the time.

Sunday - Bryant and I went to Lake Martin for the first time! The Newell's (family that owns Newell Roadbuilders - where Bryant works) have a gorgeous lake home and the youngest son Trent had just bought a new boat. It was so much fun. It was the perfect day to be out on the water. I take back everything I said about the lake. I love it and I'm already looking forward to the next time we can go back. The Newell's are some of the sweetest and most gracious people I have ever met. I took my camera but like a dummy forgot to take any pictures....sorry.

Baby Nate Update - I felt Baby Nate move for the first time yesterday!! At first I didn't think that is what it was but then it happened again and I knew it wasn't me doing it. It is a very interesting thing to feel something moving inside of you. I am very excited that we are going to the doctor's again tomorrow to have another ultrasound! I'm looking forward to her checking everything out and making sure everything is ok with Baby Nate. The lady at Babywaves said she would be shocked if they didn't change my due date but several people have told me it's almost impossible for Lee/Ob to change a date. We shall see.....I'll post more tomorrow.

Friday - You are here at last!

Friday!
I am so glad today is here. I only have to work until noon and the weather is nice!
Somehow though it's only 6:45 and my To-Do List on my "off day" is already a mile long.
I know I'll come up with more things that need to be done but here is what I'll be up to today:

- Work until noon
- Clean Kitchen (I mean really clean the kitchen..I've got to do cabinets and the refrigerator too)
- Vacuum and Mop all floors (I haven't mopped all week so it's going to be bad)
- Fold all laundry (there are already 3 loads waiting for me in the bedroom)
- Bath or Bathe (sp?) Dudley & Bauer (fun times...)
- Take package to UPS store
- Go to Regions and get a new debit card
- Go pay our late fee at the library (Raven will be so embarrassed to read that)
- Hang up all of Nate's clothes (this child already has more clothes than I do)
- Dust all of upstairs...again (We had a little construction project up there a few weeks ago)
- Get upstairs ready for guests (Family coming in next Friday)
- Call Carpet Cleaners about getting our rugs cleaned
- Make Grocery List
- Figure out what we having for supper
- Exercise for at least 30 minutes

I'm sure I will find more to add to the list. I'm hoping to get all of this done so tomorrow we can work on some of the projects in the nursery. Bryant and I have also been invited to go to the lake with one of our friends and ride in their new boat......that would be fun too.
I hope that everyone is having a lovely Friday already!! I'll let you know how much I conquer today on the list. I'm already feeling very productive so I might actually finish it!!

and we're off.....

16 weeks today!
I am very excited to be feeling so wonderful. The second trimester has been very good to me.
It is so much fun now that we know about Nate and can start getting things ready. Bryant put the crib together two nights ago. He refused to let me take any pictures. I think he is starting to get sick of me documenting everything! I'll try to post pictures on the blog soon. I've ordered Nate's bedding. Here are the fabrics I've picked out:

If you have never heard of Alexander Henry Fabrics you definitely need to look him up.
I ordered the bedding through Etsy.
It is a custom order so I won't have the bedding until probably the end of May. I'm hoping to have the nursery done by June. I know that may sound early to some people but I'm just that kind of girl........
Once Bryant gets Nate's Armoire (*I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly and spell check wouldn't register the word*) finished I will have to take pictures of all of the clothes this child already has! (*I don't think we will have to buy ANY clothes for this little boy. It is so awesome how much stuff we have been given. Thank You K.R.!)


I am so glad that we have had two days of sunshine. Now if my yard can get dry and not feel like a swamp it will be great! That is pretty much it for now......

Nate's first video...

I am going to go ahead and say that I completely understand that this ultrasound video is probably not interesting to anyone other than Bryant and me but I thought I'd post it on here anyway. Some of the music is very annoying...we did not pick it out.

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR6nAOl112s
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOUaJgTptzg


For all of you pregnant ladies out there - BabyWaves was SO awesome. It was definitely worth the money. Even my sweet (and very cheap) husband agrees!!

and the winner is........

Team Blue!

Nate Garrison Cloud
(15 weeks old)

We got to Babywaves and the lady immediately took us back. I probably had not even been in the room for 10 seconds when she got me on the table and put the fun gel on my stomach. I honestly think that within less than 30 seconds of her starting she gave Bryant an Almond Joy candy bar. She said, "Do you know the jingle about Almond Joy and Mound candy bars?". I started singing in my head and I knew it was something about one with nuts and one without. We looked confused so she asked Bryant what did Almond Joys have in them. He said, "Nuts!!". She said, "It's a boy!". Bryant and I looked at each other and we were just both completely shocked. We just knew it was going to be a girl. The interesting thing is the second she told us it was a boy it was exactly what we wanted. Bryant is beyond excited and happy. The lady also told us that this was one of the most active babies she has seen in over 30 years of doing ultrasounds...oh dear.....! She also told us that he looked very healthy which was a huge relief to me. It was such a great experience being able to see him today. He has grown so much.

We went to Babies-R-Us and Target and registered. Registering is very exhausting. Bryant was a great help though. Hopefully we haven't forgotten a bunch of stuff. I've already been given so much that we didn't have to register for everything. It was nice to spend time with Bryant.

I don't know if it's just all of the excited today or the fact that I didn't get much sleep last night but I'm completely exhausted. I'm thinking I'm going to go to bed early tonight.
I'm going to post more pictures of our sweet baby boy!

team pink or team blue continued

Team Pink - 18
Team Blue - 9


(*Just to make sure everyone knows just because we think we are having a girl doesn't mean that we will be upset in any way at ALL if it's a boy. Bryant and I want whatever God has decided to give us!!*)

team pink or team blue

22 people have given us their prediction on what Baby Cloud is
so far it's

Team Pink - 16
Team Blue - 7

The reason why there are 23 results instead of 22 is because my dad wanted to vote for both teams!

I'll update this if more predictions come in.....
We find out in less than 24 hours!!!

only.......

3 MORE DAYS until we go to have our ultrasound!!!
I am so ready to find out what this baby is! My husband is so sweet. He is already planning a really nice a fun day for us on Saturday. We are going to go have the ultrasound done, then eat somewhere fun for lunch, register at Babies-R-us, register at Target and then go and pick out the chair & ottoman for the nursery(at Goree's). It will be fun!

I am very tired this morning. I have been sleeping so great and feeling so rested that I've gotten spoiled. Bryant went to a baseball game in Montgomery so I couldn't really get to sleep until he got home around 10:30 pm. I know that doesn't sound late to most people but I'm normally asleep between 8:30 - 8:45. I think the time change is a factor too. I woke up very sore this morning. I think that maybe walking on the treadmill at an incline of 9 might be the reason.

I'm sorry because I understand that this was a really boring post. I'll try to do better next time =-)

Have a great day......

I'm thinking about you today!

I'm thinking about my dear friends Bobby and Jill today.
I love you guys very much!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

busy weekend

We have had such a busy (but great) weekend.
My husband has been hard at work all weekend long on projects throughout the house. It is amazing how much we accomplished this weekend! I say we because pregnant or not I was involved in a lot of manual labor. (*Note to pregnant women reading this....shoveling & raking huge mounds of gravel is probably not something that should be done while expecting...*)
I was going to post some "before and after" pictures of the gravel walkway project in the backyard but the before pictures were just horrible. Our backyard is a disaster. We have ruts and holes all in the grass, none of our plants last for longer than a month and what few flower beds we actually had mulched our lovely boys have ruined. One more thing, we have horrible drainage on one side of our yard. Normally when the dogs come out of their doggy door they step in a huge area of mud....fun fun fun
Here is a picture of our new gravel area and walkway.......

(We still have a ton of landscaping to do in the backyard and around the walkway)

I am very excited about the time change. (*I reminded so many people about setting their clocks back and then forgot to do so myself. I was so worn out from the whole gravel ordeal that I just crashed.....needless to say we did not make it to church today.*)
I know a lot of people do not like the whole "Spring Forward" thing because people say we lose an hour. I love it! It will be so nice that my husband might get home at night before it's been dark for an hour. We enjoyed sitting out on the deck tonight. We had a delicious supper of salad w/ the most ripe tomatoes, grilled veggies w/ brown rice and wonderful orange roughy!
We ate out of the deck.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend......

date night

Bryant took me on a date tonight. It was so much fun. We went and saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was really cute and funny. I've read all of the books so it was neat to see it as a movie. I felt very badly for Bryant because it was definitely 100% a girl movie. He didn't seem to mind though. After that we had dinner and went to Starbucks. It was so nice to be able to spend some quality time with Bryant.

We have a very busy day planned for tomorrow. We are working on our backyard. (If you saw it you would understand how much work we have to do) So when all of you are sleeping in tomorrow think of me....I'm sure we will be at it way before 8:00 am. I can't complain though. The weather has been so great it makes me want to be outside all day. I'll try to post some before and after picture so you can see the progress that we will hopefully make tomorrow!!

pictures....

Abbie (our neighbor) came over to help Bryant with the snowman.

It had only been snowing for about an hour and a half when we took this picture.

Baby Cloud's first snow!

lots to say

This blog will contain no pictures because I'm using our dinosaur of a desktop and it would crash if I tried to upload any type of file. =-( I have tons of pictures that I will try and post tonight if my husband decides to bring his laptop home. (*For those of you that use google reader I'm sure you saw the 3 or 4 posts I tried to publish but ended up having to delete them. I don't know what was going on with blogspot that day!*)

Weather - It has been crazy around here. Friday it was 75 degrees and I was in flip flops. Saturday morning we were under the stairs in the closet bracing for a tornado and Sunday we were playing in the snow! (A lot of snow...) It has been VERY cold the past two days. I normally never say this but I am so ready for the warm weather to arrive. I am out of winter clothes that fit me and I'm refusing to buy any more. I guess I'm not really refusing because I would never refuse an occasion to buy an article of clothing - but my checking account is refusing for me.

Sam's - Bryant and I have decided that we are going to really get back to saving and paying down debt. We always use a budget but we have been budgeting for things we really don't need lately. One of the biggest money pits for us is the grocery store. We have a weekly budget but it's never enforced. It seems like we go for one big shopping trip every week but two days later Bryant is back in the grocery store picking up "a few items". By the end of the week we've gone to Kroger 4 times. We decided to go to Sam's on Sunday and buy meat and non-perishable stuff for the next two months. We spent a lot but it is definitely going to save us in the long run. We are only letting ourselves go to the regular grocery store once a week. I've also made a "Throw Away" list. I'm going to start writing down all of the food I throw away or that goes bad in my refrigerator each week. I'm really hoping this will help us eat the food we buy instead of throwing money in the trash. I'll keep you updated on how this goes.....

The Bachelor - I am not the biggest fan of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. I watched it last year. I felt so badly for the guy that got turned down that when I heard he was going to be the new Bachelor I had to watch. Jason has been the sweetest gentleman all season long. I thought for once they had finally picked a great guy that was not some egotistical jerk. Last night was the finale. I was pulling for Melissa (like most people I know). I was so delighted when he asked her to marry him and sent Molly packing. Every year after the finale they do sort of a reunion show called "After the Rose Ceremony". It is normally taped in front of a live studio audience. It is the first time the new couple can be seen out in public together. Side note - Jason and Melissa have been dating, going on trips, talking on the phone and all for the past 6 months since the show finished taping. They just had to be very secretive and secluded. The show starts with the host looking all grim saying "Tonight due to the emotional and dramatic events that are going to take place we are not taping this in front of a live studio audience...we want to respect all of the parties involved and what they are going through.." I was sitting on the couch thinking that someone had died. I was sure that one of the girls had died or his little boy had died. Then Jason comes on to be interviewed. He already has tears in his eyes so I'm still thinking the worst. Then...........he precedes to tell the host that he is about to break up with Melissa ON THE SHOW!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing. They bring this poor girl out and she is all smiling and laughing. He then tells her that even though he proposed to her and they've been dating for 6 months...THAT HE IS STILL IN LOVE WITH THE GIRL HE TURNED DOWN ON THE SHOW! Wait, it gets better. Melissa walks off stage and leaves. (I thought she handled her self as best as she could in that situation) They bring Molly out and she talks about how heart broken she was when Jason turned her down and that she still had all of the unresolved questions for him. Well the next thing you know they bring Jason out and in a matter of 5 minutes they are back together and basically making out. I was livid. His excuse was that he had to break up with Melissa on air because it was part of the contract. Can you believe that!?? I will not be watching that show anymore!
My feathers are still ruffled when I think about it...........

Baby Update - We only have 11 more days until we find out if Baby Cloud is a boy or a girl!!!
Bryant and I still both think girl. I'm hoping these 11 days go by quickly!

I will try and post pictures of everything that has been going on very soon.
I hope everyone is having a great day!