39 weeks!

Ahhhhhhhh!  One week left!!!  Actually, less than one week. :)  My Dr. told me on Monday that if our little man hasn't come on his own by our next Monday's appt, I'll be induced on Tuesday!  I didn't think I'd ever be excited about being told when I was going to have the baby.  I wanted it to be a natural process and have it happen when my body said it was time to.  But now that I'm 39 weeks I am SO ready to have him!  I'm still praying that I don't have to have a c-section, unless absolutely medically necessary.  I'm also praying that he'll come before Tuesday.....I honestly think he'll be born tomorrow, and I've thought our baby would be born November 11th before we even got pregnant.  [This is silly, but when we started trying I would always see 11:11, and I still do.  I didn't know exactly what that could possibly mean until we got pregnant and we were due November 5th.  Then I thought, I don't want to go over my due date, so surely that isn't right.  My next appt I found out our due date was changed to Nov 17th, making his Nov 11th birth a welcomed possibility. :) ]  So we'll see today/tomorrow if that is right!

Baby and I are still doing really well.  He's the happiest baby and has the best heartbeat.  I didn't think I'd like doing the NST every week but I LOVE hearing his heart beat for 20+ minutes.  It's the most amazing sound.  I like his BPP ultrasounds also.  I don't get to see him (they turn the screen towards them), but I know the results after the NST and it's great knowing that he's physically doing well.  I had a student sonographer on Monday and she kept saying how good of a breather he was and that he liked to move. :)  I knew he liked to move haha.  I love him so much and can't wait til they put him in my arms.  I can't believe it'll be in a week or less (hopefully tomorrow!).

My Dr. appt was ok....still no changes which was quite a bummer to me, and I also believe that's why she mentioned being induced.  But maybe there are changes now.  I think that's why I was so excited about being induced-it meant I would get to see my baby really soon even if my body didn't want to cooperate.  Obviously my due date is next Wednesday but right now even that seems so far away, and if I didn't know I'd be induced on Tuesday I think I'd go crazy wondering when he was going to come.  My left hip is killing me as well as my tail bone.  I have to limp, and I think I'd rather waddle than have this pain.  That's really the only problem I'm having right now though, so I should be quite thankful. :)

Since I only do these once a week the next post should be an introducing baby Harrison post! :)  YAY!

2 weeks left!

There really isn't too much new to report.  Our boy is still doing extremely well and passed his weekly tests.  I thank God every day for blessing us with an amazingly healthy baby boy.  I think he's getting frustrated in the lack of space he has-but that doesn't seem to make him want to leave his current home any time soon.  I'm not any more effaced or dilated (boo!).  I was so sure I would be too.  The Dr. still has no plans of taking him early-which is fine.  Although planning on when his arrival would be is so much more convenient, not knowing when he's going to come is pretty exciting.  I'm starting to think he'll be pretty close to his Nov 17th due date.  We've made it through 9 months, what's another 2 weeks? :)  He weighs approx 8.2 lbs now and is still in the normal range.  If they're right I bet we'll have a 9 lber if he waits a couple of weeks to make his much anticipated entrance into the world.  I'm finding it hard to believe that we're actually going to meet our son this month-so amazing!

37 weeks!

I don't know how these last few weeks can seem to take forever and the past 9 months flew by.  It doesn't seem right (or very nice).  I guess it's because we're all ready for our little boy and all we have to do is sit and wait.  If we would've been a little slower to get everything ready he would be here already, I know it. :)

Monday I had my BPP/NST.  Both went extremely well.  He scored an 8 out of 8 on the BPP (ultrasound-but I don't know exactly what the score is based on....I don't really care considering it's a perfect score, that's all that matters!) and he passed the NST before my time was even up.  He is an extremely happy and healthy baby and seems to be perfectly content where he is.  Mommy is not content though, I'm ready to have him!

I had my weekly Dr. appt yesterday.  It went well also.  I was checked and I am 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced, so perhaps he'll be here sooner than later after all!  As of last Monday (the 18th) he weighed approx 7 lbs 10 oz (give or take 14 oz).  Big boy!  I asked about being induced or having a c-section (neither of which I want-I'd rather it all happen when God wants it to) and she said that since he is still in the normal weight range there is no need to schedule anything right now.  Whew!  She noticed my fat feet and asked how my blood pressure was (then looked at my chart) and said that my blood pressure was great so no worries about the swelling....although it is extremely annoying and weird feeling.  I asked about the tingling and numbness in my right hand and she said that is normal with the swelling and carpel tunnel during pregnancy.  I'm looking forward to all of the swelling and numbness to go away when he's born!  I've gained 28 lbs total which I'm pretty happy about considering how much I eat (it seems we have a great eater on our hands already, haha :) ).  I'm excited to see what I weigh after he's born. :)  My numbers are still great (I didn't have a high number all week) so the little man is growing healthy and not because of a sugar issue.  Thankfully. :)

Maybe the next post will be the birth story of our boy!  But....I'm not counting on it. :)

How sweet it is.....

....to be loved by you. :)

Today Andrew and I are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary.  In a way it seems like it has been 4 years, in a way it doesn't.  So much has happened in just the past year.....we bought our first home, brought home our sweet baby girl whom we absolutely love and adore, and found out we're expecting our first [human] child in November.  We are so very blessed and are reminded daily of how amazing God is.  

A couple of photos....then and now:

Happy Anniversary Andrew!  

I love you more and more each day. :)

36 weeks!

Yesterday was a very busy day appt. wise.  I had a good visit with my Dr.  She said I was still measuring big (I didn't ask, I'm sure he's still at least 2 weeks bigger) but she did say if he is a bigger baby it's not because of GD because my numbers have been great.  I was happy about that. :)  She said that some women just have larger babies.  Or perhaps my due date is wrong. :)  But, I didn't say that.

Then I had to get a BPP (Bio physical profile) done.  The Sonographer measures the baby and checks organs and fluid surrounding baby.  It was neat to see all of his organs.  I also saw his amazing heart beating away.  153 beats per minute. :)  His head is VERY low.  I don't want to think about how many times I'll have to go to the bathroom when he gets lower (if that's possible without giving birth to him :) ).

The next thing I had to do was a NST (non stress test).  I was nervous about that being it was a pass/fail test.  It was supposed to be about 20-30 min but I was in there for at least 40 min.  I actually didn't mind so much, I loved listening to his heartbeat.  The midwife that was at the hospital came in and said he passed with flying colors.  He has plenty of fluid around him and his heart rate was great and increased the way it should when he moved around.  I'm very thankful he is healthy and he passed!  I'll get to do this again on Monday, but now that I know what to expect it's not so bad. :)

35 weeks, 35 days to go!

Happy 35 weeks to me!  One more week and I'll be considered full-term!  So exciting!

My dr. appt was yesterday.  It went well.  I only gained 2 lbs in 2 weeks (I'm nearly 100% positive it's water/baby) and my blood pressure is still great.  My dr. was also very pleased with my glucose numbers.  Baby's heart rate was very good and she mentioned that he was a very happy baby. :)

Starting next week I have to do weekly non-stress tests and growth ultrasounds.  The non-stress test monitors the baby's heart rate as he moves.  It's standard on all high-risk pregnancies, over due babies, and babies who aren't moving much.  Since I'm considered to have GD, I'm considered high-risk.  It's a pass/fail test.  If he passes then he gets to stay inside his little cozy place, but if he fails she'll want to take him early.  Andrew and I are both pretty sure he'll be coming within the next two weeks, but we could be wrong.  We're ready for him to come into the world!

We finally finished the nursery!  Andrew changed out all of the outlets over the weekend and I did the rest of the laundry and cleaned it up the way we want it.  Here are some pics of the final product (at least for now...most likely how it will look when we bring him home).

We would like to get a white rocking chair from Cracker Barrel to go in that corner one day.

Our sweet baby girl sitting in her spot in her little brother's room. :)  She loves it in there.

33 weeks

My Dr. appt on Tuesday was exciting for me because I found out approx how big our little boy is.  He is two weeks bigger in size (measuring 35 weeks the day of the ultrasound) and they're estimating his weight to be 5.6 lbs. :)  My due date is still the same though, but I've decided to change it myself and stick with my original due date of November 5th.  Right now Andrew and I both think he'll be born at the end of October, probably because of a decision the Dr. makes.

She was really happy with my glucose numbers so I went back to seeing her every 2 weeks.  And no insulin pills!  I'll be getting another growth ultrasound scheduled at that appt and I imagine she'll make her decision when the results come back what they want to do regarding the birth date of our baby. :)  It's amazing how fast the time is going by!

32 weeks....or more?

I had my dr's appt Tuesday.  Nothing too exciting happened, other than the fact I am measuring 35 weeks now so I get to have a growth ultrasound on Friday.  I was hit with the realization that we could very well have an October baby, which would be fine with me as long as he was done baking. :)  I'm really looking forward to finding out how big our little boy is, but I probably won't until my next dr's appt since the ultrasound tech's can't really say much.  I'm going to ask anyway, maybe I'll get surprised and they'll tell me.

We had a baby shower at Andrew's work today.  It was so thoughtful of his boss to put it together for us!  All of IS was invited and a lot of people came, much more than I had thought would.  With more people came more gifts, which also surprised me.  We got a pack n play, a bath tub, a 2 pack of sleep gowns, a 4 pack of long sleeved colored onesies, a swaddle wrap, a gift card to wal-mart, a blanket, two 2 packs of pacifiers and wipes, and a John Deere romper and hat set as well as 2 John Deere books.  We both had a great time and are so very thankful for the kindness of his coworkers and boss!

Our beautiful baby boy

Today was a very exciting day, we got to see our little boy's face!  Here are some amazing pics of our precious baby.

We are so amazingly blessed and so very much in love with our son!

30 weeks!

10 more weeks til my due date!  Yay!  Does not seem possible.  Things are coming along really well and hopefully everything will be waiting for our little man when he arrives.  I don't know if 10 weeks (more or less...) will be enough time....ahhhh! :)

We've had a pretty busy week.  Our baby shower was last Saturday.  It was so nice!  We received a lot of great gifts.  I'll be doing a baby shower post this weekend after I receive the cd full of pics my sister took.

I had my Dr. appt yesterday.  Overall, it went well.  There is a new Dr. at the clinic and she was the last one I had to see before going back to my normal Dr.  I really like her and wouldn't mind her being my Dr. the rest of the time.  I do actually get to see her again in a couple of weeks so maybe it'll stay that way.  She informed me that my 3 hr glucose results were not as good as I was told by 2 previous people.  Technically I passed.  One number (the 2 hour draw) was higher than it should've been.  But the 1 hr draw was only 1 point under the cutoff.  So she wants me to go to a diabetic counselor and monitor my blood sugar levels until my next appt.  I get to meet with the counselor tomorrow afternoon and I got my glucose monitor today.  Yay.  I'm actually really happy that she's making me do it to be on the safe side, and irritated that I wasn't told to do this before.  She will decide at my next appt after seeing the results if I need to keep monitoring or not.

I gained 1.5 lbs since my last visit which I was happy about.  I always worry I'm going to gain over 5 lbs at a time....and in a two week period that would not be good!  My blood pressure was 100/62.  That seems low but she said it was good.  I know if it goes to 90 or below they become concerned.  I am also measuring 32 weeks.  That makes sense if my due date hadn't changed. :)  The Dr. said if it was 4 weeks greater or less than my current they'd have to set up an ultrasound.  So everything is going great (other than the whole gestational diabetes thing, but I'm not worried about it).

I think that's about it for this week.  We're going to the prenatal imaging center on Friday to see our little boy! Hopefully he cooperates so we can see his pretty little face. :)  I'll do a post about that this weekend too.

Baby H is a squash!

Yay for 29 weeks!  Hard to believe I just have 11 more weeks til my due date.  Only 9 weeks if we go by my original due date (which I think might be a better idea).  I never knew pregnancy would go by this fast.  There is so much to do and so little time.  But, we are very excited and looking forward to meeting our little one.

Not much is new.  I am having a harder time sleeping now (although I've slept half-way decent the past couple nights).  I have to get up at least 5 times a night to go to the bathroom.  I have always had to get up at least once, even before pregnancy, but this 5 times a night is a little ridiculous. :)  My feet and hands are swelling a little but it's not that noticeable....yet.  I still have ankles.  Baby Harrison continues to move like crazy.  His movements are becoming stronger and more often than before.  It's amazing to feel him slide a body part across my stomach.  He was doing that a lot this morning when I was still in bed.  I am so thankful to God that he continues to grow healthy.  I read somewhere today that his weight will triple by the time he is born.  My stomach is already huge, I can't imagine how big I'll be in November!  At least I don't have the pregnancy waddle yet. ;)

Andrew and I have been extremely busy working on the nursery.  We bought a closet organizer from Menards (my new fave store) and my love installed it for me on Saturday.  Then we cut and stapled all of the trim (baseboard, ceiling, window and doors).  It looks amazing.  We still have to putty and paint and add one piece of baseboard trim in the room and then also in the closet.  I'll post pictures whenever the nursery is complete.

To end, I'll post a pic of closet dividers my sister made for the baby!  They are so cute!  To think she almost didn't give them to me because she didn't think they turned out well....you are crazy Hollee! :)  We love them! Thanks again for making them. :)

28 weeks

I have some amazing news!  I passed the 3 hr glucose test!  Thank God!!  I found out on Friday that I had to take it again, and took it on Monday.  They gave me the wrong drink last time (it was the same drink they gave me at the 1 hr).  The one they gave me on Monday was equally gross but not because it was semi-bitter and tasted like orange peels, but because it tasted like corn syrup.  I LOVE sugar; I have the biggest sweet tooth.  But this was too much.  It had 100 ml of glucose rather than 50 ml that the orange drink had.  I hope I never have to drink that again!  I had my dr. appt yesterday and asked about it.  He said only one of my numbers was elevated, and in order to be considered a gestational diabetic two of the numbers have to be elevated.  Such a relief!  We are so happy we don't have to worry about that anymore, and so very thankful to not have gestational diabetes.

I also received a form to keep track of Baby Harrison's movements.  I have to count 5 movements in one hour or 10 in 2 hours.  Thankfully he's pretty active in the evening and I got 5 kicks in 13 minutes. :)  He has moved though, so it does make it harder to feel his kicks (if that's possible).  He's kicking my organs more than kicking my stomach.  He was primarily on the right side so my belly was a little lopsided. :)  Now it looks normal...so he must have decided to spread out more. :)

I also gained 3 lbs last month.  I've already gone over what I wanted to, but 16.5 lbs in 7 months isn't too bad.  Hopefully the rest of the weight I gain is all baby so it won't be as hard to lose it once he's born.

Oh!  I almost forgot.  We got our dresser in last week and picked it up Saturday.  There were two back pieces that were cracked, but Andrew was able to fix them with wood glue and clamps.  We put it together on Sunday.  It was the dumbest way to build a dresser ever, but we got it together and it looks great!  We are both very happy with it and I can't wait to buy some laundry detergent to wash the clothes, cloth diapers, and blankets that will be stored in it.  It's hard to believe there is only 12 weeks until my due date!

27 Weeks

Happy 3rd trimester to me! :)

This passed week (11th-18th) has been kind of a bummer week.  Last Wed (the 11th) I took the 1 hr gluclose tolerance test.  That in itself isn't a big deal.  I should've fasted, but they said I didn't have to.  I got a call from the nurse on Friday saying that I had failed that test with a score of 152 (the cutoff is 140).  Boo.  Now I was required to not only do the 3 hr test, but I had to fast for 12 hrs!  Making pregnant women fast for any length of time should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.  I get sick if I don't eat something every few hours, and now they are making me starve myself and the little one for 12+ hrs (I wasn't actually going to be able to eat until 11:30 or 12, so really it was more like 15 hours of fasting).  Pure torture.  I eat what I consider to be my last sugar filled dessert (a donut and brownie with whipped cream....don't judge) by 7 pm and get ready for the long 15 hours of no eating.  I get to the lab a little before 8 am and I feel amazingly well considering I usually eat when I wake up.  They take me back and draw my fasting blood.  Then I wait about 15-30 min before they give me the "glucola" (the same disgusting orange peel tasting sugar drink they gave me last week).  I drank it within 5 min and had to wait an hour before getting my 1 hr draw.  The lady took me back at 9:30 and drew my blood (both draws by different ladies were very successful-no fishing for veins this time).  I went back to the waiting room and continued to watch The Guild on Andrew's zune.  It was nearly 10:30 (the time for my 3rd blood draw) and I started getting that panicky sick feeling.  I waited a few min to see if it would pass and of course it just got worse.  I decided to let the lady at the desk know that I thought I was going to be sick and she told me where the bathroom was.  Needless to say I didn't quite make it to the bathroom.  Thankfully I did for the majority of the yummy drink to escape my body.  I felt better after that and walked out and asked if that ruined the test.  It did.  Just one hour and 2 blood draws to go and I had to get sick.  Grrr.  All of the ladies did make me feel better by saying a lot of women aren't able to keep it down and one of them said the Dr. might have me eat jelly beans before hand next time.  Why couldn't they have me do that this time?  Now I'm waiting on a phone call from the Dr.'s office letting me know what I'm supposed to do.  I'm praying that they say the first two blood draws are good enough to show I don't have gestational diabetes.  I don't know if that's even a possibility though.  Maybe they'll just make me do another one hour with fasting.  My next appt with the Dr. is on Tuesday, so hopefully someone calls before then.  If not, I suppose I'll find out what to do then.

Other than that disappointing part of the week, everything else has been great.  Baby Harrison is moving so much!  I can feel when he's about to make a big movement.  Andrew was able to feel one of his summersaults the other day-that was exciting.  It's so cute to see Andrew's reaction when he feels the baby move or kick.  He's a very proud daddy. :)

98 more days to go!

Since I'm in the 26th week today, I figured I should actually do a pregnancy post that didn't involve purchases.   I had the fabulous 1hr glucose tolerance test this morning.  Thank God I was able to eat something for breakfast (a salad, actually-they said not to eat anything sugary and my breakfasts usually consists of sugar).  Baby Harrison loves food and wants me to eat constantly.  The thought of having to fast before hand was just not acceptable. :)  I was told that no news is good news so I'm praying that I do not receive a phone call from the Dr.

So far everything is going amazingly well.  I've only gained 13.5 lbs (why they had to put that .5 lb in I don't know).  I still have ankles.  I am sleeping rather well despite the need to go to the bathroom 3-5 times every night.  Most importantly our little boy is perfectly healthy!  The ultrasound we had the beginning of July showed him and his environment to be perfectly healthy and normal-thank you Lord!

Andrew and I will get to see our little man's face on Sept 10 when we go to a prenatal imaging center for a 3D/4D ultrasound.  We are so looking forward to that!  He has been moving around so much more and is kicking/punching a lot.  I jokingly say he's going to be our little soccer player, but I bet his daddy wouldn't mind him getting into MMA (mixed martial arts).  He's growing so fast-this pregnancy is going by equally fast.

I'll try to do these sort of updates weekly from now on.  It'll be a great thing to look back on. :)

Happy Birthday Piper!

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby girl!  It's hard to believe you're a year old already!  You have added so much to our lives and we are so blessed to have you.  We love you so much!

My how you've grown!

(The last two were taken today)

More baby purchases!

After months of waiting (nearly as long as I've been pregnant) the dresser I wanted to buy for Baby Harrison's room finally came back in stock!  Needless to say I bought it the moment I discovered it was in stock.  It also happened to be nearly $100 less than it was the first time I saw it so it being out of stock for so long was a blessing in disguise.  The only piece of furniture left we'd like to buy before he's born is a rocking chair.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a travel system for our little man.  Another purchase not planned for another month but because of the amazing deal we bought it.  We saved nearly $100 (including FREE shipping!) on it as well.  Thank God for finding good deals!

                                        

Baby Harrison

Here is an ultrasound pic of our beautiful baby boy.  It's the best one of all the ones we have.  You can see his little hand and some of his face. :)

Sleepy Piper

Boy or Girl?

We found out yesterday that God has blessed us with a healthy baby boy!  We got to see our little guy rub his eyes, and wave to us (as I am sure he was well aware of the audience ;) ).  He is absolutely precious.  We'll be scanning some photos of the ultrasound soon.

2nd big purchase for Baby H

So in general I am a VERY indecisive person.  It takes me forever to make my mind up on nearly everything.  In an earlier post I had mentioned I found the "perfect" baby bedding.  How wrong I was. :)  I changed my mind probably at least 20 times, for each gender.  I know it would've been easier if I would've waited until we knew whether we are having a boy or girl, but time is going to fly by once we know and I wanted to be ready.  I've spent hours each day looking at baby bedding.  It had really become an obsession.  I wanted the "perfect" bedding for our baby and was having a really hard time finding one that wasn't super expensive.  After all, the baby won't even be sleeping in the crib until they're around six months old so spending over a certain amount seemed kind of ridiculous to me.  Especially when we have other furniture and decorations to buy, just for the nursery.

Last night I was looking at Target's website and was determined to find bedding for a boy and girl, so when we found out on Thursday I could buy whichever one.  DwellStudio has a DwellStudio for Target line that is a more affordable option to their higher end baby bedding, but still looks just as good.  Here is a pic of their higher end bedding that costs over $300.

Here is a pic of the bedding we got for Baby H from their more affordable line at Target.  It's extremely similar but over $200 less.  Perfect!

As you can tell from the photo's the bedding will work for either a boy or girl.  I really didn't want a pink nursery if we had a girl.  I don't mind pink clothes and stuff, but I'm not super girly so I couldn't imagine doing a super girly pink and frilly nursery.  (Not that it's bad, for any of you who like that)  I really wanted to do a blue nursery for a boy or girl, and now we can!  As far as the themeless room goes, well, that went out the window.  We decided if we have a boy we'll do a monkey room, and if we have a girl we'll do an owl/bird room. Super exciting!  Now we just have to wait until Thursday to find out what kind of nursery we'll be doing. :)

Our first big purchase for baby

Last night Andrew and I bought a crib for our baby!  It's a 4-in-1 convertible crib so as long as it lasts our child can use it through their teen years.  It's the best deal we found for the kind of crib we wanted so we are extremely excited. :)

Baby Bedding

I have been looking at baby bedding long before I became pregnant.  Probably over a year before.  There are some cute ones at Babies R Us (especially for the price) but none that I could see in our baby's room.  There are a lot of other more posh sites that have plenty of nice bedding; the only problem is the majority cost as much as our monthly mortgage does!  I don't know how much some of these people make, but even if we had millions, I can't imagine spending so much on bedding.  A couple of weeks ago I was convinced I would end up having to get a custom bumper made, and use white sheets and skirts.  That would be fine, I saw another couple do that for their baby and their nursery was beautiful.  I still had hope of finding the perfect bedding for our little boy or girl.  We don't want to do a themed nursery.  We want something that our child can grow into and it not be so babyish when they're older.  Less work later. :)

Then I found it....the perfect bedding.  Nearly exactly what I had been looking for.  (I keep saying I because Andrew pretty much gave me free reign on decorating the nursery-he just ok's everything and we both have to love what we're putting in it)  The great thing about this bedding is that it comes in a version for a boy and one for a girl, which is perfect.  Now we just need to find out what we're having so we can buy the bedding.  I hope it's still available in a couple of months!

Here is our future son or daughters bedding:

I wouldn't have picked to have turtles....but I think they're quite precious!

Change the Date

We have to wait a little longer to meet our little one.  I found out today that they're pushing our due date back from November 5 to November 17.  Not what I wanted to hear!  I had secretly hoped for them to move my due date up.  Oh well.  We've waited quite a while to even know there's a little one baking, so an extra two weeks won't be too bad. :) 

On the bright side, I unexpectedly got to see the baby!  We only planned on hearing the heartbeat with the Doppler, so Andrew didn't go.  When the Dr. couldn't find the heartbeat he decided to do an ultrasound, which was far better to me.  It is amazing how much the baby has grown since the first ultrasound!  He/she was very active, bouncing around and moving his/her arms and legs.  Such a beautiful baby.  I was quite upset that Andrew wasn't there to see our baby, as he was too.  We didn't get any pictures either.  So we're bummed about that.  But we're both extremely happy and thankful for a beautiful, healthy baby! 

The Voyage to Florida

So we just took a trip to Panama City Beach,Florida this past week to be a part of my brother, Adam's wedding. We left Missouri on Wednesday April 21st and stayed the night in Mt. Vernon, since we left in the afternoon. The next morning after Jaymee got through the usual morning sickness we headed out for Pelham, AL. It took about 7 hours or so to get there. So I have decided that people in Tennessee are some of the most crazy drivers I have ever seen. Nashville was very busy and people were going at least 20+ over the speed limit the entire time. I have never been passed by so many cars before in my life. We ended up staying the night in a Sleep Inn, which was very nice, but for some reason our room had these little pillows that were half the size of regular ones. I am not sure if little elves stayed in the room the night before or what, but it was kinda weird and neither of us really liked it.

The next day we arrived at my grandparents house in Alford, FL around 2pm. I know it's only supposed to be about 30 mins from Dothan, AL to my grandparents house, but I swear it took over an hour. Anyways we finally arrived and got to spend the rest of the day talking with my family. It was nice since I hadn't seen some of them in a very very long time. It was Jaymee's first time meeting some of them.So the next morning, the day of the wedding, its storming outside and I wake up at 6:30am for some odd reason. The next thing I know, there is a loud pop and the power goes out. Its just about that time that I notice that Adam is in the bathroom sick. Of course it always figures, you never need to use the restroom unless its unavailable. Needless to say it was a rough morning with all of us running around in the dark trying to get ready for the wedding. Thankfully the power came back on and we were able to get ready in time.

Jaymee and I followed my grandparents to Panama City and we actually were able to find the hotel the wedding was at without too much trouble. We only had to turn around once so that's always a plus. The wedding was out looking over the beach under a large white gazebo. It was very pretty. So the minister came out and performed the ceremony which was great except that there was so much wind that nobody could really hear a whole lot. It looked great though :) So we all did the whole picture thing for a little while before we were led into a room setup for the reception. We were served a variety of foods and got to watch the happy couple dance, eat cake, and drink champagne. I did the traditional toast thing, although I just winged it so don't ask me to repeat it because I doubt I could. They left around 2:30pm or so and had Christina's parents drove them to the airport to make their flight to Orlando. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't be happier for them-love you guys.

the happy couple

the Harrison family :)

the wedding party

We ventured on after the wedding to our hotel in Panama City. We didn't really have directions to the hotel so we used the GPS that Hollee and Shane let us borrow. Thanks to Betsy (The GPS) we were able to find our hotel the Palmetto. We stayed on the 5th floor and were able to look out over the beach. Unfortunately it was still very windy so they double red flagged the beach so we couldn't get in the water. Instead we went to an outdoor mall area called Pier Park. It was really a lot of fun. We shopped for souvenirs for everyone at the different stores and ate at this really good brick oven pizza shop. Oh by the way fudge is expensive, but tastes soooooo good.

We headed back to the hotel afterward and took some pictures in the sand and tried not to be carried out to sea. There was a nice lady who took our picture, which was very cool. The rest of the night we just stayed in the hotel and watched tv. Oh so about 7 or so that night I noticed something about the size of a golf ball moving across the floor. It was the largest cockroach I had ever seen. I took care of it before it could eat all of our yummy food. I gave it a proper burial at sea in the porcelain bowl. The next morning we headed back to my grandparents house and ate a great breakfast with them. We chatted for a while before heading out around noon that day.

♥

We drove real hard and was able to make it to outside Nashville Tennessee that night. We decided to eat at a Backyard Burger since we were starving. It was kinda weird since we were the only people there and since Jaymee hadn't eaten in a while, she immediately started getting nauseous. We stayed at a different Sleep Inn that night, and in case you were wondering, yes they had the little pillow nuggets like the first one. Note to self, if you stay there again, bring your own pillows. We decided to leave early the next morning, since we had an 8+ hour drive. It was going pretty well until I started feeling sick. Jaymee was nice enough to take over driving for me about 20 mins from St. Louis. She drove the rest of the way home. I swear the last hour was the longest of my life. Once we got home we unloaded the car to make room for Piper's stuff. We then drove to Lee's Summit and picked up the baby (Piper the puppy). I have never seen her so excited to see us. Hollee and Shane must of ran her to death because she slept the whole way home.

We finally pulled into the drive way around 7pm and went in and relaxed. The trip was over and while we were glad to be home, we will definitely have to stay longer next time. Maybe we can even bring Piper and the baby next time.

Start spreading the news

So, pretty much everyone knows our news, but if you don't, here's a photo to give you an idea:

:)

Piper's Vacation

This post is an email I received from my sister while Andrew and I were on a trip of our own (we'll have a post about that in a day or two).  It was such a sweet thing for her to do, so I had to share it. :)

Here are a few of Piper's favorite things from the week:  playing with her new toy, playing with her ball (especially purple), playing tag with Shane, throwing the ball, looking out the window, and looking/barking at all of the dogs/squirrels outside.  :)  

Thank you, Hollee and Shane, for watching Piper. :)  We know she had so much fun with you two and she would've been perfectly content staying a few more days (or weeks or years)! :) 

The pup.....

Could time possibly go any faster?  I can't believe it's already March!  Here are a few photos of Piper over the past few months.

In her favorite spot-the back of the loveseat looking out the window.

"Drinking" some sweet tea.  Yes, it was empty.  No, we do not share our drinks with her. :)

Waiting for daddy to get off work.  She loves riding in her car seat.  We love it too.  Before we had it, the only way we could keep her from moving around was to hold her.  Now she's buckled in, our hands are free, and she can bark at all of the people she see's entering her territory. :)