Family Tradition

When I was growing up, we had a tradition every Christmas that I have now carried over to my family. My dad always wanted to open a gift about a week before Christmas. My mom hated it so I think he brought this up every year to aggitate her. I'm sure he really didn't care if he opened one or not. My sister and I loved it so I thought it would be fun to continue on with my family. So, last night we opened one gift and went and looked at Christmas lights. Abbey and Brandon were so excited about this. We went to Winner's Circle Park and rode around a neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and great family time for the four of us that we will contine to do. I will soon be saying the number 5.

Brandon's Program

Brandon had a Christmas Program at his school yesterday morning. He did so great and Dennis and I are very proud of him. He is turning into such a big boy. We love you, Brandon!!

Date Night....

Dennis and I went and saw Trans Siberian Orchestra Wednesday night. It was our little date night for just the two of us. We had a great time. A friend from work gave me tickets last year and he gave us tickets again this year. Thanks Cooper! We had a great time. Thanks Aunt Bethany and Uncle Preston for keeping Abbey and Brandon. We owe you big time once yall have kids!

My New Favorite Song!

I have always loved Carrie Underwood ever since Amercian Idol but I am obsessed with this song. I love it and hope to get the CD for Christmas!

Snow Day

It was so pretty the other day when it snowed. I went to work that morning and they let us go home at 11:30. The roads weren't so bad until we got about half way home and then they became really icy and slick. This is what we saw when we looked out our front door. We didn't have a ton of snow but enough to cover the ground and roof.

Baby Shower at my work....

Dennis and I had a baby shower at my work Wednesday. Everything was wonderful and we got some great gifts. We got the monitor, some wall art, a diaper bag, a wreath for the door at the hospital, clothes, etc. We really appreciate everything that we got and we have so much to be greatful for. Coleson has a ton of people who love him more that he can imagine already. We have a few more showers in January that we are excited about. I hope everyone was safe in the nasty weather we had today.

Update on Coleson and I....

Dennis and I had a pretty big scare or at least it was scary for me. Last night about 10:45 or so Dennis and I went to bed and about 11:30 I woke up with a pain on the left side of my back. I tried to toss and turn and get more comfortable to see if that would ease the pain any but the more I moved the worse it got. I woke Dennis up and by this time I was in tears and was starting to panic. I got out my book What to Expect When You Are Expecting to see if I could find anything related to the symptoms that I was having. Everything I found talked about preterm labor. Dennis was researching on the internet as well and everything he found told him to call the doctor immediately so that is what he did. The on call doctor called back and told us to come in. So here we go to Woman's Hospital about 12:30. I was taken back to a room and had several test run and they hooked me up to a monitor. All I could think about was if baby Coleson was ok. She found his heartbeat with no problem and said he was doing great. I was having a few mild contractions, but the nurse said it was probably from irritability from my back. Once all the test came back she said that I either had a kidney stone or was really close to being dehydrated. She told me to drink lots and lots of water from now on. So that is what I have been doing. I had a baby shower at work today so I had to get up this morning and go in until lunch. I came home afterwards and slept the entire afternoon. Let's hope we have a better night tonight than we did last night.

By the way, we had lots of drama with the first baby bed that we ordered but we have reordered a whole new set and we got it in yesterday. Dennis put it together and I love it. Coleson now has a bed in his room for him to sleep in when he gets here.

Coleson's Baby Book

Above is the baby book that I finally decided on for Coleson. Many people told me that I would never complete the book if I got one so they suggested that I didn't. They apparently didn't know me very well. I really wanted to get him a book so that is exactly what I did and I LOVE it. I ordered it from Personally Yours Monograms and Calligraphy. Abbey and I went to a open house a few weeks ago for the lady who takes our seasonal pictures every year. I was so excited when I found out that she was coming. It was definitely a great reason to go ahead and order it. The book is the Story of Me and it is going to be so cute.

Baby Shower

I had my first baby shower this past Sunday in Vicksburg. It was so much fun and we got some great things such as the stroller, car seat, high chair, boppy pillow and cover, diaper genie, wipes warmer, zipper sheets, bouncer and tons of other great things. Thanks to everyone who came. It was absolutely wonderful!

30 week doctors appointment...

I went this morning for my 30 week appointment. Everything is still going great. His heartbeat was 150 again so he said that he was a happy baby. Let's hope that is true once he is here. I also gained another pound which I was glad to hear considering we just had Thanksgiving I ate some good food. That puts me at a total of 12 pounds. I go back again in two weeks. I will keep you updated!

Wedding Shower

We had a Christmas wedding shower to go to this weekend for my cousin Brady's future wife. The wedding is two weeks after Coleson is due so lets hope that I will be able to make. She had a nice shower and got lots of cute things.

75% of the way...

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant which makes me 3/4th's of the way. Hopefully he will come at least a few days early. That would be so nice of him and make his momma happy. I go back to the doctor in the morning so I will be sure and update. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Happy Birthday, Dennis!

 

Today is Dennis's 29th birthday. I have been giving him a hard time about this being the last year in his twenties. I hope you have a wonderful day today and many more to come. We love you more than you can imagine!!

Decorating the Tree

We decorated the Christmas tree last night. It was great family time for all of us. We let the kids put the ornaments on for a while and then Dennis and I joined in to hang the ones up high. This year we decided to put the tree in Coleson's room to keep Rascal away from it. I just knew he would knock ornaments off and eat wrapping paper. We have a doggie gate up to block him and he hates it.

Rascal stood at the gate the whole time and barked and whined at us. He wanted his Daddy to let him in. I also made some yummy treats for us to eat while we decorated. They look kind of messy but we couldn't wait to eat them so we didn't let them cool the full time. The recipe calls for white chocolate and semi sweet chocolate morsals but I didn't have any white chocolate so I only used the dark.

Glazed Crackers

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
2 sleeves Ritz crackers
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup white chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a small saucepan over meduim heat, combine butter and sugar. Bring to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in vanilla and chopped pecans after removing from heat.

Arrange crackers on two rimmed baking sheets. Spoon pecan mixture over crackers. Bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven, and sprinkle chocolate and white chocolate morsels over crackers.

Return to oven, and bake for 2 minutes more, or until chocolate is melted.

Remove from oven, and let cool briefly. Using a spatula, transfer crackers to a serving plate or an airtight container.

We finally got done and we all went outside to see. It looks really pretty!


By the way... our baby bed is finally here and we get to pick it up this afternoon. I can't wait for Dennis to put it together tonight.

My early Christmas present....

Abbey has been telling me for a few weeks now that she knew what she was going to get me for Christmas. I didn't really think anything about it because I ususally take them to pick Dennis something out and he does the same for me so I thought that was what she meant. It's pretty funny because Brandon always tells us what they bought. We have learned to keep it a secret from him. :) Anyway... when she got in the car yesterday after school, she said I bought your gift today but I want to go ahead and give it to you becasue you can't use it after Christmas. She said I spent ALL of my money to buy it. She reached over the seat and gave me these earrings. How sweet of her to think about ME and spend her own money for these. Both Abbey and Brandon are both very giving children and think about others often. All I could think about last night was how special these are and will always be and what great memories we have. Us being the only girls, we have to stick by each other and that we definitley do.