Looking Back at 2013...

I love this time of year.  I am a person who loves memories, loves looking at old pictures and loves reminiscing.  Every end of the year, I like to look back at the past 12 months and think about everything God's done in our lives and just enjoy all our sweet memories.

This year began with a trial, that had begun at the end of 2012.  I felt like we'd never sell our home.  I was ready for a change, a bigger space.  I was ready for the trial to end.  Weeks turned into months, which turned into more months and I was feeling helpless.  But the trial definitely brought me closer to God and reminded me that HIS timing is always best.  In July we finally sold the house and August came our moving day and closing on the sale.  The house we got to move into is more amazing than I'd ever dreamed.  God never ceases to amaze me.

2013 highlights:

Jan-July were pretty dull months... Basically just trying to get the house sold.

August- Move into our new place, close on the sale of our house.
              Celebrated baby sister's 2nd birthday!

September- After years of waiting, we finally bought our van!!!
                   Week long family vacation at Disney!  It was so fun to see baby sis enjoy it (she was so                little last time we went)
                    Big sister gets her book published! :)  So proud of her and daddy!

October- Found out our little gift was on the way!  What a wonderful surprise!

November- Big sister turned 5 (how is that possible?)
                 
December- Spent time with family.
                   Hubby gets his book published!  A ream come true :)

It's been a great year and I can't wait to see what God has in store for our 2014!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours!

So thankful for time off with daddy this week and lots of family time!

The ballet

Last night daddy got some free tickets for the Nutcracker ballet (he does a lot of art work for the company).  Being that I'm terrified of nutcrackers, daddy took his girl on a special date :) 

I mean, how cute are they!? 

Our sweet and amazing girl was so excited to see the ballet.  All she talks about now is how she wants to do ballet  :)  We'll see...

14.5 weeks!

Today I had my regular 4 week check up with my ob/gyn.  I knew 2 things would happen in this appt, #1 that he'd schedule bloodwork and #2 that he'd schedule our gender ultrasound for 4 weeks from now.
Also I was nervous about my weight gain, but thankfully I only gained 1 pound! :)  Very excited for that!

So #1, I'll be doing bloodwork next week.  Which is great b/c daddy is off ALL next week (woohooo) and I can go get that done kid free. :)

#2 This is the best! :)  So 4 weeks from today is the 15th, I'd have my ultrasound then, I'd be 18.5 weeks.  Then the receptionist told me that the ultrasound tech isn't working that day, so I'd have to wait till the following week, the 22nd. I'm sorry, I'm not the most patient person, and I couldn't wait 5 weeks, it just seems like SO long!  So I asked if we could push it for the week before, where I'd be 17.5 weeks.  She couldn't schedule it at that point but would call me.  She called me on my drive home and I got the early appt, so in exactly 3 weeks, on Jan 8th, we will find out if we're having a boy or a girl.  SO excited!!!!!!!

Anyways, other than that, we are getting ready for Christmas and I'm so excited!  We had an amazon hiccup with baby sister's Christmas gift, but it's all been resolved thanks to my awesome husband! :)

9 days...

I can hardly believe that we have begun the single digits countdown for Christmas!  We are almost done Christmas shopping, the house is ready, plans are made with family, and the best part, daddy is off all next week!  So excited for that!!!
The girls are so excited for their gifts.  I know Christmas is so not about gifts, but I do so love spoiling my girls. ;)  One of my favorite things about Christmas is gift wrapping.  Hubby and I put on christmas movies and wrap gifts together. I love picturing my girls faces as they open their gifts.  I cannot wait!

Love these sweet silly girls of mine!  Truly so thankful for them!  I could just burst with how much I love them.

Matching holiday attire.  Could they get any cuter?!  I am one blessed mama for sure!  Next year I get a little one in my arms!  So excited for that! 

A few years ago our cat destroyed our nativity set.  I was devastated as it was a gift and I spent years looking for a similar one that I never found.  This year a sweet friend asked if I 'd like one of hers b/c she never uses it.  It is exactly what I wanted, just a smidge bigger.  But the girls love sitting and looking at it and they keep saying that baby Jesus is cute.  So thankful for their sweet little hearts.  

Christmas time!

This year I've really gotten so excited for Christmas.  From decorating to buying gifts for my girls and nieces and nephews to spending time with family.

Last year our Christmas tree broke 1/2 way through the season.  So we waited until this year to replace it, mainly because we knew we were moving and we wanted to see if we could get a bigger tree.  I searched locally and online and finally found it, my dream tree! Hubby indulged me and we ordered it. Once we set it up, OH MY WORD, I loved it!  It truly is my dream tree and I can't stop staring at it.  After we decorated it big sister said "mommy, I love our tree it's beautiful" :)

My mother in law is REALLY big into Christmas, so she had some stuff she wasn't using that she blessed us with as well :)

Our old tree was white/gold with a pretty bow topper.  As pretty as it was, I needed a change after 8 years. lol  So this year we have a santa hat topper, new red ornaments and my favorite part, the bottom piece. :)  It's just a cardboard box wrapped in red paper and ribbons for the belt.  Last year I fell in love with anything Santa ;) 

Our mantel has always been my favorite part to decorate.  A few years ago my mil made me a cute cone.  This year I redid it as Santa's hat using leftover supplies :)  The middle is a "hohoho" sign that I bought 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby.  The reindeers were a birthday gift from my mil.  I searched for YEARS for them and she found them.  My big santa was what got me started on my santa obsession last year.  And 4 brand new, personalized stockings made by yours truly ;)  There's a 5th one halfway done, just waiting for a name!!! They were also made with leftover chevron I had from a different project.  LOVE it when I have supplies here! 

Thanks to my amazing mil, I got to decorate our pretty staircase.  The first time she saw our house she said "I can't wait to decorate the staircase for Christmas" :)  

When you go up the stairs, you immediately see 3 art pieces by my 3 artists :)

Breakfast bar b/t the family room and kitchen.  I love anything santa :)  

 There are more decorations, we have a pretty village in our foyer table and stuff scattered around the house.  I will be so sad to have to put it all away next month.  But for now we enjoy it.  So looking forward to Christmas day with my family!!!

Could this be a repeat??

At 10 weeks pregnant with baby #2 I experienced implantation bleeding and then from that point on I started having spd, which lasted until I gave birth.  It made life hard, I had to rest a lot and couldn't do much.  Very hard to deal w/ so much pain while taking care of a very active toddler.

Once we passed our 10 week mark with this one, I was so happy to not have a repeat of everything.  And then came black Friday.  As I wrote earlier, we had a miscarriage scare and everything is fine thankfully.  But now I'm starting to be in pain, the same pain I had w/ baby #2.  Sigh... This week has been hard, hubby has been amazing doing all the heavy cleaning and taking care of the girls.  I love that man! :)

I'm not looking forward to 7 more months of this.  It's gonna be hard, especially with 2 little ones.  But I can handle it.  God's got this!  I know He's in control.  And as long as baby #3 is ok, I'll be ok.  Thankfully this is all I have to deal with.

On another note, people keep asking my feelings on whether or not the baby is a girl or boy.  I know it's 50/50.... But for some reason, I keep thinking boy with this one.  We're still about 5 weeks from finding out.  It'll be here super fast, but waiting is so hard! lol  Either way, we're excited and really just want to know what to prepare for!

Black Friday baby scare

Thursday night we left the girls with Nona for the night for Black Friday shopping.  We went shopping until about midnight on Thursday, then went to 1 more store on Friday.  After that everything is kind of a blur.  We went to have breakfast and after a trip to the bathroom, I thought for sure we had a miscarriage.  I went to hubby and told him that we needed to see the doctor.  The on-call doctor sent us to the ER.  After bloodwork, tests and waiting we finally had the ultrasound.

Now up to this point, I hadn't cried about any of this.  I was sure I had miscarried and at this point, I just wanted to know.  Then the tech began the ultrasound and immediately flipped the screen for me to see a perfect little baby with a perfect heartbeat.  I LOST it, the tears just started flowing and I was beyond thankful to see this little heart beating.  I mean, it was just the most amazing sight.

Baby at 12 weeks. 

At the ER, they diagnosed me with placenta previa.  Today I got to see my doctor, he did say that my placenta is low, but it's not placenta previa.  After a weekend of bedrest, things seem to be back to normal.  I got to see the baby again today and everything looks really great.  I'm so thankful God protected our precious baby!

This was taken the week before at 11 weeks.  I have this sonogram on video and I've watched it a lot these past few days.  Seriously so thankful for this sweet little life!