Overflowing with Praise

May my lips overflow with praise, for you teach me your decrees. Psalm 119:171

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Will You Be My...

Bridesmaid??

My best friend got engaged last week and she invited us all to Cracker Barrel Saturday for breakfast.

We got there and she had these adorable gifts for us!


How could you say no to that? Of course we all said YES! She has set the date for August 2nd, 2014. Leaves me plenty of time to lose the baby weight! :)

Me and Lauren


I am so excited for Lauren and Zach! They are a perfect couple. I can't wait to begin the wedding festivities, especially since they will be with my best friends!


Me and Baileigh
I love all my friends! Lauren has been a close friend for a long time, and I do mean a long time! We went to preschool together, elementary school, middle school, and high school. As if that wasn't enough, we went off to college together and roomed together for three years at North Georgia. We have many memories! Here's an oldie...



Love you, Lauren and I'm so excited for you!!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Nursery Furniture

I am just about fifteen weeks along. My new favorite store is Rattles & Rhymes in Athens. It is a cute baby boutique in Athens. My mom and I have lucked up with all of their holiday sales. They had a great sale on furniture this week, and it was too good to pass up.

I have already been getting anxious about getting everything ready for the baby during tax season. I know how busy I will be, and know that as I get bigger and more tired, I am not going to want to spend every weekend getting the nursery ready.

So...we took on the task of reorganizing the house this week, which involved lots of trash, a trip to the Peace Place donation center, selling a futon on facebook, and a lot of cleaning. The room I originally thought we would use for the nursery ended up changing to a different one, but the nursery is completely cleared out (not painted) and new furniture moved in! Oh, and some little booties and diapers and key toy we received for gifts are in there too!

I am so glad to have this done. We will not do anything else in the nursery until we find out what we are having, which is only about 5 weeks away! We do have a few small messes in other parts of the house to clean up, but have made a lot of progress! Here are some pics of the nursery!


We can't wait to find out what the baby is! Then we can do more work on the nursery. We have thrown a lot of names out there, but I think we finally have some picked out!
Who would have known what a hard decision that is!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Our Family is Growing!



We are having a baby!

Hopefully this will give me great reason to make time to blog. I would love to have the blog to look back on and remember everything from our pregnancy. I am going to try and re-cap everything so far.

Daniel kept telling me he thought I was pregnant because of how differently I had been acting. I wasn't so sure, so even though we had purchased a pregnancy test, I did not take it right away. On November 4th, I finally took it before church and it was positive! I walked out of the bathroom and told Daniel he was going to be a daddy. We were both very excited! Such a strange feeling knowing that you know this, but no one else does.

I made a doctors appointment and went to my first appointment on November 14th. I had just scheduled my yearly appointment at Athens OBGYN and had to call and tell them I was pregnant and needed to change my appointment. Since we were not sure of my conception date, they did a sonogram and confirmed the pregnancy. I got to hear the heart beat at my first appointment and found out that we were already 8 weeks and three days along. They are able to determine this by measuring the length of the baby. This was kind of a surprise. I wasn't expecting to be that far along, but was glad that I wouldn't have to keep the secret for long. I am paranoid about telling people you're pregnant in case something goes wrong. We decided we would wait until as close to the end of the first trimester as we could.


11 weeks
 They wanted me to come back for a new OB appointment, so my next appointment was on November 30th. What a fun birthday present, right?! At this appointment, they began the new routine - weight, blood pressure, urine test, etc. They also did another sonogram, and it appeared that the first due date was pretty accurate, so we are sticking with it. I am due June 24th. I was 10 weeks and five days along at this appointment.

We tried so hard to wait until after the second appointment to tell anyone, but most of Daniel's family came into town for Thanksgiving and we wanted to tell them in person since we don't see them often. The night before Thanksgiving, we went over to my parents and I had made them all ornaments. My mom's said "Grandma - Est. 2013", dad's said "Grandpa - Est. 2013", Mariah's "Aunt Mariah - Est. 2013", and Olivia's "Aunt Olivia - Est. 2013." I nonchalantly passed them out and said I had found some cute ornaments I had to get them. They all started opening, but dad beat them all. Wish I had videotaped, but was too caught up in the moment! Dad started shouting, and they were all so excited. Olivia was ecstatic. It was a sweet moment. This baby will be my parents' first grandchild, and my mom's parents' first great-grandchild. 

The next day we were hanging outside our house with Daniel's family and Daniel made the announcement. Everyone was excited. I finally got to spend time talking to others about the pregnancy. My SILs had lots of questions, and I enjoyed finally talking about it! Daniel's family is constantly growing! The tenth grandchild will be born in the next couple of weeks, and ours will be the 11th. There will be five girls and five boys when ours is born. I can not wait to find out what ours is!!


13 Weeks
 After my second appointment, we told our friends and the rest of the family. I just had my third appointment this week, on December 27th. I was 14 weeks and 2 days. This was a very quick appointment. We listened to the heart beat and they did my weight, blood pressure, and urine. I had gained six pounds! The doctor said I had a pooch! Haha.

Now for all the highlights:
Due Date: June 24th
Sex: We find out February 6th!
Sickness: I have not been sick at all! From about 8-12 weeks, I was pretty week in the mornings, but that was about it.
Cravings: Mexican, Salsa, food in general. I am having to pack extra snacks for work. It is so hard for me to get full. I feel like I could just eat and eat and eat!
Weight: I have gained six pounds so far. I have had to use a belly band since about 11 weeks. It is great! Since it is winter, I am either wearing dress pants or jeans every day, and I can not get them buttoned! The belly band is a life saver! No maternity clothes yet.
Symptoms: Recently, I have had some rough head aches, sometimes lasting all day. Also, I have had some back pain, probably from the extra weight.
Sleep: No problem there yet, except for the occasional back pain. Daniel got me a boppy pregnancy pillow for Christmas, and I think it is going to be my new best friend!!
More to come! Check back often!

The nursery has begun. We have spent our days off this week reorganizing our whole house!

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Back from the Beach!

Yes, I realize it has been a long time, well, a really long time, since I've last written. But, we are going to ignore that and start the August resolution a couple days early, and finally BLOG! :)

Daniel and I just got back from the beach with the family. It was a MUCH needed vacation. So much has been happening in our lives. We've gone several places this summer, but this was a seven day trip to paradise with my family, and it was SO relaxing!

Daniel left Universal Forest Products in April and is continuing to grow his lawn care business. It is going very well and he had a hard time leaving it in the heat of grass cutting season, but I was able to sneak him away! So glad he was able to come!

My parents had rented a house in Santa Rosa Beach for everyone, and it was perfect for the six of us! The weather was perfect too! We spent six wonderful days on the beach, ate LOTS of seafood, putt-putted, shopped, and took lots of pictures, which is why I'm here, right!? I've got lots to share!

Oh, and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom! Today is her birthday, but of course we've been celebrating her birthday all week! We gave her her gift a little early so she could enjoy it all week!
Here are a few pics that sum up the week and all the fun we had!


Me and Daniel


Mom & Dad

Olivia and Mariah

The Girls

We even took the dogs! Sierra and Echo loved the beach!

Can't believe the summer is coming to an end! We have been able to go lots of places though. Check back soon, because I will be posting about all of our fun times! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!
~Gabby