15 weeks!

So I am 15 weeks along in my pregnancy and the morning (all day long) sickness has not subsided yet! They claimed that the 2nd trimester will be the "honeymoon phase" which means that I should be out of the feeling nausaeted most of the time--but they are wrong I'm still feeling that way and throwing up at the very least once a week. Which I shouldn't complain because 1. They say that being sick is a good sign that the baby will be healthy--but I know plenty of people who said they weren't sick and their babies were just as healthy as could be--so I think they just tell you that to make you feel better! 2. It could always be worst! I had a friend who was in and out of the hospital with both of her pregnancies, I am thankful I haven't been put in the hospital! I did come close in the beginning, but I with the help from my wonderful husband buckled down and made myself eat and drink stuff. I'm noticing that my energy levels are still very low--I am constantly wanting to take a nap--but never can because I'm working full time (M-F 8:30-5). Some mom's have the luxury of being able to stay home and get the rest they need--but I have to work. I am also noticing I am getting headaches a lot more than normal-which they claim is normal. Also whenever I refer to "they" its either http://www.thebump.com/ or other mom's who have told me about their stories. Just a little side-note for all my readers :)

Speaking of thebump.com they send me their weekly updates about what I am expecting and how the baby is growing. Which I find rather interesting :) They compare the baby's growing size to different fruit each week :) Below is my weekly update:

Your gums may be red and swollen (thanks, hormones), so it's extra-important to take good care of your mouth right now. Brush often, floss gently, and see your dentist if you haven't already. Also, your now-cramped chest and abdomen (baby's growing fast!) might be making you a little short of breath.


your baby
Baby's now the size of a naval orange!Continuing the march toward normal proportions, baby's legs now out-measure his arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably can't feel the movements just yet.

Well this is all for now :) I'll try to remember to keep updating each week as I get my weekly updates :)

Baby Lawrence :)

Well as most of my readers know by now Eric and I are expecting our first child. We are so blessed to have this miracle of life. I am almost 13 weeks along (Wednesday), Baby "L" is due November 4th (tentatively).


The story of how we found out and how we told the family :)


My sister and her friend Elizabeth came to visit me in Virginia the last weekend of February, because Eric was working that weekend. Once they left on Sunday afternoon, I took a pregnancy test and it read positive :) I was SO excited and nervous all at the same time. Eric and I had actually been trying to get pregnant since the beginning of January (so not long at all!). So when I read the pregnancy stick it took me a few seconds for it to actually register. I got a shower and got dressed and ready and headed over to the Coast Guard station to tell Eric the WONDERFUL news. But of course I didn't want to tell him in front of anyone so once I got there we just hung out watching tv with a couple of the guys in the room. They eventually left and I looked over to Eric and told him he was going to be a dad and that I was pregnant! His eyes lit up and he said "are you serious?!" I said yes I took a test and it said positive! Once I left the station it was all I could not to call family and friends and tell them the wonderful news! But I told Eric I didn't want to tell them until we have confirmation from the doctor. So on Monday (during my lunch break) I called the OBGYN's office and set an appointment. They set it for 9 days after I spoke to them. I didn't think that day would EVER get there! Well it finally arrived--March 10th-- and we were at the doctor's office (I had told my office that I had a regular yearly check-up...ya know the "woman's doctor" haha). When the Nurse Practitioner did the sonogram and we got to see a little LINE of a baby on the screen it was exciting. We were 6 weeks pregnant! She gave us pictures of our "Line" haha. So then after the doctor gave us the confirmation and pictures and our tenative due date of November 4th we were ready to go :) Then we had to figure out how and when we were going to tell our parents that they were going to be GRANDPARENTS! Those of you who know me, know I love to be creative! We weren't planning on going home until March 19th weekend and even that weekend wasn't planned because we were going home the following weekend for Amber and Patrick's wedding, so that made us traveling to Beaufort 2 weekends in a row...obviously we didn't mind because they were both joyous occassions of why we were going home :) I had 9 days to come up with an idea of how to tell our family! Eric and I drove up to Salisbury, MD to meet up with another couple at the movies (The Alice in Wonderland movie) so we decided to go up a little earlier and go to Michael's so I can wonder around there. I had the idea of making picture frames for everyone with possible grandparent names to call them :) Of course the picture would be our "first picture" :) So I got the unfinished frames at Michael's along with scrapbook supplies to decorate the frames and I (with the help from my wonderful hubby) stained the frames. We stained the frames that Sunday and I let them dry for so long, because I was still undecided on what to put for the names on each of the frames. This is when I decided to call my sister and tell her the wonderful news! Actually I believe I called her prior to buying the frames! So yes my sister Carly kept the secret for such a long time and that in itself was a miracle :) She would text me or call me and tell me times where she came close to slipping up and telling either daddy or mama! But I am thankful she didn't! Also I should mention that my step-sister Allison is expecting her first child in July! So that made things a bit easier for my sister to be able to cover up some of the things we were needing to find out haha :) Such as figuring out a name to call my father and Kimberly. My sister would just bring up to them "oh so have you guys figured out what you wanted to be called for Allison's baby?" So we were sneaky finding out names for daddy and Kimberly :) As for my mom we came up with something that we thought was cute. Then for Dwayne and Marianne....well they have been wanting us to have a baby since the wedding so they have told us names they wanted to be called LONG before we were even trying haha!

The names:

Daddy and Kimberly--"Papa" and "Nana"
Dwayne and Marianne--"Papa" and "Mema" yes both grandfathers will be called "Papa" which we thought was cute and if the kid gets confused we can always add "Papa B" and "Papa D" :)
My mom--"Juju" but of course on the frame I put "Grandma JuJu" so she would know what the name was haha :)

See the pictures below

Daddy and Kimberly

Dwayne and Marianne

My mama

Once the frames were made I was SO ready to get home and give them to everyone! We got home that Friday night (March 19th) around 10. We walked in the door to my mom's house and we unpacked, brought the stuff up to the room and then just sat on the couch talking for a bit...it was all I could do not to bust out with the news at first, but I had to contain myself since I worked so hard on the frames :) SO then I said "so mama I got you something" and then I pulled out the frame and gave it to her. She was looking at it and looking at it and it finally registered what she was looking at then she goes and puts the picture under the light so she can better see what she was looking at :) Then her reaction hit and was like "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD ARE YOU SERIOUS" So after a few minutes of repeating those words she asked me if Carly knew and I told her yes and that she'd known for a couple of weeks now and she was like "She didn't tell me!" haha. So that was fun.

Saturday morning we were meeting my dad and Kimberly for breakfast, which this story is funny all on its own because we (me and my sister) totally manipulated daddy through this entire process haha! It began like a week prior to seeing Daddy and Kimberly. My sister knew I wanted to tell Daddy in person (because of the frame) but I just couldn't figure out when I would see daddy again (since he lives 2 1/2 hours away from Beaufort). So my sister had text me saying that daddy was talking about going and visiting grandma (aka his mother) sometime during that week before he and Kimberly were heading off to CA for his cousin's wedding. So my sister said maybe I can call him and convince him to wait a few extra days and go down to Beaufort that weekend :) SO sure enough I called daddy instantly and said "so Eric and I are coming to Beaufort this weekend and I haven't seen you since Christmas maybe you want to meet us down there?" his first reaction was "that is so weird we were JUST talking about going and visiting grandma this week" I was trying not to laugh :) So he said "yeah I can push the trip a few days so we can come down there this weekend!" So yay our plan was working this way all the grandparents would know the same weekend instead of saying "don't say anything yet because we haven't told so and so" :) Anyway back to the Saturday morning breakfast. We met them around 10sh for breakfast at the best breakfast place "Beaufort Cafe" I was shaking because I was nervous trying to pick the best time to tell daddy he's going to be a grandpa AND trying to figure out if I should wait until after we ate breakfast or before we ate breakfast. Well we all talked for a little bit put our orders in and were just hanging out. So then I finally said "oh I got you guys something for the remodeling" they have been remodeling their house for sometime so I figured that was the best line to use :) So then I handed him the picture frame. They are both looking at it and daddy so obvlious thought I had handed him a frame I made regarding Allison's baby :) Then Kimberly realized what it was and daddy looked further at it and started reading out loud "Baby Lawrence--November 4th" then he finally got clued in and his reaction hit "WAIT WHAT, WHAT WAIT A MINUTE WHAT" haha then he of course was happy and kept looking at the photo :)

Saturday evening we finally went over to Dwayne and Marianne's house (Dwayne had been working all day and I knew good and well if I went over there any sooner I would of busted and told Marianne right away haha) so when we walked in they were sitting on the couch and me and Eric sat in the big chair. I said "well I have something for you guys" and I took the frame out of my purse and handed it to Dwayne.....well Dwayne just basically saw a frame and instantly just said "Thanks guys" and we all just kind of hesitated and Marianne being a mama knew exactly what that was haha and she said "baby do you realize what your looking at" as he was about to set it on the coffee table :) He finally looked at it further and was like "baby Lawrence" and then had a big ol' grin on his face and looked to Eric and said "you owe me a $100" HAHAHAHA! I busted out laughing! Because it was either the day or day after Eric and I got Engaged Dwayne made a bet with Eric that we would announce we were pregnant within the first year! I of course was not around during this so-called bet so I can not verify exactly what was said and WHY my then fiance would make a bet about our future children haha! But of course guys will be guys! So we thought that was HILARIOUS for his reaction :)

Everybody was so thrilled for our news but I told them all not to post ANYTHING on facebook until I posted something because I didn't want EVERYBODY to find out when I was still so early in the pregnancy. Although lets face it Carteret County LOVES to gossip so even though by the time I finally did post something on facebook the majority of the people already knew, I was just thankful nobody posted anything :) So at 12 weeks I finally let facebook know :)

I have been to the doctor now 3 times; once for the initial confirmation of the pregnancy, second time to meet with one of the doctors who will be possibly delivering the baby and then the third visit I had to go alone because Eric was working and I SO wish he could of gone because it was the 11th week and so the baby finally looked like a baby and I got to see it moving and saw its heartbeat oh it was SO exciting and seemed so real to me then, because the other 2 visits the doctors "claimed" there was a baby but I had no idea what I was looking at and didn't notice the little peanut until the 3rd visit :) So the picture below is our baby at 11 weeks ain't he/she so cute :)

My next appointment is set for May 21st at the OBGYN and then the next appointment is June 14th which is at the hospital where we get to find out the sex of the baby! So cast your vote now on what you think it will be :) My husband and his father are DETERMINED its a boy! We did the Chinese Gender Chart on thebump.com and it claims to be a boy too. So I'm trying to get in the mind-set that its a boy! Now I need to come up with boys names....any suggestions?

Baby Lawrence at 11 weeks :)

I promise I will try to keep this update more frequently regarding the baby and any other activities :)

Sorry for the long and rambling post, my sister says I write exactly how I talk...apparently that's not always a good thing especially with a sister who is an English major :)

CONGRATULATIONS!

I just wanted to give a shout out to such a beautiful family! Congratulations to Andrea and Tim Winters for welcoming their second beautiful daughter Hailey Lynne who arrived on 3/14/10 at 1:09 p.m. weighing 7lbs and measuring at 20.75 inches! She is PERFECT! She also looks just like her big sister Julianne! :) :)

They are such a great family inside and out and I couldn't be happier for them. Andrea and Tim are such great parents!

Love you Andrea! :) Can't wait to meet Hailey in person!!!!

If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!

So within this past week (and its only Wednesday) I have had another sinus infection and the meds they have prescribed make me feel sick! I have had a flat tire on my car and then this morning I managed to lock Eric's key's in his truck (when he has my car at work). SOOOO lets hope it can only get better from here!

I have come to the conclusion that I just need my own personal driver!

Now on to better things : ) The weather has been BEAUTIFUL this week which has made things a little better :)

This past weekend we went up to Salisbury, MD and met another couple there to see the new Alice in Wonderland movie with Johnny Depp! The 3D version was completely sold out! So we decided to watch it regular! The girls (Morgan and I) really enjoyed the movie, but the boys (Eric and Crane) didn't care for it too much haha.

After the movie was done we were all going to be heading back to mine and Eric's house for dinner and games, another couple was meeting at our house as well (Giles and Emily). On our way home Crane and Morgan got pulled over for speeding of course Crane stuck his head out the window and smiled and waved at us as we passed by them haha. Also on our way home I saw a BALD EAGLE feasting off of a dead deer! I was SOOO AMAZED at seeing a Bald Eagle on the side of the road like that! I have ONLY seen Bald Eagles at the ZOO never outside in everyday life! So if any of my blog readers have seen them outside and doesn't find this as amazing as me I'm sorry it was CRAZY! :) I'm basically like a little kid when it comes to things like that!

So that night we had everyone over at the house and I didn't feel like cooking (because I've had this sinus infection that has just left me exhausted) so we ordered 3 large pizza's, hot wings, bread sticks and some of the other people brought sodas and chips. After eating we played Pictionary--girls vs boys! The first game the boys dominated (sad to say) but then we played again and the girls won! But that last game definitely got a little brutal haha it was the first time in the many many times we've played the game that blood was shed! Not because anyone punched someone it was the fighting over the GREEN MARKER hahaha! Long story short the marker lid got snapped on Crane's thumb!

WE decided Pictionary was done so we played Battle of the Sexes! That was just a bad game the boys didn't do good at all I believe they moved like 1 space! So they gave up and we switched to yet another game! Dvd Scene It! The girls won AGAIN! So yes the boys may have one the first game of Pictionary but lost EVERY other game we played!

We love game night its always fun and something always seems to happen! I believe I need to buy some new games! Or at least update the ones we have! Pictionary is alot of fun but if you've played with the same people over and over again you start to learn some of the cards and their technique. With DVD Scene It, we need a more current up-to-date game because most of the movies they show are like 1950's-1985 and its just not stuff we know haha. So I'll be looking for a new scene it game! I would DOMINATE the Friends DVD Scene It :) :)

What are some of ya'lls favorite board games?

7 months and counting :)

Wow its been 7 months already that I have been married to my high school sweetie pie :) They have been so great! They say the 1st year is always the hardest, but we've done very good so far. I love him so much and these past 7 months have gone by so quickly it seems like just yesterday we were at the 1 week mark of the big day! I never really stressed as bad as I thought I was going to, but maybe I just knew the outcome of the day meant me and him as husband and wife and that calmed my emotions. Plus I had big help from my coordinator Amber and my step-sister who made all our paper products such as the programs, favor bags and of course the BEST looking INVITATIONS EVER! My family and friends were great with all the help and mine and Eric's wedding wouldn't have been what it was without the help of all of you so Thank you all so much for allowing it to be such a special day!

Speaking of Amber today marks her and Patrick's 2 months until they become husband and wife! She is going to make such a BEAUTIFUL bride inside and out! Amber I can't believe its only 2 months away already!!!!

Light Rolls....Yeast!

So this past weekend I attemped to make Light Rolls for the very first time, it also was my first time using Yeast! Let me just tell you I had NO IDEA you could kill yeast! But of course if it can happen I accomplished it! Eric is the one that suggested I make yeast rolls because they are his favorite bread, so of course to be a good wife I wanted to learn how to make them (plus I love to cook).

Friday after I got off of work, Eric had already gone to the store for me to get all the ingredients to make these light rolls (from a recipe he found online) I wasn't really in the mood to bake after I got off of work, but figured I'd give it a try anyway.

Well when the directions said for me to mix hot water and then cold water to yeast I did like it said but it said the Yeast would start to dissolve....mine was not! But I figured it was ok that the dough would still rise...but after an hour of waiting for the dough to rise it did no such thing! So we threw that dough out and I was going to give up.

Now onto a positive thing about Facebook.....all I posted was "Yeast sucks..." and I had quite a few people respond to it. Also had someone give me her recipe for Light Rolls. So below is the recipe I received from Melody Taylor Goodwin which was a great recipe. Thanks again Melody :)

Ingredients
6-8 cups bread flour

2 packages dry yeast

2 cups milk

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs beaten

Directions

In a mixing bowl, mix 4 cups of flour with the yeast. Set aside. Pour the milk, salt, oil, and sugar into a pot, stirring to mix and place over medium heat until warm but not hot (lukewarm). Pour the milk mizture into the flour and yeast and beat until smooth. Add the eggs stirring hard to mix well (using your hands is best). One cup at a time add as much of the remaining flour as needed to form a soft dough. Put the dough on floured counter and let rise to double its original size. Knead the dough 12-15 times, until elastic to the touch. ----now this part is in my own words--- grease a baking pan with high sides. put oil or spray pam onto your hands to keep the dough from sticking. form the dough into balls about the size of a plum. let the dough rise until it doubles in size again. bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until lightly brown. this whole process is gonna take at least 2 hours, but its a crowd favorite.

THEY'RE DONE :)

Right after they came out the oven I brushed melted butter on top of them. I think the next time I make them I'll brush the melted butter on the dough before it goes into the oven and then brush it again once it comes back out.

We also made London Broil in the crock pot to have with the Light Rolls: London Broil, Potatoes mixed with Worchestire Sauce, Italian Dressing and Beef Broth. This would of been good with some Onions and Carrots too but we had just made some Beef Stew the weekend before with all that stuff.

Please Enjoy!

Also let me know if you tried out this Light Roll recipe and if you made any changes to it or not. I will probably make it my own next time I attempt to bake these again.

Christmas Time!

Christmas is by far my FAVORITE Holiday! Eric says I'm like a child when it comes to listening to the Christmas music, watching the millions of Christmas movies that come on tv, or even watching the ones I own over and over again. I believe I started watching my Santa Clause movies (1-3) back in November! Eric said I already made him sick of that movie haha, but he'll still watch it with me anyway :)

We put our tree up the week before Thanksgiving! It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL (but that's me being a little biased ha).

Another reason I love Christmas is all the baking that goes along with it! I have made pigs-in-blanket, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate pies, "puppy chow" yes I said "puppy chow" one of the guys at the station requested it and I had never heard of it so of course I look it up online and all it has in it is: chex mix, chocolate chips, vanilla, peanut butter, and powdered sugar..very yummy and SUPER easy and quick to make! I have also made cinnamon candy, and many more things! I LOVE baking. Some people have suggested I start a cooking blog, I've thought about it, it would be a good way to have my recipes saved but I know good and well I won't keep up with it like I would like to do. Maybe sometime down the road.

Christmas is also a great holiday because of family get together's, work Christmas parties, VACATION, Snow (if your lucky), Hot chocolate, Christmas lights, SANTA at the mall, traditions, wrapping presents, and lots of other great things.

Eric and I are unable to be home on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but I am very happy that my dad will be coming up to stay with us. This will be the first time in a LONG time that I've actually woke up on Christmas Day with my dad. So I'm VERY excited about that! We do plan on going home but it will be the week after Christmas and then we plan on spending New Years there as well. We are so lucky to have our family live close enough away where its a simple drive :)

Holiday Tradition: Every year (except this one) for as long as I could remember on Christmas morning I was always the first one to wake up and I would go down stairs to look at the presents then I would wake my sister up and drag her butt down stairs, which she would fall back asleep instantly on the couch. Then I would organize the presents: I would put mine on the left, Carly's on the right and everyone else's presents would go in the middle :) Then we would wake up everyone else in the house! It is something I always look forward to doing. I wonder if when Eric and I have kids if they will do funny things like that on Christmas morning. I remember always leaving cookies and milk out for Santa and food for the reindeer out on the back porch. Then when we would wake up the cookies would be almost gone, the milk always all gone and the reindeer food moved around on the porch. Its great how parents go through so much trouble at Christmas time but I for one appreciate it all. I'm still such a kid when it comes to the holidays and I think its mainly because I absolutely LOVED my childhood so much. My parents were such great parents and I appreciate everything they did for my sister and I, because if it weren't for them Carly and I wouldn't be who we are today and I think we turned out pretty great! :) So thank you mama and daddy for being you :) Love you both!

Please enjoy the photos of mine and Eric's decorated house for Christmas :)

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!