Recap....

Well lets start off by saying sorry to my readers...all possibly 1 of you haha. I just always forget to update my blog.

June 12th Marianne and Dwayne got married!!! Eric and I were SO thrilled! They are such a great couple and SO meant to be together. We absolutely LOVE having Marianne in our family! She is soooo good to Dwayne and he loves her so much. We've never seen Dwayne sooo happy :)

Well a couple of days after Dwayne and Marianne's wedding we found out the sex of the baby! On June 14th we were told we are having a GIRL and we couldn't be happier! When the tech. person told us that "its a girl" Eric and I were both a little shocked! I seriously had thought they were going to say "boy" and of course Eric's dad had a theory that all the men in his family had boys...even though he's the only "man" that has children haha. But still we were both shocked. I am SO excited that its a girl because of all the bows, ribbons, polka dots, dresses etc all that fun stuff. Eric will learn to love it too :) Our daughter's name is Emma Faye. Emma is just a name I've loved since high school and Faye is my middle name, my grandmother's name and Eric's Aunt's name. So I just felt it was good to keep that name. Although we have discovered that when we get things monogrammed her initials spell out "E.L.F." haha. But its ok I think its cute!

Eric and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary in Washington, DC! We left our house that Saturday (6-26) and drove back home that Sunday (6-27). I can't believe that we've been married for a year already! Time has flown by and there is nothing I would change! Eric has been the greatest husband anyone could ever dream for. We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Back to Emma :) Once we told family and friends the news of Emma we instantly started receiving clothes, stuffed animals, sun glasses and lots more! Her closet is already jam packed! I need to get another bar to put in her closet so we can continue to hang up stuff. Emma is the first grandchild in both of our families so she is going to spoiled rotten! But I love it! My mom bought Emma's diaper bag--Vera Bradley and I'm totally LOVING IT! I at first wanted a black and white print and put Pink initials on it but once I saw this print I knew it was the one I was wanting! We got it at Harbor Specialties in Beaufort and they monogrammed the bag for free and then they even put Emma's name on the changing cloth! Soo cute! Thanks Mama!!!

On July 18th we had a baby shower for one of my best friends Karli! It was held at Kahla's house and was so nice to visit with all my girls! I miss them so much! When Karli found out she was having a girl we were soooo excited! But then when we found out we were having a girl me and Karli instantly started talking about how they will be best friends and we'll have to get matching outfits and get their pictures taken together! Maybe by the time Allie and Emma reach middle school they can be in school together! :)

As for me....I am 27 weeks along as of today. I can't believe that in 3 months Emma will either be here already or making her way into our lives! I am so ready to meet mine and Eric's daughter! We already are guessing that she will have red hair! Because when Eric was younger he had RED hair, its gotten to a brown color as he's gotten older. When I was younger my hair was strawberry blonde and then brown with natural red high lights. To this day its still brown with a hint of red high lights. So that is why we think she'll have red hair! Unless she takes after someone else in the family! Also we are not sure if Emma will come early, on-time, or late. Her due date is November 4th. But if she takes after her daddy she could come 4 days early or if she takes after her mama she'll come on her actual due date (very rare--but yes I due what I'm told haha)! So who knows!!!

We've already picked out the bedding for Emma's room and now I can't wait to get it! I have to first start off by saying that yes I know I'm having a girl but no I'm not one of those ones that LOVES the color pink! Sooo Emma's colors in her room are based off of the bedding! Its still girly but its not pink haha. I can't help it I've never been one to like the color. I'm not saying I won't buy her pink clothes or bows and things but I just didn't want her entire room looking like bubble gum haha :)

Well this isn't everything that has happened over the past few months but this is some of the big things that's happened! I'm not going to promise that I'm going to do better at keeping up with my blog because I just can't :) haha. But even if I don't updated it every week or whatever I'll at least update it with an overview of what's happened :)

16 Weeks!!

From thebump.com my weekly updates :)

you're 16 weeks pregnant!

About what Mama will be experiencing :)

Thanks to increasing blood flow, it's time for some major cash and prizes. Enjoy quick-growing hair and nails, smooth and firm skin, and a healthy glow. One bit of bad news -- your eyes might be feeling a little dry these days.

About what Baby is is developing!!!

Baby's now the size of an avocado!

Watch what you say...tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean she can now pick up your voice. A few more minuscule changes: Eyebrows, lashes, and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming.

How EXCITING that the baby can now hear us talking to him/her!!!!!!!!!!! My mom has instructed me that I must say "Grandma Juju" at least 10 times a day haha :) We have an appointment on Friday and I can't wait to see how much the baby has grown.....its soooo fun!

Today at work a client came in for her appointment and had her 4 month old little girl, my heart just melted! She was sooo cute with big brown eyes! I got to play with her for just a few minutes but it totally made my afternoon!

Well that's all for now :)

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!!!!