20 week appointment

Here are is a picture from our Fetal Assessment. (I have a TON more but they all keep flipping the wrong way and I don't know how to make it not do that!) They said everything looked PERFECT, what huge blessing!!!!!!!! :) We got to see his beautiful face in 4D, which was a HUGE surprise for us! The Sonar Tech said he was in the perfect position for them, so she went ahead a did a few! :) I LOVED seeing his sweet sweet face. She kept talking about his beautiful, pouty lips. I know where he gets those pouty lips from. HAHA! :) Already learning from his Mommy! :)

I have been feeling Carter like CRAZY here lately. Its just so amazing to feel him move. Even at the appointment the sonar tech laughed and said "WOW, he's active! He must have loved your lunch!" HAHA. OH dear, what am I in for! HAHAHAH! :)

We've got the Nursery almost DONE. Can you believe it?!?!? We have a few pictures to hang and one piece of furniture we are getting, but everything is almost done! Jon and I have been working our butts off to get it done! I worked on it a few weeks ago, getting all his clothes hung up. Let's just say. I went through over 100 hangers in a matter of minutes. Carter will be the BEST dressed little boy. I have a HUGE shopping problem and finding him cute outfits isn't helping that problem at all! We have an ADORABLE shop but here called Posh Mommy and Baby, too (we got our chair there!) and they have the CUTEST boy clothes. We all know how hard it is to find cute boy things! I am pretty picky about what I like for him. HAHA. I LOVEEEEEE smocked Jon Jons. MY FAVORITE for little boys! :)

I can't believe that I am 5 months pregnant. It's really flown by, but I really need for April to get here! I am MORE than ready to meet my little fella! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful CHRISTmas! We will be getting our present a few months later, but think its the best gift we could ever ask for! :)

To my sweet Carter,
I am so thrilled that we got to see you on the sonar. Your BEAUTIFUL face brought tears to my eyes. Your daddy was so cute looking at you. Counted every finger and toe. He was even teary eyed seeing you. WE love you more than anything and can't just wait to hold you and love on you!
We get so excited thinking about how different the Holidays will be for us next year. It makes us so incredibly happy to know YOU will be joining us next year.
Love you,
Mommy

It's a.......

I have been so so so needing to update my blog, but very very busy over the past weeks.

Anyways, Jon and I were able to find out about 3 weeks ago what we are having and we couldn't be more excited and happy....

Its a.............
BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jon and I are elated and feeling so blessed. Blessed that the sonar tech said everything looked perfect. That was our MAIN and ONE concern that HE was healthy.

Baby boys have always had a special place in my heart and always MELT my heart. After working in the nursery I found that the boys are easier than little girls.
Having older brothers always made me want boys first as well. Just knowing they were there for me always was something so special. (and at times a little annoying-HA!)
And then there is Kemp. The moment I laid eyes on my precious nephew I was in love with him. (of course my other nieces and nephews as well!!) But something about being in the delivery room when he was born, made us have a special connection. I'll never forget some of my first words after seeing him is "HE makes me want ONLY boys!"

Jon of course is thrilled of the idea being at the ball park and doing all things boys! :) He would always say "I think its a girl", but I think he kept telling himself that so he wouldn't be disappointed if it wasn't a boy. When we found out, my heart melted over Jon's excitement. He was beyond happy and hasn't stopped smiling since the day we found out and I haven't either!

We have decided to use family names for our sweet little boy. We are going to name him Terry Carter after both of our dads and will call him Carter. We are so excited to finally be able to call our angel boy by his name!

Carter is definitely growing and I definitely have a bump. I love looking down and seeing it. I can't help but smile. And, I felt him move for the first time a few days ago and it was amazing. Jon is definitely ready to be able to feel him move. The doctor said it wouldn't be to to much longer until he could feel him as well!

I am so thankful that at my last appointment my blood pressure had gone down and was back to normal. It had been high but my doctor did assure me that preclampsia could NOT happen until after 20 weeks. HUGE relief and something that did worry me ever since my last appointment. I am also very thankful that the morning sickness has FINALLY gone away. My mom told me just the other day that Carter must be going to be a sweet baby since he was giving me all that trouble for a bit. HA. :)

Anyways, I guess thats all for now!

To my sweet CARTER BOY,
I could not be more thrilled to know you are a healthy boy! I keep imagining what you are going to look like and wonder if you will look more like your daddy, more like me or a good combo. For your sake, I hope you look like your daddy.
I already love you more than words can explain. It has been fun buying you little gowns and getting things monogrammed with your name on it.
I love you and can't wait for April to get here!
Love always,
Mommy

Here are some pictures of me at 19 weeks.

3rd Doctors Appointment

Well well. It sure has been a while. I have been hearing "UPDATE your blog from EVERYONE!" And I really have NO reason as to why I haven't. :)

We had a WONDERFUL time in Disney World. I will need to have a special blog entry just for that. But we really did have a fabulous time and hated for it to end!!!

We had our 3rd doctors appointment yesterday. (I am a little off on my weeks due to Disney and then my doctor being out of town!) My doctor wasn't there yesterday so it was a SUPER fast appointment. They are having me come back in 3 weeks to see him. I have lost a total of 4.5 pounds. The morning sickness has been terrible for me. I think I am (FINGERS CROSSED) getting over that stage of my pregnancy. Praise the Lord for Zofran. :) My blood pressure was a bit high and I had a trace of protein in my urine. They told me NOT to worry until this happened and I was 30 weeks. However, my name is Katie and I am going to worry over EVERY little thing! SO, PRAYERS please that I can get my blood pressure down. I should probably mention that I have always had EXTREMELY LOW blood pressure, so this is very unusual for me. :) Hopefully when I go back in 3 weeks we will be back to normal and NOT have any traces of protein in my urine.

Everything was great with the little one. They did find the heartbeat with NO problems. She found it immediately. It still brings tears to my eyes to hear that little heart just going. His/her heart rate was 150 bpm. EVERYONE thinks I am having a boy due to the heartbeat. I don't care what we are having, BUT, my nurse told me there is NO truth to the heartbeat test. I will be interested in seeing if it does have some truth to it. Either way, I don't care. We will be perfectly content with whatever God has in store for us. This will NOT be the only one for us. SO, we are just going to enjoy this baby and pray he/she is healthy. :)

Well, I guess thats it on the update for now! Again, PLEASE pray that I can get my blood pressure down! :)

Blessings and Peace,

2nd Appointment

Jon and I had our second doctors appointment today. Our usual doctor was out, so we saw another one. Who was REALLY funny and made us feel really comfortable.

I was REALLY sick the past few days with the stomach bug and couldn't wait to get to the doctor to get some medicine! The morning sickness has been a KILLER for me. Thankfully, he prescribed me Zofran. (and all I can say is thank the LORD for insurance! Otherwise it would have been $399.99! YES- you read that right. And all I had to pay was $10.00! Not a bad deal!)

Anyways, the doctor said everything looked wonderful. We even got to see our little angel again. I was really happy because Jon missed the first appointment. He found the heartbeat and showed us on the screen. You could see it flittering. It was so unreal. This time, it was more real for me because it actually looked like a baby. I couldn't believe how much he/she has changed in the past few weeks.

It is so surreal to me, to see MY baby on the monitor. I can hardly keep my eyes off my picture they gave me. It is really really neat.

Jon has been absolutely amazing while I haven't been feeling well. I am so so so blessed to have a husband who will do anything for me and not complain one time. He cooked, did the dishes and 3 loads of laundry without me even asking. (Jon, thank you. YOU are such an amazing hubby and I couldn't have been blessed with anyone better. I love you so much.)

To Baby Cullen,
I can't believe how much you have grown in such a short time. I am constantly amazed with you already. You are already so loved. I can't wait to find out what you are. Not because I care one way or another but so I can start calling you by your real name. Carter or Bella. What are you, sweet angel?!? I love you more and more each day, angel.

Blessings and Peace,

Weekend recap

Jon and I have had so much fun together the past few days. (He had some time off due to working so much at the conference!)

We had to take Mom back home on Saturday. (Which was a bummer.) I love having her here. So glad she is only about an hour and a half away. Mom and I had a great week while Jon was gone. Got to have some girl time, which was nice! Thanks, Mom for coming up and staying with me. I would have felt so sad about going to my first doctors appointment alone! :)

After we dropped my Mom off, we headed to Jon's Moms new house. His Mom just built a beautiful house. We had lunch over there and spent time with his family. It was nice seeing his brothers because we hadn't seen most of them since Christmas. (Thank you JM and Charlene for a delicious lunch!)

Yesterday we went to Babies R Us and looked around. Jon was SO cute in there. Melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes just thinking of the kind of daddy he will be. He wants the BEST of the best of everything. We have picked out our stroller traveling system. We are going with the Chicco system. It is REALLY easy to open and close and very easy to maneuver. SO exciting to be looking at all this neat stuff for the Bebe.

Today, we went and ordered our chair. We ordered it from the cutest store in Huntsville called Posh Mommy (and baby too!). They have THE cutest clothing, beautiful furniture and great Maternity clothes. I found the chair with Mom last week and wanted to wait for Jon to see it before I ordered it. We happened to go back when it was $100 off, which definitely helped! They said it would take about 4-6 weeks to come in. I can't wait to get it in. It is going in our den until the baby comes.

I am still feeling great. Just a few times I have been sick. Just don't talk to me about red meats. UGH. Just the thought of a hamburger, ground beef, or a steak makes me queazy. The fatigue is killing me. I can hardly make it through the day without a nap. Sometimes I just need 30 minutes and I am fine, others I need a 3 hour nap!

Anyways, theres the recap on our weekend.

Hope you all had a wonderful long weekend!

"For this Child I have prayed..."

Well, Jon and I have some pretty exciting news to share with everyone! We're expecting our first little one in April 2011. (I know it seems like FOREVER but *hopefully* the time will fly by!)

The day we found out we were pregnant I should have seen all the signs God was giving me. After about 6 negative pregnancy test, I became very very discouraged. Wondering why I couldn't get pregnant, etc etc. I called out in prayer for God to give me a sign as to if I were pregnant or not. Boy, did I get that sign.

As I was getting ready for work on August 12th I was doing my usual routine of doing my make up and listening to Jeremy Camp Radio on my Iphone. As I was doing my make up the song "Arms wide open" by Creed began to play on my phone. If you have never heard the song, go listen to it! Its amazing. But the first lyrics are, "Well, I just heard the news today. Seems my life is gunna change. I close my eyes began to pray, then tears of joy stream down my face. With arms wide open under the sunlight. Welcome to this place Ill show you everything, with arms wide open." If that wasn't a sign I didn't know what was. I went on to work and met Jon back at the house for lunch. (which we do everyday now, and its AWESOME!) I told him that maybe I should get ONE more pregnancy test. One that said "PREGNANT OR NOT PREGNANT". He told me to go ahead and go Wal-Mart and get one. He had to go on to work, but I went on and got one anyways.

When I got home I was going to wait until the morning, but we all know that I am impatient as they come. I took the test and within a MINUTE the words "PREGNANT" read across the screen. I was SHOCKED. TEARS of JOY streamed down my face. I immediatley called Jon because I couldn't wait to tell him. He answered the phone and I said "HI DADDY" and he said "WHAT?! OMG." and began to tear up, Which of course made me cry. Something we have wanted was happening for us. We were both so excited/scared/shocked/nervous/BLESSED/over the moon. The emotions just were so overwhelming in that moment. We knew we wanted to tell family and friends immediately. We decided we would want the support of our family and friends if God forbid something were to happen. We came home the next day and told everyone. All of our family and friends were elated.

Jon and I are just feeling so incredibly blessed about Bebe Cullen. I got to see him/her yesterday and hear the little heart beat. Which, was unreal. Jon had to miss the first appointment because he is in Vegas for his business trip. SO, I got my Mom to come with me to make video and pictures. It was so surreal to see OUR baby on that screen. My doctor (WHO I LOVE) said everything looked perfect. Which was SO reassuring to hear.
I can't wait to meet our precious one. April can't get here soon enough. We don't care one way or another what we are having. I just want a HEALTHY baby. Nothing else matters to me.

To Baby Cullen,
I can't wait to see your precious little face, little fingers, and tiny toes. I can't wait to kiss you and hold you. I pray for a healthy and safe pregnancy for the both of us. I love you so much already.
Love you always, Mommy

M.I.A

Geez Louise!! I had almost forgotten about my blog! Things have been pretty busy around here and this has been put on the back burner.

I started working at our church and I absolutely love it. I have made some incredible friends and feel so blessed with this job. It's very laid back and everyone is so great to work with. Reminds me a lot of Little Lambs, which as you all know I LOVED! :)

I met a new friend, Heidi, who also works at Asbury. We instantly became friends. We are so much alike that it is scary. She is married to a great guy named Jay and he and Jon have become friends as well, which is so fun. They also have an adorable little boy named Hayden. He is SO cute and chunky. I feel really blessed to have found the Smiths. :)

I have started a little business called Pouts and Pigtails. You can find my stuff at http://www.etsy.com/shop/poutsandpigtails. I am *HOPING* to buy a monogramming machine sometime in the near future. Lucky for me, my sweet sister in law said she would teach me how to use her Moms. I am REALLY excited about it. Watch out because everything is about to be monogrammed! :)

Jon is still doing great. He has been INSANELY busy at work. They are getting ready for their annual confrence. Orginially it was suppose to be at the Opry Land Hotel, but due to the flooding that occured they have moved it to VEGAS. He is BEYOND excited about this. I SO want to go with him, but I have to work and he will be really busy so I wouldn't really see him anyways. I am excited for him because he hasn't been anywhere since our Honeymoon. I know he will have a blast. :)

Another reason I opted out of Vegas is because....Mom, Michael, Kadie, Lily, Brad, Natalie, Kemp and Daisy are ALL going to Disney World in September! I am SO excited to see my sweet babies faces when they see Disney for the first time. (Techinically its not Kemps first time, but he was only 2 when he went for the first time) Mom and I are actually flying out of Huntsville and the others are driving. We got a CHEAP flight out of here. Birmingham was trying to do all kind of crazy connections, so we were happy to find the one from H'ville to Orlando with NO stops. We are staying at the Port Orleans-French Quarter. I am giving Lily Bippity Boppity Boutique for her birthday and Kemp Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for his. Needless to say, we are going to have a blast! 60 days...........Come on September 27th!!!!!!! :)

Well, I need to finish up the laundry and get dinner on before Jon gets home!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Graduates!

So Jon and I are officially graduates of Financial Peace University. It is a bittersweet feeling for sure. We SO enjoyed the class. We NEVER missed one class. We stayed committed to each other and to God to do this. We are in such a better place than we were 13 weeks ago. By December we will have NO debt. Yes you read that right..we will be DEBT FREE!!

I can't wait for that day. I WILL be calling Daves radio show and letting him know! :) We not only learned how to get out debt, but how to send our kids to college with NO student loans, where to invest our money and how to buy a house with a 15 year loan. I am SO glad we took this class before we ever thought about buying a house. I didn't know there was any other loan besides the 30. We had a bunch of people in our class already change their loan from a 30 year to a 15 year.

We have really been working out butts off to get DEBT FREE. I have even gotten another job at our Church and every penny I make from that job goes to bills.

For anyone who has any debt at all, I highly suggest the class. I can't URGE you enough to take it. It has forever changed the way Jon and I live. We now live by a budget and while its hard, its the best thing in the world.

If you are interested in the class please go to www.daveramsey.com and find a class in your area. It will be the hardest, yet the best thing you can ever do for yourself. :)

Life is so good. We are so blessed. I just can't say it enough.

"If you will live like no one else, LATER YOU CAN LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!"- Dave Ramsey

What a year!

I can't believe its almost been a year since Jon lost his job in Auburn. What a year we have had!

I will never forget calling my Daddy in tears and him saying to me, "You can't see it now, but this is all part of the bigger picture." I can remember being annoyed that he had said that. Jon and I were freaking out and thats the advice he had for me?!?

But, boy was he right! It WAS all part of the bigger picture. We have since moved on to bigger and better things. Our marriage is at a great place, both of our jobs ROCK, our finances are getting on track, we have the most adorable Chihuahua ever, (yes, mom, CHI CHI is cute too!) and most importantly we have found a Church that is AMAZZZZINNG. (Cornerstone was awesome, but Asbury is pretty awesome too!)

We are definitely in a much better place than we could have ever dreamed. If you would have asked me a year ago if I would be moving to Huntsville, I would probably have laughed! I never would have dreamed we would have ended up here! But, I am so glad God knew all along we would be here. :)

So, thanks to everyone who has prayed for us in the past year. While it was the most trying year of my life, it was also the year I grew the most in my life. I learned to TRUST TRUST TRUST in my Awesome, NEVER FAILING God more than I ever had in my life.

Blessings and Peace,

Well, once again I have been MIA for a few weeks! I've actually been really really busy here lately.

I took a full time job being a nanny and I am absolutely loving it. The family is just precious and I couldn't have found a better one to work for. It is a LOT less stressful being a nanny than it is working in child care!! Michele, the Mom, is home while I am there. She actually had surgery yesterday on her knee, which is why I became their nanny. She was unable to pick up her kids and do things we take for granted! Anyway, I am really enjoying it and so happy that God worked things out the way He did!

Last weekend, I went home to help Natalie with Cottontails. It was fun. The booth looked GREAT. Had a ton of compliments on it! (Good job Natalie and Brad!) I think Cottontails was really good this year. I can't wait until I can go when I am preggers because they have the CUTEST children's clothing. I will be BROKE when that happens! haha.

Jon and I are officially living on a budget. 3 weeks now and we are right on track. I complained and gripped about it, but can honestly say it is changing our lives. We are living on an envelope system and it is amazing. We have been staying right on track with our budget with the envelope system. :)

YAY, one of my favorite person just called to say hello! Thanks, Kelley. I wish I was going to Disney with you and Pat Pat! Have fun you guys! Love you both to death! Have fun and be careful!

Well, I need to finish getting ready for work!

Blessings and Peace,

MIA....

Ok...I know I have been totally MIA from the blogging world lately. But, to be honest, I haven't had that much to Blog about!

Jon and I have 2 special visitors come and stay with us. Kemp came and stayed with us for the week back in January, then my Mom came and stayed with us the next week. We had fun hosting them here! Kemp was an angel of course. He really truly is one of the sweetest boys in this world. Has THE best manners of any 5 year old boy I know! We had fun and I hated to tell him bye!

Mom came the next week and stayed a few days to help me make some KnickNats earrings. We made over 200 pair! We worked our butts off on those. They looked really good once they were done!

Speaking of Knick Nats, don't forget about Cotton Tails March 5,6, and 7th at the BJCC. I will be there Friday and Saturday to help! So, come by and see us! (And maybe buy some earrings! haha!)

I think I mentioned Jon and I taking Financial Peace University at Asbury. We are LOVING this class. We have learned SO much and have only been to 5 classes! We are working on living on a budget. Which, if you know me, is EXTREMELY hard. I am learning to ask myself, "Do I NEED this or do I WANT this?!" It is a real eye opener to say the least. Even if you have NO debt, I highly recommend this class. You will benefit from it GREATLY! I promise! :)

Well, like I said, we don't have much going on! SO, I guess thats all for now!

Blessings and Peace,

Here I am...

This video was shown today at Church. It REALLY touched me. Every time I watch I cry. It really is incredible. Please watch it....

All the way my savior leads me..

I just heard this song on Pandora. It brought tears to my eyes. Please listen to it. I think you will all enjoy it.

I don't have to much to update on, but I am trying to be better about updating. :)

Jon and I started Financial Peace University on Sunday. It is a 13 week course by Dave Ramsey! Check out his website. www.daveramsey.com Jon and I are thrilled about taking it. Everyone I have talked to who takes it, loves it. We are doing it before we even think about buying a house. We want to be TOTALLY debt free before we do that. We are thinking by the fall we should be almost totally debt free. Which will be more than amazing! ;)

Jon and I have also been trying to decied what to do for our 2 year anniversary since we didn't do anything for our 1st! We have decided that we are going to go on a Cruise with our dear friends Emily and Kyle! (Their 3rd anniversary is in October as well!) I can't wait! We are planning on going in September for 5 days. I have never been on a cruise before. I am worried that I will be sick the whole time, but maybe not! I can just remember being sick on my Dads boat everytime I got on it! Even dramamine didn't help me! However, I was really young and maybe I have out grown it by now!

Mom and Dad are leaving for their Cruise on February 4th! They had to change the date because Dad had already made plans to play golf in Palm Springs on the orignal date! It is going to be really neat for them because they will be on the cruise for Dads birthday! Great birthday present too! :)


Jon and I have been visiting Asbury when we have been here on the week-ends. I can't say enough just how much we love it there. I miss not being able to go to Lakeview and hear Steve, but I know God has us at Asbury for a reason. I feel so blessed to have found such an amazing church where God is ever present there. I feel the Spirit as I walk into church. Its one of the most passionate services you will ever go to. The music is absoutely incredible. I have to pinch myself from not crying each time. I LOVE that they have the altar open during Worship for anyone who wants to pray. They also have people that will pray for you. It really is amazing. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us there.

Blessings and Peace,

Hey Long Horns

Theres no other words I can say to describe today other than:

HEY LONG HORNS, HEY LONG HORNS

WE JUST BEAT THE HELL OUT OF YOU

RAMMER JAMMER

YELLOW HAMMER

GIVE EM HELL ALABAMA!!!!!!

We had an unbelievable season. Followed by our first Heisman Winner.

To all you HATERS out there...ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Can't wait until next season!!!!!

Christmas Recap

Whew. After a crazy busy month I am finally home! It has been fun being able to spend time with my parents, but the saying "Theres no place like home" is ringing very true! I am glad to be home and be back in a routine of things!

Christmas was amazing. We spent Christmas Eve with Mimi in the morning. It was great being able to get to spend yet another Christmas with her. I know my mom gets sad each Christmas, but I just keep reminding her how Blessed we truly are to be able to spend so many Christmases with her!

After we left Mimi's we went and had our traditional Christmas Eve lunch with the family. I was pretty sad because Jon had to work most of the day so he missed out on lunch. We made it to the VERY end of it, but it wasn't the same without him or Pat.

We enjoyed spending time with his Moms side of the family. We went to church 2 times on Christmas Eve and enjoyed hearing John Mark preach. That was the first time for me to hear him. After church we enjoyed a yummy dinner and then opened gifts. We got lots of great things! (Thanks, Charlene and JM)

We didn't get in until almost 2 am on Christmas Morning! We were pretty worn out, but still managed to get up and enjoy the rest of our day. This was one of the best Christmases I have had in a LONG time. We went to each siblings house and got to spend time with each of them. (THe kids are older now and don't want to leave there toys! Which I understand-I use to be the same way!)

Natalie and I surprised Mom and Dad with a Cruise for Christmas! It was one of the biggest surprise that I have EVER pulled off! (I have pix- will have to load those next blog!) I hope they enjoy themselves! I wish I was going with them! I think this is a MUCH deserved trip for the 2 of them. They do more for us than we can ever thank them for! ENJOY yourselves, Mom and Daddy! We LOVE you both!

Jon and I gave each other the Canon Rebel for Christmas. I am IN LOVE. Wow, it takes amazing photos! :) Poor Wiggles is tired of seeing that flash in his eye! He is going to be the most photographed dog, EVER.

Mom and Dad out did there selves of course, and gave me a ton of great stuff! My favorite being the lens for my camera! It makes ALL the difference in the world on taking photos! Thanks, Mom and Dad! You always do to much! We appreciate every bit of it!

Mom got the cutest Christmas gift ever! An adorable little Chi named CHI-CHI! I can't even begin to tell you just how cute he is. I am in LOVE with him.I tried to sneak him in my pocket and bring him home with me. He is a doll. I call him Stewie because he looks just like Stuart Little. HAH. He really is a doll! I am so glad Mom and Dad got another dog. I think they realized how much company Wiggles was when I was there and when he left I think they were pretty lonely!

Speaking of my BEAST. He is SO mad at me. He got neutered yesterday and still hasn't gotten over me leaving him. HA. He had to spend the night at the Vets last night. I have a feeling he caused some drama. He usually sleeps with Jon and I, so I felt pretty bad for leaving him last night. Interested in seeing if he will sleep all night in his crate now?!?

Well, the hubs should be here soon. I need to get dinner started!

In case I don't update before thursday....

ROLL TIDE ROLL!